bookrebus Chapter 243 Winter Fishing and Hunting on the Huma River
Chapter 243 Winter Fishing and Hunting on the Huma River
The cabbages in the cellar were neatly arranged, showing that the He family knew how to manage their finances. If cabbages were left haphazardly piled up, they would easily rot and turn yellow at the roots. In such cases, the yellow roots and rotten leaves had to be removed quickly, otherwise they would rot even more.
The leaves and stem of the carrot must be removed. This will prevent the leaves from growing back and the carrot from becoming pithy.
In the 90s, housing in this rural area improved; people said goodbye to mud-brick houses and moved into brick and tile houses. Later generations even had refrigerators, running water, electricity, and heating. The traditional rural cellars gradually disappeared. Li Ju'an felt a surge of emotions as he looked at the simple, familiar cellars. The familiar mountains, the familiar cellars...
Li Ju'an caught three more plump toads before he and Sun Weimin each carried vegetables, radishes, and potatoes and climbed up the wooden ladder.
The two entered the kitchen, and the old woman saw the toads in Li Ju'an and Sun Weimin's arms. She bared her teeth and shrieked, "What are these things? Weimin, how old are you? You're still making these disgusting toys. Throw them out!"
Sun Weimin grinned and said, "We're not kids anymore, why would we listen to this? Li Ju'an said that he can make three yuan a pound selling to southerners."
Grandpa and Grandpa lit their cigarettes, propped up their pipes, and laughed heartily, saying, "Southerners are very stingy. They always want a discount on everything. How can they give you three yuan a pound for a frog like this? No way."
Sun Weimin smugly hummed, then made a startling statement: "Why not? Song Desheng and Lu Zhiqiang both said that with the policy loosened, we should open breeding farms. I'll open a breeding farm, set up a breeding village, lease land, and specialize in breeding, specifically raising toads. It's low-cost, and I'll make a fortune!"
The older folks in the family shook their heads and waved their hands, refusing to speak to the young man. They wouldn't even consider such a thing; it was utterly unreliable. Grandma took the cabbage, radish, and potato, glared at him, and said, "Bean sprouts?"
Sun Weimin slapped his forehead: "I forgot, I'll go get it right now."
"It's not in the cellar, it's on the windowsill inside the house."
He responded with a "yes" and turned to go inside to find a plate for sprouting bean sprouts.
After the lid was lifted from the stove, the fragrant carp soup was revealed, its rich white color and incredibly fresh appearance. There were also handmade fish balls, plump and white, floating on the surface of the white soup, bobbing up and down with the bubbling steam—a truly adorable sight.
The most elaborate dish on the kang table is still raw fish. This unique local way of eating fish is a cold salad of raw fish, mixed with bean sprouts, cooked potato slices, and cabbage. The aroma of vinegar is the first thing you notice, wafting into your nose.
Li Ju'an used his chopsticks to pick up a piece of fish, bean sprouts, potato slices, and cabbage, and stuffed them into his mouth, chewing carefully. The sweetness of the river carp slices, the stimulating taste of vinegar, and the fragrance of the vegetables intertwined. The spicy and refreshing aroma rolled around in his mouth, making him reluctant to swallow, and it was very delicious and refreshing.
Everyone ate to their heart's content. A dozen or so people gathered around the kang table. Li Ju'an and the Lu brothers took out deer blood wine, cut off the elk meat they had hunted, and sent it to the kitchen to roast over a fire, adding more dishes to the kang table.
Talaha, fish ball soup, braised mixed fish, stewed river carp, raw fish, stir-fried venison, stir-fried venison tenderloin with potato slices, roasted venison hind leg... a whole table full of delicious dishes. He Shangguo was so happy that he got flushed and pulled Li Ju'an to show him the little trinkets they had brought back from the Hezhe people's market.
He Shangguo showed him the processed products he had brought back from the market. They were fish that had been made into dried fish, fish hair, fish roe sauce, and so on. This was a local custom of eating fish that had been passed down for thousands of years; when they couldn't hunt, they could store the fish for later consumption.
Li Ju'an was amazed. He heard the old man say, "After the river thaws in late April, you must come here, Li, to eat authentic river fish."
He had heard of the river-opening fish in the south before. Southern merchants would rave about the river-opening fish from Northeast China, saying that the authentic river-opening fish, with its delicious meat, deserves a place among the "Four Delicacies" of the country.
Song Desheng asked in surprise, "Grandpa, we have to wait until spring for the river fish to open? We won't be able to eat them until spring?"
He Shangguo told the group that the ice on the river could only be said to be breaking up after the Grain Rain solar term. It was only when the temperature suddenly rose and the ice melted that the river could be considered to be breaking up.
As the weather warms up in spring, the ice on rivers and lakes melts simultaneously, and the village will hold the most solemn and romantic ceremony: the river thawing!
Sun Weimin said, "You haven't been to the Shouting River Festival before? This is just as grand as the Mountain God Worship Festival, it's very lively."
The opening of the river in the local area is a grand ceremony. Hezhe people, dressed in their traditional costumes, spontaneously form a prayer team, beating drums and gongs and calling out to the river. This is all to "awaken" the river and the fish that have been dormant all winter.
Fish spend the entire winter burning through their body fat. By early spring, their flesh is firm, neither too fatty nor too mushy, with just the right texture and exceptional freshness—this is the unique flavor of fish caught at the start of the spring season.
He Shangguo, having drunk too much deer blood wine, ate large mouthfuls of fish until his belly was bulging. He tapped the kang table with his chopsticks and hummed the familiar "Song of the Ussuri River" in a low, hoarse voice. The song begins with a passage in the Hezhe language.
“'Ah Lang He He Ne Na, Ah Lang He He Ne Na…'
The stirring folk songs, harmonizing with the unique tunes of the Hezhe language, made all the hunters at the table sway their heads and hum along. In the lively atmosphere, everyone toasted each other, drinking and chatting happily, thoroughly enjoying themselves.
……
After the meal, Li Ju'an followed He Shangguo to the frozen surface of the Huma River to watch the winter fishing activities. The fishermen were enthusiastically catching fish, which were large and fat, and the fish piled up on the ice were like small mountains.
Li Ju'an exclaimed, "With such a large-scale fishing operation, imagine how much profit we can make at the market!"
He Shangguo shouted, "Our village is full of fishermen, so aquatic products are only slightly less than agricultural products, but there's not much difference."
Li Ju'an nodded. This village of Huma River had no roads connecting it to the surrounding mountains and valleys; the only links were the sled trails used by mountain runners and the old ginseng-gathering paths. To transport so many aquatic products out of the mountains to the market, transport vehicles and roads were needed. He calculated that in his previous life, the road to this village was completed in the same year as the winding mountain road through Changchong Gully.
To get the goods circulating smoothly, it depends on policy liberalization and the country's infrastructure development. He eagerly anticipates that once the roads are open, the aquatic products from this fishing village will be highly sought after. His need to learn to drive and get his driver's license is even more urgent.
He Shangguo, seeing Li Ju'an's focused gaze on the ice, saw through the young man's little scheme and said with a smile, "Young man, how does fishing compare to hunting in the mountains? Young people learn quickly, and if you catch a lot of fish, you might just stay here and not want to go back to hunting in the mountains."
During the winter months when rivers freeze over, fishermen mainly produce fishing gear such as beams, ice troughs, large seine nets under ice, wild bubble nets, and flat hooks.
In the freezing winter, when rivers are covered with ice, a "freezing net," also called a "drift net," is needed, which is similar to a small-sized seine net.
Li Ju'an took off his gloves, rubbed his hands together excitedly, exhaled a puff of warm white breath, and laughed, "Of course."