Gao Xiujuan smiled so broadly she couldn't stop, her eyes constantly peering into the buckets.

Gao Xiujuan: "Really? Let me see. Wow, this grass carp is quite big. This one must weigh more than ten pounds, right? There are also a few whitebait. This fish is perfect for making soup."

Xia Taishun's eyes swept over the three buckets, and he patted Gao Guojing's shoulder with a look of relief. With so many fish, they no longer had to worry about not having meat to eat.

Xia Taishun: "I was just talking to your mother about not having enough meat, but I didn't expect that as soon as you went out, you would have enough meat for several days."

Gao Shujing put Duoyi, whom he had been holding for two or three hours, on the ground and let him cling to Duoyi and play.

Hearing Xia Taishun's words, Gao Shujing asked in confusion, "There's plenty of meat at home, enough to last for a week or two, how come there's no meat?"

Gao Xiujuan was even more puzzled: "I checked in the kitchen and there were only a dozen or so pounds of meat in the cupboard. We only brought back a dozen or so pounds of meat from this trip. Without these fish, it would have been gone in a day or two. How could we possibly eat it for a week or two?"

Doesn't he have any idea how much his family can eat?

Duolu pulled away from his brothers' group: "Third Grandma, we've prepared a lot of meat. It's in the buckets in the kitchen, all three buckets are full. Didn't you see?"

Since Yu Rujia and the others came, Gao Shujing and the children have been cooking the meals at home, so Gao Xiujuan and Xia Taishun can have something to eat when they come home from work.

I hadn't paid much attention to the changes in the kitchen, assuming the ingredients were still stored in the cabinets as before. I hadn't opened the buckets one by one to check, which is why I didn't notice the meat inside.

Gao Xiujuan hurried into the kitchen and, guided by Duolu, opened the three innermost buckets, finding them indeed filled with meat.

Gao Xiujuan's eyes lit up: "My goodness! Where did you get so much meat?"

She'd never seen so much meat in the house before. She'd thought she was going to starve, but then she was told there was plenty to eat—it felt amazing!

Duolu said, "My uncle has been taking us out for the past two or three days, and we bring back whatever meat we see. But these three buckets are not all meat. One bucket is bones, one bucket is offal, and only one bucket contains pork and chicken."

"Those things in the kitchen cabinet were put there because they couldn't fit in the buckets anymore, and they're meant to be used when we're cooking."

Xia Taishun, who followed in, said happily, "With so much meat, we can eat meat to our hearts' content every day."

With enough meat, Gao Xiujuan became generous: "Guojing, send two bluefish and two carp to your uncle's place."

Gao Guojing readily agreed, "Okay, I'll go right away." He quickly separated four fish, picked them up, and headed outside.

In less than an hour, Gao Guojing returned carrying a box of frozen pears: "Come and see what delicious food I brought back for you."

Dorjee peeked over and exclaimed, "It's a frozen pear! We've had them before, and this one is delicious!"

Xia Taishun: "Hey, frozen pears are a specialty of the northernmost region. You can still get frozen pears where you are?"

The frozen pears are in the far north, while the Shangfen Brigade is in the far south. If these pears are transported to the north, they will thaw.

Duo Shou explained, "It was given to us by Aunt Guo, a friend of my aunt's at the supply and marketing cooperative. We've only eaten it once."

He initially thought it was a bad pear, but after eating it, he found it surprisingly delicious. It was a pity that the portion was too small, and he only got a taste before it was gone. He never expected to have such a treat today.

Duole, who had never eaten frozen pears before, asked with saliva dripping from his mouth, "Uncle, can we eat frozen pears now?"

Gao Guojing: "It's too cold to eat anything icy. I'll cook some for you after dinner."

The hot pot dinner was something everyone had been looking forward to. Tonight's broth was made from fish bones, making it especially flavorful.

Apart from the fish sent to Gao Tianmu's house and the whitebait, all the fish brought back were killed. The fish bones were used as the base for a hot pot, some of the fish meat was sliced ​​off and cooked in a hot pot tonight, and the rest was stored in a bucket.

The main problem is the sub-zero temperature; the water freezes easily, and the fish can die if you're not careful. It's better to kill them and keep them for tomorrow or the day after.

Xia Jingrong praised, "Today's hot pot is even tastier than the previous ones. Shujing, your skills are truly those of a master chef. I only knew you were good at studying and had excellent technical skills, but I never imagined your culinary skills could reach such a pinnacle."

Gao Guojing brought back hot pot seasoning from the Shangfen Brigade. Although some of it was divided up by his close comrades, a few packets were left with Xia Taishun.

They always invite Xia Jingrong to their big meals.

I used to think the pot was delicious, but none of the pots I've ever cooked have tasted as good as this one.

A smile spread across Gao Shujing's face as he glanced at his wife beside him and said in a gentle voice, "If Third Brother had this many ingredients to practice with every day, and practiced for ten years, your cooking skills would be just as good as mine."

If you have a foodie in the family, you have to improve your cooking skills.

After eating a piece of fresh fish, Yu Rujia said, "Eating hot pot in the dead of winter is the most satisfying thing. After a hot pot meal, my whole body feels warm."

Gao Xiujuan looked up from her bowl and said, "I agree with that. In the dead of winter, we should eat hot pot. It's just that the ingredients are so hard to come by. If you hadn't made arrangements in advance, we would have had a hard time putting together the ingredients for a hot pot."

Xia Taishun: "Yes, the hot pot we usually eat only has a few ingredients, not as plentiful as this time."

With his mouth full of meat, Duolu still managed to say something: "This is hardly a feast. The real feast is when we make hot pot at home. We have beef, mutton, venison, fish, pork, and chicken. Every time we have hot pot, there are at least a dozen kinds of meat."

Duo Shou chimed in, "That's right, we have at least seven or eight kinds of vegetables at home, but there are no vegetables tonight."

Xia Jingrong scooped up a mouthful of cabbage with his chopsticks and put it in his bowl: "There are green vegetables here, isn't this it? If you can't find any, you can tell me and I'll get you as much as you want."

Gao Guojing explained, "Third Brother, the green vegetables they're talking about are different from the green vegetables you're talking about. For them, only vegetables with green leaves can be considered green vegetables; Chinese cabbage doesn't count."

"Duoshou, don't even think about eating vegetables in the dead of winter in Jiangcheng. In this cold weather, nothing can grow. You're lucky if you have cabbage and potatoes to eat."

Yu Rujia: "Yes, the weather is different on both sides, so the growth patterns of crops are different. It snows in Jiangcheng, but look at our side, when has it ever snowed?"

Gao Xiujuan: "What you're saying makes me want to go to the Shangfen Brigade."

Eating more than ten kinds of meat in one meal was only a few times twenty or thirty years ago when the Xia family held important events. In winter, there were also more than ten kinds of green vegetables.

Compared to their eldest son's family, their meals were like those of a poor family.

I'm so envious of my eldest son's family's meals. No wonder my youngest son always needs a while to adjust when he returns to his familiar home.

The difference in food is so drastic, even she would have to adapt.