Xia Zhe felt his whole body go weak when he heard the way she called him big brother. He hurriedly covered Qiao Mei’s mouth and heaved a sigh of relief when he saw that no one around had heard what Qiao Mei said.
Xia Zhe flicked Qiao Mei’s head dotingly and said, “You, you dare to say anything!”
“Hahahaha, Commander Xia is blushing!” Qiao Mei giggled as she looked at Xia Zhe.
“Ahem, I’m not! Don’t talk nonsense!” Xia Zhe made a show of straightening his clothes in order to hide his thoughts.
“Alright, you can go and take a rest in my tent. I have a meeting to attend,” Xia Zhe said seriously.
“Alright, then I’ll wait for big brother to come back!” Qiao Mei whispered sweetly.
Xia Zhe looked at the little girl in front of him and felt both helpless and being bathed in sweetness. He reached out to caress Qiao Mei’s head and said, “I’m off, little girl.”
Qiao Mei smiled as she watched Xia Zhe’s departing figure gradually disappear into the distance. She did not want to rest yet and wanted to find something to do.
When Qiao Mei saw that the cookhouse staff had already started to set up the stove to cook, she knew what she wanted to do.
I want to prepare a nice meal for the soldiers!
“Let me help you!” Qiao Mei said.
“Sister-in-law is here!”
“Hello, sister-in-law!”
The soldiers from the cookhouse greeted her with big smiles. They all welcomed Qiao Mei’s arrival and they liked her very much. After all, she was beautiful and had a nice personality. Anyone would like such a person.
“Let me be your assistant,” Qiao Mei said as she proactively took over the ingredients.
“Sister-in-law, you should take a rest. Don’t tire yourself out. Let us handle these things,” the cook said.
“That’s right, sister-in-law!”
“Sister-in-law, you should rest!”
The rest of the soldiers chimed in one after another.
“It’s fine, it’s fine. I’m not tired. I’ll let you guys have a taste of sister-in-law’s cooking!” Qiao Mei said laughingly as she held the spatula.
The soldiers around her all felt very happy, but they also lamented how Commander Xia was so lucky to have such a beautiful wife. They just wondered about her culinary skills.
“What do you have?” Qiao Mei asked.
“This time, we brought rice, flour, potatoes, eggs, and sweet potatoes. We didn’t bring anything else, and we’ve finished off some of the other stuff,” the cooks said one by one.
Qiao Mei thought for a moment and said, “Well… then let’s make potato and egg soup! And roasted sweet potatoes!”
“Alright, sister-in-law! We’ll listen to you!” the soldiers echoed in unison.
A female soldier quietly watched all of this from the side. She could not help but clench the table top beside her and look at Qiao Mei with enmity.
“Zheng Yuan, what are you doing here?” a soldier asked.
“Ah! I… I’m not doing anything. What’s wrong?” Zheng Yuan was stunned for a moment.
“Nothing much, I just wanted to tell you that Commander Xia asked you to join him in a meeting,” the soldier replied.
“Yes, I understand.” Zheng Yuan nodded.
After watching the soldier leave, Zheng Yuan took another long hard look at Qiao Mei and turned to leave.
Qiao Mei was completely unaware of all this. She was completely immersed in cooking for the soldiers and showing off her culinary skills and was totally indifferent to everything that was happening around her.
In less than half an hour, the potato and egg soup was ready. The fragrance filled the entire camp and everyone stared at the delicious food in Qiao Mei’s pot.
All of them did not stop what they were doing, but their hearts and minds had long been seduced by the smell of Qiao Mei’s delicious food. They all only wanted to finish work early and go back to eat.
After searching for another half an hour to make sure that no one was around, the troop was dismissed.
Qiao Mei was relieved to see that there were no casualties being carried back. That area had long been evacuated and basically no one would stay around there for too long.
After Xia Zhe’s meeting, he let everyone go and have their meal. Everybody’s first reaction was to rush to the cookhouse to queue up for food, afraid that if they queued too late, the food would all be eaten up by others.
“Hey! No need to rush! Everyone has a share!” Qiao Mei shouted.
Qiao Mei quietly kept a portion for Xia Zhe and her. She had worked hard for more than an hour to cook, so she thought she should be allowed this bit of remuneration.
Xia Zhe came over and semi-hugged Qiao Mei back to the tent in the camp. His gentle actions were witnessed by Zheng Yuan, who was standing in the corner.