Chapter 68: Raising Duckweed
Going up the mountain to catch fish was not particularly troublesome, so Ying Kongtu specially brought Tiaozhu and the others along.
“The weather’s warm now. It’s just right for playing in the water,” Ying Kongtu said to Wen Zhongshan.
It was already late April. Today’s weather was clear and warm, with the highest temperature reaching over twenty degrees Celsius.
Even an ordinary little cat like Dart could play in the water for a while without any problem, let alone wild animals like Jingwei and little mountain gods like Tiaozhu and Xian Niao.
Today, the whole family had come out to play, and the furry ones were also very excited.
Dart in particular ran back and forth, rolling and rubbing around, shedding quite a bit of loose fur. Under the sunlight, it was especially obvious.
Ying Kongtu glanced at it, thinking that when they got home, he would have to brush its fur. This fellow’s seasonal shedding was far too exaggerated.
They walked upstream along the creek, and Ying Kongtu introduced the area to Wen Zhongshan. “There used to be several villages along the upper reaches of this creek. Most of them have moved away now. Only a few scattered households are left.”
“Will there be fish fry?”
“Yes. There’s a small lake upstream that has always had fish.” Ying Kongtu smiled. “I bought fish from the market once before. The taste couldn’t compare to the Ai fish, but it was much better than ordinary fish. I asked the stall owner, and he said the fish came from that little lake. If there are fish, there must be fish fry too.”
“I haven’t been there before.”
Ying Kongtu remembered that he had once had the habit of fishing, but now that he had become busy, he no longer fished much.
“I haven’t been there since waking up either, but it’ll definitely be fine. Let’s just treat it as a spring outing.”
They walked along the mountain path. From afar, they could see the plum grove in the mountains.
People used to have the habit of planting plums here. Now the plum trees had been abandoned and had become wild plum trees, but they were still highly productive. Tree after tree was full of plums, and when the wind blew, the fruits knocked against each other, making heavy, solid sounds.
Ying Kongtu looked at those plums and said, “The plums on our mountains are almost ripe too. One of these days, we’ll pick them and make smoked plums. We can also make some plum vinegar and plum wine.”
Wen Zhongshan had drunk plum wine before, but not plum vinegar. Hearing this, he said, “If we really pick them, would they count as our first harvest of fruit?”
Last year, they had pruned the plum trees, peach trees, pear trees, and other fruit trees on the six mountains under Ying Kongtu’s name, and had also buried fertilizer for them. Now these fruit trees could be considered genuinely cultivated by them.
Ying Kongtu nodded. “Yes, plums count as the first batch of fruit. I’m afraid we’ll be harvesting a lot of different fruits this year.”
As he spoke, Ying Kongtu turned back to look at Wen Zhongshan and smiled. “This whole year, we’ll probably spend our days surrounded by all kinds of flower fragrances and fruit aromas.”
Wen Zhongshan took his hand.
“Meow-ao!” Tiaozhu fixed its gaze on them and called out.
The two of them were very calm and did not even let go of each other’s hands.
Ying Kongtu asked, “What’s wrong?”
“Meow-ao.” Tiaozhu called again, indicating that there was prey up ahead.
“Then do you want to catch it? We won’t join in the excitement.”
Tiaozhu glanced at them, then started running.
Jingwei was the first to rush after it, and Dart also followed.
Xian Niao, who had fallen to the back, leisurely quickened its pace. In the end, only the two of them were left behind.
Ying Kongtu was not in a hurry either. He continued holding Wen Zhongshan’s hand and walked slowly as usual.
The furry ones ran around ahead of them, making all sorts of noises, gradually growing more and more excited.
They ran the whole way. By the time they reached the edge of the wild lake, aside from Dart, the other furry ones were still full of energy.
Dart lay on the muddy ground by the lake, tongue sticking out, already panting like a dog.
However, it had not asked Xian Niao to carry it on its back today, which was already progress.
“Awooo.” Xian Niao gave a steady call and carried a piece of meat over to Dart.
Ying Kongtu glanced at it. It was a piece of rabbit meat.
They had somehow caught a rabbit. Jingwei was currently tearing at the rabbit meat and slowly eating it.
Jingwei had not been officially released into the wild, but it already had a strong wolf nature.
Most of its food now came from prey it caught by itself. Only a small portion came from Ying Kongtu and Wen Zhongshan.
Even that small portion was mostly for it to enjoy as a treat. Whether it ate it or not did not really matter.
Ying Kongtu looked at Jingwei with relief. “Not bad. When you’re hungry, you can even hunt and add an extra meal for yourself.”
Jingwei raised its head, showing them its blood-smeared muzzle. “Awooo.”
“Eat. I was just praising you.” Ying Kongtu waved his hand.
Jingwei happily pressed the wild rabbit down with its two front legs and continued biting into it.
Ying Kongtu and Wen Zhongshan chose a good spot by the lake and prepared to catch fish fry.
Standing on the shore and looking down, they could see schools of fish fry swimming back and forth, like schools of sardines in the sea.
It seemed that spring had arrived, and they had indeed reproduced quite a lot of fry.
“I’ll release a little divine power. When you see them, scoop them up,” Ying Kongtu said to Wen Zhongshan.
Wen Zhongshan held the dip net and nodded.
Ying Kongtu smiled, tossed some bait into the water, then placed his hand in the water and released divine power.
The fish in the lake seemed to sense something and surged toward them rapidly.
Soon, whether large fish or small fish, all of them gathered madly around them.
Dart and Jingwei had never seen such a grand scene before. Both pricked up their ears and watched with full concentration.
Xian Niao’s furry face, however, revealed a faintly nostalgic expression.
Tiaozhu watched for a while, then stretched out its paw and began scooping fish. Dart and Jingwei copied it. Ying Kongtu and Wen Zhongshan did not stop them.
More and more fish were drawn over. Ying Kongtu and Wen Zhongshan used the dip nets to scoop up fish fry.
They only needed small fish and fry no wider than three fingers, but the fish that surged over came in all sorts of sizes.
As the two scooped, they picked up the larger fish and threw them far toward the center of the lake, not keeping them.
The number of fish fry in one area was limited, and Ying Kongtu’s divine power could not spread too far.
They moved along the shore, changing spots as they continued collecting fry.
This work was fairly monotonous. The furry ones found it interesting at first, but after watching for a while, they excitedly went off to play in the mud.
Ying Kongtu glanced at them from afar and did not bother interfering.
Little animals always needed to release their instincts. He could not demand that they stay clean at all times.
“Meow!” Dart was the first to run back excitedly. It squatted beside their feet, raised its head, and called at them.
Immediately afterward, Jingwei and the others also ran back.
Ying Kongtu was somewhat surprised. “Why are you all so excited?”
“They seem to have something in their mouths,” Wen Zhongshan observed carefully and said.
“What do they have?” Ying Kongtu skillfully reached into Jingwei’s mouth and felt around, then pulled out a handful of black, shiny mountain pit snails. “There are snails in this little lake too? Fine, we’ll raise them together.”
Ying Kongtu casually tossed the snails into the bucket.
Snails were also part of the terraced field ecosystem. Even if they did not put snails in, the snails would slowly appear along with the flowing water.
After checking Jingwei’s mouth, Ying Kongtu went to check Xian Niao’s.
He had originally thought he would pull out another handful of mountain pit snails, but unexpectedly, the moment he reached in, he scooped out a palmful of lively little creatures that bounced around wildly, making his palm itch.
His hand trembled, and he nearly threw them straight out.
Wen Zhongshan was quick-eyed and quick-handed. He gently pulled Ying Kongtu’s arm over and turned it in another direction, ultimately letting him throw the things in his hand into the bucket.
Still startled, Ying Kongtu lowered his head to look into the bucket and only then discovered that it was a handful of semi-transparent little shrimp.
“Where did you catch shrimp? And so many of them.”
Xian Niao realized that Ying Kongtu had been startled and apologetically licked the back of his hand, its voice low. “Awooo.”
“At the source of the lake? Then they must be little shrimp that drifted down with the current.”
Ying Kongtu casually rubbed Xian Niao’s big furry head and finally calmed down a little.
Since they could raise snails in the fields, they could raise shrimp too.
It was just that shrimp did not have the thick hard shells that snails did to protect themselves. If they released a batch of shrimp fry into the fields, who knew how many they would be able to harvest in the end?
The two circled the lake and scooped around. Seeing that they had collected about enough, they washed their hands and feet and headed home.
Raising fish in the fields was not as convenient as raising fish in a pond. If one field could raise a hundred or so fish, that was already a rich yield.
That was also why Ying Kongtu chose to come outside to scoop up fish fry instead of directly buying them.
They were not planning to raise that many fish anyway. It was enough to come out and casually scoop up some.
“We’re going home—” Ying Kongtu called to the furry ones, telling them to follow.
After calling out, Ying Kongtu did not intend to wait. He directly called Wen Zhongshan to head back.
Wen Zhongshan, however, unusually took out his phone and was replying to messages.
“Fu Yuan is looking for me.” Noticing Ying Kongtu’s gaze, Wen Zhongshan immediately answered.
Ying Kongtu knew that he occasionally chatted with his old friend, so he nodded and did not ask further.
Wen Zhongshan took the initiative to say, “Fu Yuan knows we’ve already finished transplanting the seedlings and are now scooping fish fry to raise rice flower fish. He says we can also raise some aquatic plants in the fields for the fish to eat.”
Ying Kongtu had not thought of this. “Raise aquatic plants?”
“When we wanted to plant pondweed last time, he also helped look around. He never found anything suitable then. Now he says there is a kind of purple-backed duckweed. It doesn’t quite count as an extraordinary plant, but it’s a little better than the aquatic plants outside.”
As Wen Zhongshan spoke, he handed the phone to Ying Kongtu.
Ying Kongtu was very interested and leaned over to take a look.
“This kind of purple-backed duckweed seems to have something similar around here too.” Ying Kongtu looked at it carefully, then became a little uncertain. “I think I’ve seen it in other paddy fields.”
“It does exist. This is one of the most widely distributed duckweed species.”
“Then let’s plant it. Thank your friend for helping us find this kind of aquatic plant.”
“I’ll say ‘you’re welcome’ for him.”
Ying Kongtu glanced at Wen Zhongshan.
Wen Zhongshan asked, “What’s wrong?”
Ying Kongtu smiled and said, “Don’t say ‘you’re welcome’ for him. You should say thank you to him on my behalf.”
Wen Zhongshan immediately corrected himself. “I’ll tell him that we thank him.”
Ying Kongtu nodded with satisfaction, then smiled and took Wen Zhongshan’s hand.
Ying Kongtu and the others soon released all the aquatic creatures they had collected into the terraced fields.
To raise all kinds of fish and shrimp, Ying Kongtu even specially modified the terraced fields and turned them into flowing-water fields.
He dug a small opening at the upper reaches of the terraced field, and another small opening at the lower reaches. Outside both openings, he set up several layers of barrier nets.
This way, the fish and shrimp could not get out, but water could flow down from above and then out from below, keeping the water in the terraced fields moving and bringing in more oxygen.
However, this method would cause some loss of fertility.
After weighing things, Ying Kongtu felt that a little loss was acceptable.
Ba snake fertilizer was a slow-release fertilizer, so even if some was lost, it would not be much.
Even if the active nutrients in the fertilizer flowed out, they would still circulate on this land and ultimately benefit the local area, so it did not matter much.
The purple-backed duckweed Fu Yuan sent them arrived very quickly.
This duckweed’s vitality was indeed very strong. By the time it reached them, Ying Kongtu could still feel its vigorous life force.
He could also feel that the quality of this batch of duckweed was very good, almost on the same level as the pondweed they had planted in Ai Lake.
“This duckweed is really excellent.” Ying Kongtu gave this batch of purple-backed duckweed high praise. “I’ll enclose a patch of land and raise it for a while first before spreading it to the other fields.”
Such good purple-backed duckweed needed to be multiplied first. If he put it directly into the terraced fields, it would probably be eaten clean by the fish and shrimp very quickly.
However, if the fish and shrimp loved eating purple-backed duckweed, then by autumn harvest, the fish and shrimp would definitely be plump and delicious.
Ying Kongtu was already looking forward to it.
Author’s Note:
Tiaozhu brought back a stray little milk kitten.
After Ying Kongtu posted an adoption notice, he asked Dart to socialize the tiny kitten, which did not know anything yet.
In the morning, Dart went “meow-ao” and “mimi,” leading the little kitten in acting spoiled, wrecking the house, and eating, leaving the home in complete chaos.
By the afternoon, Ying Kongtu stripped Dart of its title as cat teacher.
“This fellow is a little lacking in cat virtue reserves. Better not let it lead the child astray,” Ying Kongtu said.
