Chapter Fifteen: Da Tu Sha

  The green hills are distant and hazy, with a beautiful face entering the painting.

  The rippling water on the lake's surface is like a lover's eyes, as gentle as water.

  The scene was as beautiful as a painting, but it couldn't hide Song Wen's panicked heart at this moment.

  After a while, Song Wen finally calmed down from the panic, his hands tightly grasping the retracted fishing net, his eyes fixed intently on the turbulent water surface that kept emerging. Even as the red rope was lashed out by the net in his hand, he still held onto it tightly, not letting go. He just let the big fish swim in the net, and with the speed of the big fish in the net, sometimes pulling in the net, sometimes releasing it, just like when you catch a big fish and release it.

  The big fish trapped in the fishing net kept swimming in the lake, dashing left and right, struggling desperately, but the more it struggled, the more it became entangled in the net, gradually exhausting its strength, slowing down.

  Song Wen saw that it was almost time to pull in the net, so he quietly lifted the bamboo pole and slowly punted the bamboo raft towards the shore.

  Song Yuanshui and the others took a look, and with a shout, they surrounded him. Song Wen hastily asked them to keep a distance, lest they be injured by the big fish struggling in the fishing net later. He also called his father to bring out the scoop net he had prepared for catching wild boars from the house. This scoop net was made of the most durable net rope, originally intended for scooping up wild boars on the mountain, but unexpectedly came in handy now.

  Then he called out to his mother and sister-in-law to move further away, before walking onto the shore. Standing on the shore, he gently pulled the fishing net upwards. As the net was lifted, bubbles continuously emerged from the surface of the lake, and the turbulent waves in the water became even more intense.

  Just then, a car sound suddenly came from the mountain road.

  Song Wen turned his head and saw Song Hu driving a small truck with several people rushing over, arrived at the creek, did not park the car in the parking lot, but drove the truck directly from the flat boulder on the creek.

  The parking lot Song Wen created by the creek is like a mere formality to him.

  Song Hu drove up to the house, quickly opened the car door and jumped out. When he saw Song Wen standing safely on the shore, he was taken aback. He had heard Song Yuan Shui frantically saying over the phone that Song Wen had been dragged away by a big fish, which is why he immediately called for help. Now, isn't Ah Wen fine and unharmed over there? Maybe Third Uncle's eyes are getting old and blurry.

  At this time, Song Yuanshui happened to take the net from the house and saw Song Hu standing there in a daze. He handed the net to him and shouted: "What are you still dazed about? Go help!"

  Song Hu could not dare to provoke his third uncle, and was shouted at by him. He hastily took over the fishing net and called out to several people who came with him, and they all ran towards Song Wen together.

  Song Wenla had already pulled the fishing net with great effort, and when he saw someone approaching, he quickly asked a stronger young man to help hold the net. He himself hastily took off his clothes and pants, leaving only one underwear, took the scoop net from Song Hu's hand, and jumped into the lake. Picking up the scoop net, he scooped under the fishing net, feeling heavy in his hands, unable to scoop it up, could only push against it, and quickly shouted to the young man pulling the net: "Pull!"

  The young man heard it and quickly pulled the fishing net backwards with all his might.

  The big fish in the water is struggling constantly, stirring up waves and making the water murky.

  The young man pulled hard, but the big fish struggled desperately, making him use all his strength to pull it up, but he couldn't pull much. Song Hu saw this and rushed forward to help, and with their combined efforts, they managed to pull the net towards the shore, but it was still a bit difficult. Several people nearby saw this and also came over to help, while Song Wen in the lake used a scoop net to hold the bottom of the net and push it upwards, and only then was the net slowly pulled up.

  After a while, the fishing net was finally pulled out of the water.

  At this time, everyone saw a big fish tangled in the fishing net. It seemed that it had exhausted its strength and was lazily curled up inside the net, motionless.

  Take a break, Song Wen went forward and opened the fishing net, only to find that the fishing net was caught in the mud.

  Tukila is the local name, actually it's a catfish, also called pond lice, whisker carp, sticky fish, pond lice fish, live birth fish. It can survive in both fresh and saltwater and is a relatively ferocious species of fish. Moreover, tukila can grow very large, with the largest freshwater catfish known to date weighing 293 kg and the largest sea catfish weighing 598 kg.

  After gasping for air, the mudkill in the fishing net felt like someone was loosening the net and began to struggle again, constantly writhing and twisting, but the three rows of protruding saw-toothed spines on its chest and back fins were tightly entangled in the net, making it impossible to escape no matter how hard it struggled.

  Looking at the big earthworm in the fish net, Song Wen was somewhat worried and didn't know what to do for a while.

  The turtle is still alive now. If it's released, it will immediately escape back into the lake and can't be caught again. If not released, it's going to be a problem right away.

  "A Wen, what's wrong with you? Hurry up and catch the fish!"

  Song Hu looked at him dawdling over there and felt a bit impatient, so he called out.

  "It's so big, how can I catch it?" Song Wen said irritably.

  "What's to be done?"

  "Why not kill it, anyway we're going to eat it."

  At this time, the young man who helped pull the fishing net spoke up.

  Song Wen thought for a moment and also felt it was reasonable. Anyway, they were going to kill him, so why not do it now and avoid the trouble? He ran back into the house, took out a large iron hammer, came to the spot where Tukur was trapped in the fishing net, raised the hammer high and struck Tukur's head with all his might. With just one strike, Tukur was knocked unconscious, and after several more strikes, a hole was smashed open on his forehead, and white brain matter and fish blood spurted out.

  Song Hu and the young man holding the fishing net looked at each other, then loosened their tight grip on the net. After stretching a bit, they had almost lost strength from pulling earlier. The several young men squatted beside the big fish, looking at it in amazement, clicking their tongues in wonder.

  The little dog also ran over, facing the big fish and barking "Gua Gua", it's unknown what it was barking at. XiXi, under the care of his grandmother and mother, happily ran over, saw the big fish, and excitedly jumped onto the big fish's body, shouting "Aa Aa".

  Song Wen hurriedly pushed him away, joking that although the fish was dead, it might still have a conditioned reflex to something and sting or bite them. He then chased away the small dog that had come to join in on the excitement, before finally working with Song Hu and several others to untangle the fishing net from the body of the deceased.

  Suddenly, a four-meter-long mud carp appeared in front of everyone. Everyone was stunned, and when had they ever seen such a big fish before?

  "This is getting ridiculous."

  "Is this Haituo?"

  "You're kidding, where is this, is this the sea? I think it's been too long since anyone caught one that they've grown to be this big."

  "Nothing's been caught, just the other day A Lin came to catch some but only got a few small fish. I reckon there must be an underground river leading to somewhere else, otherwise it wouldn't have grown so big here."

  Song Hu and the young men were discussing it in a lively manner, but Song Wen just shook his head, not expecting to catch such a big loach with one grab. If they sell it, they would have to take it to the market, but there's no guarantee someone will buy it. If they keep it to eat, who knows when they'll finish it?

  Song Wen thought for a moment, then ran back home to fetch a knife and a bag. He cut off chunks of meat from Da Tu Sha's body and put them in the bag to give to the several young men who had come to help.

  A few young men were a bit embarrassed, they didn't help much either.

  Until Song Hu called them not to be polite, they put away the fish meat, their mouths were almost split open. You know that Song Wen gave them at least 10 kilograms of fish meat, let alone this fish meat can't be bought in the market.

  Song Wen cut a few more pieces of fish meat for Song Hu, but even so, there was still a lot of meat left over from Da Tu's kill.

  After some thought, let Song Hu drive to his house to fetch a large bucket, cut the remaining soil into blocks, and plan to let his father take it to give to relatives and friends, leaving some for himself to eat. In the end, only a one-meter-long fish head was left. The bones of the fish head were really hard, and even the axe almost chopped out a gap but couldn't get in. There was no way, so Song Wen had to ask everyone to help lift it into the house, waiting for tomorrow to buy an axe or a large chopping knife to deal with it again. After flushing the bloodstains by the lake once more, Song Wen invited the several young men who helped to go home and have some tea.

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  PS: Da Tu Sha, seeking recommendations, collections and clicks