Winter.

The first quarter moon rises early, and when the moon sets, the sky will dawn.

At this time, the Zhouzhuang water town was still immersed in the vast morning mist, and only a hazy outline of the water town could be seen.

The river bank was silent, and the cold wind was as cold as a knife.

In a nest of crows at the top of a dead treetop, jackdaws froze in their nests, occasionally making a crow, and the night was particularly harsh.

Su Chen stepped on a small bamboo raft, and his little red hands grasped a bamboo pole that was a foot long, swaying and floating in the water, sliding into the river.

On the bamboo raft behind him, there is a fishing basket made of bamboo strips, a bamboo fishing lantern, and a pair of fishing nets.

From time to time, the water splashed lightly on the raft, wetting his straw and rattan shoes, and the icy water soaked through the chill of the skull. The cold wind blew, and the thin and thin body suddenly shivered.

Su Chen is the child of a poor fisherman family in Zhouzhuang.

The fisherman's life is difficult, the boat tax of the Gusu County Ya is already very heavy, coupled with the extortion of the gangs in the rivers and lakes from time to time, like two heavy boulders, pressing the Su family up and down.

My father and mother went to the big lake to fish every day, leaving early and returning late, which was only enough for a family of five to barely make ends meet.

Su Chen is still a twelve-year-old slender boy, but he is already very mature and sensible, and he wants to take advantage of the dawn, an hour before dawn, to catch some fish and shrimp in the river and sell some copper coins to make up for the family.

When the bamboo raft reached the river, he plunged a long bamboo pole deep into the silt at the bottom of the river and anchored it.

Su Chen rubbed his little hands that were almost stiff vigorously to warm himself up. He rolled up his sackcloth sleeves, took out flint and hay from his arms, and struck it more than ten times before he finally ignited a hay.

He hurriedly lit the bamboo oil lamp on the raft with hay, carried it with a small stick, and placed it on the edge of the raft, close to the water.

The light of the bamboo oil lamp was extremely dim, but it was the only light in this hazy and silent river.

Fish and shrimp are phototropic and are easily attracted by open flames at night.

If you sprinkle a little fish food such as fish grass leaves, earthworms and nest fragments as bait, it will naturally attract more fish and shrimp to come and find food.

"Lights lure fish" This is a fisherman's skill for fishing at night, and it is also Su Chen's best fishing technique.

After Su Chen did this, he tightened his thin linen shirt, squatted on the cold and soaked bamboo raft, held a pair of fishing nets, and patiently waited for the fish in the river to come to feed.

There are a lot of small fish and shrimp in the river, but they are not worth a few dollars.

The big man went to the Ximen Wharf Market in Gusu County to sell, and the small fish and shrimp full of a large fishing basket were only exchanged for two or three copper coins, which was barely enough for the fishermen to eat for a busy day.

What is worth it is a large fish weighing several pounds.

There is a deep-water lake of hundreds of miles in Lou County, near Zhouzhuang Water Township, called Dianshan Lake, the lake surface is high and the waves are urgent, and it is rich in large crucian carp.

If you catch a two-pound fish, you can sell it for five copper coins.

However, it is something that only the nobles of the county town and the inn often eat.

The fishermen of Zhouzhuang are reluctant to eat the big fish they catch.

It is usually transported to Gusu County and sold for copper coins, which are used to pay the boat tax of the county government. With a little copper money left, I went to exchange it for rice, salt and oil cloth, barely maintaining the livelihood of the family.

In addition, there are three treasures in the big lake: "silver spine saury, alabaster, and red-tailed prawn".

Thinking of these three precious fish, Su Chen's heart was warm.

A rare silver spine saury weighing only half a catty is sold to the largest restaurant in Gusu County, "Tianying Inn", and can be sold for a staggering price of 500 copper coins, which is almost worth the fishermen salvaging a whole boat of fish.

Su Chen often went to the Sky Eagle Inn in the county town with the fishermen to sell fish, and met the little guy who worked at the Sky Eagle Inn, and after three years of going back and forth, the two teenagers became good brothers who talked about everything, so they were familiar with the market of the county fish market.

It's just that these precious fish species are extremely difficult to catch, and hundreds of fishing boats go down to the lake every day, and maybe one or two of them can catch one of the three treasures.

Even old fishermen with decades of experience find it difficult to catch silver-spine saury in a large deep-water lake with a huge fishing net of several zhang.

If any fisherman is lucky enough to catch one, he must show off to all the fishermen in Zhouzhuang, and everyone wants to boast and envy themselves.

Unfortunately, only fishermen in the prime of life dare to take fishing boats down to the big lake and cast large nets to fish.

Su Chen was still a teenager, his strength was weak, and he didn't dare to go down to the big lake, so he could only hold a small bamboo raft to catch fish in the calm river.

Although he was envious of these special rare fish, he did not dare to go to many methods.

Occasionally, you can catch large crucian carp swimming out of the lake in the small river.

It's just that the waterway leading from Zhouzhuang to Gusu County is a very busy river.

During the day, there are at least dozens of large and small merchant ships, and there are even hundreds of fishing boats, and the big fish in the river are easily frightened, and they will be frightened away by the big boats, and they will sink to the bottom of the river, and they will not be able to catch at all.

Only in the short hour of dawn, when there are almost no large boats coming and going, the big fish will not be frightened, and will float to the surface of the river to feed on the small insects that are floating on the river.

This is also Su Chen's only chance to catch large crucian carp.

...

Not long after, some small schools of fish were attracted by the fishing lanterns and appeared around the bamboo raft.

Su Chen endured the biting cold wind, squatted on the bamboo raft and waited patiently.

I was a little hungry, so I took out a cold and hard nest head from my arms, broke it in half, chewed it slowly, and padded my stomach. The remaining half was reluctant to eat, so I put it back in my arms and kept it.

What he wants to catch is not these small fish and shrimp that are worth a few pennies when they fill a large fishing basket, but big fish.

I don't know how long it took.

Suddenly, a silver light appeared in the river, like a smart silver thread swimming in the water, floating on the surface of the water to eat bait, and was illuminated by the light of the fire of the oil lamp hung on the bamboo raft, and the night was bright and moving.

It's a silver-spine saury!

Su Chen almost thought he was dazzled in an instant.

His dark and agile eyes stared motionlessly at the light and swaying silver thread in the river, his breath became short, and his heart thumped in disbelief.

The silver-ridged saury can only be seen occasionally in the depths of the large lake, and it is probably because of the lack of food in the large lake that it swims to the river to forage for food in the cold winter.

Look at this silver-spine saury, at least seven or eight taels of size!

Half a catty of silver-spine saury can be sold for 500 copper coins.

For every additional one or two, you can sell an extra hundred copper coins. This silver-ridged saury can be sold for a large price of seven or eight hundred copper coins, which is worth the money he earns from a year of hard work.

Su Chen's face turned red, and his heart was pounding.

His family was poor, and of course he knew what it meant to be such a precious silver-ridged saury.

If you catch this saury and sell it at a high price in an inn in Gusu County, you can exchange it for several large bags of snow-white rice noodles, rations, salt and new cloth.

It's the wax moon, and the New Year will be celebrated soon.

This year, you can eat a delicious meal of dried shrimp vegetarian dumplings, a large bowl of fragrant white rice, and no longer have to gnaw on the hard nest head.

I can also tear a few feet of cloth for my brother and sister to make two sets of new clothes for the New Year.

The extra copper money can even be used to pay the boat tax of the Gusu County Ya, which relieves some of the burden on the shoulders of the father.

Knowing that he was so capable, his father and mother must have smiled happily and touched his head and praised him fiercely.

With this silver-ridged saury, you will be able to have a good year with ease!

Su Chen hurriedly held his breath, his clear eyes shone with the golden light of copper coins, and a pair of small hands held the fish net calmly, and began to close the net extremely slowly.

"Silver Spine Saury", known as a flying knife in the water, is by no means in vain.

It is easily frightened, swims not extremely fast, cuts like a knife, and disappears in a flash.

Fishing for silver-ridged saury is a great test of a fisherman's skills.

The heart is calm, the breath is calm, the eyes are accurate, and the hands are fast!

Su Chen took a deep breath and slowly closed the net.

At this moment, a crow perched in a crow's nest in the treetop by the river somehow suddenly woke up and let out a terrible crow chirp.

"Ah~~——!"

Su Chen, who was engrossed, was taken aback, and the fishing net that was clung to by a pair of small hands couldn't help but tremble slightly, and a slight splash of water appeared on the surface of the river.

The silver-ridged saury in the river was suddenly frightened, and the tail of the fish flicked suddenly, and it jumped out of the edge of the fish net three or four feet away like lightning, and sank to the bottom of the river in the blink of an eye and disappeared.

Rotten!

The silver-ridged saury was scared away!

Su Chen was carrying an empty fish net with only a few small shrimps, and his body trembled with anger, and he wanted to cry.

It's all that bastard, foul-mouthed crow!

This is a silver spine saury weighing seven or eight taels, which is seven or eight hundred copper coins!

It's a pity that the call of the stinky mouth of the jackdaw is all gone!

The wish for a good year this year has also come to naught!

Su Chen's eyes were red, and he glared viciously at the crow's nest in the treetops by the river.

Annoyed, he slid over, picked up the long pole in his hand, and stabbed it at a nest of crows in the treetops.

"Stinky jackdaw, let you scream!"

The crow's nest was stabbed, and the jackdaw screamed in fright, but he pretended to be dead in the nest and didn't dare to show his head.

In the middle of the sound, Su Chen's arm was sore, and he sat on the bamboo raft in frustration.

The little red face that was frosted was full of dejected and disappointed looks.

Alas!

Su Chen also knew that this old jackdaw didn't understand anything, but he was awakened by the frost in the middle of the night and called out indiscriminately, and he didn't mean to harm him.

What are you angry with it!

Su Chen sighed, but instead looked at the crow's nest on the branch.

"I'm sorry, I shouldn't have been angry with you and stabbed your nest. It's freezing this day, and you're also freezing in the nest, so these shrimps should be treated as if I was going to accompany you. ”

Su Chen grabbed a handful of small fish and shrimp from the fishing basket, threw them under the roots of the old tree, and then continued to fish with a bamboo raft.

When he was far away, the jackdaw would naturally fly down the tree to eat.

The jackdaw called out a few times in protest, and shrank in the nest to continue to play dead.

An hour later, Su Chen finally filled a fishing basket with big fish and small shrimp.

After working for most of the night, although I didn't catch the rare silver-ridged saury, I also had some other harvests, and I caught a two-pound big crucian carp.

A large crucian carp in the Zhouzhuang market, you can exchange a large bundle of firewood with the woodcutter, and burn it for four or five nights in the winter night.

These five copper coins are not much, but as long as they are often fishing, they can also fill a little household by accumulating day and night, and my father and mother will like it.

Although the remaining small fish and shrimp in the fishing basket can't be sold for a few dollars, they can make a few bowls of fish soup for their younger brothers and sisters. If you can't finish eating, you can exchange some green vegetable leaves with the farmer in Zhouzhuang.

This winter has been difficult, and it has been more difficult than usual.

Su Chen filled a basket of fish, his immature face was more happy, and he rowed a bamboo raft to the house, thinking that after this New Year, his younger brothers and sisters will grow up a year or two, and there will be two more sensible babies at home to help them work, and life will always get better.