Chapter 155 Reservoir
Having lived alone for many years, my only social interaction is going to the Baizhen base. Now, participating in this amazing activity at the reservoir with everyone feels like going on a spring outing with my teacher when I was a child.
He took out four plump, juicy peaches from his bag and gave one to each of them.
The peaches were still a bit cold, making them taste refreshingly cool.
Brother Liu took a small path that I had never taken before. Looking at the completely new scenery in front of me, it felt like I was visiting another city.
While the scenery in the mountains may seem similar, a closer look reveals distinct differences.
At a bend in the road, there is a huge tree that is as thick as ten people. A hole has been carved out in the middle of the tree, and a Buddha statue is placed there. What's amazing is that the tree is growing very lushly.
"This is?"
I pointed to the tree with a puzzled expression and asked Aunt Liu.
Aunt Liu slapped my hand away: "Don't point randomly. This is a local temple. Pointing at it with your finger is disrespectful to the gods."
"Don't blame me, don't blame me, ignorance is no excuse."
Aunt Liu clasped her hands together and respectfully bowed to the Earth God Temple. I followed Aunt Liu's example and bowed as well.
Passing by an apricot grove, Brother Liu stopped his donkey cart and led the donkey to rest in the shade.
Aunt Liu and I went to pick apricots. The apricots were already ripe, and many had fallen to the ground, turning the ground a golden yellow.
We picked the remaining ripe apricots from the tree, filling a whole plastic bag before we stopped.
Continuing to drive the donkey cart, I began to eat apricots, swaying precariously.
With a gentle squeeze, the apricot splits open again, revealing the pit inside.
This year's abundant rainfall has resulted in very juicy apricots. When you squeeze one open, a lot of juice comes out of the flesh. If you drink it quickly, it's sweet.
The apricot flesh is very soft and has a rich, creamy aroma.
"Don't eat the apricot peel, it'll give you heartburn if you eat too much."
Seeing that I was eating them one after another, Aunt Liu started telling me to throw away the apricot skins.
I nodded, pinched open the apricot, ate the flesh inside, and casually threw the remaining apricot skin onto the roadside.
A short while later, Brother Liu suddenly said, "We've arrived."
I quickly craned my neck to look around, but I couldn't see a trace of the lake.
Where?
"Hey, here it is."
Aunt Liu pulled me off the donkey cart and we walked into the poplar grove.
After walking three or four meters through the poplar grove, I came to a very steep earthen slope beyond which lay the reservoir. The reservoir was located in a low-lying area and covered a large area.
There are also spacious and flat plains around the reservoir, so walking along the shore is not dangerous.
Aunt Liu and I went down the slope first with buckets of water, while Brother Liu and Taozi followed behind with several large fishing nets.
The water near the shore of the reservoir is relatively shallow; if you squat down, you can see small fish, about eight or nine centimeters long, swimming around in it.
These little fish don't look like loaches; they're more like goldfish kept in a fish tank, and they come in many colors, including gold, red, and black.
"Why are there goldfish in here?"
My question stumped Aunt Liu. After thinking for a moment, she replied, "It was there before. Maybe someone else put it in before."
I nodded to show my understanding, and then started looking around at other places.
There were many broken clam shells on the flat ground, probably because someone had fished up the clams from the river, taken the clam meat directly from the spot, and discarded the shells.
If I remember correctly, you can also make soap by grinding up clam shells. Since you don't have much stuff when you leave, you can take some with you.
At this moment, Brother Liu and Taozi also came down carrying the landing nets. There were four landing nets in total. It seems they had planned ahead and brought mine as well.
The group walked along the shore, carefully observing the surface of the reservoir. There were clearly quite a few fish in the reservoir.
There were many ripples on the water's surface, and occasionally you could hear a tinkling sound, which was probably the sound of fish tails slapping the water.
I was still staring blankly at the water when Brother Liu suddenly lowered his net into the water, scooped up a big fish with a swift motion.
The speed was astonishing; I hadn't even finished warming up the food, and they were already catching fish.
Aunt Liu was very happy. She carried a bucket to Brother Liu's side and put the fish from the fishing net into the bucket.
I also started to concentrate on catching fish. When I saw a dark shadow in the water, I immediately put down the landing net and scooped it up, but the net was empty.
Seeing this, Brother Liu stepped forward and patiently gave me a few instructions, and I felt like I could do it again.
It was impossible for all four of us to catch fish if we squeezed together, so we split up and each of us tried to catch fish separately.
I walked along the riverbank alone for a while and saw a flash of white light on the lake. I quickly cast my fishing net and scooped it up. I immediately felt that the net was very heavy.
I was overjoyed. The weight meant I had caught something. I carefully lifted the net onto the shore, where a large silver carp lay in the middle.
The silver carp came ashore, feeling short of oxygen, and struggled desperately. I squatted down, held its head and tail, and lifted it into the bucket.
Looking at the fish in the bucket, I felt relieved. Today's trip wasn't a waste; as long as I got something, that was enough.
After walking a few more steps, I saw something standing on the water that didn't look like a fish. I used a net to pull it over and onto the bank, only to find that it was a very large river clam.
This clam is about half the size of a pillow and weighs four or five pounds. With such a big clam, there must be a lot of meat inside. I'm already drooling over how to cook it.
Fearing that the clams might crush the fish, I placed them next to the bucket and continued searching with the fishing net.
Once the idea of catching river clams was conceived, seven or eight large river clams were caught in no time.
I don't know why these river mussels are all on the surface of the water, but they don't run away. Once you see them, you can use a net to scoop them up and they're yours.
Just then, Aunt Liu came over from a distance: "How's it going, little sister? Did you catch any fish?"
"I only caught one fish and found a lot of river clams."
Aunt Liu walked over and looked at the fish in the bucket and the clams on the ground: "Wow, you're pretty good at this. I found a few clams too. I'll have Brother Liu catch you a couple more fish later."
I knew Brother Liu and Sister-in-law Liu wouldn't let me go back empty-handed; they would definitely help me catch fish.
Taozi and Brother Liu were both quite fast at catching fish. Once their buckets were full, they carried them to meet up with me and Sister Liu.
After resting for a while, Brother Liu and Taozi got up and went back to fishing.
He came back shortly after and poured the fish from the fishing net into my bucket.
When one of my buckets is full, it's time to go back.
Aunt Liu suggested we eat some grilled fish here to fill our stomachs before leaving.
No one objected, so I went to gather firewood from the surrounding area.
When I returned carrying a pile of firewood, Aunt Liu had already scaled and gutted several fish.
"Sister-in-law, where did you get this knife? Did you plan to eat grilled fish here all along and bring it specially?"
Looking at the knife in Aunt Liu's hand, I chuckled and teased her.
"Yes, we used to come to this reservoir to catch fish when we were kids. We would grill the fish here after we finished catching them."
Aunt Liu kept her hands busy, patiently telling stories from her childhood.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com