Chapter 019 Pea Noodles
Oat Town, one of the most important grain-producing areas in the entire Eastern Continent, was only four or five days' journey from the capital, Boeing Town. Thanks to the escort of a small guard team led by Keos, the team had unimpeded access to the official road. Bai Su estimated that they would arrive in Oat Town by tomorrow afternoon.
Just as he promised, every time Bai Su opened the car curtain, Keos was outside the window, just where Bai Su could see him.
The larger carriage not only carried over 4,000 kilograms of grain, but also held six human guards and a representative. Even with four large carriages, it couldn't move very fast. Bai Su's smaller carriage, which he rode alone, kept a relatively slow pace, allowing the centaurs to easily keep up.
Seeing that Keos was jogging at a steady pace without any sign of effort, Bai Su simply opened the curtain of the car and started chatting with Keos.
"Keos, I've always been curious." Bai Su propped up his head and looked at him, "Aren't you centaurs tired from running like this? It's been two hours, and you're not even sweating."
Keos curled his lips slightly, his voice as calm as usual. "At this speed, we can probably run continuously for one to two days. Centaurs are creatures with great endurance, and we are not very good at running at high speeds."
"Two days!" Bai Su exclaimed.
"It's just a jog," Keos emphasized. "Last time, when we left the Vatican, you should have noticed that I wasn't as relaxed as I am now when I was running at top speed."
Bai Su nodded. He still remembered that time when his butt was shaken so hard that it hurt so much.
"But two days is too exaggerated." Bai Su looked carefully at Keos's neck and legs, and found that they really did not have any congestion caused by running for a long time. He couldn't help but be shocked by the physical strength of the centaur.
"Because we are free beings. In the Centaur tradition, our ancestors were born from the wind. You will notice that today is a rare day perfect for running."
Keos motioned Bai Su to put his hand out of the window.
Bai Su did as he was told, and soon he was pleasantly surprised to find that flowing through his fingers was not only the free wind that Keos had talked about, but also a few cool raindrops.
He leaned his head out of the window again and found that raindrops were indeed splashing on the ground, stirring up a cloud of fine dust.
"You know what?" Bai Su murmured, "In my hometown, there's a saying that rain is God's fireworks. Look, we're enjoying nature's fireworks together during the day."
Keos followed his description.
From Keos's view outside the car, he could see more clearly that the raindrops falling on the ground failed to form puddles, but instead stained the soil darker.
Centaurs are freedom-loving and science-loving creatures, and their feelings for nature are deeper than humans.
But Baisu was the most romantic of all the people Keos knew - he loved natural things, loved the land, loved crops, appreciated the sunshine, and appreciated the rain.
"It does look like fireworks. Speaking of which, when spring ends and summer arrives, the town will hold a summer festival with lots of fireworks at night. Maybe that will coincide with your hybrid rice harvest."
"Really? That's great! I'll treat the Summer Festival fireworks as a celebration of the rice harvest."
In fact, what Keos wanted to say was, when the time comes, I would like to invite you to join the celebration and watch the fireworks together.
But he was always reserved, and swallowed the words back when they came to his lips.
Let’s talk about it when the time comes, thought Keos.
The sunshower was originally rain produced by dark clouds in the distance, which was blown to another place by the wind. After the team turned a corner and walked a distance in the new direction, it disappeared naturally.
At noon, the sun became increasingly scorching. The centaurs were fine, but Keos noticed that the horses pulling the carriage had begun to pant, so he stopped the team.
There happened to be a dense forest not far ahead, so Keos decided to take a nap there to avoid the sun.
The convoy stopped at the edge of the woods and everyone got out to rest. A human guard was about to distribute dry food when he was stopped by Bai Su.
"Excuse me, do you have a pot?" Bai Su asked him.
The guard nodded: "Yes."
His role in the team is that of a cook. He is not only responsible for food distribution, but also carries some simple cooking utensils in case of emergency.
"Well, please lend me the pot." Bai Su asked Keos who was standing beside him. He knew that Keos was the core of the team, the one who really had the power to make decisions. "I prepared some dough, which should be ready by the time we get there. I want to make a noodle meal to reward everyone."
Another thing Bai Su did when he got up early was to prepare some food that was easy to carry.
In his understanding, although these people accompanied him on business trips because of orders, they were still short-term colleagues after all, and his personal safety also depended on these guards, so it was still necessary to maintain good relationships with them.
Seeing that Bai Su's eyes were full of anticipation and eagerness to try, Keos thought for a moment and agreed to his request.
He asked several guards to follow Bai Su's arrangements, some to collect firewood and some to fetch water.
These people were all quick and nimble, and soon a large pot of water was boiling.
Bai Su stood in front of the big pot with a diameter of about half a meter, pulling the dough quickly. He planned to make pea noodles.
Pea and mixed noodles were a delicacy Bai Su had stumbled upon while in Sichuan. Instead of rolling or cutting the dough, they were simply torn into thin slices by hand and tossed into the pot. It was even quicker and more convenient than sliced noodles. He had already prepared the pea and mixed noodles sauce, adding a can of spicy chili oil and pouring hot soup over it. The rich aroma had the entire group salivating.
Oh my goodness! This young farmer, Captain Keos's date, is such a great cook!
Everyone present thought so.
Soon, a large pot of flaky noodles came out of the pot. With the help of the cook, Bai Su scooped a large bowl for each person.
Bai Su also came to Ceos with a large wooden bowl and a wooden fork in his hand. He asked Ceos to carry him to a large rock and sit on it so that he could be at the same height as the tall Centaur youth.
"How is it? Is it delicious?" Bai Su asked him impatiently.
Keosi praised: "It's delicious."
It's not a humble word, Keos really thinks it's delicious.
He had become accustomed to the little surprises Bai Su created from time to time, so he did not show too much surprise.
Hearing the satisfactory answer, the black-haired human youth immediately responded with a cute smile, and then began to eat slowly - he didn't dare to eat too fast, for fear of being scalded to death.
Not far away, several other people were screaming in pain from being scalded.
"I swear, this is the most delicious noodles I have ever eaten!" The driver gave a thumbs up, then ignored the big blisters that had just been scalded and continued to gobble it up.
Several centaurs nodded in agreement.
This was a flavor they had never tasted before, fragrant and spicy, with the aroma of minced meat and the sweet aroma of peas. The myriad of flavors were fighting on the tongue, making it impossible to stop.
The cook was also shocked - he saw with his own eyes how Bai Su made this delicacy called pea noodles.
The dough that has been proofed is directly torn into slices and put into the pot to cook. A can of meat sauce and a can of chili oil are added directly into the bowl according to the preferred ratio. After the noodles are cooked, a ladle of hot soup is poured on it, and the aroma immediately wafts out.
He remembered Bai Su saying that according to the current weather, the two cans of sauce could be kept for about a week, enough for them to walk back and forth from Oatmeal Town.
After quickly finishing his portion of noodles, the cook decided to discuss the sauce recipe for the pea noodles with Bai Su later. This simple, quick and delicious food is perfect for military marches.
The centaurs nearby had already finished the noodles in their bowls. After discussing for a while, they sent one person to ask Bai Su if he could put the other dough into the pot to cook as well - centaurs have a bigger appetite than humans, and they were still not full.
Bai Su of course agreed. He was very happy that people liked the food he cooked. He was about to jump off the stone to cook noodles, but was stopped by a centaur who came over to ask.
"Please don't worry, we can do it ourselves. You can continue to chat with Captain Keos!" said the Centaur Guard naively.
Bai Su: “…”
Keos: “…”
Silence surrounded the stone, around the man and half horse.
After a long while, Bai Su asked, "He is Faria's subordinate, right?"
"..." Keos didn't know what to say, but answered truthfully, "Yes, he is Faria's guard."
On the side, the cook had taken over the chef's job and followed Bai Su's example to prepare a second pot of noodles for those who were not full. At Bai Su's urging, Keos also went to add a second bowl.
During this time, Bai Su had been sitting on a big rock, watching them eating enthusiastically, and kept thinking in his heart: If I take out rice with stir-fried meat, how will you respond?
I guess he was shocked and then ate a lot.
Bai Su couldn't help laughing out loud.
…
After the meal, the team packed up the picnic tools and set off again.
The temperature was higher in the afternoon, and Bai Su was sitting in his exclusive luxury carriage, feeling drowsy.
The official road here is far from being as smooth as a cement road or an asphalt road. It is just a relatively wide dirt road. The wheels are very bumpy when rolling over it. With a shaking motion, Bai Su soon fell asleep on the soft animal skin.
Seeing this, Keos helped him lower the curtain.
So for the whole afternoon, while everyone was either squeezed in the big carriage with Zhongzi or running after the carriage, Bai Su was the only one who had a comfortable sleep.
Near dusk, the team stopped in front of a village. Amid the noisy conversation, Bai Su woke up slowly.
He opened the car door and jumped out by himself.
Then, looking at the sweat-soaked Keos in front of him, he said blankly, "Keos, what happened to you? Did you get caught in the rain?"
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Where are my fellow mom readers? I feel so vulnerable and helpless updating this all by myself...
(Review of the article: Haha, I used to call the readers who followed the article "Mom", but now the readers are calling me "Mom" and asking me to produce more content...)
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