Chapter 49

Oyster sauce is really a good thing.

It appears in the kitchens of many households as a traditional seasoning for umami flavors. The only ingredient used to make it is the oyster, a common shellfish found along the coast (which we call *haishi* here).

She had observed the situation before when going to the shore, and noticed that there were many oysters near the rocky area to the east of the village.

However, from May to September is the breeding season for oysters, and during that time, they are covered in mucus and taste unpleasant, with their bellies full of eggs. Plus, at the time, she didn’t have the right tools to pry open the oysters, so she didn’t bother with them.

Later, when the family had the tools and food was not lacking, she had forgotten all about the oysters.

To eat oysters, one should wait until they’re plump.

Jiang Wan slapped her forehead in frustration. How could she have forgotten that oysters could be used to make oyster sauce? That’s a valuable commodity that could also make money.

Oyster sauce is delicious, with a rich oyster aroma, and is packed with nutrients. It adds a finishing touch to many dishes.

For example, she loved oyster sauce with lettuce and with king oyster mushrooms; the taste was simply amazing.

Jiang Wan felt a sudden excitement, but the tide was about to recede, and she still had to collect the small sea snails. After all, right now, collecting sea snail juice was the family’s main business.

Maybe she could ask someone in the village to help?

She could spend a little money, and someone in the village would surely be willing to help.

After thinking for a moment, she had a person in mind. She found an opportunity to talk to her mother, and without hesitation, her mother agreed.

Her mother always supported anything she wanted to do.

Sigh, another day when she loved her mother the most.

Jiang Wan happily took twenty coins from her little savings and went to find Aunt Cuifang and her daughter-in-law.

When they heard that they could earn twenty coins just by collecting a few baskets of oysters from the shore (they weren’t sure if oysters were called that in ancient times, but for the sake of this story, they’re referred to as oysters), the two women immediately agreed.

Usually, anything they collected from the shore would only be enough for their own consumption, and it was rare to sell something for as much as twenty coins, so they were quite happy. The tide was just starting to recede, and they were already preparing to head out to the shore.

At this time, the old village chief also arrived at the Yin household. Upon learning that Yin Huaishan was willing to teach the village children, his old face lit up with an especially bright smile.

Jiang Wan felt very lucky that they had settled in Lianjiagou, with such a responsible village chief who cared about the well-being of the villagers.

“Huaishan, since you’re willing to teach the children, I’ll go back and have the villagers start building the school. For your salary and tuition fees, which would you prefer?”

“Let’s go with the salary. How does five hundred coins a month sound?”

Yin Huaishan’s ears turned a little red. This was the first time he had directly spoken about money with someone in such a straightforward way.

The old village chief was taken aback when he first heard five hundred coins, but then he realized that this amount would be shared among all the students.

If there were fifty children attending the school, each one would only need to pay ten coins a month. Even if there were only ten children, it would still only amount to fifty coins. Compared to the one tael of silver per child (paid quarterly) in Huaishan Town, this was incredibly cheap.

Quickly agreeing, the old village chief said, “Alright! This matter is settled!”

He felt confident that no one in the village would reject such a great opportunity.

Although everyone was not wealthy, they could make a little money from fishing, and after a month, they could probably save a couple hundred coins. Spending ten or twenty coins for their children to learn to read and write was a great opportunity that many people would never get.

If the neighboring village found out, they’d probably do everything they could to send their children over.

Excited, the old village chief instructed Yin Huaishan to rest and recover from his injuries, then happily returned to arrange for the school to be built.

Building the school would require marking the land and making enough mud bricks, which would create quite a stir.

The villagers, one after another, began asking about the news, and the old village chief, who had planned to surprise them later, finally gave in and told them outright.

At this point, the village was buzzing.

Families with sons were as excited as if their own children had just been named top scholars in the capital. They were all in high spirits, and some even volunteered to help build the school.

Meanwhile, families with only daughters fell silent. They were envious but also knew that their daughters couldn’t go to school like the boys.

After the tide came in, Aunt Niu and her daughter-in-law, Mao Cuifang, stopped their work of prying open oysters. They had brought back so many oysters that they formed a small mountain in the corner of the yard, and it was an eye-catching amount.

Jiang Wan gladly gave them twenty coins, along with a bowl of spicy snail meat to take with them.

Before leaving, Mao Cuifang couldn’t help but ask her.

“Xiao Wan, what are you going to do with all these oysters? Even if you take off the shells, there’s still dozens of pounds of meat here. You won’t be able to eat all of that.”

“Aunt Cuifang, I’m sure I have a use for them. Once I’ve finished making it, I’ll invite you to taste it,” Jiang Wan said, as if she’d said something but also said nothing at all. Mao Cuifang could only leave, full of questions, as she went back home.

At this time, Xiao Yuanzi hadn’t come for her lesson yet, so Jiang Wan had no hesitation in recruiting her uncle to help. She made him come along to pry open oysters.

The oyster shells were thick and hard, looking like stones from a distance. You had to pry into the gap between the inner and outer shells, cut through the muscle inside, and then open it.

The family didn’t have the right tools, but Jiang Wan had borrowed two awls from Aunt Cuifang.

The uncle and niece sat outside by the stove, working hard together.

A quarter of an hour later, Yin Huaishan had pricked his finger for the fourth time, and another cut had opened on his skin. Jiang Wan’s scalp tingled, and this time, she decisively took the awl from him and sent him away.

Her uncle should stick to being a teacher; this kind of hard work wasn’t for him.

If she did everything herself, it didn’t seem like it would work. Maybe she should go to Yinzhu’s house and call her cousin back to share the hardship?

“Sis, I hear Xiao Jinbao and Yinzhu outside the door.”

How touching! My cousin is back!

“Cousin? What is all this stuff you’ve got here?”

Yin Ning stared at the pile of stone-like oysters in the yard, completely stunned. She didn’t recognize oysters, but Yinzhu immediately knew what they were.

“Are you raising ducks at your house now with so many oysters, Xiao Wan?”

Jiang Wan shook her head, not going into detail. She simply said she was going to make something to eat with the oysters.

Yinzhu didn’t ask further questions. Seeing that Jiang Wan’s hands were red from prying open oysters, she quickly grabbed the awl that Yin Huaishan had just used and started helping.

“My family used to raise several ducks. Sometimes we fed them clams, and sometimes we used these oysters. Ducks raised on oysters get fat, but the meat is more troublesome to handle.”

“Xiao Wan, you haven’t done much work before, have you? Your hands are soft, you need to wrap them with cloth. Otherwise, you’ll get big blisters on your hands soon.”

Jiang Wan had actually forgotten about that.

It was all because she was so focused on the oyster sauce that she had gotten carried away!