Back To The 80s-Chapter 101 - 100: Preliminary Test_1

Yuan Tan pouted and said, "Well, he is still not as clever as Brother Zhanguo."

Shen Heng laughed and said, "Well, the Qi Family has been studying abroad in Country E."

Yuan Tan disinterestedly said, "I also studied abroad. It’s not a big deal."

Cheng Qijia smiled and said nothing.

After cleaning up the fish, Gu Xiaobei started thinking about how to eat such a big fish without any wastage.

After pondering for a while, he began to prepare the dish. Since the head of the carp was too small for pickled pepper fish heads, he decided to stew it in sponge gourd soup. He then chopped a third of the fish body into chunks for the braised fish. Then he sliced off a plate of fish for sour cabbage fish. The remaining fish meat was minced and added to minced pork, a beaten egg, and made into fish balls. The leftover fish steak, with some of its meat still attached, was fried into a pepper and salt fish steak with very little oil.

After a flurry of cooking from Gu Xiaobei, the dishes were brought to the table. Everyone was amazed, with the succulent sour cabbage fish made from green malabar spinach and the snowy white fish. The bright red braised fish, the fish steaks fried to a tempting golden brown. White fish balls floating on a bed of green spinach leaves, garnished with red chilli strips, looked spectacular. Lastly, a pot of fish head and sponge gourd soup, with milky soup and green sponge gourd, was extremely inviting. Gu Xiaobei also mixed garlic and eggplant and stir-fried some twice-cooked pork.

With six dishes and a soup, all rich in color and fragrance, Shen Heng exclaimed, "Wow Sister-in-law, your cooking skills are superb. Lu Zhanguo is really lucky."

"Sister-in-law, your cooking is even better than those in the big restaurants in Capital City." Cheng Qijia also chimed in with his praise.

Lu Zhanguo was in a good mood and cast a warm gaze at Gu Xiaobei, who was busy distributing the chopsticks and bowls.

Only Yuan Tan, with a nonchalant look, remained silent. In her mind, she thought, isn’t he just good at cooking? Marrying a wife is not hiring a nanny. It’s enough to be able to cook.

Shen Heng looked at Lu Zhanguo and said, "Such good food needs wine. I came empty-handed, didn’t bring anything."

Lu Zhanguo snorted and asked Gu Xiaobei, "Do we have any wine at home?"

Gu Xiaobei shook his head and said, "We ran out of it last time when Fengmei came and drank it."

Lu Zhanguo raised an eyebrow and said to Shen Heng, "We are out of wine. The nearest liquor store is two miles away."

Shen Heng joked, "You guys are quite united. If you don’t want to drink, just say it."

Yuan Tan, however, eagerly said, "I have some wine that Aunt Lu asked me to bring." Then she got up to get the wine from her bag.

Lu Zhanguo frowned and said nothing, while Cheng Qijia said, "Let’s not drink today. I just arrived. If I smell of alcohol when I go back to the dorm, it will look bad."

Shen Heng said, "Alright, Yuan Tan, leave it for now. We’ll have another chance to drink."

Yuan Tan had already taken out the liquor, and feeling a bit embarrassed at the rejection, she shouted at Gu Xiaobei, "You see, it’s just the guys having a drink, why do you interfere?"

Lu Zhanguo, being very protective, reprimanded Yuan Tan coldly, "Put the liquor down and eat quickly."

"Yes, let’s try Sister-in-law’s exquisite culinary skills." Shen Heng began to serve the dishes with his chopsticks.

Gu Xiaobei found it baffling that Yuan Tan became inflamed, however, he didn’t want the mood ruined over one table full of carefully prepared food, so he pretended not to hear it. He said with a smile, "This is one fish served five ways. You all should try it."

Yuan Tan wanted to say more, but seeing Lu Zhanguo’s stern gaze, she huffed and sat down next to Cheng Qijia.

"Sister-in-law, your fish is absolutely delicious. Qijia, you should try it. The food in Country E is not that great. They serve big loaves of bread every day." Shen Heng said, picking at his food with chopsticks.

"Yeah, when I was there, I missed the pickles of our Capital City the most." Cheng Qijia sighed.

"But Country E is quite remarkable. Their weaponry development is impressive." Shen Heng exclaimed.

"Yes, they have solved the problem of the SVD firing pin breaking too easily, a long time ago." Cheng Qijia agreed.

Yuan Tan tilted her head curiously and asked Cheng Qijia, "What is SVD?"

"It’s the English acronym for sniper rifle."

"Do you specifically research this?" asked Yuan Tan, her eyes wide open in innocence and ignorance.

"Well, something like that." Cheng Qijia answered vaguely.

Yuan Tan raised her eyebrows and said nothing. Gu Xiaobei was busy serving soup for everyone. There were no fancy small bowls, only thick blue-rimmed porcelain bowls, but everyone enjoyed their big bowls of soup.

After the meal, they chatted for a while. Then Cheng Qijia left due to some work. Shen Heng planned to return to the guesthouse, but Yuan Tan refused, "I want to stay in the town. The conditions at this guesthouse are really poor."

"There’s no car, so just bear with it for one night." Shen Heng was really getting a headache from this little lady’s temper.

"Brother Zhanguo has cars in his camp. He can just send one, there’s no problem there." Yuan Tan thought it was a non-issue.

"Applying to take a car out of the barracks requires a valid reason. If you don’t want to stay at the guesthouse, you can walk there." Lu Zhanguo said coldly.

"Aren’t you the boss here? Isn’t it up to you?" Yuan Tan grumbled openly.

"Exactly because I am the boss, I should follow the rules even more strictly." Lu Zhanguo was resolute.

Out of options, Yuan Tan clenched her teeth and said, "I will walk back to the town." Shen Heng was equally helpless. Despite his disliking for her, he couldn’t afford to let her get into trouble. He sighed and said, "Alright, let’s walk to the town."

Gu Xiaobei kept silent throughout, but he couldn’t help but laugh inwardly. The hotel in the small town probably wasn’t much better than the guesthouse. It was not like in the city, where there were more hotel guests, so the hotels were better built. Here in the town, there were very few outsiders to begin with and there were only a handful of two-story buildings, the hotel was likely to be a bungalow, if there was any.

Before leaving, Yuan Tan happily stated, "Brother Zhanguo, I will come and see you in a couple of days." She didn’t wait for Lu Zhanguo to react or respond, and dragged Shen Heng off.

On their way, Shen Heng couldn’t help but ask Yuan Tan, "Aren’t you going back to Capital City?"

"No, I will not go back recently." Yuan Tan replied.

"Doing this will only make Lu Zhanguo dislike you more." Shen Heng really could not comprehend what Yuan Tan was trying to do.

"He never liked me anyways, I am just here to give Gu Xiaobei a hard time." Yuan Tan said with a cold smirk.

Shen Heng felt that if he continued to talk to her, he might just go dumb. He kept quiet and focused on the journey.

Gu Xiaobei looked at Lu Zhanguo, who sat there brooding ever since Shen Heng and the others left. She couldn’t help but ask, being worried, "What are you thinking about?"

Lu Zhanguo came back to his senses, looked at Gu Xiaobei, who stood in front of him, bending over, her small face full of concern. His expression warmed up and said, "Just a bit of work-related stuff. You must be tired after the busy afternoon. Go inside and rest. I will go to the office for a bit."

Knowing it was about work, Gu Xiaobei didn’t probe any further. She sent Lu Zhanguo out the door and then went inside to lie down.

Lu Zhanguo kept thinking about Yuan Tan’s behavior throughout the evening. He and Shen Heng suspected she was up to something, which was why they invited Cheng Qijia for dinner, to try and gauge Yuan Tan’s response. From her seemingly normal reactions, could it be that they were wrong?