hunting in 1986

Chapter 143 142 Fish, Watermelon, Huang Cheng

The drizzle was still falling, and the wires outside the window were once again full of fat sparrows.

After the two directors asked Wang Yuan some more questions, they went to visit other villagers. The case of 8 yuan was indeed a big case, and the pressure from the higher authorities was great, and they hoped to solve the case as soon as possible.

Wang Yuan sat at the table, took a mouthful of black artichoke pickles, and then sipped porridge from the bowl in circles.

"Who the hell stole my money? Forget it."

After eating, he fed the dog again, and then Wang Yuan stood in a daze at the door of the house, the boundless rain enveloped the ground, and all the cicadas that had been screaming incessantly shut up.

But the toads were excited, croaking and croaking non-stop.

The leaves of the trees were as bright as new after being washed by the rain, and the raindrops hit them with a crackling sound.

Li Yan prepared bread and dumplings, and after a whole night, she wanted to open it. It's useless to be sad after losing the money. Besides, in terms of her family's conditions, a mere 8000 yuan is nothing.

Now she is a little worried about Wang Yuan.

"Xiaoyuan, don't think about the 8 yuan. If you feel bored, go to the back room and watch TV. I'll make you whatever you want for lunch."

"Let's make braised pork, and stew a mandarin fish."

"Okay, there should be two mandarin fishes in the yard water tank, I'll go and pick up one later."

Li Yan smiled softly, brushed the hair around her ear with the little finger of her right hand, then sat on a small stool and continued to make the face. looking at her.

A warm feeling rose in Wang Yuan's heart for no reason, and he walked over to kiss her face, but she pushed her away in shame.

"Go, go, go and play in the back room, don't get in the way here."

"Then I'm going to watch TV. I'll catch up with you later."

"go Go."

Wang Yuan came to the back room and turned on the TV. After changing the channel, there were no good programs, and then turned off the TV.

He rolled up his sleeves and came to the yard, and caught a mandarin fish from the water tank. The big mandarin fish weighed nearly 4 catties, and the water splashed everywhere when he flicked his tail.

"It's useless to struggle, I'll eat you at noon today."

The rain is slowly getting weaker, so it’s okay to stand outside. He killed the fish directly, then marinated it with onion, ginger, garlic, salt and other seasonings, and then stewed it after a while.

"Swallow, there are no eggs at home, I'll go to the chicken farm."

"Go, slow down on the road and don't fall."

After seeing Wang Yuan leave the house, the three dogs followed quickly. The dogs' paws stepped on the puddle, and mud and water splashed everywhere for a while.

"Go, go, silly dog, if your paws dare to pounce on me, then I will really beat you."

Wang Yuan stepped on the dirt road and quickly brought the dogs to the chicken farm.

Uncle Wei Guo, who was wearing a black cloth coat, opened the door to let him in, and then quickly closed the door.

Uncle Wei's wife was mixing chicken feed with a wooden stick in the big basin. When she saw Wang Yuan, she immediately smiled and said:
"Xiaoyuan is here? If you lose the money, you will lose it. Don't be sad after listening to my aunt."

"Okay, I'll listen to my aunt." Wang Yuan grinned, and I could feel that Uncle Wei's wife really cared about him.

Rural roads are also slippery, and people's hearts are equally complicated.

Knowing that 8 yuan had been stolen from his house, many people in the village gloated and secretly watched his family's jokes.

Of course, most people will not show it too obviously, and even care about a few words when they meet each other, and only laugh behind their backs.

Only Wang Shuai is more different, and he laughed undisguisedly in person, so Wang Shuai is suffering in the bureau now.

Uncle Wei and his wife are very satisfied with their work in the chicken farm. Together, they can earn 6 yuan a day, and Wang Yuan gives them a basket of eggs to eat every ten days and a half.

Occasionally, I also give native chickens to eat, plus red envelopes during festivals, such as giving them a red envelope of 100 yuan last time.

Carrying a basket of eggs back home, Li Yan had already chopped out the meat stuffing, Wang Yuan started to catch the slices, Li Yan made dumplings, and the two of them worked together to finish the dumplings very quickly.

……

At noon, as soon as the dumplings, braised pork, and stewed mandarin fish were brought to the table, my mother came over with a big bowl of spicy rabbit meat, and the little girl followed behind on her short legs, like a little tail.

"I was worried that the two of you are not in the mood to eat, but I didn't expect you to eat really good." Looking at the big table of food, my mother was helpless.

Wang Yuan laughed out loud, and Li Yan covered her mouth and laughed too.

The little girl, like a little monkey, took off her shoes and got on the kang, then found the braised pork with chopsticks and started to eat.

"It's delicious, it's really fragrant."

"Mom, where did you get the whole rabbit meat?"

"Your grandfather caught several rabbits in the trap up and down the mountain. One of the rabbits didn't die. If the little girl wants to, slap her twice to be honest."

"Humph!"

Thinking of the cute rabbit being cooked, the little girl curled her mouth and wanted to cry again, but she held back in the end.

Because if you cry, you may be beaten.

She put a piece of rabbit meat into her mouth and ate it, oh my god, it's so delicious!
My mother breathed a sigh of relief when she saw that Wang Yuan and his wife were not overly sad when they talked as usual, and after chatting for a while, she took the little girl and left.

The rain stopped at 11 am, and after an afternoon of exposure to the sun, the ground was half dry the next morning.

Wang Yuan took out the fishing rod and the bucket, and shouted into the house: "Let's go, Swallow, let's go fishing."

"I'm coming."

Li Yan just cleaned the house, and walked out the door with a smile: "Are there any earthworms? Fish love to eat earthworms."

"Just go to the river and dig again. It's such a good day. My forehead is sweating from the sun."

The sky is as blue as crystal, and the white clouds are like cotton candy. Occasionally, a few birds fly by.

Li Yan said: "The weather is really good. Let's go to the field to see if the watermelon is ripe. You can take a watermelon to the river to eat."

The two locked the fence door, then took the fishing tackle and walked towards the chicken farm. After arriving at the 1 mu of land, they saw the little girl and Xiaohua watching the watermelon inside.

The big white cat is standing on a big watermelon, looking at the fluttering butterflies and wanting to stretch out its paws.

"Hey, what are you two doing here?"

"Second brother, let's look for watermelon, this big watermelon must be ripe."

The little girl pointed to a large watermelon weighing more than ten catties under her feet.She likes this watermelon field very much. Since the watermelon was still the size of a fist, she has come to visit it every day. Seeing the watermelon grow up little by little, she is full of joy in her heart.

In addition to watermelons, this acre of land also grew strawberries, melons, mushrooms, small tomatoes, etc. Wang Yuan came to the little girl and squatted down before knocking on the watermelons.

dong dong dong~
You can tell it's a raw melon egg just by hearing the sound.

"If it's not ripe, change it to another one. Go pick the strawberries on the right and eat them. Pick a few for me in no time."

"We don't want to eat strawberries." The little girl said in a childish voice.

"It's okay, then go and pick some for me."

The little girl was taken aback for a moment, she thought about it and felt that there was nothing wrong, so she casually stepped over the watermelon seedlings to pick strawberries for Wang Yuan.

Xiaohua followed her to pick flowers, laughing and laughing, the whole garden was filled with the little girl's laughter.

Li Yan burst out laughing: "Just call me the little girl every day."

"It can be used now. If it is bigger, it will not be able to use it even if it wants to be used."

Wang Yuan found a large ripe watermelon weighing about [-] jin, and with a click~ he pinched the stem of the watermelon with his fingers, and the big watermelon was picked off.

Most of the surface of the big watermelon has green patterns, but the part next to the ground is white and green, and there is still some soil on it, and there are large and small woodworms crawling away.

Holding the watermelon in his arms, Wang Yuan took Li Yan and two little girls to the west side of the river, where they hung bait and cast poles, waiting for the fish to bite.

The three dogs were fighting, and when they saw the big white cat passing by, they wanted to stretch out their paws to grab her. Fortunately, the big white cat ran quickly and ran to Li Yan, meowing and seeking the latter's protection.

"Go, go, go, the three big stupid dogs can't catch up with the pig, and they know how to bully the cat every day."

Li Yan waved at the three dogs as if to hit them, and the three dogs were frightened and went to the side to chase the butterflies.

Apparently, Li Yan still had a bit of a grudge about the fact that the three dogs didn't catch the wild boar.

thump~
Suddenly, the homemade float sank to the bottom.

The eyes of the little girl squatting on Wang Yuan's left instantly lit up: "There are fish and there are fish!"

"It's not small, it looks like a big fish."

Wang Yuan was also very careful. He stood up and carefully fished. The surface of the river was rippling, sparkling under the sunlight.

After he pulled the fish to the river, he asked his wife Li Yan to hold the fishing rod. He took two steps towards the river with the dip net, then bent his legs, dipped the dip net into the river, and took a big fish. The fish came up.

"Hey, it's really a big fish!"

"What kind of fish, it doesn't look like carp."

"It's a big grass carp, probably weighing 5-6 catties."

The large grass carp has fine scales and a slender body. It flicks its tail frantically and splashes water all over for a while.

The big white cat was full of excitement and wanted to approach her, but the big fish almost slapped her face with a flick of its tail, and the big white cat ran away screaming "meow meow" in instant fright.

"Put it in a bucket."

"Good start! There must be a very good receipt today."

Wang Yuan and Li Yan continued to fish, and soon Li Yan caught a big crucian carp, and the big white cat came closer to sniff it, but finally left.

The warm wind is blowing, the fragrance of flowers is bursting, and there are bees with their fat buttocks gathering honey.

Wang Yuan, Li Yan, Xiao Yatou, and Xiao Hua enjoyed the leisure time by the river to the fullest, and soon there were several big fish in the bucket.

They did catch a lot of small fish under a catty, but they threw all the fish back into the river, so they left some small fish fry in the river.

"Take a break, the watermelon will cool down after being soaked in the river water, you can eat it."

"Okay, then let's eat watermelon."

There is a small puddle protruding into the land by the river, and the big watermelon is soaked in it. The river water submerges the entire big watermelon, and the watermelon seems to be trembling.

Wang Yuan carried the big watermelon to the river, then cut it open with a fruit knife, brushed it ~ the red flesh was immediately exposed, and the little black watermelon seeds looked like black jade.

A big willow tree grew by the river, and a few people were eating watermelon under the willow tree. The warm wind blew, and the fine light fell on the bodies of the few people.

"Eat a few more yuan, hurry up~"

"It's so sweet~"

"Does the dog eat watermelon?"

"Don't feed the dogs, let the people eat first."

A few people sat under the tree and ate watermelon, and soon there were several pieces of watermelon rind next to it, whoosh~ Wang Yuan threw a piece of watermelon rind towards the river.

Boom boom boom ~ The watermelon rind bounced up quickly after touching the river surface, and sank into the river water after making several splashes in a row.

The two little girls looked at Wang Yuan with admiration, only Li Yan smiled helplessly: "It's really a child who can't grow up."

Several people couldn't finish a big watermelon, and part of the remaining watermelon was fed to the dogs, and the rest was put on the grass.

Not long after, a group of toad-catchers ran over, and Wang Yuan gave them the watermelon.

Among the children who caught the toad was his cousin "Wang Lei". Wang Yuan called him over directly. After opening the cloth bag, he saw that there were already 7 to 8 toads inside.

"Aw~"

The toads were very dishonest in the cloth bag, but they couldn't escape no matter how much they jumped.

"That's great, have you caught so many toads?"

"Well, second brother, do you want a toad, can I give you one?"

After hearing this, Li Yan quickly pinched Wang Yuan's arm to make him refuse quickly, and she felt panicked when she saw the toad.

"Forget it, your sister-in-law is afraid of toads, so let's go play."

"Oh, let's go then."

A cunning flashed in Wang Lei's eyes, first he slowly approached Li Yan's back, then suddenly grabbed a toad and put it next to Li Yan, and then ran away.

The toad was less than 10 centimeters away from Li Yan, and jumped onto the former's thigh with a light jump, which made Li Yan scream in an instant:
"This brat, he will come to visit our house again, so we won't bring him delicious food."

After playing by the river for a long time, the few people caught a lot of fish. Finally, Wang Yuan blew a whistle and the three dogs scrambled to jump into the river to take a bath.

thump thump~
With their heads raised above the water, the dog's paws were planing and swimming, and the three dogs were also very excited.

The setting sun was slanting to the west, and a large number of fire clouds appeared in the sky, and the wind that blew by slowly became cooler.

After returning home, Wang Yuan and Li Yan were busy cooking, and when the food was about to be ready, they suddenly heard noisy voices coming from the direction of the canteen.

Wang Yuan walked out of the house and stood on tiptoe to look in the direction of the commissary in the southeast, but he couldn't see what happened because his sight was blocked.

In the next yard, Zhang Qian, Wang Meng's daughter-in-law, was washing clothes in the yard. She also stretched her neck curiously and looked towards the southeast, but unfortunately she couldn't see clearly either.

"Brother, why is it so noisy over there?"

"I don't know, is there a fight?"

At this time, my younger sister Wang Qing came with a physics book. She came to ask Wang Yuan to teach her physics knowledge again.

"Xiaoqing, do you know what happened over there?"

"I know, there are watermelon sellers at the commissary. Many people gathered there to buy watermelons. Our parents and grandparents also went."

"Okay, Swallow is here, the watermelon seller is here, I'll go and have a look." Wang Yuan called into the house, and then walked out of the yard.

"Go ahead and buy some if the quality is good."

Wang Yuan walked in the direction of the canteen, and his sister-in-law Zhang Qian followed after thinking about it. As soon as he walked halfway, he heard the loudspeaker in the village:
"Pay attention, pay attention, there are watermelon sellers in the village, and they stop at the entrance of the small shop, 1 cent and 7 catties!! Anyone who wants to buy watermelon, hurry up..."

Still the same, I yelled the same content three times, making sure that most of the villagers in the village heard it clearly, and then turned off the loudspeaker.

"1 cent and 7 catties, it's not bad."

Zhang Qian's voice suddenly came from behind Wang Yuan, she was pregnant and couldn't walk fast: "Brother, walk slowly, wait for me."

"Okay, okay, do you want to buy watermelon too?"

"That's right, Mengzi told me before he went to work that those who sell melons in the village should buy more. He loves watermelons."

The two chatted as they walked, and they kept meeting other villagers on the road, most of whom greeted each other with a smile.

Suddenly Zhang Qian changed the subject and said: "His elder brother, do you know, I heard from his third aunt that Huzi has a crush on a big girl, she is Sanlongtuner."

Zhang Qian's eyes were shining and her face was full of gossip, which instantly made Wang Yuan laugh.

However, the scene of snowball fights in winter immediately appeared in his head. In the end, Wang Hu seemed to be talking to a girl. Could it be that time that he saw the right eye?

He didn't know how to talk to his sister-in-law about this kind of topic, so he passed it vaguely. In Wangjiatuner, men generally don't talk too much with their sister-in-law, and they don't get too close, so as not to Rumors spread.

After all, the mouths of some idlers can be broken. If a man and a woman walk together, they may be suspected of having an improper relationship.

When I came to the entrance of the canteen, I saw a group of people surrounding a tractor with a lot of watermelons on the tractor carriage.

The big watermelons with flowery skins are very beautiful under the setting sun. Many villagers are picking watermelons.

The watermelon seller turned out to be Huang Cheng from Xiaobaitun. Last summer, Wang Yuan took his wife Li Yan and sister-in-law Li Ping to pick Huang Cheng's melons.

"Brother Cheng, it's you! How many acres of watermelon have you planted this year?"

Huang Cheng is in his early 30s, with a square face and a height of more than 1 meters. Years of farm work has made him look like an iron tower.

He was wearing sweat-soaked black short sleeves and blue shorts, and the slippers on his feet were cracked and dusty.

After wiping his face with the towel on his shoulders, Huang Cheng said happily:
"This year we planted a little more watermelons than last year. We planted 40 mu of watermelons."

"Oh, that's really a lot. How can you sell so much? Can you sell it?"

"Most of the watermelons are sold to the supply and marketing cooperatives in the village, and the remaining small part is sold to Lagua. Make more money."

Huang Cheng had a down-to-earth smile all over his face. Although his face was rough, his smile was very sunny.

At this time, someone called him to pay the bill, so he ended his chat with Wang Yuan.

地头瓜1分5厘一斤，运到村里卖1分7厘，平均一斤瓜赚2厘钱。

On average, a thousand catties of melons earn 2 yuan.

The tractor can pull thousands of catties of watermelons at a time, but to take into account the loss of watermelons, fuel costs, etc., you have to use a tractor yourself, so the income is not high.

But Wang Yuan understands that this is the normal state in the countryside, and people like him who make money every day are very different.

Sudden.

Someone behind him pulled Wang Yuan's shoulders, and when he looked back, he found that it was his own grandmother.

"Xiaoyuan, are you dumbfounded and gawking? Come eat watermelon! This watermelon is really good, very sweet."

The villagers will not take the initiative to open the whole watermelon, but as long as Huang Cheng opens a watermelon for everyone to taste, the watermelon will be robbed in an instant.

There is no need to cut it with a knife. A watermelon is directly broken into pieces by hand. If you take a piece, the big watermelon will be gone soon.

Several children around were gnawing on a big piece of watermelon, the reddish juice trickled down the corner of their mouths, and their bellies were round.

The children who had a good time were dancing rubber bands, kicking shuttlecocks, or spinning tops, bumping crutches, and jumping high. The scene was very lively.

At this time the latecomers began to shout again:
"Waitmelons, why don't you open one and let us taste it, how do you know if the watermelon is ripe or not?"

Others booed one after another: "Just open one quickly, as long as it tastes good, I will definitely buy it. Seeing that there are so many people in our village, your carload of melons will be sold out in a while."

Huang Cheng was busy all by himself, picking melons, weighing, and collecting money, and there were a lot of beads of sweat on his forehead.

He didn't even lift his head, and then said: "Just opened one, you can eat that one first!"

"How can there be an open watermelon, why didn't I see it."

"Ok??"

Huang Cheng glanced at the car, and instantly realized that the melon that had just been opened had been snatched away.

The others laughed loudly, and then shouted for him to open another watermelon, but Huang Cheng repeatedly refused:
"No, no, I've already opened three watermelons. You eat them too fast. If you open them again, this trip will be in vain."

The truth is naturally not what he said, but it is true to make less money.

In the end, Huang Cheng couldn't hold back everyone, so he opened another watermelon. He directly cut the watermelon into a large number of small pieces, and divided it up when he saw it, so that more people could taste the watermelon.

Zhang Qian was pregnant, and it was very inconvenient to squeeze around among men, so grandma asked him to wait outside, and she and Wang Yuan helped her pick melons.

Quickly picked a bag of watermelon fertilizer.

Wang Yuan picked another bag for his home. His bag of watermelon was worth 1 cents. Huang Cheng only paid 6 cents, and he bought a small watermelon weighing two catties.

Small watermelons are not easy to sell, and they are usually given to the villagers as extras.

Wang Yuan walked home carrying two bags of watermelon, Zhang Qian followed behind.

"Thanks to you, his elder brother. It's inconvenient for me to do anything when Mengzi is not at home."

"If you say that, you'll see yourself outside."

"Brother, do you know the watermelon seller? He built a watermelon, and he charged more than 1 cents less."

"He's from Xiaobaitun'er, the village where Yanzi's natal family lived."

"Oh, so that's what happened."

The light of the setting sun elongated the shadows of the two, and the wind blew by, and the leaves of the beans in the nearby vegetable garden were rattling.

Sudden.

Three local dogs came running from a distance shaking their heads, and Li Yan, who was dressed in definite clothes, came from a distance: "Why are you stuck buying a watermelon? I've been here for so long."

"Huang Cheng is the one who sells watermelons, so we chatted with him for a while, and the canteen is very lively."

"It's Brother Cheng?" Li Yan was a little surprised, and then said angrily: "Then why did you come back directly, and you want to invite him to come to our house for dinner."

(End of this chapter)