CHAPTER 59: CHAPTER 59: BUMPER HARVEST

Once the fishing nets were ready, Chen Wenjun immediately boarded the ship and rowed the canopy boat to an area where the water flow was relatively calm.

The two children were visiting this part of the water for the first time, finding everything intriguing.

Liu Yaya pointed at the water plants by the riverside and shouted, "Are there duck eggs inside? Uncle, should we go over and pick some duck eggs?"

Chen Wenjun shook his head with a laugh, "Not now! The water level is too high, even if there are duck eggs, they’d be soaked and ruined, can’t pick them. Uncle will set the ground cage, you can fish, how about it?"

The two children were not disappointed and happily went to the back to grab fishing rods.

Chen Wenjun found a place to let the fishing boat stop by the side.

He quickly went ashore to dig worms.

In the rainy weather, many worms emerged from the low-lying, water-logged areas, some as thick as pinky fingers and as long as tens of centimeters, appearing in clusters densely packed, enough to make one’s skin crawl.

Lin Qin stood on the deck watching, having no intention of getting off the boat at all.

Chen Wenjun took a bucket and picked up half a bucket of large worms, "Use this for fishing, the small fish won’t bite the hook."

He knew Lin Qin had a bit of trypophobia, so he didn’t let her do it, handling it himself with scissors, cutting a large worm into several pieces in three or two strokes.

The fishy smell was blown away by the river breeze.

Lin Qin’s furrowed brow relaxed slightly, seeing Chen Wenjun thoughtfully bait the hook for her, she happily sat down and cast the line.

The two children watched from the side; if Lin Qin caught a fish, they’d bait, if not, they’d quietly go play in the rear cabin.

The waiting time was quite long.

Lin Yi occasionally glanced at the water, muttering under his breath, "The water is still too fast, probably won’t catch anything. I think we should change places, or let Wenjun set the ground cage... How deep is the water here... Where can we go if we walk this way?"

Chen Wenjun answered his questions.

During the conversation, Lin Qin suddenly called out excitedly in a low voice, "There’s movement, quick! Look!"

Four pairs of eyes immediately came closer.

In just a moment, the whole float sank under.

Lin Qin immediately reeled it in, playing tug-of-war with whatever was underwater.

Chen Wenjun decisively went to the back to get the landing net.

Lin Yi helped pull the rod; the fishing line wasn’t the best, so afraid it would break, father and daughter were especially careful, not daring to exert any force.

Not until they tired the fish out did they dare to drag it closer. Chen Wenjun, quick-eyed and deft, predicted the fish’s direction and moved towards it, netting a four to five jin bighead carp.

Lin Yi was overjoyed, "Great sign, great sign, Yaya, Ping’an, let’s start too!"

Chen Wenjun didn’t dare to go far and simply set the ground cage nearby.

The family busied themselves for an afternoon; as dusk approached, Chen Wenjun rowed the boat to retrieve the net.

Retrieving the net required two people to cooperate.

Lin Yi wasn’t reassured and insisted on helping.

The river was wide, and their net only intercepted a part of it.

Lin Qin stabilized the bamboo pole and fishing net on the shore, while Lin Yi, under Chen Wenjun’s instructions, rowed the boat as Chen Wenjun gathered the net.

Starting from this end, they pulled up the rod, pausing at the middle bamboo pole to clear debris before continuing towards Lin Qin on the shore.

When all the bamboo poles were on shore.

Chen Wenjun began to use force to lift the fishing net from underwater.

Initially, with only a few carp, crucian carp, and bighead carp, Lin Yi was a bit disappointed; however, when the net was a third collected, river eels appeared, from just two or three initially to a dense bunch later on.

At first glance, it looked like a snake’s nest had been disturbed, the most shocking thing was.

There was unexpectedly a big fish weighing more than ten jin in the net, its size almost comparable to the height of the two children.

"Goodness! Such a big fish didn’t even break the net, this net was well worth the purchase!" Lin Qin couldn’t stop laughing.

The price of fish is proportional to size; the bigger, the more valuable; this fish could sell for thirty or forty yuan!

Besides this big fish, those river eels were quite large too, appearing plump and juicy, fetching two and a half to two yuan six per jin; these must be forty to fifty jin.

Chen Wenjun brought the fishing net up, glanced at the distant fishing boats, and excitedly said, "I’ll get the big fish on board first, keep this under wraps, or Aunt Shuifang won’t be pleased."

When they met earlier, Zhou Shuifang looked obviously envious at the fishing net; if she knew it caught a big fish over ten jin, she’d definitely make a fuss.

Lin Qin also didn’t want trouble, immediately had Lin Yi help, first getting the big fish and a bucket of river eels on board.

The two made three trips before getting most of the river eels on board, while Lin Qin was still picking and choosing from the fishing net.

Grandpa Chen’s fishing boat was also about to head back, and as soon as they approached, Zhou Shuifang couldn’t wait to ask, "Wenjun’s wife, how was the catch?"

Lin Qin was startled, looked up at them, smiled at Zhou Shuifang, and pressed down on the water bucket to show them, "Not much."

Zhou Shuifang was immediately anxious, "It shouldn’t be! We caught several river eels with a small fishing net! How come such a big net only caught this much?"

Lin Qin awkwardly chuckled, "Maybe it wasn’t set right, let them escape."

Zhou Shuifang looked regretful, "Next time, be careful, don’t waste such a big net in vain."

Saying thus, she retreated disappointedly back into the cabin of her boat, suspecting perhaps she hadn’t woven the net properly, worrying what if Chen Wenjun asked for a refund?

Thinking of this, she hurried Chen Yongding to row quicker.

Seeing Zhou Shuifang’s fishing boat sail away, Lin Qin discreetly breathed a sigh of relief, shook the fishing net clean, planning to hang it up to dry on the boat, so it could be used again.

At this moment, Chen Wenjun disembarked, unable to restrain his excitement, "I plan to net again, we can have another haul tonight, retrieve it early morning, just in time to collect everything from the ground cage.

We’ll deliver the valuable things to Guoxing Restaurant first, what’s left we can sell, even if the market doesn’t clear it, we can hold onto it and continue selling in the evening."

The family was building a house and desperately needed money, so Chen Wenjun naturally couldn’t pass up any opportunity to earn a profit.

Lin Qin couldn’t argue with him, so she let him be.

The two lingered around under the stars and returned to the fishing boat.

Lin Yi boiled some hot water.

The two of them took a simple rinse and went to bed.

At four thirty in the morning.

Chen Wenjun brought a kerosene lamp, opened the cabin, hung the lamp by the door, and went with a pole to retrieve the ground cage first.

This place did not typically have many people fishing; during a flood, fish and shrimp are plentiful, almost every ground cage was bursting.

He couldn’t handle it alone, only managing to separately the fish and shrimp simply, leaving the rest for Lin Qin to help with.

Roughly busy until shortly after five, the sky was brightening.

Only then did he prepare to go retrieve the net.

Lin Yi and Lin Qin were all ready.

The three of them, working together, got the fishing net onto the shore.

Unexpectedly, they caught even more river eels this time than the previous afternoon.

And there were several black fish weighing one or two jin each, four softshell turtles, and no shortage of river prawns.

For them, this was definitely another big harvest.

Chen Wenjun could only carry a limited amount at once.

The husband and wife discussed, and even went to borrow a cart from other Dang people.

Lin Qin first pushed a load of fish and shrimp to the market to set up a stall, while Chen Wenjun took the big fish and three large buckets of river eels to Zheng Guoxing’s place.