Jiang Ermin, not to be outdone, said from the side, "Mom, I'm not left out either. I went with Er Ya."

Although he didn't put in any effort in catching the fish, he was the one who brought them back. Even if he didn't do anything special, he still put in the effort, right?

Wang Meili was in a good mood and waved her hand, "Okay, you two get one, each of you get an extra two pieces of fish."

Jiang Damin, standing nearby, quickly chimed in, "What about me?"

Wang Meili glared at him: "Go do your homework now. If you don't finish it today, you can't eat a single bite of the fish I make."

Jiang Damin let out a wail. Why couldn't he avoid it? There was nothing he could do but go and do his homework diligently so he could eat the fish he had been longing for.

Er Ya smelled a familiar aroma, ran to the kitchen, lifted the pot lid, and saw that the fragrant snails were almost cooked, emitting an enticing fragrance that made her mouth water.

Jiang's mother came over and asked her, "How is it? Is it the taste you wanted?"

Er Ya hugged Jiang's mother tightly: "Mom, I love you to death, this is the one."

Wang Meili watched the mother and daughter being all lovey-dovey and felt incredibly envious. Looking at how well-behaved Er Ya was, she thought to herself how she wished she could have a daughter someday.

Chen Xiuhua couldn't stand it anymore and broke the sweet moment between the mother and daughter: "Alright, you two, first decide how you want to eat this fish. Kill it quickly while we have time, so we can eat it tonight."

Wang Meili said, "Er Ya caught the fish. How would you like it cooked, Er Ya?"

Er Ya lowered her head and thought for a moment: "Let's eat spicy fish, with some side dishes, enough for so many of us. It just needs a lot of chili peppers, otherwise it won't be flavorful enough."

"If you want chili peppers, that's easy. I planted a lot last year, and since we couldn't finish them all, I dried them and stored them away. There's about half a bag of them, which is enough for us."

Er Ya clapped her hands happily and said, "Great! Great! Tonight we'll have spicy fish and stir-fried snails. I'm so happy! Yay!"

Without further ado, Wang Meili called Er Ya to go inside to rest and have some water.

She started cleaning the fish herself, but when she got to the step of slicing it, she was stumped and called over Jiang's mother, who was stir-frying snails:

"Hey girl, why don't you do the slicing of the fish? We've never had fish cooked like this before, and I don't know how to do it. I'll help you out later."

"I didn't know how to do it before either. It's all because of Er Ya. She has a lot of ideas about food. I did it all according to her instructions."

After Jiang's mother finished speaking, she took the knife and quickly sliced ​​the fish into thin slices, placing them on a plate for later use.

"Er Ya is amazing! Where did you learn to eat like this? I've never seen anything like it before. And look at your fish slices, they're so thin you can see me through them."

“My second daughter is a goddess…”

Chen Xiuhua, who was tending the fire, coughed. Jiang's mother stopped talking and asked worriedly, "Mother, what's wrong? Have you caught a cold?"

Chen Xiuhua gave a look: "No, I just choked on the fire, it's nothing."

Seeing that Chen Xiuhua didn't seem to be in any trouble, Wang Meili asked again, "Little sister, what did you say Er Ya was again?"

"It's nothing, that girl just loves to eat. I don't know where she learned it from, but after she came back, she insisted that I make it for her, and that's how she slowly learned it. Sigh~ Sister-in-law, these two fish are too much to eat, right? Why don't we save one for tomorrow?"

Wang Meili didn't bother asking any more questions. She looked at the two fish and saw that they indeed had a lot of meat, and she couldn't finish them all at once.

My sister-in-law is leaving sometime tomorrow, and we don't have any good dishes to serve them. It would be good to leave some food behind. We can add pork and other ingredients tomorrow and make a few more dishes.

"It's okay to leave some if we can't finish it. There's still a pot of snails left, and we can stew the remaining fish with tofu tomorrow."

"Okay, Mom, light the small pot on the fire too, let's hurry up and cook the meal, it'll be dark soon."

The kitchen was bustling with activity.

Er Ya drank a bowl of water, then swayed and walked into Jiang Damin's room. She knocked on the door, and when no one answered, she went inside and saw Jiang Damin writing furiously.

He stepped forward and looked at him: "Cousin, you can write it if you write it seriously, right? Why did you write it nonsense just now and make Aunt angry for no reason?"

"Who said I can't write? I'm just too lazy to write. There's no use in learning this stuff; it can't put food on the table, and it can't be exchanged for money."

Er Ya asked curiously, "Then tell me, if you don't want to learn this, what do you want to do?"

"I want to make money, lots and lots of money, and with money I can have everything."

Speechless. How come there's another Qian Lu? Has she run into all the school-averse teenagers of this era?

"Then tell me, if you can't even read a few words and can't do accounting, how do you plan to make money?"

Jiang Damin stammered for a long time, unable to come up with a coherent explanation.

Er Ya said earnestly, "It's true that you want to earn money to support your family, but the premise is that you have to have the ability to earn money. Look at you, all skin and bones, you're as thin as a skeleton. Even if you went to do manual labor, no one would hire you."

Jiang Damin retorted, "I'll learn a trade, I'll learn to build houses from my dad, that way I can earn some money."

"You know, my uncle does have a skill, he can build houses, that's true, but look at your family, don't you still have trouble even getting a meal of meat?"

Jiang Damin remained silent.

Er Ya continued, "Look at the boys in the village, they stop going to school early. When they reach the right age, they get married, have children, and then they have to act like men and start supporting their families. Do you want to be like that too?"

Jiang Damin fell silent as he thought of his father working tirelessly from dawn till dusk to build the house.

Like this time, someone in the neighboring town was building a house, and he hasn't been home for two weeks. Does he also want to be like his father, having several children and then doing hard labor to earn money to support the family, while the children don't see their father for weeks?

Seeing Jiang Damin's silent and sullen expression, she knew that her words had struck a chord with him: "If you study hard, even if you don't go to university, just going to high school or something, you can find a stable job, which will ensure your livelihood."

Jiang Damin said with a sob in his voice, "But... our family is not well-off, and we simply cannot afford to support two children. Ermin loves learning so much, and I also want to earn money as soon as possible so that I can support Ermin to go to university with Dad."

He knew that going to school had many benefits, and for children from poor families like theirs, going to school was the best way out. But the situation didn't allow it. It was already a huge burden for a family to be able to support one child's education, let alone two students in their family.

"So that's what you think."

To be continued!