Chapter 38

"Let's go down and help," Tang Zeyu said, rolling up his sleeves. "It's too slow waiting for him to fish it out alone."

"OK."

"I won't go," Chen Yunliang shrugged. "I can't swim, so you won't have to come and rescue me later."

"Then you and Lu Shiyu stay here, and Yan Hong and I will go and fish it out."

Lu Shiyu brought a net bag for the two of them. They took off their shoes and socks and rolled up their trouser legs. In fact, at this water level, their trouser legs would get wet whether they rolled them up or not, but they couldn't take off their trousers and go into the water.

Tang Zeyu walked into the river. The rushing water instantly flooded over his calves, and the water became deeper and deeper as he walked in.

At the beginning, in order to avoid getting his shirt wet, Tang Zeyu was very restrained in his movements. However, after such a restrained operation, every time he was ready to catch the fish and shrimp in the river, they had already run away. If he continued like this, he would not catch anything. Tang Zeyu looked at his clothes and sighed. He was careful for a long time, but his shirt was still wet. What's the point?

The cotton shirt soaked with water became extremely heavy, so Tang Zeyu simply took off the shirt and threw it casually by the river, completely letting go of his hands and feet.

The three of them went into the water together and soon caught a lot. The two people who were squatting on the shore watching hid in the shade of a tree and watched the three people going up and down in the water. The things in the net bag became more and more, and in the end it even turned into a competition to see who could catch more.

"It's true that as long as you do something, it will turn into competition." Chen Yunliang complained.

Lu Shiyu next to him didn't move for a long time. Chen Yunliang turned his head to look, and saw Lu Shiyu staring at the people in the river without blinking, with an extremely focused expression.

Tang Zeyu, with half of his body submerged in the river, threw a few shrimps he had just caught into the net. Water droplets slid down his tense muscles. The mermaid line around his waist was just stuck on the water surface. A small fish swam past his legs. Tang Zeyu broke through the water in an instant and grabbed the fish. After hitting it with one shot, he threw the fish into the net. The whole action was done in one go, and there were still residual water droplets hanging on his heaving chest.

Tang Zeyu wiped the water droplets from the corners of her eyes with the back of her hand, and subconsciously turned her head to look at the shore, and her eyes met with Lu Shiyu who was looking over.

They both turned their faces away at the same time, avoiding looking at each other as if they were hiding something.

Chen Yunliang also turned his face away, wishing he had no eyes.

"A great harvest!" Shaoxing Yang grinned and walked ashore with water in his clothes. The water was full of fish and shrimps he had caught, densely packed in the water.

"Luckily the weather is hot, otherwise these clothes probably won't dry."

Yan Hong came ashore with her wet clothes, and the net bag in her hand was also full of seafood.

"I really made a lot of money."

Chen Yunliang looked at the things that the people brought up, including shrimps, fish and river clams.

Shao Xingyang noticed that there were several river clams in Yan Hong's net bag and asked Yan Hong in confusion, "Why are you picking up those things?"

"Eat it. Lu Shiyu said we'll make this today."

"Eat?" Shao Xingyang felt bad when he remembered the fishy smell sprayed all over his face just now. "After cooking that thing, you won't throw away the pot with it, right?"

"Don't worry, my pot is very expensive, I can't bear to throw it away," Lu Shiyu took the two net bags and said, "Just wait and eat the finished product, I have my own way to deal with it."

"If you say there is a way, then I feel relieved."

Shaoxing Yang put down his clothes, and all the fish and shrimps in his pockets fell to the ground, splashing water everywhere, and the fish and shrimps jumped all over the ground with crackling sounds.

"How did you catch so many small fish?" Lu Shiyu picked up a finger-sized fish on the ground and said, "This fish is too small. I can't keep it."

"Huh? Why?"

"You have to keep the small fish so you can catch the big fish. If you catch all the small fish, there will be no fish left in the river."

"Ah..." Shaoxing Yang looked a little frustrated: "I still want to eat fried dried fish."

Lu Shiyu picked up a few small fish and asked Shao Xingyang to put them back into the river. Shao Xingyang squatted by the river and said angrily to the fish that had escaped, "You are lucky!"

Lu Shiyu simply classified the aquatic products collected by the three people. The only big fish was the one that Shaoxing Yang caught at the beginning. The other fish were only medium to small in size, which was definitely not enough to make a dish alone. Yanhong picked up a few river clams, and in addition, the others also picked up some scattered shrimps.

Lu Shiyu walked to the river with a few clams. He first cleaned the shells of the clams with a small brush, then inserted a short knife into the gap of the clam shells in the water. The clam shells immediately opened. He wanted to drive away predators by spraying out fishy water, but the fishy water was instantly washed away by the river. Only some bubbles and light yellow water could be seen moving away. Lu Shiyu pried open the clams and put them aside, then replaced them with another one. He repeated this process and soon finished processing several clams.

While processing river shrimps, Lu Shiyu looked at the river shrimps with two small claws on their hands, several pairs of eyes on their heads for unknown reasons, and strange blue spots on their shells. He was silent for two seconds and finally removed all the shrimp heads.

"Chen Yunliang, do you have a needle?"

"Yes, but what do you want the needle for?"

Although he was confused, Chen Yunliang still lent Lu Shiyu the needle he brought with him for suturing wounds. Lu Shiyu inserted the needle horizontally into the second joint of the shrimp's back, and the shrimp thread was completely picked out. After picking out all the river shrimps in the basket, Lu Shiyu returned the needle to Chen Yunliang. Chen Yunliang took the needle and looked at it silently for a long time. It was unknown what he thought when he saw Lu Shiyu using the suture needle to pick out the shrimp thread.

After processing the river shrimps and clams, it was time to process the fish. Lu Shiyu planned to use the small fish to make soup. He would gut the fish, remove the inedible internal organs and throw them away, and then scrape off the scales. While he was processing, Yan Hong came over with a jar.

"I have some pickled cabbage here. Can we have pickled fish tonight?"

"Of course you can," Lu Shiyu pointed at the jar and asked, "But where did you get the pickled cabbage?"

"I brought it with me when I left the base."

Lu Shiyu didn't know Yan Hong actually brought pickled cabbage, so he asked, "Why do you bring pickled cabbage when you leave the base?"

Yan Hong said expressionlessly, "To serve as a side dish for cooking compressed biscuits and dry pancakes."

Lu Shiyu: “…”

What kind of hard times have you been going through before?

"It's OK. Put down the sauerkraut."

The preparation of ingredients was almost completed. Lu Shiyu rolled up his sleeves, took out the iron pan, and started heating the pan and adding oil to prepare for cooking.

Lu Shiyu used a knife to cut the closing muscle (also known as scallop) on the other side of the river clam, took out the river clam meat, removed the clam cheeks on both sides, and squeezed out all the internal organs inside the clam meat, leaving only the clam meat. The clam meat after preliminary cleaning cannot be eaten directly. Put all the clam meat in a basin, add salt and flour, add some water and cooking wine, rub it with the clam meat to wash, and wait until the water becomes turbid and yellow, rinse the clam meat with clean water, continue to add salt, flour, water and cooking wine to wash, and repeat four times before the cleaning is complete.

The clams living in the mud of the river are full of sand. If you are lazy and don't clean them thoroughly, you will end up with a mouthful of sand when you eat.

Use the back of a knife to flatten the cleaned clam meat. The flattened clam meat will be more flavorful and softer to eat. If you skip this step and stir-fry it directly, it will taste like a shoe insole.

Boil water in a pot, pour cooking wine into the pot, add the clams and blanch them to remove the fishy smell. At this point, the processing of the clams is considered complete.

When the oil is hot, add chili peppers and minced garlic, then pour in the processed clam meat. Stir-fry slightly, then add salt, chili powder, light soy sauce, dark soy sauce, oyster sauce, and sugar. Add water and simmer until thick and then it is ready to be served.

Next is the fish soup. Marinate the small fish with cooking wine for ten minutes in advance. After the oil is hot, beat two duck eggs in and fry them until golden brown. Then remove them and set aside. Add a little salt to the hot oil. Put the small fish into the pot and fry until both sides are golden brown. Then pour in boiling water and add cooking wine. The water level should cover the fish. Cover the pot and simmer.

Cut the big fish into slices, add salt and cooking wine to marinate and mix for a few minutes, then wash it with water, then add salt, five-spice powder, starch and cooking wine, mix well and continue to marinate for a few minutes. Pour oil into the pot, add ginger slices and chili peppers, add soy sauce and oyster sauce, stir-fry until fragrant, then pour in sauerkraut. Because sauerkraut is salty, no salt is needed. After the sauerkraut is fried fragrant and the ingredients are dried, pour in hot water, add the prepared fish fillets, and simmer with the lid on.

The fish were all stewing on the fire, and only the shrimp were left.

First, wash the river shrimp on both sides with starch water to remove impurities and sediment, then set aside to drain. Place soy sauce, cooking wine, and sugar in a bowl. Pour more oil into a pot and heat the oil. Add the drained river shrimp and fry until the oil comes out. Remove the shrimp when the shells become crispy. Pour the oil from the pot into a small bowl, leaving only a thin layer of oil. Add some ginger and the prepared sauce, cook briefly in the pot, then add the river shrimp and stir-fry quickly to evenly coat them with the sauce. It's ready to serve in just a few minutes.

The fish soup on the other side is also ready. The milky white fish soup keeps bubbling in the pot. Put the fried eggs that have been fried before into the soup pot, sprinkle some seasoning powder in, and then cook for a while.

After all the prepared food is served out, a large seafood feast is ready.

"I'm so tired," Lu Shiyu stretched. "I didn't expect today's workload to be so heavy."

"Such a sumptuous meal? No wonder you're tired," Chen Yunliang said, still sterilizing the suture needle. "But we can't keep any of this. It won't taste good at the next meal."

Shao Xingyang swallowed his saliva and suppressed his desire: "No, no, if I eat too much, the captain will punish me again."

"Can't you eat in moderation?"

Tang Zeyu glanced at him and said, "Why are you acting like an ignorant child? You can't even learn to eat without being full."

"Wow, wow, wow, how can I resist eating when the food is so delicious? What's the point of living without eating!"

"So when you were out and about, was the meaning of your existence compressed biscuits?" Chen Yunliang interjected, "Actually, I couldn't resist anything delicious."

"Don't say that!"

Tang Zeyu picked up a river shrimp. Even though it had been fried, the blue spots on the shrimp shell were still obvious.

As soon as you put the river prawns in your mouth, you can taste the natural sweetness of the prawn meat. The fresh river prawns just caught from the river have firm and delicate meat and a chewy texture.

The fried shrimp shells have been charred to form a thin and crispy shell, which makes a crisp sound when bitten, just like a thin piece of seaweed. At the same time, it locks the juice in the shrimp shell, making the shrimp meat inside tender and juicy, and the taste of the shell and the meat form a sharp contrast.

The main flavor of river shrimp is salty and fresh, followed by a light sweet aftertaste. The more you taste it, the more you can feel that the fresh river shrimp is much better than the shrimp in the market within the base. The mellow sauce lingers on the tip of the tongue, combined with the firm and tender shrimp meat, the double combination of taste and flavor is simply irresistible, and you can even completely ignore the problem of strange appearance.

"Stop arguing, the captain has started eating."

"What! Captain, you're eating behind our backs!"

"What do you mean by stealing food? I'm eating openly, it's you who are not eating properly."

"You guys take your time arguing, I'll eat first."