Chapter 24 024 Can We Not Fight?
The two children, Song Xiaoli and Song Shiyi, were naturally unaware that someone had tried to enter their house after they left. When they reached the stream behind the mountain, they didn't immediately go into the water. Fish, like snakes, are not easily startled, and given the frequent activity in the area, the chances of catching any fish were slim.
So they headed directly upstream. The further they went, the quieter it became, with only the sound of the wind and the soft rustling of the grass. When they reached this area, all that remained were the few plots of land owned by Song Dianchen.
Since each household can only tend to their own land outside of working hours, everyone tries to make their land as close together as possible. This is partly to save time, and partly because they feel that remote mountainous areas are less safe after dark.
"Let's stop here." Song Shiyi glanced at his family's land, where the sweet potato vines were lush and green. He thought to himself that he would pick some tender sweet potato vines to take back later and have his grandmother stir-fry them with more lard and salt. They would be crisp and delicious.
While Song Shiyi was distracted, Song Xiaoli had already used her connection with the creatures of the small world to lure several long fish closer.
"Brother, how do we catch fish?" Even though she knew that under her control, these long fish would just stand there, waiting to be caught, Song Xiaoli didn't intend to do that, lest her family really think that fish were as easy to come by as wild duck eggs.
She only attracted some fish; whether they can be caught depends on her younger cousin.
"Don't worry, there were fish in this river when it flooded last year. My dad brought me here, and I was able to catch some!" Song Shiyi first washed his hands clean, then took off his shoes and went into the water. He restrained his usual lively energy and tried to search the water quietly.
Soon, he spotted the first long fish, longer and thicker than the one he had brought home before, looking just like a snake. However, there had never been a silver snake here before, and knowing that this kind of fish wasn't aggressive, Song Shiyi wasn't intimidated at all. Like a cheetah, he leaped over and slammed the fish to the bottom of the water with both hands.
Song Shiyi felt the fish struggling in his hands. He was a little stunned that he had caught it so easily. After a moment of hesitation, he held the fish tightly and carried it ashore, putting it into his basket.
"You're amazing, bro!" Song Xiaoli praised him sincerely. Song Shiyi had just darted around so fast that he almost left an afterimage.
"Hehe, it's just ordinary." Song Shiyi said this, but he was actually quite pleased with himself. After the water calmed down, he took Song Xiaoli to another spot.
This time, he spotted another one before even entering the water. Song Shiyi carefully entered the water, trying not to make too much noise. However, as he slowly approached the fish, he was still spotted. The long fish flicked its tail and quickly fled to the other side. Song Shiyi had excellent eyesight and saw the fish's movement. Relying on his natural intuition, he grabbed the long fish with both hands a short distance in front of it and caught it just as it swam to that spot.
Watching from the shore, Song Xiaoli felt that this was even more exciting than going to the cinema to watch a Hollywood blockbuster.
"You're really amazing, bro!"
This could be considered a prediction. It would be understandable if an experienced fisherman could do this, but Song Shiyi is only five years old, so it's quite surprising that he could do it.
Aside from luring the long fish to the vicinity, creating five or six fish in the area, Song Xiaoli did nothing else. His ability to catch the fish after finding them was entirely due to Song Shiyi's skill.
Hearing his sister praise him again, Song Shiyi became even more excited. In the next half hour, he caught two more fish. The four long fish were all at least a meter long and thicker than old cucumbers. They already took up most of the space in the small basket, and they were still alive. If he put one more in, the lid of the bamboo basket would probably not be able to withstand the movement inside. Song Shiyi had to stop, sighing with lingering satisfaction, "I should have brought a bigger basket."
"We don't even know if these fish are edible yet, let's just catch these for now. I'm a little thirsty, buddy, shall we go home and get some water, and then take some to Grandpa and the others, okay?"
"No need to send them any. It's hot now, so they brought water with them when they left home this morning." Song Shiyi said, while patting his cool legs to clean off most of the water and dirt before putting on his shoes and taking his sister home.
They were lucky and didn't run into Song Dianbao on their way back. They closed the door, put the bamboo basket filled with long fish in a corner of the kitchen, scooped some warm water from the well to wash themselves clean, and it was almost time to finish work in the morning.
The four members of the Song family returned home together. At first, they saw that the gate was closed and thought that Song Xiaoli had been taken out to play by Song Shiyi. But they soon saw that the gate was unlocked and knew that the two children were still at home.
"Shiyi, Xiaoli, we're back." Auntie was a little worried that her youngest son was causing trouble again, so she quickly went first, opened the door, and called out.
Song Xiaoli came out of the kitchen and obediently called out, "Auntie."
"Has Xiaoli been home all morning? Where's your brother?" Auntie asked, then smelled a fishy odor. "Did the cat take the salted fish out of the house? Why does it smell so fishy?"
Song Xiaoli lowered her head guiltily. She hadn't noticed it at home, but after going out and coming back, the cutting board, knife, and apron that her cousin had messed with all reeked of fish. She had originally thought that washing these things would help, but while she could wash the cutting board and knife, the fish blood that had seeped into the kitchen floor was impossible to remove.
With the main door closed and no ventilation, the smell became quite strong.
Seeing that Song Xiaoli didn't answer, the adults all went into the kitchen. The woman, who was most perceptive of details, immediately noticed that the kitchen knife and cutting board had been tampered with, and that there were two strange puddles of water on the floor.
One puddle was bloody water left from chopping fish, and the other was water leaking from under the bamboo basket; both were quite fishy.
"What have you two been doing at home?" Aunt frowned as she looked at her youngest son.
Song Shiyi shrank his neck and told the truth: "I took my sister to play in the back mountain. We caught a fish we'd never seen before. We didn't know if it was edible, so we chopped it up and fed it to the chickens..."
As soon as he finished speaking, Grandma rushed to the side yard and breathed a sigh of relief when she saw that the chickens and ducks were still alive.
"The chickens and ducks were eating too fast, so we went and caught a few more to show you," Song Xiaoli said, interrupting as her uncle seemed to be looking for something to hit her younger cousin.
This question indeed caught the uncle's attention. "What kind of fish?"
The river mainly contains young carp and grass carp, which children can't tell the difference from each other and usually wouldn't say they've never seen fish before.
Song Xiaoli lifted the lid of the basket, "Look, what a long fish!"
The kitchen was dimly lit, and the fish were in a basket. At first glance, everyone mistook the long, slithering creature inside for a snake. Auntie quickly scooped the two children into her arms, while Uncle covered the basket again, pressing his hand on it, intending to empty the snake from inside.
This turn of events happened so fast that Song Xiaoli didn't have time to react. By the time she did, her uncle had already stepped out of the house with his basket on his back.
"Ahhhhhh, that's a fish that my brother finally caught, not a snake!" she shouted hurriedly, not wanting her uncle to throw the fish away.
There's a stream below the cliff in front of my house; if I throw the fish in, I'll never be able to get them back.
Hearing Song Xiaoli shout, Song Shiyi couldn't hold back any longer and shouted after her, "Dad, Dad! Those really are fish! Open them up and take a closer look. They're not snakes. They can't move once they're out of the water!"
The two children's attempts to stop them did have an effect.
Song Xiaoli struggled to get out of her aunt's arms and hurriedly ran out. She saw her uncle squatting in front of her door, carefully lifting the lid of his basket, finding the right angle, and looking inside in the sunlight.
There were no silver snakes here. After seeing the colors of the things inside, Uncle felt a little relieved, as these were mostly the colors of fish scales. However, he still spent a while observing them carefully. He noticed a protrusion on the back of the long fish, which upon closer inspection turned out to be a fin like that of a ribbonfish. Moreover, the fish's head was clearly different from that of a snake's head.
After observing all this, the eldest uncle was finally relieved and went back with his basket.
Both Song Xiaoli and Song Shiyi were overjoyed to have saved the fish they had worked so hard to catch. However, they were immediately greeted with a slap on the face.
The eldest uncle put the basket back in the kitchen, then grabbed the two children and gave each of them five slaps on the bottom, hitting his own son harder and his niece lighter.
Even so, this was the first time Song Xiaoli had ever been hit. She was completely stunned and remained in a daze for a long time before large tears rolled down her cheeks.
"You dare to touch something you've never seen before? What if it bites like a snake? Don't you realize you're wrong?"
"I know I was wrong, sob sob sob..." Song Xiaoli didn't want to cry, but children are too afraid of pain. Even though her uncle didn't use much force, she felt like her bottom was burning. She couldn't control her tears at all, and in the end, she couldn't even control her snot bubbles.
Song Shiyi could endure the pain from being beaten so many times, but he couldn't bear it when his younger sister cried. "I'm the older brother, so you can only beat me when you do something wrong. Dad beats my sister, you're a bad dad! When Auntie comes back, I'm going to..."
"Smack!"
Song Shiyi was slapped again.
"Alright, alright, the child knows he was wrong," the eldest aunt said. She noticed that her husband was a little at a loss when he saw Song Xiaoli crying, and her youngest son was adding fuel to the fire. To prevent her youngest son from getting beaten again, she quickly stepped in to smooth things over. "The kitchen is a mess. You should take the knife and cutting board to the river and wash them clean. Everyone still needs to eat lunch."
The uncle let go of the child and silently went to get the cutting board and knife. Seeing that the apron was also dirty, he took it to the river to wash it as well.
As soon as he left, his aunt quickly hugged Song Xiaoli and said, "Your uncle is very strong. Did he hurt our Xiaoli? Don't cry, don't cry. Auntie will rub it for you."
Song Xiaoli sniffed, "Uncle was right to hit me, I was disobedient..." She paused, "But I'm willing to listen to adults reason. If you say I did something wrong, I won't do it again next time. Can you please not hit me, and don't hit my brother either?"
The whole family fell silent.
Song Dianchen has a bad temper. His eldest son is too obedient, while his youngest son is too naughty, resulting in a huge difference between them. This leads him to resort to corporal punishment on his youngest son at the drop of a hat. It would be difficult for anyone else to guarantee that he would not hit his children.
"When my uncle comes back, can I say this to him?" Song Xiaoli felt that the fact that her brother had such a bad relationship with his father in her previous life must have been related to the beatings he received as a child, and she wanted to stop it.
Besides, children can understand what you're saying, so there's no need to hit them every time they make a mistake; that's the wrong way to educate them.
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