Chapter 205 - 190: Last Trip into the Mountains Before the New Year

Chapter 205: Chapter 190: Last Trip into the Mountains Before the New Year

The Commune’s dragnet was made of coarse hemp rope. Some parts had broken, but Zhao the Fourth and his men had mended them with thin hemp cord. Stones were also tied to the edge to weigh it down.

The four of them walked slowly onto the frozen surface of the pool below the waterfall. The water was open near the cascade’s impact point, and the surrounding ice was mere slush. For safety, they didn’t dare get too close; there was no telling how deep the pool was, and falling in during the dead of winter could easily be fatal.

The icicles behind the waterfall refracted the sunlight into a dazzling, colorful display. Since the area of open water was too small and the surrounding ice was hard to get to, they couldn’t deploy the net from there. Zhao Wendong’s plan, therefore, was to cut several holes in the ice to spread the dragnet underneath.

"Let’s get to it!"

At Zhao Wendong’s command, the four men began choosing spots and clearing the snow. Zhao Wenwu was the first to swing a pickaxe, smashing it into the ice. Shards of ice immediately flew everywhere, striking them with sharp cracks.

Once he’d dug a decent-sized pit, Zhao Wenwu moved on to start another. Over here, Zhao Ergou held an ice chisel with both hands and continued breaking the ice within the pit. He and Zhao Wenjun took turns. Under the relentless strikes of their chisels, the ice grew thinner and thinner, and fine cracks began to spiderweb out from the edges of the hole.

On the other side, Zhao Wendong and his partner did the same. Once they broke through the ice, they worked on widening the hole. Over an hour later, all four ice holes were finally complete. Water seeped out, making the surrounding ice wet and slippery.

The four of them let out a collective sigh of relief. The excitement of finally being able to cast the net and catch fish washed away their fatigue. Seeing that no one wanted to rest, Zhao Wendong gave a decisive wave of his hand.

"Drop the net!"

"Alright~"

The brothers picked up the dragnet, hurried over to one of the ice holes, and carefully lowered one end into the water. Weighted with stones at its edge, the net began to sink slowly. Zhao Wendong and Zhao Wenwu held the other end, pulling it sideways so the net would gradually spread out in the water beneath the ice.

"Slowly now, don’t rip the net!"

Zhao Wenjun shouted a reminder to his brothers.

"When we pull, we all pull together. Don’t let one side go faster than the other."

It was the first time the four of them had worked together, but they coordinated seamlessly. Zhao Wendong held a wooden pole, which he occasionally poked into the ice hole to keep the net from snagging on the edges.

Once the dragnet was completely in the water, Zhao Wendong and the others firmly secured both ends to prevent it from being dragged away by fish.

"Alright!"

Zhao Wendong clapped his hands together, brushing off the ice shards.

"Let’s wait a bit. We can try the cast net first."

Zhao Wendong and the others had also brought a cast net. Although they knew there wouldn’t be many fish near the surface due to the cold, they had time to kill while waiting for fish to enter the dragnet. They figured they might as well use it to scare fish toward the bigger net. They found a solid spot near the waterfall and took turns casting.

"Haha, we actually got one! A big carp."

"What’s this? A lenok?"

After seven or eight casts, their haul wasn’t huge, but the variety was impressive. They had crucian carp, common carp, and lenok. There was even a large pike—a fish Zhao Wendong hadn’t seen again in the later years of his previous life.

"Brother San, there must be a ton of fish in there!"

Zhao Ergou’s face was alight with uncontrollable excitement. Perhaps the painful memories of trying to find food with Sanwazi made the thrill of a good harvest feel twice as sweet.

"Haha, let’s go! Pull in the net!"

Zhao Wendong was also filled with anticipation. He called his brothers over to the dragnet to start pulling it in.

"Alright!" Zhao Wenjun and Zhao Ergou responded in unison.

The four ice holes were positioned opposite each other about ten meters apart, perfectly spaced for them to haul in the net. Zhao Wendong and the others took their positions, tightly gripping the dragnet ropes.

"Heave!"

At Zhao Wendong’s command, the four brothers heaved in unison, slowly pulling the net from both sides. At first, it was easy; they reeled in the ropes with little effort. But after just a few pulls, the lines grew heavy, becoming increasingly difficult to budge.

"Holy cow, there’s a lot in here!"

"Put some muscle into it, brothers! Heave!"

The four of them redoubled their efforts. The ropes stretched taut, GROANING as if they might snap at any moment. Slowly, the dragnet moved upward through the water. Dahuang, Dahei, and Erhei, showing remarkable intelligence, even bit onto the ropes to help their masters pull.

SPLASH~

With a huge splash, a corner of the dragnet emerged from the first ice hole. It was immediately followed by a massive school of fish, thrashing wildly beside the opening and filling the air with the sound of slapping water.

They could see all sorts of fish of different sizes inside: catfish as thick as a man’s arm, slender-bodied lenok, round bighead carp, gudgeons, and more, all packed together densely.

"Awesome! So many fish!"

Zhao Ergou was so excited he almost jumped up and down. Zhao Wendong quickly reined him in.

"Don’t celebrate yet! Put your backs into it and let’s get the whole net up here. Don’t let these fish get away. On my count!"

"One, two!"

"One, two!"

Chanting along with Zhao Wendong’s count, they heaved for another ten minutes before the entire dragnet was finally pulled onto the ice. Exhausted, the four brothers collapsed onto the frozen surface, gasping for air. Their padded cotton clothes felt soaked with sweat, clinging to their skin with a bone-chilling cold, but no one cared. They all stared, thrilled, at the massive pile of fish as the thrashing slowly subsided into stillness.

"This has to be over a hundred jin, right?"

"More than that!"

Zhao Wendong thought Zhao Wenjun’s estimate was far too conservative. ’There have to be at least two hundred jin of fish in here, easy.’ After resting for a moment, they excitedly grabbed hemp sacks and started bagging the fish. At first, Zhao Ergou wanted to sort each type of fish into a separate bag, but Zhao Wendong stopped him right away.