Back to my 1980s

On a small boat on the Qinghe River in Shuanghuai Village.

Zhao Huatian woke up before dawn.

I spent half the night thinking about it before going to sleep, and I only had one thought in my mind: now that I've crossed paths with Xueping, making money is the most important thing now.

So I got up early this morning. After washing up, I called Zhao Ru and we ate breakfast quickly. Then the two siblings went to the river together.

Zhao Ru seemed to be in high spirits this morning. I guess she rested at home all day yesterday and showed off her money to her friends and nephews and nieces. That's why she's in such high spirits now.

Zhao Hua, punting the boat, glanced aimlessly around. Seeing Zhao Ru looking energetic, he chuckled and said, "What's up? So excited today? Did you go to the convenience store a lot yesterday?"

Zhao Ru tilted her head shyly: "No, I didn't go many times, I just bought some candy to share with them."

Zhao Hua licked his lips and smacked his lips, saying, "If you go out and spread the word, everyone will know you're making money. When they go back home and tell their families, won't their parents also come and catch fish like us?"

Upon hearing this, Zhao Ru's expression changed, her excitement vanished, and she looked nervously at Zhao Hua, saying, "What should we do then? I already said! Otherwise, if anyone dares to go home and tell anyone, I'll beat them up!"

Zhao Hua's face darkened. Where did this violent girl come from? He frowned at Zhao Ru and said, "Try to control your temper. I heard you're pretty tough? You beat those boys until they were screaming like madmen?"

Zhao Ru became smug, raising an eyebrow and saying, "Of course! The younger ones can't beat me, but if the older ones dare to fight back, I'll tell them to beat you up! I'll tell them you know a lot of hooligans!"

Zhao Hua was speechless. Fine, fine, you used my name to act arrogantly when you were young, and now that you're older, you start accusing me of not doing my job properly?

He glared at Zhao Ru with annoyance and said, "Don't you dare use my name to do whatever you want anymore. I've already reformed myself, and you, a little girl, are still acting all high and mighty."

Zhao Ru simply nodded, her face falling as she asked, "So what do we do now? They probably already know!"

Seeing that she didn't take it to heart and didn't pursue the matter, Zhao Hua knew that being too soft-hearted wasn't good in the countryside; as long as you had a bottom line, that was fine. He also knew that she hadn't gone astray in her past life, so he didn't say anything more.

He gestured with his chin towards the river and said, "Can't you see? The river is so big, how could the two of us possibly scoop it all up?"

Zhao Ru's anxiety subsided considerably, and after thinking for a moment, she said, "That makes sense. They usually put out traps."

Seeing Zhao Ru's nonchalant expression, Zhao Hua reminded her, "You'd better not go around talking about it. I have so many friends. What if they hear about it and ask me to bring them along? Do you think I should bring them or not? If I don't, it'll be hard to be friends. If I do, you'll become superfluous."

Zhao Ru had already relaxed, her bright black eyes gazing at the river.

But hearing Zhao Hua's words, he couldn't help but worry again.

Zhao Hua couldn't help but laugh as he watched Zhao Ru's mood shift between joy and worry. The little girl was so amusing. Didn't she realize how she could possibly bring friends along? It was such a small boat; would she be sharing the money with others or paying them wages? Any more conflict and they wouldn't be able to remain friends.

Many people start out as close as brothers, calling each other brothers, but eventually become strangers and go their separate ways because of some interests. Even though Zhao Hua hasn't experienced it himself, he has heard of quite a few such stories.

When the two arrived at the place where the trap had been placed, it was already dawn. They hadn't taken it out for a day and two nights, so they had to take it out first.

Zhao Ru reached out and lifted the fish trap from the water, weighed it in her hand, and then excitedly turned back to Zhao Hua and shouted, "Brother! It's so heavy! There's so much stuff in the fish trap today!" With that, she picked up the fish trap with great anticipation and poured the contents into the cabin.

As soon as they poured the fish into the hold, they found it was full of dead fish and shrimp; only half of them were alive, and some of the fish had already started to rot.

Zhao Ru hurriedly threw the fish trap into the cabin, stopped catching fish, rubbed her hands together and said, "It stinks! Ugh, I even touched a stinky one!" She then put her hand to her nose and sniffed it, looking like she was about to vomit.

Seeing this, Zhao Hua stepped forward, picked up the fish trap, poured out the remaining fish and shrimp, and smiled at Zhao Ru, "It's been a day and two nights since we last collected them, isn't it normal for them to smell bad? Come on, I'll collect them. We won't put them back today, let's take them ashore to dry."

Zhao Ru nodded and switched places with Zhao Hua: "You take care of it! I'll row."

Zhao Hua waved his hand and laughed, "Okay, go ahead." He had taught Zhao Ru before, so he wasn't worried about this.

Halfway through collecting the fish traps, Zhao Hua picked up the trap he had just pulled from the water and tried to empty it into the cabin, but nothing came out. He shook it; it was quite heavy. He asked Zhao Ruqi, "This fish trap? Huh? Why isn't anything coming out?"

Zhao Ru was drawn by Zhao Hua's words and looked over as well, asking in confusion, "Huh? There's nothing inside? That can't be right. The fish traps haven't been empty today."

Seeing that he couldn't get the fish out after several attempts, Zhao Hua set up the fish trap and looked inside through the opening. He exclaimed in surprise, "Oh! A turtle! The fish inside are stuck because of the turtle!"

Upon hearing this, Zhao Ru was pleasantly surprised and laughed, "You can catch these things with a fish trap?"

Zhao Hua nodded, but didn't dare to reach in directly for fear of being bitten. Instead, he aimed the fish's mouth at the cabin and gently tapped the bottom of the cabin.

Before long, a turtle the size of a washbasin, with a bluish-black carapace and sharp claws, was suddenly thrown out and landed in the cabin. It looked to weigh at least three pounds. As soon as it landed, it burrowed into the stern of the boat.

Zhao Ru cried out in surprise as the turtle crawled toward her, then called out to Zhao Hua, "Brother! Brother! It's crawling toward me!" Her voice was trembling with tears.

Zhao Hua quickly stepped forward and stomped on it. Once he was sure he was firmly planted, he turned to Zhao Ru and scolded her impatiently, "What are you yelling about? There's such a high plank blocking the way, do you think it could fly over there?"

It wasn't that Zhao Hua had a bad temper; it was simply because there was a wooden plank between the cabin and the rudder to prevent water from flowing into the stern.

However, the old man often said that turtles love to bite people and once they bite, they won't let go no matter what, and they will bite off a piece of flesh to scare the children. It is normal for Zhao Ru to be panicked when such a big turtle suddenly came straight at her.

Thinking of this, Zhao Hua softened his tone: "It's alright, I stepped on it, it can't get through, don't worry."

Zhao Ru snapped out of her daze and nodded: "It just crawled right towards me, and so fast! It scared me to death!"

Zhao Hua nodded and smiled, "It tried to escape as soon as it landed. I was blocking it from here, so of course it crawled to the stern. Okay, hand me one of the buckets over there, I'll put it in."

After her initial panic subsided, Zhao Ru was no longer afraid. She even peeked over and handed over the bucket at her feet: "It looks quite big. This thing must be very valuable, right? Xiao Gan said his family caught one, but they couldn't bear to eat it. He wanted to keep it as a pet, but his father sold it. We saw him crying last time."

Zhao Hua was also satisfied and laughed, "Hmm, it should weigh more than three pounds. It's alright. I guess it burrowed into the fish trap to eat those small fish and shrimp, and couldn't get out after it finished eating."

He took the bucket, squatted down, and scooped up the turtle by the bucket, placing it in a corner of the cabin and covering it with a basket.

I'd better not put it near Zhao Ru's feet, lest she accidentally get bitten.