Back To the Small Fishing Village In 1982 - Chapter 20

Chapter 20: Dragon Phoenix Soup

After much effort, Ye Yaodong finally plucked all the chicken feathers and cleaned the chicken thoroughly.

“Alright, I’ve prepared the chicken, who’s cooking? Xiaoxiao? Fatty?”

Without looking up, Xiaoxiao said: “Let Fatty do it, he’s better at cooking than me. My luck is hot right now, I’ll clean up after we eat!”

“Fine! Dong-zi, you take my place!”

Ye Yaodong shook his head, “Don’t want to play, not interesting. Regular cards I’ll play!”

“How can six people play cards? Want to catch crabs instead?” A-Guang suggested.

“Not interesting, it’s all about luck, no skill involved. You guys play, I’ll just watch.”

“Huh? Changed your personality? Won’t play Pai Gow, won’t catch crabs either?”

“Someone has to do the work, otherwise what will we eat later? You guys play, I’ll go help Fatty.”

“Did you take the wrong medicine today? Since when are you so diligent?”

Everyone chimed in, even being diligent was questioned. Ye Yaodong irritably said: “I’m in a good mood today, had an attack of conscience, okay?”

“Then go quickly! Call us when it’s ready!”

Fatty was already in the house chopping the chicken with loud thwacks. Seeing him enter, he said: “Good thing A-Zheng brought a chicken, otherwise just over a jin of snake wouldn’t be enough to eat! Wouldn’t even fill the gaps between our teeth! I went home earlier and brought two pieces of ribs, thinking of stewing them together with the snake.”

“Let’s cook the other things first before making the Dragon Phoenix soup. Make plenty of soup, save a big bowl of meat for A-Zheng to take home.”

“No problem.”

A five or six jin chicken, over a jin of snake, plus two ribs, made a full pot when cooked.

As soon as the aroma wafted out, the others couldn’t sit still. They finished one round and threw down their cards, all gathering around the stove.

“Is it ready?”

“Smells so good!”

“Haven’t had snake in a long time, really missed it!”

“Can we eat now? I’m starving. Three meals of porridge a day, two pees and it’s all gone.”

Ye Yaodong brought over a soup bowl, “Wait, let’s first serve a bowl for A-Zheng to take back for his parents to eat while it’s hot.”

“Ah yes yes yes, serve A-Zheng a bowl to take back first.”

A-Zheng felt a bit embarrassed, “A small bowl is enough, we have so many people here!”

“We have a whole pot, plenty to eat, plus other dishes. We deliberately made extra soup, all the goodness is in the soup.”

After serving A-Zheng, everyone filled a bowl and sat at the table to eat.

They hadn’t added any special herbs to the Dragon Phoenix soup, just ginger and rice wine for a clear broth. After everyone had a bowl, they started on the seafood on the table.

A-Guang poked at the clams in his plate, picking one up saying: “Did you dig up these clams and cockles today? Was it just Dong-zi digging? No wonder Xiaoxiao couldn’t find you at home this morning. These small ones are quite plump.”

“Spent my whole morning digging, nearly died from the heat. Tomorrow the tide will go out even further, want to come? It’s quite fun to go beach combing occasionally.”

A-Guang agreed immediately, “Sure, nothing else to do anyway.”

“Too full, and in this heat having to run to the beach to get sunburned, no thanks!” Fatty rejected immediately. His family wasn’t short of food and drink, he wouldn’t go get scorched on the beach.

“I can’t go, my wife wants me to visit her parents with her tomorrow, her mother isn’t feeling well,” said Haozi, who had been quiet until now.

Chen Wei seemed quite enthusiastic, “I’ll go, haven’t been to the beach for a while. The tide is good these couple of days, bring a hook and see if there’s anything to collect.”

“There definitely will be. Today while I was knocking off oysters and collecting snails by the rocks, I got lucky and found two five or six liang blue crabs. Tomorrow the tide will go out even further, we’ll go as soon as it ebbs.”

“Nice, you even found blue crabs, worth a yuan or two, that’s a worker’s daily wage, pretty lucky.”

A-Zheng and Xiaoxiao also agreed to go to the beach tomorrow.

This group spent more time facing each other than their wives, often preferring to do things together.

“How much were these mantis shrimp per jin today? Xiaoxiao’s are quite plump, even have roe!” Ye Yaodong asked A-Guang while nibbling.

“3.5 fen.”

“What!?”

He recalled that this was indeed the price in this era!

Last September, no, September 2021, these 5-7cm small mantis shrimp were only 3 yuan at their dock, the big ones just 30 yuan, but market prices were different – quite a gap between purchase and sale prices.

Thinking about it, this price seemed reasonable.

“The picked ones are 3.5 fen, unsorted ones directly poured out are 3 fen. I picked out all the ones with roe.”

Others casually took one and broke off the mantis shrimp’s neck, and indeed each one had roe!

“Good eye!”

A-Guang wasn’t impressed, “What’s so special about that? I wanted to pick more, but dock manager A-Cai saw how accurately I was picking and changed his mind, wouldn’t let me pick anymore, only pour, otherwise he wouldn’t sell! Fine then, don’t sell, I figured these were enough anyway.”

“All good drinking snacks, pity we don’t have any alcohol!” Fatty said regretfully while peeling shells.

“Wasn’t yesterday’s drinking enough? Got scolded badly by my wife when I got back, she pinched two bruises on my arm, almost wouldn’t let me sleep in bed.”

“If your wife won’t let you in bed, you can find a mistress, sleep at her place, see how your wife likes crying about that!”

“Pfft~ what mistress, I barely managed to get a wife, hanging out with you lot all day ruined my reputation, lucky I already have a wife and kid.”

A-Zheng deliberately teased: “Damn, no wonder A-Guang and I still can’t find wives, turns out it’s all your fault, damn it, quickly compensate us with two wives!”

A-Guang played along: “That’s right, the nights are long, you guys sleep sweetly with your wives while poor A-Zheng and I sleep alone~”

“Why don’t you two cuddle each other then, once the light’s off and the blanket’s over your head, in the dark there’s not much difference…”

“Pah, there’s a huge difference!”

A-Zheng shamelessly stuck out his bottom and patted it saying: “Compare what, front or back I’m bigger, no doubt about it!”

“Watch it, my sisters are still here!” A-Guang, seeing his two sisters embarrassedly retreating to their room with their bowls, quickly stopped them from getting more vulgar!

“Eat eat eat, less dirty talk, save it for your wives at home!”

“Dong-zi, heard your dad caught a net full of yellow croaker yesterday, sold for over a thousand, struck it rich. Are you going to follow your dad out to sea now?” Chen Wei asked curiously.

“Do I look like someone who would go to sea?”

“No!”

“You look like a kept pretty boy!” Fatty laughed loudly.

“Hmm… being kept is indeed quite nice and sweet!”