Because they were helping Li Xiuxiu get fish, Wang Zhenhua and Li Xiuxiu returned to the place where the educated youth had been sent to the countryside. Now, there are no assignments to go to the countryside, and everyone volunteers to participate in order to support the country's rural construction.
Therefore, not many people went to the countryside, and most of them were very young men and women. There were only 5 people in the entire educated youth compound, and each person had a small room. There is still a difference between the later task-based rural assignments and the current voluntary rural assignments.
In the entire educated youth compound, there was only one man named Zhao Qingshan. He was lazy and slacker at work, usually glib and lecherous, which made several girls dislike him.
Now that the four female educated youths have completely isolated Zhao Qingshan, Zhao Qingshan, seeing that he has no way to make a move, has started to target the other young women in the village.
However, since they all lived in the same village and knew each other well, any deeper contact would be met with opposition from their families. In the end, Chao Qingshan won the heart of Zhao Haixia, a young widow in the village, with his smooth talk.
The two of them are inseparable all the time, and now they rarely go back to the educated youth compound; they almost always live at the young widow's house.
Zhao Qingshan thought he had gotten the best deal, but little did he know that Zhao Haixia also had designs on him!
However, the female educated youth were also happy to see this, at least they would no longer bother them. The remaining female educated youth got along well, after all, they were girls and needed to help each other to survive better here.
Wang Ling and Yu Juan were drying dandelions that Qian Manman and Li Xiuxiu had picked in the yard when they saw Li Xiuxiu return and the two girls went to greet her.
"Xiuxiu, why are you back? Didn't you find it?"
Wang Ling spoke up from the side, but because she was not familiar with Wang Zhenhua, she did not explain her specific purpose.
Li Xiuxiu pulled Wang Ling and Yu Juan aside and whispered about the situation.
"Why don't we go with you? That way, you won't run into that old hag and get bullied. We can even help you get the fish."
Yu Juan whispered to herself, not really knowing how much fish could be bought with 2 yuan. Nowadays, supply and marketing cooperatives don't sell fish at all because buying and selling is prohibited. Only some large places have aquatic product departments.
All three of them carried small baskets on their backs. On the way back, Li Xiuxiu introduced Yu Juan and Wang Ling to Wang Zhenhua.
Although Yu Juan volunteered to go to the countryside, the reason was that her family could no longer make ends meet. She had two younger brothers, and although her father had a job, it wasn't enough to support the family. In this era of male chauvinism, girls were often abandoned.
However, after being sent to the countryside, Yu Juan lived a good life there. She gradually accepted the fact, from initially complaining, and at least she didn't starve.
The lives of the female educated youth were mostly better than those of the Wei Mo family before, since they had no children and all of them could work normally.
Wang Ling's home is in the city. She ran away to escape an arranged marriage. Her stepmother was a greedy money-grubber who essentially sold Wang Ling to a 50-year-old bachelor. Wang Ling, who was just the same age as Wang Ling, was unwilling to accept this, so she secretly ran away to this place.
The girls, who had suffered so much, felt closer to each other. Although Wang Zhenhua was already married and had children, she was only 24 years old and hadn't even reached the dilapidated temple yet. The three female educated youths recognized Wang Zhenhua as their older sister.
Wei Mo looked at the three girls that his mother had brought back; they were chatting happily.
Wang Ling was very fond of the cute boy in front of her, since children are generally quite likable.
"Sister Wang, is this your son?" "Little boy, call me Aunt Wang, and this candy is yours."
Wang Zhenhua nodded in agreement, while Wei Mo looked on with a dark expression. Why was he being tempted with candy again? When it comes to outrageous moves, Wei Mo is the one to watch. He pulled out a handful of candy from his pocket.
"Call me brother and I'll give you all this candy."
This caused the girls to burst into laughter. Wei's mother pulled Wei Mo over and was about to spank him when Wei Xiaomin and Wei Xiaohui, who were some distance away, quickly came over to help their little brother.
Wei Mo, of course, wanted to avoid it; how could his own bottom suffer? He quickly changed the subject, speaking to Li Xiuxiu beside him.
"Do you still want the fish? If you do, the fish on the ground are yours, as are the fish here."
Wei Mo pointed to the blackfish on the ground, as well as the eels, catfish, and some small miscellaneous fish in the newly woven basket.
Several female educated youths quickly put down their baskets and started picking up fish. The three black carp weighed seven or eight pounds, and the seven catfish weighed six or seven pounds. However, when it came to the eels, the female educated youths were in trouble, mainly because they were afraid of these things, as they looked like snakes no matter how they looked at them.
"Take this yellow snake, I don't want it. Just give me the rest of the small fish."
Wei Mo thought to himself that these female educated youths didn't know their stuff, and then poured the small fish into the three people's baskets.
"If you want it again next time, go to my mom."
After Li Xiuxiu finished loading the fish, she was about to leave when she heard Wei Mo's words. She nodded, greeted Sister Wang whom she had just met, and then quickly retreated with Wang Ling and Yu Juan. Yu Juan acted as a lookout in front, while Wang Ling stayed behind to prevent others from getting close.
In this era where even catching a fish requires extreme caution, Wei Mo felt he should also be more careful.
Seeing that Wei's mother was about to leave, Wei Mo grabbed Wang Zhenhua's hand.
"Mom, don't go. Those fish were just from one basket. There are still four baskets of fish from this morning that haven't been caught yet."
Wang Zhenhua's eyes widened. So many fish were in just one fish basket? Wouldn't the remaining four fish baskets contain even more?
Wang Zhenhua wanted to prepare some handy tools. Looking at the newly woven basket that Wei Mo handed him, he realized that his son had prepared it in advance, but the carrying straps had not been installed yet, so he could only hold it in his arms.
When Wei Xiaohui saw her mother and younger brother looking at the fish basket, she stopped fishing, threw her fishing rod aside, and called her younger sister Wei Xiaomin to run over with her.
The family of four dragged the fish basket ashore. Although there were not as many fish in this basket as in the previous one, it still weighed about seven or eight pounds.
They caught two in a row, and the catch weighed at least 20 jin (10 catties). It looked like Wei's mother was having some difficulty holding them.
"Mom, why don't you take it back first and come back later? Then you can set up the other two fish baskets."
"Eels and catfish can be kept in separate tanks. These creatures live a long time; otherwise, drying them would be a waste."
Following her son's advice, Wei's mother began transporting fish home. It was quite a distance from home, so her two older sisters kept watch for her.
In half an hour, all the fish were successfully delivered to my home.
The two fish baskets behind also contained quite a few fish, weighing over 20 jin (10 kg) again. Wei Ma sat on the threshold, looking at the catch in front of her with joy. Her two daughters ran back to the dilapidated temple. Wei Ma followed her son's advice and kept the catfish in the rice jar.
The more than 20 eels that were brought back were kept in a broken jar by Wei Ma. Then she started to process the other fish that had been brought back. They ate small fish for dinner!
Small fish are great, you can eat them in one bite without having to spit out bones, but they are a bit troublesome to prepare.
Looking at the more than 40 little birds her son had given her, Wei's mom felt she didn't need to prepare any main dishes for dinner! The taste of lunch was still deeply imprinted in her mind.
As for the blackfish, Wei Ma chopped off its head and cut its body in half to dry. Whether it tasted good or not was irrelevant; it was meat after all! They'd save it for when they couldn't get any more fish!
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