The girls went off to prepare their fishing poles.
Li You, on the other hand, walked over to a villager who had just caught a crayfish.
The villager was Liu Zhanghong. He had, of course, noticed Li You and the girls long before.
When Li You got closer, he smiled and asked, "Xiaoyou, who are these young ladies?"
Li You said, "They’re all my guests. They wanted to experience crayfishing, so I brought them here."
So that was it.
Liu Zhanghong had already guessed. He added, "You have a lot of young, pretty girls among your guests! You could consider choosing one of them to be your wife."
Li You laughed heartily, indicating he wasn’t considering that for now. Then he walked over to Liu Zhanghong’s crayfish bucket, intending to see how many he had caught.
The haul was pretty good; there were probably about two pounds’ worth.
Liu Zhanghong spoke again, "By the way, did you guys prepare any bait? If not, I have some pig liver here. You can take some."
Li You shook his head. "Thanks, Uncle Zhanghong, but it’s okay. We can just use snail meat for bait. If we take your pig liver, you might not have enough for yourself later."
Snail meat wasn’t as effective as pig liver for bait, but it had the advantage of being convenient.
There were plenty of snails in the paddy field right next to them.
You could just pick one up, crack the shell, and get the snail meat inside.
Liu Zhanghong said, "Snail meat isn’t as effective as pig liver. It’s fine, Xiaoyou. I brought plenty today, just take some."
As he spoke, he opened a bag containing the pig liver and gestured for Li You to take some.
Li You took a look and saw that there was indeed a lot of pig liver inside.
’Since that’s the case, I might as well take a little.’
"Well, thanks then, Uncle Zhanghong. I’ll just take a little."
Liu Zhanghong said, "It’s nothing. If anything, we should be the ones thanking you. Now that you’re buying crayfish, look at us—we can make money crayfishing right here. It’s easy work and pays well."
Li You replied, "With you guys selling me crayfish, I don’t have to go buy them at the market anymore. It’s a good thing for me, too."
Liu Zhanghong said, "That may be true, but we should still thank you."
Li You said, "You’re all too kind."
After that, the two chatted for a few more moments before Li You returned to where the girls were, carrying some pig liver.
By this time, the girls had already prepared their fishing poles—one or two each.
Seeing Li You return with some pig liver, they all asked, "Boss, is this what we’re using for bait?"
Li You nodded.
Xia Xiaoyue asked, "Boss, did you know someone would be crayfishing here and that we could get bait from them? Is that why you said we didn’t need to prepare any?"
Li You shook his head. "Not exactly. My original plan was to use snail meat for bait. There are plenty of snails in that field right over there. It’s just that pig liver is more effective. Uncle Zhanghong offered us some, so I took it."
So that was how it was.
The girls all nodded.
’So, for crayfishing, not only are the poles simple, but the bait is easy to find too.’
’I wonder what else can be used as bait besides pig liver and snail meat?’
Li You said, "Lots of things. Chicken intestines, fish, all kinds of meat work. You can even use crayfish themselves. Just peel the shell and use the meat inside as bait. Crayfish love to eat it."
’They even eat their own kind. Crayfish really aren’t picky eaters.’
The girls marveled at that.
"By the way, how many has Uncle Zhanghong caught?" Mu Qingye asked.
Li You said, "About two pounds. He only came out after lunch."
"That’s not bad at all!"
The girls were all delighted. This meant the crayfish in this ditch were easy to catch.
They grew more and more eager to start fishing.
Li You took out the string he had brought and said to the girls, "Just tie the string to the fishing pole. About three feet long should do it."
"Okay!"
The girls agreed, and each tied a roughly three-foot length of string to the end of their pole.
Then, to the other end of the string, they tied a piece of pig liver.
All set. It was time to put their lines in the water and start fishing.
The girls spread out along the edge of the ditch and lowered their respective fishing poles into the water.
Li You made a fishing pole for himself as well.
He would do a little fishing too.
"Oh, right, Boss. If a crayfish starts eating the bait, can we just pull it straight up without using a net?" Xia Xiaoyue asked.
Li You replied, "You can pull it up directly, but the success rate isn’t high. Using a net is the safe way; it’s almost a hundred percent successful."
"Then let’s just use the nets," Xia Xiaoyue said.
Just then, a girl exclaimed in pleasant surprise, "I think I’ve got one!"
All the other girls looked over.
Li You was also thrilled and grabbed a hand net, rushing over.
He took a look, and sure enough, a crayfish was eating the bait.
He handed the net to the girl and said, "Pull it up slowly, bit by bit. Then, just like Uncle Zhanghong did earlier, once you see the crayfish, just scoop it up with the net."
"Okay!"
The girl replied. Then, holding the pole with one hand, she put the net into the water with the other.
Soon, the crayfish came into view, and it was a decent size.
The girl got excited and made a direct scoop with the net.
But she missed by just a little, failing to get the crayfish into the net.
The crayfish got away.
"Aww..."
The other girls all let out an "Aww," thinking it was a real shame.
The girl herself felt it was an even bigger shame and was a little dejected.
She was so close, just that tiny bit away from catching a crayfish for the first time in her life.
’What a pity!’
Li You smiled. "It’s your first time, so making a mistake is normal. You’ll definitely get it next time."
The girl nodded. "Okay. A crayfish came so quickly. There really are a lot of them in here."
Li You said, "There are indeed a lot of crayfish in here. Keep it up and try to catch as many as you can. When we get back to the restaurant, I’ll cook them for you for free—spicy crayfish."
These words made all the girls ecstatic.
’The boss is just too nice!’
"Boss, you’re the best! We love you!"
"We love you, Boss!"
"..."
One by one, the girls were all fired up with new motivation.
They were determined to catch more.
’Eating crayfish that we caught ourselves... that experience might be something special.’
’I can’t wait!’
Soon, Yu Wei exclaimed in pleasant surprise, "I’ve got a crayfish on mine, too!"
Li You quickly handed the net to Yu Wei.
Yu Wei took the net and, under the watchful eyes of all the other girls, began the process.
In the end, she successfully scooped the crayfish into the net.
Yu Wei was thrilled, and the other girls cheered.
’Yu Wei has made her first catch, we can’t fall behind.’
Not long after, Xia Xiaoyue, Mu Qingye, Ling Xiaoru, and all the other girls made their first catches one after another.
One crayfish after another was pulled up.
The more the girls fished, the more excited they became.
Crayfishing was really fun; the girls were all hooked.
Before they knew it, it was already five in the afternoon.
The number of crayfish, including those they had caught in the field earlier, now totaled about five pounds.
It was considered a very good harvest.
Li You said to the girls, "It’s already five o’clock. We should be heading back."
The girls were all still in high spirits, not having had their fill of fishing at all.
However, it was indeed getting late, and they really should go back.
So, they had no choice but to head back for now.
’We’ll just have to come back and fish again some other time.’
"Boss, can we come back and fish again next time?" the girls all asked.
Li You nodded. "Of course! Anytime you want."
"That’s great!"
The girls were overjoyed.
Since that was settled, they would head back for the day.
"Should we take these fishing poles back with us?" the girls asked again.
Li You shook his head. "No need. Just find a spot to leave them here. We can use them again next time we come. If they’re gone when we come back, we’ll just make new ones."
"Okay!"
The girls gathered all the fishing poles and placed them next to a large tree.
Looking again at the crayfish in the bucket, they were all extremely happy.
They never expected to be able to catch so many this afternoon.
’This is awesome!’
"Boss, are there five pounds of crayfish in here?" Xia Xiaoyue asked.
Li You nodded. "There should be about that much."
A full five pounds. The girls couldn’t contain their delight.
Li You smiled. "Let’s go. Time to head back."
"Okay!"
The girls all nodded.
Then they picked up the bucket of crayfish and followed Li You toward the village entrance.
...