Starting from a Bankrupt Sichuan Cuisine Restaurant

Dace go by many names depending on where you are: pale chubs, sharp-snouts, or green-scales.

For an angler, a swarm of several hundred was a disaster-level swarm of junk fish.

"So many fishies!" Zhou Momo’s eyes lit up. She grabbed her little fishing rod and cast it into the water. "Come on, little fishies~~"

Comrade Zhou had just taken an earthworm from a glass jar to put on her hook for her. He chuckled, "You don’t even have any bait on yet..."

The empty hook hit the water, and the bobber was immediately dragged along.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" Zhou Momo quickly lifted her rod. A large dace, a good hand’s breadth long, was dangling from it.

Comrade Zhou wasn’t smiling anymore. He stared at the big dace dangling from the hook, then looked up at Zhou Momo and couldn’t help but pose an existential question: "Is this supposed to happen?"

"Maybe her beginner’s luck hasn’t run out yet..." Zhou Yan couldn’t help but laugh.

There were probably just so many dace near the surface that they were even chasing and biting empty hooks.

"Daddy, unhook the fishy." Zhou Momo held the fish out toward Comrade Zhou.

"You got it," Comrade Zhou replied with a smile, reaching out to unhook the fish and toss it into the keepnet.

Zhou Yan took out some dough, pinched off a piece the size of a grain of rice with his fingernail, and stuck it on the tip of his hook. He cast toward the spot with the most fish. The bobber was immediately dragged away, and with a flick of his rod, he too had a fat dace a hand’s breadth long.

"Wow, Brother caught a fishy too!" Zhou Momo’s eyes lit up.

"How did you catch one?" Comrade Zhou was a little dumbfounded. ’I was here first! How am I the only one who hasn’t caught a single fish?’

"It’s some dough I kneaded myself. Want some?" Zhou Yan smiled, showing him the dough in his hand before unhooking the dace and dropping it into his creel.

"Fish eat dough?" Comrade Zhou’s brows furrowed. This was clearly outside his area of expertise. He shook his head. "I’ll stick with my earthworms. I’m fishing for the big ones."

Zhou Yan just smiled and said nothing, simply continuing to pull in fish after fish.

One, two... ten! Twenty!

The dace kept biting, one after another. It was non-stop.

After catching two fish with her empty hook, Zhou Momo’s bobber stopped moving. But unlike the stubborn Comrade Zhou, she immediately switched her allegiance to Zhou Yan.

Zhou Yan adjusted her rig for her and tore off a ball of dough. He handed it to Comrade Zhou, who was sitting around with nothing to do, and tasked him with baiting Zhou Momo’s hook.

And then, Zhou Momo started getting non-stop bites as well.

"Wow!"

"Yay!"

"Another one!"

"I’m so good at this~"

Amid Zhou Momo’s happy cries of excitement, one dace after another was pulled from the water.

Comrade Zhou was kept busy unhooking fish and baiting hooks, without a moment to rest.

He may not have caught a single fish himself, but at least he was getting tired.

’Is fishing really this easy? How can they just keep catching one after another?’ Comrade Zhou began to question his entire existence.

They fished for about two hours until Zhou Yan’s arm had gone numb. He glanced at the creel, which was nearly overflowing with dace, and decided to call it a day.

Zhou Momo had stopped fishing long ago. She’d caught dozens herself and was now squatting by the creel, playing.

"Old Man, with this many fish, it seems like anyone with hands could catch something. How’d you manage to get skunked?" Zhou Yan set down his rod and looked at Comrade Zhou with a puzzled expression.

Comrade Zhou said thoughtfully, "Er... it must be the good weather today. The pressure is just right, and the water temperature is perfect."

"Come on, let’s go back and deal with these fish. It’ll take forever just to clean this many dace." Zhou Yan lifted his creel. The ones he’d caught alone had to be at least four or five pounds.

"Alright." Comrade Zhou packed up his rod as well. He lifted his own creel, glanced inside, and chuckled. "That’s quite a lot. I’m afraid we won’t be able to eat it all."

Another day, another bountiful harvest.

Except for Comrade Zhou.

Carrying the fish, they returned to the restaurant to find Mrs. Zhao sitting at the entrance, cracking sunflower seeds.

"Weren’t you going to play mahjong?" Comrade Zhou asked, a little surprised.

"Li Sanmei went into town, so we were one player short. The game was off," Zhao Tieying said, standing up with a smile. "You’re back so early. Did you catch anything?"

"Daddy didn’t catch any, but Brother and I caught lots and lots of fish!" Zhou Momo said happily.

"Really? Let me see." Zhao Tieying took the creel from Comrade Zhou and glanced inside, surprised. "Whoa! You caught this many? Did Momo catch all of these?"

"Mhm, mhm." Zhou Momo nodded, her little face written all over with ’Quick, praise me!’

"Our little girl is just incredible! Your Old Man has never caught this many fish in his life," Zhao Tieying said with a wide grin.

Comrade Zhou scratched his head in embarrassment. What could he do? She had caught two fish on a bare hook, while he’d sat there all afternoon without a single bite.

"Oh, and here’s the other master fisherman!" Zhao Tieying took Zhou Yan’s creel, and her arm dipped from the weight. She was even more surprised. "This must be four or five pounds! What are we going to do with all this? The four of us will never be able to eat it all."

"Let’s pick out a couple pounds of the big ones to braise, a couple pounds of the small ones to fry, and give the rest away," Zhou Yan suggested.

"Good idea," Mrs. Zhao nodded. She looked at Comrade Zhou and said, "Grandma loves fish. Go ask her and Old Fifth to come over for dinner. And divide the extra dace into three portions. Give one to each of your brothers’ families and let them cook it themselves. We’ll clean and fry the fish, so it’ll be ready to eat when you get back."

"Alright," Comrade Zhou nodded, first taking his fishing rod inside to put it away.

Zhou Yan poured out the dace and began to sort them. He picked out a plate of large ones and a plate of small ones. The rest, all of a fairly uniform size, he divided into three portions for his uncles to take home. Each family would get over a pound of fish—enough for a proper dish, whether they fried it or braised it.

Comrade Zhou left on his bike, while Mrs. Zhao and Zhou Yan started cleaning the fish.

The dace were quite fat in early winter. A large one could weigh several ounces and was nearly as long as a chopstick. Ten of them made up over two pounds.

The smaller ones were about a finger’s length, so a couple of pounds worth was a huge number of fish.