692 I Want to Eat Fish
Like Qiao Qiang, Qiao Mei pretended not to see anything and walked straight into the house.
When He Ning saw Qiao Mei coming back, he smiled and pointed at the vat in the courtyard. “I want to eat fish.”
Qiao Mei remained silent.
“I want to eat fish,” He Ning repeated.
“I’m not free. If you want to eat, make it yourself,” Qiao Mei said sulkily.
He Ning did not continue to insist. Instead, he asked Huo Gao to catch the fish and pass it to Qiao Mei after cleaning it up. He was quite sure that Qiao Mei would not reject an ingredient that had already been nicely prepared.
“Miss Qiao, can you see if the fish is prepared to your satisfaction?” Huo Gao said.
Qiao Mei looked at the fish in the basin and then at the smug He Ning outside. She silently suppressed her anger. Anyway, as long as He Ning was alive, she would be able to earn an endless amount of money. She would just take it that she pitied him.
After dinner, it was still Huo Gao who went to wash the crockery and cutlery. For a moment, Qiao Mei did not know exactly what kind of existence Huo Gao had in He Ning’s life.
“Don’t come over tomorrow morning. There won’t be anyone at home. We have to go into the mountains to dig up ginseng for you. You can come back at night. The kitchen is closed tomorrow and no one will cook for you,” Qiao Mei said.
He Ning was still reminiscing about the taste of the fish just now, but now he looked unhappy. Did that mean that he had to eat Wang Qin’s cooking tomorrow?
That food tasted terrible. It was already good enough that he was not poisoned to death.
“Alright, I understand.” After saying that, He Ning reluctantly left Qiao Mei’s house with Huo Gao.
Qiao Mei quietly put a drop of 100-year-old ginseng juice into Qiao Qiang’s glass. The medicinal effect of the 1,000-year-old ginseng juice was too strong. She had heard that if one ate too much ginseng to nourish one’s body, one’s hair would turn completely white overnight!
Although Qiao Qiang was already at the age when his hair was turning white, it was still harmful to a person’s body if all the hair turned white overnight.
Qiao Qiang picked up the glass of water and took a sip. He looked at it in puzzlement. The taste of the water seemed to be different from usual. There was something different about it, but he could not describe the feeling.
Perhaps what Qiao Mei cooked tonight was too fragrant, so much so that even water tasted very fragrant now.
Qiao Mei sat on the brick bed and counted the melon seeds. These were all new varieties that she had brought over from the capital. She did not know if these seeds were suitable for planting in the northeastern region. The ripening time of these melon seeds was 25% shorter than the usual melon seeds in their village. If she planted them now, they would definitely be ready for harvest before the first snowfall in winter.
A few days ago, she had fried the last of the melon seeds in the house and sent them to Xia He. She wanted to see if this new variety was suitable for planting in their village.
She could not always depend on her energy. If the villagers discovered that they could not grow the new variety that she had brought and only she could do it, everyone would suspect that she was trying to cause trouble here.
She would bring some over to Li Gui tomorrow and get Zhang Wei and the other children to help with the planting. They could plant it in their private plot in the courtyard.
“Grandfather, who won the chess game today?” Qiao Mei asked with a smile.
Qiao Qiang snorted coldly. If not for Old Man Sun cheating today, he would have won all those old men! Recently, Qiao Qiang only listened to the radio programs that discussed chess. Every day, he would put on his reading glasses and work hard, reading the books that Xia Wen sent over.
Even when Qiao Qiang was in the military academy, he did not put in so much effort. In Qiao Qiang’s words, he would not fight for steamed buns but he would fight for validation. In order to get everyone to come to their village to play chess the next time, he must fight for glory.
He made it seem like he represented the entire village.
Early the next morning, Qiao Mei woke up early and prepared dry rations for Qiao Qiang to bring with him when he entered the mountains. She also filled up a military water bottle and then put three drops of 100-year-old ginseng juice into it. She shook it gently a few times and it was all done.
She was not using Qiao Qiang as a guinea pig. She had tried it herself before she dared to give it to Qiao Qiang. Besides, not everyone could be Qiao Mei’s guinea pig. Even if He Ning knelt on the ground and begged her to give him a few drops of ginseng juice, she would not bear to part with it.
It would not be considered a good deal. Only a few drops could be extracted from an entire ginseng. To be able to sell to He Ning, she would need an amount that was extracted from hundreds of ginsengs.
The price of one ginseng was already hundreds of thousands of dollars. The concentrate would probably cost tens of millions.
Those who did not know better would think that Qiao Mei was trying to rob them.
