Upon hearing it could arrive today, she breathed a sigh of relief: "That’s great, hopefully we’ll catch something good, otherwise we’ll have to eat vegetarian for lunch."

When checking the fish cage, she pulled the ropes with excitement, only to find that the first one brought up only a few small Crabs. Disappointed, she released them back, thinking they were too small, lacking meat and roe, so what was the point of keeping them? 𝙛𝓻𝒆𝒆𝒘𝙚𝓫𝙣𝙤𝒗𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢

The second cage was even more pitiful, it had nothing. By the time she found the third cage, she had lost hope, and sure enough, when she lifted it, the weight left her disappointed. However, the cameraman was even more excited than she was, shouting, "Quick, there’s something, there’s something."

It was a palm-sized grouper. Because it was so light, she hadn’t felt anything when she pulled it up.

She turned to her cameraman: "This, isn’t it too small? Can we keep it?"

She spoke cautiously, as she knew small fish shouldn’t be eaten and should be returned to the sea.

The cameraman seemed to pity her and suggested she keep it.

Fortunately, in the fourth fish cage, they caught three large Crabs and a big grouper, finally making a start. She happily carried the bucket home first, planning to try her luck among the surrounding rocks and see if she could find any edible food.

She went out happily but came back looking disappointed, glancing at the cameraman more than once.

"In those viral videos, they easily catch sea eel, Crab, sea urchin, and scoop up seaweed and sea snail. Why didn’t I find anything?"

The cameraman kindly reminded her: "Some ingredients only appear after the tide goes out. Sea snails and sea urchins need to be found on islands further out. Right now, it’s hard to find seafood. In the videos, you might see them catching something every now and then, but it might take a whole day of shooting."

Hua Yan thought about the cheery fisherman scene she had specifically asked Liang Tian to see before. Comparing that to now was a huge shock!

She hadn’t even had the luck to pick up any kelp on the shore. It seemed these days, craving seafood would be difficult.

Finally, she ran to the mountainside with a small basket, and, eh? Her luck wasn’t bad. She saw many shepherd’s purse, probably due to the ample rain on the island. The shepherd’s purse here was lush green, not yet flowering, and some leaves were even tinged purple, definitely wild. She had been worried about what to make for lunch to welcome her sisters, but now seeing the shepherd’s purse, she thought, why not wrap a batch of fresh shepherd’s purse vegetarian dumplings?

She happily squatted there for over an hour, digging until the basket was full, then returned home and was reminded by the production crew to feed the chickens.

The chickens had their feed, and she added some old vegetable leaves, chopping and mixing them together, poured them into the chicken trough, and gave them some water.

"Do the sisters have any dietary restrictions?"

"They all said they’re not picky. The eldest sister is from the Southern region, the second sister is from the Northeast, and your ancestors are from the Central Plains, so you three should balance out the flavors among yourselves."

Not being picky is probably the hardest thing, isn’t it?

Hua Yan was still worried, fearing the food might not suit their tastes. So she specifically went inside to find some culinary skills and searched for her sisters’ dietary preferences. First, singer Xiao Ya doesn’t eat spicy food, even though she’s from the Northeast, so anything stimulating is a no-go. Secondly, Tian Bei prefers light food and refuses anything greasy...

She let out a sigh of relief, knowing they wouldn’t have a chance to eat greasy food here. Seafood is naturally light, plus it’s uncertain whether they’ll even find any to eat. She figured, in the future, the sisters would have more vegetarian meals than meat. Confirming that they are neither allergic to seafood nor eat spicy food, she knew what to prepare.

She had eaten a lot in the morning and didn’t plan to start cooking early. Since the sisters would only arrive around two to three in the afternoon, she took her time, spending over two hours selecting and washing vegetables, draining, blanching, and soaking kelp and nori. Then she kneaded dough and chopped vegetables skillfully, without any mess, feeling assured, causing the crew to marvel.

"Just watching you cook is so healing. What do you plan to make?"

Hua Yan winked mysteriously, "Can’t say just yet, wait and see, but remind me when the sisters are almost here!"

The dumpling filling required eggs. She had eaten two in the morning, so there were two left. By noon, two more eggs were laid by the chickens, making a total of four. She used three eggs for the dumpling filling, leaving one as a spare.