Many hands make light work. Not only did all the men in the brigade go down to help, but the educated youth, whether they had come to a change of heart or also wanted to eat fish, also went down to help, except for a few female educated youth.
By evening, most of the fish had been caught.
The remaining small, unwanted fish were picked up by the children, who took their own small baskets to collect them.
If you're lucky and quick, you can collect more than half a basketful. Once you get home, you can dry it in an iron pot over a low fire, sprinkle it with chili powder, and it becomes a rare delicacy.
Xu Ningyan likes to eat this small fish. It is deep-fried until crispy, sprinkled with Sichuan peppercorns and chili powder, and it is fragrant and crunchy. You can even chew and eat the bones.
So he traded fruit candies with the children for a basket of fruit candies.
The fish were handled very efficiently; when they were caught, they had already been sorted by species and size.
After being weighed, the money was distributed according to work points and per capita.
Each household is basically allocated one large fish, along with several medium-sized fish, crucian carp, and other miscellaneous fish.
Xu Ningyan also received a grass carp, a big-bellied carp, and several crucian carp and other miscellaneous fish.
She didn't like carp, always finding it to have a muddy taste and not tender meat, so she simply traded the carp for a few palm-sized crucian carp to take home.
Although each of the educated youth didn't have many work points, the total amount collected by the educated youth settlement was enough to give them a few large grass carp, a small basin of crucian carp, and other miscellaneous fish to take back with them.
That night, the air above the Unity Brigade was filled with the smell of fish.
When I got home, thankfully the heater was still on, with a pot of hot water on it.
Gu Zhiyuan was covered in mud. He first tidied himself up by the river. The icy river water made his face turn blue from the cold.
Xu Ningyan had already poured hot water for him. He went inside to find some clean clothes and took a bath in the thatched shed next door. He finally felt refreshed.
While he was taking a shower, Xu Ningyan made him a bowl of brown sugar ginger water. She smashed a thick piece of old ginger and threw it in, along with a large piece of brown sugar and three bowls of water, and boiled it down to a large bowl. She urged Gu Zhiyuan to drink it while it was hot, and he finally came back to life and his face regained color.
Xu Ningyan had to clean up those small fish later, so she made a simple dinner: a pot of braised pork and potato rice, and a stir-fried spinach dish.
After finishing our meal, we started cleaning the fish we had been allocated.
As soon as the grass carp and crucian carp I got back, I put them in an empty water tank and poured water in them to keep them alive.
The two soft-shelled turtles and one tortoise were also put in a small wooden basin; they'll be cleaned up when we have time.
It's mainly about dealing with the small fry.
There are many of these small fish, making them difficult to clean. For the larger ones, first use scissors to scrape off the tiny scales, then cut an opening in the abdomen under the gills and squeeze out the internal organs with your fingers.
For smaller ones, you can simply pinch open the fish's belly with your fingernail and the internal organs will come out.
The lackey, drawn by the fishy smell, circled around and licked up all the fish innards that Xu Ningyan had cleaned.
Fortunately, Gu Zhiyuan brought back enough batteries. With flashlights and candles, the two of them worked until seven or eight o'clock before finally finishing cleaning up the small fish.
Gu Zhiyuan forbade Xu Ningyan from doing the cleaning herself.
In the dead of winter, the river water was icy cold, and even he, a grown man, was shivering from the cold, let alone Xu Ningyan, a young woman.
I still vividly remember the pain I felt when I had my period.
So he took a basket of cleaned fish, turned on a flashlight, and went to the river to wash them.
Xu Ningyan let Gu Zhiyuan wash the fish. After all, it wasn't just her eating the fish; since it was for two people, they should do it together.
I tidied up the kitchen and used wood ash to cover the area where I had cleaned the fish, in order to get rid of the fishy smell.
Then I washed my hands with hot water and soap several times, and there was still a faint fishy smell between my fingers.
Xu Ningyan was at a loss.
After Gu Zhiyuan returned with the cleaned fish, Xu Ningyan sprinkled salt evenly over the small fish, stirred it with chopsticks, and mixed the salt and fish evenly.
Then cover it with a winnowing basket and place a brick on top to prevent rats from stealing the food.
After marinating overnight, the sky was still a bit overcast the next morning, but it looked like it was about to clear up.
After the marinated small fish are partially dried in the sun, half of them are deep-fried and the other half are pan-fried.
The courtyard was filled with the aroma of fried small fish, along with a fishy smell.
The freshly fried small fish are fragrant, crispy, and piping hot. Sprinkle with chili powder, and they're absolutely delicious.
Xu Ningyan couldn't resist eating a few first, then called Gu Zhiyuan in, took one and handed it to him for him to eat.
Gu Zhiyuan, his hands wet, lowered his eyelids and didn't reach out to take it. Instead, he bent down, opened his mouth, and caught the fried fish. After chewing it a couple of times, he showed an approving look: "So delicious!"
Xu Ningyan felt a little uncomfortable, as if she were personally feeding Gu Zhiyuan.
However, upon hearing his praise, she immediately put aside her discomfort, beaming and puffing out her chest: "Delicious, isn't it! There will be dry-roasted ones later, which will be a different flavor!"
Gu Zhiyuan smiled and chimed in, "Then I'll wait to try it."
After saying that, he didn't leave. He then gestured for Xu Ningyan to feed him two freshly fried small fish before finally leaving, satisfied.
Xu Ningyan didn't know what he was doing outside. She only heard the sound of washing, so she didn't pay any attention to it and thought Gu Zhiyuan was doing laundry.
After she finished frying and baking the small fish, she came out carrying two small bamboo baskets filled with fish.
They saw Gu Zhiyuan staring blankly at something.
She took a few steps over, looked down, and wow! She was stunned too!
What's that on the back of that turtle on the ground, which is almost half the size of a washbasin?
On the yellowish-brown turtle shell, there are some black lines, which is not unusual! What is unusual is that these lines look like the cursive script character for "longevity"!
Judging by the age of this tortoise, it looks at least several hundred years old!
The tortoise shell on its back has a naturally formed longevity character pattern, which would be a favorite of important figures who are fond of feng shui in later generations.
But in this day and age, it's hard to say.
Xu Ningyan moved closer to Gu Zhiyuan and stuffed a dried fish into his mouth, then stuffed one into her own mouth as well. She chewed the dried fish, making crunching sounds, and occasionally a snapping sound, the sound of biting through a small fish bone: "Can we keep this turtle?"
Gu Zhiyuan thought for a moment and said, "Let's keep it for now; it might come in handy later."
Xu Ningyan understood: "Then let's keep it in the straw shed so that no one can see it."
Gu Zhiyuan nodded, mixed some mud, and smeared it on the turtle's back before tossing it into a small stone jar and landing behind the thatched shed.
That's a dead end; nobody usually goes there.
There were two turtles left, each as big as a large bowl. After cleaning them, they looked quite nice, so I immediately decided: "Let them keep them to purge the water first, and then we'll make braised turtles for New Year's Eve."
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