Rebirth Counterattack with Space

After unloading the stuff, the two men didn’t rush to leave.

One arranged the bags of rice neatly, while the other placed the pork on the kitchen counter; then, together, they started to lay out item by item from the burlap bag.

What they first took out was actually a bone-chopping knife tied with a burlap sack. Then came the cabbage, potatoes, sweet potatoes, a small bag of flour, a large bottle of soy sauce, salt, green onions, ginger, garlic, a large basin, and cotton string.

Lu Yun and Wen Shan raised their eyebrows, a bit puzzled about what the cotton string was for?

"Hello, our logistics head worried you guys might not have the right knife to cut this pork into chunks, so he specifically asked us to check with you, to see if you need our help to cut the pork into smaller pieces?" 𝒇𝓻𝓮𝓮𝙬𝙚𝒃𝒏𝓸𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝓬𝓸𝒎

Without waiting for the two women to ask anything, the slightly shorter of the two young staff members took the initiative to inquire.

"Since we have fresh pork today, why didn’t I see it on the lunch table?" Lu Yun asked, dodging the question.

"This pork only arrived around noon, and to get it on the table, we’d have to wait until tonight or even tomorrow. Tonight, we’re making pork buns, and tomorrow at lunch, everyone will have big chunks of braised pork to enjoy. Cooking braised pork is a special skill of our canteen. If you’d like to try, we can bring some over to you then," the taller staff member replied this time.

Lu Yun and Wen Shan exchanged a glance, and Lu Yun nodded, deciding, "We’ll pass on the pork buns, but we’ll come by tomorrow noon to try your canteen’s specialty on our own."

"Alrighty, then what about this pork?"

"How long do we have to eat all this pork, and storage is also a problem, right?" Lu Yun chuckled wryly.

"That’s easy to solve, but I don’t know if you want to make cured meat or marinated meat? We brought all the tools, and we can just prepare it for you."

As if they had coordinated beforehand, the two staff members took turns answering, so this time the shorter one chimed in. After saying this, he apparently felt he wasn’t detailed enough, and began to speak more, going on at length.

"For salted meat, you cut the meat into slices, scald it with boiling water, let it cool, then rub it with salt and put it into a container to seal it. If you have a glass jar, that’s best, otherwise a small crock works too. Meat prepared like this can last for half a month even in hot weather without going bad.

If it’s cured meat, that’s when you need these cotton strings... after it’s marinated, just hang it on the window sill, and in ten to fifteen days, you’ll have cured meat."

A real eye-opener.

Lu Yun and Wen Shan were suddenly enlightened after this lesson on how to prepare salted and cured meats.

"We’ll pass on the salted meat. Please help us turn half of this into cured meat, and just cut the rest into chunks. Thank you. By the way, what are your names?" Lu Yun thought for a moment. They had flour, after all. She could take out some flour from her "space" to add to it, and then use the remaining half of the meat to make pork buns, dumplings, and stew.

With the weather cold, there was no need for a fridge; they just needed to store it on the window sill.

"No trouble at all." The two staff members showed their white teeth as they grinned and introduced themselves, and that was when Lu Yun and Wen Shan learned that the taller one was Zhou Han and the shorter one was Yang Xinwen.

Zhou Han and Yang Xinwen were quick and clearly experienced, handling the pork with efficiency and order.

Lu Yun and Wen Shan watched for a while but found there was nothing they could help with. The kitchen was too small for two people to move around freely, let alone four, so they went to the living room instead.

Su Qiaoling soon returned as well, and not only was she carrying things herself, she was followed by a staff member, arms laden with quilts and other various sundry items.

"There are two more people downstairs, they’re going to bring up the coal soon. Each household will get a cart’s worth of coal."

"Is our stove not meant for burning firewood?" both Lu Yun and Wen Shan were surprised. They had thought it was a wood-burning stove; who knew it was actually meant for coal?

"You can burn firewood, too, but that stove is better suited for coal. There’s an open-pit coal mine nearby, so people around here have gotten used to burning coal," Su Qiaoling explained.

"I see." Lu Yun really didn’t know before. She had always thought you needed special stoves for burning coal briquettes.

When the coal was brought up, Lu Yun saw that it was all loose coal, not shaped like honeycombs, and the staff member who helped bring it up also kindly taught the three of them how to quickly and effectively get the stove burning.

After all the coal had been delivered and placed, Zhou Han and Yang Xinwen busied themselves in the kitchen for quite some time before they went in search of a branch, which they placed across the iron railing of the windowsill, and then hung the cured meat, threading it with cotton string, piece by piece.

By the time they were ready to leave, it was already close to half-past three. Lu Yun gave them two packets of the beef jerky and various dried fruits she had prepared earlier.

This treatment wasn’t just for them; every staff member who had helped with deliveries that afternoon received the same.

With paper packages in hand, Zhou Han and Yang Xinwen, like the other staff members, had faces flushed with excitement and, after saying "thank you," continued to express their joy even when they were far away from the door.

Seeing their happy faces, Lu Yun also felt content. She always had a soft spot for people who were patient, efficient, and meticulous, and besides, these workers seemed to be so easily satisfied.

"Little Mosquito, she’s the most amiable director’s wife I’ve ever encountered," Zhou Han said, smiling foolishly with his goodies.

"I’ve told you not to call me Little Mosquito, but you keep saying it. Have you no memory, huh?" Yang Xinwen first exploded in anger, then disdainfully spat at Zhou Han’s face, "Keep dreaming! When have you ever met any other director’s wives?"

His face broke into a smile, "Well, I have only seen this one, but she’s prettier than all the other family members I’ve encountered, and she’s especially nice and kind-hearted."

...

"From now on, this room will be for you two to stay in when you’re on night duty. It’s perfect, with two beds, and we can lay out these extra quilts here. It will save you the trouble of moving bedding back and forth. The hotpot tonight is simple; you can come at five thirty to start preparing for dinner, and there’ll be plenty of time."

"Alright, we’ll all come at five thirty," Su Qiaoling and Wen Shan said, nodding after listening to Lu Yun’s words.

Once the two had also left, Lu Yun went to the kitchen to clean the pig bones that Zhou Han and Yang Xinwen had trimmed off. She washed them with some warm water from the dispenser in the living room, took them to the parlor, then directly added plain water to the electric cooker. After a moment’s thought, she threw in about a dozen Sichuan peppercorns, two drops of vinegar, and two slices of fresh ginger.

All set, the base soup for tonight’s hotpot was ready.

Lu Yun couldn’t be bothered to keep walking in and out, so she used her spiritual power to move all the bags and parcels from the bedroom and put everything in its rightful place. The whole process took less than fifteen minutes.

She then extended a strand of her spiritual power throughout the house before heading back to the bedroom to set her alarm clock and, with a flash, entered her space.