Return to the small mountain village in 1986

At ten o'clock in the evening, a fragrant pot of turtle stewed chicken is ready.

The three men were at home, so naturally they came to whatever was convenient. After cleaning up the pot of turtle stew and chicken, they stewed it directly in the rice cooker. After plugging in the electricity and pressing the button, the three of them lay in the yard and chatted. , while nibbling watermelon, when the conversation was almost over, a strong fragrance came from the kitchen.

Gao Mingcheng was shocked and said, "It should be cooked by now. I'll add salt to taste."

Gao Yue and Lin Ye also smelled the fragrance and said eagerly: "Let's go together, let's go together."

In the kitchen, after Gao Mingcheng opened the lid of the rice cooker, a stronger aroma hit his nostrils.

"It smells so good!" Gao Yue took a deep breath, his face full of enjoyment.

Not that they are boasting, but this soup is really delicious!

After Gao Mingcheng added salt to taste, he took out three large bowls and filled each person with a bowl of soup.

A turtle weighing more than three kilograms, paired with a hen weighing more than three kilograms, plus soup and water, is enough for three people to enjoy.

The meat of the soft-shell turtle is very tender, and the skirt is full of gelatin. When you bite it, it tastes delicious and chewy. The local hen also tastes very good, and there are still some unformed small eggs in its belly. This hen is only one year old. This is the peak period for laying eggs, so there are many large and small eggs in the belly. According to this situation, one egg can be laid in two or three days.

Gao Mingcheng ate both the turtle and chicken first, and when he finished the last mouthful of soup, he looked satisfied.

He even came up with the idea of ​​getting another turtle. The soup was fresh and filling, and he wanted to prepare it for his wife and children.

Although he thought so, he did not say it immediately because he knew that if he said he wanted to go, Gao Yue and Lin Ye would definitely go with him.

But the two of them had been shaking honey for a day today. They were very tired and needed a rest.

So Gao Mingcheng said: "It's getting late. Let's go to the toilet and go to bed. You two will sleep on the same bed."

Gao Yue and Lin Ye had no objection. They slept in the guest room. The bed there was the bed Gao Yue moved from his old house.

"It's so delicious. Maybe I made it myself. I feel that the turtle is not fishy at all and is very fragrant!" Gao Yue sighed. They had eaten early for dinner, but now after eating a bowl of turtle stewed with chicken, they felt like they were feeling better. It's full, warm and satisfying.

It was indeed getting late, so Gao Yue and Lin Ye went to the toilet one after another, drank some water, and then went into the house to rest.

Gao Mingcheng also went into the room to rest. He lay on the bed with his eyes closed and rested. When he felt that Gao Yue and Lin Ye should have fallen asleep, he quietly got up and came outside the main room.

Because Gao Mingcheng was at home, Black Tiger and Elf refused to sleep in the chicken coop, but stayed at home. However, the chicken coop always needs dogs to watch, and Chen Dasong alone couldn't see it, so Dahuang took Dahei and Xiaohei took on this important responsibility.

As soon as Gao Mingcheng appeared, the black tiger and the elf who were sleeping in the kennel at the door opened their eyes at the same time, but they just opened their eyes and did not get up immediately until they saw Gao Mingcheng holding a snakeskin bag and an iron Fork, and then opened the yard gate, they immediately followed.

Gao Mingcheng's footsteps were very light, and the two dogs were alert and made no sound. One person and two dogs left quickly.

Naturally, there are no street lights in small mountain villages, but not every night is dark. When the moon is full, the bright moonlight will fall down, illuminating the mountains and flowing water.

The mountains are like giant beasts, standing motionless. The shadows of the trees are like charm, moving slightly with the wind. The gurgling stream is accompanied by the chirping of insects.

In midsummer, cicadas and frogs chirp together, disturbing the silence.

Various small nocturnal animals are also active in the grass, such as hedgehogs, weasels, voles, snakes, etc., all going their own way.

Some are foraging, and some are being foraged.

Where there is survival, there is death.

Walking on the quiet road, the night wind blows, bringing a slight coolness to people. Gao Mingcheng only felt that his mind was very clear at this time, and his thinking was particularly active. Some sentences from articles he had read frequently appeared in his mind.

Like poetry, like painting, like understanding life.

Sometimes he feels that his ideas are very brilliant, and he seems to have seen through the whole world and life. But when I thought about it and then thought about what I had thought about before, I felt a little blurry again.

In this paradoxical state, he came to the edge of the reservoir again.

When I came here before, there were other people in the reservoir, but now, the reservoir is very quiet and there is no one else around.

But it's wrong to say it's quiet. The closer we get to the water, the more movement there is. The sound of frogs is heard one after another, and frogs of all sizes are jumping in the grass.

Quack~
Before the sound was over, the frog's life was completely over, because a cauliflower snake quickly devoured the frog.

After succeeding, the cauliflower snake turned around and walked away, using the cover of the grass to quickly disappear.

What a fat snake!

Gao Mingcheng looked at the snake's disappearing back and sighed in his heart.

Unfortunately, many beauties do not eat snakes, so he did not plan to catch snakes today.

Gao Mingcheng focused on catching turtles.

June to September is the time when soft-shell turtles are most active and eat most frequently. When the water temperature drops, their feeding frequency will slow down until they hibernate completely.

It is now late July, a time when turtles are active and feeding frequently. Gao Mingcheng chose a location and thought it would be a good place to catch turtles, so he opened the snakeskin bag he brought and poured out the chopped chicken intestines. Into the water.

He didn't rush into the water, he just took off his clothes and waited on the shore.

Soft-shell turtles are omnivores and feed at night, so trapping soft-shell turtles at this time has a high success rate.

This chicken intestine was something that no one was willing to clean up when killing the chicken. Gao Mingcheng chopped it into pieces because he wanted to use it as bait.

After the chicken intestines were poured into the water, they slowly spread out and soon attracted a group of small fish. Each of these small fish was only as big as a thumb, and Gao Mingcheng ignored them.

After a while, a catfish emerged from the bottom of the water. When it completely emerged, it opened its big mouth and bit into a chicken intestine.

Seeing that the catfish had succeeded and was about to dive into the water, Gao Mingcheng moved the iron fork in his hand and quickly skewered the catfish in the water.

He moved quickly and with great force, and the iron fork instantly hit the catfish in the water. The catfish was injured and twisted its body as if it wanted to escape.

However, the iron fork had penetrated its body, making it unable to escape. However, the catfish was very strong and wrapped tightly around the iron fork.

Under the moonlight, this catfish, which weighs about five or six kilograms, is about to die because of its gluttony!
Gao Mingcheng held the iron fork in one hand and put the catfish into the snakeskin bag with the other. He thought, it would be too difficult for him to give up such a big catfish!
Catfish have slippery bodies and are generally difficult to catch with bare hands. They lurk at the bottom of the water during the day and only come to the surface at night to look for food. Their large mouths allow them to swallow large amounts of food.

The taste of the small catfish is average, but the big catfish is worth eating. Their skin is very gelatinous, and when you bite it, it is no worse than the skirt of a soft-shell turtle.

And the big catfish also has a belly, which is Gao Mingcheng’s favorite part to eat. The most important thing is that catfish has few bones and is very suitable for children to eat.

Given the many advantages, since Gao Mingcheng saw it, he naturally couldn't let it go.

After harvesting a big catfish, Gao Mingcheng was in a good mood, with a smile on his face, but he did not forget his goal tonight - soft-shelled turtle.

After waiting quietly for a while, the place where the chicken intestines were thrown did attract a lot of small fish, but no turtle was seen.

Gao Mingcheng felt that this position was not good, so he decided to change it.

Carrying the snakeskin bag, he walked among the grass and came to a shallow water.

Because the water is shallow, the aquatic plants here are very lush, and some of them are blooming with small flowers. The air is filled with a fragrance, which is very light but very fragrant.

Turtles are omnivores, they eat both meat and vegetables. Therefore, they sometimes eat grass roots.

The chicken intestines were gone, but Gao Mingcheng was not in a hurry. He caught a few frogs on the spot, smashed them with stones, and threw them into the water.

The smell of blood spreads in the water, quickly attracting predators to enjoy the feast.

The first wave that came over were still small miscellaneous fish.

These small fish are the most numerous inhabitants of the water, and they come whenever there is a disturbance.

Unfortunately, although they are numerous, they do not have much power. When large predators come over, they will flee one after another, because if they do not escape, even they will become the predator's rations.

Gao Mingcheng held the iron fork and waited quietly.

The black tiger and the elf were also very smart and stood quietly not far away.

The wind blew and the water rippled slightly. With the sound of small water, the larger predator finally came over!

Through the moonlight, Gao Mingcheng saw clearly that the person coming was the turtle he had been waiting for!
Gao Mingcheng was shocked and ready to take action at any time.

In fact, it is better to do it in shallow water, so that when the turtle wants to escape, its body is not as flexible as in deep water.

When the turtle began to eat, Gao Mingcheng did not take action immediately. When the turtle began to take its second bite, he found the right opportunity and quickly pounced on it.

He moved quickly, and with the water splashing everywhere, the turtle that Gao Mingcheng was eyeing had been successfully caught.

After judgment, Gao Mingcheng felt that the location here was good and he could try to catch it with his hands. This way, the turtle would not be injured and he could raise it and bring it back to the county town tomorrow.

Having caught a big catfish before, Gao Mingcheng was in a good mood, but then he thought that the weather was hot now, and after the catfish died after being injured, it needed to be killed in time and then salted and preserved.

Gao Mingcheng's hand was very strong. After he caught the turtle, it was difficult for the turtle to escape. Gao Mingcheng paid attention to avoiding the turtle's head, then threw the turtle into a snakeskin bag, and then tied the mouth of the bag to save The turtle escaped.

This soft-shelled turtle weighs just over a kilogram, and is not as big as the soft-shelled turtle they ate before. Even if it is stewed with chicken, it is not enough to feed the family, so they have to catch another one.

Gao Mingcheng continued to squat on the shore, waiting for the turtle to come.

While waiting, Gao Mingcheng thought he should buy a few fish-catching cages and put bait into the cages to catch fish and shrimps.

The reason why he thought this was not because he felt it was tiring to catch soft-shell turtles like this, but because he remembered that lotus roots were planted in the pond in Xiaofushan this year. Although there were more lotus seeds and lotus roots harvested, there were a lot of lotus leaves in the water, so there was no harvest. Just like before, use a net to net the fish from one side to the other, and then catch the fish.

It would be easier to use a cage, but when catching fish at the end of the year, his purpose is to catch big fish, not small fish. If he uses a cage to hold fish, the fish that enter the cage are usually small fish.

Therefore, the fish inlet of the cage must be larger so that small fish can swim out after entering. Once large fish enter, they will be trapped.

In this case, a lot of bait will be wasted.

But it’s okay, just think of it as feeding the fish. When the fish grows bigger, won’t it go into his stomach?
Gao Mingcheng was thinking randomly in his mind, but he kept his eyes fixed on the water surface, checking the fish's condition.

About ten minutes later, Gao Mingcheng found another turtle.

When he saw the turtle, his eyes lit up!

There were many small fish in the water before, as well as some catfish, crucian carp and carp weighing about a pound, but Gao Mingcheng didn't want these.

In fact, he suddenly came to get turtles today and was not fully prepared. Whether the turtles came or not depended entirely on luck.

But luck obviously favored him. After getting a turtle weighing more than a kilogram, another turtle came!
In order to ensure success, Gao Mingcheng held back until the soft-shelled turtle moved from the deep water area to the shallow water area with many aquatic plants, and then he was ready to catch it.

During the day, due to the high temperature and loud noise, big fish and soft-shelled turtles rarely come close to the shore, but as the temperature gets cooler at night, they are willing to move around and look for food.

If Gao Mingcheng had prepared in advance, chosen a suitable place to make a nest during the day, and then came back at night, his success rate in catching big fish would have been much higher.

However, the location Gao Mingcheng chose tonight is good. There are aquatic plants here, some aquatic insects, and small insects resting on the aquatic plants, which are the food of carnivorous fish.

Not far away, there is a ditch. The water in the ditch is not large, but it continues to flow and flows into the reservoir.

The movement of the water flow will also attract fish.

Various reasons finally made Gao Mingcheng wait for the second turtle tonight!

This soft-shelled turtle is darker in color and weighs three to four kilograms!
Gao Mingcheng's eyes were fixed on the turtle, following its movement until he felt the time was right, and then he quickly pounced on it.

The water splashed and the sudden movement silenced the nearby insects for a moment.

The turtle in the water was still trying to struggle, and it was quite strong, but Gao Mingcheng was obviously stronger. He could throw a two hundred kilogram stone lock at will. It was still very easy to catch a turtle.

Water splashed on Gao Mingcheng's face. Gao Mingcheng was holding the turtle with both hands. It was inconvenient to wipe his face. He could only wipe the water droplets around his eyes with his arms, and then put the newly harvested turtle into a snakeskin bag.

After getting two turtles as he wished, it was probably already early in the morning. Gao Mingcheng didn't want to continue getting them and was ready to leave with his bag.

"Black Tiger, Elf, let's go!" Gao Mingcheng greeted, carrying the snakeskin bag to the place where he took off his clothes before, put on his clothes, and was ready to leave.

Black Tiger and Elf hurriedly followed, and Black Tiger still had a small snake in his mouth.

It turned out that when Gao Mingcheng didn't notice, the black tiger and the elf were not completely silent. They were also attracted by the frogs and snakes in the grass, and then a small snake became the black tiger's ration. (End of chapter)