Go back to the past to plant trees

"Brother Feng, do you know how to make Tianjin-style twisted dough sticks?"

That evening, after finishing his work, Zhao Jinquan ran into Feng Cheng in the canteen and casually asked him about this.

"Why are you asking this? That stuff needs to be deep-fried, which uses a lot of oil."

“Sui Zhichao wants to eat it. He said that the twisted dough sticks in his area are delicious. He said he couldn’t forget them after eating them once. He asked me if I knew how to make them. I’ve never made them before. I wanted to ask Brother Feng if you know how to make them.”

Although Sui Zhichao said he knew how to do it, Zhao Jinquan was more willing to believe Feng Cheng than Sui Zhichao. If Feng Cheng knew how, he would definitely have learned from Feng Cheng.

Feng Cheng said, "I don't know how to make big twists, but I've seen people make small twists. However, twists use too much oil. The camp's oil supply is rationed and used for cooking. Unless Sui Zhichao can buy more oil, he definitely can't make these twists."

"It uses too much oil, so I can't make it. Sui Zhichao said it was so delicious, I thought I could make it and try it," Zhao Jinquan said with some regret. Oil is hard to buy now, and everyone is given a ration. I don't even dare to put too much in when stir-frying, let alone use it for frying.

"By the way, Brother Feng, they told me to make bread tomorrow night. The old oven in the kitchen isn't working well anymore, so I need to make a new one tomorrow."

"Okay, do it, but I don't have time to help you, you'll have to do it yourself."

“It’s okay, I can do it too. This time I’m going to make a bigger one. I happen to have some leftover materials from when I made the cellar last time, so I can use them directly without having to go out and look for more.”

Feng Cheng had explained the principles of the oven to Zhao Jinquan and had also described the shapes of several ovens, so Zhao Jinquan knew how to make a new oven.

The food in the canteen was still not very good. Although there was a vegetable garden, it lacked oil. Vegetables with little oil are not tasty. In later generations, the vegetables were glossy and oily, so they tasted good.

However, no one complained. Everyone knew about the food conditions at the camp and that Zhao Tianshan had worked to improve their food standards. So even though some people couldn't eat much, no one threw a tantrum.

After dinner, Feng Cheng went to take a shower as usual, while Sui Zhichao went directly to Feng Cheng's dugout to find Zhao Jinquan.

"It's much more lively here. My dorm is so stuffy. Yan Xiangli is such a jerk. He just lies there reading all day. I don't know what's so interesting about those books."

Sui Zhichao was a boisterous person by nature, and when he encountered Yan Xiangli, a modern-day homebody, it was incredibly difficult for him. In later times, it wouldn't matter much, since everyone had cell phones and travel was convenient, and people could just do their own thing. But in this era, and in Saihanba, someone like Sui Zhichao could be driven crazy by this.

Zhao Tianshan said, "You can ask Wu Yansheng and the others. You are all college students who accompany their parents, so you have common ground."

Sui Zhichao waved his hand: "Don't talk about him. I don't get along with him. It's fine to be colleagues with him, but as friends, forget it!"

In the drama, Sui Zhichao and Wu Yansheng have a good relationship because they went to the dam together, are both college students, and live together after arriving at the dam. With Wu Yansheng's smooth talk, it's no problem for him to maintain a good relationship with the two of them.

But now, although the girls are living together, the boys are still separated. In addition, when they were in Chengde, Sui Zhichao was tricked into messing with Da Kui, and then Da Kui beat him up. Don't look at Sui Zhichao as heartless and carefree. He is a college student and he is smart. How could he be fooled by Wu Yansheng with a few words?

If everyone shared a dormitory after they went up to the dam, Wu Yansheng would still have a chance to ease the tension and make amends. But since everyone was separated and Wu Yansheng didn't like going to his dormitory, the relationship naturally couldn't be eased, and the rift remained.

So now the girls are in one group, but the boys are in multiple groups: Feng Cheng has one, Wu Yansheng and Da Kui have another, Yan Xiangli goes it alone, and Sui Zhichao is now leaning towards Feng Cheng's group.

"Jinquan, what were you guys doing before? It's so boring in Bashang, you weren't just standing around like that, were you?!"

"Pretty much, but I do find something to do occasionally. Look at my carpentry, I learned it myself when I was bored."

"And that radio, Brother Feng bought me a book to learn how to assemble a radio, and then taught me how to assemble one. I made one by following the instructions, but the parts were too difficult to obtain, and it's also difficult to make these things in this place, so I gradually stopped learning it."

"You assembled this radio!"

Sui Zhichao looked at the radio on the table with a surprised expression. He thought he had bought it. Although it was in a wooden box, Sui Zhichao assumed it was specially made to protect this valuable item.

Now that he knows it was Zhao Jinquan who did it, he immediately gave a thumbs up and said, "You're really amazing."

Zhao Jinquan scratched his head, feeling a little embarrassed by the praise. "This isn't the one I made. This one was made by Brother Feng. I took the one I made home to my mom."

"That's still impressive. As long as you've made it, it's impressive."

"I feel like you're more capable than me, a college student. There are so many things I don't know, but you do."

"It's all thanks to Brother Feng's teaching. If he hadn't taught me, I wouldn't have learned so much. If we're talking about who's the best, it has to be Brother Feng."

"By the way, about that twisted dough stick you mentioned, Brother Feng said it needs to be deep-fried, which uses a lot of oil. The camp doesn't have enough oil to make it, so if you want to make it, you'll have to buy oil yourself."

Sui Zhichao was somewhat surprised, "Feng Cheng can make twisted dough sticks?"

Zhao Jinquan said, "Brother Feng said he didn't know how to make big twists, but he knew how to make small twists."

“Small twists are fine, as long as they’re twists,” Sui Zhichao had only ever heard that twists were deep-fried. He figured it was just a matter of kneading the dough and frying it in oil, it shouldn’t be difficult. Of course, he wasn’t sure if he could actually make them that way. Now that Feng Cheng knew how to make them, that was for the best, so he didn’t have to try. Of course, he could also write home and ask his family how to make them, since almost every household in their area knew how to do it. But writing a letter would take time.

"Jinquan, I heard from Lao Wei that your team can buy things, so can you buy oil?"

“That won’t work. Our team doesn’t produce oil. Everyone’s oil is rationed. Nobody will sell it. If we sell it, we’ll have nothing to eat.”

"That's it!"

Sui Zhichao was somewhat disappointed; he had thought he could buy some so he could make fried dough twists.

"I'll go down to the dam in a while and see if I can buy some oil! Once I do, we can talk about making twisted dough sticks."

"Okay, we'll talk about it after you buy it."

"By the way, Jinquan, could you make me a chess set? It's so boring here in Bashang. I'll make a chess set to pass the time. By the way, Jinquan, do you know how to play chess?"

Sui Zhichao thought about his trip here and asked.

"Chess? Yes, I can make some here," Zhao Jinquan said, immediately getting up and taking out a chess set he had made from a box next to him.

"Brother Feng taught me how to play this before, but I was too bad at it and always lost, so Brother Feng stopped playing with me."

"Not only Chinese chess, I also have Land Battle Chess, Checkers, Gomoku, and Ludo here, all of which I made before."

"So many? What are these Ludo, Gomoku, and Checkers? You can play them all?" Sui Zhichao was quite surprised to see the pile of things Zhao Jinquan had brought out. He found that Zhao Jinquan and Feng Cheng always gave him a different feeling, as they knew so many things.

"I know a little bit of everything. Brother Feng taught me. It's so boring in Bashang, so we play around with it occasionally to kill time."

"Then teach me, and we'll play together."

"Row."

As soon as he opened his mouth, Zhao Jinquan remembered that he still had carpentry work to do, "I haven't finished making the boxes for that person yet."

"It's alright, a couple more days won't make a difference. Once the trees are planted, I'll help you with the rest. It'll be quick."

"That's fine."

Work is never as easy as playing. Besides, Zhao Jinquan has been tortured so many times, he also wants to torture Sui Zhichao. This is a college student, it should be very exciting to torture him.