It's almost the Chinese New Year.......

At this time of year, the big guy tries his best not to remind himself or his brothers how far away he is from his family when he is serving on the border.

Especially those who are old and soldiers, they are even calmer. It's just that according to the previous rules of barracks life, like a pendulum that adheres to the accurate time, he completes everything he should do.

But in the dead of night, a sigh from the silence, or a few calls in a dream, also revealed the homesickness of those veterans.

I'm a veteran, but I'm homesick too. Although the correspondence on letterhead is fairly stable, and the letter keeps saying that everything is fine at home, I still feel homesick.

On Sunday, it was my turn to go out shopping for daily necessities, so I walked around the county, but I was not at all as interested as usual.

I was almost like a heartless wanderer, staggering around the camp, not wanting to go back to the dormitory.

There was a familiar smell in the air.

It's chili!

And it's the taste of authentic Hunan chili peppers.

Hunan's chicken intestines and chili peppers are slender like chicken intestines, firm like solid tree trunks, but the color is like a raging flame.

Put a little oil in the cauldron, and don't wait for the oil to boil, just quickly pour the washed chicken intestines and chili peppers, and stir-fry quickly with a spatula, without stopping for a moment.

When the smell of chili peppers that can choke blood out of the lungs diffuses from the hot oil pan, quickly pour in a large bowl of garlic leaves, sprinkle with soaked tempeh and a little salt, stir-fry a few times, and a large bowl of garlic tempeh fried chili will be out of the pot!

Put a big bowl of white rice, pick up a lot of soft chili pepper that has been tortured by the high temperature with a chopstick, bite it hard, and then chew it vigorously for more than ten times!

There was an immediate burning sensation in the mouth and throat, and hot sweat would immediately pour out from the forehead, back, and even chest, and even the eyeballs would become a little blood-red. Pull a few bites of rice and pick up a chili pepper, it tastes so ......

I was almost drawn by the hot smell and walked straight in the direction where the chili smell was coming from.

It was a row of newly built bungalows, and the white ash on the walls had not yet been stained by the overwhelming loess of Xinjiang, and it was still a brilliant silver white.

The doors and windows are all traditional army green in the army, and they also smell of fresh paint. Most of the houses are unoccupied, and the locks on the doors are new, shimmering with metal in the setting sun.

The few windows were already filled with light, and the smell of all sorts of different meals poured out of the wide open windows of the kitchen, like a market where people gathered from the north and the south, so that it was almost impossible to tell where they came from.

I stood by one of the open doors, craned my neck to smell the chili peppers wafting from the door.

A neat and tidy woman saw me standing at the door, and walked over to me in Mandarin with a Hunan accent and asked me, "Who are you looking for?"

I'll just say I'm not looking for anyone. I just smell the chili peppers, I'm from Hunan, and I love the smell.

The woman laughed.

Then he turned his head and shouted to the inside of the house that you came out for a moment, there is a Hunan villager here.

In the room, a man came out wearing military pants and a sweater, and he was holding a big bowl in his hand and said, "Who, who? Don't you know a few of our Hunan folks here? How can it be ............

The man looked at me and didn't speak.

We had an armband on the sleeve of our uniform, and there were few in the army at that time with such a mark. The man probably saw my armband at a glance, and knew that I wasn't from the same unit at all.

I smiled and said I'm sorry, I just smelled the fragrance of chili peppers, I haven't smelled it for a long time. I'm going to disturb you eating, and I'll go."

I was just about to turn around and leave, when the man suddenly turned to me and said, "If you don't dislike it, you can have a meal with me!" I have tempeh and chicken intestines and chili peppers brought by my cousins, and my skills are passable, so we can have a meal together.

I didn't hesitate to walk through the door, and I didn't even say a polite look at the smiling woman.

I just want to eat that pepper, and I want to eat it from the bottom of my heart.

The man sat me down at the table and hung the military jacket on the hanger.

The man seemed to be trying to hide the rank on the uniform, but I saw it, it was a lieutenant colonel's epaulettes.

Then the man asked the woman to bring me two large bowls of hot rice, and then waved his chopsticks at me and said to eat, eat as much as you want.

I picked up a chili pepper and stuffed it into my mouth, and chewed it vigorously .......

We didn't speak, we just ate the pepper and pulled the rice towards the inside. Except for the sizzling of the chili peppers, there was no other sound at the table.

The woman didn't speak, just looked at us with a smile, and then she served us bowls of rice, each time with a big bowl.

I ate three bowls of rice, and the pot of fried chicken intestines with garlic and tempeh and chili peppers also bottomed out.

I just stood up and said thank you, it's time for me to go back and cancel the leave, thank you.

The man, like me, was sweating profusely, his eyes were red, and when he breathed, he was spewing a hot smell. The man said that's good, I won't keep you. Come whenever you want to eat chili, as long as I have here, you will have a bowl of chili.

I picked up the groceries and turned away, and the man and woman didn't give them to me.

When I walked to the door, I vaguely heard the woman smile and said You are really funny, an unknown person comes in and says to eat chili, you give it to people, you don't know how rare it is to get this chili pepper this season? It's hard for me to carry it for you for thousands of miles.

The man laughed. Say you know something? This soldier is just homesick, so he recklessly broke in and said that he wanted to eat chili.

When I was a soldier, I was like this......

So he quickened his pace and walked towards the barracks.

My mouth was full of hot and spicy taste, and the inside of my throat felt like a knife was scraping, and it hurt at all.

But I don't feel so homesick anymore.

Just because I ate that big bowl of chili peppers with my fellow who was a lieutenant colonel and didn't know the name yet, and that big bowl of chili peppers brought from my hometown.