Just as I finished packing my luggage, a middle-aged scholar in a long gown and cloth hat suddenly walked into the courtyard. He looked very elegant and humble.
Gu Wei hurriedly went to meet him, "Excuse me, who are you?"
The scholar smiled and said, "I am the chief clerk under the governor of Jiaozhou. The governor knows that you are good friends of the state teacher, so he specially sent me to entertain you."
Gu Wei echoed, "I'm sorry to trouble you, Governor. Don't worry about us."
Yang Zhubo shook his head, "You are honored guests, how can I neglect you?"
As he spoke, he clapped his hands, and a team of people who looked like chefs came up behind him, all holding large wooden plates with all kinds of delicacies, cakes, seafood, and snacks on them. There was a dazzling array of food, a total of thirty large plates.
After placing the plates on the long wooden table, the chefs did not retreat but stood respectfully aside.
Yang Zhubo snapped his fingers again, and more than a dozen people walked in through the carved archway, both men and women, all wearing the same uniform of maids and servants, all of them with clear features and nimble hands and feet.
The small courtyard, which was not big to begin with, suddenly became very crowded.
Yang Zhubo smiled enthusiastically and said, "These are all the people in the prefect's residence, including servants, maids, and cooks. I hope you won't despise them."
Gu Wei waved his hand quickly, "Thank you for your kindness, Master, but we really don't need servants. We are not used to using them. We will accept these delicacies, and you can take the people back."
After persuading them for a while, Yang Zhubo finally took everyone back.
"Then I won't disturb you to rest. The governor is quite busy these days, and he will come to visit you in person another day. Have fun in Jiaozhou!"
Yang Zhubo said this and left with the group of people.
Pei sighed, "The people of Jiaozhou are quite enthusiastic."
As it was getting dark, Song hurriedly went to call other families to come to the yard for dinner.
Yang Zhubo's enthusiastic action saved them the time of preparing dinner.
Shi Shaowen also ran to call Guanyun and Guanhe.
The two men were reluctant to sit down, saying that they were servants.
Finally, he couldn't stand the constant nagging of the group of teenagers and sat down cautiously at the end of the table.
Soon, the yard was full of people. Everyone sat around the long wooden table, staring at the delicious food on the table.
Shangjing is located deep inland, and the delicacies on the table are something some people have never seen in their entire lives.
Steamed red hairy crabs, strange-shaped green snails, and long clams...
The group was slow to pick up their chopsticks.
Because I don’t know how to eat!
Mrs. Wu flipped the scallop with her chopsticks. "How do you eat this? It's so hard."
Xie Ling hurriedly picked up shellfish one by one to demonstrate.
"This thing is called a scallop. You have to break it apart and eat it. There is meat inside."
"Such a big scallop, but only this much meat?"
Gao Wanhua sighed as she looked at that tiny bit of meat.
Xie Ling looked at the dazzling array of seafood and thought that these might not suit everyone's taste.
There were relatively few seasonings in this dynasty, and the seafood on the table was simply processed, mostly retaining its original flavor. It would not taste good to people living by the sea, but people living inland would definitely find it fishy.
As expected, Li Ge'er spat out the clam in his mouth, frowning his two short eyebrows, "It tastes so bad!"
Guan Yun whispered, "We've been here for so long, and we're still not used to the food here. But the chief clerk brings it to us every day, and we eat it out of his kindness."
Adhering to the principle of not wasting anything, everyone finished eating the seafood, swallowing it without even chewing it, and barely managed to fill themselves up.
Only Jiang Wanyi enjoyed her meal.
Her family was originally a shipbuilding family, so naturally they would go to the seaside often and were used to eating seafood, but for some reason she felt a little homesick.
Seeing that everyone had finished eating, Yu Niang stood up and said, "I'm going to go get some noodles. Who else wants to eat?"
Everybody raised their hands.
"Me, me, me, I want to eat sauerkraut noodles!"
"Sister Yu, I want to eat plain noodles, thank you!"
Wu Zhengqing looked at the shy Guanyun and Guanhe and said loudly, "Sister Xiaoyu, cook a bowl for them too."
Their handsome faces flushed, and they waved their hands, "No, no, we're full."
Yu Niang was a thoughtful person. She knew that they must be embarrassed, so she still included their share.
Several people stood up at the table one after another to help Yu Niang cook noodles.
The rest of the people dealt with the aftermath of the meal and put all the scallop shells into the trash basket.
The noodles cook very quickly and are ready in no time.
The moon was big and round, and the sea breeze was hot and humid at night. After everyone ate a bowl of hot noodles and drank a mouthful of noodle soup, they completely forgot the fishy smell of the seafood.
Wu Daqiang finished it in one breath and shook his head, "It's not easy to follow the local customs. We are really not used to the food."
Xie Ling said, "No, this seafood is too natural, so we are not used to it. It will taste good if we add some seasoning to remove the fishy smell. How about this, it happens to be a high tide these days, let's go to the sea to catch seafood."
Shi Shaoxuan was impatient and immediately asked excitedly, "What is sea catching?"
"When the tide recedes, fish, shrimps and scallops from the sea will be washed onto the shore. We can go to the beach to pick them up, which is called catching fish and shrimps from the sea."
"Just go find the one we had this afternoon?" Shi Shaoxuan's eyes widened. "Sister Xie Ling, are we going to eat that tomorrow? That taste..."
Xie Ling chuckled, "Don't worry, you still don't trust my cooking skills? Grilled oysters, put vermicelli, minced garlic, chili in the oysters, marinate them and grill them over charcoal, fresh and spicy. Stir-fried razor clams, very good with rice, fresh and delicious... Who wants to go?"
Listening to Xie Ling's words, everyone's minds were full of thoughts and they began to swallow their saliva unconsciously. They decided to give these seafood another chance and all raised their hands.
The most important thing is that I want to go to the beach and see what the sea looks like.
“I’ll go!”
"I'm going too!"
.......
At night, everyone fell asleep with excitement.
We can go to the beach tomorrow!
The next day, everyone got up early.
Xie Ling took out the wooden barrel that she had prepared early in the morning, as well as pliers, a colander and other tools from the room. The group went out in a mighty procession, with Guan Yun Guan He leading the way.
After leaving the Imperial Master's Residence, the road is lined with towering ancient banyan trees, which block the glaring sun and provide a very cool shade.
The sea breeze blew, the ancient banyan tree gradually disappeared, and the sound of the waves became louder and louder.
Along the way, we met many barefoot people carrying buckets. They were probably going to catch seafood, and they were all in a hurry.
Everyone couldn't help but speed up, fearing that if they arrived too late, all the trash would have been picked up by others.
After walking for a while, the endless blue sea appeared in front of everyone.
The sky and the sea are connected together, and all you can see is blue. The tide has receded, and the waves are gently hitting the rocks, creating waves of white foam.
Every breath is filled with the salty sea breeze, gentle and lazy.
Xie Ling was also somewhat surprised.
The ancient sea had not yet been polluted by various chemical products and garbage. It was crystal blue and extremely clear. It was truly an extremely beautiful visual enjoyment.
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