Age: My Small World

Chapter 5 Fishing
"Hey, we're out of soy sauce at home. My mom asked me to go get some."

She raised the soy sauce bottle in one hand.

As if she had noticed something was wrong with Yang Jun, the little girl kept looking at him, her beautiful eyebrows slightly raised, causing her to stutter a little when speaking.

"If I catch a fish, I will have to go to the supply and marketing cooperative later. Do you want to wait for me?" Yang Jun replied, as if he could really catch a fish.

The supply and marketing cooperative is actually not very big. Most of the items inside are flour, oil, salt, sauce, vinegar and other things to meet the basic supply needs in the countryside. They do not buy fish, but the person in charge loves to eat fish, so he will buy some occasionally.

"How can you possibly catch fish if you don't even have the tools?"

Looking at Yang Jun's empty hands, Cheng Xiaoyu almost laughed, and no longer cared about his personality.

The next moment, Yang Jun's eyes lit up and he grabbed something with his right hand and lifted it up.

Water splashed everywhere, but Cheng Xiaoyu did not dodge. Instead, he looked at the fish swinging its fins in the air in surprise.

"Brother Xiaoshan, you really caught a fish!" The little girl's eyes lit up and she looked a little unbelievable.

Yang Jun was also somewhat happy that his trick really worked.

When the fish swims near him without paying attention, he only needs a thought to catch the fish in the space, and then it will flow around and return to his hand, and the gills will be firmly grasped. This method of catching fish is really useful.

"I was just lucky. This little thing actually got into my hands."

He weighed it with his hands and made an estimate.

"It's a shame it's just a bighead carp. Fortunately, it should weigh about two kilograms, which can be exchanged for half a kilogram of eggs."

If bighead carp is sold in the supply and marketing cooperative, the price is about 40 cents per pound, but the purchase price is about 20 cents.

If it is replaced with grass carp, the price can be doubled.

The price of eggs is 80 cents per pound.

In other words, after working for half a day, I only got half a pound of eggs.

Even so, Cheng Xiaoyu was already envious.

"You're feeling sorry for me, but why couldn't I catch a bighead carp?"

Not to mention fish, even eggs and other meat are rarely seen in her house.

She was an orphan and a widow, and she had to go to school. The burden of the family was borne by her mother alone. You can imagine how difficult it was. Yang Jun's family only improved after his two sisters grew up. Otherwise, his mother Li Xiaohua's life would have been even harder than Cheng Xiaoyu's family. At least Cheng Xiaoyu's mother Fan Ping was a girl from Fanjiazhuang, and she was taken care of by the Fan family's relatives on weekdays.

Yang Jun planned to sell this fish to Uncle Liu from the supply and marketing cooperative in exchange for something useful for his family.

In fact, with the space available, he didn't really care about the fish, but the sense of accomplishment he felt at the moment had not yet subsided.

This is probably what a fisherman’s happiness is like.

Don’t ask, the answer is two kilograms.

"Brother Xiaoshan, how do you catch fish? Can you teach me?"

Cheng Xiaoyu on the side looked at him without blinking, with curiosity and desire to catch fish.

"I'm so lucky. This stupid fish came in by itself and I couldn't stop it." Yang Jun didn't have any other ideas. He could only fool around for now.

If there really is a method, he would also like to teach it to Cheng Xiaoyu. This girl used to take good care of him when they were in school.

Before Yang Jun awakened his memory, he was quite timid and would not say a word even when bullied. At this time, Cheng Xiaoyu would protect him like a hen protecting her chicks.

After several years, the two have become accustomed to getting along like this.

That's why Cheng Xiaoyu felt a little strange when she saw him just now. But it's not surprising that a young boy's personality changes every day. In the past, her younger brother Cheng Aimin always liked to make trouble, but he became much more sensible after he started to remember things. The previous experience is not far away.

Maybe he figured it out in an instant, she guessed.

Originally, Xiaoshan was smarter than her, and she felt that she was just a little stronger than Xiaoshan.

"That's great, but unfortunately I don't have this luck." The little girl rubbed her pigtails depressedly, too lazy to even speak.

She believed what Yang Jun said. After all, it was impossible to catch fish with nothing.

After making a rope out of weeds and hanging the fish on it, Yang Jun called the little girl to go to the supply and marketing cooperative.

"Let's go to the supply and marketing cooperative together."

Cheng Xiaoyu was a straightforward girl. After just a few steps, she drove away her depression and began to talk to Yang Jun about her upcoming high school life.

"Brother Xiaoshan, what do you think high school is like?"

"What else could it be? It's pretty much the same as junior high. It's just that you need to improve your grades. High school is much more competitive than junior high. If you want to go to college in the future, you can't afford to have low grades."

The little girl was able to go to high school just by the squeak, and her grades were not particularly ideal.

I had to help with housework on weekdays, leaving home early and coming back late, so it was difficult for me to keep up with what I learned in school. As a result, subjects like geometry and algebra were very difficult, and I couldn't even guarantee passing.

The current college admission rate is not very high, averaging between 10% and 20%, and sometimes even less than 10%. In this era, college students are as scarce as gold.

Among hundreds of thousands of high school students, there are less than 100,000 students each year. You can imagine how difficult it is.

It is also for this reason that once college students graduate and find jobs, they will at least start as cadres in their units, which is extremely enviable.

Yang Jun’s goal is to become a college student first.

Even though he had the space of a small world and could easily make his life better, he still wanted to make himself more valuable. The identity of a college student was undoubtedly excellent. It could save him a lot of trouble and avoid trouble, bringing a lot of convenience, especially as the sixties were approaching.

When talking about grades, Cheng Xiaoyu's eyes dimmed a lot, as this has always been her weakness.

Although I work hard and study until late every day, the results are still not ideal. In addition to time constraints, it is also related to ineffective efforts.

Not all efforts are rewarded. In this era where learning methods are not emphasized, rote learning is the daily routine of students.

Seeing the girl lower her head, Yang Jun felt a little sorry for her. Perhaps she had already guessed what she would be like after graduating from high school.

The status of high school students is actually not low, and they have more opportunities to find jobs in the city, but who doesn’t want to touch the threshold of university?

Thinking of Cheng Xiaoyu's usual behavior of protecting her son, although it hurt the boy's self-esteem a little, he knew that he was also a kind-hearted person and would occasionally help her fetch water or something.

"How about this, after school starts, if you have any questions, just come and ask me. We can learn from each other, and your grades will definitely improve. Maybe we can even go to college together in the future."

Considering Yang Jun's experience of going through countless college entrance examinations, it should not be difficult for him to review the college entrance examinations of this year.

Hearing him say this, Cheng Xiaoyu immediately grabbed his arm.

"Xiaoshan, this is what you said. You can't leave me alone when the time comes."

"Once a gentleman has made his word, it is hard to follow him."

"What do you mean?"

"I said I mean what I say."

"That's all right!"

　New books for collection
　　
　
(End of this chapter)