The next day, around four o'clock in the afternoon, Chen Laosi and his men returned after finishing their work. Chen Laosi happened to see Chen Kai and asked, "Little brother, Lao Wu and I are going to the river to catch fish later. Do you want to come along?"
Before Chen Kai could answer, Chen Shi and Chen Nong, who had just overheard, said excitedly, "Fourth Uncle, we want to go fishing in the river too!"
Chen Kai happily said, "Xiao Tian and I want to go play too." Then he went to find Xiao Tian.
At this moment, Chen Nong said, "At noon, I saw many people fishing by the river. If we go now, we won't catch any fish. Why don't we go to that pond further away? There are hardly any people there usually, and we might be able to catch some big fish."
Old Chen thought that the pond was a bit far away, but the fish in the pond were big and fat, so he agreed.
After Chen Kai and Xiao Tian arrived, Chen Lao Si carried Chen Kai and called Chen Lao Wu, Chen Shi, Chen Nong, and Xiao Tian to the pond.
Chen Kai felt helpless. With his short arms and legs, every time he went out, he was either carried on his back or held in his arms, as if they were afraid he would fall and hurt himself while walking.
When Chen Laosi and his group passed by the river, they saw many villagers packing up to go home. They greeted each other and then parted ways. When they reached the pond, they also dispersed to find their own fishing spots.
Chen Kai found a spot, sat on the grass, and looked at the scenery around the pond, gradually becoming lost in thought about how he would have meat to eat that night.
After a while, Chen Kai saw that Chen Lao Si and the others hadn't caught a single fish, and looked at Xiao Tian with a wronged expression, asking, "I really want to eat meat, Xiao Tian, do you have any ideas?"
Xiao Tian looked at Chen Lao Si and Chen Lao Wu fishing by the pond and wondered if there was any way to catch more fish.
At this moment, Chen Kai saw a kind of grass that looked very much like a kind of grass that he had heard of before that could be used to catch fish, so he slowly walked over to it.
Chen Shi had already found a spot, baited the hook with an insect, and cast the line. Then, he found a rock to weigh down the fishing rod and said, "I'll go see if there are any small animals or bird eggs nearby. It would be good to find some bird eggs to take back. As for the fish, we'll just have to rely on luck!" After saying that, he screamed, "Where did Uncle go?"
"I'm here," Chen Kai's voice came from the tall grass not far away. Chen Shi quickly ran over and breathed a sigh of relief when he saw that Chen Kai was alright. Xiao Tian also ran over. He had seen Chen Kai walking this way earlier, but he thought Chen Kai wanted to enjoy the scenery and didn't pay much attention.
When Chen Kai saw Chen Shi running over, he said happily, "Nephew, quickly help me pull out these weeds and throw them into the pond to feed the fish, so that we can have fatter fish next time we come."
Chen Shi said with a smile, "Uncle, most fish don't eat this kind of grass. I'll go find some meat for you. We'll have meat tonight."
Chen Shi told Xiao Tian to keep an eye on Chen Kai, then walked away. He then went with Chen Lao Si and Chen Lao Wu, who hadn't caught any fish, and Chen Nong, who was playing in the pond, to find something to eat.
Once Chen Shi had walked a little further away, Xiao Tian looked at Chen Kai with a smile and asked, "What's the use of this grass? Can it be used to kill fish?"
Chen Kai explained, "This herb is called 'drunken fish grass.' In addition to making fish dizzy, it also has the effects of reducing swelling, relieving pain, and brewing wine. Moreover, this herb has a spicy taste and can be used as a seasoning."
Originally, Chen Kai had planned to guide Chen Shi slowly so that he could discover the effect of this herb intoxicating fish, but now that he was gone, it was even better, as he could directly produce the result and let him discover it.
Xiao Tian helped Chen Kai smash the grass with stones and throw it into the pond. The pond wasn't very big or deep, and people had tried to catch fish there a few times before, so Chen Shi didn't have much hope.
After a while, Chen Kai and Xiao Tian's hands were sore from pounding the fish, and then fish slowly began to float to the surface. When Chen Kai saw the fish floating up, he knew that there should be enough, so he told Xiao Tian to wash his hands in a nearby puddle and then sit down in the grass to rest.
After resting for a while, Xiao Tian ran to find Chen Lao Si and the others. "Fourth Uncle, Fifth Uncle, Eldest Brother, Second Brother, come quickly and catch fish! There are so many fish!" Chen Lao Si and the others were walking back when they saw Xiao Tian and said happily, "We can't catch any fish in the pond anymore. Look what we found! Ten wild eggs! We'll make egg soup for dinner tonight."
Seeing that the others didn't believe him, Xiao Tian pulled Chen Shi over and said as they ran, "It's right where Uncle was just now, lots of fish have floated to the surface."
Hearing what Xiao Tian said, Chen Lao Si and the others also ran over.
Seeing the fish and grass floating in the pond, Chen Shi asked in shock, "What's going on?"
Following the story the two had just agreed upon, Xiao Tian said, "I don't know what happened. I was helping my uncle feed the fish grass, and we thought the fish were too small and the grass was too big, so we smashed the grass and threw it into the pond to feed the fish. After a while, a lot of fish floated to the surface."
At this moment, Chen Laosi and the others also ran over. Looking at the fish floating on the surface of the pond, they said, "Could this grass be poisonous? But I've never heard of it killing anything. Let's just scoop out all the fish first."
Chen Laosi and his group took bamboo baskets and went into the water to scoop up all the fish in the pond. Most of them were small fish, but there were also a few big fish weighing one or two pounds. Chen Laosi and his group also scooped out the weeds that Chen Kai and Xiao Tian had thrown into the pond earlier.
Xiao Tian said speechlessly, "The grass we just managed to throw in was thrown back out by them."
Chen Kai said with a smile, "That's good. No one will discover the secret of this herb, and we can eat more fish."
As it was getting dark, Chen Laosi and his men finally finished scooping up all the fish that had floated to the surface in the pond. Apart from a few large fish that they had caught in their clothes, there were two large baskets of small fish and two baskets of fish the size of an adult's palm.
Chen Laosi said happily, "Tomorrow we can eat fish to our hearts' content. It's getting dark now, let's hurry home, we're all wet, we don't want to catch a cold."
Chen Laosi and his group, carrying the fish, had Xiao Tian put the wild eggs in his clothes and led Chen Kai home.
"Uncle!" Da Ya's voice came from that moment.
"Fourth Uncle, Fifth Uncle, Mother asked me to come and see. Dinner is almost ready, why aren't you home yet..." Before Da Ya could finish speaking, she saw the fish in Chen Lao Si's hands as she approached. She rubbed her eyes in disbelief. There really were a lot of fish.
Daya asked excitedly, "Where did you catch so many fish?"
Chen Laosi did not answer, but urged, "It's getting dark, let's go home first."
After Chen Laosi finished speaking, he had Daya carry Chen Kai on her back, and Chen Shi, who was carrying a small basket of fish, hold the torch. They all went home happily together.
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