According to the habits of previous years, Tiancheng went to Binhu Town early in the morning to buy two big red roosters and two carps, which is the most basic gift to see his father-in-law during the Mid-Autumn Festival every year, and the other matches are all kinds of snacks purchased temporarily on the way to his father-in-law's house, which is already a high-standard gift in the eyes of rural people.

The words are divided into two ends, on the one hand, Tiancheng's father-in-law is preparing a rich gift, and on the other hand, Lao Mu is worried about visiting relatives. As Tiancheng estimated, although the old Mu family has not yet reached the point where they can't open the pot, they actually don't even have the money to buy oil.

At this time, Lao Mu, who was in distress, did not know how to pass this traditional festival of Chinese family reunion.

As soon as the sky was bright, Lao Mu and Mu Bao had not yet gotten up, Mu Yan carried a bucket, followed behind her mother Xiuhua, who was holding a long bamboo pole, and walked towards the west of the village.

Out of the village, the two women exchanged glances, still did not speak, and silently went straight to the stream outside the village. This stream is connected to hundreds of acres of land in Xiaowangzhuang Village at one end, and the other end is connected with the Xiaoqing River a few miles away, so naturally all kinds of wild freshwater fish are indispensable.

Because it was still early, few people in the village got up, and those insects who were afraid of the cold did not know where to hide for warmth, and could not hear any sound, and the fields were quiet, and there was still some distance from the stream, and there was a special smell faintly, which made people's nostrils uncomfortable, and the closer they were to the stream, the stronger the smell became, and both of them understood that this was due to the smell of polluted water caused by the village of water.

When Xiuhua and Mu Yan stood by the stream, the thin mist rising from the water surface was like a light veil covering the water surface of the stream, making people feel like entering a fairyland.

The dew drops on the leaves of the various weeds by the brook hung densely on the tips of the leaves like a light rain, and they stepped on them, and within a few steps they wet their shoes, but the two of them ignored them and moved forward slowly. In particular, Xiuhua stretched her neck, as if she was looking for something important along the stream, and when she saw something she was looking for, as if she had found a treasure, her eyes widened, and she stretched out the long bamboo pole in her hand, and slowly approached a piece of bamboo that sank in the water, and then slowly picked it up, it was a cage made of fine nylon thread and supported by several pieces of bamboo, according to the man who sold the cage, it was called a barrage, a simple fishing gear. When she found that there was nothing in the barricade, Xiuhua shook her head helplessly, and then slowly lowered the barrage into the water.

Several blocks in a row were nothing, Xiuhua and Mu Yan were a little disappointed, just when the two of them felt at a loss, a block placed at the drainage ditch, but Xiuhua couldn't pick it up no matter what, Xiuhua looked back at Mu Yan, as if to say, this designation caught a big fish. Mu Yan said softly: "Looking at the black press, it's a lot!"

"You're watching from above, I'll go down and lift it!" Xiuhua finished speaking, threw the bamboo pole to the side of the stream, rolled up her trouser legs, and did not take off her shoes, slowly sliding into the water along the mud by the stream, the sewage soaked Xiuhua's shoes, Xiuhua couldn't care so much, as she slid down, the water soaked past her knees, Xiuhua still didn't stop, when the sewage soaked into her thighs, not only shivered, but shouted softly: "It's so cold!"

It wasn't until the sewage soaked Xiuhua's waist that she stopped when she successfully mentioned the barrage, the upper part of the barrage had been raised to the surface of the water, because there were too many fish in it, but she didn't dare to raise the surface of the water easily, for fear of breaking the bamboo pieces below, she could only drag the barricade with one hand, and grab the reeds by the stream with the other hand, and slowly dragged the barrage soaked in the water to the side of the stream, until she dragged it to the side of the stream, freed up each hand to hold the end of the barricade, and gently lifted it, and the crucian carp in it filled half of the cage, and she had not yet raised the water surface, and the fish in the barrage splashed Xiuhua's face。 Xiuhua wiped a handful of water from her face with her hands and shouted to Mu Yan: "Quick, quickly throw the bucket to me!"

Mu Yan gently put the bucket down along the side of the stream, the bucket was impartial, just rolled down Xiuhua's legs, stopped, Xiuhua put the bucket in the mud nest by the stream, and then opened the barricade that was pulled by a bamboo stick from the side of the barrage, held it up with both hands, and poured the barricade against the bucket.

Mu Yan slapped her hands with joy on the shore and shouted, "Great!"

"Be quiet, don't let anyone hear it!" Xiuhua reminded.

Mu Yan immediately closed her mouth, looked left and right, and whispered, "No one is coming!"

Xiuhua handed the bucket to Mu Yan who was standing on the shore, and then pinned the barrier and put it back again.

Xiuhua, who went ashore, didn't care about wringing the water on her wet clothes, so she picked up the bamboo pole and continued to look at the back of the creek to see a few barricades, and the other few except for a few crucian carp caught individually, most of them were nothing, Xiuhua picked up a few barricades that had not caught a fish, and put them next to the barrage that had just caught a fish, and then the two women carried buckets around the main road in the village, and from the path behind the village, they quietly returned home like thieves, Xiuhua hurriedly changed into dry clothes, and then fished up a few medium crucian carp from the bucket, and confessed to Mu Yan: " You soak these in clean water for a while, then kill them and stew them, and I'll sell the rest in town!"

Mu Yan agreed, and went into the kitchen, washed the pot on the ground, and prepared to make breakfast. Xiuhua picked up the bucket and walked quickly in the direction of Binhu Town.

On the third pole in the day, Lao Mu and Mu Bao came back from school, and when they saw Mu Yan who was serving rice in the kitchen, Lao Mu asked, "Where is your mother?"

Before Mu Yan could answer, the greedy Mu Bao ran into the kitchen and shouted loudly: "Sister, where did you get the fish, it's so fragrant!"

Mu Yan whispered to Lao Mu who followed up: "This morning, my mother and I went to see the stop last night, and we caught almost a bucket of water, I cooked at home, and my mother went to the town to sell fish!"

When Lao Mu heard this, his heart sank and he didn't make a sound.

"You can't mention to others the fish we caught, we will catch more tomorrow, you tell people, we won't be able to eat fish!" Mu Yan said solemnly to Mu Bao.

Mu Bao nodded as if he didn't understand.

Then Mu Yan said to Lao Mu: "Yesterday morning, when my mother went to work in the field, she saw that there were fish floating in the irrigation ditch in the west of the village because of the water, so I went to the market in the morning to buy ten blocks, and put them in the irrigation ditch in the afternoon. ”

While the three of them were talking, Xiuhua came back with an empty bucket.

"How much did it cost?" asked Lao Mu with a puzzled face.

"It's less than twenty catties of fish in total, and it was sold for five yuan and a dime!" Xiuhua finished speaking, looked at the stewed fish on the table, her face was full of joy, and then continued: " I specifically found the person who sold me tomorrow and asked why I caught all the grass carp (crucian carp dialect), but the man told me that if you want to catch the fire head (the dialect of the mullet), you have to go deeper, and also said that you have to go down to the place where the water and sewage meet, so that you can catch more, no wonder there were so many yesterday, and this one stopped a lot?"

Mu Yan and Mu Bao listened to it very fascinated, as if they were excited to eat fresher and better mullet tomorrow.

"Then how did you know that there were fish there?" Lao Mu was a little puzzled, Xiuhua was not from the lake, and she rarely saw her catch fish, so how did she find out that there were fish there?

"Besides, I have been working in the field for the past two days, and every time I noticed a floating fish coming up, I went to ask the seller what he told me!" Xiuhua said a little proudly.

"Then we'll definitely catch more fish tomorrow!" Mu Yan said.

"That's appointed, but keep this secret, otherwise everyone will know about it, and we won't have any fish to catch!" Xiuhua smiled.

The whole family tasted this fish feast and immersed themselves in a unique happiness.