1983Fishing and Farming between Mountains and Seas

Chapter 14: A message
While they were talking, Liang's mother had already prepared the meal.

Today we had steamed fish as usual, but the difference was that we didn’t want to steam the sea bass this time, but instead left some whitebait to comfort Liang Xiaohai.

As usual, it is sprinkled with a layer of yellow shredded ginger and green onion, which looks very tempting.

In fact, the taste is quite different from sea bass.

The white croaker has a characteristic that if the belly is not cleaned properly, it will taste bitter. In addition, the fish scales are also thicker.

Maybe this is one of the reasons why it can't be sold at a high price.

Fortunately, Liang's mother handled the contents of the fish very cleanly, so it tasted good.

Shortly after the meal, Liang Ziqiang was about to go to the toilet in the outhouse, but on the way he caught a glimpse of two people, one big and one small, squatting in the sun playing with ants.

Play and talk at the same time.

Three-year-old Liang Xiaohai: "Aunt, what does 'son of a bitch' mean?"

Liang Lizhi cursed: "You are so stupid. A 'son of a bitch' is still a dog. It can't give birth to a pig or a chicken!"

Liang Xiaohai: "But why did grandpa say that it was the 'son of a bitch' who stole our boat?"

Liang Lizhi thought about it seriously and answered very affirmatively:
"This is not simple. The dog must have stolen the boat."

"How big a dog would that be?" Liang Xiaohai seemed a little unable to imagine.

"Anyway, he is a very bad dog!" Liang Lizhi concluded without any doubt.

Liang Ziqiang: "..."

He actually listened to this amazing conversation in its entirety, and he felt terrible.

What the hell, a dog stole the boat!

Who is the dog?

He even wanted to ask his sister-in-law for advice on the technique of tapping chestnuts!

Liang Ziqiang didn't want to pay attention to the two idiots for the whole afternoon. In fact, they didn't need his attention at all. They couldn't stop playing with ants in the hot sun.

I guess a whole group of ants would have been killed by these two.

He found a shady spot and took a nap, letting the salty sea breeze blow along the beach into the village, blowing across his cheeks, bringing a hint of freshness.

The biggest worry in my heart has been removed, just like a time bomb has been defused. My body feels lighter, and I fell asleep while blowing in the wind.

When I woke up, my eldest brother and my younger brother were just going out to help with their afternoon work at someone else's house.

Liang Ziqiang wanted to push the fishing net, but then he turned around and thought, today is the seventh day of the first lunar month, the tide has receded at this point, and it will take until the evening for the tide to rise again.

I couldn't push the fishing net today, but it was still a good time to go to the sea to dig clams and snails. The only regret was that the sun was not as hot as it was at noon, but it was still quite hot.

He went into the house and took out a bamboo hat, which was actually a smaller size than the ordinary bamboo hat and was also made of bamboo. They called it "Li Ma".

No matter in scorching sun or wind and rain, the fishermen wear this kind of "Li Ma" to work all day long. From a distance, it is also a unique landscape.

Seeing that he was going to catch seafood, Liang Lizhi naturally followed him.

Liang's father also went out to work, and the three of them walked out of the house together.

They had only taken a few steps when they saw a familiar-looking middle-aged woman coming towards their house.

"You guys are about to go out. Will it delay your work?"

The middle-aged woman spoke first, and said to Liang Ziqiang and the other two with a smile.

In a flash, Liang Ziqiang remembered the other person's name.

At the same time, my father stopped walking, and a smile immediately appeared on his face after a day of depression. He said:

"Sister Yu, do you want to talk to us about something? Come in quickly. What are you waiting for? You are busy with the same things all day long, and none of them are important!"

"I'm not going into the house. I'm just here to tell you something and then I'll leave."

Lu Hongyu said this, but Liang's father would not let her stand outside to talk, and forced her into the house.

As soon as Yuan Qiuying saw Lu Hongyu, she hurried to pour tea.

Fortunately, the family always had tea, although it was the cheapest and crudest tea, but the family could not live without tea and had to drink a few cups every day. Liang Ziqiang took the tea from his mother and enthusiastically served it to Lu Hongyu.

How could he not be enthusiastic? The person sitting in front of him was his matchmaker!
Lu Hongyu married to Changwang Village from the nearby Huagu Village, and Chen Xiangbei's family were all from Huagu Village.

More than a year ago, it was Lu Hongyu who introduced Liang Ziqiang and Chen Xiangbei to each other.

Although they haven't been able to come up with the dowry to get married officially yet, it's only a matter of time before they get married.

Lu Hongyu's visit at this moment must be related to the Chen family.

Sure enough, Lu Hongyu took the tea from Liang Ziqiang and took a sip, smiled at him, and then turned to Liang's father and said:

"Why are you being so polite to me! It's really nothing for me to come here. I just went back to my parents' home yesterday and ran into your relative, Old Chen.

They planted a lot of watermelons this year, and they are about to turn the land over to plant autumn sugarcane after picking the last batch. I heard that your family didn't plant watermelons, so I asked you to bring some watermelons over for us to eat!"

Father Liang didn't expect this to happen, and immediately laughed:

"My in-laws are the same. They work so hard to grow melons but they still think of us! Sorry for bothering you to go there. I'll let Aqiang go there tomorrow. Is that all?"

Lu Hongyu nodded:

"That's all, nothing else."

Then he turned to Liang Ziqiang and said with a smile:

"Yesterday I ran into Miss Xiangbei. After not seeing her for a while, she has become even more beautiful. I have watched you two grow up and have always thought that you two are a good match. I never thought that I would actually bring you together!

Xiangbei is a good girl that everyone praises, and you are a diligent and capable young man. The two of you will definitely live a prosperous life in the future!"

Liang Ziqiang said sincerely:

"Thank you for your kind words, Aunt Yu. Thank you so much, Aunt Yu!"

Liang Ziqiang was grateful to Aunt Yu from the bottom of his heart. Of course, he was even more grateful to Old Chen's family.

The Chen family knew clearly about the Liang family's conditions, even renting a house in the village, but they did not despise it.

There was only one reason why they were attracted to Liang Ziqiang, and that was that they thought he was a really nice guy.

Liang Ziqiang started learning to go fishing at sea when he was fourteen or fifteen years old. Among the younger generation of fishermen, there is really no one as capable as him, and his fishing ability is no less than that of the older fishermen.

In addition, he is taller than his father, which is a rare height among southern fishermen, and he also has a handsome appearance.

These two things combined have made Old Chen very fond of this future son-in-law.

If this happened in later generations, no matter how hardworking and capable he was, he would not be favored by his father-in-law and mother-in-law just because he had no house, let alone dream of marrying a pretty girl like Chen Xiangbei.

Lu Hongyu also had things to do, so after talking to him, she drank a few sips of tea and got up and left.

Father Liang told Liang Ziqiang:

"You can't go to Huagu Village empty-handed tomorrow. Don't go fishing yet. Get some money and go to the supply and marketing cooperative to buy some canned food and sugar. Then bring some dried fish from home to Old Chen's house tomorrow."

"Okay!" Liang Ziqiang responded immediately.

The money was usually given to Liang's mother to keep. Now that she heard Liang's father's instructions, she turned around and went to the inner room to get the money.

When she came out again, Liang's mother was holding a big unity in her hand. Although she was usually very picky, she didn't hesitate at all at this time.

Seeing her mother-in-law giving so much money to Liang Ziqiang, Kuang Haixia couldn't help but curl her lips.

It was not known whether Liang's mother saw the expression of her eldest daughter-in-law or not. She stuffed the money into Liang Ziqiang's hand and asked, "Is it enough?"

"It's enough, no more, no less. I'll bring the rest back later."

Liang Ziqiang immediately expressed it readily.

The expression on my sister-in-law's face just now was already very revealing.

Although this money was earned by him from pushing high-legged fishing nets and setting up ground traps, and it hadn't even warmed up in his mother's hands yet, but now that the family has not yet separated, the money he earned would be the whole family's money for the time being.

He didn't want to hear his sister-in-law nagging in his ear again.

Besides, in his memory, the prices in that era were still quite cheap. Ten yuan was enough for him to buy a lot of things and appear in front of Chen Xiangbei's family in a decent manner.

(End of this chapter)