Chapter 88 - Father and Daughter (1/2)

Xiaocao hastily acted like a child shamelessly. She went up to him and shook his arm, while saying, “Father, I’m not tired! Moreover, I just need to prepare the bait and put it into the pond. You can do the rest. You’re one of the best fishermen in the village, so you’re definitely better at catching a few fish than me! Let’s go, let’s go! We can catch some more fish and raise them in the empty water vat in the backyard. Tomorrow afternoon, we can make more pickled fish and sell them!”

Yu Hai couldn’t reject her pleading. Without Madam Liu’s knowledge, he stealthily took Xiaocao to the pond via a shortcut in the backyard. Their backyard wasn’t as good as their foreyard. It was surrounded by a fence that was made with bamboo and branches. On the fence, a back door was specially opened for easy access.

Xiaocao specially got some bean flour and mixed it with vegetable oil. Then, she cut it into small dices to serve as bait. Little Shitou was still young and naïve, but her father was an experienced fisherman. She couldn’t let him know that she was luring fish with the mystic-stone water.

From her room, she got the earthenware jar, which the small multi-colored stone laid in. The little golden kitten was lying beside the jar and stretching its back. When the little divine stone saw her, it grumpily said, [What are you doing now? I can’t believe you using such good mystic-stone water to catch fish. You’re just recklessly wasting such a heavenly gift! You’re going to be struck by thunder!]

Xiaocao made sure no one was around and said, “Little Glutinous Dumpling, what’s there to be afraid of? Don’t I still have you? Aren’t you the celestial stone that Goddess Nuwa meticulously smelted? Doesn’t the God of Thunder and Goddess of Lighting have to give you some face? Let’s go, don’t you like to swim? I’ll let you swim to your heart’s desire when we get to the pond!”

[No, don’t! Don’t directly put me into the water! That might attract unknown species! Don’t you just need some small fish? It’s enough to just use the water in the jar!] These past few days, Little Divine Stone had gone to the depths of the mountains and chosen a deep pond with pure spiritual energy to cultivate. However, it hadn’t expected that it would attract wild animals in the mountains. A python had dived into the deep pond and almost swallowed its body.

Little Divine Stone was afraid that Xiaocao would directly throw it into the pond. If it got swallowed by a duck or fish, wouldn’t it have to take a one-day tour in the animal’s intestines? That’s so dirty and stinky! No way, it doesn’t want to!

Xiaocao fastened it onto her wrist again and asked softly, “Is this how my father’s leg will be like from now on?”

The little golden kitten flew to the top of her head and laid on top like it was a hen resting in its nest, and then proudly replied, [You’re looking down on this divine stone’s abilities. Your father’s leg will get even better. However, the damage to the veins and bones were too severe. So, a full recovery is impossible. In the future, he might walk with a limp, but it won’t be too obvious!]

When Xiaocao arrived at the backyard with the ‘fish bait’ in the mystic-stone water jar, Yu Hai was already waiting there. Considering the inconvenience of his legs, the father-daughter pair chose a relatively lower slope and went down to the pond.

While Xiaocao placed the ‘bait’ into the pond, Yu Hai was slightly concerned and asked, “Cao’er, what if the jar floats away like this? Let’s tie a rope on the mouth of the jar!”

“I’ll go get a rope!” Xiaocao thought that he had a point, so she stood up and wanted to run back to the house.

However, her father stopped her by saying, “You don’t need to go back… Wait a moment!”

Yu Hai pulled several withered and yellow weeds from the pond and rubbed them together with his dexterous hands. A long grass rope was swiftly formed within his hands. Xiaocao inwardly marveled, ‘Don’t underestimate the wisdom and ability of ancient people.’

With the rope and her father’s help, Xiaocao placed the jar farther away. She held the net in her hand, ready to catch fish.

In the afternoon, Xiaocao and younger brother had caught hundreds of fish in less than two hours. Yu Hai had initially thought that she had a new and good method of fishing. But, when he was a child, he had also placed bait in a jar for fishing. Even after fishing for the whole morning, it wasn’t always possible to catch more than a dozen fish. Was this how his daughter caught fish at noon?

In the midst of his doubts, the fish nearby sensed the spiritual energy and swam towards the ceramic jar one after another, as if they were on a pilgrimage. It was impossible to drive them away. Seeing that there were more and more fish gathering, Yu Hai was stunned inwardly, ‘This was too incredible!’

While he was hesitating, Xiaocao had already picked up the net and carefully scooped up the fish. Oddly enough, when the usually nimble fish actually didn’t escape when the net approached them. Each time his daughter lowered her net, she was able to scoop up several fish.

Yu Hai stared absentmindedly at his daughter’s pretty little face. He recalled how she seemed like a completely different person ever since she hit her head last summer. There were always endless ways to make money in her mind.

After they split from the main family, she first planted vegetables in their yard. Originally, he pitied his daughter and couldn’t bear to reject her. Thus, with the mindset that they would only waste a few bags of seeds and not wanting to disappoint her, he did his best to support her. As a result, the vegetable gardens in front of the house were covered in green in just a few days. The greens with a short-term growing period such as spinach were almost as long as his finger. Tender green buds had also already sprouted for vegetables with a long-term growing period, which was extremely gratifying.

After that, she made braised food, specializing in braising things that others didn’t eat or didn’t want: chicken innards, pig intestines, pig head meat… Today, she had even brought back pig blood to make something called ‘blood sausage’. He thought of the braised pig brain from the other day, which was something really disgusting to look at, but she had actually turned it into a supreme delicacy.