Siheyuan: The Temptation of the Mountains

Lin Ze raised his eyebrows slightly, but his smile didn't fade. "How about we make a bet?"

"You are so ambitious at such a young age." The bald old man said, "Okay, what do you want to bet with me?"

"I bet you will come back empty-handed today, and I will definitely come back with a full load."

The bald old man was just within five meters of Lin Ze. Lin Ze used his mind to check and found that there was not a single fish in the old man's net bag.

Lin Ze said, "If I win, your fishing rod will belong to me."

"Hey, you bastard!"

The bald old man was not convinced. He stood up from his small stool and pointed at Lin Ze and said, "Okay, I'll make a bet with you. If you don't catch any fish today and I do, what's your bet?"

"How about ten kilograms of sorghum flour?!" Lin Ze said.

"Ten kilograms? Sure, let's bet ten kilograms of sorghum flour."

"Well, you have guts, boy." The silver-haired old man clapped his hands, "Then I'll be here to bear witness to you!"

When Lin Ze heard this, he curled the corners of his mouth and jumped into the water with a splash.

"Old Wang, give me some of your Fishing King. I must teach this arrogant boy a lesson." The bald old man said to the silver-haired old man.

When Lao Wang heard this, he shook his head repeatedly, "Lao Zhang, it's not that I'm stingy and don't want to give you the Fishing King. If my Fishing King really works, I wouldn't be here all morning with nothing."

Old man Zhang scratched his bald head with his hand, "We have to try. We can't really lose to that kid, right?"

After Lin Ze jumped into the water, he quickly surfaced, wiped his face, and raised his right hand high.

"Uncle, look carefully, this is the first fish!" Lin Ze shouted loudly. After that, he did not even go ashore, but directly stuffed the fish into the snakeskin bag tied around his waist.

Of course he collected this fish by using the space. He had to use it if he had a hook. The more he used it, the happier he was.

Old man Zhang became anxious and pointed his shaking finger at Lin Ze who had caught a fish as soon as he entered the water.

"What kind of freak is he?"

"He can catch fish so quickly. This guy is really good at it." Uncle Wang said, "Look at the fish he lifted up. It weighs about 3 kilograms, which is not small!"

"Old Wang, give me the Fishing King!"

Uncle Wang then handed old man Zhang a glass bottle filled with wine bran.

"Pour it slowly, I only have half a bottle left."

Of course Lin Ze saw the wine bran balls that Old Man Zhang scattered, which made him even more certain that the pensions these two old men received were not ordinary.

Lin Ze quietly dived to the vicinity of Old Man Zhang, and with a thought, all the wine bran balls were collected into the space.

After collecting the wine bran balls, Lin Ze dived and swam away. When he resurfaced, he was far away from Old Man Zhang, holding another fish in his hand.

This fish belonged to the old men. Regardless of whether it was ready to take the bait or not, Lin Ze first put it into the space.

"Hey, this is the second one. You're really capable!" Uncle Wang was so shocked that he even forgot to look at Uncle Zhang who had thrown away his fishing king.

Fishing is about waiting, catching fish is about striking.

Old man Zhang, who was sitting on the shore waiting, became anxious. During this period of time, Lin Ze put more than ten or twenty fish into his pocket. Every time he caught a fish, he would hold it high up, as if he was deliberately showing it to him.

"Lao Wang, Lao Li, Lao Ruan, hurry up, who among you has fish in your net? Lend me one...!"

Unfortunately, this row of old men fishing, no one knows what happened, all of them came up empty-handed after the whole morning, and none of them was able to catch any fish.

The old man called Lao Ruan said, "This kid is swimming in the water, making such a big noise that even fish would be scared away."

"He is quite a capable guy, he can catch so many fish with his bare hands."

Old Li chuckled, "I don't care who wins or who begs. When this guy comes ashore, I'm going to buy two."

Lao Wang said, "Me too, I'll buy two and bring them home to show my wife that we men can also catch big fish, and we'll all be happy."

When Lin Ze got ashore, it was almost noon. He poured out the full snakeskin bag of fish.

There were more than a dozen old men gathered on the shore, but Lin Ze's eyes were fixed on Old Man Zhang.

"Master, are you willing to accept the defeat?"

Old man Zhang's face darkened instantly, and he unhappily put his fishing rod on the shore. He looked very careful and it was obvious that he cherished it very much.

Lin Ze was smiling and not in a hurry to retract his fishing rod. His eyes moved around among the old men and finally locked onto the silver-haired old man Wang.

"Uncle, thank you so much for bearing witness."

A group of old men looked at Lin Ze happily. Uncle Wang was the first to speak, "Young man, do you want to sell this fish?"

"Uncle, I don't sell this fish."

Lin Ze looked at the thirty or so fish he had poured out of his pocket, raised his eyebrows and said, "But if you have a ticket, I can exchange it."

Bald old Zhang immediately said, "I have the tickets. Three catties of food tickets are enough to exchange for your two fish, right?"

"One!"

Lin Ze picked up a three and a half pound fish and said, "They are the same weight, but the meat is more expensive than your food coupons."

Old Zhang had no choice but to exchange it for a fish, as he had no extra food coupons on him.

The silver-haired Mr. Wang didn’t have any food coupons on him, so he asked Lin Ze in a low voice, “Young man, do you want a wine ticket?”

The day before, Lin Ze exchanged a pheasant for a bottle of Fenjiu for his father at the supply and marketing cooperative. He stared at Uncle Wang and asked, "How many kilograms of wine tickets do you want to exchange?"

"Ten kilograms of wine tickets in exchange for ten kilograms of fish!" said Uncle Wang.

Lin Ze readily agreed. The fish he caught were all more than three pounds each, so ten pounds would only give him three fish.

The other uncles followed suit, and soon the fish in front of Lin Ze turned into a small handful of bills.

There were food coupons, wine coupons, soybean oil coupons, cloth coupons... and even a ten-jin manure coupon.

Lin Ze exchanged the ten-jin manure ticket for a fish.

"Child, leave some fish for yourself and don't sell them all." said Uncle Ruan.

Lin Ze smiled and nodded, then he picked up Old Man Zhang's fishing rod, put on the earthworms, and threw it into the water with a swish.

"Are you still planning on fishing?"

The old men, who had been empty-handed the entire morning, were all a little unconvinced, especially the bald old Zhang who lost his fishing rod.

"Just now you were swimming to catch fish and scared the fish. Now you want to fish is simply a pipe dream. It is impossible to catch any fish."

Lin Ze looked Old Man Zhang up and down, and seeing that he was wearing a metal watch on his wrist, he asked with a smile, "How about we make another bet?"

Old man Zhang became alert instantly.

Uncle Wang, Uncle Ruan and others came over to persuade him, "You should go home. It's already noon. Why are you still betting with a child?"

Old man Zhang looked at the mud rising from Shichahai and said unconvincedly, "Let's bet, what do you bet on?"

Lin Ze said cheerfully, "If I don't catch any fish, all the tickets I just exchanged will be yours."