The Fish Catcher

By Chen Boqing

My father was a man of words, not of action,so fishing was not exactly his forte.

But that’s exactly what he did for my mother’s sake. After giving birth to her third child, the lack of food and nutrition meant that my mother barely had any breast milk or porridge for the newborn.Yet, she would never allow my father to hunt. Looking at her grand kid dying of starvation and her daughter-in-law too weak to raise her child, my grandmother suggested, “Son, go catch some fish in the river for your wife and child.”

And so, my father, a pedantic bookworm and homebody,decided to make the move.

In the northern part of China,the weather doesn’t heat up in April. My father managed to get a fishing-net somewhere,and he learned how to cast from others, and practiced for a few times in the yard. Wearing my grandfather’s leather trousers and bringing a giant wooden basin, he set off to the river.

Hearing that my father was going to try and catch some fish,quite a few kids in the village followed him to the river. Sitting in the basin, my father paddled to the center of the river and cast the net several times, but after a number of hours his net still came up empty. Without knowing whether he had been dragged by the net hooked on the basin or the basin had tipped over itself, he fell suddenly into the river.

Getting antsy, the kids on the river bank jumped into the river and dragged the dripping wet klutz to the bank. Then my elevenyear-old cousin jumped into the river and caught three fish for my father with his bare hands.

Grasping the fish by the tail,my father retreated home with his tail between his legs. Seeing him standing there in the yard sopping and sullen, and how he had become the butt of the neighbors’ jokes, my grandma,who had always been proud of him, couldn’t help but lambaste him while pointing a crooked reproachful finger in his face.

My mother was afraid that my father would catch a cold, so she asked him to change clothes immediately. Due to all that had happened, the third child was later nicknamed “Little Fish.”At that time, girls in China were often named “Serenity” or “Pearl,”but only she was called “Little Fish.” Later, when her classmates asked her about her name, she said, “My dad saved my life with three fish, so they named me‘Little Fish.’”

The story of my father catching fish for his wife and child out of love was passed on by the villagers and became a local legend.

(From Ladies’ Journal, March 2018. Translation: Yu Lan)

父親下河捕魚的故事

文/陳柏清

父親是一介書生，下水捕魚這事兒非他所長。

說起父親那次捕魚，還是為了母親。母親生了我三姐之后，沒有營養品，稀飯都吃不足，奶水自然少得可憐。上山打獵，母親也不會同意。看著餓得奄奄一息的孩子和面黃肌瘦的母親，奶奶跟父親說：“三兒，要不下河給你媳婦捕幾條魚吧。”

書生氣十足的父親決定下河捕魚。

四月天氣，北方還沒熱起來，父親不知從哪里借了網，又跟人家學了撒網的技巧，在院子里練了幾回，便現學現賣。穿了爺爺留下的皮褲，提著大木盆去了。

聽說爸爸去捕魚，村里好幾個小孩跟在他屁股后頭看新鮮。木盆好容易劃到河中間，勉強撒了幾網，網網落空，一條魚影也不見。不知是漁網掛到了木盆，還是木盆自己傾翻，反正魚沒捕到，父親卻翻到了水中。

岸上小孩著急，下河的下河，跳水的跳水，總算把在河里狼狽不堪的父親拉上岸。其中有一個是我本家的堂哥，當年只有十一二歲，他自告奮勇下了河，沒一會兒，就幫父親撈上來三條魚。

父親提魚回家。看著他站在院子里丟盔卸甲的模樣，再看看院子里竊竊私語、掩嘴偷笑的眾人，一向以他為傲的奶奶也禁不住用手指點著他，一聲“你呀”，再說不出啥。

母親怕父親著涼，在炕上喊父親趕緊進屋換衣服。后來，我三姐的小名就叫小魚兒。那時女孩子都叫靜啊、珍啊的，獨獨她叫小魚兒。長大了，同學問起，她說，我的命是我爸爸用三條魚換來的，所以叫小魚兒。

父親因愛生勇、下水捕魚的事感動了大家，這段佳話至今仍在街頭巷尾流傳。