Chapter 21: Love at First Sight

  Wang Haodong rode his bike, with Zhang Qian in front and behind him to the village entrance. When passing by the small river, he saw someone catching fish with a net and asked Zhang Qian: "Qianqian, hasn't the water here been polluted?"

  Yes.

  Zhang Qian nodded and said, "This river is nearly 50 miles long from east to west. In the early years, I heard my dad say that when it was built, more than 100 villages were mobilized, and more than 5,000 strong men dug for several years before it was completed. There are fish in this river, and it can also irrigate crops, so its function is very important. Therefore, the government has protected it very well, and until now there is no sewage discharge."

  Since there's no polluted water, the fish inside must be clean and can be eaten with peace of mind. Wang Haodong said: "I'll catch the fish, if you want to eat it, I'll come back this afternoon."

  "Really? That's great! Oh, we can have fish for dinner tonight."

  " Carp tofu soup, my favorite." Wang Haodong said to Zhang Qian, speeding up the car, thinking that after Zhang Shufang's illness, eating some fish soup to supplement her would be okay, and I would pay for it, and she would be touched in her heart.

  "Will you make soup?"

  Wang Haodong proudly tossed his head and said, "Of course."

  Zhang Qian turned her face and asked: "I've also done it, but the soup that came out wasn't as white as in restaurants. Haodong brother, do you know what's going on?"

  "This is a secret, I won't say it now. When the time comes, you'll be standing beside me and watching, and you'll suddenly understand."

  "What's the point of being so mysterious?" Zhang Qian smiled and didn't ask again, apparently listening to his words and planning to sneak a peek at night.

  They soon arrived home, and Zhang Shufang was indeed anxious. She had cooked the meal, but there were no dishes at home, no stir-fry. When she saw the two return, she hurriedly asked why they were so late. Before Wang Haodong could speak, Zhang Qian told her about how he helped teach a lesson to a mischievous student and then the other party came with people to take revenge.

  "Sister, you don't know how awesome Hao Dong brother is. He fought nine people alone and those guys all ran away with their tails between their legs, it was hilarious!"

  Zhang Qian was praising Wang Haodong, with a look of admiration in her eyes.

  Zhang Shufang anxiously asked Wang Haodong if he was hurt, and he waved his arm, saying: "Don't worry about this, since I'm confident, there's absolutely nothing to worry about, it's just nine people, no big deal."

  "The people here are a bit rougher around the edges, you need to be careful." Zhang Shufang reminded her for a moment, then started stir-frying the vegetables she had just bought.

  After lunch, Wang Haodong slipped out quietly, carrying a box of needles he had bought for Xiao Yufen and a necklace, and entered her home.

  The gate was unlocked, and Wang Haodong went in directly, finding Xiao Yufen washing vegetables at home.

  "Yufen, haven't eaten yet?"

  "I've eaten, I'll just have some pickled vegetables." Xiao Yufen smiled, "Did you buy the things I wanted?"

  "Dong dong dong dong..."

  Wang Haodong made a rhythmic sound with his mouth, took out the hand that was behind his back and placed it in front of her, saying "Look, what's this?"

  "Wow, so beautiful." Xiao Yufen's eyes were completely captivated by the necklace, and as for the ordinary needle, it was directly ignored.

  "I'll put it on you." Wang Haodong smiled and picked up the necklace, putting it around her white neck, saying in a low voice: "Yufen, this is not something good, wait until later I will buy you a gold necklace or a platinum necklace to wear."

  "Really?" Xiao Yufen looked up at Wang Haodong with a joyful face, women are born to love precious jewelry, she is no exception, just not so crazy about it, maybe wearing the jewelry bought by her lover is also a very happy thing.

  "Of course." Wang Haodong looked at those enticing red lips and directly leaned in for a kiss.

  "Hao Dong, do you like me?"

  Women love to ask this kind of question at this time. When facing this question, men only have one answer, which is to say they like or love without hesitation.

  In Wang Haodong's mind, the scene of his first meeting with her appeared, stunning, and the weak feeling she showed, triggered a strong desire in his heart to protect her. Later, he evilly peeked at her taking a bath, directly having physical desires for her.

  Wang Haodong said to her with love and desire: "Yufen, I like you."

  Xiao Yufen's face lit up with joy upon hearing Wang Haodong's words, and she immediately blushed, "Between us, isn't it, isn't it a bit too fast?"

  The relationship between people is a very strange thing, especially the eye connection is more important. Some people fall in love at first sight and get married on the same day, which is called flash marriage. Some people know each other for decades but are still just acquaintances.

  "Between men and women, it is even more necessary to have a special fate, perhaps a glance, a smile, an action, can be deeply remembered in the mind, making people's hearts beat suddenly."

  "You are the woman who makes my heart skip a beat, so I think it doesn't matter how long we've known each other. Some men and women may know each other for tens of years, dozens of years or even a lifetime, but maybe they never have this feeling."

  In Xiao Yufen's eyes, a thoughtful expression appeared. She had heard this phrase for the first time and thought about it for a moment before nodding her head and saying: "Haodong, what you said makes sense."

  "Yufen, do you like me?"

  Xiao Yufen didn't answer Wang Haodong, but instead asked back: "What do you think?"

  "I think you like me, otherwise you wouldn't be willing to let me get on your bed." Wang Haodong chuckled and saw her face turn even redder, then he lowered his head and kissed her...

  Xiao Yufen's eyes slowly closed.

  "Brother Haodong..."

  Just as the two were in a romantic moment, Wang Haodong heard Zhang Qian's shouting voice. Xiao Yufen suddenly woke up with a start and gently pushed him away, saying: "Zhang Qian next door is calling you."

  "Hey, little girl, you really know how to spoil my mood." Wang Haodong sighed and muttered to Xiao Yufen: "I'll go take a look, you go ahead and busy yourself, Yufen."

  After finishing speaking, Wang Haodong directly went out of the house.

  When they returned home, Zhang Qian asked: "Hao Dong brother, where did you go?"

  "This morning I went out on the street to help Yufen buy some things, and just now I sent her the things."

  "Hey, you said you didn't have anything?" Zhang Qian asked Wang Haodong with a smile.

  Wang Haodong felt it was not good to continue arguing about this issue with Zhang Qian, so he changed the subject, "What about your sister?"

  "He just fell asleep, shall we go fishing?"

  Zhang Qian was successfully diverted by Wang Haodong, who asked: "Don't you have anything to say?"

  "I rested all day today, and I'll talk about it tonight."

  "Alright, you wait for me for a moment, I'll go get the tools."

  Wang Haodong entered the house, took out the flying rod he had carefully crafted and used for more than half a year to catch wild rabbits, sharpened it into an iron rod as thick as his thumb, then found a bamboo pole, fixed the flying rod with iron wire, and made a simple fish fork.

  "Is that all, Brother Haodong?" Zhang Qian asked with great doubt, her expression clearly showing she didn't believe Wang Haodong could catch fish with this thing.

  "Hey, I told you it wouldn't work, let's just see the actual effect."

  Wang Haodong and Zhang Qian left home to catch fish in the small river south of the village. The river runs east-west, about 10 meters wide from north to south, with a depth of four meters when it was first dug out. Later, some silt blocked it, making its actual depth around two meters or so. According to Zhang Qian, every summer many children would run into the river to swim and play happily.

  In May's afternoon, the temperature is quite cool, with a gentle breeze blowing, feeling carefree and relaxed.

  The small river flows down the slope, with clear water that is almost visible to the bottom. If there are fish in the shallow waters, they can be seen clearly.

  The two of them went down the slope to the riverbank, looking for a place that was easy to land on. Wang Haodong took out a simple fish fork, while Zhang Qian had a bucket, which was a tool for holding fish.

  "Hao Dong brother, look! There's a fish here, it's so big!" Zhang Qian exclaimed, her slender white hand pointing to the left front.

  Wang Haodong looked carefully and saw a palm-sized crucian carp by the shore, then smiled and said: "This is just a small fish, where's the big one?"

  Zhang Qian stuck out her tongue and smiled awkwardly.

  "Give it a try," said Wang Haodong, handing the simple fish fork to Zhang Qian.

  "May I?"

  "Give it a try."

  Zhang Qian hummed, "Don't look down on me, when I was young, I was also very mischievous, climbing trees to catch birds and going into the river to catch fish, that was a common occurrence." As she spoke, she took aim at the carp with her fishing spear and suddenly threw it out.

  Hmph.

  The fish spear entered the water, and the crucian carp was frightened away, swimming off with a flick of its tail.

  "He's really running fast!" Wang Haodong said with a smile.

  "It's been a long time since I used a fishing spear, my hands are a bit stiff. Let me try again." Zhang Qian said awkwardly, seeing that the carp hadn't run far away, she went to spear it again, but still missed.

  This time the carp ran far away and was no longer visible.

  Zhang Qian said with a huff: "I won't catch it, Haodong brother, you come and I'll see how great your skills are."

  "Alright, let me show you my skills." Wang Haodong smiled as he took the fishing rod and carefully gazed at the water surface.

  After a while, a carp swam across the water surface. Wang Haodong aimed at the target and threw out the fishing spear with a swoosh. When he pulled it up again, there was already a fish on the spear, still jumping around, but blood was flowing from the wound.

  "Wow, that's amazing!" Zhang Qian stared with her mouth agape, muttering to herself.

  "This is just a small catch." Wang Haodong smiled complacently, took the fish off the fork and threw it into the bucket of water beside her.

  Another fish swam by, and Wang Haodong made his move again, succeeding once more.

  Zhang Qian saw Wang Haodong being so fierce and excitedly clapped her hands, "Ha, awesome, really awesome, Brother Haodong, how did you practice to become like this?"

  "When I was young, I often went fishing with others in the moat of the city, but unfortunately, the water in the moat was polluted later and became a smelly ditch, which is no longer suitable for fish to grow, so there were no more opportunities to catch fish."

  "Brother, I asked about skills, why are you reminiscing about childhood?"

  Haha!

  Wang Haodong smiled dryly and said seriously, "Using a fishing spear is not the same as casting a net. Casting a net doesn't require any skill and can be learned easily. But using a fishing spear requires patience when striking, make sure to look clearly before making a move, and also, your hand mustn't shake, it has to be fast and accurate."

  "It's as if I hadn't said anything, anyway I won't learn anymore. With you by my side, when I want to eat fish, I'll just ask you to catch it."

  Wang Haodong smiled and said: "Ha, then I can't always be by your side."

  The word fell, and another fish about the length of a chopstick swam by. Wang Hao Dong cast out his fishing spear, picked it up, took down the fish, and threw it into the bucket.

  "Then I'll follow you, wherever you go, I'll go too. This way we can have fish to eat."

  "Dizzy, can you follow me for a lifetime?"

  "Of course," said Zhang Qian. After finishing speaking, she immediately smiled and said: "Just kidding, if you want to eat fish in the future, I can also buy fish."

  Wang Haodong took a few steps forward and said, "I knew you'd have to add another sentence at the end, you little scamp."

  "What if I don't fill it up? What will you think?"

  "I'd think to myself, 'You little girl, if you follow me from now on, I'll have one more person to feed, and that would be a real hardship for me.'"

  "Dizzy, so you won't get married in the future? Don't want kids? Won't that mean more people to feed?"

  "Haha, I had this idea too, doesn't necessarily have to be a kid."

  Zhang Qian glanced at Wang Haodong and asked, "By the way, you and Xiao Yufen from next door, nothing's going on between you two, right?"

  Wang Haodong deliberately didn't answer and instead asked: "What do you think?"