Vote! Give me some motivation!
It took an hour to finally clean everything up, inside and out.
The cucumbers and tomatoes in the vegetable garden aren't growing well, so I'll pick them all tomorrow and send them to the cafeteria. There's no need to send them to the principal; they probably don't need any, since I saw they've planted some in the yard too.
The chives are too old, so I'll cut them all tomorrow morning. I won't touch the eggplants, though. I like dried eggplant, so I'll keep these to dry.
The sweet potatoes planted in the backyard look sparse and I don't think there will be much of a harvest. The ones in the private plot look alright, probably because Li Cuihua helped water them.
The sweet potatoes from their private plot were all given to Li Cuihua and the others. Er Ya's grades were good enough to get into high school, but that would put even more pressure on her family. Not only would they have to pay five yuan for textbooks each semester, but they'd also struggle to prepare food. They could skip paying for accommodation and live at their own home.
Shi Tou San Ya mentioned last time that she wanted to skip a grade to fourth grade. She said she would talk to the principal about it during this time and see if it would be possible.
The garlic has been harvested; they are all single-clove garlic. They've been braided into garlic braids and hung in the warehouse. The scallions aren't very big either.
There were a few pumpkins, but they weren't very big. I only saw one winter melon and two squashes. It's too dry. Even if they grew flowers, they wouldn't bear fruit; they've probably all rotted.
There really won't be much of a harvest this year, but we should be able to plant late-season green beans. Hopefully, it will rain in the second half of the year so we can still eat green beans, especially flat green beans. Remember to get some seeds from Li Cuihua tomorrow and plant a few back in the city. We can pickle the flat green beans and eat them later.
The next morning, Zhang Hongmei went to Liu Maocai's house and happened to run into Shi Tou Sanya, who was leaving home.
"Sister Hongmei, are you going back to the city today?"
"Go back, come to my house later, I'll make sauerkraut fish."
"Okay, I'll go start a fire for you."
"Hehe, okay, I'll go ask your mom for some pickled cabbage first, but I don't know if she still has any?"
"No, it's gone now. The pickled cabbage would have gone bad long ago."
"That's all. If not, we'll make fish balls. Come on, Sanya, come back with me. Shitou, go ask your mom if she has any string bean seeds. If she does, get me a few."
"Yes, I'll go get it for you. You guys go back first."
Zhang Hongmei was a little embarrassed; she had forgotten that there was no pickled cabbage left.
They encountered a mountain on the way. "Hongmei, where are you going?"
"It's nothing, I just went to my third uncle's house."
"I was just about to come find you. I heard you're going to make sauerkraut fish for your great-grandmother. I was wondering what you're going to use to make it since there's no sauerkraut?"
"Brother Dashan, are you mocking me?"
"No, really no, I was just curious. I absolutely didn't mean to be sarcastic."
"No, no, but you'd better go and kill the fish. Since we can't make sauerkraut fish, we'll make fish balls instead. Killing and chopping the fish is your job."
"No problem, I prefer to use a knife; I'm not comfortable using other people's knives."
“Sister Hongmei, before you came back yesterday, Third Master drove away. I heard he left crying.”
"Oh, I see. I'll take the bus back by myself in a bit, don't worry."
Zhang Hongmei didn't know what was going on between the mother and son, but it seemed that the conflict was quite serious.
We don't know how the old lady is doing yet. Should we go to her house for treatment?
"Sanya, go to Brother Dashan's house and tell him to go directly to Grandma's house. I'll go to my house and get the fish over there."
"Okay, I'll go right away."
When Zhang Hongmei got home, she caught the fish, put them in a bucket, and went to the old lady's house.
"Grandma, I've come to make you some fresh fish balls."
Liu Changhe's family member came out and nodded to Zhang Hongmei.
Zhang Hongmei put the bucket outside and went inside.
The old lady was lying on the kang (a heated brick bed), looking particularly listless.
"Grandma, what's wrong?"
"It's alright, you can take a bus back to the city yourself," the old lady said weakly as she sat up.
"I'll leave as soon as I finish making you fish balls. Grandma, Brother Jingze is still waiting for you."
"Hehe, silly girl, I'm fine, I'm just feeling down."
At this moment, Dashan and his group arrived. Dashan was no stranger to killing fish.
"Brother Dashan, I'll just make fish balls. Should I have Shitou take the rest of the fish heads and bones to the cafeteria?"
"Okay, so you only want fish, right?"
"Yes, it would be even better if you could remove the fish ribs as well."
"No problem, just wait and see."
"Hey, do you have any liquor at home?"
"Yes, what else do you need?"
"White wine, flour, an egg, scallions, and peppercorns; it would be even better if you had some sugar."
"I have everything, I'll go prepare it for you."
In no time, Dashan had removed the fish meat and, with a few swift cuts, pulled out the large bones from the ribs.
Zhang Hongmei washed the fish meat several times before letting Dashan chop it. "Brother Dashan, you can't use the blade of the knife to chop the fish meat, you have to use the back of the knife."
"You can do that?"
"Just listen to me, you won't go wrong. Do as I say."
"Okay!"
Zhang Hongmei put the flour she had brought into a bowl, added a little water, and set it aside.
The fish meat was chopped up and placed in the prepared bowl.
At this moment, the old lady also came out, leaning on her cane.
Zhang Hongmei took the basin, cracked the egg whites into it, and poured the egg yolks into the bowl.
Add salt, a little sugar, a small spoonful of white wine, and crushed Sichuan peppercorn powder to the fish. Stir vigorously in one direction with chopsticks.
The seasonings were all mixed well. I stirred the flour water with my index finger, intending to add a drop of spiritual spring water. I hoped the old lady would be well and live a healthy life.
Pour the flour water into the fish bowl and stir again.
I stopped when I felt the fish meat had softened and become firm.
Set the basin aside and light the fire to boil water.
Shi Tou returned after delivering the fish head and bones to the canteen, and sat down to help Zhang Hongmei tend the fire.
Zhang Hongmei washed her hands, grabbed a handful of fish meat, squeezed it together, made a circle with her thumb and forefinger, squeezed out meatballs, and then used a small spoon to scoop them up and put them into the pot.
"Hongmei, aren't you going to wait for the water to boil?"
"Brother Dashan, you really have no common sense. If the water boils over, won't the fish fall apart when you put it in the pot?"
Da Shan wasn't annoyed by what Zhang Hongmei said, and continued to watch from the side.
"Stone, keep the fire like this for now. I'll tell you when to turn the fire up really big in a bit, then you can turn the fire up really big."
It took more than ten minutes to put all the fish and meat from half a basin into the pot.
"Stone, turn up the heat, it'll be cooked once the water boils."
After washing her hands, Zhang Hongmei finely chopped the scallions. These scallions shouldn't be chopped, otherwise they'll taste like rotten scallions.
Once the water boiled, Zhang Hongmei took out a large rice ladle and ladled out the fish balls and soup together. Then she put chopped green onions into the bowl.
Zhang Hongmei muttered to herself, "It would be even better if there was a little sesame oil in it."
Next, beat the egg yolks and pour them into the bowl of fish balls. That's it.
"Ta-da! The delicious fish balls are ready! Hurry up and serve my great-grandmother a bowl to try, they're sure to be delicious!"
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