This time, the fishing net Wang An took was a fine-mesh net. By "fine-mesh," it meant the holes in the net were quite small, ensuring that even small fish wouldn't slip through.
The reason he used this kind of net was that Wang An felt it was too troublesome to fillet fish every day to feed the two eagles and two vultures; it would be much simpler to just feed them small fry.
The key issue was that every time he killed fish, his hands ended up covered in blood and smelling fishy. Worst of all, that fishy stench wouldn't wash off easily.
Soon, Wang An arrived at the riverbank. He found two suitable spots and threw in the chum.
After throwing the chum, Wang An didn't stay idle. Instead, he ran to a section upstream, a fair distance from the chummed spots, to practice casting the net.
The reason he chose upstream rather than downstream was that the scent of the bait drifted with the current. Therefore, the fish gathering in the chummed spots mostly swam up from downstream.
If he cast the net downstream, he would startle the fish trying to come for the food.
Once fish are spooked, they scatter wildly and won't settle down for a while.
Casting a net is definitely a genuine technical skill. Wang An cast it several times in a row, but the net either came out in a strip or sank into the water like a ball.
His movements were clearly similar to Wang Dazhu's, yet the net simply wouldn't open. There was nothing he could do.
Fortunately, Wang An had one great quality: the less he knew how to do something, the more he wanted to learn it.
He practiced again and again, casting the net over and over.
Finally, hard work paid off. After an hour in the water, Wang An finally mastered casting the net.
By this time, Wang An was soaked. Of course, during that hour, he had also netted quite a few small雜 fish.
A few bleak, some gudgeon, some rasbora, and a few small crucian carp... and so on. In any case, they were all small fry, totaling less than two pounds.
Normally, Wang An wouldn't want a single one of these small fish, but now, he didn't throw any away.
He quickly dug a small hole with his hand, scooped some water into it, and kept the small fish alive there.
Feeling that the chummed spots had been seasoned enough, Wang An walked toward the bank where the two spots were located.
As he cast the net, a surge of surprise instantly hit Wang An's heart because the net felt very heavy; there was definitely a big catch.
Wang An tightened the rope, releasing the excess line from his hand as he walked toward the horse carriage.
With it being this dead-heavy, there was no way Wang An could pull it out by himself.
Tying the rope to the rear beam of the carriage, Wang An shouted loudly to the horse
"Giddy-up!"
Da'er the horse pawed the ground with its front legs and kicked back with its hind legs, causing the hemp rope on the fishing net to creak under the tension.
Soon, under Da'er's strength, the fishing net was finally dragged out.
Wang An called Da'er to a stop and quickly turned and walked toward the net by the river.
However, the sight before him made Wang An freeze for a moment before his face broke into a surprised smile.
Of course, he was surprised, but it wasn't exactly wild ecstasy.
Because in the net, besides fish, there were two "bastard turtles"—properly large "bastard turtles."
Of course, "bastard turtle" (wangba duzi) was one of the local ways of calling them; many people just called them "wangba."
These creatures are commonly known as soft-shell turtles, round fish, or foot fish, though in many places they are called "bie."
In the Northeast of this era, and indeed across all of China, these were relatively common.
Of course, in later generations, they would rely almost entirely on farming. Although their vitality was tenacious—earning them the name "thousand-year turtle"—they actually had very high requirements for water quality.
These two turtles were truly not small; by eye, they were over forty centimeters long.
When he pried them out of the net, they tried to bite Wang An, but fortunately, they missed.
Just as Wang An was pondering how to eat these two turtles tonight, he suddenly remembered a very serious and well-known fact.
That was that no matter how they were cooked, or how delicious they tasted, Mu Xueqing could not eat them!
Because while they were highly nourishing, if Mu Xueqing ate them, barring any special circumstances, there was an eighty or ninety percent chance the baby in her belly wouldn't be saved.
However, having managed to net such large "bastard turtles," it was impossible to just release them.
After thinking it over for a long time, Wang An finally decided to simply give the two "bastard turtles" away.
Otherwise, if the whole family ate while Mu Xueqing just watched, that would be a damn cruel thing to do.
Besides, that wasn't the style of the Wang family!
After picking all the fish out of that net, Wang An took the net and led the horse toward the second spot.
Casting the net once more, when Wang An used Da'er's strength to drag the net out, something miraculous happened.
Because in this net, there were also "bastard turtles."
And again, there were two. Although they looked slightly smaller than the previous two, there wasn't much difference.
Wang An looked at these two bastard turtles and was completely dumbfounded!
The main thing was that while these creatures existed in every slightly larger river or lake in Heilongjiang Province, catching them with a net was truly not an easy feat.
Normally, turtles stay at the bottom of the water, clinging to the bed.
Therefore, many times, even if they were covered by a net, they were merely covered; they couldn't actually be pulled into the net.
He really couldn't figure out just how hungry these turtles were to actually crawl into a fish chum spot.
Thus, after casting two nets at each of the two spots, Wang An loaded all the fish onto the carriage and drove home.
Aside from the four "bastard turtles," the other fish caught this time were quite a few.
Of course, common fish like carp, grass carp, and catfish were the most numerous.
However, because he used a fine-mesh net this time, many loaches were also caught.
In this era, loaches weren't just in rivers; they were in any random small creek or water puddle in the fields.
If one was stingy with the oil when cooking them, they were very unpleasant to eat, but as long as there was plenty of oil, they were exceptionally delicious.
Of course, almost all fish shared this trait: without oil, they were neither filling nor tasty.
Therefore, although loaches were everywhere, almost no one bothered to catch them.
When Wang An arrived home, Wang Dazhu and Liu Guilan had also returned from farming.
Wang Dali's couple and Shen Wei had not yet returned; they were currently mixing pesticides into seeds.
On a whim, Wang An gave one turtle to each of these two families.
(End of Chapter)