Chapter 141 Struggling to Seek but Failing to Ge (1/2)

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Long Xi chose a piece of wooden board to flexibly paddle in the water left and right, like a lively and clever little fish.

She turned over a chestnut with one hand, while the other hand was picking up a water chestnut. Then, she would throw it in their boat. The others on the boat were receiving the water chestnuts one by one. Waves of laughter surrounded them.

Not until night came did Long Xi jump back in the boat.

Long Xi and Yan Wangchuan were both ingenious and made a few simple crab lanterns with bamboo last night.

They lit the crab lanterns and allowed them to float following the current.

Crab lanterns were crab-shaped lanterns. Making crab lanterns was a special kind of colored-lantern-making technique in Yangcheng Lake.

The crab lanterns were seemingly lonely floating on the water.

Right at the moment, a group of rural women and kids were also putting out colorful lanterns, including crab lanterns, lotus lanterns, fish lanterns, and duck lanterns.

The lanterns floated on the lake like the stars in the sky, awakening the lake water.

Yan Wangchuan knew folk songs from his hometown, so Long Xi pestered Yan Wangchuan to sing a song to them.

Yan Wangchuan had to agree and said with a smile, “Since you ask me to sing a song to you every day, I can sing a piece of Liuqin drama to you today.”

Long Xi clapped her hands to agree.

Yan Wangchuan stood up and sang a piece with local lyrics of a Subei Liuqin drama while facing the lake. “His family brings 2 kg of fried dough twist, 2 kg of sugar, 2 kg of fruit… to visit my family…”

He sang in excitement, while the lyrics were very close to life and witty. Everyone present burst into laughter.

Ai Meiqi was originally sculling the boat and was addicted to his song. She even squatted down, allowing the boat to drift by itself.

Their boat swayed and left circles of ripples, while the crisp voice was like the ripples, scattering sway.

When the breeze passed by, the reeds were bowing their bodies. They lowered their heads and were chatting with each other like a group of old women.

Grandma pointed at a straw house on the shore and said, “Yangcheng Lake’s water is so clear. Water plants are dense, forming into rich bait for the fish. Besides, the mud is hard under the lake. All of these conditions are suitable for hairy crabs to grow up. Plenty of rivers and harbors are connected with the surroundings. At the change from autumn to winter every year, the mature hairy crabs change their shells and migrate to the shallow shore. “Learning the characteristics of the crab’s reproductive migration, the fishermen built a watergate by the riverway along the shore to catch crabs, called ‘Keeping the Crabs’. This is one of the most normal ways to catch crab. Look, those are the houses of fishermen who are keeping crabs. These days, the tourism industry in Suzhou is booming, while the fishermen are coming to join this. If you pay them 20 yuan, you can catch the crabs on your own. Are you interested in giving it a try?”

Ai Meiqi said, “Building a gate to keep crabs is done by using bamboo poles and fishing nets to build a slanting gate in the small river channel along the direction of the current. At the end of the gate are built plenty of straw houses. A narrow water channel is built in the houses and along the shore. Crabs migrate along with the current. When meeting the slanting gates, they will climb into the water channel inside the straw houses. Late at night, the fishermen will light lanterns in the house, leading the crabs to move inside the houses.”

Hearing this, Long Xi and Yan Wangchuan wanted to try it out.

They met an old lady charging a fee at the door of a straw house.

After paying the fee, they entered the house.

A middle-aged fisherman was keeping crabs in the house.

He saw a boy and a girl walking inside and put his middle finger in front of his lips, indicating to them not to make out a sound.

He noticed them look toward the water channel. Just now, the old lady had told them that the crabs were very vigilant. They would take note of any movement when they moved from the darkness to the light. Any sound would make them immediately escape.

However, Long Xi was extremely excited when capturing a black shadow and could not help screaming out.

The black shadow was a crab. It escaped away as soon as hearing the voice.

Long Xi stuck out her tongue angrily.

They were patient to wait for another 10 minutes before they saw a black shadow appearing at the entrance.

Everyone took a closer look. It turned out to be two pincers of a crab.

The crab seemed to be more patient than the people, still lurking under the water.

Long Xi and the others were so nervous they couldn’t even breathe.

It stayed for about half a minute, confirming that there was no danger, before starting to climb slowly along the waterway.

Right at the moment, the middle-aged fisherman caught the crab with the net and put it into the crab basket.

When he saw Long Xi planning to give it a try, he handed the net to her.

Long Xi nervously waited for the second crab to fall into the net.

It turned out that this work was not as easy as it seemed.

When the second crab came in, Long Xi imitated the fisherman’s action to catch the crab. However, because of her lack of experience and being overexcited, a sound burst out when she put the net into the water, which frightened the crab to escape away.

Seeing that the crab escaped away when it had nearly been caught, she felt somewhat upset.

Yan Wangchuan grinned and said, “Let me have a try.”

Long Xi was not willing to give up and hoped to try it one more time.

For the second time, her movement was not fast enough and the third crab was about to escape. The fisherman was well-prepared and loosened the rope in his hand. The bamboo gate over the water entrance at the other side of the rope fell down at once and locked the crab in the waterway. It could not escape anymore.

Yan Wangchuan laughed in a low voice. “Fortunately, crabs cannot speak. If they could contact each other through antennae like ants, the escaped crab would have informed this one. Or they could hold a meet and they’d never come here.”