When Liu Minghua and Shen Bairong heard someone coming to look for them, they ran out almost at the same time.
As he walked, he muttered to his assistant: "That's Gu Qinghan, the test pilot of our new fighter jet. Why don't you invite him in?"
The assistant said cautiously, "There weren't many people coming here, and suddenly a big car came and the people outside stopped it and didn't let it in."
Liu Minghua knew the institute's rules, and he said this because he was anxious, "Okay, I'll go out and get the person in now."
Then he turned back to look at his assistant and said, "Xiao Fang, quickly help Mr. Zhao cook some broth and send it over. Don't delay any longer."
When the assistant heard this, he stopped in his tracks. Although he was not very good at cooking, he had to take over as Mr. Zhao was not feeling well.
"I understand, Chief Engineer Liu. I'll get busy now."
Liu Minghua was in no mood to continue talking to him, and his pace quickened.
They have been in this institute for so many years, and no one has ever come to them suddenly. If someone wants to come here, they have to report it in advance, and the institute will also receive a notice in advance. Usually, the guards outside will just look at the pass and let them in.
Now when Liu Minghua suddenly heard Gu Qinghan coming, the first thing he thought of was whether something had happened to the new fighter jet
But if there was a problem with the fighter jet, why wasn't he notified directly
Liu Minghua thought again that the phone at the research institute often had no signal. This matter must be very urgent, so Gu Qinghan suddenly came to him.
Liu Minghua walked towards the gate of the institute with mixed and anxious feelings. It was called a gate, but in fact it was just a long path. At the end of the path, there was an adobe house, and people were arranged to take turns to guard it.
The research institute was disguised as a small village, and it looked no different from a small village from the outside. So after coming out of Old Man Zhao's residence, Liu Minghua saw a very ordinary truck parked at the intersection of the village. It was snowing at the moment, and the truck's hood was bulging high, already covered with white snow.
It was obvious that this car was specially used by the army. It seemed that Gu Qinghan really had come from the Air Force Base in North City.
The research institute is located at the foot of the mountains. It is snowing now, and the temperature is even lower. The ice and snow scraping on the face feel like knives.
Liu Minghua tried several times to ask to be let in, but he was frozen before he could open his mouth.
He could only walk towards the wind and snow.
Liu Minghua glanced at his wife beside him, and then said to Shen Bairong: "Xiao Rong, the weather is cold, you go back inside and wait, I will go out and bring people in."
Like Liu Minghua, Shen Bairong was also worried that there might be something wrong with the new fighter jet. Now that she had already walked out, she had no intention of going back.
She said, "Let's go check it out. I don't know if something has happened. I'm panicking."
Liu Minghua had no choice but to quicken his pace. Before he reached the village intersection, a tall and upright figure got out of the car.
The first thing that came down was a pair of feet. There was some yellow mud on the shoes. He didn't look like the usual serious Gu Qinghan. It seemed that he had hurried here. Moreover, he was not wearing a military uniform. He looked like an ordinary person.
The only difference is that Gu Qinghan has the spirit of a soldier at first glance, and his sharp eyes look very different, it seems that he has also done a little disguise when coming from the army.
Liu Minghua pulled Shen Bairong and jogged for a while, then slowed down when they were almost at the intersection.
When they saw Gu Qinghan's handsome face clearly, they shouted, "Comrade Gu!"
At the same time, Gu Qinghan handed the pass to the comrade guarding the village entrance, and then greeted Liu Minghua and Shen Bairong and his wife: "Comrade Liu, Comrade Shen."
Liu Minghua panted and asked immediately: "Why are you here? Is there something wrong with Factory 112?"
Gu Qinghan looked at the two people's anxious red cheeks, knowing that they had misunderstood, and explained: "Factory 112 is very good, I came here this time to deliver supplies to the research institute."
Gu Qinghan looked at the big truck behind him and said, "These are the ones at the back. Where should we store them?"
The two of them were stunned for a moment, looking at the truck of things behind Gu Qinghan, a little out of state, looking at Gu Qinghan and asking: "What's going on?"
Seeing that the two seemed to be unaware of this, Gu Qinghan patiently said to them, "Commander Lu asked our Beicheng troops to take over your material transportation work. I came here this time to deliver materials to the research institute."
When Liu Minghua and Shen Bairong heard what Gu Qinghan said, they breathed a sigh of relief and at the same time, they were a little happy. "We were just worrying about when the supplies would arrive, but we didn't expect that you would be the one to deliver them."
No wonder there is a high bulge on the back of the truck, it seems to be full of supplies.
Gu Qinghan did not drive the army truck, probably to avoid attracting other people's attention and to protect his whereabouts from being leaked.
On second thought, it would be most appropriate to let Gu Qinghan deliver the plane. He is a test pilot and knows the data of the new fighter jet better than anyone else. If someone else were suddenly replaced, I would not be able to let him go.
Liu Minghua saw that the snow was getting heavier, so he said, "The research institute is inside, just drive the car in."
Gu Qinghan took a look at the adobe houses inside. From this point on, it was indeed no different from an ordinary village.
As he was coming here, he was afraid that he had found the wrong place. After all, there were few people living nearby and not many villages. This road was mostly mountainous and there was not even a decent road. If it weren't for the good performance of this truck, it probably wouldn't have been able to drive in.
Shen Bairong pointed to the only small road and said, "The road is a bit narrow, you should drive carefully."
Gu Qinghan looked at the thin clothes of the two men, and then said, "Comrade Liu, Comrade Shen, please get in the car and we will go in together."
The monkey had already gotten off the car. When he saw the two experts, he greeted them politely and then asked them to get in the car.
The two were still a little embarrassed, but Gu Qinghan insisted that they get in the car, so they were no longer polite.
Liu Minghua held Shen Bairong's arm and said, "Come on, Comrade Shen, you go up first."
"Okay, I'll pull you along, too."
*
The rumbling sound of the truck attracted the attention of many people in the institute. Perhaps because the noise was a little strange, everyone came out of the house and wanted to see what was going on.
Who knew that as soon as I walked out, I saw Shen Bairong and Liu Minghua getting out of the car, with relaxed expressions and smiles on their faces, which didn't look like a bad thing.
It was not until Gu Qinghan got off the truck that they showed some expression.
They knew Gu Qinghan because his selection as a test pilot was discussed by half of the research institute, and they had also read some of his basic information.
Liu Minghua was afraid that the colleagues in the institute would misunderstand him, so he took the lead in introducing them: "Comrades, this is Deputy Commander Gu from our Beicheng Air Force Base. He is here to deliver supplies to us."
Because of Old Man Zhao's sudden fainting, everyone was worrying about when the new batch of supplies would be delivered. It's not that they have reached the point where they can't even open the pot, but they have been eating steamed corn bread and sauerkraut for a long time, and there are only four or five cabbages left. No one knows how long they can hold on.
Isn’t this just in time
Gu Qinghan nodded to the colleagues at the institute as a greeting, and then asked, "Where is the vegetable cellar? There are a lot of vegetables in it. We have to put them in the cellar quickly to avoid freezing."
A comrade pointed to a room in the middle and said, "You can put them all in that room. There is a vegetable cellar in it."
"Deputy Captain Gu, we'll be here. You can take a rest first."
"Everyone come out to help, supplies are coming!"
Hearing that supplies had arrived, everyone came over to help. Liu Minghua and Gu Qinghan were responsible for untying the tent on the truck bed, and then the full truck of things was neatly displayed in front of everyone.
They had received supplies countless times before, but never as much as this time, let alone so neatly arranged.
Gu Qinghan took out a list, handed it to Shen Bairong, and said, "Comrade Shen, you will be responsible for helping to count, and we men will be responsible for moving things."
Shen Bairong looked at the long list and nodded without being surprised: "Okay."
There are not many people in the research institute, but few of them can do physical work. Gu Qinghan saw several old seniors who were so thin that it made people feel distressed coming over to help, so he asked them to go back to the house and wait.
Everyone was stunned when they saw the bags of apples and pears, the boxes of dumplings that had already been packed for them, and the frozen noodles.
These are all semi-finished products. They can be cooked into a meal by just boiling a pot of water, and they don’t even have to do anything. How could this be
In addition, what shocked them even more was that the pigs and sheep had been chopped and sliced for them.
When Shen Bairong saw the seasoning packet on the list, she couldn't help but raise her brows. Ever since she had eaten this thing at Factory 112, she had been thinking about it all the time. Even cooking noodles with it would be extremely delicious.
She was thinking of shamelessly asking Wen Nuan for some, but she didn't expect that she had prepared nearly two hundred packets of seasoning for them, which seemed to be enough for many days.
Shen Bairong said to Comrade Gao Zhenming from the Institute: "These seasoning packets can be used directly as hot pot soup base. Add some meatballs in it and it will be very fragrant."
Gao Zhenming looked at the thin slices of mutton and felt hungry. He said excitedly, "We can have shabu-shabu mutton now. God knows I haven't had it for two years."
Shen Bairong smiled and said, "They even helped us slice the meat and wrap the dumplings. This saved us a lot of effort."
Liu Minghua, who was standing by, saw the batches of supplies being unloaded and immediately said, "Hurry up and ask Xiao Fang to cook some mutton soup for Mr. Zhao. It's so cold, and drinking a bowl or two of hot soup will make you feel better."
Old Man Zhao came out at some point and heard their conversation and said, "Stop messing around. It's time for dinner anyway. Let's cook and eat together."
Liu Minghua looked at Gu Qinghan, who was sweating profusely from moving supplies, and said, "Okay, how about we eat hot pot? Let me tell you, these meatballs are delicious as hot pot ingredients. Don't even think about snatching them from me!"
Liu Minghua had eaten the meatballs made by Wen Nuan in Shenyang before, but he never thought that they were also included in the supplies this time!
And the total weight of several kinds of meatballs is at least more than 200 kilograms. Fortunately, there is snow all year round in the winter here, so we can just put them in the yard and freeze them and eat them slowly.
Then there was some rice, five more bags than before, and some dried seafood. Gu Qinghan had originally intended to give them to Liu Minghua and his wife, as the quantity was not large, but neither of them had time to cook, so they just piled them in the warehouse of the institute.
This batch of supplies is truly rich and abundant.
This winter, their research institute doesn't have to worry about running out of food.
After unloading most of the items, Shen Bairong asked Gu Qinghan, who was sweating but still expressionless, "These supplies were prepared by Comrade Wen Nuan, right?"
Gu Qinghan nodded without denying: "Well, she heard that the comrades in the institute were busy, so she suggested that most of the materials be made into semi-finished products like this, so that you can be more convenient."
Gu Qinghan knew that they often had to stay up late, sometimes forgetting to eat and sleep. After finishing their work, they felt hungry but were too lazy to cook anything, so they just made a lot of steamed buns or wowotou and ate them at night.
Now that they have these ready-made dumplings and frozen noodles, they no longer have to worry about the trouble of making and rolling out the dough, and can just eat anything.
Shen Bairong actually thought that Wen Nuan was so considerate, but she didn't expect that she would even help her deal with so much meat.
Shen Bairong felt warm in her heart, and said to Gu Qinghan: "Thank Comrade Wen Nuan for me. She has helped our institute a lot."
Gu Qinghan thought of his wife and smiled faintly, "Okay, I'll tell her."
*
After everyone worked together to pack up the supplies, Liu Minghua said to Gu Qinghan: "Deputy Captain Gu, you've worked hard all the way. It's snowing now anyway, and it gets dark late, why don't you stay in our institute tonight."
It's a rare opportunity to come here, and in addition to catching up with old friends, I also plan to discuss the change plan.
Moreover, it was probably not easy for Gu Qinghan to come here. Although North City was not far from the institute, in order not to expose the address of the institute, they would not take the conventional route. In the past, the supply trucks coming from Beijing had to take a long detour before they could drive in.
So no matter what, I had to keep Gu Qinghan to have dinner before leaving.
Gu Qinghan looked at the dark sky and said, "That's fine, but I'll go back to North City after dinner."
Liu Minghua: "Are you so anxious?"
Gu Qinghan said, "There is something else going on in the army, I have to rush back to deal with it."
Gu Qinghan was concerned about the things happening in the army. The longer the attack on the supply truck was delayed, the harder it would be to collect evidence, so he had to rush back to the army tonight no matter what.
He would never let Li Daxiang suffer this in vain.
After hearing what Gu Qinghan said, Liu Minghua didn't intend to keep him, so he said, "Okay, I'll ask Xiaofang to prepare dinner quickly, and you can leave after dinner."
Gu Qinghan looked at the other party, and then said: "If you need any supplies in the future, you can just call me and we will arrange it for you."
Liu Minghua smiled and said, "This batch of supplies is so large that it is enough for our institute to eat for two or three months. I guess we won't have to bother you until the Chinese New Year."
"By the way, since you're not staying here overnight, I'll have someone help you settle the payment for this batch of supplies."
Gu Qinghan looked over. Liu Minghua knew that he didn't know the mode of material transportation yet, so he said, "It's like this. Although the materials are approved by the General Air Force Academy, the handover of materials is still public to public."
In fact, their research institute is not short of money. On the contrary, their salaries are good and they are willing to spend some money to improve the food. Unfortunately, they do not have the conditions, so they have not solved the problem of food.
It's good that the supplies are now taken over by the North City troops. At least the distance is closer, and it's handled by Wen Nuan, so he is very relieved.
We can still stockpile a lot of supplies in the winter, but in the summer Gu Qinghan will probably have to make more trips, so we must handle the issue of money and goods well and not take advantage of others for nothing.
After hearing what Liu Minghua said, Gu Qinghan said, "Just have someone calculate it and give it to me."
Liu Minghua looked at him in surprise: "Are you going to check the accounts?"
Gu Qinghan smiled and said, "No need. Don't you trust your calculations?"
Everyone in this institute is an expert in mathematics and physics. When it comes to arithmetic, their brains work faster than anyone else.
Liu Minghua was a little proud of what Gu Qinghan said and smiled: "Okay, then I'll let Xiao Fang calculate the number and give it to you directly later."
While they were talking, Xiao Fang and Gao Zhenming had already prepared the hot pot soup.
"This is so easy. I just put the seasoning packets into the water and it becomes a soup base."
"Who wants spicy food? Come here!"
I didn't expect there was soup base oil, a square-shaped thing. After putting it into hot water, the whole pot of soup becomes a chili oil hot pot soup base. It is so convenient that it makes people want to eat hot pot every day.
Xiao Fang came over with a large plate of meatballs and asked Gu Qinghan: "Deputy Captain Gu, are these glutinous rice balls? Why are they this color?"
Gu Qinghan looked at the meatballs that had been pounded countless times with a mallet and said, "These are pork meatballs, mushroom meatballs, and fish balls. Throw them directly into the hot pot soup and they'll be ready to eat in a few minutes."
Xiao Fang looked at the meatballs that were slightly bigger than rice dumplings but smaller than ping-pong balls and said, "Ah? They are meatballs? How can meat be made like this? It's amazing!"
Gu Qinghan smiled and said, "Yes, this is what my wife came up with."
Xiao Fang: "I've heard Chief Engineer Liu and Engineer Shen say that Comrade Wen is good at cooking. It seems to be true. I want to go over and learn how to cook from Comrade Wen Nuan, so that the seniors in our institute can eat better."
Shen Bairong recalled the delicious food that Wen Nuan had made when she was in the North City Army, and she hit Xiao Fang hard: "It's not that easy. It will probably take you a while to learn how to make a braised pork knuckle."
Shen Bairong talked about the delicious food she had eaten in the North City Army before, and they were all drooling after hearing it.
Someone said: "It would be great if we could invite Comrade Wen Nuan to be our chef!"
"Hey, we can't push our luck. Comrade Wen Nuan has prepared our supplies so well, it's good enough. Do you still want to bring people over?"
"That's right. I said we should send two people over to learn cooking skills."
"Okay, okay, it's good now. We're not really short of people who can cook. We're just too lazy to cook. It's good like this now."
Everyone was talking and laughing, and looked at Gu Qinghan, but he was eating quietly without saying a word.
Gu Qinghan naturally heard what they said, but it was inappropriate for him to say anything at this time, so he could only smile and pass it off.
The comrades in the institute are all people who have left their hometowns. Many of them have not even contacted their families for several years, and have been immersed in studying aerospace projects in these deep mountains.
They are all heroes who sacrifice their own families for the sake of the greater good and deserve better support.
However, hearing that everyone liked his wife so much, Gu Qinghan secretly felt proud for some reason.
After dinner, Gu Qinghan gave Shen Bairong two jars of preserves made by Wen Nuan: "Comrade Shen, this is what Wen Nuan made for you, please eat it yourself."
Because there were only two jars of the candied fruit, which was not a lot, Wen Nuan told him to just give them to Shen Bairong.
Shen Bairong took the two jars of candied fruit, feeling very touched. She didn't expect Wen Nuan to still be thinking about her. "I didn't expect Comrade Wen Nuan to still remember that I like to eat candied fruit. Thank her for me."
Shen Bairong also wanted to bring something to Wen Nuan, but the research institute was really short of everything, so she could only keep in mind this kindness and give her something in return when she had the chance in the future.
Gu Qinghan glanced around, thought of their child, and asked again: "By the way, where is Hua Qing? Is he not here now?"
Speaking of children, Shen Bairong withdrew her thoughts and said, "Old Liu and I are both busy and can't take care of the child. Let's just send him to Beijing and let Old Liu's brother Mingfei help take care of him."
Gu Qinghan remembered Liu Mingfei. When they came to Beicheng, he was the only one who brought Liu Huaqing to the north.
Shen Bairong smiled and said, "It would be good to let the child go to Beijing. It's the capital, much better than staying here."
"By the way, I heard that Lao Liu is going to test fly with you, right?"
Speaking of the test flight, Gu Qinghan didn't want to hide it, so he said: "Comrade Liu said so before, but the aviation doctor examined him and he is not suitable for flying."
Shen Bairong naturally didn't want her husband to fly with her, but the new fighter plane still had many problems to be solved. If she didn't go on a few trips with him, she probably wouldn't be able to find the problem.
Shen Bairong nodded: "Okay, I will supervise him to get his body in good condition, and try to fly with you a few times in the spring."
Liu Minghua originally planned to fly without telling his wife, but he was discovered like this.
So he decided not to go over there and continued to drink his mutton soup.
After chatting for a while, Gu Qinghan and Monkey prepared to leave.
Xiao Fang has already settled the bill for the supplies. Since the institute does not have that much cash, he negotiated with the headquarters to transfer the money a week later.
Gu Qinghan planned to let the kitchen team contact Xiao Fang, so he left his contact information and asked them to contact him when the time came.
Liu Minghua and Shen Bairong went out to see them off, and then said to Gu Qinghan: "Comrade Gu, let me say hello to Comrade Wen Nuan."
"Okay, please go back, it's cold at night."
"Okay, have a nice trip."
*
North city.
After Wen Nuan finished her phone call with Commander Lu, she went back to the kitchen.
She looked at the house where Li Daxiang lived last night. In addition to the wheel marks of the supply truck, there were many footprints around it. Most of these footprints were left by their kitchen team and Gu Qinghan and others when they were moving supplies last night.
The strangest thing is that there are some footprints by the window. I thought of what my grandfather said. If the supply truck was tampered with by someone, that person must have knocked Li Daxiang unconscious first.
It seems that the man might have used something to seal the window, leaving the house without ventilation, and waited until Li Daxiang passed out before attacking the supply truck.
I thought of Ding Guoli whom I saw outside the hospital, and the mud prints on his shoes, which were the same color as the ones outside their kitchen.
Although Gu Qinghan knew that someone had tampered with the supply truck, he did not immediately arrest the person. I guess he already knew that the other party's methods were very low, so he was not in a hurry to arrest the person, but sent the supplies to the research institute first.
Commander Lu just said that he didn't intend to intervene in this matter. He said that if Gu Qinghan couldn't even handle this problem, then he would be in vain as a regimental-level cadre.
Her grandfather had not intended to tell her about this, after all, it was a military matter, but thinking that she was also in charge of this batch of supplies, he revealed the news to her.
Wen Nuan was relieved when she heard what her grandfather said. This meant that Qing Han really knew what had happened.
I just haven't had time to deal with it yet.
Later, Commander Lu said to her, "I have confidence in both of you. You can wait until he comes back to deal with this matter, but if you have evidence, you can also directly arrest the person."
So after visiting the kitchen, Wen Nuan went to the commander's office.
Commander Xu had just finished a phone call when he heard a knock on the door. Unexpectedly, it was Wen Nuan.
Commander Xu looked at her and said, "Comrade Wen Nuan, what can I do for you?"
Wen Nuan met Commander Xu's sharp eyes and said directly without beating around the bush: "Commander Xu, I suspect someone is trying to murder our military comrades. I request that the troops investigate Li Daxiang's carbon monoxide incident."