Chen Kai asked in surprise, "We have otters here?"
Cormorants are quite common by the lake in their village, but otters have never been seen.
Cormorants inhabit rivers, lakes, ponds, reservoirs, estuaries, and marshes. They often live in small groups and are excellent swimmers and divers. When swimming, they stretch their necks straight upwards and tilt their heads slightly upwards. When diving, they first leap halfway out of the water before flipping over and submerging again. Cormorants feed on various fish, primarily catching them by diving.
Training cormorants: Cormorant chicks can be allowed to enter the water when they are around 60 days old. After 100 days, they are gradually allowed to learn to fish by following adult cormorants. After 150 days, they can gradually begin normal fishing. When training them to fish, a ring made of sedge or other grass stems should be placed around the cormorant's neck so that it can only swallow small fish and not larger ones. Each time a cormorant catches a large fish, it should be fed a small fish as encouragement to encourage it to go into the water to fish more often.
To begin training, you can tie many ropes to the cormorant's legs, with the other end tied to the riverbank. Release the cormorant into the water and let it go in to catch fish. Once it catches a fish, the trainer makes a special call to call the cormorant back to shore, where it is fed small fish. After eating, it is driven back into the water to catch fish. After about a month of this daily training, you can use a small boat. Have the cormorant stand on the gunwale, then row the boat to a certain spot and drive it into the water to catch fish. After more than a month of this training, it will be completely tamed and obey the fisherman's commands.
Chen Nong said with a smile, "Yes, Uncle, there are quite a lot of cormorants, but they're not easy to catch."
Chen Kai said with a smile, "Then let's go look for it later and see if we can catch it."
Otters are also known as otter cats, fish cats, water dogs, water hairy creatures, and water monkeys.
Otters have slender bodies with short, round limbs; flat, slightly wide heads; short, dense fur all over their bodies with a silky sheen; their backs and tails are brownish-black or coffee-colored, while their bellies have long, light brown fur.
Otters are semi-aquatic mammals, frequently found in and along the banks of rivers, lakes, and streams, and even in rice paddies. They are most abundant on lake shores and in areas with gentle currents. Otters often build burrows near water's edge, in bushes, under tree roots, in rock crevices, or in weeds. They are nocturnal, have a keen sense of smell, and are adept swimmers and divers. Their nostrils and ears can be closed underwater. Otters primarily feed on fish, but also eat frogs, crabs, waterfowl, and rodents.
Seeing them carrying this and that, Xiao Tian shouted, "Brother, I want to ride in an oxcart."
"Oh? We're going to take an oxcart there? It's not far, only half an hour's walk. We'll carry you and your uncle on our backs later," Chen Nong said.
Chen Kai also said, "Fourth Brother, I want to take the oxcart too." Why walk when there's a cart available?
Chen Laosi looked at his younger brother and laughed, "Alright, alright, I'll drive the oxcart out in a bit."
After packing up their fishing gear, they set off in their oxcart.
The village kids saw them driving the oxcart in the direction of the lake and eagerly followed behind.
"Uncle Chen! I want to ride in an oxcart too! I want to ride in an oxcart too!"
Old Chen stopped the oxcart and called out, "Get on!"
"Wow! We're riding in an oxcart! We're riding in an oxcart!" The little children excitedly climbed onto the oxcart.
Seeing how happy the other children were, Xiao Bao said proudly, "My grandpa's family has two oxcarts, and my family has one too. When are you going to buy an oxcart?"
A boy said with a pained expression, "Cows are so expensive, my family can't afford them."
Xiao Bao said, "If your family won't buy it for you, then you can save up the money and buy it yourself!"
The boy said, "But I don't have any money. My parents said I can only earn and save money when I grow up, and I can't spend it recklessly. I have to save it to get married and raise children. But I don't want to get married or raise children. When I earn money, I want to buy myself lots of delicious food and fun things."
Chen Kai couldn't help but laugh when he heard this. The little kid was already talking about getting married and raising children. It was really hilarious.
Chen Nong and the others didn't understand what their uncle was laughing about, so they looked at him with confusion before going back to chatting with the children.
Chen Nong said, "Didn't you earn some pocket money at my house? You should save the money, and when you have enough, you can buy a cow."
Chen Kai smiled and said, "Oxen are more expensive, but you can buy donkeys instead. Donkeys are cheaper. With a donkey, you can take a donkey cart."
The little children said pitifully, "Sigh, our parents have confiscated all our wages, so we can't save any money at all."
A little girl said, "I wanted to buy candied hawthorns, but my parents said we have to save the money to buy food, otherwise our family will go hungry."
When the topic of food came up, Chen Kai couldn't help but say, "Recently, the people in our village have made some money following our family's example. Tell your parents to buy more food and stock up, otherwise they might really go hungry."
Er Ya encouraged, "Yes, let your parents buy you delicious food. Candied hawthorns and meat buns are really tasty!"
Chen Kai pulled Er Ya aside and said, "Er Ya, stop talking. There's no need to teach them this."
Er Ya said, puzzled, "Uncle, those things are delicious to begin with."
Chen Kai rolled his eyes. So what if it tastes good? They don't have the money to buy it!
Is it really okay for you to tempt them like this? What will you do to comfort the kids when they cry?
When we arrived, the place was quite lively, with many people from their village fishing there.
Chen Kai pointed to the middle of the lake and said, "Look, they also have bamboo rafts."
Er Ya said smugly, "Hmph, their bamboo rafts are definitely not as good as ours!"
After the oxcart stopped, Chen Laosi removed it from the oxen and let them graze nearby. Then, Chen Laosi and his men unloaded the tools they would need later.
"Chen Nong, look at the fish I caught! I caught so many little fish!" a little boy shouted happily to them.
Chen Nong ran over in a flash and saw that his bamboo basket was full of small fish. He exclaimed enviously, "Wow! So many!"
The little fish was very small, only about the size of a child's palm, but he scooped up a whole bamboo basket of them.
Among the fish here, these small fish are the most common and abundant; they can be seen everywhere in rivers, ditches, and ponds.
The little fish in the bamboo basket were jumping around, and several of them jumped to the ground. The boy quickly held them down and caught them back.
As the boy picked up the fish, he said, "My brother and I blocked the ditch over there for a while before we caught so many. We're going to go to the lake to catch bigger fish later."
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