Dinner was held in the open-air courtyard of the patriarch's house. It was divided into two large tables. The main food was seafood, and they ate while enjoying the sea breeze. Crabs, prawns, shrimp, vegetables, and so on. The extremely valuable seafood feasts in the future were not rare here.
The seafood was freshly caught by the clan, the meat and eggs were gathered by the families who came to eat, and the patriarch's family was responsible for providing firewood and rice.
To the people of Lin village, seafood barely filled their stomachs, and if they attempted to stuff themselves with it, their joints would easily hurt and swell. Meat and rice were rarities. However, for Lin Wanwan, the first family meal the Lin family had in the Tang Dynasty a thousand years ago was an eye-opening experience. Most importantly, the people here were very enthusiastic about her.
For once, she could tell the difference. They were truly treating her as one of their own, albeit with some skewed reverence. It wasn't like her life in the modern era, where people would be attracted to her because of her beauty and would pay attention to her with a purpose. During the banquet, the Lin patriarch had also publicly said that he would allocate a piece of land for Lin Wanwan to build a house. Since she had returned to the clan, of course, she should have her own land. No one had any objections.
In any case, in this remote mountain valley and seaside, there were not many fertile fields, but most of them were rock fields—ideal for solid house foundations.
"Wanniang, have some meat! Have some meat!" The matriarch, Lin Niushi, gave her a piece of fat meat.
Lin Wanwan quickly blocked the bowl and said firmly, "Aunty, I don't like to eat fat meat! Really, I'm not being polite, I like seafood, seafood is delicious!"
"How can there be people who don't like to eat fat meat? Hahahahaha, that's impossible!" Everyone laughed when they heard this, and Lin Wanwan smiled faintly.
Of course, the matriarch was this polite to Lin Wanwan because of the kitchen glass jar filled with red sugar that Lin Wanwan had given her.
An eight-piece kitchen set that cost 129 Yuan in the modern era could be considered a family heirloom in the Tang Dynasty.
"Wanniang, you and Xiao Yu'er will stay at my place tonight. I've already prepared the bed and the room." Lin Qinshi said.
Mrs. Chen from Lin Mengjin's family agreed. "Yes, yes, yes. In preparation for your arrival, Meng Bo's family cleaned his mother's house as best they could. The bedding has just only dried up. Don't worry!"
"Sister-in-law, you're so considerate." Lin Wanwan thanked her.
Lin Qinshi hurriedly said, "Oh please, it is a given. You are the great benefactor of our family."
This dinner was the most refreshing meal Lin Wanwan had eaten since she came to the Tang Dynasty. Such succulent, fresh, wood-fire grilled seafood. In modern times, such a meal could easily set one back by five or six thousand Yuan. Seafood was nothing like regular meat. Coming from the sea, it naturally carried some saltiness. Even if the impoverished are reluctant to season it with their previous salt and end up boiling it with water, it would turn out delicious! This table was almost collapsing under the weight of sheer seafood! Even the affluent in modern China would find it hard to arrange such a meal, due to various quotas and embargoes. When the rice was scooped out of the pot, Lin Wanwan looked at the rice that was still mixed with chaff. She took a bite. Her throat clenched up, and she swallowed it with some difficulty. She returned to her senses again. After all, this was a small fishing village in the Tang Dynasty. Even a bowl of white rice was a luxury.
However, too much seafood was bad for children. Lin Wanwan was afraid that something would go wrong with Xiao Yu'er stomach, which had just only been adjusted to her much-needed multivitamins and probiotics
Hence, she took out a small porcelain bowl from the box and poured hot water into it. After adjusting the temperature, she quickly soaked the rice flour with meat floss and dried vegetables.
Actually, for Xiao Yu'er, who was only four years old, rice flour wasn't really necessary. But there was no other way. Lin Wanwan found that the little girl's stomach was in poor shape. She was constantly wracked by constipation, diarrhea, and other digestive problems, so she bought a lot of modern nutritious rice flour and put it in a porcelain jar for little Qing Yu.
When the others saw the dinner Lin Wanwan had meticulously prepared for Xiao Yu'er, their eyes flew wide open.
The two grandsons of the clan leader's family drooled and kept asking, "Xiao Yu'er, what is this? Was it delicious? Does it smell good?"
"Well, everything my mother cooks is delicious." Since she arrived here, Xiao Yu'er had been in a gloomy mood, and her voice was as sharp as a gnat when spoken to. Everyone just thought she was young and shy to see so many strangers.
Even the men sitting at the table next to them couldn't help but turn their heads to look. These strong laborers had always been eating the best and most of the food at home, otherwise they wouldn't have the strength to go out to sea. Now, a child was being fed something excellent.
"It's delicious! Mother, it's so delicious, there's the smell of meat! The yellow strips look like dried meat!"
The children didn't eat alone and took their own bowls for their parents to try.
Lin Wanwan sighed deeply. Although there was no white rice here and the conditions were hard, it was even rarer for a father to be kind and a son to be filial.
Lin Wanwan did some calculations in her heart and said, "I've brought a box of grain seeds with me when I came to the clan this time. There's a hybrid rice seed that can produce 18 or 19 stones per yield."
In the Tang Dynasty, one stone was 53 kilograms. In modern times, a single yield produced 1200 kilograms, which was 18 or 19 stones.
Clang! Clang! The chopsticks fell to the ground, and all eyes were fixed on her. They repeated in unison, "How much? 18 or 19 stones?"
Lin Wanwan nodded.
"How do you make that happen?" Lin Mengbo asked in disbelief. How was that possible? It's already considered good if we can produce more than 2 stones per yield!"
Lin Wanwan explained in a soft voice, "It's because Master loves to eat rice. He wants to eat white rice every day, but he doesn't have the patience to spend all day in the field. So, he developed rice grains of his own. They are very high-yield. It's enough for us to eat every day, for every meal."
Hybrid rice was not as delicious as this organic, natural rice they had here, but it was difficult for people to even fill their stomachs now, so what was the point of paying attention to the taste? No matter what, it was definitely much better than rice mixed with chaff and other miscellaneous things!
This was also the reason why Lin Wanwan had chosen the hybrid rice seeds. Since she was already here, she had to seek some benefits for the Lin family from a thousand years ago. These were her ancestors.
The crowd was silent for a while, and then they laughed. They didn't believe it at all, thinking that this lady who had followed the old immortal to enjoy life on the mountain was too far from the soil to tell how things worked in the field!
Is she even listening to herself? 18, 19 stones! Do you think farming is a game? How was that possible?
An old man who had been farming for his entire life could responsibly say that even in the best years without disasters and desolations, the yield of rice would not exceed 2 stones!
18, 19 stones! This little fairy maiden who didn't know the hardship of the human world could say anything she wanted.