While Koko was pressing his face against the glass, curiously watching the fish, when he heard them talking about eating fish, he turned around with bright eyes and said, “Eat fish… Kouko likes fish!”

“Little foodie,” Gu Yanqing said, patting his cute little head. “You’ll have fish to eat tonight, but these fish are just for looking, not for eating.”

“Hmm?” Koko tilted his head, clearly confused about why this fish wasn’t tasty even though it was still fish.

Just then, a small whale swam by overhead, and Kouko, having never seen such a big fish, got super excited.

He chased after it, reaching out his little hands, shouting, “Big fish… fish, big fish!”

Unfortunately, the big fish didn’t hear Kouko’s calls and calmly swam past them.

Kouko immediately became unhappy and started shaking Gu Yanqing’s pant leg, using his little voice to whine, “Daddy, Daddy, go catch it!”

That was quite the challenge.

Gu Yanqing helplessly replied, “Daddy can’t catch that fish, sweetheart.”

Koko didn’t care: “Catch it, catch it to eat, big fish, big fish!”

There were other visitors around, and the sight of the handsome dad, beautiful mom, and their adorable little boy was already eye-catching.

Now, Kouko’s silly comments about wanting to eat fish made everyone laugh.

Another man visiting with his daughter teased him, “Little buddy, if your dad catches such a big fish, do you have a pot big enough at home?”

Having been to many places lately, Kouko wasn’t shy around strangers anymore.

He calmly stood there, nibbling on his little finger, thinking about the man’s question.

He didn’t know about pot sizes or whether they matched the fish, so he answered, “Mom, Mom cooks~”

Although his answer was a bit off-topic, his reasoning was still impressive.

The man laughed and said, “So, you just need to eat it, and your mom will handle the cooking, right?”

Kouko nodded seriously: “Kouko likes fish, eats!”

Everyone burst into laughter.

Seeing everyone laughing, Kouko shyly buried his head in Gu Yanqing’s leg. Gu Yanqing picked him up and said, “Later, Daddy will take you to catch fish.”

The aquarium offered diving experiences, but Kouko couldn’t dive yet.

Even if he wore an oxygen mask, he wouldn’t recognize his dad inside.

So, when Gu Yanqing said he would “catch fish,” he meant using a small net to scoop up tiny goldfish about the size of a thumb, which were sold for just a dollar each.

You could catch as many as you wanted.

Since the aquarium was a popular spot for families, it had almost turned into a kids’ zone, with many adults helping their children buy fish.

The kids clearly loved this activity, squatting on the ground trying to catch fish with their little nets.

Some parents were already impatient, while the kids begged to play a little longer.

However, Kouko didn’t seem interested in this activity.

Qiao Wanqing handed him a little net and tried to help him catch three or four fish, but he showed little interest and seemed ready to leave.

“What’s wrong, sweetheart? Don’t you like it?” she asked.

Kouko sighed, seemingly just to please her, and awkwardly dipped the net into the fish pond a couple of times, but couldn’t catch any.

Just as Qiao Wanqing was about to help him, he threw down the net and grabbed Gu Yanqing’s hand: “Daddy, Daddy catch, fish!”

“Okay, Daddy will catch fish.” Gu Yanqing squatted down, ready to use the net, but Kouko pulled on his shirt, dragging him toward the exit.

“Catch big—big fish!”

“…”

It finally dawned on them that Kouko didn’t want to catch the little fish because he thought they were too small.

“Eat, eat big fish!” Kouko exclaimed, pulling on his dad’s shirt excitedly. “Let’s go, let’s go~”

“…”

Clearly, Kouko believed these fish weren’t big enough for him to eat.

Both of them couldn’t help but laugh at Kouko’s reasoning.

What a silly little kid!

Since the fish in the aquarium couldn’t be bought for eating, on their way home, they made a special stop at the market to pick out the biggest grass carp from the vendor’s tank.

When Kouko saw the big fish jumping around in the bag, he finally smiled happily.

Qiao Wanqing sighed and thought to herself, her silly son seemed different from others.

He might become a complete foodie in the future.

……

After playing in C City for a few days, the family finally returned to Dongyang Village.

They had been gone for over ten days. However, Dongyang Village hadn’t changed much, except that the yellow weasel they hadn’t seen for a while had gained even more weight.

In less than a year at their home, the once slim and graceful yellow weasel had turned into a chubby homebody…

Many villagers knew about the weasel their family kept.

The superstitious ones would even offer it food when they saw it, making it even fatter.

But animals, when chubby, can be quite cute.

Qiao Wanqing couldn’t help but pet it a few more times, almost making it fart in protest.

Only because they brought back various foods did the weasel reluctantly let her touch it.

The first thing Qiao Wanqing did when she got home was to throw away the diapers they hadn’t discarded while staying at Gu Yanqing’s house in C City.

She tossed them into her small water reservoir, filled it with water, and used it to water the vegetables…

Because watering the vegetables during the day could harm them, she usually did it in the early morning or evening.

So, the next day, Qiao Wanqing woke up early to water the plants, making up for the days they weren’t irrigated with the diaper water.

Watering the vegetables was hard work.

She had to carry water to the garden and use a ladle to water each plant one by one, which required a lot of time and patience.

Using a hose wasn’t an option; dragging it through the garden could easily damage the plants.

As for sprinklers… they weren’t that advanced yet, so she had to use the most traditional method, watering bit by bit.

Next to the house was the garden.

At the entrance, there was a plot where she had planted leeks before she left.

Qiao Wanqing remembered clearly because she had harvested leeks from there to make dumplings.

However, Mr. Gu didn’t eat leek dumplings, so she had to switch to cabbage and pork dumplings.

Now, at some point, her second aunt had dug up the leeks and planted corn there.

The soil looked freshly turned, probably done a few days ago.

The water in the reservoir that she had left with diaper water should have been used up by now.

But strangely, the vegetables in that plot were still growing so well and so fast.

Corn planted just a few days ago should still be tiny sprouts.

Yet, the corn seedlings here were already over ten centimeters tall…

But the place where their family stored liquid farm fertilizer was right next to the reservoir.

Unless Second Aunt had only watered once in the past ten days, it didn’t make sense for her to go far to fetch water from elsewhere.

The vegetables in the yard were lush and green, not like they had been watered only once in ten days.

Qiao Wanqing checked the weather in Dongyang Village for the past few days on her phone.

It had been sunny, with the summer sun beating down.

Without frequent watering, the plants would have dried up by now.

Suspicious, Qiao Wanqing walked further into the garden.

New plants were easy to recognize based on the freshness of the turned soil.

She could roughly guess if they were planted in the past few days or earlier.

She found several patches of newly planted vegetables, all growing very quickly.

One patch, which looked like it was planted just yesterday, already had visible sprouts today!

This was clearly… unusual.

Qiao Wanqing decided to ask Second Aunt.

Due to the hot weather, Second Aunt and her family had started working early and arrived shortly after.

Seeing Qiao Wanqing watering the plants, she said, “Qingqing, why are you watering the plants? Leave it, we will water them after harvesting today’s vegetables.”

“Auntie, haven’t you been using the water from our reservoir to water the plants these past few days?”

“Huh?” Second Aunt was a bit confused, “Yes, why?”

“Nothing, just asking.”

Qiao Wanqing was puzzled.

Could there be some residual urine elements in the reservoir water that were still effective?

To test her hypothesis, she planted something in an empty spot in the yard.

After using up the reservoir water with the urine elements, she refilled it with fresh water and used it to water the plants in the yard.

She also planted the same vegetables in a small empty spot in the garden and asked Second Aunt not to water that area.

She used the same reservoir water for both spots.

The next day, she found that the plants in the yard showed no signs of growth, while those in the garden had already sprouted!

Qiao Wanqing then watered the yard plants with the urine water and the garden plants with plain water.

On the third day, the yard plants still showed no visible sprouts, while the garden plants had grown three to four centimeters tall.

Qiao Wanqing: “…”