Chapter 17: Water Rising, Fish Emerging

Fortunately, the situation wasn’t too bad. The heavy rain had lasted for four or five days, but it finally began to ease up.

That morning, when Liu Yinyin woke up, the sky was gray, but the rain had stopped.

Eagerly, she walked out of the yard. She wanted to check on the condition of her private land.

At this time, the road was full of puddles, and each step sank into the mud.

Liu Yinyin decided to walk barefoot, carefully along the small path.

Her land was on higher ground, and she had dug ditches, so once the heavy rain stopped, the water on her land quickly drained away.

Liu Yinyin sighed in relief when she saw this. Over the past few months, she had taken great care of her two plots of land, putting in a lot of effort.

If the heavy rain had ruined them, she would have been heartbroken.

However, not every place in the village had been as lucky. After the rain, as far as the eye could see, there were puddles of varying sizes on the ground.

In some places, there were even small fish and shrimp swimming…

Liu Yinyin’s eyes immediately lit up. After the rain, when the water level rises, it’s the time when the fish are most active.

Suddenly thinking of something, Liu Yinyin went back inside to get a wooden bucket. There was a large river not far from here; she needed to check it out.

The water level in the river had already risen. As soon as she reached the riverbank, Liu Yinyin saw many fish jumping out of the water and flopping on the ground…

There were both big and small fish, and they were densely packed, making the scene look especially abundant.

With so many fish on the riverbank, the river must have even more. Right now, they were all swimming in shallow water, gasping for air.

Heavens!

Liu Yinyin was overjoyed and hurriedly started scooping the fish into the bucket.

At this time, it was still early, and the road was difficult to navigate, so no one had come this way yet. Moreover, the villagers were probably more focused on their crops, so they wouldn’t be wandering this direction.

This turned out to be a big advantage for Liu Yinyin. With so many fish, she couldn’t catch them all by herself.

Liu Yinyin decided to catch the larger fish first. After catching a few, she found it too troublesome, so she bought a medium-sized fishing net from the system and started using it to scoop up the fish.

She was thoroughly enjoying catching fish. Whenever she saw a large one, she scooped it into the bucket. The fish species were all different, including black fish, tilapia, catfish, grass carp, and perch…

There were even some fish whose names Liu Yinyin couldn’t recognize. She didn’t know how much time had passed, but the wooden bucket was already full!

Liu Yinyin quickly sold all the fish in the bucket to the system, and the bucket full of fish fetched her over 1,600 yuan!

Good heavens, it was like money was being delivered to her!

Liu Yinyin was so happy that she didn’t feel tired at all and continued catching fish energetically.

In addition to the fish, there were also many frogs on the riverbank. Liu Yinyin didn’t turn any of them away, catching them and putting them into the bucket just like the fish.

When the bucket was full again, Liu Yinyin finally stopped, panting.

Sigh, one shouldn’t be too greedy. She had caught so many large fish, so she should leave some fish soup for others.

For the second bucket of fish, Liu Yinyin kept five of them and sold the rest, including the frogs, to the system. This earned her another 1,400 yuan.

She put the fishing net back into the system’s storage, rested for a while, and then carried the bucket with the five fish towards the village.

She was going to the Liu family’s house to let her family know so they could come and catch fish too.

“Oh my, Yinyin, where did you get so many big fish?”

Before reaching the Liu family’s house, Liu Yinyin ran into Aunt Zhang, who lived next door. Aunt Zhang was just heading out to check on her private land.

Casually, she noticed the wooden bucket Liu Yinyin was carrying, filled with five lively, wriggling fish, which startled her.

Liu Yinyin set the bucket down and took a breath before answering truthfully, “Aunt, the river at the village end flooded, and many fish jumped out. So, I… I picked up a few big fish and brought them to my parents.”

Aunt Zhang immediately exclaimed, “Such good luck! We can’t let this opportunity slip away!”

She quickly asked, “Yinyin, are there still fish in the river?”

Liu Yinyin nodded eagerly, “Yes, there are plenty! Aunt, you should hurry and go. Once the water recedes, it’ll be harder to catch them.”

At this time, the environment had not yet been polluted or damaged, and the wild fish in the water were plentiful.

“Ah, I’m going right now… Let me grab a bucket first.” Upon hearing this, Aunt Zhang didn’t even bother to check her land; she quickly turned and ran back home to grab a bucket.

The speed… it really didn’t seem like a woman in her fifties.

Liu Yinyin shouted from behind, “Aunt, could you help me tell my parents as well?”

“Got it,” Aunt Zhang replied without turning around, continuing to run ahead.

It wasn’t long before Liu Yinyin saw a large group of people, all carrying wooden buckets, rushing toward her…

Then, they passed by her, all heading toward the village end.

She also saw her older brother and second brother…

However, these two didn’t even greet her, just ran off with their buckets.

Liu Yinyin: “……”

Alright, it seems that the fat fish are now more appealing than her.

Jiang Cuihua had just received the news from Aunt Zhang and was now waiting by the door.

When she saw her daughter arrive, she immediately took the wooden bucket from her hands.

“Wow! There really are this many fish!” Jiang Cuihua smiled so wide her eye creases showed.

“Where’s Dad?” Liu Yinyin casually asked, noticing that Liu Laifu wasn’t at home.

“He went to work with your third brother. The heavy rain just stopped, and they’re draining the fields.”

With the fish and news delivered, Liu Yinyin didn’t plan to stay for long. “Mom, you can empty the fish out, and I’ll take the bucket back.”

“Take two fish home to eat. Your brothers will definitely catch more later,” Jiang Cuihua said.

“No, it’s fine, Mom. We have more at home. These are just for you to eat,” Liu Yinyin said, not wanting to mention taking any back.

“Aunt, I want to go catch fish too!” Liu Zhizhi rushed out of the house, followed by her younger brother and sister.

“You can’t go! The river is still rising, and the children might get swept away by the flood,” Liu Yinyin warned her.

Seeing her nieces and nephews crowded around the bucket looking at the fish, Liu Yinyin pulled three big White Rabbit milk candies out of her pocket and gave one to each child.

The children, now happily munching on candy, didn’t ask to go catch fish anymore.

“Little sister.”

Liu Dazhao came out of the kitchen, holding a bucket of pig feed to feed the pigs, and greeted her with a smile.

Not to mention the magical tofu, recently Liu Yinyin had brought back food for the family a few times, and thanks to her, the family had been eating much better than before.

“Big sister-in-law, feeding the pigs?” This spring, the Liu family had raised two piglets, and they were almost four months old now.

“Ugh, don’t mention it.” When Jiang Cuihua talked about this, she looked troubled. “After so much rain, both pigs are looking weak and don’t have much of an appetite. I’m worried they might get sick.”

Raising two piglets was already expensive, and if something went wrong halfway through, it would be a huge loss!

Liu Yinyin’s heart sank, and she said seriously, “Mom, I heard from someone that washing the pigsty with lime water can disinfect and kill bacteria, preventing the pigs from getting sick.