Chapter 30: Fish Delivered to the Door

Chu Xuan thought the gatekeeper was going to return her bananas. She was just about to say there was no need, when the old man quietly said, “The factory here won’t take them, but the city’s pharmaceutical plant will. There are even people who come to collect them. For the rest, you’ll have to ask around yourself.”

“Thank you, sir!”

Chu Xuan left another banana for the gatekeeper and turned to leave.

Mu Chenze often went to the city to sell deep-sea fish, so maybe she could ask him to help find out more.

As for preserving fish livers, she knew how: salt-curing.

After removing the fish livers, soak them in clean water and gently squeeze them with both hands to drain the blood. Then take them out, mix with a certain proportion of salt, seal them in a jar or barrel, and store them in a cool place.

Once she’d saved up enough, she could sell them to the city’s pharmaceutical factory.

Chu Xuan found a place to buy thirty jin of salt and twenty jin of white sugar. Since she didn’t have ration coupons, she paid an extra five cents per jin—salt was twenty cents a jin, sugar was eighty-three cents.

She borrowed a burlap sack to pack it all.

After taking the bus back to town, she went to a shop selling jars and bought two large ones, paid a five-yuan deposit, and would pay the rest when they were delivered.

She planned to use the big jars to store the fish livers.

Fish livers couldn’t be wasted—they were worth more than the fish itself.

She also stopped by the town’s security team to sign a letter of understanding and got a certificate signed by Chu Dashan, in duplicate.

Back in the village, she handed one copy to the village office.

When she got home, it was noon. She was hot, tired, and hungry, so she put her purchases in the kitchen.

There was one less portion of dried fish in the kitchen, because her little brother had already taken some to Gao Meijuan’s house.

He’d also made mung bean soup and prepared lunch in advance.

Stir-fried sliced conch with chili, cabbage and tofu soup, and white steamed buns.

The smell of the food instantly swept away Chu Xuan’s fatigue.

After lunch, she felt completely revived. She showed her brother the certificate, then hid it in the ceiling compartment of her bedroom.

She soaked a packet of Chinese herbs—let it steep for half an hour before boiling.

Starting today, she would begin taking care of her health, and told her brother to make her lighter meals from now on.

She wasn’t worried about lacking nutrition—there were tonics in the herbal medicine, enough for her daily needs.

She even made a plan to exercise.

In her previous life, she’d been terribly lazy—just drank herbal medicine, didn’t exercise, didn’t watch her diet, and it took a whole year to slowly lose weight.

This time, she wanted to see results sooner.

By a little after two in the afternoon, the herbal medicine was ready.

Chu Xuan scooped up the decoction, blowing on it as she drank. It wasn’t too bitter—she could handle it.

The first batch of herbs in her previous life hadn’t been too bad either, but later, as the prescription changed, some were hard to swallow, some were sour, and some had a bitter, fishy taste…

After she finished, a spoonful of sugar appeared in front of her.

“Jie, have something sweet.”

Faced with such a thoughtful little brother, Chu Xuan felt truly comforted. She took the spoon, licked the sugar—so sweet!

Chu Feng swallowed hungrily.

Chu Xuan gently ruffled his hair. “You can have a spoonful too.”

Chu Feng knew the sugar was for making dried fish, so he shook his head. “I won’t eat it. We should save it to sell.”

Suddenly, Chu Xuan remembered—before the family split, her brother had sneaked some sugar and been beaten by Feng Chunhua, then made to stand outside the gate as punishment.

After that, he’d never dared eat sugar again.

Chu Xuan finished the sugar in her spoon in one bite, went into the kitchen, scooped two heaping spoonfuls of sugar into a bowl, and handed it to her brother.

“Dip your bun in it! Eat whenever you want. Just remember to brush your teeth well every night.”

Chu Feng held the bowl, tears streaming down his face. “Jie, you’re so good to me!”

The less he’d been able to eat sugar before, the more he’d craved it.

Chu Xuan knew these were tears of happiness, and teased, “Giving you sugar is being good to you? Next time I go to town, I’ll buy you milk candies.”

Chu Feng cheered, “Thank you, Jie!”

“Hurry up and eat, then go read.”

“Yes, ma’am!”

Chu Feng took half a bun, split it open, stuffed all the sugar from the bowl inside, and ate with a look of pure satisfaction, as if he were eating the most delicious thing in the world.

Afterward, he poured the mung bean soup from the pot into the sugar bowl, swirled it around, and drank it.

“So sweet! I’m so happy!”

The shadow of not being able to eat sugar as a child disappeared in that moment.

He smiled at Chu Xuan and asked, “Jie, can I have another spoonful?”

Chu Xuan was about to say too much sugar would make him sick, but then thought—some things, he needed to experience for himself.

“Of course. Go ahead!”

Chu Feng happily ran to the sugar bag, carefully scooped out a spoonful, and ate it straight.

Then he drank a lot of water.

He didn’t ask for more—he’d discovered that too much sugar was a bit overwhelming. Moderation was best.

A little after three in the afternoon, there was a knock at the door.

Chu Xuan opened the gate to see Ji Ping leaning against a flatbed cart with sideboards, the cart piled high with skinned fish.

She knew Ji Ping—he was Mu Chenze’s best friend. In her previous life, after disaster struck the Mu family, Ji Ping often went to help them.

They were from the same village, so of course Ji Ping knew Chu Xuan too.

He’d heard that Chu Xuan and Mu Chenze had kissed, but nothing came of it.

Mu Chenze said it was an accident, so Ji Ping took it as such.

“Chu Xuan, Chenze said he considers you a buddy now. He asked me to bring you these skinned fish—five hundred and sixty jin, just weighed. If you don’t believe it, you can weigh them again. Just pay him for the fish.”

“Xiao Feng, go call Grandma Gao to come help clean the fish,” Chu Xuan said with a smile, then pointed to a cement patch in the yard and looked at Ji Ping. “No need to weigh again. Please unload them there.”

“No problem.”

Ji Ping quickly pulled the cart into the yard and unloaded the fish in the corner.

In no time, the fish were piled up like a small hill.

Chu Xuan went into the kitchen and brought out a big bowl of mung bean soup for Ji Ping. “Have some to cool off.”

Ji Ping thought to himself, This fatty is pretty considerate.

He took it cheerfully. “Thanks!”

He gulped it down in one go, returned the bowl, and took his leave.

Chu Xuan put on her apron, took out a knife, cutting board, and two wooden basins.

She started cleaning fish—removing the guts, chopping off the heads, skinning them.

She put the livers in one basin, the fish meat with bones in another.

By the time Gao Meijuan and her mother arrived with knives and cutting boards, and Chu Feng came in, the basin was already piled high with fish meat.

Just then, the people delivering the big ceramic jars arrived, and even gave her two wooden lids as a bonus.

Chu Xuan paid the remaining twenty-five yuan for the jars and saw them out.

After the jars were scrubbed clean, they were placed in the mud-brick room.

Chu Xuan explained how she wanted things done, and everyone found a spot and got to work.

Chu Xuan took a basin of fish to wash and marinate in the kitchen.

From her previous experience, ten jin of fish would yield about one and a half jin of dried fish.

With five hundred and sixty jin, she expected to get about eighty-five jin of dried fish after working through the night.

The actual yield would have to wait until it was all done. Then she’d calculate the labor, transport, and seasoning costs before setting a price.

After marinating the fish, Chu Xuan packed a portion of dried fish and two wooden buckets into her basket, said goodbye to Gao Meijuan and the others, slung the basket on her back, picked up two empty wicker baskets with a shoulder pole, and set out to forage by the sea.

When she arrived, Mu Chenze was already at the tide pools, collecting seafood.

She instantly felt like an employee caught slacking off by the boss. She hurried over and apologized sincerely, “Sorry! I’m late…”

Mu Chenze stopped collecting the red conches and held out his hand to Chu Xuan. “Give it to me.”

Chu Xuan didn’t quite get it. “Give you what? The wicker baskets? Here.”

Mu Chenze put on a look of mock annoyance. “So dumb! Think about it!”"