The next day, Ye Yaodong was awakened by Ye Xiaoxi's saliva.
When he was dozing off, he felt his face was wet, as if it had been licked by a puppy.
He opened his eyes in confusion, only to see Ye Xiaoxi lying beside his pillow, staring at him, with saliva at the corners of her mouth forming shiny threads.
After seeing him open his eyes, she smiled, revealing her toothless gums, and a larger handful of saliva hung down...
"My dear, are you awake? Why are you so well behaved? You woke up so early in the morning and asked your dad to wake you up? Are you cold? You didn't even cover yourself with the quilt."
Ye Yaodong's heart was melted by his daughter's cuteness early in the morning. He smiled and hugged her in his arms. He pulled up the quilt to wrap her up, leaving only her little head sticking out. How could he see how adorable she was
He seemed to have forgotten that when Ye Chengyang was a child, he also lay on him like this and drooled all over his face, and he looked so disgusted.
The father and daughter snuggled in the bed, playing and loving each other for a while, until he accidentally touched her wet diaper. Ye Yaodong sighed helplessly, sat up and acted as a nanny, changing her diaper, putting on her clothes and pants, and then getting dressed himself.
After both the father and daughter were dressed, he carried the child out of the room. At the same time, he smelled the aroma of meat in the room.
Lard was simmering in the pot, making a sizzling sound and the whole house was filled with fragrance. Two children were standing by the stove, scratching their ears, standing on tiptoe and craning their necks.
"Stand away from me, the oil will splash on your face and disfigure you."
"Mom said she wanted to give us some lard residue to eat..."
Lin Xiuqing reached out and moved the two of them further away, "Stand further away."
She was using a spatula to drain the lard residue and put it in a bowl and handed it to the two children, "Take it and eat it. Be careful of the heat. Let it cool down first, otherwise your mouth will get blisters and you won't be able to eat anything good today. We bought a lot of meat at home."
"I got it, Mom. I'll go find Brother Hai and the others." Ye Chenghu excitedly ran out of the house holding a small bowl of lard residue.
Ye Chengyang, with his short legs, could only follow behind and shout.
Lin Xiuqing also yelled at him to be careful, "If you drop the bowl, you will be beaten."
"knew."
Ye Yaodong took a look while holding the child. "The pot is full of oil. There is still a lot. It can be eaten for a long time. I will kill the shark and coat it with sweet potato flour and fry it later."
Lin Xiuqing glared at him and said, "This big pot of oil is not enough to fry your shark."
"You loser woman, you want to blow up a shark like that? Are you ready?"
"You wish!"
"Just fry one basin of it, why fry so much? It's okay to eat less."
Lin Xiuqing almost laughed out loud at his shamelessness.
The old lady also smiled and said, "Don't talk the other way around and misinterpret A-Qing's meaning. You think it's so beautiful, don't say it."
Ye Yaodong put the restless child in his arms into the standing cage and said with a smile: "No, I didn't expect it too much. There are so many adults and children at home, and the one next door has to share two bowls. A basin is not much."
Lin Xiuqing glanced at him and said unhappily, "Why don't you go kill the fish? I don't know how to kill such a big fish. You can eat it yourself if you want."
"Okay, do it yourself and you will have enough food and clothing."
When the old lady saw him about to go out with a knife, she quickly stopped him and said, "Wait a minute, kill the fish after breakfast."
"Oh yeah, I haven't washed my face or brushed my teeth yet."
He put down the kitchen knife and walked to the table. After taking a look at what dishes were available, he went to brush his teeth and wash his face.
There was also a bowl of pig blood cooked by Ye's mother on the table. It was no longer hot and should have been served some time ago.
The fins of a shark are the most valuable part of its body. After catching sharks, countries such as Russia and Japan will cut off the fins and then throw the fish back into the sea to fend for themselves, because the fish meat is of no value to them.
But for fish in the ocean, fins are very important. Without the support of fins, they cannot swim freely in the sea.
Shark fins are non-regenerative. Without fins, it would be like us humans being without hands and feet. You can imagine what would happen to us.
Those sharks that have their fins cut off and are released back into the sea will either be eaten by other sharks or starve to death because the wounds on their fins will attract other sharks to come and eat them.
Ye Yaodong sharpened the knife twice, looked the great white shark over and over, then cut off its dorsal fin, pectoral fin and tail fin, and soaked them in a basin of light water that he had prepared in advance.
It will probably take about a day to soak.
This great white shark pup was so small that the cut fin was only the size of his palm.
After soaking, it needs to be dried the next day. After drying, the wings need to be opened. There are several more steps to go through. It's quite troublesome, but fortunately, there is only one fish with only a few fins, so I have some free time to dry it.
After cutting off the shark's fins, he then cut open the shark's stomach and took out its internal organs.
The shark's liver is very large, feels greasy, and has a strong fishy smell. It accounts for about 10-15% of the shark's body weight and contains a large amount of vitamin A. For most people, eating just one or two grams of it can cause poisoning.
It's okay to extract it, but forget about frying it directly, as it won't taste good either.
The fish maw inside is a good thing, it can be used for stir-frying. Ye Yaodong took out the fish maw separately and weighed it in his hand. "It's about two pounds, enough for stir-frying a bowl."
"Pour some rice wine to remove the fishy smell, and add some chili peppers to stir-fry, it will be delicious." The old lady had nothing to do, so she sat aside and watched him kill the fish.
"Well, fry it at noon while it's still fresh."
After removing the internal organs, the old lady scooped up a bucket of water and poured it on him. After washing away the blood, Ye Yaodong started cutting again.
On the other side of the wall, there was laughter and joy.
"You're not the only one with lard residue. I have it too!"
"We got it before you!"
"Hehe, it smells so good and tastes so good~"
"Brother, give me one~"
"Eat slowly. You've eaten it all. You need to eat slowly, or it will be gone in a while."
"Don't keep reaching out..."
"Mom said we should eat together..."
"It smells so good, can you give me some? It looks so delicious..."
"No, you have to go home and ask your mother for it. This is ours."
"Mmm~ It's so fragrant, so delicious, and so oily~"
While killing, Ye Yaodong raised his head from time to time to look at the wall in the middle. Are you guys feeling proud
The neighboring children must have cried out of envy.
The children also felt that the Chinese New Year was so happy. They ate pork lard in the morning and fried shark slices at noon. The crispy and fragrant taste almost made them swallow their tongues, and they licked their fingers clean.
And in the evening there was braised pork, which was full of oil. They ate it all day long and their stomachs were bloated. Even when they slept, they had smiles on their faces, and they wished that the New Year would never end.
After dinner that day, they have to worship the kitchen god, set off firecrackers and burn gold ingots. The 24th is their New Year's Eve.
The children were even happier. If someone's family had just finished setting off firecrackers, they would rush over and look around the ground, filling their pockets with small firecrackers. When the adults had finished setting off firecrackers, it was their turn.
Ye Yaodong stood aside with his hands in the pockets of his cotton-padded jacket, watching Lin Xiuqing squatting there burning gold ingots and watching a few children playing with firecrackers.
Several of them held a stick of incense in their hands, passing it around and shouting, "Give it to me, give it to me..."
"Be careful, don't let it explode on your hands."
No one listened to him!
Everybody was having a great time, and then they felt there wasn't enough fun, so they ran to the beach to play in the sea.
Ye Xiaoxi stood in the cage, looking at the children running away, and kept shouting, as if asking them to wait.
Ye Yaodong smiled and stretched out his index finger to scratch her little nose, "You are so little, you can't even walk or talk, and you want to run away?"
"He must have seen those kids having fun and wanted to join in the fun." After finishing cooking, Lin Xiuqing straightened up and said with a smile.
"It's okay. She'll be able to run away next year. Seeing how lively she is, I guess we won't be able to find her anywhere by then."
"Well, I guess I will slowly lose weight by then. Oh yes, it's been several days since the photo was taken, and they haven't been delivered yet. We agreed before that they would be developed and delivered to us as soon as possible, so that the whole village won't have to make a trip."
Speaking of losing weight, he remembered that the photos he took a few days ago have not been sent yet. He said good things at the beginning, but now he is probably taking photos in various villages and has no time.
"It's been ten days. They said before that it would take two or three days, or at most three or four days to wash it out. I guess they forgot because they were so busy, right?"
"Who knows? I'll go check it out tomorrow and then ride my bike to get it back myself. I don't expect him to deliver it. It's been ten days, so it should have been washed out by then."
"Well, let's talk about it tomorrow. It won't be gone anyway. Let's go back to the house. The wind is a bit strong at night. Remember to call the children back to bed early. I'll carry Xiaojiu into the house first."
After Ye Xiaoxi was carried out of the cage, her body kept twisting forward, as if she wanted to catch up with the large group in front. When she was carried into the house, she stretched her neck and looked towards the sea reluctantly.
“Ah~ah~”
"Come on, it has nothing to do with you."