Chapter 63.2

Although not everyone was present, the New Year still had to be celebrated.

For the New Year’s menu, Yin Xiaoman and Ren Ping’an discussed it for several days. They either complained about the lack of novelty or about the trouble of preparing, but they could never come to a conclusion.

In the end, it was Cui Yan who, with a single sentence, woke them from their confusion.

Cui Yan said: “Isn’t New Year about eating dumplings? What’s there to discuss? Rich people have their way of eating, and poor people have theirs. If there’s flour at home, you can make a few dumplings to fill your stomach. Is this even something that requires a menu?”

Her words left the two of them, who had been stuck in their own thoughts, speechless.

Indeed, what could be more festive than dumplings? Plus, this was something that could be done by the whole camp. They could grab a few people from any team and get the job done. They could make as many as they wanted!

In the end, they discussed a bit more and decided to make two types of dumplings.

One would have a filling of celery and shrimp, and the other would be filled with tofu and mushrooms.

If you were to ask which vegetable grew the best on Zhongshan Island, it would definitely be water celery. Once planted, it grew quickly into a whole patch, with a crisp texture and a unique fragrance, making it very tasty. Paired with seafood, it was the perfect match.

Although the filling was supposed to be shrimp, with so many people in the whole camp, it was nearly impossible to gather enough shrimp. So, they also added cleaned scallops, oysters, and octopus to the mixture. To make it even more flavorful, Ren Ping’an generously added two big scoops of lard rendered from the cured meat he had brought in.

He had carefully cut the fat off the meat, and it made his heart ache when he did so.

The rendered fat was then used by Yin Xiaoman without hesitation in the tofu and mushroom dumplings.

Knowing that dumplings were on the way, the little ones were incredibly excited. They eagerly volunteered for the tasks of gathering mushrooms and looking for bird eggs.

When these children took things seriously, their efficiency was extraordinary. And they were lucky, as they managed to catch a light rain just at the right time.

In the end, they practically returned with a full harvest.

Not only did they fill several large bamboo trays with mushrooms, but they also seemed to have disappeared for a while and came back with some wild wood ear mushrooms. Adding such fine ingredients to the dumpling filling made it even more delicious.

This supply ship had actually brought some eggs, and there were also a few chickens, which Ren Ping’an treated like treasures. Over the past few days, they had managed to lay a few eggs.

Yin Xiaoman had originally planned to use those eggs.

But she hadn’t anticipated how resourceful these kids were. They actually brought back a total of fifteen eggs!

Five of them were small wild pigeon eggs, and the other ten were all sea duck eggs!

When Dami took the eggs out of the bamboo basket, not only did Yin Xiaoman’s eyes widen, but even Ren Ping’an’s expression changed.

He grabbed Dami’s arm seriously and looked at him. “Dami, have you considered coming to help us in the Kitchen Unit? You don’t need to do anything else—just go up the mountain to find things. If you find anything, I’ll let you be the first to serve yourself when I dish out the meals!”

Dami immediately rolled his eyes at him. “As if.”

This made everyone burst into laughter.

Anyone who took one look at Dami’s now noticeably fuller face would know he was well-fed and well taken care of at the Shen family’s home. Ren Ping’an’s “bribe” was clearly not going to work on him.

---

On the morning of the 30th, Yin Xiaoman, along with Cui Yan and Dami, went to the Kitchen Unit to start preparing the filling.

By this time, Ren Ping’an had already arranged for the food that had been “cold-stored” in the warehouse to be brought out, cleaned, and prepped according to her earlier instructions.

Meanwhile, several young soldiers were already waiting there, with large bowls of mixed flour ready. They were just waiting for her command to start kneading the dough.

The camp had an official strength of 500 people, but they were not fully staffed at the moment. The island’s military personnel numbered about 300. With the Researchers and their families, the total number was around 350.

Even so, preparing the ingredients needed for the dumplings was still a huge task.

When they arrived, everyone was so busy that they didn’t even have time to chat; they immediately got to work.

Yin Xiaoman first cut the prepared red amaranth and briefly blanched it in boiling water. Then, she took it out and squeezed the juice with a clean cloth. Soon, a large basin of deep purple-red amaranth juice appeared in front of everyone.

She brought the juice over to a young soldier who was preparing to knead dough, took the bowl from his hands, poured in the vegetable juice, and started kneading the dough herself.

Everyone watched in amazement as the originally yellowish and dull flour turned into a beautiful pink color right before their eyes. They were all so surprised that they immediately stopped what they were doing and gathered around.

“Sister-in-law, what are you doing with the dough to make it red?”

“Sister-in-law, will the color fade? Will it turn the dumpling soup red?”

“Sister-in-law, will the colored dough taste better?”

“Sister-in-law…”

The soldiers in the Kitchen Unit were mostly young, with the exception of Ren Ping’an. The rest were around sixteen or seventeen years old, right at the age of the strongest curiosity.

When something new appeared, the children couldn’t focus on anything else. They all crowded around Yin Xiaoman, chattering away. The Kitchen Unit suddenly became a lively scene.

“It won’t fade, and the taste won’t change. The color won’t make it taste better. The color is just for the appearence, so we could differentiate the flavors. Otherwise, when everything’s boiled together, who will be able to tell which dumplings have the three-flavor filling and which ones have tofu and mushroom filling?”

This was exactly what Yin Xiaoman had anticipated, so she responded decisively.

“But…” 

Hearing her explanation, a young soldier hesitated and asked: “But Sister-in-law, why do we need to separate them? All the fillings are delicious; why should we pick? If you separate them, everyone will just go for the red ones—what will we do then?”

His question left Yin Xiaoman momentarily stunned.

She hadn’t thought of that.

“You’re the clever one, always thinking so much!”

Before Yin Xiaoman could respond, the young soldier was bombarded with a flurry of comments from the others.

“The dumplings are ours to make, the filling is ours to separate. How could there be a choice? A little red color is fine! Red is festive! It’s the New Year, having some color is a good thing, and here you are complaining about it!”

“Exactly, I’ve never had red dumplings before!”

“Me neither! I’ve never even seen them. Aren’t they much more beautiful than those dull, gray ones?”

Although Ren Ping’an had “reluctantly” mixed in some white flour with the dumpling dough today, it was still mainly made with cornmeal and bean flour. Without the contrast of the pink dough, everyone would have already thought the dumplings were beautiful.

But with this rosy dough sitting here, and looking at the other bowls where the dough hadn’t been kneaded yet, it suddenly seemed a bit less impressive.

“Then let’s squeeze some spinach juice and make the dough colorful too.”

The reason Yin Xiaoman had used amaranth juice earlier was actually due to her many years of experience working in the Imperial Kitchen. She instinctively did it just to create a distinction. Honestly, she hadn’t thought much about it before coming here.

But now, after hearing one of the young soldiers say: “It’s the New Year, some color would make it festive.” she suddenly realized that this idea was actually quite good.

As soon as they heard that spinach could be juiced, the soldiers ran off quickly. In no time, someone came back with a huge bundle of spinach.

This time, Yin Xiaoman didn’t do it herself. She instructed them on how to chop and extract the juice, and how to mix it into the dough, before getting back to her own tasks.

For this dumpling feast, she was pulling out all the stops. She took out most of the various seasonings she had traded with Li Chun earlier.

Aside from the essential Sichuan peppercorns and star anise, she also brought out the unique Imperial Kitchen yellow soybean paste for enhancing flavor, along with the finest cooking wine.

She chopped the shrimp, octopus, and scallops, marinated them with ginger slices and cooking wine to remove the fishy smell, then prepared the other vegetables—blanching those that needed it and dicing the others.

When all the preparations were done and she was about to start mixing the fillings, she suddenly heard cheers from the soldiers who were kneading the dough. “Wow, this spinach dough looks so beautiful!”

Yin Xiaoman turned around and saw two soldiers, each holding a ball of dough, with the others gathered around them. The two dough balls—one red, one green—stood out vividly in the slightly dim kitchen.

But what caught her attention wasn’t the dough; it was the beaming smiles on the soldiers’ faces. Their smiles were so bright, so infectious, that anyone who saw them couldn’t help but smile too.