Travel to the mountains and make a fortune in silence

After resting for a while, Zihan, Zitong, and Muqin also started peeling bamboo shoots.

Mu Yao and Zi Yuan, the two girls, stopped peeling bamboo shoots and instead looked around the wooden bucket at the fish inside. There was a large grass carp weighing five or six pounds in the bucket, but neither of them dared to reach in and touch it; they could only watch.

Mu Yao was bolder and reached out her finger to poke the big fish a few times, but immediately withdrew her hand when she saw it move.

"Hehehe, it didn't bite me. Ziyuan, you can pet it too. It won't bite you."

"No, its mouth is too big, it'll eat my hands."

“Touch her back, she won’t bite you. Look, it won’t bite me!” He then reached out and touched the fish’s back to demonstrate to Ziyuan.

After trying a few times and finding that the fish didn't move, she became even bolder and finally put her whole hand in to grab the fish. As soon as her hand touched the fish and before she could even exert any force, the big fish shook its head and splashed water all over the two girls' faces and bodies.

"Haha, this is fun!"

"Haha, Mu Yao, your clothes are all wet."

The two of them were still laughing foolishly, wiping the water off their faces with their sleeves.

Wang Qing'er happened to walk over and saw this scene. She laughed and said, "You two are all soaked! Stop playing and go sit over there to dry in the sun, or you'll catch a cold."

She pulled the two of them up and noticed that their shirts were soaked, with water easily wringed out. "No, they're too wet. We need to change them."

Upon seeing this, Zhou, who was standing nearby, quickly said, "I'll go get some clothes. You can change in the yard; the sun will be out, so you won't be cold."

Wang Qing'er helped the two little girls change their clothes and then combed their hair again. "Alright, go play now, but you can't play with the fish anymore!"

The two girls obediently agreed, but their eyes were still secretly glancing into the bucket. Wang Qing'er saw that the two girls looked eager to try, and it seemed that as long as Wang Qing'er left, they would continue to catch fish in the bucket.

Children in this era didn't have many toys, so they could play with unusual things for a long time.

When the rabbit was first brought back, Mu Yao would go to see it every day and touch it for a long time.

They would feed the sheep with vegetable leaves every day. Later, the cow they bought was too big, and the little girl was a little scared, so she only dared to watch it from a distance.

They probably won't let this fish go either; this is the persistence and joy that belongs to children!

So Wang Qing'er took out a small wooden basin, scooped out a few thumb-sized fish from the bucket and put them in the basin, added some water, and placed it in front of the two of them. "If you want to play, play with the ones in the basin. You're not allowed to touch the ones in the bucket anymore!"

"Thank you, mother!"

"Thank you sister-in-law!"

The two girls eagerly squatted down to catch the small fish, and didn't forget to thank Wang Qing'er.

Now Ziyuan wasn't scared anymore. She reached out her little hands to catch fish in the basin, and the two of them laughed happily every time they caught one.

Only then did Wang Qing'er take the fish basket to the well to kill the fish.

The fish was almost dead, so she didn't need to tap its head. She simply removed the scales, opened its belly, cleaned it, chopped off the head, and sliced ​​the fish meat thinly.

Take it into the kitchen and marinate it with potato starch, minced ginger and garlic, and soy sauce.

Mu Qin immediately followed her in to help her start the fire. Now she was Wang Qing'er's little follower, and sometimes she knew what to do without her having to say a word.

Wang Qing'er cooked the rice in the pot and asked Mu Qin to watch over it.

She would take a basket and go to the back mountain to pick some wild celery. This patch of wild celery had long become another vegetable that the Mu family could sell for money.

Every few days, they would harvest over twenty catties of the produce and take it to restaurants, where it would sell for four coins per catty.

The patch of toon leaves that was discovered earlier was sold for a while, but it stopped being sold after the season ended. However, she dried a lot of toon leaves, which can be used to stir-fry with eggs when you want to eat them, and they taste pretty good.

Back in the backyard, I picked some more scallions. I had sown them too densely, so they didn't have enough space to grow and therefore didn't grow very strong.

She would often come and pull out some for cooking, and that's how it slowly started to grow a little better.

When I passed by that field of water spinach, I picked a large handful of water spinach.

The first batches of water spinach and red amaranth can be picked and sold at restaurants, although only a few pounds are available each time, and it takes several days to get a few pounds.

However, scarcity drives up prices, and the restaurants charged high prices, selling water spinach and red amaranth for ten coins per pound.

Manager Li always says that there's not enough to sell, and he's asked Old Man Mu several times when the quantity can be increased.