Chapter 11
Most of the afternoon was spent peeling hemp from mulberry trees, while Shen An and Shen Ning picked leaves from the fairy tree and came back to make new food for themselves.
The magical tofu is easy to make, and Sang Luo did not avoid the brother and sister when she was making it. Chen Ning was particularly talented in this area, so she processed the leaves she picked in the afternoon according to the steps that Sang Luo did in the morning.
In addition, Sang Luo occasionally gave some key tips, and she didn't let Sang Luo get involved in the whole process. When the last step was completed, Shen Ning was very happy: "Sister-in-law, is that it?"
Sang Luo joked: "Okay, just wait for it to solidify. Our Aning is also a skilled young lady."
Shen Ning smiled shyly: “It was my sister-in-law who was willing to teach me.”
The two little ones washed and rinsed the pots and pans that needed to be used. Sang Luo looked at the sky, soaked the peeled hemp in a pool of running water built with stones near the downstream of the mountain spring, washed her hands and said, "Let's go, let's collect the fish baskets. Whether we can have more food in the evening depends on whether God will give us food. Whether these two baskets are good enough."
This one sentence made the brother and sister very excited.
When they reached the mountain stream where they had set up their fish baskets, Sang Luo raised her index finger and placed it against her lips.
The two younger ones, Shen An and Shen Ning, miraculously understood what their eldest sister-in-law meant despite the unfamiliar movements. They suppressed their excitement and fell silent.
Sang Luo quietly took off her shoes, went into the water as quietly as possible, and slowly approached the trap she had set.
The brother and sister didn't dare to think about going into the water to catch fish together at the moment, as it was related to the harvest. If they scared the fish, the basket would be wasted in the water all day. They stood shoulder to shoulder on the shore, staring at Sang Luo's movements with bated breath. When Sang Luo walked to the trap and quietly put her hand into the water, the two little ones on the shore were so excited that they clenched their fists.
Sang Luo also held her breath and concentrated. She put her hands on the backpack and quickly lifted it up, halfway taking out the water.
Heavy! Really heavy!
How can a basket full of stones not be heavy?
She hurried ashore carrying the basket of stones. The two children were already jumping excitedly on the shore, but as the other basket was not too far away, they dared not say a word and were just silently excited.
As soon as the backpack landed on the bank of the stream, the water leaked out and the sound of something inside hitting the stones became particularly obvious.
Shen An was excited: "Sister-in-law, there are fish!"
The voice was very low, but one could tell it was very excited.
Seeing the little guy reaching for the stone, Sang Luo hurriedly stopped him: "Don't move, I'll do it."
It's not that she didn't want the little guy to have fun, she was really afraid that he would turn over the stone and find a water snake. It would be troublesome if the little kid was frightened again.
Chen An obviously didn't understand his sister-in-law's painstaking efforts, but he couldn't help but believe in her now, especially when he heard the constant crackling sound coming from the basket, Chen An now admired her so much!
So capable!
Sang Luo carefully picked up the stones one by one and placed them on the ground. After placing seven or eight stones, she saw the fish!
"Fish!" Shen Ning was so excited: "Sister-in-law, there are three!"
"Four, five!"
The brother and sister were eager to help.
There was only a shallow layer of rocks left under the basket, and the bottom of the basket was basically visible. Sang Luo was sure that there were no unstable factors. She smiled and whispered, "You come and pick them up!"
As soon as they were let go, the two of them jumped over with joy, almost banging their heads into the basket, and their two pairs of little hands dug at it, becoming more and more excited the more they dug.
“Lots of fish and shrimp!”
“And tadpoles!”
“There are crabs!”
Sang Luo leaned over to take a look, and couldn't help but sigh at the abundance of products in ancient times. There were at least fifteen or sixteen fish jumping around in the bottom of the basket. The smallest one was not as long as her index finger, and the biggest one was as big as Sang Luo's palm. There were also many shrimps and crabs.
This was a big harvest. In her previous life, she lived in modern times and although she also lived in the mountains, she only caught about five or six fish in a basket. When she was unlucky, she would only catch one or two in a basket.
Sang Luo let the two little guys pick up the stones bit by bit, and she went into the water again barefoot, and found the basket that Shen An and Shen Ning had put down. She followed suit and brought it up. When she had picked up most of the big stones and there were no scary uninvited guests, the little brother and sister took over.
She leaned over to take a look. Wow, there must be thirty or forty fish!
Sang Luo picked and chose, picked out five or six small ones and threw them back into the stream.
Shen An was confused: "Sister-in-law, why did you let it go?"
"It's too small, there's no meat at all, put it back."
Shen An swallowed and looked towards the mountain stream with melancholy.
"Sister-in-law, even a little bit of meat is still meat."
Seeing his expression, Sang Luo burst into laughter. She didn't care that her hands were still wet. She pinched the knot on Chen An's head and lifted it up, saying with a smile, "Okay, how many streams like this are there in this mountain? If you are willing to spend time and effort, can you still find fish to eat? Let it grow longer, and release the small fish. This way, you can still catch fish when you want to eat them in the future."
Shen An blinked, it seemed to be the case.
Shen Ning said on the side: "Brother used to catch fish for us, but there were no small ones."
Chen An nodded: "I see, sister-in-law, how do we get the shrimp we caught? Do we just bring them up?"
Then they all ran away when they walked towards the shore.
"We need to use a backpack." Sang Luo said as she poured the fish and crabs in one of the backpacks that the brother and sister had cleaned directly into the other backpack. After everything was emptied, she carried the backpack to where the branches were placed.
As always, he was very careful, and immediately used an empty basket to catch the shrimps after he lifted them up, and shook them vigorously! Sang Luo couldn't help but raise her eyebrows when she saw the shrimps that came out: "That's quite a lot!"
I collected the branches one by one and went ashore!
After taking out a few handfuls of branches, I estimated that the shrimps filled half a bowl, and there were three crabs swimming in them.
"What a great harvest! We can have a good dinner tonight!"
This time, the brother and sister didn't need to hold it back and cheered directly.
Shen An reacted quickly: "Sister-in-law, let's set up another trap? We'll collect it tomorrow morning!"
Sang Luo also meant this: "Okay, but we have to go a little further."
I'm not afraid of catching all the fish in one place in just two or three times, but they have set several traps here, so the harvest will definitely be less if I lay down my traps later.
Chen An and Shen Ning, one carrying an empty basket and the other holding a few bundles of branches, ran happily to the front, while Sang Luo followed with the basket containing the fish.
This time, Sang Luo doesn’t need to teach them, these two little ones can do it on their own.
After several traps were set, Chen An looked at the basket filled with fish in Sang Luo's hand, with a hint of regret in his eyes: "I should have brought our clay pot with me, so I could have an extra basket now."
Sang Luo didn't think about this when she came out, and could only say, "Just remember it tomorrow morning. Let's go back and pack up so we can prepare something delicious!"
Chen An looked at the backpack in Sang Luo's hand, and felt satisfied again. He reached out and took the backpack from Sang Luo's hand: "Sister-in-law, I'll carry this."
Shen Ning also joined in: "I'll do it, I'll do it!"
Sang Luo knew that the two kids were too happy, so she let them do what they wanted: "You two carry it, keep an eye on the crabs, and hold a branch in your hand. If they climb up, pull them down to avoid them getting caught."
It's not pleasant to be pinched by this thing.
"OK!"
Chen An looked around, then broke off a branch by the mountain stream, plucked some leaves, split them in two, took one for himself and gave one to Chen Ning, then the brother and sister happily carried the basket and set off on their return journey.
Sang Luo walked in front of the two of them, but her steps were not fast, and her eyes were always searching for something on the ground around them.
Seeing this, Shen Ning asked, “Sister-in-law, what are you looking for?”
"Wild ginger, fish has a fishy smell, so ginger is needed to remove the fishy smell. This way, the fish will taste better when cooked."
Shen Ning looked confused.
Yes, there was ginger in this dynasty, but it was not very popular. At that time, ginger was only used as a seasoning by the rich and powerful, and more often it was used as a medicinal ingredient. Dried ginger was only sold in pharmacies.
Fresh ginger is of course also sold as a condiment, but the price is extremely expensive. Few people in the countryside will spend money to buy any condiments. Oil and salt are luxury items. Why would they spend a lot of money to buy ginger for seasoning?
In the time and space of Sangluo, ginger was also a luxury item in the early days. In the "Records of the Grand Historian: Biographies of Merchants", there is a record that "a man who grows a thousand plots of ginger and chives is as rich as a marquis of a thousand households."
It was the same in this time and space. People like Chen An and Shen Ning had never heard of ginger. Sang Luo knew that there was ginger and its approximate price in this time and space because she was originally born into a commoner family. Her family would use ginger when cooking meat and would often make ginger soup to ward off the cold.
She explained, "Ginger is not only useful for cooking, it is also a medicine. If you have a cold, it is good to boil ginger in water and drink it. However, it is very expensive. You can look for wild ginger. Its leaves look a bit like bamboo leaves, and the rhizomes underneath are yellow and blocky. It usually grows under the woods or in the shade of the hillside. You may find it in the bamboo forest. You can keep an eye out for it. If you really find it, it is a good thing. You can keep it as a backup medicine in winter, or you can try to grow some yourself."
In fact, Sang Luo was not sure whether there was wild ginger at this time. She had never found it in her original memory. She was looking for it just because she wanted to try her luck in cooking fish.
When the brother and sister heard that it was a good thing that could be used as medicine, they looked at each other and nodded in unison: "Okay, we will pay more attention next time, and if we see something like it, we will dig it up and bring it home to show our sister-in-law!"
Chen Ning still particularly admired Sang Luo at this moment, and said to her as he walked: "Sister-in-law, you know so much. You can catch fish, make fairy tofu, recognize wild ginger, and know how to cure colds."
Chen An, who had begun to pay attention to the plant next to him that looked like bamboo leaves and might be wild ginger, paused inexplicably when he heard this.
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