Dining Situation

The officer felt that they were teasing him. How could there be such a wonderful fragrance when they haven’t cooked? “Stop fooling around and serve the food quickly. I’m not the only one. The others can smell it and will be here soon.”

The soldier was a little anxious. When the others arrive later, he might not be able to grab his share of the food.

Auntie Xu sighed. “It’s not just you, I am craving it too.”

As she spoke, she lifted the lid of the pot so that he could see for himself. “Madam did the cooking herself just now.”

The officer retracted his gaze in disappointment and his eyes lit up. “Weren’t you guys watching from the side? You must have seen all the condiments. Just try to make some for me…”

Hearing his words, the fat chef’s eyes lit up. She looked at Auntie Xu and said, “Auntie, give it a try.”

Between the two of them, Mrs. Xu’s culinary skills were relatively better. When Madam was cooking just now, she was watching carefully from the side and should have remembered most of the steps.

“Well…”

Mrs. Xu was a little hesitant. Although she could remember most of the details from watching Xiaoguo cook, she noticed that Xiaoguo was very particular about the heat when cooking. Even if she could get the seasonings right, if the heat was not right, the taste would turn out different.

“Let’s try it.”

The fat cook was craving the dishes and kept encouraging her to cook.

Seeing that Mrs. Xu was still hesitating, the soldier rolled his eyes and thought of a countermeasure. “If we don’t do it now, it will be too late. The others who have smelled the food will come over soon. When they reach here and realize that there’s no food, they are not going to be happy.”

As soon as the officer finished speaking, Mrs. Xu made up her mind. “Alright, let’s give it a try!”

The fat chef and the soldier were very happy. Mrs. Xu wiped her sweat. After hearing what he said earlier, she thought of the soldiers who were young and impetuous. If they were to kick up a fuss, she would be in trouble.

The fat chef stood happily by the side as she prepared the ingredients for Mrs. Xu. Mrs. Xu, on the other hand, was carefully preparing the seasonings.

Xiaoguo, who had just left, had no idea that a few random dishes she made would create a problem for the people in the kitchen.

She brought the food to the hall and placed it on the table. Zhuang Zhuang and Wen Xiaoyi arrived safely in the hall as well.

Xiaoguo took the dishes from them and arranged them on the table. There were four dishes and a basin of porridge.

She usually liked to cook more dishes. Although there were just three of them, she still prepared a couple more dishes.

On the table were pork strips, green pepper and pig liver, stir-fried vegetables with mushrooms, and stir-fried choy sum. They were all simple home-cooked dishes.

Xiaoguo scooped some porridge for the two children and broke off half a steamed bun for each kid. The steamed buns from the kitchen were almost as big as Zhuang Zhuang’s face.

Xiaoguo scooped a bowl of porridge and was about to drink it when she heard voices outside.

After a while, Li Shouji appeared in front of them.

“Haha, I knew it. This smell is definitely not from our kitchen.”

Jiang Danhe was a step behind, coming in a little later than Li Shouji. He walked past the latter and sat down beside Xiaoguo.

Li Shouji was unwilling to fall behind, so he quickly sat down and sniffed the food on the table.

As she did not know that they would suddenly return, she did not prepare any cutlery for them.

“Have you eaten?”

Jiang Danhe was about to answer Xiaoguo, but Li Shouji beat him to it. “No, I’m starving.”

Jiang Danhe shut his mouth and glanced at Li Shouji.

When Xiaoguo heard this, she immediately got up to get them bowls and chopsticks.

Jiang Danhe stopped her. “Let Shouji go.”

Li Shouji was just reaching out with his fingers to pick up the pork strips when he heard Jiang Danhe’s words. He whined and reluctantly got up to go to the kitchen.

As Xiaoguo could see the fatigue on the two men’s faces, she wanted to stop Li Shouji and get the cutlery herself.

“Don’t worry about him. Just let him go.”

Jiang Danhe pulled Xiaoguo back and asked her to sit down. He had been out for most of the day and had not had a single drop of water. His mouth was parched.

He looked around, then picked up the bowl in front of Xiaoguo and finished the porridge in one gulp.

“Sigh…”

“It’s my bowl…”

Xiaoguo looked at Jiang Danhe, who had finished everything in her bowl, and swallowed the words before they came out of her mouth.

Jiang Danhe put down the bowl and wiped his mouth. Then, he calmly placed it back in front of Xiaoguo. Of course, he knew that this was her bowl.

Xiaoguo scooped another bowl of porridge for herself with a calm expression on her face. ‘Forget it. Let him drink it. It’s not the first time anyway.’

Jiang Danhe secretly observed Xiaoguo’s expression. When he didn’t find any signs of dislike or rejection, he smiled to himself.

Li Shouji was thinking about the dishes on the table. He was worried about getting to the table late and missing out on eating.

He arrived at the kitchen and did not notice anything unusual around him. Instead, he hastily avoided the crowd and grabbed two sets of cutlery before taking two large steamed buns from the pot. He had to eat more later.

Just as he was about to go back, he paused for a moment. He turned around and took another steamed bun. “I have to eat more, more, more…”

When he returned to the dining hall, he immediately picked up a large steamed bun and picked up some pork strips with his chopsticks. As expected, this was the taste he had imagined.

“Mmm, yummy, yummy, yummy.”

Li Shouji was shoving down the pork strips, and green pepper pork liver into his mouth. He was eating very heartily.

Jiang Danhe took the porridge that Xiaoguo had handed to him, and with a steamed bun in his other hand, he wolfed down his food in a slightly more refined manner than Li Shouji.

He did not have time to eat anything in the morning. When he smelled the delightful fragrance of food after returning from a busy day at work, his internal organs started protesting loudly.

“This is delicious!”

Jiang Danhe had just taken a bite when his eyes lit up and he started praising Xiaoguo. He was not bragging. This was the best cooking he had ever tasted. He took one bite after another. At this moment, Jiang Danhe really hoped that time would pass quickly so that he could go home and enjoy Xiaoguo’s cooking.

“Eat more if It’s good.”

Xiaoguo watched them eat. Although they looked quite exaggerated, she was very happy.

Zhuang Zhuang and Wen Xiaoyi couldn’t help but feel a little anxious at this moment. The food that Xiaoguo had made for them was almost gone.

The two children looked at each other and nodded. They were not going to chew slowly anymore so they started to reach for the dishes excitedly.

Li Shouji dipped his steam bun in the vegetable soup and finished every last drop of it.

“Burp…”

Li Shouji swallowed the bun and let out an extremely long burp.

Jiang Danhe put down his bowl and chopsticks. The meal was indeed delicious and filling.

Xiaoguo had already finished eating. She sat at the side and watched them eat. She wondered where Jiang Danhe and Li Shouji had gone earlier. Why were they so hungry?

Zhuang Zhuang and Wen Xiaoyi had finished eating a long time ago. After all, they were kids, so they couldn’t eat much. After stuffing themselves, they left the hall to play.

Someone came to collect the dishes. Xiaoguo had the boots on her mind, so she waited for everyone to stop eating before returning to the room.

Jiang Danhe and Li Shouji hung around a bit for the food to settle in their bellies, then they headed out and got back to work.

After returning to the room, Xiaoguo lifted the blanket and revealed the half-finished shoes under it.

She came back before dinner to cover the boots with a blanket. She was feeling rather shy about making the boots, so it was better to cover them up.

Xiaoguo took out a needle and thread and continued to stitch up the sides of the shoes. Very soon, she would be able to sew up the top of the boots with the fur she had bought. The last step would be to attach the soles, then the boots will be done.

Ever since Jiang Danhe found out that Zhuang Zhuang loved to read, he had bought various genres of books for him.

Therefore, whenever Zhuang Zhuang had time, he would bring Xiaoyi to the study room. That gave Xiaoguo more time to make the boots.