Free Web NovelChapter 2456: Chapter 2432: Jinx
Liang Dong now manages six locals under him, two of whom are also cooks, specifically cooking for the Dagger Assault Team, while the remaining four are responsible for odd jobs.
The meals Liang Dong prepares now are only for Satan and his people. Originally, they also served the artillerymen, but since all the artillerymen have been wiped out, his workload has suddenly reduced a lot. Although Liang Dong really doesn’t want to decrease his workload, there’s nothing he can do—it’s that old saying, in war, there’s always someone who dies.
As for the Dagger Assault Team’s meals, it’s not that Liang Dong is unwilling to make them, but the Dagger Assault Team refuses to eat them because it’s a taboo. In the beginning, both Gao Yang and Liang Dong didn’t understand, but after the Dagger Assault Team protested to Salim twice, the message was passed through Gao Yang, and Liang Dong was quite happy to have some free time.
Cooking two pots of meals for two groups of people to eat, logically, Vorvitsky should eat with those Yemenis from one pot, but Liang Dong is also a stubborn person. Even if the ingredients are the same, and even the water is delivered by the same vehicle, Liang Dong insists on sending a portion of Satan’s meal to Peter or Vorvitsky, who commands the Dagger Assault Team.
Moreover, Liang Dong insists on delivering it himself every time. Even if there is an assistant who delivers food to the Dagger Assault Team, he wouldn’t let someone else take the meal to Peter or Vorvitsky on his behalf.
Gao Yang had talked to Liang Dong about this several times, but Liang Dong was just unwilling to take it easy. He’s like a beast guarding its territory, protecting his scope of responsibility. In his view, his territory must be well guarded. In the kitchen of the cooking squad, he must have the final say. It needs to be him who delivers the meal to his people. No one else can say anything about it. His share of work is his own, not to be pushed out, and certainly not to be taken over by others.
Liang Dong was driving, with a Yemeni kitchen assistant in the passenger seat, and in the back of the pickup truck were large barrels of soup and a big basket of flatbreads, all covered and sealed securely, ensuring not a speck of dust could fall on them. On the back seat was a lunch box, with dishes specially set aside, freshly cooked and a bit hard, but after the little time delayed on the road, by the time they reached the place they’d be just the right tenderness, although not as good as when just off the stove, the taste wouldn’t be too bad either.
Ever since the incident of the full destruction of the artillery, Liang Dong felt especially uneasy, weighed down by what’s on his mind, even his culinary skills went awry. In the past two days, he hadn’t noticed that the dishes he cooked were so unappetizing until Gao Yang helped him get over that mental block, allowing his sense of taste to return to normal.
Now, although thinking of the dozens of dead artillerymen still weighs heavily on his heart, Liang Dong can finally function properly. Past events must remain in the past; one cannot even carry on with normal life otherwise.
Recalling Gao Yang’s counseling, Liang Dong feels quite comforted inside, although Gao Yang’s words were quite grating, saying he had no right to take the blame on himself. But upon further reflection, it really is true. People, after all, can’t just shirk responsibility readily, at least Liang Dong believes he’s definitely not one to shirk responsibility. However, realizing that this affair involving many deaths wasn’t something he caused, naturally his heart lightened significantly.
But thinking of those artillerymen he once exchanged greetings with in a poor attempt at newly learned Russian, Liang Dong still feels pained. Though the language barrier existed, they were his comrades after all, seeing young men he’d meet at least twice a day end up with unmarked graves results, would make anyone feel bad for quite some time, especially since they ate from the same pot and were comrades he cooked for.
With few artillerymen surviving, Liang Dong’s care and concern for the fallen comrades fell on the remaining few Ukrainians. He had prepared red beet soup for the first time, yet those artillerymen never got to taste it. But since a few Ukrainians were left, Liang Dong was giving them some special meals every day recently.
Actually, Liang Dong didn’t know how to make red beet soup; he just came across Yemeni beets and, knowing that Ukrainian red beet soup is made with a type of beet, he learned by watching a few Ukrainians give instructions and just started to cook it. Whether the taste was authentic wasn’t really clear. Rebrov and the remaining three artillerymen were all eating without much taste these days, and he was unsure of asking if his makeshift red beet soup was approaching anything close to the real deal.
Today, Liang Dong tried modifying the red beet soup according to Yuri’s guidance. But Yuri doesn’t really know how to cook, and would say everything Liang Dong makes is delicious, so his opinion didn’t hold much reference value. But Glolov said that his red beet soup is becoming somewhat close, especially today’s red beet soup, which showed improvements. Now Liang Dong just wanted to see if he could get a reliable evaluation from Vorvitsky.
The frontline position held by the Dagger Assault Team was straight-Line only five kilometers from the command post, but due to the winding roads, it should be at least twelve kilometers. As Liang Dong drove, he reached a mountain top, descended a ridge, and climbed a big slope towards the mountain peak occupied by the Dagger Assault Team.
The Dagger Assault Team patrolled with only two or three lookouts on the mountain peak, hiding the main force in a mountain recess below the mountain top. After crossing a ridge, Liang Dong could see the Dagger Assault Team’s concealed location, but at this moment, he saw helicopters emerging from Tianshan.
It wasn’t just one helicopter. Liang Dong spotted several helicopters dropping rappel ropes, along with a few assault helicopters hovering low, causing him to slam on the brakes.
"Mother f...ing hell!"
In astonishment, Liang Dong blurted out a string of curses, and instantly, the Yemeni beside him on the passenger’s seat shouted while pointing at the helicopters.
"Stop yelling! I saw it, SHUT UP, shut your mouth!"
After switching through several languages to tell his helper to be quiet, Liang Dong grabbed the radio and shouted: "Antelope under attack, Cobra under attack, helicopters! Transport helicopters and assault helicopters, Cobra hurry!"
This was both to notify Vorvitsky and the command post. After roaring into the radio, Liang Dong opened the car door, grabbed the rifle he had placed by his side and jumped out of the vehicle, then yelled at the Yemeni man: "Take cover! Hide!"
Liang Dong had several foreign languages to learn, mastering only a very few simple phrases in Arabic, most of which were related to cooking. So he couldn’t say much other than telling the Yemeni to take cover.
In just a moment, the Dagger Assault Team and helicopters had already engaged. Those transport helicopters were deploying troops in a surrounding maneuver. Coupled with the assault helicopters above opening fire towards the ground, the situation was shaping up to be a siege.
Liang Dong chambered a round in his rifle, feeling both shocked and annoyed, saying, "These old-timer bastards are playing high-tech stuff! Curtis, where does trouble not arise? Am I the doomsayer? Damn your mothers!"
