Chapter 52: Up The Mountain Again (2)
She took a fishing net from her interspace and cast it. She caught five or six fish the first time.
She quickly took a large, wooden bucket from her interspace and filled it with water. She put all the fish in, then cast the net again. Then she scattered some bait into the pool to entice the fish. This bait was her special concoction!
It would definitely work.
She also scattered some over where the water was deeper. Sure enough, she soon saw fishes of various sizes swimming over in increasing numbers.
Gu Qingyao was delighted. She happily caught them and in a while, she had over a hundred good-sized fish. She released the smaller ones.
Gu Qingyao stopped after she had filled three large buckets of fish. She quickly put the wooden buckets back into her living interspace and put her net away. It was now about eleven o’clock, and it was time to make lunch.
She had packed the rice in bamboo tubes earlier. Mo Beihan had seen them already, but the rice was cold by now, so she decided to make fried rice.
Gu Qingyao had not prepared the dishes in advance. She meant to cook them on the spot.
This time, Mo Beihan had come better prepared, and had even brought along a small iron pot. In these times, iron pots were extremely rare. Most people used ceramic pots.
The Gu family only had two iron pots because her eldest uncle and second uncle were in the military and were well connected.
She started by cooking fish soup. She caught and cleaned a few small fish, added some mushrooms and wild herbs, then placed them in a ceramic jar to cook.
Then she washed a small piece of meat and some peppers.
She julienned the meat and peppers. The peppers were rather spicy, and the meat would be especially tasty and appetizing after being fried with them.
She heated the iron pot, then added some oil. Then she added onion, ginger and garlic and fried them until they were fragrant. Lastly, she added the meat strips and stir-fried them before adding the peppers. When it was cooked, she added a small spoonful of bean paste. It would be ready in a bit!
It was very fragrant and spicy, and would go perfectly with rice.
Gu Qingyao did not cook too much, just a small plateful, enough for the two of them.
She placed it by the side, then washed the pot, added oil again and made egg fried rice. She added vegetables and green onions.
She had just finished when Mo Beihan returned with a load of game. But he seemed rather unhappy.
“What’s the matter?”
“There were no wild boars!”
Gu Qingyao: “…”
“Ha….” Gu Qingyao laughed. She thought something had happened to him!
“Do you think wild boars are like cabbages? You will encounter them every time? These animals are rare. How can you possibly find them everywhere?”
As Gu Qingyao spoke, she helped him to unload the game.
Many of the animals were caught in the traps they had set the last time they were here. There was quite a lot of game – two water deer, three roe deer, thirteen wild rabbits and nine pheasants!
“You’ve caught so many things, and yet you think it’s too little. How are others going to get by?”
In these times, so much meat was a rare sight.
Mo Beihan took a wild pear from his pocket. “For you!”
Gu Qingyao’s eyes lit up. “A pear?”
Mo Beihan smiled. “I happened to see a pear tree. There were only a few left, so I picked them all. Here they are.”
As he spoke, he took a dozen or so from his pocket.
These were wild mountain pears. They were green and fairly small. Their core was rather large, but… they were wild!
Oh, the memories of her youth!
Gu Qingyao laughed and quickly washed one. She used her teeth to strip off the skin, then crunched into it.
