Phi-Fic Chapter 57 Summer and Spicy Crayfish
Chapter 57 Summer and Spicy Crayfish
In mid-July, sunlight filtered through the dense grape leaves, illuminating the garden surrounded by grapevines. The vines, which were expected to flourish next year, had grown full of leaves in just four months, with a few sparse bunches of grapes already hanging on the trellis.
Fortunately, the school was already on holiday when they started bearing fruit; unfortunately, two groups of people had already set their sights on them. The day they ripened would be the day they were eaten.
The summer of 1995 wasn't as hot as it would be later; a cool breeze always provided relief from the heat. Li Aiguo only bought three electric fans and placed them in the vineyard, and the vineyard was quite cool.
The students, who had already finished their midday nap, were already playing in the No. 6 Garden - Vineyard that Yufei had developed. Yufei had originally planned to prepare two game tables, which would have been enough for all of them, but when Yufei's group of six arrived, both game tables were already surrounded by adults and children.
Even the table she had prepared for playing ping-pong wasn't spared; a group of gamers brought their own stools and set up a game on the table, making the small vineyard surprisingly lively.
"Yufei! Yufei! Over here!" It was Xu Junyi and his group, who had already teamed up with the others for the game. Seeing Yufei and her friends approaching, they waved enthusiastically to invite them over.
Lin Biao and Jiang Yifeng walked ahead, eager to join them immediately. Jiang Nanhong, like a little adult, stayed by Yufei and the others' side, not in a hurry to go over. Yufei and Zhao Jing watched Lin Biao and Jiang Yifeng's eagerness from behind and laughed at them.
"Look, they're getting anxious, they're getting anxious, their butts are on fire!"
Lin Tiantian covered her mouth, laughing so hard she could barely breathe, and managed to get to Xu Junyi and the others with Yufei and the others, without falling behind.
Yufei and Lin Tiantian have been best friends for two lifetimes and they never knew her sense of humor was so low. If she were exposed to jokes from later generations, wouldn't she laugh herself silly?
After arriving at the game table where Xu Junyi and his group were, Lin Biao and his friends joined in the game. However, since they weren't at the table, they had to abide by the rules. The six of them prepared notebooks and were enthusiastically discussing who the werewolves were, who the good guys were, and who the real seer was, without affecting the game played by those at the table.
This rule was set by Yufei after an outsider's discussion of Werewolf broke the true seer's composure. After all, not everyone has the ability to debate with a group of people. After setting the rule, the game environment did improve a lot. You might ask, is Yufei's rule so effective? Doesn't anyone want to break it?
Of course there are, but those who break the rules are asked to leave the vineyard and can never enter again, supervised by a security guard with an exceptionally good memory.
As the birthplace of Werewolf, Vineyard has now become a pilgrimage site for werewolves. Everyone wants to play a few rounds there, as setting up a game at home just doesn't feel quite right.
Furthermore, violating the vineyard rules will result in being ostracized by all the werewolves and banned from playing the game again. This is something that the townspeople, whose werewolf culture is now very strong, find difficult to accept. Therefore, everyone expresses their opinions, declaring themselves law-abiding citizens who will absolutely abide by the vineyard covenant.
This is also the origin of the Vineyard Covenant in later generations.
Yufei and Lin Tiantian discussed it for a while, but seeing that the people playing the game so enthusiastically wouldn't be able to find a seat anytime soon, she was starting to lose interest in arguing with them. These ignorant people—even if they broke down logic into pieces and fed it to her, she still wouldn't understand. And they even muted her! Humph! I'm throwing a tantrum, I'm not watching anymore!
Yufei, still a bit temperamental, left the vineyard. The five people, engrossed in their lively discussion, didn't notice her departure; they were still frantically gesturing with their pen.
Yufei wasn't really angry when she came out; she wasn't that petty. She just felt a bit bored not playing. Stepping out of the shady vineyard and into the direct sunlight, Yufei felt the warmth of summer. Summer is more than just games.
Yufei suddenly remembered something and went home. Liu Meili and Li Aiguo had already gone to play in the vineyard. No one was home, so Yufei went to her spatial dimension. The little dragon flew over, curious as to why its little master had come at this time.
Yufei didn't greet the dragon baby, but hurriedly went to the pond. The fish in the pond were no longer as silly and jumping around as when they first arrived in the space. After Yufei's several raids, they all knew to hide in the water and not come out.
But this didn't stump Yufei. Her spatial bait was incredibly effective. However, Yufei's target wasn't the fish in the pond, but rather the group of lobsters baring their claws and fangs on the edge of the pond.
If you ask what goes best with summer, Yufei thinks it's fiery hot crayfish. Yufei wants to make spicy crayfish later.
The crayfish in the space didn't require Yufei to dig for earthworms or fish; she caught them one after another. With such an abundance of crayfish, Yufei had initially worried that the pond would overflow, since crayfish are burrowing creatures.
I don't know how the space itself is handled, but so far there hasn't been any problem. Yufei told Longbao, and Longbao told Yufei not to worry, so that's fine.
Yufei brought a large bucket filled with lobsters the size of an adult's arm to the kitchen of the space, then left the space to find a toothbrush in the washroom.
Back in her room, Yufei started washing and cleaning in the kitchen. The other teachers were nowhere to be seen. Yufei finished processing a whole bucket of crayfish, but no one came to help her yet.
Yufei looked at the bucket of crayfish and pondered. In her past life, around 2000, crayfish began to sweep across the entire university.
Who would have thought that this thing is now one of the biggest pests in their Longyuan Town? It frequently digs holes under the embankment, adding a lot of trouble when the Longyuan River floods.
Later, someone discovered the hobby, and from then on, the lobsters were eaten so much by the people of Daxia that they almost became extinct, and now they have to be farmed.
Folic acid indirectly solved a major problem in Longyuan Town.
Yufei loved eating lobster in her past life; she had tried all kinds of lobster flavors.
She's not struggling with not knowing how to cook, but rather with deciding which flavor of crayfish to release first, because it would be more fun to cook and eat different flavors each time.
In the end, Yufei chose braised shrimp and spicy crayfish. Spicy crayfish is a classic snack from Xiangcheng, and she felt she would be letting down her Xiangcheng roots if she didn't make it.
As for making braised shrimp, it was just something she thought about. She also wanted to make braised dishes later, so she figured she'd use up the braising liquid all at once. The sooner she made the braising liquid, the better, as it would become more and more fragrant over time. Aged braising liquid could bring out the aroma of the ingredients even more, so she made braised shrimp the first batch of lobsters she wanted to try.
Unfortunately, the spice compartment only provided cinnamon, and even that was from a cinnamon tree sapling in the school garden. Yufei didn't have any of the other spices, but she had already gathered them on her trip to the general store street in Longyang Town.
She had studied braising spices when she made braised food in her past life. Through repeated trials, she finally managed to create a braising sauce that closely resembled the styles of Zhou Xiaoya, Juewei, and other brands from Xiangcheng.