CHAPTER 160: CHAPTER 160: RICE PADDY FISH

This year’s sweet potatoes seem to be bigger; it’s only September, and the sweet potatoes haven’t reached full maturity yet. The ones dug up now are too tender, won’t last through the winter, and are prone to rotting.

Even so, these sweet potatoes are already almost the size of last year’s fully mature ones.

Jiang Hu carried back some pigweed and handed the sweet potatoes over to Liu Zhi and the others. They laid a thick layer of straw on the ground to prevent the cleaned sweet potatoes from getting dirty again.

Liu Zhi and the others aren’t going back tonight; they found an unused hut in the village, tidied it up a bit, and stayed there.

Fu’an Village is too far from the town. It’s better to rest well than waste time on the road.

Two people were already preparing dinner, and once they finished eating, they could go back to rest.

Seeing the sweet potatoes brought by Jiang Hu, one of them immediately brightened up: "Little Jiang, your family’s sweet potatoes are really delicious. It’s my first time tasting such good sweet potatoes."

They are crisp and sweet when raw, and even sweeter when cooked!

Mixing some sweet potatoes into the rice makes you want to eat half a bowl more.

Eating too many sweet potatoes makes you fart a lot, but other than that, there’s virtually no flaw.

Jiang Hu poured the sweet potatoes onto the piled-up straw: "Eat as much as you like. This year’s harvest is good. There are more by the river; I’ll bring you another half basket."

The remaining half basket is for him to take home for his family.

That person grabbed a sweet potato, peeled it with a knife, and took a bite straight away.

At home, smoke was already rising from the kitchen. The second aunt was cooking, and these days, Qixi also knows how to prepare vegetables. She was picking vegetables with a few children.

These are the vegetables that will be taken to the town market tomorrow.

Pack them in bamboo baskets, sprinkle a little water, and they won’t wilt by the next morning.

Liu Ze had run around a lot in the afternoon and was feeling a bit tired. Just then, Jiang Yu also returned home and was in the courtyard, helping Jiang Yu review what he learned at school today.

Besides the initial excitement, Xiaomi and Xiaoxue were already losing interest in studying.

Of course, it’s relative.

In fact, every morning, the two sisters would study for an hour. Xiaomi would even call Iron Egg to join them and learn together.

But compared to Xiaomi’s intelligence and even Xiaoxue’s bit of foundation, Iron Egg was truly starting from zero.

Up till now, he’s only managed to barely learn how to write his own name.

He honestly doesn’t want to learn, but he’s too afraid to not listen to his sisters, so he reluctantly practices with them every morning.

As the autumn sky is clear and crisp, the Jiang family’s new house’s foundation is visibly coming up, and the workers are already building the main structure while the rice fields have finally ushered in a bountiful harvest.

The golden rice ears are bent over under the weight of the full grains, forming a perfect arc.

And the rice fields can start draining water.

A bamboo barrier is placed at the outlet to block the water; while the water flows away, the fish in the paddy field are blocked.

"Brother Ze, hurry, here, here, lots of big fish!"

Standing in the paddy field, Xiaoxue’s face was covered with a thin scarf to avoid getting scratched by the rice leaves.

Liu Ze hurried over with a wooden bucket, half-filled with water; it’s no longer a problem for him.

Xiaoxue quickly put the fish in her hand into the bucket, and with a splash, the fish fell into the water.

"Such big fish, and they’re stranded."

It was Liu Ze’s first time catching fish in a rice field; he wasn’t allowed in, fearing he’d get sick from staying in the water too long.

Having been at the Jiang family for almost a month, Liu Ze’s previously thin and pale body was visibly filling out.

Though not as robust as Jiang Yu, he was starting to look normal and healthy.

"Little Black, Little Mi, be careful not to bite the fish."

Xiaomi’s voice came from the middle of the rice field, where she weaved through bent over, her clothes and pants covered in mud, but she didn’t mind at all.

"Be careful not to get your face scratched by the leaves; it’ll be uncomfortable."

The second aunt also carried a bucket, and Little Black squeezed out of the field, holding a carp in its mouth. The second aunt hurriedly took the bucket over.

The fish fell into the bucket without losing a single scale.

Immediately after, Little Mi also came out carrying a fish.

Even the nimble field mice are no match for them, let alone these half-stranded fish in the field.

Cats usually hate getting wet, they dislike the damp feeling.

But the small dried fish made from the little fish in the field were just too delicious!

With a wave of Xiaomi’s hand, the two rushed into the field together.

The rice shoots were growing vigorously; adults couldn’t weave through without knocking down some ears of rice.

But the children weren’t afraid of the heat and enjoyed moving through the fields, catching fish that hadn’t flowed out with the water.

"So many fish, we could sell them for quite a bit of money."

Qixi also stood at the water outlet with a bucket in one hand and an eel trap in the other, catching the fish as they emerged.

His bucket was already filled to the brim, yet there were still plenty more fish in the field.

Though initially, when they settled in Fu’an Village, they struggled to sell the bigger fish, now the fish from Fu’an Village are in high demand!

Jiang Hu came along carrying two buckets, set down the empty ones, swapped for two full of fish, and turned back.

The Jiang family’s yard had two wooden buckets now, very large ones, like those used for scalding pigs at New Year.

There was also a shorter but even larger threshing bucket, bigger than a bed.

It’s used during threshing; you cut the rice stalks from the roots, hold a bundle and beat it on the bucket, so the grains fall in, and after a few repetitions, there’s only clean straw left.

The threshing bucket was slightly leaky, covered with large oilcloth.

Now both the threshing bucket and the large bucket were half-filled with water, and the threshing bucket already had many fish. Jiang Hu poured the fish he brought back from the fields straight in.

The previously compacted fish, once they hit the bucket, happily swam around, unaware of what fate awaited them.

The Jiang family wasn’t the only one; several other households in the village had similar scenes.

After planting the rice seedlings, they caught a lot of half-grown fish from the river and released them into the paddies, reaping a double harvest before the autumn harvest.

This not only made the fish delicious and easy to sell but also seemed to improve the growth of the rice, with fewer wild weeds in the field.

It’s called mutual benefits!

The fish had a comfortable living environment, eating bugs from the field, and their waste even became nutrients for the rice!