1983Fishing and Farming between Mountains and Seas

Chapter 4: Ancient and exciting skills

Liang Ziqiang returned to his room and lay on the bed, but he couldn't fall asleep for a while.

My mind was still filled with the impending disaster that was about to happen in a dozen days. The more I couldn't think of a solution, the more uneasy I became.

Another reason was that two big men were squeezed into one small bed.

It's not enough to squeeze, but my brother Liang Zifeng's feet are still restless, and from time to time, a stinky foot is put into his mouth...

Are you sleeping with a human or with salted fish?

No wonder I would rather run to the beach and squat in the middle of the night...

Of course, smelly feet are not completely without benefits. After a while of fumigation, people start to feel dizzy and almost fall asleep...

I don’t know how long I slept. In a daze, I felt something rubbing against my mouth.

Liang Ziqiang was immediately awakened. When he opened his eyes, he saw a pair of small hands holding his head, touching and pinching his face...

Following the pair of little hands upwards, Liang Ziqiang raised his eyes and saw the pretty little face with a pair of big, twinkling eyes.

It turned out that Liang Zifeng had gotten up and left long ago, and the person squatting in front of the bed was his only sister, Liang Lizhi.

Liang Lizhi is sixteen this year. If an outsider who doesn't know her background sees her for the first time, he will definitely be impressed. In appearance, she is such a beautiful little beauty, she doesn't even look like a girl from a fishing village.

There was still some childishness on his face, but those clear eyes were so clean... as if they were empty.

Liang Lizhi is really cute when she is normal.

The point is, she could be abnormal at any time! For example, right now, she kept pinching his face, and she actually woke him up...

"Lizhi, what are you doing? Let go, isn't it hurting me?"

Because the name "Lizhi" is similar to "Lychee", and Liang Lizhi's face is a little round, like a lychee, her nickname was simply "Lychee".

"Of course I'm here to help you with your injuries! Did you have a fight with someone last night, brother?"

Liang Lizhi's thinking is rigorous and flawless.

But the next moment, she took out a piece of green nylon thread used for making fishing nets from her bosom, put one end on Liang Ziqiang's chest, and stuffed the other end into her own ear...

"What's going on?" Liang Ziqiang was speechless.

"Don't move, let me listen carefully for you. If there are any internal injuries, I can definitely hear it!" Liang Lizhi held him down seriously.

I even gave him auscultation!
Liang Ziqiang was angry and amused, and wanted to turn over and push away her "stethoscope", but he caught a glimpse of her face, which was extremely focused and mixed with a bit of worry...

My heart suddenly softened, and there was even a slight pain.

He would never forget that in his previous life, it was on this very day that the police came to his door and arrested him and took him away without any explanation.

The whole family was as anxious as headless flies, and Liang Lizhi was running after the police.

After catching up, she rushed over to hold the police, desperately trying to prevent them from taking my brother away. This incident directly caused two police officers to be injured on duty, and her arms were bitten by her, and the bite was not light...

The police did not pursue the matter because they thought she had mental problems.

Soon, because of a major change in the family, the mother could no longer support the family alone, nor could she feed Litchi, so she married a disabled man when she was still young. Naturally, she lived a hard life for the rest of her life.

She is such a silly sister, but she is so kind to her brother!
"How's it going, Litchi? Did you find anything?"

Liang Ziqiang simply lay still and cooperated with her quietly.

"Wait, the inspection isn't finished yet!"

Liang Lizhi lifted his shirt again, intending to check his belly!
Fortunately, my mother Yuan Qiuying came in at this time and scolded me on the spot:

"I told you to learn how to weave a net, so why did you bring the rope here? Also, your brother is a man, you are not allowed to lift up a man's clothes!"

Liang Ziqiang was finally rescued.

The family members were sitting or squatting, each holding a large bowl and drinking mixed fish porridge.

The row of traps that Liang Ziqiang brought back from the tidal ditch last night were meant to be sold for the stone crabs and mantis shrimps, but the miscellaneous fish inside were really worthless, so Yuan Qiuying made them into porridge early in the morning.

He took a sip with the spoon, and the long-lost fresh fragrance rose in his mouth. Although it was the simplest fish porridge, it was so familiar and delicious to Liang Ziqiang because of the fresh ingredients.

While drinking his porridge, Liang's father reminded his son:

"Recently, the village held a meeting to discuss repairing the dike, and I was specifically asked to participate. As a result, I have been unable to go out to sea for the past two days. You three brothers should not sit idle. Take advantage of the high tide and use high-legged fishing nets to catch shrimps." Liang Ziqiang felt temporarily relieved when he heard that he would not have to go out to sea for the next two days.

He even thought to himself that if the village had arrested his father and sent him to meetings every day this month, he would not have gone out to sea, and the ship would not have sunk...

Of course this is impossible.

If you don't go out to sea for a month, you won't die in the storm, but you will definitely starve to death at home.

The "high-legged fishing net" his father mentioned made Liang Ziqiang feel very familiar.

It is a fishing method that requires a lot of physical strength and skills. Even in Changwang Village, not every fisherman can do it.

To put it simply, it is like standing on stilts and catching fish and shrimps in the surging tide. You can imagine how difficult it is. It is simply an acrobatics of walking on the sea!
Liang Ziqiang never expected that the first day of his renewed career as a fisherman would be to deal with the sea in this ancient and exciting way.

The eldest brother threw down the bowl and went to get the high-legged fishing net and other tools as his father instructed.

Liang's mother put the few pounds of shrimps and crabs in the basin last night into a bucket, and prepared to go to the dock to exchange some money.

As soon as she picked up the bucket, a figure swiftly jumped over, snatched the crab bucket from her hand, and said enthusiastically:

"Mom! You must be very tired after making breakfast, so just take a rest. I can take care of these small things!"

The person who spoke was Liang Ziqiang's sister-in-law, Kuang Hoi-ha, Liang Tiancheng's wife.

In Liang Ziqiang's memory, his eldest sister-in-law and eldest brother have opposite personalities. The eldest brother Liang Tiancheng is a bit naive, while Kuang Haixia is almost the most thoughtful one in the family.

Liang's mother was very clear about this.

She turned around and pushed away her daughter-in-law's hand, saying with an annoyed smile:
"I can't lift these few pounds of stuff? Next time when we dry the salt in the salt fields, you can just grab the hundreds of pounds of sea salt from my shoulders and carry it!"

After saying that, he took the shrimps and crabs and went out, leaving Kuang Haixia standing there, feeling disappointed and a little embarrassed.

Beside him, his younger sister Liang Lizhi saw this and kept making faces at Liang Ziqiang, obviously trying hard to hold back her laughter.

The sister-in-law glared at Liang Lizhi.

Even the silly girl could see that she wanted to take the opportunity to deduct a few cents?
Is it that obvious?
Kuang Haixia coughed dryly, quickly changed the subject, and looked at Liang Ziqiang's brothers:

"Walking on stilts in the sea always scares me. You better be careful and don't be careless!"

"It's not the first or second time. There's nothing to worry about!"

Liang Tiancheng replied to his wife and took out all the stilts, handheld triangular nets, and bamboo baskets at once.

Liang Ziqiang walked straight to the wall and looked at the palm-sized, white calendar hanging on the gray-black wall.

Today is August 1983, 8, and the calendar shows it is the fifth day of the lunar calendar.

He always remembered the pattern of the high and low tides of the sea.

On the first day of every month, the tide starts to rise at around 1 a.m. and starts to ebb at 7 a.m.; the second tide starts to rise at 1 p.m. and ebbs again around 7:30 p.m.

Every day thereafter, the high tide will be delayed by about fifty minutes compared to the previous day.

Today is the fifth day of the Chinese New Year, which means that we have to wait until after ten o'clock in the morning for the tide to start to recede.

More than two hours after the tide recedes, the beach reappears, and this is the perfect time for people to rush out to "catch the sea" and pick up seafood.

It was still early in the morning, the sea water was rising, and most people tried to stay away from the beach.

Not to mention going to the sea at this time.

But there is a group of special fishermen who just want to seize this opportunity to go fishing!

When the tide was high, they not only did not avoid it, but instead stepped on stilts and stepped into the sea to make a living, which was quite a desperate move.

"predict with confidence!"

The eldest brother Liang Tiancheng handed over a set of tools for the stilt fishing net.

Liang Ziqiang took it in his hand. The sturdy pair of stilts suddenly cut through the gap of forty years and evoked his past memories.

Carrying the triangular net, solid wooden stilts and a large bamboo basket, Liang Ziqiang walked towards the sea with anticipation and some trepidation.

(End of this chapter)