Chapter 280: Toast Out Of The Oven
While toasting the toast, Da Xing happened to deliver the afternoon tea snacks. Everyone enjoyed the yam rolls while smelling the fragrance of the baked bread, it was incredibly enjoyable.
At that moment, Li Wei’s appearance broke the courtyard’s tranquility.
“Military officer, why did you come down?”
Xiang Chuan sat in front of the roaster, looking up at Li Wei standing beside her with surprised eyes.
“You should change this form of address. Just call me by my name.” Li Wei smiled wryly, “Nothing special, I made an appointment to meet with my superior tonight, so I came down to let you all know. But it seems Brother Xiang Qi and Xiao Xue sister are not home right now.”
“Brother Xiang Qi seems to have been called out by his Student Union classmates, Xiao Xue and Lin Ming went to have a meal with some peers from the operations team, so right now there are only a few of us at home.” Xiang Chuan paused, glanced at the Class Eight Grade One crowd staring over here, “…only dozens of us.”
“Dozens of people and ‘only’ don’t go together in this context.” Li Wei was amused, he turned his gaze back to the roaster, “This thing of yours… buns? Is that the name? Did you succeed in making it today?”
“It’s called bread. We succeeded once in the morning, this afternoon we wanted to try making some others, it’s still baking now. We made quite a lot this time, military… cough, Brother Li Wei, try some later too.”
Xiang Chuan barely held back from blurting out “military officer” again.
——
Xiang Chuan and Li Wei chatted happily, while the Class Eight Grade One students behind them widened their eyes one by one.
“Ouyang classmate, I remember this officer is from the Eleventh Fleet Pioneer Unit, right? Why is he at Classmate Xiang Chuan’s home?”
Class President Lu Daiqing asked quietly. If not for the gossip light flickering in his eyes, one might really think he was just concerned about a classmate.
“Xiang Chuan’s brother and this officer… get along well? So he invited him to stay here temporarily.”
Temporarily stay? The Class Eight Grade One crowd exchanged glances.
“The Pioneer Unit can stay in other fleets for at most a month, right? And during that time there’s handover and report work with government departments. It’s some distance from the port and government area here, might it be inconvenient? Also, I remember Pioneer Units are generally received directly by government departments and housed in hotels.”
Long Xiaoxian puzzledly touched his chin.
“I’ve heard some rumors about this, but I’m not sure about the authenticity.” Nancy narrowed her eyes staring at Li Wei’s back, “This Pioneer Unit doesn’t seem to plan on leaving our fleet in the short term.”
Huh? The crowd widened their eyes.
“What’s the point of keeping the Pioneer Unit here? It would make sense for a cultural exchange diplomatic mission, the Eleventh Fleet has deep research into ancient culture, and they probably have interest in the data and information Xiang Chuan provided this time.”
Ouyang Yating frowned.
“That’s why I’m saying the authenticity is uncertain. This Pioneer Unit staying in our fleet has no substantial impact, whether on the upcoming draft promotion or for Xiang Chuan. With our fleet’s government leaders whose heads are full of growing grain, vegetables, chickens, pigs, and cattle, I don’t believe they’d approve of Captain Noah’s decision to spend money like that.”
Nancy shrugged.
Everyone silently nodded at these words.
Yeah, normally the Agriculture Bureau fights over even a bit of research funding, if they’re spending money to support another fleet’s troop for nothing, they’d immediately erupt and fight. What’s more, right now Xiang Chuan’s side has new data and information to promote planting and breeding of new crops and new species, there are plenty of places needing money.
“If he’s smart and leaves after staying one or two days, that’s fine, but yesterday I saw him even buying new server equipment in his room, probably planning to stay for quite a while.”
Ainuo huffed discontentedly.
“In my view, it’s most likely the government’s stingy ones wanting to save money, so they brought the troop’s higher-ups to the Xiang Family side. With Xiang Chuan’s recipes, after one or two meals, not only won’t it feel like our government’s hospitality is lacking, but he’ll even willingly pay meal expenses himself. Hmph, what a loud abacus that is.”
Ainuo didn’t know what an abacus was, he had just heard Xiang Chuan mutter it once, she had simply explained the meaning then, and Ainuo found it amusing so he followed suit and used it.
Ouyang Yating frowned.
“How do you know this officer bought a new server in his room?”
“Because I live next door to him, I happened to see it when it was delivered to the door.”
The crowd: ……
The Xiang Family’s guest room arrangements were truly interesting.
——
But idle chat and gossip often make time pass quickly, soon the roaster’s timer alarm rang, and Liang Gong and Ainuo hurriedly stepped forward to prepare to take out the baking pan.
Xiang Chuan also quickly put on heat-resistant gloves, directing Ouyang Yating and the duo of Mandy and Fu Chengkai to help her prepare serving plates for the toast.
After removing the toast molds, Xiang Chuan opened the lid, and golden-brown bread appeared on top of the molds. The alluring fragrance made even Xiang Chuan swallow hard.
No way around it, the combination of whipped cream mixed with milk and starch was just such a scent bomb.
But her hands weren’t idle, she quickly inverted the mold onto the prepared serving plate and shook it lightly to release.
The toast mold was something she had Ainuo urgently commission someone to customize before the holiday, considering there was no greaseproof paper to line it, Xiang Chuan specifically instructed that the inside of this mold needed to use non-stick material.
So this time the release went very smoothly, even after baking in the brick stove for over thirty minutes, it released easily.
After the first mold released successfully, Xiang Chuan finally breathed a sigh of relief, then cooperated with Ouyang Yating to release all six toasts onto the serving plates.
The freshly baked toast had distinct sharp edges on all four sides. If not for the delicious milk fragrance emanating from it, it wouldn’t look like bread, more like the house bricks the crowd saw in last night’s documentary.
“How do you eat this? Just bite into it directly?”
Ainuo puzzledly picked up a piece of toast.
“If you finish a whole one by biting, you won’t need to eat dinner tonight or breakfast tomorrow. This needs to be sliced to eat.”
Xiang Chuan snatched the toast from his hand, placed it on the serving plate, and used the knife in her hand to slice it into one-centimeter-thick pieces.
After slicing, the toast revealed its snow-white interior crumb, and an even richer milk fragrance wafted out, making the Class Eight Grade One crowd gathered around Xiang Chuan take several deep breaths.
Soon, all six toasts were sliced. But Xiang Chuan didn’t rush to let everyone come eat, instead having Da Xing bring over the things prepared at noon.
Da Xing opened the box, revealing several meal boxes inside. Looking closely, they were some simply prepared ingredients, such as fried eggs, pan-fried steak, chicken chunks, etc., and also stocked with mayonnaise and… raw vegetable leaves?
What is this for? The crowd puzzledly looked at Xiang Chuan.
Xiang Chuan: What else, sandwiches of course.
My personal favorite way to eat toast is to hollow out a small square in the middle and fry an egg inside, I can eat three or four slices per meal (then weight upup)
