Wei Mo continued his fish basket weaving project. His goal for today was to weave eight fish baskets by the afternoon, which would bring him a total of 13 fish baskets, more than he would earn from fishing.
Most importantly, it doesn't require much effort. Although Wei Mo likes fishing, he can't pull anything over 3 jin (1.5 catties).
After using up two sets of hooks, the six fishing rods were fully restored. However, such forceful pulling could easily cause the hooks to slip away when encountering a large fish!
After leaving the dilapidated temple, Li Xiuxiu searched for Wei Mo's house in the village. She had been there for more than two years and, although she didn't have much contact with the villagers, she still knew the general situation.
After asking several children in the village, Li Xiuxiu finally arrived at Wei Mo's house. Looking at the dried fish drying in the yard, Li Xiuxiu swallowed and walked towards Wang Zhenhua, who was standing guard to the side.
"Ma'am, are those three little children by the river yours?"
Wang Zhenhua was initially puzzled, staring intently at Li Xiuxiu as she approached. Upon hearing Li Xiuxiu's words, his heart skipped a beat.
"Yes, yes, yes! What's wrong with the child?"
Wei's mother put down the dried fish she was drying and looked nervously at Li Xiuxiu who was coming over.
"It's alright, it's alright."
Li Xiuxiu quickly replied, "It would be bad if there was a misunderstanding!" Then she looked around and, finding no one, took out 2 yuan from her pocket and spoke to Wei Ma in a low voice.
"Sister, I'd like to buy some fish, but your son says it's not allowed. So I'll give you the money. Could you please tell your son?"
Wang Zhenhua looked at Li Xiuxiu with suspicion, carefully considering her words.
This money was a gift to him. Wang Zhenhua wasn't one to overthink things. Since it was a gift, he figured it wouldn't hurt to keep it.
Seeing that Li Xiuxiu gave him the money without hesitation, he figured that since she wanted to find Wei Mo, he might as well take her there, since he had skipped work again today anyway.
“Then come with me. I’ll take you to find my son. You can talk to him directly if you need anything.”
Li Xiuxiu nodded and followed behind Wang Zhenhua toward the dilapidated temple.
Along the way, the two chatted and laughed. Li Xiuxiu was good at talking, and Wei Ma didn't have many friends in the village, so the two had a very pleasant conversation.
Upon arriving at the dilapidated temple, all that was missing was an incense burner. The two women, who were on good terms, could even become sworn sisters and form a bond. The main reason for this was Wei Ma, who was filled with affection for the suddenly appearing Li Xiuxiu.
When the two arrived at the riverbank, they found that Wei Mo was not there. Wang Zhenhua then inquired about his daughter.
"My dear daughter, where did your brother go?"
"He went to cut willow branches and will be back in a bit."
Wei Xiaomin glanced back at her mother who was coming over, gave a casual reply, and then continued to stare at the small wooden stick. After her younger brother's repair, the fishing rod was much better to use. Wei Xiaomin wanted to make the most of her time and catch more big fish.
Thinking that Wei Mo must have gone to check on the fish traps, Wei Ma took Li Xiuxiu and sat on the willow branch where Wei Mo was weaving fish baskets, waiting for Wei Mo's return.
Wei Mo wasn't very satisfied with his haul this time. So many little birds! He caught all the traps, but the birds were much smaller than expected.
One skewer of chicken, two yellow-bellied chickens, four yellow-bottomed chickens, two blue-brown chickens, and one super tiny donkey dung ball!
Replace the corn weevils on the clip with new ones, reposition the clip, and secure it firmly to the ground.
Then Wei Mo began to cut willow branches. After harvesting the branches, he carried them toward the dilapidated temple.
Upon seeing Wei Mo return, Wei's mother stopped talking to Li Xiuxiu, rushed forward, took the willow branch her son was carrying, and spoke to Wei Mo in a low voice.
"Li Xiuxiu gave me two yuan and told me to tell you."
Wei Mo nodded. It seemed that this silly educated youth had finally figured it out. But was taking 2 yuan a bit too much?
You should know that pork is only 35 cents a pound now, even though you need meat coupons!
Wei Mo nodded to Wang Zhenhua and walked over to his two older sisters.
He picked up the fishing line, glanced at the catch—less than 3 pounds of fish in total—and frowned slightly.
"Mom, take her away first, and let her come back to pick up the fish in half an hour."
Mother Wei gave Wei Mo a reproachful look. Her son must be looking for the Dragon King; it really wasn't appropriate for anyone to be here.
"Be careful, and don't call her 'her,' from now on you should call her Aunt Li."
After speaking, Wang Zhenhua took Li Xiuxiu and left. After all, the Dragon King was about to unleash his power, so he made up an excuse that he needed to go back and get the fish-catching tools.
Wei Mo watched as Wang Zhenhua and Li Xiuxiu walked away, until they were out of sight, before he began to collect the fish from the afternoon's catch.
With the help of her two older sisters, the three little ones slowly pulled the fishing line and dragged the fish basket to the shore. Before it was even fully out of the water, the fish inside started to thrash about, creating large splashes of water.
"Little brother, there's a big fish inside!"
Wei Xiaomin looked at the splashing water, said to Wei Mo, and then forcefully pulled the fish basket ashore.
The eldest sister glanced at the fish in the basket, her heart filled with joy, and said to Wei Xiaomin beside her.
"Second Sister, let's push the fish basket a little further away, or the big fish will get away!"
Wei Xiaomin nodded, and Wei Mo also stepped forward to help. The three of them pushed the fish basket away from the shore and breathed a sigh of relief. Then, following Wei Mo's instructions, they stood the fish basket upright.
Wei Mo opened the plug, and the big fish inside fell to the ground one by one, rolling around. The second sister quickly tried to stop them with her hands, while the eldest sister ran to the side, took the fishing line used to tie the fish, and began to thread the fish onto it.
A very good haul! Seven catfish of varying sizes, four eels, and three snakehead fish, but all of them had died because they couldn't surface to breathe. There were also some small miscellaneous fish.
Wei Mo looked at the drowned black fish with pity. "How could a perfectly good fish like you drown?"
In summer, snakehead fish need to surface to breathe because of insufficient oxygen. In winter, they don't need to do this. Although they die from lack of oxygen, it wouldn't be wrong to say they drown.
Most of these fish are carnivorous and attracted by the "fish offal" inside. Wei Mo estimated that each fish basket weighed more than 10 kilograms. The fish population was really dense in this era.
In the previous era, Wei Mo used more sophisticated traps than fish baskets, but they usually only caught a few small fish, with only occasionally some large fish entering.
I really wanted to buy a fish trap from the store and put it in the river, but I couldn't explain where it came from, so I decided to give up and continue my great work of weaving fish baskets!
Wei Mo put the fish basket back in, secretly added some bait for fishing, and then put it back in its original place.
Wei Xiaohui became interested. This kind of harvest was much faster than fishing. Knowing that her younger brother had set a lot of fish baskets, she thought about continuing to haul them in!
"Big sister, don't rush. Let's get rid of the educated youth first, then we can continue. Otherwise, if there are too many fish and someone discovers the fish basket, someone will steal the fish."
The eldest sister nodded after hearing Wei Mo's words, thinking that her brother made sense. She then went fishing with her younger sister. But fishing is never as fun as catching fish with a basket. The eldest sister kept glancing at the location of the basket.
Wei Mo sat down on the ground and continued weaving the fish basket, while his second sister would occasionally look behind her to see why their mother hadn't arrived yet.
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