Chapter 130: Chapter 75: Distributing the Fish

By now, quite a crowd had gathered. Li Gengtian walked up to Big Mouth Zhao, looked at the enormous turtle, and said with admiration, “The ones from before were too small, but now we’ve got a big one—this one’s worth several of the others. That settles it. This one’s for Juhua.”

Meizi and Liu Xiaomei were so happy they shot each other excited glances—with so many people around, they were too shy to jump and cheer. Little Shitou was so overjoyed he forgot himself, clutching tightly to Juhua’s sleeve and pulling her off balance.

But Juhua wasn’t particularly happy. She looked at the giant old turtle with a sense of awe—in her two lifetimes combined, she had never seen a turtle so large. If this were her past life, it would have been a precious, heavily protected animal. Even though she wasn’t a picky eater, her mind didn’t immediately jump to braising or stewing it, as it had when Big Mouth Zhao gave her that soft-shelled turtle. She felt a little uneasy and said to the village chief, “Uncle Li, an old turtle this big is probably spiritually aware—I wouldn’t dare eat it. We should let it go!”

An old granny nearby immediately chimed in, “Good girl, Juhua, you’re right—you can’t just eat something like this.” She had wanted to say so earlier but held back, thinking about how much the Zheng Family had helped them, and she’d also heard that Juhua enjoyed eating turtles and soft-shelled turtles.

Juhua looked over and saw it was the same old granny who had explained to her about using water bamboo shoots for seeding. It was amazing that at her age, she could stand here watching the excitement for so long just like the young people, without her legs getting sore.

Li Gengtian was even more impressed. ’This Juhua is truly a sensible girl, so endearing,’ he thought. ’No wonder Zheng Changhe and his wife treasure her.’ He had actually been quite worried. ’How could anyone eat such a large old turtle? Wouldn’t that bring misfortune?’ But he had already promised in front of everyone to have turtles and soft-shelled turtles caught for Juhua, so it would have been awkward for him to go back on his word. Now that Juhua had brought it up herself, he seized the opportunity to back down gracefully.

“You have a point. We can’t just eat anything we find. This old turtle is probably spiritually aware—look, it’s not scared of people at all. Juhua, we’ll release this one. Uncle Li will have the others keep an eye out for smaller ones and make sure to send one your way. If there aren’t any more in the round pond, we still have Tiaozi Pond. We’ll definitely find some when we drain Tiaozi Pond this afternoon. I remember we released some soft-shelled turtles there last year,” he said, gently consoling Juhua.

The old granny immediately chimed in, “That’s right! I saw them do it. They were a couple of pounds apiece. They’ve probably grown bigger this year. Just catch one and give it to Juhua.”

Juhua laughed, a little embarrassed. “Uncle Li, listen to you! It’s not like I absolutely have to eat one—I just had a real craving before! We’ve caught so many fish today, so it doesn’t matter if we don’t find any turtles or soft-shelled turtles. I like fish too. These big fish will be delicious when they’re cooked.”

Li Gengtian chuckled. ’That makes sense,’ he thought. ’Juhua’s family used to be very poor. The little girl probably ate things like that because she was just plain hungry.’

Big Mouth Zhao, who had been holding the old turtle and listening to them talk all this time, figured they weren’t going to eat it and were going to release it. He grinned foolishly, lowered his head to the old turtle, and said with a chuckle, “You’d better thank Juhua! If it weren’t for her, you’d be in the pot!”

Everyone burst out laughing. So Big Mouth Zhao carried the old turtle back to the bottom of the pond and let it crawl away on its own.

Zhang Huai saw how good Big Mouth Zhao was to Juhua. Even though he knew Big Mouth Zhao was engaged and was a simple, honest guy who treated Juhua like a little sister, he still felt a prickle of discomfort. ’Why wasn’t I the one who found that old turtle?’ he thought. He could only hope he’d find a soft-shelled turtle in Tiaozi Pond that afternoon to give to Juhua and make her happy.

After the commotion died down, the clearing of the round pond was complete.

Li Gengtian shouted, “Everyone, back to the village to divide the fish, then home for lunch! Tiaozi Pond is much bigger, and the sun sets early in winter. We need to hurry, or we won’t finish draining it before dark!”

At his word, the crowd bustled into action. Those who hadn’t gone into the pond, the ones with more strength, picked up the buckets of fish and headed for the village. The people in the pond climbed out, broke open the turf and soil dams around the drainage ditches, and let the pumped-out water flow back in. Bit by bit, the pond bottom began to fill with water again. The fish that were meant to be returned were, of course, all released, and some water bamboo shoots were scattered on all sides as well.

The crowd began to disperse in waves, forming long lines that snaked through the fields toward the village.

Qingmu and Zhang Huai walked up to Juhua, washed their feet in a nearby ditch, and put their shoes on. Then they said to her, “Let’s go get our share of the fish. They were just caught, so they’re really fresh. We can cook one for lunch.”

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep