They dropped the fish and prawns they had caught into the basket. Chen Goudan thought for a moment, then ran over to Gu Qingyao. “Elder Sister Gu, may I put my catch with yours?”
If they joined Gu Qingyao and the others, he and his younger sister might get a bite or two. If they brought their catch home, he would not even get a taste of it.
He was not afraid of hard work, but he could not bear to see his sister go hungry like him.
Gu Qingyao glanced at him. “Aren’t you scared of getting a beating when you get home?”
Chen Goudan pursed his lips. “It doesn’t matter. I want my sister to have something to eat. She hasn’t eaten all day.”
Gu Qingyao looked at the six-year-old girl who was standing nearby. She was a scrawny little thing, wearing an adult’s jacket and barefoot.
Gu Qingyao felt a little sad. “Alright, you can put your catch with ours. We’re eating with the Mo family tonight.”
Chen Goudan smiled. “Thank you, Elder Sister Gu.”
He ran back to the reservoir to fish. When he was done, he placed his catch in the baskets belonging to Mo Beihan and the others.
Chen Honghua was furious when she saw this. But it was Mo Beihan. She did not want to give him a bad impression.
After a while, Mo Beihan came over and said, “Do you want some big fish? I can go upstream and catch some big ones.”
Gu Qingyao glanced upstream. Today, the water was overflowing from the reservoir, bringing with it many fish and prawns. At first, the people had not dared to fish privately because the fish belonged to the brigades, and were common property.
They only dared to bring their children and scoop up some small ones from the depression downstream. But now that the leaders of both brigades had said that everyone was allowed to fish, they could not bear to watch the fish being washed away like that. So once they heard the news, all of them hurried to go fishing.
Gu Qingyao looked at the small fish in her creel and said, “Go catch some big ones then! We have enough small ones!”
They ran upstream and caught a dozen big fish before returning to the Mo house.
The Mos lived in the Southern Lake Brigade. Unlike the Gu Family, they did not live alone on the mountain. The Mo Family’s class status was fine, and they lived in the village.
Mo Beihan’s mother, Jiang Yingqiu, was the leader of the Southern Lake Brigade. Their family was relatively well off, but Mo Beihan’s father had left many years ago and his elder brother had made the ultimate sacrifice. The family lacked manpower, so they had not done so well.
Their problems were solved when Mo Beihan left to work and earned a salary.
At present, the Mo house was fairly large. Upon entering, there were three rooms on the right. One was the kitchen and the other two bedrooms belonged to Mo Beihan and the two children.
There were three central rooms and Jiang Yingqiu lived there.
The space opposite the kitchen was a small vegetable patch. The backyard was also a vegetable garden.
When they entered, Jiang Yingqiu was just returning from the backyard. Her eyes brightened when she saw Gu Qingyao.
“Yao Yao!”
She liked this girl!
Gu Qingyao smiled and replied, “Aunt Jiang!”
Jiang Yingqiu wanted to help when she saw that they had caught many fish, but Mo Beihan stopped her. “Mother, go and rest! Don’t tire yourself when you haven’t recovered from your illness. I’ll supervise them and that will do.”
Jiang Yingqiu had worked too hard when she was young and her health had failed because of overwork. She usually had a major illness after the autumn harvest.
She was not allowed to lift a finger. Gu Qingyao, Mo Beihan and the children were enough.
Gu Qingyao had already rinsed the fish and prawns, which weighed a dozen kilograms. They could not finish it all at once, so Gu Qingyao only took half of them, and left the rest alive in the water.
When Mo Chengrui saw that Gu Qingyao had separated the small fish and prawns and placed them in basins and buckets, he said, “Elder Sister Gu, let’s kill them all. Otherwise, they will mostly be dead by tomorrow.”
Gu Qingyao laughed. “No, they won’t. I guarantee they won’t die.”
Mo Chengrui: “…”
They were best eaten fresh. Gu Qingyao did not really like to preserve them unless necessary.