Chapter 464: Let's All Be Salted Fish Together

Taozi stood up, clawed at Chen Banxia's bucket, and poked its head inside to take a look.

After finishing, it turned around, trotted a few steps over to Zhang Suannai's bucket, and continued to claw at it to look inside.

The two humans nearby expressed their dissatisfaction, but it acted as if it heard nothing; only after seeing a satisfactory result did it happily run back to inform its teammate—after all, it was just a cute little cat, and it neither wanted to wash shrimp nor knew how to wash them.

"Woof-woof~"

The little girl sat steadily at the shrimp-fishing station, and upon hearing its words, she only nodded faintly, her face wearing a composure that suggested "everything is under control."

Vaguely, the conversation between her brother-in-law and sister drifted to her ears.

"This one is mine."

"It was caught on my rod."

"We've known each other for so many years, are you really going to haggle with me over a single shrimp?"

"Even by law, this is common property and should be split equally; you caught more than me, so you should share some with me... Who says so? Just looking at it, there are clearly more shrimp in your bucket than mine!"

"Then again, you've been sitting here reading, and I helped you lift the rod for most of the shrimp; logically speaking, it's only right that you share some of the labor reward with me..."

The two were fighting over shrimp again, pulling out every trick in the book—playing the emotional card, the legal card, and the moral card all at once.

The little girl stared at her own fishing rod and yarn, her face devoid of any expression, only turning to lock eyes with Taozi when she heard something particularly clever, and when she heard something even cleverer, she would be overcome with Joy, unable to help herself, and reach out to stroke Taozi's fluffy little head.

Until the sun moved to the west, everyone began to pack up their rods.

The brother-in-law took out a handheld scale.

Everyone came over one after another, carrying their buckets.

The little girl remained calm and collected, walking over to quietly peek at the shrimp in the buckets of her two main rivals; Taozi also clawed at the buckets again to take a look inside, and then the girl and the cat exchanged glances, their hearts clear and composed.

"Chen Banxia!"

"Here!"

The brother-in-law took Sister Banxia's bucket first, hooked it onto the handheld scale, lifted it up, and shouted loudly:

"The weight of the shrimp, three jin!"

"That works! Enough for me to eat!"

"Zhang Suannai!"

"Coming, coming! Is your scale accurate?"

"The weight of the shrimp, three jin and four liang!"

"Alrighty then..."

The little girl caught a glimpse of Sister Suannai suddenly breaking into a smile, while Sister Banxia's face fell, looking very disappointed; the little girl found it interesting and couldn't help but let her eyes roll around quietly—she really didn't know what they were competing for, as they were the last two anyway, and both would have to wash the shrimp regardless.

"Ning Xiaoxiao!"

"!"

The little girl wore a serious expression, carrying her bucket as she walked past her sister, moving with a gust of wind.

Seeing her brother-in-law hook the bucket and lift it, although she wasn't panicked inside and wanted to appear composed and more like a master, she still couldn't help but lean in close in front of her brother-in-law, stretching her neck to look at the handheld scale.

"The weight of the shrimp, three jin and three liang!"

"?"

"?"

The little girl and Taozi were both stunned.

Taozi even widened its eyes and opened its mouth, tilting its head back with an expression of utter disbelief.

This was impossible, right?

The little girl panicked instantly, her two hands tightly twisted together in front of her, her small body tensing up; she couldn't help but lean over to look at the three buckets—the crayfish in her own bucket, while not many, were definitely more than in theirs.

Why would it be like this?

A glance from the corner of her eye revealed the two of them over there snickering incessantly.

"?"

The little girl and her brother-in-law exchanged a look, realized something was wrong, lifted their buckets again, and checked carefully, discovering a layer of water at the bottom.

"Chen Banxia, two and a half jin. Zhang Suannai, two jin and eight liang."

"Kukuku..."

Hearing the result, the two stopped hiding it completely and laughed like idiots nearby, as if they didn't care at all about the final weight or the punishment, caring only about whether their scheme had managed to fool the others.

"Chen Shu, eleven jin and nine..."

Chen Shu paused, grabbed one from Qingqing's bucket nearby, threw it into his own, then lifted the scale and shouted: "Twelve jin exactly!"

"Ning Qing, ten jin and eight liang; hey, you really are lighter than me, I couldn't tell."

"Don't you have any idea?"

"What idea..."

Chen Shu was thick-skinned and felt nothing at all.

With this, the winner was decided.

Everyone was very happy.

Just at this moment—

A middle-aged woman wearing a red armband walked over, and before she even got close, she shouted loudly: "What are you fishing for here? Who let you fish here?"

The group was stunned instantly, and the laughter stopped.

The woman walked over, poked her head in to look at the shrimp in their buckets, frowned, and shouted: "This is a wetland ecological zone; fishing is not allowed."

Everyone looked at each other, their expressions varied.

Chen Shu spoke up: "But we are fishing for shrimp..."

"Fishing for shrimp isn't allowed either!"

"Oh, Auntie, fishing for crayfish doesn't damage the ecosystem, and these shrimp reproduce so fast... We didn't know, can we just let it slide this time?"

"No means no!"

"Then what should we do?"

"The rods are confiscated, the shrimp are confiscated, and each person is fined twenty yuan."

"Can we just confiscate the rods and pay the fine?"

"No! Look at this, who else is fishing!"

"Please, make an exception..."

"Absolutely not!"

The group looked at each other again, their expressions still varied.

There was embarrassment, distress, indifference, and some people had eyes darting around, hatching bad ideas.

"Auntie~"

While Zhang Dailian continued to beg the aunt to show mercy, she winked at her little sister and little roommate; the two were clever, silently retreating, and before anyone noticed, they were back on the flying car, which then slowly ascended.

Zhang Dailian pointed behind the aunt, looking dissatisfied: "There are people fishing over there too, why don't you go fine them?"

"Where?"

The middle-aged woman turned her head instinctively.

A gust of wind sounded beside her.

When she turned back, the three people beside her, along with five buckets and dozens of fishing rods, had all vanished. If not for the marks where they had stuck their rods into the lakeside, the woman might have even thought she had hallucinated.

Looking up, there were three black dots in the sky, and in the blink of an eye, even the black dots were gone.

"Mother of a shoe..."

The woman muttered to herself.

Xicheng District, inside the small courtyard.

The two little sisters sat on small stools, facing a large basin of lively crayfish, still savoring the escape experience from just now; they felt it was very interesting, as if it made this crayfish-fishing activity even more special—if not for this, they might not remember today years from now, but with this experience, whenever they mentioned crayfish in the future, they would inevitably think of this day when they were caught and then escaped; at the same time, they held brushes and were cleaning them earnestly.

The little girl had her hands in her pockets, a small face set, pacing back and forth beside them.

Every step was lifted higher than usual, like a military training high-step, walking past them and then back again.

Taozi was also squatting on the stone table nearby, staring at them.

"What are you doing?"

Chen Banxia couldn't help but turn her head to ask.

"Showing off."

The little girl didn't shy away, staring at them honestly, her steps never stopping: "Showing off that I don't have to wash shrimp."

Their gazes met, but they felt no shame; instead, they laughed at each other and continued cleaning.

Leisurely and unhurried, not panicked at all.

Not long after, Chen Shu walked over.

"Are you done washing?"

Chen Shu bent down to look: "Only washed half? Hurry up, Chen Banxia, wash them cleaner."

Upon hearing this, Chen Banxia became serious: "You cannot use that tone to speak to your older sister; don't think that just because you are the Spirit Sect Saint Son you can be fierce to your sister; your sister is still the person you respect most in your heart."

A tone of "you might not even realize it yourself, but that is the fact."

"Are you still going to eat or not?"

"Eat, eat, eat..."

"Two idiots..."

Chen Shu shook his head and walked away.

The two looked at each other again.

Chen Banxia felt a bit embarrassed; this younger brother was too rebellious, not knowing how to save face for her in front of her little sister, yet she had no way to handle him, and even her pride-and-joy money offensive had failed. Zhang Dailian felt very confused; she hadn't said a word, just honestly washing shrimp the whole time, so how did she get dragged into this for no reason?

"Tsk..."

It is not easy to mooch a meal.

Dinner was crayfish.

Over thirty catties of crayfish, perhaps due to the season, this was the last batch of the year; each one was very large, at least at the level of "large shrimp" on the market. Chen Shu still made several different flavors: spicy, braised in oil, garlic, and steamed, with some vegetables and noodles added as garnish, cooking several large basins. Fortunately, Zhang Dailian had the divine skill of compressing her stomach, otherwise, they really wouldn't have finished it.

Chen Shu also saw the photos Zhang Dailian posted in the group, including those of fishing, washing shrimp, and starting the meal.

Not only did she post photos, but she also warmly invited the Dharma Master Tongdeng to come fish together, saying that since he didn't eat meat, he could just fish without eating, fishing for them to eat, which angered Dharma Master Tongdeng so much that he told her to be careful when the Tribulation-Responding Buddha was born.

Furthermore, she mocked the group members who didn't reply during the day, saying that those who used the Rest and Recovery Cycle Great Art and were still sleeping were all stupid dogs.

It was as if she had become smart.

She even talked about how normal sleep schedules, welcoming the morning, and bidding farewell to the dusk were the lives normal people should have, saying it all in a set of theories that sounded very reasonable—probably just as reasonable as when she first decided to use the Rest and Recovery Cycle Great Art.

Chen Shu looked at it but couldn't sleep at all; he stared carefully for a long time before he could read between the lines, the whole screen filled with "Don't you dare try to out-compete me."

Between playing and cultivation, July passed.

University in Yujing had long since started, yet Senior Sister Xiaoxiao was already in her fifth year and no longer had classes.

But she neither looked for an internship nor continued to graduate school; instead, following her sister's suggestion, she continued research at the school's research institute.

This major had just started, and the teachers were progressing alongside the students; under her sister's supervision and assistance, her level in this major had long surpassed her teachers, and the world-shocking research results currently appearing were almost all led and developed by her; there was truly no need to pursue a master's or doctorate, she only needed to do her own work, and when the time came, the world's honors would naturally gather around her like starlight.

The bright moon is naturally radiant with ten thousand rays of light.

At the same time, it was heard that the Buddhist and Daoist duo in the group were also preparing to charge toward the Eighth Stage; the Gate of All Wonders seemed to have a premonition that its performance after advancing would not be very good, and it was embarrassed to let the teachers within the gate watch its advancement, so it sought out Dharma Master Tongdeng.

People of the Buddhist Sect are always worth trusting.