Transmigrated into a minor official in a county government, with children at home waiting for rice t

As soon as Zhang Sanlang entered the courtyard, he heard noises coming from the kitchen, which filled the entire yard.

Qing Ge'er had the loudest voice, and little Sun Ce followed behind him, shouting one after another, interspersed with Liu An's soft "I want it too, I want it too."

He paused for a moment, then turned in the direction of the sound.

Four people were crammed into the kitchen.

A-Yun stood outside the threshold, holding a sieve in her hand, a tiny cicada wing stuck in her hair, and her face full of fear.

There was another person squatting by the stove, as dark as Zhang Fei, his face completely obscured. This person grinned at Zhang Sanlang, startling him so much that he raised an eyebrow. Upon closer inspection of the man's blue silk robe, he recognized him as Zhou An.

Qingge'er was standing on a low stool in front of the stove, holding a bamboo skewer with several shiny cicadas on it.

Little Sun Ce stood beside him, also holding a string of them. Liu An stood on tiptoe, not daring to compete with them, and anxiously spun around in circles.

Zhang Sanlang went inside and glanced at the earthenware basin on the stove. Inside were blanched cicadas, clean and tidy, their wings removed and heads pinched off, leaving only their shiny abdomens, about thirty or so.

There was another pot of untreated fish next to it, with at least seventy or eighty of them.

"What are you doing?"

Qingge jumped down from the low stool, held the bamboo skewer in front of him, his eyes shining like lamps, "Dad! Brother Zhou helped us catch cicadas! We're discussing how to eat them!"

Zhang Sanlang glanced at the two basins by the stove, rolled his eyes at Zhou An, and said, "You actually caught over a hundred of them? Are you guys that bored?"

Qing-ge'er spoke fluently, starting from the fact that Mr. Zhao was sick and gave them a day off, and then talking about how Zhou An was copying documents in the main room during the day and was annoyed by the cicadas in the yard.

He, Sun Ce, and Liu An volunteered to catch them. At first, they tried to catch them with their hands, but they didn't manage to catch many after a long time.

Qingge glanced at Ayun outside the threshold and chuckled, "Sister Yun was fetching water to wash clothes when she passed the old locust tree. A cicada fell down and landed on her face. She was startled and sat down on the ground screaming."

"When Brother Zhou heard this, he rushed over and asked Sister Yun if she was hurt. Then Brother Zhou got furious and said he would catch all the cicadas in the house, leaving none alive. He moved a ladder, grabbed a bamboo pole, and even asked Uncle Sanbao to find an old fishing net..."

Standing outside the threshold, Ah-Yun blushed slightly upon hearing this. She lowered her head to hang up the strainer, then took it down after a moment's thought, pretending to be very busy.

Zhang Sanlang looked at the two basins of cicadas by the stove. "You caught so many, what are you planning to do with them?"

Qing-ge'er chimed in, "Brother Zhou said we should blanch them, dry them, and eat them slowly. Brother Ce and I said we'd grill them now! The skewers are all ready!"

Little Sun Ce nodded vigorously beside him, "Roast them! They smell amazing!"

Liu An stood on tiptoe and muttered, "I want to grill too! It smells so good!"

Zhang Sanlang glanced at the stove. "The fire isn't lit yet?"

Qing-ge gave Zhou An a disdainful look. "Sister Yun is afraid to go into the kitchen. Brother Zhou said he'd start a fire, but he hasn't managed to get it lit yet, and he almost roasted himself..."

Zhang Sanlang looked at Zhou An, who was squatting by the stove.

He held a few sticks of dry firewood in his hand; the embers in the stove had burned halfway and then gone out, and smoke was billowing in his face. If he had come back any later, the kitchen would have been uninhabitable.

Zhou An turned his head to the side, revealing a face streaked with black and white from the smoke, with only his eyes still shining. A blade of grass stuck to the corner of his mouth, as if he had just rolled in a haystack.

Zhang Sanlang was exasperated. "Zhou An, get up. If you keep smoking like this, you'll turn into salted cured meat."

Zhou An stood up awkwardly, patted the dust off his knees, and found his hands covered in wood ash, which left two black marks on his clothes. He left the kitchen and moved to A-Yun's side, stealing a glance at Zhang Sanlang before subconsciously moving away.

Zhang Sanlang squatted down, pulled the few stiff, dry pieces of firewood from the stove, replaced them with some straw, lit them with tinder, and stuffed them into the stove. Flames leaped up, and smoke went through the flue, making the stove bright and clean.

Zhang Sanlang turned his head towards the door and asked, "Where's your mother?"

A-Yun looked up. "My mother went to the dock to buy eels. Mr. Huangfu said that eels eaten during the Lesser Heat are as good as ginseng. Xi-mei heard this and took out a string of cash to let my mother go buy them."

Zhang Sanlang glanced at the east wing. "Did Mr. Huangfu go too?"

Ah-Yun nodded. "The gentleman said he was worried that my mother wouldn't be able to buy good quality items, so he went along with her..."

Just then, the courtyard gate rang.

Zhang Sanlang saw Huangfu Ce walk in through the kitchen window.

He was carrying a large willow basket covered with two lotus leaves. Something was moving underneath, causing the lotus leaves to sway and undulate.

He entered slowly, glancing at the alleyway entrance before turning his head back and then slowly walking into the courtyard.

After a moment, Wang Yue'e appeared at the courtyard gate. She was carrying a bamboo basket, from which several sprigs of green dill and several strings of reddish-brown dogwood could be seen.

She glanced at the stone table as she entered, then headed towards the kitchen.

Huangfu Ce stood by the stone table picking lotus leaves. His gaze lifted from the edge of the lotus leaf, fell for a moment in Wang Yue'e's direction, and then lowered again.

Zhang Sanlang withdrew his gaze and smiled through the window, "Mr. Huangfu, did you manage to buy the eels?"

Upon hearing this, Huangfu Ce looked up and saw him in the kitchen. He quickly brought over a basket and lifted half of the lotus leaf.

Five eels lay on the basket, each thicker than a thumb and over a foot long. Their bodies were yellowish-brown, and they wriggled in the basket, their fine scales, wet with water, gleaming slightly in the firelight of the stove.

"Bought from Old Liu's stall at the dock, just arrived today. Five of them, totaling five catties and two ounces, fifty coins per catty."

Huangfu Ce placed the basket on the ground, and the eels wriggled even more. One of them curled its tail and pushed aside the lotus leaf, but he reached out and pressed it down, then put it back.

Wang Yue'e walked in carrying a bamboo basket, placed the dill and dogwood on the chopping board, and smiled at Zhang Sanlang, saying, "Old Liu recognizes me and said the eels are good today, so he told me to buy two more. Five eels will cost me two hundred coins."

Zhang Sanlang walked over, lifted the lid of the dill and smelled it, then picked up a few dogwood berries, rubbed them between his fingertips, and said, "Everything's ready. I'll make it."

Wang Yue'e was taken aback for a moment, "You just got back from your shift, how can I let you do it? I can do it."

Zhang Sanlang rolled his eyes at her. "You're so stingy with oil and salt when you cook. This eel won't taste good without enough oil. Go wash the dill and cut it into sections. Crush the dogwood and mix it with the minced ginger."

Wang Yue'e opened her mouth, gave an awkward smile, and lowered her head to pick up the dill.

"Mr. Huangfu, you'd like to kill the eels. Do you know how to do this?"

Huangfu Ce was taken aback for a moment, then quickly replied, "Yes, yes! I used to kill fish in the prison camp."

He took a thin-bladed kitchen knife from the knife rack and rubbed it a couple of times on the whetstone. Then he carried the basket to the stone table, squatted down, grabbed an eel, and placed it on the cutting board.

Pinch the eel's head with your thumb and press down. Make a cut at the eel's neck with the tip of the knife, then pull it down along the belly to the bottom. Remove the eel bone, and the whole eel meat will be laid out. The technique is clean and neat, and not even a drop of eel blood will splatter onto the cutting board.