"Are there really fish?" Zhao Guihua was a little skeptical. The stream had been dry for three months. Even if there were fish, they would have died long ago. How could they possibly come back to life as soon as it rained?
However, seeing Xingqi's expectant eyes, she quickly agreed. It wouldn't take much time to win her little girl's favor, and she was happy to do so.
So he placed the wooden basin sideways and then used a wooden stick he used for beating clothes to stir the grass. Before long, six or seven loaches, each the size of a thumb and as long as a chopstick, jumped into the basin.
Zhao Guihua's heart began to race. Oh my god, these loaches are as big as eels! She picked up a wooden basin, took some branches from the roadside, and strung the loaches together.
They continued catching loaches, repeating this process twenty or so times, until they stopped catching loaches. But they had caught a total of over twenty pounds, enough for their family to eat for several days.
This is truly a sweet burden.
We still have wild boar meat left at home, and now so many loaches have arrived. I hope they don't go bad. Sigh, I wish I could take them to town to sell.
What a pity.
"The loaches are all drying out. Will they die from the sun?" Xingxing looked at the long string of loaches hanging on the tree trunk and felt a little sorry for them.
Sun-dry?
By the way, with such a strong sun, you can dry fish, and you can also cut the pork at home into small pieces and dry it.
"Xingxing is truly my lucky star. Let's hurry home and then dry the fish so the meat can last longer." As she spoke, Zhao Guihua washed the loach clean and placed it at the bottom of the wooden basin, then covered it with banana leaves and put the clothes on top.
This way, we don't have to worry about being discovered, especially by the Zhou family, otherwise they'll come and steal our meat.
Back home, Zhao Guihua quickly bolted the gate, then took out a door panel to dry the loaches.
"Auntie, can we eat loach after it's dried?" Xingxing asked with her big, watery eyes, looking completely naive.
“You can’t eat it after it’s dried…” Zhao Guihua suddenly paused. You can’t eat it raw after it’s dried, but if you cook it and then dry it, you can eat it directly.
"Yes, steam it first and then dry it. It's a pity we don't have salt. How about we trade some wild boar meat with someone else?" But we wouldn't be able to get much in return. The people of Yegou Village have only one characteristic: they are all refugees who came here to settle down, and they are dirt poor.
After thinking about it, I decided not to change the salt. I'll wait until next time I go to town or the prefectural city to buy things before buying some salt.
When Zhou Laoda led his five sons home, they smelled a delicious aroma. The quintuplets threw down the firewood and rushed to the kitchen.
"Mom, what delicious food did you make? It smells so good!" Zhou Wufu was the first to rush in and hug Zhao Guihua's waist.
Xingxing, her mouth greasy from eating the fried loach, called out to her brothers in her childish voice, "Five lucky brothers, come and eat some fried loach, it smells so good, it's so delicious!"
Actually, they only used half a bowl of lard to fry, and there wasn't much oil left after frying for a while. But it was the first time they had ever used lard so extravagantly, and the five Fu brothers ate it with great relish.
Looking at the large bowl of fried loach, Zhou Laoda cautiously asked, "Wife, should we take a bowl of these fried loach to our parents?"
Zhao Guihua immediately glared at him fiercely, "If you want the Zhou family to take all our lard, fried loach, and smoked meat, then go ahead and deliver them."
"Then forget it, I was just asking, I'll keep it for my own family." Old Zhou was rebuffed, and his expression became even more honest.
"You're smart enough to know what's good for you," Zhao Guihua muttered under her breath, then ordered her husband, "Standing there like a mushroom, come and help me slice this pork."
"Why cut it into such small pieces?" Boss Zhou asked, puzzled.
"Slicing the meat and drying it makes it less likely to spoil. Otherwise, if these big chunks are all hanging here, someone could easily snatch them. Smaller pieces are easier to hide. We can put them in earthenware jars and store them in the cellar so we can eat them slowly." They are from the north, where every family is used to digging cellars to store things.
After settling down in the south, almost everyone in Yegou Village dug cellars.
"Mother, you are so clever, how did you come up with this idea?" Zhou Wufu praised without reservation.
Zhao Guihua looked tenderly at Xingxing, who was eating fried loach like a little hamster, and her smile deepened. "I couldn't have thought of this method either. Xingxing said that the fish was dried and asked me if it could be eaten directly after being dried. Suddenly, my brain clicked."
"Auntie is so amazing! It wasn't Xingxing who came up with it, it was Auntie herself." She just asked a few more questions, it really wasn't her idea. She hadn't even learned how to start a fire, how would she know how to dry meat?
But the Zhou family didn't care what she thought; they just kept praising Xingxing for her amazing abilities and saying it was all her doing.
Okay, since everyone's praising her so much, tomorrow she'll take her brothers to the stream to catch loaches. Oh, and there are also eels in the grass beside the stream, so she'll catch some too.
Unfortunately, Aunt Guihua said that the lard should be saved for cooking, and the eel could not be fried in oil.
The pork slices were steamed and then dried. Every now and then, the five boys would come over, grab a piece, and throw it in their mouths to eat, which made Zhao Guihua so angry that she chased after them with a bamboo stick and beat them.
Only Xingxing doesn't steal food, well, because she eats openly and honestly, and Zhao Guihua acts like she doesn't see it. She doesn't say a word no matter how much Xingxing eats.
This differential treatment caused the quintuplets to cry foul, feeling they had fallen out of favor.
"You brats, Xingxing is my precious darling, you can't compare to her. You all better behave yourselves and go help your sister spread out the roots of the myrtle to dry in the sun," Zhao Guihua said with a laugh.
Outside the courtyard wall, Zhou Dajin supported Zhou Dayin, followed by Zhou Dahua and Zhou Dafa. These four children had come up the mountain today at Zhou Dahua's urging, hoping to try their luck at hunting.
As a result, Zhou Dajin failed to catch any prey. He was startled by a wolf's howl and tripped. Because he was walking in front, his fall caused the three people behind him to tumble down the mountain.
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