Back to my 1980s

"Okay." Zhao Ru replied and ran to bring breakfast to the table.

While the two were eating, Zhao Ting and Zhao Xiaoran suddenly appeared at the door.

Seeing this, Zhao Ru walked over with a cornbread in her mouth. After exchanging a few words, the group went their separate ways.

Seeing Zhao Ru sit down to eat again, Zhao Hua asked curiously, "What were you talking about?"

"They're getting ready to leave, so they came to see if I'm ready."

Zhao Hua nodded upon hearing this and quickened his pace of eating. Just as the two finished their meal, Meng Qinghe walked in. After Zhao Hua gave her a casual greeting, he pushed his bicycle into the yard and hung up the two fish baskets filled with fish.

Meng Qinghe, who was talking to Zhao Ru, looked at the bicycle in surprise, paused for a moment, and then whispered to Zhao Ru again.

Once everything was ready, he went inside, told Zhao's mother that he was going to the county town to sell fish today, then went out to call the two girls who were still talking beside him, pushed his bicycle and went out the door.

The group waited at the door for Zhao Ting and Zhao Xiaoran's families. After they came out, Meng Qinghe fell silent again.

Bored, Zhao Hua glanced at Meng Qinghe, who was quietly standing next to Zhao Ru, and asked curiously, "Hey! Meng Qinghe, everyone else is catching fish to sell, didn't your family go?"

Hearing Zhao Hua speak to her, Meng Qinghe's fingers suddenly tightened, gripping the hem of her clothes, and she said softly, "My father went to check, and the shore was full of people. In many places, they could only catch a few fish after half a day. We don't have a boat at home, so we didn't go."

Zhao Hua nodded. The few people who went fishing before could at least have a bowl of soup, but now that they know they can sell their catch for money, the villagers with fishing gear seem to live right by the river. They want to eat and drink right by the river. The entire riverbank has been plowed up eight hundred times. It would be a miracle if they could still find any fish.

He thought about it and realized he had to buy a lock to lock up the small boat. Otherwise, these people might take advantage of his absence to secretly row his boat out to catch fish. It was one thing for the boat to be taken away, but he was afraid that it wouldn't be returned.

Just as this thought crossed his mind, the two families next door came over, looking at Zhao Hua's bicycle with envy, and said, "We just heard you were going to buy a bicycle yesterday, and you bought it today?"

Zhao Hua pushed his bicycle and followed a group of people onto the side road, saying, "Yeah, someone was selling theirs, so I snagged a bargain."

Zhao Ting's father walked to the side carrying a bucket of water, touched the large pole, patted the cushion, and clicked his tongue, saying, "So good, so good..."

Zhao Xiaoran's father seemed much more reserved. He touched the back seat of the car, glanced at the fish basket, and exclaimed in surprise, "So many fish?"

Zhao Hua glanced back and chuckled, "It's been raining every day lately, so the fish downstream have probably all come up. Isn't it normal to have more fish?"

Upon hearing this, the two handed the buckets they were carrying to Zhao Hua. Zhao Ting's father said, "What a load of rubbish! There is a lot of water, but more and more people from the village are going there. I only managed to catch a few pounds yesterday after a whole day of fishing."

Zhao Hua peeked inside and saw that there were indeed only a few pounds of fish, but they were all crucian carp. He laughed and said, "I think no one will go tonight. Let's go tonight."

"There are snakes everywhere at night. Are we going to fish or catch snakes? We don't even have a flashlight. We can't even see where to throw it. If we had a boat, we could just run to the middle of the river and throw it with our eyes closed. But we don't have a boat here."

Zhao Hua chuckled and didn't reply; continuing the conversation would sound like showing off.

After walking for a while, just as they emerged from the alley and the market came into view, Zhao Hua stopped the car. When the group saw him stop, they all stopped in their tracks.

He took the water bucket off the back of the bicycle and put it on the ground. He then handed the scale from the bicycle basket to Zhao Ru and said, "You two carry the water bucket. I'll take you this far and won't go any further. Just follow Uncle Zhao and the others."

He then took out two packs of cigarettes from his pocket, turned around and handed them to his two neighbors, saying, "When I'm selling fish later, could you please keep an eye on Zhao Ru for me? I'll be selling my fish somewhere else; I won't be going to the market."

The two men quickly pushed away the cigarette from Zhao Hua's hand: "We're all from the same village, we've watched you grow up, why are you doing this? If you want to leave, just leave, we wouldn't let your little sister suffer, would we?"

Hearing this, Zhao Hua felt much more relaxed. He stuffed the cigarettes into their pockets, exchanged a few more polite words with a smile, and then turned to Zhao Ru with a smile, asking, "Can you two lift this?"

Zhao Ru, who had been waiting to the side, glanced at the fish in the bucket and said, "We can lift it. It weighs at most fifty pounds, and it's not far away."

The two who had just accepted the cigarettes quickly said, "It's alright, it's alright. You go ahead with your work. If you can't lift it, ask Xiaoting and Xiaoran for help. If all else fails, I'll help carry it and we'll get there."

Zhao Hua smiled and nodded, exchanged a few more polite words, and then pushed the cart onto the county road. Seeing that he had entered the county road, everyone turned onto the side road and headed towards the market. Zhao Hua slowly pushed the cart, glancing at it from time to time.

Only after they disappeared safely from the market did he get on his bike and ride towards the county town. If he hadn't been worried that the two young girls, Zhao Ru and Meng Qinghe, couldn't lift those forty or fifty pounds of fish, he would have set off for the county town much earlier.

Zhao Hua, who is 1.8 meters tall, fits perfectly on a 28-inch bicycle. When he arrived near the township government, he glanced in the direction of Jiang Yue's house as if by some strange impulse, and then looked away and focused on heading towards the county town.

The county road from 83 still had a section that was dirt road, but it was much flatter and sturdier than ordinary dirt roads, so Zhao Hua didn't feel much of a bumpy ride.

After riding for an hour, Zhao Hua finally saw the outline of the county town. Luckily, it was a new bicycle, which was fast and easy to ride. Otherwise, with dozens of kilograms of fish on the way, it might have taken another half hour to get there.

As he approached the county town, he slowed down and rode towards the family quarters of the spinning mill that he remembered. He wandered around for a while and found the factory-run kindergarten.

After glancing around, I parked the car on the only road from the residential area to the kindergarten, and then hid in an alley.

Then he spread the burlap sack from the basket on the ground, took out three fish from the bamboo basket and placed them on it: one carp, one grass carp, and one silver carp.

After setting everything up, I took out the scale as well and stood quietly to the side waiting.

It's summer now, and it gets light around five o'clock. After dropping Zhao Ru off at home, he rode his bike to the county town and set up his stall. Only about two hours had passed, which was also the time when parents would drop their children off at kindergarten.

More and more people came and went at the alley entrance, but most of them just glanced at it curiously and no one came in to ask the price. Seeing this, he picked up the scale and held it in his hand.

Sure enough, a few people came in a short while later, but Zhao Hua never expected that they would be a few brats.

The kids, mostly boys, weren't shy at all. They squatted down in front of the stall, staring intently at the fish in the sack, making all sorts of noises. Zhao Hua just watched quietly and didn't chase them away; after all, it wasn't him who would get beaten up for being late.