As soon as the words fell, Su Laotou picked up the sickle from the ground and opened one river mussel. He deftly extracted the mussel meat and placed it on the grass.
Seeing this, Su Li hurried to pick some banana leaves nearby and placed the mussel meat on them.
Su Laotou worked quickly—one clean cut per mussel. For those that couldn’t be pried open, he smashed them with stones. Soon, all the river mussels Su Li had collected were processed.
However, after removing the inedible parts from ten river mussels, what remained wasn’t much. It was Wu Pozi who went into the field and gathered several more mussels for Su Li.
In the end, Su Li returned home carrying a large bundle of mussel meat.
Watching Su Li’s cheerful retreating figure, Su Laotou chuckled to Wu Pozi, “Look how happy she is, carrying them like they’re precious treasures.”
He couldn’t understand why anyone would treat such unpalatable mussel meat as treasure. She’s still too young—she’ll learn what it’s really like after tasting it.
But then Wu Pozi’s quiet voice came, “She doesn’t really want the mussel meat—she’s just craving meat.”
Craving meat?
Su Laotou froze for a moment, then his mouth drooped and his shoulders seemed to slump. Remembering the last time they had meat felt like recalling a previous lifetime—even he couldn’t recall how long ago it had been.
“Sigh…”
“It’s because we’re incapable…” of earning enough silver, which prevented their son from becoming Zongqi, their grandson from affording marriage, and their granddaughter from eating meat—all because they were inadequate.
After burdening themselves with this responsibility, the two elders’ moods instantly sank. Silently, they picked up the scattered sickles and walked toward the fields.
.
When Su Li returned home, her mother Chen Shi and fourth sister Su Tao were preparing to take sickles and baskets to the fields. Noticing what Su Li was carrying, Su Tao immediately asked, “Fifth sister, what are you holding?”
Chen Shi also looked curiously at the wrapped banana leaves in Su Li’s hands.
In response, Su Li opened the banana leaves to show them.
Seeing this, Su Tao perked up immediately, leaning in to gently poke the mussel meat with a puzzled expression. “What is this? Is it edible?”
Since Su Laotou disliked eating river mussels, the Su family rarely gathered them. At fifteen years old, Su Tao had seldom encountered them before.
Chen Shi, however, had eaten them before. Upon hearing Su Li intended to cook them, she frowned.
“This river mussel meat is very fishy and foul-smelling. Why did you bring back so much?”
Nearby, Su Tao lost all interest upon learning it was river mussel meat and hearing her mother describe it as foul, quickly stepping away.
“Grandpa and Grandma helped prepare it,” Su Li said after a moment’s thought, deliberately downplaying her own role to avoid Chen Shi forbidding her from cooking it.
Sure enough, Chen Shi had been about to tell her daughter to throw it away. But upon hearing her in-laws had helped, she reconsidered, assuming it was their idea, and waved her hand.
“Since your grandparents want it cooked, you can prepare it as you see fit.”
With those words, Chen Shi left with Su Tao.
.
Back home, Su Li first fed the chickens and ducks in the backyard, then checked on the vegetables growing in the garden.
Under the sunlight, the eggplants in the plot were large and purple. There were also cowpeas and cucumbers, all thriving, with occasional bees and butterflies fluttering among the flowers.
Su Li walked through the vegetable patch until she reached the very back, finally spotting the chili peppers she wanted—green and red ones scattered in the corner.
Yes, chili peppers had already become common in people’s diets during this dynasty, especially in the southern regions where almost every household grew them. In her memory, it seemed some merchant ship had brought them back from foreign lands.
Su Li picked several dozen redder chili peppers and stuffed them into her pockets before stopping. After gathering the chilies, she also picked a few cucumbers and some string beans.
As for eggplants, Su Li decided against them—she had been eating them daily lately and had grown somewhat tired of them. She planned to make a refreshing smashed cucumber dish for dinner, paired with string bean porridge, to cool off in the summer heat.
Since it was still early, Su Li only started cooking the porridge first. By preparing it now, it would be at the perfect temperature when the others returned in the evening.
After setting the cooked porridge aside, Su Li began processing the river mussels.
Having been a food blogger in her previous life, Su Li often received questions from followers about why river mussels tasted muddy and were tough to chew. The key reason was that most people didn’t handle them properly.
River mussel meat naturally has a strong earthy smell, so the first step is to repeatedly rub and wash it with salt and flour until the slime is completely removed. If the slime isn’t thoroughly cleaned, the dish will retain a fishy odor.
Next is blanching: after cleaning, the mussel meat should be blanched in plain boiling water. Adding some alcohol during blanching helps eliminate any remaining fishiness.
Since the Su household was running low on both salt and flour—with only a tiny amount left in the jar—Su Li didn’t dare use them and substituted with wood ash instead. By the time she finished washing and blanching, it was nearly mealtime. Smoke was already rising from some village households, suggesting the others would return soon, so Su Li began cooking.
Su Li’s culinary skills weren’t self-taught through guesswork; she had formally apprenticed under a master. There was a time when she first started her self-media channel and struggled to gain traction or earn money. Friends advised her to just open a private kitchen instead, insisting it would be profitable.
But Su Li wasn’t one to give up easily. Through persistent experimentation, she eventually gained modest popularity.
Thus, cooking was one of her specialties. Stir-frying river mussel meat posed no difficulty for her—chopping, igniting the fire, heating oil, and adding ingredients flowed seamlessly. Anyone watching would have noticed her movements were fluid and graceful, a visual delight.
Soon, an assertive, spicy, and rich aroma wafted from the kitchen…
As Su Tao walked along the path not far from home, carrying a basket of rice ears on her back, she caught a whiff of an exceptionally fragrant smell. She initially thought the village chief’s household was having meat again, swallowing saliva enviously.
But the closer she got to home, the more she sensed something amiss—the aroma seemed to be coming from their own house?
Su Tao hardly dared believe her own suspicion and quickened her pace involuntarily.
In the kitchen, “Wow, Fifth Sister, what is this? Why does it smell so amazing?”
Su Tao headed straight to the kitchen without even setting down her basket. In that moment, all her fatigue seemed to vanish, her eyes fixed solely on the plate of stir-fried river mussels with chili on the stove.
Is that meat? It doesn’t quite look like it…
Noticing her confusion, Su Li explained, “It’s the river mussel meat from earlier.”
Hearing this, Su Tao paused, visibly skeptical, but upon closer inspection, she confirmed it was indeed the mussels.
Although their mother Chen Shi had earlier claimed they were fishy and unpalatable, the enticing aroma and the dish’s appealing color and presentation made Su Tao swallow hard.
She reached out to grab a piece and taste it.
Su Li quickly stopped her, “Hey, Fourth Sister, your hands!”
Hearing this, Su Tao looked at her own small black hands still covered in unwashed mud, and could only withdraw them sheepishly. “Hehe, I’ll wash them right away, going to wash them now.”
After speaking, she dashed like the wind to the courtyard with her basket on her back. This time, she seemed to remember she was still carrying a basket of rice grains and hurriedly poured them out in the yard.
The rice grains needed to be sun-dried in the courtyard for a while before being stored in the granary. Fortunately, the weather had been hot lately, so it probably wouldn’t rain.
After hastily spreading out the wet rice grains, Su Tao quickly washed her hands and rushed to the kitchen.
“Fifth Sister, let me taste it quickly—I’ve washed my hands clean now.”
Seeing her flustered urgency, Su Li handed her the chopsticks.
“!!!”
“So delicious!”
“How is it so tasty!”
Su Tao could swear she had never eaten such delicious food in her entire life, from birth till now.
As for the fishy smell Mother Chen had mentioned earlier—there was truly none at all! It was spicy and tender, making her feel she could eat a lot of rice with it.
It went so well with rice.
After taking two consecutive bites with her chopsticks, Su Tao still felt unsatisfied, but thinking of the others, she reluctantly put them down despite her reluctance.
“Fifth Sister, how did you make this!? How is it so delicious—even better than meat!”
Seeming to realize that river mussels were also a type of meat, Su Tao quickly corrected herself, “No, I mean, it feels even tastier than braised pork!”
In Su Tao’s mind, the best dish she had ever eaten was the braised pork at the village head’s son’s wedding two years ago—the most delicious food she’d had in over a decade.
She heard that braised pork was specially prepared by a chef invited from a restaurant in the county town!
But today, her fifth sister’s stir-fried river mussels with peppers were no less delicious than that braised pork!
Having one’s cooking praised as delicious is one of the greatest joys for any cook, and Su Li was no exception. However, to cover up how she suddenly acquired such culinary skills, Su Li played dumb:
“I just watched how Grandma and Mom cook every day and followed their methods.”
Su Tao was too naive; upon hearing this, she believed it without a second thought, inwardly marveling—could this be what they called natural talent?
Just like how Grandpa once said Third Brother had more talent weaving straw sandals than Second Brother? Did Fifth Sister have more talent in cooking and needlework than her?
“Fifth Sister, you’re really talented,” Su Tao sighed.
Hearing this, Su Li blushed for some reason. Was she deceiving a 14-year-old minor? She quickly changed the subject,
“By the way, why haven’t Grandpa and Grandma returned yet?”
Logically, it was almost dark, so they should be back soon, right?
Su Li glanced toward the door but saw no one.
At this mention, Su Tao remembered what Grandpa Su Laotou and Grandma Wu Pozi had told her earlier:
“Grandpa and Grandma said they need to finish harvesting all the rice in the fields before coming back. They asked us to boil some hot water for them—they want to bathe first after returning before eating.”
“Also, Dad and the others won’t be back tonight either. Baihu’s family is harvesting rice, so all the other households in the village have to go help.”
Da Wei implemented the Military Household Hereditary System. Su Li’s family had been Junhu since their ancestors, passed down generation after generation, now reaching Su Li’s father and her eldest and second brothers.
But though called Junhu, their life was harder than that of ordinary farming families. Sometimes, they didn’t even receive their Military Pay, especially in recent years—it was almost all unpaid labor for the court and the Baihu.
For instance, during this period, despite it being the peak farming season when their own family’s work remained unfinished, they were forced to help the Baihu’s household harvest rice. Refusal wasn’t an option because ostensibly those fields didn’t belong to the Baihu but to the imperial court.
According to court regulations, Junhu were tasked not only with border defense and patrol duties but also with farming under the Military Agricultural System. However, Wei Gaozu’s so-called system had long existed in name only during implementation. Those military farms had gradually been converted into private fields of the Thousand-Household Commander, while the Junhu degenerated into their personal slaves.
Su Li had only read about such matters in history books before. Back then, the Military Agricultural System and Garrison Households were merely terms, occasionally appearing in novels. At that time, Su Li had wondered why a male protagonist from a Junhu background would be universally despised, when soldiers ought to be revered.
It wasn’t until Su Li transmigrated into a Junhu family that the reason became clear: no freedom, no private property, and during famine years, not even guaranteed meals. Recent memories included incidents of Junhu secretly fleeing from Qianjiang Town hundreds of miles away. Such occurrences had happened repeatedly over the years—ultimately just ordinary people driven to desperation by unbearable circumstances.
Thinking of her father and second and third brothers who hadn’t returned home for nearly half a month, Su Li sighed inwardly and nodded to indicate understanding.