Walking to the edge of the ditch, Yu Songyuan chose a leeward place next to the dense bushes, then waved a shovel, shoveled away the thick snow, dug up the hard frozen soil, and dug a section, found twenty or thirty earthworms from the wet soil dug at the bottom, wrapped them in newspaper, and then filled the excavated soil.

Lin Xue said: "It turns out that the promotion line (northern Jiangsu dialect, earthworms) are all hiding underground for the winter." ”

Yu Songyuan explained, "The scientific name of the thread is earthworm. In winter, earthworms choose places where the soil is moist or near water sources, and burrow deep into warm places to hibern. No matter how cruel nature is, living beings always have a way to adapt to them. We are also living beings, so like them, there are always more solutions to problems than we encounter. ”

After digging the earthworm and preparing to go down the embankment next to the small bridge to the ice below the ditch, Lin Xue was a little hesitant and afraid. The ice is nearly two meters high from the bridge deck, and the river embankment is steep and covered with snow, making it difficult to walk. "Brother Yu, how are you going to go? I'll go around with the general. ”

Yu Songyuan handed her a fishing rod, and when he saw that it still didn't work, he directly picked her up like a child and let her sit on his left arm. Lin Xue screamed in fright, "Brother Yu, what are you doing?" ”

"Hold my neck. God, how can you weigh as much as a child, only a few dozen pounds. ”

"I'm less than fifteen years old, how much do you want me to weigh." Lin Xue was so frightened that she hugged Yu Songyuan's neck tightly.

Yu Songyuan hugged her with one hand, as light as holding Yu Xiaohong and other three little nieces. With a fishing rod in the other hand, he slid down the snow on the river embankment and slid onto the ice, which frightened Lin Xue and screamed "ah" again. When they got to the ice, Yu Songyuan put her down, and the two walked along the ice to the depths of the dense forest.

Walking about two or three hundred meters away, the ice surface here is open, the trees in the forest are towering into the clouds, the weeping willows on the side of the ditch and the reeds at the water's edge are shaking with the wind, and the catkins and reeds are flying all over the sky like snowflakes. "Wow, the scenery here is so good!" Lin Xue sighed.

"The scenery is everywhere, it's just that we are forced to make a living, we are running around, and we don't pay attention to it."

Yu Songyuan used a shovel to smash two large holes in the thick ice, then took out the earthworm, threaded it into the hook, and put it into the water. The hooks were made from red-hot sewing needles, the threads were broken from the nylon ropes that bound the sacks in the cafeteria, and the rods were cut from the vine willows that lined the embankment behind the dormitory.

After everything was done, he handed over a fishing rod to Lin Xue, took one himself, and the general ran east and west from time to time to listen, and made a thoughtful gesture. Lin Xue asked, "What is it going to do?" ”

Yu Songyuan said, "It used to be the king of this large river beach, and it must have found some treasure." So he said to the general, "Go, and start hunting!" When the general heard this, he quickly locked himself into the depths of the dense forest like an arrow.

"It's moving, it's moving!" Lin Xue suddenly exclaimed in surprise.

Yu Songyuan hurriedly helped her put away the fishing line, but as a result, the bait was gone, but the fish ran away. He wondered a little, this is winter, the water here is deep enough, there shouldn't be no fish, what's going on?

Lin Xue was very sad, Yu Songyuan put bait on her again, and encouraged her: "Don't worry, girl, fishing is not fish, it's patience." Then she gestured for her to put the pole on the ice and the person crouched next to her and watched.

Lin Xue was obedient and put her little hands in her pockets to keep warm. The two stopped talking, and from time to time, a fish floated its head out of the water to breathe, and it seemed that it was not afraid of people. Lin Xue was so nervous that her little face turned red, and Yu Songyuan whispered to her, "This is a frozen river, there is no oxygen underwater, the fish is raising their heads to breathe, and they are about to go fishing." ”

"You said that the lack of oxygen is serious, will the fish die?"

"Yes. But it won't be so serious here, because it's connected to the Guan River, and the water is flowing. ”

"When the tide is low, the water level must be lower than the ice surface, will the ice not be able to support people, will we fall?"

"At first, it was, when the ice was thin. Not now, the ice is too thick, you see, it's almost seven or eight centimeters thick. Don't talk about people, even if it's a hand-held tractor, it can't fall. ”

Lin Xue hesitated for a moment, then mustered up the courage to ask him, "Brother Yu, this scarf is too delicately woven, who knitted it for you." ”

Yu Songyuan was just about to speak, when he found that his float shook suddenly, then xiangxia sank, floated again, and then slammed xiangxia down. He hurriedly tightened the fishing line, sometimes loosening and sometimes tightening, gradually retracting his strength, and finally with a "hula" sound, he dragged a big fish out of the water and smashed it heavily on the far ice. The fish jumped on the snow and ice, and soon only its tail struggled, and in a moment it was all frozen.

Lin Xue ran to the side of the fish and exclaimed, "Wow, my God, you can really catch a fish, and you can weigh one or two pounds." Yu Songyuan took off the hook, put the bait again, and then put it into the water.

Lin Xue ran back to her fishing rod and suddenly exclaimed, "It's moving, it's moving!" "The float has been jerked into the water. Yu Songyuan hurriedly ran over and helped her close the line together. "Do you want to put it?" Seeing that Yu Song was far away and put it away, she asked puzzledly.

Yu Songyuan said, "This fish is not small, strong, vigorous, can't fight hard, play with it slowly, and when it is bored, drag it up." After about half an hour, he finally dragged a very huge black fish out of the water with a "hula" sound, and with a "bang", it fell heavily on the ice seven or eight meters away from the entrance of the cave, jumping and struggling over and over again.

"Oh my God, it turned out to be a big mullet (Northern Jiangsu dialect, black fish), more than seven or eight catties!" Lin Xue dropped the fishing rod and ran to jump with the big fish, and the laughter like silver bells echoed on the surface of the river. Yu Songyuan was also shocked, no wonder the fish didn't take the bait for a long time, this thing was watching from below, how could other fish dare to be here.

"Come back, girl, it's easy for the fish to take the bait now!" Sure enough, next, they caught five or six saury fish one after another, most of which weighed more than half a catty.

In winter, it gets dark early, and in the jungle it gets dark even earlier. By this time, it was late and the light had dimmed. Lin Xue looked at the dark dense forest, listening to the neighing sound and the strange barks of wild dogs and wild cats coming from time to time in the forest, Lala Yu Songyuan's sleeves said timidly, "It's a lot, let's go back and eat, it's strange and scary here." ”

Yu Songyuan cleaned up a few smaller fish in the water at the entrance of the cave, and threw all the internal organs and the remaining bait into the water for the fish to eat, and said, "I and the general are here, what are you afraid of?" ”

As he spoke, let Lin Xue hold the fishing tackle, he carried a pile of fish dressed in dry reeds in one hand, picked her up with the other hand, and climbed up the high ditch with difficulty. Then he put her down and walked about ten meters into the dense forest together, and a large clearing appeared in front of them.

"Why are you so familiar that you come here to fish so often?"

"The cram school time is too tight, and I don't come often, but I've fished two or three times."

Yu Songyuan shoveled aside the snow in the middle of the clearing, and then said to Lin Xue, "You watch the fish here, go to the toilet if you are suffocated, just don't let the wild cats steal the fish to eat, I'll go to the forest to collect firewood." So saying, he plunged headlong into the dense forest.

Lin Xue was indeed a little suffocated for a long time, and she didn't dare to urinate if she wanted to. Suddenly, he heard the loud sound of breaking thick branches in the forest, and he became bolder, and immediately stripped and urinated. After going to the toilet, he saw that Yu Songyuan was still folding dry branches in the woods, so he squatted nervously next to the fish with his hands on his hands.

After a while, Yu Songyuan took out a large bundle of dry branches. "So much?" Lin Xue asked in surprise.

"Don't be stupid, don't you, this is a large area of pristine dense forest, and the richest and most indispensable thing is dry branches." As soon as the bonfire was lit, the general also came back with a big gray wild goose in his mouth with his head held high.

Throwing it to the ground by the fire, he looked at the two of them with his head held high, and his tail shook vigorously, and his momentum was like a victorious general, majestic in all directions. Yu Songyuan touched its big head to show affirmation. Lin Xue excitedly hugged the general's neck and fought with the general on the thick snow.

He quickly cleaned up the goose, and the goose feathers were piled on an old newspaper and carefully wrapped and set aside. The bonfire was blazing, and Yu Songyuan kept putting thick wood inside. "Brother Yu, why don't you bake it, how much Lang Fei?"

"It's not time yet. Outdoor barbecue is particular and cannot be grilled over an open flame. Otherwise, the fish will not only be burned black, but the meat will also smell of smoke, and the taste will not be beautiful. ”

"How do you know everything?" Lin Xue asked curiously. Yu Songyuan didn't answer her, and only after the open fire had passed, did he use a wooden stick to set up a shelf on a large pile of red charcoal, and put the largest big red fish and a big fat goose weighing more than three catties into the wooden sticks and put them on the shelf to roast.

Seeing that the light was dimming and Lin Xue looked scared again, Yu Songyuan lit a bonfire next to the charcoal fire, illuminating the glade as if it were day.

After a while, the fish and the goose began to "coo" and began to bubble oil, and Yu Songyuan sprinkled salt and various condiments on it from time to time, and then evenly spread lard on the fish. For a while, the fragrance in the dense forest was overflowing, and the general tilted his head, so greedy that he pursed his lips from time to time, circled around the bonfire, and kept swallowing saliva.

Around the open space, fluorescent lights flickered, and from time to time there were cats and dogs and other animals watching, but they just didn't dare to come forward. Lin Xue exclaimed: "Brother Yu, how much does it cost to eat this in a restaurant?" ”

"I've read in books that rich foreign people often eat like this, and it's the most nutritious."

It was too hot by the campfire, Lin Xue untied her scarf, and asked as if she was very casual, "Your scarf is so good, it's so warm." ”

"The scarf was knitted by my aunt Yu Yueyue, and she is skillful. Warm you around, I don't need it at all, I haven't surrounded it once. The goose feathers are first scalded with hot water tomorrow, and then dried, and you make a small pillow, or mix it into a quilt, and warm it. ”

Lin Xue couldn't put it down, "Okay, then I'll surround you first, and I'll pay you back later." Yu Songyuan told her about the "glorious" deeds of himself and several sworn friends in his hometown, and also talked about the majesty of his parents, aunts and teachers Chen, and the love of professors, Yu Yueyue and Wang Feng for their brothers.

Lin Xue sighed, "It's so happy to have such a big family and so many people who love each other." You'll be able to meet them during the winter break. ”

Yu Songyuan said, "It's very strange this year, they all participate in activities organized by the school, engage in work-study and social practice, and they don't come back during the winter vacation and next year's summer vacation." ”

The meat is cooked, and the most greedy is the general, who looks impatient.

Yu Songyuan used a knife to cut off the fish and goose meat, and the three of them ate happily. The goose weighed five or six pounds, and a third of the fish was left, and the goose only ate a part, and both of them were full. The general also retreated again and again, saying that he really couldn't eat anymore, which was by no means polite.

Lin Xue said: "Sure enough, there is no smell of smoke at all." Brother Yu, this fish is grilled like this, it is even better than what you make at home, what do you put on it? ”

Yu Songyuan said: "It's lard." My aunt Yu Yueyue gave me more than two catties this time, and you can put a little bit of fried barley picker rice and stir-fry vegetables in the future. ”

After eating the barbecue, it was already late at night. Yu Songyuan gathered the uneaten meat and other loot together, first completely suppressed the embers with snow, and then took Lin Xue and the general back to the dormitory with great interest.