Chapter 109: Field Training Wild Vegetable Sweep
After eating and drinking their fill, everyone slept especially soundly that night, except Xiang Chuan had to guard Geegle strictly to prevent anyone from seeing it, so she had to turn her back to her three roommates late at night, adjust the light screen’s brightness to the lowest, and tossed and turned until nearly two o’clock before falling asleep.
Nancy, who got up in the middle of the night to drink water, saw the faint light from Xiang Chuan’s side and thought their busy person would probably sleep in in the morning.
In the end, when they got up in the morning, Xiang Chuan wasn’t even in the tent, startling the three into searching everywhere, but after sending a message to ask, they learned Xiang Chuan was just preparing breakfast in the camp—it was a false alarm. However, she told the three to hurry and wash up to come help.
[I don’t have the strength to make steamed buns for thirty-five people; my hands and waist would break.]
Steamed Buns!
Seeing these two words, the three in the tent suddenly perked up.
It wasn’t that they were craving steamed buns; these past few days, mooching off Xiang Chuan’s meal box had spared them the “agony of seeing but not eating” that other classmates suffered. Another reason was naturally to observe the process of making steamed buns; according to Xiang Chuan, the yeast used for making buns and steamed buns also contained fungi.
Outside the tent, Xiang Chuan was struggling with the flour for mixing dough because there wasn’t enough kitchenware, so it had to be placed in the pot, and when the three walked out of the tent, they saw Xiang Chuan practically diving into the largest pot, leaving the three embarrassed: what was their club president doing again?
Five minutes later, the three, who were half-understanding and half-confused, also joined the dough-mixing army. Although they still didn’t understand the method for buns after hearing Xiang Chuan’s process, Xiang Chuan rubbed her temples: forget it, don’t worry about the principles for now, just come mix the dough quickly—at least get the dough ready before everyone wakes up.
Fortunately, the classmates from Class Eight’s Sports Club also got up very early. When they left the tent to prepare for warm-up exercises, they saw Xiang Chuan and the others struggling with the flour, and everyone felt too embarrassed to let just the four of them do all the work, so they joined in too.
Originally, Xiang Chuan thought they wouldn’t be able to start steaming until everyone was up, but unexpectedly, more and more people came to help mix the dough. By the time the class president walked out of the tent to take out the amplification equipment and play the wake-up music, the first batch of steamed buns was already done steaming.
When they opened the pot lid and took out the steamed buns piled on the perforated serving plate, everyone widened their eyes: that sticky, soft dough had really turned into steamed buns after steaming! Some impatient Sports Club classmates grabbed them directly with their hands and got scalded nearly dropping them, but luckily Chou Manman quickly used an empty meal box to catch the steamed bun that was tossed into the air.
However, it was meals for thirty-five people after all; even subtracting the five on Xiang Chuan’s side, it still required portions for thirty, and calculating two steamed buns per person meant at least sixty needed to be prepared. In the end, they didn’t finish steaming the last batch until everyone had finished washing up and gotten up.
Although Xiang Chuan felt it was a bit weird to gnaw on steamed buns without any side dishes in the end, seeing the classmates happily eating one in each hand, she couldn’t say anything. Because if she really said it out loud, these guys might actually set down their steamed buns and make her prepare two side dishes first before they ate, and then would the morning work get done?
“So, I’ll leave these to all of you.”
After breakfast, Xiang Chuan directly group-sent the wild vegetable chart she had stayed up late making the night before to the Patrol Group classmates. Everyone curiously flipped through the chart, looking at the various unfamiliar or familiar plants on it, with murmurs like “This thing is actually edible?” rising one after another.
“When picking, it’s best to keep the same kind of wild vegetables together and not mix multiple kinds, otherwise when you come back at noon, we’ll have to spend an hour sorting wild vegetables first before making lunch.” Xiang Chuan swiped the light screen and tapped a few pictures. “There are a few wild vegetables to watch out for. One is Chinese toon—pick the ones growing on trees that smell good; the ones growing low to the ground that smell stinky and look a lot like Chinese toon can’t be eaten. If you pick the wrong ones, the whole batch of Chinese toon will probably get tainted and inedible. Another is shepherd’s purse; it’s noted on the chart too—this one grows in places with fewer weeds. I need a larger quantity of this one, so pick as much as you can… Yawn…”
As she spoke, Xiang Chuan yawned. No helping it; she finished the chart past two, didn’t actually fall asleep until three, got up at five-thirty this morning, and nearly fell asleep on the spot several times during breakfast. If she didn’t need to hand this document to the Patrol Group and explain the precautions, she would have already crawled back into the tent to catch up on sleep by now.
“I’ve written the other precautions in the chart. Our area here is pretty large, so we should be able to find more… Right, if you see any chickens along the way, catch some back too. Last night’s chicken soup from four chickens wasn’t enough to go around; we still need to increase the amount… Yawn…”
Seeing Xiang Chuan was really exhausted, the class president stepped forward in time: “Classmate Xiang Chuan, thanks for your hard work; you go rest first. Mandy, on the patrol route, please look for more wild vegetables. If there’s any special situation, just contact me directly via emergency comms.”
“Got it, Xiang Chuan, you go rest quickly. If there’s anything, we’ll have Lu Daiqing’s side come find you.” Mandy smiled and patted Xiang Chuan’s shoulder, jostling her brain a bit.
She really couldn’t hold on anymore. Before yawning a third time, Xiang Chuan said goodbye to everyone and staggered toward her own tent. She was too lazy to care about what they were discussing behind her; right now, she just wanted to sleep! Drawn by the not-very-warm but definitely comfortable bedding, Xiang Chuan quickly took off her shoes and coat, burrowed under the covers, and fell asleep in no time.
Fu Chengkai was now also gathering the Stalwart Group classmates to assign the morning tasks: simply put, fishing and processing raw fish. If the quantity was insufficient, then use the equation of one chicken = two fish to grab chickens from the chicken coop and process the chicken like yesterday.
How can they eat chicken so quickly! Chicken should be saved for dinner! The Stalwart Group classmates shouted in their hearts, so they all rolled up their sleeves full of fighting spirit and rushed to the riverside. The captives from the two classes at the riverside saw these people running over again and were used to it by now, no longer making a big fuss.
“So what should we do?”
Chou Manman, Nancy, and the three from A Bite of China Club were now gathered in front of Xiang Chuan’s four-person tent, furrowing their brows in discussion about the next steps.
“In the end, Xiang Chuan didn’t give any arrangements today either… How about we just slack off.” As soon as Ainuo proposed it, they immediately drew condemning looks from the others.
“We can’t just wake up the club president… She’s already asleep.” Liang Gong craned his neck to look into the tent, but Ouyang Yating and Nancy blocked him on grounds of not peeking, and pulled down the tent flap.
“Hmm… How about we go pick mushrooms!” Chou Manman had a flash of inspiration. “Xiang Chuan said last night ‘These shiitake mushrooms aren’t enough,’ so she’ll probably go looking for shiitake mushrooms after waking up too. We might as well go ourselves. Liang Gong and I picked quite a few yesterday and know what shiitake mushrooms look like.”
