The twenty-ninth day of the twelfth lunar month.
Bai Yujun suddenly remembered that fish had to be eaten during the New Year, symbolizing abundance year after year and auspicious surplus.
As a flood dragon who had always considered herself a small-time vendor, she naturally could not overlook customs connected to wealth. Merchants, after all, hoped for great fortune and abundance every year. In truth, eating fish during the New Year was a custom in many places, each with its own particularities. In some places, even how the fish was placed mattered.
The fish head faced honored guests or elders to show respect; the fish belly faced scholars, praising them for having ink in their bellies and articles filling their hearts; the fish spine faced military generals, lauding them as fierce and invincible, fit to serve as a backbone.
To Bai Yujun, the most useful thing about fish was that they smelled delicious and were nutritious.
She dug out her Fishing Rod, dug up a pile of earthworms for bait, then carried a stool and fish basket out the door in a daze. There was no helping it—recently, the cold weather and her refusal to use magic had left her brain feeling sleepy and muddled...
Passing a little dirt cave on her way down the mountain, she did not see the two little girls. Instead, she saw glutinous rice balls and pastries hidden beneath the straw.
When she reached the riverbank, she saw the older sister gathering river snails in the water again, while the younger sister crouched on shore and stuffed them into a little basket woven from weeds. It looked as if they were storing food for the winter.
They were small, weak, and had no one to look after them. The only filling food they could find was