Chapter 250: Chapter 242: Sand Leek
Tian Sisi still didn’t know that just one encounter had made Xu Feifei jealous of her. At the moment, she was strolling around the town, which only boasted a Supply and Marketing Cooperative, a restaurant, and a vegetable market — utterly simple.
Tian Sisi had only eaten a potato at noon and was quite hungry. Tian Xinhua and the others hadn’t eaten their fill either, so upon arriving in town, they went straight to the restaurant and each ordered a bowl of dumplings. Hu Weiwen, having eaten five large steamed buns, couldn’t eat anymore and just watched as his younger siblings ate.
The dumplings here were genuinely substantial, large and full of filling, made with mutton and onion flower, a local wild vegetable which is delicious whether it’s the stems or the blossoms, wonderfully aromatic. Local onion flower mutton buns were particularly famous, and they tasted pretty good in dumplings too. Tian Sisi ate about ten but couldn’t eat any more; she let Tian Xinhua eat the rest.
The restaurant also sold roasted lamb legs and hand-grabbed meat, with its fragrance filling the air. Hand-grabbed meat was truly a dish that represented Inner Mongolia and was also a staple food for locals. This meat really tested the quality of the lamb because it was cooked without any seasonings or salt, purely in its own juices; if the lamb was not good, it would be hard to swallow. Locals made hand-grabbed meat with young lambs that were fattier and tenderer, boiling them in clean water until they were about seventy to eighty percent done; the meat was fresh, tender, and delicious—an incredibly tasty dish.
Seeing Tian Sisi gaze unblinkingly at the meat, Tian Xinhua smiled, asked the restaurant waiter to bring two roasted lamb legs and a large plate of hand-grabbed meat, and got the seasonings ready, saying, "Let’s take it to Brother Wei Wen’s dorm to eat, and let his roommates have some too."
Hu Weiwen hurriedly took out money and coupons from his pocket to pay, unsure if he had enough. Usually, such luxury was beyond his imagination, but how could he not pay today when his younger siblings wanted to eat!
"No need, Brother Wei Wen, I have money. You only get a five yuan allowance a month; better save it for necessities." Tian Xinhua stopped Hu Weiwen and paid first.
Hu Weiwen didn’t mind, just smiled and put the money back into his pocket. Here, a five yuan allowance a month was barely enough; if it wasn’t for family sending money and food coupons occasionally, and his third uncle frequently bringing some food, he really couldn’t have managed.
The small town really didn’t have much to offer. Tian Sisi bought all of the restaurant’s onion flower mutton buns for the evening to pair with the hand-grabbed meat; the extravagance of these two made Hu Weiwen astonished, repeatedly saying, "Xinhua, Ah Nan, have you two struck it rich?"
Tian Sisi cheerfully pointed at Tian Xinhua, "It’s Brother Xinhua who struck it rich, so Brother Wei Wen, don’t be shy, buy whatever you want!"
"Yeah, Brother Wei Wen, our Sixth Brother is rich now, let’s help him spend some money, these buns are pretty good."
Tian Qinghua picked up a bun and enthusiastically started eating, one after another, making Hu Weiwen involuntarily swallow his saliva and join in eating as well.
"Alright, today I’ll indulge in Xinhua’s generosity and eat my fill. You don’t know, I hardly ever buy these treats; at most, I’d come here to eat a bowl of mutton noodle soup for a treat during breaks," Hu Weiwen said, eating and laughing.
On the way back, they drove through a stretch of sandy ground. The desolate land bore no hint of green, only the vast yellow sand.
"Brother Wei Wen, what flower is that?" Tian Sisi pointed to a small clump of purplish-red flowers in the distance, scattered across the sandy ground, adding a touch to the barren land.
"That’s the onion flower. In this sandy soil, only onion flowers can grow. It’s their blooming season now."
Without needing Tian Sisi to say anything, Tian Xinhua had already stopped the car. They got out and walked towards the clump of onion flowers, blooming sparsely yet vibrantly, showing no signs of being daunted by the surrounding sand.
Tian Sisi picked up the camera and took several photos of these respectable flowers. Hu Weiwen then said, "Ah Nan, if you like them, just pick some and take them back. We even have some female intellectuals who often pick them and put them in vases as decorations."
"No need, let them bloom here." Tian Sisi couldn’t bear to cut these beautiful flowers.
They walked and stopped along the road, capturing quite a few desert landscapes. By the time they returned to the dorm, it was almost the end of the workday. Tian Xinhua had planned to go back, but seeing Hu Weixin’s reluctant look, he didn’t suggest leaving. Let the two brothers spend a bit more time together, as it gets dark late nowadays anyway.
After the end-of-work whistle blew, all of Hu Weiwen’s dormmates returned, with baby-faced Gu Jiaming being the last one back. Among the others, one was actually the Shanghai guard called Xu Changqing. Upon hearing this name, Tian Sisi burst into laughter. How handsome the name Xu Changqing is, yet this Xu Changqing is quite pathetic.
The other few were Beijing intellectuals, one named Huang Xiaoguang, whom according to Hu Weiwen, has a father who is a deputy commander of the armored forces. Another named Liu Yongsheng, his father a deputy commander in the Beijing Military Region. And the baby-faced one also has a significant background, reportedly his father is also a high-ranking official. These second-generation official and military ’crabs’ (slang for powerful people avoiding the rules) came to the battalion for reformation. Their ideological awareness is indeed very high.
"Oh man, Wei Wen, your younger siblings are really great people! Damn it, I initially thought coming to Inner Mongolia was to eat more meat. How does the poem go? ’The wind blows, the grass bows, and cattle and sheep appear.’ Who would have thought I’d end up in this godforsaken place, even worse off than at home, not even getting to eat meat. Damn, I’m dying for some Mongolian meat, it’s so delicious!"
While munching on hand-torn meat, Huang Xiaoguang spoke and made Tian Sisi laugh non-stop. This guy not becoming a comedian is truly a waste, but it turns out Huang Xiaoguang did later work in the arts, not as a comedian, but by starting a film production company.
"Don’t embarrass yourself, is ’the wind blows, the grass bows, and cattle and sheep appear’ about Mongolia? That’s clearly about Tianshan, you’re really uneducated!" Liu Yongsheng didn’t devour his food like Huang Xiaoguang; he was quite elegant, although not slow in his movements.
"Tianshan and Daqing Mountain (a mountain in Mongolia) are more or less the same, damn, Jia Ming, eat slower, don’t be so desperately hungry, the younger siblings are watching!"
Gu Jiaming ignored Huang Xiaoguang, continuously stuffing meat into his mouth. Over these years as an intellectual, if nothing else, everyone has developed a cast-iron stomach. In no time, dozens of large buns and several kilos of mutton were polished off by the group.
The group looked at the bare bones left on the table and then at the surprised expressions of the younger ones across them, feeling a rare bit of embarrassment.
"Next time we’re in Beijing, I’ll treat you all to Quanjude roast duck, eat as much as you want!" Huang Xiaoguang said generously.
"That would be great, let’s meet up again in Beijing then," Tian Xinhua replied with equal enthusiasm.
"Brother Xin Hua, your temperament is to my liking, unlike your cousin who beats around the bush so much that it drives me crazy."
"I call it being steady, you think everyone is as clumsy as you."
Hu Weiwen glared at him annoyedly and started distributing the fresh cucumbers and tomatoes he took out from a box to everyone, deliberately leaving Huang Xiaoguang till last. Huang Xiaoguang, growing impatient, urged him several times before Hu Weiwen finally said, "Am I not indecisive? How can a dithering person hurry up?"
"Brother, you’re not dithering, I am, I have been missing these cucumbers so much, oh man, Brother Xin Hua, Sister Sisi, you really are the Bodhisattvas who relieve people’s hardships!"
Huang Xiaoguang’s exaggerated and funny words had everyone laughing joyfully. The laughter spread far and attracted other intellectuals from different dorms to come over, only to scatter again upon seeing it was Huang Xiaoguang and others with notable backgrounds.