Shocking! A three-year-old brings his aloof mother to their door.

"Hey, hey, hey!" Mo Chashan called out quickly, "Tongtong, don't come down! Just stay up here, it's too deep in here!"

Tongtong looked down at her grandfather's legs; the mud was up to his calves, about half the length of her arm.

She looked down at her short legs again.

It seems... I really can't get down there.

Tongtong pouted and sat down on the shore with a "smack," her two short little legs dangling and swinging.

She looked down and poked her soft, white calves, muttering angrily, "Short legs...short legs..."

Seeing her sullen little face, Mo Chashan couldn't help but laugh.

He pointed to the other end of the fishpond and said, "Yunqi, take Tongtong over there to catch snails and dig for loaches. The water is shallow there, so it's safe."

Mo Yunqi nodded and pulled Tongtong up: "Come on, Tongtong, brother will take you to catch loaches!"

Upon hearing the word "loach," Tongtong's earlier frustration vanished instantly.

She got up, patted the dirt off her bottom, and followed Mo Yunqi to the other side of the fishpond.

The situation over there was indeed different.

The water was already very shallow, with a thin layer on the bottom of the pond, and occasionally you could see ripples from fish swimming by.

Near the shore, the silt had dried, and its surface was cracked with irregular lines, like a tortoise shell, but it was still soft and wet to the touch.

Mo Yunqi took off his shirt and casually draped it over a pile of grass on the bank.

Then roll up your trouser legs, take off your slippers, and step barefoot into the mud to see if you'll sink in.

As Tongtong watched her brother take off his clothes, she grabbed the hem of her own clothes and pulled it up, trying to take off her shirt as well.

"Tongtong, don't take your clothes off!" Mo Yunqi quickly stopped her. "Tongtong is a girl, she can't take off her clothes."

Tongtong tilted her head, a little confused: "Brother has taken his clothes off, why can't Tongtong take hers off too?"

Mo Yunqi was stumped by the question. He scratched his head and managed to stammer, "Because...because girls need to wear clothes. Anyway, they can't take them off."

Tongtong nodded as if she understood, and gave up the idea of ​​taking off her clothes.

She bent down to take off her cloth shoes, but Mo Yunqi called out to her again, "Don't take off your shoes, or you'll get your feet scratched."

Tongtong looked down at her little cloth shoes, then at her brother's bare feet, and asked in even greater confusion, "Then why can my brother take them off?"

"My brother is a boy, he's not afraid of getting scratched," Mo Yunqi said matter-of-factly. "Tongtong is a girl, she needs to be careful."

Tongtong pouted, but still obediently put on her shoes. She looked at her brother barefoot with some envy, and then was led down by Mo Yunqi.

"Tongtong, come here, let your brother teach you how to dig for loaches." Mo Yunqi squatted down and pointed to the clod of mud in front of him.

"Look, grab this crack in the mud and dig it up with all your might."

As he spoke, he demonstrated, inserting both hands into a deep crack and forcefully flipping over a large clump of mud.

"Then you see," he pointed to a few small holes in the clod of mud.

"See these holes? These are the tracks left by loaches. Dig along these holes and you'll find the loaches."

He dug out a few more clods of mud through those holes, and sure enough, a long, thin, slippery thing emerged from one of the clods.

Mo Yunqi gently picked it up with his hands and handed it to Tongtong: "Tongtong, look, this is a loach!"

Tongtong stared wide-eyed at the little thing wriggling in her brother's hand. It was grayish-brown with fine spots on its body, and it was slippery and looked very fun.

"Brother is awesome!" She clapped her hands vigorously, then stretched out her chubby little hand, trying to catch the loach.

One grab.

It slid away.

Arrest them again.

It slid away again.

She squeezed hard, and the loach slipped through her fingers, fell onto the mud, and wriggled to the side.

Tongtong got anxious and chased after it to catch it, but no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't catch the loach. It was too slippery and she couldn't hold it at all.

Mo Yunqi smiled as he picked up the loach and tossed it onto the dry, sandy ground beside him.

The loach rolled around in the sand a few times, getting covered in fine sand, which made it less slippery.

"Tongtong, catch her now."

Tongtong squatted down, carefully reached out, and grabbed the mudfish covered in sand.

"I caught it!" Her eyes crinkled into crescents with joy as she held up the wriggling loach for Mo Yunqi to see. "Brother, look, Tongtong caught it!"

Mo Yunqi gave a thumbs up: "Tongtong is amazing!"

Tongtong held the loach with great delight, when suddenly a question came to mind.

She tilted her little face up and asked curiously, "Brother, are loaches delicious?"

Mo Yunqi thought about it seriously for a moment and nodded: "It's delicious. Brother thinks it's delicious."

"Then Tongtong wants to catch it!" Tongtong's eyes lit up even more. "Let Daddy make Tongtong something delicious!"

She put the loach into a mineral water bottle that had been prepared beforehand. The bottle was filled with a shallow layer of water, and the loach started swimming around as soon as it went in.

Tongtong patted the bottle, put it down contentedly, then rolled up her sleeves and started digging for loaches with a thud.

There are quite a few loaches in this fishpond.

Tongtong imitated Mo Yunqi, digging whenever she saw a crack and chasing after any small hole she saw.

Although her technique was clumsy and she often dug in the wrong places, making a mess of perfectly good clods of mud, she was lucky and could dig out a hole every now and then.

"Heave-ho! Heave-ho!"

"Oh no, another one!"

"Tongtong is so amazing!"

Every time she dug one out, she would hold it up for Mo Yunqi to see, and then carefully put it into the bottle.

She had a few specks of mud on her little face, but she didn't notice them at all. She smiled, her eyes crinkling, revealing her tiny little teeth.

As she dug, Tongtong suddenly stopped.

She stared at the long, thin thing in front of her, which looked much bigger than a loach, her eyes widening.

Then she let out a blood-curdling scream.

"Oh no! Brother! There's a snake!!"

Mo Yunqi was startled and dropped the mud he was holding, rushing over.

"Where?! Where?!"

Tongtong huddled behind him, the chubby little finger pointing at the slowly wriggling thing in front of them, his voice trembling:

"There... there... a snake..."

Mo Yunqi took a closer look and breathed a sigh of relief.

"Tongtong, don't be afraid, this is an eel, not a snake."

He squatted down, pointed to the round, yellowish-brown thing, and said, "Eel, it tastes much better than loach!"

Tongtong's ears perked up instantly.

More delicious?

Her fear was instantly shattered by those three words.

She emerged from behind him, staring intently at the eel wriggling in the mud, her eyes blazing with fighting spirit.

"Even tastier"?

That means we absolutely have to catch them!

She reached out, and based on her experience catching loaches earlier, found the right angle and swiftly grabbed the eel's body.

caught!

The eel writhed wildly in her hand, much stronger than a loach, and almost broke free several times.

Tongtong gripped it tightly, her little face flushed red, muttering, "Don't run away, don't run away, don't run away..."