Heavenly Blessed Baby: Fleeing Famine, Busy to Prosper!-Chapter 173: Fish Cheeks Taste Best

Qi Ercai chuckled and said, "There are many people in the family, with more children and the elderly. We have to keep the place warm. Also, we just registered our household, and we didn’t have much money to begin with. Now we’re even poorer. So I thought of gathering more firewood to sell for some extra money to help out at home."

The soldiers nodded, "That’s understandable. Alright, the gate is closing soon, you better hurry back!"

With that, they waved their hands, signaling for the Qi Family’s five horse carriages to pass.

Qi Ercai thanked them repeatedly, and only followed after the last carriage entered the city.

From behind, he could still hear the soldiers discussing among themselves, saying things like how it’s impossible to be poor if you have horse carriages or how selling a carriage could fetch some silver.

Qi Ercai just listened casually, paying no mind to their words.

Were the family’s carriages just any ordinary carriages?

They were pulled by five bona fide wild horses, which were not only intelligent but also very obedient.

Even if they didn’t have money now, they wouldn’t consider selling the horses.

At this time of returning home, there were more people walking around in the alley. Many laborers were coming home from work. Seeing the five carriages heading straight to the deepest part of the alley, they couldn’t help but point and comment.

The Qi Family acted like they neither heard nor saw anything, returned home, and shut the main door to enjoy their own comfortable life.

"Why so many fish?"

Wang Daya, upon hearing Qi Dafu calling her, quickly came out of the kitchen, only to see each person holding several frozen stiff fish.

The smallest ones were about a foot long, and the biggest ones were nearly two and a half feet long, big enough for the whole family for a meal.

Qi Dafu grinned, "We caught them, hurry and thaw a couple, let’s have fish for dinner tonight."

"Eat, eat, eat, such big fish, if sold, would fetch quite a bit of money!"

Though Wang Daya seemed to complain, her hands swiftly took the fish from Qi Dafu’s arms, which were three big carp, each over a foot long.

Qi Quanjin laughed and said, "Sister-in-law, prepare three first, let everyone taste them fresh, and we’ll figure out what to do with the rest later."

"Okay!"

This time, Wang Daya simply agreed.

But after delivering the fish to the kitchen, she came out again, shouting in the direction of the storeroom, "Meng Niang, come cook in the kitchen!"

Fish is a main dish, none of the sisters-in-law could cook it as deliciously as Yi Meng, so with such big fish in the house, Yi Meng was always the one to cook them.

Yi Meng came out of the storeroom, followed by a few boys. Hearing the call, she responded but didn’t head to the kitchen. Instead, she approached Qi Quanjin, "Brother Jin, how did it go today?"

"Hehe, that place turned out to be a pond, the ice wasn’t completely frozen, we caught about a dozen fish today."

Qi Quanjin explained to his wife with a smile.

Yi Meng was momentarily surprised, then remembered that their daughter had mentioned wanting to eat fish, but they hadn’t been able to get any, so she had forgotten about it.

Now recalling it, Yi Meng couldn’t help but glance towards the main room.

The fish caught today, could it be because the daughter wanted to eat them, so... they just appeared!

Getting her mind back on track, Yi Meng urged everyone to hurry up and finish so they could change into dry clothes indoors, while she went to the kitchen to prepare.

She placed the fish in a large basin, soaked them in cold water to defrost, and used this time to return to her room to find dry clothes for Qi Quanjin. Then the two called Qi Ercai to discuss what to do with the rest of the fish.

"The sister-in-law said if we sold them, we could earn quite a bit, why don’t we just sell them?"

Qi Ercai suggested.

Qi Quanjin didn’t say anything.

Qi Zheng, smoking his dry pipe, also didn’t speak.

Mrs. Qi, watching her grandchildren playing on the kang, didn’t express an opinion either.

Seeing this, Yi Meng said, "Who knows how many fish are in that pond? Why not spend a few more days to see if you can catch more?"

"Keep the caught fish quiet, it’s cold now, they can stay frozen, and we can save them to sell all at once before the New Year."

Yi Meng suggested.

Upon hearing this, Qi Ercai frowned, "Sister-in-law, why not sell them bit by bit?"

Before Yi Meng could respond, Qi Zheng glared at him, "Selling now won’t attract attention? If someone finds out there’s fish in that pit of ours, they’ll take the chance to fish when we’re not around. How will you guard against that?"

Qi Ercai was so eager to earn some visible money for the family that he hadn’t considered this point.

Now, hearing his father’s words, he immediately realized, slapping his forehead, "Look at me, just focused on making money and forgot about this."

In the wild outskirts and in such cold weather, they truly had no way to guard there.

"Blockhead!"

Mrs. Qi spat out the words, showing her clear disdain for her son’s oversight.

Qi Ercai chuckled sheepishly, not getting upset.

He had long been used to his parents’ daily disdain.

Qi Quanjin finally spoke, "Alright, we’ll leave it at that for now. But dad, can you weave a net? Today, we hurriedly used twine, and not only was it heavy when wet, but the holes were also big."

"I knew a bit when I was young."

Qi Zheng knocked his pipe, "Tomorrow, don’t go out, go buy some finer twine early in the morning, and I’ll teach you how to weave nets."

"Okay!"

Qi Quanjin had no objections. 𝒻𝓇𝑒𝘦𝘸𝑒𝒷𝓃ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝒸ℴ𝘮

That evening, the three fish were braised whole, filling an entire large pot and divided into two bowls.

As soon as Qi Manman smelled the aroma, her eyes lit up, looking at Mrs. Qi, "Grandma, fish!"

"Hmm! Does Manbao like eating fish? Later, Grandma will pick the belly meat for you, that’s the tastiest part."

Mrs. Qi stroked her granddaughter’s head.

However, to her surprise, Qi Manman shook her head, saying seriously, "Grandma, the best meat is on the cheeks!"

"Huh?"

Mrs. Qi looked perplexed.

What’s this?

Cheek meat?

Hearing this, Qi Zheng laughed heartily and praised, "Still, my Manbao is the smartest! On a fish, the best meat is indeed on the cheeks!"

"Fish have cheeks?"

Mrs. Qi looked puzzled at Qi Zheng.

Qi Zheng nodded, pointing with his chopsticks under the fish’s eyes, "It’s this piece of meat."

"How much meat can that be!"

Mrs. Qi showed disdain.

To say the best part of fish meat, it has to be the belly, since the head is all bones. Who would eat that?

Yin Cheng, who had just walked in, said, "Refined yet exquisite, fish cheek meat is indeed the most delicious part."

If anyone else had said that, Mrs. Qi wouldn’t have believed it, even if it were her little granddaughter.

But if Yin Cheng said it, she believed half of it.

Just as Qin Minglang, who followed in, added with a smile, "There are quite a few affluent families who specifically eat this part of the fish cheeks, leaving the rest untouched."

"My goodness, that’s such a waste!"

Now Mrs. Qi was eighty percent convinced.

After all, before returning to the village, Mr. Qin had treated many affluent families!

Surely, his knowledge is much broader than ours!