Chapter 15 Fish Catching Fish, a Strange Smell, Bird Eggs at the Door
The next day, Lai got up early again to cook mung bean porridge.
Having little experience from his first sale, he arrived at the location after his lunch break this time.
Everyone was covered in sweat after a nap. Buying a bowl of iced barley tea or sweet mung bean soup felt wonderful, and they all went to the stall to buy some to cool off.
When Simon saw that Lai had arrived, he bought another cup and, as usual, asked for an extra spoonful of mung bean paste to put in it. Several apprentices followed Simon's lead and bought some to drink as well.
The village gave them a good wage, and their family was relatively well-off, so they didn't think the mung bean soup was expensive. On the contrary, they thought that Laiyi's soup was delicious and of good quality.
There weren't many mung beans left, and Lai quickly sold out of today's mung bean soup.
After packing his things in the afternoon, Lai took out his fishing net and prepared to go to the river to catch fish.
It's time to change things up after eating meat all the time.
The stream in the small mountain village is over ten meters wide, and the current is not very rapid. In shallow places, it's only about ankle-deep, but in deeper places it's over ten meters deep.
The riverbed is composed of smooth, rounded stones and fine sand, making it easy to see the bottom at a glance. In areas where the current is gentle, you can also spot small fish fry and tadpoles.
The villagers built three low dikes in different places, creating several areas for villagers to wash clothes and fetch water.
The babbling water reflected the sunlight so bright it hurt the eyes. Lai lowered his head and carefully walked against the flow of the water.
The riverbank was covered with fuzzy moss and aquatic plants. The snail slowly crawled along the stones by the river. He carefully walked on the slippery path. He only stopped when the water turned white and the current became rapid.
This place is already quite far from the small mountain village.
Lai looked upstream against the flow of the river, trying to find where the water came from, but there was only lush vegetation, and he couldn't see its source at all.
Lai stood on the riverbank and swung the fishing net with all his might. The net successfully spread out and fell into the river. He tied one end of the rope to a wooden stake to prevent it from being washed away by the river.
Without a fishing rod and not wanting to just wait for fish to bite, Lai took his personal weapon and went into the nearby mountains and forests.
Because of the abundant water resources, there are more varieties of plants here.
The plants closer to the outer layer are relatively short, with plump, moist leaves. The further you go in, the taller the plants become, and they gradually take on strange shapes.
Some leaves are serrated, while others are covered with small thorns that can easily snag your clothes.
Ray lowered his sleeves and trouser legs, and tied them tightly with strong straw stalks to prevent insects from crawling inside his clothes.
The fallen leaves on the ground have formed a thick layer of humus, a moist and nutrient-rich dark black. It feels soft underfoot, as if you could sink right in.
The surrounding plant scents seemed to be mixed with a faint fragrance. Lai sniffed carefully a few times, trying to identify the scent.
Unconsciously, his eyes began to become somewhat hazy, his mind became somewhat out of control, and his feet kept moving forward in the direction of the fragrance.
Ray sensed something was wrong and tried to control his behavior, but his body wouldn't obey him.
What happened?
Alarm bells rang in Ray's mind as he struggled to regain control.
As the body walked further and further away, there was no sound around, not even the usual bird calls, and the air was filled with an eeriness.
The aroma grew stronger, and the veins on Lei's forehead bulged. He had tried everything, but nothing worked.
With a snap, he stepped on something, tripped him, and finally regained control of his body.
He carefully observed his surroundings. Because he had gone too far, he could no longer find his way back, but he vaguely remembered the direction he had come from.
Lai looked down at his feet, where a complete animal skeleton was wrapped in tiny vines, clean and bare except for the white skeleton.
The surrounding aroma was strong, almost pungent. He covered his mouth and nose tightly with a handkerchief, gripping the bone knife tightly in his hand.
There were no other plants beside the skeleton, except for the twining vines.
Lai followed the vines forward, and after walking about ten meters, he encountered another skeleton, in the same state as the first one, also entangled with many vines.
Something in the distance was drawing him in; it had a strong wood elemental aura, but it also exuded danger.
His intuition told him not to go any further; it was beyond his current capabilities.
Lei was conflicted.
What exactly is that thing?
Curiosity killed the cat, and reason ultimately prevailed over curiosity. Rye turned and left.
He tried to find his way and followed the tracks he had left behind to get out of the forest. By then, it was two hours later.
The sun was still scorching hot. Ray stepped barefoot into the river, and the cold made him shiver.
The cool river water washed over his calves, and fish and frogs swam leisurely in the water. Lai gazed intently at the forest, where birds chirped merrily. Everything was peaceful, as if nothing had just happened.
"elder brother!"
Neil's voice came from afar on the breeze; he must have come looking for someone by the river after school when he didn't see them.
Ray returned to shore and laboriously pulled the rope to retrieve the fishing net. Only a few hours had passed; he probably hadn't caught anything. Ray didn't hold out much hope.
The fishing net was slowly pulled out of the river, tangled with a lot of water plants, but fish could be seen thrashing about inside. Lai persisted, and finally pulled the entire net out.
The haul was pretty good: a big fish that was 20 centimeters long, a dozen small fish about the length of a finger, and a few frogs that had wandered in.
"elder brother!"
Neil finally found his way here and saw Rye throwing the frog back into the water and preparing to use a knife to clear the weeds from the fishing net.
"School's out?"
"Yeah. Did you catch any fish, bro?"
"It's in the wooden barrel."
Neil looked at the barrel; a large fish was swimming inside.
"Brother, I'll help you."
Neil rolled up his trousers to help Ray clear away the seaweed.
After cleaning up, Lai moved to another spot and threw the fishing net back into the river. He planned to leave the net in the river overnight and come back to retrieve it the next day, hoping to catch even more fish.
The two brothers carried the wooden buckets filled with fish and walked back along the river.
The village women were washing clothes in wooden basins by the river. They chatted and laughed as they washed, their laughter carrying far.
"Little Neil found his brother?"
"Yeah."
Neil responded generously, and Ray greeted all the elders in a friendly manner.
Wow, what a big fish!
"That's right."
The women looked at the buckets the two brothers were carrying and started chattering again.
Someone caught a fish this big a few days ago. They said such a big fish could sell for a lot of money in town.
After taking the opportunity to say goodbye to them, Ray took Neil home.
Lai plans to steam the big fish for dinner, while the small fish will be kept in the big basin for now, left to their own devices.
After stunning the fish with the back of a knife, remove its internal organs and carefully take it out, being careful not to damage the gall bladder.
Scrape off the fish scales, remove the gills, wash with clean water, and then make cuts on both sides of the fish to make it easier for the flavors to penetrate during steaming.
Place the fish on a plate, add various seasonings, and steam it directly in a steamer.
After finishing everything, it was time for the much-anticipated money-counting part.
We sold 38 cups today and earned 192 copper coins. Ray gave Neil some pocket money again.
The family is out of mung beans, so Lai will have to go to town tomorrow to buy some.
"Brother, I almost forgot to tell you."
Neil ran to the storeroom and took out two bird eggs.
"How strange! I found two bird eggs by the gate today!"
In the village, everyone who keeps birds watches their eggs closely. How could a red rockbird possibly lay its eggs in front of someone else's house?
The two female birds in the house stopped laying eggs after we started raising chicks. Only one of them is still laying eggs, but even that is sporadic.
"It must have been laid by a wild bird."
"Then we're really lucky."
Neil happily put the egg back in the basket.
Even Ray himself didn't believe what he said; he was just trying to fool the little kid Neil.
Who put it there? And why?
Lei began to ponder silently.
The fish cooked quickly after the water boiled. The fish was very tender and delicious, but it had quite a few bones, making it a bit difficult to eat.
I don't really want to deal with the remaining little fish too much. Tomorrow I'll clean them up by removing their innards, coat them in egg and flour, and fry them in oil to give to Neil as a snack.
The bird eggs at home have been pickled for over twenty days and are ready to eat. Lai plans to cook some oatmeal porridge tomorrow morning, have it with the salted bird eggs, and then head straight to town for breakfast.
There aren't oxcarts going to town from the village every day; most of the time, people have to walk.
The road was rugged, and he had to carry dozens of pounds of mung beans on his back. In his heart, Lai sincerely hoped that the tunnel would be completed soon, or that his family could have a new animal for transportation.
I've clearly arrived in a magical continent, but why haven't I seen any teleportation arrays or anything like that? And the village isn't filled with swords and magic like in the novels.
Everyone was an ordinary villager, living an ordinary life; even magic was rare. The goblin who could only use earth magic was treated as a rare wonder by the villagers, and people visited it every day while it was imprisoned in the vault.
Perhaps I don't know this place well enough.
Lei thought to himself.
This time, Lai bought thirty pounds of mung beans and two pounds of sugar. He wouldn't dare say it was a lot, but it was enough for him to sell mung bean soup five or six more times.
It was already afternoon when I got home after shopping. I hitched a ride back with Lai, which saved me a lot of time.
It was still early, and it wasn't dark yet. Fearing that the fishing net would be washed away by the current, Lai put down his things and took a light basket to the riverbank.
This time he caught even more fish, and it was quite a struggle for him to drag the net all by himself. It took him some time to get the net completely ashore.
There were four large fish, dozens of small fish, and some river mussels and snails.
Lai put the big fish in a basket, threw the smaller ones back into the river, discarded all the clams, picked out the larger snails and put them in the basket, and poured the rest of the smaller ones into a tattered bag to take home to feed the birds.
After cleaning up the fishing nets, we went straight home.
Neil wasn't with us this time; he was at home packing.
There were too many fish to eat, so Lai kept one large fish, a dozen small fish, and some snails. He gave one large fish to his neighbor, Old Gug, and gave the rest to Hagrid's family.
Lai decided to stop fishing for a while; he'd had enough of that.
A note from the author:
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