Daily life of fishing and hunting in the 1980s

Chapter 390 This land was worth buying

As the family walked to the intersection leading to the beach, they saw Mr. Li carrying two baskets of freshly slaughtered and washed goods, with water dripping from the bottom of the bamboo baskets.

"Grandpa, my dad's back!" Li Xiaozhou ran over happily to greet him.

"Good boy!" Li's father responded cheerfully, looking at Li Changle with affection. "Hurry home to wash up, have lunch, and then take a nap."

"We'll sleep on the boat later." Li Changle and the other man saw that the bamboo basket contained dried cuttlefish and two large baskets of cuttlefish eggs, so they each picked up a basin.

"Father, how much dried cuttlefish roe do we have stockpiled at home?"

“Sixty or seventy catties,” said Li’s father. “There are a lot of cuttlefish with eggs today, so we’ve dried them on five or six drying racks.”

Li Changle recalled the several large vats of pickled squid ink at home, "When my older sister opened her business on the 16th, she also sent the pickled squid ink from the vats to sell."

Cuttlefish eggs are only found in female cuttlefish. Large cuttlefish eggs are the size of chicken eggs, while small ones are about the size of pigeon eggs. In the past, the eggs were cured by mixing cuttlefish ink and cuttlefish paste.

Each time, Li's mother would scoop a spoonful of marinated cuttlefish ink and roe, add rice wine and ginger slices, steam it until cooked, and then pour a dish of red vinegar for dipping. The children would always scramble to eat the cuttlefish roe, followed by the cuttlefish paste.

Li Changle also liked it very much. After the cuttlefish roe was marinated, it had a layered texture like a mille-feuille cake. When eating it, you could peel off a piece and it was smooth and chewy, and it was also very good with rice.

After pickling four or five vats, Li's mother hadn't sent them to sell. She felt they were taking up too much space, so she peeled off the cuttlefish eggs and dried them. She gave the cuttlefish ink and cuttlefish paste to the women in the village who were helping out. It took her two months to accumulate this small amount of dried products.

They dry raw products. The cuttlefish roe is washed clean with seawater, drained, and then spread out to dry on drying mats woven from fine bamboo strips.

On a sunny day, sun-dry for three or four hours until the cuttlefish eggs are dry and have a thin film on the surface. Then turn them over and sun-dry them again. If the sun is good, they can be dried in two or three days.

Cooked dried products are made by briefly boiling them in salted water and then spreading them out to dry.

Zhou Ruonan said, "I remember the supply and marketing cooperative sold it for 2.5 cents a spoonful, which wasn't even a pound. If we sell it for 2.5 cents a pound, it should sell well."

Father Li nodded with a smile, "Ah Jin said yesterday that your mother had already thought of the sixteenth day that was chosen. We didn't give away any of the cuttlefish ink and cuttlefish paste today; we kept them all and packed them into barrels. When your brother-in-law goes back this afternoon, he'll take them to Tuxia Bridge to pickle and sell them for money."

"I heard that in the old days, cuttlefish eggs were sent to the palace for the emperor to eat."

“Of course it is!” Li’s father laughed. “Emperors are human too. They will definitely like the things we find delicious.”

He paused for a moment and then said, "This morning, Ah Xiao and I took the cuttlefish bones we had saved up at home to town and sold them at a traditional Chinese medicine pharmacy for over sixty yuan."

Li Changle said disdainfully, "How much is it per pound? You've been saving it up for so long, and this is all the money you're making?"

Cuttlefish bone, known in traditional Chinese medicine as "cuttlefish bone" or "sea snail shell," is a commonly used Chinese medicine for stopping bleeding and astringing.

"Three cents a pound, even better than the price of green mustard," said Mr. Li with satisfaction. "I thought it would only be one or two cents a pound!"

Zhou Ruonan laughed and said, "I also think it's pretty good. Every part of the squid, inside and out, is used and can be sold for money."

“The same goes for conger eel,” Mr. Li said cheerfully. “There are also seventy or eighty catties of dried eel maw, but I don’t know how much it costs.”

"Don't worry, although eel maw isn't as valuable as yellow croaker maw, it definitely won't be cheap if you sell it."

"I don't care about the price, as long as I can sell it for money, it's better than throwing it away."

Before they knew it, they had arrived at Nanshan Valley. As soon as they reached the Jin family's house, Da Huang and A Wang wagged their tails and came up to greet them, circling around Li Xiaohai and Li Xiaozhou.

Upon arriving outside the new house, one could see that the precast slabs on the first floor had already been laid, and several bricklayers and laborers were laying mortar.

These days, no one in the countryside uses cast-in-place concrete to build houses; most of them use precast slabs. If there are cracks at the joint between two slabs, a layer of mortar has to be laid to prevent leakage.

With too many people at home to help, Li Changle and his brother discussed it with Zhang Dejin and decided to pay the bricklayer and carpenter two yuan more per day, with only lunch provided. This saved them a lot of trouble and made the project much faster.

Li Changle and Zhou Ruonan carried bamboo baskets toward the drying racks. They saw rows of A-frame drying racks, about two meters high, standing in the drying yard that had just been leveled before they left.

On each drying rack, about fifty centimeters apart, a stiff bamboo pole is laid horizontally, neatly hung with dried eel, dried cuttlefish, dried squid, mackerel heads, and water chestnuts... A faint salty aroma permeates the air.

Li Xiaoyang, Li Xiaoqing, and the others were helping to dry the dried fish heads in the dam area. When they saw him return, they put down their work and ran over, "Third Uncle, you're back?"

Li Changle grabbed a handful each, saying, "Good boy! I'll give you money to buy some sour plum powder later!"

“Third Uncle,” Li Xiaotao pulled him, “we don’t want to eat sour plum powder. Grandpa’s family just got some crispy noodles in the winter. They have five-spice powder in them, they’re fragrant and crispy, and they’re really delicious.”

"Dad, it's delicious!" Li Xiaohai and the others nodded repeatedly, it seemed they had all bought and tried it.

"Greedy cat!" Li Changle patted him. "I sent you to school, but you've been keeping an eye on Grandpa Dong's convenience store every day."

The convenience store has an ever-increasing variety of snacks, and the children have become obsessed with instant noodles.

The small bag contained a seasoning packet. He tore it open and sprinkled it on the noodles, making a crunchy sound as he bit into it. He remembered that this stuff had been on the market for a long time.

Li Xiaozhou and Li Xiaomei, who were petting their dog nearby, heard that they were going to buy instant noodles and abandoned their dog to run over. "Dad, (Third Uncle) buy us a bag, we promise to work hard after eating it!"

Li Changle hurriedly said, "You just petted the dog, you're not allowed to touch the dried fish head." Li Xiaoqing said, "They don't know how to do it, they often tear the dried fish head. Grandma asked them to watch the drying ground. Yesterday, Abiao's cat came to steal the dried fish head, luckily Dahuang found out."

"Big Yellow is terrible. It can't even beat the tabby cat. It has lost a lot of its fur."

"Don't run around after school. If two of the big yellow croakers you've been drying are stolen, you could buy a lot of instant noodles."

Li Changle remembered that in those days, the animals raised in the countryside were mostly tabby cats, which were about the size of tiger cubs, so it was normal that Da Huang couldn't beat them.

"Grandpa took some small fish to feed Abiao's cat, and they locked the cat up." After Li Xiaohai finished speaking, he asked, "Dad, you still haven't said whether you'll buy us instant noodles or not."

Li Changle readily nodded, "Okay! I'll give you money to buy them after you eat and before you go to school." It was rare for his eldest son to ask for snacks, so of course he would grant his request.

"Oh! Long live Father!"

"Haha! Long live Third Uncle!"

After shouting, Li Xiaotao wrinkled his nose and quickly took a few steps back. "Third Uncle, you stink! You smell even worse than the rotten pickled vegetables in the jar."

Li Xiaobo nodded, "Yes, it's almost enough to make people faint from the stench."

"You didn't mind the smell just now, but I promised to buy you instant noodles, and now I'm stinking!" Li Changle grabbed him and said, "Come on, let's see if I can knock you out with the stench!"

"Auntie, help!" Li Xiaobo grabbed Zhou Ruonan. "Look at Uncle..."

"Ah Le, stop messing with them." Zhou Ruonan smiled, "You do smell quite strongly."

Li Xiaohai nodded, "When Dad carried us onto the boat, the smell was really strong."

Li Changle tilted his head, looking dejectedly at the mother and son, "What country are you from?"

Li Xiaoyang and the others chuckled foolishly, "Auntie and Xiao Hai are on the side of reason, not family. They're from the truth!"

"Dad, I don't mind that you smell bad," Li Xiaozhou said sweetly, pulling him along.

"My precious son!" Li Changle ruffled his fluffy head. "Let's go, let's go dry the cuttlefish eggs!"

"Third Uncle, we'll help you dry them!" Li Xiaoqing and Li Xiaohui lifted the bamboo baskets and headed towards the hillside, with Zhou Ruonan following behind.

"Ah Le!" Li's father said to him cheerfully, "We've dried several times more dried fish using A-frames than before. The fish we killed today don't need to be sent to the old house or Ah Wei's house; this area alone can be dried."

Li Changle nodded, "It didn't seem that big before because it was messy, but after it was leveled out, it looks like a huge area."

He looked at the storeroom and, just as Li's father had said, the roof beams had been erected and the purlins were being nailed in. It looked like it would be finished in another two or three days.

Mr. Li pointed to the storeroom and said, "The roof beams were erected yesterday. The master craftsman said that since we were rushing to meet the deadline, we didn't need to be too particular. Your mother consulted a fortune teller who said the date was auspicious and there were no taboos."

Finally, we made a few bowls as an offering, set off two strings of firecrackers, and gave the head chef a red envelope.

When several women who were helping with the work saw them arrive, they came over with bamboo baskets containing bamboo strips and hooks to dry the dried cuttlefish.

"Ah Le, you got a good deal on this land. Once it's leveled, it'll be even more spacious than the school playground."

"When we were leveling the ground, we also leveled the yard in front of my new house, which made it look more spacious."

"You need a lot of space to dry the dried squid heads!" Ah Fa's mother picked up the dried squid, spread it out with bamboo strips, and hung it on a bamboo pole to dry.

"Uncle Tang, after these are dried, how many more need to be dried?"

"There are still two baskets left. I'll pick them up this afternoon to marinate the large yellow croakers. You can go back for dinner once you've dried them." After saying this, Li's father pulled out his carrying pole and left.

Li Changle turned and went down the slope to where the drying racks were placed. There he saw rows of rectangular drying racks with drying trays made of fishing line on them.

Inside, pomfret mash, miscellaneous mash, plum mash, yellow croaker maw, conger eel maw, cuttlefish roe, small yellow croaker... were laid out to dry.

When Zhou Ruonan saw him coming over, she quickly said, "A-Le, go back and wash up. I've put your change of clothes on the stool."

"Third Uncle, you should go back and wash up quickly, the smell is terrible!"

"You naughty girl!" Li Changle carried the sack back into the house, put the money away, and took the clothes to the kitchen. When Li's mother, who was tidying up, saw him come back, she put down what she was doing.

"Are you hungry? The food will be ready soon. Go wash up and eat." As she spoke, Li's mother hurriedly brought a bucket of water to prepare a bath for him.

"I'm not hungry!" Li Changle quickly took the bucket of water. "Are my brother and the others up yet?"

"Wait until your sister-in-law comes back before calling them." Li's mother handed him a towel. "It's all spoiled, go wash it quickly."

"...Fine, one after another they all think I smell bad!" Li Changle muttered, carrying the bucket to the hut.

(End of this chapter)