CTF 0032

Soon, the neighbouring villages learned of the existence of a little expert in the Xu family’s village, who could plough the fields very quickly. 

They couldn’t believe it at first. How could anyone plough that quickly in uneven, muddy terrain? 

Deep ploughing was hard enough on flat land. It had to be a hoax!

They thought that way until they sent someone to the Xu family’s village to investigate and witnessed Xu Yin driving a tractor, ploughing through the muddy fields for nearly half an hour, and covering a large area…

“What? The neighbouring village also wants me to drive the tractor for them?”

When Xu Yin received this message from the village commune secretary, she paused while wiping her face with a towel. After five days of hard work, she had already unlocked the advanced level of tractor-driving skill, and she had received a task reward from the system—a new energy long-range RV, fully equipped, with a large load capacity, capable of going off-road, with a range of over a thousand kilometres. With it, she wouldn’t need to worry about booking accommodations for her future travels.

Xu Yin was quite satisfied. She hadn’t wasted her efforts during this time.

“Yinyin, are you willing to go?”

The village commune secretary tapped his pipe and said, “Their village has a large lake. There, they raise some fish, shrimp, and crabs collectively. If you help them plough the land, they’ve promised to give you a share of the fish and shrimp. Having a couple of fresh dishes on your dinner table would be nice.”

Speaking of fish, Xu Yin had been curious. “Grandpa Secretary, why don’t we raise some fish in the rice fields in our village? If we release the fish fry now, they’d be ready for harvest at the time of early rice harvest. Even if we’re not thinking of doing business, it’s a good idea to have a few fresh dishes on the dinner table. Plus, the fish would eat the weeds, pests, and fallen rice blossoms in the fields, and their waste could provide nutrients to the rice. It’s easier to manage than river or lake aquaculture.”

“Fish in the rice fields? Would they survive?” The old village commune secretary looked dubious.

“Yes, they would. These fish eat the weeds in the rice fields, pests, and the fallen rice blossoms. Their waste can provide nutrients to the rice. It’s even easier to manage than river or lake aquaculture.”

“Really? Tell me more about it. How do you do it?” The old village commune secretary’s eyes sparkled as he pulled Xu Yin into a discussion.

As for the task that the neighbouring village had asked him to handle, well, that could wait until tomorrow!

“Yinyin, can we also raise those fish in our fields?”

Mother Xu had listened to Xu Yin and the old village commune secretary’s discussion. After he left, she couldn’t help but ask her daughter about it.

Xu Yin nodded. “Of course.”

“Well, how many do you think we should keep? I’ll make you some fish soup when the time comes.”

Xu Yin was going to the neighbouring village to help plough the fields, and they had a collective fish pond. So, Mother Xu went with her and bought a few small fish like young crucian carp, small carp, and grass carp, each about two fingers wide, in their village. They intended to raise them as fish fry in their paddy fields. Once they flooded their rice fields, they would release the fish to grow in their paddy fields.

Xu Yin looked at the fish fry her mother had chosen and smirked, “Mom, haven’t you chosen too few?”

In the future, one mu of land could accommodate eight hundred or more fish, and even if they didn’t want to start with too many, this hundred or so still seemed a bit too meagre. Once they were in the rice field, you’d have trouble even counting them all.

“Isn’t this enough?” Mother Xu thought it was plenty. 

Besides, fish fry wasn’t cheap. 

But if her daughter thought it was too few, they could add a few more.

Mother Xu bit the bullet and added about a hundred more. By the end, they had a total of two hundred and sixty-eight fish fry. It was a pretty auspicious number.

Mother Xu quickly paid for them. She said, “We can’t get more now. If we raise them well, we can get more next year. But what if we don’t raise them well?”

Again, fish fry wasn’t cheap.

Xu Yin didn’t argue further. While it was true that raising fish in the rice fields was easier than in a fish pond, it didn’t mean you could just put them in and forget about them. You had to feed them at least, or the fish would stay skinny and small.

They couldn’t buy ready-made fish food in this era. Xu Yin reluctantly spent 500 energy points to exchange for a fish food recipe suitable for rural use. It consisted of the remnants of rapeseed cake, which were the product that they’d get after rapeseed oil extraction; rice bran; and miller’s bran, mixed and left to ferment for two to three days until it rotted enough to be used as fish food.

All this required someone to do the work, though. Her parents were getting older, so Xu Yin didn’t intend to raise too many fish. 

Maybe after they saw the harvest, her mother would be the one eagerly buying more fish fry next year, without even needing Xu Yin to prompt her.

It was fortunate that Mother Xu followed Xu Yin early in the morning to the neighbouring village, the Hutang Village, to buy fish fry. When Mother Xu went back from shopping, the other villagers who’d learned the news from the old commune secretary also went there to buy fish fry.

Hutang Village was initially quite happy with the unexpected source of income. Still, as more and more people came to buy fish fry, their joy was dampened. 

The fish in their lake followed a cycle where larger fish produced fish eggs, which hatched into smaller fish—called fry, at first, which then would grow into larger ones. If all the fish fry were bought, what would they have left to eat, or to reproduce?

“Don’t sell anymore!” 

The officials of Hutang Village collectively decided after discussing the matter.

The residents of the Xu family’s village couldn’t convince them to continue selling fish fry. So, they had to go to the county town to inquire about where they could buy fish fry. 

They found some, but it took time and effort to bring them back. Even if everything went smoothly, it would still take two to three days. Some would even have to wait until a week later. 

Of course, not everyone in the village followed the lead to buy fish fry and cultivate paddy field fish. At most, about a third of the villagers decided to give it a try. Fish fry wasn’t cheap, and they didn’t want to waste their money if they couldn’t manage to raise them. The majority adopted a more conservative stance, choosing to wait and see. The paddy fields were there, and if they saw their neighbours’ success, they could join next year.

Among those who decided to raise fish, Xu Jianjun’s family had the most fish fry. They had a little less than three hundred fish more than Xu Yin’s family, raising a total of six hundred fish in a single acre of paddy field.

“You, look at you. Even Xu Yin’s family is raising just over two hundred fish, and you insist on raising six hundred. You were even considering renting someone else’s paddy field for fish. You’re pushing your luck. If you can’t raise them well, let’s see how you handle it,” Xu Jianjun’s mother scolded him.

Xu Jianjun’s mother had been scolding him about the same thing these days. When he heard this, he chuckled. “Don’t worry, Mom! I will make money for you.”

“Just don’t make me lose money, that’s good enough. Making money is a stretch!” his mother grumbled, shooting him an annoyed look. “I don’t know who gave you this much confidence.”

“Hehe, just wait until you can collect the money!” Xu Jianjun replied confidently.

Initially, Xu Jianjun hadn’t planned to raise so many fish. He only decided to buy more when his mother kept saying they should be more conservative. While chatting with his classmates about it before going to night school, he mentioned the idea to his biology teacher. The teacher was quite impressed and thought that raising fish in paddy fields could be a good method for better fish growth compared to raising them in fishponds. The teacher even encouraged him to proceed with the idea.

This convinced Xu Jianjun to purchase more fish fry. He was ready to buy even more, but his mother refused to use the money she had saved for his future wedding.

Xu Jianjun’s actions inspired a few other families, particularly his friends who had worked together with him in the brick factory to earn extra money. As for the rest of the village, they were still hesitant to invest in the idea of raising fish in paddy fields. Some were even waiting eagerly to see if Xu Jianjun and the others would face losses.

Once Xu Yin finished ploughing the land in Hutang Village, she returned home with two large grass carp, each weighing over three pounds. She also had two baskets hanging from the front of her bicycle, one filled with eels and the other with shrimp. They were her rewards for helping with the ploughing.