Siheyuan: Walking the Path of Qin Huairu

When the sun sets, the sea water has risen, and the original beach is gradually covered by the sea water, and there is no place to go fishing.

The boats that had gone out to sea came back one after another. Xu Huizhen observed that the fishing boats were all made of wood, and the largest boat was no more than 15 meters long. They were probably fishing in the near sea, and could not go out to the sea. Fortunately, the resources in the sea were abundant in this era, and the harvest was also abundant in the near sea.

The women in the village also estimated the time and came to the beach, some pushing carts, some carrying poles and baskets, all to transport seafood.

Shawang Village built a simple pier by itself. When the boat approaches, it drops anchor and then uses cables to secure the fishing boat.

Those who go out to sea to fish are all young men. They are blown by the sea wind and exposed to the scorching sun every day, and their skin is bronzed. Not to mention the clothes on their skinny bodies, which are dirty and torn. In addition, going out to sea to fish is risky, and the fish they catch with great effort cannot be sold at a good price. It can be seen that the life of fishermen in this era is also very difficult.

Fishermen on the coast became very rich in later times, mainly because seafood was expensive and convenient to transport, so they could be sold all over the country. Cars were rare in this era, and there were only a few in a county. Tractors were not widely used.

Just imagine, how much can you sell if you rely on an old ox to pull a cart? Especially in the summer when the temperature is high, within two days, the fresh seafood will turn into rotten fish and shrimp.

Even so, every fisherman's face was still filled with joy of returning home with a full load. A young man, holding a big mackerel, stepped off the boat on the pedal and shouted, "Look, everyone, this is the king of fish today!" The attention of people on the beach was attracted.

He placed the big mackerel head down on the beach, supported the mackerel's tail with his hand, grinned, showing a mouthful of white teeth, and asked: "Look, everyone, who is taller, me or this king fish?"

"You are taller, but the fish king is just a little bit taller than you." Someone made a joke, which made everyone laugh. Children gathered around to watch the fun, "This fish is so big, it can't even fit in the pot!"

The young man was seen holding the fish tail with both hands, twisting his hips and dancing, singing: "Who helped us turn over? Who helped us get liberated?..."

There were lively young people who sang along: "The People's Liberation Army is our dearest, the Communist Party is our savior..."

Several children also followed suit, wiggling their little butts and making a noise. Everyone had a smile on their face. Xu Huizhen sighed in her heart: "Happiness is so simple, and people's demands are simple, that is, to be content with having food and clothes."

The fatigue from going out to sea was dissipated a lot in the noise.

The day's harvest was carried to the beach by them, and the female comrades were responsible for sorting it out and reclassifying it into baskets according to different species and sizes.

The big ones that can be sold are stored in the ice cellar and sent to the purchasing station tomorrow morning. As the weather gradually warms up, fresh seafood will rot and spoil if left for a long time, and then it will be worthless. So the village built an ice cellar to keep fresh seafood for a short period of time.

The villagers keep the small fish and shrimp for themselves to eat, or dry them into dried fish and dried shrimps. The smallest shrimps and crabs can be made into shrimp paste and crab paste. It must be said that the wisdom of the masses is really endless.

Xu Huizhen pulled Feng Hui over to watch the fun. The biggest catch today was Spanish mackerel. Every year at this time, Spanish mackerel would pass by here and migrate northward in groups. This is also the best season to catch Spanish mackerel. Basket after basket was carried off the boat. The fresh Spanish mackerel shone with silver light, and they were of different sizes. Most of them were between 20 cm and 70 cm, and occasionally there were giant Spanish mackerels.

Xu Huizhen went over to take a look at the king fish. She had eaten seafood in her previous life, but had never seen such a big mackerel. Today she was really in trouble and her eyes were opened.

There were also two baskets of large yellow croakers that attracted Xu Huizhen's attention. The largest one weighed 20 kilograms. She had never seen such a large yellow croaker in the wild, let alone farmed ones.

Xu Huizhen likes to eat yellow croaker the most. The meat is delicate and tastes delicious, and it tastes good no matter how it is cooked.

There were other miscellaneous fish such as flatfish, sea bass, black fish, wolffish, etc., but not many in number. Then there were also a lot of eagle claw shrimps and crawling shrimps, some of which were still alive, wriggling constantly, and occasionally jumping high. The crawling shrimps in this season were fresh and fat, and it was the right season for them to be delicious. Xu Huizhen stared at them with her eyes wide open, and her saliva almost flowed out.

She quickly wiped the corners of her mouth and looked around guiltily, fearing that her ugly appearance would be discovered by others.

At this time, she saw a sister-in-law pulling the tail of a large round fish and throwing it into the basket of small fish. This fish had a big head, a big mouth, and a small tail. It had sharp teeth in its mouth, no scales, and a brown, slimy body. It looked extremely ugly.

This is monkfish. Although it looks ugly and is cheap, its whole body is a treasure. Its meat is rich in collagen and is as dense as lobster, and is more delicious than ordinary fish. Its fish maw and fish roe are both very nutritious. The fish liver is also known as "undersea foie gras" and is said to have the effect of clearing away heat and detoxifying.

Thinking of this, she asked Feng Hui curiously: "How come this fish is so big, it was thrown into the basket of small fish?" There's nothing wrong with asking if you don't understand, right?

Feng Hui: "This is monkfish. It looks like an ugly monster. The purchasing stations won't accept it. We don't like to eat it either. If we eat it, we might become ugly monsters. We can't finish eating the beautiful fish. Who eats it? It can only be used to feed ducks."

Xu Hui really wanted to say, "Give it to me and I'll eat it. You are really wasting food." But she restrained herself, not wanting Feng Hui to laugh at her for being a pickaxe who would scratch everything.

But she had made up her mind that after a while, when no one was paying attention, she would put the anglerfish into the space. No one would care about such a fish anyway.

She asked thoughtfully: "If I eat potatoes every day in winter, will I grow into potatoes? If I eat locust flowers in spring, will I grow into flowers?"

Feng Hui blinked and smiled: "That can't be possible! We don't eat monkfish anyway." That cute little look made Xu Hui really laugh.

Her hearty laughter attracted the attention of many young men, and some naughty boys even whistled at her.

Xu Huizhen felt the gazes from all around her and couldn't help blushing. She quickly closed her mouth and her laughter stopped abruptly, as if she had suddenly pressed the pause button. She turned around awkwardly to watch the other female comrades working.

She was a beautiful young wife, a foreigner, and she was dressed fashionably. All the young men took a few glances at her. Some of them even whispered to each other, asking who the guest was.

The female comrades worked very efficiently, not afraid of getting dirty or tired. Very few of them were lazy or slacking off. A talkative sister-in-law saw Xu Huizhen and asked Feng Hui, "Xiao Hui, there are guests at your house."

Feng Hui replied: "She is my cousin, she came from the old city."