Chapter 338: Chapter 204: Chopped Pepper Fish Head a Hundred Times Tastier Than in Restaurants! Fans Are Drooling for It! [Seeking Monthly Tickets]
After securing the lock, the young couple sipped the drinks offered by a cousin and watched the sunset while enjoying the mountain breeze. They also stopped by a small temple nearby to burn incense, praying for the health and well-being of both their families before starting their descent.
"Time to go back and eat some crayfish!" Shen Baobao exclaimed.
They had eaten quite a lot before climbing the mountain. However, after a few hours of activity, that food had long since been digested. Now Shen Baobao felt like she could eat half a cow.
"How about we find a stall up ahead and buy you some snacks?" Lin Xu, worried this girl might become ill from hunger, suggested with a smile.
But she immediately vetoed the idea. "No way! There’s only so much room in my stomach, and I want to eat the delicious food you make. I don’t want anything else!"
"All right, then we’d better hurry up," Lin Xu said.
To ensure Shen Baobao could eat crayfish as soon as they got down the mountain, Lin Xu opened the family group chat to check if the crayfish had been purchased. If they had, he would ask the family to start cleaning them so he could start cooking seamlessly once they were back.
As soon as he opened the family group chat, he saw that his eldest uncle had posted a picture of crayfish. "I bought all the super large crayfish, more than sixty pounds of them," the message read.
The message had just been sent when Chen Yuanyuan quickly commented in the group, "Uncle, there are so many people in our family, how is sixty pounds going to be enough? Don’t forget I didn’t even get one shrimp at noon, so it wouldn’t be excessive for me to have a double portion, right?"
In less than a minute, Chen Yuanyuan withdrew her message. Her father, Chen Meiliang, had just posted a picture of a freshly caught silver carp from the reservoir, weighing more than twenty pounds.
If sixty pounds of crayfish wasn’t enough, what about adding a twenty-plus pound silver carp? Lin Xu thought, unable to help but laugh. Were his uncles going overboard? It worked out well, though, since it gave him the opportunity to cook Chopped Pepper Fish Head. He had acquired this Technique but hadn’t used it yet. With all the relatives here today and Shen Baobao hungry, it would be the perfect chance to liven things up by making it!
After checking the group messages, he was about to put away his phone when his uncle, Lin Hongjun, also posted a picture that seemed to be taken at a lamb stall. "I’m really sorry about today," Lin Hongjun wrote. "I had to organize a summer swimming safety drill at the school and couldn’t make it back until now. I just bought a whole lamb; Lin Xu, you take care of it."
Lin Hongjun was the head of political education at Yinzhou City Experimental Middle School. For other teachers, summer was a time to relax. But for Lin Hongjun, it meant continuously working on student safety education, making him even busier than when classes were in session.
"WOW! Tonight’s dinner is going to be so lavish, isn’t it?" Chen Yuanyuan, who had just been complaining about not having enough crayfish, immediately posted a bunch of drooling emojis.
And it didn’t stop there. Right after Lin Hongjun posted about the lamb, Lin Xu’s aunt, Lin Hongxin, posted a picture of two large geese. "Little Xun’s grandfather raised these big geese back home," she explained. "He heard Lin Xu’s wife was visiting, so he specially gave me two to bring over."
Lin Hongxin worked for the development zone’s administrative committee. She had an inspection there at noon, so she couldn’t come over earlier. That’s why she made a special trip to bring two fat geese, making up for missing the welcome banquet for her nephew’s wife.
Lin Xu told everyone to start preparing the crayfish: clip the heads, remove the gizzards, and devein them. That way, he could get straight to cooking when he got back. As for the large silver carp, it can be cleaned after I get back, he thought. There’s going to be so much to eat tonight...
After instructing his aunts on preparing the crayfish, Lin Xu showed Shen Baobao the group chat photos on his phone. The girl immediately started salivating. "I want to eat crayfish! I want to eat a big fish head! I also want to eat roasted whole lamb and iron pot stewed goose! WAKAKA! These are all the things I want to eat!"
To express gratitude to the relatives, Lin Xu deliberately pulled Shen Baobao into the family group chat. As soon as she joined, she sent a wave of thanks, touching the relatives who saw it. They all felt proud that Lin Xu had found such a sensible and polite wife.
「At the scenic area’s ticket office.」
Chen Yuanyuan, who was originally nibbling on a small pastry to tide her over, had now tossed her usually favorite snack back into the drawer. With such a sumptuous dinner ahead, why would I eat a small pastry? Am I crazy?
Not far from her, Chen Meijuan was sitting on the sofa, playing with Dundun and a bouncing ball. She threw the ball far away, and Dundun would chase after it like a little beast, pinning it down with his paws to stop it from bouncing. Then he would gently kick it back to Chen Meijuan’s feet.
"Oh my, my little treasure is so smart! No wonder your grandma wouldn’t let go of you every time she held you. Such a clever and sensible little guy, this grandma loves you too," Chen Meijuan cooed. She had never expected that playing with this little creature would feel like babysitting a grandchild.
As she was playing, more tourists arrived. This group numbered in the dozens. Not only did they want to buy tickets to enter, but they also planned to stay at the Cliffside Hotel. Chen Yuanyuan was busy for a while, finally getting all their tickets sorted out, while Chen Meijuan called the park’s shuttle to pick up the tourists and take them in.
Once the tourists were inside, it was time for the ticket office to close.
As Chen Yuanyuan was tidying up the accounts, she muttered, "The business was too good this afternoon, wasn’t it? Right before closing, we sold nearly twenty thousand yuan worth of tickets and accommodation fees. At this rate, our scenic area really needs to expand."
Chen Meijuan replied, "We do intend to expand. Right now, you can only return the same way after reaching Pan Stone Rock, can’t you? Your uncle and I are planning to build another mountain road. It would lead down from the other side of Pan Stone Rock, directly into the valley. We’ll then build additional boardwalks along the river in the valley, all the way to the tent camp."