When Su Hua and her companion returned to the courtyard of the old Su family, they saw the three little boys, Da Lang, squatting by the fence, all craning their necks to look in the direction of the small wooden house at the end of the village.
"Aunt, Uncle Jinhan, you're back!"
As soon as the three siblings saw the two, they ran over to them.
When they saw the row of dried rabbits hanging on Xiao Jinhan's body, their eyes lit up even more.
"Wow, how come there are so many rabbits all of a sudden?"
"Each one of them is so fat, much bigger than the eight we have at home!"
"This one is worth eight of ours..."
Looking at the three pairs of bright black eyes, Su Hua couldn't help but chuckle. "These are dried rabbits that Young Master Xiao gave us. As for whether to braise or steam them, we'll ask your grandmother when we get back and let her decide! But what are you all doing squatting by the fence in the middle of the day?"
Upon hearing that the rabbit was a gift for their family, the three siblings, including Dalang, helped to accept it.
"Grandma said so." Erlang hugged the rabbit and slurped up a mouthful of saliva. "Grandma just told us to call Aunt and Uncle Jinhan home for lunch, but she also told us not to go to the cabin and to stay here."
"Huh?" Su Hua looked puzzled.
Your mother is calling you home for dinner? And she's calling you from all the way around the fence?
"Auntie, Grandma made a big pot of fragrant braised chicken for lunch today. You can smell the aroma from far away even with the lid on." Chunhua couldn't help but sniffle and then pulled Suhua to the vegetable garden.
Pointing with his little finger to a large wooden bucket next to him.
"And this, Auntie, look! We caught it in the field this morning when we were planting rice seedlings!"
The girl was slightly taken aback. Dahe Village is located at the junction of the north and south during the reign of Yu the Great. There are many paddy fields and little dry land. Every spring, rice seedlings are usually raised in mid-March and transplanted at the end of March. Nowadays, most villagers are busy transplanting rice seedlings in the paddy fields. Old Su's family had only put their business of making delicious snails on hold for a few days.
Now, once the remaining snails are sold, the business of making these snails will be temporarily put aside.
It wasn't because of the appearance of Liu's stir-fried snail meat, but because snails are a seasonal species.
The saying "March snails are better than fat geese" not only refers to the fact that snail meat tastes best in March, but also because March is the peak season for river snails. During this period, the Su family has been catching river snails in the river day and night, but now they can find fewer and fewer, and they need time to recover.
After all, draining the pond to catch all the fish and burning the forest to hunt are unacceptable in any era.
Su Hua followed her movement and looked into the bucket, her almond-shaped eyes instantly lighting up.
The large wooden tub was filled with eels and loaches. The eels were plump and fresh, some as thick as two adult fingers, and others as thick as a thumb. The loaches beside them kept shaking their heads and wagging their tails, trying to climb out of the tub.
Beside the wooden bucket, Xiao Hei braced its two hind paws on the ground while its two front paws gripped the edge of the bucket with all its might.
Every time he saw an eel or loach popping its head out, he would slap it with his claw.
He does indeed have some of the imposing presence of a young wolfhound.
Dalang pursed his lips and explained, "Originally, loach and eel had a strong fishy smell, so we never cooked them at home. But today, my second uncle saw them and told us to pick them all up, saying that my aunt might turn them into the next dish, 'snail slurping'."
Erlang quietly chimed in, "Just now, I also saw the milk put a little bit of lard in it."
When making the flavored snails, they knew that adding some lard could speed up the process of the snails expelling sand.
Nowadays, putting lard into eels and loaches is probably based on the same principle.
Chunhua sniffed the aroma of braised chicken in the yard while tugging at Su Hua's sleeve, "Auntie, can loach and eel really be made into a dish as delicious as braised snails?"
“That’s right! Your second uncle is right. If you cook eels and loaches well, they taste even better than spicy snails! I guarantee you’ll want to eat them again and again!” Su Hua grinned, revealing her white teeth. Her big almond-shaped eyes were fixed on the large bucket, and she was already calculating how many delicious dishes she could make.
This bucket of eels and loaches must weigh at least several dozen kilograms.
Spicy eel slices with perilla, braised eel with cucumber, hand-shredded eel, pan-fried small loach, roasted loach, loach and egg soup, loach stew with tofu...
Everything can be arranged.
These completely wild ones taste so much better than farmed ones!
Upon hearing this, the three brothers subconsciously swallowed hard.
"The flavorful snails are already exceptional, but what would it be like to have something even better?"
"Who cares? My aunt is always right!"
"Yes, we need to be more careful when we plant rice this afternoon, and bring back one or two more buckets..."
"Hua'er is back! Come in and eat!" Hearing the laughter from the front yard, Madam Su peeked out from the kitchen. When she saw Xiao Jinhan next to the girl, her smile deepened instantly. "Jinhan'er is here! Come in quickly! I made braised chicken today. You must eat plenty of it. It was all made with the wild pheasant you sent over!"
After saying that, her gaze fell on the dried rabbit in the man's hand.
Her slanted eyes were full of kindness. "From now on, you're not allowed to bring so many things when you come to our house. We're all family. Keep these rabbits and pheasants to exchange for some money in town!"
"Aunt Su, you flatter me. These were caught from the mountain and aren't worth much anyway." Xiao Jinhan smiled slightly and skillfully placed the dried rabbit into the kitchen.
Seeing this, Su Hua couldn't help but purse her lips.
Following this logic, it won't be long before her own daughter falls out of favor.
Su Erhu and Su Sanhu, who were standing to the side, felt a surge of jealousy welling up inside them; they had long since fallen out of favor!
No, it should be that they were never pampered.
At this moment, Su Dahu led the oxcart into the courtyard. His honest face was covered in sweat, but his brows revealed obvious satisfaction. He strode towards Su Hua and the others, saying, "Hua'er, do you know how the magistrate judged Meng Chengshi today?"
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
