The General's Delicious Wife Chapter 041: Fishes of the beginning season
The fish traps that are set in the river have been upon Xia Yue Chu's thought all the while, after waking up and having breakfast, she eagerly calls Qin Zheng to go to the river together.
The initial plan is to catch some fish so that Xue Zhuang can get the nutrients he needs, but now they need to add Xue Ping's share, she also needs the nourishment after her miscarriage.
But it is uncertain how effective the fish traps are, if they cannot catch anything, it would have been a total waste of effort.
Qin Zheng has a fantastic memory. Although he is moving in darkness last night, he still remembers the location of all the fish traps. He heads toward the nearest one, pulls it up in one swap and expresses his delight. "Sister-in-law, there is definitely fish inside."
The fish trap emerges from the water and Xia Yue Chu gathers up to peek. There are black figures squirming vigorously within the fish trap basket, so she hastily takes the bucket she is holding over.
Qin Zheng lifts the tail end of the fish trap basket and tips it over the bucket, there are more than ten tails of fishes being poured into the bucket.
Xia Yue Chu sees all these fishes struggling at the bottom of the bucket, not only are there river loaches, there are also willow fishes and perch sleepers.
Although they are all fishes, they are truly special fishes, only available in the beginning of the fishing season.
The winter of the Northeast region is long. The river water gets frozen over the period of four to five months. The fishes living under that layer of ice survive without any food source and depend on their natural fat accumulated in their bodies to pass the winter.
So when the spring comes and the river melts, the fishes start leaping out of the water surface, the ordure in their system would have been thoroughly discharged, and their new intake of food has yet to get into their stomachs, so their natural fat content would have been exhausted to the last ounce.
It also happens to be the spawning season for the fishes, their stomachs are full of fish roe that is without any impurities, there is no need to cut their stomachs open for cleaning and can be added into the wok to be cooked directly.
Right at this timing, the flesh of the fish is firm and lean, not fatty and not crumbly, and not a speck of fishiness to it, they are in the most delicious season.
And the rarest highlight of this beginning season of breaking into the river, is that you can only eat like this over these few days throughout the entire year.
Once the fishes lay out all their eggs and start consuming their meals, that particularly clean taste will immediately be affected.
All six fish traps are activated, the most has more than ten tails, the least has a few tails, and the bucket is half full of fishes. Three tails of palm sized baby carps are poured out the last two fish traps.
To have received such a good harvest over one night of work, Xia Yue Chu is so overjoyed that her face reddens.
The ancient rivers are not polluted, the people who go after this type of fishes are few, that is why all the fishes that they have caught are bigger and stronger than what Xia Yue Chu has caught in her previous lifetime. It makes her drool just looking at these.
"Sister-in-law, aren't these fishes a little small in their sizes?" Qin Zheng looks into the bucket of fish and frowns. The longest one is not even one foot long and he cannot help but to comment. "I saw those fishes caught in the beginning season that other people are selling in town, they are all foot long big fishes, this difference is too wide."
There are a couple of stores that are selling fish in the market yesterday, they are all stored in big tubs that can be used for a human to bath, and it is filled with fishes jumping around energetically. He has the heart to buy one back as a treat, but he couldn't bear to spend the money, so he ends up giving up on it.
"This is still small?" Xia Yue Chu sees how Qin Zheng is gesturing the sizes and laughs to explain. "Those are silver carps or bighead carps that kind are of bigger breeds, these are river fishes, the types are different, no matter how much they grow, they will not be able to grow to the size that you are thinking of. All these that we have caught are already considered big in their sizes."
"There are also good points about it, they can be eaten fried like last night."
The fish that they have for dinner yesterday is not much in quantity and there are guests at home so Qin Zheng only picks a bigger sized one for Xue Zhuang and the smallest one for himself, and stops reaching towards that dish with his chopsticks after that.
Thinking about the fried fish that he has eaten last night, Qin Zheng cannot help himself licking his lips and swallowing his saliva. If feels as if that fragrance can still be savoured within his mouth, his stomach which has just been filled with his breakfast starts to rumble in rebellion*.
"So many fishes should be enough for the both of you to have your full." Xia Yue Chu has already started to plan out the cooking method in her heart when she sees the fish. "This one for deep fry, this one with the big head should be braised in sauce, the last three baby carps will be used to stew a soup, for your brother and Da Ping to replenish their nourishment."
Qin Zheng looks at the half bucket of fish, thinking to himself that if they really try to eat to their full, this amount will not even be enough for him alone.
But he is only thinking about it, something like this should not be said out loud.
According to the Xue family's conditions, he and his big brother both, are two young lads with huge appetites, it is hard enough to be able to have enough food.
Furthermore, they have a good reason due to Xue Zhuang's inconvenient health situation that they have split the kitchens and have meals separately. Xia Yue Chu is generous in the food she serves, no matter the quality of the ingredients, she is generous in adding a good amount of oil and is also generous to feed others to their fill.
If they have ended up under Madam Sheng's hands, not mentioning any oil or water**, he is afraid that they will not even have enough to eat.
"This little bit of fish will not be enough to eat, I will set the fish traps back into place."
Qin Zheng removes his shoes and socks and is about to go into the water when they hear someone shouting. "Da Zhuang's wife, Da Zhuang's wife!"
Xia Yue Chu turns her head around and sees a middle age madam who is around forties of age, walking along the dirt path in a quick pace towards them. She is Auntie Chen who lives in the house at the North side mountain foot of the village.
Through the residue memories from the previous owner***, Auntie Chen is an extremely good person. Even though her family's conditions are tough as they are getting by their days, she is not greedy to covet other people's things, and her character and the principles she follows by are exceptional.
No matter who she has received favours from in the village, even if it is merely a bundle of firewood or two handfuls of mountain vegetables, she will make it a priority to give back with the best.
In the past, the original owner*** is often starved and Auntie Chen would hand her some mixed grains cakes on a few separate occasions even when Auntie Chen does not have enough food for herself.
Because she has these memories, Xia Yue Chu holds an esteem respect and gratitude towards her, which makes her more willing to interact and being involved. Now, seeing her making her way over, she greets her passionately. "Auntie Chen, I caught some fish, you can take some back home for your children to eat!"
"You don't have to be too polite, bring it back and use it for Xue Zhang's nourishment. I just happen to see from afar and it looks like you, so I came over to tell you this, don't rush to put in the fish traps baskets."
Auntie Chen gestures with her hands, seeing Xia Yue Chu not understanding, she begins to explain. "The upstream of the river are thrusting a pile, I heard that the pile is thrusted very high, the workers are finding people who can unplug the pile. Later when the river is unplug, the water will surely be gushing out rapidly, we cannot be certain, there may be wooden logs bumping down as well. By that time, don't even need to mention the fishes, all the fish trap baskets will be gone."
"What does thrusting a pile mean?" Qin Zheng is not a local and he totally could not understand what Auntie Chen is saying.
"We have lots of forest here in our region, and there are workers engaged in the mountains who open a lumber yard. The lumberjacks will cut the logs in the winter and gather up all the fallen wooden logs by the riverside into a wooden log pile. Then waiting for the spring rain and river water every year, they will push all the wooden logs into the river, using the river flow to transport the wooden logs down to the lodging dock below. Then it will be tied into wooden rafts and be transported by the river flow again to the shipyard that is by the seaside."
Qin Zheng has witnessed wooden rafts being transported by a river before, but he has no idea what it looks like to be transporting the wooden logs upstream.
Xia Yue Chu notices Auntie Chen's expression turning grim, so she quickly shoots Qin Zheng with a glance to stop him from asking anymore.
Auntie Chen can tell that Qin Zheng is still curious, so she tells him. "It is along this upstream not far from here, if you go over there now, you can still see them. I can help you bring the fish back first."
Xia Yue Chu has also only heard about it and has never seen it with her own eyes, seeing how curious Qin Zheng is and that it is still early, not the time to be cooking yet, she entrusts the bucket over to Auntie Chen so that she can help them bring it back. They agree to put it at Auntie Chen's house and they will collect from there on their way back.
After that, Qin Zheng is instructed to tie up all the fish trap baskets and hang it on a tree by the river, there are no outsiders in the village so no one will touch these things.
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Translator Notes:
*Stomach rumbling in rebellion meaning that the stomach is making sounds against one's will. The phrase "in rebellion" is not really the act of usurping one's throne or control, it is commonly used as a figurative exaggeration in the Chinese context.
**Oil and water, in the culinary sense, it refers to the natural fats and flavour of many dishes, especially in the meat dishes. A dish that is without oil and water is bland, unappetizing, not fulfilling and not satisfying. Also, because food is the fuel of the human bodies, so oil and water also have the direct implication of being the fuel of life.
***Previous owner and original owner, refers to the owner of the body, which is the original Xia Yue Chu who is born and lives in this time period.
Translated by Yellow. Oct 2022.