Back to my 1980s

"Brother, why are there so many fish in this net?"

Zhao Ru stared at the net bag in the cabin, a genuine smile spreading across her face.

"Because fish swim against the current. The water flows down from the ditch above, and they flock here."

"Oh, these fish are pretty silly. They didn't even run away when we rowed over here."

"The water's murky, they can't see clearly, otherwise they would have run away long ago." Zhao Hua poured fish into the cabin.

Zhao Ru nodded and stepped aside, and the fish instantly piled up into a small mountain and fell into the cabin.

Zhao Hua weighed the fishing net in his hand, made a rough estimate, and laughed, "It's more comfortable to catch fish on a rainy day. This net should weigh more than 20 jin. This net will be enough for the villagers to keep busy on the shore for half a day."

Zhao Ru's lips curled slightly at her words, and her eyes crinkled as she looked at the pile of fish. She chuckled, "There must be over a hundred fish here, right? And it only weighs a little over twenty pounds?"

"What's the use of having a lot of fish? A dozen of those little whitebait only weigh a pound, nobody eats willow bream or wheat bream." Zhao Hua pushed the fish aside with his foot, preparing to cast a net. It was raining, so they wouldn't die anytime soon if left in the hold.

"Brother, how do you know nobody eats those fish?"

He pursed his lips and ignored Zhao Ru. He just subconsciously felt that no one would like to eat those fish. He had grown up by the water since he was a child and was fishing by the river when he got old.

The moment you catch a fish is very satisfying, like a successful hunt. But the thought of eating it is just nauseating. Except for crucian carp, which is barely edible, all the other fish are either given away or released back into the water. This is a common trait among anglers: they like fishing but don't like eating fish.

Seeing that Zhao Hua was ignoring her, Zhao Ru knew that it was time to cast a net, so she quickly stepped back to the stern of the boat and steered it back to the ditch.

After the boat had drifted a short distance downstream, it returned to the confluence and came to a stop. Zhao Hua then spotted the water and swiftly cast his net down, repeating the action of hauling it in.

He cast seven or eight nets in total, but fewer and fewer fish came up. He glanced at the fish in the hold and hesitated. He estimated the weight of each net he hauled in. By now, the fish piled up in the hold must have weighed over a hundred kilograms.

Seeing that he was staring at the fish in the hold without moving, Zhao Ru asked疑惑地问道, "What's wrong, brother? Aren't you going to catch any more?"

He rubbed his arms, which were a little sore from constantly casting and retrieving the net, smacked his lips, and said, "Let's catch them, but there are fewer fish now. Stop the boat a little further away and give the fish some time to gather."

Zhao Ru obediently moved the boat a little further away from the shore. His small wooden boat could barely carry 800 pounds home if he gritted his teeth. Any more than that and he would either have to reduce the weight or swim back. He was still far from being able to make it back.

Zhao Hua sat at the bow of the boat, watching the raindrops fall into the water and intertwine with the lush trees on the shore, finding it quite poetic.

If his little wooden boat had a canopy for shelter, he would be quite content hiding in the cabin watching the rain right now.

Unfortunately, no, and when they cast and hauled in the net, the raincoat was flapping through the gaps, soaking a large area of ​​their chest, and their pants were rolled up to their knees, with rainwater sliding down their backs into their rain boots.

He took off his rain boots, emptied the water from inside, and moved his toes, which were stiff from being soaked in the rain. After moving them a few times, he glanced at Zhao Ru.

Zhao Ru was alright; her raincoat covered her completely, and her straw hat kept her head covered, with only her mouth showing.

Perhaps seeing Zhao Hua turn around to face her, she tilted her head slightly, revealing two large eyes under her straw hat, blinking as she stared at Zhao Hua.

Zhao Hua was slightly taken aback, then suddenly found it rather cute, and chuckled, "How was it? Didn't get wet in the rain?"

Zhao Ru shook her head, looked at him for a while, and seeing that he didn't say anything more, she lowered her head again and huddled up to avoid the rain.

After resting for more than ten minutes, Zhao Hua shook his arms and felt full of energy again. He estimated that the fish should have gathered again, so he called Zhao Ru to row the boat back to the confluence of the ditch.

The two of them didn't go anywhere else all afternoon. They just stayed at the confluence of the ditch and the Qinghe River, fishing for a while and then resting. The live tank was filled with fish.

When he saw that the cabin was also full of fish, piled up to a height of more than ten centimeters, he casually pulled up some water plants from the water to cover the fish, and after catching them one last time, he called Zhao Ru to go back to Shuanghuai Village.

After docking at Shuanghuai Village, we saw villagers casting nets nearby, and we immediately noticed that their cabins were full of fish.

Suddenly, her eyes widened and she stepped forward, pressing Zhao Hua for details about where he had caught so many fish. Zhao Hua gave her a few perfunctory answers and told Zhao Ru to go home and bring the cart over, while he stayed on the boat to watch over the fish.

If he let Zhao Ru watch the fish, he was worried that others would take advantage of her being a young girl, so he would make up a bunch of random reasons that Zhao Ru would find hard to refuse, and then forcefully board the boat to catch the fish.

When the villagers who were fishing in the distance saw Zhao Hua's small boat approach the shore, they slowly carried their buckets toward the boat, probably out of curiosity about how many fish they could catch by rowing out.

A moment later, Zhao Ru appeared at the intersection with great effort, pulling the cart. Zhao Hua quickly stepped forward to help pull the cart over. The roads were muddy and difficult to walk on in the rain.

When Zhao Hua returned to the side of the boat, the villagers along the shore gathered around.

The group stood by the river, whispering among themselves about the fish in the boat. Seeing Zhao Hua approach, they all said, "Xiao Hua, we didn't know you were so diligent!"

"These brother and sister have been on quite a few boat trips lately, they're really impressive!"

"That's right, there aren't many hardworking young men like that in our village."

"Yes, he's much better than those young men in the village who only know how to play cards all day!"

"Xiaohua is getting more and more amazing! She caught so many fish in one trip, probably three or four hundred pounds! She's not even married yet, she shouldn't overwork herself!"

"Yes, yes, your parents are really generous! They're so young and they're already sending you two kids out to work."

"Of course! You should play when you want to. Anyway, your parents are still alive, why do you need to be busy all the time? Look at all the young men your age in the village, aren't they all glued to the gambling table?"

Zhao Hua pulled the cart to a stop in front of the small boat, and as he listened to the villagers around him praising the boat, their words began to change, and he secretly rolled his eyes.

When he doesn't work and just plays all day, one or two people say that if he doesn't do anything right, he won't be able to find a wife in the future.

Now that he's working hard, they're letting him go out and play, letting them say whatever they want. These people are really something.

He casually responded to the surrounding villagers with "uh-huhs" and "ah-ahs," then stopped the cart, picked up the basket Zhao Ru had placed on it, and beckoned her to board the boat.

Although Zhao Ru was a bit young, she wasn't stupid. Hearing the sourness in the villagers' words, she lowered her head and ignored them, then followed Zhao Hua onto the boat to help load the fish.

After filling both baskets, Zhao Hua stuffed water into the bucket. When the bucket was full, he glanced around, pulled out a few handfuls of water plants from the water, and jumped onto the bank to plug the gaps in the side of the cart.

Back on the boat, they picked up the fish and dumped them into the cart. Seeing this, the surrounding villagers glanced at the fish in their buckets and quickly turned around to scatter along the shore to cast their nets.