Chapter 48: Simple Chicken Cutlet And Ketchup
Still in the excited state of having made new little friends, Xiang Chuan couldn’t wait to invite the two back home for dinner, but Ouyang Yating and Liang Gong both refused, leaving her dejected for a good while. On the way home, Xiang Xue saw this and felt embarrassed, continuously chatting with her sister about fun things at school and some recent gossip in society, and by the time they got home, Xiang Chuan’s face was wearing a carefree smile again.
In the evening, Xiang Chuan, in a great mood, fried a few chicken cutlets. Since there was no marinade, she specially cut the palm-sized chicken cutlets into quarter sizes and properly mixed them with salt, oil, and flour.
Not having ginger and scallions to marinate the meat really feels unaccustomed… Xiang Chuan complained in her heart.
Fortunately, there was black pepper and ketchup stir-fried yesterday casually with tomatoes, salt, vinegar, and sugar. She served a bowl of sauce for each person, then prepared flatbread, steamed dumplings, and tomato egg drop soup, and this dinner that couldn’t be distinguished as Chinese or Western style was ready.
The sweet and sour, appetite-stimulating ketchup immediately captured everyone.
Lin Yu ate a steamed dumpling dipped in ketchup, and his eyes lit up. If dipping in vinegar before had made his mouth a bit sour, then today’s ketchup was just too perfect for his sweet tooth! While marveling at the magic of ketchup, he didn’t forget to send a photo of the ketchup to his son, who hadn’t been paying attention to him since being stimulated by his father’s “newspaper” photos two days ago. It wasn’t that he liked staring at and harassing his son all the time, but his daughter at the military academy affiliated high school had started school, the school had opening training, he couldn’t contact her, his wife in cold war separation wouldn’t pay attention to him either, so he could only keep harassing his son who had just entered the junior high department.
Clearly the son had seen the message, but had no intention of responding to him. Sigh, had his son entered rebellious phase too? Lin Yu, who didn’t think he was wrong at all, sighed inwardly.
“By the way, Xiao Chuan, is everything going smoothly with your club?”
Lin Yu asked. Recently, the diplomatic mission’s work had also entered the final stage, and having been too busy, he hadn’t paid much attention to this junior who had brought him so many delicious experiences, which made Lin Yu feel quite guilty.
“Mm! The club activity room is all decorated today, I also bought some table and chairs.” Saying this, Xiang Chuan turned to look at Xiang Qi sitting to her left, “Brother Xiang Qi, tomorrow bring some cake to help me console the senior students from the university engineering department.”
“Mm?” Xiang Qi was stunned, as if thinking of something interesting, he smiled and replied: “Okay, I’ll properly console your these senior students.”
“?”
Xiang Chuan looked at her brother’s reaction, exchanged a glance with Xiang Xue beside her, and both tilted their heads in doubt: Had she just said something strange?
“I remember today is the last day of senior high school department club recruitment day, right? Did you recruit any new members?”
Xiang Weiguo asked with concern.
“Mm!” Mentioning this, Xiang Chuan smiled especially happily, “I recruited two new members today!”
Two… two people?
Xiang Weiguo and Lin Minzhi exchanged a weird look, and Lin Yu’s face also showed a strange expression.
“Xiao Chuan, you mean twenty people, right…?”
Lin Minzhi asked uncertainly.
In the end, she shook her head and said: “No, just two people. In the afternoon, more than sixty people came to sign up, but only two passed the assessment.”
Hearing that more than sixty people had signed up, the three elders’ expressions eased a bit: Good, good, this child probably wasn’t targeted by the school.
But hearing the latter half “just two people,” the three looked complex again.
“Xiao Chuan, what test questions did you prepare?”
Xiang Weiguo couldn’t help but put down his knife and fork, and the other two also looked at her seriously. It wasn’t surprising for the three elders to react this way; mainly because most families in the third fleet were engaged in agriculture or food-related work, so as children they were more or less influenced, and their basic food knowledge was above that of peers in the other eleven fleets. How could only two be selected?
“Very simple test questions, just this.” Xiang Chuan picked up the cup with fruit milk on the table and shook it, “I prepared three flavors of fruit milk, let everyone guess the fruit types. Guess all three right to join directly, guess two right to become probationary members, but only two got it right.”
Now not only the three elders, but Xiang Qi and Xiang Xue also looked complex.
This is still simple?!
You know, after Xiang Xue and Xiang Chuan left early in the morning today, Xiang Weiguo couple and Lin Yu, who could rarely arrive late at the government office area this morning, habitually poured a cup of fruit milk after discovering the taste was wrong, thinking there was a problem with the fruit milk, rushed to the kitchen vomiting and retching, scaring Xiang Qi, who had just come downstairs for a classmate meeting at home during the day, quite a bit. In the end, asking the kitchen AI revealed that the fruit milk had been temporarily changed to peach flavor yesterday, and everyone realized they had made a laughingstock. They silently instructed the kitchen AI not to spread this matter, and each took a cup of peach milk in silence.
Even these elders immersed in modern food for years couldn’t distinguish the difference in fruit flavors, let alone high school students with only shallow concepts about food?
“Xiao Chuan,” Xiang Weiguo pressed his temples, feeling that his eldest daughter going on like this wasn’t good, “How about recruiting a few more people? If there are other activities in the senior high school department later, your ancient gourmet club with only you and two members will be hard to handle.”
“Father, there’s a saying from the ancient era: better to have few than to have bad.” Xiang Chuan drank the fruit milk in one gulp and said seriously: “I hope the people entering my club are classmates who pursue gourmet food like me, not just out of curiosity or to pass time. If it’s just to satisfy their curiosity, I can have little chef make more cake and distribute it at school for them to taste, right? Moreover, most of the unqualified classmates I interviewed today were of this tendency, so rather than recruiting so many people with unclear intentions, better to keep two companions with basic knowledge?”
This made the three elders and Xiang Qi stunned, and the four thought about it, seeming to make sense.
“‘Better to have few than to have bad’… The ancient era has such good words.” Lin Yu touched his chin and praised. Looking up to see Xiang Weiguo’s entangled expression, he couldn’t help but laugh: “Director Xiang, children have their own unique views on things, not to mention Xiao Chuan is that special child who has contacted information turbulence. She definitely won’t act impulsively. Why not let her try first?”
Xiang Weiguo looked at Lin Yu, looked at his wife who had decided to trust their daughter’s decision and calmly continued eating chicken cutlet, and could only nod.
“Moreover, Xiao Chuan being willing to bring it up directly is also because of everyone’s trust in her. Compared to that, my daughter is just… sigh.” The cold look in his daughter’s eyes when looking at him appeared in his mind, and Lin Yu couldn’t help but shake his head and sigh. Their two-week stay was also about to end, and when they returned, it would be about time for the son to go to the wife’s place and the daughter to come to his, but his daughter’s temperament of not getting close to anyone left Lin Yu with no way to deal with her.
“Captain Lin, your son is quite well-behaved.” Lin Minzhi comforted. Before, after dinner, she had accidentally seen Lin Yu video calling his son, and the child in the screen looked about the same age as Xiang Xue, very lively and likable.
“That kid hasn’t replied to my messages recently.” Lin Yu smiled bitterly and shook his head.
Hearing this, Xiang Weiguo wordlessly patted Lin Yu’s shoulder in comfort. Every family has its own hard-to-recited scripture.
At the same time, in Lin Yu’s home in the first fleet.
Little friend Lin Ming, unaware that he had become the center of the topic, was video calling at this time.
[Are you really planning to go there?]
The woman facing the screen asked, her serious tone carrying a bit of concern.
“…Yes, I’ve decided to go.” Lin Ming clenched his fist and said determinedly: “Going now, the course difference isn’t big, I can still catch up.”
[I’ve said so much these days and you’re still thinking this way, then I have nothing more to say.] The woman facing the screen sighed, [Then I’ll formally submit the procedures… Pack your things, prepare to depart in three days.]
