Reborn at 80: From Village Scoundrel to Billionaire

The two jogged across the dirt road behind the village and turned onto the eastern ridge of the field.

The water in the ditches on both sides of the field is very deep, about half a meter deep, with black silt at the bottom and aquatic plants growing everywhere.

Liu Bei put down the bamboo basket, then lined up the three ground cages in a row along the ditch, and took out the bamboo fire tongs to test their feel.

"Brother Bei, catching eels in broad daylight?" Fan Ha'er squatted on the edge of the field. "My dad said that eels only come out at night. During the day, they burrow into the mud and you can't even find them if you're blind."

"Your father is right. But today is different."

"How are they different?"

Liu Bei did not respond.

Because the moment he squatted down, his vision changed again.

Unlike when we went hunting in the mountains, this time there were not single red lines, but dense clusters of red dots.

Large and small ones are scattered at the bottom of ditches, along the edges of rice paddies, and at the roots of aquatic plants; some are clustered together, while others are found alone.

The nearest red dot was in the mud just two steps away from his feet.

Liu Bei narrowed his eyes.

When hunting in the mountains, the red dots represent the prey.

These red dots are currently scattered in the underwater mud, and nine times out of ten they are...

"Hey kid, watch closely."

Liu Bei, holding the bamboo fire tongs, slowly walked to the edge of the ditch.

He stared at the location of the red dot at his feet and found a round hole the size of a copper coin on the surface of the silt.

It is the Yellow Eel Cave.

Liu Beiyou held the bamboo fire tongs and slowly lowered them into the water, aiming the tips at the opening of the hole.

He didn't forget to bring his left index and middle fingers together, and then gently flicked the water surface above the hole twice.

"Pop..."

Three seconds later, a yellowish-brown head popped out.

"Click!"

Liu Bei closed his bamboo fire tongs and precisely bit the eel's neck, about three inches behind.

Then, with a flick of his wrist, he lifted the entire eel out of the water.

"Plop—" It was thrown into the bamboo basket.

Fan Ha'er's jaw almost dropped into the field.

"Brother Bei... Brother Bei? You just flicked some water twice, and it popped out by itself?"

"When an eel feels a ripple in its burrow, it might mistake it for an insect falling into the water and instinctively stick its head out. Didn't your father teach you that?"

"Teach me a load of rubbish! My dad would catch eels at night with a flashlight, squatting on the edge of the field and waiting. Sometimes he'd squat there all night, and there would only be three or five in his basket, and two of them were loaches that had sneaked in."

"And every time my dad came home after catching eels, his legs were covered in leech bites. My mom would scold him, saying that his legs looked like freckled pancakes and that he might as well just go to the supply and marketing cooperative and buy two salted fish instead."

Liu Bei didn't have time to listen to his rambling.

Because there were too many red dots in his field of vision.

In this ditch, which is only about thirty meters long, there are at least forty or fifty red dots flashing.

In rural areas in 1981, pesticides were not yet widely used, and chemical fertilizers were used sparingly.

The ecosystem in the fields is still in its original state.

The eels, loaches, snails, and frogs are all wild, and their numbers are frightening.

However, catching them during the day relies entirely on eyesight and experience.

Ordinary people don't have this ability.

But he is not an ordinary person.

Following the distribution of red dots, Liu Bei walked five steps along the ditch before squatting down again.

The second red dot is at the base of a clump of aquatic plants.

He parted the water plants to find the cave entrance and used the same trick again.

Splash water, wait three seconds, then clamp.

Another one.

It's thicker than the previous one; it's an old yellow eel.

Throw it into the basket.

The third red dot, the fourth, the fifth...

Liu Bei was working on an assembly line.

Squat down, find a hole, flick water, pinch, and throw.

Each eel takes no more than ten seconds from emerging from its burrow to falling into the basket.

Fan Ha'er followed behind, his shock turning into numbness, and then from numbness into excitement.

"Six now!"

Article 8!

"Brother Bei! This is the twelfth one!!"

He squatted on the edge of the field and counted on his fingers. When he got to the fifteenth, he didn't have enough fingers, so he started taking off his shoes and picking at his toes.

"Brother Bei, did you scatter bait in this ditch? Otherwise, how come you can catch them so easily? My dad—"

"Shh!"

Before Fan Ha'er could finish speaking, Liu Bei made a farewell gesture, then walked forward, lay down on the edge of the field, and peeked into a crack in the rocks.

It's not an eel.

It's a water snake.

Liu Bei put down the bamboo fire tongs, took out a short tree branch he had brought with him from his basket, and poked it into the crack in the rock for a couple of moments.

"hiss--"

A gray-white patterned water snake darted out from a crack in the rock.

"Snake! Snake! Brother Bei, run!"

But Liu Bei didn't run away.

He pressed down three inches behind the snake's head with his left hand, and with his right hand he stroked the snake's body down to its tail, lifting the entire snake up.

"Water snake, non-venomous. Its flesh is edible, and its gallbladder can be used in medicine."

He threw the snake into the basket.

Fan Ha'er sat in the paddy field, his pants completely wet, his mouth wide open enough to fit an egg.

"Brother Bei, are you fucking inhuman?"

"continue."

Over the next two hours, Liu Bei turned the ditch upside down.

Eels, catch them.

Loach, catch it.

They also pulled out two skinks, caught seven or eight frogs, a grass carp, and a black carp, the two fish weighing a total of four or five pounds.

Fan Ha'er stood on the shore, stunned.

"This...this is fishing with bare hands???"

His father, Fan Shuanzhu, had worked as a farmer for most of his life, and he had only tried to catch fish by hand two or three times. Each time, he would block the fish in shallow puddles for half a day and often came up empty-handed.

Liu Bei, on the other hand, just reached out and got it, as if he were scooping it out of his own water tank.

That's really weird.

The bamboo basket was soon full.

"It's not big enough." Liu Bei glanced at the basket, then at the red dot that was still flashing in his line of sight.

"Hey kid, run home and get a few baskets."

"several?"

Five.

"Five??? Brother Bei, how many more are you going to arrest?"

"Catch as many as you can. These are for my family, any extras are for yours. Your father helped me sell wolf meat last time, I still owe him a favor."

Upon hearing that there was a share for his family, Fan Ha'er didn't hesitate to lift his wet trousers and run away.

When he ran to his doorstep, Fan Shuanzhu was squatting in the yard smoking a pipe.

"Dad! Baskets! Five!"

"What are you doing?"

"Brother Bei is catching eels in the field, but he's run out of baskets!"

Fan Shuanzhu tapped his pipe. "Catching eels in broad daylight? How many has he caught?"

"The baskets are all full!"

Fan Shuanzhu's pipe stopped in mid-air.

"How many?"

"Full! The bamboo basket is overflowing! Besides eels and loaches, there are also water snakes, skinks, frogs, grass carp, snakehead fish..."

Fan Shuanzhu slowly stood up, tucking his pipe into his waistband.

He stared at his son for three seconds.

"You didn't lie to your dad?"

"Why would I lie to you? My dad, how many eels can you catch in one night?"

"When things are good, there are about ten."

"Brother Bei caught thirty or forty fish in two hours, during the day. He caught them every time, never empty-handed."

Fan Shuanzhu didn't say anything more, turned around and went into the storage room, rummaged through five baskets and handed them to his son.

Fan Ha'er took the basket and ran outside.

He ran to the door, and then his father's voice came from behind him: "Ha'er."

"What's wrong?"

"Stay close. Learn from him. If you can learn even half of Liu Bei's skills, I'll be laughing in my sleep."

"Yes, Father!"

Fan Ha'er carried five baskets and disappeared in a flash.

Fan Shuanzhu stood at the gate of the courtyard and took two puffs of his pipe.

"That kid...has he really undergone a complete transformation?"

……

After Fan Ha'er returned, Liu Bei continued working.

He kept going as long as the red dot was flashing.

The two worked until dark.

All six baskets were full.

There were more than sixty eels, a small basket of loaches, three water snakes, four skinks, about ten frogs, and seven or eight grass carp and black carp.

Fan Ha'er collapsed on the edge of the field, exhausted.

But the smile on his face was even brighter than during the Chinese New Year.

"Brother Bei, I've never seen so many eels in my life. If my dad found out, he'd probably chew his pipe in half."

Liu Bei sat down next to him, stuck the bamboo fire tongs into the mud, and flexed his wrists.

"Would you like to give it a try?"

Fan Ha'er sat up abruptly. "Can we try?"

"You've been watching all afternoon, how much have you learned?"

"Splash water! Wait for it to come out! Then pinch it!"

Liu Bei handed him the fire tongs and pointed to an area on the edge of the ditch that hadn't been cleared yet.

"Go, there's more over there."

Fan Ha'er, holding the fire tongs, crouched down and walked to the edge of the ditch, squatting down like Liu Bei.

He bounced twice on the water's surface and waited three seconds.

There was no movement.

I played it twice more.

Still nothing.

"Brother Bei, it won't come out!"

"You played it too hard and scared it away. Play it softer."

Fan Ha'er had no choice but to change the cave entrance again.

This time, the mud at the entrance of the cave stirred.

A small yellow eel poked half its head out.

"folder!"

"Snap!" Fan Ha'er slammed the bamboo fire tongs shut, but unfortunately, he missed again.

"That's too fast!"

Fan Ha'er scratched his head anxiously, "Brother Bei, I'm clumsy..."

"It's okay. Take your time. Find another one and keep going."

Fan Ha'er squatted down in front of the next hole.

This time he was even more careful than before.

Water jets, etc.

The eel emerges.

"folder!"

This time it finally got stuck!

"Brother Bei!!! I caught him!!!"

Fan Ha'er jumped up, holding the eel, and exclaimed, "When I get married and her period comes, I'll treat her to eel!"

Liu Bei: "..."

What a fool!

The "auntie" I'm talking about isn't that kind of auntie.

You're serving eel?

How should we entertain them?

Do you suck it in with your mouth? Or do you swim in it?

That scene...