The hairtail seller came over, and sent 20 according to what Haizhu said, and weighed it on a scale in a bucket, more than 37 catties, 50 wen a catty, a total of 129 yuan.

"I'm going to buy salt, mother, you and my grandmother are busy first." Haizhu went out with the basket and money, she went straight to the salt shop, most of the people in the town had caught fish, and there were many people who bought salt at this time, and they lined up. When it was Haizhu's turn, she asked Xiao Er to weigh ten catties of coarse salt for her.

Coarse salt is a large grain of salt, and the price is much cheaper than fine salt, so it is not suitable for stir-frying vegetables and stewed soups, but it is very cost-effective to pickle fish or make salt-baked shrimp and salt-baked crab.

When Haizhu went home, she cleaned up the hairtail first, there was mucus on the skin of the hairtail, she scooped two bowls of rice and washed the sticky things on the skin.

"Chaoping and Pingsheng come here, I'll arrange a job for the two of you." Haizhu went out with garlic, "Second uncle, you take them to peel garlic, and when my third uncle comes back, let him go to the vegetable field to pull the onions and come back." ”

She turned around and scooped the batter with a basin, adding salt to the batter and only needing a light salty taste.

A strip of ribbon fish cleaned, Haizhu took a pair of scissors to cut off the tail and fins, the ribbon fish has no scales, saving the work of scraping the scales, just cut the belly of the fish to tear off the internal organs and scrape off the black membrane.

The hairtail was chopped and marinated in green onions, ginger salt and rice wine, and she saw that the paste was a little thicker, and she went to get five eggs and knocked them in.

"It's clean, the third child, you come and pick up the fish, and I'll scoop up the basin of water and flush it." Grandma Qi shouted, "Haizhu, what are you going to do with this fish?" ”

"The two fish heads were steamed and we ate them at noon, the grouper and the body of this fish were cut and skinned, the fish meat was diced and marinated and fried, and then put it in a jar and eat it later." Haizhu has already figured it out, the big fish bones are less fleshy and firm, and they are fried to make the altar fish, and then they can't turn on the fire when they encounter wind and rain in the future, or they don't want to bother cooking, so they can eat when they scoop a plate of fried fish and steam it hot.

"If you have an idea, you have to shout for help." Grandma Qi said.

Haizhu went to see the fish in the bucket, five sea bream, one sea catfish, all good fish, she pondered salting them, stewing soup or steaming them at night.

When the fish was pickled out of the water, Haizhu called Fengping to burn the oil pot for her, and poured a jar of clear oil into it, and she instructed: "Burn a small fire, don't burn the fire too much." ”

"Okay."

The pickled hairtail is poured into the batter basin, and when the small bubbles bubble in the oil pan, Haizhu slides into the oil pan with the pieces of hairtail wrapped in batter.

"It smells so good." Fengping stood up, he saw the oil pot bubbling, and said happily, "It must be delicious." ”

"You know it before you eat it?" Haejoo glanced at him.

"What you're making must be delicious."

One sentence made Haizhu laugh, and the first piece of fried hairtail fish from the pot went into Fengping's mouth.

Qi Laosan washed his hands and came in and twisted a piece, crispy on the outside and tender on the inside, and took a bite to remove the fish, the batter was salty and fragrant, and the fish was fresh and fragrant. He took another piece in his mouth, picked up the machete that chopped the bone and made two strokes, and said, "I'm going to chop the head of the fish?" ”

"Okay, don't move the fish skin, I'll peel the fish myself after frying it." There is to leave fish meat on the fish skin, and she is not worried about letting Qi Laosan get it.

Twenty hairtail fish were busy for half an hour, and before a pot could be filled, Haizhu asked Fengping to extinguish the fire in the stove first, and she took out a thin-bladed knife to peel the fish.

Qi Laosan was busy chopping the head of the fish, and the machete was cut down, he carried a hammer and smashed the machete, and the fish blood and fish bone residue flew everywhere, splashing everywhere, and his face and head were not spared.

"Look at how hard you work, when I fry the fish, you can send a can to my third aunt." Haizhu smiled, "Ribbon fish will also send a pack." ”

"The third child, she can't speak, you usually talk dumbly?" Grandma Qi has been curious for a long time, "You know what she means?" ”

Qi Laosan hesitated for a while, and said embarrassedly: "Her eyes can speak, you will know when you see her." ”

Second Uncle Qi was numb for a moment, and his eyes can speak? He had only heard it in the mouths of storytellers.

"Bang", the machete touched the sand and stones, the fish head was chopped off, and Qi Laosan lifted the fish head and fled into the kitchen quickly.

There was a burst of laughter in the courtyard, Haizhu sat down on a bench, cut the fish skin from the break with a knife, and dragged it with a tear, holding the knife in the other hand, and slashed under the fish skin again and again, and the fish skin fell off with the pink and white fish flesh.

Qi Laosan waited for the temperature on his face to go down before he came out, Grandma Qi touched her little granddaughter, and Dongzhu asked loudly: "Third uncle, how did you know my third aunt?" ”

"I set up a stall to sell fish, and she went to buy fish, and that's how she met." Qi Laosan said perfunctorily, and when he saw that the green onions were peeled, he took the basin and put it up, scooped up the water and washed it one by one.

"Does it really have to be her?" Haizhu also asked, "The kind that doesn't see you in one day is like three autumns?" Seeing people's hearts pounding? ”

Qi Laosan thought about it carefully, it was certain that he was happy to see someone, but there was no thump in his heart. He broke the green onion leaves to wash off the mud and sand in the cracks, and said softly: "Bei Niang is very pitiful, she can't speak, she will be bullied many times, and she will be molested by second-rate people with bad intentions, and she can't do justice if she wants to." She doesn't usually go out much, but when I met her, her mother's foot was broken, and she went out to buy fish. He knew in his heart that it would be difficult for his mother to accept such a daughter-in-law, and even if she married back, she might be ridiculed, and outsiders might say that there was a paralyzed person in the family, and she married a mute back. Even when he returns to his hometown in the future, some people will ask how he married someone like this, which is why he hesitated before.

"I don't have much ability, but I can protect her, give her a home, and shelter her for the rest of her life. I can marry someone else, but I don't marry her, she may be bullied if she marries someone else, she will be beaten and scolded to death, and I may save her by marrying her. Qi Laosan told his family what he was talking about, which can be regarded as an explanation.

Haizhu understands that the man's bones are pitying the poor and the weak, Bei Niang inspired her third uncle's desire to protect, he felt that he was saving a weak woman, and this sense of accomplishment would urge him to cherish her and protect her.

She remembered Shen Sui, these two men have something in common in this regard, one is exposed to the surface, and the other is hidden in the heart.

Haizhu was curious about what kind of girl Shen Sui would marry.

The skin of the fish was cut off, she waved her knife to cut off the fish pieces, and the fish pieces were filled in two pots before they were finished, she called Qi Laosan to bring it in for her, and looked at him in vain.

"What kind of eyes are you?" Qi Laosan was furious at this glance.

"You're dazzled, when did I see you." Haizhu didn't admit it, she smiled and hummed an uncomposed tune to cut the skin and flesh of the fish.

The skin of the fish is marinated in green onion and ginger water, and the thick pieces of fish are first cut into finger-thick slices, and then cut into small pieces, and a layer of minced fish is pasted on the cutting board, and two pots of fish are cut.

Haizhu scooped two scoops of coarse salt bought and poured it into the fish bowl, mixed well, and then spread a layer of green onions, poured rice wine and marinated first, and she fried the fish skin first.

Wrap the marinated fish skin in a pepper-sprinkled batter and throw it into a pan of warm oil, fry the batter until golden brown and remove it before eating.

Finally, the diced fish, the coarse salt grains have melted, select the green onion segments and put them in the pot, and pour the remaining diced fish directly into the oil pan.

Cover the pot and wait for a few breaths, when the fish is fried and discolored, scoop it into a clean basin, pour it into a clean jar while it is hot, it cannot be filled, and finally scoop a scoop of oil to seal.

The two pots of fish have shrunk a lot after being fried, and they will be filled with a jar, and this jar will be able to eat for half a year.

Grouper is also concocted in the same way, but the fish meat of the grouper is delicate, Haizhu left a piece of fish meat for her mother to chop and whip the fish balls, the fish balls can be eaten as a snack when cooked, and the four children and five adults in the family have nine mouths, and they can eat it in half a day.

Two huge fish heads are split in half, marinated and then put in a pot to steam, this pot at home is a little smaller, or take it to the kitchen next door to steam, two fish heads are steamed in two pots. Haizhu felt that these two fish heads were enough to eat, so he didn't steam the rice, and then cooked the fish meatballs.

The fish head is spread with shredded green onions, drizzled with pepper oil, and served on the table, and the snow-white fish meatballs are served in a small bowl for one person. Haizhu poked a fish ball to eat first, a bite is very elastic, the fish meatball is seasoned with a little salt, chewing in the mouth is very fresh and sweet, the fish minced meat is tender and tender, there is no thorn at all.

She sighed and said, "If the wind blows again, I will go to the beach to catch big fish, and catch fish meatballs." ”

Chapter 101: A Hasty Marriage

After the meal, Qi Laosan first went up to the roof to row tiles, and in the evening, he went out with the fish and hairtail fish that had been cooled, and Grandma Qi called out to him: "You tell your mother-in-law, I will ask a matchmaker to come to the door tomorrow." ”

"Hey." Qi Laosan responded with a smile.

Haizhu leaned out and took a look, there was no one at the gate, and Grandma Qi was talking in the yard about what she was going to buy tomorrow.

"Milk, can we go tomorrow?" Dongzhu stood under the eaves and asked, "I also want to see my third aunt who can talk with eyes." ”

Everyone who heard it laughed, and Grandma Qi said that she was clever, "Tomorrow I will bring your third uncle to the door with the matchmaker to propose marriage, if God appreciates the face for a few more days, the day after tomorrow I will ask your third uncle to invite someone to come over to recognize the door, you will see it the day after tomorrow, and stay at home obediently tomorrow."

Haizhu listened in the kitchen and asked, "Mother, what are the etiquettes for marrying?" ”

"It's all ordinary people, etiquette is dispensable, when I married your father, he first asked the matchmaker to come to the door to say peace, and then the matchmaker took him and your grandmother to the door to propose, after the marriage was proposed, my mother's family went to the man's house, which is called recognizing the door and stepping on the threshold, and then it is to discuss the marriage date, and the marriage date will be married. If you want to save trouble, you can directly sit down with the two parties and discuss it, and the wedding date will be set after the dowry is given. She walked both ways to get married, Qin Jingniang glanced at Haizhu and said, "When you marry Dongzhu, I specify that the man should follow the etiquette and not miss one." ”

"It's still early." Haizhu muttered.

"In September, you will be fifteen and sixteen, and it will be too early to say that it will be early, and it can be delayed for another two or three years."

"It has nothing to do with age, if I don't meet someone I like, I won't marry." Haizhu revealed his thoughts slightly.

Qin Jingniang smiled, she could understand her daughter's thoughts, she also thought so when she was a girl.

When the fish in the pot was steamed, Haizhu held the plate with a rag and poured out the steamed juice. She washed the pot and poured oil, the oil was poured on the steamed fish, and the remaining oil was used to boil the sweet and sour sauce, and the fried hairtail fish at noon was cold, and the taste was not crispy, so she could only wrap the sweet and sour sauce and then return to the pot to heat it.

It was dark, and Qi Lao ran back in three steps, just in time for dinner.

"When my third uncle gets married, how many tables are we going to set up? Cook or am I in charge? Haizhu chewed on the fried hairtail and asked, "Are the relatives in my hometown notified?" ”

Grandma Qi glanced at the third child and said, "The relatives in my hometown will not be invited, the road is too far, the third child, you are married and take your daughter-in-law back, I will also go back, take her to recognize the relatives, and set up a few tables to invite people to eat." ”

"I listen to my mother." Qi Laosan has no opinion.

"We don't have any relatives in Yongning, when the time comes, the people who send relatives over, two tables of dishes are enough, and there is no need to make a big deal of it, please ask a woman with good tea and rice in the alley to cook, Haizhu, you don't have to do it." Grandma Qi continued.

Qin Jingniang secretly breathed a sigh of relief, she couldn't accept letting Haizhu go to organize a wedding banquet for her third uncle, cooking for her own family can be said to be like cooking, if her uncle marries his wife and niece and is busy like a maid in the kitchen, it will be a bit of a bully for her daughter.

After the meal, Qi Laosan packed up the dishes and chopsticks and went into the kitchen to wash the dishes, he grabbed two more handfuls of grass ash and sprinkled them in the pot, washed off the oil, and poured a pot full of water. When everyone was asleep, he scooped up water and sat in the courtyard to take a good bath, washed his hair and smeared it with hair oil borrowed from Haizhu.

The bright moon hung high, the night was full of stars, he sat in the yard to dry his hair, thinking that he was about to marry a wife, his heart was very excited, he went around the yard a few times, went to the bathroom to clean up all the dirty clothes, and washed the family's clothes overnight before he felt sleepy.

Hearing that there was no movement in the yard, Grandma Qi turned over and scolded with a smile: "Idiot." ”

……

The person who came to propose relatives had already left, Qin Jingniang also went back to see the house, Haizhu and Dongzhu sat at home and had nothing to do, so they simply took their three younger brothers to the beach for a walk.

"Second uncle, you are at home to take care of the house, we will come back and bring you food." Haizhu carried the basket and pushed a few small ones out.

"Come on, let's play, I'm Chaoping's father, not Chaoping." Second Uncle Qi waved his hand to drive people away, and when the door was locked from the outside, he smiled and looked up at the sky in a daze.

The people in the alley asked Haizhu where she was going, "I saw your grandmother go to the red matchmaker's house in the morning, and your third uncle is going to marry a daughter-in-law?" ”

The matter is basically a foregone conclusion, and Haizhu does not hide it, nodding yes.

"Which girl?" Erwang asked.

Mrs. Song stood inside the wall and listened with her ears pricked up.

"It's from Houya Village, I don't know exactly which one it is, but my third aunt can't speak, she had a fever and burned her throat when she was a child." Haizhu said generously, she looked at the surprised neighbors and asked, "Do any of you know about her?" ”

No one knew her, and the women who lived in the streets and alleys rarely interacted with people outside the town except for groceries and water.

When the five Haizhu sisters and brothers left, there was a lot of discussion in the alley, and they couldn't understand how Mrs. Qi could marry such a daughter-in-law and enter the door, not to marry her second daughter-in-law.

Mrs. Song sneered a few times at home, and snorted, "The blind and dumb are just matched, and the boar can't eat fine chaff." ”

On the other side, Grandma Qi and the matchmaker have arrived at Houya Village, this village is also by the sea, the sea is blocked by a steep cliff, the house is built behind the cliff to avoid the sea breeze, and there are many people living there.

Qi Laosan led people into the door of Bei Niang's house, Bei Lao Niang didn't hold a shelf, and greeted the door with a cane, "Old sister come in and sit, Bei Niang will pour tea for your two aunts." ”

The stone house was dark, there were two dim oil candles lit on the table, Grandma Qi entered the house and took a rough glance, the house was relatively simple, but it was cleaned up, and the soil under his feet was also smoothed, he was a particular person.

The red matchmaker took the tea and glanced at Bei Niang, "oops", and said: "Old sister, your girl has a pair of good eyes, I haven't seen such a clear girl for many years, Qi Laosan is a good eye, no wonder he hurriedly asked his mother to propose." ”

Grandma Qi nodded, the professional person really didn't say a word of nonsense, and when she entered the door, she made it clear what she meant, and she said to Bei Lao Niang: "The two children like each other, and we don't have any opinions, I just want to settle the matter today, so as not to let Bei Niang be caught by a good person." ”

"You are good people, how can there be any good people, my daughter's situation...... She just can't speak, and nothing else matters. Bei Lao Niang didn't say polite words, "I like the third child tightly, he is a down-to-earth and hard-working person, and I can rest assured that Bei Niang will hand it over to him." ”

The matchmaker followed closely and praised the two families for being reasonable, "No wonder it is fate to be able to marry the family." ”

After two or three sentences, the charter was knocked down, and the matchmaker smiled and took the happy money given by Grandma Qi and went out, walking in the village, and when people asked her, she publicized the fact that Qi Laosan came to Bei's mother's house to propose marriage.

In a short time, half of the people in Houya Village knew that the mute girl in the village had married off.

Grandma Qi stayed at Bei Niang's house for lunch, Bei Niang went to the stove to cook, she sent the third child to help light the fire, talking about tomorrow to invite Bei Niang to step on the threshold, Bei Niang said: "In-laws, we are ordinary people who don't talk about hypocrisy, I don't have any relatives here, just me and the girl depend on each other, she marries I don't invite anyone to send relatives, her uncles are not good people, and they are also embarrassed in the past. "She told the truth, she did take a fancy to Qi Laosan, and she also went out to inquire, Haizhu's reputation is big, and if she asks a few people, they are all praised. She is at ease with such a family, and it is better for Bei Niang to marry in the past than at home.

"According to what I mean, I will marry the girl on a good day, and take advantage of the ban on the sea in these months, the third child will not go out of the boat to fish, and the young couple can just cultivate their feelings." Mrs. Bei was afraid of long nights and dreams, and she was afraid that the Qi family would suddenly regret it, so she was eager to get married, and even the recent good days were calculated with the old gentleman.

Grandma Qi was stunned, and reacted and said okay, the woman doesn't pay attention to hypocrisy, and she saves trouble here, "I will supplement Bei Niang with the money for recognizing the door and running the banquet." ”

"I don't value this casual, money or not, I just value your family, I hope you can treat my girl well." Mrs. Pei took out a handkerchief and wiped the corners of her eyes, and continued: "After the two get married, they live well in the village, and it is enough for me to catch up some things in the sea." It means that she is not forced to support her in the old age.