Just as Liu Ying had said, her hometown was a coastal fish village further south of Binhai City.
When she was a child, her parents were busy. They went out to sea every day to fish and sell fish. They also contracted a fishery to raise fish. Their family conditions were not bad, but the price was that she rarely saw her parents. She was brought up by her grandmother, which developed her introverted personality. Later, after she went to college and started working, she slowly worked hard to become cheerful because of the needs of her work.
Her grandmother's legs were not convenient, so she didn't trust her to go out and play with other children. At that time, there was a lot of human traffickers in the neighboring village. There were always rumors that foreign traffickers had fled to the nearby village and abducted several children from the neighboring village. The rumors were so convincing that no one knew whether it was true or not, but her grandmother believed it. She often locked her at home and didn't let her go out.
Little Liu Ying felt that her grandmother was more or less patriarchal. Maybe if it was a boy, her grandmother would take the child out to play even if her legs were not convenient.
There was nothing to play at home. The TV was not wired, and they could only rely on a cracked satellite receiver to watch a limited number of TV stations. Some of them spoke foreign languages, but the signal was not good.
Liu Ying was bored at home, so she always pestered her grandmother, asking her to tell her stories and play with her.
Her grandmother might have been a little annoyed by her pestering, which delayed her housework. Her grandmother was especially addicted to mahjong. Every afternoon, she would play mahjong with other elderly people in the village, rain or shine. So one day, her grandmother brought back a few small fish for her to play with. She locked the door of the yard and hurried to play mahjong, worried that there would be no seats if she was late.
The so-called small fish were actually a few Crucian carps and loaches, probably caught by her grandmother from the small river near the village.
At that time, it was quite easy to catch fish from the river. She rolled a net into a bag, put some rice or bread crumbs in it, and sank it into the river. After a few minutes, there would be stupid Crucian carps that would crawl into the net.
Later, it was no longer possible. The pollution of the industrial enterprises near the village became more and more serious, and there were basically no fish in the river.
Catching fish in the river had always been the specialty of the boys in the village. Liu Ying was very happy to get the small fish. She had a new playmate, and she was finally not lonely in the afternoon when her grandmother was not at home.
There was a small empty water tank in the yard. Little Liu Ying filled it with water and put the crucian carps and loaches into it.
Crucian carps and loaches were very sturdy. They were the kind of fish that wouldn't die as long as you didn't toss them too much. They could survive by throwing a few grains of rice or bread crumbs into the water tank every few days.
"Now that I think about it, I didn't treat them as pets at all. I only treated them as tools to deal with loneliness. I even did some terrible things to them because I was really bored …" Liu Ying said apologetically.
There was a small shop in the village that sold fish hooks for twenty cents each. She used the excuse that she wanted to eat popsicles and asked her grandmother for money to buy a fish hook. Then, she tied the end of the fish hook with cotton thread from a sewing machine and stuck a grain of rice at the end of the fish hook.
Both Crucian Carps and loaches were easily hooked. They even fought over the rice grains like hungry ghosts. Soon, a Crucian Carp took the bait.
Little Liu Ying picked up the thread excitedly. Unexpectedly, the Crucian Carp struggled so hard that it was stronger than she had imagined. It broke the thread and fell onto the yellow soil. It kept bouncing up and down, and its whole body was covered with mud. It looked like a fish being fried in a pot with a layer of flour.
She hurriedly tried to pick up the Crucian Carp and throw it back into the water tank. However, the scales were very slippery, and the Crucian Carp struggled so hard that she didn't hold the Crucian Carp firmly. Instead, her finger was stabbed by the fish hook in its mouth. The stab was quite deep, and dark red blood suddenly gushed out.
She cried out in pain. Her hand loosened, and the Crucian Carp fell back to the ground. It struggled a few times and stopped moving.
There was no one at home. She cried for more than ten minutes, but no one came to comfort her.
The Crucian Carp on the ground was already dead, and the wound on her finger was no longer bleeding.
She gradually stopped sobbing.
She lied and bought the fish hook with the money she used to buy popsicles. Therefore, she didn't dare to tell her parents and grandmother about what happened today. She was afraid that they would scold her for being naughty, so she secretly hid it and only said that a fish died.
However, it wasn't that simple.
A few days later, she suddenly started to have headaches, dizziness, and a fever. Her parents thought it was a cold, but the medicine didn't work. It became more and more serious, and she even had convulsions.
Her parents sent her to the town hospital overnight. The doctor said that she had tetanus, and if she had been sent half a day later, she might have been in danger. The doctor asked her if she had been injured recently.
Under her parents' coercion, she cried and told them about her finger being stabbed by the fish hook.
If she hadn't been seriously ill at the time, what awaited her would have been a violent beating.
Later, when she recovered and returned home from the hospital, she found that the water tank was empty. Both the water and the fish were gone.
She didn't dare to ask her parents. They were already very angry because they had spent a lot of money on her treatment.
To her surprise, after this incident, her grandmother seemed to feel sorry for her. She felt that it was her negligence that caused her to be seriously ill. Therefore, a few days after she was discharged from the hospital, her grandmother bought her a fish tank from the temple fair. It was a real fish tank, about 40 centimeters long, crystal clear, and there was a small house in it for landscaping.
From then on, her grandmother didn't play mahjong anymore. It seemed that she had quit her addiction for many years. Although there were often mahjong friends who came to invite her, her grandmother refused all of them, even if there were three players missing.
"Yingying, do you want to raise fish together?" Her grandmother's face was full of deep wrinkles. She smiled and rubbed Yingying's head.
Little Liu Ying didn't know what to do with her grandmother's change in attitude. She just nodded blankly.
For a period of time after she was discharged from the hospital, she was afraid of anything sharp. Her grandmother was the one who prepared the fish.
Her grandmother fetched seawater from the sea with a bucket, then pushed a wheelbarrow to dig up sand and pick up reefs. She arranged them in the fish tank, and a rough fish tank world gradually took shape.
Not only did her grandmother buy a fish tank, but she also bought an oxygen pump and a pair of clownfish.
Compared to the grayish-black crucian carp and loach, the clownfish were much more beautiful. It was like the contrast between an ugly duckling and a swan, which made Little Liu Ying very happy.
She and her grandmother started to raise fish together, thinking about what the clownfish would eat. Every day, they leaned against the side of the fish tank, holding their chins, and watched the clownfish swim gracefully in the water.
This period was Liu Ying's happiest days. For the first time, she felt so close to her grandmother. She was no longer the rude grandmother who let her play by herself.
However, a problem arose. The clownfish were sick, and their bodies were covered with a layer of white film.
She and her grandmother were helpless.
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