The Cat Who Farms in the Post-Apocalyptic Wasteland – CH86

Chapter 86: Fishing

In the afternoon, the sky was overcast, threatening rain again.

Most people were indoors, chatting or playing cards.

Xia Lu Nong, having overused his powers in the morning and turned into a cat, causing quite the fuss, was not in the mood for socializing. He lay listlessly on the bed, listening to the rain outside.

It wouldn’t get dark for a few more hours, and he’d been lying there so long that his bones ached. Having already finished the novel on his phone, he grew bored, tossing and turning, unsure what to do.

As he was shifting around, a knock came at the door. Lazily, he called out, “It’s open, come in.”

Kong Zhi poked his head in. “Want to go fishing?”

Xia Lu Nong sat up, cross-legged on the bed. “What kind of fish? Where?”

“You said this morning you wanted to fish.” Kong Zhi raised a fishing net in his hand and shook it. “By the river.”

Xia Lu Nong’s face lit up. “Where’d you get the fishing net?”

“I borrowed it from Old Liu’s group. I already asked Brother Huo Qu. If you’re not coming, I’ll return it.”

“I’m in, I’m in!” Xia Lu Nong quickly slipped on his shoes, smiling as he ran to the door. “Do we need to bring anything else?”

“Just a few sacks to carry the fish back.”

Xia Lu Nong fetched some sacks and rope from the storage room. “Just the two of us?”

“Go ask Brother Huo Qu next door.”

Xia Huo Qu and Yan Xi Nian were playing chess next door. When Xia Lu Nong peeked in to ask, Xia Huo Qu said, “There’s nothing much going on, so we’ll join you.”

“I’ll grab a few more bags then.”

By now, they were used to leaving the base. In their animal forms, they carried their things either in their mouths or on their backs, sprinting dozens of meters in a few steps like lightning, quickly making their way from one end of the base to the other.

Since Xia Lu Nong was small and ran slower, Kong Zhi simply carried him by the scruff and flew outside.

The fishing spot was the same river where they’d washed peanuts the other day.

The river was quite wide, about ten meters across, and with the recent rain, it was swollen, the muddy water rushing downstream, looking rather intimidating.

At the riverbank, Xia the cat stretched his neck and lifted his front paws, straining to see into the water.

He had seen fish in the river before and wondered if they were still there.

Xia Huo Qu and Yan Xi Nian quickly shifted back into human form, pulling clothes from the bundles they’d carried in their mouths and getting dressed. “Stop staring, there are fish down there.”

Kong Zhi stayed in the air, circling overhead, keeping watch and ready to swoop in for a rescue if anyone accidentally fell into the river.

Xia Lu Nong also turned back into his human form, swiftly putting on his shorts and rain boots. “The fish are in the middle, right? Can we catch them with this net?”

“We’ll get them. They’re already surfacing. Step back a bit. Let me and your Brother Xi Nian handle this.”

Knowing he was clumsy, Xia Lu Nong obediently stepped aside to let them work.

Both Xia Huo Qu and Yan Xi Nian were skilled with nets.

Yan Xi Nian found a spot and said, “I’ll cast the first net.”

“Be careful,” Xia Huo Qu warned. “It’s rained so much, the riverbank might collapse.”

Yan Xi Nian paced along the riverbank for a bit, searching for the right spot before finding a slightly protruding area where he flung the net out with all his might.

Xia Lu Nong had never seen someone cast a net in real life before.

Yan Xi Nian was strong. He threw the net six or seven meters out, its weighted edges sinking it quickly to the riverbed.

Xia Lu Nong watched the net, his breath held in suspense.

After waiting for a while, Yan Xi Nian began pulling in the rope.

The river’s strong current made it harder to reel the net in.

Standing nearby, Xia Lu Nong asked his brother nervously, “Are there fish in there?”

“I see scales,” Xia Huo Qu replied, stepping forward to help Yan Xi Nian pull in the net.

The rope cut into their hands, turning them red from the pressure, showing just how heavy the net was.

Xia Lu Nong rushed to their side, grabbing onto the rope to help pull.

The three of them tugged in unison, like pulling out a giant radish, working together.

The net was heavy, and Yan Xi Nian panted as he pulled. “There’s definitely something big in there.”

Xia Lu Nong gritted his teeth. “There better be. With this weight, there better be a whopper.”

“I see it!” Xia Huo Qu exclaimed. “There’s a big silver fish in there. It’s got to be at least fifteen or twenty pounds.”

Yan Xi Nian chimed in, “Let’s hope it’s a tasty one!”

With a few more heaves, the three of them finally pulled the net ashore.

Inside, fish of all sizes flopped and wriggled, shimmering like little moons.
The largest fish was thicker than Xia Lu Nong’s waist, and as they pulled it up, it kept thrashing, tearing at the fishing net.

“Oh my gosh, this fish is huge!”

Xia Lu Nong ran over, intending to take the fish out of the net. But as he got closer, he realized that the biggest and most tempting fish had mutated drastically.

It had several legs beneath its belly, like a crocodile, looking like a grotesque hybrid.

Xia Lu Nong froze in place, goosebumps rising all over him as his scalp tingled. He stood still, unable to move.

His brother leaned over to take a look, grabbed the fish directly, and inspected it. “This fish has mutated too much. We can’t keep it.”

Yan Xi Nian also came over and said, “Even if we can’t keep it, there are plenty of other fish in the net. Let’s take a look at those.”

Xia Lu Nong nodded and carefully went to pick out the other fish.

Some of the fish had grown sharp teeth, while others had fins that were unusually sharp. He had to be extra careful while handling them, to avoid being bitten or pricked.

Some fish had particularly venomous fins. If someone got pricked by one, their hand would feel painfully itchy, and in severe cases, they’d need to see a doctor.

Being extremely cautious, Xia Lu Nong soon managed to remove the fish.

In total, there were over forty fish in the net, but only sixteen were edible.

Among those, the smallest weighed more than a pound, and they stuffed the sacks full.

Yan Xi Nian dragged the sack farther away from the river and said, “Let’s see where we can cast the net for a second round.”

As he said this, Kong Zhi swooped down from the sky with a loud “caw,” flying along the river until he reached a spot downstream, about ten meters away, and circled above it.

Xia Lu Nong’s eyes lit up. “Quick, quick, Kong Zhi’s found fish! Let’s go over there.”

Yan Xi Nian looked up and asked, “How do you know there are fish where Kong Zhi is?”

Xia Lu Nong replied, “Isn’t he signaling us to go over there?”

Yan Xi Nian looked at him and said, “You two are really in sync, huh? You can understand him that well?”

Xia Lu Nong thought, What’s so hard to understand? It was either this or that. Combined with the context, it was easy to figure out what Kong Zhi meant.

Feeling something was off when he noticed his brother’s intense gaze, Xia Lu Nong swallowed the words that were on the tip of his tongue and simply nodded vaguely. He grabbed the fishing net and started walking downstream.

Yan Xi Nian, being the strongest and the most skilled at casting the net, took charge of it again.

From his vantage point in the sky, Kong Zhi could see everything clearly. Thanks to his guidance, every spot they fished had plenty of fish.

Even though Kong Zhi had scouted the areas with the densest fish populations, fishing was still hard work. They had to cast the net, haul it in, sort through the catch, and then clean the net.

Each round of fishing took at least ten to twenty minutes.

The river was teeming with fish, including many mutated ones. Each time they cast the net, they couldn’t predict what they’d pull up, so they had to haul everything in and sort through it later.

Throughout the afternoon, they caught several particularly fierce fish, but thanks to the experience of Xia Huo Qu and Yan Xi Nian, no one got bitten.

As time passed, the sky, though overcast, gradually darkened. By the time they realized, birds were already calling, and night had fallen.

The light had dimmed so much that it was hard to see anything a few meters away.

Wiping the exhaustion from his face, Yan Xi Nian said, “Let’s call it a day. There’s no way we can catch all the fish in this river. We’ve got enough, so let’s head back.”

“Agreed,” Xia Huo Qu said. “We’ve got more than enough fish to eat.”

The four of them transformed back into their animal forms.

Except for Xia Lu Nong, each of them carried fish on their backs.

It was quite late by the time they returned, and the market had already dispersed.

They had caught so many fish that they couldn’t eat them all at once, and because they had been stuffed into sacks, many of the fish were already dead. If they kept them at home overnight, they’d likely start to rot by the next day.

The four of them looked at the fish, feeling a bit troubled.

After thinking for a moment, Xia Lu Nong said, “How about we take them to the small square and see if anyone wants to trade something for them?”

It wasn’t raining, and quite a few people had gathered in the small square.

If the fish weren’t too expensive to trade for, there would likely be plenty of interested people.

The others agreed with his suggestion.

Xia Huo Qu picked out a few of the better fish from the sack, and they stuffed the rest back in.

They transformed back into their animal forms and carried the fish to the square.

Word spread quickly in their small base, and everyone already knew they’d gone fishing and caught a lot of fish.

However, when people actually saw the sack full of fish, many were still surprised.

“Xia Lu Nong, did you guys catch all these fish this afternoon?”

“Xia Lu Nong, how are you trading them?”

“Wow, these fish are so fat! Did you already go through them? Are these the ones with the least mutations that are safe to eat?”

Exhausted, Xia Lu Nong accepted a stool offered by someone nearby and sat down in front of the fish. “Yes, these are all the fish we caught today. If anyone is interested, you can trade rice or anything else you have for them.”

“Two pounds of rice for one pound of fish. First come, first served. You snooze, you lose!”

“Oh no, I’d better go get my rice right away.”

“Me too! It’s been so long since I’ve had fish!”

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