Chapter 8 Today I'm helping in the kitchen

  "Old Li, tomorrow you take Qu Mingjun and Wang Jin to help with the kitchen duties, it's our class's turn. After roll call tonight, go to the logistics department and find the quartermaster to prepare tomorrow morning's meals." Guo Xiangyang briefly instructed everyone after training ended at night.

  "Oh, I see." Deputy class leader Li Dongkuan nodded.

  "Helping with cooking? Class monitor, what's going on?" Wang Jin was a bit bewildered.

  Li Dongkuan had just taken off his camouflage uniform and hung it on the bed frame, wearing a vest and was about to go wash up. He smiled and said: "It's just going to help out in the cooking class, preparing dishes, noodles and whatnot, lending them a hand, ensuring everyone can eat on time."

  "What the...? Are we here to study or work, and now you're telling us to cook too?" Wang Jin's face was filled with incredulity. Qu Mingjun also furrowed his brow.

  "Yes, isn't there a cooking class? Aren't they the ones who cook? Why do we still need to get the trainees to help?" Qu Mingjun muttered to himself.

  Guo Xiangyang looked up and glanced at several local students, explaining briefly, "The cooking class is short-handed, except for the quartermaster, there are only three soldiers. Old soldier Zhang is the head chef, and the other two new recruits, Xiao Jiang and Xiao Li, one is in charge of noodles, and the other is in charge of firing. They have to prepare meals for over a hundred people every day, three times a day, it's very hard work. Actually, it's not just our team, all student teams are like this, every day there are three students who go to help with cooking to alleviate their burden. By the way, there is also the responsibility of supervising the kitchen. Tomorrow, Old Li, don't forget to fill out the cafeteria duty roster."

  Wang Jin made a face at Qu Mingjun and laughed, saying: "This guy is great, we've become chefs, haha." This kid was an optimist. Qu Mingjun shook his head, it didn't matter either way, after all, they were all just doing their jobs, today it was his turn, tomorrow it would be someone else's, so he didn't say anything. He didn't notice that Guo Xiangyang gave him a glance and exchanged a meaningful look with Li Dongkuan.

  After calling out, Li Dongkuan beckoned Qu Mingjun and Wang Jin to follow him, taking a flashlight and rushing straight to the cooking team. The cooking team lived in a small courtyard behind the cafeteria, all of whom were flat houses. In front was the large cafeteria and operating room, and behind was the boiler for boiling water and the dormitory of the cooking team. Because the front door of the cafeteria was locked, Li Dongkuan took Qu Mingjun and Wang Jin to the back door.

  "Ah, they're here." Zhang, the leader of the cooking team, wearing a white vest, went out to take a look at the three people who had arrived and greeted them. To be honest, this Zhang didn't seem like a cook at all. Generally speaking, cooks give people the impression of being fat guys. Actually, it makes sense, every day they're surrounded by pots and pans, they can eat whatever they want, and they're always covered in grease, how could they not be fat? But this Zhang looked lean and thin, apparently he was born with a metabolism that didn't gain weight no matter what he ate.

  As Zhang spoke, he went to call Xiao Jiang. He happened to walk under the light and Qu Mingjun stared at the white vest on Zhang's back for a moment. Several large red characters were clearly printed on the white vest, which read "Military Five-Item Competition Team Championship Commemoration". Wasn't he just a cook? How could he have this? Could it be that someone gave him this vest?

  "Xiao Jiang, Xiao Jiang." Class Monitor Zhang called out Xiao Jiang, who was rubbing her eyes, and instructed her, "Go and get the dough ready, then chop up tomorrow's vegetables and that will be fine."

  Xiao Jiang, who had just grown a little fluff on his upper lip, nodded and took the key from Zhang Ban Zhang, then walked into the operating room. Li Dong Kuan quickly said goodbye to Zhang Ban Zhang and led Wang Jin and Qu Ming Jun in.

  Wang Jin's eyes widened as he looked around the unfamiliar cafeteria operating room, his curiosity getting the better of him as he glanced left and right. Suddenly, he seemed to have discovered something, and quickly ran over to the stove, picking up a clean and shiny shovel.

  "Wang Jin exclaimed: "Wow, is this for stir-frying or shoveling coal? It's so big and heavy!" Indeed, this stir-fry shovel was over a person tall and clearly not something you'd see in an ordinary kitchen. It looked like it was originally meant for shoveling coal, but someone had bought a new one, washed and cleaned it, and was now using it to stir-fry food. Thinking about it, the large iron pot on the stove was big enough for a person to take a bath in, so why would you need such a huge shovel to cook for hundreds of people?"

  Every day, he uses this thing to stir-fry dishes, in a large pot that can be washed with one mouthful of water, repeatedly stirring and frying hundreds of times, similar to the scenes in the movie "Shaolin Temple", the only difference is that he doesn't need to hang upside down to stir-fry, this stir-frying person's arm strength is really well-exercised. Qu Mingjun thought.

  Xiao Jiang opened the main food storage room next to the operating room, turned back and shouted impatiently: "Alright, that thing is not for you to play with. If Zhang Bansheng sees you, just wait for a scolding. You two come over and lift two bags of flour."

  It turned out that the shovel was Zhang's, no wonder, he was in charge of the kitchen, stir-frying was a technical job, and it couldn't be left to the logistics director. Li Dongkuan glared at Wang Jiong for a moment, then turned around and left. Wang Jiong put down the shovel with some embarrassment, raised an eyebrow at Qu Mingjun, and made a disdainful face.

  Four people together poured two and a half bags of flour into the corner's mixing machine, then Xiao Jiang had three people first chop a basin of salty vegetables, then wash a basin of chili peppers and a basin of small oil greens. He said it was one basin, which doesn't sound like much, but this basin wasn't the kind for washing faces, rather it was a truly super-large basin, bigger than the kind children use to take baths.

  Never mind how good Li Dongkuan's technique is, anyway, he started chopping with a cleaver and it sounded like "ding ding dang" as he chopped. It looked pretty good too. But Wang Jin was much worse, clumsy and awkward, struggling to chop one knife after another, regardless of whether it was coarse or fine, at least he managed to chop the pickled mustard into strips.

  Qiu Mingjun had a personal chef at home since he was young, and except for running into the kitchen to find something to eat, he never touched a knife. This thing is too thick and heavy, and with that thick round chopping board in the middle, it's all sunken, how can you look at it without feeling awkward? Qiu Mingjun smiled bitterly as he watched Li Dongkuan quickly chop up a salty vegetable pancake, and imitated Li Dongkuan's actions to put the pancake on the chopping board.

  This hasn't been put down yet, and then heard that side is just adding water to the dough machine, Xiao Jiang shouted loudly, "Don't move!"

  The three of them were a bit stunned, not knowing what was wrong again. They just looked at Xiaojing putting down the water basin and rushing over, grabbing the knife and salted vegetables from Qu Mingjun's hand, saying: "This is a meat-cutting knife and vegetable stump, don't mix them up, it's unsanitary. If you want to cut something, take that knife to the chopping board."

  Uh, Qu Mingjun was somewhat annoyed, one is that he didn't expect this thing to have so many subtleties, and two is that he had never been scolded like this before in his life.

  Li Dongkuan looked at him with a smile, and simply instructed Qu Mingjun to go wash the vegetables. Anyway, looking at this kid's posture with the knife, it didn't seem like he knew how to chop vegetables. Otherwise, if he accidentally cut his hand, it would be troublesome. There was still a lot of training ahead.

  Qu Ming Jun was carrying a basin of chili peppers and had just walked to the water tap when he suddenly heard a "humming" sound. It turned out that Xiao Jiang had opened the dough mixer, and the noise reverberated repeatedly in the empty operating room, almost deafening. The dough mixer was driven by an electric motor next to it, and over 200 kilograms of flour were being stirred inside the machine. Xiao Jiang would occasionally scrape down the dough stuck to the wall, allowing the dough to be fully mixed. The scene looked quite spectacular. Wang Si couldn't help but run over to watch the commotion, shouting and cheering.

  Qu Mingjun arrived at the edge of the pool and started washing the peppers one by one. Xiao Jiang looked over and saw that the noodle machine was working normally again, so she patted the flour off her hands and turned around to check on how the three students who were helping out were doing. When she saw Qu Mingjun, she suddenly burst out laughing.

  Qiu Mingjun was a bit confused and couldn't figure out what was going on. Then, Xiao Jiang ran over with a smile and said: "You've never cooked at home before, have you?"

  "What if I haven't done it?" Qu Mingjun was somewhat disgusted by the petty-minded and narrow-hearted second-class soldier in front of him, who always seemed to be at odds with himself.

  "It's nothing, but this pepper can't be washed just by wiping the surface." Xiaojing didn't mind Qu Mingjun's attitude and probably hadn't seen few of these young masters at home. She reached out to take the pepper and gestured, "You have to split open the tail of the pepper, remove the seeds inside, and wash away the pepper residue too. That's how it is."

  Oh, Qu Mingjun finally realized that he couldn't even chop a pepper, this is great, the usual all-knowing and clever Qu Mingjun has disappeared, in the kitchen he's just a useless Qu Mingjun, sigh! Damn it.

  But anyway, Qu Mingjun, who was a bit disappointed, didn't bother to complain and started washing according to Xiao Jiang's instructions.

  After a while, Li Dongkuan and Wang Jin finished cutting the pickled vegetables. Li Dongkuan went to wash the small oil greens, and Wang Jin ran over to help Qu Mingjun wash the chili peppers. They were squatting down washing, which wasn't an easy task, especially with such a large basin. Plus, the weather was hot, and soon both of them were sweating profusely.

  Qiu Mingjun wiped his face with one hand, and this time it was not good, a spicy flavor directly rushed into his eyes, and tears came down instantly. Wang Jin next to him didn't notice, also wiping the sweat with his hand, well, two people started staring at each other silently, gazing at each other's teary eyes.

  Haha, Wang Jin started laughing very ungracefully, Li Dongkuan and Xiao Jiang also laughed, Qu Mingjun shook his head and cried with laughter, this is indeed sweat with tears.