Yang Dachuan wiped his sweat and saw his daughter looking serious, so he nodded, "Alright then, I’ll clear some land in the field this afternoon, and go to town tomorrow."
"What are you two whispering about?" Ms. Wang took out two clothes to mend from the house, and saw the father and daughter chatting through the window.
"Mom, I was discussing with Dad how we should have this fish for lunch!" Fearing that Ms. Wang would object, Yang Chuxia kept the actual plan a secret for now. When she turned her head, she winked at Yang Dachuan, signaling him not to reveal it yet.
"Fish?" Ms. Wang came out and saw that there were indeed quite a few fish in the small barrel, about twenty or so. However, the fish were not very big—the largest ones were only about the size of a palm. "Wow, how did you get so many fish?"
"My second brother and I just went to catch them." Yang Chuxia poked the barrel of fish a couple of times and said, "Mom, let’s make fish soup for lunch instead of boiling corn porridge. Corn porridge with pancakes is good for filling our stomachs."
"Alright! I’ll go to Aunt Wang next door to borrow some green onions and ginger slices. Fish soup needs green onions and ginger to get rid of the fishy smell." Saying that, Ms. Wang put down the clothes in her hands, picked up the barrel of fish, and said, "By the way, Xiaxia, do you want to give some to the principal wife?"
"What?" Yang Chuxia thought she had heard wrong, "My dear mother, they want to poison your daughter, and now you want me to take fish to them? You might as well just kill me because the thought of it makes me sick."
"But there’s your grandfather, you should always show respect."
Yang Chuxia rolled her eyes. She didn’t have any good feelings towards Old Yang, "Grandfather doesn’t lack food, my step-grandmother wouldn’t withhold food from him. Mom, don’t worry about it."
Ms. Wang still felt it wasn’t right for the younger generation to eat alone, but due to her daughter’s account of last night’s incident, she lost the will to insist.
"Forget it, let’s just eat it ourselves. I’ll go to Aunt Wang’s."
As Ms. Wang was about to leave, Yang Qingrui came home with a basket, "Mom, sister, I’m back. I gave the fish to Grandpa and Grandma, and they even gave us some green onions and ginger slices."
"Oh, that’s great! We don’t need to borrow from next door then." Ms. Wang took the basket from Yang Qingrui, laughed, and said, "You two are really sensible to send some to your grandparents."
Yang Chuxia shrugged, "Mom, we’re not overly sensible." She glanced out the window and spoke louder, "It’s just that some people have no idea what they’re doing. This family separation is a big deal. In my opinion, we should invite the clan elders and the Land Officer for a meal, right? But they’re all pretending not to know. These elders act oblivious, so we, the younger ones, can’t take the lead. We can only send them such little things to express our goodwill. Mom, there are still some fish in this small barrel. You can divide them up later and let my brothers take them to the elders’ homes. It’s just enough to add a dish to their lunch."
After she finished speaking, she heard footsteps outside the window and snorted.
"Ah, Dachuan, Xiaxia is right, we should have a meal for this family separation. Even if the principal wife doesn’t invite them, we should. It’s just that we can’t afford to treat them well at the moment and have nothing decent to offer to our guests."
Yang Dachuan thought for a moment and said, "Then do as Xiaxia said, send the fish for now, and we’ll make up for the proper invitation later."
With that, Ms. Wang went to find some thin rope, divided the fish into several portions, strung them up, and asked Yang Qingrui to deliver them.