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"Child, get a stool and sit down."

Just as I finished baiting the hook with earthworms and cast the line into the water again, Grandma came walking towards the river carrying a stool and a bucket.

"Grandma, I can fish standing up."

As he spoke, Chen Dong quickly put down his fishing rod and ran to his grandmother, taking the stool and bucket from her.

"Standing is tiring."

Grandma smiled kindly as she looked at the water. "There are a lot of rice noodles in the stream, but rice noodles coated in flour and fried are the best."

Chen Dong agreed with this; he had done it before, and recalling the taste, it was probably the most delicious thing he had ever eaten as a child.

"Grandma, are there crucian carp or grass carp in the river?" Chen Dong put down the stool and helped his grandmother sit down.

To make things easier for Ye Wanwan when she comes back, Grandma, despite her advanced age, chopped so much firewood. Now, she brought a stool and a bucket over without her cane, so naturally, Grandma should sit on it.

"Yes, I have."

Grandma affirmed, "Don't underestimate this little ditch; it's teeming with fish—crucian carp, grass carp, common carp, silver carp, and bighead carp. We're poor, and the fish in this river are basically the main source of meat and nutrition for Yezi and me."

"I remember when Yezi was little, I taught her how to fish. Once, she was fishing right here, and she caught a grass carp weighing more than three pounds with a fishing rod that was more than a meter long."

"She was probably only seven or eight years old at the time, and we almost took her into the river."

When talking about Ye Wanwan's fishing when she was a child, the grandmother's smile became even wider. It was a tough time, but also a happy one.

"Little Yezi is so amazing!" Chen Dong was somewhat surprised.

"Yes, she's very good at fishing. She used to come fishing after finishing her studies and farm work, and she could catch quite a lot every time. As long as she was home, there would never be a shortage of fish in the fish tank," Grandma said with a smile.

After finishing primary school in the countryside, I went to junior high school in the city. Back then, I could come back every week, but in the last two years, I went to high school in a place even further away and rarely came back. There haven't been any fish in the fish tank for a long time.

But there was no other way; she couldn't leave the mountains, and Ye Zi had to go out.

"I should have let Xiao Yezi fish; she's definitely better than me," Chen Dong joked.

As they were talking, the float moved again, blinked twice, and began to sink. Chen Dong reacted quickly and jerked the fishing rod. This time, the sound of the wind and the force transmitted back by the fishing rod were even greater.

"It shouldn't be a meal stick." Chen Dong's eyes lit up.

Sure enough, just as the catch was about to surface, Chen Dong saw that it was a crucian carp, about four fingers wide, a pure wild crucian carp with a golden color all over its body.

"You're very capable too," Grandma said with a smile, looking at the fish.

The kitten had just finished eating its meal when it saw Chen Dong catch another fish and immediately ran over to fawn over him.

"I can't give you the big crucian carp, I'll feed it to you later." Chen Dong gently pushed the little kitten away, took the big crucian carp off his hand, and carried a bucket to the river to draw a small amount of water before throwing it in.

……

Grandma didn't stay long before going back, leaving the cat and me to leisurely fish by the river.

On the other side, Ye Wanwan and her group wandered in the mountains for more than two hours. When they got home, they went straight to the river with baskets on their backs to wash some wild vegetables.

Liu Yumo and the others followed, and from a distance, you could hear Liu Yumo shouting at the top of his lungs.

"Brother Dong, how many did you catch?"

"I didn't catch many crucian carp, but I caught quite a few small fish."

"Let me see."

Han Ning'er and the others ran over to look at the bucket. There were only a few crucian carp, all of them the kind that are about four fingers wide. They would make a good soup or cook some vegetables with them.

Apart from crucian carp, all the fish are small fish, about twenty or thirty of them, mostly about a finger's width and ten centimeters long, suitable for deep-frying.

"Wow, Dong-ge, you caught so many!" Liu Yumo gave a thumbs up. Several girls were very interested in the catch, as was Little Flower Cat.

It kept meowing.

"What vegetables did you pick?" Chen Dong asked with a smile as Ye Wanwan put down her basket.

"I just picked some wild vegetables like mushrooms."

Ye Wanwan tilted her basket to show Chen Dong. There were very few wild vegetables on the mountain in winter, far fewer than in spring and autumn. Even mushrooms were scarce; she only found some cold-resistant oyster mushrooms and wild enoki mushrooms.

These wild vegetables are great stewed with chicken, and also delicious when cooked with fish. It's a pity Chen Dong didn't catch any big fish.

"Brother Dong, it moved!"

Just as Chen Dong was thinking about how to cook these wild vegetables, Liu Yumo, who was looking at the water, suddenly pointed at the float and kept patting Chen Dong with his other hand.

"I saw it."

Chen Dong immediately bent down and grabbed the fishing rod. As he watched the float suddenly sink, a look of joy appeared on his face.

Black market!

He suddenly jerked the rod, and the bamboo fishing rod bent instantly. A whistling sound of wind echoed along the riverbank, beautiful and melodious, enough to excite any angler.

"The fishing line is so tight, could it be a big fish?" Liu Yumo exclaimed excitedly.

Han Ning'er and the others looked over instantly, their faces filled with excitement. They rarely heard such a sound, and this time they felt a sense of excitement.

No wonder so many people enjoy fishing.

Ye Wanwan, who was about to wash the vegetables, also looked over upon hearing the sound, her eyes filled with surprise.

She knew how to fish, and just by hearing that sound, she knew the fish was big. She immediately stopped what she was doing and stared at it intently.

He even said he'd go back and kill the chicken after washing the vegetables. Does that mean Dong-ge can catch a big fish?

"I see it! It looks like a grass carp! My goodness, it looks like it weighs three or four pounds!" Liu Yumo was already excited to see the fish before it even surfaced and started struggling underwater.

wow~

As Chen Dong rhythmically cast his line, a grass carp finally surfaced, pulled by the fishing line, but then swung its tail back into the water, splashing up a wave.

"Wow, this fish is really strong. Dong-ge, don't let it get away."

Liu Yumo and the others called out.

"Slow down, Dong-ge, don't pull too hard. Fish that have just surfaced struggle the most, and pulling too hard can break the line. Let the fish run with its momentum, and you can pull it up after this struggle," Ye Wanwan reminded her.

This grass carp is estimated to weigh four pounds. The saying goes that one pound of water has the same pulling force as three pounds of fish, meaning that a four-pound grass carp has the same pulling force as more than ten pounds of fish.

If you pull too hard, the fishing line is very likely to break.

"Okay."

Chen Dong knew how to play the fish, and Ye Wanwan's suggestion was very correct. He immediately moved in the direction of the grass carp's struggle, and even moved the fishing rod forward a bit.

"Splash!"

The grass carp was still struggling, but the frequency of its dives into the water and the thrashing of its tail was decreasing, and the strength of its struggle was clearly decreasing rapidly.

Chen Dong seized the opportunity and leaned back little by little, and the grass carp moved closer to the shore along the water's surface.

"Brother Mo, you guys step aside, let me scoop the fish."

Seeing Chen Dong pulling the grass carp closer and closer to the shore, Ye Wanwan picked up her basket and used it as a net. When the grass carp got close, she decisively scooped it up with the basket.

When the basket reached the fish's head, Chen Dong loosened his grip, and Ye Wanwan scooped the whole grass carp into the basket and dragged it ashore.

"This grass carp looks really beautiful, better than the ones in the market," Liu Yumo smacked his lips.

"Nonsense, this is wild grass carp, it can't compare to artificially raised ones at all," Jiang Lina retorted.

"We can cook fish tonight. I think Sister Yezi knows how to cook it, right?" More than whether the fish looks good, Jing Shanshan is looking forward to turning it into a dish.

"You live by the river and fish all year round, do you think you can do it?" Han Ning'er asked with a smile.