5. Crucian Carp and Mushroom Soup
◎The kitchen roof is half collapsed◎
The autumn wind blows and leaves fly, the Wujiang River is full of plump sea bass. This is true, and Ye Yunzhao, who is currently scaling a sea bass, has a deep understanding of this.
Aunt Wang was killing fish nearby, while she squatted beside him to handle them. Each fish was very heavy, and Ye Yunzhao's arms were sore from exhaustion.
Ye Yunzhao took out the internal organs from the fish's belly and put them all in a ceramic basin. He then rinsed the plump sea bass and threw them into a wooden basin. He then cut them into pieces and arranged them neatly, waiting for Aunt Wang to take the lead in cooking.
The tricholoma is not dirty and only needs to be washed once with clean water. Sun Ning has not only kitchen knives at home, but also a bamboo knife that she sharpened herself, which is perfect for cutting mushrooms.
Aunt Wang poured some soybean oil into the large iron pot, while Ye Yunzhao sat on a small wooden stool and added firewood to the stove. When the fire was a little bigger, Aunt Wang poured the sea bass into the pot, and the aroma of meat immediately rose.
When the fish pieces were almost formed, Aunt Wang bundled the wild onions that had been washed long ago and threw them into the pot.
She stirred the food a few times with a big spatula, and Ye Yunzhao quickly stood up and handed the warm water on the stove to Aunt Wang with a polite look.
A bowl of water was poured into the pot, and it started to make a sizzling sound. Aunt Wang scooped out some coarse salt from the salt jar and covered the pot with a wooden lid.
When she opened the lid again, a salty and fragrant aroma filled the room. Aunt Wang poured the wild vegetables in, stir-fried them for a few times, and the sea bass was ready.
The pottery jar was not big, but it contained a lot of sea bass. Five portions were served at once, and Ye Yunzhao quickly placed them on the stove and covered them.
She turned around and took over the responsibility of cooking.
When the pot was hot, Ye Yunzhao slid six or seven crucian carps into the pot. When the fish bodies were slightly browned, he poured in a few bowls of boiling water, poured in the chopped tricholoma, and waited for the crucian carp and mushroom soup to boil.
Ye Yunzhao's hands and feet were swift, not giving the fish a chance to react. Meanwhile, Aunt Wang was fiddling with the hem of her clothes, looking as if she wanted to say something but didn't dare.
At this moment, Aunt Wang's heart was far from as calm as she appeared.
She watched helplessly as the "poisonous mushroom" entered the fish soup, even though County Magistrate Ye had explained that the mushroom was not poisonous. But someone in the state had died after eating a red mushroom! Aren't red and green mushrooms both somewhat bizarre in color?
The fish soup under the wooden pot lid in front of me seemed to have become a monster from the mountains, jumping out of the pot with its fangs and claws bared!
The more Aunt Wang thought about it, the more frightened she became. She felt as if her heart was being roasted by the flames of the stove. She felt really uneasy...
"Grandma Wang, my mother asked me to deliver the bowls." A little girl with pigtails stood at the door of the kitchen with her head tilted to the side. She was wearing a gray-red blouse and looked particularly cute.
"Come in quickly, dear Erya. Are you tired after carrying so many ceramic bowls? Where is your brother?" Grandma Wang took the ceramic bowls with a smile and touched Erya's head.
"My brother took Dahei to look for bird eggs." Erya said crisply.
"Oh! This kid is really mischievous! He's not afraid of falling! County Magistrate Ye, the dish is just missing this last one. You watch the pot first. I'll go find that dead kid and be back soon!" Grandma Wang hurriedly got up, said hello to Ye Yunzhao, and hurried out the door.
Erya stood obediently beside the stove, bending down from time to time to add firewood.
Ye Yunzhao opened the wooden pot lid, revealing a pot full of milky white fish soup, the aroma of which filled his nose.
"Erya, come here." She saw Erya's nose twitch, and she secretly swallowed her saliva, scooped a large spoonful of fish soup into the ceramic bowl, and brought it to Erya's mouth.
Erya blinked her eyes. She was so greedy just by smelling the fragrance that she leaned over and took a sip.
The fishy aroma mixed with the sweetness of the tricholoma was a taste Erya had never tasted before. In the past, she followed her brother to the mountains to pick fruits and dig out bird nests. The things in the mountains were sweet, sour, and even bitter, but nothing had this "complex" taste.
She couldn't help but take another big sip. Ye Yunzhao said hurriedly, "Drink carefully and be careful of the fish bones."
Erya finally realized what was happening. Her face flushed, and she tilted her head a little embarrassedly, saying, "Sister Ye, the fish soup is so delicious! I've never tasted such delicious fish soup!"
Ye Yunzhao was amused by her appearance. He patted her head and served her two large spoonfuls of food, which came with a lot of white fish meat.
The sun is at its hottest at noon. Everyone has returned home from the fields and every household is busy cooking. A faint aroma of meat drifts farther and farther away on the mountain breeze.
Sun Ning's house was not connected to the houses of the villagers in Xixiang. A group of strong men were sawing wood behind her house, so she could smell the smell most clearly.
In addition, several men and women who were picking wild vegetables in the back mountain also knew that this was the hardest food they would have to eat on the first day of logging.
Several people gathered together, smacking their lips and muttering, "There's actually meat in the felled trees. If I had known there was meat, I would have gone too!"
"That's right. I don't know if they still need people. Didn't they say they needed a lot of wood? Otherwise, we should go ask the headman later."
"Come on, didn't County Magistrate Ye say that there are few people in our village, only thirteen. I asked you to go and help, but you insisted that the buns in the county must be black and hard. In that case, don't even think about eating them now." The woman put a handful of wild vegetables in her backpack and muttered.
"Stop it, what are you talking about!" The man looked angry and felt that he had lost face, so he scolded.
Another woman, carrying a basket on her back, was about to head back to the village. She sneered as she passed him, "County Magistrate Ye uses whoever he wants. Some people are so ungrateful! Pah!"
"Wang Cuihua, who are you calling ungrateful?"
…
Ye Yunzhao naturally didn't know about the conflict here. She was busy serving food to everyone at the Sun family!
As the forty workers entered the courtyard, they were greeted by the strong aroma of fish. It was such a pleasant surprise that all the fatigue of the morning disappeared in an instant.
There was meat in the first meal, and it wasn’t the kind of minced meat that was hard to pick up, but grilled fish and fish soup!
Ye Yunzhao counted the pieces of sea bass as he cut them. Now he had to give each person a large piece of grilled sea bass, an extra bowl of crucian carp and mushroom soup, and the loofah tofu and corn rice that Aunt Wang had fried early on. Naturally, they were full.
You know, people in Xixiang can rarely afford to eat fish. Even if they occasionally catch or buy one, they are reluctant to eat it. They keep it in a tank first and wait until the New Year to dare to indulge in it.
Worth it! Absolutely worth it! Just the meat alone is worth it!
Those who had not yet received their meals were drooling profusely, looking sideways from time to time, and walking anxiously on the spot.
Not far away, Wang Cuihua was looking at her husband with a happy face. Yesterday, she persuaded her husband to cut down trees, but she didn't expect it to be a great job. Although it was tiring, the meat and fish soup were very nutritious!
Wang Cuihua's husband, Liu Dazhuang, was also a man of conscience. He held two large earthenware bowls. On the left, there was a bowl of compacted corn rice, a large spoonful of stewed loofah with tofu, and a large piece of seared sea bass. On the right, there was a large bowl of white crucian carp soup with lichen mushrooms floating on top.
Liu Dazhuang smiled shyly and said, "Wife, let's go home and eat."
"How can this be? This food is for the lumberjacks. I don't want to eat it. You can eat it at Sun Ning's house. After you finish eating, work hard." Wang Cuihua pushed him and said.
"County Magistrate Ye told us to take it home and eat it."
"Really?" Wang Cuihua swallowed. Who doesn't want to eat meat?
"Really! County Magistrate Ye also said to wait until 3:15 pm before returning to work, saying that it was too hot at noon and asked everyone to rest at home." Liu Dazhuang replied with a smile.
Hearing this, Wang Cuihua's eyes welled up with tears. Yesterday, she urged her husband to cut down trees so that she could use the magic car sooner. She had thought that she would not be able to eat well, but who would have thought that County Magistrate Ye would be like this...
Which county magistrate in the past didn't bully the weak and fear the strong? They were called the fatherly officials, but they all glared at them and never treated them as human beings...
Only County Magistrate Ye treated them as human beings and treated them with such sincerity...
"County Magistrate Ye...is a good man..." Wang Cuihua said as she raised her hand to wipe away her tears.
Liu Dazhuang carried the meal and Wang Cuihua carried a basket of wild vegetables as they walked towards their home. The aroma of meat wafted through the air along the way. Those who were unwilling to cut down trees yesterday were now looking out from the gates of their own yards.
I swallowed my saliva and felt envious.
Some ignorant people deliberately sneered: "Hey Cuihua, you sent one person to help the county magistrate, why do you also eat and take things? You are really shameless."
Wang Cuihua smiled and replied, "Well, isn't it because our magistrate is so kindhearted? Look, not only did he prepare corn rice and fish for the first meal, but he also gave everyone two full bowls! He even said it was too hot at noon and told everyone to take it home!"
Wang Cuihua smiled shyly and added, "My husband is also a simple-minded person. He earned the meat through his own labor, but he was reluctant to eat it and insisted that I have a taste of the meat too. Why? I remember Gouzi's father was also chopping wood. Didn't he bring back the meal?"
Wang Cuihua saw Gouzi's mother's face change, and smiled bitterly: "Maybe Gouzi's father is tired. I just said it casually. Please don't take it to heart."
After saying that, Wang Cuihua happily returned home with her man.
Wang Cuihua and Liu Dazhuang got married at the beginning of this year. They don’t have any children yet, so their home is very quiet.
Liu Dazhuang put the ceramic bowl on the table and helped his wife take down the backpack. He was quick and skillful and washed it twice, poured it on the bamboo grate, dried it into vegetables, and kept it for eating in winter.
After finishing their work, the couple finally had some free time. They sat together, took a bite of the grilled sea bass with relish, smiled with their eyes squinted, and were extremely happy.
If you are satisfied with the first bite, you will cherish the second bite.
Wang Cuihua took a sip of the fish soup and said, "Today I went to pick wild vegetables and ran into Aunt Hu's daughter. Guess what she said?"
Liu Dazhuang tilted his head and looked at his wife.
"She said that the place where County Magistrate Ye lived was leaking, and half of the kitchen roof had collapsed."
Liu Dazhuang was stunned and asked, "Where does County Magistrate Ye cook?"
"That's what I mean. I think County Magistrate Ye is so kind to us. He lets us eat fish and use the plow cart for free." Wang Cuihua said embarrassedly.
"I was thinking, after the logging is done these past two days, you can go and fix the roof for County Magistrate Ye, and I'll take care of the farm work myself."
Wang Cuihua was illiterate, but she knew the principle of repaying kindness. Even before County Magistrate Ye had renovated his own house, he was thinking of them. Others might think it was natural, but she wanted to do what she could for County Magistrate Ye.
"We have some leftover rice stalks at home from threshing rice. Tomorrow, when you go to work, I'll go to the mountains to pick up some red clay. If there's any leftover wood from making a plow cart, ask Carpenter Sun if he wants it. He'll be able to use it to repair the county magistrate's roof."
"If you want..." Wang Cuihua murmured.
"If you want me to go to the mountains with the villagers to cut it." Liu Dazhuang added.
Wang Cuihua nodded and said, "Then I will go cut some thatch in a few days, weave it together and give it to County Magistrate Ye to make a shed.
"Okay, I'll do as you say," Liu Dazhuang wiped his mouth and replied.
【Author’s words】
Wang Cuihua: County Magistrate Ye, I have a little surprise for you~
Humble question: When will I get my first surprise comment Orz (big head version)
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