No matter how surprised these people were, it was indeed true that the Zhou family's nets actually managed to catch fish; it was truly unbelievable.
After confirming once again that her relationship with Zhuzhu would bring good luck to the family, Li Mai decided to stop while she was ahead. As the sun climbed higher, Li Mai gave Old Man Zhou a wink. Old Man Zhou understood and said, "Xiao Lei, Xiao Tao, Xiao Mai, I have something to do. Let's just catch these few fish. It'll be enough to entertain Xiao Lin's master."
"Yes, Father!" The young men quickly responded and began packing their things.
The villagers stood by the bucket, looking at the fish with great longing.
"Third brother, I heard you bought some chicks and need corn, right? I have a few bags of corn. Do you want to trade some of your fish for some?" Zhou Qingshui asked his father subconsciously as he counted the fish in the wooden bucket.
Old Zhou glanced at the bucket. "How many are there?"
Zhou Qingshui said, "Six pieces, your family can't finish them, can they?"
Old Man Zhou looked at Li Mai, who smiled and said, "I'll keep two fish at home. Anyone who wants to eat fish can go back and bring some corn to my house to exchange for one big fish. First come, first served!"
Upon hearing this, the people present exclaimed, "Zhou Quan's wife, exchanging ten catties for one fish is too expensive, isn't it?"
"How much would you sell ten catties of corn for in town? No more than thirty coins, right? This big fish must weigh at least two catties. We could sell it for at least forty or fifty coins in town."
After smilingly speaking to Zhou Qingshui, Li Mai looked at Old Man Zhou and said, "Let's go, Dad. We should go back first. Little Lin's advisor should be here by now."
"Alright!" Old Man Zhou picked up the wooden bucket, put the lid on, and called to the others as they prepared to go home.
"Alright, ten pounds it is. I'll go home and get it now!" Zhou Qingshui was really craving it, so he ran home ahead.
Hearing this, others who wanted it also ran away.
Those who didn't plan to switch should stay close to them and ask Old Man Zhou what his secrets were for catching fish.
Old Zhou thought to himself, "The secret? I'd like to know too."
But he still said mysteriously, "Hey, maybe we were just lucky. A while ago, we were thinking of catching a few to make soup for Zhou Quan to help him recover, but we couldn't even catch a small fish."
The others shared the same sentiment and nodded in agreement with Old Man Zhou.
"I must say, Brother Zhou, ever since your family got married, you've really become the talk of the village. People have been talking about you these past few days!" A man in his thirties quietly approached Old Man Zhou and whispered.
Old Zhou chuckled twice and nodded, "Xiao Quan is lucky; this daughter-in-law is indeed a good one."
It's a good thing to have a good daughter-in-law who is praised by others.
The man chuckled twice and then fell silent.
Li Mai just smiled and talked to Zhou Tao, holding Zhuzhu's hand.
Zhuzhu was carrying a small jar. They had just caught half a jar of small shrimp from a net. Limai said that if they dried these, they could be stored for a long time and used to make steamed buns or egg drop soup.
Zhuzhu always remembered what her mother said, and she and Zhou Lei caught a lot of shrimp and put them into the jar.
"Zhuzhu, let your third uncle help you carry the jar!" Zhou Lei teased Zhuzhu.
"No, Zhuzhu wants to take it!" Zhuzhu shook her head.
These are her dried shrimp. Her mother said she would teach her how to dry dried shrimp when they got back.
When they returned home, the news that they could exchange ten pounds of corn for a fish spread throughout the village.
Many people wanted to exchange their old phones for this.
However, upon hearing that there were only four fish, some people quietly put down their corn.
Zhou Qingshui ran the fastest and got the fish. He was happy and happily carried it home in a basket to prepare it for eating.
Of the other three, two people saw it by the river, and the other was Aunt Wangcai. She was the most clever. When she heard that Old Man Zhou and his family had caught a fish and that they could exchange ten catties of corn for one fish, she quickly went back, grabbed a small bag of corn, and ran to Zhou Quan's house.
Fortunately, because she lived nearby, she was fourth in line and got a ticket.
Two men who had seen them fishing wanted to switch places, but one man's wife was unhappy and they had a fight. By the time he arrived, the fish were all gone.
The other reason was simply that he lived far from Zhou Laosan's house and arrived late.
Li Mai didn't concern herself with these matters. When she returned, she learned that her mother-in-law had already started stewing chicken, so she asked Zhou Lei to put their two large fish and some small fish into a water tank in the yard to keep them alive for a day or two before eating them.
Fortunately, Zhou Lin's advisor hadn't arrived yet; Zhou Lin had already gone outside the village to greet him. Otherwise, the mess in the courtyard would have been quite startling.
Li Mai washed her hands and face in the yard and went back inside to change her clothes.
When Zhou Quan saw her return, he propped himself up and sat up.
"Xiaomai, how's it going? Did you catch any fish? Why is there such a commotion in the yard? Is Xiaolin's advisor here?" Zhou Quan asked curiously.
“We caught six big fish and some small fish. We’ll keep two big ones for our family. We promised the villagers who came to watch the fishing that we’d trade ten pounds of corn for each fish. Right now, people are trading corn with Dad. We can use the corn to feed our chickens or to make cornmeal to eat.” After Li Mai finished speaking, she turned her back, took off her old dress, and put on the new dress her mother-in-law had made for her.
She only wears this dress when she goes out; at home, she mostly wears the old one. Today, because she was fishing, the hem of that dress was wet, making it heavy to wear.
After hanging the clothes on his chair, Li Mai climbed onto the kang (a heated brick bed) and lay down to rest.
"I must say, fishing is quite tiring," Li Mai sighed.
Zhou Quan nodded, "Yes, you and Zhuzhu are really a blessing to our family. We've tried fishing before, but we could never catch any big fish. At most, we could only catch a few small fish about the length of a finger."
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