There is a not very wide river next to Hetou Village.
Liang Erhua grew up immersed in the river. He was born during a famine, and his family had no food to eat. The wild grass and tree bark outside were stripped away.
When his mother had nothing to eat, Erhua had no milk to drink, so she could only boil some watery soup to feed him. Even though those days were so difficult, no one wanted to throw him away.
When I grew up a little, I followed Dahua, catching snails in the spring and catching fish in the river in the summer. The occasional meat we could eat at home depended on them.
The second child of the Liang family suffered a lot since childhood.
Even though he got better later and was able to eat, he was malnourished in his childhood and is now half a head shorter than Dahua as an adult.
In addition, his eyebrows were thick and long, making him look a bit fierce. The elders in the village didn't like him. In the countryside, children who were needed were down-to-earth and hardworking.
But Erhua has been lazy since he was a child and doesn't like to work. When he was fifteen years old and during the busy farming season, Xu Guoqing was helping his parents harvest rice in the fields, and he was sleeping in the rice pile.
He also had a bad temper. He injured his eyebrow in a fight with someone using a sickle, and there is still a scar on it.
He is not sensible very often, and today is really rare.
The river water is very cold now, and Liang Erhua doesn't want to go into the water. He picked up a broken net before, which can still be used after some repairs. He then went to the mountain to cut a bamboo and tied the net to one end of the bamboo.
He walked slowly along the riverbank, not daring to make any noise. The water was not very clear, and occasionally people rowed their boats to the other side to farm, causing small ripples on the surface.
The wind was still a little chilly when it blew on his body. Liang Erhua shrank his neck. He walked around here for a long time but still didn't see any trace of the fish.
Walking to a reed bush, Liang Erhua squatted down and waited quietly.
Catching fish requires patience.
"Plop" a small splash of water emerged from the reeds. Erhua was delighted and gently took out the net.
He held the bamboo pole and slowly and gently lowered the end with the net into the water, leaning towards the reeds.
Before the little fish realized the danger, the net was pulled up with force, and three little cat fish, only one-third the length of a chopstick, were jumping in the net bag.
"Haha, catching fish is still my job." Erhua was very satisfied with his performance.
At least I can make a bowl of fish soup.
He made three shots in one go, and Erhua was instantly full of confidence. In fact, he originally thought that he was the best among his brothers. The eldest brother was a coward, Qiuhua was a little bitch and useless, and Xiaohua was a little brat, but wasn't he the best?
He didn't understand why everyone in his family liked Dahua but not him. Wasn't it just a matter of having to do less farm work?
Is there a future in farming?
He didn't think so. Erhua felt that he shouldn't be doing farm work, that he should be doing something else, something bigger. What could he grow from farming? Look at him now, Mom couldn't even afford to eat well.
He scooped up some river water with the wooden bucket he brought and put three little cat fish in it. The fish were very lively and jumped around as soon as they entered the bucket.
The same method worked every time, and soon five little cat fish were squeezed into the small bucket.
Just as he was concentrating and watching the movement in the water again, a crisp sound rang in his ears.
"What are you doing?"
There were a few "splashes" in the water, and the fish scattered and fled.
Liang Erhua was so angry that he picked up the net and threw it away, frowned and turned around to curse.
“Fuck…”
It turned out that there was a pair of beautiful big eyes behind her. The owner of the eyes had two thick and long braids. She was a beautiful mermaid.
Liang Erhua was startled, and a strange feeling surged in his heart, and the curse words disappeared on the tip of his tongue.
The little girl asked again with a giggle.
Erhua finally came to his senses and looked again. He found that the little fish was sitting comfortably on the wooden cart, and the person sitting nearby to rest should be his father.
"I'm fishing."
Liang Erhua scratched his head and the mud on his hands got on his hair.
"Hey, your hair." The little mermaid pointed at his hand.
He looked at his hands and smiled foolishly, and the little mermaid also giggled.
"Can there be fish in this river?" asked the old man next to him.
"Yes, of course!" Erhua picked up the wooden barrel and showed them his spoils one by one.
"Oh, young man, you are really good at catching fish!" The old man smiled, his dark face wrinkled.
"Haha, that's right, I have done a good deed by catching fish." Erhua likes to hear people say good things.
"Which village are you from? Why haven't I seen you before?" Erhua simply took the bucket and sat next to the old man to rest for a while.
"We are from Tangli Village, which is a bit far from here." The old man took out two cigarettes from his clothes, put one in his mouth and handed the other to Erhua.
Erhua doesn't smoke often because he has no money to buy cigarettes. Occasionally, when he is hanging out outside, others will give him one.
"Snap—" The old man lit a match, Erhua brought the cigarette over and took a deep puff, and a little red light appeared at the other end of the cigarette.
The smoke rushed into Erhua's throat very quickly. His throat tightened and two streams of smoke came out of his nostrils.
"I'm from Hetou Village up there. My father's name is Liang Genfa. Do you know him?"
The old man's eyes lit up, he took down his cigarette and held it between his fingers and said, "Are you the eldest son? Which son is it?"
"The second one."
"I've known your father for a long time. We were both blacksmiths' apprentices."
The old man seemed a little excited. He and Genfa had a childhood friendship. When they were learning blacksmithing in Shanghai, his master and his wife were very strict and always beat people with a thin pole.
When he was fifteen years old, the old man was beaten to a pulp by his master and finally decided to escape back to his hometown in the countryside.
"Plop, plop" the fish in the bucket jumped twice. The little fish also wanted to go home and have a bowl of fish soup.
"Dad, I want to buy two fish to make fish soup." She looked at her father with her big black eyes.
"Okay. Can you sell us two of these fish?" He handed over another cigarette.
Erhua took it and clamped it on his ear, picked up the two fish and threw them onto the cart. The little cat fish jumped even more violently after leaving the water.
"How can I say I'm selling it? Just take these two little cat fish."
The little mermaid on the cart had a gleam in her eyes, and two pink clouds appeared on her round face.
Liang Erhua was dumbfounded. He was already quite old, and his mom and dad were trying to find a partner for Liang Dahua everywhere, completely forgetting about him.
He was also angry with them about this matter. Why did they only have Dahua in their hearts? The second son was old enough, so why didn't they find a wife to be the head of the family?
The old man turned to look at Liang Erhua, then at his daughter, and then narrowed his eyes.
After finishing his cigarette, the old man stood up, said goodbye, and walked slowly forward with his daughter.
Erhua stood by the river and stared at them blankly. The little mermaid on the cart looked at him again and again with a shy face.
Liang Erhua's chest was pounding like a drum, and then he felt a surge of sadness. Xiao Niangyu's cart was getting farther and farther away, and her face gradually became blurred.
"Ouch!" Erhua slapped his thigh fiercely, "I didn't even ask their last names!"
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