136: catfish

The next day, the family of three woke up early and started organizing their belongings.

During this time, Third Uncle's family also came to help, but there wasn't much to move.

The main hall was originally used as a living room and dining room, so the tables, chairs, and benches basically didn't need to be moved.

Another room was originally a storage room, and some farm tools were left for Third Uncle's family to use.

Third Uncle mostly used it to store things during harvest season.

There was also a three-wheeled electric scooter that Mother Yang planned to ride to her maternal grandparents' house for them to use.

All sorts of miscellaneous small items were loaded onto the three-wheeled scooter to be taken over together.

During this time, Yang Dad and Third Uncle went to the Village Committee together and signed an agreement.

The Village Chief, as a witness, also signed and fingerprinted the document, and stamped it with the Village's official seal.

At noon, the family had their last meal at home, preparing to go to their maternal grandparents' house.

Yang Dad and Mother Yang asked Third Uncle to take a photo of their family of three, with the three large tiled houses as the background, of course.

Although they could still return to live there for a few months each year during the fishing moratorium, it was their first time leaving home for so long, so there was still a bit of sadness of parting.

His maternal grandparents' house wasn't close, about twenty kilometers away.

His three Uncles all farmed at home, and their lives were just average.

However, in the past, whenever his family had good things, they would often send them to his nephew's house, so Yang Qi had always had a very good relationship with his maternal grandparents' family.

Because they had called ahead, when Yang Qi drove and brought Mother Yang, several families, except for a few cousins working out of town, were all waiting for them at home.

Yang Qi opened the trunk, which was filled with a lot of cigarettes, alcohol, fruit, health supplements, and other items.

The Uncles and their wives were all very polite, and finally helped Yang Qi carry the things into his maternal grandfather's main hall.

After not seeing each other for several years, the elders gathered around Yang Qi, asking him about his well-being.

As the saying goes: a great grandson is like a young son, the apple of an old person's eye.

Among his maternal grandparents' children, Mother Yang was the eldest, and by extension, Yang Qi was also the eldest among all the grandchildren.

Since childhood, he had been the apple of his maternal grandparents' eye.

Not long after, Yang Dad Yang Limin drove in with the three-wheeled scooter.

Everyone also helped move the items from the three-wheeled scooter into the house, mainly food items, the stock from the home freezer and refrigerator.

Yang Qi also noticed the ground cage in the corner of the corridor.

This should be Uncle's; his maternal grandparents lived with Uncle.

"Uncle, are you still setting ground cages? How many fish do you catch?" Yang Qi asked.

"Yes! When there's no work, I go set ground cages and gill nets to improve our meals, and if there's too much, I sell it to restaurants."

Uncle said with a bit of pride,

"Sometimes I can catch soft-shelled turtles. I ate a few myself, but your maternal grandfather couldn't bear to, so later they were all sold. Wild soft-shelled turtles are two to three hundred yuan per jin."

"Xiao Qi, let me tell you, one time..."

Alright, he's starting to show off, just like a fishing enthusiast.

Yang Qi interrupted Uncle's bragging and changed the subject.

"Uncle, did you set cages today?"

"Yes! I set them yesterday. If I wasn't waiting for you all at home, I would have gone to collect them already," Uncle said.

"Let's go, I'll go with you!" Yang Qi suggested.

"Great! Let's go, I'll take you to have some fun."

The two greeted everyone, rode the three-wheeled scooter, and headed towards a reservoir at the foot of the mountain on the east side of the Village.

Yang Qi stood by the reservoir to observe.

It was a mountain reservoir, roughly seventy to eighty mu in size.

According to Uncle, it had never dried up in thirty to forty years.

This piqued Yang Qi's interest; there should be some giant fish!

He used his ability to inspect it.

The deepest part was over twenty meters deep, and there were indeed many fish inside.

There were dozens of fish weighing thirty to forty jin or more, and even more weighing ten to twenty jin.

Basically, the large fish were mainly black carp, bighead carp, and silver carp.

He also saw several whiskered catfish weighing over twenty jin.

There were even more carp weighing five to sixteen jin.

Other small fish were countless.

After all, in today's countryside, most young people are not at home.

Everyone else has to work, so who has time to come fishing!

Uncle was almost the youngest among the people farming at home in his Village.

He had also worked outside before, but things didn't go well, so he simply returned home.

Yang Qi also found many soft-shelled turtles chasing and eating small shrimp.

No wonder Uncle said he could catch soft-shelled turtles.

Turtles, commonly known as: soft-shelled turtles, pond turtles, water turtles, mud turtles, old turtles, etc.

Their shape is oval, flatter than a hard-shelled turtle.

They have no horny scutes, and their body color is olive green.

Female turtles have shorter tails than male turtles.

Their lifespan can reach over 60 years.

Turtles are not only delicious but also very nutritious.

From lowering blood pressure and lipids to preventing anemia, from post-operative recovery to nourishing yin and strengthening yang, and beautifying the skin, they are recognized as a highly nutritious and health-preserving organism.

In China, turtles are distributed everywhere except Ningxia, Xinjiang, Qinghai, and Tibet.

They are also found in Southeast Asian countries such as Korea, Japan, and Vietnam.

In recent years, due to human activities, habitat destruction, large-scale deforestation, damming, increased market consumption, and other factors, the situation of wild turtle populations is very severe.

With the maturity of soft-shelled turtle farming technology, soft-shelled turtle farms are becoming more and more common across the country.

The market price of farmed soft-shelled turtles is as low as thirty to forty yuan per jin.

However, the price of wild soft-shelled turtles has risen sharply, reaching at least two hundred to four hundred yuan per jin.

Here, Uncle had already started collecting the ground cages, which basically contained bottom-dwelling fish.

Yang Qi immediately went down to help carry the bucket.

A few Yellow catfish, plus some small crucian carp, the best quality was a native catfish weighing about one jin.

There are many varieties of catfish, which can be broadly divided into native Chinese catfish and foreign catfish, the most representative of which is the African sharptooth catfish, commonly known as the walking catfish.

Native catfish are mostly pale yellow or earthy yellow, have two or four whiskers, and a short, spineless dorsal fin.

They can only grow to one to two jin in weight at most.

As a native fish species, it is an original component of the ecosystem, forming a balanced relationship with other species.

It lives year-round in clean-water lakes and rivers, feeding on small fish and shrimp.

Its flesh is tender and delicious, deeply loved by the public.

However, since the African sharptooth catfish was introduced from abroad in 1981, it has been artificially released into rivers, rapidly occupying rivers and lakes across the country, especially in southern provinces, almost reaching an epidemic level.

African sharptooth catfish have a darker body color, eight whiskers, and are also known as "leather-whiskered catfish" or "eight-whiskered catfish."

Their dorsal fin is distinctly elongated, extending all the way to the tail.

They have extremely strong adaptability to the environment; the famous "sewer fish" refers to them.

They have very low food requirements, eating almost anything.

They particularly like to eat decaying animal carcasses and grow extremely fast.

They can grow up to tens or even hundreds of jin.

As an invasive alien species, it causes great damage to the native ecological balance.