izi was already impatient to leave. If Juhua hadn’t insisted on waiting for Qingmu, she probably would have run on ahead. Now, hearing Qingmu say they were going to cook fish for lunch, she was overjoyed. She quickly said to Juhua, "Juhua, can I co to your place for lunch? Last ti, you told i that you can’t overboil fish—that you have to take it out as soon as it’s cooked. I want to see how it’s done." She paused, then added, "And I really want to eat your fish."
Juhua smiled, pursing her lips. She loved izi’s adorable way of honestly admitting she was a foodie. "Why not?" she said. "It’s not like we have to go out and buy ingredients. Once the fish is divided, we’ll hurry ho and cook. It’ll be quick. After lunch, we still have to go to Tiaozi Pond." ’She wasn’t tired of all this excitent in the slightest.’
Seeing Liu Xiaoi’s hesitant expression, as if she wanted to say sothing, Juhua let out a little laugh. "i, you should co too—you don’t have to go ho to make lunch, do you?" Lanzi had already gone ho.
Liu Xiaoi quickly replied, "It’s fine, my mom’s at ho. I want to learn how to cook fish from you, too. Juhua, why don’t we go to my place today? You can teach , and I’ll cook for you all. We caused such a ruckus at your house last ti. How can we keep going over?"
izi grew a little hesitant upon hearing this. "Then let’s go to my house—my family is smaller. i, you have so many brothers at your place, it won’t be as comfortable for us to go there."
Juhua waved her hands dismissively. "Let’s not argue about it. I’m just cooking fish for lunch and won’t have ti for other dishes. In the future, if you two have sothing delicious, you can just rember to share so with , right? Didn’t i already give dried loaches? And izi gave chili flakes." ’She really didn’t want to cook at soone else’s house.’
Liu Xiaoi smiled. "Okay! We don’t have much else at ho, but we do have fish and shrimp. Right now, with the ponds being drained, everyone’s getting a share of fish, so there’s no shortage. But next year, my brothers will be catching fish and netting shrimp often, and I’ll bring you so from ti to ti."
Juhua grinned happily at this. ’This was exactly the result I was hoping for! She only had one brother, and he was busy with his studies, so he had no ti for such things. If Liu Xiaoi’s brothers often caught fish and shrimp and could send so her way, that would be wonderful, of course.’
izi thought, ’My family doesn’t have things like that. My dad isn’t into that sort of stuff; he doesn’t even set traps for rabbits.’ So she said to Juhua, "My dad doesn’t like doing those things. I’ll just have to give you more chili flakes."
Juhua and Liu Xiaoi both started laughing, amused at how she made it sound like Juhua was about to demand sothing from her right then and there.
Chatting as they went, they hurried toward the village. On the way, Juhua asked Qingmu, "Brother, how will they divide the pond mud?"
Qingmu replied, "They don’t divide it ticulously. Whichever households have fields next to the pond will share the mud. There are quite a few ponds in the village, so almost every family gets a share from one of them."
Hurrying along, the group was still a step behind. By the ti they reached the wide threshing ground in the center of the village, a huge crowd had already gathered—even more people than had been on the pond’s embanknt earlier. This was because those who were too refined or too diligent to watch the commotion earlier couldn’t resist coming to see the fish being divided.
Li Gengtian was shouting at the top of his lungs, "All you who went into the pond, go have a bowl of ginger soup at Old Cheng’s place first!" He turned and spotted Qingmu and Huai Zi, quickly urging them to go drink so soup and reminding them to co back later to help with the accounting. With more literate people in the village now, his job had beco much easier.
At this mont of bountiful harvest, the joy was infectious. The faces of young and old alike were wreathed in smiles, all eyes fixed on the row of wooden barrels in the center of the threshing ground. People argued with their neighbors about whether Round Pond had yielded more fish this year or last, or compared which year’s fish were bigger. Soone else was vividly describing the old turtle Big Mouth Zhao had found to those who hadn’t seen it, gesturing wildly. In his telling, the old turtle beca a genuine creature larger than a millstone. It wasn’t afraid of people, and its eyes seed like they could speak. It had supposedly stared down Juhua—who loved eating soft-shelled turtles and tortoises more than anyone—until she didn’t dare to eat it and obediently let it go.
Juhua and izi were stunned when they heard this, then doubled over with laughter.
Juhua was willing to bet that in a few days, the story would morph into the old turtle crying nonstop, and she, moved by compassion, had released it. ’In a few more years,’ she thought, ’the rumor will probably be that the old turtle spoke to , begging to let it go, claiming it was cultivating itself at the bottom of the pond.’
As it turned out, her guess was spot on—and the reality beca even more ridiculous than she had imagined.
The fish distribution hadn’t even started, yet the air was thick with laughter, shouting, hushed whispers, and loud argunts. Once the n who had gone for ginger soup began to trickle back, the division of the fish began. Since they were already dirty, it was only natural for them to handle the task.
To everyone’s surprise, Mr. Zhou ca over with a smile, sat down at the table, and started helping with the accounting. With his help, the process went even faster.
The fish were distributed by headcount. First, all the fish were weighed. The total weight was then divided by the number of people to determine the share per person, and from that, the total weight for each household was calculated.
Then ca the actual distribution. There was a certain art to it. Although each household received a different total weight, the large fish were given out one per family first. Then, smaller fish were added to et each family’s weight quota. As for personal preferences for different types of fish, people were free to trade amongst themselves after the initial distribution. The type, be it grass carp or common carp, wasn’t considered during the main division. Of course, they usually started with the common carp. After those were gone, they moved on to grass carp, and finally, silver carp.
In previous years, they had always drained two ponds a day before distributing the fish, so nearly every household would receive both common carp and grass carp. It was rare for a family to end up with only silver carp.
Today, soone had suggested dividing the fish at noon so everyone could go ho and have a taste. Consequently, it was a bit difficult to ensure every household got an even mix of fish types. But no one complained. After all, there was still Tiaozi Pond in the afternoon, and tomorrow, Grass Ditch, Small Pond Bay, and others were yet to be drained.
Once weighed, the total catch from Round Pond this year ca to over three hundred and fifty jin. According to izi, this was several dozen jin more than last year. After so calculations by Mr. Zhou, Zhang Huai, and Qingmu, it was determined that each person would receive one jin and one tael of fish.
Juhua’s family had four people, a moderate number, so they would get four jin and four taels. Every household was calculating its own share to double-check when their turn ca.
The n then began distributing the fish, household by household, according to the results calculated by Mr. Zhou and the other two.
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