After chatting with Bakanidze for a while, Sokov got up and walked into the kitchen when he remembered that he was going to make roast lamb chops.

  Nina, who was busy in the kitchen at the moment, saw Sokov walking in, and couldn't help asking curiously, "Misha, what do you want?"

   "I promised Assia to make grilled lamb chops for her." Sokov pointed to the cloth bag next to him, "The lamb chops are in the bag."

  At this time, Asiya, who followed up, happened to hear what Sokov said, and quickly said, "I'll help you wash the lamb chops and potatoes."

  Unexpectedly, Nina pushed her out of the kitchen: "Asiya, you are pregnant, you should rest more, leave the things here to me and Misha."

  Assia turned her head and glanced at Sokov, as if asking him if she could leave the kitchen. Seeing Sokov nodding vigorously at him, he reluctantly left the kitchen.

"Misha, teach me how to make grilled lamb chops." Nina waited for Assia to leave, and humbly asked Sokov for advice: "After I learn it, I can often cook it for Assia when I have the opportunity. eat."

After Sokov explained the steps of roasting lamb chops in detail, Nina nodded and said, "Misha, this method of yours, although I have roasted potatoes and lamb chops before, I usually bake them separately. It’s the first time I’ve heard of the method of spreading cut potato cubes on the bottom of a baking dish.”

Sokov poured out the lamb chops from the cloth bag, and was about to rinse them under the tap, but was stopped by Nina: "Misha, if the lamb chops are washed with water and then roasted, the roasted meat will It will dry out and seriously affect the taste."

   "But the lamb chops are not very clean, so you can't just put them in and roast them?"

   "Although you can't wash it with water, you can use other methods to clean it." Nina said, picked up a damp cloth and began to wipe the lamb chops: "It is the same to wipe the dirty things on the lamb chops with a damp cloth."

While Sokov and Nina were cooking in the kitchen, Bakanidze, who was sitting in the living room, said to Asiya: "Asiya, it's rare for you to come back. I plan to invite two people to be guests. You will not object Bar?"

Assia thought that the people her father wanted to invite must be colleagues in the factory, and they had a good relationship, so she readily agreed: "You can invite whoever you want, I don't think Misha would mind."

  Seeing that Asiya agreed to his request, Bakanidze got up and walked outside. The reason why he suddenly came up with the idea of ​​entertaining guests was because he heard that the factory was going to send someone to carry out a secret mission two days ago, and his son-in-law just mentioned that he would leave Moscow to carry out a special mission. He contacted the two, Feel sure there is a connection. He planned to call the factory manager and the military representative, and in front of Sokov, mention the matter on the sidelines, to see if he could be allowed to participate in this secret mission.

  He came to the duty room at the entrance of the dormitory area, found a phone, and called the factory director's office. When he heard the voice of the factory manager Prazolev, he said with a smile: "Comrade Prazolev, I wonder if you are free now, I would like to invite you to my house as a guest?"

When Prazolev heard that Bakanidze invited him to his home, he immediately thought of the candidates who were arranged by the factory to go to the Far East to perform tasks. His health and safety considerations, so he was excluded from the list. For this matter, Bakanidze came to him every day, hoping to change his mind and let him add his name to the list.

"Comrade Bakanidze," Prazolev said righteously: "The list is the result of discussions among all the leaders of the factory. It is useless for you to pester me any longer. I have something to do today, so I won't go." I wish you a good appetite!"

"Comrade factory director." Seeing that Prazolev bluntly rejected his invitation, Bakanidze was a little unhappy. He invited the other party to be a guest. He really wanted to use this party to make the other party change his mind and let himself Participate in covert operations soon to come. He didn't want to miss such a good opportunity, so he quickly added: "By the way, I forgot to tell you that Asia and her husband are back today."

Prazolev, who was about to hang up the phone, was shocked when he heard that Bakanidze's son-in-law had returned. As the director of the instrument factory, he usually paid special attention to various news and knew that the other party's son-in-law, Soko General Husband has repeatedly made outstanding achievements on the battlefield. Although the war is over, the opponent's future development is limitless. If you can get acquainted with him, it will also be of great help to your future development. It was precisely because of this consideration that he quickly changed his mind: "Bakanidze, why didn't you say that your daughter is back. I will deal with the work in hand and rush to your house as soon as possible."

   Seeing that Prazolev agreed to come to the party, Bakanidze showed a smug smile on his face. After he put down the phone, he thought for a while, and then called the office of Major Kudrin, the military representative. He knew very well that if he wanted to participate in this secret operation, it was not enough for Prazolev to nod. Kudrin, the military representative, needs to agree.

  Major Kudrin, who had just received the call, also had the same attitude as Prazolev, and justly rejected Bakhanidze's invitation. But when he heard that Bakanidze's daughter and son-in-law were coming home today, he immediately changed his mind and said that he would definitely come to the party.

  When the grilled lamb chops made by Sokov and the pineapple chicken made by Nina were freshly baked, the invited guests also came to the house.

  Aunt Damana and her husband Michik fell as expected by Sokov. After all, they had dinner together when he came last time. But the appearance of Prazolev and Major Kudrin surprised Sokov. He thought to himself, today is just an ordinary family dinner, why did his father-in-law also call the factory manager and the military representative?

   "Hello, Comrade General!" Whether it was Prazolev or Kudrin, they were very enthusiastic after seeing Sokov: "It's a pleasure to see you again!"

   Facing the enthusiasm of the two, Sokov could not be too indifferent to them, so he shook hands with them one by one: "Comrade factory director, comrade military representative, hello! Nice to see you again."

   After looking Sokov up and down, Prazolev asked curiously: "Comrade General, why are you wearing casual clothes today?"

"I'm here to visit my father-in-law," Sokov explained with a smile: "If you wear a military uniform, you need to bring the guards, which may cause a lot of inconvenience. It is more convenient to wear casual clothes, whether you are traveling Both the subway and the bus can be as unassuming as ordinary people."      When starting to eat, Sokov thought that everyone was drinking, but they were just drinking vodka or red wine. Unexpectedly, Prazolev took out a A bottle of tequila, and said to everyone: "How about it, are you interested in trying it?"

  Sokov knew that drinking this kind of wine was too particular, and he was not used to it, so he shook his head and said, "I'm sorry, I'm not used to it, so I won't drink it."

Although Prazolev was a little disappointed to see Sokov not drinking tequila, he still took out a lemon from his pocket and handed it to Nina: "Nina, please cut the lemon into slices for us." .”

  Sokov was very curious, drink as much as you want, what does it mean to slice a lemon?

   Fortunately, the answer will be revealed soon.

  Prazolev, Bakanidze, Kudrin, and Mitchik each picked up a seasoning bottle containing salt and sprinkled some salt on the tiger's mouth in their left hand. Under Sokov's surprised gaze, they picked up the lemon slices on the plate, chewed a mouthful, drank the tequila in the cup, and then stretched out their tongues to lick the salt at the tiger's mouth. Seeing them repeating the same movements while drinking, Sokov couldn't help being stunned: It's amazing that drinking can be done like this.

  After the family dinner was over, Damana and Mitchik were the first to leave, while Prazolev and Kudrin stayed. When Asya and Nina went to the kitchen to wash the dishes, Prazolev suddenly lowered his voice and asked Sokov: "Comrade General, I want to ask you something."

   "What's the matter, please tell me."

   "Are you going to the Far East recently?"

Facing the question raised by Prazolev, Sokov did not answer, but frowned and asked, "What am I going to do in the Far East?" Apart from Asya, Bacca knew that he was about to go to the Far East to fight. Both Nize and Nina didn't know about it, so he naturally wouldn't tell Prazolev, who was not familiar with him at all.

  Prazolev is also a smart person. He quickly guessed the reason why Sokov was unwilling to tell the truth to himself, because he had also received an order from his superiors to form a maintenance team to go to the Far East. It is said to be a top-secret mission, but there are quite a few people in the instrument factory who know about it. Fortunately, everyone is tight-lipped and did not leak this secret. Based on Sokov's reaction, he inferred that the other party might also go to the Far East, so he cautiously tried: "Although the Germans have surrendered, the Kwantung Army in the Far East has always threatened the security of our country. After that, it's time to deal with them."

Sokov hesitated for a long time, but still did not say what he was about to go to the Far East, but said vaguely: "The Kwantung Army owed us a lot of blood debts for Zhang Gufeng in 1938 and Nuomenkan in 1939. Once the time is right, it will be time to pay their blood debt."

   From Sokov's words, Prazolev learned the conclusion he wanted. The general in plain clothes in front of him was indeed going to the Far East in the near future, but the other party was worried about leaking secrets and did not tell the matter. Since the other party could not tell, he made the matter clear: "General Sokov, to tell you the truth, our factory has also received an order from the superior to form a maintenance team to carry out secret tasks. Because the leaders of the factory Considering that Bakanidze has worked in the front maintenance station for most of the two years, out of consideration for him, his name is not included in the maintenance team list this time.”

Hearing what Prazolev said, Sokov immediately understood what was going on. He was still wondering just now. It was obviously just an ordinary family dinner. Why did Bakanidze call the factory manager and the military representative? ? Now the truth finally came to light. It turned out that the instrument factory wanted to organize a maintenance team to go to the frontier maintenance station, but this time Bakanidze was not on the list. In order to be able to work in the frontier, Bakanidze took advantage of the fact that he and Asiya came back to visit relatives this time, and invited the factory manager and the military representative. I am afraid that he wanted to use his own face to persuade them to agree to his going to the Far East. .

Sokov glanced at Bakhanidze who was sitting next to him, and seeing that he was looking at him expectantly, he coughed lightly, cleared his throat, and then said: "Comrade director, I think I My father-in-law has long-term experience working in frontier maintenance stations, so if the superiors want to deploy manpower to carry out similar secret missions, they can give priority to him."

  Bakanidze almost burst into tears when he heard Sokov speak for himself like this. He quickly turned his gaze to Prazolev to see what kind of reaction he had.

   "It's not easy, General Sokov." Having said all this, Prazolev fell into a difficult situation. If you agree, you will inevitably violate your original intention; but if you don't agree, if Bakanidze says a few bad things about himself in front of his son-in-law, it may have adverse effects: "The list of personnel has been submitted, and we must It may not be an easy task to modify it."

Seeing that Prazolev's tone had softened, Sokov felt that there was something to be said about the matter, so he said while the iron was hot: "Comrade factory director, it's nothing special to report the list. You can report a supplementary list and say that once the head Anyone on the first list who is unable to travel due to physical discomfort before departure will be replaced by people on the supplementary list. Do you think this is okay?"

"That's a good idea." Kudrin, who hadn't spoken all this time, suddenly interjected: "In the list we submitted, if anyone falls ill before departure and is unable to participate in the operation, we need to find someone to replace him. I think it’s better to submit a supplementary list as a substitute, once someone is unable to perform the task due to physical reasons, they can be replaced by people on the waiting list.”

"Okay, Comrade Army Representative." Since this plan was proposed by Kudrin, Prazolev said smoothly: "When I return to the office later, I will prepare a supplementary list to report and order it to the superior. Send it. Bakanidze," he turned and said to Bakanidze, "that's all I can do for you. As for whether you can participate in this secret operation in the end, it depends on your luck. "

  Bakanidze knew Prazolev well, and knowing what the other party said was tantamount to agreeing to his participation in this secret operation. He could even imagine that Prazolev would write in the new report: "Because we did not think carefully when reporting the first list, the technical strength of the maintenance team was insufficient. On some basis, add some experienced personnel to enrich the technical strength of the maintenance team."

After seeing off Prazolev and Kudrin, Bakhanidze looked in the direction of the kitchen, and then said to Sokov in a low voice: "Misha, you and I know about this, please don't worry about it." Don't tell Assia, I don't want their wives to worry about me."

  The muscles on Sokov's face twitched violently twice, thinking to himself: If you don't want Asya and Nina to worry, then you shouldn't apply to go to the Far East at all. Although the maintenance point is not as dangerous as the forward position, it is still on the battlefield, and there are still dangers. I'm afraid that as soon as you leave, Nina and Assia's mother and daughter should worry about him all day long.