When I got home, my mother-in-law and the others hadn't returned yet.
Feng Ye helped wash the white bayberries and put them in the sun to dry.
Then I washed some red bayberries and chatted with my father-in-law and brother-in-law while we ate them.
During this time, Feng Ye asked his father-in-law how to make bayberry wine.
He then realized that making bayberry wine was actually super simple.
Wash the bayberries, drain them, and put them in a jar. Add rock sugar and enough white wine to cover the bayberries, then seal and store.
Of course, you can also add other things to it while steeping, such as goji berries, codonopsis, red dates, etc.
As they chatted, the group of people who had been picking zongzi leaves returned.
After washing the bamboo leaves and glutinous rice and completing the preparations, everyone began wrapping the bamboo leaves.
I made two kinds of dumplings: one is meat dumplings, and the other is just glutinous rice dumplings without any seasoning. They taste better when dipped in white sugar.
Feng Ye did not participate.
Wrapping zongzi looks easy, but to wrap them well, you still need some skill and experience.
He can only eat, not wrap.
...
The days are getting longer these days. It's already 7:30 pm after dinner, and it's still not completely dark.
Everyone else was engrossed in watching TV in the main room.
Feng Ye, however, couldn't concentrate on the reading and lay on the bed inside, staring at the ceiling.
In their area, there's a custom that couples cannot stay in the same room at relatives' homes, not even when the wife visits her parents' home.
Therefore, he and Ye Qingling will sleep separately tonight.
The Ye family arranged for him to sleep in a room with his brother-in-law's two sons, while Ye Qingling and Feng Xinan slept with Ye Qingyu.
After lying down for a while, he couldn't fall asleep at all, so he decided to go out for a smoke.
It's best not to let the room smell of smoke in a child's room.
As soon as he stepped out the door, he saw his brother-in-law carrying a bucket, a ground basket, and a headlamp, about to go out.
His eyes lit up immediately: "Brother, where are you going?"
Ye Chenliang laughed and said, "I'm planning to set some fish traps in the river to see if I can catch some fish and shrimp, and also catch some loach and eels. You're used to eating seafood, so you probably haven't had much river food. I'll catch some for you to try."
"Anyway, it's still early. I can't concentrate on watching TV and I can't sleep, so I might as well go with you to take a look."
Ye Chenliang smiled and nodded: "There are plenty of mosquitoes in the wild at night. As long as you're not afraid of being bitten, it's fine."
"I don't attract mosquitoes."
"Okay, wait a moment, I'll get you a flashlight and some tools."
Before long, the two went out.
The countryside was unusually quiet and deserted at night; even the faintest sounds could be heard, as if amplified many times over.
Inside the village, there were lights shining from each household, but once you went outside the village and away from the settlement, there was no light at all.
Although it was a sunny day, it was the beginning of the month, so the moon was nowhere to be seen, and there was no moonlight. It became truly dark, so dark you couldn't see your hand in front of your face, which was quite frightening.
In the countryside, bold people might not feel anything, but timid people really dare not go out at night, and even relieve themselves in the chamber pot at home.
Clearly, Ye Chenliang is a bold person.
He led Feng Ye to a backwater in the river and placed five fish traps in it.
When placing fish traps in the sea, buoys are used to mark them, and small anchors are used to secure them.
But on the riverbank, you don't need anything; just throw one end into the river and tie the other end to a stone or tree on the bank.
"Alright, let's go catch the loaches first, and we can collect them when we get back."
"I've heard you mention catching loaches, how exactly do you do that? Do you just shine a light on them?"
"That's right. Loaches and eels will come out of their burrows at night and float to the surface of the water to cool off. Just go find them with a light."
"Is it really that simple?"
Feng Ye was surprised.
I didn't expect it to be interpreted literally.
"How difficult do you think it is?"
The two soon arrived at the fields by the river.
"If you've never worked in the fields before, don't go. Otherwise, you'll get cut by the rice seedlings and it will itch and hurt. Just stand on the edge of the field and look for snakes."
As Ye Chenliang spoke, he rolled up his trouser legs and then went down into the field.
"I'll listen to you."
Feng Ye thought about it and decided it was best to listen to his brother-in-law, since he had more experience in this area than he did.
As the saying goes, "Those who don't listen to the advice of the elders will suffer the consequences."
He didn't even bother rolling up his trousers; he just walked along the ridge with a flashlight in one hand and a bucket in the other, with a pair of fire tongs in the bucket.
After walking a few steps along the paddy field ridge, I saw a loach, about the size of a little finger, floating quietly in the water beside the ridge.
Place the bucket on the edge of the field, take the fire tongs from the bucket, slowly approach the loach, and then quickly clamp it.
The loach was caught in the fire tongs, twisting its body and struggling in vain.
"A loach is being delivered."
Feng Ye happily threw it into the bucket.
"I've found a loach and an eel."
"Huh? You're so fast?"
Feng Ye looked up, and the flashlight shone on him. He saw his brother-in-law bending down again and picking up an eel.
Ye Chenliang said happily, "Another eel, about three ounces."
Perhaps it's a matter of species, but the largest wild eels in their area are only about half a pound, and they are rarely seen. The average size is less than two or three ounces.
In another twenty or thirty years, as more and more pesticides and fertilizers are used in farmland, wild loaches and eels will become increasingly rare, and in some places they may even become completely extinct.
Feng Ye glanced at it and then looked away, continuing to search with his head down.
After walking a few steps, I suddenly saw two loaches, about 20 centimeters apart.
The fire tongs struck swiftly.
They caught the one that looked much bigger.
The smaller one, startled, burrowed into the mud and ran away.
There's nothing to regret. The two loaches were too close together, so you could only catch one at a time, and it's normal for the other to escape.
Loaches are very cunning creatures. At the slightest disturbance, they will burrow into the mud and disappear without a trace, leaving only a ring of muddy water behind.
Resources are indeed plentiful these days. Saying that loaches and eels are rampant in the fields is an exaggeration, but there are certainly quite a few.
After walking along a paddy field ridge less than 100 meters long, Feng Ye had already caught twelve loaches and five eels.
He changed to another ridge and continued, and the harvest in his bucket grew larger and larger, some large and some small.
The largest eel weighed about four ounces, while the smaller ones weighed less than one ounce, and the loach were even smaller.
Eels are definitely better the bigger they are, and they taste better too.
But this is not always the case with loaches.
Large loaches are troublesome to prepare, requiring the internal organs to be cleaned thoroughly, and the bones are hard to chew, affecting the taste.
Small loaches are much easier to handle. After raising them for a few days to expel the mud and sand, they can be cooked directly in a pot, especially when deep-fried in oil—they smell amazing.
The flashlight beam moved slowly across the field, suddenly illuminating a frog with rough skin and an unusually large size.
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