25: Able to hang it on the hook
Lu Zaiyang repeated to Sun Zhaodi and Lu Laoba what he had told Lu Guoguo earlier. After hearing it, the two exchanged a glance and then spoke in unison.
“Xiao Shi…”
“Xiao Shi…”
Lu Guoguo suddenly chuckled. “I asked that same question too.”
Lu Zaiyang sighed. “I really don’t know.”
“I’m going to go watch the commotion.”
Lu Laoba stood up. He usually didn’t care for other people’s dramas, but this was Lu Laoda’s family’s drama!
“Eat first before going over,” Lu Zaiyang stopped him.
So, Lu Laoba finished his meal at record speed and then rushed off to Lu Laoda’s house to watch the excitement.
“Mom, aren’t you going to watch?”
Lu Guoguo asked Sun Zhaodi, who was examining the chili sauce.
Sun Zhaodi waved her hand. “Just seeing that family makes me sick. Knowing they’re having trouble is enough to make me feel better, no need to witness it firsthand. Are you going? Why don’t you go with your brother?”
“I’m not going either. It’s so hot out,” Lu Guoguo didn’t want to leave the house. Days without air conditioning or fans were hard to endure.
Just as Lu Zaiyang was about to head out with his things, he asked her, “Want to go fishing?”
Lu Guoguo didn’t want to go, but then the task page refreshed.
[Today’s Task: Catch one fish.]
[Task Reward: A three-jin grass carp.]
Lu Guoguo’s mouth twitched. So first comes the beginning, then comes the big fish?
“I’ll go.”
Lu Guoguo happily trotted off to get the fishing rod Lu Laoba had made for her. Seeing that the bucket Lu Zaiyang was carrying was quite large, she didn’t bother bringing another one and simply followed him out the door.
“Mom, we’re going fishing!”
“Oh, won’t watch the drama but is pretty enthusiastic about fishing.”
Sun Zhaodi teased. Hearing this, Lu Zaiyang glanced at Lu Guoguo a couple of times.
Lu Guoguo was still asking, “Where are we going to fish?”
“At the foot of the back mountain. I checked it out this morning while fetching water—should be some catches there.”
So, the two headed that way.
On the road, they ran into someone who, seeing them carrying fishing rods and a bucket, asked, “Going fishing?”
“Hello, Seventh Grandpa. Yes, going fishing.”
“A lot of people are at the village entrance watching the drama today. You two aren’t joining in, but going fishing instead.”
Then he looked at Lu Guoguo. “Can you sit still long enough going fishing with your brother?”
“If I can catch a fish, I can eat fish. For the sake of eating fish, of course I can sit still.”
Seventh Grandpa laughed heartily. “Makes sense. Off you go, then.”
When they arrived at the spot, Lu Guoguo chose a spot under a pine tree. The pine tree had huge branches, and sitting under it with the river breeze blowing over was quite cool.
Lu Zaiyang wasn’t far from her. He found a large rock nearby to sit on, then… opened a bamboo tube, took out an earthworm, and started threading it onto the hook made from a discarded sewing needle, while telling Lu Guoguo to come get the earthworm tube.
Lu Guoguo wasn’t scared at all. When she was little, she often went fishing with her friends from the orphanage by the river; digging up earthworms was a regular occurrence.
But she hadn’t expected Lu Zaiyang to have prepared two bamboo tubes of earthworms, with one portion for her.
Wouldn’t this increase their chances of catching fish quite a bit?
Before them was a fairly large river pool. The weather was nice today, and the water surface looked quite clear. But looking at it for too long, the depth of the water felt somewhat unsettling. Lu Zaiyang was sitting quite close to the riverbank, so Lu Guoguo called out to him.
“Brother, come over to my side. It’s cooler here.”
Hearing this, Lu Zaiyang looked at Lu Guoguo sitting under the tree beckoning to him. After a moment’s thought, he picked up his things and went over.
“Brother, want to have a competition? Let’s see who catches a big fish first, okay?”
Lu Guoguo baited her hook with an earthworm, cast it into the water, and stared at the surface.
“If you win, what then? And if you lose?”
Lu Zaiyang asked.
“If you win, you’ll make me sour cabbage fish. If I lose, I’ll make you sour cabbage fish.”
Lu Guoguo said happily.
“…You’ve got it all figured out, don’t you?”
“Just so-so. Stop talking now, don’t scare my fish away.”
Lu Zaiyang: ……
They stopped talking, both staring intently at the river surface. Whenever there was the slightest movement on their poles, they’d reel in the line to check.
A gentle breeze blew through her hair, and feeling a bit ticklish, Lu Guoguo raised her hand to scratch. Just as she put her hand down, Lu Zaiyang suddenly reached out and grasped her shoulder. Lu Guoguo was startled.
“Don’t move. And don’t scream, or you’ll scare the fish away.”
Before she could understand what he meant, he released her shoulder and took something off her head, tossing it into the river.
It was a brown caterpillar.
Lu Guoguo’s skin crawled with goosebumps, but she remembered Lu Zaiyang’s words and didn’t make a sound. After recovering, she didn’t dare look up. “Brother, look up and see if there are many caterpillars on the tree?”
Lu Zaiyang glanced at her with amusement. “Not many. Don’t worry.”
Lu Guoguo didn’t quite trust him. She looked up herself and, seeing there really wasn’t much of anything, finally relaxed. “I’m not actually afraid of them. It’s just that knowing one was crawling on my head without me knowing, that’s a bit disgusting.”
“Mm. You’re not afraid.”
Lu Zaiyang hummed in acknowledgment.
Lu Guoguo felt he was humoring her, so she simply turned away and stopped talking to him.
Cuihua came down from the back mountain carrying firewood and happened to catch a glimpse of the two figures sitting under the tree by the river pool.
She stood there watching for a while, then turned and walked back toward the production team.
She was already engaged. Some things had to be let go, otherwise, no matter how she lived her future life, there would always be that knot.
Lu Guoguo hadn’t noticed Cuihua. She kept her eyes fixed on the river surface. After nearly an hour and a half there, Lu Zaiyang had caught two loaches, while she had caught… a piece of waterweed.
It was downright humiliating.
Seeing Lu Zaiyang starting to reel in his line again, Lu Guoguo looked over with envy. “This one feels big—it must be a fish!”
Lu Zaiyang also felt some weight on the line. Afraid the fishing rod might break, he let whatever was below swim around in circles a few times, then quickly reeled in. Before he could even see clearly, he heard the person beside him exclaim, “It’s a carp! It must have jumped out of the fish pond in the upstream production team!”
Most of the fish in this river were either small fry that had escaped from upstream production teams and grown up, or bigger fish that had gotten out when the water rose during floods.
“Not quite two jin,” Lu Zaiyang said, taking the bucket she handed him. After gauging the weight, he dropped the fish inside.
Fish that grew up in the river had plenty of energy. As soon as it entered the bucket, it thrashed several times. Afraid it might jump back into the river and escape, Lu Guoguo quickly moved the bucket further under the pine tree, away from the water’s edge.
“Brother, you’re amazing! I haven’t even caught a single scale, and you’ve already caught three!”
Lu Guoguo stared at the lively fish darting around in the bucket, praising him.
“What scales? Watch your language, young lady,” Lu Zaiyang’s eyebrow twitched. “Be patient. You’ll catch one eventually. Besides, it’s not like we absolutely have to catch fish. This is just for fun.”
You’re not the one with a task, but I am.
A three-jin fish, she craved it.
But now that there was a big one in the bucket, she did feel much lighter inside.
Feeling much lighter, Lu Guoguo proceeded to catch a red crab and two loaches in the following period, very tiny loaches at that. Lu Guoguo didn’t throw them back; even small, they were still meat!
Despite not catching a single fish herself, Lu Guoguo had to follow Lu Zaiyang back home because the darkening sky threatened rain.
Looking at their catch, Sun Zhaodi praised them repeatedly. “Cuihua’s father has been taking half a day every day since the autumn harvest to go fishing, and he hasn’t caught a single fish. The family eats roasted crabs every day. You two are really something! Catching such a big fish on your first try!”
Lu Guoguo gritted her teeth. “I’m going again tomorrow! I won’t stop until I catch a fish myself!”
Lu Zaiyang was cleaning the loaches and glanced at her upon hearing this. “Getting hooked on it?”
Lu Guoguo hummed ambiguously without explanation, then simply ran into the kitchen and brought out a small basin to hold his catch.
When Lu Laoba returned, he had his hands clasped behind his back and a smile all over his face. “It wasn’t entirely because of this morning’s business, but it was somewhat related.”
“The couple’s fight started because Chen Qifen’s son was hit by Xiao Shi. Chen Qifen dragged Xiao Shi’s father to settle accounts. Seeing that the child’s front tooth had been knocked out, Xiao Shi’s father felt guilty and tried to force Xiao Shi to apologize, but Xiao Shi refused.”
“Chen Qifen said, ‘If you won’t hit him, I’ll do it for you. My son lost a tooth, so I’ll knock out all of your son’s teeth!’ Xiao Shi’s father then started disciplining his son. Xiao Shi’s mother came home and saw this, tried to stop him, but couldn’t. Suddenly she shouted that someone said Chen Qifen was having an affair, and asked if it might be with her own brother-in-law. Then the couple started fighting.”
“Chen Qifen and her husband got angry too, grabbed Xiao Shi’s mother and demanded to know who said that. She couldn’t say, and it turned into a four-person brawl.”
Lu Laoba clicked his tongue twice. “The yard was surrounded layer upon layer. Your Second Uncle and I were lucky to have good spots, otherwise we wouldn’t have seen the drama inside. Oh, and when I was coming back, Xiao Shi’s grandmother tried to break up the fight and ended up with a broken rib from a kick. They’ve sent her to the town health clinic now.”
“How do you know a rib got broken from being kicked?”
Sun Zhaodi asked curiously.
“You know Old Wu in our production team, the one who used to be an apprentice to an old doctor? That old lady was kicked to the ground and kept yelling in pain. Old Wu went over, felt the spot where she said it hurt, and found a broken rib.”
Lu Laoba got more animated as he spoke. “You should have seen the look on that guy’s face. His own wife was crying out in pain, but he still wouldn’t let Old Wu go and check on her. He said Old Wu was a male comrade, so how could he just go around touching a female comrade? In the end, it was only because the team leader was afraid someone might die that he pulled him away.”
That “someone” must have been Lu Laoda.
Just as Lu Guoguo was enjoying the gossip, someone poked her in the back of the head. She turned around to face Lu Zaiyang. “You lost.”
“Huh? Lost what?”
“You lost the fishing competition. Go make sour cabbage fish.”
Lu Zaiyang gestured for her to look at the basin containing the cleaned loaches and carp.
As for the crab she’d caught, it was too small and had been released back into the river.
Enjoying the gossip just fine, she was suddenly poked to go make sour cabbage fish.
Lu Guoguo pouted. Seeing this, Lu Zaiyang picked up the oil lamp from the main room table and carried it out, then motioned for Lu Guoguo to come closer.
Sun Zhaodi and Lu Laoba watched as Lu Guoguo slowly approached with a pout.
“What are you doing?”
Lu Guoguo was startled as he thrust the oil lamp toward her face.
“Just seeing if your lips are high enough to hang this oil lamp on. Our oil jug at home is empty, so we might have to make do with the lamp for now.”
“Ahhhh! Go away! Get away from me!”
**