area51novel Chapter 23 Ancient Coins
Chapter 23 Ancient Coins
Tonight I made Zhang Niu's favorite preserved vegetable and fish head soup, with some chili peppers. The whole soup was bursting with savory spiciness. This fish head soup can only be made with a seven- or eight-pound bighead carp. Because the head of a bighead carp takes up a third of its size, it's generally preferred for soups. These days, bighead carp raised in ponds are sold when they reach a little over three pounds. To eat one weighing eight or nine pounds, you have to wait until next year, and only if it survives the winter freeze. It seems the bighead carp in my online space have reached that size; I should probably check it out sometime.
Besides fish soup, I also made peach resin stewed pork. Last time I went up the mountain to collect peach tree sap, I got exactly half a pound, no more, no less. If the animals hadn't knocked over seven or eight bags at night, I would have gotten even more. For peach resin stewed pork, you must use pork belly cut into chunks. Before cooking, soak the peach resin in hot water to soften it, then drain it in a rice washing basket, removing the outer white pith. Stir-fry it until it's about 70-80% cooked. Add spices, then pour the peach resin into the pot. Cook over high heat for a few minutes, and it's ready. The resulting pork chunks are a light red color and have a subtle peach blossom aroma.
During dinner, Zhang Niu overheard his father mentioning that the family sow was showing signs of pregnancy. This delighted Zhang Niu. He hadn't expected "King Kong" to be so prolific; the sow had gotten pregnant so quickly. She would soon give birth to piglets. He'd heard that piglets born from domestic and wild boars possessed both the succulent meat of domestic pigs and the fierce nature of wild boars, making them more expensive than other domestic pigs. Many people were already raising them.
Back at Happy Cottage, Zhang Niu ran over to "King Kong," who was fast asleep. He kicked the white food bowl next to him. Unaware of Zhang Niu's presence, "King Kong" completely ignored him and grunted.
"King Kong, you're going to be a pig dad! You'll have a bunch of little piglets following you around. Aren't you excited?" Zhang Niu tempted "King Kong."
After hearing this, "King Kong" grunted louder than before, got up, and kept circling around Zhang Niu. It seemed to want Zhang Niu to take it to see Pig Girl! "I'll take you down the mountain tomorrow." Because of the busy work these past few days, King Kong had been staying at Happy Cottage, and for it, which had recently been living like royalty, this was now a nightmare. Forget about the "thug" who bullied it every day; even Pig Girl was rarely seen anymore.
When Zhang Niu took "King Kong" down the mountain to their home in the morning, "King Kong" grunted and ran towards the pigpen as soon as they entered the front yard. Look at its little piglet! Zhang Niu didn't bother with it; he knew the place well enough.
With nothing else to do, Zhang Niu decided to go check on Shengming's fishpond. He figured they were probably going to drain it today! Just as Zhang Niu guessed, after the new pump arrived yesterday and pumped continuously all night, he could now see the fish swimming around on the bottom of the pond. Even in some of the muddy puddles, a few fish remained, lying motionless.
Yesterday, after Zhang Niu and the others left, Shengming hauled in another net of fish around 2 AM. Worried that the water was too shallow and the net might get caught, he pulled in another 2,000 jin (approximately 1,000 catties) of fish. The fishmongers arrived in the village around 5 AM this morning to load them up. Traces of his vehicle reversing were still visible on the pond bank.
I pulled up a net last night, but there weren't many fish left at the bottom of the pond. Today I'll just sort through the bottom fish. There are some carp. If I'm lucky, I might catch a white eel while the pond is draining, like in other villages. I could sell it for hundreds or thousands of dollars. That's very rare. It's harder than winning the lottery.
Shengming and his friends went to the bottom of the pond to catch fish, while Zhang Niu searched for things along the bank. Some of the other children from the neighborhood did the same. Shengming's fishpond was sandy. The banks were covered in fine sand, so walking on it wouldn't get your shoes muddy. However, this also made it easier to search for things on the sand.
After the excavated pond has been in operation for a year or two, you can start looking for ancient copper coins along its banks. Those with a small hole in the center are not copper coins. The Zhang Niu family still has quite a few Tongbao copper coins from the Qianlong, Kangxi, Guangxu, and Yongzheng periods. These coins can usually be found in the mud along the pond's edge; you might have to walk around the pond several times to find them.
Sometimes, instead of finding many copper coins, you might find rusted bullets left over from the War of Resistance against Japan. A light swipe of your hand will leave a pale yellow rust mark. Besides these, you can also find many broken tiles and shattered stone bowls.
Zhang Niu searched twice today and only found one Qianlong Tongbao coin. The inscriptions on both sides were still very clear. The other children also found several coins today. One of them was larger than ordinary copper coins. The others were about the size of four or five small copper coins, but unfortunately, the inscriptions on them were no longer legible.
The fish in the pond have been mostly caught; there are no fish left to be seen on the edge of the pond, only footprints on a large patch of mud.
Shengming called everyone up. He chose a thin bamboo pole and tied a thick iron wire to the tip. Then he connected an electric wire to the iron wire. He put on his waders and turned on the switch.
A thick iron wire slid across the mud. A small swarm of shrimp and fish leaped up with a splash. This is a common method used to drain ponds, but it requires people to reach the pond and wear waders. The electrified wire, slicing through the mud, reveals any fish that haven't yet been touched. Electricity is used to catch deep-sea fish. These fish's skin color blends very well with the mud, making them difficult to see with the naked eye. Even if a deep-sea fish is lurking right in front of you, you won't be able to spot it.
The worst thing about drained ponds is the deep-sea fish, because these fish are washed into the ponds by streams after heavy spring rains. They then feed on fish fry in the pond and grow very quickly. A single deep-sea fish can produce hundreds of baby deep-sea fish at a time. Sometimes you can see a single deep-sea fish leading a large group of tiny fish foraging for food on the bank. Sometimes, larger deep-sea fish will even eat their own fry.
So the pond bottom has to be drained once. This is to prevent the small fish fry from being eaten by the large deep-sea fish when raising new fish next year. After a short while, four or five deep-sea fish were caught by electrocution.
By noon, the entire pond had been electrified. Then, several large bags of quicklime were scattered into the pond bottom to kill small fish, shrimp, and even some fish parasites. Fresh water can be added in a day or two.
I fiddled with the copper coin in my hand as I walked home along the dirt road. When I reached the big camphor tree at the village entrance, I heard Er Gou, who had just returned from selling oranges, chatting idly. I couldn't hear what he was saying. As I listened closer, I realized that a few lone wolf cubs had run off from some hilltop and were howling incessantly in the middle of the night.
It's quite a rare sight to see wild wolves running from the mountain. No wonder so many people are listening. I've heard that as long as people don't offend them, things are generally peaceful. But with "King Kong" and "Thug" at home, if someone really dares to come over, they'll have a good fight to their hearts' content.
Second update! A bit late, please forgive me! This book has been signed with an A-level contract, thank you all for your continued support. I will work hard to update more frequently to repay everyone. Please recommend and add it to your favorites. I hope to reach a new level tonight!