Lu Shiyu washed the rice and drained the water into a separate container rather than pouring it away.
Shao Xingyang stared with wide eyes, pointing at the rice in Lu Shiyu’s hands and shouting, “Didn’t you say you didn’t have any ingredients?! Then what is this?!”
Lu Shiyu’s gaze drifted. “I only bought enough for my own portion. If everyone is going to eat, it’s definitely not enough.”
Shao Xingyang slumped back down, looking deflated.
Lu Shiyu put the rice into the iron pot, added enough water to cover it, and brought it to a boil over the cold water. The waiting time was just enough to prep the vegetables. She diced the wild greens and the small radishes. When white steam began to puff from the edge of the pot lid, she waited a few more moments for it to reach a rolling boil. Lifting the lid revealed a surface full of bubbles that collapsed the instant the lid was opened. She stirred the mixture back and forth with chopsticks to prevent the rice from sticking to the bottom, then poured in the chopped vegetables. After stirring them in evenly, she added a little cooking oil for flavor and continued to stir until the porridge became thick and creamy.
Lu Shiyu scooped up a spoonful to taste. It was good, but a bit of a pity.
“It would be better if there were meat; the flavor would be more fragrant.”
Just as Lu Shiyu was about to serve the porridge, Shao Xingyang called out to her.
“Wait, if you want meat…” Shao Xingyang reluctantly pulled a length of sausage from his bag. “This should work, right? It’s not much, but at least it’s meat.”
Lu Shiyu took the sausage, her eyes curving into crescents. “It works perfectly!”
What was originally a fairly large sausage seemed pitifully sparse once Lu Shiyu diced it up and added it to the pot, but it nonetheless added some flavor to the vegetable porridge.
Chen Yunliang watched the bubbling porridge and teased Shao Xingyang, “So you were hiding food too?”
Shao Xingyang puffed out his cheeks. “I only have a little bit. I originally planned to have it as a snack.”
The vegetable porridge was finished.
Lu Shiyu took out wooden bowls and gave everyone a full serving. Tang Zeyu was the first to pick up a spoon and take a bite.
“So fresh.”
The chopped wild greens had a slightly bitter taste that turned sweet in the aftertaste, but the unique freshness of the vegetables was particularly prominent. The texture of the purple petals was similar to cabbage, and the secretions on the petals had a natural saltiness, providing enough salt for the porridge without needing to add any extra. While the petals themselves were succulent, they didn’t have much flavor on their own. The crystal radishes mixed into the porridge provided a noticeably crunchy texture in every few bites. To her surprise, the radishes were actually a bit spicy, making the texture of the porridge even richer.
The sausage provided by Shao Xingyang didn’t significantly affect the overall flavor, but meat was meat—it was better than nothing.
Yan Hong savored the vegetable porridge. Although the raw ingredients were a bit hard to talk about, the finished product looked no different from normal porridge.
“It’s delicious.”
Yan Hong finished a bowl and chewed on her spoon reflectively. “Back in my hometown, we used to make vegetable porridge for breakfast often. But that was ten years ago.”
When the biological mutations triggered the catastrophe ten years ago, Yan Hong was naturally one of those fleeing for her life. Unfortunately, her family, like the families of most children back then, died outside the base. Children who became orphans were collectively adopted by the base, but once they reached adulthood, they had to cover their own living expenses. Yan Hong had no choice but to start working for a living.
Although food control in the base was strict, it wasn’t to the point where one couldn’t afford a bowl of vegetable porridge; it was simply that Yan Hong had never taken the initiative to try and recreate the flavors of the past.
“Here,” Lu Shiyu served Yan Hong another bowl. “If you like it, have some more.”
Realizing she had just been chewing on her spoon, Yan Hong’s face flushed red. She took the bowl Lu Shiyu offered and lowered her head into it.
“This is too much, who could finish all this…”
Yan Hong ended up finishing the second bowl of porridge anyway. By the time everyone had eaten their fill, only a tiny bit of porridge remained at the bottom of the pot.
“I’m so full, burp.”
Shao Xingyang patted his bulging stomach and let out a satisfied burp.
Seeing that everyone was full, Lu Shiyu picked up the spatula to scoop out the remaining porridge.
“We’re all full,” Yan Hong reminded her.
“Mhm, I know.”
Lu Shiyu continued her movements. Once the porridge was out, she cleaned the pot, poured a little oil into the bottom, and swirled it to distribute the oil evenly. Once the oil was hot, she scooped a spoonful of porridge and poured it into the pan.
The porridge sizzled as it hit the hot iron. Lu Shiyu continued to add the porridge spoonful by spoonful, leaving a gap between each one to ensure they wouldn’t stick together. The porridge slowly spread into small pancakes. Once she was sure the bottoms were set, she used the spatula to flip them, repeating the process until the porridge pancakes were completely firm.
Shao Xingyang watched the porridge turn into pancakes with great wonder. “You can do that too?”
He reached out to grab one but was swatted away by Yan Hong.
“Get away, you just finished dinner and you want to eat more? These are for tomorrow’s breakfast, right?”
Seeing that the pancakes were mostly cooked, Lu Shiyu covered the pot with the lid and set it aside. The thwarted Shao Xingyang could only stare longingly at the pot containing the pancakes.
Chen Yunliang said helplessly, “Stop looking and go to sleep early.”
“Hmph,” Shao Xingyang tossed his hair. “I don’t even care.”
Shao Xingyang’s hand knocked the flower tucked behind his ear, and it fell straight onto his crossed legs.
Perhaps because it had been picked for too long, the flower had lost its vitality. The petals had begun to grow limp and weak, and the parts that had been curled up had loosened. Just as Shao Xingyang went to pick it up, he saw a butterfly of the same color as the flower slowly crawl out from the curled petals. Because the butterfly and the flower were so similar in color, Shao Xingyang hadn’t noticed there was a butterfly hidden inside until now.
Shao Xingyang froze in place, while the finally freed butterfly flapped its wings and began to fly upward.
“AAAAAAAAHH! Get away! Get away!”
Shao Xingyang threw the flower away and jumped up from the ground to dodge the butterfly. The hilarious scene made the others roar with laughter, showing no pity for their teammate.
Fortunately, it was night, and the flying insect instinctively moved toward the light source. Within moments, the butterfly was swallowed by the flames, and Shao Xingyang was saved once again.
The farce ended, and the others, who had been laughing too wildly, instantly restrained their expressions. Shao Xingyang glared at them crossly, trying to make them feel the weight of moral condemnation through his gaze.
“It’s getting late, let’s sleep.”
Chen Yunliang coughed twice and crawled into his sleeping bag inside the tent as if nothing had happened.
Last night it was Chen Yunliang and Tang Zeyu on watch, so today it was naturally the turn of Yan Hong and Shao Xingyang.
Yan Hong kicked the shin of the still-sulking Shao Xingyang and said, “Hurry up and go to sleep. You have to take over for the second half of the night.”
Lu Shiyu hastily finished her diary entry and, along with everyone except Yan Hong, crawled into her sleeping bag to enter dreamland.
Early the next morning.
Lu Shiyu was woken up by the sound of Yan Hong’s scolding.
“How can you be so greedy! I told you these were for breakfast and you still stole one!”
Shao Xingyang argued back indignantly, “I didn’t steal it! You’re framing an innocent man!”
Lu Shiyu crawled out of her sleeping bag and stretched.
“Haah~ What’s going on?”
Chen Yunliang and Tang Zeyu stood between the two, trying their best to mediate. Seeing that Lu Shiyu was awake, Shao Xingyang immediately lodged a complaint:
“Lu Shiyu! Come and settle this! Yan Hong insists that I stole a pancake, but I clearly didn’t!”
“If you didn’t eat it, why is one missing?!” Yan Hong pointed at the iron pot with its lid off. “You were on the second watch last night. When everyone woke up this morning, we found one was missing. Who else could it be but you?!”
Lu Shiyu scratched her head and asked in confusion, “It’s just one pancake, isn’t it? Is it really that big a deal?”
Chen Yunliang leaned over and whispered an explanation, “Yan Hong is a very stubborn person. To resolve this, either Shao Xingyang has to confess, or we need proof that he didn’t eat it. So now things are…”
Lu Shiyu felt a bit of a headache coming on. She hadn’t expected Yan Hong to be so rigid, but it was indeed a difficult thing to clarify.
Tang Zeyu finally managed to get them to calm down first. He asked Shao Xingyang, “Did you really not eat that pancake?”
Shao Xingyang immediately raised four fingers in an oath: “Absolutely not! I kept resisting the urge because I wanted to wait until everyone woke up in the morning so we could eat together. I don’t know how one went missing.”
Shao Xingyang suddenly thought of something and looked at Yan Hong: “Ah! Yan Hong had the first watch last night. Maybe you stole it and then accused me because you were worried about being found out!”
“Ha?” Yan Hong was almost moved to angry laughter. “I’m not like certain people; I’m not that greedy.”
Seeing the atmosphere between them grow increasingly tense, Tang Zeyu and Chen Yunliang each pulled one of them away to separate them for a moment.
Lu Shiyu crouched by the pot and glanced at Tang Zeyu, who had pulled Shao Xingyang over.
“Captain Tang, is your team…” Lu Shiyu chose her words carefully, “…always like this in their way of getting along?”
“Er,” Tang Zeyu’s gaze drifted. “Actually, they’re usually quite normal. It’s just that when Yan Hong gets into an argument, she always likes to have a definitive conclusion.”
“Sounds like the kind of personality that doesn’t easily let things go,” Lu Shiyu said as she took the pancakes out of the pot and placed them on the lid. Suddenly, she noticed something.
“Hmph, you can say that again! Who could ever get the better of her!” Shao Xingyang’s tone was full of resentment.
Lu Shiyu smiled. “Don’t be in a hurry. I think I’ve found a way to prove your innocence.”
“Yan Hong,” Lu Shiyu called out. “Come here for a second.”
Yan Hong and Chen Yunliang walked over at the same time. Yan Hong and Shao Xingyang’s eyes met for only a second before they immediately looked away.
“What is it?”
“Look at this.”
Lu Shiyu held the pot lid up in front of her.
“A pancake. And?”
“No, look here,” Lu Shiyu pointed to the edge of the lid. “This should prove that Shao Xingyang didn’t steal it.”
Yan Hong looked where Lu Shiyu was pointing. Some hairs were stuck to the edge of the lid, likely from some kind of animal. Because a little bit of porridge had been left on the rim last night, when the animal came to steal a bite, it inevitably left behind some fur.
“Animal hair?”
Yan Hong plucked the hairs from the lid and examined them closely.
“In that case, it’s possible some animal sneaked over here while we were sleeping and stole the pancake.”
“See! See! I told you I didn’t steal it!”
Shao Xingyang’s nose was high in the air. “Apologize to me! Apologize!”
“But,” Yan Hong’s eyes looked straight at Shao Xingyang, “I didn’t see any animals at all during my watch. So when exactly did it sneak over and steal the food?”
“Er, well,” Shao Xingyang’s upturned nose flattened instantly. “Last night… I might have… maybe… accidentally dozed off for a bit.”
Chen Yunliang said with mock concern, “Oh dear, falling asleep on watch? What if we had run into danger?”
Shao Xingyang, who had just been proven innocent, had immediately turned around and found himself facing an even bigger problem. He now almost regretted not just admitting to stealing the pancake.
“However, it was wrong of me to flatly state that you stole it. I’m sorry.”
Yan Hong awkwardly apologized to Shao Xingyang. He immediately pulled Yan Hong in front of him to block him.
“Forget the pancake! When the captain scolds me later, you have to help me share the blame!”
“Dammit! Don’t drag me into your dereliction of duty!”
Lu Shiyu picked up a pancake and took a bite. She watched Yan Hong and Shao Xingyang still bickering, then looked at Tang Zeyu.
Is Captain Tang really that scary in his teammates’ eyes? Lu Shiyu felt it was strange. She thought Captain Tang had a pretty good personality. Why did these two seem so afraid of him?
Unable to figure it out, Lu Shiyu silently took another bite of her pancake.