Chen Jie took two not-so-big crucian carps to the well, drew some water, slit open the bellies with a knife, removed the internal organs, wiped off the blood clinging to the bones, removed the black membrane, and then scraped the scales and slime off the carps' bodies clean.
This way, when making fish soup, there will be no fishy smell at all.
Chen Jie was a good cook. When he had just finished schooling, he had worked as an apprentice in a restaurant for a while, so he had knowledge about how to make some of the regular dishes.
Daisy squatted not far away, watching Chen Jie with eyes full of curiosity. The bad brother-in-law could actually cook?
Chen Jie saw Daisy staring intently and smiled as he beckoned to her. Daisy shook her head, afraid to come over, but Chen Jie beckoned again, and, after hesitating for a moment, Daisy finally came over for the sake of the fish soup.
Chen Jie said with a smile, "Ruirui, why is your sister crying?"
Ruirui hesitated and said, "Before, it was you hitting her. Today, um... Ruirui doesn't know, just when you were outside scolding those bad people, sister started crying."
Chen Jie asked upon hearing this, "How do you know those people are bad?"
Ruirui replied, "They always say behind her back that my sister is a jinx, that she brought death to daddy and Granny Chen, so sister cried."
"Oh."
Chen Jie nodded upon hearing this.
A woman, in a rural place where a sharp tongue could kill, without a man to support her, one could only imagine the kind of life she led.
Chen Jie washed the fish again, and just then Daisy suddenly spoke up.
"Brother-in-law."
"Hm?"
Chen Jie looked at Daisy, who seriously said, "Can you, in the future, not hit sister?"
Chen Jie's expression faltered, then he saw Daisy seem to make a decision and add, "If, if brother-in-law really can't help wanting to hit someone, then hit Ruirui instead..."
Upon hearing this, Chen Jie gave a bitter smile. The two sisters really had it hard.
Chen Jie used the back of his clean hand to rub Daisy's head and said, "Okay, I promise you, I won't hit sister in the future, and no one else will be able to hit sister either."
"Mm."
Hearing this, Daisy's face broke into a wide smile, and she extended her little hand.
Chen Jie asked, "What for?"
"Let's pinkie promise."
Daisy said with her childish voice, and looking at her smile, he wiped his hands dry with a cloth and said, "Come on."
A large and a small pinky finger hooked together.
"Pinkie promise, hang to die, cannot change for a hundred years."
"Stamp it."
The two people pressed their thumbs together, forming a childlike agreement.
And at that moment, Su Yunjin, her eyes red from crying, came out of the house and saw this harmonious scene. She suddenly had an illusion, as if she was seeing herself with her father as a child, and a faint smile appeared on the corner of her mouth.
Daisy withdrew her hand, feeling as if she had done something significant, then turned, saw her sister, and smiled as she ran to her.
"Sister!"
Su Yunjin picked her up. Daisy whispered, "Sister, I just made a promise with brother-in-law."
"What promise?"
Su Yunjin asked, but just then Chen Jie said, "Ruirui, promises are secrets, you can't tell anyone!"
Daisy's expression became serious, and she followed up very earnestly to Su Yunjin, "Hmm, promises can't be spoken of, I won't tell Sister."
Hearing this, Su Yunjin became curious about what sort of promise could be so secretive.
But Daisy had a look of tight lips, an expression that said she wouldn't spill the beans, prompting Su Yunjin, with a face full of worry, to scrape Daisy's nose playfully.
Chen Jie finished washing the fish, and Su Yunjin walked over, saying, "Let me do it."
Chen Jie said, "No need, when it comes to making fish soup, I'm an old hand at it."
Then, Chen Jie asked, "Does the house have any green onions, ginger, or garlic?"
Upon hearing this, Su Yunjin shook her head, "No."
Chen Jie paused but didn't say much more, walked over to the stove, and saw today's picked wild vegetables, among which there were a few small wild green onions. Thinking it over, Chen Jie told Su Yunjin, "Wash those small green onions clean. Give me the roots of the onions, and chop the leaves into chopped green onion."
"By the way, does the house have fatty oil?"
"Adding a bit of fatty oil when making fish soup makes the flavor even richer."
Su Yunjin shook her head—the house was out of food, let alone something as luxurious as fatty oil.
Fatty oil, or lard, was a key supplement for the people of this era who otherwise lacked fatty nutrients, making it very precious and out of reach for Chen Jie's family at the moment.
Chen Jie sighed, then looked at the small amount of rapeseed oil left—the only cooking oil they had.
The house truly was empty.
Chen Jie said, "Hmm, you chop the green onions."
Chen Jie poured the rapeseed oil into the pot, heated it up, fried both sides of the fish until golden, threw in some small onion roots to sizzle, and then poured in hot water. The only seasoning was coarse salt.
Looking at a pot of milky white fish soup, Chen Jie fell into deep thought.
His biggest problem right now was survival; even the only three acres of good farmland his family had was lost, leaving them with no grain.
And under such circumstances, with himself included, there were three more mouths to feed.
The most important thing for him right now was to solve the food problem. It would be a tragic end to starve after having gone through such a transition.
To eat without land or means of production, the path of subsistence farming was blocked.
His only viable options were to either engage in commerce or find work.
For commerce, Chen Jie could choose to produce glass, soap, refined salt, or sugar, but he quickly ruled out these options.
Because this was a world of martial arts.
According to the memories of his original body, in this world, martial arts were revered. Not just in the county, but in the cities, there were guilds that could stand on equal footing with the government.
Take, for example, the two biggest guilds in Mianshui County, the Fishing Guild and the Guild Cao.
The Fishing Guild controlled all the fisheries in the villages of Mianshui County and the sale of aquatic products in the city, as well as other various industries.
While Guild Cao was responsible for dock transportation and also held some related city industries.
These two major guilds essentially held the economic power of Mianshui County.
Even the County Magistrate would have to be polite and yield three points of courtesy when faced with the Gang Leaders of these guilds.
For the citizens of Mianshui County, the only way to break away from their own class was to join a guild, and if one could perform meritorious deeds and become a small leader, then that person would be considered someone with status throughout Mianshui County.
One could say, to live comfortably in Mianshui County, one must become a member of a guild.
Just like the old Shanghai Beach, if you wanted to rise quickly, you had to join the Green Guild.
As for taking the civil service exams to become an official—forget about it. The Daqian Empire was established by the Northern Mulan people after they defeated the Qian Song. To suppress the Han people, the government explicitly forbade them from taking the exams to become officials.
This effectively shut the door on the scholars, which was why Su Yunjin's father, although a learned man, still had no title or respect.