Chapter 72: Evening Of The Eve Of Field Training
Since Xiang Chuan set a bad example, the topic during the subsequent visit was basically led astray. While everyone was walking in the corridor, they all surrounded Xiang Chuan asking which animals could be made into food. Instructor Ai Yalin listened with her heart pounding in fear and quickened her pace, wanting to hurry this group of first-year high school students who didn’t seem normal through the corridor as quickly as possible.
Xiang Chuan originally wanted to say things like quail and rabbit, which were relatively common in the 21st century but had already been removed from the ingredient list in the modern era, but then she thought that to make these things taste good, she didn’t have the spices, ginger and scallions, and such now. If they listened to her and got curious, and really went hunting rabbits, birds, and such, and came back, but she couldn’t make convincing flavors, then…
Xiang Chuan even imagined a miserable scene of herself being thrown into prison and then bailed out by Father spending money.
For the sake of her peaceful lie-flat life in the second half of her life, she could only say: “I was just asking. I’ve only seen cooking methods for other animals in some ancient records, and I haven’t found the recipes yet.”
What the—
Class Eight students let out disappointed boos. Instructor Ai Yalin, walking at the front of the group, finally relaxed her little heart that had been suspended for a long time, but when she heard the students persistently reminding the girl in the center of the crowd to share any animal food recipes she found and the other party agreed so quickly, her heart started pounding again.
Should she talk to Officer A Dan about this later? Otherwise, she was really afraid some students couldn’t resist and go after the animals around the training base.
When dusk fell, the training base headquarters visit, which was very novel for Xiang Chuan and most students but felt like years dragging on for Instructor Ai Yalin, temporarily came to an end.
Finally, liberation time arrived, and Instructor Ai Yalin’s tone became much lighter: “Today’s visit is officially over. Next is dinner time. The base headquarters canteen has prepared base-specialty foods for everyone. If you want to go back to the dormitory and eat on your own, it’s recommended to let the navigation robot guide you on the way back. The base is quite large, and wandering around randomly can easily get you lost. So, those who want to go to the canteen, follow me—”
However, very few people raised their hands to go to the canteen with her. Everyone wasn’t looking at Instructor Ai Yalin, but gazing at Xiang Chuan with expectant eyes.
Xiang Chuan raised an eyebrow: Want to mooch off a meal, huh?
She slowly raised both arms, then forcefully made an X in front of her chest. This internationally universal symbol still retained its “No!” meaning to this day, as evidenced by the disappointed wails from her classmates.
Then Class Eight students reluctantly gathered around Instructor Ai Yalin, making the smile on Instructor Ai Yalin’s face almost unable to hold—how unwilling were they to eat at their canteen! This was a department directly under the Main Ship Guard, with plenty of catering expenses, okay!
Despite grumbling inwardly, Instructor Ai Yalin dutifully led most of Class Eight students to the canteen for dinner. As for the four members of A Bite of China Club led by Xiang Chuan, plus Chou Manman and Nancy, they went straight to mooch off Xiang Chuan’s meal.
Back at the dormitory, after opening the meal box, Xiang Chuan actually wasn’t that appetized. It wasn’t that the things in the meal box weren’t tasty, just… having the same few items day in and day out, only modern people who had been eating solid food and liquid food repeatedly for at least twenty thousand years straight could tolerate it. For a 21st century person like Xiang Chuan, who found three days of the same nine meals worse than death, it was truly hard to endure.
But she still had to eat, otherwise if she fainted from hunger during tomorrow’s training, she might be thoughtfully sent a specially made nutritious meal from the canteen by the training base. Then what? Eat it? Or not eat it? To avoid this no-win situation, she could only try not to let her stomach act up.
The meal box in front of them greatly shocked Liang Gong and the group of male compatriots who hadn’t seen Xiang Chuan’s lunch meal box with their own eyes.
Is this beef?! Is this fish?! These thin strips that smell garlicky are actually potatoes!? And what are these things with white skins?!
Oh, finally something familiar—these are buns and steamed buns.
The opened meal box almost included all the main dishes and some soup-free staple foods from the Xiang Family dinner menu. Even Chou Manman, who had seen the Xiang Family dinner with her own eyes, was shocked by the contents of this one meal box: This is way too much, right?
“You wouldn’t have emptied your family’s kitchen warehouse, would you?” Ouyang Yating looked incredulously at this meal box that was even wider than the dormitory table, asking while taking the serving plate handed over by Xiang Chuan.
“How could that be,” after distributing the serving plates, Xiang Chuan took out a small plate and vinegar prepared with help from the kitchen AI from the meal box compartment, “It’s only about one-third.”
That’s still a lot! Everyone complained inwardly.
Generally, large families or nobles, with their economic strength to use the most advanced ingredient preservation technology, buy a lot of ingredients during harvest seasons and store them in the warehouse. The kitchen AI or housekeeping robots handle the ingredients for the three daily meals, making solid food or liquid food.
“At your consumption rate, your family’s warehouse probably won’t last until the autumn ingredient harvest period.” Ouyang Yating rubbed her forehead and shook her head helplessly, while not forgetting to take a bite of the fish passed over by Nancy. The moment the fish entered her mouth, she instantly perked up. Before Xiang Chuan could refute for herself, Ouyang Yating picked up her serving plate and began seriously studying this pan-fried fish fillet.
“It was just prepared a bit more this time…” Xiang Chuan defended herself, not forgetting to stuff a dumpling into her mouth. Sure enough, without aged vinegar, it didn’t have that flavor, but she didn’t like dumplings without vinegar or soy sauce much either, so she could only grit her teeth and eat it. Sigh, if there were soy sauce, she wouldn’t be in this state.
Xiang Chuan didn’t know how many times she envied those novel protagonists who transmigrated to ancient times. They only had to face desperate illiteracy there, while she had to face desperate gourmet food here. The road ahead is long, the road ahead is long.
“These are all for the Xiang Family in the future… no, never mind.” After swallowing a steak, Ainuo couldn’t help but voice the doubt that had been weighing on his mind for a long time, but halfway through, he realized he was overstepping, as it somewhat smacked of privately obtaining the other’s commercial secrets, so he quickly stopped.
“Hm? What, do you want to eat more when you go back? No problem, my father’s eatery is about to open. Take good care of our family business then.” Xiang Chuan didn’t think too much of it, and besides, the Xiang Family launching new food was a half-public secret in Class Eight. This week Yue Xiang had also started promoting their family eatery, so appropriately revealing some might bring in more customers for the family.
“You… sigh… If I have time, I’ll take my sister to try it.” Ainuo didn’t know what to say. During the previous bet fake confession, he thought she rejected him on purpose to annoy him with those words, but now it seemed this person really spoke without thinking—what should be said and what shouldn’t, she didn’t know! But seeing it was with good intentions, he didn’t want to say anything about it violating personal privacy regulations, so he decided to reciprocate and take his sister to see the world and try something new.
One meal box eaten is one less~ How long can it last?
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