Farming and reading family

Guo Dafu felt bitter when he heard Gao E ask this.

He also wanted to sell all the fish, but not only did the people in their village catch a lot of fish, but the professional fishermen caught even more. Now the fish could not be sold at all.

"No one buys it, so go home and eat it yourself." Guo Dafu tried to smile.

Gao E knew that she couldn't sell the fish, and that the fish would soon go stale: "There's so much fish, if we can't finish it, we can fry it into fish hair and keep it for later."

"Fish hair?" Guo Dafu had never heard of this.

Gao E immediately told Guo Dafu how to make fish hair. Guo Dafu listened carefully and thought it would be nice if he could save it and eat it slowly.

This kind of freshwater fish has no taste when boiled in water, and it will have a fishy smell if not handled properly. It needs to be seasoned with oil and salt, so ordinary people don’t eat much of it.

It was past dinner time when we got home. Yang and Lei were frying dried shrimps while the eldest brother was making a door with bamboo.

"Brother, help me." Chen Ke couldn't move the bag of salt.

"What did you buy that's so heavy?" Chen Qing tried to lift it before carrying it down with all his strength.

Chen Ke didn't know whether to say it or not, after all, he was buying contraband salt.

"You'll know later, brother." Gao E said with a smile.

Chen Qing didn't ask any more questions.

"Where are the children?" Gao E saw that Chen Duokui and the others were not there.

"Han Yue is taking them to pick acorns." Lei looked up. "The third brother said he found a lot of chestnuts in the woods. Let's go pick some together later."

"Where is the third brother?" Gao E looked around the yard.

"Let's set the trap." Chen Qing put a sack of salt in the cave and came out.

Gao E nodded.

"I heard many people in the village have gone to sell fish, so they definitely can't get a good price." Lei said with a bit of gloating, "It would be a waste of effort to go back."

"Can't they eat it by themselves?" Yang joked.

Lei didn't care: "You have to be willing to give up the oil and salt."

Gao E thought, "Rainbow, drive the car tomorrow and help me go to your father to buy two big pots."

"Oh, look at my memory. I'll go tomorrow." Lei agreed readily.

In the afternoon, the jar seller delivered the jar that Gao E had ordered, and the Chen family was stunned.

"Why did sister-in-law buy so many jars?" Lei helped to move them.

"These smoked fish and dried shrimps must be put away." Gao E asked someone to put the jar at the innermost part of the second cave.

"You don't need so many." Lei thought it was too much. Who would need so many jars?

"It's better to be prepared." Gao E said with a smile.

Lei didn't ask any more questions.

After putting away the jars, Chen Jie came back from the mountains with a bunch of hawthorns in his hand.

Now only hawthorns are found in the deep mountains; all those near the outside have been picked.

Gao E took out a small bag of coarse salt that she had prepared and said, "Once the trap is dug, throw this bag into the pond."

"What is this?" Chen Jie said as he opened it and took a look, then his eyes widened.

"Go ahead and throw it. It won't take long before you catch the wild boar." Gao E promised.

Chen Jie thought it was not a question of whether or not he could catch the wild boar. This bag of salt weighed at least five or six pounds and cost more than a hundred coins, which was enough for his whole family to eat for half a year.

If we fail to catch the wild boar, we will suffer a huge loss.

"Second sister-in-law, I think..." Chen Jie felt that it would be okay not to use salt.

"I gave you this salt. You can go ahead and get the salt from my home when the time comes." Gao E said without allowing any objection.

Chen Jie hesitated for a moment and then nodded.

There is so much salt that not only will wild boars fall into the trap, but even people will fall into it.

"Don't tell anyone else." Gao E reminded.

Chen Jie hesitated for a moment before nodding: "I'll go early tomorrow morning and throw it into the pond."

After Chen Qing and the others left, Gao E asked Chen Ke to fill a jar with water and then throw in coarse salt.

"What are you doing, madam?" Chen Ke was puzzled.

"Put coarse salt in a jar and place it in the courtyard to be exposed to the sun, and you can get snowflake salt on it." Gao E said as she threw salt into the jar.

Chen Ke knew that snowflake salt was eaten by wealthy families, but he didn't know how to make it. He wondered if this was how his wife's family made snowflake salt before she got married?

I didn't ask any more questions at that time.

In the ten years since my wife married him, she has fallen from a lady from a wealthy family to this state. It's all because of him.

Now that my wife no longer complains about him, I should be grateful.

In fact, Gao E just wanted to give it a try. It was no big deal to have a jar of salt water at home anyway.

She planned to refine the rest as she was not used to eating such coarse salt.

That night, Chen Jie and his wife did not go fishing. Chen Jie got up early in the morning to throw salt into the pond, then came back and went to his father-in-law to buy a pot with his wife.

In the morning, Guo Gaoying came over with a bowl of fish hair. The big yellow dog at home was very excited to see him.

Guo Gaoying is Guo Dafu's youngest son. He is thirteen years old this year and is just a grown-up boy.

"Is second brother at home?" he called out from the door.

Gao E turned her head and looked over: "It's Gao Ying, your second brother went to the bamboo forest over there, is there anything you want to talk to him about?"

Guo Gaoying was a little embarrassed: "My mother asked me to send a bowl of fish hair to your house."

Gao E came over and saw the bowl of fish hair piled to the brim: "Just keep it for yourself at home."

"My mother said that if my sister-in-law hadn't suggested this method, the fish in our family would have become rotten." Guo Gaoying smiled, revealing two rows of white teeth.

"Okay, wait a moment." Gao E took the bowl.

Of course, she didn't need this bowl of fish hair, but that's how things were in the village. If someone sent it to her home, it was meant to be a gift, and it wouldn't be easy to refuse their kindness.

Guo Gaoying immediately went to pet his big yellow dog and was extremely happy.

Gao E poured out the fish hair, then took a smoked fish and put it in the bowl: "Thanks to your Da Huang these days, I feel at ease with the sound of a crackling."

Guo Gaoying looked at the large fish lying horizontally on the bowl and said, "I can't have this."

"Who said it was for you? This is for your mother. Tell her that she can eat it after steaming it. Let her try it." Gao E said with a smile.

Guo Gaoying scratched his head and didn't know how to go back, so he had to go back with the bowl and the fish.

It was another day that Chen Ke didn't catch any crickets, but he picked up a lot of acorns. Gao E put the acorns in a bag and found a place with running water to soak them.

Lunch was multi-grain rice, steamed smoked fish, and stir-fried water celery.

Chen Yuning and Chen Hanyue lowered their heads to eat the rice in their bowls, not daring to look up at the dishes on the table.

Seeing how reserved they were, Gao E picked up some food for them and said, "Eat your food, just like you're at home."

Chen Hanyue was a little embarrassed: "Second Aunt, we are not staying here for just one or two days. You can just cook as usual. There is no need to stir-fry dishes specially."

Gao E was stunned for a moment. She herself felt that the dishes were a little small: "This is the meal we usually eat."

Chen Hanyue widened her eyes. Who would dare to eat like this?

"Okay, don't worry about eating it. Your family can eat like this in the future." Gao E said with a smile.

Chen Hanyue didn't believe it. She thought it was a luxury to be able to eat dry rice when she was not working. How could she dare to dream of having two dishes, one meat and one vegetable, and be so willing to add oil and salt.