Hearing this, He Tiantian almost dropped the bowl in her hand. It didn't seem right for Zhang Qingshan to say he would eat the snake king's "offspring" in front of him!
He quickly tried to comfort the Snake King inside the barrier in his mind: "Snake King, don't be angry. Zhang Qingshan was just extremely hungry; he didn't mean to say he wanted to eat your kind..."
"Hmph!" The Snake King sneered contemptuously, "You lowly humans only know how to eat these lowly snakes. I am a spirit snake, not like them!"
"Hehe, that's good, that's good." He Tiantian was relieved. As long as it wasn't protected by the Snake King, she could eat it.
After lunch and a half-hour rest, Secretary Qi led the team to work on the river. Before leaving, he praised Zhao Dajiao, He Tiantian, and Qi Xiaoyan, and told them that after cleaning up, they could do some light work on the bank.
After a good lunch, everyone had the energy to work in the afternoon, and by evening they had actually completed 150 meters, exceeding their target.
When they returned to the village that evening, it was already dark. Everyone was exhausted from the day, so they went home to their own mothers.
Grandma Qi had already prepared the porridge and stir-fried potatoes. He Tiantian ate some, chatted with Grandma Qi for a while, and then went back to sleep.
After the villagers returned home, they mentioned that they had eaten chicken while working. While praising He Tiantian and Qi Xiaoyan for their generosity, Lin Xiaoru and Huang Jingli, who were at the educated youth settlement, secretly regretted their actions.
"If we had known there would be good food, we would have gone to work too," Lin Xiaoru said unhappily. She hadn't eaten meat in a long time.
Huang Jingli lowered her head, pouted, and thought to herself, "Even if you want to go, you can't do the work, so they won't let you go!"
Huang Jingli was self-aware; she knew she couldn't work as well as others and didn't have He Tiantian's good interpersonal skills, so she wasn't assigned any easy tasks. Therefore, she wasn't jealous.
“Alright, let’s eat sparingly, we won’t go hungry,” Huang Jingli said. “Didn’t you see that Wang Lei, Zhang Qingshan, Sister Wu, and Ye Xiaofan could barely lift their legs when they came back? Those jobs are too heavy for us to handle, so let’s not embarrass ourselves by doing them.”
Lin Xiaoru knew that Huang Jingli was telling the truth, but she was still upset. Why could He Tiantian do light work, but others couldn't? It was so unfair, and she was going to report it.
However, Huang Jingli must not know about this; it's best if only she knows. Since there's no oxcart to go to the county town and she can't personally deliver the letter, Lin Xiaoru has no choice but to suppress the idea for the time being.
The next morning, Qi Xiaoyan brought several baskets from home and asked Zhang Qingshan and Wang Lei to unload them.
Sure enough, when they heard there were five baskets, their eyes lit up. They hurriedly grabbed shovels, dug up a handful of earthworms, killed them, put them in the baskets, took them to the bottom of the river, and found a few suitable spots to put them down.
There's a ring of barbs at the entrance of this basket, so once eels, loaches, or fish go in, they can't get out.
Qi Xiaoyan also brought a short fishing net, which she and He Tiantian set up in the stream while washing potatoes. In just a short while, they managed to catch a pound or two of fish. However, these fish were very small and there weren't many, not even enough for soup.
"Little Swallow, you're helping Director Zhao. I'll just watch here and see if we can catch any more fish," He Tiantian instructed. "Another four or five pounds should be enough."
After Qi Xiaoyan returned, she spoke with Director Zhao, who agreed and told He Tiantian to go catch fish without worry, and not to interfere with steaming buns or cooking.
There's still plenty of firewood. We don't need to chop any today; we just need to steam buns and cook some vegetables. That's enough for two people.
He Tiantian stared intently at the stream, and it took her an hour to catch just over a pound of fish. Combined with what she had caught before, she had less than three pounds in total.
"Director Zhao, look at this basket, there's only this much, I don't think it'll be enough." He Tiantian said embarrassedly, she had been busy all morning and only managed to get this much, it was definitely not enough to eat.
Director Zhao glanced at it, thought for a moment, and said, "Then let's just make a mixed fish soup. One small spoonful for each person to dip in their steamed buns. That should be enough."
Just then, Wang Lei and Zhang Qingshan came over carrying several heavy baskets, beaming with joy. "Director Zhao, Xiao Yan brought over a few baskets. We went down into the river and just brought them up to check. We actually caught quite a lot of noodles. See if it's enough?"
Wang Lei worked quickly and efficiently, emptying the baskets all at once. Inside were not only crayfish, but also many small fish, a dozen or so eels, two snakes, and numerous small loaches. He emptied all five baskets, filling a whole bucket.
Director Zhao was in a good mood upon seeing so many, and said, "The loach has mud in its belly, so we can't cook it today. We'll keep it to purge the mud from its belly before eating it. Throw away these two snakes; we don't eat those here. Today we'll make small fish soup, stir-fried eel, and stir-fried potatoes."
It has both meat and vegetables, and the portions are very generous.
Upon hearing that Director Zhao was going to throw the snake away, Zhang Qingshan quickly said, "Director Zhao, if you don't want it, can I have it? We like to eat snake meat where I'm from."
"Sure, you can take it." Director Zhao wasn't about to let this favor slip by; after all, they weren't going to eat it, so keeping it was pointless.
Zhang Qingshan found two bamboo tubes, put the two water snakes inside, and planned to take them home that night for a feast.
"Keep digging for earthworms and put them in the basket. See if you can catch some more. If you catch a lot, you can make more tomorrow," Director Zhao instructed. With meat every day, everyone could eat better and work even harder.
"Yes, Director Zhao, I was thinking of going back to the village tonight and getting a few more baskets. Judging from what we saw earlier, there were quite a few fish and shrimp in the water. I wonder why there are so many here? Why isn't anyone catching them?" Zhang Qingshan said with a smile. Young people have big appetites, and even though they had just eaten, they still felt hungry and got hungry very easily.
Upon hearing this, Director Zhao said, "No need for you to trouble yourselves. I'll go back and look for some tonight. Everyone will be happy if we can have some meat. These are from the river and are unclaimed. The commune didn't care about these things before."
With Director Zhao stepping in, things will be even better.
Director Zhao started frying potatoes, while He Tiantian and Qi Xiaoyan carried buckets and knives to the stream to clean up the food. There was only an hour left before lunchtime, so they had to get it done as soon as possible.
There weren't many small fish, so He Tiantian asked Qi Xiaoyan to clean them. After that, she would take them to Director Zhao so she could make fish soup. He Tiantian continued cleaning eels by the stream. These tasks were child's play for her, especially after Qi Xiaoyan left, she was even faster.
By the time Qi Xiaoyan returned to help, He Tiantian had already cleaned up the last strip.
"Sister Tian, you're so fast! Is it clean inside?" Qi Xiaoyan asked curiously, hardly believing her eyes. If she were to do it herself, it might take another half hour to finish. (To be continued.)
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