7 Chapter 7
◎Fish frying, Ying Huai wakes up◎
Chapter 7
After realizing what her grandson was preparing, the grandmother didn't say much and let her grandson prepare it himself.
He had made the same preparations at this time of year in previous years, and nothing would go wrong.
It’s just that Tang Rufeng is a little better this year. He learned some bamboo weaving skills from Grandpa Tang.
He had never used this skill outside. He basically made very small pieces, then put gold ingots inside, waiting for the money to be full. Then he would burn them for his deceased brothers.
In just one morning, he had basically used up the stack of gold paper he had taken out in the morning.
Although he was busy with his work while sitting on the side, he would glance at his grandfather from time to time. When he saw him stop, he hurriedly asked.
"Is there not enough paper?"
"No, I'll fold the rest in the afternoon."
Tang Rufeng shook his head. He still had enough paper in his hands. Most of it was brought back by his parents when they came back before.
Because they knew that he had a knot in his heart, as long as he didn't commit suicide, his family, from Grandpa Tang and Grandma Tang to the lolo his parents bought specially for him, all took good care of him and basically satisfied him with whatever he needed.
Seeing him shaking his head, Grandpa Tang didn't dwell on this topic any longer, but instead changed the subject directly.
"Grandson, come and see if Grandpa's changes this time are correct."
"good."
Tang Rufeng stood up obediently, walked to his grandfather, carefully looked over the new pattern his grandfather had created, and then gave a positive answer.
"Grandpa, you're right this time. At the next market, your frames will definitely look better and sell faster than the ones Grandpa Wu made."
"Hey! Of course. Back when our village's bamboo weaving factory was still around, I was the one who earned the most work points. I haven't given up my craft yet. As the village chief, besides dealing with family matters, how can he handle these things?"
Grandpa Tang was so proud when he heard his grandson's praise.
I remember that when he was young, he and the current village chief Wu Desheng went to work in a bamboo weaving factory together for a period of time. Later, Village Chief Wu felt that being a bamboo weaver was not his ideal, so he handed the job to his cousin. He went to continue his studies and passed the exam to get an official job in the town. Later, after the previous village chief stepped down, he took the initiative to transfer back to be a village official, and he has been in this position for decades.
"If Grandpa Wu hears what you say, he will quarrel with you again."
Listening to his grandfather's self-praising appearance, Tang Rufeng couldn't help laughing, and a smile appeared between his eyebrows.
"It seems so. Let's not talk about your Grandpa Wu, lest he hear it from a long distance as if he had super hearing."
"Why do you keep saying bad things about others every day?"
As soon as Grandpa Tang finished speaking, Grandma Tang's voice came from the door. Then, the closed courtyard door was pushed open, and Grandma Tang called for Boss Wu to come in.
"Nephew, come in and have a drink of water before you leave. It's so hot, and I still need you to accompany your aunt all the way."
"Nothing, I just carried it for a distance, it wasn't hard."
Shi Tou Dad walked into the yard from outside and nodded very naturally in the direction of Tang Rufeng. Knowing that Tang Rufeng didn't like to interact with people, he continued to chat with Grandma Tang.
"Of course it's not hard. I, your aunt, saw you helping me and even put two more pumpkins in there."
Grandma Tang listened to his words, smiled, turned and went into the kitchen to get some popsicles for Shitou Dad.
"Here, take these back and feed them to the little ones. These are what Fengfeng's parents brought back last time. Fengfeng doesn't like to eat them, and his grandfather and I have bad stomachs. There's no point in leaving them here. They just take up space."
"That's fine, it was really worth the trip. I even got some popsicles."
Shitou's father smiled and didn't refuse. He took it and started eating, not paying any attention to Grandma Tang's words that she wanted to give it to the little ones.
They are all Grandma Tang’s children, why can the younger ones eat it but he can’t? Besides, children can’t eat so many cold things, one is enough for two people.
Stone's father thought so in his heart. On the way out of the Tang family, he ate two popsicles in a row, leaving three as he thought, ready for the children to share.
In order to be fair, he went to the kitchen to get a kitchen knife as soon as he got home, and with three sharp cuts, he divided the food into six equal portions. He put them in bowls and waited for the children to come back to eat.
As for the last one left, he took it with him while riding his electric scooter to deliver food to his wife.
The things are not expensive, but he wants to share!
Isn't this a good score?
When the electric car passed the village entrance, Ying Huai looked at Shitou's father's shaking appearance and knew that he must have done something bad. He was so old but still so childish.
Ying Huai shook his head in his heart, and shook the branch to shake away the sparrow on it.
I don't know what's wrong with these sparrows' brains. They have no vigilance at all. When they saw Ali jumping onto the thickest tree trunk and preparing to attack them, they didn't even move a step and just stood there adjusting their feathers.
Watching the sparrows flapping their wings and flying away, Ali withdrew his gaze with regret, licked his lips, gave up the idea of chasing those silly sparrows, turned around and lay down on the branch of the locust tree to take a nap.
The pace of life in the village is slow, but fast for children.
When Shitou and his younger brothers got home, they saw a half-melted popsicle on the table. It looked like it had been there for quite some time.
"Hey, my dad is always like this, he just puts us down and leaves without even calling us."
As Shitou said this, he walked to the table, picked up one of the bowls, and drank a sip of the sugar water that melted from the popsicle with great satisfaction. It tasted sweet and delicious.
These popsicles are very common in the city, and they can even be bought at the nearby convenience store when they go to school, but it is difficult to find them in the village.
The village store seldom sells food that children like to eat, but sells more daily necessities. Some items that will expire after a period of time are not sold much.
There are usually not many children in the village, so people never think about importing goods that children like.
This is really hard for the kids who were sent back for summer vacation.
"It's delicious, brother. Let's go find Ali this afternoon to catch some fish and grill them for us, shall we?"
Momo, who was standing by, also picked up the bowl and took a sip. After finishing the melted sweet water, he picked up the popsicle still hanging on the wooden stick, took a careful bite, and then began to suggest what to do in the afternoon.
"No, there are still some little ones here who can't swim. We can't go play by the water."
Although Shitou is a bit stupid, he is very smart. As soon as Momo said it, he had already thought of the possible consequences.
"I didn't say we were going to play by the water. I just wanted Ali to help catch fish. We can play somewhere farther away."
After hearing Shitou's rebuttal, Momo had to settle for the next best option.
"That's fine too. Wait, I'll get something for Ahri to help!"
Shi Tou listened to his words and thought about it carefully. He was sure that as long as they kept a close watch and didn't go to the water's edge, there wouldn't be any big problems. He turned around and went back to his room and began to rummage through the drawers.
"Brother Shitou, what are you looking for?"
Gangduan had just finished feeding his sister some sugar water, and he put a few unmelted popsicles into the bowl to continue melting. He asked Xiaoling'er to help watch over them and make sure they were not given to his sisters. He followed behind Shitou curiously, ready to see what he wanted to find to help Ali catch fish.
“Found it!”
Shitou shouted and took out a paper box from the small box where he hid his treasures. Inside was all the water cannons that he had not used during the Chinese New Year.
This water cannon is a little different from the firecrackers used during the Chinese New Year. It is waterproof and can explode in water after being ignited.
You can't fry the fish to death, but you can fry its belly.
A group of children grabbed their things and went out. The first thing they did when they left was to look for Ali.
Cats usually run around, hunting for food. Apart from home, the place they often stay is the locust tree.
It’s not that their family doesn’t provide food for Ali, but mainly because Ali himself doesn’t like cat food very much. He thinks the cat food cooked for him is tasteless, so he has to eat it himself from time to time.
Just like when Stone's father followed Ali's cat mother to catch fish for a snack when he was a child, Stone also followed Ali and ate a lot of snacks that he couldn't catch himself.
He has roasted and tasted everything from big fish in the river to small cicadas in the trees.
Ali lay on a branch, listening to a bunch of children chattering under the tree and disturbing his sleep. He held his head with his two front paws impatiently, and finally stood up, yawned, stretched himself, jumped down the tree, and looked at the stone with serious eyes.
Looking at this look, if the stone didn't give it a reason to disturb it, it would definitely hit the stone on the forehead with its claws.
"Ali, good Ali, I want to eat fish!"
Shitou was not afraid of the cat's serious expression. He picked up Ali and immediately buried his face in her belly, acting coquettishly.
Ali is a very smart little cat. When he saw Shitou rubbing him like that, he knew that if he was not satisfied today, this guy would definitely get up in the middle of the night and sleep in the same cat bed with him.
With his two front paws pressing down on the stone to resist, Ali rolled over, impatiently flicked his tail, meowed at the cubs, and turned to head towards a shallow stream in the village.
The water over there is not deep, so as long as the child is not particularly short, there should be no problem.
When they reached the place in the distance, Shitou stopped and said, "We just need to wait here. Ahri will catch the fish."
As he spoke, Shitou took out a water cannon from his pocket, lit it, and threw it into the stream in the opposite direction of Ali.
After waiting for a few seconds, a muffled sound was heard from underwater, and the water splashed towards the sky for a distance before falling down. Then, the fish that were stunned by the explosion floated to the surface with their belly turned upside down.
At this time, the fish was not killed by the explosion, it was just stunned. Given some time, it will recover on its own and then return to the bottom of the water.
Ali also knew what the stone meant, so he didn't go out of his way to catch it. He just waited there, and when he saw a flipper fish floating down, he would go and grab it. After a while, he caught a small pile of small fish as long as an adult's little finger.
Ali picked out the ones he liked and ate them with a few slurps.
Momo thought it was fun and shared some with Shitou.
For a while, the place was filled with the sound of banging.
Since these water cannons were left over from the Chinese New Year, they were almost blown up by the two of them in a short while.
Gangduan and Xiaoling'er didn't like to play, so they just watched from the side and found some scattered dry branches to start a fire to grill the fish.
A group of children spent the entire afternoon grilling fish near the stream, and finally returned home with full stomachs and a bag of grilled fish.
Before leaving, I took a special look at the fire they had made to see if there were any sparks, and only left after making sure it was out.
When Tang Rufeng was about to go out to the stream to pay tribute to his comrades at night when no one was in the village, what he saw was a mess.
There were scattered fish bones everywhere, and two messy fires.
It's easy to guess who caused these.
He shook his head slightly, walked forward to tidy up the area, and gathered the scattered fish bones aside and buried them.
After a while, the stream looked much fresher.
The bamboo bag that contained the locust flowers in the morning was placed aside. Inside it were some gold ingots folded into the shape of sailboats with golden paper, and on the other side was a basket of ordinary golden gold ingots.
"It's been a year since we last met. Good evening, Captain..."
As Tang Rufeng spoke, he reached into his bamboo bag and took out a gold ingot. He put some small locust flowers and a very light candle in it, lit it, and then put it down the calm stream, watching it gradually float downstream.
After lighting all the remaining gold in the bamboo bag and putting them into the water, Tang Rufeng looked a little dazed. After being nudged by Luo Luo's head behind him, he finally reacted and went to the side to light the gold ingots.
Even after he put the last ingot into the fire, he seemed to be in a trance and raised his head to look downstream of the stream. In that direction, he seemed to see his captain standing in the slowly drifting candlelight and smiling at him brightly, just like the way he had done when he first welcomed him into the team.
"team leader……"
Tang Rufeng stood up excitedly and ran towards the stream, but before he could run far, Luo Luo behind him grabbed the hem of his clothes with his mouth. As he was pulled, the face he had just seen in a trance disappeared from his sight.
He stopped trembling, looked at the water surface that was rippled by his step, and closed his eyes gently.
Then, the elderly couple who saw his condition from behind called his name with tears in their eyes and helped him home.
“Ghostly energy…”
Ying Huai woke up from his practice and muttered.
【Author’s words】
Thank you for the gift from Jintingbaobao. It’s a bit messy after the revision, and it seems that there is no author to thank.
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