Gateway to Happiness - Chapter 11

Chapter 11: Fish Pond

Damn it! Mother will surely scold us when we go home!

So be it! It’s not like it’s our first time being scolded by her!

The two siblings eyed each other with a wordless exchange, followed by an uncontrollable guffaw. Getting up, they patted the mud and dirt from their pants before continuing.

As he heard the noise, Lu Zhong came out to have a look and he could not help but chuckled when he found the two siblings’ flustered look. He knew that he should not be soft-hearted as it would not be only the two siblings being chastised this time.

They had a lot of fun, and were only willing to go home after catching a lot of loaches from the paddy fields.

“Look at all this mud. Come, go get yourselves washed up!” Lu Zhong led Lu Xiao Shu to the tap nearby while calling for Lu Qi to join them.

The tap water was cool and clean. As Lu Zhong carefully helped his daughter clean up, the dirt was quickly gotten rid of. As he squatted down on the ground, he held her and used the edge of his robes to wipe her clean before helping her with her little shoes. Lu Xiao Shu leaned on her father, a flutter of warmth spread over her. It had been long since she regarded her foster parents as her biological parents.

In any case, Lu Xiao Shu was not from this world, she was not exactly the child of her supposed biological parents, right? She occasionally thought about them before, hoping that one day, they would appear in front of her and take her back. Looking at it now, she did not even think or hope for it to happen anymore.

As expected, when they got home, Miao Cui Lan’s face turned black at the sight of their muddy clothes and even Lu Zhong could not escape the wrath of his wife. Xiao Xue was the only obedient one sitting by the side with her favourite doll in her arms while she watched her brother, sister and father being chastised by her mother.

Out of the three of them, other than Lu Zhong who laughed it off with a few words, the two little ones had a solemn face but no one knew what they were feeling deep down.

Compared to the fishes and loaches that were not caught by themselves, it felt different to the ones that they brought home. As they glanced at the little creatures swimming in the pail, they could not help but feel bad for the fate that awaits them in the frying pan.

“How about we keep them?” Lu Qi asked his sister.

It was exactly what Lu Xiao Shu wanted, and she quickly nodded, “Uh-huh!”

At the sound of that, Miao Cui Lan huffed, “Keep them? What for? No way! They’re so dirty! Keeping them in the bucket only makes them skinny and it dirties the pail too! You two are just too naughty, always having these bad ideas!”

Truth be told, loaches were not rare. If a fat one was caught, it would be deep-fried or stir-fried with chilli and eaten. If a skinny one was caught, it would be simply thrown onto the ground for chickens to feed on. Who in the right mind would keep them as pets?

The two of them knew that they could not do anything to change their mother’s mind, so Lu Xiao Shu ran over to her father, pouting and begging him to let them keep the loaches. Lu Zhong could not resist her, and he sighed, “Alright, alright, you can keep them! I’ll find you an old wooden bucket! Though you can’t keep all of them, so just pick a few to keep, okay?”

Lu Qi and Lu Xiao Shu gave it a thought before bobbing their heads up and down, agreeing to the terms by their father.

With that, Lu Zhong practically turned his toolshed upside down, before finally finding a dusty wooden bucket for the kids.

The Lu family disliked heavy and bulky wooden buckets, and they have long since stopped using them. All the buckets at home were either made out of iron or tin, and even the pots were tin pots. Those wooden buckets which were too old and battered had already been used as firewood. Only those that were still in good condition were spared by Miao Cui Lan to be used as storage for random items in the future. Today, it had been given a new purpose as a home for the loaches.

Lu Zhong led the children to the tap behind their yard to wash the wooden bucket. Seeing that, Miao Cui Lan felt annoyed and huffed at her husband, “You seem to be ageing backwards, fine then! Go play with them! You’ll spoil them sooner or later!”

Lu Zhong grinned at her, “Oh, you know kids! It’s just keeping some loaches. Why are you freaking out? Isn’t it quite normal to keep little animals as pets?” He turned to three little ones and said, “From today onwards, you should listen to your mother and never make her upset. Understood?”

The three children quickly nodded and answered, “Yes!” Lu Xiao Shu got up. She sprinted towards her mother and hugged her mother’s leg, “Mother you’re the best, I will listen to you the most!”

Miao Cui Lan scoffed but she smiled at the same time, patting her daughter’s little head, “You’re the naughtiest yet the best at sweet-talking! Alright, go ahead and don’t disturb me while I’m doing chores!”

Lu Xiao Shu stuck her tongue out at her, and replied, “Okay,” before letting her go and going back to her father.

Watching as the tap water flowed from around the yard and down from the tap, Lu Xiao Shu suggested, “Father, should we dig a little pond? We can catch a lot of fish and loach, and then cook them anytime we want!”

“Yes! My second sister is right!” Lu Qi’s eyes lit up as he happily clapped his hands.

Lu Zhong chuckled, “Your mother is right, you’re definitely the naughtiest! While you don’t know other things, your head is always full of so many ridiculous ideas!”

Lu Xiao Shu pouted in annoyance, “Brother said it too! It isn’t just me.”

“Good to know that you know how to pull others down with you!” Lu Zhong found it funny.

Lu Xiao Shu knew that father had always been the easiest to speak to, and Lu Qi was easy to persuade into an idea. Noticing the situation, Xiao Xue joined them by yelling too. Eventually, Lu Zhong could only surrender with a sigh.

At that, the children cheered. On the next day, when Mr Wu came for a visit, he saw Lu Zhong out at the yard digging a pond while the three kids tried to help, only to make matters worse.

“What’s this?” Mr Wu was surprised. Lu Qi was a little startled to see Mr Wu, and he unconsciously took a few steps back to hide.

Xiao Shu happily replied, “Digging a pond to rear fishes!”

“Rearing fishes?” Mr Wu cackled loudly, “I must say, Brother Lu, you’re such an interesting person.”

“It’s just to store water, and the kids like to play.” Lu Zhong gave him a friendly smile.

Mr Wu chuckled lightly, “No wonder Sister-in-law is always complaining. You’re spoiling them too much as their father!”

Upon hearing that, Lu Xiao Shu glared at Mr Wu in annoyance, why must he always be so provocative?

However, Mr Wu simply nodded, “But this idea isn’t bad, it would be a waste if you couldn’t finish eating all the fish that you caught. You can keep them alive here, such a convenience whenever you want to eat them. Haha, go ahead, once you finish digging the pond, let me know and we can go fishing together!”

“Alright. Then I won’t be seeing you in now that I’ll be busy here!” Lu Zhong smiled in response.

Lu Qi and Lu Xiao Shu’s eyes lit up with delight, and they begged their father to let them go fishing together.

There was a huge river beside Feng Ye Village, and the narrowest part of the river was as wide as twenty to thirty meters. The water was calm and quiet, and the river bed could not be seen as long and lush aquatic plants covered the river. While there were many fish and shrimps, it was still dangerous for children so the villagers warned their children against going near the river. Naturally, Lu Zhong was no exception. He strictly refused his children’s pleas.

Lu Qi and Lu Xiao Shu both knew that once their father did not allow it, there would be no chance of changing his mind so they could only give up. Lu Xiao Shu was still not satisfied though, “Father, Father, would you please bring me once I grow up?”

“Sure, once you grow up, I’ll bring all of you fishing!” Lu Zhong’s eyes crinkled at the corner as he replied.

“Father, father, I’m already all grown up, you should bring me with you!” Lu Qi immediately countered.

“You better stay at home to accompany your little sister! Be obedient.” Lu Zhong commented.

What else could Lu Qi say? He reminded himself of Mr Wu’s presence and simply said, “okay.” On the other hand, Lu Xiao Shu secretly smirked, thinking to herself, When I grow up, I wouldn’t need my father to bring me along. I could go there by myself…

It seemed like there was always so much fun stuff to do, she never even had that much fun in her previous life! Lu Xiao Shu could not wait until she grew up.

It was once again another year when Lu Zhong and Miao Cui Lan found Xiao Shu. They decided to use the day to make it her birthday. Even though Miao Cui Lan stubbornly said that once the child was old enough, they would tell her that she was adopted, but they had not done it.

It was raining cats and dogs outside, the nonstop stream of rainwater flowed down from the edge of their roof, and it looked just like a curtain of water. Lu Xiao Shu, being three years old, stood underneath the roof as she leaned on the wall with a sour frown on her face.

It took a lot of effort from her to get her father and Mr Wu to promise her on her birthday to bring her uphill to catch some wild chicken. Who knew that the sky forbade her from going by raining the whole day?

Darkness slowly blanketed the sky, making Lu Xiao Shu even more unhappy.

Xiao Xue came to accompany her under the roof, pulling on her arm and softly pleading, “Come on, Second Sister, let’s go back to the house. It’s so chilly outside! Mother has dinner ready and she said that it’s your birthday today, so she made lots of tasty dishes!”

“I don’t want to go back in.” Lu Xiao Shu pouted.

“Please don’t be upset,” Xiao Xue asked, “You could get Father to bring you uphill another day, it’s going to be the same thing anyway!” Truth be told, Xiao Xue did not understand how it could be any fun uphill. The path uphill was not pleasant and would it not be tiring to climb the hill? Furthermore, there were lots of weird bugs or even snakes if one wasn’t careful… Their father also mentioned that snakes like to bite people and were very scary…

“That’s not true!” Lu Xiao Shu wistfully countered, “Once today is over, their promise would be out of effect. That cunning Mr Wu would definitely refuse to bring me ever again!”

Although Mr Wu was a teacher, he was also called the “man with six skills”. It was said that he could ride a horse and was exceptional at archery. He also knew how to fix various types of traps and snares to capture little creatures in the forest, often inviting Lu Zhong as his companion on trips. He lived alone so he usually brought wild animals to the Lu family for Miao Cui Lan to prepare meals with. As for Lu Qi, he had all the best food to feast on while Xiao Shu and Xiao Xue also had the chance to try out those various meals within this couple of years. They had wild chicken, pheasant, wild pigeons, partridges, giant spiny frogs, otters, hares and so many more, sometimes even a wild goat. Not to mention the fish and shrimps in the river. It was as if Mr Wu knew where and when to make his move, he never return empty handed. Even now, the Lu family’s little pond of three cubic metres had been filled with fish because of him.