The shrimp rake and the fish basket had both been left behind by Xu Tongdao's grandfather.
A shrimp rake, as the name suggests, is a rake used for scooping up shrimp.
It consists of three parts: a bamboo pole, a half-moon-shaped net bag, and a half-moon-shaped bamboo bow.
The net bag itself is soft. The reason it maintains a half-moon shape is because the mouth of the net is fixed onto a half-moon-shaped frame.
On that frame, the straight side is made from a steel rod, while the curved half-moon side is formed from a bent wooden strip.
The net bag, the bamboo pole, and the half-moon bamboo bow are tied together with rope, forming a stable triangular structure.
The opening of the net faces the bamboo pole.
Its overall shape is somewhat like an oversized dustpan with a handle.
The fish basket, on the other hand, is woven from bamboo strips. It has a wide opening and a wide belly, but between the opening and the belly there is a long, narrow "neck."
When Xu Tongdao left the house, he tied a cloth belt around his waist, and the fish basket hung from it.
His destination was the West River at the head of the village.
Both banks of the long West River were farmland.
Based on his experience, with weather like this, water from the fields would be flowing nonstop into the West River day and night. Under this constant flow, fish and shrimp in the river would gather at the drainage outlets, ready at any moment to swim upstream.
When he was young, during the plum rain season every year, his grandfather would always take the shrimp rake and fish basket at dawn after heavy rain, going to those drainage outlets along the West River to rake for fish and shrimp.
The harvest was often quite good.
When Xu Tongdao left home, the sky was still dimly lit. Visibility was low, and the village was quiet. As he walked through it, he didn't see a single person.
Only the occasional barking of dogs was startled into the air.
…
"Splash—"
At the mouth of a drainage channel flowing into the West River, Xu Tongdao skillfully tossed the shrimp rake into the water, then quickly pulled it back up.
The splashing sound made a smile appear at the corner of his mouth.
Because that sound came from three palm-sized crucian carp and two yellow catfish struggling inside the shrimp rake.
This first rake alone brought such a harvest—truly a pleasant surprise.
He quickly picked up the fish and casually tossed them into the fish basket at his waist. Then he straightened up and raked this outlet a few more times.
The harvest dropped sharply, but he still managed to scoop up two more crucian carp and four or five finger-length silver fish.
Using a shrimp rake to catch fish doesn't really require much skill.
If you want a good haul, the most important thing is diligence.
With weather like this, if you want to catch more, you have to get up early. Once the sky fully brightens, the fish and shrimp beneath the drainage outlets will mostly have dispersed.
Perhaps because shrimp raking lacks technical difficulty, Xu Tongdao's younger brother, Xu Tonglu—despite liking to catch fish and shrimp—had never liked using a shrimp rake.
By comparison, Xu Tonglu preferred his homemade fish spear.
Spotting a fish, aiming carefully, then thrusting the spear—if the fish was large enough, its struggle would make the several-meter-long spear shaft tremble violently, a sight that brought immense satisfaction.
Xu Tongdao could also use a fish spear, and his skill wasn't bad.
But later he still had to replace his mother on flood duty, so he could only take advantage of the early hours before full daylight to come out with the shrimp rake.
As he walked along, whenever he saw a drainage outlet flowing into the West River, he would toss the shrimp rake in and pull it back out. Sometimes there was a catch, sometimes nothing at all—it was a real test of patience.
And patience was something he did not lack.
Half an hour… an hour passed. By the time the sky was fully bright, the fish basket at his waist was already more than half full with all kinds of big and small fish.
The largest was a black fish weighing over two jin.
The smallest were those silver fish no longer than his index finger.
It was time to head back. One last rake.
Xu Tongdao glanced at another drainage outlet not far away and decided to rake there once more before going home. That outlet looked promising—both sides were thick with aquatic grass.
From experience, places with water plants usually had fish.
He strode over, took a breath, skillfully tossed the shrimp rake in, then quickly pulled it back.
There was strong resistance inside the net, with a lot of movement.
Xu Tongdao's heart leapt with joy, thinking he'd caught another big fish. But when the rake broke the surface, he froze.
Inside the net—aside from a small crucian carp—there was also a soft-shelled turtle, easily two or three jin in weight.
The unlucky turtle was scrambling inside the net, trying to climb out.
As if that were possible.
Snapping back to his senses, Xu Tongdao immediately dragged the shrimp rake onto the bank and quickly moved away from the river, his face lit up with joy.
In his eyes, that soft-shelled turtle looked exactly like cash.
In these days, a turtle like this wouldn't fetch an outrageous price.
But compared to a day's wages of only twenty or thirty yuan for ordinary labor, it was still valuable—probably worth over a hundred yuan.
It might even be enough to cover his sister's registration fee for the next semester.
After securing the turtle and the small crucian carp, Xu Tongdao headed home.
The whole way back, a smile lingered on his lips.
Coming out, he had taken over an hour because of the fishing.
Going back was much faster—about twenty minutes—and the village entrance came into view.
Before even entering the village, he could see wisps of cooking smoke rising everywhere, clearly showing that many households were already up making breakfast.
As he neared the village entrance, he spotted a familiar figure.
It was Ge Xiaoyu.
She was wearing water-washed blue jeans, a pink T-shirt, red rubber boots on her feet, and a bamboo-woven vegetable basket hooked over her arm. She looked like she was heading out to pick vegetables.
Xu Tongdao knew that although the fields had been flooded, the vegetable plots were on higher ground, so most of them were still intact.
Ge Xiaoyu looked just as he remembered—young and radiant.
Seeing her also reminded him that he had once liked her.
As they approached each other, Ge Xiaoyu saw him too. The look in her eyes was different now—no longer the irritation he remembered.
He even noticed a hint of hesitation, as if she wanted to greet him.
But he felt nothing stir.
He simply smiled faintly, sensing the strange workings of fate.
In the original timeline, Ge Xiaoyu had always looked at him with annoyance.
Later… many years later, when they met again, she had already graduated from college. Each time she saw him, she treated him like a complete stranger, not even sparing him a proper glance.
So Xu Tongdao no longer had any feelings for her.
Yet the faint smile on his face made Ge Xiaoyu immediately return a friendly smile. She seemed willing to become friends with him.
But Xu Tongdao had already walked past her.
The fish basket at his waist rattled softly, and he had no intention of offering her even a couple of fish.