Back to my 1980s

"Okay, brother, you're so comfortable. You can leave the money here without worrying about Mom taking it."

Zhao Hua hummed in agreement, closed the drawer, got up, and went out to prepare for dinner.

Looking at the orange-yellow sweet potato rice in the bowl, he stirred it a couple of times with his chopsticks, frowning slightly. You still need coupons to buy rice; grain is a strategic resource, and no one dares to sell it at the market.

In rural areas, grain coupons were unavailable; the difficulty of obtaining grain coupons here was roughly the same as obtaining foreign exchange certificates in the city.

It wasn't until the end of the year that a privately owned grain and oil shop without a sign appeared next to the grain station at the market. It was said that the shop owner was the brother of the top official in the township. Rice was selling for 70 cents a pound. A family of five would need 1.5 pounds of rice to eat one meal, which would cost more than a dollar...

This meal alone cost a rural woman a day's wages, not even including the cost of groceries. If she really ate like that, Zhao's mother would probably throw him out the door and abandon him as her son...

"Once we get married and separate from the family, I can be in charge of my own household," he sighed softly, continuing to swallow the sweet potato. It was actually quite sweet and delicious, if he hadn't overeaten it…

After swallowing a few mouthfuls of sweet potato, I casually craned my neck to look outside. The sun was shining brightly in the morning, but now the sky had turned somewhat gloomy.

"Mom, why is it so stuffy this afternoon?" He shook his sweat-soaked clothes.

"It's going to rain heavily, isn't it? The plum rain season is almost here. Be careful with your boat." Zhao's mother didn't even look up.

"What? It's only the rainy season now?" Zhao Hua was surprised. He thought it was the rainy season when he brought the mandarin fish back from the river.

"You're all grown up and you still don't know when the plum rain season is coming?" Zhao's father asked, somewhat surprised.

He wouldn't know anything. Later, as he got older, he worked away from home all year round. He did remember that his hometown used to flood every year when he was young, but he only vaguely remembered that it was in the summer.

Back when I was young and lived a carefree life at home, I had no idea when it would be cloudy for days. I would get excited whenever there was a flood. The shore was full of big fish washed ashore and stranded. Who had time to remember exactly when the flood was?

"What about my boat? Is it going to flood?" He turned to look at Zhao's father.

"It's alright, the plum rains will cause the water to rise. Flooding and rising water are different; it won't rise all at once. Just tie the boat to the woods when the water starts to rise," Zhao's father replied casually.

Mother Zhao laughed and said, "The flood will only occur when the upstream can't hold the water anymore and the sluice gates are opened. Don't you even know that?"

Zhao Hua pondered for a moment and said, "That's true. There's no rush with the boat. At first, the water level will just rise. I remember that every year when the water rises, it reaches the village entrance."

"Brother, does that mean you can catch fish just by standing at the village entrance?" Zhao Ru couldn't help but ask.

"Not necessarily? It depends on whether the fish come to the shore or not. If they come to the shore, then it's fine. There's a saying, isn't there? 'Fish in rising water, shrimp in falling water,' or 'shrimp in rising water, fish in falling water'?" Zhao Hua looked at his mother, he was a little confused.

"Fish are easy to catch when the water is rising, and shrimp are easy to catch when the water is falling. Haven't you seen this before when the water was rising? A bunch of people standing at the village entrance fishing with nets."

"I've seen them before, but I think shrimp are easy to catch. There are plenty of shrimp on the shore, and the water isn't very deep as it slowly rises. It seems like there are more shrimp than fish," Zhao Hua recalled carefully.

After speaking, he looked at the last bit of food left in his bowl, quickly ate it in two bites, got up and walked to the door. Looking at the increasingly gloomy weather, he hesitated. He felt itchy to stay in, but worried about rain if he went out.

Zhao Ru finished her meal, walked over to him, and whispered, "Brother, it looks like it's going to rain heavily. It's getting dark. Are we still going?"

He patted his pocket; the fishing hooks and lines he'd bought at the market were still on him. After thinking for a moment, he said, "Of course I'm going. I also need to bring back the fish traps. If the rain is light, it'll be fine, but if it rains heavily and the water rises, I won't be able to find the traps. I'm just wondering if I should go fishing."

"Go ahead and fish, if you don't want to use a net." Zhao Ru didn't care; she just wanted to catch fish.

"I wanted to cast a net, but I was worried about whether I could make it back in time if it rained. Fishing doesn't require going so far; I can do it right at the dock. Luckily, I bought a lot of fishing hooks this morning." He looked around, then turned back into the house and picked up a hoe from the corner.

"Let's go! Dig up some earthworms first! Find something to put them in, and bring the fishing net this afternoon too! It's so stuffy right now, the fish will keep running towards the shore, we should be able to catch a big catch if we just throw them in at the dock."

He paused, then said to Zhao Ru, "Besides, this is the best time to fish. Let's divide the work today: you fish, and I'll cast the net!"

"Huh? You want me to go fishing? I don't know how to fish!" Zhao Ru exclaimed.

"It's alright, I'll teach you!" He smiled, picked up his hoe, and went out the door first.

The sound drifted into the inner room. Hearing Zhao Ru's voice, Zhao's father became interested and asked, "Fishing? You're going fishing? Do you have fishhooks?"

Upon hearing this, Zhao Ru turned to look at her father and said, "Yes, my brother bought several fishhooks and fishing lines this morning, but he didn't have a fishing rod."

"So you're going fishing now?" Zhao's father tapped his pipe.

"No, let's go dig for earthworms now! Dad, we're leaving first!" she shouted, quickly rushed into the pile of junk, pulled out a wooden box, turned around and ran out the door, hurriedly following after him.

Zhao Hua carried a hoe and soon walked to the haystacks at the edge of the pasture.

Zhao Ru, clutching the wooden box, caught up breathlessly. The air was stifling, and her forehead was already damp with sweat from the hurried journey.

He used the tip of his hoe to clear away the low pile of grass at the base of the haystack, revealing a patch of rotten, damp straw and black, oily soil underneath, and a wave of heat rushed out.

He stepped aside to let the heat dissipate. After the heat dissipated, he stepped forward and dug into the soil with a hoe. As soon as he dug, a fishy and sour smell rushed up again. Zhao Ru couldn't help but pinch her nose and glance at him.

Seeing that he was still breathing normally as if nothing had happened, she was somewhat impressed and said with disdain, "What's that weird smell?"

"Well, it's because the grass has been rotting for too long. Earthworms dug up from places like this taste the best, and that's when the fish like to bite."

Zhao Ru waved her hand, tilted her head back, threw the wooden box in front of him, and only released her grip on her nose when she was a distance away. She stood there and did not come any closer.

Zhao Hua ignored his fussy younger sister who was hiding far away, and with a few strokes of his hoe, he unearthed two earthworms, one of which was wriggling incessantly in the dug soil.

Another one had just poked its head out when it saw the soil being dug up and desperately tried to burrow deeper. He bent down, grabbed the earthworm that was trying to burrow into the soil, and pulled it up. With a strong pull, it snapped in two...

He casually tossed the broken earthworm into the wooden box, broke up the clods of soil on the ground with a hoe, picked up the still wriggling earthworm, and threw it into the wooden box.

After digging for a while, he weighed the wooden box in his hand and glanced at it. He had dug up about a dozen in that short time, which was enough for him. Then he put away his hoe, called out to Zhao Ru in the distance, and went home.