1983Fishing and Farming between Mountains and Seas

Chapter 13: Curse Together
Pomfret Village is not only close to the sea, but also has mountains. It is a typical small fishing village nestled between the mountains and the sea.

There is the sea in front of the village, and a short distance behind the village are rolling green hills with lush trees.

At the foot of the mountain, there is a large plain where various crops are planted. Several clear springs on the mountain flow down and into the land at the foot of the mountain.

There are sugarcane, bananas and of course sweet potatoes in the fields.

When they arrived at their own sweet potato field, the father and son started swinging their hoes.

The red potatoes here are quite sweet, and if you eat them occasionally, they are delicious. However, if you eat them every day, no one can stand it.

Liang Ziqiang dug the ground with a hoe and was dumbfounded. His father, who was standing beside him, started screaming.

The reason was very simple. He chopped a big sweet potato into two pieces with just one hoe.

"What's going on? You can't even dig a sweet potato?!"

Liang's father blamed him with a look of regret. This generation's obsession with food was written all over their faces.

Digging sweet potatoes was something Liang Ziqiang had been doing since he was a child. How could he not know how to do it? It was just that after several decades, he was a little unfamiliar with it.

"I didn't see it clearly. It was an accident. It was an accident!"

Liang Ziqiang rubbed his hands embarrassedly, and then found the feeling when he dug again.

Things that are engraved in our minds since childhood are not so easy to forget, and we can quickly recognize the signals.

Every sweet potato that was dug out afterwards had a full forehead and a round waist, and no one had been forcibly cut in half. Father Liang looked over here a few more times before he felt relieved.

After a short while, the father and son dug a small basket.

Just as I was about to go home, I heard someone not far away say "Huh" in a surprised tone.

It was another sweet potato field next door, and the villager Cai Jinsheng was walking into the field.

Cai Jinsheng glanced over here for a few more times, then simply walked over and called out to Liang Defu in surprise:

"Defu, why are you here? Didn't you go out to sea today?"

When Liang Ziqiang heard this, he couldn't help but secretly glance at Jinsheng.

Liang Defu was somewhat confused by the question:

"I'm not going out to sea until early tomorrow morning, so I still have almost a day. What's the matter?"

Unexpectedly, after hearing his answer, Cai Jinsheng looked even more puzzled. He paused while working on his hoe and thought:
"That's not right! This morning I went to my boat to get something and took a look. Usually your boat is parked not far from me, isn't it? But this morning, that place was empty and I didn't see it at all!

I thought you were sailing out to sea! Did you dock the boat somewhere else?"

"Could you have seen it wrong?" Liang's father was surprised and suspicious. "My boat has always been parked in the same place and has never moved!"

"It doesn't make sense that you're wrong, and no one is borrowing your boat?"

"My boat is the oldest in the village. No one would lend it to me if I wanted to borrow it!"

"That's really strange, maybe I'm really seeing things?" Cai Jinsheng was very puzzled.

"Dad, no matter if Uncle Jinsheng is seeing things or not, why don't we go to the beach and take a look? We can find out what's going on by taking a look!"

Liang Ziqiang saw that it was impossible to cover up the matter any longer and it would be inappropriate for him to remain calm, so he quickly took the initiative to propose to his father.

Father Liang nodded:

"I'll go to the beach and take a look. You take the hoe and the basket of sweet potatoes home."

Before leaving, Liang's father asked casually:
"You were selling fish to Zheng Liu this morning. When you passed by the beach, did you notice if the boat was still there?"

Liang Ziqiang shook his head and said:
"I didn't pay much attention. I would have walked around to take a look earlier!"

I had thought of all these words the moment I launched the boat, and they came out quite naturally.

Liang's father didn't think there was anything wrong. After all, Zheng Liu was receiving the goods at the big dock, where there were more fishing boats, dozens of them. But the Liang family's fishing boats were parked at another small dock. Although they were both on the seashore, they were not at the same place.

"Okay, go back now." Liang's father handed his hoe to his son and hurried towards the beach.

Liang Ziqiang felt uncomfortable when he saw his father's anxious look, but he said nothing. He picked up two hoes, picked up the basket in one hand, and went home.

As soon as I entered the house, before I put down my hoe, Liang's mother looked over and asked:

"Why did you come back alone? Where did your dad go?"

"I just heard Jinsheng say in the field that our boat is missing. I don't know if he saw it wrongly. Dad is going to the beach to take a look. He should be back soon!"

Liang Ziqiang told his mother "truthfully".

"The boat is missing? Jinsheng must be kidding your dad. How could the boat disappear for no reason? Did it grow legs?" Liang's mother's first reaction was that she thought Cai Jinsheng was joking.

In front of the house, Liang Lizhi was learning how to weave a net from her elder sister-in-law, but she just couldn't quite get it right and was having a very painful time learning.

She was bored to death, but when she heard that the boat was lost, her big eyes suddenly lit up. She ran up excitedly, asking questions cheerfully, and took the opportunity to put aside the hard work of weaving the net.

Sister-in-law Kuang Haixia was not mad at her and rolled her eyes several times:

"It's really hopeless. Who else would be as happy as you when losing a boat? If someone didn't know, they would think we found the boat!"

Seeing this, Liang's mother became angry and almost grabbed the stupid girl and beat her up.

After half of the net was woven, Liang Defu appeared on the road, hurrying home.

Behind him, the two brothers Liang Tiancheng and Liang Zifeng followed closely.

The two brothers were hired to help out at someone else's home today, and they probably rushed to the beach after hearing about the boat being lost.

"The boat can't really be gone, right?" Liang's mother and Kuang Haixia both stepped forward and asked anxiously.

"Fuck it," Liang's father was so angry that he cursed. "It's so weird that it's really lost! Who the hell has to steal a broken boat without doing anything else? Am I screwing him or screwing him!"

Liang Ziqiang glanced at his innocent mother secretly, and suddenly a black line appeared on his head...

Liang's mother didn't like to hear him scold her like that, so she said unhappily:
"Just look for a boat, don't mess around with this or that!"

Father Liang was startled:
"I didn't say anything about you. Don't even mention scolding him. Beat him to death if you catch him! What a son of a bitch!"

Liang Ziqiang shed a tear of sympathy for his mother in his heart, and then quickly interrupted his father's angry venting and asked:

"Have you searched all along the seashore?"

Father Liang was both annoyed and frustrated:

"Why didn't you find him? The three of us walked all over the beach, but we didn't even see him!"

"I'll look for it again!" Liang Ziqiang looked anxious and was about to walk out.

This matter must be handled urgently. If the whole family is anxious but he is not, that would be a real flaw.

"Eat first, and then look for it after lunch." It was his father who stopped him.

Liang's mother went to cook, and the others continued to talk about the boat.

Father Liang stopped cursing and took a few sips from the bamboo tube to relieve his worries. Then he frowned and said:

"Actually, it's useless for you to go out and look for it this afternoon. After thinking it over, I think there are two most likely possibilities. Either someone from another village stole the boat, or... Yang Laizi did it!"

His speculations were all based on facts.

People from other villages often drive their boats to the sea and steal the fixed nets they place on the seabed. Now they are getting more and more aggressive and it is not impossible that they will run into the village to steal boats.

As for Yang Laizi, Liang Ziqiang had just made him bleed, so he must be holding a grudge. Although he didn't dare to cause trouble openly, it was very likely that he would take revenge behind the scenes.

"I think it's that bastard Yang Laizi!"

After listening to his father's words, the eldest brother Liang Tiancheng thought more and more that Yang Laizi was highly suspicious and there was basically no way he could escape.

"A dog will always eat shit, it looks like it's really him!" The family gradually turned their suspicion to Yang Laizi.

But even though they suspected something, they couldn't do anything to Yang Laizi. After all, there was no evidence to prove that it was Yang Laizi who let their ship run away.

The whole family cursed Yang Laizi's ancestors for eighteen generations. Liang Ziqiang joined in the cursing and was very devoted to it, not daring to slack off for the slightest.

Finally, Father Liang decided:
"I'll tell everyone in the village this afternoon to keep an eye out when fishing on the sea and let me know if they see any boats floating on the sea."

Liang's father had almost concluded in his heart that this matter was related to Yang Laizi. In this case, he felt that Yang Laizi could not have hidden the boat and must have put it in the sea.

Then Father Liang arranged:

"We can't go out to sea, so the eldest and the third brother will continue to help others and earn some wages. The second brother pushes the high-legged fishing net during the day and sets the ground trap on the mudflats at night. If he can be as lucky as the past two days, he can make a lot of money."

Liang Ziqiang said yes repeatedly.

He estimated in his mind that the probability of the small boat being discovered by other fishermen at sea was still very low, basically like looking for a needle in a haystack.

Until now, he has successfully ruined his father and brother's plan to go out to sea.

After returning to the small fishing village for so many days, Liang Ziqiang finally let out a long sigh of relief, feeling relieved.

(End of this chapter)