Chapter 61: The Old Man Tending Sheep
"Don't swim far, just flutter and flutter on the shore." Hong Tao gave another command, and then began to swim along the shore at a distance of more than ten meters.
"Don't be long-winded, you." Wang Jian was very dissatisfied with Hong Tao's attitude of treating him as a child, although he knew that this was for his own good, but he still complained twice.
Hong Tao has grown up on the shore of Houhai since he was a child, and he almost grows in the water every summer, and the water nature is very good. But he remembered the old saying: whoever drowns knows how to water.
In natural waters, since you don't know what is going on underwater, it's best not to swim into deep water easily, and it's not a swimming competition, just to cool off, and there's no need to lose your life for show.
"Hey, Hong Tao, your idea is really interesting, eat when you're hungry, play when you're awake, sleep when you're tired, go into the water when you're hot, this place is quiet, the water is very clean, it's really enjoyable." After swimming for a while, the three people climbed up and sat under the canopy, not even wiping the water on their bodies, lying on the recliner drinking hot tea and smoking a small cigarette.
"Brother Yang, it's beautiful at night, if it's a sunny day, you can clearly see the Milky Way, and there are so many stars in the sky that you can look at you." Hong Tao recalled the good times in his previous life and said with emotion.
"I don't even want to go home, so I just want to stay here for a summer, I have a headache when I think of so many cars and people in the city." Wang Jianjian slipped out of the chaise longue and stretched out his arms and legs, feeling the movement of the wind blowing over his body.
"Don't do that, when the time comes, my sister-in-law will run away with someone else, ha Hong Tao spoke very quickly.
"!" Wang Jian threw the empty beer can at Hong Tao, but his body was still lying on the recliner, too lazy to move.
This afternoon, the sea rod only moved twice, on a 3 or 4 catties of grass carp, a more than 1 catty of large crucian carp, Yang Ke and Wang Jian's hand rod is frequently caught in the fish, the big crucian carp caught more than 10. However, Hong Tao is not in a hurry, fishing in the reservoir, especially playing with a sea rod, the first 1 or 2 days of the whiteboard is normal, because the density of fish in the reservoir is low, even if your nest tastes good, you have to give the fish a discovery process, generally after 1 or 2 days of migration, there will be gradually fish into the nest to feed.
At more than 4 o'clock in the afternoon, the tall fat man came out of the tent, he slept enough, patted his big belly and coaxed Wang Jian off the fishing position, sat on his own ass, picked up Wang Jian's hand rod and began to enjoy it.
"Yo, uncle, these sheep belong to your family?" Hong Tao, who was sitting under the canopy, suddenly heard movement behind the tent, and walked over to see that more than a dozen goats were gnawing on the grass on the river beach, and an old man who couldn't tell how old he was walking over with a wooden stick.
"Well, it's all from my family, what are you doing here?" The old man's accent was quite strong, but Hong Tao could still understand it.
"Fishing, come here to have fun on vacation, don't get in the way." Hong Tao handed the old man a cigarette.
"Fishing? Whoever spends this effort, you go to the village and shout, let the old Zhang family give you a net, and you won't be able to charge much money. The old man thrust the wooden stick into the ground, then took Hong Tao's cigarette, and squatted directly on the ground without sitting on a chair.
"Hahaha, we're mainly playing, it doesn't matter if the fish is not fishing." Hong Tao had seen this uncle in his previous life, when he was in his 80s and raised a lot more sheep than now. He still drove the sheep up the hillside to graze in the early hours of the morning, then followed the sheep to the water to drink and rest at noon, and then drove the sheep back in the afternoon. Just rely on these dozens of sheep to sell some money every year to feed these 1 stupid son and a little grandson.
The old man also met Hong Tao and a few of them on the edge of the reservoir, and the old man liked to chat with people very much, because he stayed in the mountains with the sheep all day long, and no one talked to him. Hong Tao clearly remembered that due to the bad weather, he didn't catch the fish at that time, so Hong Tao chatted with the old man for a while, and then drove the sheep away silently. More than an hour later, the old man came back alone, holding a handful of green onions and some fresh celery still stained with mud.
It turned out that when chatting with Hong Tao, the old man heard Hong Tao and they inadvertently said that they forgot to sell green onions when buying vegetables, and as a result, they walked back and forth 5 miles of mountain roads, and picked some green onions and vegetables from the land at home and sent them over, the reason is that Hong Tao chatted with him for a while, so that the old man who had no one to talk to all day long felt some happiness, what a simple person!
"What's there to play about, your little room is good, blocking the sun and the wind and rain, how much does this one cost?" The old man pointed to Hong Tao's tent.
"This one needs more than 2,000." Hong Tao casually said a number, not to mention that there is no place to buy this tent, the price is absolutely high.
"Good fellow, it's not good to be on top of my flock." As soon as the old man heard the price, what was good just now immediately turned into bad.
"Uncle, are you from this village?" Hong Tao pointed to the village he had just passed by.
"No, I'm over there, not far." The old man pointed to the southwest, and estimated that he would not be far away, but also a few miles, and it was a straight line distance.
"Oh, do you have any chickens in your village, we want to buy some eggs to take back to the city, the eggs laid by the chickens raised in our village are delicious." Hong Tao remembered that when he first came here to play in his previous life, he also bought eggs in the village, when Xiao Zhang, who opened a farmhouse, personally took him and knocked on the door from door to door, this family made up 5, that family took 4, and only got 8 catties of eggs after the last time, that is the real chai egg, called stupid egg in Beijing.
"Then what can you eat, how much do you want, I'll ask my son to bring it to you tomorrow." The old man was very dismissive of what the people in the city thought.
"Come to ten pounds and twenty pounds, it's all done."
"So much? I don't have so many in my house, there is a big market in the town the day after tomorrow, if you don't leave, you can go to the town to buy it. As soon as the old man heard that Hong Tao wanted so many eggs, he was in trouble, so he didn't think about buying some eggs from the big market and sending them to sell at a high price.
"We don't leave, but we can't do without people here, you go to the village to help me collect some points, how much is counted, how much is sold on the big market, I will give you more." Hong Tao half wants to buy eggs, and half still wants the old man to make some money, although it is not much, but it is better than nothing, this kind of easy thing to help people, do not do it in vain.
"That, I'll ask my son to send it over tomorrow, don't give him the money, I'll get it next day, he's not very easy to use, stupid." The old man pointed to his head, meaning that his son was a little stupid.
"No problem, you live a good life at home, and I'll calculate the money for you when the time comes."
Hong Tao poured a cup of tea for the old man, chatted with the old man, asked about the local landscape, asked about the customs and customs around here, and stayed anyway, and he was not tired of saying a few more words.
Just when the two people were chatting, a sea rod suddenly pointed low, the bell rang loudly, Hong Tao ran over to lift the rod to stab the fish, slipped for a while, it was a carp of more than 5 catties, after copying it with a net, Hong Tao directly gave the fish to the old man, the old man grew at this water's edge, it is estimated that there is no shortage of fish to eat, but he was still very happy, put the fish on the iron tip of his wooden stick, and happily drove the sheep home, at this time it was almost 6 o'clock in the afternoon, it was time for dinner.
In the evening, according to Gao Fatzi's words, he personally cooked, made two hard dishes from the stewed pork ribs and elbows, and then made two cold dishes, surrounded the table, turned on the generator, hung two 100-watt large light bulbs on the two corners of the canopy, and started the first dinner of the fishing trip in Yishui Lake.
Eating, drinking, chatting, teasing, a meal from 7 o'clock to 10 o'clock, the brothers were a little drunk, 4 people dried 2 bottles of two pots, and beer cans were thrown to the ground. After a tiring day, everyone didn't even clean up the table, so they staggered into the tent, climbed into bed, and soon snored and fell asleep.
After a night of silence, Hong Tao woke up on time at half past four the next morning, which is the time when the sky has just turned white, and it is also one of the two easiest stages of summer to catch fish. He had to row before 5 o'clock to make up some nests and wait for the fish to be caught.
Fishing in the reservoir is not always the time of day, early morning and evening are the two most active time for fish, generally from 5 to 9 in the morning and 5 to 9 in the afternoon. During these two time periods, not only is the frequency of catching fish high, but the chance of catching big fish is also great.