The Gobi Oilfield Kitchen [The Sixties]

Zhu Qiao transmigrated as a young woman sent to support the frontier. Assigned to the great northwest of the motherland, she became a cook at a residential camp in an oilfield district.

A residential camp was just a few rows of dugout homes on the Gobi Desert. The canteen where she worked was a makeshift kitchen with wind blowing in from every side. Conditions had once been harsh. Every day, meals were either noodles boiled in plain water or potatoes stewed into mush. When winter came and fresh vegetables ran out, they could go several days without seeing a speck of green.

While others fretted at the sight of the endless Gobi, Zhu Qiao thought the place wasn't nearly as desolate as they made it out to be.

In her previous life, she'd grown up here, traveling between the grasslands and the Gobi with her family from childhood. After transmigrating, she dared to take paths others wouldn't, and in places everyone else considered barren, she could return with a basketful of ingredients from the gullies and ravines: wild greens from the floodplains, mushrooms from the sandy ground, wood ear mushrooms growing on dead trees after the rain, and wild fruit ripened in the fall...

Zhu Qiao thought: Since I'm already here, it'd be a shame not to learn everything there is to eat in this place.

So whenever the supply convoy brought in provisions, Zhu Qiao would find new ways to improve their meals. Today she'd toss shepherd's purse with wild eggs and steam a pot of piping-hot buns; tomorrow she'd sizzle wild chives in a wok and cook a pot of fragrant mushroom soup with rice; the day after that she'd braise carrots, onions, and raisins into glossy pilaf; and a couple of days later, the table would feature hand-pulled noodles topped with stir-fried turnips and wood ear mushrooms.

Before long, the thing everyone at the residential camp looked forward to most each day was: What delicious food is the little kitchen making today?

Later, a young work-crew leader named Shao Zheng was assigned to the camp.

He spent most of the year working out in the field, and was tall and broad-shouldered, with a cold face and few words.

The first time he came to eat in the little kitchen, everyone else praised the food, but he didn't say a word. He just polished off a full vat of rice, then glanced at Zhu Qiao once more before leaving.

After that, game would mysteriously appear in the little kitchen.

Zhu Qiao asked around, but nobody claimed it. Refusing to give up, she hid in the kitchen one night to keep watch.

Sure enough, late that night, the curtain at the door shifted. Shao Zheng came in carrying two cleaned rabbits. He had just bent down to set them down when someone behind the stove asked, "Captain Shao, what are you doing?"

Shao Zheng froze and turned around.

Moonlight poured in through the doorway, and his gaze met Zhu Qiao's bright eyes.

He looked at her for a long moment before saying, "I found these rabbits on the road. They're for you."

Reading notes:

• The story focuses on frontier scenery, everyday food, and an ensemble cast.

• Set in a fictionalized era, with historical details kept vague. Please don't compare it to real life.

Theme: Live ordinary days with care.