Goldfield
Chapter 86: Catching Fish

Oh yea! He knew another way to make pickled fish, which only required ordinary small fish. There was a pool behind their house, which had many resources he could utilize!

He remembered that Qian Wu and Little Shitou had caught many carp fish the size of palms and sharp bellies last time and brought them back to make soup. Small goldfish and taper stomachs have many small bones, but the bones will become soft if used as pickled fish. So the bones can be chewed and eaten with the flesh. Aye! That's her!

“But... is there a way to catch a large number of small fish?” Yu Xiaocao could not help but worry again.

Suddenly, Little Shitou's excited cry sounded beside her ear, “Quick look! There are wild birds drinking water from our water tanks! ”

Xiaocao looked up and saw a snow-white bird with slender and long legs. It stood on the edge of the water barrel and leaned forward to drink the water in the barrel. In early spring, the weather gradually becomes warmer. These past few days, there have been unidentified birds visiting their homes to drink water from the barrels.

The little sacred stone once proudly told him that wild birds were attracted to the spiritual energy in the water bathing in the water tank. Regardless of whether it is an animal or a plant, spiritual energy is good food for them. However, if the energy concentration is too high and the organism is too young, it will be overpowered by the energy and explode …

Yu Xiaocao's eyes suddenly sparkled at the thought of it —— Doesn't that mean that if he used a small holy stone as bait, he would be able to lure a bunch of small fish?

[Stinky Master, bad Master! You'll use me as bait again. I will not let you go!] Out of nowhere, a golden kitten suddenly jumped onto his shoulder and ferociously growled at him.

After acknowledging his master, Xiaocao and the small saint stone mind became intertwined. So, the little boy could instantly feel all his thoughts.

[Alright! I won't use you as bait again!] Xiaocao hurriedly calmed the angry kitten down, [But, Little Tyrant Dumpling, you should help me think of a way to lure the small fish into a trap.]

The little holy stone snorted proudly and said, [There is no need for me, this heavenly stone, to do anything personally. Isn't my bath water the best bait? Regarding how to use it, do you really need me to answer such a stupid question?]

After hearing his words, Yu Xiaocao immediately put two hundred copper coins into his bag and told Madam Liu to store them safely. The rest of the money is left as pocket money for family expenses. After which, he pulled Little Shitou into the kitchen and filled the jar with mystical stone water. He went to Yu Hai and asked, “Dad, do we have fishing nets at home?”

“Fish net? Nah! What do you need it for? ” Yu Hai soaks the pig's head into the water from the barrel. The water from the barrel had spiritual energy from the small god stone, which enhanced the taste of the boiled pig's head.

Xiaocao smiled mysteriously and said, “Of course I will use it! I just thought of another way to make money again. Just wait and see!”

Yu Hai stretched out his hand, which he had touched the pig's head, and wanted to pinch its nose, but Xiaocao nimbly dodged. He smiled and said, “What kind of network do you want? I can make it for you now! ”

Yu Hai did not have much work, so he often helped the villagers weave fishing nets at home. So, their families certainly do not lack mosquito nets. Xiaocao instructed him to heat up a bamboo stick until it turned into a circular shape and tied it to a bamboo pole. After that, install the fishing nets on the round bamboo pieces to make a simple — net bag made.

“Are you two going to net? It is quite difficult to catch a big fish in the pond behind the house, so be careful and do not fall... Do you want Daddy to come with you? ” Yu Hai saw the children coming out of the backyard and warned anxiously.

“No, we just experiment first. If we succeed, then we will ask Father for help. ”Xiaocao's voice sounded from behind the house, while Little Shitou also cried happily.

When the pair of brothers arrived at the pond, Qian Wu, who was herding ducks by the river, saw them and quickly rushed over. He asked, “Xiaocao, Xiaocao! Why did you have time to play by the river today? ”

Little Shitou acted like a little adult and said, “Come, come on, come on! Do you think we are like you, who only care about playing! We're here on serious business. Just go! Don't delay us catching fish! ”

“Catch fish? I'm very good at that! Let me help you!” Qian Wu immediately forgot about her duty of caring for the ducks and shamelessly insisted on helping.

Xiaocao was worried that others would find secrets in his jar, so he smiled and refused, “Xiaowu, if Aunt Mao saw you leave the duck and play by yourself, your ears would definitely suffer from pain. You just have to go back to take care of the duck! ”

Qian Wu touched her ears, pouted, and sat on the beach, feeling sad. He hit the water with a bamboo pole in his hand to vent his anger, which made the ducks run in all directions. Madam Mao looked at this scene and screamed, “Some bad boy stinks, I've told you to take care of the duck, don't chase away the duck! If the duck is too afraid to lay eggs, you can anticipate being hit! ”

Qian Wu touched his butt, and then reluctantly looked at the siblings who had walked far away. He let out a heavy sigh and resigned himself to his fate of caring for a duck.

Xiaocao chose a hidden area, put the cauldron into the water, and anxiously looked at the surface of the water. This jar is the place where Little Divine Stone often ‘mandi’. As such, it had accumulated a large amount of spiritual energy over time.

“Second Sister, quick look! Lots of little fish swimming! That was so amazing. What kind of bait do you have in the jar? It works really well! ” Little Shitou tried to hold the excitement in her voice and whispered.

His voice did not frighten the gathered hordes of fish. Instead, more and more small fish gathered due to the overflow of spiritual power. They all swam towards the mouth of the jar consecutively.

When Xiaocao placed the jar in the water, he only submerged a small part of the opening in the water. Although the fish had followed the spiritual energy, they were unable to enter the cauldron. Therefore, they excitedly flapped their tails and swam around the loggerhead.

The more fish gathered, the denser they surrounded the jar. Xiaocao raised the net in his hand and gently scooped to the place with the most fish. If it is like before, the fish has been scattered in various directions. However, they were attracted by the spiritual energy and ignored the threatening danger. They opened their mouths as if they wanted to absorb more pure energy.

Xiaocao slowly lifted the net in his hand from the bottom of the water. In the net of thirty centimeters in diameter there are dozens of small fish, including carp grass, carp crucian, and taper stomach. The larger one was about half a catty, while the smaller one was only the size of Little Shitou's palm.

“Wow! So many fish are caught in such a short time! Isn't that too easy! Second Brother, Second Brother! Let me try!” Little Shitou picked up the bucket and received the fish Xiaocao caught, and was eager to give it a try.

Xiaocao stuffed the net into the little guy's hand and laughed, “Moving slowly as you fished. I'll go bring another bucket. If we catch more fish, we will have something to sell tomorrow afternoon! ”

Little Shitou lifted the net enthusiastically and carefully stretched it towards the group of fish. He asked in a low voice, “Kakak, this fish has a lot of bones, so I was worried that people would find it difficult to eat. Maybe not sell! ”

“Do not worry. I have a plan!” Xiaocao looked at him with a gaze that read ‘trust’, then left with a smile.

When he returned again, more than half of the bucket was already filled with fish. The water in the bucket also came from the water vat, so there was also spiritual energy within it. So, the fish stay alive even though they are jostling in a tight spot.

The brothers managed to catch two buckets full of fish in less than two hours. At that time also appeared fish with a length of half a meter. Unfortunately, their nets were too small. They had caught the fish's tail, but the big fish had managed to escape with a swing of its tail. The brothers felt somewhat sorry, as they could eat extra food for dinner if they caught fish.

When they returned home, Yu Hai and Xiaolian had finished cleaning the pig's head and intestines. Madam Liu pointed to the rest of the pig blood pot and asked, “We don't know what to do with this, so we don't dare to touch it..”

Yu Hai, on the other hand, looked at the brothers amusedly and exclaimed, “Oh! There's quite a lot in the bucket! How many fish did you catch? Let me take a look. Are we eating it for dinner? ”

However, Little Shitou excitedly said, “We will not eat this fish ourselves. We sell! Second Brother said that he could solve the problem of fish that had too many bones! Dad, look, we caught a lot of fish! ”

Yu Hai went to look and saw that it was indeed true. He initially thought that the children would only play when they asked him to create a net for them to catch fish. He did not expect that they would bring back two buckets of fish two hours later. Looking at the densely packed fish heads in the bucket, there must be a lot in them.

“Oh! There's enough! How did you catch them? ” Yu Hai dumbfounded. Even if he was the one who threw the net, he still would not be able to catch that many fish in such a short amount of time. How do the kids do it?

Little Shitou quickly replied, “This is Second Brother! Second Brother made a new kind of bait that attracts all the fish. All we have to do is catch fish with a net on the beach! ”

Yu Hai looked at his youngest daughter with a complicated gaze. His daughter became more capable. As his father, he felt both proud and ashamed.

Xiaocao looked at the sky and said, “Why don't we clean the fish first? We might be able to rush to the dock and sell it before dinner! We can work the pig's head and intestines tonight! ”

The family worked together to scrape the gills, remove the intestines, and clean the fish. Little Shitou could not do this job, so he continuously took the water with a small basin and helped them clean the small fish with water.

Ha! They caught a lot of fish this time. There's a full bath! However, Xiaocao did not have time to rejoice about this. He marinated the fish that had been cleaned with salt.

“What's next?” Xiaolian finally had time to catch her breath and asked with a happy expression on her face.

“It needs to be cured for about thirty minutes, then we need to prepare it for frying!” Xiaocao smelled a fishy smell on his hands and rushed to clean them with water. After being busy all day, he felt a bit hungry. He dug out a hot roasted yam from under the stove, which was prepared especially for him every day.