Chapter 48 Yellow Croaker Noodles

“Tsk, how can someone be so shameless?” Qian Xiaolan ignored her and continued to pick up seafood. The woman wouldn’t let up. She reached out and stopped her, “Qian, I’m talking to you. Do you understand the rules?”

Qian Xiaolan gave her a cold look, “Is this beach your family’s? Do you have to talk about your rules?”

Zhang Xiaoqin was startled and angrily retorted, “You… what are you talking about? This beach is definitely public. I’m talking about whether you understand the rules of catching seafood.”

Qian Xiaolan glanced at the five-meter vacuum zone around her and sarcastically said, “Did I steal your catch? Or did I steal everyone’s catch?”

Zhang Xiaoqin was speechless for a moment, then retorted, “That blue crab was clearly mine first. You snatched it.”

Considering the camaraderie between Gu Yanqing and Zhang Xiaoqin’s husband, Gao Yingchang, Qian Xiaolan didn’t want to make things too ugly. She said, “If you keep bothering me for no reason, I’ll report you to Commander Lu. If it affects your husband’s career…”

Before she finished speaking, Zhang Xiaoqin’s face turned pale.

Qian Xiaolan sneered. Gu Yanqing was right. To deal with this kind of woman, you have to hit her where it hurts.

Gu Yanqing and Zhang Xiaoqin’s husband, Gao Yingchang, were both subordinates of Commander Lu. One was young and promising, while the other was already 38 years old. If Gao Yingchang didn’t get promoted in the next two years, he would have to retire and go home. Zhang Xiaoqin was Gao Yingchang’s second wife. They had a sixteen-year age gap. It was said that she had used some means to marry Gao Yingchang when he came home. She often boasted to her family about marrying a military officer and said she would find military officers for her sisters. Gu Yanqing was one of her targets. However, he went on a mission, got injured, and got married. This made Zhang Xiaoqin resent Qian Xiaolan and pick on her at every turn.

Gu Yanqing had told Qian Xiaolan about this yesterday, and Wang Yufeng had told her today. She could only chuckle.

After getting rid of the annoying Zhang Xiaoqin, Qian Xiaolan focused on using her space to cheat and find seafood. With the help of her golden finger, her harvest was truly plentiful. By the time the tide came in, she had not only filled the bucket she brought, but she had also secretly transferred a lot into her space. Besides the previous few varieties, there were also yellow croaker, cutlassfish, grouper, mud dragon, swimming crab, conch, abalone, and cockle, over ten varieties in total. Some she caught herself, and some she directly collected using her space detection function.

When she got home, she saw that Gu Yanqing hadn’t returned. She quickly washed up and started cooking. She was eating alone for lunch, so she just made something simple. Luckily, she had caught a yellow croaker weighing over a pound today. She also had some noodles from home. A bowl of yellow croaker noodle soup would be perfect.

She scaled, gutted, and removed the gall bladder and internal organs of the yellow croaker, washed it, and cut it into pieces. She crushed some garlic, cut some scallions and ginger slices, and chopped two dried chili peppers. She heated the pot, wiped it with ginger slices, added oil, and sautéed the scallions, ginger, garlic, and chili peppers until fragrant. She added the fish to the pot and pan-fried it slightly, poured in some cooking wine, white vinegar, and soy sauce, added cold water, and simmered for five minutes. She added salt and served it in two bowls.

She added water to the pot, brought it to a boil, added a handful of noodles, and after thirty seconds, immediately fished them out and put them in one of the fish bowls. The sour and spicy yellow croaker noodle soup was ready.

Dig in!

Qian Xiaolan slurped the flavorful noodle soup at home, unaware that the aroma of her cooking had drifted ten meters away to her neighbor’s house, making the three children there swallow their saliva and clamor for food.

Her neighbor happened to be Gao Yingchang’s house. The three stepchildren kept saying, “It smells so good. It must be delicious.” This angered Zhang Xiaoqin, causing her to rant and rave in the house. Her words were extremely foul, and the three children couldn’t stand it anymore. They glared at her and ran away.

This made Zhang Xiaoqin even angrier. She fanned the stove fire and picked up the fire tongs, wanting to go find Qian Xiaolan to settle the score. But before she could go out, she suddenly remembered what Qian Xiaolan had said in the morning and retreated.

Qian Xiaolan had just stuffed a mouthful of noodles into her mouth when she heard children shouting outside the courtyard. She put down her bowl in confusion and went out. She saw three skinny heads, one tall and two short, peeking over the low courtyard wall.

“Cough, cough, cough…” Qian Xiaolan was so startled that the noodles she hadn’t swallowed sprayed out of her nose.

“Auntie, what’s wrong?”

“Auntie, why can your nose eat noodles?”

“Auntie, your cooking smells so good. I could smell it from home.”

Qian Xiaolan finally stopped coughing and looked at the three heads helplessly, “Who are you? Why are you at my house?”

The eldest, Gao Hongjun, said, “We’re from next door, Gao Yingchang’s house. My name is Gao Hongjun. My brother is Gao Changzheng, and my sister is Gao Jiefang.”

Qian Xiaolan’s coughing started again. She wiped away the tears she coughed out and looked up at Gao Yingchang’s house. She asked them in a low voice, “Your mother will be angry if you three come over, right?”

Gao Changzheng immediately said, “She doesn’t feed us enough every day. She’s not our mother!”

The five or six-year-old Gao Jiefang also chimed in softly, “That’s right, that’s right. She beats me every day and says I’m a tomboy and doesn’t give me food. But Dad clearly said I’m his treasure.”

Gao Hongjun didn’t say anything, but his lips were tightly pursed.

Qian Xiaolan felt uncomfortable. She opened the yard gate and let them in. After asking if the three children had eaten, Qian Xiaolan went into the house and got them some chicken cakes to fill their stomachs. Then, she turned around and went back to the kitchen to make noodles for them. Luckily, she hadn’t eaten the whole fish. Now, she just needed to add some noodles.

The noodle soup in the pot hadn’t been poured out, and the fire in the stove hadn’t gone out. She added some firewood, and it quickly reignited. She added the noodles to the boiling water and fished them out after they were cooked. Qian Xiaolan tasted the broth. The vinegar and spice were both strong. Worried that the children wouldn’t be used to it, she added a lot of broth to the bowls and adjusted the flavor before taking three small bowls and bringing them out with the noodles.

“Come, come, eat! Hongjun, can you help your brother and sister scoop up the noodles?”

Gao Hongjun nodded. Qian Xiaolan smiled and patted his head, then went back to get her own bowl of noodles. It wasn’t that she was overflowing with kindness, but Gao Yingchang had once saved Gu Yanqing’s life. It was only right to feed the children of someone who had saved her husband’s life. Besides, the three children were truly pitiful, having lost their mother at such a young age.

They had previously lived in the military family compound, but Zhang Xiaoqin was too much of a troublemaker. Other family members were dissatisfied with her, and Gao Yingchang was constantly being stopped by them to complain, making it impossible for him to avoid them. He asked Zhang Xiaoqin to go back to her hometown, but she refused to leave. In the end, he had no choice but to find a house for her in the village.

The three Gao siblings ate the noodles that Qian Xiaolan had made. Their eyes all turned red.

Gao Changzheng choked back a sob, “When my mother was alive, I also ate such delicious food.”

Gao Hongjun quietly wiped away a tear and said gratefully to Qian Xiaolan, “Auntie, thank you. This is the most we’ve eaten and the best we’ve eaten since Dad left home two years ago. Don’t worry, we won’t eat your family’s food for free. My brother and I will come back after school tomorrow and gather firewood for you.”

“Gather firewood? You ungrateful brats!”