Chapter 57

Under the expectant gazes of the two, one big and one small, Lu Yuanzheng put the spoon into his mouth. A sweet and cool taste accompanied by the aroma of mango spread in his mouth, and his eyes lit up instantly.

He gave Xu Wen a thumbs up and said, "Delicious!"

"It's super delicious!" Dongsheng spread his hands to the sides to emphasize how delicious it is, "It's icy and sweet!"

Lu Yuanzheng nodded in agreement, "That's right!"

After running outside for half a day, my whole body was soaked with sweat. After taking a bite of this soft and fluffy mango ice, the irritability caused by the stuffiness in my heart instantly disappeared.

He looked at the ice in the basin, with surprise and admiration on his face: "You actually made ice cubes?"

Xu Wen raised his head proudly: "That's right! Don't you see whose wife I am?"

Lu Yuanzheng raised the corners of his lips, revealing his white teeth, and fed the freshly scooped sponge ice into Xu Wen's mouth, "Well, my wife is the best! She is beautiful, smart, and talented!"

Seeing how cooperative he was, Xu Wen burst out laughing and suggested, "When we eat later, how about giving everyone some ice porridge?"

Dongsheng frowned: "But this is so troublesome and will take a long time! How long will it take for so many uncles to finish it?"

Xu Wen was making ice cubes and mango shaved ice, and Dong Sheng had been waiting by the side, waiting for a long, long time to get several bowls of smoothies.

Xu Wen pointed at the three bowls of ice and said, "This should be enough to make ice porridge. I saw some red beans and mung beans in the kitchen that can be used to make candied red beans and mung bean paste. We have some raisins and milk powder at home. Just add some sugar."

Making ice porridge is much easier than making ice pops.

The dried grapes were given to Dongsheng by his comrades from the Long March Sanatorium when he came back. They were specialties that he carried back from thousands of miles away from Xinjiang. Seeing that Dongsheng liked to eat them, he gave some to them.

Red beans and mung beans can dehumidify and relieve heat respectively.

The headquarters knew that the island was hot and humid, so they sent more batches.

Xu Wen bought two bags of milk powder before going to the island, intending to give it to Dongsheng.

You can take out a bag now.

Sugarcane can be boiled, but if you don't want to boil it, you can just use the sugarcane juice.

The wild sugar cane on this island is particularly sweet.

Lu Yuanzheng nodded, "Good idea. Let's go to the kitchen."

He first picked up two large basins of ice.

Xu Wen lowered the window and door curtains on the tent to continue making ice inside the tent to cool it down, and followed Lu Yuanzheng with a basin of ice.

Dongsheng was carrying his dried grapes.

Lu Yuanzheng: Getting off work basically means it’s time for dinner.

All the companies had already lined up and were waiting for dinner. Lao Yuan was surprised to see Lu Yuanzheng and Xu Wen each carrying a large block of ice and walking towards the battalion cafeteria.

"Fuck! Am I dazzled? Is that thing Lu Ying and sister-in-law are holding ice?"

"It seems so!" Another person was not sure, "In the middle of summer, can ice be made?"

The discussion in the queue became louder and louder until they were told, "Have you been allowed to speak? Do you want to run around the island twice?"

I'm dead after running two laps in such hot weather.

Everyone shut up.

The squad leader of the camp's kitchen squad saw Lu Yuanzheng coming over and asked, "Lu Ying, why are you here?"

"Your sister-in-law made some ice and wants you to help make some ice porridge to cool everyone down."

"No problem." The kitchen squad leader swallowed his saliva when he saw the ice cubes. "Sister-in-law, you can actually make ice cubes in the hot summer, you are amazing!"

This thing looks cool.

On such a hot day, if pork head and ice cubes are placed in front of people, most people will choose the ice cubes.

It was so hot that people actually had no appetite to eat.

Boiling red beans takes time, and there is no time to do it now, but because the kitchen staff has been boiling mung bean water, the soft mung beans are ready.

The people in the kitchen helped to break up the large ice cubes and put them into bowls.

There were not enough bowls in the battalion headquarters, so Lu Yuanzheng asked the kitchen staff of each company to get their own bowls to distribute.

Xu Wen soaked a whole bag of milk powder in warm water and scooped two spoonfuls into each bowl, immediately filling the air with the aroma of milk.

Things are not fake these days, so-called milk powder is real milk powder.

The people in the kitchen helped put some green beans, raisins and some sugar into each bowl of ice.

Simple ice porridge is ready.

The long expedition made the officers and soldiers line up to receive ice porridge.

First distribute it to family members, then to soldiers, and finally to cadres.

The same rule applies when getting meals on weekdays.

Because sometimes the kitchen staff may cook less food, and those who come to get food at the end may have nothing to eat.

Therefore, the rule has always been to feed the soldiers first and then the cadres. If you are hungry, you should also feed the cadres.

This rule has been popular in their unit for a long time.

Normally everyone thinks it is normal.

The officers are a bit anxious today.

Lu Yuanzheng felt particularly lucky when he saw the company commanders and Shi Lei anxiously circling behind him.

At least he had a bowl of mango ice cream first, which was not so glutinous.

Shi Lei saw Lu Yuanzheng coming over, hooked his arm around his back, and whispered, "Say hello to my sister-in-law, and save a bowl for her?"

Lu Yuanzheng snorted, "Is it appropriate for you as a teacher to seek special privileges?"

"How can you call this privilege? This ice is made by my sister-in-law. It's her treat, not a souvenir from our unit. How can it be treated according to the rules for serving food? Based on our relationship, isn't it worth a bowl of ice porridge?"

"I think..." Lu Yuanzheng stretched out his voice, looked at Shi Lei's expectant face, and slowly uttered the last two words: "Not worth it!"

"Fuck!" Shi Lei pouted, "Lu Yuanzheng you are such a dog!"

Shi Lei was so angry that he snorted twice and pointed at Lu Yuanzheng and said, "Just you wait! Today's meeting must last until twelve o'clock in the evening! You still want to go back and hug your wife? Dream on!"

"Tsk! Look at you now, you are such a desperate villain!" Lu Yuanzheng clicked his tongue twice, "If you let the brothers see your selfish behavior, I wonder how you will be able to carry out your work in the future!"

Shi Lei: “…”

"You are just relying on the fact that you married a good wife! You didn't make the ice! Why are you so proud?"

Lu Yuanzheng grinned, revealing his white teeth, and laughed even more: "I'm proud that I have such an amazing wife! I'm proud that my wife can make ice cream on an island in the middle of summer!"

Shi Lei: “…”

He gave Lu Yuanzheng a thumbs up and said, "You are ruthless! You win! This is the first time in all these years that my comrades know that you can be so shameless!"

What else can he say?!

Sure enough, there was not enough ice porridge to share in the end.

The difference was not that big, just enough for a few of their cadres.

When the last soldier was about to leave with a bowl full of ice, he saw several officers staring at his bowl like a wolf staring at its prey. He hesitated and asked Shi Lei: "Coach, how about you eat first?"

Shi Lei shook his head, "You guys eat, I'm not hot."

Are you kidding? How can a greedy instructor like him steal ice from soldiers?

Shi Lei refused and the other company commanders were of course too embarrassed to snatch it away.

Lu Yuanzheng laughed loudly on the side, and Shi Lei was so angry that he wanted to beat him up.

Unfortunately, he is a civil servant and his fighting skills are not as good as Lu Yuanzheng.

Out of sight, out of mind. He rolled his eyes and prepared to leave.

Lu Yuanzheng stopped him, "Don't be so stingy! How can our relationship not be worth a bowl of ice? My wife asked me to ask you guys to come to my house later to eat ice cream."

These are the ones without ice.

Shi Lei's face suddenly turned from gloomy to bright: "That's better!" Then he snorted, "Sister-in-law is much better than you! I will definitely help sister-in-law if you two fight in the future."

Lu Yuanzheng raised his eyelids coolly: "Don't worry! You won't have this chance."

After Xu Wen helped to divide the ice, he asked the squad leader of the kitchen team: "Squad leader Zhang, are the fish and charcoal I asked you to cook ready?"

"Okay!" Squad Leader Zhang pointed to the large bullet shell that had been burned black next to the stove.

When Xu Wen came to borrow a pot in the afternoon, he brought the large bullet shell that Lu Yuanzheng had helped to get.

Xu Wen didn't understand what this bullet shell was. The diameter of the cylinder was about 20 work points, and judging by the material, it should not be afraid of burning.

Lu Yuanzheng drilled a hole in the sealed shell and stuffed some wood blocks into it.

Xu asked Team Leader Zhang to put it on the stove while he was cooking.

It has cooled down by now.

Xu Wen opened the bullet shell and found that the still warm charcoal was really made.

Xu Wen was very happy, "This way I can treat everyone to grilled fish."

"Oh, yes, sister-in-law, the fish you wanted has been processed." Squad Leader Zhang showed her the fish that had been marinated according to Xu Wen's requirements.

The most easily available food on the island is fish.

"Thank you very much." Xu Wen thanked, "Can I borrow the stove again and some oil?"

"Of course."

Xu Wen fried the fish in hot oil, spread it on an iron plate that was coated with oil and covered with green onions, placed it on an iron rack, put lit charcoal underneath and started grilling.

While she was making grilled fish, Lu Yuanzheng led all the soldiers in the battalion, except the sentries, for night training.

This island is not a paradise. Enemies may attack from time to time, so we cannot slack off in our training mission.

I have to work during the day, so I can only practice in the morning and evening.

Dongsheng was there too.

He has been practicing since he was young, but he may not be able to follow the whole process, and his movements may not be standard, but Lu Yuanzheng required him to follow.

Grilling fish is easy, no need for Xu Wen to watch over it all the time.

She turned the fish over and walked around.

The charcoal was strangely hot.

The moon and stars are high in the night sky. It's not very bright, but very comfortable.

There were bursts of slogans coming from the beach.

They wore the same sailor shirts and training pants, had similar heights, and walked and ran in almost the same way.

However, Xu Wen could recognize Lu Yuanzheng at a glance.

In fact, she couldn't see the faces clearly with that kind of vision, but she just knew which one was him.

According to Lu Yuanzheng's rank, he actually no longer needed to participate in such training, but he still took the lead in the training.

In terms of Luyuanzheng, it is called reconstruction!

Moreover, in such hot weather, the officers don't take the lead and the soldiers are even less willing to train.

Xu Wen tucked the hair that was blown in front of his eyes by the sea breeze and blocked his view behind his ears. He looked over and saw Lu Yuanzheng looking back.

The four eyes met in the night, neither of them could really see who it was, but they both knew it was each other.

Lu Yuanzheng waved to her.

Xu Wen also waved to Lu Yuanzheng.

He raised the corners of his lips and curved his eyebrows.

At this moment, I suddenly felt that time was peaceful and good.

It turns out that happiness really has nothing to do with wealth.

There is nothing on this island, and everything from food, clothing, housing and transportation is hard.

Xu Wen, however, found it very enjoyable.

Probably because there is a long journey ahead.

Xu Wen suddenly remembered a sentence he had read on the Internet in his previous life: Because of a person, I fell in love with a city.

For her, it was because a person fell in love with an island.

Lu Yuanzheng came back after taking a bath.

After such a large amount of sweat during training, you will feel smelly if you don’t take a shower.

Each company had an extra tent set up to serve as a bathroom, but there was not enough fresh water for a shower, so we could only wash ourselves briefly.

Knowing that Xu Wen was still awake, Lu Yuanzheng was too embarrassed to take off all his clothes and wash himself in front of Xu Wen. After the training, he followed his comrades to the company to wash before entering the tent.

As he entered the tent he sighed with contentment.

Xu Wen made some changes to the ice-making process. He made the ice basin into upper and lower layers and drilled a hole in the bottom of the upper basin.

After the ice melts, it drips into the basin below and merges with the saltpeter to form ice again.

The temperature in the tent dropped noticeably.

"You're back? Sit down first, you can eat when they come." Seeing that Lu Yuanzheng had returned, Xu Wen took a piece of ice and cracked it to make ice porridge. It would be bad if they couldn't have ice.

"Wow!" Lu Yuanzheng exclaimed as he looked at the baking tray on the square table, "What a nice smell!"

Dongsheng had already brought a small stool and sat at the table waiting to eat fish. When he saw Lu Yuanzheng coming in, he looked behind him and asked, "Dad, aren't Uncle Shi and the others here yet?"

"They'll be here in a while." Lu Yuanzheng was sitting at the table. He saw Xu Wen get some ice water in a bucket with a few bottles of beer in it. He raised his eyebrows in surprise and asked, "Where did you get the beer?"

"Mrs. Li gave it to me. She originally prepared this as a celebratory drink for Lao Lu."

Most people in the camp like to drink liquor, only Lao Lu likes beer. Beer was not popular in those days, and it was a bit troublesome to buy it, so every time Lao Lu went out, Sister Li would run to the market to buy a few bottles and keep them.

Lu Yuanzheng looked at the bottles of beer for a while before he spoke: "Then we have to drink this."