Xia Liang found some stationery and wrote a reply to Gu Yanxiao. "I'm so sorry, Comrade Gu. I only received your letter now because of special circumstances, so I couldn't reply immediately. I was worried that sending you a letter randomly might violate military regulations, but now that I've seen your letter, I'm not afraid anymore. I'll write to you more often in the future. How have you been lately? Have you finished the dried meat? If you like it, please write to me, and I'll make more and send it to you. Let me know if there's anything else you'd like to eat." She signed it apologetically. After finishing the letter, Xia Liang heard her father come home from get off work, so she put the letter in an envelope and left her room.
Xia Dahe's smile hadn't faded all day, and he was still all smiles when he got home. Xia Liang chuckled and went up to him, asking, "Dad, how was your first day at work?" Xia Dahe saw his daughter come out of her room and thought that it was good that the factory was close to home. They got off work at the same time, and his daughter was already home. But his factory wasn't bad either. In Xia Dahe's mind, as long as he had a job, he was happy. He didn't care how far it was. It was just getting up a little earlier every day. If he couldn't make it, he could go to bed earlier. Actually, not to mention Xia Dahe, even city people, as long as they had a job, what did it matter if the commute was a little long? Xia Dahe smiled and replied to his daughter, "That's great! No wonder everyone wants to work in the factory. Do you know how many people work in our factory? There are probably several thousand. Every day at lunchtime, everyone flocks to the canteen like a swarm of bees. The food in the canteen is pretty good too. The head chef's food is so fragrant, and the price is cheap, almost the same as cooking at home." He went on and on about it. Xia Liang could tell from his expression that he was quite satisfied. Indeed, in these days, it's difficult even for city dwellers to find work. Every family has someone who has to go to the countryside, but there aren't enough jobs available for them. If you have connections, that's fine, but if you don't, you can only obediently go to the countryside. Xia Dahe, a countryman, has even gotten a job in the city. This is something that anyone would be happy about.
Xia Liang got up early and rode her bicycle straight to the black market. It was still very cold in January. Xia Liang wrapped her face and head with a scarf, and even with gloves on, she could still feel the cold wind whistling. By the time she arrived at the black market, her hands were frozen. She breathed on them to warm them. Seeing a stall selling steamed buns, Xia Liang spent a few cents to buy two large meat buns. She didn't eat them but just held them in her hands to warm them. Then she headed towards the beef and mutton section. She found that today, in addition to beef and pork, there were also fish and chicken. Xia Liang bought several pounds of pork and beef, as well as a few fish and three chickens. Seeing a stall selling duck eggs, she bought fifty duck eggs. Only when her hands were full did Xia Liang leave the black market, tie her things to the back of her bicycle, and ride home.
When Xia Liang arrived home, her parents were already up. They were stunned to see their daughter carrying so many things and asked, "Liang, why did you buy so much?" Xia Liang put everything in the kitchen, found a basin, poured water into it, put the fish in, and handed the chickens to her father, saying, "These don't need coupons. I bought them as soon as I saw them. Otherwise, I wouldn't be able to buy them normally." Then she said to her father, "Dad, why don't you get a cage for these chickens and raise them to lay eggs? It'll be more convenient to have eggs to eat." Xia Dahe happily replied, "No problem, I'll take care of it. I'll raise them next to the vegetable garden. We can feed them any leftover vegetable leaves." Xia's mother had previously cultivated the vegetable garden and planted some vegetables, so they didn't need to buy vegetables for themselves, saving the family some money.
When Xia Liang came home from get off work in the evening, her father hadn't arrived yet. She saw the chickens in the yard with their feet tied to a stick stuck in the ground, and some broken grains nearby. Xia Liang went to the kitchen and saw her mother making dinner. She took the fish out to prepare it, first killing it, scaling it, cleaning out its internal organs, washing it, and chopping it into small pieces. Then she went to the field to gather scallions and ginger, washed them, cut them into sections, and put them in the basin with the fish pieces. She went inside to get some white wine, poured about a cup, sprinkled salt into the basin, stirred it well, and marinated it for two hours. During this time, Xia Liang washed a lot of ginger and garlic, chopped them, and set them aside. After preparing the other seasonings, seeing that there was still enough time, she washed all fifty salted duck eggs and put them in the yard to dry. Seeing that it was almost time, Xia Liang poured rapeseed oil into the large pot. Her mother, seeing so much oil, frowned with concern but didn't stop her, knowing her daughter was always steady and didn't need their worry. After heating the oil, Xia Liang added onions, scallions, cilantro, cinnamon, star anise, bay leaves, and Sichuan peppercorns, frying them until golden brown before removing them. Then she added the marinated fish pieces and fried them until golden brown, setting them aside. Using the same oil, she added chopped ginger and garlic, stir-frying until the moisture evaporated, then added more seasonings. She then added the fried fish pieces back to the pot, stirred well, and ladled it out. She filled two glass jars, about four or five pounds, intending to send some to Gu Yanxiao and keep the rest for her family. Xia Liang picked up a piece, blew on it, and fed it to her mother, asking, "Mom, how is it?" "It's not tasty!" Zhao Danxiang finally couldn't help but say, "It's meat, and with so much oil and seasoning, how could it not taste good?" Xia Liang smiled and didn't say anything. When Xia's father and Xia Rong returned and the family was eating, Xia Liang brought out the fish she had made. Before she even entered the door, Xia Dahe sniffed and asked, "What's that smell? It smells so good!" Following the aroma, he couldn't see the fish in his daughter's hand, so he went over, picked up a piece, put it in his mouth, chewed it, and said, "This is so delicious! A-Liang, did you make this?" After all, he had been eating Xia's mother's cooking for decades, and he knew Zhao Danxiang's skill level. This couldn't possibly be his wife's cooking.
The father and son each drank two cups of baijiu (Chinese liquor) with the fish. If they weren't worried about being late for work the next day, the father would have liked to drink two more. After all, he had never eaten such a delicious snack before, let alone a meat dish. After dinner, Xia Liang noticed the duck eggs in the yard had dried out, so she took them to the kitchen, placed them in a basin, and poured in baijiu to soak them. She then dug two shovelfuls of soil from the vegetable garden, added salt and seasonings to the basin, and mixed it with water to make a paste. Making sure each egg was fully coated with baijiu, she dipped it into the paste, then placed the duck eggs in two earthenware jars, putting twenty-five eggs in each. She poured the remaining paste into the jars and stored them in a cool, dark place. They would be ready to eat in about twenty days. It was already very late by the time she finished. Xia Liang had gotten up early that day and was incredibly tired. If she hadn't hadn't been busy, she would have gone to sleep long ago. After washing up, she lay down on the bed and fell asleep almost immediately.
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