"I want to go to Stone Beach today."
Gao Chong knew that Stone Beach was located on the seashore not far from the camp. But he still didn't understand what going to the stone stall had to do with wearing gloves?
Just wear it since my sister-in-law said so. You’ll know when the time comes.
With such a group of young men following them, Yin Xiaoman and Cui Yan can rest assured that they don’t even have to take care of the little ones. Erniu became everyone's little darling. She was either carried on one person's back or on the shoulders of another person along the way. There were always people responding to whatever she said, and some people kept teasing her. She was so happy that she was about to fly.
Soon, the group arrived at the beach.
We have all lived in the camp for many years, and although we have never done it before, we have seen it before, so we got the hang of it quickly.
Yin Xiaoman didn't even need to teach them much. He just asked Dabao to demonstrate it, and they immediately knew how to do it and started to take action right away.
The reason they didn't come before was simply because they thought there was no point in picking up those things. Now that I know they are all delicious, I have motivation and naturally I am very interested in them.
Yin Xiaoman stayed on the beach for a while, picked up a few octopuses, dug up two swimming crabs, and picked out a few cat's eye snails from the sand.
The little soldier was stunned and exclaimed, "I never knew these things could be eaten," and started looking for them by following suit.
Seeing that they had fully mastered the essentials and started to reap some rewards, Yin Xiaoman left two soldiers with the children to continue digging at the beach, and she, Gao Chong and Cui Yan went to the stone beach.
Because it had been agreed upon before they came, all three of them changed into rubber shoes and put on gloves.
Yin Xiaoman was wearing Shen Qingyun's rubber shoes, which were big and bulky, and it was really difficult to walk on the beach. To the point that she even began to doubt whether her choice was wrong?
But when she walked through the wet and slippery rocks and stepped on the sharp stones without feeling anything, she was immediately very satisfied.
I think this is really great stuff.
I've even started wondering where I can buy a pair of shoes that fit my feet.
"Sister-in-law, what are we catching here?"
Gao Chong saw Yin Xiaoman leading them towards the pile of rocks without saying anything, and he couldn't help but ask.
This was his first time going to the beach, and he felt everything was so new. Especially the feeling of digging clams at the beach is so cool!
If he hadn't come here, he would never have known that there were such good things hidden in those densely packed little holes on the beach!
They were getting addicted to digging, so my sister-in-law brought them to the pile of rocks. There was not even a little sand here, so what could there be?
"I'll take you to find some good stuff you haven't seen before."
With the rubber shoes, Yin Xiaoman was no longer afraid of rocks or cold water. He was in a very good mood and was willing to say a few naughty words.
"Everything you found is good. I have never seen any of them before. Anyway, we will follow you today. We will do whatever you ask us to do!"
After just a short while, the small bucket Cui Yan brought was already half full. When she thought about the fact that all the meat she caught could be turned into delicious food when she got home, she couldn't help but grinning to her ears.
Yin Xiaoman pursed her lips and was about to say something else when suddenly her eyes lit up. She immediately stopped and squatted down.
The two people behind her didn't have time to react before they saw her suddenly reach out and quickly grab something from the shallow puddle between the stones.
Yin Xiaoman's movements were as fast as lightning. Before anyone could see clearly how she did it, she had already raised the thing high up.
"Oh my god, there are worms!" Cui Yan, who was almost approaching her, screamed and subconsciously stepped back.
But there were rugged rocks behind her, and if Gao Chong hadn't been quick to help her, she would have almost fallen into the water.
"This is a conger eel." Yin Xiaoman pinched the conger eel's head tightly with his thumb and index finger, preventing it from closing its mouth. The moray eel struggled in vain in the air, its fat body twisting and its tail flapping back and forth.
Looking at the conger eel's mouth full of sharp teeth, Gao Chong couldn't help but shiver. He looked at Yin Xiaoman with infinite admiration, and then his eyes fell on the gloves she was wearing.
Suddenly I understood why my sister-in-law must make them remember the significance of wearing gloves.
He looked down at his hand and imagined that the hand holding the giant worm was his own...then the hairs all over his body stood up.
Yin Xiaoman didn't know about their fierce ideological struggle, and even if she knew, she wouldn't care.
She had never expected to have such a harvest at the very beginning, and it made her very happy.
She put the conger eel into the small bucket she was carrying and continued walking forward.
Cui Yan's legs are still weak.
But even so, she knew in her heart that Xiaoman had caught a good thing. Apart from anything else, that is such a huge piece of meat!
Seeing that Yin Xiaoman had already started walking forward, she gritted her teeth and followed him even though it felt like she was walking on cotton.
Of course, such good luck cannot always be there.
Later, in addition to picking up a few stranded fish, I only dug out some crabs from the cracks in the rocks.
Gao Chong enjoyed picking crabs very much, and he became more and more skilled at using the iron hook. Later on, he could pick out any crabs he saw, and no one would escape.
Seeing that Gao Chong and his sister-in-law's attention was drawn to the crabs, Yin Xiaoman didn't call them anymore, but walked slowly along the rocky beach.
The reason she came here today was actually to find a good thing that must have been overlooked by everyone before - the chiton.
Chitons are also a kind of shellfish, but their color is the same as stone and they look extremely ugly. Normally these things are stuck to rocks, and most people don't pay any attention to them. Even if they do, they definitely won't think of them as food.
So even if they are fishermen, no one will pick them up. As you can imagine, there should be a lot.
When Yin Xiaoman was young, he lived with his grandmother by the sea. The old was old and the young was young, so they had no ability to fish, and they didn’t always come across delicious food every time they went to the sea.
She remembered many times when she really couldn't pick up anything, her grandmother would take her to the cracks in the rocks to touch the stone turtles.
She was also resistant at the beginning. After all, this thing looked disgusting and even a little nauseating.
But her grandmother picked it up, rubbed off the shell on a stone slab, and stewed it. The aroma it gave off is still unforgettable to her today.
There are so many soldiers in a battalion. How much they can harvest from the sea every day depends on God's will. No one can guarantee that they will return with a full load every time.
What if you don’t pick up anything or gain nothing?
Last night Yin Xiaoman lay in bed thinking for a long time, and then he remembered this thing.
Sea turtles usually live in groups, so you can find a large group of them once you look for them. If you can find and catch them all, it should be enough for everyone to have a delicious meal.
Gao Chong caught another crab.
And this one was particularly fat, with thick claws, and was almost as big as his open palm.
He picked it up ostentatiously, wanting to show it off to his sister-in-law, but when he looked up he found her squatting on a distant reef, holding a pair of scissors and poking something on the stone.
"Sister-in-law, I'll go over there and take a look." He turned and shouted to Cui Yan, who was squatting not far from him and still "struggling" with the crabs.
Cui Yan agreed but didn't even raise her head. It was obvious that she was busy at the moment.
Gao Chong ran to the big rock where Yin Xiaoman was squatting, stood behind her and leaned his head forward.
As a result, Yin Xiaoman just happened to pick up a fat and big stone turtle from a rock.
She held it up and looked at it carefully, with a satisfied smile on her face.
"Oh my god, what is this!"
Gao Chong screamed in surprise, pointing at the thing in Yin Xiaoman's hand, and couldn't even speak clearly: "Sister-in-law, you, you, why are you still picking up bugs?!"
He recognized this thing, it was the woodlouse in their dormitory!
The climate at the seaside is humid, and there are a lot of these things in the corners and windowsills of their dormitories. They are impossible to kill and are disgusting.
Sister-in-law, why, why are you picking up this thing...are you going to give it to them to eat? !
Gao Chong felt sick at the thought of this possibility.
Yin Xiaoman glanced at him without explaining. Instead, he pointed to the naturally formed gap between two rocks and said to him, "Go find another person to pick out all the chitons in the gap. We'll have this for lunch today."
"What, what?" Gao Chong stared at her, his eyes full of resistance, and it took him a long time to utter this word.
"Hurry up, don't waste time." Yin Xiaoman gave another order in a light tone.
Although this thing makes one's scalp tingle, Gao Chong will still listen to his sister-in-law's instructions.
It wasn’t because of what the instructor said before, but rather that he now had an inexplicable admiration for Yin Xiaoman.
He agreed and ran towards the beach, and soon came back with another little soldier.
Gao Chong must have told the young soldier about this on the way here. After the young man saw what Yin Xiaoman had picked off, his facial expression twisted for a moment, but he didn't ask any questions. Instead, he followed her example and together with Gao Chong, he used an iron hook to carefully pick out the stone turtle.
As for picking out stone turtles, it actually requires some skills. You just have to be quick-eyed and quick-handed.
When you see it, immediately use a knife or a sharp hook to insert it into the gap and then pick it up quickly. Otherwise, once it realizes the danger and holds on to the stone tightly, it will be very difficult to pick it out.
Practice makes perfect, and the boys got the hang of it in no time. By the time Cui Yan came over with her harvest to join in the fun, the three people here had already dug almost half a bucket.
Knowing that Cui Yan would scream if she saw it, Yin Xiaoman didn't give her the chance and stood up the moment she stepped on the reef.
"Okay, this is enough for a meal, let's go back."
The two guys, who had just gotten into the groove and were addicted to digging, had smiles on their faces. However, when they heard the three words "enough to eat" from their sister-in-law's mouth, their smiles froze instantly.
Yin Xiaoman returned to the camp with this group of dazed people. All the children were handed over to Cui Yan, who went to the kitchen under the leadership of Gao Chong and others.
This was actually the first time that Yin Xiaoman had actually entered the military camp since she joined the army. After all, her activities before were limited to the family quarters.
Everything around her was so new to her that she even forgot her initial reservedness.
The squad leader of the kitchen squad was about twenty-four or twenty-five years old, not tall, dark and thin.
He must have been waiting for a long time. When he saw this group of people finally come in, he smiled so hard that wrinkles appeared on his face.
"Welcome, welcome, sister-in-law, come and give us your guidance!"
The man took the initiative to come forward, saluted Yin Xiaoman, and said with a smile: "Sister-in-law, my name is Wang Jun, you can just call me Xiao Wang."
Seeing someone saluting him, Yin Xiaoman was so scared that he quickly dodged to the side, but he didn't know how to respond. She could only smile at Wang Jun and say, "Hello, Squad Leader Wang."
Wang Jun never expected that the battalion commander's sister-in-law would be so kind.
Before that, the instructor had specially run to the kitchen to repeatedly explain what happened today, saying that the student should be polite, respectful, and obedient to his sister-in-law... This put him under tremendous psychological pressure.
I was afraid that I would meet someone as arrogant as those female secretaries in the regiment.
Seeing that the battalion commander's sister-in-law was so good-tempered, Wang Jun felt relieved.
"Sister-in-law, the instructor said before that we should follow your instructions. Sister-in-law, you tell us, we will do whatever you say."
After hearing what he said, Yin Xiaoman didn't bother to be polite and directly put forward his request: "Go find me two large basins, an empty rice bag, and a washboard. Also, boil half a pot of water."
Wang Jun could understand the idea of finding a basin.
He had just looked into the bucket and knew that the shells were meant to be kept in water to spit out the sand.
But what are the empty rice bags and washboards for?
But his sister-in-law's words were orders, so Wang Jun naturally wouldn't ask any more questions. He gave an order, and immediately a cook ran out.
The things were brought soon.
Yin Xiaoman asked people to clean all the clams, snails and shellfish they had picked up and put them in a basin.
Then someone added a little coarse salt and two drops of oil into the basin.
"Leave these like this for now. I'll come back tomorrow to teach you how to make them. I'll teach you something else at noon today."
After saying that, Yin Xiaoman extended his hand towards Gao Chong.
Gao Chong brought over the half bucket of stone turtles with a sad face. When Wang Jun saw what was in it, his face changed.
He opened his eyes wide in disbelief.
He opened his mouth several times, but didn't dare to say anything to Yin Xiaoman, so he could only look at Gao Chong.
Gao Chong looked at him with a bitter face, and the two of them looked at each other in silence.
Yin Xiaoman actually didn't mean to hide anything.
It’s just that this chiton really doesn’t look good. Unless you see it being cleaned up with your own eyes and taste it with your own mouth, no one would believe that it was a good thing no matter what she said.
She remembered that when she first saw it, her expression was not much better than Gao Chong and the others.
When her grandmother asked her to help her rub the dough, Yin Xiaoman refused. She ran away crying, covering her mouth and yelling at her grandmother: "It's disgusting! I won't eat it even if you kill me!"
Thinking of his grandma, Yin Xiaoman felt sad for a moment. She lowered her eyelids for a long time to calm down before raising her head again.
This time, she did not ask anyone for help. Instead, she carried the bucket to the pot of boiling water and poured it all in.
As soon as it was blanched in hot water, the salty and fishy smell immediately filled the entire kitchen.
Although no one spoke, the expressions on their faces were not good.
Yin Xiaoman didn't say anything. He scooped out all the chitons with a colander, put them back into the bucket, and then took them to a large basin.
She picked up the empty rice bag next to her and poured all the chiton into it.
Seeing her squatting down, a young soldier immediately brought a small stool over.
Yin Xiaoman sat down, placed the half-full bag of rice on the washboard, and began to scrub it vigorously as if she were washing clothes.
The others all gathered around and the scene was extremely quiet for a while.
Everyone stared at her in amazement, so shocked by her series of actions that they couldn't even ask questions!
Chitons have a hard shell, so a few of them are not a big deal, but most of the ones in the bag were hot and hard. After rubbing for a while, Yin Xiaoman's palms turned red.
"Let me do it."
Seeing this, Wang Jun hurried over, squatted beside Yin Xiaoman, and took the bag of rice.
Yin Xiaoman did not stop him.
Men are indeed much stronger than women. Yin Xiaoman's hands were rubbed red, but he didn't get much. It took Wang Jun about the same amount of time as her to crush all the chiton shells in half a bag.
Yin Xiaoman directed him to empty the bag and asked him and other soldiers to clean the remaining shells and other dirt on the chiton.
Soon, a pile of cleanly peeled "meat" appeared in front of everyone.
Now, someone finally believes that this thing is edible!
"Cut into strips, heat the pan with a small amount of oil, scallions, ginger and garlic, sauté until fragrant, pour them in and stir-fry, add water and simmer after they are colored and fragrant, about half an hour before adding other vegetables to cook together. If you have sauce, add some to make it taste better."
Yin Xiaoman explained the procedure to Wang Jun.
Wang Jun listened carefully. At the same time, the cooks nearby quickly set up the pot according to her instructions and started to operate it.
…
At noon that day, before lunch time, many of the young soldiers on the training ground began to feel dazed.
Especially those companies that are close to the kitchen.
Everyone's attention was distracted and their eyes couldn't help but drift towards the cafeteria.
After much difficulty, the call for lunch was finally sounded, and everyone gathered at an unprecedented speed. When gathering in the playground and waiting to enter in batches, many people were so anxious that they even sang a few points faster than usual.
It’s not that everyone is nervous, it’s just that - the smell coming from the kitchen today is just so delicious!
This smell is so bad that no one has ever smelled it before, and no one can even tell what kind of dish is being cooked!
Singing contest at this time? That's bullshit!
I don't even have time to swallow the saliva in my mouth, how can I sing?
Because the cafeteria is not big enough, the Pioneer Camp has always eaten in batches.
After the first group of soldiers entered, the second group gathered and waited at the door.
Normally, no one thought there was any problem, but today, not to mention the soldiers, even the cadres standing in the front of the team felt as if there were cat's claws scratching them in their hearts.
If it weren't for his amazing ability to control himself, he would have wanted to stand on tiptoe to see what was in the bowl of the person in the room.
What did the kitchen team do today? !
Not to mention the soldiers who were waiting for dinner outside, even the staff in the kitchen felt like they were dreaming.
Looking at the big bowl of sea turtle meat stewed with potatoes; conch and octopus meat fried with leeks; and the fresh and fragrant crab meat and vegetable soup...
They still can’t believe that these delicious dishes were made by themselves.
Where did my sister-in-law learn this amazing skill?
Yin Xiaoman didn’t know that the dishes today almost drove a group of people crazy. In fact, even if she knew, she wouldn’t be surprised. After all, she was somewhat mentally prepared.
At this moment, she was rushing towards the family compound as fast as she could.
You know, when she came to the kitchen just now, Sister Cui had told her many times to go to her house for lunch.
It looked like she was going to run away.
Yin Xiaoman knew that her sister-in-law was waiting for her to go back and teach her how to cook seafood!
She had met Qi Feng just now in the kitchen.
Seeing their "works", Qi Feng smiled so hard that his teeth were about to show. Needless to say, he would definitely have to stay in the cafeteria to eat today.
So when going to Cui Yan's house this time, Yin Xiaoman was anxious but not nervous.
Actually, Yin Xiaoman feels that he is much better now than before. Whether she was forced or voluntarily, after leaving Shuanggui Village, she had to deal with strange men face to face again and again.
This experience was something she had never had before.
From being nervous when she first met Ning Gaogong and the others on the train, to now being able to conceal her emotions and talk to people calmly, she knows that she is adapting to this world more and more day by day.
Thinking of this, she couldn't help but think of the man who gave her this opportunity.
He should still be on the road now, right?
I don’t know where I’m going, but there shouldn’t be any danger along the way, right?
When this thought came to her mind, her originally relaxed brows couldn't help but frown again.
She remembered the conger eel she had caught that morning.
Because the chance of catching that thing was so rare, she didn't bring it with her when she went to the kitchen just now.
Sister-in-law Cui Yan has always been a sensible person, so needless to say, she would definitely not want it. Such a fat fish should be enough for several meals at home.
Steamed with fermented black beans, stir-fried in oil, braised, stewed... Yin Xiaoman can think of many ways to eat eel without having to think.
She could even imagine the surprise in Dabao and Erniu's eyes after she made it.
It’s a pity that that person won’t be able to eat it this time.
Thinking of this, a hint of loss emerged in Yin Xiaoman's lowered eyes, which even she herself was not aware of.
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