Fish Head and Tofu

Tears fell one by one onto the quilt. Even she could not say what she was thinking at that moment.

Outside, she could hear her grandma chattering away, setting her grandpa to work before getting busy herself without a moment's rest.

Lin Er tucked the money into the magic book. As long as it wasn't on a blank page, she didn't have to worry about it being transported away.

Her family didn't have pajamas at the time. The clothes they changed into after bathing one day were the ones they wore the next, so all they had to do after getting up was comb their hair, brush their teeth, and wash their faces.

The morning was still a little chilly. She rode her broom from the courtyard platform to haul in her fishing net. The Disillusionment Charm worked quite well in the half-darkness.

She had set the net upstream, where a short stretch of rocky cliff overlooked a deep pool. Even when the river stopped flowing, the pool remained so deep that its bottom was nowhere in sight.

Nobody could set nets or electrofish there, because there was simply no way to get to it. Fishing wasn't convenient either: the level ground on the opposite bank was too far away for an ordinary rod to cast that far.

Lin Er always rode her broom to set and retrieve the net. Even though it was battered and full of holes, she had never come back empty-handed.

She kept the live ones in a bucket of water in her schoolbag and took the dead ones home to feed the cat.

Her family had taken in a stray tabby, though perhaps their home was just one of the cat's haunts. They normally saw her only once every few days, but when there was fish in the house, she would stay a few days longer.

Ever since Lin Er had been reborn, the cat had shown signs of settling down. Every time Lin Er came back to boil water with the immersion heater, she tossed the dead fish onto the platform, and the cat had come to regard it as a regular food spawn point.

She had good luck today: three yellow catfish, two crucian carp, and a few small white fish. With some chili peppers, she could stir-fry them into a dish.

Lin Er rode her wand to the opposite bank. The sky was gradually brightening, and she couldn't very well fly straight home over the fields now. The Disillusionment Charm would frighten people.

She set the new net here too, where she didn't have to worry about losing it.

As she crossed the bridge, Lin Er spotted some river snails in the water. She gathered a small basinful, then cast Scourgify on them.

The moss on the snails vanished at once. Lin Er turned to look at the snails in the river, her eyes shining.

Unfortunately, the snails were alive, so she couldn't use the Summoning Charm. Otherwise, how many snails could she have gathered in one go?

This was how magic was meant to be used. Thanks to the Bone-Vanishing Spell, she could even share fish with the little friend now.

She had remembered that spell in the first place because someone online had said they couldn't imagine how useful it would be for making boneless chicken feet.

Actually, it was also excellent for removing fish bones. Who said fish bones weren't bones?

Carrying a net bag full of clean, large river snails home was bound to attract attention.

Once it was light in the countryside, almost every household opened its doors. Quite a few people saw Lin Er returning from the river.

As she passed Third Grandma's house, an uncle there was openly scornful.

"Why did you pick up so many of those things? They'll crawl into the drainage ditch and end up everywhere!"

Lin Er thought about it. People around here didn't seem to eat much in the way of river snails or crayfish at this time. She had once caught crayfish with her friends, and whenever she took them home, Grandma threw them away.

That was because they ate carrion, and the puddle where the village dumped dead chickens and pigs had the most of them. Who knew whether the ones in the ponds had crawled out of there?

Even when people did eat them, they removed the shells and stir-fried only the crayfish meat. It took a whole bucketful to make a single plate, so they wouldn't bother with fewer; it wasn't worth the effort.

So she didn't say she was taking them home to eat.

"I saw loads of them in a pool, so I brought them back to crack open and feed to the chickens!"

After that, nobody was curious anymore. Nothing children did was strange, and she was finding food for the family's chickens, so it wasn't a bad thing.

Because of that, she didn't dare take the snails back where Grandma Lin could see them. She only put the fish in the rainwater jar, then went to the new house.

She was going back to school that afternoon, so she planned to keep the snails for a few days and let them purge their sand before cooking them.

Lin Er covered the plastic basin with a sieve, then went upstairs to rummage through things again. She had gotten up early today and flown out from upstairs, so her younger sister hadn't caught her.

Now she needed to find something to placate her, or she would have to listen to her crying and shouting before school.

She also needed an excuse to bring out the newly bought clothes. If they didn't wear them soon, summer would be over.

She sorted out a big bundle of clothes her grandparents could wear in autumn and winter, along with the clothes she had bought. As soon as she dragged it back to the old house, Grandma Lin scolded her.

"You don't do your homework or any chores. You went out at daybreak, and nobody's seen you since. You're off running wild all day! Where did you drag that big bundle back from now? Don't go picking up every old thing and bringing it home!"

Around here, people only bundled up someone's things and threw them out when an elderly person in the family died. Bringing such things home was bad luck.

"I didn't pick them up. I took them from the second floor of the new house. These clothes have just been piled up there unworn, and summer's almost over!"

She took out a straw mat and spread it in the courtyard. When she tipped the bundle of clothes onto it, she caught Grandma Lin's attention.

"How come I don't remember these clothes being upstairs?"

Grandma Lin's younger sister did bring over some clothes she no longer wore, but many of them weren't suitable for working in the countryside.

Besides, the children in the two families were too far apart in age, so the children here couldn't wear many of the clothes either. In the end, they had all been piled up in the storeroom.

"Maybe there was a bundle you never emptied out and looked through properly. Anyway, I looked through them, and we can all wear them!"

She was only a child. Apart from finding the clothes on the second floor of their house, where else could she have gotten them?

Grandma Lin's doubts gradually turned toward her own memory. She picked up a few pieces and looked them over, and soon convinced herself.

"Then your grandaunt must have picked these out and packed them up specially. Look, all these clothes are just right for our family. You must remember how good your grandaunt has been to you, and look after her when you grow up!"

Lin Er kept her head down as she helped an immensely excited Lin Huihui try on clothes. Grandma Lin paid no attention to whether she agreed or not.

She picked up one piece after another, her face full of delight. Every item in the bundle really was well suited to someone in the family.

There were also quite a few winter clothes. They wouldn't even need to buy clothes for the New Year this time.

At noon, Lin Er ate two pieces of fish head. The silver carp she had brought back yesterday had been cut into a basinful of pieces and salted.

Tomorrow, they could leave it in a shady, breezy spot until it was half-dried. It would have the flavor of cured fish and last them several days.

The head didn't keep well, so they stewed it with fried tofu today.

The tofu, soaked through with broth, was unbelievably delicious. Lin Er saved a little to share with her little friend, who sent her a small, beautiful bunch of thistles in return. The thorns had all been stripped from the stems, and the flowers had been tied into a bouquet with newspaper.

Her young pen pal had a much harder life than she did. Because they had trouble communicating, all she knew was that his family consisted of just his parents.

Neither of them paid him much attention. His father also liked to beat his mother and hated wizards.

Lin Er frowned. A seven-year-old child wasn't even getting enough to eat. That went beyond dislike; surely it was hatred.

But it also made her suspicious about where her pen pal lived. As she recalled, hadn't foreign countries passed laws against the physical punishment of children? The only difference between his family and one that had abandoned him was that they still left him a place to sleep.

Didn't government officials intervene even in a case like this?