Several children came running in from outside.

Gao Guojing led them to the hand pump well to wash their hands: "One by one, wash slowly, you must wash your hands clean, understand?"

Yu Rujia, who was lying on the recliner, glanced at the little ones whose hair was soaked and asked, "Where did you guys go? Why are you all so sweaty?"

Duofu: "Auntie, this isn't sweat, it's water. It was too hot outside, so we went to play in the river for a while, and Uncle taught us how to swim."

Yu Rujia: "Guojing, it's broad daylight, you're not going to take your clothes off outside, are you?"

Gao Guojing hurriedly defended himself, saying, "That's not true. I went into the water fully clothed. When I came back, I put on a coat and ran back with the rest of them. I even went back to the room to change them all into dry clothes before coming out."

No wonder all you could see was that their hair was wet.

The river is right next to Yu Rujia's house, only a few dozen meters away. Nowadays, most people are at work, so there are few people walking on this road, which doesn't matter much.

Yu Rujia: "You have to be careful when you go to play in the river. Some parts of the river are several meters deep. You are not allowed to go near the river when no adult is around, understand?"

Duofu said earnestly, "Uncle Guojing told us that we won't run over there randomly."

After rubbing his hands together, Duolu picked up something from the side and rushed over to Yu Rujia to announce the good news: "Auntie, I can swim now! Uncle said I'm the best, I can learn it in no time. My older brother can learn it too, only Duoshou and Duoxi haven't learned yet."

Duo Shou retorted, "I've almost learned it too. I'll definitely learn it if I go again."

Throughout his life, Duoshou has always outsmarted Duolu, but he was a step behind Duolu in swimming, which Duoshou found hard to accept.

Duolu boasted, "I'm better than you. I even brought something for my aunt. Here, aunt, this is what I brought for you. It sticks to the stone, and it took me a lot of effort to pull it off."

Yu Rujia looked into his little hand and found a snail lying quietly in his palm, which was about four centimeters long.

Yu Rujia exclaimed in surprise, "These snails are huge! Are there many snails like these in the river?"

Duolu: "There are some more, but those aren't as big as this one. I picked the biggest one for my aunt."

Two or three centimeters is considered a large snail, and four centimeters is really rare. Yu Rujia was not surprised to hear this answer.

Yu Rujia: "Duolu is the best. Let's go to the river this afternoon and catch more snails. Auntie will make you something delicious with the snails."

Doro's big eyes immediately widened: "Delicious? I want to eat it. I'm going to bring back lots of them this afternoon."

Duoshou walked over, his big eyes lingering on the snail in Duolu's palm. He had spent a long time in the river that morning, so he naturally knew about snails and had even touched them.

Duoshou asked with a puzzled look, "Auntie, can you eat something this hard?"

Yu Rujia: "You can eat it, I guarantee you'll want more after you eat it."

Duofu: "There are many of these things in the river. Some children play with them. If we had known, we would have brought them back for our aunt to cook."

Yu Rujia: "It's okay, we can still pick them up now. If you pick them up this afternoon, we can keep them overnight so they can expel the mud from their bodies, and then we can stir-fry them and eat them tomorrow."

Kao Kuo-Ching: "Sister Ju-Chia is the most discerning eater I've ever met. I really want to try what snails taste like right now."

Even after she married Gao Shujing, Gao Guojing still habitually called her Sister Rujia, and Yu Rujia didn't correct him.

Snails, which are shelled, meatless, and full of mud, are now largely unknown in terms of how to eat, and naturally, no one knows how delicious they are.

Duoxi's chubby little body pushed aside his brothers who were blocking his way, and he came up to Yu Rujia, saying in a childish voice, "Auntie, I want to eat."

Yu Rujia touched his soft little face; it was smooth, and children's skin was the most pleasant to touch. "We picked snails this afternoon; we'll eat them tomorrow."

The little guy happily rubbed against Yu Rujia's palm, looking quite content. He even leaned closer, hugging her arm affectionately and grinning foolishly, seemingly unbothered by the heat.

Gao Guojing turned and left excitedly: "I'm going to cook now, and after lunch I'll go pick snails."

Duofu lifted his short legs and followed: "I'll help Uncle Guojing start the fire."

Yu Rujia: "There's no need to rush. We can go after lunch break, and we'll still have time."

It's only a few dozen meters from her home. If someone comes looking for her, they can just have them shout from the doorway and she'll hear them. So she plans to go with them in the afternoon.

In the afternoon, after giving instructions to Gao Shujing, Yu Rujia led a large group of people to the riverbank with baskets.

The river is several meters deep in some places, but the water is shallower near her house. Most of the time, the water level is just above her ankles, and there are usually no fish coming this way.

The family has a hand pump well, so they don't need to go outside to wash clothes like those who don't have a well. That's why Yu Rujia doesn't come here often, and she ended up missing out on a delicacy like snails.

Snails that nobody eats are indeed everywhere. Although there are very few snails over four centimeters in size, there are many snails that are over three centimeters in size.

Yu Rujia casually picked up a few snails that were three or four centimeters long and said, "You pick snails that are this big; the small ones don't have any meat."

The group looked into her hand, noted the size of the snails, and then went into the water to pick them up. Even Xiao Duoxi waded into the water to join in the fun.

The weather is hot now, so it's not a big deal to soak in the water for an hour or two. Yu Rujia followed Duoxi around picking up snails to prevent the little guy from accidentally wandering into deep water.

There were several small chirping sounds nearby.

“This one is big, wow, this one is even bigger.”

"The big ones, pick the big ones."

Gao Guojing followed behind the children: "Stay around me and my aunt and pick them up. Don't go too far. If anyone goes too far, he will be punished by not being allowed to eat snails."

"You educated youth, what are you picking up over there?" It was an adult passing by in the distance.

Although no one lives within a hundred meters of her house, there is still land available, and some workers pass by on their way to work.

Yu Rujia: "Let's pick some snails to take home."

Do you raise chickens or ducks at home?

"No, I ate it myself."

"This hard thing has no meat, what are you going to eat?"

"Even a small mosquito is still meat, and this snail is bigger than a mosquito, right? Let's take it back and dig it out and try."

"This stuff doesn't taste good; it's fishy and has a lot of sand. You can't eat it."

People who don't know how to do it do so this way, and Yu Rujia is used to it.

The man offered a few words of advice, but to no avail, and then left.

Duoshou was unhappy to hear others speak ill of Yu Rujia, and pouted, saying, "They can't cook well themselves, so they say that snails are not tasty. Aunt's snails must be delicious."