Chapter 51 Catching Frogs
Eat your fill.
Su Yun took a hoe and went to check on the rice paddies. The rice that had been fenced off earlier was starting to ripen, and the grains were gradually becoming firmer and fuller. In about a week or two, it would slowly turn yellow and then ripen.
Su Yun noticed that the rice here seemed to mature faster than in the original world, and the grains were also slightly larger and fuller.
It looks like it's an improved variety.
It looks good, but I don't know if it's easy to cultivate. Su Yun carefully dealt with the weeds and cleared the irrigation ditches to ensure that the paddy field had enough water. The weather had been quite hot these past few days, and Su Yun was worried that the paddy field would suddenly run out of water, and all the nearly ripe rice would cool down.
She comes to visit almost every time she has free time these past few days.
After summer arrives, there are more frogs in the paddy fields. Every now and then, one will hop past your feet. Frogs are actually quite easy to catch because they hop around and you can't see anything stationary. Just aim at where it crouches down, get close, and swat it with your palm closed.
Night Wind reached out nimbly and caught several in no time, tossing them into the bag he carried with him.
Although Ye Feng was agile, most frogs lived in damp and cold fields, so when he bent down to catch them, he inevitably got mud on his body. After catching only a few, Ye Feng was covered in mud.
"Look, your face is covered in mud, you look like a clown!" Su Yun said with a smile, pointing at his face as she looked at the mud stain.
"Oh!" Ye Feng reached out to wipe off the mud that had accidentally gotten on his face, but his hands got even dirtier, and his face got even dirtier.
Su Yun could only smile and wipe his face, saying, "You should wash your hands first!"
The girl's soft hand touched his cheek, making it tickle slightly. He controlled the urge to move his cheek, but his ears still trembled involuntarily. "I wasn't paying attention," Ye Feng replied softly.
"It's okay, I'll wipe it for you. But actually, there are ways to catch frogs without using your hands!" Su Yun winked and replied playfully.
Night Breeze asked curiously, "Hmm? In what way?"
"Hehe, watch me." Su Yun said as he demonstrated.
She first went to the ditch, rummaged through the grass roots, then picked up a snail from the ditch, smashed it with a stone, and then casually plucked a tough, slender wild grass, tied a knot at the tip to bind the snail meat, and held the other end in her hand.
"Look! The fishing tackle is ready!" Su Yun said proudly, showing the tools in Ye Feng's hand.
"Huh? Grass and snails? How do you fish for frogs?" Ye Feng blinked, his expression full of doubt. Although he had seen others fish, it seemed that a hook was needed. Looking at the extremely simple tool in Su Yun's hand, he was very curious about how the other party planned to fish for frogs.
"Hehe, watch closely!" Su Yun confidently raised the fishing tackle in her hand, then turned around and squatted on the edge of the field to demonstrate it. She grabbed one end of the thin grass, put the other end, which was tied with snail meat, into the grass on the edge of the field, and then began to swing her hand up and down rhythmically, quietly waiting for the prey to take the bait.
Night Breeze: "I don't see any frogs here?"
Su Yun: "Shh, he'll come over by himself in a bit."
Night Breeze: "Hmm?"
Su Yun: "Just you wait and see!"
Sure enough, after a short while, as Su Yun moved his wrist up and down, a yellowish-brown frog was attracted by the bait and hopped over.
"Ah! It's really here! I'll catch it!"
As soon as Ye Feng saw the frog that had been attracted, he instinctively reached out to catch it. However, the frog was crouching deep in the grass, surrounded by bushes. Before he could even reach halfway, the frog sensed the danger and jumped away.
"Can't catch it..." Night Breeze withdrew his hand in frustration.
"Hey, don't rush, watch me." Su Yun waved his hand. "You don't need to do anything, just watch from the sidelines and see how I fish it up!"
"Hmm." Ye Feng nodded, squatted down and remained still, his eyes fixed on Su Yun's hand, nervously waiting for Su Yun to catch the frog.
Su Yun was very patient and continued to shake the bait in her hand. As her hand moved rhythmically up and down, the frog was indeed attracted again, hopping back and squatting at the base of the grass, staring at the constantly shaking bait, and began to hunt.
Seeing this, Su Yun slightly moved the bait closer to the frog, constantly lifting the grass up and down in his hand, waiting for the frog to take the bait.
Sure enough, after a few seconds of slight wrist twitching, the frog took the bait, sticking out its tongue and wrapping it around the wriggling snail meat.
Then Su Yun quickly lifted the thin grass rope. The frog, still holding onto the bait, was reluctant to let go, so it was lifted up as well.
Su Yun was prepared. He opened the bag he had prepared beforehand, waited under the frog, caught the hooked frog, and then gently pulled the rope away.
The poor frog had barely tasted a bit of meat when it was caught.
Su Yun proudly shook the bag in his hand, reached out and grabbed the plump frog, saying, "See? Catching frogs is that easy."
Ye Feng's eyes lit up, and he almost clapped. "Su Yun, you're amazing!"
Su Yun was pleased to receive praise from her admirer. "Hehe, catching frogs is easy."
"It looks much easier than catching it by hand. How can you catch it without a hook?"
"That's how frogs are. They can only see things that are constantly moving. As long as you hold the meat in front of them and keep waving it, they will think it's a small insect and then they will take the bait! Just like this." As he spoke, Su Yun put the bait back into the grass. After a while, another frog was attracted. Then Su Yun used the same trick again, picked it up, and put it in the bag.
"Is that how it is?" Ye Feng stared at Su Yun's hand movements, his eyes full of curiosity.
"Come and try it and you'll see!" Su Yun generously handed over the thin rope in her hand. She understood very well the joy of luring and hunting, and then reaping the prey.
I remember growing up in the fields; she was very mischievous and often went with her friends to catch frogs. The method was simple, and the frogs were easy to catch, giving them a great sense of accomplishment. They often had frog-catching competitions to see who could catch the biggest and the most. Sometimes, they even accidentally caught a water snake, which scared them so much that they threw their fishing rods far away... Her childhood was full of fun...
Although catching frogs is actually not very useful, there is very little meat, and the adults are too lazy to process them when they bring them home. They will also scold them because frogs are beneficial insects. So they just fish for fun, just for the sense of accomplishment of catching one. Usually, after the competition, they will release them back into their own fields. So no one understands the fun of catching frogs better than her.
But later, with the overuse of pesticides, small animals like grasshoppers, leeches, and frogs in the fields became increasingly rare, so eventually no one went there anymore, and the fun was gone.
But now that the apocalypse has arrived and pesticides are gone, frogs have multiplied again. Anyway, we've eaten plenty of dry-pot frog meat before, so it's okay to catch a few occasionally for a treat.
So Su Yun let Ye Feng experience the joy of catching frogs. Ye Feng had just mastered the secret of catching frogs and was now enthusiastically fishing with a thin grass rope.
This area, close to the water's edge and covered in weeds, is a perfect habitat for frogs. You can hop over one every few steps. Baiting here is like entering a frog farm; you can catch one almost every minute. Later, there wasn't time to catch them with a bag, so I just lifted them up with my other hand and grabbed them with my other hand.
"Wow! This is so easy!" Night Breeze was completely absorbed in the joy of catching frogs.
Su Yun found it amusing and ignored him, starting to set traps in the nearby ditch, preparing to indulge in the joy of catching crayfish.
After some time, the crayfish in the river grew fat again, and Su Yun wanted to eat spicy crayfish again.
So one of them caught frogs and the other caught lobsters, and when they returned home, they both had a full haul.
However, before leaving, Su Yun still untied the bag and released most of the frogs.
Night Breeze scratched its head, puzzled, and asked, "Why did you let them go? Can't we eat them?"
Su Yun: "No, they can eat pests and protect what we grow, so we can't eat too much at once, otherwise our crops won't survive."
The night wind seemed to understand, gave an "oh" sound, gently swayed its tail, and nodded.
Su Yun wasn't sure if the other party had understood, so she carefully observed Ye Feng's expression, constantly thinking about how to persuade him.
However, Nightwind showed no displeasure whatsoever. He had no objections whatsoever, merely wagging his tail slightly and tilting his head, saying, "Shall we go home now?"
"Hmm?" Su Yun was a little surprised. "Don't you have any questions?" She had been thinking hard for a long time, coming up with many reasons and explanations to persuade the other party, but unexpectedly Ye Feng didn't ask anything and directly agreed to her approach.
"Hmm? What do you want to ask? I don't have anything to ask. What you said is all correct." Ye Feng looked at the girl with a conflicted expression. His words were full of trust in her and a hint of doting affection that was hard to detect. His tone was gentle and his voice was soft: "Just tell me and I'll listen."
"Hmm? That's good?" Su Yun looked at the obedient big cat in front of her with its head slightly lowered, and heard its sensible tone. She felt very gratified, even though she was usually oblivious to its surroundings. Compared to the husky that disappeared after eating, Su Yun, who felt like a doting mother, couldn't help but reach out and stroke her own little cat's ears. "Good boy, good boy, it's okay. I left a few fat ones for you. I'll add some extra food for you tonight! Come on, let's go home!"
Night Breeze: ? ? ?
Looking at Su Yun's kind smile, seemingly oblivious to everything, she suddenly felt a pang of disappointment.
"Oh," he replied softly, casually hoisting Su Yun's hoe onto his own shoulder as well. "Let's go then."
"Okay, let's go home." Su Yun echoed, carrying the lobsters and frogs she had caught, and followed behind Ye Feng.
The two of them walked slowly home along the ridges of the paddy fields, one after the other.
Today's trip was very fruitful; I not only caught some fat frogs, but also several pounds of crayfish.
Su Yun hummed a song carefree all the way, in a very good mood.
However, to Su Yun's surprise, an even bigger surprise awaited her at her doorstep.
As soon as I reached the intersection, I spotted a familiar figure. It was Rose, whom I had thought had wandered off somewhere, waiting for me not far from my doorstep.
As soon as it saw Su Yunyefeng appear, it waved its paws vigorously and wagged its tail to greet him, "Su Yunyefeng, you're finally back! Look what I caught!"
Su Yun noticed that ever since Rose's identity as a husky was exposed, she no longer bothered to hide it. When she got excited, her tail would wag very happily, and she didn't have the slightest bit of the aloof goddess demeanor.
"Look, look! I finally caught some rabbits!" Rose exclaimed as she held up a string of rabbits in front of Su Yun. She chattered incessantly as soon as she saw them, describing her day's catch, "Look, these rabbits I caught are so fat!"
Su Yun looked down and saw that the roses had indeed yielded a bountiful harvest. He was carrying three plump gray rabbits and was extremely excited.
"Ah! Rabbits are so hard to catch around here, they're all so clever and fast. I had to climb over several hills to finally catch this one." Rose wagged her tail excitedly and exclaimed, "Can I have meat tonight? I want the one I had at noon today!"
Ah! Finally, finally!
Seeing the gruesome death of the ultimate rabbit at my feet...
This unreliable husky has finally learned to carry souvenirs, and even Rose has started working! What a miracle!
At this moment, Su Yun just wanted to shout in her heart, "She, Su Yun, is really amazing!"
Her clever and ingenious strategy of enticing and spurring finally worked, transforming a husky that only knew how to destroy the house into a person who loves to work.
Su Yun almost wanted to write a hymn to her own intelligence and shed tears for her hard work, but she held back. For the unreliable and occasionally mischievous new worker, Su Yun decided to be a little more serious and show that she was capable.
"Hmm, not bad, not bad. It's all about rewarding hard work. You can have dinner with us this time," Su Yun said, trying to remain calm.
Ah, since Rose has already started working, she naturally wants to keep her promise and encourage her to continue working. So she thought for a moment and added, "Then let's have braised rabbit tonight!"
"Yay!" Rose jumped up excitedly upon hearing the news.
Author's Note:
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