The next morning, just as dawn was breaking, a series of urgent knocks on the door startled Xu Kuo from his sleep.
"Who is it? It's so early in the morning, can't a person get any sleep?" Xu Kuo rubbed his sleepy eyes and opened the door impatiently.
Standing outside the door was Zhang Laosan, sweating profusely and panting heavily, looking extremely anxious.
"Zhang Laosan? What's wrong?" Xu Kuo's heart skipped a beat, and he had a vague sense of foreboding.
"Brother Xu! Something...something's happened!" Zhang Laosan gasped for breath, barely able to speak.
"What happened? Tell me slowly!" Xu Kuo was becoming increasingly anxious.
"Fish! Fishpond! All the fish..." Old Zhang stamped his feet anxiously, but he couldn't explain it clearly.
Xu Kuo didn't have time to ask any more questions and ran towards the fishpond, with Zhang Laosan following closely behind.
The two ran all the way to the fishpond, and the scene before them left them speechless with astonishment.
The once calm fishpond was now boiling and churning as if a pot had been boiled over, with plump fish leaping and splashing onto the shore in a spectacular yet chaotic scene.
"What... what's going on?" Zhang Laosan was dumbfounded; he had never seen such a strange sight before.
Besides Zhang Laosan, there were two other people there as well. The group was frantically throwing the fish that had jumped ashore back into the water, but there were just too many fish and they were too lively. They couldn't keep up at all and collapsed on the ground, panting heavily.
Xu Kuo was overjoyed. The fish were growing well and full of energy, which was obviously due to the high-quality feed! He effortlessly picked up a large fish that had jumped onto the shore, and with a gentle toss, the fish landed steadily back in the water.
"This... Brother Xu, you're amazing!" Seeing how easily Xu Kuo moved, the others could hardly believe their eyes.
Xu Kuo waved his hand, looking indifferent: "Alright, stop standing there, hurry up and go to the street to buy some fencing to fence off the fishpond, otherwise all the fish will escape!"
The group then seemed to wake from a dream, but their faces immediately fell, and they stammered, unable to speak.
Xu Kuo understood immediately from their expressions: these days, nobody was rich, and their pockets were emptier than their faces.
"Sigh, never mind!" Xu Kuo sighed helplessly, took out fifty cents from his pocket, and handed it to one of them, "Take this and buy something. Use the rest to buy some food."
"This...this..." The men stared wide-eyed at the five cents; it was a huge sum of money! They never dreamed that Xu Kuo would be so generous!
"Brother Xu, you are truly our second parents!" The group was so moved that tears welled up in their eyes, and they wished they could kneel down and kowtow to Xu Kuo.
"Alright, stop dawdling and go!" Xu Kuo urged.
Zhang Laosan took the money and ran off to buy a fence.
Taking advantage of this break, Xu Kuo exchanged some high-grade fish feed from the system and secretly scattered it into the fishpond.
"Go and call the village chief here. Tell him the fishpond needs to be expanded!" Xu Kuo instructed, pointing to another person.
The man responded and hurried off to find the village chief.
The village chief was having breakfast at home when he heard this. He slammed down his chopsticks and said with a look of disdain, "Expansion? What kind of trouble could Xu Kuo possibly cause? Is he planning some kind of weird scheme again!"
The man hurriedly explained, "Village chief, you should go and check on the fish in the fishpond..."
"Alright, alright, I'll go take a look!" The village chief interrupted him impatiently, but in his heart he was filled with contempt for Xu Kuo.
The two arrived at the fishpond. The village chief, with his hands behind his back and a stern face, looked like he was about to interrogate someone: "Xu Kuo, what are you up to now? Why are you expanding this perfectly good fishpond?"
Xu Kuo pointed to the fishpond: "Village chief, look for yourself, this fishpond is too small, the fish are jumping out, we have to expand it!"
The village chief was so angry he laughed, pointing his finger at Xu Kuo and yelling, "Nonsense! Fish can jump out? Do you think I'm a three-year-old? If you can really make fish jump out, I'll expand your fishpond for free right now!"
No sooner had the words left his mouth than a "plop" was heard, and a large, fat fish leaped out of the water, drawing a graceful arc in the air before crashing heavily onto the shore, splashing water everywhere.
All eyes were drawn to the large fish, and the scene fell silent.
The village chief was even more shocked. He never dreamed that Xu Kuo could actually make the fish jump out!
Xu Kuo walked up to the village chief and said with a smile, "Village chief, can we expand the fishpond now?"
The village chief snapped out of his daze and nodded hurriedly: "Expand! Expand! We must expand!" He stepped forward and carefully examined the big fish. He saw that the fish scales were shiny and the flesh was plump and delicious. It was obviously a top-quality fish.
“However,” the village chief changed the subject, “the village will contribute some of the money for the expansion. In addition, I will find a professional construction team, and we will split the wages 50/50. Then, I will take 10% of the profits.”
Xu Kuo nodded in agreement without hesitation.
The village chief left with a big smile, eager to prepare for the expansion of the fishpond.
Xu Kuo breathed a sigh of relief; the money to expand the fishpond was secured. He turned and went back into the house, preparing to take out some money for any eventuality.
When the village chief returned home, his nephew, Tan Wang, was sitting by the window, lost in thought. Tan Wang had been expelled from school a few days ago for fighting and causing trouble, and now he had come to the village chief looking distressed, hoping that he could arrange a job for him.
Seeing Tan Wang's listless appearance, the village chief sighed and said, "Wang, I've partnered with that kid Xu Kuo to set up a fishpond. Go and help keep an eye on it."
Upon hearing this, Tan Wang immediately shook his head vigorously, saying, "Uncle, I'm an educated person! You want me to raise fish? That's too embarrassing!"
The village chief was furious and grabbed a broom to hit him: "You brat! Still being picky! You're lucky to have any work to do, and you're complaining? I think you're asking for a beating!"
Tan Wang had never seen anything like this before. He was so frightened that he trembled and ran away as fast as he could, afraid that the broom handle would fall on him.
Once outside, Tan Wang was incredibly bored, so he wandered aimlessly along the village paths and happened to run into a few idle thugs. The group huddled together, puffing on cigarettes and boasting about their recent "glorious deeds."
"Brother Wang, what's wrong? Why are you looking so dejected?" a thug with dyed yellow hair asked, his tone laced with mockery.
Tan Wang snorted irritably, "Don't even mention it. It's all because of my uncle. He insisted that I go to the fishpond to help out. I'm an educated person, how could I do such rough work!"
"Fishpond? What's so interesting about that? Come on, we'll take you to a better place!" Yellow Hair winked and looked mysterious.
Tan Wang perked up immediately: "What great place?"
"Hehe, I heard the melons and fruits on the new plot of land the village chief just cleared are really sweet. Let's go 'borrow' some to try!" Yellow Hair grinned, revealing a mouthful of yellow teeth.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
