Chapter 158 Fried Fish

They did not take the village road behind, but walked from the new house, because the road over there led directly to the upstream of the river bend. There was not much water now, so they could go directly to the bamboo forest opposite.

Hua Xiali deliberately brought a basket so that everyone would think she was going to pick wild vegetables, so as to avoid people thinking that the two girls were taking the two boys somewhere and doing something bad.

From their Huazhuang, they could see the emerald green sugar cane from the nearby Chenzhuang. Hua Xiali pointed over there and said, "That's the sugar cane I planted. You can come over to eat the sugar cane in December. The sugar cane I planted tastes great. I guarantee you'll want to eat more."

"Second sister, can you stop bragging? This is your first time planting sugarcane, and you already know it tastes good?" Hua Qiuli said helplessly.

Leng Yuye looked at Hua Xiali, "Xia Li put so much effort into this, it must be delicious."

When we arrived at the river, we saw that there was only a shallow layer of water left. There was not much water even in the reservoir. Naturally, there would not be much water in the river downstream. We probably had to wait for the rain for the water to rise.

Seeing many small fish crowded together in the shallow water, Hua Qiuli said excitedly, "Second sister, I still remember that the spicy dried fish you made at the eldest sister's graduation banquet was very delicious. How about we catch some more small fish and make dried fish?"

"It is very troublesome to handle small fish. As long as you are willing to help, I can do it." The dried small fish sold in the market still have the internal organs, but if you eat them yourself, you have to remove the internal organs, otherwise you can't eat it!
Gao Shuaiquan and Leng Yuye said in unison, "We'll handle it."

"Okay, I'll do it again then."

As soon as he finished speaking, Hua Qiuli ran to the small puddle first, picked up the small fish with both hands and put them into the basket. Fortunately, the basket Hua Qiuli took was the kind that was woven tightly, otherwise there would be nothing to put the small fish in today.

Leng Yuye and Gao Shuaiquan did not hesitate at all. They followed him down, stepped on the mud with their shoes on, and tried to catch small fish in the puddle.

Seeing the two people being so "careless", Hua Xiali felt helpless. Fortunately, when she wholesaled clothes and shoes, she would keep some for her family. She had a lot of shoes, socks and clothes at home, so she would get one set for each of them later.

However, there are empty shells of clams in the mud, and it is easy to hurt the soles of your feet if you walk barefoot, so it is wise to wear shoes.

The four people worked together and soon caught a basket of small fish. They were all dirty and the fish would go bad if not handled in time, so they did not continue playing in the river bend and went home.

Seeing them coming back all dirty, Hua Chunli hurriedly fetched water and asked them to wash. Hua Xiali washed his hands and feet first, changed into summer plastic slippers, and then went back to the room upstairs. After closing the door, he took out clothes, shoes and socks from the space, came downstairs and handed them to Leng Yuye and Gao Shuaiquan.

"This is what I saved for my eldest brother-in-law when I bought clothes wholesale. I don't know if you like it or not, and I don't know if you are suitable for this style, but now you have nothing to wear, so wear it for a while!"

"Thank you." Leng Yuye was flattered and took it. "How much does this set cost? I'll give you the money."

"No need. You always bring so many things to our house. If we really want to calculate the money, wouldn't we owe you a lot of money?" Hua Xiali handed them the clothes and asked them to change. Then he took the small fish to the backyard, put down the wooden basin, drew a few buckets of well water and poured it into the basin, and then poured the small fish in. In such a short time, the small fish were almost dead, floating on the turbid water with the grass leaves, and only a few were swimming around in it.

Hua Xiali brought a chair, sat there and started to pinch each other.

The people in charge of cleaning the pig offal had finished cleaning the day's offal and had gone home. The only ones left in Hua Xiali's yard were those in charge of making braised food. When they saw Hua Xiali processing small fish, they couldn't help but think of the spicy small fish they had eaten before. This thing was easy to catch and could be found everywhere, as long as there was water, but it was too difficult to process. No one could sit for half a day just to process these small fish.

It also consumes a lot of oil. The oil needed to make this dish is enough to feed the family for several days.

But now everyone has made money, so of course they are willing to buy oil, but they don’t have so much time to deal with it slowly. Wouldn’t it be better to use this time to do more work and earn more money?

After a while, Leng Yuye and Gao Shuaiquan also came to the backyard. They followed Hua Xiali's example and first scooped up the small fish, then pinched a hole in it and took out the dirty internal organs. In this way, the small fish was processed and they just needed to clean it.

The three of them worked together very quickly, and the number of small fish in the basin increased at a speed visible to the naked eye.

When Hua Xiali stood up to stretch her sore shoulders, she saw Huo Beixi standing by the well through the iron gate in the backyard. He was just looking at her quietly. Hua Xiali felt a little embarrassed for a moment. She didn't do anything. Didn't she just catch some small fish? And she would definitely leave a bowl for him when the time came. Why was he looking at her like that?

Hua Xiali didn't sit down again until Huo Beixi turned around and left, but he was a little dazed. After a while, he adjusted himself and hurriedly dealt with the fish in the basin.

After washing the small fish several times and thoroughly cleaning them, take them out and put them in a dustpan to drain the water, and then put them in the yard to dry.

Just do it like this, and it will all be broken into a paste and you won’t be able to eat a single bite. Drain the moisture and dry it until it is half dry, this way it won’t break no matter you fry it, or stir-fry it.

In the evening, after Hua's mother had prepared the meal, Hua Xiali went to cook the small fish. She first mixed a bowl of batter, then beat an egg into it and stirred it evenly. Then she coated the small fish with flour and put it into the frying pan.

Hua Xiali fried two kinds of things in total, one was coated with flour and the other was not, but both were fried very crispy and even the bones could be eaten directly.

Hua Xiali kept a bowl of both types of fried fish and put it into the space. This was for Huo Beixi, and he planned to find a chance to send it to Huo Beixi in the evening.

At dinner time, Leng Yuye and Gao Shuai all had fried fish and praised Hua Xiali's cooking skills. Hua Xiali just smiled and said nothing.

Should I say 'come often and I'll do it often'?
She is not a housewife, and it is even more impossible for her to be one. When she becomes richer in the future, she can hire a nanny to cook, make a list of the dishes she wants to eat, and let the nanny cook, completely freeing her hands.

A nanny can get paid for working for others, but if a woman chooses to be a housewife, not only will she have no income, she will also not get the respect she deserves. She may even be looked down upon by others, who will ask what else she can do besides cooking.
She, Hua Xiali, can also make money!