Chapter 86 Fish Sauce
Wu Jiong was about to start looking for the three-eyed fish, and he changed back to his beast form on the spot, letting Jian Mo get on his back.
Ban Ming saw this and protested loudly: "You can't go with two people! It's not fair!"
Giant Wolf: "It doesn't take two people to beat you."
Jian Mo smiled on the giant wolf's back and said: "I will go with you, and I won't take action. Moreover, with my ability, even if I take action, it might be more of a hindrance."
Ban Ming thought about it and said: "Then I will follow you and watch you."
The giant wolf ignored him and directly carried Jian Mo on its back to search along the river.
Jiujiu saw them leave and followed behind curiously.
This guy has a huge body, and he stepped on the water and made a clattering sound. Even if there were fish, they would probably be scared away by it.
Jian Mo waved his hand behind him to chase it away: "Jiujiu, go back quickly, don't follow me."
Jiujiu stood in the river: "Jiujiu."
Jian Mo waved his hand again: "Be obedient."
Ranzhen, a young man who had been treated by Jian Mo, saw Jiujiu still standing there, so he came over and grabbed Jiujiu's paw and pulled it upstream.
Jian Mo smiled and thanked Ranzhen, then was carried downstream by the giant wolf.
The giant wolf waded in the river and sniffed back and forth, and it seemed that things were not going well.
He went back and forth, and walked a long way. His long fur was wet, and the tip of his tail was also wet. It was wet and rolled into a string, dragging in the water.
When they returned to the crowd to rest, Jian Mo slid off him distressedly and reached out to help him wring his long fur dry.
Jian Mo whispered, "If we really can't find it, then forget it. It'll be fun to catch arrow-bone beasts."
The big cat Ban Ming followed them. When he heard Jian Mo's voice, his ears moved and he ran up: "That's right. If we can't find it, Chief, you can't just stop looking. Just carry ten arrow-bone beasts for me."
The giant wolf: "You can find it."
The big cat licked the tip of its nose: "Then you have to hold on tight. The sun is already at its highest point in the sky and will soon set."
The giant wolf: "I know."
The big cat walked back and forth around them: "Then I'll wait. To be honest, there may not be any three-eyed fish here. Maybe your search is a waste of time."
Everyone laughed as they listened to their bet.
Seeing Ban Ming's provocation, Qing Kuang shook his head: "Silly boy, take it easy, or you will lose your fur skirt."
The big cat shook the tip of its tail: "Impossible, I followed them and didn't smell the scent of three-eyed fish at all."
Ah Hu came over and put his hand on the big cat's paw: "I didn't smell it either, the scent of three-eyed fish is too hard to find."
Qing Kuang: "Just because you smelled it doesn't mean that the tribe leader didn't smell it. Did you smell it, tribe leader?"
Jian Mo immediately responded: "Qing Kuang, you are not allowed to help your child to find out the news."
Qing Kuang smiled: "I didn't find out, I was just curious."
Giant Wolf: "You will know in the afternoon."
Jian had lunch and rested for a while, and the giant wolf carried Jian Mo to a section of the river downstream.
The giant wolf, who had been searching for half a morning without any results, seemed to have finally determined its target.
Everyone was surprised by his performance and followed him down.
After running for a while, he stopped somewhere and scratched the cave by the river with his claws.
As soon as the cave was opened, a fish with light yellow patterns on its back emerged from the cave and landed right under the giant wolf's nose.
The giant wolf opened its mouth wide and grabbed the fish that came to its door quickly and accurately.
The fish struggled desperately in the giant wolf's mouth and hit his nose several times.
The movement was so loud that everyone looked over.
Dejiang was the first to see it clearly: "It's a three-eyed fish."
Qingkuang also agreed: "It is indeed a three-eyed fish."
Jian Mo stretched his neck on the giant wolf's back and looked carefully for a long time before he saw a slightly darker pattern on the fish's forehead, right between its two eyes, like a third eye.
The big cat also saw it clearly, and its ears drooped down, and its tail shook weakly, muttering: "How can I be so lucky?"
As long as he found a fish, even if he lost, he had already lost now.
Qingkuang patted the big cat's thigh: "Just go and catch the arrow-bone beast tonight."
The giant wolf: "No hurry."
Qingkuang: "What's the hurry?"
The giant wolf did not answer. After throwing the fish in its mouth into its own basket, he carried Jian Mo and continued to walk down.
The big cat was surprised: "No way? You found a second fish?"
The giant wolf didn't answer again, but directly grabbed Jian Mo and ran downstream again.
After a while, he dug open the second hole and took out the three-eyed fish inside.
The three-eyed fish was thrown into the backpack. Everyone took a closer look and confirmed that it was a three-eyed fish.
The giant wolf's footsteps did not stop, and he continued to go down. Before others could react, he caught the third three-eyed fish.
Then the fourth, fifth... eleventh, twelfth, thirteenth.
Everyone was stunned to see him catching the three-eyed fish hiding in the cave one by one like chopping melons and vegetables.
Seeing that he wanted to continue looking down, the big cat couldn't stand it anymore, so he jumped over and hugged the giant wolf's right front leg with his claws: "Chief, how can you find so many? Have you been here a long time ago? Do you know there are three-eyed fish here? Meow!"
The giant wolf looked down at him: "Do I need to cheat when betting with you?"
The big cat rolled on the ground and shouted: "Then how can you find it so skillfully? And you can catch it every time. For example, I can't smell the scent of three-eyed fish at all!"
Giant wolf: "Three-eyed fish are not easy to find. It is difficult to track its scent alone. However, the smell will be slightly different if it is present or not in a certain area. Just look for its cave carefully in the place where the smell is different."
The big cat was dumbfounded: "Is it possible? Exclude the places where it doesn't exist and only look for the places where it exists?!"
The giant wolf nodded.
Di Ya came over and patted his son's leg: "Did you learn it? Use this method to find the Arrow Bone Beast tonight."
Everyone laughed.
The big cat rolled over on the ground, lying there in frustration and unwilling to move.
Wu Jiong changed back to human form and stopped looking.
He rummaged through the basket on his back, found the female fish that could produce eggs and threw them back into the river.
With these female fish, there will be new three-eyed fish in this river next year.
Everyone caught some ambrosia for a while, and when the sun went down, they returned to the tribe with a full load.
The big cat Ban Ming still remembered the bet, and he felt weak all the way.
When they said goodbye, the giant wolf said, "Remember our arrow-bone beasts, there are thirteen of them in total. You can send them all at once or in batches."
The big cat muttered, "Got it. Am I such an untrustworthy beastman?"
The giant wolf: "No, that's the best. I hope you don't wait until winter to send them to us."
The big cat: "I'll go catch them tonight!"
Jian Mo smiled and waved: "Then we'll wait."
When he got home, Jian Mo poured some water to drink. He still remembered Wu Jiong's heroic figure today: "You're so awesome! I see everyone's jaws are about to drop."
Wu Jiong touched the back of his neck: "I'll only make the bet if I'm sure."
Jian Mo looked up and smiled: "I can see that."
The three-eyed fish were caught and must be processed tonight, otherwise a batch of them might die tomorrow and the fish gall will not be so fresh and useful.
Jian Mo didn't know how they were going to deal with it, so he squatted aside and watched Wu Jiong deal with it.
Wu Jiong took out a shell knife and deftly took out the fish gall.
The gall of the three-eyed fish is particularly large, much larger than the average fish gall. It looks like a small lychee when taken out.
Jian Mo put the heavy fish gall in the palm of his hand to examine it, and then put it under his nose to smell it, and he could smell a fishy smell rushing to his head.
It is hard to imagine that such fish gall is actually a good medicine for reducing fever, and I don't know how the first person who discovered this found it?
Wu Jiong asked Jian Mo to put the fish gall on a plate: "I'll take it out to dry, you go wash your hands. The three-eyed fish smells particularly fishy, you can use leaves to wash it, otherwise the smell will take a long time to get rid of."
Jian Mo: "Will washing with soap not help?"
Wu Jiong: "You try."
Jian Mo went into the house and washed his hands with soap several times, but his hands still smelled fishy. It seemed that washing with soap was indeed not very useful.
He went outside the house, intending to pick some leaves with a stronger smell to rub his hands.
As soon as he came out, he saw Jiujiu sniffing the three-eyed fish whose gall had just been dug out. The expression on its face was obviously disgusted, and its nose was wrinkled.
Jian Mo was amused when he saw it: "You can even tolerate dirty internal organs, but you can't stand the smell of three-eyed fish?"
Jiujiu looked up, glanced at Jian Mo, and came over to rub against him: "Jiujiu."
Jian Mo suddenly smelled a strong fishy smell, probably because Jiujiu's chin was rubbed with the blood of the three-eyed fish.
I have to say, the smell is really bad.
Jian Mo hurriedly pushed Jiujiu's head: "Don't rub me."
Jiujiu was like a puppy, thinking that Jian Mo was playing with it. Seeing that Jian Mo refused, it immediately switched to the other side to rub.
The other side was covered with blood, and Jian Mo was horrified and hurriedly reached out to push again.
One wanted to push and the other wanted to rub, and the man and the beast chased each other in the yard.
Jiujiu flapped his wings, his eyes lit up with excitement, and he ran with his chubby body.
Jian Mo's stamina was still okay, but the small yard really limited his ability to perform. After running for a while, he was exhausted and panting.
After Wu Jiong came back and saw them like this, he separated them one by one with his hands.
Jiujiu jumped a few times on the spot, but couldn't break free from Wu Jiong's iron-hoop-like hands, so he could only squat there obediently: "Jiujiu."
Wu Jiong looked at Jian Mo who was still wiping his sweat: "Why did you suddenly chase me?"
Jian Mo: "Jiujiu wanted to rub against me, but I didn't let it, so it thought I was playing with it. It kept chasing me and rubbing against me."
As he said, Jian Mo sighed: "The smell of three-eyed fish is really fishy. It almost made me fall over just now."
Wu Jiong nodded in agreement: "This fish does taste a bit fishy, it's inedible."
Jian Mo: "What should we do with the fish?"
Wu Jiong: "In the past, we usually threw it away, but now we can consider giving it to Jiujiu."
Jian Mo looked at Jiujiu and said with some sympathy: "It probably won't eat it either. It just smelled it and its nose wrinkled."
Wu Jiong: "Then throw it away."
Wu Jiong went to pick up the three-eyed fish whose gallbladders had been stripped.
Jian Mo followed him. These three-eyed fish were quite big, at least five or six pounds each, and they felt heavy in his hands.
They threw four female fish back into the water, and the remaining nine three-eyed fish were all here, in the basket, which was full.
Jian Mo felt a little distressed to take out all these fish and throw them away.
Going out to hunt and gather is not easy. The taste of fish is indeed not very good, but it would be a waste to throw it away.
Jian Mo thought for a while: "Let me see what kind of dish to make it into."
Wu Jiong reminded: "It will still be fishy if it is made into a dish, and it will still be fishy if it is dried."
Jian Mo was surprised: "Does it taste so overbearing?"
Wu Jiong: "Yeah, it is very fishy."
Jian Mo understood a little bit why the ancients could discover the use of fish gall. Maybe they could not eat it but were unwilling to swallow it?
Wu Jiong stood up: "I will throw it into the river, and other animals will eat it."
With that, Wu Jiong was about to leave.
Jian Mo watched him leave with the heavy fish, and suddenly said, "Wait, I think I remembered a way to cook fish."
Wu Jiong: "What?"
Jian Mo: "I don't know if you have that tradition here, which is to pickle fish and shrimp with salt, and after fermentation, use the juice as seasoning."
Wu Jiong imagined the scene and frowned: "Isn't that blood water?"
Jian Mo: "No, no, no, we call it fish sauce over there. After adding salt and fermenting it, it is completely different from the blood of raw fish. I think I can give it a try." Jian Mo
looked at the fish in his hand: "These fish are useless anyway, I'll try to make fish sauce. Otherwise, there are too few seasonings on hand, and I always feel like something is missing."
Nowadays, few people can cook without oyster sauce or soy sauce. The beans have not been found yet, so forget about beans for the time being. It seems like making some fish sauce or something would be nice.
The more Jian Mo thought about it, the more he thought it was feasible: "I'll go get a big pot down."
Wu Jiong: "Just stuff the fish into the pot to ferment?"
Jian Mo: "No, it has to be pounded into fish paste before fermenting."
Wu Jiong took a look and said: "If
we take it to the big stone to pound it into fish paste, everyone will have opinions." Jian Mo smiled and said: "Then we take it to the river, smash it into fish paste with stones, and then throw it into the river with the stones, and everyone will have no objection."
This was the only way for the time being, so the two went to the river to smash the three-eyed fish into fish paste and brought it back.
It was already dark when they got home.
Jian Mo poured the fish paste into the clean pot and added salt to it.
Wu Jiong: "How much salt should be added?"
Jian Mo sighed: "I really can't remember, put twice as much as bacon, after all, the fish paste won't be exposed to the sun, if the salt is too little, it will probably go bad soon."
Wu Jiong picked up the big bowl and poured it into the pot.
After the salt was poured, Jian Mo took a clean firewood, mixed the fish meat and salt thoroughly, and then put a layer of salt on top, letting them ferment in the pot.
"Okay." Jian Mo straightened up and stuffed the smelly firewood into the stove, and burned it directly later. "Now move the pot to the corner, and I'll see how it ferments in two days."
Wu Jiong moved the pot over and smelled his hands: "I'll go take a bath first and then come back for dinner."
Jian Mo's body was also full of fishy smell: "I'll go with you."
Now the weather is getting hot, and it's not a problem to warm up and take a bath in the river.
The two of them ran to the upper reaches of the tribe with soap and took a good bath.
Jian Mo thought of Wu Jiong turning into a giant wolf during the day, walking around in the river, and his hair was all wet, so he let him turn back into a giant wolf, intending to give his beast form a good wash.
Wu Jiong said, "It's tiring to bathe the beast form."
Jian Mo was happy and rolled up his sleeves: "That's because you don't know what I did before. I have experience bathing cats and dogs."
Wu Jiong heard him talk about the past and reminded him, "I'm different from those little guys."
Jian Mo: "You can also learn from your previous experience. Change quickly, otherwise the mud and water will shrink into your pores."
Under his urging, Wu Jiong had to change into a giant wolf and lie in the river.
Jian Mo jumped forward and hugged him: "So handsome!"
The giant wolf gently touched him with its mouth: "Is this position okay?"
Jian Mo: "Okay, I'll apply soap for you."
The giant wolf was very large, but he was very cooperative, and it was much easier to wash him than washing ordinary large animals.
Jian Mo rubbed him once, let him lie on his side in the water, and let the running water take away the foam on his body.
The giant wolf had no complaints, but its ears twitched when it lay down.
Jian Mo kissed his ears, and the smile on his face became even deeper.
After taking a shower, the two went home hand in hand.
Jiujiu, who was squatting in the yard waiting for dinner, saw them come back and "meowed" in the dark, with a pair of eyes with a little green light.
This guy looked a little aggrieved.
Jian Mo smiled and went up to pat its butt: "Didn't we feed you snacks before we went out? Are you still meowing?"
Jiujiu: "Meow!"
Jian Mo: "Okay, okay, let's go cook now."
Wu Jiong: "I'll stew the ambrosia first."
Jian Mo: "Then I'll stir-fry two dishes later. I haven't had stir-fried dishes in a few days."
They were busy until very late before they had this meal.
However, the meal today was quite large. Although Jiujiu had to wait for a long time, he was very satisfied when he finally ate the meal and kept chirping beside him.
This time when they went out to catch three-eyed fish, in addition to the fish gallbladder and pickled fish, they also got the arrow bone beasts sent by Ban Ming.
Ban Ming took his friends to the wild and searched for several nights before he finally gathered thirteen arrow bone beasts with great difficulty.
After everything was delivered, he had dark circles under his eyes, and he sat weakly on the recliner in Jian Mo's yard: "I will never bet with the clan leader again next time. I finally understand that if he is not sure, he will never agree."
Jian Mo brought him tea with tuk-tuk milk and sugar: "Thank you for your hard work."
Ban Ming: "It is indeed hard work, but I am exhausted. By the way, how is the fish sauce your family is going to make? My father asked me to ask."
Jian Mo: "I don't know, anyway, it hasn't gone bad yet, let it continue to ferment."
As for fish sauce, Jian Mo had only used it before, and had never made it by himself, and he didn't know how to operate it specifically.
All he could do was wait slowly, waiting for the fish sauce to ferment or completely rot.
But he had a hunch that the fish sauce should be successfully made and become the first fermented seasoning in their family.
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