At the same time, she quickly reached into her brocade bag and pulled out a few pebbles. The next moment, she saw several dark figures emerge from the reeds, only to realize that they were not the hidden villains at all, but wild ducks that had been startled by her footsteps.
Even so, her hand holding the stone still moved, and she threw a handful of pebbles, which fluttered and landed on the ground as several wild ducks flapped their wings.
"Luckily it didn't fall into the lake, otherwise we would have had to find something to fish it out." Hong Xiaoduo muttered as she stepped forward and picked up one. It felt heavy and quite plump, unlike the wild pigeons she had hunted along the way, which were light and didn't have much meat. They were easy to burn if not cooked properly, so Tianxuan always stewed them for everyone.
One, two, three... She caught seven wild ducks in total, then carried them in both hands and stopped walking, turning back to the camp.
Tian Shu and the others had just set up the canopy and arranged the tables and chairs when they looked up and saw Hong Xiaoduo returning with something in her hands.
"Tianxuan, hurry up and boil water to pluck the duck feathers, we'll have some game tonight," Hong Xiaoduo called out.
Several children rushed towards her, vying to take the things from her hands, and cheered as they carried water to boil.
Quan Jinghuai was at a loss for words. He wouldn't let her do any work, but in the short time she had been by the lake, wild game had already come, and not just one or two!
"Brother, let's not rush off tomorrow. Let's take a good stroll around this lake. There are bound to be wild ducks. Let's catch a lot. Anyway, the temperature isn't too bad right now. Let Tianxuan make braised duck. If it's well-marinated, we'll have a dish for the New Year."
"And there should be fish in this lake, right? We can fish there. We can make dried pickled fish for the big ones, and eat the small ones as a dish. For the really small ones, we can coat them in flour batter, fry them in oil, and then sprinkle them with salt and pepper as a snack. I've seen that the weather has been pretty good lately." Hong Xiaoduo thought she should discuss it with Quan Jinghuai.
But to Quan Jinghuai, this was not a discussion at all, but a one-sided notification!
However, he doesn't mind at all.
"Okay, after dinner, Tianxuan and I will stir-fry some bait." Quan Jinghuai replied, feeling a little sorry for the creatures swimming and flying in the lake, who would face the fate of being wiped out if they encountered her.
She was implying that she was in a hurry to leave, and that her stay, and when she would leave, would depend not only on the final harvest, but also on whether there were wild ducks to catch and big fish to catch every day. Just watch, she wouldn't say she was leaving.
Other people buy their New Year's goods from shops, and it's not that she can't afford them, but she just likes these unexpected gains and enjoys them!
It's strange, she clearly can't cook, but she knows how to make a lot of delicious food.
Putting aside other things, take sweet potatoes for example. Generally speaking, they are eaten steamed, boiled into porridge, or roasted.
But she insisted on instructing Tianxuan to make things like French fries, potato chips, dried sweet potatoes, sweet potato cakes, candied sweet potatoes, sweet potato balls, sweet potato steamed buns, and even some kind of salted egg yolk baked sweet potato fries.
She can come up with all sorts of creative ways to eat even the most ordinary sweet potato.
I must say, both of them are quite delicious.
Quan Jinghuai felt that his second disciple was getting deeper and deeper into the direction of becoming a chef!
With her and Tianxuan as a couple, they wouldn't starve anywhere; they could easily support their entire family by opening a shop.
However, she never had the chance to open a shop, because she was never short of money; a trip to the capital would bring back thousands of taels of gold notes. It was one thing for the Wei family and the Dong family to pay her, but she even dared to fleece the emperor!
That's not just taking advantage of others, it's like pulling the tiger's whiskers right next to its mouth!
She was alright. She knew that serving a ruler was like walking on thin ice, and she stuck to her principles and wanted to continue living a carefree life. She resolutely refused the emperor and did not stay in the capital to become a female official!
However, Quan Jinghuai still admired her. The emperor wanted her to stay and serve as an official. What a temptation that was! How could an ordinary person refuse such a glittering career path?
However, Quan Jinghuai felt that the emperor was thinking too simply. He only saw her power and didn't think about how she had only stayed in the capital for a short time before he forced Minister Gu to resign and return to his hometown. He also thought about how long Consort Xi's power had been building up, plotting, and scheming, only to be completely eradicated because of her!
If Xiaoduo really agrees to stay in the capital as an official, who knows what kind of huge waves she will stir up!
Quan Jinghuai genuinely didn't think his description was too exaggerated; that's just how he felt!
She mentioned these things casually, as if it were nothing out of the ordinary. Quan Jinghuai felt that she must have had other things to do in the capital.
Dinner was a little late because we were cleaning up the wild ducks.
However, on the dinner table, there were two new dishes: wild duck stewed with dried bamboo shoots and braised wild duck.
Wild game meat is inherently delicious, and with Tianxuan's rapidly improving culinary skills, the two dishes made with wild duck were absolutely stunning in both appearance and taste.
"Mom, if there are wild ducks, can we also find wild duck eggs? I'll take a basket and go look for them tomorrow morning so my second brother can pickle them into salted eggs," Yao Guang said, gnawing on a braised duck leg until her little mouth was glistening with oil.
Hong Xiaoduo shook her head and said, "Wild ducks don't lay eggs much this season, so it's probably unlikely we'll be able to find any."
"Huh?" Yao Guang was a little disappointed when she heard that she might not be able to find any wild duck eggs.
"Mother, can we hunt wild ducks with arrows tomorrow?" Tianji asked hesitantly from the side.
“Of course! This is a great opportunity to test your archery skills. How can you improve if you keep shooting at a fixed target?” Hong Xiaoduo replied with a smile.
This chapter is not finished, please click the next page to continue reading!
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
