Riding the wind of rebirth

Human society originated from gathering and hunting, so even in an era of material abundance, people are still very fascinated by the pleasures that gathering and hunting bring.

After a few days, Yan Xiao had been trained by Yang He to be a master of fishing with a surf rod. Using earthworms and half-roasted sweet potato cubes, he was able to catch a lot of fish every day from the outlet of the small lake.

Scaleless fish, carp, and crucian carp are the three most common types of fish here. Among them, there are several types of scaleless fish, including bulltail catfish, yellow catfish, and cold-water catfish.

The largest of these is the oxtail, which can grow to over a pound. This fish resembles an elongated yellow catfish, and when viewed from above, it looks like the shape of an ox's tail, hence its name.

Yellow catfish are a well-known fish species. They make a gurgling sound when caught, so in some places they are also called "yellow ducks".

This fish is greedy, and when it's hooked onto a surf rod, the hook is usually swallowed whole, making it very troublesome to remove. Therefore, it usually requires cutting the leader and replacing it with a new one. The swallowed hook can only be removed when gutting the fish.

In order to catch a lot of yellow catfish every day, Yan Xiao and Yang He had another task after packing up in the evening: gutting the fish, removing the hooks, and retying the leader for the next day. As a result, Yan Xiao also completed his evolution into a fishing pro, able to handle all situations during the fishing process on his own, and was no longer a "beginner" who fished for "old-timer fish".

This is when the addiction is at its peak. Yan Xiao works tirelessly from dawn till dusk every day to fish. In addition, he chose a good spot to start fishing and benefited from the newbie protection period. The camp always had fish to eat every day.

The simplest way to cook fish is through fish soup, and the most popular fish soup is undoubtedly sauerkraut fish soup.

This even led to the rapid consumption of the pickled vegetables brought by Zhouzhi, forcing Zhouzhi to start making pickled vegetables in the camp.

Because of the hot springs, the sauerkraut can be made very quickly.

Cut the cabbage and bok choy you brought into thin strips, mix them with salt, and squeeze out the juice from the strips after they start to release their juices. This is equivalent to the kneading process.

Next, place fresh vegetable strips at the bottom of the lunchbox, cover them with old pickled cabbage, pour back the vegetable juice and salt water that was just squeezed out, and add the old salt water as well. If it's not enough, add fresh rice water from that day to completely submerge the vegetable strips. Then, place the lunchbox in hot spring water that feels similar to body temperature. The next day, you will have fresh, sour, fragrant, and crisp pickled cabbage.

By recycling in this way, the sauerkraut can be kept indefinitely. To enhance the flavor, Zhouzhi also adds deer ear leek shoots to the sauerkraut. These are chopped up and stir-fried with minced meat the next day, making it an excellent dish to eat with porridge for breakfast.

For the occasional big fish caught, such as carp weighing five or six pounds or grass carp weighing seven or eight pounds, Zhouzhi would make them into smoked fish because his friends started to be picky about them, and they would also use them for breakfast with porridge.

Like dry-fried fish and grilled fish, smoked fish is also prepared by "frying first and then braising", which allows the fish to fully absorb the sauce and become flavorful. However, smoked fish has an even greater advantage: like cold-cooked rabbit, Zhang Fei beef, and Jingyang fighting rooster, it can be eaten cold and will not spoil even after two weeks of continuous consumption.

The sauce is simple and suitable for outdoor preparation. Cut the fish rings into thick pieces, fry them until crispy, then simmer them in a sauce made with light soy sauce, dark soy sauce, rock sugar, baijiu, oyster sauce, and five-spice powder until the sauce thickens and reduces. Finally, add a little white vinegar, let it cool, and store it in a jar. Take out some each day to accompany meals. The scenery is beautiful, the air is fresh, the climate is pleasant, the exercise is moderate, and everyone is in a good mood. Combined with the various harvests from gathering and fishing, after a few days, everyone felt much healthier, both physically and mentally, than before the trip.

Every morning when the sunrise shines into the small lake, it's the happiest time for everyone to play in the water. Even Mai Xiaomiao can now dive skillfully, while a few typical lazybones are happy to crawl out of their tents for this amazing sight.

Even Xiao Shunzi has become much stronger. He gets nourished by hot springs every day, and is carried around the mountains and forests by his uncles and aunts, looking around curiously. He is also teased and played with by everyone on the grass carpet at the campsite. He gets much more exercise than he did in the city, and sleeps soundly at night until dawn. Then he performs a super long peeing process for everyone.

"I'm going back tomorrow, and I'm really going to miss it." Under the starry sky by the campfire that night, Yan Xiao held a cup of tea made by A Zi with fresh Imperata cylindrica root, Ophiopogon japonicus, white fungus, wild white chrysanthemum, and honey to clear heat and moisturize dryness, and sighed with emotion.

"Shiqing still needs to go back and perform well." Zhou Zhi smiled and clinked his titanium alloy teacup against his. "You should cherish this opportunity to join the airline under the guise of an early internship and do your best."

“Anyway, Azi and Shama are here.” Liang Hong put her arm around Azi’s shoulder and laughed, “Even if Zhouzi goes back to Chengdu, we can still come if we want, right?”

"Yes! Sister Liang Hong, you're welcome to come anytime," Azi nodded and smiled.

“Actually, there are still many scenic spots in the Liangshan Mountains that have not been developed.” Wu Renzhong now has the awareness and vision of an important cadre in the prefecture. He said, “Some people say that our Sichuan province has concentrated all the geographical landscape types in the country except for coastal and desert areas. But I have found that, in fact, our Liangshan Mountains alone are already like that.”

"Here we have mountains, valleys, plains, basins, and hills, all interwoven. From the Qialangduoji Peak in Muli County at an altitude of 6,000 meters to the Dayandong Jinsha River Valley in Leibo County at an altitude of 300 meters, the relative elevation difference reaches more than 5,600 meters. This elevation difference, combined with the various subtropical dry-hot valleys, sparse grasslands, fault zones, fault-block mountains, rift basins, rift valleys, alluvial plains, alluvial fans, hills, plateaus, snow-capped mountains, glaciers, multi-level terraces, karst caves, hot springs and waterfalls, and even the rare ancient red soil phenomenon where low-altitude soil is uplifted to high-altitude areas, as well as various types of lakes from subtropical to plateau regions, makes our natural ecological environment and landscape diversity among the richest in the country. Our natural tourism resources are also excellent."

"Damn! You've changed so much in just three days! Renzhong, you suddenly came out with this whole string of words, I almost don't recognize you anymore. Are you trying to shift your focus to culture, commerce, and tourism?"

"What's this about culture, commerce, tourism, and travel?" Wu Renzhong was taken aback.

"It's about local culture, investment promotion, radio and television, tourism, and in some places, sports. All of these are integrated under one department, and these units can form a synergistic advantage." Zhou Zhi laughed and said, "You're in charge of light industry now, so going to manage just one of them would be a step backward. But what you just introduced seems to be more related to culture, commerce, radio and television, and tourism, so I just guessed."

"Then you're really talking nonsense." Wu Renzhong laughed. "To be able to oversee the leaders of these four or five units, you'd have to be at least an executive vice governor. Your brother is still far from that level!"

"However, your suggestion is quite valuable. I'll mention it to my brother-in-law later," Wu Renzhong said with a smile. "Your mind is really sharp. My brother-in-law often says that your ambitions don't lie in politics, which is such a pity." (End of Chapter)