Transmigrated as a Peasant Baby Who is Pampered by All

Chapter 12: Chapter 12: Catching Fish

Even though sparrows are small, they are still meat.

Jiang Hu wasn’t in a hurry to deliver things. It was raining today, so he couldn’t work in the fields. Everyone was definitely at home, so it was the same no matter when he delivered them.

He asked Erni to accompany Erniang to watch the children in the house and gave the important task of catching sparrows to Dawa. Then he picked up the straw and basket, ready to sort out the sparrows they had caught.

He wasn’t sure exactly how many they had caught. He was busy cooking earlier, and when Dawa caught some and called him, he just grabbed them all and stuffed them into a sack.

The sack’s opening was tied, and the sparrows were fluttering inside. If he wasn’t careful while carrying it out, the sparrows could all escape.

So now he was planning to tie up each sparrow individually.

He put the straw aside, covered the basket with a bamboo cover, stepped on the sack’s opening, and then slowly reached in to grab one sparrow at a time.

He pulled out a piece of straw, tied the sparrow’s wings and legs to make sure it wouldn’t fly away, and then put it into the basket, covering it again with the bamboo cover.

People in Fuan Village basically knew each other, but Jiang Hu wasn’t clear about exactly how many households there were. When they first settled down, they hurriedly selected a village chief and went to open up and farm the land.

However, everyone had been busy these past few days. Jiang Hu estimated that the village chief should have already counted how many households there were in the village.

Jiang Hu decided to first count how many sparrows they had caught, then go to the village chief’s house to ask how many households there actually were, and based on the situation, decide how many to give to each household.

Not long after, Dawa ran out excitedly, shouting for his dad. Jiang Hu grabbed the sack and strode out without a second thought.

But perhaps the sparrows communicated amongst themselves. After the initial easy catches, it became gradually harder to catch more, and they had to wait longer each time.

As it approached noon, Jiang Hu patted his trousers and stood up: ”Dawa, don’t wait anymore, we’ll continue catching them tomorrow. Let’s cook lunch first.”

They continued to cook sparrow and wild vegetable soup for lunch. After eating in the morning, they didn’t feel as cold up until noon, even though it was raining today. Normally, just sitting like that would make them shiver with cold.

It seemed that sparrows were also a good thing to have.

”Dad, how many did we catch in total?” Dawa hopped back to help with the fire, looking at his dad handling the sparrows with great joy.

”Caught over seventy. I’ll keep ten at home this afternoon and give the rest to the villagers.”

Dawa pouted: ”Giving away so many, but we worked hard to catch these.”

Jiang Hu reassured him: ”Don’t worry, we’ll catch more tomorrow. Look at the sparrows on that tree in the distance, there are plenty. In the future, when I go to work in the fields, you can stay home to catch sparrows, alright?”

Even if sparrows get smarter, there will always be a few foolish ones. As long as we can catch a few each day, it’ll be enough.

”Fine, Dad, you might as well teach others how to catch them. Then they can catch them themselves, and we won’t have to give them away.”

Whether others could catch them or not would be their own business.

Jiang Hu nodded: ”Dad knows.”

The sparrow meat with a pinch of salt, despite how small the sparrows are, the meat is firm. It had been cooking for more than half an hour until Jiang Hu was satisfied with the taste, then he added the wild vegetables he dug up yesterday.

He scooped out a third of the breast, plenty of leg meat for Erniang, and the rest was divided among him and the two children.

Later, he washed the diapers, took the chamber pot out to the latrine to dump and wash it, and finally packed the sparrows to be gifted in a sack, picked up a bamboo basket, and asked Dawa to bring along the grass rope and sparrow innards.

”Dad, what are we doing with these?” In the drizzling rain, Dawa hung the grass rope around his neck and held a broken bowl filled with sparrow innards in his hands.

”We’re going to catch fish in the river first, and then we’ll deliver the sparrows to others.” Jiang Hu walked in large strides at the front, while Dawa had to run a little to keep up.

”Catching fish!” Dawa immediately got excited: ”Can you catch fish, Dad?”

Jiang Hu nodded: ”Of course, I just didn’t have bait before, and Dad didn’t think of it. Today, we’ll give it a try.”

As they talked, they reached the riverside.

The village was located near water, and Fu’an Village naturally had a river too. It wasn’t far from their home, just about a hundred zhang away.

The more anxious you are, the clumsier you get. He was so rushed before he completely forgot there was a river in the village, and there were fish in the river. Today, after a full meal, his brain finally started working again.

Once at the river, he set the sack aside and let Dawa watch it. He then used grass rope to tie the bamboo basket and placed the innards into the basket with the broken bowl, before securing the bamboo basket into the river with the grass rope.

The river wasn’t deep, but they were at the upstream section, so the current was a bit fast. Jiang Hu tied the other end of the rope to a mulberry tree by the riverbank.

After finishing this, Jiang Hu picked up the sack again and called Dawa: ”Come on, let’s deliver the sparrows first, and we’ll check back later.”

The father and son first went to the village chief’s house to ask about the number of households in the village and where they all lived. The village chief knew what they intended to do and was so pleased he personally led the way, also mentioning how many people were in each household.

Excluding the ten kept at home, Jiang Hu took out sixty-seven sparrows. There were forty-something households in the village, and for those with more family members, they gave two sparrows; for those with fewer, they gave one.

Having meat to eat during this season was quite a luxury, and no one felt it was too little. They even sent Jiang Hu and his son off far down the road.

Jiang Hu also shared with them the method of catching sparrows, as he told Dawa.

If there was nothing in the fields and no extra grain, they could look for the grass seeds left from last year to use as bait. There was always a way.

The best thing about Fuan Village now was that everyone supported each other along the way. As for the sharp-tongued and mean families, they had long disappeared without assistance.

After a trip around the village, an hour had passed. The sack was also empty, and before the father and son’s trip home, they ran back to the river with a small jog.

”Dad, there’s fish! There really is fish!” As soon as Dawa arrived at the riverbank, he shouted excitedly, showing none of his father’s calm demeanor.

Despite his calm nature, Jiang Hu couldn’t help but feel happy. He nodded vigorously: ”Yes!”

With his hands already gripping the rope, he quickly pulled it up. Jiang Hu, being tall and robust, had regained strength from drinking the Spiritual Spring milk powder that Xiaomi provided every night. It only took him a few pulls to lift the bamboo basket, and not a single fish escaped.

”Dad, you’re amazing, so many fish!” Dawa was jumping up and down, extremely excited. Today was definitely the happiest day!

The smile in Jiang Hu’s eyes was even more apparent: ”We won’t eat sparrows tonight; I’ll make you fish soup instead!”

Inside the bamboo basket were five or six palm-sized big fish, as well as many finger-sized small fish, enough for several meals.

While delivering the sparrows earlier, he also mentioned catching fish with sparrow innards, so there was no need to notify everyone specifically now.

The fish innards could still be used as bait, and with this river being quite large, it would definitely help everyone get through tough times!