Yesterday in the drying yard, Zhou Cuiling said, "Why did the wild boar come specifically for you?" This reminded Meng Tao, and she thought carefully: the wild boar might not have come specifically for her, but it might have appeared because of her.

The problem was with the boiled water that Meng Tao brought, which was mixed with space pine needle dew. The day before yesterday, when Meng Tao and the others drank it, they were very careful not to let the boiled water drip onto the ground. But yesterday, under the pear tree, Yu Xiaomin and Zhou Cuimei were drinking water from a kettle and each spilled some.

When they saw the wild boar, it was digging up the wood and soil under the pear tree and chewing the weeds. That was exactly where they were standing when they drank water.

So, the wild boars were actually attracted by the dew on the pine needles in space, right? In order to confirm this guess, Meng Tao decided to do an experiment today.

Last night, there were three or two vegetable stems and leaves at the bottom of the bamboo basket that was filled with cabbage and green vegetables. Meng Tao soaked it in water mixed with pine needles and dew, and put it back on the bottom of the basket. Now she slowly sank the basket onto a stone at the bottom of the water. The new bamboo basket is quite heavy and absorbs water. It generally will not float up if the water flow is not fast. Meng Tao watched it while washing clothes. After a while, there was no movement, and no fish, big or small, came.

She ignored it for the time being and carefully scrubbed her shoes. After scrubbing both shoes, she looked again and her eyes widened: a bamboo basket full of big and small fishes were fighting for the vegetable stems at the bottom of the basket! Meng Tao gently put down her shoes, leaned over, grabbed the handle of the basket with both hands, and lifted it up with force - the fish were so smart that most of them ran away, and in the end there were only six or seven left, jumping around at the bottom of the basket.

Meng Tao called Qian Xiaoyun: "Come quickly, I caught a fish!"

Qian Xiaoyun hurried over on tiptoe and was stunned with surprise: "Oh my god, a big fish! How did you catch it?"

Meng Tao smiled and said, "I put the basket down to soak in water. There were broken vegetable stems at the bottom of the basket. The fish ran in to eat them. I quickly pulled it up and caught them unexpectedly."

Qian Xiaoyun counted the fish in the basket: "Two big grass carps, each weighing three pounds, these small ones are crucian carp, and there are also small white fish... Tsk tsk! Taohua, you are so lucky! Make fresh fish soup tonight, can you give me a bowl too?"

"Of course, everyone who sees it can have a share, and we can all eat together."

"Ah! There's meat to eat again!" Qian Xiaoyun smiled from ear to ear.

Meng Tao ran to the shore and broke off two thin and soft tree branches, strung the fish together according to size, and then put them in a shallow water nest.

Looking back, he saw Qian Xiaoyun put the bamboo basket into the water again. He made a gesture to Meng Tao to keep quiet and said in a low voice, "There are also vegetable stems. Let me try them too!"

After saying that, he went to get her clothes and washed them on the side. Meng Tao said, "You are too close. Your shadow is cast into the water. How can fish dare to come when you are moving around? Come over here and take a look from time to time. If there are fish, then go over."

Qian Xiaoyun followed his instructions, and the two of them scrubbed the fish on the other side of the boulder, trying to be as gentle as possible. Suddenly, Qian Xiaoyun leaned over to that side, lifted up the basket, and shouted excitedly, "I caught it! I caught a fish, too!"

When Meng Tao took a look, she was surprised to find that she had caught a big fish and many small fish. The big fish was the same size as the one she had just caught, weighing about three or four pounds.

The vegetable stems were swallowed by the big fish, and Qian Xiaoyun was satisfied and did not continue. However, Meng Tao was a little worried that she would have to use vegetable stems and leaves to lure fish in the future, which would be disappointing.

Meng Tao ran to the shore and broke off some soft branches. Together with Qian Xiaoyun, they strung the fish together and said, "I didn't expect to catch fish this way. I've never tried it before."

Qian Xiaoyun chuckled: "It's useless to try, it's not that easy. I know why I'm so lucky today. It's because Xu Guoliang and his men took this basket to carry meat yesterday, and then the vegetable stems fell into it, and it smelled like wild boar meat, so the fish came!"

Meng Tao: “…”

She only found out today that fish also crave wild boar meat.

"You should have told me earlier. This basket has been used to hold meat and it smells fishy. How can it hold clothes?"

"We're at the riverside now, so just use a brush to clean it... Hey, let's put our clothes together, and use this basket to catch the fish later!"

Meng Tao was speechless. Okay, you have the final say on everything.

After Meng Tao finished washing, she picked up two baskets and went home.

On the way, Meng Tao told Qian Xiaoyun that she would take a big fish to Zhou's house later, and Aunt Yang would make smoked meat for her, so she had to thank her. Qian Xiaoyun nodded and said that it was her duty. Meng Tao also said that she would go into the city tomorrow and might not be back for a few days.

Qian Xiaoyun asked in surprise, "You just came back from the city not long ago, what are you doing now?"

Meng Tao explained the reason, and Qian Xiaoyun envied her: "You are so lucky, you can often go out and play for a few days, but it's a pity that I don't have such a good thing."

After returning home and hanging out the clothes to dry, the two of them closed the courtyard door, scooped a basin of water to process the fish together. They first picked out a big fish for Meng Tao to take to Zhou's house later, and then chopped the other two big fish into pieces, marinated them with salt, and waited to make braised fish in the evening so that everyone could have a good meal when they came back.

After cleaning the other small fishes, place them one by one on a winnowing basket to dry. Use the remaining fire in the stove after cooking in the evening to slowly dry them. This way they can be kept for a long time. If you feel hungry one day, take them out and stew them with soybeans. It is a great dish to go with rice.

At noon, the two of them used three small carps to cook two bowls of fresh fish soup, and made two corn pancakes. After lunch, Meng Tao carried the basket and went to Zhou's house.

Aunt Yang was not at home, so Zhou Cuiling took her three younger brothers to have lunch. The four siblings invited Meng Tao to sit down and eat together. Meng Tao replied that she had already eaten, and went to the main room to get some boiled water. Qian Xiaoyun put a little too much salt in the fish soup, so it was too salty.

After Zhou Cuiling finished her meal and came over, her three brothers also went out. Meng Tao took the fish out of the basket and said with a smile, "I'm afraid they will see it and always want to go to the river to catch fish. It's dangerous in cold weather. When you cook fish tonight, just say you bought it from the commune food store."

Zhou Cuiling was surprised: "Could it be that you caught this fish from the river?"

"Of course. If you don't believe me, go ask Qian Xiaoyun. We caught these this morning. We were washing clothes by the river and sank the basket into the water. There were some broken vegetable leaves in the basket, and the fish went in to eat them. We ended up catching them. We caught quite a few, big and small."

"Oh my god! You guys are amazing, but I think it's just your luck. Really a peach blossom, you're starting to have good luck. My mom said: Some people are like this, when their bad luck reaches its end, they suddenly have good luck and their days get better and better!"

"Thank you for your good words, you are a little superstitious." Meng Tao said with a smile.

"This is not superstition, don't talk nonsense."

Zhou Cuiling chuckled and took the grass carp: "Such a big one is for our family, what about you?"

"There's more. This is specially brought to thank Aunt Yang for helping me make bacon."

"Okay, then we'll take advantage of your Aunt Yang and have fish to eat tonight!"

Zhou Cuiling happily put the fish into the cupboard. Meng Tao told her that she was going to the regional city tomorrow. Zhou Cuiling glared at her and said, "Look at you. You left as soon as you said you were going, and you didn't even wait for me!"

"I didn't know I had the free time. Uncle Bao didn't want me to go up the mountain with him and told me to rest at home. I thought I was free anyway. Uncle Liu from Pingjiang City asked me to do something for him, so I might as well go now. Otherwise, it will snow in a few days and it will be too cold to go out."

Zhou Cuiling sighed helplessly. She wanted to go to the city with Meng Tao, but she had to go to work. It was the end of the year and it was not easy to ask for leave.

Here it comes, update. Thanks to the cute guys for their enthusiastic support, and thanks to the fairies for their tips! There will be more updates in two days.

(End of this chapter)