Chapter 69
Lu Haici called Qin Ming and Ji Yang, and the three children dragged themselves to the canteen of the Third Company's kitchen squad at around 7:30.
"Auntie, we're here for breakfast." Qin Ming was the most enthusiastic, and greeted Lin Qingqing first.
The breakfast of the Third Company's kitchen squad had been ready a long time ago, and everyone was eating. The children came, and they saw it at a glance.
Lin Qingqing had already prepared three bowls of mung bean soup, and was leaving them to dry, fearing that they would get hot when they came. Now that they came, the temperature was just right.
In addition to mung bean soup, she also made a few corn buns. She put some thought into it, and the corn buns had patterns on them, some were round, some were square, some were five-pointed stars, and some were rectangular. Each one was small, the kind that could be eaten in two bites. Even this simple pattern is very interesting in the eyes of the children.
"You guys are here? The meal is ready, come and eat." Lin Qingqing pointed to the seat next to her. Three small bowls were filled with three bowls of green bean soup, and a large plate was placed with steamed buns.
"Wow..." The children's eyes lit up when they saw the corn buns of different shapes.
"Mom, I have never eaten this steamed bun." Lu Haici said first.
Lin Qingqing was in the kitchen of the third company every day. When she had a day off in the week, she was basically too lazy to do anything, so she really didn't bother to cook for Lu Haici. Except before going to work, Lu Haici had eaten the delicious food she made.
"This is a steamed bun." Lin said lightly, "This one is round, this one is rectangular, this one is..."
"This one is a five-pointed star, I know." Qin Ming saw the five-pointed star-shaped steamed bun and said proudly, "There are five-pointed stars on our hats and schoolbags, and I have also seen five-pointed stars on the national flag."
Not to mention Qin Ming, even Lu Haici and Ji Yang know about the five-pointed star. If it is in other remote places, children of this age may not know the five-pointed star, but as children of soldiers, they must know it, because their fathers also have five-pointed stars on their military uniforms.
"I have seen it too." Ji Yang followed.
"And me, I have seen it too." Lu Haici is not far behind.
"You are really smart." Lin Qingqing praised with a smile, "Okay, you guys eat."
The children held a steamed bun in each hand and a spoon in the other, taking a bite and drinking a sip at the same time, eating with gusto. Children eat slowly, and sometimes a breakfast is not enough for half an hour. So when the comrades from the third company came to eat breakfast, they saw the food on their table and were excited.
"Are we drinking mung bean soup today?"
"And steamed buns, why don't I see any steamed buns in the window?"
Qi Shao rolled his eyes at them: "Are you all dreaming?" He never mentioned the mung bean soup he gave them at noon, because if he mentioned it, there would be no surprise.
However, when Lu Cheng came to get his meal, Qi Shao gave him mung bean soup and corn steamed buns. Needless to say, everyone knows that this was specially prepared by Comrade Lin for Deputy Regiment Commander Lu.
Unfortunately, they are not modern people. If they were modern people, they would definitely know that this is a "love breakfast."
Lu Cheng has become accustomed to Lin Qingqing's special care for him in the past month. However, despite being accustomed to it, every time he sees the look in his comrades' eyes, he feels a sense of secret joy and pride.
After breakfast, Lin Qingqing, who could have rested, had to be busy because everyone's mung bean soup was ready and had to be put in the refrigerator. To be honest, the mung bean soup for a hundred people cannot be put in the refrigerator because the refrigerator is not that big. Fortunately, they had prepared it in advance. The decision to make mung bean soup was made yesterday, so they put a lot of ice cubes in the refrigerator since yesterday. The mung bean soup that couldn't fit in the refrigerator was kept in ice.
After the mung bean soup was ready, the six people sat down and breathed a sigh of relief. It was finally done.
"I don't know how the mung bean soup of other companies is doing?" Lin Bao said. Originally, they planned to make it themselves, but it was too much trouble, so they simply took the mung beans and let the kitchen staff of other companies make it themselves.
Lin Qingqing: "Anyway, there's nothing to do now, you might as well go and take a look."
Qi Shao: "He just wants to show off in other companies."
Lin Bao didn't feel guilty: "What are you showing off? I'm just taking a look. I'm leaving." As he said that, he waved his hand.
Lin Qingqing felt that Lin Bao had a good personality, very cheerful and enthusiastic, and such a person could easily integrate into the group. Seeing that she had nothing to do, she also planned to go back to the family compound to check the sand. If the sand was ready, she could fry the dried sweet potatoes.
When she got home, the three children were playing at their house. Lu Haici also took out the dried sweet potatoes to treat everyone.
"Mom, you're back."
"Auntie, you're back."
"Auntie, your dried sweet potatoes are really delicious and sweet." Qin Ming's flattery always comes first.
Lin Qingqing: "Even if they are delicious, you can't eat too much. It's not good to eat too much sweet potatoes. You can only eat five slices a day."
Qin Ming: "Well, I've only eaten two slices now, and I can still eat three slices. That's great."
Lin Qingqing saw that there was sweat on their foreheads, so she plugged in the electric fan for them. Usually when Lu Haici was alone at home, she would put the electric fan on the cabinet, where Lu Haici couldn't reach, so as to avoid accidents when he wiped the electric fan himself.
As soon as the electric fan was turned on, the wind blew, and the three children who were overheated sighed with relief.
Seeing that they were eating and reading comics, Lin Qingqing ignored them. She looked at the sand and turned it over with her hands. The sand was already dry. Since she was free now, Lin Qingqing started to stir-fry the dried sweet potatoes.
It is actually very simple to stir-fry the dried sweet potatoes with sand, but it requires patience and wrist strength. Lin Qingqing's wrist strength is naturally not enough, but it doesn't matter if you take it slowly.
First heat the pot, then pour the sand in, and then stir-fry the sand. After the sand is fried, add the dried sweet potatoes, and don't add too much at a time. After the dried sweet potatoes are added, start frying. At the beginning, you don't have to keep frying, because the dried sweet potatoes don't cook that quickly, you can take your time. After the dried sweet potatoes turn golden brown, they need to be fried a few more times.
The fried dried sweet potatoes are very crispy, just like potato chips. If some white sesame seeds are added to the dried sweet potatoes, they will be more fragrant. Thinking of this, Lin Qingqing thought that when she has time, she can make dried sweet potatoes herself, so that she doesn’t have to ask the Lin family to send them to her, which costs a lot of postage.
"Auntie, what are you doing?" Qin Ming came out to use the toilet and saw Lin Qingqing busy in the kitchen, so he cleverly came over to see. In Qin Ming's mind, Lu Haici's mother = delicious, so can she not come over?
There happened to be some dried sweet potatoes that had been fried, so Lin waved at him gently: "Come here, these are sweet potato chips. I'll put them in a bowl and you can bring them in and eat with everyone." "
Yeah." Qin Ming was willing to do so when he heard there was food to eat.
Lin Qingqing put the sweet potato chips into the plate. These were picked out from the sand and were clean. She put half a plate, not too much, because they had already had breakfast. If they ate too much now, they would not be able to eat later.
Qin Ming brought the sweet potato chips into the house. Every now and then, there were happy sounds from inside.
Lin Qingqing couldn't help shaking her head. She then fried the remaining dried sweet potatoes and put them in two bowls respectively, waiting for Ji Yang and Qin Ming to go home and bring them to them. She put the rest into empty milk powder cans and tin cans, because if the sweet potato chips are not sealed, they will get damp, and their properties will be the same as potato chips.
"Ji Yang, Qin Ming, Auntie has put two bowls of sweet potato chips on the table. Remember to take them away when you go home later." She was about to go to the cafeteria.
"Got it, thank you, Auntie."
"Auntie, you are so nice. You are the best person I have ever met."
Lin Qingqing wanted to ask Qin Ming, how many people have you met? But before she left, she put away the electric fan again. Even if she believed that Lu Haici would not touch anything, she didn't dare to bet. What if something happened?
After Lin Qingqing left, Qin Ming went to the dining table to take a look and saw two big bowls of sweet potato chips there. Qin Ming said, "Lu Haici, your mother is so nice."
Lu Haici was just bragging, "My mother is the best."
"It would be great if your mother was my mother." Qin Ming sighed. In fact, his mother was also very nice to him, but maybe because the mother and son did not live together, he was not close to Qian Yuelan.
"That won't work." Lu Haici immediately became defensive, "My mother can only be my mother, my mother alone. When I have younger brothers and sisters in the future, she will be the mother of me and my younger brothers and sisters, not your mother."
"You can ask your father to marry a stepmother." Ji Yang gave Qin Ming some advice.
Qin Ming blinked, not knowing if he heard it.
"Yes, you can ask your father to marry a stepmother." Lu Haici thought it was feasible.
"Oh, did you know? Chen Zhou is going to have a stepmother too." Qin Ming suddenly remembered Chen Zhou's story.
"Wow?"
"Really?"
Ji Yang and Lu Haici were stunned.
"Why does Chen Zhou have a stepmother? Doesn't he have his own mother?" Lu Haici asked in confusion.
Qin Ming shook his head: "I don't know, I saw Chen Zhou crying yesterday... it seemed like the day before yesterday... oh, I don't know which day it was, I saw Chen Zhou crying. Chen Zhou said that his father said he wanted to find a stepmother for him, and he didn't want one."
"A stepmother is the best." In Ji Yang's heart, a stepmother is the same as a biological mother, so he can't understand the rejection of a child with a biological mother towards a stepmother.
"Yes, stepmothers are the best." Lu Haici and Ji Yang were the same. In their hearts, stepmothers were their biological mothers. Although they also knew that stepmothers were different from biological mothers, and biological mothers were the mothers who gave birth to them. But they had no impression of their biological mothers, so they all regarded stepmothers as their biological mothers.
"Hey..." Qin Ming sighed like a little adult, "When Chen Zhou has a stepmother in the future, we will play with him again."
Ji Yang didn't want to agree at first, but thinking that everyone had a stepmother's child, he agreed: "Okay."
The three children started reading comics again. Until Zhang Hongping came to call people.
"Xiao Ming... Is Xiao Ming here?" Seeing that it was almost time for lunch and the grandson had not returned yet, Zhang Hongping could only come to Lu's house to see.
"Grandma..." Qin Ming ran out of the house.
Zhang Hongping: "Go home for dinner. Lu Haici and Ji Yang, you should also go to the cafeteria to eat. If you don't go now, the food will be snatched up."
The three children forgot the time while playing. If Zhang Hongping hadn't come, they might have continued to play.
Lu Haici hurriedly put on his small schoolbag: "I'm going to eat." The handkerchief he must bring every day is placed in the small schoolbag, so he has to carry the small schoolbag every day.
Qin Ming: "Grandma, I want to bring sweet potato chips. My aunt gave it to me. It's delicious." Before he left, he didn't forget to pick up the bowl of sweet potato chips on the dining table.
Ji Yang forgot about it, but he remembered it after hearing Qin Ming's words, so he also picked up the sweet potato chips and put them back at home.
Sweet potato chips?
Zhang Hongping looked at the fried golden sweet potato chips, she picked up a piece and ate it: "It's quite delicious, sweet and crispy." This thing is much more delicious than dried sweet potatoes. Comrade Lin really knows something about food.
"It's delicious, auntie is the best." Qin Ming held the bowl tightly, preventing his grandmother from eating more.
"Look at you stingy." Zhang Hongping knew her little thoughts, "This thing should be easy to learn, sweet potatoes and sugar, nothing else can be eaten, I will go back and ask your auntie to teach me."
"Really?" Qin Ming looked at his grandmother expectantly.
"Of course it's true." Of course, it would be embarrassing, and she couldn't let Comrade Lin teach her in vain.
The two of them walked and talked back home. Lu Haici also ran madly towards the kitchen of the third company with his small schoolbag on his back. Halfway through, he met Lu Cheng who was getting off work.
"Lu Haici..." Lu Cheng called out to him, "Why are you running? Didn't your mother tell you not to run but to walk slowly?"
Lu Haici stopped when he heard his father's call, and then said anxiously, "I'm afraid if I get there too late, the food in the cafeteria will be taken away."
Lu Cheng: "..."
Phew, many people who were walking heard it and couldn't help but teasing, "Lu Haici, you run so slowly, by the time you get there, the food will have been taken away."
"That's right, Lu Haici, you have to let your dad run, your dad runs fast."
Lu Haici thought what everyone said made sense when he heard it, so he looked at Lu Cheng expectantly, "Dad, you run, I'll run slowly behind you."
"Why are you running? Can your mom let you go hungry?" Lu Cheng felt that his son's IQ was not high.
Lu Haici was stunned: "That's right, Mom won't let me go hungry."
Lu Cheng shook his head: "Why are you going so late today?"
"Qin Ming, Ji Yang and I are reading at home." Lu Haici said, "Mom made potato chips for us, made with the dried sweet potatoes sent by my grandmother's family, they are delicious potato chips." He thought of some in his pocket, so he took them out and gave them to Lu Cheng, "Dad, do you want some?"
Lu Cheng took a look at the golden potato chips and took all of them from his son's hand without hesitation. In fact, there were only three chips. Who said Lu Haici's hands were small? This time Lu Haici was very generous. He didn't feel wronged because his father took all the potato chips away, because he had eaten enough in the morning, and there were still many at home.
Lu Cheng took a bite and a crisp sound rang out.
"Dad, is it delicious?" Lu Haici asked with his head raised.
"Yeah." Carrying Lin Qingqing on his back, Lu Cheng boasted without any reservation, "Of course your mother's cooking is delicious."
Mom boasted and Lu Haici nodded: "Dad, I heard from Qin Ming that Chen Zhou's father is going to find a stepmother for him."
"What?" Lu Cheng suspected that he had heard it wrong. What he suspected even more was that these five-year-old little bastards were so gossipy?
"Dad, if Chen Zhou has a stepmother, Ji Yang said that we should reconcile with him, because we all have stepmothers." Lu Haici said again.
Lu Cheng: "..." What kind of logic is this. "Okay, let's talk after we eat. Save your breath now."
Lu Haici felt that his father didn't understand him, so he shook his head: "Okay."
When they arrived at the third company's kitchen, many comrades were already eating lunch.
"Come on, come on, drink mung bean soup at noon. It's so refreshing to drink iced mung bean soup."
"Wow, what kind of day is this? They actually gave us iced mung bean soup."
"It's really good to have Comrade Lin here..."
"Squad Leader Qi is really something. He didn't remind us to drink mung bean soup at noon. What if we come late and it's all taken away?"
Lu Haici heard it and said with a smile: "Dad, we drank mung bean soup in the morning."
Lu Cheng didn't know what he was laughing at.
At noon today, the comrades of the entire independent regiment were very happy because all the comrades in the regiment drank iced mung bean soup. So… all the comrades in the regiment mentioned this matter after dinner, and the news spread quickly.
"Have you heard about it? The independent regiment drank iced mung bean soup at noon today."
"No way? The treatment of the independent regiment is so good?"
"I haven't drunk mung bean soup for several years."
"Tell our kitchen team about it later and ask them to prepare mung bean soup for us."
"That's right, we are all from the same unit. The independent regiment can drink it, why can't we?"
So at dinner that day, the kitchen teams of several companies received feedback, saying that the independent regiment drank iced mung bean soup at noon today, and they also wanted to drink it.
The squad leaders of the kitchen teams of those companies didn't care about them, and only replied: It's good to have food to fill your stomach, and you still want to drink mung bean soup, fart.
As a result, the next day, the independent regiment had fresh food again. The next morning, the comrades of the independent regiment drank hot soy milk. If sugar-free mung bean soup is not so delicious, then sugar-free soy milk is definitely better than sugar-free mung bean soup.
Of course, Lu Cheng and Lu Haici drank soy milk with sugar.
Some comrades of the independent regiment had some bad intentions. After drinking sugar-free soy milk, they went to other places to brag. Some comrades even took the enamel cups filled with soy milk and walked around other teams before they finished drinking.
As a result, at noon, the cooking team of other teams was bombed by comrades again.
"Why can the Independent Regiment drink mung bean soup and soy milk, but we can't?"
"That's right, can't you learn from the Independent Regiment?"
"Mung beans are free, right? Soybeans are free? You can still fill your stomachs with money to buy mung beans and soybeans?" Other comrades in the kitchen replied.
"The kitchen of the Independent Regiment can do it, why can't you?"
"Does the Independent Regiment's kitchen have more funds than ours?"
"That's right, why are the Independent Regiment treated differently from us?"
The kitchens of those companies were annoyed by the noise, so they came to the Independent Regiment.
Lin Qingqing and Qi Shao and others were chatting, and saw six unfamiliar comrades walked into the kitchen.
"Qishao, what's going on with your independent regiment? Why was it mung bean soup yesterday and soy milk today? You have even arranged snacks, is it because you have too much budget?"
"Of course, you can't do such things. As soon as you cause trouble here, our comrades start quarreling. What should we do?"
"Qishao, tell me, is this what human beings do?"
"Qishao..."
Qishao didn't understand at first, but gradually understood. He was immediately unhappy: "What are you talking about? Our independent regiment drinks mung bean soup and soy milk, what does this have to do with your company? You can come here to complain about this?"
"Do you think we are willing to come? It's because the soldiers below are making a fuss. They also want to drink mung bean soup and soy milk. But you also know that our funds are limited. They usually use the extra money to purchase food. They are afraid that there is not enough food and they don't have enough to eat. Where do they have the spare money to do this?"
"Yes, if your independent regiment has spare money, you might as well use it to buy food and stop doing these things. These soldiers won't make trouble."
"Treat them equally, what else can they say?"
"It's good enough that we can fill our stomachs. Let's save some green bean soup and soy milk."
"Why should we save?" Lin Bao said, "We just have spare money for these things. Besides, even if we don't have spare money, the funding for the kitchen squad of each company is the same. How we arrange the funding is our business."
"Go away, I'm talking to your squad leader. Just listen quietly."
Lin Bao was dissatisfied: "I'm also a member of the kitchen squad. I can have a say when it comes to our kitchen squad's affairs."
Qi Shao: "What Lin Bao said makes sense. Everyone has the same funding. How we arrange the funding is our business. I have never asked you how you arrange the funding."
"Brother Qi, please be kind and stop doing these things. We are also annoyed when there are more than a hundred people cooking in the kitchen."
Qi Shao waved his hand and said, "There is nothing to discuss about this matter. You can find a solution by yourselves."
"Qi Shao, why don't you listen to my advice?"
Qi Shao said, "Okay, we have to do things. If you have nothing to do, leave. Don't let me chase you away with a broom."
Seeing that Qi Shao didn't listen, the comrades who came left angrily. As soon as they left, Qi Shao said, "Let them have their eyes on it. They have no other choice but to deprive us of our benefits. It's wishful thinking."
"That's right." Lin Bao agreed, "We don't steal or rob, so why can't we drink mung bean soup."
Lin Qingqing was also the one who listened to the whole process. She said, "The funds of each kitchen team are limited. Even if there is one more cent, everyone wants to buy more food to fill the comrades' stomachs. If everyone can save some money on food, then the extra funds will have other uses."
"That won't work." Qi Shao said, "Food can't be saved. If everyone doesn't eat enough, they won't have the energy to train. This is a serious matter."
Lin Qingqing naturally understood this truth: "Look, there are wasteland and wasteland outside our troops. Can't we use them?" This is the suburbs, and there are really a lot of wasteland and mountains. "If these barren hills and wastelands are developed, then a lot of food can be grown, right? When there is food, the extra money can be used to buy other things."
Qi Shao: "But no one is developing it? How can anyone have the time?"
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
