Back to my 1980s

Zhao Ru's room.

Zhao Ru, who had just finished washing the dishes, was changing into her rain boots inside the house.

"Are you done yet?"

"Alright, alright!" Zhao Ru replied, now dressed in her autumn clothes.

Zhao Hua turned on the flashlight in the house and shone it into Zhao Ru's room. Seeing that Zhao Ru hadn't come out yet, he looked at his father and said, "Dad, can you get me two fish baskets? I'll hang them on the side of my bicycle to pull the fish out."

Upon hearing this, Zhao's father waved his hand without saying a word. A moment later, Zhao Ru ran out of the house.

Zhao Hua handed the bucket and carrying pole to Zhao Ru, telling her to take them, and said, "Hurry up and come back soon."

Zhao Ru responded, took the carrying pole and bucket, and hurriedly followed Zhao Hua towards the small boat on the riverbank.

Both of them took a nap this afternoon, and they are full of energy now.

"Brother, there are even more people catching fish today," Zhao Ru whispered.

Zhao Hua, who had been fishing all afternoon, was greeting the villagers who were hurrying home. Upon hearing Zhao Ru's words, he laughed and said, "Of course, you're the only one who wants to make money. Don't you think others do too?"

"But they don't have boats, so they can only fish from the shore," she chuckled.

Zhao Hua curled his lip and said, "They've already tasted the sweetness of success, so when they can't find anything on the shore, they'll naturally start thinking about building boats."

Zhao Ru opened her mouth to speak, but suddenly saw a snake slithering across the grass ahead. She quickly grabbed Zhao Hua's arm and cried, "Snake! There's a snake!"

Zhao Hua looked over and saw a small snake slither into the grass. He picked up a stick from the roadside, handed it to Zhao Ru, and laughed, "Have you ever heard of beating the grass to scare away snakes? It's normal for there to be more snakes during the rainy season. Let's not cast our nets on the bank today, otherwise we might catch two or three in one go."

Zhao Ru took the stick, then returned it, saying, "I wouldn't dare. I've also heard of striking a snake with a stick."

Zhao Hua's lips twitched, and he said, "Then let's hurry up, we'll be safe once we get to the boat."

Zhao Ru nodded hurriedly, pulled Zhao Hua and ran wildly towards the small boat. When they reached the boat, she ran and climbed onto it, only letting out a huge sigh of relief once they were on board.

Zhao Hua was also disgusted by that thing, but much better than Zhao Ru. People's fear and disgust for snakes are ingrained in their genes, and Zhao Hua was no exception. Unless it was very valuable, but most of the snakes along the river were water snakes, which were ugly and worthless.

He untied the rope, jumped onto the boat, and didn't go far. He rowed directly to the middle of the river and started casting his net. The ferry had already stopped operating at night, and the big fish were all converging on the middle of the river during the rain, so there was no need for him to go that far.

Everyone says that the bigger the fish, the tastier it is, but people in the surrounding villages prefer to buy small fish. Two or three pounds of small fish are enough for a family to have a taste. Large fish are generally more expensive, so very few people are willing to buy them. He guesses that the situation in the county town is probably the opposite of that in the villages.

The two floated on the river for about three hours. It had been quite dark by then, and Zhao Hua estimated that it was around 10:30 p.m.

There were indeed many big fish in the middle of the river. His fishing net, which had been with him for more than a month, was already worn out. Fortunately, he had planned to catch big fish tonight and had brought a new net with him.

Although the net was torn, it helped him pull up a grass carp weighing over ten kilograms, so it was considered a glorious retirement. He would have to take it home to repair it before he could go back to work.

He glanced at the fish in the live hold: six carp weighing five or six pounds each, about the length of his wrist to his armpit; seven or eight silver carp weighing five or six pounds each; and only three grass carp, two weighing four or five pounds each, and the other being the grass carp weighing over ten pounds.

Although it weighed more than twice as much as a carp, it was only a dozen centimeters longer. All the meat went into its body, leaving behind a bunch of crucian carp, catfish, and snakehead.

After looking at the harvest, he thought for a moment and said, "Xiaoru, let's go back. It's getting late. We need to go back to sleep so we can sell fish tomorrow morning."

"Huh? Going back now? We just arrived!" Zhao Ru said excitedly, completely oblivious to the passage of time in the night.

Zhao Hua nodded and said, "Let's go back. It's about time. If we go back too late, we won't be able to get up tomorrow morning." As he spoke, he began to tidy up the fishing nets.

"Oh, okay." Zhao Ru rowed the boat toward the shore; they hadn't gone far from Shuanghuai Village.

A moment later, the small boat docked. Zhao Hua had already scooped out half of the fish from the live hold and put them into the fish bucket. There were more than 100 jin of fish that he couldn't finish in one trip. He was worried about leaving Zhao Ru alone on the shore to wait for him, so he left the remaining half of the fish in the live hold and picked out half of them to take Zhao Ru home.

As soon as the two disembarked, Zhao Ru took the lead and shone her flashlight on the road. Immediately, several rustling sounds rang out. Zhao Ru was startled and quickly pointed the light at the source of the sound.

Seeing this, Zhao Hua smiled and reassured them, "It's alright, there are mostly water snakes on the shore, they're not poisonous."

Zhao Ru nodded, but dared not lead the way any further, and walked closely with Zhao Hua.

Zhao Hua was speechless as they walked along. Although he knew that wild resources were indeed abundant, he did not expect them to be this abundant. Every ten steps or so, they would encounter a water leopard that was running away frantically.

The village was filled with the barking of dogs. Zhao Ru gripped her flashlight tightly. After arriving home, she sighed and said, "I don't feel so afraid of snakes anymore."

Zhao Hua didn't know what to say, so he just smiled and didn't speak. He poured the fish into the fish basket and let Zhao Ru sort them at home while he went to make a second trip.

After the two sorted and raised the fish, they went back to their rooms to wash their feet and go to bed. Zhao Hua estimated it was almost midnight. Thinking that he would see his wife tomorrow, he was a little excited and tossed and turned for a while before finally falling asleep.

The next morning, Zhao Hua hung the two baskets that his father had helped him make the night before next to the car. In reality, he had just modified the bamboo baskets that were originally at home, adding buckles and lining the inside of the baskets with two layers of tarpaulin.

For Zhao's father, a carpenter, modifying these two little gadgets was as easy as a child touching his penis.

Zhao Hua was quite satisfied with the bamboo basket securely fastened to the back of the bicycle frame. Zhao Ru, who had been watching him work all morning, asked in surprise, "Brother, are you planning to ride your bike to sell fish?"

Zhao Hua shook the fish basket, not even looking up, and said, "Of course, otherwise why would I buy a car?"

Zhao Ru was speechless. After a moment, Zhao Hua unloaded the basket, carried it to the water tank, and started scooping fish. She followed, saying, "Brother, aren't you afraid of damaging the car?"

"Should I enshrine it and burn three incense sticks to pray before riding it?"

Zhao Ru clicked her tongue and said, "But I see that the brigade secretary's car is very well taken care of. He even wipes the mud off the car clean, and I rarely see him riding it."

Shuanghuai Village had only recently been changed from a brigade to a village, and the villagers referred to it as a brigade or a village at different times. Zhao Hua was already used to it. He shook his head and said, "Anyway, I'm going to use it to sell fish."

As the two were talking, Zhao Hua had already scooped all the big fish into the basket, which was filled with a lot of water. After watching for a while and seeing that the water wasn't leaking out of the basket, Zhao Hua said, "I'll take all the big fish today, and you can have the rest."