“Gurgle—”
A loud, ill-timed rumble shattered the brief silence in the office.
Huo Xiaoman rubbed her round little belly, her delicate face scrunched up pitifully. She tugged on Huo Feng’s sleeve and whined, “Daddy, I’m hungry. I want food.”
Huo Feng had just been shaken to the core by Su Man’s words about being a vengeful ghost. Now, when he lowered his head and saw his daughter’s watery, innocent eyes, the steel in his heart instantly melted into tenderness.
He scooped Huo Xiaoman up and settled her on his sturdy forearm. Then he turned to Su Man, his tone filled with a flattering gentleness he had never shown before.
“Come on. I’ll take you all to the mess hall. Conditions are a little rough here at the border, but the head cook is decent enough. You’ll at least get a full stomach.”
Su Man rolled her eyes at him but didn’t refuse. After all, no matter who she was at odds with, there was no reason to make herself suffer from hunger.
She casually straightened the silver ornaments on her Miao outfit, took the still snake-playing Huo Xiaoxie by the hand, and followed Huo Feng out of the office.
At noon, the scorching sunlight baked the concrete ground, and the air was filled with the dry smell of dust.
The police force mess hall was bustling with activity. Hundreds of sweaty, shirtless men were holding stainless-steel bowls and shoveling food into their mouths with loud slurping sounds. The combined noise was even louder than the cicadas outside.
The moment Huo Feng entered, the noisy mess hall seemed to have been put on pause.
Everyone’s eyes immediately turned toward them.
There was no helping it. This group was simply too eye-catching.
The entire team’s most intimidating Devil himself, the “Wolf Head,” was carrying a little girl in his arms, followed by a beautiful Miao woman who looked like a妖精, with a little boy wearing a venomous snake around his neck trailing behind them.
“What are you all looking at? Got nothing better to do?” Huo Feng barked. “Eat your food!”
The soldiers shrank their necks in fright and immediately buried their faces in their bowls, though their eyes still kept sneaking glances in their direction.
Huo Feng led the mother and her two children to an empty table in the corner and had the orderly bring over four portions of food.
Four stainless-steel trays were placed on the table.
The dishes were rather “substantial”: a large spoonful of stir-fried cabbage glistening with oil, several slices of fatty braised pork practically dripping with grease, and a bowl of seaweed soup with a few strands of beaten egg floating in it. The staple was slightly yellowish brown rice.
At the border during this era, having meat at all was already considered high-standard treatment. Afraid Su Man might not be used to the food, Huo Feng specifically picked out the best pieces of fatty pork and put them into her bowl.
“Try it. This is Commissary Officer Old Wang’s specialty—braised pork.”
Huo Feng looked at Su Man expectantly.
Su Man picked up her chopsticks and poked the quivering piece of fatty meat. Her brows furrowed almost imperceptibly.
Before she could say anything, Huo Xiaoman beside her exploded first.
The little girl took one bite of the cabbage, and her delicate face instantly scrunched up like a steamed bun.
“Pfft!”
She spat the food right back out and slammed her chopsticks onto the table.
“Is this even fit for people to eat?”
Her clear, ringing voice echoed throughout the mess hall.
“This cabbage is so old it’s like tree bark, and there’s barely any salt! This meat is as fatty as Dahua’s butt—so greasy and disgusting! And this rice is so hard you could use it as bullets to shoot birds!”
The more Huo Xiaoman complained, the more aggrieved she became, until tears nearly welled up in her eyes.
“Waaah… Daddy lied! This tastes worse than the pig slop we feed the pigs in the mountains! I want sour soup fish! I want bamboo-tube rice!”
The mess hall once again fell into deathly silence.
Old Wang the Fatty, the commissary officer who had been wielding a huge ladle in the kitchen, heard the commotion and stormed out with the ladle in hand.
Old Wang was hot-tempered, the rolls of flesh on his face trembling with every movement. He had worked in the cooks’ unit for twenty years, and no one had ever dared insult his cooking like this.
“Which little brat is running their mouth?”
Old Wang charged over to the table and slammed his greasy ladle down.
“You should be grateful there’s food to eat! Do you know there are soldiers on the front lines chewing compressed biscuits? A child this young already being so spoiled—that’s capitalist behavior!”
Huo Feng felt a headache coming on.
He was just about to stand up and smooth things over.
“Old Wang, the child doesn’t know any better—”
“I don’t know any better?”
Huo Xiaoman jumped down from Huo Feng’s arms, planted her hands on her hips, and showed no less presence than the two-hundred-pound fatty standing before her.
“You’re just a terrible cook! This is an insult to food! Even pigs wouldn’t eat this!”
“Hey! You little brat…”
Old Wang’s face flushed red with anger. He rolled up his sleeves, ready to argue.
“Clack.”
A soft sound rang out.
Su Man gently placed her chopsticks on her tray.
The movement was quiet, yet it carried a chilling coldness that made everyone’s backs prickle.
She leisurely pulled a handkerchief from her sleeve and wiped the corner of her mouth. Then she lifted her head, those beautiful, almond-shaped eyes coldly fixed on Old Wang.
“She’s right.”
“You overcooked the cabbage by three minutes. All the vitamins have been lost, leaving nothing but the taste of rotten leaves. You didn’t caramelize the sugar properly for the braised pork, so it tastes bitter. And you chose the wrong cut of meat. It’s all lymphatic meat.”
Su Man stood up, her voice languid yet sharp.
“Making me eat in a place like this really is asking a lot of me. As for my children, they grew up eating pheasants raised on all kinds of medicinal herbs in our village and drinking spring water from the mountains. Is there anything wrong with them disliking your pig slop?”
Old Wang was completely overwhelmed by Su Man’s presence.
He opened and closed his mouth several times but couldn’t come up with a single response.
He turned to Huo Feng.
“Captain, this… your wife is really…”
Huo Feng rubbed his throbbing temples.
On one side was his fiercely protective wife and children; on the other was his hardworking old comrade who had contributed countless years of service.
He was in an impossible situation.
“All right, all right. Old Wang, calm down. The kid just has a picky palate.”
Huo Feng hurriedly handed Old Wang a cigarette, then turned to Su Man and spoke in a meek voice.
“Wife, conditions here are limited. Can we make do for now? Tonight, tonight I’ll go into the mountains and hunt some game for you.”
Su Man snorted and ignored him.
She pulled a delicate silver bottle from the small cloth pouch she carried with her, poured out a handful of snacks that looked like dried meat, and stuffed them into the children’s hands.
“Eat this for now. Mom will make you something good tonight.”
Huo Xiaoman took the dried meat and bit into it viciously, not forgetting to make a face at Old Wang.
Just then, an enticing aroma drifted in through the back door.
It was the smell of stewed meat—and the unmistakable aroma of high-quality beef.
Huo Xiaoman’s little nose twitched, and her eyes immediately lit up.
“I want that!”
Old Wang said grumpily, “That’s for the military dogs! Our team’s Black Panther is a decorated service dog. He gets half a pound of beef every day, plus two eggs! Even the dogs eat better than people, so you two should be grateful for what you’ve got!”
He spoke without thinking, but someone else took his words to heart.
Huo Xiaoman’s big eyes rolled around, a sly glint flashing through them.
Even the dogs get better food than people?
Why should they?!
She chewed on her dried meat, tugged on Su Man’s sleeve, and lowered her voice.
“Mommy, can you give me a little of your ‘Fairy Powder’?”
Su Man raised an eyebrow.
Looking at her daughter’s mischievous expression, she instantly understood what the little troublemaker intended to do.
Instead of stopping her, she reached into an embroidered purse hanging from her waist, pulled out a small red paper packet, and handed it to Huo Xiaoman.
“Use it sparingly.”
A playful smile curled at the corners of Su Man’s lips.
“This stuff is potent. Don’t overstuff the dogs.”
Beside them, Huo Xiaoxie pushed up a pair of nonexistent glasses and coldly added,
“If they eat themselves to death, they deserve it. Who told them to eat better than me?”
Lunch ended hastily in an awkward atmosphere.
Huo Feng still had to deal with the morning’s minefield report, so he repeatedly instructed the mother and her two children to rest in the dormitory and not wander around.
The moment Huo Feng left—
Huo Xiaoman slipped out right behind him.
With her hands clasped behind her back like a little official conducting an inspection, she sauntered over to the kennel at the logistics department.
It was currently lunchtime, and the dog handlers had gone to rest.
More than a dozen fierce German Shepherds and Kunming dogs were lying inside their kennels, taking a nap.
And sure enough, in the food bowls in front of them was steaming beef mixed with rice.
Huo Xiaoman swallowed, then let out an indignant little snort.
“Big bullies, eating all the good stuff yourselves!”
She pulled out the little red packet, stood on tiptoe, and opened it.
“I’m going to add a little something for you. This is Mommy’s special ‘Carefree Powder.’ Mommy won’t even let me have it when I ask!”
The red powder drifted on the breeze and scattered into every food bowl.
The powder dissolved instantly upon contact with the food, leaving no color or taste, only a faint, strange fragrance reminiscent of exotic herbs and flowers.
Several of the dogs that had been sleeping suddenly twitched their noses.
They abruptly opened their eyes.
A moment of confusion flashed through their eyes, quickly replaced by an intense, almost frenzied desire.
“Woof! Woof, woof!”
A burst of urgent, excited barking suddenly erupted throughout the kennel.
It didn’t sound like an alarm.
If anything, it sounded like they were…
cheering.