When the pears are green

Chapter 125 Fishing

After coming out of the county town, Wu Mingde and Li Yun'an went straight to Wuzhuang Village. At the entrance of the village, they met Song Xing and Song Changhe who had just returned from catching wild rabbits.

Without waiting for Wu Mingde to stop the cart, Song Changhe put the two tied rabbits on the cart. He smiled and said to Wu Mingde, "Mingde, I just happened to meet you. I just said I would send two rabbits to your home. We caught them ourselves. Take them home to raise or eat."

Wu Mingde hurriedly refused. He and Li Yun'an jumped off the ox cart together and wanted to return the rabbit on the cart to Song Changhe.

Song Changhe held down the still-moving rabbit and pretended to be a little angry and said, "Mingde doesn't want to accept it. Doesn't he regard Xiaoxing and I as a family?"

"No, no, Uncle Song, don't say that." Wu Mingde quickly shook his head to deny it.

Li Yun'an quickly tried to smooth things over and said, "Mingde, since it was given by Uncle Song, you should accept it. Don't let Uncle Song down."

When Song Changhe heard Li Yun'an say this, he smiled and let go of his hand, then asked the two where they came back from.

Wu Mingde told Song Changhe a little embarrassedly: "Uncle Song, Yun'an and I went to the county town to buy silver hairpins." After that, he took out a picture book from his bag and handed it to Song Xing, saying that he bought it specially for Song Xing.

Song Xing handed the two rabbits to Song Changhe. He first wiped his hands with his clothes, then took them with both hands, took a closer look, and smiled and thanked Wu Mingde: "Thank you, Third Brother Minghui."

The name Minghui Third Brother made Li Yun'an and Wu Mingde laugh. Wu Mingde smiled and said to Song Xing: "Xiaoxing, just call me Third Brother like Minghui does."

"Thank you, third brother!" Song Xing corrected himself immediately.

Seeing that it was getting late, Song Changhe asked Li Yun'an and Wu Mingde to go back quickly. After Wu Mingde drove the ox cart away, he asked Song Xing, who was still staring at the comic book and laughing, "What book makes you so happy?"

"Dad, it's 'Tang Poetry Quatrains.'" Song Xing answered happily.

Song Changhe patted Song Xing on the shoulder. He thought of someone in the village who said that it was because Song Xing went to school that the head of the village was willing to marry into his family. No matter what the reason was, letting Song Xing go to school was the right choice after all.

"Let's go home quickly." After Song Changhe said that, Song Xing quickly closed the picture book and followed Song Changhe home.

Li Yun'an stood at the door of the village head's house and knocked on the gate. After Wu Minghui opened the door, he shouted happily, "Brother Yun'an."

Wu Mingde lifted the rabbit from the ox cart, and Wu Minghui immediately ran to Wu Mingde with a smile. She jumped up to touch the fluffy rabbit and called out sweetly, "Third Brother."

Wu Mingde handed the rabbit to Wu Minghui and told her not to be bitten by the rabbit. Then he drove the ox cart to the cowshed in the backyard of the Wu family. He unloaded the cart and fed the cows water and grass.

Two cows were mooing in the cowshed.

When Wu Mingde returned to the front yard, Li Yun'an and Wu Minghui were feeding the rabbits with grass.

"Third brother, where did the rabbit come from?" Wu Minghui asked, looking up.

Wu Mingde recounted what happened when he met Song Changhe and Song Xing at the village entrance.

After hearing this, the village head came out of the main room, picked up the rabbits and examined them, then smiled and told the siblings, "One male and one female, keep them in the backyard first. Rabbits reproduce very quickly, and you can sell some in winter and kill some for meat. Your mother can process the rabbit skins and make a few pairs of shoes for you."

Wu Mingde took out the silver hairpin from his bag and handed it to the village head. The village head shook it in his hand and said jokingly, "Mingde and Yun An are really sincere. This hairpin can knock people unconscious if thrown out."

After hearing this, Wu Minghui took the hairpin from the head of the village and hit herself on the head, then pretended to faint and half leaned on Wu Mingde, making the embarrassed Wu Mingde and Li Yun'an laugh.

Wu Li also came out of the kitchen. She nodded Wu Minghui's head, then took the hairpin and said with a smile: "No matter what, Mingde chose it himself. Don't say anything more. Originally, this hairpin would not be worn in the village. If they move away in the future, let Mingde buy another one." After that, Wu Li asked a few people to wash their hands and prepare for dinner, while she carefully put away the silver hairpin and waited until May 16th to issue the engagement.

After Song Changhe and Song Xing returned home, Song Changhe handed the rabbit in his hand to Zhang.

"These two are female. Xiaoxing and I will go catch them tomorrow. I met Mingde at the entrance of the village. He and Master Li had just returned from the county town after buying hairpins. I gave the pair of male and female rabbits to Mingde. Mingde also gave Xiaoxing a picture book." Song Changhe said to Zhang who was feeding grass to the rabbits.

Song Xing had already run into the kitchen. He was holding a picture book and telling Song Yue, who was making a fire, about his encounter with Wu Mingde.

After dinner, the village head knocked on the Song family's gate with a half-cart of blue bricks. He told Song Changhe, "Brother Changhe, rabbits can dig holes. This is what's left over from when we built the house. You can build a nest for the rabbits tomorrow. I know someone who buys rabbit skins. Our two families can raise rabbits together and sell them."

Song Changhe thanked the village head gratefully. He and the village head unloaded the blue bricks together. The village head spoke a few more words to Song Changhe and then pushed the cart home.

The next day, after getting up, Jiang Qingzhou soaked the cut reeds and peanuts in a bowl. After breakfast, he took Song Li and Jiang Qingye to go fishing.

After breakfast, Song Li watched Jiang Qingzhou's actions curiously. Jiang Qingzhou burned the cut bamboo branches with fire, then bent them in half and put the soaked reed segments on them. He then stuffed the peanuts into the reed segments and tied the two ends of the bamboo branches with thin ropes.

"Can Qingzhou really catch fish?" Song Li asked with some doubt.

Jiang Qingzhou then went on to do another Kongming fishing. He smiled and answered Song Li: "Of course, I have seen others catch it with my own eyes. Let's try and see if it works."

When Jiang Qingzhou had finished making ten Kongming fishing rods, he put the Kongming fishing rods, a sickle and a sharpened bamboo branch into a wooden barrel, and then led Song Li and Jiang Qingye to the riverbank.

The three of them chose a flat spot on the river. Jiang Qingzhou cut three reeds with a sickle. He first drilled holes in the reed stems with sharpened bamboo branches, and then passed the fishing line through the holes and tied it to the reed stems.

After Jiang Qingzhou made three fishing rods, the three of them threw their fishing lines into the river. They didn't say anything and just waited quietly.

A fishing line began to shake, and Jiang Qingzhou hurriedly pulled the fishing line out slowly.

"Wow, there's really a fish." Song Li and Jiang Qingye hurriedly helped Jiang Qingzhou pull out the fish, which was a grass carp weighing two or three pounds.

Song Li looked at the wound on the fish's mouth. It turned out that the fish had eaten peanuts. The fishing rod supported the fish's mouth, and the fish could not break free and was caught.

Not every time you can catch a fish, sometimes the fish eat the peanuts and run away; sometimes the fish break free from Kong Ming's hook and run away while you are pulling the fishing line.

After using up all ten Kongming fishing rods, the three of them caught a total of four fish, two crucian carps, one carp and one grass carp.

"Let's go. I'll make you some fish soup at noon. Even though crucian carp has a lot of bones, the soup is really delicious." Song Li took three reeds, Jiang Qingzhou carried a wooden barrel, and Jiang Qingye held a sickle, and the three of them went home happily.

After returning home, Song Li cleaned the crucian carp first. She asked Jiang Qingzhou to bury the fish scales and internal organs next to the watermelon as fertilizer.

After Jiang Qingye boiled the water, Song Li started to fry the fish. Since there was no tofu at home, she used eggs instead.

Soon, a pot of milky white crucian carp soup was ready.

Jiang Qingye kept praising the delicious fish soup cooked by Song Li. Song Li smiled and said that if she wanted to drink it in the future, she could go fishing again.

Song Li steamed the grass carp that night, but was worried about the half-dead carp. She never liked carp because it was too flossy and had too many bones. Not to mention that she didn't know how to make sweet and sour fish, there was no sugar at home for her to eat.

Jiang Qingzhou listened to Song Li's sigh. He put down the unwashed bowl in his hand and asked softly, "Xiao Li, what's wrong?"

"I'm wondering how to eat that carp. I don't like carp. Do you like it?" Song Li still sighed.

"Stew it tomorrow morning and let Qingye eat it, and tell him that you hope he can make a great leap forward in the future!" Jiang Qingzhou felt that this was not a difficult problem to solve.

"But, wouldn't this be a bit of bullying Qingye?" Song Li asked.

"No, all scholars hope to be able to make a leap forward." Well, Song Li was also confused by Jiang Qingzhou.