Chapter 78: Fish to Catch, Business to Run
Hearing this, Li You said apologetically, "Uncle Guodong, everyone, I’m very sorry. We’re out of tofu today, so there’s no Mapo Tofu."
Oh, I see.
Lin Guodong was disappointed. He had been eager to show everyone what truly delicious Mapo Tofu tasted like.
It seemed they would have to find out another time.
The others, including Lin Zhonghai, were equally disappointed.
After hearing Lin Guodong rave yesterday about how incredible the Mapo Tofu here was, they were really looking forward to trying it.
But since there was no tofu today, there was nothing to be done.
They would just have to try it some other day.
Meanwhile, the teachers—Chu Yiwei, Lin Xin, Zhang Qinghe, and the others—thought to themselves, ’What? The owner serves Mapo Tofu now?’
’And from what this uncle is saying, it sounds like something happened here yesterday?’
’We didn’t come yesterday. Did we miss something?’
"Owner, did something happen here yesterday?" Chu Yiwei asked.
Li You smiled faintly. "It wasn’t anything major. We just all made some tofu together..."
Li You briefly explained what had happened the day before.
After hearing the story, the teachers all looked incredibly regretful.
Something so interesting, and they had wanted to be a part of it!
What a shame.
"Owner, will you be grinding beans and making tofu again in the future?" Chu Yiwei asked again.
Li You nodded. "I probably will."
The teachers’ eyes all lit up. They hoped they wouldn’t miss it next time.
"Young man, in that case, we’ll have the twice-cooked pork today. Bring us ten orders. Five with garlic sprouts and five with green peppers," Lin Guodong said.
Since they were already here, they weren’t about to leave just because there was no Mapo Tofu.
No Mapo Tofu meant they would have the twice-cooked pork.
Besides, they hadn’t yet tried the young man’s twice-cooked pork.
Li You smiled. "Alright, no problem."
With that, he walked into the kitchen.
A short while later, five orders of twice-cooked pork with garlic sprouts and five with green peppers were ready.
He served them to the customers, along with a large basin of rice.
Smelling the fragrant aroma of the twice-cooked pork, Lin Guodong and his group eagerly dug in.
After one bite, they exclaimed that with twice-cooked pork this delicious, getting to eat Mapo Tofu suddenly seemed less important.
Of course, that was just a thought. They definitely still wanted to have the Mapo Tofu.
By now, it was almost 12:00 PM.
Li You decided it was time for his own lunch.
’I’ll make some shredded potato stir-fry.’ He was craving it.
Soon, a plate of shredded potato stir-fry was ready.
He began to eat as well.
After the teachers, along with Lin Guodong, Lin Zhonghai, and the others, finished their meals, they all sat and chatted for a while before leaving one after another.
Li You finished his meal too.
He tidied up.
Afterward, he went out to the orchard, found a suitable spot, and planted the persimmon tree he had dug up on his way back earlier.
Side Quest "Orchard in Front of the Shop (II)": First fruit tree type completed. Four more to go.
’When I go fishing later, I’ll keep a close eye out on the way. I might find something else.’
Back in the shop, there were no customers for the time being.
’No point in waiting for more customers then. Time to go fishing again.’
This time, he decided to leave a sign.
Li You found a piece of cardboard and wrote on it: "The owner has gone fishing. Closed for now."
Then he found a piece of string and hung it on the door.
He closed the shop door, picked up his bucket, and headed toward the gorge again.
This time, he would go a bit farther and try a different deep pool.
Along the way, Li You kept an eye out for any wild fruit trees.
And sure enough, he made a discovery.
In an area he hadn’t passed through that morning, he found a walnut tree.
It was as thick as a person’s calf, over three meters tall, and already bearing fruit.
The walnuts grew in clusters of two, three, or even four, and the yield looked quite good.
Li You wasn’t particularly fond of eating walnuts himself.
However, he was still willing to make it a member of his Hundred Fruit Garden.
Besides, the nutritional value of walnuts was truly high, and eating more of them was great for one’s health.
As the old folk saying goes, "Keep walnuts on hand, and you’ll live to be eighty-nine."
He set down his bucket and took a hoe from the Storage Pavilion.
Time to dig.
Li You was now a bona fide fruit tree poacher; any unfamiliar fruit tree he stumbled upon could not escape his grasp.
A short while later, he successfully dug up the walnut tree.
He stored it in the Storage Pavilion, picked up his bucket, and continued on his way.
Twenty minutes later, he arrived at the edge of another deep pool in the gorge.
This pool was larger than the one from the morning.
About one-fifth larger, in fact.
’I’ll tackle this pool this afternoon. Hopefully, I can catch at least one rare fish.’
He chose a spot and took his fishing rod out of the Storage Pavilion.
And began to fish.
Of course, he was still using the Seven-Orifice Fish Bait.
Five minutes later, he reeled in the first fish.
It was a carp, weighing nearly a pound, with a red tail.
It was a beautiful fish.
Even though it wasn’t a rare species, Li You was still very happy.
He cast his line again.
Two minutes later, another fish was on the line—it was another carp.
’Could it be that this deep pool is full of carp?’
It seemed that was indeed the case.
By the time Li You had caught his tenth fish, seven of them had been carp.
This was a pleasant surprise for Li You.
Carp were not only an excellent ingredient but also a cultural symbol, highly esteemed since ancient times.
Countless scholars and poets had praised them.
The *Book of Odes* says, "To eat fish, it must be the carp of the river," and "Feast with friends, cook turtle and slice carp."
Furthermore, famous great poets like Li Bai, Cen Can, Li Shangyin, and Liu Yuxi had all written poems about carp.
And then there was the cultural legend, passed down for millennia, of a carp transforming into a dragon simply by leaping over the Dragon Gate.
Of course, what Li You most wanted to catch right now wasn’t a carp, but a rare fish.
He kept fishing.
Time passed slowly, and Li You’s catch grew larger and larger.
He had already caught 85 fish.
Combined with the 73 from the morning, his total had reached 158.
But unfortunately, he still hadn’t landed a single rare fish.
’It seems that even with the Seven-Orifice Fish Bait, catching a rare fish isn’t easy.’
’Of course, the more likely possibility is that neither the pool from this morning nor this one actually contains any rare fish.’
’Or if they do, the numbers are extremely small.’
’Perhaps to catch a rare fish, I need to go to those deep pools in remote, untrodden areas.’
But reaching such pools came with a higher degree of risk.
Li You didn’t want to take any chances.
’So, I’ll just keep trying in these pools for now.’
’The quest doesn’t have a time limit, anyway.’
And he himself wasn’t in a desperate hurry to complete the quest immediately.
It was already five in the afternoon.
’Time to call it a day.’ His bucket was full again, too.
Of the 85 fish, at least 60 were carp.
’I must have really found a carp hotspot.’
Although he hadn’t caught any rare fish, looking at the bucket brimming with his haul still filled Li You with joy.
He put the fishing rod back into the Storage Pavilion, picked up his bucket, and headed back.
’When I get back and open the shop, I should be able to get another wave of customers.’
Fishing was great, but business still had to be done.
「...」