Chapter 72

Wen Nuan had been very busy lately, wrapping dumplings and noodles for several days. The Kitchen Team was now feeling full just at the sight of them.

Old Zhong even jokingly declared that he didn’t want to eat dumplings even during the New Year.

It had been snowing for the past few days, and the dumplings and beef noodles prepared by the Kitchen Team had already been frozen.

After finishing the dumplings and noodles, they started chopping meat to make meatballs. Since there was a river nearby, they made the most fish balls.

Preparing these items took quite a bit of time. They still needed some meat and had to find a way to procure it, so Wen Nuan recalled Chen Meijiao in Beijing.

After her divorce from Zhang Zhibin due to domestic violence, Chen Meijiao had been working at a state-owned restaurant in Beijing. Wen Nuan intended to contact her to find a source for mutton.

It was too late to get mutton from Meng Province, but it would still be timely if they had transported it from Beibeen timely.

Beijing, being the capital, had a famous dish of hot pot mutton, so there should be plenty of supply.

When Chen Meijiao received Wen Nuan’s call, she was overjoyed and asked her many questions about recent events. The two of them chatted for a long time.

Chen Meijiao then said, “Sister Juxiang is also on the kitchen team? Wow, that’s really great! If I hadn’t left Northern City, the three of us could have worked together.”

Wen Nuan smiled and said, “Yes, Sister Juxiang managed to get into the Kitchen Team all on her own. She’s really enjoying her life now. But it’s nice that you’re with your parents too. How is your daughter doing?”

When it came to her child, Chen Meijiao had a lot to say. Since her daughter had just learned to walk, she was particularly mischievous. If it weren’t for her older brother and sister-in-law and her parents helping out, Chen Meijiao said she probably wouldn’t be able to manage.

Wen Nuan listened with a smile as Chen Meijiao talked. Once she finished discussing her child, Wen Nuan shifted to business and asked her, “Meijiao, where does your restaurant source the goats? Our Kitchen Team has been looking to get a few recently. Can you help me contact the suppliers?”

In that era, transactions could only be made between units. Wen Nuan planned to request five goats under the name of the Kitchen Team—not only to prepare for the comrades at the research institute but also to provide extra meals for the aircrew pilots.

When it came to work, Chen Meijiao became serious and told Wen Nuan about a unit that could help. “But usually, our manager handles the procurement. If you want, I can have our manager assist you and arrange for delivery to Northern City.”

Hearing this from Chen Meijiao, Wen Nuan breathed a sigh of relief. “If that’s possible, then I’ll trouble your manager.”

Chen Meijiao smiled and said, “Our manager is a really good person, and he’s also a veteran. He used to work in the Kitchen Team. Now that the military needs our help, we’re certainly willing to contribute. I guess we’ll have news in a day or two, and it’ll be delivered to you directly.”

“Alright, thank you for your help.”

After finishing the call with Chen Meijiao, Wen Nuan rode her bicycle back to the family compound.

Before she reached the entrance of the courtyard, she spotted Lele, bundled up in several thick layers of clothing, playing in the snow with Gu Qinghan.

It had snowed over the past few days, but it wasn’t heavy; there was only a thin layer of snow on the ground, sticking to the dirt and looking a bit dirty.

Upon seeing the child and the man, Wen Nuan rang the bell on her bicycle. Hearing the familiar sound, both Lele and Gu Qinghan turned to look at her simultaneously.

Wen Nuan stopped in front of her courtyard gate and asked Gu Qinghan, “Why are you back so early today?”

Gu Qinghan stepped forward, taking the handlebars of Wen Nuan’s bicycle. He smiled and replied, “It’s been less busy these days, so I came back early to play with Lele.”

In fact, Wen Nuan had been so busy lately that she often returned home after the end of her shift, which made her feel like Gu Qinghan was coming home early.

Lele, seeing her mother return, quickly grabbed a snowball that Gu Qinghan had made for her and ran over to Wen Nuan, saying, “Mom, look at my snowball!”

Lele proudly presented the snowball to Wen Nuan as if waiting for her praise.

Bundled up in so many layers, Lele looked like a big snowball as she bounced around, making her seem incredibly cute.

In a good mood, Wen Nuan looked at Lele’s proud expression and exaggeratedly laughed, “Wow, what a big snowball! Did our Lele make this all by herself?”

She glanced at the child and noticed that Lele’s hands were bright red from the cold, but the little girl didn’t seem to mind. With a cheerful smile, she replied, “Daddy made it.”

“Give it to Mommy.”

Wen Nuan saw Lele offering her the snowball and readily accepted it. “Okay, I’ll use it to throw snowballs. Get ready, Lele!”

Saying this, Wen Nuan threw the snowball at Lele’s arm. It wasn’t very big, nor was it packed tightly, so when it landed on the child’s clothing, it simply scattered.

Lele laughed even harder and wanted to scoop up more snow from the ground to throw back at Wen Nuan!

After putting the bicycle away, Gu Qinghan let the excited Lele hug his leg. The child looked up at him with a determined expression and called out, “Daddy, help me!”

Meanwhile, Wen Nuan playfully rolled several snowballs and walked over toward Lele. Seeing his wife and child having so much fun, Gu Qinghan couldn’t bear to interrupt them and joined in the snowball fight as well.

After the three of them played around in the yard, Lele’s face turned bright red, resembling a big red apple.

Lele still seemed reluctant to stop, and as Wen Nuan and Gu Qinghan prepared to head back inside to finish cooking, she tugged at Wen Nuan’s clothes and said, “Mom, I want to keep playing!”

Wen Nuan took out a handkerchief and wiped the sweat from Lele’s forehead. She then reached around to feel her back and said, “Let’s take a break for a moment. Look at you; your back is all sweaty. You should hurry home and take off one of your jackets.”

Lele looked a bit unhappy, but then Sister Guihua came over from next door and said, “Xiao Nuan, you’re back! I just received a bunch of dried seafood from my sister-in-law, and I brought some over for you.”

Wen Nuan looked at the large pile of dried seafood that Sister Guihua had brought and remembered that her family was from the coastal area of Shandong Province. Every month, she would receive various kinds of dried seafood sent from home, and Sister Guihua would always bring her a big haul.

If Wen Nuan didn’t accept it, Sister Guihua would get upset.

After accepting the items, Wen Nuan also offered her some frozen pears and apples. Although these frozen fruits couldn’t compare to the seafood, she felt it was only right to return the favor after receiving something.

“Guihua, you should take some frozen pears and apples home too.” Wen Nuan filled a big bag for her.

Sister Guihua didn’t stand on ceremony; she knew Wen Nuan well and happily accepted the offer.

Wen Nuan chatted with Sister Guihua for a bit. This week, she had been extremely busy, often working in the Kitchen Team until dark before returning home.

She asked about Deng Juxiang, who seemed to be working overtime alongside Wen Nuan, supposedly to help make dumplings. Wen Nuan didn’t understand why the Kitchen Team needed to make so many dumplings.

After talking for a while, Wen Nuan noticed the pile of dried seafood on the table and asked, “Guihua, is your family from the seaside? Do you usually have a lot of dried seafood at home?”

Sister Guihua nodded with a smile. “Yes, we’re from a coastal area. Every household has this stuff, and we’ve eaten so much of it that we’re tired of it. But my parents worry that I won’t get enough meat here in Northern City during the cold weather, so they send me a lot of seafood. Honestly, I don’t really like eating it.”

Remembering that Sister Guihua’s father was the village chief, Wen Nuan inquired, “Our Kitchen Team needs a large quantity of seafood. Do you think your father could help us buy some dried seafood from the villagers?”

Besides the mountains, Northern City was near a broad river called Chunhua River, where fish were usually plentiful. The cold weather allowed fishing, and ice fishing was also permitted during the winter.

Fish were easy to find, but seafood was relatively scarce. If she could bring back some dried seafood, it could be sent to the research institute.

When Sister Guihua heard this, she did not dare to give a definite answer. She simply said, “I’ll call home tomorrow and ask my father for you.”

Wen Nuan smiled. “Thank you, Sister Guihua.”

“We don’t need to be polite between us,” Sister Guihua replied with a smile. She added, “It would be great if our team could collect some seafood. The seafood over there is unwanted; every household uses it to feed chickens and geese, but they can’t feed all of that. It’s too many!”

If the team could collect it, they could help some villagers increase their income, which would be wonderful.

Wen Nuan said, “Alright, then I’ll wait for your news, Sister-in-law.”

There was no rush for the dried seafood. It was certain that it wouldn’t be collected before the heavy snowfall, so they would have to wait until the spring to see if they could negotiate a deal.

After sending off Sister Guihua, Wen Nuan was just about to return to the house when she saw Gu Qinghan standing at the door, looking at her.

“What’s wrong?”

Gu Qinghan smiled as he looked at his wife. “It’s nothing. Dinner is ready. You should go take a shower first.”

Then, Gu Qinghan took a letter out of his pocket and handed it to her. “By the way, wife, this is your letter. It was sent from your hometown.”

Today, his assistant had gone to the post office to pick up the mail and happened to see a letter for Wen Nuan, so he had taken it for him. Gu Qinghan brought it home.

The letter was from her family, and it seemed that the Wen family couldn’t sit still any longer.

“It’s a letter from home. It’s probably from my adoptive parents.” Wen Nuan guessed before even taking it. She suspected it was from Mother Wen. Given how well she had integrated into the Wen family, they surely would want to extract some benefits from her.

As expected, it was a letter from Mother Wen.

Wen Nuan slowly opened it and glanced through it. Mother Wen explained in the letter that General Lu had gone to their home to seek relatives. She revealed that Wen Nuan was not actually a child of the Wen family. Instead, she was the daughter of her biological mother, whom she had saved back in the day and who had raised her to adulthood. Mother Wen expressed her deep love for Wen Nuan, treating her as her own child, and urged Wen Nuan not to be an ungrateful person and not to forget the kindness shown to her.

At the end of the letter, Mother Wen mentioned that Wen Wenkang had recently broken up with his partner over the issue of betrothal gifts and, due to various reasons, was currently unemployed and staying at home. She asked Wen Nuan to help think of a way to assist him and inquired if Wen Nuan could write an introductory letter for the family, as they had not seen her for a long time and missed her greatly.

However, they were not planning to go to Northern City; they wanted to go to Beijing.

Wen Nuan was speechless.

It was likely that their longing was false; they were probably just after money.

Wen Nuan folded the letter and put it back into the envelope. She noticed Gu Qinghan was waiting for her to say something, so she calmly said, “They mentioned wanting to go to Beijing and asked me to ask Grandpa for an introductory letter.”

Upon hearing this, Gu Qinghan spoke up, “What do you plan to do?”

“What can I do?” Wen Nuan smiled. “Of course, I’ll ignore them. They want to go to Beijing merely to ask Grandpa for money, and I definitely can’t give it to them.”

Wen Nuan recalled how the former director had always done whatever Mother Wen asked. If they wanted money, he would give it to them; if they wanted tickets, he would give them those too, never considering his own needs.

Mother Wen still thought she could suck blood from her, which was impossible.

Gu Qinghan naturally agreed with Wen Nuan’s approach, but he was worried that Mother Wen and the others might not get what they wanted and might resort to extreme actions.

Wen Nuan was indifferent, smiling as she said, “All they’ll do is call me an ungrateful wolf. Since she’s already labeled me that, isn’t it normal for me to ignore her?”

Let them say whatever they wanted; after all, they were thousands of miles away. They couldn’t hear her, and it was better than having them come close and spout nonsense.

Gu Qinghan wrapped his arms around his wife and said, “If they make a scene in front of you, I will handle it for you.”

Wen Nuan reached out and wrapped her arms around the man’s strong waist. It seemed that this matter would likely not require their intervention; her grandfather could probably handle it.

Wen Nuan measured the man’s waist and felt a pang of sympathy for him being so thin. Not wanting to think about anyone else, she said, “I’ll make you something delicious tonight!”

Lele sat on the sofa, swinging her little feet. Upon hearing Wen Nuan mention the word “delicious,” she pitifully cried out, “Mommy, I’m hungry.”

Seeing that the child was indeed hungry, Wen Nuan pulled Gu Qinghan into the kitchen and asked him to help light the fire.

Once the dishes were ready, Lele climbed onto a chair and spotted a plate of cabbage and a plate of spicy chicken. He promptly pushed the greens over to Gu Qinghan’s side.

“Daddy eats vegetables; Lele eats meat!”

Wen Nuan couldn’t help but laugh.

Gu Qinghan found it amusing yet bewildering, but he still took some vegetable leaves and said, “Daddy doesn’t need to grow taller; you do.”

In an effort to grow taller, little Lele managed to eat a couple of pieces of cabbage. However, she later sneakily pinched some and placed them into her mother’s bowl, which was always talking with her father.

—o—o—o—

After the family finished dinner, Gu Qinghan filled two bowls with water—one for Lele to wash her face and the other for Wen Nuan to soak her feet.

Lele immediately kicked off her shoes and climbed onto the kang bed, saying, “Daddy, I want to wash my feet, too.”

Gu Qinghan glanced at her and laughed, “You’re so eager today! Wait a moment; I’ll help you wash your face first.”

Lele grasped her socks tightly and pulled with all her might, but they wouldn’t budge, making her sweat in frustration.

Gu Qinghan wiped Lele’s face and then helped her pull off the socks. The little girl sighed relief, then crawled to the edge of the kang bed, stretching her little feet out.

“I want to wash my feet; I want to be a fragrant baby.”

Just as Wen Nuan sat down on the kang bed, she heard Lele say this and smiled as she asked her: “Who taught you to say that?”

Lele, holding onto Wen Nuan’s arm, stood up and hugged her neck, grinning as she said, “Daddy said you are the fragrant mommy.”

“So Lele wants to be a fragrant baby, too.”

Wen Nuan hugged Lele and kissed her cheeks several times.

Gu Qinghan smiled as he watched the two of them, then placed the enamel basin by the edge of the kang.

—o—o—o—

A couple of days later, Wen Nuan received a phone call from Chen Meijiao, informing her that five goats had already been sent to the Northern City military unit and that she should be ready to assist in receiving them.

Sister Guihua also inquired about the results, and her father was willing to help purchase the villagers’ dried seafood. However, it wouldn’t be delivered until next spring.

Wen Nuan received two pieces of good news in a row. After returning to the kitchen, she shared the news with everyone: “When the time comes, we can process the goats, and then we can send this batch of supplies over.”

“That’s great! Does that mean I can take a break, too?”

“I’m just concerned about how many goats there are. Is there any for us?”

Quartermaster Luo had been working overtime with everyone for the past few days. Although the supplies were mostly prepared, they still needed to be counted, and he had a lot on his plate.

However, the hard work everyone had put in was evident, so he reassured them, “Don’t worry, everyone has worked hard this time. General Xu said he would treat us well.”

Upon hearing Quartermaster Luo’s words, Wen Nuan said, “I’ll make some goat offal soup for everyone and also hotpot some lamb. You’ve all worked hard these past two weeks.”

Due to the supply preparations, they had occupied their off-duty hours, and during this time, everyone was sleep-deprived and genuinely exhausted.

Everyone looked at the falling snow outside and asked with smiles, “When will those goats arrive? I can’t wait!”

Wen Nuan replied, “It should be soon. It only takes a few hours to get here from Beijing.”

Sure enough, that afternoon, someone delivered the goats. Thanks to a special approval order, the goats were brought directly to the kitchen in the Kitchen Team’s area.

Wen Nuan said, “Let’s slaughter three and send them over; we’ll keep the other two for our pilots.”

Having gained experience from the previous National Day when they slaughtered sheep, the Kitchen Team quickly processed the goats.

Wen Nuan was in charge of slicing the lamb into thin slices for the hotpot, which is similar to the kind served in the future. She also prepared some lamb bones and ribs, asking the stronger comrades to help chop them up.

They would use their seasoning packets to make broth, allowing them to enjoy a warm lamb hotpot during the cold winter.

After slicing several boxes of lamb, Wen Nuan began making lamb offal soup. In addition to the offal, she chopped up some lamb ribs, carrots, and a few water chestnuts, adding pepper for extra flavor. This made the soup even more delicious and warming.

While Wen Nuan was cooking the lamb offal soup, Xiao Zhu prepared some large flatbreads to serve as the base for their meat sandwiches. They could later stuff them with vegetables and meat, creating a delicious meat sandwich.

The lamb soup simmered to a milky white color; this time, the lamb head was rich yet not greasy. Thanks to Wen Nuan’s special spices, there was no trace of the usual lamb odor. A few carrots were sprinkled throughout, and the entire cafeteria was filled with a strong, fragrant aroma.

It was mealtime at the Flight Crew Kitchen Team, and as everyone walked into the cafeteria, they immediately caught a whiff of the robust scent of the lamb offal soup.

With the outside being so cold, everyone craved a hot soup to warm themselves up. They began lining up to get their meals, eager to sip a steaming bowl of soup.

The piping hot lamb offal soup was topped with a few scallions, and its rich texture mixed with the flatbread created a delightful combination. The unique fragrance was so enticing that it nearly made their tongues curl with pleasure; they felt like they could drink five or six bowls without a second thought.

The delicious aroma drew people from the other dining hall and flocked to the Flight Crew Kitchen Team. Upon seeing the Flight Crew enjoying their soup, they couldn’t help but show envious expressions.

“I really envy those eating at the Flight Crew Kitchen Team! I want to eat beef, too!”

“I want that meat sandwich…”

“I’m not picky; I just want to eat at the Flight Crew Kitchen Team!”

Everyone knew that Wen Nuan was a great cook, and many wanted to try her food. However, not everyone was a pilot. Now that some people have learned that Wen Nuan is General Lu’s granddaughter, they have become even more excited.

She was General Lu’s granddaughter! If they had known earlier, they would have joined the Kitchen Team just to eat her delicious meals and work alongside General Lu’s granddaughter.

If they could establish connections, that would be a stroke of luck.

Seeing everyone gathering around, Wen Nuan had initially thought about sharing some food with the other cafeteria but realized that the quantity was limited, so she decided against it.

Wen Nuan planned to take some for Sister Juxiang and Yang Xiaomei, but just then, she spotted Li Daxiang coming over to eat and waved at him.

“Daxiang, come over here.”

When Wen Nuan called him, Li Daxiang hurried over and asked, “Sister-in-law, what do you need?”

Wen Nuan smiled and said, “I saved some soup for Qinglan; could you help me take it to her?”

Without a second thought, Li Daxiang replied, “Of course!”