Chapter 130: Blasting Fish with Detonators, Childhood Friends

“Why are you all sitting at the kids’ table? Come on, go sit back at your spots.”

Li Xue, Lin Heng’s third aunt, brought out the dishes and froze for a moment when she saw the scene.

“We saw Lin Heng sitting here, so we followed,” someone said with a chuckle.

“I don’t drink, so of course I’m sitting with the kids,” Lin Heng said with a shrug.

“No way, Lin Heng, come on over here,” his third uncle, Lin Xuetao, came in from outside and dragged Lin Heng over to the adults’ table.

He couldn’t win the argument, so Lin Heng had to go sit there, next to Lin Father.

Thankfully, no one was making a fuss now, and the conversation was more normal.

Soon the food was served. The dishes today were great. Besides the usual vegetables and cured meat, there were also pigeon leaf fairy tofu, deep-fried creek grouper, stir-fried yellow eel, and a big plate of field snails.

“Come on, cheers everyone! Thanks for all your hard work today,” Third Uncle Lin raised his glass with a smile.

Everyone else raised theirs too, and the table immediately grew lively.

Rural folks are mostly seasoned drinkers—plenty of people can down half a liter of white liquor without even staggering.

Lin Heng only liked a sip or two and wasn’t into heavy drinking. He was more interested in the stir-fried yellow eel.

Third Aunt’s cooking was really good—not even a trace of fishiness.

The field snails were well-prepped too. There wasn’t much meat, but they were seriously tasty.

“Lin Heng, come have a drink,” Lin Shan said with a grin.

“I can’t drink much, my tolerance is low,” Lin Heng replied with a smile, clinking glasses before taking a small sip.

“You’re no fun, not like a real man,” Lin Shan said, downing his glass and looking a bit displeased.

Lin Heng just shook his head and stopped at that one sip, the same no matter who toasted him.

Lin Father and big brother Lin Yue laughed and helped cover for him. The others knew Lin Heng really couldn’t drink and stopped pressuring him.

But even so, everyone at the table was full of envy. Some asked him questions out of curiosity, others wanted to understand how he ran his store.

Lin Heng wasn’t stingy with answers—he’d explain whatever didn’t touch on his core business.

At the men’s table, even though they were clearly envious, they kept their composure—no one was overly fawning.

At the women’s table, though, Xiulan was swarmed. Everyone was asking after her life, inviting her to do laundry together, or to visit their homes.

Third Aunt was even more affectionate toward Xiulan than her own daughter, constantly piling food into her bowl.

You have to understand—they didn’t use to treat her like this. Many of them avoided her because she was from another county, didn’t speak much to her, and even secretly mocked her for “marrying down” to Lin Heng and ruining her own life.

Women like Wang Cuilian used to bully her on purpose sometimes.

But now that Lin Heng had made it, everyone suddenly wanted to be besties with Xiulan. They showered her with care and conversation, like they’d been close friends for over a decade, constantly digging for topics to build rapport.

Xiulan was a bit flustered at first, but luckily Lin Mother and Sister-in-law were nearby to help out.

To most of the questions, Xiulan just shook her head and stayed quiet, occasionally nodding while feeding her daughter.

She had once longed for a good friend to chat with, but no one would include her. Over time, she got used to the solitude.

She actually came to love the quiet and simple life. Aside from spending time with Lin Mother Caiyun, she would take her daughter out to pick mushrooms or gather pigweed alone. It felt peaceful.

Sometimes she’d daydream, thinking about Lin Heng or what to cook for lunch. Days passed quickly and contentedly.

Lately, a few women had invited her to go out picking pigweed or doing laundry together.

She went a couple of times at first, but after hearing them constantly gripe and fish for gossip about her home life, she stopped going.

She realized she preferred going out with Caiyun, who never complained or gossiped.

Being with Lin Heng was pure happiness—even something as simple as mushroom picking was fun together.

She found the other women a little strange. They’d chosen their husbands themselves, but now spent all day complaining about them.

And if a household didn’t have money, shouldn’t the couple work together to improve things? Why did it turn into mutual blame?

After the meal, Lin Heng and Xiulan couldn’t just leave right away—that would’ve been rude.

Xiulan stayed by the door helping to sift rice, while Lin Heng headed to the fields to help thresh.

At this time, the threshing tools were simple. They used a trapezoidal threshing bin—narrow at the bottom, wide at the top—with three sides wrapped in tarp, about two and a half meters tall.

Inside the bin was a curved wooden rake. Threshing was done in pairs, taking turns.

Holding a handful of rice stalks, they’d smack them hard against the wooden rake inside the bin, knocking the grains loose to fall in.

From a distance, you could hear the rhythm—four loud thumps in a row, then a pause, then four more, over and over.

The women used sickles to harvest the rice, while the men took turns threshing. At the end of the day, women had sore backs, men had sore arms.

Once the threshing bin was full, they’d remove the wooden rake, scoop the rice out, and carry it home.

The rice they brought home still had lots of husks and leaves. Xiulan and the others used giant bamboo sieves to sort out the debris, then spread the rice on tarps to dry in the sun.

After that, they’d wait for it to dry and use a winnowing fan to blow away the empty husks, leaving behind only good grains.

After threshing for a bit, Lin Heng’s arms were so sore he had to take a break.

“This is killing me,” Lin Heng sighed.

Modern harvesters could finish in a day what they were taking many days to do.

But even with all the hard work, people were happy. Compared to a few years ago, when they were starving and eating pigweed, now they could at least eat their fill and occasionally have a good meal.

Compared to ancient times or even just the past, life was getting better.

This country still had many flaws, but at least it was improving. People still had hope.

“Lin Heng, what time is it?” a Li family uncle came over to sit and rest.

Lin Heng pulled his wristwatch from his pocket and smiled, “It’s three fifty, almost four.”

He had taken off the watch while threshing.

“Is that the same as a clock? Mind if I take a look?”

He’d been curious for a while but was too shy to ask during the meal.

“Same thing.” Lin Heng handed it to him. He recognized the uncle’s face but didn’t know his name.

“This is so nice, even the feel of it is so smooth. Really pretty,” the man said admiringly.

“Let me see too,” said Yang Zhaotao’s father, taking a sip of water and coming over with a smile.

The watch passed through several hands before returning to Lin Heng. Everyone was full of admiration—some of them had never even seen one before.

“Lin Heng, what are some ways ordinary folks can make money?” someone finally asked, unable to hold back.

Now their tone had become genuine—not like the flattery and joking during the meal.

Lin Heng looked around and smiled. “Definitely fruit trees. Even though you won’t see returns for the first five years, once they start producing, making over a thousand yuan a year is easy.”

“And in the meantime, you can interplant soybeans or something. It won’t affect the trees much.”

Everyone nodded. Fruit trees did seem like a solid option.

“What kind should we plant?” someone else asked.

“That depends on everyone’s own choice. Ideally, the whole village should grow the same kind of fruit. It’s easier to sell when you have a bigger scale,” Lin Heng said, spreading his hands.

“Sounds reasonable.”

The group chatted for a bit, though it was unclear who actually took it to heart, then they went back to threshing grain.

His third uncle had started threshing yesterday, so there wasn’t much left today. By around four in the afternoon, they were done.

After dinner, around seven, the plan he had for midday fell through.

The next day it was their turn to thresh grain, so Lin Heng figured the rice cake-making would have to be pushed back quite a bit.

“The corn’s only good for feeding the chickens now—it’ll spoil by tomorrow morning.” Back home, Xiulan said helplessly.

She had originally planned to make corn, pumpkin, and red date porridge that evening, but Third Aunt Li Xue had been too enthusiastic with her hospitality.

Xiulan took the cleaned tender corn to feed the chickens, while Lin Heng put away the red dates.

After half a day under the blazing sun, the red date skins were wrinkled. With two more good sunny days, they’d be dried.

The next morning, Lin Heng got up early and called his eldest brother to carry 200 jin of quicklime to Red Maple Mountain.

“Big Brother, leave the quicklime here for now. Come help me drain the water from the first fish pond,” Lin Heng said after putting down the quicklime.

“Alright.” Lin Yue nodded and followed Lin Heng over.

The overflow outlet had been left open, but the remaining water still needed to be drained using a siphon.

After disinfecting the first pond, they had left it alone. The water inside was a strong alkaline solution, and once it had soaked long enough, it needed to be drained.

After all this time soaking, there were no leaks. The first pond was perfect.

Once they set up the siphon, Lin Heng and his brother went to disinfect the second pond by scattering quicklime.

After that, Lin Heng went to the stream to open the inlet.

The water channel had waterproof lining. Once opened, water flowed along the lining directly into the pond. The drop-off at the pond’s inlet was also lined, so there was no worry about erosion from the flow.

As the water entered the pond and met the quicklime, a violent reaction immediately occurred, producing clouds of white mist.

Once the water reached a depth of about thirty centimeters, Lin Heng shut it off. Wearing rubber boots, he stepped into the pond to scoop up lime slurry and splash it over the surrounding slopes for disinfection.

By the time the two finished and returned home, the workers Lin Father had called were already in the fields threshing grain.

“Let’s hurry over too. Wonder how the harvest will be this year,” Lin Yue said.

Lin Heng nodded, strapped on his basket, and headed to the fields.

By the time he arrived, Lin Father’s group had already threshed half a field of rice.

There were a lot of people helping with their family’s rice this year. They used two threshing barrels and split into two teams.

Lin Father led a group to the more distant fields, while Lin Heng’s eldest uncle, third uncle, and younger uncle-in-law led a team to thresh the fields by the riverside near the house.

“Uncle, Third Uncle, Uncle-in-law—are your rice fields already done?” Lin Heng asked with a smile as he walked over.

“Ours were done two days ago. We were gonna call you, but you were busy,” Uncle-in-law Li Baiquan replied with a grin.

Next to him, his eldest uncle Lu Honghai scolded, “Exactly. You didn’t even tell us your new shop opened. You don’t treat us like elders anymore, huh?”

“Right! You brat. If you don’t tell anyone else, fine, but we’re your uncles—you could at least tell us,” Third Uncle chimed in.

What Lin Heng did this time had truly shocked them. From the price surge of sanghuang mushrooms to everything that followed, it felt like riding a rollercoaster—hard to keep up.

Not long ago, he had just started turning over a new leaf, and now in the blink of an eye he was making serious money, opened an acquisition station, and became a small boss. It felt unreal.

“Haha, it all happened so fast—I didn’t get a chance to tell anyone,” Lin Heng laughed, though in truth he never planned to notify them.

Some things just look different depending on your perspective. If he’d told them in advance, they definitely would’ve tried to stop him, telling him to save the money and not take risks.

Now that he succeeded, of course their attitudes changed.

“Next time, don’t do that again,” they all scolded.

“Promise I won’t. I’ll definitely let everyone know next time,” Lin Heng said with a smile. These elders were all good people and the closest relatives to his family.

“Lin Heng, I’ve got something good ready. Let’s go blast fish when it gets cold,” Li Baiquan said with a mischievous grin.

“What is it?” Lin Heng asked curiously.

Li Baiquan chuckled. “I made a kerosene bottle filled with gunpowder and a detonator. Let’s go blast fish in the Huangtan River this winter.”

“Whoa, Uncle-in-law, where’d you get that?” Lin Heng’s eyes widened. He’d heard his uncle-in-law mention it before, but didn’t expect he’d actually made it.

It was like those Russians using grenades to fish—hardcore.

“Heh, back in the day I worked on road construction. Some people hoarded a few detonators from blasting rocks,” Li Baiquan explained with a grin.

“I’ve still got two at home,” added Eldest Uncle Lu Honghai with a smile.

“Nice! Be sure to call me when the time comes,” Lin Heng nodded. Though using explosives as a fishing enthusiast was kinda unorthodox, the scene was bound to be spectacular.

“No problem, I’ll call you,” Li Baiquan laughed. He knew Lin Heng would be into it.

“Lin Heng, I saw your forest musk deer. Heard you also got a wild boar—impressive!” Lu Honghai complimented him.

“Haha, just lucky,” Lin Heng laughed.

As he finished threshing the rice in his hands, he added, “Come winter, let’s go a bit further toward the foot of Taibai Mountain—maybe we’ll get something big.”

“No problem. We’re all in,” they nodded.

After chatting a bit more, Lin Heng went over to say hi to his aunt Lu Hongyun, who was harvesting rice.

She was five years younger than her husband Li Baiquan, but due to a mix-up on her household registration, her listed age was off by a full zodiac cycle, making her 12 years older on paper.

According to the registry, she was now in her fifties—more than ten years older than Lin Heng’s mother.

But she did look older than Lin Mother, mostly because she was incredibly hardworking. She did both men’s and women’s tasks, and her hands were full of calluses.

Her two sons were able to marry and have kids largely thanks to her efforts—Li Baiquan couldn’t compare.

When Lin Heng was little, his aunt had taken great care of him, sneaking him candy and biscuits and sweetening his childhood.

In his past life, when he was in debt, she had also helped Xiulan a lot.

“You’ve really made something of yourself. If I ever sell herbs, you’d better give your aunt a good deal,” Aunt Lu Hongyun joked.

“No problem, Auntie. If you sell mountain goods to me, I’ll give you base prices—not a cent of profit,” Lin Heng said, thumping his chest.

If he had to pick one relative to help among them all, it’d be this aunt—then his third uncle.

“Good deal. Then I’ll take you up on that,” she said with a smile. She was joking, of course—she’d never really take advantage of her nephew.

If she did, wouldn’t others want the same? She wouldn’t make things difficult for Lin Heng.

Then Lin Heng asked about his two cousins, Li Shilei and Li Shiwei.

He was closer to Li Shiwei, as they were only a few months apart. After both got married, they just didn’t have time to hang out anymore.

As for Li Shilei, he preferred hanging out with a different group and wasn’t that close with Lin Heng. The main reason Lin Heng asked was to see if Li Shiwei had come—he wanted to catch up with him since they used to be best friends.

“Your cousin Shilei isn’t coming, he’s busy. Shiwei said he’d come down at noon to find you,” Aunt Lu Hongyun said with a smile. She knew Lin Heng was really asking about her second son, Li Shiwei.

“Haha, great,” Lin Heng nodded with a grin.

Back when they were kids, besides his older brother, Lin Heng got along best with Li Shiwei, Lin Hai, and Liu Sheng.

Liu Sheng was still messing around with Zhao Hu and the others, and Lin Heng wasn’t interested in dealing with him anymore. But he still wanted to see Shiwei and catch up.

After threshing for a bit, it was soon noon. With so many people helping today, the work went quickly.

Sister-in-law Liu Juan came over to call everyone for lunch, saying the food was ready.

“Alright!”

They finished threshing the cut rice, scooped up the grains, and carried them home.

Back at the house, even by the time lunch started, Li Shiwei still hadn’t come down from the mountain.

“Probably got held up by something,” Aunt Lu Hongyun said.

“No worries. I’ll go find him next time,” Lin Heng replied with a smile. Once you’re married, it’s normal to be tied up with responsibilities.

Women like Xiulan, gentle and mild as water, were rare, after all.

For lunch, they set up four tables. Lin Father had called a lot of people to help today, hoping to get all the threshing done in one day.

The food was abundant. Lin Father even slaughtered a catfish he’d been saving and two chickens. The spread was far better than what most families would serve.

Just this meal alone made it worth it for many of the helpers—there was no way their meals at home could compare to the Lin family’s hospitality.

Lin Heng sat at a table with his uncle-in-law and his two uncles, feeling completely at ease. They could drink if they wanted, or say no without any fuss—it was all relaxed.

His uncle-in-law, though, couldn’t stop looking at his watch, clearly envious.

After lunch, they went to check on the forest musk deer.

“Didn’t think you’d actually catch it. Too bad it’s a female—if it were a male, you’d be raking it in,” Li Baiquan said, looking regretful.

“This works too. I’ll catch a male later and pair them up,” Lin Heng replied with a smile.

“That’s tough. Sometimes you won’t come across one for years. Even killing one’s hard enough, let alone catching it alive,” Li Baiquan said, shaking his head.

“I’ll run into one eventually,” Lin Heng said with a confident smile.

He gave his uncle-in-law a quick tour of the house, and then the two of them went back to the fields to thresh more grain.

His aunt stayed back to help Lin Mother with cooking, though in truth Lin Mother just wanted to give her something nice to eat.

Since they were trying to finish the threshing in one day, they kept working all afternoon until past seven, though there was still a little left.

But not too much—Lin Heng figured their own family could finish it the next day.

In the evening, while Lin Heng was checking the grain and helping to spread it out to dry, Uncle-in-law Li Baiquan suddenly came over and said, “Lin Heng, there’s a bunch of bamboo partridges calling in the bamboo grove. Let’s go get a couple to eat.”

(End of Chapter)