Water spinach slaps in the face
When the adjutant arrived at the agreed time to collect the goods, Kuwano had already prepared 1,500 servings of instant noodles and three large bags of frozen sauce.
Wu Jianing didn't waste the cabbage she tore; she made it all into dried cabbage, packaged it separately in a bag specifically for Wu Huansheng, and even wrote a note to indicate this.
In addition, 500 eggs were prepared and soaked in the braising liquid, and the soup pot was also sent along with them.
I've also braised quite a few chicken feet and drumsticks.
After the first batch of beef, chicken feet, and chicken legs were cooked, a layer of meat oil floated on the broth, which was not absorbed into the soup.
Taking advantage of this opportunity, Sangye quickly put in more than two hundred more.
The chicken feet and drumsticks braised later were noticeably darker in color and had a richer flavor than those braised in the first batch.
These were all sent over as "add-ons".
Considering that braised dishes taste best when they are hot, Kuwano found many heating pots in the storage room, and even something called a "microwave oven" left over from the previous era.
Sangye hesitated for a long time, but still prepared a pot of braising liquid and ten bags of spices, along with detailed instructions. He instructed the people at the snow mountain base to boil the broth twice a day and to replace part of the base every seven days.
She packed everything up and had her adjutant take it with her.
The adjutant pulled up in a transport truck at the entrance.
Upon closer inspection, one will notice that the vehicle is coated with a rough-textured paint, which serves to protect against radiation and signal interference. This is effective in most areas of Black Tower, but the situation in the snowy mountain region is quite unique.
Wu Jianing jumped out of the car, followed by her slow-moving robot. "Sister, we're here!"
The robot helped load the supplies onto the vehicle and secure them.
Sangye had already served Wu Jia Ning a pot of stewed beef, chicken feet, and chicken legs that were tender and soft.
Wu Jia Ning ate one of each, and finally set her sights on the chicken feet.
This little thing is so fun to eat. The five claws and foot bones can be easily broken apart in the middle, and the meat in the palm of the chicken foot is thick and crisp, making it crunchy and fragrant when you chew it.
There isn't much meat on chicken feet, but you can gnaw off a section of bone as you eat it, making it quite fun.
If Kuwano has time, she can also make it boneless.
The chicken bones that are removed from the coffin also have their uses, such as being used as fertilizer or made into chicken bone paste feed.
After the car was loaded, Sangye invited his adjutant to come in and try the braised food.
The adjutant had been curious for a long time, but had been too busy to find the time. Today, however, he finally had the opportunity.
Sangye was full of energy and baked dozens of buttered breads early in the morning. The kitchen was filled with the aroma of butter and sugar, which made people feel warm and cozy.
Freshly baked bread always gives people a sense of happiness; even without eating it, one feels completely satisfied.
It's as if sugar spreads through the air into the body.
Kuwano tidied up the kitchen and created a dining corner.
The dining table is made of light brown paulownia wood, about two meters long and eighty centimeters wide, with the wood's growth rings still visible. The carpenter did not deliberately sand them off; he simply smoothed them and then poured tung oil on them for preservation. It feels warm to the touch and exudes a sense of vitality.
Several light linen-colored cloths were placed on the dining table to keep hot tableware away.
A lamp hangs above. The lamp has a rather unique design.
Sangye found several large round light bulbs in the warehouse, strung them together, and then covered them with a light green glass-colored lampshade. The ceiling wires were wrapped with fine yarn of the same color.
The dining table is equipped with four chairs of the same color, which can be pushed inside when not in use.
A folding screen is used to block the cooking fumes and the view outside the dining table.
The warm and inviting art style clashes sharply with the otherwise cold and austere kitchen.
The kitchen is black and gray, with the same minimalist combat style as the base; it is the only place that gives people a sense of inner peace, where they can relax and have a good meal.
Sangye picked a plate of water spinach, cut off the stems, and rinsed it clean. He then heated oil, added minced garlic and salt, and stir-fried it over high heat.
The water spinach quickly shrank and cooked through, then it was plated and served. The bright green leaves were glistening with oil and crisp.
After quickly heating up the rice, Sangye took the two dishes and sat down opposite the adjutant and Wu Jianing.
Amidst the simple meal, a warm and homely atmosphere permeated the lives of three unrelated people.
"I want to eat like this with my mom and dad." Wu Jianing blurted out this sentence out of the blue.
Children are actually very perceptive of emotions.
Wu Jianing was used to her parents leaving for months at a time, only to come back to be with her when she had surgery.
She knew that at times like these, her father would become very sad, and her mother would be both sad and angry.
Even so, she still enjoys the time she spends with her parents, even if it means undergoing a very painful surgery.
But now her legs don't hurt anymore, and she can walk again. So she really wants to eat with her parents, just like this cozy meal.
Both the adjutant and Sangye were taken aback upon hearing this.
The adjutant stirred the rice grains in the bowl: "Ningning, once your mother's mental state stabilizes, she will be able to take you, your father, and me away from here."
"Leave here? Where are we going?" Wu Jianing asked, puzzled.
“Go to Mingyang Star,” the adjutant replied, “the planet where the Wu family has served as executives for generations. Your family’s base is there.”
If nothing had gone wrong, Wu Jianing would be receiving her education as an heir on Mingyang Star right now. Black Tower Star actually has nothing and is not suitable for a child to grow up on.
But what the adjutant didn't say was that if Wu Huansheng's cries didn't subside, her grandmother would definitely not allow Wu Jianing to stay by her side any longer.
I'm afraid that the mother and daughter will be separated in the future.
Thinking of the usually ruthless Marshal Wu, the adjutant couldn't help but shudder, lowered his head, and continued eating without saying a word.
Sangye listened quietly. She knew Wu Huansheng came from a high-ranking official's family, but she hadn't expected him to be able to occupy a planet. She didn't necessarily have to wait for her spiritual body to be healed; once it stabilized within a certain range, she would be required to leave Black Tower Star.
"By the way, Colonel Kuwano," the adjutant said, remembering something, "the base hospital also wants to purchase a batch of instant noodles from you for the sentries in the hospital."
Before Kuwano could answer, she immediately added, "The base can also apply for funding from the base. The base hospital currently has about 166 sentries receiving treatment, plus about 220 doctors. That's less than the regular number of personnel at the garrison base."
But Sangye was rather discouraged: "I can't do anything with this money. It was deducted from my account within a minute of it arriving."
The adjutant considered her situation, but still said, "...You don't need any money at the base right now, so going back in isn't necessarily a bad thing."
Seeing that Sangye was still not very interested, she thought for a moment and said, "How about I open a business account for you?"
"What's this?"
"A business account is a separate bank account, specifically used for business expenses, similar to a public account; while your personal account is a private account. The court will only deduct funds from your personal account, so the funds in the business account can be retained; however, business accounts also have risks. If the victim's family requests an investigation of your assets, the business account will be linked to the compensation account, and at that time, all the funds in it will be deducted at once."
In other words, there is no absolutely safe account until she has paid off her debts.
“Alternatively, you could establish a joint account with another person in your name, registered under that person’s name. This would be traceable by the court, but you wouldn’t have control over the funds. The downside is that the other person could also transfer the funds.” The adjutant thought for a moment and then offered another solution: “You could establish both types of accounts and have the base make payments in batches to diversify the risk. The joint account can be established together with the general when she returns. The general won’t use your funds.”
Kuwano decided to follow her advice.
It wasn't that Sangye wanted to default on her debts, but she knew very well that it was impossible to pay them off with just her "basic salary" and "base subsidies." She needed to accumulate funds so she would have the start-up capital to open a restaurant and continue operating.
"I'm almost done eating~" Wu Jianing pointed to the remaining water spinach on the plate and asked the two adults if they wanted more.
After receiving a negative answer, she happily poured it all into her bowl and mixed it with rice before eating.
Sangye could hear the crunching sound of her chewing.
"Can I come to eat every day?!" Wu Jianing asked Sangye with her big, watery eyes.
"Ningning." The adjutant was about to stop her.
"Sure," Sangye immediately agreed. "Sometimes I go to the backyard to plant vegetables, turn the soil, and fertilize. Do you want to come and play with me?"
With Ujali around, the spices in the backyard should be ready in a few days.
*
A week had passed before the new batch of supplies arrived at the snow mountain base.
The sentries at the snow mountain base knew that communication with the outside world was difficult, but this could not dampen their eager anticipation.
The base only cleared the collapsed ruins. Wu Huansheng was waiting for the snow to re-bury the foundation and underground layers before rebuilding public facilities. However, it hadn't snowed at the Snow Mountain base for almost half a month, and Lin Changli's influence was too strong.
As soon as the transport vehicle came into view, they excitedly swarmed onto it.
The transport soldiers had never seen anything like this before, and they watched helplessly as the sentries scrambled to carry away the supplies.
"General, this is for you." The baby-faced sentry, carrying a large bag of dried vegetables, said to Wu Huansheng, who was walking towards them.
"For me?" Wu Huansheng was taken aback. The supplies provided by the base rarely came with a specific name, unless they were sent by family members.
On the bag of dried vegetables, the three large characters "Wu Huansheng" were written in childish handwriting, and there was a small note that Sangye had stuck on, telling her that the cabbage was torn by Wu Jianing herself.
Wu Huansheng chuckled, a rare occurrence for him.
"How do we use this?" The sentries discussed animatedly among themselves as they looked at the kitchen utensils that had been brought down from the outpost.
Kuwano had anticipated this, so she had the robot record a "user manual" video, with her providing the voiceover, detailing how to use various tableware.
It must be said that, as a cultivator, she is quite adept at using various interstellar technological products.
"If even a housekeeping robot can learn, I believe you can too." After leaving these words, Sangye ended the video.
The sentries outside the video were frantically trying to learn.
The baby-faced sentry listened intently to the sounds in the video.
"General Wu, what is the name of the guide who prepared these meals for us?" she asked.
“Sangye,” Wu Huansheng glanced at her and replied.
"Is she red-haired?" The baby-faced man's eyes lit up suddenly, and he excitedly squeezed next to her.
“Yes,” Wu Huansheng said, somewhat puzzled, “Do you know her? Rong Cheng?”
Rong Cheng received an affirmative answer and gave a genuine smile, but her words concealed her true feelings: "No, I just... just heard about her."
The sentries at the Snow Mountain Base also operate on a rotation system. Given the uproar surrounding Sangye's incident, it's not impossible that Rong Cheng had heard about her at the base.
Wu Huansheng didn't take this little incident to heart, nor did he pay attention to those unusual details.
"Let me do it." Rong Cheng took the bag of braising liquid and, without using any energy, casually lit a fire at the bottom of the pot. The frozen braising liquid gradually melted under the simmering heat.
When it started bubbling, she put some of the braised food into the pot, and the flames suddenly increased, the braising liquid heated up quickly, and the braised food was heated.
While the other sentries were cooking instant noodles in a peaceful atmosphere, a series of crackling explosions came from a corner.
Everyone looked over and saw the sentry standing there waiting, staring blankly at the microwave oven that had just exploded.
"What did you do?" a sentry asked him.
“I didn’t do anything,” the male sentry said innocently. “I was told that you can use a microwave to heat things up, so I wanted to use it to heat up this thing called ‘tea egg’.”
"Tea eggs can explode?!" The sentry closest to him exclaimed. Ever since he heard that the guide who provided them with supplies was named Sangye, he immediately thought of Sangye, the guide who had caused such a stir by murdering sentries.
Now that you hear that tea eggs can explode, that's unacceptable!
He immediately embellished the story and told all the sentries present what he knew.
Almost all the sentries stopped what they were doing and dared not continue.
“But last time, the instant noodles the general brought were very useful,” a girl retorted.
The shouting sentry retorted defiantly, "Last time was last time. Maybe they were just trying to gain our trust last time, and this time they're trying to wipe us all out!"
"Thump!" A pebble hit him hard on the head.
"Who!" He turned his head angrily.
Rong Cheng walked towards him with a cold smile: "If you've got the guts, then don't eat the next bite."
Then, ignoring her gaze, she walked straight to the still-crackling microwave, pulled it open, and the microwave automatically shut off, stopping the heating and revealing a mess inside.
Eggshells, egg whites, and yolks indeed splattered all over the inside of the microwave oven as if they had exploded.
The aroma of tea eggs wafted out, and Rong Cheng knew at a glance that it was the scent of Qianfu Mountain Greenery, a rich fragrance that was hard to forget.
"Look, look!" the male sentry shouted triumphantly, as if to say, "I told you so."
Rong Cheng ignored him and directly picked up a larger piece of egg yolk and stuffed it into her mouth.
This egg is braised to perfection, the aroma of tea and braising liquid blend together, infusing every bite with flavor.
Everyone in Shifangwu makes their own braising broth, and the flavors are different. Some people like to make spicy braising broth, some like to make sweet braising broth, while Sangye likes to make thick braising broth. She puts in less star anise and bay leaves, but likes to use pork, mutton and beef to enhance the flavor. She will tirelessly use broth to enhance the flavor, even if it is just to make a tea egg.
After just one bite, Rong Cheng knew it was Sangye's cooking.
She took several fried tea eggs in succession, then picked up a cold whole egg from the side, looked at the male sentry defiantly, peeled it open, and ate it.
Nothing happened.
The room was filled with a wonderful fragrance.
As she passed by him, Rong Cheng casually tossed out a sentence: "Remember, don't eat a single bite."
The male sentry's face turned pale and then flushed.
They only found out later why heating tea eggs in a microwave oven would cause them to explode.
Because the yolk of an egg heats up faster than the white, excessive internal heat can cause it to "explode".
Hot tea eggs and boiled eggs can only be slowly heated in soup.
Wu Huansheng watched the whole farce quietly, then looked at Rong Cheng thoughtfully.
When Rong Cheng left, he took all the tea eggs with him, put some into the gauze bag that Sangye had packed together, and soaked them in the braising broth to heat them up.
The other sentries watched her movements nervously until nothing happened after more than ten minutes, at which point they relaxed and resumed their actions.
All the spices used in Sangye Stewed Broth grew from her cave and the mountains behind the former Shifangwu, and even the spice packets prepared to replace the snow mountain base were made from the same spices.
Rong Cheng opened one of the bags, looked at the familiar ingredients, and smiled slightly.
She plans to apply to return to the base when she rotates to her next post.
Rong Cheng was one of the outer disciples of Shifangwu. Although she was called an outer disciple, there was actually no difference between her and an inner disciple, except that her situation was special. The inner disciples were either adopted from a young age or had been under the tutelage of Shifangwu from the beginning.
After wandering for so long in this era, he finally found his former family.
A note from the author:
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