First update
"You can still join the army." Gu Cheng said lightly, but if you want to join the army on the island, you will most likely not be able to stay on the island. Soldiers cannot serve in the local area. Brother Qin San's personnel file has been transferred to the island.
Joining the army is a good way to go in this era. The navy pays better than the army, and there are not many vacancies. If you want to join the navy from other places, there are very few vacancies. There are more vacancies for the navy in coastal areas.
"I'd better be a cook." Brother Qin San was planning to join the army when he came here last year. Now that he has a wife, he has given up his plan. Now that his wife is pregnant and giving birth, it is even more impossible for him to leave Xie Hongni.
Besides, Xie Hongni’s background was problematic, and it would be difficult for him to move up after joining the army.
Third Brother Qin didn't have any big ambitions. He didn't like joining the army, nor did he like being a cook. But he didn't have any lofty pursuits. Just surviving was enough.
"Hong Ni, I'll be the cook and stay with you from now on."
Xie Hongni smiled and nodded, and when she looked at the honest face of Third Brother Qin, her heart, which had been hanging in the air, finally settled down.
She was a proud woman, and she also dreamed of finding a great husband, as good as her father, who should be an expert, scholar, or engineer, if not a doctor...
She liked Third Brother Qin, but she couldn't help feeling unbearable under her parents' past education. She couldn't bear Third Brother Qin being laughed at and ridiculed by his parents, and hoped that he would have a good position. Joining the army was a good place for him to go, so that he could gain face in front of his parents in the future.
But it is really not worth it for a husband and wife to separate just to save face.
Be more positive. Life now is good enough. For most people, being ordinary and mediocre is the norm.
Becoming a chef in a state-owned restaurant, no matter where you are, you will be a popular and lucrative husband that everyone will fight for.
Thinking of this, Xie Hongni laughed at herself and said that the Xie family over-praised her. After giving birth to a child and abandoning her husband and child, she returned to the city. What good place could she get? What higher branch can you climb?
The reputation is better and makes her good parents "proud".
But when it comes to material life, who can compare to marrying a restaurant cook?
There was no need to worry about food or clothing, and the island was rich in products, especially fruits. Northerners like Xie Hongni always thought that "lychees" were something rare before going south, but they were the favorite of the imperial concubine.
"A horse gallops across the red dust, and the concubine smiles. No one knows that it is the lychees coming."
After arriving on the island, I realized that lychees here are not that precious at all. Farmers in the commune don't like to eat them and even think they are shabby when used to feed pigs. When I asked the children in the village, they all said they prefer bananas. Many lychees on the mountains eventually rot in the fields and no one picks them.
It's so tiring to pick this thing, and it's not easy to preserve. You can't eat too much, so I'm too lazy to spend the effort.
There are many lychee trees scattered in the fields. After planting them, the villagers don’t have to take care of them at all. There is no need to water, fertilize or kill insects. The trees will still bear sweet fruits.
It’s okay for others to pick lychees if they want to. It only costs three to fifty cents and you can pick as many lychees as you want from a whole tree.
Xie Hongni enjoyed the lychees so much that no one would believe it if she told others about it. In winter here on the island as well, there are fruits and vegetables everywhere, and everything is green, which is completely different from the winter in the north.
There are "fruits" that ripen every month, such as bayberry, lychee, mango, coconut, longan...they can all be found on wild trees on the roadside. When I asked the uncles here when longan is ripe, they couldn't tell me, "When the fruit grows, it will be ripe."
Brother Qin San loves the seafood here, especially crabs. However, when the fishermen at the coast host banquets, they don't serve shrimps and crabs. Taking out shrimps, crabs and sea cucumbers for people to eat is tantamount to feeding beggars.
Things like mantis shrimp can be fed to pigs, but the pigs also dislike them. Many fishermen use these shrimps and crabs to make fertilizer. The only problem is that they can easily get their feet pricked if they go barefoot on the ground.
If, when you cast a fishing net, you only catch shrimps and crabs, that is considered bad luck.
At that time, fishermen did not like to eat shrimps and crabs, they only liked fat and strong "big fish", the fatter the better, and they were craving for cod liver oil.
If shrimps and crabs are not fat and have no yellow, they are not worthy of entering the human mouth and are only suitable for fermenting fertilizer.
Brother Qin San always gets cheap and worthless shrimps, crabs and shellfish from fishermen on his bicycle. However, when his stomach is full of fat and water, shrimps, crabs and shellfish are really delicious delicacies.
Just make a fire and roast them, they are so fragrant. Boil the crab shells into soup, it is so delicious.
After more than a year on the island, Xie Hongni's appetite has become spoiled.
"I'll talk to Aunt Zhou tomorrow and settle this matter and see if we can negotiate the price."
Having made up her mind, Qin Yao breathed a sigh of relief, thinking that she was lucky to be able to stay in a state-owned restaurant, at least she wouldn't have to worry about food, and she wouldn't let the opportunity slip away.
After feeding the children at night, the two children slept with their grandmother. Qin Yao and Gu Cheng, the young couple, felt like newlyweds after a long separation. As soon as they closed the door, they hugged each other warmly. The window was open, and the wind blew outside, giving them goose bumps on their skin, feeling both cold and hot.
Qin Yao looked at Gu Cheng's body under the lamp and still thought he was a little thin.
Gu Cheng calmly analyzed: "I'm not thin, you're just used to seeing your son's fat face."
Captain Gu really doesn’t think he is “too thin”. Thin and fat are contrasted. He has always looked like this, but his wife Qin Yao thinks he has lost weight. Why?
Because there is a "pig Mingming" at home, he can't bear to look at his younger son's fat face in comparison.
"How is my son fat? He looks like a normal baby." Qin Yao felt that men were stubborn. Gu Cheng had obviously lost a lot of weight, but he insisted that he had not lost weight. She said coldly, "I feel like yours has become smaller."
"Don't go by your feelings." Gu Cheng gritted his teeth. The woman was really out of her mind. She spoke by feelings instead of data. "Try it again. Try it yourself to see if it's small or not."
"Generally speaking, when you lose weight, your whole body will become thinner—" Qin Yao thought to herself that when she lost 140 kilograms, even with the help of the system, she lost a lot of weight and her breasts also became smaller.
And the man has lost weight, so how could that thing not get smaller? This is science.
For the sake of face, he is so stubborn and refuses to admit it.
In order to save his face, Comrade Qin Yao suddenly had an idea and decided to use the "vitality" skill on Gu Cheng to see if it would have any effect. Captain Gu should not lay too many eggs, right?
…
As it turns out, she didn't lay more eggs, but she was unusually persistent at night, and... she was very energetic and lasted long.
The next morning, Qin Yao fed her two children morning milk. She stared at her youngest son's fat face, wondering why this little son who was full of "life" was being taught a lesson by his friendly older brother with force?
Qin Yao went to the cultural center to meet Aunt Zhou, and with her help, she met Chef Zhang and his family. Chef Zhang looked kind, and neither he nor his wife were mean people. Qin Yao bargained for a while, and they agreed to change the price to 600 yuan. Qin Yao gave a deposit of 300 yuan without saying a word, and the rest would be settled on the same day after completing the handover procedures.
When I was doing the registration formalities at Dazhong Hotel, the hotel's deputy manager refused to agree. "You can't just give this job to someone casually. You need to train an apprentice for a few years, right? You just brought someone here like this? It's ruining our hotel's reputation!"
"He is a cook, and his father is also a cook. It's a family tradition."
"Family tradition, family tradition is not enough. You and Master He are the only ones who know how to cook chili dishes in our restaurant..."
"Dishes with chili peppers?" Brother Qin San asked doubtfully, "I know how to do it."
Brother Qin San had previously worked in the countryside of Guizhou Province. Not to mention cooking spicy dishes, he had grown a lot of red peppers.
"What? You can? Then try it." Ordinary people on the island don't eat chili peppers at home, but it's different in restaurants. Many people who like spicy food will go to restaurants to try the flavor, so their restaurant has several special spicy dishes.
There are yellow lantern peppers on the island. Although this pepper is spicy, it is not fragrant enough, not bright red enough, and lacks visual impact. It is made into yellow lantern pepper sauce with pumpkin and used to make "golden soup".
There is a lot of "bright red chopped pepper sauce" in the restaurant. The pepper is brought from outside the island and is very unique.
Brother Qin San immediately showed off his cooking skills. After tasting it, the deputy manager praised him, saying, "Your cooking skills are excellent. Keep him."
Brother Qin San now successfully completed the work handover procedures. Chef Zhang breathed a sigh of relief and felt very guilty, thinking that he had overcharged him. He pulled Brother Qin San aside and personally told him the secrets of the ingredients of several dishes.
Brother Qin San started working as a cook in the "Mass Restaurant" as a formal employee with a monthly salary of more than 40 yuan. He had relatively flexible hours every day, as he only worked at noon and in the evening. He had free time in the morning to spend time with his wife, and also had time for a nap in the afternoon. He didn't have to worry about food and drink every day, as he could take leftover ingredients from the restaurant home.
Generally, people don’t want the vegetarian dishes, that is, the “pork”, and they take them home privately at a low price.
Brother Qin San contacted a fellow villager he knew before and got a large jar of chopped pepper sauce and gave Qin Yao a small jar. He also had some free time, so he made pickles, pickled sour beans and sour and spicy chopped peppers and ginger, and gave some of them to Qin Yao.
These things made Chen Guixiang gasp. Spicy and sour chopped peppers and ginger, eating these things really means they don't care about their life. It makes her throat burn.
Xie Hongni gave birth to a daughter, Xixi, who looked like her mother. Qin Sange and Shen Guixiang were very happy. Sange was very satisfied and put his worries aside. "Fortunately, my daughter looks like you. If she looked like me, I would feel guilty."
Xie Hongni glared at him: "Can you speak?"
"Like my sister said, my most important thing is to participate."
Xie Hongni was so angry that she almost laughed.
Can this also be about participation?
The play written by Qin Yao won the first prize in the joint competition of three counties, and won her a prize of fifty yuan and a bicycle industry ticket. In addition, not long after, she was promoted to a higher position and had a salary increase. Everyone in the cultural center admired her very much.
Autumn and winter are the seasons for storing fat. Although the winter on the island is not that cold, Qin Yao began to devote herself to fattening up Gu Cheng and the two cubs. The cubs have sprouted their milk teeth and are two very eatable little guys, gnawing here and there.
She made soup and roasted meat at home, and at the same time reminded Gu Cheng to drink more hot milk in the morning, and used the "vitality" skill. With this two-pronged approach, after a winter, in 1975, Gu Cheng was "fat" as expected. This year, his actual age is 31, and his file age is 33.
However, his face is just like the giant panda in Qinling Mountains. Even though it is a 30-year-old "century-old cat", it still looks like a young face on the surface.
Unlike Political Commissar Zhou next door, whose hair had started to turn gray and whose face looked more haggard, Gu Cheng found him very displeased.
"Don't be too complacent."
Gu Cheng looked at the mirror expressionlessly. He was not proud at all. At his age, having a young face had absolutely no advantages.
Captain Gu was worried because he was in his early twenties and people disliked him for having a young face. He tried every possible way to make this "young face" look ferocious and powerful.
As a result, when I was thirty, already in my early thirties, I was still worried about how to make this "young face" look impressive.
It’s okay to wear a military uniform on weekdays, as it makes you look older, but as long as you keep a stern face, you look majestic. After taking off his military uniform and wearing casual clothes at home, Gu Cheng was too embarrassed to leave the yard.
Everyone looked at him as if he were a gorilla.
Gu Cheng's face is very recognizable, but when he puts on his military uniform and takes it off, it is obviously the same face, but it is unrecognizable, and it is impossible to even associate it with the same person.
Several times, when I was in the staff quarters wearing plain clothes, people mistook me for "Captain Gu's relative."
Qin Yao's behavior of mistaking someone for someone else was by no means an isolated case. This situation has never happened before because no one saw Gu Cheng in casual clothes. Now that Gu Cheng has moved into the family compound, it is impossible for him to wear military uniform at home every day.
His "little tender face" was fully exposed.
"Unlike the political commissar Zhou next door, who just stands there with his hands behind his back, looking like a leader."
Gu Cheng felt that he was at a great disadvantage. Why did he have to "carry the burden and move forward" since he was young and invest so much effort in the "image project" as a commander?
Qin Yao didn't care about his "image project". She just liked the younger brother look of Gu Cheng after he took off his military uniform. She even made him a set of age-reducing pullover hoodies, saying they were father-son outfits, with one adult and two children.
It was a gray and white hoodie with front pockets. Gu Cheng didn't think much of it at first. Qin Yao asked him to wear it, so he put it on. But when he looked in the mirror after putting it on, he wanted to poke out his eyes.
The boy in the mirror looks like an eighteen-year-old rookie.
This dress is weird.
"I won't wear this, it's children's clothes." Gu Cheng was unwilling to wear it out even if he was beaten to death. If he wore it out, his image as Captain Gu would be ruined.
Qin Yao asked him to change into a hoodie, and he immediately changed into a colorful sweatshirt and a white shirt.
Nowadays, no matter whether it is the young men or the old men in the village, they all like to dress like this. They all wear white shirts on the outside and colorful sweatshirts on the inside, including rose red, bright red, blue, and black.
Even an eighteen-year-old young man, once he puts on a red sweatshirt, a white shirt, a belt and loose trousers, he immediately "looks older" and looks like a mature uncle in his thirties.
The same goes for Gu Cheng. After he put on this outfit, he immediately felt safe, thinking, "It's not that he has a young face, it's entirely a problem with the clothes."
When Qin Yao saw the bright red vest he was wearing, she almost poked her eyes out.
This guy Gu Cheng is getting more and more outrageous, he is simply obsessed with it. He is afraid that others will say that he looks young and fresh, so it's fine if he just dresses like this, but he even deliberately imitates the posture of an "old man" enjoying the cool air.
When Gao Jianguo came to visit, he saw the "old man" version of Gu Cheng. He was immediately happy, thinking that since he was already married and old, he would age quickly.
There is a rumor in the courtyard that Gu Cheng looks younger and younger after getting married, but that is not entirely true.
It is normal for men to become more and more "mature" after getting married.
Just like Gao Jianguo, he has been married for almost four years, his hairline is moving back and he has a few white hairs...
Chen Baozhen looked at his increasingly "broad" forehead and the few white hairs that appeared, and fell into deep thought.
Sister Gao Yingzi seemed even more "thoughtful".
Gao Jianguo was also worried. Not to mention that men don’t care about their image, men care more about hair loss than women and are more afraid of being bald.
Gao Jianguo had a nightmare last night. He dreamed that he became bald, and only the top of his head was bald. He was so scared that he got up for a long time to drink hot water to calm down.
This sounded the alarm for him, so he came over to sound out Gu Cheng and asked him whether he had secretly eaten anything like "sesame pills".
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