1983Fishing and Farming between Mountains and Seas

Chapter 262: Innocent Litchi was beaten up
The weather on the second day was pretty good, with the sun shining brightly, which was perfect for casting nets on the sea.

But on that day, Liang Ziqiang's family neither went out to sea to cast nets nor went to Niu Shi Island to continue fishing.

They all sat at home, planning to rush the work and finish the longline fishing as soon as possible.

All the more than forty washbasins that I bought were put to use.

A fishing line that is several dozen meters long and has fifty iron hooks tied to it at even intervals is considered completed.

The finished fishing line must be coiled neatly and placed in a basin separately. If several fishing lines are placed in the same basin at the same time, they will easily get tangled together and become difficult to pull apart.

But in fact, even a single pot of thread is very easy to tangle -

Fifty hooks will inevitably get caught on the fishing line, or the iron hooks will get hooked on each other, and in this way, the entire fishing line will become more and more tangled and unusable.

Liang Ziqiang and his team’s solution was to roll the mud into balls.

The rubbed wet mud ball is stuck to the inner wall of the basin in a complete circle. When putting the fishing line in, each iron hook should be hooked on the mud ball and hung there.

This way the hooks won't get caught on each other or make the fishing line a tangled mess.

Since Liang's father and Liang Tiancheng made the longline fishing line together, the eldest brother Liang Tiancheng and his family also came to Juzipo during the day and sat together to fish.

Sister-in-law Kuang Haixia was also tying hooks for her own home. Even Liang Xiaohai did not stand idly by this time and actively participated in the collective labor.

Of course, his job is quite special—making clay balls.

This made it impossible for him not to be enthusiastic!

Usually he would secretly roll mud balls to play with, getting covered in mud, and the price he would pay when he came back was a beating.

This time, he actually gained a reputation for rubbing clay. As a master who rubs clay all day, his years of experience are almost comparable to his age, and he is recognized as the most experienced one in the family.

Not only will they not be beaten, but they will also be rewarded with cookies and fried peanuts.

At this moment, he was humming a tune that no one could understand and was playing the guitar with great enthusiasm.

Of course, Lizhi was also part of the same production line as him. Since she hurt her hands when fishing, she was also sent here to take on the glamorous task of kneading mud balls.

Soon everyone discovered that the clay balls made by the two were different. In terms of product quality, Xiao Hai's clay balls were obviously higher-end and easier to use.

"Grandma, I'm out of water!" After a while, Liang Xiaohai came running over from the side of the house with two muddy hands raised.

Of course, water needs to be added to make the mud dough.

"You don't even take a second look at the lychees. There's no water over at Xiaohai. Why don't you go and fetch a load of lychees over here!" While Liang's mother was fishing, she turned around and ordered her eldest grandson to fish for lychees.

At this time, Litchi was obedient. He put down the mud in his hand and went to fetch water.

Several people continued to fish, and from time to time they put the newly made mud balls into the empty basins to make a circle.

Suddenly they realized something was wrong and all of them frowned:
"Why has this mud ball changed and has a smell?!"

Liang's mother sniffed it carefully and said, "Xiao Hai's has no smell. These mud balls made by lychees smell like urine!"

After hearing this for a few more times, Liang's mother got angry and picked up the bamboo stick next to her and rushed towards Litchi:

"Tell me! What did you use to make the mud? You are already an adult, Xiao Hai knows to use water to make mud, but you crazy girl, you used your own urine to make mud?!"

Litchi was stunned. After being hit several times, he jumped to the side to hide:

"Mom, I didn't! My urine doesn't smell!"

The other people also stopped what they were doing and walked towards the pile of dirt beside the house.

Liang Ziqiang discovered that Liang Xiaohai was really having a hard time today. He was squatting on the side, trying very hard to hold back his laughter.

I immediately knew what was going on.

Liang's father obviously noticed it too, his face darkened:
"Xiao Hai, tell me, did you secretly pee in Lizhi's mud while she was fetching water?!"

Liang Xiaohai was still somewhat afraid of his grandfather's dark face, and shrank back and muttered, "I don't know!"

How could he not know about this? Of course, not knowing about it would be the same as confessing.

In the blink of an eye, Liang's mother and Kuang Haixia were chasing and besieging Liang Xiaohai...

Chen Xiangbei didn't move. She sat there with her big belly and watched the chaotic scene in front of her.

When Liang Ziqiang came back, he saw his wife patting her belly with a sad face:
"When the baby in my belly is born, if he is also so naughty all day long, how can I live like this?!" Liang Ziqiang said, "Are you thinking about this? Don't worry, when he is born, Mom won't have to worry about Xiao Hai anymore!"

"Why?" Chen Xiangbei was puzzled.

"If Xiao Hai starts to make trouble, I think he is no match for him. By then, I might think Xiao Hai is a good and quiet child!"

"..." Chen Xiangbei's lips curled up to her ears, blaming him, "The baby hasn't even been born yet, how do you know? How can a father say that about his own child!"

Liang Ziqiang certainly had his own feelings when he said this. In his previous life, the firstborn child was very naughty and mischievous when he was young. If the firstborn child now is similar to that one, wouldn't he be a mischievous king?

Don’t say that the probability is not small.

When they continued longline fishing in the afternoon, Liang's father ordered Liang Xiaohai to move the mud-rubbing position to a place closer to them so that there would be no blind spots in their field of vision and a complete "supervision mechanism" was established.

It seems that Liang Xiaohai will not have the chance to play a prank again and put the blame on Lizhi.

But Lizhi was not happy! She was wrongly accused and beaten with bamboo sticks for no reason. She was very depressed. She had a sullen face for the whole afternoon and glared at everyone she saw, as if the whole village owed her money.

In the end, it was Liang's mother who took out several biscuits to clear her name, and the matter was finally over.

After a day of fishing, I managed to catch all the longlines.

Liang Ziqiang had already discussed with his father and elder brother that if the weather was fine, there was no need to wait any longer and they would go out to sea tomorrow to try to catch fish with longline fishing.

The next day it continued to be a sunny day.

If you judge that the weather is suitable for going out to sea, start preparations immediately.

This is very different from the usual sea trips, where you only need to bring a fishing net, prepare some food and drinks, and you can set off immediately.

When it comes to longline fishing, the special preparations before going out to sea can take an hour or so.

The so-called preparation is actually mainly about baiting.

With more than a thousand hooks, it would definitely be too late to bait them all after the boat reaches the target waters.

Liang Ziqiang had to put on some bait before setting out. He would put on the bait on hundreds of the hooks while he was at home, and he planned to take time to put on the hundreds of empty hooks while sailing.

In this way, when you arrive at the target waters, you can just throw the fish into the water.

At present, there is no rich variety of bait at home. The only bait we have is shrimps kept in basins.

Chen Xiangbei also brought a chair over to help. The two of them put bait on the hooks one by one.

All the fishing lines had been made and placed in basins yesterday. Liang Ziqiang alone had twenty-four basins.

They each pulled over a basin, took down the empty iron hook that had been hung on the mud ball yesterday, then picked up two shrimps and hung them on the iron hooks like skewers.

The baited hooks must be hung back on the mud. Otherwise, even if the basin is full of baited hooks, they will still be tangled together, and when you need to use them on the sea surface, you will find that they are completely unusable!
Fill fifty iron hooks with bait and hang the mud ball back on them, and the basin is ready. You can use it directly at sea.

Immediately pull over another basin of empty hooks and repeat the previous operation.

The two of them hung up three or four pots of bait. Later, Zhu Tianpeng came over, moved a stool and started hanging bait in the same way.

Halfway through hanging, I found that I couldn’t go on - there was not enough shrimp bait.

The shrimps in the basin at home were gone without me noticing.

The situation of Liang's father and elder brother was naturally the same as his.

So they decided to bring all the baited and unbaited fishing lines onto the boat, and then continue to add bait depending on the catch.

For example, if you catch some cheap fish that are particularly worthless, you can chop them up and use them as bait, and then temporarily hang them on the iron hook.

Anyway, with hundreds of hooks already baited in front of you, you can start fishing at any time when you arrive at the scene without any delay.

Liang Ziqiang put a batch of basins onto a cart, covered them with a wooden board, and then put another layer of basins on top.

Twenty-four basins of fishing line, plus the main line, float rope, float, sinker and the like, were placed on the cart and tied with several ropes so that they would not fall off when the cart was pushed.

Liangfu only had a thousand hooks and twenty basins, which were also pushed on a cart.

The four men pushed their luggage, which was even more luxurious than usual, towards the sea covered with morning glow.

Burst

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(End of this chapter)