Chapter 11 of 100

Chapter 11

18 min read4,376 words

"Reasonable, no matter what, it's good that Little Fish and Little Shrimp can write their own names..." Chen Ming'en didn't dwell on the issue of simplified versus traditional characters. He patted Little Fish and Little Shrimp's heads and nodded at the father and son of the Bo family.

"Grandpa! Grandpa! I can count now, up to thirty!" Bo Yu felt that the adults hadn't praised him enough, so he started reciting the multiplication table.

"Good! Good! This is the Nine-Nine Song, and you've recited it correctly!" Chen Ming'en felt that his godson hadn't disgraced him. In just half a day, he had taught the children so much; at least he wasn't just eating for free.

"Learning that is useless. We, the Tanka people, are good children if we catch more fish." Bo Fu seemed to be at odds with Hong Tao. He opposed whatever Hong Tao supported. At this moment, he was the one to dampen the mood, and even Bo Xiaoer and Bo Xiaosan felt a bit embarrassed.

"Azhu, let your grandpa see if this new Tanka boy is a good child. Let's go and lift the trap!" Hong Tao didn't dislike Bo Fu. Some old people are open-minded, and some are stubborn; this has nothing to do with whether they are good or bad. Instead of arguing with him, it was better to show him something practical. The trap had been in the water for the whole afternoon; there should be some harvest, right?

The small boat had a stone anchor, so even with the current, it didn't drift far. Hong Tao lifted the anchor, and Bo Zhu rowed vigorously, quickly finding the bamboo tube a few dozen meters away. Hong Tao leaned out from the boat and grabbed the bamboo tube, then began to pull it up slowly along the hemp rope. Although the three nets and a few bamboo braids didn't weigh much on land, they were very heavy in the water. At this point, he couldn't pull too hard; if the net got caught on a rock at the bottom, the hemp rope might break. This rope was much weaker than the nylon ropes of the future.

As a series of bubbles rose from the bottom of the sea, Hong Tao felt a slight lightness in his hands. The trap was lifted, and it was easier now. With a few more pulls, a black, cylindrical shape covered in seaweed emerged from the water!

"Clack... Clack... Clack..." With a series of dense thuds, Hong Tao's heart finally relaxed. Regardless of the number of fish, at least the first attempt wasn't a failure. The sound indicated that there were more than just a few fish in the trap. What was he waiting for? Pull!

"Fish, so many fish! Splash!" Bo Yu, standing at the bow, was quick to notice the abundance of fish in the trap even before it was fully out of the water. He jumped in without hesitation. Children by the sea can all swim, and Tanka children grow up in the sea. After diving, Bo Yu swam under the trap, pushing it up to ensure the rope and net were strong enough to prevent the fish from escaping.

"Don't pull... lift it in the water! It's too heavy, the net might tear!" At this point, Uncle Fu couldn't afford to argue with Hong Tao. The trap was almost out of the water, and inside was a mass of black and white, not just fish but also shrimp and crabs, all packed together. Hong Tao roughly estimated that there were about thirty fish, weighing around a hundred pounds. They weren't too large, but they weren't small either. A few large grouper made him almost drool; if he could steam them with some fermented black bean sauce...

Bo Zhu reacted quickly and jumped in almost simultaneously with Bo Yu. With Huang Lang, the three of them lifted the trap in the water while Hong Tao and Bo Xia pulled from the boat. Finally, they managed to bring the trap safely on board. In Hong Tao's view, the catch wasn't much; only one and a half of the eight compartments were full, roughly equivalent to a large bucket with a diameter of one meter and a height of 1.2 meters, holding about 140 to 150 pounds. However, the Bo, Huang, and Chen families were clearly delighted with the catch, showing that they rarely had such a good harvest. It was embarrassing for them to call themselves people of the water!

Was a modern fisherman, who had only fished for fun and never seriously fished, really better than professional fishermen in ancient times? Indeed, anyone who had interacted with professional fishermen from Baiyangdian, Henan, and Shandong would be a fishing master in ancient times. This wasn't because Hong Tao was particularly skilled, but because the fishermen of the future were incredibly adept at summarizing and inventing.

Hong Tao had seen them fishing in reservoirs many times and had bribed them with cigarettes and alcohol to buy fresh, wild, large fish weighing over ten pounds. He would cut them in half, freeze them in foam boxes with ice, and take them back to the city to have the chefs prepare fish head with pancakes. The taste was excellent, and no matter how skilled the chefs were, they couldn't replicate this flavor with fish bought from the market.

Besides buying fish, these fishermen would often chat and drink with Hong Tao after their work. As they became familiar, and with no serious conflicts, the topics of conversation naturally broadened. They would share both what they could and what they couldn't. Fishing techniques had reached their peak in the future, whether in the sea or freshwater reservoirs. If you dared to contract them, they could ensure that not a single fish, even as small as a palm, would remain in your reservoir, effectively clearing it out.

Many reservoirs in the 1990s fell victim to this. Thinking the fishing contract prices were reasonable, they contracted the work. After these people left, the reservoirs became dead water, and it took years to recover, even with restocking and water changes. They were that skilled!

They didn't use electricity or explosives, strictly adhering to the law. Their methods were the maze and the trap. For fishermen, catching mid-to-lower layer fish, especially carp, was challenging. Unlike grass carp and silver carp, which panic and swim around when they encounter a net, carp swim downstream, finding gaps between the net and the bottom to escape. This was especially true in northern mountain reservoirs.

Using traps of various sizes to catch bottom-dwelling fish was highly effective. Setting up a maze in the upper and middle layers and clearing it a few times left the reservoir almost fishless. If the mesh was small enough, even shrimp wouldn't remain. This wasn't Hong Tao's wisdom but the wisdom of generations of laborers. Whether this wisdom was good or bad, it was still wisdom. Hong Tao was merely standing on the shoulders of giants, borrowing their wisdom. Even if the Tanka people were more professional and specialized, they were still apprentices compared to Hong Tao, lacking thousands of years of accumulated experience.

"You're really amazing, even better than my grandpa!" When Bo Zhu was pulled back onto the boat by Hong Tao, she didn't even wipe the seawater from her face before giving him a sweet smile, showing her white teeth. At this moment, Hong Tao finally saw her figure. Her wet clothes clung to her body, and she was quite nice, barely passing the test.

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