Free Web NovelChapter 1115: Chapter 454: Never Trust a Fisherman’s Last Cast! Director Zeng in a Dilemma!
"Haha, got another one!"
By the lakeside, Shen Jiayue switched to a crucian carp rod and, together with Geng Lele, happily pulled up little crucian carps and little white fish.
She’d originally wanted to catch big fish too, to restore her status as the chief fishing granny; after all, her record of an eight-jin-eight-liang big carp still hadn’t been broken.
But Shen Guofu said that fishing for big ones was just for fun, the real good eating was in the small fish, especially the little white ones—whether pan-fried or deep-fried, they were all delicious.
As soon as she heard they were tasty, this girl switched to the little crucian carp rod, used the red worm bait Lin Xu had mixed for her, and transformed into a little-fish slayer.
To be fair, there really were a lot of small fish here; it felt great to catch them and very satisfying.
After hooking another fish, Shen Jiayue didn’t cast her rod again immediately, but looked at Lin Xu and asked:
"Xu Bao, these little fish haven’t grown up yet. Am I being a bit too cruel catching them like this? It feels like bullying kids in kindergarten."
Lin Xu chuckled:
"These little fish weren’t going to grow big anyway. Even if you don’t catch them, they probably wouldn’t live till next spring."
"Huh? Why?"
"Because the water level in this pond has been dropping. The less water, the more crowded the fish are; there’s not enough oxygen in the water, so they can only die. If they rot, they might even affect the water quality."
The water in the Ginkgo Garden pond was brought in from the river outside through the garden’s irrigation channels.
In winter the river level drops, the water can’t get through, and the pond slowly dries up.
Only when next spring comes and the river rises again will water flow back through the irrigation channels. Back when they built Ginkgo Garden, they dug a pond dozens of mu in size precisely for water storage, to prevent the ginkgo trees from running short of water during droughts.
The entrance where the irrigation channel meets the pond had already been fenced off with wire mesh, to keep the fish from escaping and to keep carnivorous fish from coming in and wreaking havoc on the stock.
Once Shen Jiayue heard this, she let go of her mental burden and went back to fishing.
Right as she was fishing, Chen Yan and Ren Jie came striding over from the distant boardwalk, fishing bags slung over their shoulders and wearing matching couple’s baseball caps.
Seeing her cousin using a small crucian carp rod, President Chen couldn’t help saying:
"Is it because you can’t catch big fish that you’ve turned into a kindergarten slayer? But that’s fine too. The water of big-fish fishing is too deep for you to handle, cousin; you still need me."
Shen Jiayue rolled her eyes at her:
"Last time when everyone got a bite, who was it that pulled up a little white fish again? I don’t remember too well. Can you help jog my memory, Yan Bao?"
A must-have Skill for anglers—trash talk before fishing.
Use words to mess up your opponent’s mentality, achieving the sacred state of ’my Dao is full even if my fishing buddies’ buckets are empty.’
Chen Yan puffed her cheeks angrily, put down her fishing bag, and started organizing her tackle. Ren Jie, comparatively, was more polite; he first called out a "Hi, Uncle" to Shen Guofu, then greeted everyone else.
"Lin Xu, Yanyan said this morning each of you landed a big silver carp, all close to twenty jin, and she was so anxious she could barely eat lunch, just wanted to come over and catch one too... Are there really that many big fish in this water?"
Everyone got a big silver carp?
Lin Xu was a bit stunned.
Didn’t he alone catch one this morning?
With the temperature the way it was now, the fish were half-dormant; even at a fish pond you couldn’t guarantee everyone one fish each.
He was about to say that wasn’t what happened when Geng Lele smiled and said:
"We were just lucky this morning. Maybe Xu Ge found a school of silver carp and we got to ride his coattails. It’s just a pity mine was a bit smaller, not as big as the one Xu Ge caught."
Lin Xu: "..."
No wonder this girl had taken a photo with the fish each, together with the brothers Xie Yufei and Xie Yuhang.
Turns out they were faking it.
No need to ask, this had to be Little Mushroom Head’s idea.
But this way of lying was pretty clever—just tweak the weight a bit, and with the first impression planted, it doesn’t feel like a fake.
If this girl had claimed they were exactly the same weight to the jin, her elder sister-in-law definitely wouldn’t have bought it.
Lele really understood psychology.
After bickering with Chen Yan for a while, Shen Jiayue suddenly remembered that her mom didn’t want them eating anything too greasy for dinner, so she looked at Lin Xu and asked:
"Xu Bao, Mom said we can’t eat anything too oily. Besides pan-frying and deep-frying, what else can we do with these little fish?"
This question was actually...
Lin Xu thought for a bit and said:
"You can make stewed little fish, just boil them all down into a kind of fish mash; you can also dry-bake them so they’re super crispy; or grill them... there are plenty of ways."
"But what if I still want to eat something fried?"
"Then just use the air fryer. It uses heat circulation, gives the food a fried-like effect, but without oil."
Shen Jiayue had used the air fryer to bake sweet potato before, but since it wasn’t as efficient as the oven, she hadn’t used it much afterward.
Now that she heard the air fryer could fry small fish too, she instantly got excited.
"Teach me when we get back, okay? If it works, I’ll take care of all the fried fish at home from now on!"
Hoh hoh, thank you, technology, for giving kitchen newbies like her a chance to make fried dishes.
In the past, every time she wanted to practice deep-frying, Xu Bao stopped her, worried she’d get splattered by hot oil. Now things were different: with the air fryer’s help, she could finally achieve fried-food freedom.
Chen Yan had come today for the big fish, so without another word she pulled out her 7.2-meter rod, set up her rig, tossed the Fish Hook into the water, and even mimicked Zhang Mazi’s tone as she said:
"This time I’m at Ginkgo Garden for only three things: catch big fish, catch big fish, and especially... still catch big fish!"
She’d originally wanted to drop a "damn" there to match the vibe, but with her uncle and aunt both present, she held back on the cursing. If it were just Ren Jie, that’d be fine—after all, she was his little aunt.
