The Female General Dominates All After Transmigration-Chapter 76: The Seafood Shop and Liu Xianghu’s Secret

Ling Chengyan nodded in agreement, thinking that the young fellow might be temporarily short of money, so she didn’t bring up the issue of payment.

When she drove to the coastal defense and unloaded the car, it seemed that everyone there knew Zhou Guoqing’s character, so no one said anything extra.

Ling Chengyan remembered Liu Xianghu’s request and spoke to Zhou Guoqing about the seafood.

Zhou Guoqing looked at her but didn’t scold anyone; instead, he called over a young soldier at the coastal defense: "Xiao Jiang, take my apprentice to look at the seafood."

Hearing Zhou Guoqing speak up and entrust something, the young soldier seemed fine, but the more seasoned soldiers around felt like they’d seen a ghost.

Xiao Jiang was lively and enthusiastic, inviting Ling Chengyan to drive, leading her from the border station, taking a seven or eight-mile detour to a very peculiar village. Before seeing anyone, the strong salty smell of seawater was already prominent.

"We’re here, that’s the seafood shop upfront!" Xiao Jiang waved, pointing to the vast drying grounds on both sides of the road.

The drying grounds were clearly artificially leveled, with neat roads and square drying fields, on this white frost-like salt flower covered highly alkaline soil where truly nothing grows, offering an unimpeded view.

The late-April lunar calendar sun was somewhat fierce, dazzling on the white salt frost.

The wind was strong; Ling Chengyan pressed down on her military cap as she followed Xiao Jiang towards the few low and wide houses at the end of the drying grounds.

Since they reached the drying grounds, the smell of the sea had become increasingly strong. As they approached the houses, the salty smell of seawater completely turned into the fishy smell of fish and shrimp, mixed with the freshness of the sea—honestly, the smell wasn’t very pleasant; some people might even vomit directly.

Ling Chengyan slightly frowned but continued to follow the oblivious Xiao Jiang into the shed.

Upon entering, she saw it clearly: the shed was open front and back, with a canal at the back, a sturdy and wide wharf at the back door for docking. There were no boats now, wooden planks stood against the shed walls, and beside them piles of willow baskets reeking of fishy smell, with remnants of dead fish and shrimp stuck to them.

Seeing her looking outside the back door, Xiao Jiang smiled and introduced: "That’s their unloading pier. When big ships catch fish, they use small boats to bring them back here to unload and further process."

Ling Chengyan turned her head back to see the large shed filled with big iron pots, most of which were boiling something, and amidst the steaming heat was a heavy seafood aroma.

Inside the shed, the seafood scent was so strong it overpowered the unpleasant fishy smell.

Everyone was busy. Ling Chengyan watched as someone shouted, "Get the pot out!"

A few burly men with rolled-up pant legs stepped forward, using oversized slotted spoons to scoop the cooked seafood from the pots into baskets. The baskets had bamboo slats at the bottom where the draining water trickled down into the drainage channels, eventually flowing into the canal behind. Once filled, a man waiting by the door hooked the basket with a long metal hook along the bamboo slats outside.

Outside, a tractor waited to load the baskets onto the trailer, which then trundled off to the appropriate fields for drying to the required level: slightly dehydrated, semi-dry, or fully dry. The degree of dehydration was determined by the cargo’s destination distance; nearby ones needed only slight dehydration, farther ones needed to be semi-dry, and for external or export shipments, fully dry for preservation.

Xiao Jiang approached, unabashedly picking out two large prawns about a foot long from a basket, handing one to Ling Chengyan with a smile, "Try it. Their seafood here is the freshest."

Then, familiarly asked the worker, "No crabs today?"

The worker, without looking at him, responded blandly, "What time is it? Still eating crabs, they’ve already spawned, no good to eat now."

A man in his forties nearby chuckled, "Crabs come out during Awakening of Insects; after Clear and Bright, they’ve spawned, just eat in that season."

Xiao Jiang chatted for a bit, then, leading Ling Chengyan out of the shed, circled around to a row of relatively neat houses, entering a room briefly and coming out holding a note.

"Let’s go, get the goods."

Ling Chengyan was slightly puzzled; she hadn’t said what she wanted. How did he issue a note?

Quickly, Xiao Jiang cleared up her confusion: "Here, the notes only divide by fresh goods, semi-dry, and dry goods. After issuing a note, you go pick from the drying grounds, except export goods, everything else is free to choose, no limits on kinds."

He added, "If you like shrimp paste, crab paste, they have them here too; shrimp paste is free and considered preserved goods, crab paste needs another note, that stuff’s a bit rare."

Ling Chengyan simply said, "Then let’s buy some."

She hadn’t eaten crab paste before, but she had tasted crab. In the Ling Mansion, there was once a chef specializing in seafood who was adept at various pickled, marinated techniques, making drunken crab and pickled crab that were exquisite. Her father loved enjoying pickled crab with old wine, drinking slowly.

Although the Ling Family was from a General’s family, her father wasn’t rough after hours, had some scholarly hobbies, like calligraphy, like placing an orchid on the desk, like savoring wine in small cups... But in the army, her father showed another demeanor altogether.

She remembered when she was six, sneaking with her brother to peek at the army banquets, watching her father gulp wine from a big bowl, she almost didn’t recognize him!

Recalling those times, Ling Chengyan couldn’t help but slightly curve her lips, her brows and eyes softening.

Xiao Jiang glanced at her expression, laughed, "Looks like Sister Ling really likes crab paste, huh? Must also like marinated crabs. I know someone who makes great marinated crabs; every crab season, he always pickles a few baskets of top-quality fat crabs. Later, I’ll take you to find him; this year’s marinated crabs should be ready. Hehe, not kidding, Sister Ling, I love eating too. Our platoon leader loves crab claws the most; whenever he eats marinated crabs, the crab claws are all his. His saying is a crab claw can drink a meal, clear taste!... I love crab roe the most, eat one bite, it’s so fresh, your spirit will fly away..."

Talking about his favorites, Xiao Jiang became verbose, even while talking he unrestrainedly swallowed his saliva, making Ling Chengyan laugh.

Chatting, they returned to the drying fields, and Ling Chengyan, seeing it clearly, noticed the differently colored drying grounds were drying different species.

The red ones were prawns, the white ones were shrimp skins, gray-white, some black were salted fish, inkfish, shellfish... Ling Chengyan only recognized a few, couldn’t name most of them.

But Xiao Jiang was quite familiar with the situation here, cheerfully pointed to inkfish and shell columns and said, "Those two are good stuff; our platoon leader got some last year and sent them home. His wife gave birth to a chubby boy, he sent these back for her to nourish."

Ling Chengyan suddenly thought of Liu Xianghu’s flushed face, feeling somewhat incredulous:

Didn’t expect such a young fellow to be quite capable? So quietly, he’s about to be a father?!