Song Tan's Notes

No one cared about Zhang Yanping's grievances. Song Sancheng led everyone into the pigsty and then turned around and drove all the pigs out.

Chen Xi felt so sorry for him: "The sun is so strong outside..."

Song Sancheng said with an air of experience, "I always said that pigs and sheep shouldn't be allowed to roam freely together all the time, or they'll all go astray."

Pigs are very smart, but they were not given the opportunity to use their intelligence when they were kept in enclosures. Now they are in a semi-free-range state and are occasionally allowed to patrol the village. After several such trips, they have learned from the sheep.

Zhang Wangjia was shoveling manure in the pigsty when he was almost knocked down by a round, fat pig's head.

When this news spread, everyone became more vigilant.

Next up is employee Lao Zhang, who really lost a leg.

Fortunately, this pigsty is different from traditional pigsties. Although part of it has been reinforced with cement for easy washing and cleaning, the pig manure pit is a solid earthen pit.

Because of the daily cleaning and shallow digging, and the occasional laying of straw, a major incident was avoided.

But after this incident, everyone realized how serious it was.

Especially Song Sancheng, for some reason, the animals in the house were not very polite to him, and he didn't receive the same treatment as Qiaoqiao and Tantan.

He often came to dig for earthworms, and there were always pigs watching him from behind.

Over time, he himself became wary.

Forget about digging up a few earthworms, getting the pigs out is the priority.

Besides, he felt that Chen Xi had spoiled the pigs because he had raised them for so long! Although the pigs had been driven out of the pigpen, there were lush green grass and shady places outside. How could the pigs be allowed to sunbathe directly?
In short, seeing that the pig manure pit had just been cleaned and the soil at the bottom was slightly damp, he pointed downwards with high spirits:
"Let's dig right here! There are plenty of good earthworms."

Fermented pig manure compost is too fertile to support earthworms. Earthworms can be found elsewhere, but the soil there is not as loose as here.

This one spot, with a few remnants of pig manure and damp soil, was perfect.

If it weren't for this quality, wouldn't it have been easier for him to just ask Yunyun's family in the village for a few? She could easily sift out half a basket of them from the soil she was raising.

The city dwellers, however, didn't understand but felt a sense of awe.

Well, these days everything's about being rough, natural, and wild. In Old Song's family, they even carefully select such a treasure trove of land when digging for earthworms...

Damn!

Everyone picked up their small shovels and looked at their fishing buckets: "Did we buy a bucket that's too small? What if we can't fit all the fish we catch and have to put them back in the river?"

After all, it wasn't Old Song's fish.

Wait, these aren't Old Song's fish. Why are they catching so many? They don't taste as good as the ones at home!
"It's delicious!" Song Sancheng said confidently.

Although he didn't catch many fish, he still ate some.

"These fish are really clever. We have a net at the mouth of our canyon, right? They just squeeze through the net..."

The water temperature, water quality, and fish food here make the fish feel very safe. The only downside is that if everyone comes here at once, there will be too many fish, and the water quality will suffer.

In addition, the space for swimming is not that big anymore.

Therefore, even tiny fish possess intelligence; their instincts drive them to slip in and out of the net every day. Until they grow up, get blocked, or can't get out, then they'll find another way out…

After all, even the nets used for fish farming in these sections of the river can't completely isolate the fish.

In short, Song Sancheng personally tried it and concluded: "It's not as delicious as my family's, but it's still very delicious!"

To be precise, not all fish taste good. But fish that manage to catch the earthworms on the hooks of other fish in a competitive school must be strong, healthy, and have delicious flesh.

Since no one knew the truth, they assumed it was the reason given by Song Sancheng, and thus felt reassured.

Looking at the small earthworms they had dug up and the empty bucket next to them, they said modestly, "Don't catch too many, just fill the bucket to about half full."

"Yes, I think so too."

“Although we’re not going to overfish, if we fish too aggressively all at once, we might not get any bites next time. We could come and fish a little every day—such a great spot, why don’t we see any other anglers here?”

Song Sancheng became smug: "If we don't sail across from this side of the riverbank, there are mountains on the other side of the river, so we have to sail from upstream or downstream..."

Fishing is fine by motorcycle, but it's rare to see someone drive such a long way by boat.

Even if someone did, it would be in the dead of night. Sailing for so long in broad daylight under the blazing sun—only someone with their family's convenient circumstances would do that; no one else would do it.

With perfect timing, favorable location, and harmonious relationships, the Song family now has it all! Song Sancheng is also determined to avenge his previous humiliation—but he didn't mention the other biggest advantage of fishing on the riverbank:
That means the fish here aren't as clever as those in his own riverbank, so the chances are always a bit higher. Otherwise, how would he have been able to taste the fish before?
The earthworm digging never ends. Everyone pretends to be reserved, but they all feel that they will have a great harvest today. It would be such a pity if they didn't have enough bait later!

Finally, Chen Xi saw the pigs grunting and circling outside again, and he couldn't help but get anxious:
"Dinner is around 7 or 8 pm, so if we want to eat the fish, we should come back an hour earlier, right? It's only a few hours, we don't need that many earthworms..."

That makes sense.

It was already past 3 o'clock, and we only had a little over 3 hours of fishing time in total. Everyone finally called it a day, full of energy: "Let's go!"

No sooner had he finished speaking than Song Tan arrived on his electric scooter with Zhang Yanping on the back.

Two ugly blue boats from home, and a quaint awning boat specially made for the film crew. Song Tan even asked, "Who's afraid of the sun? You can ride this one."

But it's only a few minutes' drive there, it shouldn't be that serious.

Qin Yun, however, asked curiously, "Is this what the production team sold to you?"

Song Tan said with satisfaction, "Yes, they sold it to me at a special discount, but if they want to re-bid, they have to use it for free."

We previously mentioned we'd be back in July or August for reshoots, waiting until the sunflowers are in full bloom. Song Tan thought to herself:
In July and August, being in a sunflower field is like being a feeding ground for mosquitoes, and the heat and lack of ventilation make it a truly miserable experience.

But think about their salaries...

They deserve to be tested!

If you paid ordinary people a few million a year, they would love going to work! Let alone a few million, even a few hundred thousand would make the villagers compete to harvest rice every day of the year!
However, there's been no news of any reshoots so far, so they might just make the money even more easily.

If we miss August too, the second bloom of our teddy bear sunflower will have already faded, and the quality of the third bloom will be much worse...

The covered boats braved the wind and waves, gliding freely across the wide river.

The barriers at the edge of the canyon ahead had been removed, and Song Tan, feeling the hot river breeze, drifted off into the distance. (End of Chapter)