Chapter 124:
“Mother, why do we have to catch these eels at night?”
Arriving by the ditch, she took out the flint to light the torch, and Miaomiao held the torch, helping Luo Zhi’er light the way.
Luo Zhi’er looked down to search, “Because it just rained, and at this time they come out to forage!”
“Oh.”
“So what do eels eat anyway?”
“Um, small fish, small shrimp, insects, tadpoles, snails, small frogs.”
Miaomiao’s eyes rolled around, “Then Mother, what are insects?”
Children at this age are indeed full of curiosity about the world, always having a million why’s?
It’s just that in Old Li Tou’s house, girls are rushed to grow up at top speed.
She quite liked Miaomiao’s type, a young maid who still retained the innocent state of childhood.
Luo Zhi’er’s eyes calmly stared at the ditch, patiently answering her from her mouth, “Um, insects are a type of six-legged animal with three pairs of legs and three body segments, their head-thorax and abdomen separated from each other.”
“In the evolutionary process, they have developed rich morphological features and adaptability.”
Racking her brains, quickly searching in her mind for knowledge she had learned in the modern era before, finally answering her more or less completely.
“Such as compound eyes, insect wings, and mouthparts. Insects have transdermal respiration and oxygen needs, have certain mobility, often parasitize or prey on parasites on plants, and play important ecological roles.”
Not easy, the sea of learning is boundless, Miaomiao half-understood, listening with relish!
“Eh, Mother, there’s an insect here!”
Luo Zhi’er looked along the line of sight, a spider was webbing on a rice stalk, she chuckled lightly, “This isn’t, this is a spider, spiders aren’t insects oh!”
“Oh!”
“Um but”
Miaomiao scratched the root of her ear, seeming still not quite understanding.
“Remember a few points, the insect body is clearly divided into three segments: head, thorax, abdomen; the head is unsegmented, with mouthparts and 1 pair of antennae. Generally has simple eyes and compound eyes. The thorax as the movement center has 3 pairs of legs.”
“Usually, adults have 2 pairs of wings, but there are exceptions.”
“The abdomen contains most internal organs and is the center for reproduction and nutrient metabolism.”
“Insects generally undergo a series of internal and external morphological changes during growth, namely the metamorphosis process.”
“Mother, Miao Miao seems to understand right away when you explain it this way!”
“Spiders don’t have wings, Mother, you know so much!”
Miaomiao looked at her with a face full of adoration, making her blush a bit and lower her head to continue pretending to look for eels, sighing, luckily she was still an immature young maid!
She didn’t continue to ask her: “Mother, where did you learn this from?”
Suddenly, Miaomiao said crisply again,
“Then Mother, are fireflies insects?”
“Um.”
“Haha, Miaomiao knows, flies and mosquitoes are also insects!”
“That’s right.”
Luo Zhi’er caught eels, Miaomiao helped, the two caught until the middle of the night, catching a full bucket!
Mother was right, yesterday only caught one, tonight in the ditch, one in a while, another in a while.
Some even several together.
Roughly at midnight, Luo Zhi’er felt a bit cold on her body, then she took Miaomiao back.
On the way back home, Miaomiao was still discussing, “Butterflies and dragonflies are insects, bees are also insects!”
“What about ants? Are ants?”
“Um ants are too.”
“Mother, Miaomiao knows, last time we saw the leech, it’s not an insect, it doesn’t have six legs, and it sucks human blood.”
Luo Zhi’er neither confirmed nor denied, this girl was truly a curious baby, a studious Miaomiao.
Back home, the village was indeed deathly quiet on the road, occasionally a few dog barks.
Luo Zhi’er hooked her lips, no matter what Li Ergou and his wife thought, they wouldn’t expect her to go out at night!
The next day, early morning, the rooster crowed a few times, outside was dimly bright, Luo Zhi’er woke up, turned over, tossing and turning all night, hadn’t slept much, now planning to close her eyes and continue sleeping.
Instead, Miaomiao woke up first, rubbed her sleepy eyes, “Mother, aren’t we going to the mountain to collect mushrooms this morning?”
“Not going, Miaomiao sleep in today too!”
“Okay, Mother.”
Luo Zhi’er slept until noon when the sun was high, anyway no one at home to manage, facing the bronze mirror tidied herself up.
Changed Miaomiao into a clean and refreshing set of clothes, planning in her heart what to make for breakfast.
First went to the back to check the eels caught yesterday, Miaomiao followed behind her butt, seeing the eels spitting bubbles, slimy and slippery indeed a bit disgusting!
But this was delicious food, today make braised eel.
Miaomiao upon hearing there was meat to eat, couldn’t help drooling, ran out in a flash to hug firewood, helping her start the fire.
She scooped two small bowls of the rice bought from town to soak, bent down to fish out two thick eels from the wooden bucket, ran to the yard, nailed them to the tree as before, cut open from the middle of the belly with a knife, cleaned out the internal organs.
Removed the heads and internal organs, threw them into the chicken coop for the chickens and ducks to eat, the sight was quite bloody, so she didn’t let Miaomiao see.
Cleaned, chopped into small sections, took to the backyard to scoop several ladles of water from the water jar to wash clean.
Found some old ginger that hadn’t been finished before and was shriveled, cut a few slices, poured a few drops of wine from the wine pot Old Li Tou threw in the corner to marinate for a while.
Turned to the vegetable patch to pull a few garlic sprouts, picked a handful of chilies, dug out a nest of garlic, peeled the cloves, cut the garlic sprouts into sections, took out the white sugar she bought in town.
Add oil, melt white sugar, add eel, add scallion sections, ginger slices, keep stir-frying, then add soy sauce, vinegar, salt, chili and other seasonings.
Soon the kitchen was filled with aroma, Miaomiao kept swallowing saliva, “Mother, so fragrant, Miaomiao is drooling!”
“Hehe, Mother will stir-fry a bit more!”
This thing if not stir-fried well has parasites.
Seeing the meat starting to soften, “Can eat now, here for Mother’s precious Miaomiao to taste the flavor.”
“Thank you Mother.”
Miaomiao took the eel section and ate first, her eyes shining bright: “Really too delicious, so good, Mother, Miaomiao loves you so much!”
“Hehe, you this girl, if it’s good, Mother will make more tomorrow!”
After cooking the eel, she cut a handful of garlic sprouts, beat five or six eggs, stir-fried with the garlic sprouts, made garlic sprout eggs.
In that pot inside, rice was cooking, scooped a bit of rice with a spoon and pinched with hand, then used a strainer to filter out the rice water, poured the rice grains back into the pot, covered the lid and steamed.
Their Old Li Tou family probably never ate white rice, this was because these few days Old Li Tou and them weren’t home.
She bought some grain in town, being extravagant, if Zhou Shi came back who knows how she would point at her nose and curse her as a wasteful woman!
To say, she spent her own silver to eat some white rice, what’s wrong with that?
Still need to hide it?
Unfortunately, being a young wife is not easy! A married wife has someone watching, to put it unpleasantly, even a fart in the quilt is known!
“Mother, we eat so well, will grandparents say something?”
Miaomiao showed fear on her face at the mention of grandparents!
“No matter, they don’t know, we’ll eat like this these few days.”
“But, is Father hungry too, Father is so pitiful!”
Miaomiao felt sorry for San Mao, Luo Zhi’er suddenly felt a bit guilty in her heart, her man was still squatting in prison, suffering, yet she was feasting at home!
In prison, San Mao was unkempt with beard, disheveled hair, a lost soul appearance, eyes showing a trace of worry.
His wife and daughter had been out for several days, the rice flour grains and oil at home were all locked by Mother!
She and her daughter didn’t know if they had food to eat, had the village people bullied the mother and daughter?
Thinking of it was heart-wrenching!
Zhou Shi muttered curses from her mouth, like a mad old woman, her whole body emitting foul odor.
These few days kept saying in Old Li Tou’s ear, that Luo Zhi’er little hooves definitely would pry open the lock of her room!
Steal the grain and snacks she hid, thinking of it pained her flesh!
Old Li Tou couldn’t describe his feeling toward her with hate anymore, treating her as air felt better!
Seeing Old Li Tou not responding,
“This fat hooves struck by lightning, how is she so lucky, why let her mother and daughter out first?”
“Yeah, Mother, those who don’t know would think Third Brother’s wife has something with the prison head!”
Xiao Zhou Shi added fuel!
San Mao glared fiercely at her, scaring her face pale!
“This fat hooves, don’t know what dog shit luck she had, alas yo, my belongings!”
“Luo Zhi’er, if you pry my lock, you’ll see!”
“Mother, Zhi’er isn’t that kind of person, these few days don’t know how the mother and daughter are starving?”
San Mao defended!
Would Zhi’er faint? Thinking of it his heart ached.
“Starve a fart, with her fat cowardly look, better if she starves! If she really remembered you, she would have found a way to save you long ago!”
“Since out, doesn’t know to go to Zeng Manor to find people to save us out, she is carefree, what about us?” Li Zhenzhu several meters away from her mother, chimed in.
Xiao Zhou Shi was indignant, the straw in her hand almost broken!
“Zhi’er is also just a woman, all valuable things at home are in Mother’s room, we are in big prison implicated by Second Brother, what can she do?”
In just over ten days, several people inside had all become skeletons!
Hunger plus mental torment!
Old Li Tou thought of Second Brother rolling away all the home money, wasted decades of hard work, now squatting in big prison, reputation ruined.
His heart ached, all sorts of tastes not good!
Li Gui looked disgustedly at this family, eyes full of hate!
“Third, you protect her, maybe outside eating well drinking spicy, stealing wild men, dumped you and ran early!”
“Mother, shut up!”
“What?”
“Mother, we don’t even know if we can get out, you gave all your silver to Second Brother, he harmed us to go to jail, why don’t you say anything?”
“Clearly Zhi’er is also a victim, yet you haggle over that bit of food, curse unrelated people?”
“Old man! This home is turned upside down! This son dares to challenge his old mother!”
Zhou Shi slapped her thigh and wailed.
“Damn! Noisy noisy, what are you noisy about?”
“The entire prison cell is the noisiest yours, especially you this meddlesome old woman, looks like ate too full! Too idle!”
The prison guard swung his sabre, black-faced loudly scolded.
Scared Zhou Shi almost peed her pants.
“Come! Remember this old woman, no rice for her this afternoon!”
“Yes!”
“No, officer!”
“Hum!”
