Chapter 18 is finally here
For Mrs. Deng, it was impossible to say that she had no sadness, but perhaps influenced by her eldest daughter and her husband, she had already accepted the reality calmly.
As for Zhao Liya, she was thinking that when the weather got a little warmer, she would discuss with Hu Ling that they would each take one child to a remote place to secretly let them learn to swim.
Hu Ling had already chosen a place and took the three of them for about a quarter of an hour, until they came to a river with a gentle flow. The water surface suddenly became almost twice as wide after turning a big bend.
The deep blue river water is so deep that you can't see the bottom from a little further away.
Zhao Liya glanced at the two children and said, "The river here is quite deep. You haven't learned to swim yet, so don't go in."
The two little ones didn’t think they were capable of going into the water, so they agreed obediently.
Zhao Lin understood the hidden meaning and looked up at her: "Sister, if we learn how to swim, can we go into the water?"
Zhao Lixiang's eyes lit up: "I want to learn to swim too!"
Zhao Liya tapped their foreheads gently and said with a smile, "Learn, all of you. But not now, I'll make arrangements for you. Remember, don't tell your parents, okay?"
"Yeah!" The two children were even happier and nodded vigorously.
For children, doing something without telling their parents seems extremely attractive.
Hu Ling, who was watching the whole scene, had an expression that was hard to describe: "."
Zhao Liya was not at all panicked. She smiled and said, "Brother, look, there's so much water in the river here. It's not safe if you can't swim! I think it's better for them to learn. But Mom and Dad might be troubled, so there's no need to tell them and add to their worries, don't you think?"
Hu Ling was even more confused: "."
What could he say? He could only nod his head, feeling both amused and helpless: "Well, you're right!"
Zhao Liya laughed: "Come on, let's go fishing!"
Hu Ling went into the water and spread the net little by little along the current and the river surface, blocking a large area of water. Then he used a long bamboo pole to slap the water upstream to drive the fish downstream.
Zhao Liya led the two children to help, picking up stones from the shore and throwing them into the water.
Seeing the stones splashing in the water, the two children were very happy. They laughed and competed with each other to pick up the stones and throw them into the water.
When he felt that it was about time, Hu Ling smiled and stopped them, and began to pull the net out of the water little by little.
The pristine natural environment is so refreshing. As the fishing nets were gradually collected, the two children screamed in surprise.
"Wow, I caught a fish!"
"Another one! Two, three! So many!"
"Ah! Look how big this one is!"
"Really?"
Not to mention them, seeing the fruitful harvest, Zhao Liya on the side couldn't help but smile with satisfaction.
When the fishing nets were pulled up, everyone hurriedly untied the big fish that were more than three fingers wide and threw them into the wooden barrel.
In addition to such big fish, there are countless small fish the size of two fingers. There are too many to catch them all in a short time, so I have to take them home and catch them slowly.
Hu Ling found a suitable place to lower the three fish cages into the water, planning to collect them tomorrow morning.
Some fish are difficult to catch with fishing nets, so fish cages are more suitable.
Hu Ling carried the bucket, Zhao Liya held the fishing net full of small fish, the two little ones jumped and skipped, and the four of them went home talking and laughing.
When they got home, Zhao Xiang and his friends were delighted to see such a rich catch. "Wow, so many! There are so many fish in this river."
Zhao Liya smiled and said, "Yes, we will have a treat in the future!"
Although her cooking skills are not very good, she can still make simple home-cooked meals.
In this era of poor information flow, most people only know three or two ways to cook fish, but she is different. She knows a lot and will never get tired of eating fish.
Seven of the big fish that are still alive and kicking are kept in the water tank in the backyard, but the others have to be dealt with.
Zhao Liya took a look and saw that there were crucian carp, carp, mandarin fish, yellow croaker, etc. in the bucket, sixteen in total. There were also some species that she didn't recognize, but they looked delicious.
She knew she couldn't finish them all, so she scraped off the scales and gills, cleaned them, and gave four to Widow Qu.
Widow Qu accepted it with great joy and gave her a bowl of sauce that she had made at home last December, saying that it was especially delicious when used to stew fish.
He also gave her half of the beans, green peppers and eggplants he had just picked from the vegetable garden.
Both Widow Qu and her daughter like to eat fish, but they don't know how to fish. Besides, it is dangerous for a widow and a young girl to go into the water to fish. It is also easy to get their clothes wet and make them embarrassed and say bad things. If they want to eat fish, they can only buy it with money.
However, fish has a strong fishy smell, which requires cooking wine, ginger, and scallions to remove. It also uses a lot of oil, so when you really want to buy it, you often change your mind and buy pork instead. It's more cost-effective.
So, even though I like to eat this food, I can’t eat it very often throughout the year.
Each of the four fish sent by Zhao Liya was the size of a palm and about a foot long. They were also carefully processed, so Widow Qu was naturally happy.
Zhao Liya was also happy, because eating vegetables at home is a big problem nowadays!
There are twelve fish left. We will eat eight of them tonight. We will steam one larger mandarin fish and chop the others into pieces and stew them with sauce with some sauerkraut. We will fry the remaining four and save them for tomorrow.
The fish heads, tails and internal organs are not wasted and can be fed to the chickens.
The small fish were picked off the fishing net one by one, filling almost a whole basin. Then everyone discovered that there were also quite a few thumb-sized shrimps.
The fish that are too small are fed to the chickens, and the shrimps are difficult to keep, so they are just blanched.
The rest can be roasted in a pan and eaten for three days without any problem.
I'll soak some soybeans tomorrow. Stir-fried soybeans with dried fish is a famous local home-cooked dish. It tastes even better with a little chili. Aunt Li Shiyi kept saying it's delicious.
In addition to fish, this dinner also includes fresh wild mushrooms.
Aunt Li Shiyi subconsciously felt that the steamed fish and blanched shrimp were fishy. Zhao Liya warmly invited her to try them, and she immediately liked them. She kept praising them, "Delicious! So delicious!"
"Of course I won't lie to you!"
Everyone laughed.
Whether it was from the mountains or from the water, everything was extremely delicious, and the whole family enjoyed the meal very much.
Early the next morning, Hu Ling and Zhao Liya went to the river to collect the fish cages.
Because of this matter, the two of them both got up much earlier than usual. They had originally planned to go alone, but who knew it would be such a coincidence that they went together.
I have to go early. Who knows if the villagers knew about the fishing and fish traps I set out yesterday? If the Gu family knew, they would secretly collect the fish traps that others had set out in advance.
Widow Qu complained that they did this kind of thing a lot.
There were indeed a lot of fish in the river. The three fish cages were full of harvests, including more than a dozen eels, seven or eight seven-star fish, five catfish, some prawns, and several crabs.
(End of this chapter)
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