My happy life in a courtyard house with triplets.

Chapter 105: Trading Tickets for Fish

Zhang Lei rode his bike quickly to Houhai, and was immediately taken aback by the sheer number of people fishing there.

He looked left and right, and finally found a quiet spot in the corner.

Zhang Lei deftly baited his hook with his special bait and cast it into the water. Less than a minute later, he heard a sharp tug on the fishing line.

He quickly gripped the fishing rod tightly, wrestling with his wrist against the fish in the water. Then, with a flick of his wrist, the fishing rod swung upwards, and he steadily cast a fish weighing about a pound onto the shore.

Zhang Lei was overjoyed to see the first fish perfectly caught, thinking to himself that this was a great start.

He quickly sat down and continued casting. In less than half an hour, he caught more than a dozen fish, the smaller ones weighing about a pound and the larger ones weighing more than three pounds.

By this time, Zhang Lei was surrounded by onlookers, all chattering about his incredible fishing skills.

Just then, Yan Fugui arrived, panting heavily. As soon as he got there, he frantically searched for Zhang Lei, and when he couldn't find him, he shouted at the top of his lungs, "Zhang Lei! Zhang Lei, where are you?"

Hearing Yan Fugui's shout, Zhang Lei raised his voice and replied, "Third Uncle, I'm here!"

Yan Fugui ran over following the sound, panting heavily while holding his knees, and pointed at Zhang Lei, saying, "Zhang Lei, why didn't you take me with you when you rode your bicycle? It made me run an extra half hour!"

Zhang Lei smiled and pretended to suddenly realize something, slapping his forehead and saying, "It's alright, Uncle. Oh dear, I forgot you don't have a bicycle. Look at the mess this has made."

After saying that, he quickly changed the subject, pointing to the empty seat next to him and saying, "Since you're here, Third Uncle, let's begin the competition!"

Upon hearing about the competition, everyone became interested. Looking at Zhang Lei's bucket full of fish, they wondered what kind of expert Yan Fugui must be.

Yan Fugui followed everyone's gaze to the bucket on the ground, and seeing more than a dozen lively fish inside, he exclaimed in shock, "You caught all of these?"

Zhang Lei nodded with a smile: "Yes, Uncle, I've only just begun. You've been fishing for decades, your skills are so good, giving me half an hour shouldn't be a problem, right?"

Yan Fugui felt a chill run down his spine upon hearing this. Half an hour? That was a huge problem! Damn it, he had never even caught a fish that big before, while Zhang Lei had more than a dozen in his bucket. What did he have to compare with?

At this moment, Yan Fugui pretended to be calm and said with his neck stiff, "Zhang Lei, since you know how good I am, I'll go easy on you today. Let's not compete."

Not competing anymore?

Zhang Lei almost burst out laughing when he heard Yan Fugui's words. This wasn't showing leniency; it was clearly admitting defeat out of fear.

Before he could even crack a joke, someone next to him stepped forward and shouted, "Hey, isn't this Old Yan? When did you become a fishing expert?"

The one speaking was Old Wang, who often went fishing with Yan Fugui.

"Old Wang, what's it to you?" Yan Fugui glared at him irritably.

Old Wang completely ignored him and continued shouting to the onlookers, "Listen to this, everyone! Old Yan is just bragging! He can't even catch a small whitebait normally, yet he dares to boast that he's an expert. I think he's just trying to fool this young man because he's old!"

Yan Fugui immediately became anxious, his face turning bright red, and he retorted at the top of his lungs, "Old Wang, what nonsense are you spouting! What do you mean by 'fooling'? What we did was an exchange between experts, you wouldn't understand!"

Old Wang spat out a dismissive "Pah!" and said with utter disdain, "You think I don't understand? We've had countless fishing competitions, and I've always won more often than you. You can count the number of times you've won on one hand, and you still have the nerve to pretend to be an expert?"

When Yan Fugui heard Old Wang expose his past in public, his face turned red and white, and he was so embarrassed that he wanted to disappear.

He quickly waved his hands and shouted, "I'm not going to argue with you, I'll go fishing somewhere else!" With that, he grabbed his fishing rod and slunk away.

Seeing this, Zhang Lei smiled knowingly. He didn't care about Yan Fugui anymore and sat down again to continue casting his line to fish.

Just then, an older woman squeezed through the crowd, smiling, and asked, "Young man, are you selling the fish you caught? My son's been craving some fresh fish!"

Zhang Lei quickly waved his hand and replied with a smile, "Auntie, I'm really sorry, but I'm not selling these fish; I have something for myself."

The older woman, still persistent, stepped closer and whispered, "Young man, look how many you've caught, can you spare a couple for me? I'll offer you a high price; you definitely won't lose out!"

Zhang Lei waved his hand and refused, saying, "Auntie, that won't do. Selling fish is speculation and profiteering, I wouldn't dare to do that."

Upon hearing this, the woman's eyes lit up, and she immediately changed her tune: "Then I won't sell it. I'll trade you something, how about that?"

Zhang Lei became interested and asked, "Auntie, what are you trading?"

The woman quickly pulled a crumpled ticket from her pocket, handed it to Zhang Lei, and said happily, "I have a ticket for Moutai liquor here. Can I trade it for a fish?"

Upon hearing that it was a coupon for Moutai liquor, Zhang Lei considered it for a moment, then nodded and said, "Alright then, but this coupon can only be exchanged for a small one."

But the old lady didn't play by the rules at all. She shoved the ticket into Zhang Lei's hand, turned around, picked out the biggest fish from the bucket, and left.

Watching the old woman's retreating figure, Zhang Lei was speechless, but he was still holding his fishing rod and couldn't leave at all.

Just then, the fishing rod suddenly dipped down, and another fish took the bait.

When the people around saw what the old lady was doing, they immediately became interested and swarmed around her, holding up their grain coupons, cloth coupons, and sugar coupons, clamoring to exchange them for fish.

Zhang Lei was surrounded, and soon he had a bunch of receipts in his hands. The fish in the bucket were also snatched away.

He glanced down at the receipts in his hand and thought to himself that these receipts were indeed worth much more than that bucket of fish, but he had never intended to exchange them. This was practically forced buying and exchanging.

Zhang Lei watched as a small group of people left, and this time he learned his lesson. He placed the bucket directly in front of him, bent over, and continued fishing.

In no time, the bucket was almost full again. Zhang Lei looked up and saw a group of people surrounding him, staring longingly at the bucket. He was startled and quickly reached out to protect the bucket, waving his hands repeatedly, "I won't exchange it, I won't exchange it!"

Just then, an elderly woman with gray hair slowly walked over, her voice a little hoarse: "Young man, please give it to me. My grandson hasn't eaten meat in a long time, and I want to buy him some to try."

Hearing the old lady's words, Zhang Lei suddenly felt a pang of pity.

The old woman seemed to read his mind. She took two grain coupons out of her pocket and gently placed them on the ground, saying, "I won't take the big one, just the small one. Is that alright? If you're not comfortable with that, you can take it for me yourself."

Hearing the old lady's words, Zhang Lei thought for a moment, then bent down and picked out the biggest fish from the bucket and handed it out.

As soon as Zhang Lei handed the fish over, the old lady, who had been trembling just moments before, suddenly felt no more back pain or leg pain. She grabbed the fish and quickly walked away.

At this moment, someone nearby couldn't help but laugh and say, "Young man, you've been tricked! Her husband was one of the first people to exchange his ticket for your fish!"

Upon hearing this, Zhang Lei was stunned and thought to himself: "Damn it, the city is full of tricks, I want to go back to the countryside!"