A small plot of land in a mountain village

Chapter 90 The Typhoon is Coming

"This station reports that a subtropical typhoon will affect our province in the coming days. Please take precautions. This concludes our report." A message immediately appears saying "GG".

"I didn't expect the typhoon to come so early this year." Lying on the bed, Zhang Niu put the remote control into the little one's paw.

Now, the little one grabs the remote control right on time every night and lies there watching Animal World by himself.

The typhoon is coming, and I still have a lot to do. If I hadn't seen it while changing the channel tonight, I wouldn't have known there was a news report about it.

Zhang Niu hoped the first typhoon of the year wouldn't be too severe. His cherries were almost ripe, and if heavy rain continued for several days, he would suffer significant losses.

Now, people often come to Happy Little Abode for a few days' stay. Zhang Niu doesn't plan to make the resort very big; he just wants to keep it small and create some unique features.

Zhang Niu also invited Zhang Liangshan, who had worked as a chef outside the village, to come over.

When I woke up early in the morning, the sky outside was dim, like the scene at six or seven o'clock in the evening on a winter day.

"This news is really accurate. They were just saying last night that it was going to rain heavily this morning." He turned and walked to a corner.

The weeds planted above have now taken root. The old burial hole facing upwards was also buried by the tomb raiders. They simply dug a new burial hole to the side and below.

The tomb raider's cone-shaped head popped out of the burrow and saw Zhang Niu approaching. He then turned and burrowed back down. This guy rarely came out; he preferred to stay inside his burrow.

Many ants have already emerged from the earthen pond next to it. Every evening, you can see the gold digger going in to eat the ants.

"Liang Shan, you've picked a lot of vegetables this morning!"

Liang Shan carried a vegetable basket full of vegetables. "Yes, didn't you see that God is about to give us a heavy rain? If we don't pick more, it'll be hard to go out when it rains heavily."

So that's how it is. Liangshan is really well-prepared.

Since no one was staying there for the past few days, Chairman Zhang returned home after a week, his face flushed.

A strong wind started to blow.

"It's going to rain—" Zhang Liangshan shouted from outside.

Zhang Niu then remembered that the clothes he had hung outside yesterday hadn't been taken down yet.

I ran outside. A strong wind was howling outside. Many white plastic bags were floating in the air, swirling everywhere.

A rumbling sound rang out. A flash of white light appeared in mid-air—thunder had struck.

The wild boar piglets, who were still running around in the open space, hurriedly ran back to their pen. The thunder outside was too dangerous for them.

He picked up the few short-sleeved shirts hanging on the bamboo pole and held them in his hands.

I put down my clothes and rushed to the duck shed, opening the door. Even though ducks love to play on rainy days, the door still had to be kept open.

A strong wind blew, causing the tall grass by the pond to sway and undulate like waves.

A loud rumble rang out, and large raindrops began to fall from the sky, stinging Zhang Niu's skin. He hurriedly ran home. A strong wind blew, making the raindrops even more painful.

I ran back to the front yard and saw the cat still squatting there dumbly in front of the door. I quickly squatted down and grabbed it. You're such a silly cat, you don't even run home when it's raining.

As soon as I entered the house, thunder rumbled continuously. The piglets huddled together in the pigpen. Little Blackie, the family's son, huddled under the table, tail tucked in.

He found a dry towel and wiped the rain from his head. This year's rain was really heavy; a thunderclap struck in front of Zhang Niu's door. The sound startled him.

The rainwater that had gathered flowed into the small pond. It seems it will need to be cleaned up again when the weather clears up. The murky rainwater mixed with the clear water made the little turtles invisible.

The raindrops pattered against the roof.

Zhang Niu stood in front of the door; just a moment ago he could still see the distant scenery. Now, everything was covered in a white blanket, showing how heavy the rain was.

The rain came down fiercely. Zhang Niu regretted not building a threshold before; now, although the rainwater flowed into the pond, a considerable amount still flowed into his house.

They put on raincoats, took shovels, and dug up a lot of soil, piling it up in front of the door to prevent rainwater from flowing in.

Today's rain was a drizzling, sideways rain. His lower body was already soaked through. Zhang Niu felt a chill. He wiped the rain from his face. "So what if I'm wet? I might as well go check out the pond outside."

Stepping outside, you can only see a few dozen meters ahead; beyond that, everything is a white blur, making it very difficult to see clearly.

The fruit trees in the orchard were constantly shaking their branches in the strong wind, causing many leaves to fall.

In the pond, frogs perched on lotus leaves, creating a lively scene. Their croaking continued incessantly.

Let's go check if the pond over there has overflowed.

I walked to the water's entrance. The ditch was filled with murky rainwater flowing in. Luckily, the bamboo traps hadn't been pushed away by the fish. Looking up at the sky, I guessed the rain would continue for who knows how long.

He tightened the bamboo clamps again and walked along the ditch. Actually, Zhang Niu wanted to dig some soil ahead to block the rainwater so it could flow down the mountain.

As you walk along the roadside, you can see rainwater flowing down from above from time to time.

They dug up the soil from the roadside and built a dam to stop rainwater from flowing further down the ditch. They also dug a small branch to allow rainwater to flow into the forest below.

The simple task left Zhang Niu soaked to the bone. But looking at the receding rain, it was all worth it.

After checking and finding no problems, Zhang Niu turned and went home.

"I didn't expect to feel a bit unwell after being outside for a while. I'll go check Liangshan to see if there's any ginger left."

Holding an umbrella, I arrived at the bamboo house. They arranged for Zhang Niu to have a corner room for him, to save him the trouble of coming and going every day.

"Liang Shan, is there any ginger left in the kitchen?" he called out as he entered.

"Where have you been?" He noticed Zhang Niu's pale face.

"I just went out to check on the fishpond. It's flooded, so they built a small path over it. I was just checking if there's any ginger left in the kitchen."

"Also, I'll cook something for you." The two went to the kitchen together.

With Zhang Liangshan around, Zhang Niu hardly pays any attention to cooking anymore. As expected of someone who used to be a chef, the kitchen now is completely different from his old one; everything is in its proper place, without any ambiguity.

Liang Shan never lets Zhang Niu come in to help with cooking, always saying he can handle it all by himself.

A large bowl of red ginger soup was placed on the table. "Drink it quickly."

Drinking ginger soup is good for catching a cold; it helps to dispel dampness and heat. It's sweet with a hint of spiciness, just what Zhang Niu likes.

"There's more inside if it's not enough; we burned too much just now."

The heavy rain continued to fall outside, and many green leaves had already fallen to the ground.

After drinking the ginger soup, Zhang Niu felt much better.

There wasn't much to do on a rainy day. Liang Shan began preparing lunch.

The dark clouds that covered the sky were still incredibly dark. We had to turn on the lights in the kitchen to cook lunch. That shows just how dark it was outside.

"It's raining really hard today," Liang Shan said while stir-frying vegetables.

Zhang Niu, who had just finished drinking and was standing at the door, said, "Yeah, the rain outside was really heavy. It hurt so much when it hit me."

"The grain that people in the village use for drying won't be able to be dried for several days."

Many villagers were busy harvesting rice during the May Day holiday. The weather was good these past few days, and the rice would have dried well in the sun. But then a heavy rain started.

"Yes, that's right. My rice has just been harvested. With this weather, it's really hard to say when it will clear up." Looking at the heavy rain outside.

"The rain is heavy, and the villagers will be busy collecting fish again," Liang Shan said cheerfully.

The mention of Liangshan reminded Zhang Niu of the time after the rain when people in the village went to the fields to collect fish. "I almost forgot," he said. "Yes, with such heavy rain this time, there must have been quite a few fish."

The stream outside Zhangjia Village is a tributary of the Hao River. Since the farmland is close to the stream, heavy rains often flood the fields. Every summer at this time, the rice and other crops in the fields are submerged.

Once the stream recedes, the fields are littered with trash that has floated down from upstream, along with stream fish hiding in the fields.

At noon, Liangshan would simply cook a few dishes and call it lunch.

The rain continued to pour after dinner, but there was no more thunder. Without thunder, the wild boars all rushed out and started playing by the pond.

The cat stood at the door, looking eager to go outside. However, it was still soaking wet. Its big eyes were fixed on the outside, and it purred softly.

Zhang Niu was inside the house when he turned on the TV, which was already broadcasting reports on the rain.

Except for a few isolated areas, most places haven't had much of a problem despite the impact.

The rain lessened a bit in the evening, and Zhang Niu, holding an umbrella, came out, his shoes covered in mud as he walked. He looked at the uneven puddles on the ground.

Upon reaching the water outlet, a large group of blackfish were bumping against the bamboo traps. Seeing this, Zhang Niu quickly grabbed a handful of mud and threw it in, yelling, "Go, go!"

Thankfully, I came to check it myself. Otherwise, I wouldn't have known when it would be knocked over. It seems that these bamboo clamps are not very sturdy.

I found the bamboo I'd chopped up before in the front yard. I'm going to sturdy up the inlet area a bit more. I'm worried that someone might try to swim upstream tonight; that would be a huge loss.

By the time it was all installed, it was already dark.

Zhang Niu woke up early to find that the rain had stopped outside. Although there was no sun, it was good that it had stopped.

The air outside was fresh and clean. The wild boar piglets were already playing in the puddles, covered in yellow mud. A few of them saw Zhang Niu come out and rushed over, trying to rub against him.

"Go away, go play somewhere else." Zhang Niu shouted at them before they even reached them.

It's truly speechless that wild boars get covered in mud.

Arriving at the water's entrance, the ropes we built yesterday still hold up; they haven't collapsed. A few are still swimming there, proving the strong attraction of the current.

Everything's fine here. Zhang Niu has already entered the orchard.

The path was covered with fallen leaves, indicating that yesterday's strong winds had caused many green fruits to fall to the ground, especially plums.

The fallen plums were all about the size of a finger. But these plums were too small; if they were a little bigger, they could be sliced, dried, and made into delicious plum slices.

There's not much of a problem with where the plums fall. The more plums there are, the smaller they become; villagers, when they have time at home, will pick the plums growing on the side branches so that the ones on the top branches can grow bigger.

Zhang Niu has several yellow-fleshed plum trees here. They are an early-ripening variety; when ripe, the entire fruit is bright yellow, while the rest are black-fleshed plums. Those plums don't ripen until after the peaches have ripened, so they take a very long time to mature.

The strong wind broke many branches, and the ground beneath the trees was laden with fruit. Zhang Niu couldn't do anything with them. He had to go back inside and bring a sack.

A machete and burlap sacks. Zhang Niu plunged headlong into the orchard. He packed the larger fruits into burlap sacks; it was better to pick some up and feed them to the big white ducks than leave them to rot.

The orchard was large, and Zhang Niu didn't pick much; his main purpose was to check which branches had been broken by the wind.

It was already noon when I came out carrying the sack.

"You're carrying something on your back." Liang Shan, who had just come out of the bamboo house, noticed the sack on Zhang Niu's back.

"It's just that the wind blows the fruit down, it looks like a waste, so we'll pick some up and feed them to the ducks."

"This storm must have caused quite a few things to fall."

"Yeah, that's right. A lot of branches were broken off, but there's nothing we can do about it. Luckily, the tree isn't very tall," he replied casually.

They carried burlap sacks to the open space in the duck shed.

Quack, quack, as soon as he entered, the big white ducks surrounded him. Zhang Niu, wearing slippers, was already completely surrounded by the ducks.

The big white duck didn't run away even after all the fruit from the sack was dumped onto the ground. As soon as it was poured out, the round fruit rolled out.

Quack quack! The big white ducks saw the green fruit and started quacking. They picked up the fruit, raised their necks, and swallowed it whole.

The ducks that were seen in the water also came up, and the freshly poured fruit was surrounded by the ducks without leaving any gaps.

These ducks are really good at grabbing food. Suddenly, I felt something warm on my feet. Looking down, I realized that one of the ducks had pooped on Zhang Niu's feet.

These ducks swarm around like this; Zhang Niu has encountered this situation several times already.

In the morning, a large number of fish surfaced in the pond, forming a dark mass. However, this wasn't due to surfacing, but rather a normal phenomenon after rain. Fish farmers can usually observe the fish's growth at the pond's edge in weather like this.

After lunch, as soon as I went out, I saw the waiter come up.

"Waiter, what brings you here?" he asked.

"I just asked you to come and catch some stream fish. Look, I brought my net and bucket. I just came to call you." He said with a smile.

"I was just thinking of taking a break when you came up here," Zhang Niu replied.

The waiter chuckled, "Why not do it early? There won't be many fish left if we wait too long."

"With your crazy idea, everyone knows it. Are you planning to go to that stream by the outer village?" Zhang Niu remembered that place as soon as it rained.

"Yes, there are many fish in that place. After the heavy rain this time, many fish farmers in my village lost a lot of fish from their ponds. Now everyone is out fishing, and I even saw many people carrying batteries and touching the fish on the road." He then recounted what he had seen on the road.

"Then let's hurry up and go." It's normal for fish to escape from fishponds on rainy days. After all, many of them can't really be called fishponds, they're just shallow puddles.

The road was slippery, so Zhang Niu wasn't prepared to ride his bike. The two of them walked down the mountain.

"Look at you, you must have had quite a good day this morning," Zhang Niu asked with a smile.

"That's right, I went out as soon as the rain stopped this morning. When I came back at noon, I weighed about 30 kilograms, mostly from upstream," the waiter said proudly.

"Ah," Zhang Niu was a little surprised to hear so much.

"Surprised? I only found out when I weighed them myself at home, but my mom took them and sold them. I'm planning to catch some this afternoon and try them tonight."

"Wow, I underestimated you. You're quite adept at finding ways to make money." Everyone does this when they catch fish to sell.

Although the rain had stopped, the fields were still flooded. Even the roads were filled with puddles, and many children were carrying small buckets and nets.

I looked at several small buckets; they contained quite a few small crucian carp and some stream fish.

"Zhang Wa, are you here to catch fish too?" Uncle Shengming, carrying a bucket, walked up to the field.

"Ah, it's you, Uncle Shengming." The two had been chatting and hadn't seen each other for a moment.

"Yeah, your fish didn't escape yesterday, did it?"

Zhang Niu nodded. "No. What about you?"

"It's alright, but I heard from others this morning that many fish farmers in nearby villages have lost a lot of fish, so I came out to catch some." After saying that, he brought the bucket over for Zhang Niu and the other man to see.

"Quite a few," the waiter said after taking a look.

"Are you going there to catch fish? But this place is small, so there are many fish, but few big ones."

The fields were filled with yellow, murky river water; Uncle Shengming was right.

"We're going to that stream outside the village. There's a downhill slope there. If no one's around, we can set up a bamboo mat and lay out a fishing net to catch fish," the waiter said.

"Your method is pretty good, let's go take a look." Shengming thought the method was good and planned to go along.

The three of them walked together toward the stream outside the village.

"We caught them."

"I have one too, it's a white-eyed thorn."

From time to time, you can hear little kids shouting "Caught something! Caught something!" by the roadside.

Walking along the muddy path, Zhang Niu and his group arrived at the stream outside the village.

The stream outside the village is now full of water, with many people floating on it, leaving behind white foam and trash.

"Is this the place you're talking about?" Shengming looked at the stream in front of him; it didn't look like a place where you could catch fish at all.

The waiter laughed heartily, "Uncle Shengming, we haven't arrived at the destination yet. We need to go down the slope."

We walked down the edge of the field. Ahead, a pine forest appeared. "Look, it's over there in that pine forest. There's a slope there, all built of stones."

Shengming quickly realized there was such a place, and recognized it by looking at the pine forest.

The slope leading down to the stream is entirely paved with stones. The stream rushes down with a gurgling sound.

"This is the place. I brought a machete with me when I came. I can just cut down some trees here. There are also some fishing tools left behind by people who used to fish here." The waiter said, walking into the bushes and dragging out a bamboo mat made entirely of bamboo. However, the gaps were too big, otherwise the water wouldn't be able to flow through.

The men carried the bamboo mat down the slope. They laid a large bamboo pole across the opposite bank, and the waiter took out a fishing net and spread it on the mat. They then tied it securely with ropes.

Looking at Xiao Er's familiar technique, Zhang Niu guessed that this kid was probably not the only one who fished like this.

After tying it up, place the bamboo mat on the bamboo poles, ensuring the bottom is firmly against the slope. Place a few stones on top of the bamboo mat to weigh it down.

Place a bamboo pole at the water's edge to intercept large pieces of trash or clumps of water hyacinths.

Not long after we finished, a crucian carp swam down from above and landed on the bamboo mat. There was a net underneath, so the crucian carp could only jump around on top of it, and it wouldn't die immediately because of the water.

"Waiter, this method is really good. Just place the bamboo mats, lay the fishing nets on top, and you can catch the fish." Zhang Niu was very excited when he saw fish rushing onto the fishing nets in just a short while.

"That's right, I learned this skill by secretly watching others," the waiter thought to himself with great pride.

In just half an hour, quite a few crucian carp were already jumping around on it. However, there was also a lot of trash, and Zhang Niu had to use a bamboo pole to pick it out from time to time.

Today's update has a relatively short word count, so this chapter is just a transition.