Chapter 11

For most of the afternoon, Sang Luo stripped hemp while Shen An and Shen Ning gathered leaves from the immortal tree. Once they returned, the three of them set about preparing another new dish.

Immortal tofu was simple to make, and Sang Luo had never tried to hide the process from the siblings. Shen Ning seemed to have a particular talent for it. After bringing back the leaves they had picked that afternoon, she followed the steps Sang Luo had used that morning and processed them herself.

With Sang Luo occasionally offering a few crucial pointers, Shen Ning completed the entire process without Sang Luo lifting a finger. When the final step was done, she was so delighted that she asked, “Sister-in-law, is that all?”

“That’s it. Now we just wait for it to set. Our Ning has become a young lady with a skill of her own.”

Shen Ning gave a shy smile. “Only because you were willing to teach me.”

The two younger ones washed and rinsed all the basins and jars they had used. Sang Luo glanced at the sky, then carried the stripped hemp to the bank of the mountain stream and built a small pool of running water from stones downstream, where she left it to soak. After rinsing her hands, she said, “Come on. Let’s check the fish traps. Whether we get something extra for dinner depends on whether Heaven is willing to bless us—and whether these two traps prove their worth.”

That single sentence sent the siblings into a fit of excitement.

When they reached the stream where they had set the traps, Sang Luo raised one finger to her lips.

Though the gesture was unfamiliar, Shen An and Shen Ning somehow understood her perfectly. They held down their excitement and fell silent together.

Sang Luo quietly removed her shoes and stepped into the water, moving as carefully as possible as she approached the trap she had set.

The siblings did not dare insist on getting into the water to help. This concerned their harvest, after all. If they startled the fish, the basket could soak in the stream all day for nothing. Standing shoulder to shoulder on the bank, they held their breath and watched Sang Luo intently.

When she reached the trap and quietly slipped her hands into the water, the two children clenched their fists in excitement.

Sang Luo held her breath as well. Her hands found the basket. Then she moved abruptly, hauling it up in one swift motion and lifting it halfway out of the water.

It was heavy. Very heavy.

Of course it was heavy—the basket was full of stones!

She carried the basket of stones quickly to shore. The two children were already bouncing with excitement, but because the other trap was not far away, they did not dare make a sound. Their joy remained entirely silent.

As soon as the basket landed on the streambank and the water drained away, the sounds of something flapping against the pebbles inside became unmistakable.

“Sister-in-law, there are fish!” Shen An cried excitedly, though he kept his voice low.

When the boy immediately reached for a stone, Sang Luo hurriedly stopped him. “Don’t touch it. I’ll do it.”

It was not that she wanted to deny him the fun. She was simply afraid that if he rummaged through the stones, he might suddenly pull out a water snake. A child as young as he was could easily be frightened badly enough to cause trouble.

Shen An clearly did not understand her concern, but he trusted his sister-in-law completely now. Especially with the steady flapping coming from the basket, his admiration for her had reached new heights.

She was astonishingly capable!

Sang Luo carefully lifted the stones one by one and set them gently on the ground. After removing seven or eight, she saw them.

“Fish!” Shen Ning exclaimed. “Sister-in-law, there are three!”

“Four—now five!”

The siblings were practically itching to lend a hand.

Only a shallow layer of stones remained at the bottom of the basket, and they could more or less see the base. Once Sang Luo was certain there was nothing dangerous left inside, she smiled and said softly, “You two can pick them out now.”

The moment she gave permission, the children rushed over in delight, nearly bumping their heads as they leaned into the basket. Their little hands rummaged through the stones, growing more excited with every discovery.

“So many fish—and shrimp!”

“There are tadpoles too!”

“There’s a crab!”

Sang Luo leaned over to look and could not help marveling at the abundance of the ancient countryside. The fish at the bottom of the basket were leaping everywhere. There had to be at least fifteen or sixteen, not counting the shrimp and crabs. The smallest was no longer than her index finger, while the largest was nearly as big as her palm.

This was a tremendous haul. In her previous life, even though she had also lived in the mountains, a basket usually held only five or six fish. When luck was poor, one or two was perfectly normal.

Sang Luo let the children continue removing the stones bit by bit while she went barefoot back into the water and felt her way toward the basket Shen An and Shen Ning had set. She hauled it up in the same manner. After removing most of the larger stones and confirming there were no frightening surprises inside, she let the siblings take over.

She leaned over for a look.

Good heavens—there had to be thirty or forty fish in there!

Sang Luo sorted through them and picked out five or six of the smallest, tossing them back into the stream.

Shen An stared at her in confusion. “Sister-in-law, why did you let them go?”

“They’re too small. There’s hardly any meat on them. It’s better to put them back.”

Shen An swallowed and looked mournfully toward the stream.

“Sister-in-law, even a little meat is still meat.”

Seeing his expression, Sang Luo burst out laughing. Her hands were still wet, but she reached over, caught the little tuft of hair on top of his head, and gave it a tug.

“All right, all right. How many streams like this do you think there are in these mountains? If you’re willing to spend the time and effort, are you really going to go hungry for fish? Let them grow a little longer. Release the small ones, and you’ll still be able to catch fish when you want some in the future.”

Shen An blinked. It did seem to make sense.

Shen Ning added from the side, “Our elder brother never brought home such tiny fish when he caught them.”

Shen An nodded. “I understand, Sister-in-law. But how do we get the shrimp out? Do we just lift them out?”

“They’d all escape while we were carrying them to shore. We need another basket.”

As she spoke, Sang Luo poured the fish and crabs from one of the baskets the siblings had cleared into the other. Once it was empty, she carried it over to the place where they had set the branches.

She proceeded with the same care as before. The moment she lifted the branches, she hurriedly held the empty basket beneath them and shook them vigorously.

The shrimp that tumbled out made Sang Luo raise her brows. “There are quite a lot!”

She gathered the branches from each spot in turn before returning to shore.

After all the branches had been removed, the shrimp amounted to nearly half a bowl, and three crabs were still crawling among them.

“What a splendid harvest! We’ll have a proper feast tonight!”

This time the siblings did not bother holding back. They cheered aloud.

Shen An was quick to suggest, “Sister-in-law, shall we set another trap? We can come back and check it tomorrow morning!”

Sang Luo had been thinking the same thing. “All right. But we’ll have to walk a little farther ahead.”

She was not worried that they would completely empty the stream after only two or three rounds. It was simply that they had already set several traps in this area, so the catch would inevitably be smaller if they continued fishing here immediately.

Shen An carried an empty basket while Shen Ning hugged several bundles of branches. The two children ran merrily ahead, with Sang Luo following behind, carrying the basket of fish.

This time, she did not even need to teach them. The two little ones were perfectly capable of setting the traps themselves.

Once the traps had been arranged, Shen An looked at the basket of fish in Sang Luo’s hands, a trace of regret in his eyes.

“We should have brought the clay pot from home. Then we could have set one more trap.”

Sang Luo had not thought of that before leaving, so she could only say, “Remember it tomorrow morning. Come on—let’s head back and get everything ready for our feast!”

Shen An glanced at the basket in her hands and seemed satisfied again. He reached out at once. “Sister-in-law, I’ll carry this.”

“I’ll help too!” Shen Ning chimed in.

Sang Luo knew the two children were simply too happy to contain themselves, so she let them have their way.

“You two carry it together. Watch out for the crabs. Take a branch each, and if one climbs out, push it back down. Don’t let yourselves get pinched.”

A pinch from one of those creatures was no joke.

“All right!”

Shen An looked around, snapped off a branch beside the stream, stripped away the leaves, and broke it in two. He kept one piece and handed the other to Shen Ning. Then the siblings happily carried the basket between them and started back home.

Sang Luo walked ahead of them, though she kept her pace slow, her eyes constantly searching the ground around them.

Shen Ning noticed and asked, “Sister-in-law, what are you looking for?”

“Wild ginger. Fish can smell rather strong, and ginger helps remove the odor. The fish will taste much better when cooked with it.”

Shen Ning looked utterly bewildered.

Ginger did exist in this era, but it was not widely available. Fresh ginger was still used mainly as a seasoning by wealthy households, while more often it was treated as a medicinal herb. Dried ginger could be purchased at apothecaries.

Fresh ginger was also sold as a seasoning, naturally, but at an exorbitant price. Rural families rarely spent money on seasonings at all. Oil and salt were luxuries—how could they afford to pay a high price for ginger merely to flavor their food?

In Sang Luo’s original world, ginger had also been a luxury in ancient times. The Records of the Grand Historian even contained the saying, “A thousand plots of ginger and chives are worth as much as a nobleman with a thousand households.”

The same was true in this world. Shen An and Shen Ning had never even heard of ginger. Sang Luo knew that ginger existed here, and had some idea of its price, only because her former body had been born into a common but respectable family. They used ginger when preparing meat and would sometimes boil ginger water to ward off the cold.

She explained, “Ginger isn’t only useful in cooking. It’s also a medicinal herb. If you catch a chill, drinking water boiled with fresh ginger can help. But it sells for a very high price. You can keep an eye out for wild ginger instead. Its leaves look somewhat like bamboo leaves, and the rhizomes beneath the soil are yellow and knobby. It usually grows beneath trees or on the shaded side of a slope. There might be some in the bamboo groves. Pay attention whenever you’re out. If you find any, it will be valuable. You can keep it as medicine for the winter, or even try planting some yourselves.”

In truth, Sang Luo was not certain that wild ginger actually grew here. She had found no trace of it in the former owner’s memories. She was only searching because she wanted ginger for the fish and thought she might as well try her luck.

The siblings lit up when they heard that it could be used as medicine. They exchanged a glance, then nodded together.

“All right. We’ll keep a closer eye out from now on. If we see anything that looks like it, we’ll dig it up and bring it home for you to inspect!”

Shen Ning was especially awed by Sang Luo now. As they walked, she gazed at her with shining admiration.

“Sister-in-law, you know so much. You can catch fish, make immortal tofu, recognize wild ginger, and even know how to treat a chill.”

Shen An, who had just begun paying attention to plants nearby that resembled bamboo leaves and might possibly be wild ginger, suddenly came to an unexplained stop.