Stone Snails

The spring water rushed swiftly. The water welling up from underground was quite cold, and Zhao Danshi's hand turned red from the chill after he reached in and felt around for stone snails for a while.

Li Ping filmed a close-up of his hand. It was fair, slender, and long, with distinct knuckles. Chilled by the water, his fingertips had turned a faint red, making them especially eye-catching.

Li Ping planned to edit this scene out when they got back and keep it carefully for himself, never showing it to anyone else.

No one had gathered stone snails for a long time. Zhao Danshi only had to brush his hand lightly over the rocky walls to find six or seven at a time. He worked his way along the stream, feeling around for over an hour, until his basket was more than half full, holding roughly six or seven pounds.

After gathering the stone snails, Zhao Danshi went ashore and poured them onto a rock. He sorted through them briefly, tossing all the smaller ones back into the water, then gathered up the rest and put them into a bamboo basket.

On the way down the mountain, he went to the fields as usual and pulled a few garlic shoots.

When they got home, the old man took the bamboo basket and set it in a sunny spot. One look made him exclaim in surprise, "Why are there so many?"

"There aren't many people gathering stone snails these days, so they've built up over time. Grandpa, one night of soaking should be enough, right? Let's stir-fry the stone snails tomorrow morning."

"Sure. I'll get up tomorrow morning and buy some pork belly. We can make twice-cooked pork too."

Zhao Danshi had just received the first recipe from Watcher, so he said to the old man, "Grandpa, buy some pork shank bones too. I want to make a soup to use for stir-frying the stone snails."

The old man smacked his lips. "You need big bones just to go with stir-fried stone snails? Isn't that a bit too extravagant?"

Zhao Danshi smiled. "You can't catch a wolf without sacrificing a child. Besides, it's my first time trying this recipe. Let's make it tomorrow and see whether it tastes good."

The old man muttered, "Pork belly, pork shank bones, and sour bamboo shoots too. With that many ingredients, how could it possibly not taste good?"

Early the next morning, Zhao Danshi and Li Ping went to the fields to pull weeds and check which crops needed additional fertilizer. The old man took Dou Dou to buy meat, and even brought back an extra pork shank bone as a treat for Dahei.

Now Zhao Danshi handled all the cooking. Whenever he cooked, Watcher would come out and watch him, specifically training his culinary skills.

To become a chef, he first had to practice knife work. Zhao Danshi had done plenty of chopping these past few days and was already very familiar with the feel of the knives at home.

He chopped and sliced all morning. The pork shank bones simmered away in a clay pot, while vegetables sizzled in a wok over high heat, filling the whole house with fragrance.

Li Ping carried the camera as he followed Zhao Danshi around. By the time filming was done, it was nearly nine, and everyone was starving.

Li Ping ended up eating three bowls of rice in a row and could not help sighing. "Danshi, your cooking is good. The meals you've made these past few days have been getting better and better."

The old man said proudly, "Yun Yun has been smart since he was little. He learns everything quickly. A-Ping, eat more. You two do physical work, so you need to eat your fill to have strength."

Zhao Danshi shoveled rice into his mouth, fully aware that the delicious food was not entirely thanks to him.

Watcher stood nearby, keeping watch and continuously scanning Zhao Danshi's cooking. Whether the heat was too high or too low, whether it needed more time or was done, whether he had added too much salt or not enough—Watcher could scan all of it and remind Zhao Danshi in real time to correct it. With such a strategist at his side, it would have been hard for Zhao Danshi to make bad food even if he wanted to.

Still, breakfast really was delicious that morning, and Zhao Danshi ate three bowls along with Li Ping.

Dou Dou, the little glutton, drank his milk while staring unblinkingly at the food on their table, practically drooling.

Catching his gaze, Zhao Danshi smiled. "Don't be greedy. In another two months, you can start having solid food."

Babies could gradually begin eating supplementary foods at four months old, and they could even taste a little salt. Dou Dou would not have to stare at them and drool anymore.

Come to think of it, they should buy some rice cereal soon. Dou Dou would be able to eat it before long.

Thinking of that, Zhao Danshi wanted to plant a crop of rice. Growing rice was tiring, but eating rice grown at home would give them peace of mind.

Zhao Danshi's thoughts wandered far away, and his hand stopped halfway through scooping up rice.

Li Ping glanced at him, lightly tapped the table, and reminded him to keep eating. "What are you thinking about? You're so focused."

"Nothing." Zhao Danshi smiled.

Li Ping looked at Dou Dou, then suddenly frowned slightly. "Something seems a little off?"

Zhao Danshi's heart clenched. He hurriedly set down his bowl and chopsticks. "What's wrong?"

"Dou Dou seems to have rolled over. He wasn't facing our side just now."

"Huh, really?"

Watcher spoke up in his mind to confirm, "Dou Dou did roll over just now. Within my perception range, it was his first time rolling over."

The old man leaned closer too, beaming. "Not bad. Our Dou Dou has learned to roll over."

Dou Dou looked at the circle of parents around his basket, gave a silly smile, made a little "ha" sound, and stretched out his tiny hands for Zhao Danshi to hold him.

Zhao Danshi hurriedly picked him up and bounced his sturdy little body in his arms. "Babies roll over at three months and sit at six. Dou Dou should be able to roll over by now."

The old man sounded deeply pleased. "Dou Dou is growing faster than children his age. It's about time."

After that, Zhao Danshi and the others had no mood to film anything. They hurriedly finished the last few bites in their bowls, then kept tempting Dou Dou with toys, trying to get him to roll over again.

Only after Dou Dou rolled over several times in a row, thoroughly satisfying their curiosity, did they reluctantly hand him over to the old man and head off to work side by side.

That was the bad part about being farmers. The work in the fields was never done. Slacking off only meant putting today's work off until tomorrow; there was no escaping it.

Their crops were at a crucial stage of growth and needed plenty of water every day, so they had to go water them.

Fortunately, most of their fields bordered irrigation channels, so watering was not difficult. Otherwise, that task alone would have been enough to give Zhao Danshi a headache.

Under the blazing morning sun, they thoroughly watered the fields. Zhao Danshi said to Li Ping, "Senior Brother, if this crop turns out well and we make money, should we install an automatic sprinkler system in the fields? Watering vegetables like this all the time is getting a bit too much for me."

Li Ping lifted his head and smiled at him. "Sure. We'll do as you say."

"Our strawberries are almost ready. Should we make a trip to the city to sell some?"

Zhao Danshi checked their strawberries. The variety they had planted could keep bearing fruit from February through July. Though they had not planted much, if they managed them well and gave them enough fertilizer, the harvest would still be decent.

Their family's strawberries had built up quite a reputation. The whole county knew their strawberries were delicious. Other strawberries sold for eighteen or twenty yuan a pound, while theirs sold for thirty yuan a pound and people still rushed to buy them.

These days, they had not sold many strawberries, only sending some into town with their vegetables every other market day.

Now that the weather had warmed up, a new round of strawberries had begun to fruit. They could harvest forty or fifty pounds at a time. The town market was too small to handle all their strawberries, and Zhao Danshi felt they should make a trip to the county seat. It had been a while since they had gone there anyway, and they could take Dou Dou along for a visit.

Li Ping came over to take a look. "Quite a few really have ripened, but wouldn't it be a little uneconomical to go to the county seat now? We'd waste a whole day just for these strawberries. There are only about fifty or sixty pounds ripe at a time. Even at thirty yuan a pound, that would only be fifteen hundred yuan."

Zhao Danshi could tell from his expression that he already had an idea, so he asked, "Senior Brother, do you have something in mind?"

"Why don't we sell these strawberries to a fruit shop in the county seat? We may not have much, but new ones ripen every day. A supply of fifty or sixty pounds at a time should be manageable for one fruit shop. The wholesale price would be a little lower, but it would be steady, save labor, and keep us from having to sell them ourselves every time."

Zhao Danshi glanced at the strawberries. "It's a good idea, but if the price is below twenty yuan a pound, we'll lose money. And what if they only want to restock every few days instead of every day?"

"What are you worrying about?" Li Ping rubbed his head. "We'll know once we ask. There's always a way when we get there."

"Our strawberries are better quality than most strawberries on the market. As long as the fruit shop owner has an eye for quality, they won't refuse our supply. Doesn't the village chief's nephew drive a minivan to the county seat every day to take passengers? We can pick the strawberries early and have him bring them along when he goes."

Li Ping smiled. "Even if we really can't sell them, it's no big deal. Didn't Watcher say it would give you recipes? We can turn any unsold strawberries into candied strawberries. They'll keep for a long time. At worst, once the Taobao store opens, we can produce and sell them ourselves. Look at imported candied strawberries—aren't they all over a hundred yuan a pound? We can make a profit selling candied fruit directly too."

After hearing that, Zhao Danshi looked at the strawberry plots as though he were looking at piles of cash, and his eyes brightened.

"Then it's settled. After we finish filming today, we'll take them to the city tomorrow and see whether we can find a fruit shop willing to wholesale our strawberries."

"Let's go. The fields are watered well enough. We'll head back and stir-fry the stone snails, then come back this afternoon to add some fertilizer."

"Let's pick some sweet potato leaves to eat too. It's been quite a while since we had them."

Zhao Danshi did as he said and picked a large bundle of sweet potato leaves to bring home.

By the time they returned, the old man had almost finished clipping off the tails of the stone snails. Li Ping hurried inside to get the camera and filmed the old man.

The old man held large pliers in one hand and a stone snail in the other, snipping off one tail after another. Before long, a large pile had accumulated in the basin. He had worked hard his entire life and did everything efficiently. Even while clipping the stone snails, he still had time to make faces and amuse Dou Dou.

Li Ping could not help recording the interaction between grandfather and grandson, planning to cut it out during editing and keep it privately as a memento.

Smelling the fragrance of the bone broth, Zhao Danshi asked, "Grandpa, how many stone snails still need clipping?"

"Hehe. Almost done. Once you've cut up the side ingredients and prepared the seasonings, I'll have these washed clean and sent over."

Zhao Danshi had deliberately changed into nicer clothes for the video. In Li Ping's camera, he looked tall, slim, and exceptionally handsome. Even when he reached into the jar of sour bamboo shoots to scoop some out, it was impossible to look away.

He moved the cutting board beneath a tree, laid out several porcelain plates, drew water from the press well into a wooden basin to wash everything clean, then sliced the pork belly, sour bamboo shoots, dried chilies, bird's eye chilies, ginger, garlic, and other ingredients one by one. He arranged them on plates, then set out sand ginger, star anise, black cardamom, bay leaves, and the rest.

He brought the pork belly and fatty pork into the kitchen and put them into a dry wok. Once all the fat had rendered out, the pork belly and fatty pork had turned into cracklings, releasing an intoxicating aroma.

Zhao Danshi scooped out the cracklings, then quickly stir-fried the sour bamboo shoots, bird's eye chilies, ginger, garlic, scallion knots, and other ingredients in the rendered pork fat. Once their fragrance came out, the old man sent over the stone snails, and Zhao Danshi tossed them into the wok with a loud sizzle.

With hot oil and fierce flames, waves of fragrance soon began to spread.