The Lucky Farmgirl
Chapter 153 - 142 Gluttony

Chapter 153: Chapter 142 Gluttony

Qili Village received the news a bit late; it was the people who went out to wash clothes in the morning who discovered that the river had suddenly risen, submerging the rocks usually used for laundry, before they realized something was amiss.

Immediately, the village head had people go upstream to ask the villagers there, who were busy fishing with nets. So the messenger quickly returned to report, and the village head then had every household bring out their fishing nets to string them together, creating the big net they now had.

They had already fished a little further upstream earlier and caught several buckets of fish. It was someone who said they saw a lot of fish hiding in the aquatic plants in front of the schoolhouse that led to their moving the spot here.

And sure enough, as Zhou Erlang and a few other villagers moved forward with the nets, people on both banks were beating the aquatic plants with bamboo poles. In no time, several big fish burst out, heading straight for the net.

Manbao, watching from the shore, was so excited she couldn’t contain herself, yelping and drooling, "Stewed fish, fried fish, stewed fish, fried fish..."

Perhaps Manbao’s thoughts were so strong that even though she didn’t voice them to Keke, Keke still heard them.

It too looked at the lively fish outside and said, "Host, why don’t you collect these fish as well? In the future, several species of fish will be endangered or extinct."

Manbao was reluctant; although they lived by the river, the fish there were not easy to catch. In her memory, they could only occasionally enjoy a meal of fish in the autumn, which Third Brother would have to net for an entire day to catch.

How could such rare fish be collected by Keke?

Keke felt the host failed to discern the primary from the secondary, but it knew it would be hard to reason with her while food filled her mind, so it said, "Then just collect smaller fish. Oh, and host, there aren’t only stewed and fried fish. There are also deep-fried, boiled fish slices, fish balls, and other various cooking methods."

Manbao’s eyes lit up, and she asked with drool, "How do you make them?"

"If you can collect fish species that have gone extinct or are on the verge of extinction, I’m willing to generously offer to search for these cooking methods."

After all, it still had that much search privilege.

Manbao immediately pressed forward, her eyes shining as she watched the net.

Zhou Erlang and the others laughed a few times and then together exerted force to drag up the net, which suddenly jostled the big and small fish together. People on the shore immediately helped pull, and with a whoosh, they dragged the net ashore, and all the fish jumped out.

The children, seeing so many fish, couldn’t help but cheer. Manbao and Bai Shanbao were also seeing so many fish for the first time and ran towards them excitedly.

Keke called out to her several times in her mind, but Manbao didn’t notice.

Keke, feeling helpless, could only wait for her to calm down a bit before saying, "Host, do you see that somewhat pointed fish to your left? Collect it; it’s not recorded in my search system and must be an extinct species."

Manbao rushed over and reached out to grab the fish. It wasn’t very big but was wriggling energetically; she failed to hold onto it on her first try.

She wasn’t the only child lunging for the fish, so her actions didn’t stand out.

Keke made a slight cover for her, and when her hand touched the fish again, it blinked and collected the fish into the system.

As long as a creature entered the system alive, it remained alive, and the fish would go directly into the water to survive.

Datou and the others brought their wooden buckets from home, and along with all the children, they hugged the fish and put them into the buckets, which only contained a small amount of water.

All the children were eyeing the big fish, while Keke mainly chose the small ones, as there were fish of all sizes in the net, essentially covering most species.

Keke found that many fish species couldn’t be found in its data.

A string of data representing joy was produced in its system, constantly directing Manbao to collect fish.

Although Manbao listened to Keke and went for the smaller fish, she couldn’t help but go for the big ones, deliberately bringing them to her family’s wooden bucket, thinking, "This is ours now."

Keke watched her but didn’t shatter her illusion.

Of course, merely putting the fish in a family’s wooden bucket didn’t make them the property of that family; the fish were to be taken to the village and distributed according to the labor each family contributed.

In this regard, the Zhou Family had a significant advantage.

Except for Zhou Silang and Zhou Wulang, who went to the county town, four of the Zhou brothers went down to the river, and Zhou Erlang and Zhou Sanlang were the main force.

So when it came to distributing the fish, the Zhou Family took home three buckets of big fish and one bucket of small fish.

The villagers also knew not to deplete the fish resources, so they would throw back some of the younger, yet still lively fish caught in the net. However, some small fish lacked vitality, and those were the ones that wouldn’t survive even if thrown back, so they were divided up.

Even though small fish weren’t as tasty, they were still meat, right?

Therefore, no family wanted to waste any, and even the Zhou Family took home a bucketful. Bai Shanbao also got quite a lot because he had called Daliang on time, receiving nearly half a bucket of big fish and a little less than half a bucket of small fish.

Manbao squatted in front of the bucket with him, discussing how to cook the fish, "I want to eat boiled fish slices, fish balls, and fried fish."

All these dishes were suggested by Keke but she had never tasted them.

Conveniently, Bai Shanbao had never tried them either, and curious, he asked, "How do you make these?"

Manbao recited the methods provided by Keke, then said while drooling, "It must be delicious."

Bai Shanbao, also drooling, nodded. The two kids looked at each other and immediately got up to go their own ways, determined to ask their families to try cooking them.

The Zhou Family decided to keep the big fish in a water jar, with some still in the wooden bucket.

Old Zhou walked around with his hands behind his back a couple of times and then said to Zhou Dalang, "Take some to the county town with Erlang and Sanlang tomorrow and see if you can sell them."

Zhou Dalang agreed.

Old Zhou then pointed to the bucket of small fish, "Pick through them, cook those that are alive, and feed the dead ones to the chickens."

The Zhou Family mostly cooked their meals by boiling, and that was the only method Old Zhou knew to prepare food.

Manbao dashed straight to the kitchen, her small head tilted back, her eyes sparkling as she said to Junior Ms. Qian, "Big sister, the small fish should be deep-fried, and the big fish can be sliced and boiled, or made into fish balls."

Junior Ms. Qian hadn’t paid attention to the last two methods; upon hearing the first one, she tapped Manbao’s forehead and said, "Deep-fried, where do you think we’d get so much oil from?"

She said, "Boiling is the tastiest. The big fish already have oil, and they taste great without adding a drop."

Clearly, she wasn’t willing to cook it Manbao’s way.

But Manbao really wanted to eat deep-fried fish, and she pestered her relentlessly, "I want it deep-fried, I want it deep-fried, okay?"

"Alright, alright, deep-fried it is. But how do you deep-fry it? How much oil do we need?" Junior Ms. Qian had never heard of deep-frying and, of course, didn’t know how much oil it required.

She went to get the oil jar, which contained the family’s supply.

The oil was rendered from purchased pork fat; in the past, they had used sheep fat and chicken fat, but after earning money by cooking soups for laborers last year, they realized pigs had a lot of fat, so they gradually switched to pork fat.

The key was that pork fat was cheaper.