Chapter 197: Chapter 193: Fishpond Harvest

Wu Shufen smiled and nodded. “The old lady is right. For us common folk, having food to eat is all that matters.”

Zhang Rongqing said, “That’s right! I heard when the Construction Team harvested their ponds last winter, they only got a few hundred pounds of fish from several large ponds. Our biggest pond alone caught that much last year.”

By the time the group arrived at the fishpond, chatting and laughing, a crowd of commune members had already gathered on the bank to watch the spectacle.

Lin Lan pointed toward a thatched shed at the foot of the hill. “Let’s go watch from there!”

Li Guizhi nodded. “Okay!”

Zhang Rongqing didn’t want to hang around with the women, so he walked over to a group of men he was friendly with.

The bank was packed with people, so Lin Lan’s group had to cut through the tea-seed field and find a spot in an open area near the shed.

Some of the water in the pond had already been drained. He Xianghua led a few tall, sturdy men to the pond’s outlet, where they set up two large treadle pumps. Several of them climbed onto the pumps and began to drain the remaining water.

The crowd buzzed with excitement. Some gathered around the pond, chattering away, while others loudly scolded children who had run to the edge to splash in the water.

As the water level dropped, the fish began to thrash and leap. Suddenly, a foot-long silver carp shot into the air, causing both adults and children to gasp in unison. “Look! That big fish just jumped!”

More and more commune members arrived to watch the show, and soon the area by the shed was also packed with people.

Zhang Yazhen and a few other women also made their way to the shed. The moment she saw Lin Lan and Li Guizhi, her expression soured.

She’d heard from her mother that Li Guizhi had gone back to her family’s home to pick things up again, taking a large number of pumpkins alone.

She cursed inwardly, ’That ass-kissing bitch. Ever since she started sucking up to that vixen Lin Lan, she barely gives me the time of day!’

Li Guizhi pretended not to notice her resentful glare and continued chatting amiably with Lin Lan.

He Xianghua and a few men, dressed in waders and carrying scoop nets, waded into the pond. Liu Guozhi and Accountant Jin stood on the bank, holding large wicker baskets at the ready.

Several young men also took off their shoes, rolled up their pant legs, and jumped into the pond with wooden buckets in hand, their feet making loud splashing sounds as they trudged through the thick mud.

The pond was teeming with all sorts of fish. The young men were quick and nimble, and it wasn’t long before their wooden buckets were full. They carried them to the bank and handed them to the commune members waiting with the large baskets. As the fish were dumped in, they thrashed about, splattering the onlookers with flecks of mud.

He Xianghua spotted a large snakehead and was just about to grab it when the fish dove headfirst into the muck. With a flick of its tail, it sent a spray of mud right into his face.

“Uncle Xiang Hua, I’ll get it!” a young man shouted. He plunged his hands into the water, scooped up the large snakehead, and quickly tossed it into a bucket.

He Xianghua laughed and clapped him on the shoulder. “Not bad, Junzi! Quick moves!”

“Hey, Uncle, that’s not fair!” the young man named Junzi protested, puffing out his cheeks and pointing at the muddy handprint on his shoulder.

The old lady chuckled. “The young ones are always the most agile.”

Wu Shufen smiled and nodded. “That’s right! Harvesting the pond is what these young fellas look forward to all year!”

Li Guizhi laughed. “It’s even more chaotic when we harvest in the winter. The kids are all on break from school. The moment those rowdy pre-teens get in the pond, you can’t tell them apart from the loaches!”

Lin Lan smiled at the scene. “Before Douzi started school, he kept saying he wanted to get in the pond and catch fish with his bare hands during the winter harvest.”

Just then, Yang Liying pushed her way through the crowd to them, calling out in a loud voice, “There you are! I’ve been looking all over for you!”

“We just got here a little while ago ourselves. They haven’t caught much yet!” Lin Lan said, shifting to the side to make room for Yang Liying.

A few young women squeezed their way to the edge of the pond to get a better look, pointing at the thrashing fish and shouting, “There’s a big one over there! A big one!”

Seeing the big fish flopping around in the mud, several young men couldn’t resist the urge and jumped into the pond.

The hot-headed Liu Jiang caught a big swamp eel. Feigning panic, he yelled, “Snake! Snake!” and flung it onto the bank right where the young women were standing. They shrieked and paled in fright, while he just threw his head back and roared with laughter.

“Third Monkey, you’re dead!” one of the girls yelled after getting a clear look. Shouting his nickname, she grabbed a clod of dirt from the adjacent rapeseed field and hurled it at him, splattering him with mud.

Liu Jiang wiped the mud from his face and grinned at her smugly. “Ha… haha! You can’t hit me, Little Pepper!”

“Get him!” a few of the older women chimed in, laughing.

“You just wait!” Little Pepper and the other girls turned, grabbed more clods of mud, and flung them at him. PLOP, PLOP! The clods landed in the pond, sending mud flying everywhere.

Liu Jiang dodged left and right, but in a moment of inattention, he slipped. THUD! He landed butt-first in the silt, instantly turning into a mud-caked monkey.

“Hahaha! Hahaha!” Everyone around the pond, young and old, roared with laughter.

Liu Jiang wasn’t angry at all. Since he was already covered in mud, he figured he might as well go all out. He threw himself into the task with abandon, and a moment later he held up a huge grass carp weighing over ten pounds. “I caught a big one!” he yelled.

Another young man nearby held up his own catch, showing it off. “That’s nothing! Look at mine!”

Lin Lan noticed there were also softshell turtles in the pond; a few had already crawled onto the bank.

A middle-aged woman, holding a wicker basket attached to a long bamboo pole, pushed her way to the bank and began scooping up the turtles.

Li Guizhi laughed. “Sun the Hunchback’s wife comes to catch those turtles every year. They’re more bone than meat. I don’t get the appeal!”

Yang Liying chimed in, “I hear the bigger ones can sell for one or two yuan apiece on the black market!”

Lin Lan remembered she was having Old Li over for dinner that night. Softshell turtles were good for lowering blood pressure and cholesterol. She turned to Li Guizhi. “Is she catching them to sell?”

Li Guizhi nodded. “You want to buy some?”

Lin Lan smiled. “If she is, I’ll buy a couple from her later. My mom makes a pretty tasty softshell turtle dish.”

“Why buy them? Your brother-in-law is right here. Just have him go catch a couple for you,” Yang Liying said, turning to Zhao Dehai. “Go catch them from that other pond over there. Don’t compete with Sun the Hunchback’s wife.”

“You got it!” Zhao Dehai said with a grin. He squeezed his way out of the crowd and headed toward the pond on the left.

After watching for a while, the old lady and Wu Shufen felt they’d seen enough. The old lady smiled at Lin Lan and her friends. “Are you girls leaving soon? We were thinking of heading back now.”

“Okay!” the women nodded, and they all pushed their way out of the crowd together.

When they reached the path leading to the old lady’s house, she pulled Lin Lan aside. “My dear, I’m so sorry. I let something slip the other day when we were picking an auspicious date. I had no idea your aunt would spread it around so quickly!”

Lin Lan looked at her and smiled. “Oh, Auntie, don’t worry about it. It’s true that I bought the house! People have mouths, so let them talk if they want to.” ’And here I was wondering what she wanted to talk to me about!’ she thought. She hadn’t expected an apology.

Hearing this, the old lady beamed and patted her hand. “That’s right! Let them be green with envy!”

Lin Lan nodded and smiled. “Come over to my place tonight! I’m making fish with pork intestines and fish with soft tofu!”

“Alright!” the old lady agreed cheerfully.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep