Huangfu Yue then announced the third place, "Master Feng, please step forward. Third place is yours." She gave Feng Maoyuan a slight smile.
Although the items Feng Maoyuan found were not particularly outstanding, they were the most in quantity, so awarding him third place should have been uncontroversial.
Feng Maoyuan was overjoyed. With a face full of smiles, he immediately stepped forward and stood out, quickly thanking Huangfu Yue.
"Master Feng, why are you thanking me? It wasn't me who helped you find so many things. You should thank yourself," Huangfu Yue said with a smile.
"Even though I found the items, I must also thank the young lady for giving me third place. You'll have to give me my prize money later," Feng Maoyuan said with a smile.
The crowd also laughed. Huangfu Yue then announced the remaining rankings, from fourth to ninth place. Three of them were Feng Maoyuan's subordinates, three were servants of the prince's mansion, and tenth place was Zhu Jiayi.
"I can't believe I actually got a ranking, tenth place." Zhu Jiayi's face was full of joy. She was not unhappy that she only got tenth place; she was already very satisfied to have secured tenth place.
Huangfu Yue took out a stack of banknotes and, fulfilling her promise, distributed the corresponding prize money to those who had achieved a ranking.
Those who received prize money were all extremely happy, their eyes crinkled with smiles, especially Zhong Liangshu, who took first place, and Xu Yuqing, who took second place.
Although they were all from wealthy backgrounds and married into prominent families like the Dai Prince's mansion, never lacking money, this was the first time they had received so much money at once, so they were exceptionally happy and cheerful.
"As agreed before, whatever anyone finds belongs to them. Everyone, take the food you found and eat it. Kill the chickens, rabbits, and fish you caught, and roast them," Huangfu Yue said, while taking out tools for cleaning chickens, rabbits, and fish from her spatial dimension.
She also took out a pile of grills and charcoal to make it convenient for everyone to start fires and roast their catches after cleaning them.
She also specifically took out a pile of seasonings to facilitate the flavoring of the roasted meat, making it more delicious.
After thanking Huangfu Yue, Feng Maoyuan and his subordinates, along with the mansion servants, immediately set about cleaning the animals they had caught.
However, the masters of the prince's mansion, such as Zhu Jiayi and Zhong Liangshu, remained frozen on the spot, somewhat at a loss.
"Yue'er, we've never killed animals before, let alone roasted them. We don't know how to do it." Zhu Jiayi cast a pleading look at her sister-in-law.
"Me neither," Zhong Liangshu nodded in agreement and also cast a pleading look at her sister-in-law.
Xu Yuqing didn't know either, but she didn't ask her sister-in-law for help because someone was already teaching her. Jiang Shangyun was holding a knife and teaching her and Huangfu Ying how to clean fish.
After glancing at Jiang Shangyun and the Xu Yuqing mother-daughter pair, Huangfu Yue smiled at Zhu Jiayi and Zhong Liangshu and said, "I'll teach you."
"Xuan'er, Jing'er, Ling'er, you all learn too. It will be very beneficial for you to learn," Huangfu Yue turned her gaze to her nephews and nieces and said with a smile.
Huangfu Xuan, Huangfu Jing, and Huangfu Ling immediately nodded together and said in unison, "Okay."
"Teach me too, I want to learn as well." Zheng Taifei's voice suddenly rang out.
Everyone looked at Zheng Taifei, their faces showing expressions of surprise. It was clear that no one had expected her to want to learn and ask Huangfu Yue to teach her, other than Huangfu Yue herself.
Huangfu Yue had already planned to teach Zheng Taifei, letting her experience the joy of learning and the satisfaction of eating what she roasted. She immediately nodded with a smile. "Okay."
"I'll teach you how to clean the fish and scrape off the scales first. This is the easiest part," Huangfu Yue said, and then began to teach her grandmother, sisters-in-law, nephews, and nieces.
She first taught them how to choose the knife for killing and scaling fish, and then taught them how to kill fish. After seeing Zheng Taifei and the others successfully kill the fish, she taught them how to scrape off the fish scales.
"Yes, that's how you scrape… Sister-in-law, you're doing a good job… Third Sister-in-law, you're scraping so cleanly… Oh, Grandmother, your knife skills are good; they're even cleaner than mine…
Xuan'er, hold your knife up a bit more, otherwise, you won't scrape it clean… Jing'er, be careful, don't cut your hand…
Ling'er, the way you're scraping is correct, but the force is wrong. Use a bit more strength, otherwise, you won't be able to scrape off the scales, but be mindful of the knife, don't cut your hand with too much force…"
Huangfu Yue taught while observing how Zheng Taifei and the others scraped, guiding them.
She found that her grandmother and two sisters-in-law were learning quite quickly and would soon master it. Her nephews and nieces were also learning reasonably well, but the two younger girls, perhaps due to their young age, were a bit clumsy in their movements.
Huangfu Yue, fearing that her two nieces might accidentally injure their hands, kept a close eye on them until they had scraped off all the scales, then she finally relaxed.
"Yue'er, after scraping off the scales, is the fish ready?" Zhu Jiayi asked.
"Of course not. The internal organs in the fish belly haven't been removed yet. You have to take out the internal organs from the fish belly." Before Huangfu Yue could answer, Zheng Taifei said.
Huangfu Yue nodded. "I'll teach you how to clean out the contents of the fish belly now."
As she spoke, she began to teach Zheng Taifei and the others. Because she was teaching Zheng Taifei and the others, she deliberately and slowly removed the internal organs from the fish in her hands, bit by bit, so that Zheng Taifei and the others could follow along and learn.
"When you're scooping them out, pay attention and absolutely do not break the gall bladder. Breaking the gall bladder will make the inside of the fish bitter, and the fish meat will not taste good," Huangfu Yue reminded them.
Zheng Taifei and the others nodded and very carefully removed the fish's internal organs, afraid of breaking the gall bladder. Because they were very careful, none of them broke the gall bladder. They successfully cleaned out the inside of the fish, although the two younger girls, being young, were slower and took quite some time to clean them out.
After they had all finished cleaning out their fish, Huangfu Yue taught them how to wash the fish, how to wash it to make it exceptionally clean inside and out.
Once they had all finished washing the fish, Huangfu Yue took out the wild fruits they had picked and taught them how to crush them and put them into the fish bellies.
"Why do we have to crush the wild fruits and put them into the fish bellies?" Zhong Liangshu asked, looking puzzled.
Zhu Jiayi and the little ones also looked puzzled. Huangfu Ling tilted her small head and said, "Won't putting wild fruits into the fish bellies make the fish taste strange?"
"No," Huangfu Yue shook her head.
"Yue'er asking us to crush the wild fruits and put them into the fish bellies is probably to let the fish absorb the sweet fragrance of the wild fruits, so that the fish will taste better when roasted," Zheng Taifei guessed.
Huangfu Yue nodded and smiled, "Grandmother, you understand."
Knowing Huangfu Yue's intention, Zhu Jiayi and the others immediately got to work, quickly crushing the wild fruits and putting them into the fish bellies. After placing them, Zhu Jiayi asked, "Yue'er, are we going to roast the fish now?"
"No," Huangfu Yue surprisingly shook her head. "We'll process the mountain chicken and wild rabbit, and roast them with the fish."
They had not yet processed the mountain chicken and wild rabbit.
After Zhu Jiayi and the others nodded, Huangfu Yue taught them how to process the mountain chicken and wild rabbit. The mountain chicken and wild rabbit were already dead, so they just needed to pluck the chicken feathers and skin the rabbit.
However, plucking chicken feathers and skinning rabbits was harder than scraping fish scales. Zhu Jiayi and the others learned with difficulty, but after some time, they still managed to learn, plucking the feathers and skinning the rabbits clean.
Huangfu Yue taught them to slice open the chicken and rabbit bellies, remove the internal organs, and then wash them after cleaning them out.
After washing them clean, Huangfu Yue taught them to do as with the fish, crush wild fruits and bury them in the chicken and rabbit bellies, then they started the fire, placed the grills, and began to roast the fish, rabbit, and chicken…