Chapter 440: The Girl Who Could Communicate with Fish
Back when Qin Shi was in Sichuan, he had worked as a kitchen assistant in a restaurant, learning Sichuan cuisine. After mastering it, he heard that the Jiangnan region was home to an extremely famous style of cooking known as Huaiyang cuisine. It was said that even Emperor Qianlong, during his southern tours, had praised it endlessly after tasting it. Inspired, Qin Shi decided to travel by water to the Suzhou–Hangzhou area, hoping to find a Huaiyang master and apprentice himself to them.
Unfortunately, he encountered a band of river pirates along the way, and through a twist of fate, ended up drifting to the shores of Dongting Lake.
After this ordeal, he developed a bit of psychological shadow about continuing on to Suzhou and Hangzhou. With no clear idea of what to do next, he shamelessly chose to remain by Dongting Lake, taking things one step at a time.
Peony was an unmarried young woman, and Qin Shi naturally could not sully the reputation of his lifesaving benefactor without cause. Yet aside from Peony, he truly knew no one else, so he built a humble hut near her home. The two interacted frequently in their daily lives.
Peony was a girl with an exceptionally easygoing temperament. To help the Qin Shi who had wandered into this place better integrate into local life, she would often come by in her spare time to talk with him and teach him the local Hunan dialect. Although their dialects differed, the written characters were the same, so learning posed little difficulty.
A few months after Qin Shi arrived at Dongting Lake, the two were already able to communicate in everyday conversation.
In return, Qin Shi taught Peony how to read, write, and do arithmetic. Though she was just a village girl, literacy and some basic numeracy were always useful.
Peony herself was illiterate, but she was very skilled at needlework. By doing embroidery for others or washing clothes in exchange for silver, she could ensure food and clothing and even save a small amount of money. After Qin Shi began teaching her to read, she would occasionally bring some pork or a few liters of rice, laughing as she said it was her "shuxiu" (tuition for a teacher), when in truth she was helping support Qin Shi, who had yet to fully integrate into village life.
All of this unfolded under Qi Han's witness.
Seasons passed in the blink of an eye; cold came and heat went, and before long, three years had gone by.
To Qi Han's perception, it felt like only an instant had passed, yet every little detail of those three years was vividly displayed before his eyes.
Clearly, for the cooking of Peony Fish Fillet, these memories were not particularly important—but they weren't skipped entirely either. Instead, they were presented in a blurred way, giving Qi Han a distorted sense of time.
This miraculous phenomenon was somewhat akin to the saying, "One day in the heavens equals a year in the mortal world."
Three years later, Qin Shi had fully integrated into life by Dongting Lake. Relying on the Sichuan cuisine skills he'd learned back in Sichuan, he opened a small eatery in the village. Although the local Hunan villagers had never tasted Sichuan dishes before, both cuisines favored spiciness, so there were points of common ground. Moreover, Sichuan cuisine was rare around Dongting Lake, and his business gradually began to flourish.
Though he made some money, Qin Shi never considered leaving his thatched hut. Instead, he quietly tore it down, hired the village well-digger to build a well, and constructed a wooden house with a central hall and courtyard well. Peony teased him for not moving somewhere more spacious even after making money, and he would only smile and say he was used to living here and couldn't bear to leave.
Only Qi Han knew his secret.
What he couldn't bear to leave wasn't the place—it was the people here.
Every time Qin Shi stood before Peony, Qi Han could clearly feel how fast the heart of this calm-faced youth—who seemed as if nothing mattered—was beating.
And Peony remained just as innocent and carefree as she had been three years earlier. At eighteen or nineteen, the girl had grown into a graceful young woman. With her figure fully developed, she appeared even more slender and alluring, becoming a famed beauty within ten li of the area. Matchmakers seeking her hand stretched from the head of the village to the tail—and then had to loop around again.
Her parents had died of illness when she was young, so she had no need to worry about parental arrangements. Whenever matchmakers came to propose, she would politely decline, saying she didn't wish to marry yet. After several such refusals, fewer matchmakers came, but village gossip began to spread instead.
One rumor claimed that she had an improper relationship with that outsider surnamed Qin.
Another said that she was bewitchingly beautiful and spoke to fish every day—perhaps she was some kind of monster in disguise.
Yes—observing this girl through Qin Shi's eyes, the very girl who spent her days and nights with him and whose name was so closely tied to Peony Fish Fillet, Qi Han quickly discovered what set her apart from others.
Every time she went to the shores of Dongting Lake to wash clothes, after finishing the laundry she would hug her knees and sit by the lakeside, teasing and feeding the fish for a while, chatting to them on her own.
And precisely because she loved fish so much, although Peony was not averse to meat, she never ate fish.
From the perspective of a modern person and an outside observer, Qi Han could actually understand Peony very well. After all, the girl had lost her parents at a young age and had no other relatives. She could only steel herself and struggle on for a living. When she encountered troubles, she had no one to confide in, and over time she came to treat the fish as her listeners. Little by little, it became a habit—the fish in the lake became her emotional outlet.
But in an era when literacy and education were far from widespread, villagers were ignorant.
How could a person communicate with fish?
With such thoughts in mind, coupled with the petty jealousy of some small-minded people toward Peony's pure and refined beauty, malicious slander gradually arose. Rumors were used as weapons, turning a kind, ill-fated girl into something monstrous.
The truth never leaves the door; rumors travel a thousand li.
Of course, Qi Han was merely an observer of that era. He couldn't even control the body, let alone help the girl.
…
"Peony, you're talking to the fish again?"
Qin Shi strolled over and sat down boldly beside Peony. Watching the fish by the lakeside occasionally poke their heads out to eat the feed Peony tossed them, he sneaked a few glances at her before quickly turning his head away again. "The rumors in the village are getting more and more unbearable."
"It's fine. I don't hurt people, and the fish don't hurt people. Let them talk," Peony said, her gaze lingering on a small fish that had been squeezed out by others while competing for food. She smiled and tossed it some extra feed, then sighed softly. "You people from Sichuan don't eat fish. I imagine the fish born in Sichuan must be much happier than the ones here."
Qin Shi coughed lightly, raising a hand to cover his slightly burning cheeks. "Yeah… the fish over our way—each and every one of them is really big."
Qi Han very cooperatively burst into pig-snorting laughter.
After learning that Peony loved fish deeply and never ate them, Qin Shi also stopped eating fish. He even refused to sell fish dishes at his Sichuan restaurant, declaring to the outside world that Sichuan people never ate fish, and therefore Sichuan cuisine had no fish.
Fortunately, the surrounding area was nothing but remote villages. Aside from Qin Shi himself, there wasn't a second Sichuan native around—so who was going to contradict him?
A top-tier simp, through and through.
As for the claim that Sichuan cuisine had no fish…
Boiled Fish Fillets would be the first to object.
Douhua Fish, Qiangguo Fish, and Guoshui Fish would also lodge their protests.
"If I could go to Sichuan just once in this lifetime, I'd be satisfied," Peony murmured, her face tinged with longing.
Qin Shi opened his mouth, the words "I'll take you there" just about to spill out—only for him to suddenly feel a pang of guilt.
If Peony found out that Sichuan people also loved eating fish, she'd probably be angry with him.
He turned his head to look at Peony, who was still intently watching the fish. Clearing his throat, Qin Shi swallowed the words that were about to leave his lips. "Um…"
"Yes?"
"What… did the fish say to you?"
"Them?" Peony smiled faintly. Her gaze swept over the fish constantly surfacing and blowing bubbles in the lake, then lifted to the sky. A distant look appeared in her eyes.
"They told me… it's going to rain—really heavy rain."
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