I Have a Countryside Gourmet Restaurant

Chapter 397: Chapter 353: Going to Taoyuan Village to Get Fish (2)

The Wuchang Fish gets its name from Wuchang in E Province.

However, this doesn’t refer to the Wuchang that is one of the three towns of modern-day Wuhan, but rather the ancient Wuchang—what is now Ezhou.

The origin of its name can be traced back to the end of the Three Kingdoms period. At the time, the Sovereign of the Wu Kingdom, Sun Hao, wanted to move the capital from Jianye to Wuchang, a proposal that was met with fierce opposition from some of his ministers.

Among them, the Left Minister composed a folk rhyme to dissuade King Wu from moving the capital: ”Rather drink the waters of Jianye than eat the fish of Wuchang. Rather die and return to Jianye than stop and reside in Wuchang.”

And so, the name ”Wuchang Fish” was passed down, and it now has a history of over 1,700 years.

However, what truly made the Wuchang Fish famous throughout the land was a line from a great man’s poem: ”Having just drunk the waters of Changsha, I now eat the fish of Wuchang.”

Li You was very interested in the Wuchang Fish. Like mandarin fish and perch, it was perfectly suited for steaming.

’Ling Xiaoru said someone is selling this fish at her village entrance?’

’Has she already gotten back to the village?’

”Have you made it back to the village?” Li You asked.

Over the phone, Ling Xiaoru replied, ”Just got here. As soon as I entered the village, I saw someone selling blunt-snout bream. By the way, this is Wuchang Fish, right?”

”It is indeed. The one and only famous Wuchang Fish.”

”He caught it himself in the river. Our village has a river, too. He figured this kind of fish is pretty rare around here, so he thought he’d see if he could sell it.”

’So that’s how it is.’

’There are wild Wuchang Fish in the rivers here now? That really is quite rare.’

”How big are the fish? How much is he selling them for per pound?”

”There are two, about the same size, both around two pounds. He’s selling them for 20 yuan a pound.”

Around two pounds was a decent size. And 20 yuan a pound wasn’t expensive either.

’I should buy them.’

So, Li You said into the phone, ”Okay. Go ahead and buy them. Bring them back, and we’ll steam them.”

”Okay, I’ll buy them then. Are they easy to keep alive? I won’t be leaving until tomorrow morning. It should be fine to keep them alive until then, right?”

”Shouldn’t be a problem. This type of fish isn’t too delicate.”

’Logically, it shouldn’t be an issue. But if they ended up dying, it would be a real shame.’

’Wuchang Fish were indeed quite a rarity around here.’

’While you could still eat a fish that had just died, the texture would be much worse.’

So, Li You thought for a moment and said, ”How about this? I’ll come over to get them now. Wait for me there. I’ll arrive in about 20 minutes.”

’It would be safer to just make the trip and get them myself.’

’It was about 15 kilometers from here. Twenty minutes should be more than enough time.’

When Ling Xiaoru heard that Li You was coming to get them now, she was delighted. ”Great! I’ll wait for you here then. Take your time and be safe, there’s no rush.”

”Alright, see you in a bit.”

”See you in a bit.”

After hanging up, Li You wasted no time. He filled a special fish tank with some water, placed it in the storage box on the back of his motorcycle, and set off.

Although he had never been to Taoyuan Village, he knew the way.

First, he had to go to town, follow one of the town roads for a while, and then turn south onto the road that led to Taoyuan Village and the others.

Li You had now made the turn. The road was similar to the one from his restaurant to town; though not wide, it was paved with concrete, smooth and easy to travel on.

After riding for another ten minutes or so, he felt he should be nearing the vicinity of Taoyuan Village.

As expected, after riding a little further, he saw Ling Xiaoru’s figure in the distance, along with her electric scooter. She had ridden it back home.

Besides Ling Xiaoru, there were a few other people. Among them was an old man, likely in his sixties, sitting on a small stool with a bucket in front of him.

’This old man must be the one selling the Wuchang Fish.’

The two Wuchang Fish were in the bucket.

’As for the other people, they were probably just here to watch the goings-on and shoot the breeze.’

Someone selling fish here wasn’t a daily occurrence. Now that it was happening, it naturally attracted a small crowd of onlookers.

While Li You was sizing up the scene, Ling Xiaoru also saw him arrive from a distance and immediately waved happily in his direction.

Li You rode closer and stopped his motorcycle. Ling Xiaoru walked over, beaming. ”Boss, you’re here.”

Li You nodded. ”Sorry to keep you all waiting.”

Ling Xiaoru shook her head. ”We haven’t been waiting long.”

Then she turned to the old man selling the fish and said, ”Grandpa Haibo, the person who’s here for the fish has arrived.”

The old man selling fish was named Lin Haibo, and he was 65 this year. He usually enjoyed fishing.

Today, while fishing in the river, he had unexpectedly caught two Wuchang Fish.

This made him very happy.

This was because this type of fish was rare around here, a real delicacy with delicious meat.

That meant he could try to sell these two fish for a bit of money.

’Rarity makes things valuable, after all. If they were crucian carp or common carp, no one in the village would likely buy them. But this kind of fish was a different story.’

’So, he decided to give it a try. He’d just set up shop at the village entrance and see.’

As it turned out, he had only just set up when Xiaoru, from Ling Zhi’s family, returned to the village. She was pleasantly surprised when she saw the two Wuchang Fish.

After asking how much he was selling them for per pound, she took out her phone and made a call.

’From what he could overhear of the girl’s conversation, she was asking the person on the other end if they wanted the fish.’

’The result was obvious: the person on the phone said yes.’

This made the girl Xiaoru very happy.

Lin Haibo himself was, of course, also thrilled. He hadn’t expected to sell both fish so quickly.

’It seemed like that girl Xiaoru hadn’t been back in a while. And today, the very day he set up his stall to sell fish, he just happened to run into her on her return.’

’He had to admit, his luck was pretty good.’