C8 A Lot of Stream Fish

Waking up early, Luo Lingyan felt dizzy and even a bit nauseous. Remembering she hadn’t taken any medicine for her heatstroke the day before, she drank lots of water and asked Mrs. Chung to help with a scraping therapy until her back and arms were bruised to a dark purple. Only then did she feel a bit better.

During this time, her grandmother, Mrs. Hong, dropped by. Seeing Luo Lingyan looking half-dead, she realized there was no chance of getting any food today and left in disappointment.

Luo Lingyan ended up sleeping the entire day, only heading out the next morning with a bundle of Drunken Fish Grass on her back. She had dug it up the day before and was relying on it to help her catch fish.

As Luo Fengjiao was busy pounding the Drunken Fish Grass, she asked curiously, “Sis, can these little branches really poison the fish in the stream?”

The Drunken Fish Grass blooms with purple flowers and is mildly toxic. When crushed and thrown into the water, it can stun live fish.

“Yes, they can. Just wait and see.”

In her previous life, Luo Lingyan hadn’t participated in fish poisoning, but she knew about this plant. Unsure of its potency, she used stones and plants to block the stream, cutting off the water flow upstream and downstream. She was mainly worried that she didn’t have enough Drunken Fish Grass to effectively stun the fish.

"Feng, trust me, you better hurry up and mash it, or the sun will be up and scorching," Luo Zixuan urged, putting his back into crushing the Drunken Fish Grass with a stone. After the other day, he realized his sister knew everything and wasn't afraid to speak her mind, even to their mom and aunt. He admired and trusted Luo Lingyan immensely.

"Yeah, let's get moving." Luo Lingyan only joined in mashing the Drunken Fish Grass once the water upstream was nearly cut off.

Half an hour later...

"Sis, I see the fish in the stream turning belly up!" Luo Zixuan's excited voice reached Luo Lingyan's ears.

"Sis, I caught a fish, I caught a fish..." Luo Fengjiao jumped up with joy.

"Alright, start gathering them." This Drunken Fish Grass really worked wonders. She had only mashed about a dozen plants, and now a long stretch of the stream was filled with fish floating belly up.

Bending down, Luo Lingyan picked up the stream fish and tossed them into her basket. Gradually, her basket filled up so much that it was getting hard to carry.

"Sis, do you have any more over there? I've already filled over half my basket." After collecting the fish upstream, Luo Zixuan came down with his basket on his back.

"Sis, I've almost filled half my basket too," Luo Fengjiao proudly showed Luo Lingyan.

"Well, everything looks great. I think that's it." The three half-full baskets of stream fish probably weighed around eighty pounds. However, she seemed to have miscalculated—the area of the water source was too small.

"Sis, should we keep the fish for ourselves or sell them?"

"Let's keep a small portion for ourselves and dry the rest to sell." After some thought, Luo Lingyan decided to pour the fish from her basket into Luo Zixuan's. "Zixuan, you handle the fish. Clean them, add some salt, and find a place to dry them. I'll go cut off the water source downstream to see if we can catch more fish."

"Alright, you're smart for reminding me to bring the salt."

"Sis, what should I do?" Luo Fengjiao eagerly asked for a task.

"You can help with salting and drying the fish. Once I cut off the water source downstream, you can clear away the debris and stones."

"Got it."

Following the stream, Luo Lingyan walked about two hundred yards downstream. She noticed several large stones in the stream, likely used as stepping stones for crossing. To reduce her workload, she decided to stop there.

After cutting off the water source, Luo Lingyan called out and waved to Luo Fengjiao. Seeing that Fengjiao understood, she began to look around idly. Suddenly, a plant by the stream caught her attention.

"Hey, isn't that dendrobe? This plant has high medicinal value and is sure to fetch a good price."

As she walked along the creek, she gathered as much as she could. Since she couldn't carry it all and was worried the fishy smell from her basket might taint the dendrobe, she pulled down a vine to tie it up. Suddenly, she felt someone watching her. Instinctively, she looked over and saw a man standing by the rocks, his eyes coldly fixed on her.