Yuan Si's vigilance heightened. She stopped trying to catch loaches and stared intently ahead, pushing her spiritual power forward.
The creature was moving quickly through the water. Before Yuan Si could even prepare, it was right in front of her.
Yuan Si could finally see what it was—a large fish.
It was a large black fish, about half the length of Yuan Si's body. Its front was cylindrical, while its rear was laterally compressed. It had a large mouth with a slightly slanted gape that extended to just below the back of its eye, and its lower jaw protruded slightly. It was baring a mouthful of small white teeth at Yuan Si.
Yuan Si recognized it as a blackfish. 'No wonder the bottom of the lotus pond was so empty,' she thought. 'With this thing around, there wouldn't be enough food no matter how much there was.'
Yuan Si's mind raced. With this big guy here, she could put aside the small shrimp and other things for now. Not that she could afford to say she didn't want the shrimp anymore—getting any food at all was just too difficult.
Thinking didn't slow her down in the slightest. Before the blackfish could attack, she made the first move.
A needle had appeared in her hand at some point. She turned slightly to the side, dodging the blackfish's direct path, and her small hand shot out, pricking the fish's tail...
And then... there was no "and then." Before the blackfish could even turn its body, it flipped over and floated to the surface, belly-up.
Yuan Si calmly returned the needle in her hand to her space.
Just a moment ago, she had weighed the vast difference in strength between her small body and the blackfish underwater. To play to her strengths and compensate for her weaknesses, she had retrieved a small hidden weapon from her space, one she used for hunting. It was like the sleeve arrows from martial arts novels. Hers was a small cylinder loaded with 360 bee stings from Tyrant Bees. With the press of a trigger, the bee stings would shoot out at the enemy.
The bee stings of the Tyrant Bees had a powerful anesthetic effect; even the strongest mutated beasts of the apocalypse couldn't withstand a full barrage of 360. Considering the massive gap between the animals of this world and the mutated beasts of the apocalypse, she had simply opened the small cylinder, taken out a single bee sting, and solved the problem with a gentle prick.
Watching the blackfish float to the surface, Yuan Si didn't rush to follow. Instead, she held the bee sting and waited underwater, on high alert. Over ten minutes passed until her diving suit's time limit was up. Only after confirming that this was the only large blackfish in the small pond did she put the bee sting away, kick her small feet, and swim toward the surface.
She still felt a little disappointed. 'I'd just seen a glimmer of hope, so how did it just snap and disappear like that?' she thought. 'It's only one fish. Even if it's huge, we'll eventually eat it all.'
After reaching the surface, she easily found the large blackfish and began pushing it toward the shore.
The blackfish was only anesthetized, not dead, so Yuan Si didn't put it in her space when she reached the shore. She just carried it in her arms, shuffling home step by step.
Once she got home, she placed the blackfish into a wooden bucket in the kitchen. She couldn't find anything else suitable to hold it. Then, she poured the two eels and several loaches from the bucket at her waist into it as well.
After some thought, she decided not to butcher it right away. She went to the main room, took off her diving suit, and stored it in her space. Then she carefully lay down in her bed. 'I'll just sleep first and deal with it tomorrow morning,' she decided. Her small body had been through a lot tonight, and she was truly exhausted. 'Today was just too tiring.'
At four o'clock the next morning, the old lady was already wide awake. It was common for the elderly; they didn't need much sleep. Besides, she worked at the canteen, which served the first breakfast at five, so she and the other workers had to get there even earlier.
Yuan Si, however, was still groggy. Being so young, her body lacked self-discipline; once asleep, she couldn't wake up until she'd had her fill.
"You go on and sleep, it's still early." The old lady patted her daughter. Seeing that she had fallen back asleep, she finished dressing and went to the kitchen.
They didn't cook their meals at home, but she still had to boil some water every morning and let it cool so the two of them would have something to drink when they got back from work. She had just reached the kitchen, not yet having started the fire, when she heard what sounded like a splashing noise from inside the room.
It didn't sound like a mouse. The old lady grew suspicious. Frowning, she searched the room, but it was too dark inside. There was no light from outside, and the fire in the stove hadn't been lit yet. She looked around but found nothing out of the ordinary and thought she must have misheard. But just as she sat back down on the small stool to continue lighting the fire, the sound came again from behind her, much clearer this time.
"Who? Who's there?" The old lady snatched up the small stool from under her.
"Let me tell you something, this old lady is the..." Before the old lady could finish her threat, another splash erupted from the wooden bucket.
The old lady now saw where the sound was coming from. She figured that while the wooden bucket was large, it would be difficult to hide a person inside. Mustering her courage, she walked over and squinted to get a better look.
"Oh my heavens, what in the world is that?" The large, dark lump inside gave the old lady a fright.
The old lady patted her chest to calm her racing heart. After a moment, she couldn't resist leaning in for another look. She shifted her position slightly, allowing the light from the doorway to stream in and fully illuminate what was in the bucket.
Then, with lightning speed, the old lady slammed the kitchen door shut with a loud BANG, locking herself inside with it.
By the time Yuan Si woke up, the sun was already high in the sky. She had exerted herself last night, after all, and a child's body was still delicate.
"Si'er, you're awake. Hurry up and eat." The old lady was sitting on a stool by the bed braiding cord, so she knew the moment there was any movement.
"Mom, you're back already?" Yuan Si asked groggily.
"Mhm, I'm back. Now hurry and get up to eat."
Since Yuan Si never woke up early, the old lady always brought porridge back for her from the canteen. The meals at the canteen were generally best in the morning, slightly worse at noon, and the thinnest at night. This was because everyone had to go to work after breakfast, and you needed to eat more for a day of labor. In the afternoon, the workload was sometimes lighter, so they ate a little less. At night, with no work to do, a bowl of watery soup was considered enough.
Only then did Yuan Si remember the blackfish she had put in the wooden bucket in the kitchen last night.
"Mom..."
"Si'er, look what this is!"
Before Yuan Si could even finish her question, the old lady presented a bowl of fragrant fish porridge as if she were showing off a treasure.
It was a local custom to cook everything in cornmeal porridge. Noodles were boiled in the porridge, and even dumplings could be cooked along with it. So naturally, fish could be cooked in it too. The porridge was what the old lady had brought back from the canteen that morning. She had added a little more water, cut off a small piece of the large fish, and simmered it all together in a clay pot for a while.
All they had left at home was a little salt, which she sprinkled in. But even with so few seasonings, the rich aroma that wafted out when she lifted the lid of the clay pot made the old lady's mouth water. She couldn't resist and had already taken a few bites herself.
She had been waiting for her little daughter to wake up so she could immediately present her with this wonderful treat.