Educated Youth in the Countryside: She is the Village's Embroidery Queen!-Chapter 291: Broad-Minded

"How else can abalone be cooked? Isn’t it just like shrimp, boiled or steamed?"

Yang Qing looked puzzled. Tong Nian paused for a moment and couldn’t help saying, "Don’t you even bother to ask? There are a lot of ways to cook abalone."

Tong Nian’s hometown is in the coastal area of Fujian. She has been dealing with the ocean since childhood. She knows very well how to eat and make seafood delicious.

Yi Chichi comes from a future where consulting is advanced, and as a theoretical master of talk, she knows even more than Tong Nian.

But since Tong Nian had already started teaching Yang Qing how to cook abalone, she chose to stay silent, just like Ji Jian, and appeared to be listening earnestly.

Yang Qing listened even more intently, occasionally asking a question.

After Tong Nian talked about the methods of cooking abalone, she also asked about the ways to cook fish, shrimp, crabs, shellfish, and conches.

Then, with a belly full of learnt recipes, she sighed, "No wonder my Old Huang loves eating at the canteen and even advises me to eat there too. Turns out my cooking methods were all wrong."

"Let him cook himself."

Ji Jian was quick with words and offered a suggestion almost immediately as she finished speaking.

"He also cooks, but most of the time he doesn’t have time."

Expecting Old Huang to cook her three meals a day would starve her to death.

It’s common for him not to return home for ten or fifteen days, and incidents of being away for two or three months are not unheard of.

So, "I’d better rely on myself."

That said, she urged, "Hurry up, let’s pick more abalones and go home. I want to show off my skills tonight."

This is doable.

So, the four of them headed straight to the shallow areas near the reef clusters, first picking abalones, then prying oysters.

The ocean resources of this era are indeed plentiful, and unlike in the future, many marine creatures are not protected species.

Take the grouper for example; it’s a protected species, and if you catch one, you have to release it immediately.

Take it home to eat or sell for money?

Perhaps, as long as no one sees and reports it, the problem isn’t severe. But if someone finds out and reports it, it’ll be a big deal.

The same goes for conches.

Look, Ji Jian picked up a tiger-striped shell, boasting happily, "Look at the shell I picked! It’s so pretty."

"It’s nice, and tasty too."

Tong Nian had picked and eaten them before, so she spoke with authority.

Looking back, Yi Chichi instantly recognized it as a tiger-striped shell, a national second-level protected animal along with conch and top shell in the future.

But in a time when even giant pandas weren’t national first-class protected animals, mentioning this wasn’t wise.

People of this era have no concept of animal protection laws.

So, she could only pretend not to see it, busying herself with prying oysters.

Time ticked away, and soon, the bucket was nearly full.

Yi Chichi checked the time and saw it was getting dark, suggesting, "We should head back."

Ji Jian glanced at his catch and nodded, "It’s time to go back; it’ll be dark soon if we don’t."

"Let’s go."

Tong Nian was a doer; hearing this, she picked up a bucket and left.

Yi Chichi saw this and took Ji Jian’s bucket, "I’ll carry it for you. Old Yang, you help Old Ji."

"Sure."

Yang Qing dumped her bucket onto Tong Nian and supported Ji Jian on the way back.

They hadn’t walked far when she remembered a question, "Why do you call us Old Yang and Old Ji?"

Yi Chichi was taken aback, "Weren’t you the ones who started it? You’ve all been calling me Old Yi, so I’m just returning the favor by calling you Old Yang and Old Ji, is there a problem?!"

Originally, it was just "Sister-in-law."

But with everyone calling each other ’Old this’ and ’Old that,’ it got picked up.

Yang Qing thought for a moment and realized it was true.

"Mainly, the older ones are called ’Sister-in-law,’ the younger ones too, and it’s hard to tell who is who."

Then, the three of them started debating over the issue of how to address each other.

Yi Chichi didn’t chime in, not knowing how to respond, since she hadn’t joined the army yet and was really not familiar with most of the spouses in the residential area.

Calling ’Sister-in-law’ was merely a polite gesture, without any other meaning.

But evidently, Yang Qing and the others didn’t see it this way.

They felt it was disrespectful to them.

"I can’t stand them calling me Sister-in-law Huang. Clearly, my surname is Yang. Just because I married Old Huang doesn’t mean I lose my own surname."

Tong Nian said something fair, "Isn’t it possible that others simply don’t know your surname or given name, so they call you by your husband’s name?"

The reasoning is, every new military spouse to the area didn’t know their neighbors, so they usually called each other by their husband’s last name followed by ’Sister-in-law.’

Because men tend to be less detailed, they wouldn’t ask their comrades what their wife’s name is.

Unless they were particularly close, no introductions were made. Most just followed their comrade’s name with ’Sister-in-law.’

Yang Qing thought about it and found it reasonable.

But she was still indignant, "Not knowing Old Yi’s name and calling her Sister-in-law Wen is still understandable, but calling me like that after I’ve been here for so long feels a bit wrong."

"Not a big deal, just remind them next time they call you like that."

Ji Jian responded, but Yi Chichi still remained silent.

Tong Nian noticed and asked her, "Old Yi, don’t you feel bothered by it?"

"No."

Yi Chichi shook her head, "I can accept whatever people call me."

Names and surnames are hers; how others address her isn’t her concern, as long as she knows who she is.

"You’ve got a big heart after all."

Yang Qing gave her a thumbs up, and Yi Chichi just laughed, "Having a big heart has its advantages; it prevents unnecessary stress over trivial issues."

And it was true.

"I wonder how busy Old Zhang is right now."

Still not done.

Wen Shi, who had been asking around for Yi Chichi on his way home, mentioned that. He took over Yi Chichi’s bucket and calmly said, "When I came over, there was still one person getting bones set."

Tong Nian’s husband was surnamed Lu, with a single-character name, Zhou.

He similarly took the bucket from his wife, and seeing Yang Qing’s worried face, comforted, "Sister-in-law Huang, no need to worry, Old Huang did nothing wrong this time."

If Yi Chichi and the others’ words before left her feeling uneasy, then Lu Zhou’s words totally set her mind at ease. 𝘧𝑟𝑒𝑒𝘸𝘦𝘣𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝓁.𝘤𝘰𝓂

She felt assured.

Then, she returned to her talkative nature, starting to probe Wen Shi and Lu Zhou about the situation in the troops.

But she asked in vain; they were willing to share only common knowledge. Non-common knowledge, not a word was revealed.

Work-related matters were even less likely to be discussed.

They deflected with vague words.

Once they got home, Wen Shi let out a long breath and hugged Yi Chichi, acting coy, "Wife, you’re the best."

"Hmm?"

Her hair had come loose, strands clinging to her neck, causing some discomfort. Hearing his voice, she tidied her hair, waiting for an explanation.

Wen Shi didn’t hesitate, "You never ask about my work."

Yi Chichi understood; he was annoyed that Yang Qing was probing them for inside information.

She chuckled, "I know about the confidentiality clause."

Wen Shi acknowledged with a sound and asked her, "Rice or noodles for dinner?"

"Noodles."

Quick and hassle-free; cooking rice involves prepping, which is troublesome.

"Alright."

Then, the couple went to the kitchen. While busy, Wen Shi asked her, "How much embroidery did you do today?"

"Chi Jiaojiao’s piece is almost finished."

"After finishing, will you embroider the tiger and leopard?"

"I’ll check if the custom embroidery frame is done tomorrow."

The previous frame’s size wasn’t suitable for embroidering the tiger and leopard piece.

The piece was too large, and holding it by hand was inconvenient.