Fisherman Fubao made his fortune by fishing

There was not much food left at home, so Li Yuer decided to get some whale meat back home and eat it himself while seeing if he could sell some.

She almost exhausted all her strength after chopping off more than 20 kilograms of fish meat. She estimated that this might be the limit of the weight her body could bear, so she stopped trying.

Li Yuer put the frozen hard fish meat into the fish basket on his back and decided to call it a day.

Before leaving, she checked the hole in the fish's belly again and looked around carefully, but found nothing.

She was looking for ambergris.

Ambergris is a natural biological fragrance unique to sperm whales.

The legendary mysterious ambergris comes from the sperm whale in front of us. Sperm whales like to swallow marine creatures, some of which have hard bones in their bodies. Some of these bones cannot be digested in time by the sperm whale's gastric juice.

The sperm whale will secrete some body fluids to wrap it, and over the years it will form the legendary ambergris.

In fact, the principle is similar to the formation of pearls and bezoars.

Some whales excrete ambergris, some spit it out, and some keep it in their bodies.

There are records in the past that the first person to discover ambergris was an islander.

The residents of this island like to hunt whales. Once, a fisherman got a strange stone-like object from the body of a sperm whale.

He just threw it onto the rocks on the shore as if it were an ordinary thing eaten by a sperm whale.

Wet ambergris will give off a fishy smell, but when it is dried in the sun, it will give off a strange fragrance.

Although the fragrance is not as strong as some common floral and plant scents, it is very long-lasting and elegant. Later, he presented this piece of ambergris to the king and received a generous reward.

In fact, later technology has been able to artificially synthesize ambergris. Before it was artificially synthesized, sperm whales were almost hunted to extinction because of it.

Li Yuer felt a little regretful for not finding the ambergris.

Mrs. Cai was craning her neck to look out of the boat at this moment: "Why haven't you come back yet?"

Zhang on the side didn't say anything either, just lowered her head and did the work in her hands.

Old Mrs. Cai had something on her mind and felt uncomfortable in her chest. She was also worried that something might happen to her granddaughter again. She was regretting that she should not have let her go out to play.

The door curtain was lifted. Before Li Yuer could speak, Old Lady Cai started to get angry. "You silly girl, it's almost dark, why are you coming back just now?"

Li Yuer's hands and feet were cold. She put the fish basket on the ground and said in a trembling voice, "Grandma, what do you think?"

Old Mrs. Cai didn't really intend to be angry with her granddaughter, so she just took the opportunity to dig into the fish basket.

He was stunned and asked with wide eyes: "Where did the meat come from?"

I wonder if the little granddaughter has gone astray like the third child.

But think about it, with dozens of kilograms of meat, who wouldn’t want to take advantage of it, right?

Li Yuer's aunt Zhang also stopped what she was doing and stared at the meat in the fish basket. There was no joy in her eyes, but instead worry.

Li Yuer kept rubbing his hands and breathing heavily, saying, "Jin, there's a whale stranded on the beach."

"Really?" She was surprised at first, then Mrs. Cai got a little angry and said, "How dare you go over the eagle's mouth and run so far? I have been busy at home these days and I didn't have time to take care of you. I gave you face, right?"

He scolded her, but he took off his reed-flowered jacket and put it on his granddaughter. "You are frozen. Don't expect me to pay for your medical treatment. Now, our family has no money. If anyone goes out and shows off and gets sick, they will have to endure it on their own."

She turned around and said to the eldest daughter-in-law who was standing there in a daze: "What are you doing? Hurry up and clean up. The old man will be back soon and we have to eat! You are always so troublesome."

He spoke viciously, but the corners of his mouth couldn't help but grin.

Whale meat is a rare and good thing. With it, we have hope.

"Grandma, what are you going to do?"

Li Yuer was very delicious in her previous life. Not only was she a gourmet, she also loved to tinker with food. The bowl of porridge before made her a little bit distrustful of the two people's cooking skills.

"How do you eat it? What else can you eat? Just boil it in water."

As he said this, he walked outside carrying the fish basket.

Fishermen only have fishing boats, and they cook by building a thatched shed on the shore. In the shed, they put a stone pestle and a small iron pot on the stone pestle. They usually use this iron pot to boil water and cook, and it is considered a big item in the household.

Li Yuer jumped up, put the reed-flowered jacket back on Old Lady Cai, and said with a smile, "Grandma, you've been working so hard lately. How about you try your granddaughter's cooking today?"

Old Mrs. Cai stared at her granddaughter for a while.

There are several women in the Li family, so there is no need for the youngest, Li Yuer, to take action on a normal day.

Li Yuer was unsure, wondering if he had seen something.

She tried hard to think about the original owner's personality and whether she should imitate him.

When Old Mrs. Cai was a girl, she was spoiled by her family. Her parents did not overly favor boys over girls, so when she became a mother and a wet nurse, she never treated the girl harshly.

Therefore, the two granddaughters in the family are not afraid of her and their personalities are relatively lively.

In fact, Mrs. Cai didn't doubt her at all. On the contrary, she felt in her heart: After this experience, her little granddaughter has become sensible.

The child is probably scared, thinking that his father might become lame and his mother might not survive. He wants to work more, fearing that his family will despise him and he will have no one to rely on in the future.

Thinking of this, the old lady's eyes softened and she said, "Okay, you are eight years old this year. Children from poor families like us have to take on responsibilities early. It would be good for you to learn how to do it."

Anyway, there is no oil at home, so what else can I do?

Old Madam Cai instructed her eldest daughter-in-law, "Old lady, you light the fire today, and I will personally teach Yu Bao how to cook. The sooner you learn, the better. When you find a husband in the future..."

Li Yuer automatically skipped the following words. She had only one thought in her mind at this moment: Meat! I want to eat meat!

The thatched hut was clearly visible, with all sorts of things in it, except for a can of salt as seasoning.

Old Mrs. Cai exerted a lot of effort before she was willing to take out a piece of whale meat weighing about one pound.

Li Yuer smiled and said, "Grandma, these have to be done today."

"All done?" The old lady screamed, scaring Zhang who was standing beside her so much that she almost dropped her fire stick.

This niece seems to be particularly brave today, and even dares to challenge the old lady's authority.

"What young master and young lady! It's not a festival, but they eat dozens of kilograms of meat in one meal!" The old lady was furious.

Li Yu'er was not angry, and said with a playful smile: "Grandma, listen to me, that fish is huge, as big as several boats, and we can't eat it all. If we don't eat it quickly, it will go bad in a few days when the weather gets better. Do you think it's better to eat it or let it go bad?"

When the old lady heard that so much meat might go bad, she couldn't sit still any longer, "Let's go! Let's go get some more now."

Although the Golden Sand Beach is on the north shore of Rabbit Island and it is the twelfth lunar month, the villagers are all hibernating on their boats and will not go there at all, but Old Mrs. Cai is still nervous and feels at ease only when the meat is kept at home.

"What are you doing?" Just then, Old Man Li came back. He heard his wife's loud voice from a distance. When he came over, he saw the meat in the basket at a glance, "Hey! Where did the meat come from?"

We haven’t eaten meat at home for a long time. The last time we ate meat was more than half a year ago. We chopped up a small piece of meat and cooked it. Each person just ate a little bit of the minced meat to savor the flavor.

But it’s still money after all, right?

People cannot go without meat for a long time, otherwise they will easily get a big belly and a big neck disease.

When Mrs. Cai saw the old man coming back, she no longer cared about the whale meat. She took the basket he handed over and asked anxiously, "How are the people?"

Old man Li sighed and said, "The second son's leg is saved. The doctor said that after tonight, if he doesn't have a fever, he can go home and recuperate."

"Then, what about Juanzi and her son?"

After saying that, Old Lady Cai looked at Li Yuer with some concern, fearing that the child might hear something bad.

"The doctor said, if you take care of it and eat well... you'll be fine."

The doctor's words were quite euphemistic. How can we eat well? We have sold half of our winter food and still owe the villagers two hundred yuan. We have used up the fish tax for next year. How can we eat well?

Thinking of this, the two of them couldn't help but turn their eyes to the basket of whale meat.

A glimmer of hope arose in my stagnant heart.