My 1995 Small Farm.

Chapter 462 An unexpected person
"Fish can glow?"

"Oh my, it really is! Lingzi, come and see, these little fish are really glowing, just like fireflies."

Upon hearing this, Chen Ling hurriedly went to the front yard.

Outside the living room of the bamboo house in the front yard, the father-in-law, with two children, was using his hands to grasp the edge of a large stone water vat, lifting the lotus leaves on the water's surface, and peering inside.

At the same time, Wang Susu and her mother heard their shouts and put down the vegetables they had just washed and came over.

Chen Ling keeps ornamental fish, including the common fish from the fishpond that he sells, as well as some high-quality fish that he keeps for his own enjoyment.

He specially made a large stone water vat carved from bluestone and placed it in front of the living room of the bamboo house.

Inside the stone jar, besides the fish, there were also aquatic plants and some lotus flowers.

It's been turned into a beautiful ecological fish tank.

"Brother-in-law, sister, look! It's those little fish fry glowing inside!"

Seeing everyone coming over, Wang Zhenzhen became extremely excited and stood up to point and show them.

Inside the water tank, under the dim light of the evening, small, fluorescent fish fry swam around.

"Hey, these must be the newly hatched pearl fish fry, right? They didn't seem special a few days ago."

Chen Ling looked at it, somewhat surprised.

Is this yet another mutation?

Generally speaking, fish that can glow are rarely freshwater fish.

More in the deep sea and caves.

Biophosphorescence, sometimes caused by symbiotic organisms, is rare in freshwater.

After all, freshwater areas have strong sunlight and visible light, or the water is murky and the light penetration is very poor. That little bit of light can neither attract food nor mating, so it is not very meaningful for survival and reproduction.

"We've seen some flying things that glow, but we've never seen anything like this that glows in the water before..."

The father-in-law and mother-in-law marveled at the sight, their faces full of wonder.

Wang Susu also looked incredulous: "Yes, I've never seen anything like it before. I used to say that the rarest thing was the two red eels that A Ling caught, but I never expected there to be fish that can glow in the night."

"Oh right, Susu, you mentioned red eels. Red eels are so valuable, and these fish can glow at night, so they must be quite valuable too, right?"

Upon hearing his daughter's words, Wang Cunye's eyes suddenly lit up, and he looked at Chen Ling.

"Uh, I really don't know. I'll go to the county town tomorrow and call to ask."

Chen Ling thought back carefully and realized that there really wasn't any news about fluorescent fish at that time.

Not to mention that it's a fluorescent fish that mutated from an ornamental fish.

"Alright, let's ask. Our family has finally managed to raise something truly rare."

Wang Cunye shook his head contentedly; otherwise, it would be too unpleasant to hear outsiders constantly calling his son-in-law "Dog King."

Even "Fish King" sounds better than this.

"dad."

As the adults were talking, the little guy, who was standing on tiptoe and holding onto the edge of the water tank with his little hands, raised his head, pointed at the fluorescent fish in the tank, and looked at Chen Ling with longing eyes.

"What? Want to play with it?"

Chen Ling knew what the brat was up to the moment he saw the longing look on his face.

"Ah."

The little thing nodded vigorously.

"Okay, eat first. After you finish eating, Dad will find you a small bottle and put it in your room like a firefly, okay?"

The little thing's eyes lit up: "Okay."

Wang Zhenzhen quickly echoed, "I want one too! I want to raise one too!"

Compared to these glowing little fish, what's so fun about fireflies? They die after two days.

"Alright, alright, you all get a share."

"Ah Ling, don't always let them play around like this. These fish might actually be valuable."

"That's right, we can't just give them whatever they want. What if these fluorescent fish are really as valuable as those red eels, worth several thousand yuan each? If they ruin them, it would be such a loss."

You also said that these ornamental fish are delicate.

"It's okay, it's a fish, not something else. I'll just give it some medicine and change the water frequently. It'll be fine to keep it in a bottle."

These are just little gadgets; if the kids want to play with them, let them play. Chen Ling naturally had no regrets.

At night, we put four or five small fish in each of their glass bottles, placed them in the room, and turned off the lights. They immediately emitted a soft, glowing light, which was very beautiful.

The two little ones were absolutely thrilled, playing and laughing until late into the night before finally going to sleep when they were so tired they couldn't bear it anymore.

They even forgot to look for cicada nymphs.

……

The next morning, the eagles were still circling nearby looking for prey, but they did not find any approaching the farm.

So after having breakfast, Chen Ling rode his little blue horse to the county town.

They called Du Guanghe, the fish shop owner in the city, and others to inquire, and also asked Yu Qi'an and Ma Wei.

They all said they had never seen this kind of fish before, and they couldn't say whether it was valuable or not.

After all, traditional ornamental fish appreciation does not rely on whether or not they glow to measure their value.

Chen Ling thought to herself: Since that's the case, then let's raise them for the children to play with.

After hanging up the phone, Chen Ling planted another batch of watermelons in his small courtyard in the south of the city.

This time, in addition to grafting watermelon and winter melon, pumpkin was also grafted.

This type of pumpkin is black and can grow to be exceptionally long and heavy.

Every year, many plants grow on the slopes outside the village.

It blooms with golden flowers and produces jet-black pumpkins.

The largest can grow to over a meter in length.

It's also the kind that's particularly heavy.

This time, I borrowed a pumpkin that was both large and sweet.

The plants grown in the cave have a very good effect.

Chen Ling originally thought that growing it outside would be good too.

Unexpectedly, the seedlings underwent a new change, turning the flesh yellow. Left with no other option, he decided to leave them for a while longer.

These watermelons are so unruly to grow.

They didn't do things his way at all.

On the other hand, every peach they tried was a success.

A 'blood peach' with red flesh, grafted onto a cherry.

There's another one grafted onto a plum tree, which is also quite good, but he hasn't had time to name it yet.

"Failure is failure. Next year, we'll focus on peaches. I refuse to believe that if we raise them in Dongtian for another two years, we can't develop a new variety of watermelon."

The watermelon with its split yellow flesh was fed to the little green horse. The vines were dug up, and the pit of the 'blood peach' was planted here. Soon, several saplings will grow.

These peaches and apricots grow very quickly.

If you leave the food outside the yard after eating it, small saplings will grow out after a while; this is quite common.

If left unattended, the peach pit will grow to the height of a person the following year.

In addition to the peach pits, he also threw a few of the high-quality ornamental fish that had given birth to fluorescent small fish into the pond in the yard.

Let them all grow wild here.

No one usually comes to the small courtyard except for myself. I'll see how things develop on their own.

After leaving the courtyard, Chen Ling originally planned to buy two pieces of tofu and go home, but he turned back halfway and went to the post office.

I almost forgot to send the letter.

In addition to letters, he also subscribed to a magazine for a year.

These magazines contain short stories similar to those in Liaozhai.

It is a compilation and adaptation of various strange and interesting stories that once circulated in the area.

It serves as a warning and also sounds quite interesting.

For example, legends about wolves and donkey-headed wolves.

The jingle people made up for Chen Ling said he was "the king of the Qinling Mountains," a phrase that came from the donkey-headed wolf.

This monster has the head of a donkey and the body of a wolf. It is extremely ferocious and terrifying, and is known as the "King of the Northern Slopes of the Qinling Mountains".

These ancient legends can only be heard from the mouths of old people like Chen Sangui and his fourth grandfather Chen Gannian, but there are omissions, and they are not as complete as what is said in this magazine.

Chen Ling had seen several books in the postman's mailbag the last time he saw them. He picked them up and flipped through them, and was immediately drawn to them.

I subscribed without hesitation this time.

"Hmm, I found some wild fruit while gathering herbs. After eating it, I won't feel hungry for ten years without eating anything... This sounds familiar."

Chen Ling flipped through the magazine's table of contents, found an article with an eye-catching title, and quickly browsed through it, then smiled: "I wonder if I can cultivate such a magical fruit using my grotto-heaven."

"...Heh, it must be incredibly difficult. We haven't even managed to get the watermelons yet."

"Uncle Fugui?"

Lost in thought, he heard someone call his name from the side. He turned around and saw a pretty, tall young woman.

He just frowned, as if he had something on his mind. Even though he seemed a little surprised to see him, his expression was still somewhat worried and solemn.

"Oh, it's Sanni'er. You've come to send a letter too?"

It turns out that Wang Lixian's daughter is Sannier. For the past six months, because the little lamb has been behaving very well, Sannier has also taken the opportunity to admit her mistake.

Wang Lixian's family gradually accepted their daughter again.

Last time, when she was fertilizing the greenhouse, she and the little lamb went home together to help.

Change to before.

This proud and arrogant girl would never do such dirty and tiring work.

Many gossipy old women in the village maliciously speculated that Li Xian's daughter used to be so arrogant and looked down on this poor mountain village and poor family. She brought that man back to work with Fu Gui doing this and that, which was dirty and tiring. Could she endure it?
She's probably after his wealthy parents in the city; otherwise, she wouldn't have agreed to be with that guy surnamed Fang.

He's clumsy, honest, and has a soft temper; it's no wonder he can't control Sanni.

Many villagers approve of the little lamb because of his honesty and ambition.

However, he still harbored a great deal of prejudice against Sannier.

Chen Ling and his wife had heard Gao Xiulan mutter about it before, but when they met, as elders, as long as the younger generation was willing to greet and talk to them, they had no prejudice and were still very warm.

"Yes, I came to mail two letters. I saw this big horse as soon as I walked over here, and sure enough, it was you."

"Haha, right? Everyone says my horse is easier to recognize than I am."

Chen Ling smiled and asked, "Has Xiao Fang returned from his trip?"

"Not yet. This time it's two days late. I called Mr. Sun, but he didn't say anything. He just told me that the goods are still waiting in the city."

Sanni shook her head, her face seeming even more worried.

"It's inevitable when you're out driving. Here, I'll save you a watermelon. It's very hot now. You can eat a couple of slices of watermelon to cool off when you're at home."

Seeing that her expression was off, Chen Ling didn't ask any questions. He simply took out a not-too-heavy, dark-skinned watermelon from the net bag on the side of the horse's back and put it down for her.

San Ni'er quickly said no.

Chen Ling smiled, waved, mounted his horse, and rode away.

These are the same watermelons as last time, the same variety grafted from watermelon and winter melon.

I left it in the cave last time and didn't take it out.

I only opened one in Fenglei Town. I had driven a long way there in a tractor, and at noon I took one out and shared it with my two brothers-in-law.

They both said it was alright, except the rind was too thick, but it wasn't a waste; they could use it for stir-frying after eating, which was good.

I'll take a few home today to try them out.

Let's see if it tastes good as stir-fried cucumber.

He's busy thinking about eating and playing, which is bad news for Little Sheep and Sannier.

It turns out that the reason Xiao Mianyang was late returning home this time was not because he was waiting for a delivery to avoid driving empty, but because his parents had come looking for him. He was afraid that his parents would cause trouble for Wang Lixian's family, so he refused to bring his parents along.

However, this kid is still too green. Today, he finally couldn't withstand the combined pressure and coercion from his parents.

He drove his transport truck to the village with his parents.

At that time, Chen Ling was playing with pigeons on the slope near Zhao Yubao's house, testing his pigeon whistles, while Er Tuzi was chasing the pigeons in the sky to train their courage and adaptability.

Just as he was having a great time playing with the two old men, Liu Nier came running over to him with Wang Zhenzhen. She was sweating profusely, jumping and shouting, saying that her brother-in-law's parents had come to their door and that he should go and check on them right away.

(End of this chapter)