Carry a fountain with you

Chapter 492 The Way to Catch Crabs
Anyone who often catches crabs knows that when walking along the river during the day, it is easy to see crabs poking out of holes.This thing is a clever ghost. When the surroundings are calm, they mostly guard the entrance of the cave to catch those small fish and shrimps swimming around.But as long as you feel the vibration of your footsteps, or see something approaching, you will immediately retreat to the depths of the cave.It wasn't until the danger was eliminated that it slowly came out again.

"Wow, there are also here. Uncle, catch some crabs for me to eat." After listening to the explanation, Xiao Jianhui turned his head to look in the distance, only to find two more crab holes.

Following the direction he pointed, Liu Junhao discovered that there were many crab holes in the reeds on the bank of the ditch.He was so close, yet he didn't realize it, it was really dark under the lamp.

It is understandable that even though the ditch is in front of the house, he seldom goes to the reeds, and at most he travels on the wooden bridge.Unexpectedly, inadvertently, so many caves have been dug on the shore.

When Jianhui said it, he was also moved.

In fact, it is still early to catch crabs, and autumn is the best time.At that time, the female crabs are about to lay eggs, so they climb to the place where there is water by the side of the ditch, and then dig a very shallow hole to start laying eggs, which is very convenient to catch.Be careful when looking for holes though, as many of them are full of rats and snakes.

"Catching crabs, okay, let me show you how good I am at catching crabs." Idle is also idle, Liu Junhao doesn't mind showing them a hand.

There are many ways to catch crabs, such as fishing, sticking, touching, digging and covering.

When it comes to fishing, it is very simple, similar to fishing eels. Use fine silk to make a hook to string earthworms, and then find a crab hole in muddy water and put the hook into the hole.As long as the crab's big pincers bite the prey, it can slowly pull out of the cave. However, it should be noted that when the crab is about to leave the water, the crab will loosen the pincers and escape in a hurry. One hand quickly blocked the opening of the hole, blocking the crab's retreat.

After a little hesitation, the crab went deep into the bottom of the hole and could no longer be caught.

To tie crabs, you need to make a strip, and then tie a U-shaped lead wire hook to one end, and use it to stir directly into the hole.Crabs can't bear the tinkering with the hook, and they tend to escape from the cave and are "pinned" out by the hook.

There is no technological content in digging crabs, just put your hands into the hole and dig out to the bottom.This approach takes courage.Because if you slow down a bit, the crab's big pincers will hold your hand tightly, which is very painful and sometimes even bleeds.

Liu Junhao was caught by a crab once. At that time, he was more aggressive and didn't know how to be afraid. He opened his mouth and went down with a "click" to crush the crab's pincers!
At that time, it aroused the admiration of many partners, and I have been proud of it for a long time.

Crab caves are of different depths and thicknesses. Small crabs are easy to catch when you encounter them.Old crabs are not so easy. Their holes are often very deep. When catching them, you need to go deep into the hole with your arms, lean your shoulders sideways to the hole, and put half of your face on the mud... At this time, the success rate is quite low. My head was covered with mud, but I didn't see any crabs in the end.

This method is also risky. Once Liu Junhao's hand just reached into the hole.Suddenly a snake ran out from his hand. At that time, he thought it was an eel, and his arm pressed directly against the wall of the cave. As a result, the water snake couldn't escape and was wrapped around his wrist.Fortunately, he realized that something was wrong, so he quickly took out his arm, otherwise he would have to take a bite.

After the water snake incident, he was much more careful when digging crabs, and every time he looked for it before he started.

The cover crab is a group of water plants that tightly block the entrance of the hole. After ten minutes or so, return to the original place, pull out the water plants with one hand, and quickly reach into the hole with the other hand to catch them. Staying at the entrance of the cave, of course, there are also those who suffocate to death at the entrance of the cave for too long.

When touching crabs, follow the feeling, usually when you go down the river to take a bath.People walk in the river, step on the quicksand, bend over and touch the bottom of the river with both hands. As long as they step on or touch a smooth piece, they will definitely be a big hairy crab. Of course, it is very rare to step on an old turtle.

Often catching crabs, Liu Junhao also discovered a little-known secret, that is, there will be a pile of foamy mud outside each crab hole, which is equivalent to the territory boundary marker of crabs.After catching a crab, you only need to remove the pile of mud. After a few days, a crab will usually live again, and a pile of fresh mud will appear.

"By the way, husband, do you know how female crabs reproduce? I mean how do those little crabs live after hatching?" Zhang Qian asked curiously, not very interested in catching crabs, but interested in the origin of crabs.All she knows is that crabs lay their eggs in their navels, which then hatch into baby crabs.But how those little crabs live is not mentioned in the book.

"You're asking the right person. Most people really don't know." Liu Junhao replied ostentatiously.In order to understand this problem when he was a child, he deliberately caught some female crabs and found that they had a unique way of feeding their offspring.

When the baby crab is just born, it has a soft armor and is still hiding in the shell of the mother crab.Only on sunny and warm days, the female crab will climb ashore from the hole and open the crab cover, so that the little crabs can come out to bask in the warmth and play.As soon as there is any trouble around, the little crabs swarm like ants into the cover of the female crab.

Seeing that the child has drilled almost well, the female crab will close the cover, raise two large pincers, and escape into the cave sideways with rustling.

Of course, if the female crab escapes too quickly, it will inevitably leave many small crabs outside.This kind of little thing can't be kept alive without its mother's body. Liu Junhao has caught many of them, but it's a pity that they all died within two days.

Under the guidance of Liu Junhao, several people learned how to cover crabs in a decent manner.

Just as He Yifan lifted the covers of the two aquatic plants, he suddenly shouted at the top of his voice: "Jianhui, Jianhui, come quickly! I was bitten by a snake!"
The miserable voice startled Liu Junhao too, but after seeing clearly what was in that guy's hand, he felt relieved and gave his wife a reassuring look.As soon as he heard that he was bitten by a snake, Xiao Jianhui hurried up with a wooden stick.When the little guy first came to Liujiagou, he was afraid of everything he saw. Now that he stayed for a long time, he had already turned into a calf. He was not afraid of snakes and always wanted to beat them to death.

He Yifan squatted up and stood up, tightly twisting a big snake with thick arms with both hands. The snake's body curled around his hands, and the bright red blood was dripping continuously from between his fingers, which was very scary.

Xiao Jianhui was very brave just now, but he was scared when he saw the blood, so he just hid in the distance and shouted: "Cousin, cousin, throw it away quickly! Throw it away quickly! What are you still holding on to?" How can I help you?"
"Hurry up...the poisonous snake bit my hand!" He Yifan yelled in a whimpering tone.

"Okay, okay, I'll help you," the little guy gritted his teeth, and hit He Yifan's arm with a wooden stick.

"Don't..." He Yifan was so scared that he hurriedly backed away, and shouted, "Stop beating, quickly bring the bucket!" At this time, Zhang Qian also rushed over, saw the big snake in his hand and laughed, pointing at his nephew He said with his head: "Xiao Jianhui, why don't you widen your eyes and see clearly. You also believe He Yifan's words. How can this be a snake? Take a look again?" The marijuana eel, as for the blood, it was just that He Yifan caught it with too much force and directly cut the marijuana eel's belly.

Seeing that his cousin was still laughing, the little guy was not annoyed, and asked back, "Uncle, why is there an eel in this hole, shouldn't it be a crab hole?"

"There are exceptions to everything," Liu Junhao explained.In fact, there are occasional situations where crabs, toads, and eels share the same cave, but this is rare, and He Yifan did not expect to encounter it.With such a movement, he was afraid that the crabs in the cave would be scared away.

"Oh, I see, Uncle Yifan hit a dead mouse." Xiao Jianhui said with a bit of rascal mischief.The little guy remembered that he still had to catch crabs, so he didn't argue with his cousin, and hurried to the water's edge.

The results are fruitful. After waiting for more than ten minutes, the crabs caught are half a pot.Among them, the one Xiao Jianhui caught was as big as the mouth of a bowl, and it was a rare old crab.And this guy's skills are very good, and he didn't let the crab get caught.

When cooking at noon, as soon as Liu Junhao steamed the crabs, Xiao Jianhui came over to find them.

"Jianhui, what are you doing here? You still want to catch crabs?" He Yifan joked with a smile.

"Cousin, you don't know how much effort I took to catch that crab just now, it almost got into the hole." Actually, it was very easy to catch the crab just now, and the little guy exaggerated the difficulty on purpose to show off his ability Many times.
"Really?" He Yifan joked, "Jianhui, did you look carefully when you caught this crab?"

"See what?" the little guy asked in confusion.

"See clearly that this crab is blind, haven't you noticed?" He Yifan asked solemnly with a straight face.The little guy thought it was true, looked at Liu Junhao suspiciously and said, "No way, Uncle, you can see if it's true, I didn't pay attention, how did my cousin know?"
He Yifan laughed and said, "Of course I know, even you can catch it, no wonder you're not blind!"

Everyone laughed, and Zhang Qian even bent over laughing. "Yes, this crab is blind, you can't eat it later." Xiao Jianhui pressed the lid of the pot and looked at He Yifan angrily, obviously not convinced that he killed himself.

"Okay, okay, don't tease the children, how old are you?" Liu Junhao hugged Xiao Jianhui and said, "Wait, let's not catch the cicada tonight, I will lead you to catch the old turtle." "Where is it?" I'll go over and help you with the lantern." Hearing that the old turtle was going to be caught, Jianhui asked anxiously. "Hehe, I can't say it now. I'll hear it when I say it. If I run away in the middle of the night, we won't be able to catch it." Liu Junhao said with a smile.He was just diverting the child's attention, how could he really catch the old turtle. "Uncle, how come you can catch the old turtle every time?" The little guy started to break the casserole again and asked the bottom line. "This is what the Dragon King of the East China Sea told me when I was dreaming. He asked me to go there at night, and an old turtle gave it to me." "Yes, I also had a dream just now. A Guanyin Bodhisattva, she said to me: "Zhang Jianhui, you and your uncle will go catch the old turtle at night, and I'll have fun with you"." After He Yifan finished speaking, he looked up at Liu Junhao very seriously.These words immediately made everyone laugh again... Zhang Qian didn't let her husband continue teasing him, but turned her head and said, "You, you just lead him to talk nonsense. Our family will worship Bodhisattva this year." Well, although she didn't believe in such gods, she still tried to comfort her, so she didn't let her husband continue to talk nonsense.

"Okay, okay, I won't talk about eating." Liu Junhao said and began to add some hardwood to the pot.

* * *
In July, the morning glory is fragrant, and there are loofahs planted in the fence in the east of the courtyard. Although there are only a few trees, the loofahs that have grown have covered the shelves, and there are many small yellow flowers in bloom, attracting many people. The bumblebee was flying above.

Loofah is a good thing, but the couple and the two guests are getting tired of eating these days.

The main reason is that there are too many, four or five loofahs can be picked from the shelf every day.In previous years, it can be given to Professor Zhao, but this year, the loofah is still sent out.

Liu Junhao learned the lesson of the big pagoda tree, and did not dare to water the spring water under the loofah seedlings again, but this thing still grows very tall, and two of them have climbed over the fence and directly climbed onto the branches of the neem tree.

The yellow flowers on the loofah seedlings are obviously more than the loofahs grown by other people in the village... I wanted to keep a low profile, but I didn't expect to be low-key.Liu Junhao speculates that it may be due to the quality of the soil. In the past two years, he has poured spring water into the flower pond several times, probably because the soil here has been improved.

However, the loofahs in Liu Junhao’s family are nothing. The ones that really stand out are the ones planted on the top of the square in Professor Zhao’s courtyard.

Professor Zhao's house has three large tile-roofed houses, which were enough for the couple to live in.But now the son and daughter families often go to Liujiagou on weekends, so there are not enough houses.It's not common to stay overnight at Liu Junhao's place, so in Chunshang he asked someone to build two bungalows next to him, intending to let the children have a place to live when they came again.

He didn't expect that this square is different from a tile-roofed house, the sun is so hot that people can't get in.

A few small trees have just been planted around the bungalow, and it will take several years for the shade to come out.So Professor Zhao got a few loofah seeds and planted them on the roof as a shade cloth.Go upstairs every morning and evening to water them and sometimes get some fertilizer.

Originally, I thought it would be enough to shade it from the sun, but I didn’t expect the loofah to grow like crazy. In just over a month, it has covered the whole shelf and climbed everywhere along the roof.

Many loofah vines hang down along the bungalows, forming a spectacular natural "green waterfall".One plant was even more outrageous. It crossed the roof of the bungalow, stretched its tentacles to the top of the tile-roofed house, spread along the tile-roofed house, and climbed up to three houses.

This kind of spectacle naturally attracts many people to watch it, and now it has almost become a small scenic spot in Liujiagou. Many tourists come in to have a look when they pass by his house, and stand in front of the door to take a few photos.Not to mention tourists, many villagers also came to learn from the scriptures, saying that they left some loofah seeds in the autumn, and then planted a few at home.

(End of this chapter)