usatvline Chapter 340 Tea
Chapter 340 Tea
These soldiers were experienced in fishing. They stood on one of the water holes with a basket specially used for catching small fish. Not long after the basket was lowered, it was pulled up again. Song Chunlin got closer to look curiously and found that the bottom of the basket was full of small fish, jumping around. There were about twenty or so of them.
These small fish are not very big. The largest one is only as thick as two fingers of an adult man. All the fish here weigh less than three pounds.
Song Chunlin looked at the small fishes and was already thinking about how to cook them to make them delicious.
The ones that are as thick as fingers can be coated with batter and fried. They can be eaten as snacks when they are crispy. The larger ones can be sprinkled with salt and fried. Even larger ones can be stewed with tofu.
The soldier didn't know that Song Chunlin was already thinking about how to eat these small fish. Seeing that there was no expression on his face, he thought he was not satisfied with the size of these fish, so he explained to him:
"These small fish can't grow big in the sky. The largest one is only the size of a palm. However, they have few bones and their meat is very tender. We catch a bunch of them every few days and sell them to restaurants and pubs at the foot of the mountain."
Song Chunlin slowly stood up and nodded to the soldiers.
"Then can you help me get some more? I'll pay you."
The soldier laughed, "Sir, you are joking. These fish have no natural enemies in this lake. No matter how many people there are in Linyuan City, we can't eat all these fish. They are said to be for sale, but in fact, the price is lower than rice. Ten coins can buy a basket. If you don't mind, I will give them to you to try."
After hearing the soldiers say that this thing was very cheap, Song Chunlin looked at the sparkling lake again and had to admit that there were indeed a lot of them, so he stopped refusing and sweetly thanked the soldiers who helped with the salvage.
But he was not the kind of person who liked to take advantage. The fish could be sold for free, but the soldiers had worked hard to help him fish it out. Song Chunlin thought about it, pretended to take out a few candies from his pocket and handed them to the soldiers.
"Well, I won't take your fish for nothing. I'll exchange it for these candies."
The soldier was flattered to take the candies. Although he had never seen such candies before, judging from the brightly colored candy wrappers, they should be very expensive. He did not expect that the young master would give him a reward as he said. He was about to refuse, but then he remembered that the other party was holding a badge of the Linyuan Palace. Seeing that he should be a distinguished guest of the palace, he shamelessly accepted it since it was a reward from a distinguished person.
Song Chunlin happily left the place where he fetched water, holding the fish basket full of small fish. He still had to queue up to go out. Song Chunlin looked at the people and cars going up the mountain, and the road was very busy for a while.
"There are so many people." Song Chunlin couldn't help but mutter, and it happened to be heard by a man standing behind him. The man could tell at a glance that the young man in front of him was not a local, so he couldn't help but interrupt.
"This young man is here for the first time, right? Today is not the busiest time. At the end of the month, there will be more people coming to get water."
Song Chunlin turned around and asked the uncle curiously: "Why, is there a special day at the end of the month?"
The uncle shook his head and said, "No, it's just that at the end of the month, the surrounding cities will send people over to fill up enough water for the entire city to use for a month, and then transport it back. At that time, we locals will not go up the mountain, and many small stalls will be set up at the foot of the mountain to sell some small things and local food. It's more lively than a market."
Song Chunlin couldn't imagine such a grand occasion, but when he thought about the surrounding towns that had to rely on the water from this Tianchi Lake for survival, he became more and more in awe of the modern tap water system.
Song Chunlin chatted with the uncle casually, and soon it was their turn to go out. The soldier guarding the door checked the tags in everyone's hands, took another look at the things they took away, and after confirming that there was no problem, he let them go.
Song Chunlin was not in a hurry. He walked slowly on the road. When he reached the corner where there were few people, he quietly put the fish into the space, leaving only an empty fish basket in his hand.
Carrying an empty fish basket and walking on the winding mountain road, Song Chunlin was so leisurely that he was almost in stark contrast to the people around him. He was humming an unknown tune and walking leisurely on the path. Although he was leisurely, his pace was not slow. Going down the mountain was faster than going up the mountain. When Song Chunlin came down from the mountain, it was just noon.
After counting on his fingers, he thought that Gu Fengyue should have finished his work, so he used his mental power to search for Gu Fengyue's location, and then happily ran towards the government office where Gu Fengyue was.
As soon as Gu Fengyue stepped out of the gate of the government office, he saw someone running towards him in the distance.
"Gu Fengyue!" The young man stood in front of him with a bright smile, looking up at him with a smile: "Gu Fengyue, I'm hungry, let's go eat."
Gu Fengyue's eyes were filled with a tender and gentle smile. She followed the boy's lead, listening to his chattering and responding from time to time. Not long after they walked, the two randomly picked a small restaurant that seemed to be doing good business.
The two of them had just walked in and hadn't found their seats yet when an attentive waiter came up to greet them.
"Two guests, please come inside."
He took Gu Fengyue and Song Chunlin to find a smaller table and sat down. Song Chunlin looked around curiously. Gu Fengyue was already listening to the waiter announcing the dishes.
The waiter had only announced half of the dishes when Song Chunlin quickly asked him to stop.
"Stop, serve us two local signature dishes, the small fish from Tianchi Lake, pan-fried for me, a soup, a roast chicken, a vegetarian dish, and two bowls of soup noodles. That's all for now."
The waiter didn't expect that these two were so generous. The people who came to their restaurant to eat were all ordinary people, peddlers and the like, who usually ordered one or two side dishes, and a pancake or soup noodle or the like. These two ordered three dishes and a soup right away. If it were in their home, it would take ten people to cook so many dishes.
The waiter happily went to the kitchen to announce the names of the dishes. Song Chunlin held his cheek and blinked at Gu Fengyue. Gu Fengyue understood immediately and moved his ear closer.
"I secretly collected a lot of small fish when I was at the top of the mountain. I'll make fried fish for you later."
The boy's breath sprayed on the young man's ears while he spoke. The warm and moist feeling made the young man's face turn red instantly. Gu Fengyue immediately stepped back and pretended to drink tea to cover up his embarrassment.
Song Chunlin looked at Gu Fengyue, whose face was slightly red, in confusion. He didn't understand what provocative words he had said to cause such a big reaction.
After Gu Fengyue's complexion recovered a little, Song Chunlin poked him with ill intentions.
"Why are you blushing?"
It would have been better if he didn't ask. This question reminded Gu Fengyue of the feeling just now, and her face turned red again.
Song Chunlin: “…”
Fortunately, the restaurant serves food very quickly. Soon, the vegetarian dishes they ordered were served first. Song Chunlin watched from afar. Does that thing look a little familiar?
When the waiter put the dish on the table, Song Chunlin finally recognized that the sliced food on the plate was actually potato chips.
Song Chunlin thought there would be a plate of stir-fried green leafy vegetables, but what was served was actually a plate of stir-fried potato chips. He picked at it and found that it was indeed a vegetarian dish.
"Are there no green vegetables here?"
Gu Fengyue: "Linyuan City is even poorer than Baita City. Vegetables and the like have to be shipped in from other places. You asked for vegetarian dishes but didn't specify what they were, so naturally they only served you potatoes." As he said that, he picked up a piece of food with chopsticks and put it into Song Chunlin's bowl.
"Try it and see if it tastes good."
Song Chunlin tasted a piece and it tasted just like fried potato chips, nothing special.
"Yesterday, King Linyuan said that the potato yield here is higher than that of sweet potatoes. It seems to be true."
As they were talking, the waiter brought over the other dishes they ordered, small fish fried until golden on both sides, with a crispy skin and tender inside. The soldier was right, this fish really had few bones and the meat was tender. It was fragrant just by simply frying it.
Gu Fengyue also took a few bites of the fish with his chopsticks, and both of them gave high ratings to this dish.
Soon the small table was filled with dishes. Because they ordered so much, other diners kept looking over here. Then, when they saw the clothes of the two men, they concluded that they were children of wealthy families, so they stopped watching them.
Song Chunlin picked at the soup cake in the bowl. Although it was called a cake, it was actually more like noodles. The method was to roll the dough into a large cake, and then cut it into thin strips after it was cooked. The soup was an old soup made from mutton offal and mutton bones. There was almost no taste of spices in it, and it had a little bit of mutton smell, but it was acceptable. In addition to the cake strips, there were also a lot of mutton offal and mutton picked from the bones. It was a big bowl full of soup. Song Chunlin reluctantly ate half of it and left the remaining half to Gu Fengyue.
Seeing that there were still a lot of dishes left on the table, Song Chunlin felt a little guilty and whispered to Gu Fengyue to remind her that it was okay not to finish eating.
"You don't have to force yourself. It's not good to eat too much. I can sneak in higher."
After Gu Fengyue swallowed the food in her mouth, she gently shook her head at Song Chunlin.
"It's okay. I've been busy all morning and I'm very hungry. Besides, this is not much. Come, eat some more. Don't you like this fish very much? Another one?"
Song Chunlin looked at the small fish that was already handed to his mouth. After a while, the fish was no longer crispy. Even if he put it into the space immediately, it would not be able to regain its crispness and deliciousness when it was just out of the pan. It was better to grit his teeth and eat the rest.
So, under Gu Fengyue's deliberate feeding, Song Chunlin actually ate up the remaining few small fish.
When he walked out of the restaurant, Song Chunlin felt like his stomach was about to explode. He kept scolding Gu Fengyue while chewing a digestive tablet.
"It's all because of you that I ate so much. Ouch, my stomach is so bloated."
Gu Fengyue smiled slyly: "Who was the one who was still worried about the leftovers? Oh, it turned out to be the fat boy next to me."
Song Chunlin was so angry about his teasing that he thought he would never pay any attention to this stinky man again!
However, before he could utter any harsh words, by the time they returned to Prince Linyuan's Palace, Song Chunlin had already forgotten about the matter.
In the palace, Prince Linyuan was playing in the garden with his three friends. As soon as Song Chunlin and his friends came back, they were brought over by the housekeeper. Prince Linyuan looked at the two of them who looked well-fed and satisfied, and raised his eyebrows.
"It seems that you two are not satisfied with the food in my palace. Is the food outside so delicious?"
Song Chunlin nodded seriously, "Yeah, it's delicious. Why didn't you tell us earlier that the fish in the pond were so delicious? We missed a lot of delicious food. When I came back just now, I took a special look and saw that the street vendors were selling fried fish cakes. They looked delicious."
King Linyuan was furious: "Is it possible that I treated everyone to a good meal yesterday and made a mistake? You are so unreasonable, Sima Gu, please take care of him."
Gu Fengyue spread his hands in front of King Linyuan, indicating that he couldn't do anything about it, which made King Linyuan even angrier.
Song Chunlin sat down opposite King Linyuan, took the tea bowl on the table, took a sip, and then spit it out.
"Ah, bah, bah, bah, what the hell is this? It tastes so bad..."
King Linyuan's face turned completely black. This brat actually dared to say that the tea he made was unpalatable. Did he really think he wouldn't break his neck?
Sensing the murderous aura around him, Gu Fengyue silently stood in front of Song Chunlin and warned King Linyuan with his eyes not to touch Song Chunlin.
King Linyuan felt so angry that he couldn't vent it out. He felt uncomfortable and simply turned his head away and ignored the irritating couple.
Gu Fengyue wiped Song Chunlin's mouth and said, "I forgot to tell you that in Linyuan, we always add a lot of spices to the tea when we brew it. It's different from the way you drink tea at home."
Song Chunlin certainly knew that the way of drinking tea was different in this era, but he couldn't taste any tea flavor in the bowl of tea just now except for the mixed taste of various spices. After he recovered, he quickly put the tea bowl away.
"I wasn't paying attention for a moment. Well, I have to do it myself."
King Linyuan looked at Song Chunlin curiously as he took out a small paper bag from his arms, washed the tea bowl with clean hot water, and then grabbed a handful of tea from the paper bag and put it directly into the tea bowl. Seeing this, King Linyuan couldn't help but frowned, and then he realized that Song Chunlin was actually brewing the tea leaves directly with hot water, without roasting it on the fire or adding spices. He didn't even need to boil it. He just poured hot water into the bowl, and a cup of tea was ready?
King Linyuan was skeptical about the pale-colored tea. What was the difference between such tasteless tea and drinking plain water?
"Does the way you brew tea really taste good? I've lived in Linyuan for a long time, but I didn't even know when your way of drinking tea came out in the capital. How come you can't even buy a whole tea cake in the capital now?"