Back to my 1980s

No one around spoke for a moment.

The villagers watched in silence, many of them feeling a pang of sadness.

They were hoping someone would agree with Wang Gang so they could force Zhao Hua to release the fish.

But Zhao Hua is a reckless scoundrel, and he has a bunch of unreliable friends. If they speak up now and offend Zhao Hua, what if their own son gets sacked later?

Even if there are no boys in the family, it's still unbearable if a chicken or duck goes missing in the middle of the night.

Besides, even if I release the fish, I won't gain anything from it.

With this in mind, everyone just muttered to themselves, and no one was willing to step forward and become the one who suffered the greatest injustice.

Wang Gang was so caught up in the sudden awkward silence that he almost couldn't catch his breath.

So he gritted his teeth and shouted again, "Anyway, this fish can't be kept! Who knows what kind of unclean things it might attract if we keep such a big fish!"

Zhao Hua laughed upon hearing this, looking at Wang Gang with a mocking expression, and said, "Something unclean? Of course, that's how I attracted such an unclean thing as you."

Wang Gang's face immediately darkened, and he pointed at Zhao Hua, saying, "I was just trying to be helpful, why are you swearing at me?"

Zhao Hua was too lazy to pay attention to him anymore and simply turned her head away.

It's a waste of breath to talk to someone like that.

Sometimes ignoring him is more frustrating and upsetting than arguing with him.

Wang Gang received no response, and although he wanted to continue speaking, no one chimed in.

He wanted to get involved but was afraid of getting beaten up; he was caught in a dilemma, unsure of what to do with his hands and feet.

The villagers watching the commotion couldn't help but chuckle softly at his expression.

He was so ashamed that he wanted to disappear into the ground.

He gritted his teeth, ultimately not daring to go any further and cause trouble. He just glared at Zhao Hua, said "You just wait and see," and pushed his way through the crowd.

Zhao Hua watched his retreating figure as he pushed through the crowd and hurried away.

He secretly thought to himself that he would have to be careful of this kid from now on.

However, looking back on their past life, the two of them at most didn't get along and disliked each other; the other never really caused them any major trouble.

Once the person had gone far away, Zhao Hua bent down and re-tied the mandarin fish on the ground securely.

I called out to the little sister who was still chattering and bragging to the children around her.

Hearing her brother call her, Zhao Ru immediately responded, waved to her friend, and walked over.

She gripped one end of the carrying pole, her body slightly lowered, and she held her breath and strained, just like her brother.

The two men steadily lifted the giant mandarin fish, which was over a meter long.

"Do you need a hand?" A familiar neighbor asked eagerly upon seeing the situation.

"It's alright, it's not far, just a few steps to home," Zhao Hua said with a smile and waved his hand.

The two slipped away from the crowd and staggered home.

Many villagers followed behind. In those days, unlike in later generations, there wasn't much entertainment or leisure.

It had just rained heavily, and the roads were still very muddy, so there wasn't much to do. But seeing such a rare spectacle, everyone wanted to take a closer look.

More and more people followed along the way, young and old alike, all gathered together, whispering among themselves as they walked.

Some were amazed by this unprecedented feat, while others wondered how much the fish was worth. Newcomers were curious about how the brother and sister had managed to catch such a large creature.

Zhao Hua let them follow him, focusing only on carrying the sacks and keeping his feet steady. The dirt road wasn't easy to walk on, and he only occasionally looked up to casually answer the villagers' questions.

Seeing so many people following along to watch the spectacle, Zhao Ru felt smug and didn't feel tired at all!

The children, wary of Zhao Hua's reputation, followed from a distance, not daring to get too close.

However, some quick-footed teenagers had already run to Zhao Hua's house to deliver the news.

Zhao's mother and second brother, Zhao Zhengze, came out to greet them. As they walked, the mother and son kept looking in their direction from a distance.

The second brother, Zhao Zhengze, spotted the large sack that the siblings were carrying from afar; it looked quite heavy.

He quickened his pace and came to meet her, taking the carrying pole from Zhao Ru's shoulder without saying a word.

Zhao Ru breathed a sigh of relief, her little face still beaming with undisguised joy, and she looked up at her mother and shouted loudly:

"Mom! My brother and I caught a huge fish!"

With a smile on her face, Zhao's mother looked at the little girl and said, "That's not enough for you to be proud of."

After speaking, he looked at the sack again, and with a slight lift of his fingertips, he felt its heavy weight. His eyes lit up, and he turned to ask Zhao Hua:

"Wow, they really caught a big fish? I kept hearing kids talking about big fish, big fish, but what kind of fish is it?"

Second Brother Zhao Zhengze adjusted the carrying pole to a more comfortable position on his shoulder, glanced down at the burlap sack hanging taut, and said with a slight smile, "Hey, it's pretty heavy!"

The villagers nearby chimed in, all saying it was a big mandarin fish.

Before Zhao Hua could speak, Zhao Ru interrupted, gesturing wildly as she explained how they had discovered the fish.

He then vividly described how he got the fish ashore.

Zhao Hua listened from the side without interrupting his younger sister's boasting.

He just smiled and added a couple of sentences, downplaying the process to avoid worrying his family.

The group chatted and laughed as they slowly walked towards the Zhao family's courtyard.

As soon as they entered the courtyard, Zhao Hua found a clean, open space and slowly put the sacks down with his second brother.

The sack made a dull thud when it hit the ground.

Hearing the commotion and the villagers' discussions, the eldest brother, Zhao Zhenghong, immediately put down what he was doing and came over to say:

"It's quite big, have you weighed it?"

"They just carried it back; we haven't even had a chance to weigh it yet."

Without hesitation, the eldest brother called over his nephews, nieces, and several half-grown boys who had seemingly appeared out of nowhere, and instructed them:

"You guys, stop looking and go to the brigade headquarters to find your Uncle Zhao and borrow the steelyard balance for a bit."

A few teenagers responded and immediately took off running towards the brigade headquarters, with several neighborhood kids following closely behind.

Zhao Hua rarely stayed at home in his previous life, so he was only vaguely familiar with these teenagers.

I can name them and roughly distinguish which ones belong to my eldest and second eldest brothers' families and which ones belong to my eldest and second eldest sisters' families.

The villagers nearby weren't in a hurry to leave either. They stood in twos and threes in the courtyard talking, all wanting to see just how heavy it was.

Zhao's mother turned her gaze away from the large fish, looked at the villagers gathered around, and warmly greeted those standing nearby:

"You've all been standing for a while, take a break, I'll go get you some stools."

Upon hearing this, the eldest and second eldest brothers immediately turned around to fetch long benches, arranging them one by one around the area, and inviting the villagers to sit down.

The villagers didn't stand on ceremony; they smiled and took the stools, sitting down in twos and threes, with some children squatting or standing around them.

Seeing this, Zhao's mother turned around and went back into the house to get some dried dates. She stuffed them into the children's hands one by one, warmly saying, "Come on, have some dates to satisfy your cravings, they're quite sweet."

The adults nearby pretended to refuse, but then reluctantly let the child accept it. This is how it's done these days when dealing with people.

To a child, these adults seem so fake. They keep pushing and refusing, but in the end they still accept it. Does that mean things taste better when you accept them after refusing them?