The Beautiful Brother of the Orion’s Family (Wearing Book) - 234

 

| TBBOTOF | 234

Thinking of his father, Tang Erhu had eaten a belly full of cold wind. Tang Xu didn’t make anything greasy; just a few small salty pickles, fried salted fish, paired with steamed buns and mixed grain porridge. The taste was still very good.

His man had rented a lot of land and later bought some more, so he got a lot of new rice every year.

It had been a long time since they had seen each other.

Tang Erhu learned that Old Sun was here to teach his son and had also taken his eldest grandson as a disciple. Tang Erhu’s excited face turned a bit red as he repeatedly said he had to prepare some good dishes to properly thank Old Sun.

Tang Xu smiled and agreed, then turned to Wei Dong, “Are you going to drink a bit tonight?”

He realized that his man really had a good capacity for drinking, knowing he liked to have a drink. He rarely saw him drink, sometimes just pouring a small cup when he craved it, finishing it quickly without overindulging.

Wei Dong thought for a moment and nodded, “Sure, since we’re not going up the mountain early tomorrow, I’ll accompany Dad to drink to our heart’s content.”

Tang Xu smiled and nodded, considering what to cook for dinner.

There had to be a few big dishes, and he also needed to prepare something suitable for the three children, while not forgetting the elderly.

“Later, you need to help me chop the bones; we’ll simmer the big bones for soup, and buy two pieces of tofu.” Tang Xu held a bowl in one hand and chopsticks in the other, and for a long time, he didn’t lower his head to eat.

Wei Dong turned his face to look at him and nudged his leg, “What’s wrong?”

“I’m thinking about what dishes to make.” Tang Xu lowered his head, took a sip of porridge, and bit into a piece of fried fish. “Let’s stew some beef, stir-fry a couple of dishes. Can you catch a couple of fish? We haven’t had fresh fish in a long time.”

Wei Dong nodded, “Sure, I’ll take Zhao Ming with me to catch some.”

“Take Liu Yao too. If we catch a lot, we can send a couple to Grandma and Auntie.” He knew his man well; after all that effort to chop a hole in the ice, it was unlikely they would only catch two fish.

As it turned out, Tang Xu was right. Wei Dong thought, since the New Year was coming soon, bringing fish as a gift was also quite nice, so he directly chopped a big hole in the river’s surface.

River fish, which hadn’t had fresh oxygen for a long time, started jumping up through the big hole without them needing to fish for them; they could just pick them up off the ice.

It was cold outside, and the fish that jumped up quickly froze. Some even slid a long way across the ice surface, so when it was time to collect them, they had to put in some effort to pry them off the ice.

Liu Yao and Zhao Ming had never seen anything like this before. They were dumbfounded as they watched large, plump fish, about the length of an arm, leap up one after another from the ice hole and flop onto the ice, sliding far away.

After a long while, they finally let out a loud, excited shout, slipping as they started picking up fish.

Zhao Ming reacted a bit quicker than Liu Yao. Although walking on the ice was unstable, he didn’t care about the risk of falling, his eyes shining as he collected the fish.

Wei Dong glanced at the two inexperienced younger men and chuckled softly.

Once the fish stopped jumping up from beneath the ice, the three of them finally straightened their backs.

Looking at the various sizes of fish they had collected, the smallest weighed around two pounds, while several were about twenty pounds, and the rest were around ten pounds.

A rare smile appeared on Zhao Ming's cold face, and Liu Yao excitedly wiped the water from his forehead, cheerfully saying to Wei Dong, “Brother-in-law, let’s come back tomorrow!”

Wei Dong shook his head, tossing the ice blocks they had pried off back into the hole, and replied, “This is enough to eat for a while; don’t be greedy.”

Liu Yao responded with an “Oh,” struggling to lift the big basket filled with fish but couldn’t quite manage it.

He bared his teeth and shook his arms, took a deep breath, and tried again to lift it.

“Brother-in-law, should we go to Grandpa and Grandma’s first?”

“Mm,” Wei Dong easily picked up two large bamboo baskets, nodded for them to follow, and reminded them, “Watch your step and don’t fall.”

Liu Yao and Zhao Ming had varying amounts of ice on them and had fallen on their backsides a few times, but Wei Dong remained dry, with only some ice chips on the soles of his shoes.

They took the mule cart directly to Tang's old house and didn’t even enter the courtyard; instead, they handed a basket of fish directly to Luo Pingping at the front gate.

Luo Pingping looked at the big and small fish in the basket, momentarily stunned.

She looked up at Wei Dong and saw him turning to get back on the cart. She quickly called out to him, “Dongzi, this is too much to leave behind; we won’t be able to eat it all. Take half back!”

“We caught four baskets. If we can’t eat it all, we can just throw it in the snow pile, and it’ll freeze for a while. Aunt, we’re leaving now; we still need to go to my aunt’s place.” Wei Dong sat on the cart’s shaft, with Zhao Ming and Liu Yao climbing on as well.

After watching the mule cart drive away, Luo Pingping went to lift the basket on the ground but couldn’t manage it.

“Dahu!!! Dahu!!! Come help me out!” With no other option, she called out a few times into the courtyard.

Tang Dahu heard the commotion and came over, startled to see the large basket of fish. “Why are there so many? Did Xu Ge’er come over?” Besides Tang Xu, no one else brought them so many fish.

“Dongzi came over, dropped off the fish, and left. I told him it was too much and asked him to take some back. He said if there was too much for us to eat, we could freeze it in the snow pile. But how can we freeze it in the snow pile? What if a wild cat or a rat comes and causes trouble? I’d better just pickle it and let it dry. Can you help me sort these fish out in a bit…”

Luo Pingping continued to ramble on, while Tang Dahu nodded in response, unsure if he was really listening but agreeing quite enthusiastically.

When Wei Dong arrived at Wei Zhonghong's place, the courtyard gate was wide open. Many people were standing by the walls, peering inside. Wei Dong frowned and got down from the mule cart, hearing the sound of a woman crying inside.

He couldn't quite make out what she was crying about, but he could tell it wasn’t his aunt who was crying.

With Wei Zhonghong’s personality, even if she felt wronged, she wouldn’t cry like someone was in mourning. He guessed it must be her daughter-in-laws, though he couldn’t tell which one.

“Oh, Dongzi, you went fishing? You’re really something, catching so many!” Seeing Wei Dong carrying a basket and noticing the fish inside, several onlookers began chatting with him.

“You’re really filial, bringing so many fish for your big aunt. Is this a New Year gift?”

Wei Dong shook his head and walked through the crowd. “Don’t just stand here watching; there’s nothing to see.”

“What do you mean there’s nothing to see? You don’t know, do you? It’s been a huge fuss these past few days. These two daughter-in-laws are really something; each one is worse than the other. How could Zhonghong have picked either of them in the first place?”

“There wasn't much noise back then because there was no money. Now that the fourth one has started making money, and the third one has been making less and less, how could the two older ones not be jealous? Just look at those two older brothers who are quiet; it’s enough to just watch their wives fight.”

“Exactly! They’re quarreling every day; it’s quite a lively New Year for them.”

Wei Dong frowned, carried the basket into the courtyard, and turned to close the gate behind him.

The onlookers felt dissatisfied but didn’t dare to say anything to Wei Dong, so they could only stretch their necks, tiptoe, and listen in through the wall.

They wanted to hear whatever they could!

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