When it comes to river snails, they’re truly an essential late-night snack. The cooking method is simple, provided the sand inside the snails has been thoroughly purged. The river snails from night market stalls not only often use apple snails as substitutes, but also never have properly cleaned sand, resulting in poor texture.
Su Li had specifically raised these river snails for two days to ensure complete sand removal.
Just as she was blanching the river snails in boiling water, Su Tao suddenly appeared out of nowhere.
She had been collecting eggs and now held three eggs still fresh with chicken droppings.
“Fifth Sister, look! I found so many eggs in the bamboo grove,” Su Tao exclaimed, waving the eggs in her hand with overwhelming excitement.
Su Li was also surprised. Normally, the chicken coop only yielded one egg per day – why so many today?
Chen Shi, seeing this, remarked, “No wonder they haven’t been laying these past couple days – they were saving up to lay all at once.”
“Alright, put them away properly and come tend the fire. I’m going to chop some firewood.” No one had been gathering firewood at home recently, and they were running low.
Su Tao acknowledged with an “oh” and placed the eggs in the clay jar for egg storage before sitting down to tend the fire.
After Chen Shi left, Su Tao suddenly whispered conspiratorially, “Fifth Sister, what do you think about boiling two eggs to eat?”
As she spoke, Su Tao pulled two more eggs from her bosom, leaving Su Li astonished. Good heavens, her fourth sister Su Tao had hidden two more eggs!
“I think that’s a good idea!”
To be honest, Su Li hadn’t eaten eggs in a long time either, especially cilantro scrambled eggs. The fragrance of cilantro mixed with the aroma of eggs created an exceptionally delicious combination.
The Su family grew cilantro right in their yard, though it had become somewhat overgrown.
Su Li had been craving this dish for ages. She went out to the yard and carefully selected a small handful of the tenderest leaves before returning to the kitchen.
When Su Tao learned that Su Li planned to cook the eggs to share with their mother Chen Shi, she became conflicted. “Mother would never agree if she found out.”
“She will. I’ll talk to her about it later.”
Although Su Li understood that Su Tao hadn’t hidden the eggs to hog them selfishly, but rather because she feared Chen Shi would be reluctant to eat them, she still believed this approach was wrong. How could family members keep food to themselves?
Moreover, Su Li felt they were just two eggs – surely Chen Shi would agree to let them eat the eggs.
After all, the Su family generally suffered from malnutrition and needed to gradually improve their nutrition.
Otherwise, how could they work when they’d get dizzy just from standing a little longer?
Su Li had already made plans – after paying for grandmother’s medicine, she would insist that Chen Shi use part of their earnings to buy good food.
As Su Li fantasized about this, she felt energized and quickened her pace in stir-frying the river snails.
This era lacked pre-made hot pot base, so Su Li decided to make her own. After setting aside the blanched river snails, she went to the sauce jar outside and scooped a spoonful of fermented bean paste. This sauce was made by Wu Pozi, and though no one knew exactly how she made it, it tasted quite good and would work well for stir-frying river snails.
Later she would add some chilies, pickled ginger, pickled peppers, and some perilla leaves – the flavor would be absolutely wonderful.
The only drawback was their family’s poverty – they couldn’t afford spices. If they could add a few bay leaves and cinnamon sticks to the stir-fried river snails, the flavor would be even better.
We really need to work hard to earn silver! Only by earning silver can we gradually acquire the necessary seasonings. For now, we’ll have to make do.
“Cough, cough…” Before long, the aroma of stir-fried river snails wafted through the air, and Su Li happened to inhale a mouthful of the spicy fumes.
Su Tao, who was tending the fire, remained completely unaffected. She stood up like a curious kitten, sniffing toward the pot.
“It smells amazing,” Su Tao said, utterly enchanted.
Tears welled in the corners of Su Li’s eyes, and it took her a while to recover. Only then did Su Tao notice Su Li’s state.
“Fifth Sister, are you alright?”
Su Li waved her hand dismissively. “I’m fine…”
Honestly, the chilies this season were particularly pungent, especially after being sun-dried in the afternoon. They were not only spicier but also more intense.
“Alright, it’s almost done,” Su Li said as she added the freshly washed perilla leaves. Adding the perilla leaves at the very end was just perfect.
When the river snails were scooped into the prepared wooden basin, it turned out to be quite a generous portion—a large basin filled with snails, broth, and seasonings.
Su Tao couldn’t help but swallow her saliva and eagerly fetched two pairs of chopsticks.
But how exactly were they supposed to eat these river snails?
Staring at the irresistibly fragrant snails, Su Tao fell into deep contemplation.
Meanwhile, Su Li expertly began to slurp them up.
This was the taste she remembered!
Su Li first sucked the savory broth from a snail, her eyes filled with satisfaction, before proceeding to eat the snail meat.
Fortunately, the river snails she and Su Tao had gathered were quite large, making them easy to suck out. The snail meat was springy and firm, coated in the salty, spicy broth—absolutely divine.
With just one bite, Su Li broke out in a sweat all over her forehead.
Watching her younger sister Su Li eat this way, Su Tao quickly followed suit. This time, she successfully extracted the snail meat, but in her haste, she accidentally choked on the spicy fumes.
“Cough, cough… So good…” Su Tao mumbled, reluctant to even spit out the empty shell.
She only discarded the shell after thoroughly savoring every drop of the broth, then promptly picked up another snail to eat.
Steam escaped from Su Tao’s mouth as she exclaimed, “It’s hot…”
Su Li didn’t know what to say. She even began to seriously wonder if her fourth sister had ever eaten her fill before.
Thinking about it, she recalled that in her memories, the sisters had rarely had enough to eat. Most of the time, they were hungry, let alone having snacks or meat.
With this in mind, Su Li deliberately filled an entire bowl for Su Tao, allowing her to indulge to her heart’s content. Then, she ladled another large bowl and brought it to the neighboring Wang Family.
On their way back earlier, Chen Shi had repeatedly mentioned feeling embarrassed about the situation. After discussing it with her, Su Li decided to prepare a bowl of Feichang for the Wang Family father and son the next day as a gesture of gratitude for their help today.
But then it occurred to Su Li that the river snails might suit their tastes even better. After all, this was a dish that remained wildly popular at barbecue stalls in later times! It was especially beloved by male consumers!!
Especially on a clear, breezy afternoon like this—sitting in the yard, enjoying a light drink while slurping river snails. Nothing could be more delightful.
.
When Su Li arrived at the Wang Family with a large bowl of river snails, the father and son were busy making arrows. One was wrapping the arrow shafts while the other whittled sticks, with a pile of wooden rods scattered on the ground.
Seeing Su Li bringing food, both of them felt somewhat embarrassed. “How can we accept this?”
“Yes, Sister Su, there’s no need for this.”
Although they were very tempted by the Su Family’s cooking, they believed one shouldn’t accept rewards without merit—it just didn’t feel right.
Su Li smiled and said, “Thanks to Uncle Wang and Brother Wang today, otherwise all that food we made would have gone to waste.”
Wang Tie Zhu scratched his head, “It was nothing, just a small favor.”
“This isn’t anything special, just some river snails for you and Uncle Wang to have with your drinks.”
Wang Tie Zhu glanced over and saw that they were indeed just river snails, but he had to admit – however they were prepared, they smelled incredibly fragrant.
Just as Wang Tie Zhu was hesitating, Su Li added:
“They’re still quite hot, where should I put them?”
Only then did Wang Tie Zhu snap out of it,
“Oh, give them to me, I’ll hold them.”
As he spoke, his hand had already taken the bowl. When he realized what he’d taken, his weathered face flushed red, though fortunately his dark complexion hid it.
Since he’d already accepted them, it would be awkward to keep passing them back and forth. Wang Tie Zhu had no choice but to go into the kitchen to empty the bowl, but when he came out, besides the empty bowl, he was also holding a gray rabbit.
The rabbit wasn’t big, weighing only about 2-3 jin.
“Take this rabbit home and cook it.” Wang Tie Zhu said, handing the still-living rabbit to Su Li.
??
Su Li stared blankly at the rabbit kicking its legs in the air.
“No, no need, Uncle Wang.”
Even if Su Li didn’t know exactly how much a rabbit cost, she knew it must be more expensive than her river snails.
“Take it, it’s fine.” Wang Tie Zhu didn’t elaborate, thinking Su Li was afraid the rabbit might scratch her. He directly picked up a hemp rope from the ground, tied the rabbit’s legs, and stuffed it into Su Li’s hands.
To be honest, he and his son Wang Ergou hated eating rabbit the most. They always felt rabbit had a peculiar smell that couldn’t be removed no matter how they prepared it. Another thing was that rabbit meat wasn’t filling. There was a period when they could only hunt rabbits, and after eating rabbit meat almost every day, not only did they not gain weight, but they actually lost weight. Since then, the Wang family father and son had refused to eat rabbit meat anymore. Pork was much better – it helped you put on weight!
Plus, this rabbit was quite small with not much meat. They had sold all the meatier ones today, so Wang Tie Zhu gave it away quite generously, without any reluctance at all.
Su Li hugged the rabbit, completely at a loss. Just as she was about to return it, she heard, “If you won’t take it, then take back the food you brought too.”
In the end, Su Li had no choice but to reluctantly carry the rabbit home. Even when she got home, she couldn’t understand – she had gone to repay a favor, so how did she end up owing another one?
Back at the Wang family home,
Wang Ergou, seeing that Su Li had gone far enough, hurried to the kitchen to bring out the river snails.
He had smelled them earlier – those river snails were incredibly fragrant. For some reason, he had a strange intuition that they must be delicious.
So he stopped working, patted his buttocks, and went straight to the kitchen.
Wang Tie Zhu saw this unfilial son abandoning him to work alone and quickly said, “Bring them to the yard so we can eat together.”
“Got it.”
Wang Ergou muttered but obediently brought the bowl to the stone table in the yard. Besides that, he was also carrying two leftover flatbreads from lunch.
There was something about these flatbreads – they were dry and unappetizing, which was why Wang Ergou hadn’t eaten his fill at noon.
“Dad, hurry up, I’m starting without you.” Wang Ergou said to the air before sitting down. He picked up his chopsticks and grabbed a river snail to eat. At first, Wang Ergou didn’t know how to eat it properly, struggling for a long time without success until sweat beaded on his forehead from frustration.
After eating two more, he finally got the hang of it and began devouring them voraciously.
Wang Tie Zhu, having washed his hands, wiped them on his clothes and asked, “How is it?”
But who would have thought that his son Wang Ergou was so focused on eating that he didn’t even look up when his father Wang Tie Zhu approached.
…
Wang Tie Zhu silently repeated to himself, “He’s my own flesh and blood, my own flesh and blood.”
Then he sat down as well.