Chapter 126: Stealing Fish
Editor: Atlas Studios
Mu Yangling squatted at the edge of the field and rubbed the mud in her hands. With a sigh, she stood up to say to her great-aunt, “This won’t do.”
Great-aunt looked up at the sky and the sun shone brightly into her eyes. Despite wearing a thick cotton-padded jacket, she could only feel a little warmth. It was almost February 2nd, but the ice and snow had yet to start melting. How could it melt completely at the end of February?
If the temperature in the fields couldn’t keep up, the seeds couldn’t be sown. The camp had already distributed the seeds. Great-aunt had carefully checked and found that there were no problems with the seeds. Furthermore, Mu Yangling was very surprised to see that there were enough seeds. She wondered what method Qi Xiuyuan had used to make the Imperial Court distribute so many seeds.
“Ah Ling.” Madam Hu-Jin jogged over with a smile and shouted, “Hurry up and take a look. The ice in the ground has melted!”
Mu Yangling jumped up. “It melted? It hasn’t started melting when I checked it yesterday.”
Madam Hu-Jin smiled and said, “It always happens suddenly, doesn’t it? Everyone went to take a look. Isn’t there a canal that passes through your land? Do you want to take a look?”
“Alright, let’s go.” Mu Yangling abandoned what she was doing and dragged Xiuhong along to take a look.
Many people gathered by the river to watch the commotion. The melting of the ice in the river meant that the temperature in the ground would also rise. It would not be long before the seeds could be planted.
Mu Yangling ran to the river and knocked on the ice with her stick, making a thumping sound. She exerted a little force with her hand, and the ice cracked. The ice fell into the river, and the flowing river immediately swallowed the ice and disappeared from under the ice.
Mu Yangling smiled until her eyes curved. The ice had indeed melted.
As the ice was shattered, a fish jumped out of the river. Xiuhong exclaimed, but Mu Yangling subconsciously swept the fish that had landed on the ice to the side, not letting it fall into the river again.
“Fish!” Xiuhong shouted and was about to run up to grab it when Mu Yangling grabbed her collar and pulled her back. “Are you courting death? The ice has thinned.”
Xiuhong was anxious. “Cousin, what a big fish! Take it back for Aunt to eat. It’s perfect for milking.”
Mu Yangling carefully moved the fish to the shore with a stick, grabbed it with her hand, and whispered to her, “Run back and pick the bucket.”
Xiuhong’s eyes lit up as she looked around carefully. When she realized that no one was paying attention to her, she nodded repeatedly and jogged home.
Mu Yangling took her stick and walked towards the canal in her field.
Although the canal had been dug, there was no water inside because the ice had been frozen. However, there was a thin layer of ice and snow that was a foot deep.
As the canal was dug in the middle of Mu Yangling’s land, she was standing alone in the huge field. She turned to look at the Hu family’s land. The Hu family was also standing on their own land and looking at the ice in the river with a smile on their faces. From her angle, she could not see what they were doing. Similarly, it could be seen that they definitely could not see what she was doing here.
Mu Yangling squatted at the mouth of the canal and knocked on the ice with the stick in her hand, but it did not break. After placing aside the fish that had jumped up just now, she looked upstream.
This river came from Jialing Lake. Once the snow melted, the water volume should not be low, and would probably fill three reservoirs and three canals.
Thinking that it wouldn’t be long before she could plant the seeds, Mu Yangling was in a good mood.
Xiuhong ran over with two wooden buckets, panting. “Cousin, can we still catch fish?”
“Depends on our luck.” Mu Yangling threw the fish into the bucket and used a stick to pierce through the ice that she had knocked earlier, causing air to enter the water. After waiting for a while, two fish jumped up from the water. Overjoyed, Mu Yangling took the bucket and quickly caught a leaping fish. The other fish fell onto the ice, so she swept the fish into the canal with her stick…
Fish kept jumping up, and Mu Yangling repeated her actions. As long as they fell onto the ice, she would sweep them into the canal. Xiuhong’s heart itched as she watched, and she really wanted to jump into the canal to scoop up the fish. However, Mu Yangling did not allow her to go down. Since there were only two layers of ice at the mouth of the cana, if water suddenly rushed out of the ice… it would be bad.
When it was about time, Mu Yangling jumped into the canal and picked up the fish. When the Hu family looked over curiously, they only saw the two children playing at the entrance of the canal. They didn’t think much of it and saw that it was getting late.
Mu Yangling and Xiuhong filled two wooden buckets with fish before returning.
Xiuhong carefully looked around. When Mu Yangling saw this, she smiled and said, “Don’t worry, no one will see.”
At most, others could only see them carrying wooden buckets. They definitely could not see what was in the buckets.
The houses in Chenggu Garrison were far apart from each other. Although it was inconvenient to visit other households, it also ensured the privacy of each family.
Mu Yangling returned home from the fields without meeting anyone.
“Mother, Great-aunt, look what I brought back for you.” Mu Yangling showed them the wooden bucket as if it was a treasure.
When Madam Ma-Liu saw so many fish inside, her eyes lit up and she asked, “Has the ice melted?”
“It’s starting to melt. These fish jumped up when I broke a hole in the ice. I didn’t tell anyone,” Mu Yangling said happily.
Madam Ma-Liu looked at her in amusement and said, “You’re not the only one who knows this logic. When everyone sees someone knocking on the ice hole in two days, everyone will know.”
“I don’t want to earn much. I just want to catch more to raise before everyone realizes what’s going on. We can cook one a day to nourish everyone’s bodies,” Mu Yangling said as she watered the fish.
However, Madam Ma-Liu was worried. “How are we going to raise so many fish?”
“We can freeze them.” Mu Yangling said matter-of-factly, “Isn’t there a cellar at the back? I’ll move the tank down and fill the bottom with ice. Then, I’ll put the fish inside and cover it with ice. Also, pile some ice outside the tank. Considering the temperature in the cellar is low, it definitely won’t melt in 20 to 30 days. Don’t worry.”
Mu Yangling did as she said. As the cellar was empty, she figured they would not have any use for this until winter, so she was free to use this cellar as she pleased. Not to mention piling some ice, even filling the entire cellar up with ice would not be a problem.
Mu Yangling took the net and carried the wooden bucket to the river. Then, she used a stick to stab the ice cubes into large pieces. After that, she used the net to scoop up the ice cubes and placed them in the bucket. When a fish jumped out of the water, she also scooped the fish into the bucket.
After making two trips back and forth, she realized that the bucket could only hold a limited amount of ice, so she simply used wooden planks to partition the two-wheeled cart and push it to the riverside. After she filled the cart with ice, Xiuhong followed behind excitedly to pick up the fish. In the end, she came over with a bucket full of fish and said regretfully, “Cousin, many fish jumped up and fell into the water again.”
“It’s fine. Fish have to give birth too. If the fish that fell into the water give birth, there will be even more fish in the river next year.” Mu Yangling placed the wooden bucket on the cart and pulled it up. “Let’s go back.”
Mu Yangling’s movements were too loud this time. Old Hu stood at the door and asked loudly, “Ah Ling, what are you pulling?”
“Ice. I went to the river to get some ice for the cellar.”
“Why are you moving ice all of a sudden? You’ll freeze in the cold.”
Seeing that Mu Yangling couldn’t find an excuse for a moment, Xiuhong shouted, “I tend to suffer from a loss of appetite and weight in the summer. When my cousin heard about this, she said she’d store up some ice for me to use in the summer.”