After Su Ye returned to the military compound, he found that Gu Xiangqian was no longer at home.
Su Ye complained in his heart, "He's injured but he still doesn't take it easy. It's obvious that he's not a man who would settle down."
Gu Xiangqian is the object of competition between Yao Chunyu and "Su Ye". Su Ye is Su Ye, and she doesn't want to get involved in it with a confused mind. She can only persuade Gu Xiangqian to wake up and divorce as soon as possible.
She took out a bottle of oil and a bag of sugar bought from the black market from her bag.
The supply of oil, a precious commodity, had been cut off by the supply and marketing cooperative, so Su Ye spent a lot of money to get some oil from the black market. One ounce of lard cost one yuan, which was too expensive. If Su Ye hadn't been greedy, he probably wouldn't have even looked at it.
As the New Year is approaching, she plans to use lard to make some cakes to reward herself.
Although life is hard, we still have to work hard to live a good life. With hope, we will be more motivated to work.
No. 1 Middle School gave out a few ounces of glutinous rice cake as part of its New Year subsidy. Su Ye ate them all before school was over, and they were still not enough to fill her stomach.
For people who are often hungry, high-energy sweets have infinite appeal. Su Ye has been thinking about it a lot these days, always thinking about eating it.
Wick cake is a kind of sweet handed down from the Qing Dynasty. It looks ordinary, but it was rated as a first-class specialty during the Xianfeng period. The cake is white and fragrant, soft in the mouth, leaving a lingering fragrance on the lips and teeth, with a cool herbal flavor.
The production process is no less complicated than repairing a radio.
Su Ye sieved the glutinous rice, soaked it in hot water, mixed it with sand and gravel to make rice flowers, and ground it into glutinous rice flour. Then she mixed water and sugar, heated it to make refined sugar, and finally pulled it into sugar threads.
Because a few drops of cassia oil were added when refining the sugar, the whole room was filled with the sweet aroma of osmanthus. Su Ye couldn't stop drooling as he stirred the sugar.
Mix the dried Chinese medicinal powder and glutinous rice flour, add refined sugar, and put them in a box and constantly pound and pat them to make the cake flour, Chinese medicinal powder and refined sugar fully combine to increase its flexibility.
In the middle of winter, Su Ye was sweating profusely while making the wick cake. Finally, when she carefully cut the cake into wick-like strands with a knife and took out a box of white wick cake, she almost cried with joy.
Su Ye tore off a piece of wick cake and ate it. It was sweet and soft, melting in her mouth, with a faint cool fragrance between her teeth. The cakes she made were no different from the ones distributed by the school! She even spent money to buy a few drops of cinnamon oil, which made the smell and taste more unique.
Su Ye made a total of one pound of wick cake. Because she ate it while making it, when the final product was ready, she weighed it and found that only half a pound was left.
Su Ye's stomach was filled with cakes and sweets. She licked the powdered sugar on her thumb and burped happily.
Su Ye started cooking dinner. Her eyes fell on the frozen ribs outside the window, and her hands took them away involuntarily.
Blanch a pound of pork ribs, stir-fry with plenty of minced garlic, use tomatoes to adjust the flavor, and add water to cover the ribs.
Su Ye ate the first meal of ribs with relish, and when he was almost done, he remembered that Gu Xiangqian hadn't eaten yet. These were his ribs, and he felt guilty eating them all, so Su Ye reluctantly left a few pieces of meat for him.
After dinner, the director of the Women's Federation came to find Su Ye. She opened the door and asked, "Wow, you all had dinner so early."
She looked around but didn't see Gu Xiangqian, so she asked, "Su Ye, is Xiangqian here? I have something to ask him."
Su Ye said casually: "He hasn't come back yet, what does the director want to see him about?"
The director of the Women's Federation saw Su Ye eating alone, and there was no sign of Gu Xiangqian in the room. How could she not understand? She frowned tightly, with a look of disapproval:
"Xiang Qian doesn't take care of his body at all. He takes advantage of his youth to waste it. It will be too late to regret when he gets older. You should remind him more often and let him take good care of himself so as not to ruin his future. He doesn't even eat. Where did he go in such a cold weather?"
Su Ye was annoyed by what she heard, but she couldn't go against the director of the Women's Federation, so she had to turn off the fire, put on her coat, and go out to find Gu Xiangqian.
Before going out, Su Ye grabbed a handful of steamed buns and ate them while walking, intending to finish a bag of steamed buns before going home. Unexpectedly, when she wandered to the training ground in the military compound, she actually saw Gu Xiangqian.
He was dressed in pine green, standing straight, motionless for a long time. The afterglow of the setting sun shone on him, and at that moment his solemn figure was so standard that it seemed as if he was filming a military propaganda film.
Su Ye's eyes were fixed on him, and she admired him for a long time. She took a deep breath and yelled, "Gu Xiangqian, why are you hanging out in such a cold weather? I told you to take good care of yourself, but you just couldn't stay here and stood in the playground like a telephone pole. Why don't you just go home and wash the vegetables and cook?"
Su Ye walked over and walked down the playground from the corner. Then he found that Gu Xiangqian was not alone. He was holding a teaching ruler and teaching a group of students. He was obviously stunned when he saw Su Ye.
The students' gossiping eyes all fell on Su Ye, and they were deeply impressed by her powerful roar just now. Everyone looked at Su Ye with astonishment, ridicule, and curiosity.
No matter how thick-skinned Su Ye was, he couldn't help but blush and asked Gu Xiangqian in a low voice: "Why are you training in the family compound?"
Gu Xiangqian replied briefly: "I happen to be free."
He glanced at the soldiers he led, and sure enough, they were all looking at the two of them with gossip. Gu Xiangqian gave orders in a calm voice: "Stand at attention, at ease, turn around!"
The tall, thin and energetic students turned back in unison, and their scorching gazes disappeared.
After all the students turned around, Gu Xiangqian glanced at Su Ye and looked at him for a long time. He finally couldn't help but reached out and wiped off the powder on the corner of Su Ye's mouth.
Gu Xiangqian asked: "What did you eat?"
Su Ye never expected this man to be so frivolous. She took two steps back, her expression changing dramatically.
Su Ye wiped his mouth and said in a sly voice, "Of course it's delicious. It's all eaten up, so there's no share for you. Gu Xiangqian, you're so bad. You actually secretly practiced in the family quarters. If I see you again next time, I'll report you to the political commissar and put you in solitary confinement for a month!"
"Since you have so much energy, why don't you take care of all the housework at home, including three meals a day, washing vegetables and cooking, sweeping and mopping the floor, and tidying up the house—"
After saying this, Su Ye turned around and quickly left the playground without even looking at Xiang Qian's expression.
With a chuckle, I don't know which student couldn't help laughing. After listening to the leader's words, it really offset the hatred of being dragged out by him for training during the vacation period.
Gu Xiangqian withdrew his hand and said calmly: "Disband!"
He returned to the family building with an expressionless face.
After returning home, Gu Xiangqian noticed a sweet smell of pastries in the house, and he immediately understood what Su Ye had eaten before.
Gu Xiangqian washed his hands and found a cabbage. He originally planned to wash the vegetables and cook, but when he opened the lid of the pot, he found that there was already a pot of pork ribs stewed inside.
The rice was cooked soft and fragrant, the spare ribs and tomatoes were stewed soft and tasty, and the aroma was fragrant. Although the fire had long been extinguished, they were still warm.
A rare smile appeared on his cold and expressionless face for years. He ate three bowls of rice with tomato stewed pork ribs and the sauce.
Such delicious food gives people the illusion that it’s already Chinese New Year.
Gu Xiangqian did not remind Su Ye not to be so wasteful, thinking that she had just come from the disaster area and suffered from famine, so it would not hurt for her to eat more good food.
…
After Su Ye returned home, he glanced through the 1960s book on mechanics that he had borrowed from the library in preparation for tomorrow's practical class.
The small notebook was filled with notes. When she looked up again, night had fallen. Su Ye was already rumbling with hunger. She took out the key to unlock the cabinet and took out a bag of wick cakes in front of Gu Xiangqian.
Gu Xiangqian, who had just finished wiping himself, took a curious look.
Su Ye put the sweet pastry in her mouth and saw Gu Xiangqian's Adam's apple roll. It was as if she had turned on the heart-piercing mode and kept stabbing needles into Gu Xiangqian's heart.
"Gu Xiangqian, what are you looking at? Take your eyes away and stop thinking about it. This thing is not enough for me to eat. I borrowed money from my colleagues to buy it. It is very precious. By the way, you have to give me two kilograms of food coupons and five yuan. I will return them later."
As Su Ye said this, she stuffed her mouth with pastries. She clearly saw the resentment in Gu Xiangqian's eyes, as if he wanted to say something but couldn't.
After Su Ye happily finished her cakes, she spoke to Gu Xiangqian from the bottom of her heart with a sad face: "Gu Xiangqian, I'm telling you the truth... We are not suitable. I am vain, lazy, have a bad temper, and I like to fight when I get angry."
She sighed, "You are too poor. I have suffered a lot from poverty. I watched my parents starve to death in front of me. I swear I will live a good life in the future."
Su Ye didn't know where she got the courage from. She actually looked down on the beautiful bachelor in the compound who earned 99 yuan for his poverty.
But isn’t this what the best looks like? They are ugly but want to be beautiful, and they never take a piss to look in the mirror to see if they are worthy enough.
"The director of the Women's Federation came to see you today. Gu Xiangqian, let's get a divorce. Go and explain things to her tomorrow and withdraw the marriage report. It will be easy for me to find another partner while I'm still young. If you delay it for a few more years, you'll be wasting my time."
Gu Xiangqian was silent for a long time and didn't say anything. He just reached out and touched Su Ye's head, "Go to sleep, don't think too much."
Gu Xiangqian pulled up the quilt, moved his body into the bed, closed his eyes and fell asleep.
Su Ye threw away his pen, tore off a piece of draft paper, held it in his hand, and squeezed it hard to vent his anger. Su Ye cleared his throat and continued, "Unless you hand over all your salary and allowances to me, I will not be able to rest assured that you will eat whatever I tell you to eat."
Gu Xiangqian nodded, "The first compartment of the left cabinet contains the salary and allowance."
Su Ye was dumbfounded and couldn't help but swear.
In her impression, this marriage was not that difficult to divorce, and Gu Xiangqian's temper was not that bad. This male protagonist might be the reincarnation of the Ninja Turtle.
The next morning, Su Ye woke up before five o'clock and pushed Gu Xiangqian after waking up.
"Gu Xiangqian, get up quickly and make breakfast. I want to eat yesterday's pork ribs. Can you exchange pork ribs for pork ribs? Take your ticket to the canteen and ask the cook for pork ribs. Remember to be careful and pick the ones with more meat. Don't let others take advantage of you."
Gu Xiangqian opened his eyes and his wife had already talked a lot. He hummed, got out of bed and washed up.
The nutritious meals that Gu Xiangqian ate when he was injured before were all prepared by the hospital. He had never had the experience of personally getting the ticket to exchange the bone marrow.
He had almost never done such a thing, but Su Ye insisted on eating it, so after Gu Xiangqian finished washing up, he took the ticket to the canteen to exchange for a pound of shank bones. The cook knew Gu Xiangqian, and when he saw him, he didn't need to remind him at all, just picked out the fattest bones and the ones with more meat for him.
"Xiang Qian, you have to eat more and take good care of yourself. You've become thinner."
Gu Xiangqian bought a pound of ready-made noodles, washed the vegetables and cut the meat, shredded the ginger and red dates, boiled the bones, and waited for the soup to boil. He did every step meticulously.
Su Ye woke up and looked at Gu Xiangqian's silhouette carefully testing the soup. She was startled. The soup on the stove was bubbling. The bones and meat were rich and the soup was delicious. Tender shreds of ginger floated on the soup. There were two steamed buns and two cups of malted milk on the table.
He kept the house clean, the table was polished to a shine, and the floor looked as if a layer of skin had been peeled off, so he was not afraid of getting dirty even if he walked barefoot.