The Lucky Farmgirl
Chapter 785 - 774: Fishing

Chapter 785: Chapter 774: Fishing

Manbao followed her brothers to the grave, where Old Zhou instructed Zhou Dalang and the others to dig a big hole at the side of Zhou Yin’s tomb. He then placed a box inside, filled it back up with dirt, and mounded fresh earth from nearby atop it, merging it seamlessly with the larger head of the grave.

Manbao watched in a daze and asked, "Dad, what did you put in Uncle’s grave?"

Old Zhou hushed her with a "shush," and looked around to see if anyone else was nearby. Finding they were alone for the moment, he said in a louder voice, "Oh, nothing much, just the belt you gave me last night."

Manbao was stunned and after a moment asked, "Dad, why bury it?"

"To show it to your Uncle, who knows, he might like it?" Anyway, it wasn’t so valuable, and he couldn’t wear it out even if he wanted to—it’s better given to a brother.

After scratching her head, Manbao looked at her dad and said, "Dad, you and Uncle were really close."

Zhou Dalang and Zhou Erlang finished tending to the grave and fell silent upon hearing Manbao’s words. It wasn’t their dad who was close to their little uncle, it was them, right?

But never mind, they knew the truth themselves. There was no need to broadcast it.

Manbao took out the meat and rice for the ancestral offering and set everything in order, while Zhou Sanlang lit a handful of incense, giving three sticks to Manbao. Everyone then solemnly bowed and paid their respects.

After Manbao had inserted the incense, she also knelt on the ground to kowtow. Old Zhou instructed from the side, "Kowtow a few extra times."

Just as she was about to rise, Manbao knelt again and kowtowed a few more times, "Dad, is that enough?"

Old Zhou, with a beaming smile, nodded, "Enough, enough."

Manbao, following her brothers and leading her nephews, kowtowed at the graves of all the nearby ancestors, and then waited for the ancestors to ’eat.’

Out of habit, Manbao plucked three sticks of incense from her grandfather’s grave and walked to another nearby grave. She offered incense and invited its occupant to join them for the meal.

This had been her custom ever since she could remember, each time they visited the graves.

The Zhou Family members squatting around the cemetery watched but did not tell Manbao that the person inside that grave had been moved next to theirs; they just let her go there to pay her respects.

After so many years of paying respects there, if she was suddenly not allowed to, the child would surely ask why, and Manbao was too smart...

On the first day of the New Year, people customarily paid homage to their ancestors, or climbed mountains to worship deities, or even burned incense beneath the banyan tree at the village entrance, though it was unclear who it was for.

When Manbao and her family returned home, breakfast was not yet ready, and many people were still in bed. She crouched by the front gate to clear her mind for a moment then headed to the riverbank to play with the water, no, to watch the water.

Picking up a random stick, she squatted by the river and began stirring the water idly.

Bai Shan arrived at the riverbank just in time to see her happily splashing in the water alone. He picked up a stone from the ground and tossed it over...

The splash of the stone wet Manbao’s face, and upon seeing that, Bai Shan burst into laughter.

Looking up to see him, Manbao couldn’t help but smile and called out across the river, "How did you get here?"

Bai Shan too squatted by the riverbank, picking up stones and tossing them into the water, then replied, "We just finished paying respects to our ancestors, and I found it stifling to stay at home so I came out for a walk."

On the first day of the New Year, it was not the custom to visit others’ homes, so walking around was pretty much the only option.

Manbao smiled and said, "Me too. Look, isn’t the water clearer in winter? I just saw several small fish swimming around."

Bai Shan peered into the water for a while before saying, "They’re too small, not good for eating. I wonder if there are bigger fish in the water channel? How about we go fishing this afternoon?"

"It’s the first day of the year, not good to go out."

Bai Shan said, "We’ll go quietly."

Going quietly was impossible because Daji would always be following behind Bai Shan.

Still, they didn’t stir up much attention; Bai Shan ran home to eat breakfast, then set out with a couple of fishing rods in hand.

Manbao found a small hoe and a small bamboo basket. The two met up by the river and, following its flow upstream, reached the main canal where they found a spot that looked moist enough and began digging for earthworms.

While digging, Manbao became somewhat puzzled, "Do all the fish in the river eat earthworms?"

Bai Shan said, "I guess so."

Manbao, "Then when earthworms burrow into pond mud, can fish also burrow in like earthworms do?"

Bai Shan, "They also eat vegetable leaves, aquatic plants, and mud, right? Otherwise, there wouldn’t be so many earthworms in the river for them to eat."

"If we can’t find any earthworms, can we catch fish with vegetable leaves?"

Bai Shan, "You can try."

Manbao said, "I’ll try later, but we’ve found some earthworms now."

Daji sat down cross-legged on a relatively clean patch of grass by the big ditch, bored to death, watching them crouching down and fussing about.

Once they had finally dug up enough earthworms, they found a spot that seemed to have lush aquatic plants and started fishing.

Manbao said, "My Fourth Brother said that where aquatic plants are lush, there are many fish, and they like to hide under the roots. But it’s hard to fish there, as you always snag the plants."

Bai Shan said indifferently, "No problem, we have lots of hooks back home. If one breaks off, we’ll just put on another one."

Feeling reassured, Manbao boldly began to fish in the water channel.

Fishing is a test of patience. The two found some dry grass to sit on and began to wait for the fish to bite.

Bai Shan asked her, "When are we going to pay a New Year’s visit to our teacher?"

"On the third day of the New Year, I guess. Is Bai Er going to his uncle’s house this year? If not, the fourth or fifth day is also fine."

"Let’s do it on the third day," he said. His relatives weren’t around, and he only needed to visit Bai Erlang’s family for the New Year’s greeting, so he wasn’t busy.

And every year, Manbao only visited the Qian Family, which was enough for one day.

The two sat by the water, shooting the breeze, and even though they got some bites throughout the day, they couldn’t reel the fish in.

They weren’t in a hurry, and when they got hungry, they simply packed up the fishing rods and headed home.

Daji, who had fallen asleep on the grass while basking in the sun, also got up from the ground and followed them dolefully.

He still preferred the days with the young master in Qili Village, idle and comfortable, yet not a waste of time.

Unlike in Yizhou City, where he seemed busy all the time but always felt like he hadn’t done anything by the end of the day.

Of course, Bai Shan and Manbao, who were still in the learning phase and wished they could split a quarter of an hour into two, couldn’t understand this feeling.

Carrying their empty small bamboo baskets home, they encountered villagers sitting and talking in the village and waved a greeting.

Someone glanced at their empty small bamboo basket and couldn’t help laughing, "Didn’t catch anything, right? The few remaining fish in our village are almost cunning enough to become spirits; they’re not easy to catch."

Manbao asked, "What about the dumb fish?"

"All caught before the New Year. Oh right, your family caught the most. Your Third Brother, along with your Fifth Brother, carried two buckets of fish home every day. What, didn’t they keep any salted fish for you?"

Keeping salted fish was out of the question. The fish that were brought back were mostly sold by Zhou Er at the market, and whatever wasn’t eaten by their family was turned into fish sauce by Junior Ms.Qian and sealed in pots.

Knowing that Manbao went fishing, Junior Ms.Qian thought she was craving fish and said, "Why didn’t you eat more last night? No one’s going to the market today. If you really want fish, I can have your oldest brother catch some by throwing a net in the river; maybe he’ll catch some."

Manbao shook her head, "It’s not that I want to eat fish; I just wanted to fish."

Then Junior Ms.Qian laughed and waved her hand, "So you were just bored. Go out and have fun. Tomorrow your older sister-in-law will take you to your uncle’s house."

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