Chapter 34 : Spicy Fried Seafood

Song Shiwei walked around with a pair of coal tongs, catching a mantis shrimp, a swimming crab, a cat’s eye snail, a scallop, a blood clam, and a few tilapia that were trapped in the cracks of the rocks.  

There weren’t many, but the quality was excellent.  

Zhou Wei and Zhou Xinxin followed behind her, watching in amazement.  

Their new mother was incredible, she caught each creature with perfect accuracy using the tongs.  

But in reality, Song Shiwei felt that the tongs were far from ideal.  

They were too thin and not easy to handle!  

Catching fish was especially difficult, but the mantis shrimp at this time of year were plump and full.  

Just by looking at them, she could tell they were bursting with roe. However, mantis shrimp were also very clever, they could dig and hide in small holes.  

She couldn’t help but envy modern shrimp-catching tools. If only she had one of those now!  

However, she had once filmed a coastal food program and had discussed this with local fishermen. She had even seen their homemade shrimp-catching devices.  

The principle was actually quite simple, similar to using a pump to inflate a tire.  

She could ask around later to see if anyone had an old air hose, and she could trade something for it!  

Just then, Song Shiwei spotted a large, crystal-clear object in the shallows.  

Her eyes lit up.  

Wasn’t that a jellyfish?  

Just as she was about to step forward and grab it, the villagers who had been watching quickly tried to stop her.  

“Little girl, you can’t eat that! It stings! It’s poisonous!!”  

Song Shiwei smiled. 

“Uncle, this is a jellyfish. It’s edible! It’s delicious when eaten cold!”  

The old man clearly didn’t believe her. After all, they had lived by the sea their entire lives and knew how painful a jellyfish sting could be!  

It was like being pricked by needles, and you had to apply alum to relieve the pain!  

Every year, people in the village got stung by these creatures while fishing, so the villagers had always hated them.  

Seeing Song Shiwei pick up the jellyfish with her tongs and place it into the bucket, preparing to take it home, the old man could only shake his head.  

“Little girl, don’t blame me for not warning you. If anything happens to you after eating that, don’t come looking for me!”  

Hearing this, even Zhou Cheng and Zhou Lin frowned. They had heard stories growing up about people getting stung by jellyfish while fishing.  

Zhou Wei looked at the jellyfish squirming in the bucket and nervously asked Song Shiwei, “Is this really edible? Will it kill us?”  

Song Shiwei smiled helplessly. “Don’t worry, it stings when it’s alive, but once it’s dead, it’s a delicacy! I’ll prepare it for you tonight, and you’ll see for yourself!”  

By now, she had gathered quite a bit of seafood, and most of the salt in the jar had already been used up. The sun was setting, and it would be dark soon it was time to go home and cook dinner.  

She waved at the children.  

“Let’s go home and make something delicious for you all!”  

Hearing this, the children happily followed her home.  

But as soon as they reached the door, they were met with a messy scene. The once neatly arranged vegetable garden had been dug up, with soil scattered all over the ground and the entrance.  

Sun Meimei from next door had just come out to fetch water. Seeing them return, she followed Song Shiwei’s gaze to the ruined vegetable garden and sighed.  

“Not long after you left this afternoon, Zhou Xiaoyan came by. She said that all the vegetables in the garden were planted by her, so why should you get them for free? Then she grabbed a shovel and dug up everything, roots and all!”  

She thought Song Shiwei would be furious, but instead, she simply smiled faintly.  

“It’s better that she dug it up, saves me the trouble of doing it myself! It just so happens that I wanted to plant something else anyway!”  

As if suddenly remembering the eggs that Sun Meimei had given her before, Song Shiwei quickly grabbed a handful of clams from Zhou Lin’s bucket and handed them to her.  

“Sister-in-law, the kids and I just caught these. Take them home and cook them for your children!”  

When Sun Meimei saw the razor clams, her eyes lit up at first, but then she smiled awkwardly. “Sister, I’d love to let my kids try them, but my husband and I are from the northwest. I’ve never seen these before, let alone know how to cook them!”  

Hearing this, Song Shiwei simply pulled her hand back.  

“Is that so? Then once I finish cooking, I’ll have Lin bring you a bowl! Let the kids have a taste!”  

Sun Meimei felt both happy and a little embarrassed.  

“Oh, how can I accept that?”  

Song Shiwei smiled and waved her hand. “What’s there to be embarrassed about? I haven’t even properly thanked you for the eggs you gave me! Besides, they say that distant relatives aren’t as reliable as close neighbors. I might need your help with something in the future!”  

Hearing this, Sun Meimei felt warm inside, and suddenly, she felt much closer to Song Shiwei.  

Her impression of her improved significantly.  

This young woman was truly wonderful not only did she speak well, but she was also great at dealing with people. She was the kind of person who was instantly likable.  

Watching Song Shiwei lead the children into the house, she couldn’t help but sigh. It seemed that Zhou Tingyue had really married a good wife this time!  

When they got home, Song Shiwei let the children go play while she started preparing the seafood.  

As the saying goes: “Live by the mountain, eat from the mountain; live by the sea, eat from the sea!”  

If you go fishing every day, how could you ever worry about having nothing to eat?  

Especially in this era, when the fishing industry wasn’t well-developed, not many people went to the beach to collect seafood.  

Shrimp and crabs were as common as cabbage, you could easily gather a whole basket in no time.  

But it was usually only the local villagers who collected them.  

Song Shiwei didn’t quite understand why the other military families never went out to gather seafood themselves.  

Thinking back to the mix of envy and hesitation in Sun Meimei’s expression, she started to understand.  

The military wives who followed their husbands here were mostly from other regions. They weren’t familiar with the geography or the local way of life, let alone how to catch seafood. They probably had no idea which things were edible, which were not, and which might be poisonous. They were afraid that if they picked up the wrong thing, it could be disastrous even fatal.  

If she hadn’t been a food blogger in her past life and hadn’t grown up by the sea, she wouldn’t have dared to pick things up so casually either!  

She washed the clams and soaked them in salted water to purge the sand.  

Then she grabbed a brush to clean the crabs and shrimp, sliced some ginger, and prepared to steam the swimming crabs.  

She planned to use a clay pot to make a spicy seafood stir-fry with cat’s eye snails, scallops, blood clams, shrimp, and razor clams.  

Since there was no chili garlic sauce available, she had to stir-fry some green and red peppers with minced garlic instead.  

She didn’t have any peppers at home, so she borrowed some from Jian Qiu’s house.  

Her fellow military wives were very kind, whenever they heard she needed something, they’d give it to her as long as they had it.  

The dried red chilies were given to her by Wang Chunxiang, the wife of Deputy Commander Qian from the Fourth Household.  

Once everything was ready, Song Shiwei began cooking.  

She heated oil in a pan, stir-fried scallions, ginger, garlic, and dried chilies, then added the pre-fried garlic chili sauce, five-spice powder, and soy sauce, stirring until fragrant.  

Then she poured in the prepared cat’s eye snail meat, scallops, blood clams, mantis shrimp, and razor clams. She stir-fried them for two minutes before adding beer and water.  

After the water boiled, she turned off the heat, covered the pot, and let it simmer for two more minutes before serving.  

As soon as she lifted the lid, the rich aroma filled the air.  

The fresh scent of seafood mixed with the fragrance of garlic and chilies instantly spread throughout the entire military compound.  

It was dinner time, and many people couldn’t help but sniff the air.  

“Wow, that smells amazing! Who’s cooking?”  

“Yeah, what is that? It smells incredible!”  

Meanwhile, over at Zhou Xiaoyan’s house, trouble was brewing…