The huangyu of Qinghai Lake only grows one jin in ten years.
Grandma spent her whole life in the huangshui Valley by the Qinghai Lake. She often said, “Your generation has a good life. You have enjoyed everything good, but you are too poor to have a delicious bite of huangshui fish!”
The lofty and boundless mountains at the north and south ends of hehuang Valley stretch from east to west until the boundless Qinghai Lake; The huangshui, which winds at the bottom, has irrigated and nourished this plateau for thousands of years from its origin in the remote mountains covered with perpetual snow. It flows through countless towns, villages, settlements and the scattered houses made of stone by herdsmen in the wilderness. The soil in the valley is fertile, and year after year people grow barley and wheat in the fields around the houses. The tall willows that surrounded the houses were cut down to make wood for the wedding house when the boys had grown up.
The snow on the shady side of the mountain did not begin to melt until spring, when the frozen waters of the Huangshui river broke through the ice, the clear waves rolled again, the green water sprouting on the banks, and the herdsmen, who were tripping around the Qinghai Lake, were about to embark on another season’s hard journey.
At such times of year, grandma would sit in the warm sunshine of the plateau spring and turn her broad eyes toward The Qinghai Lake. “Even at this time of year, the scaly fish hanging at the south wall of the huanghai Lake would not go bad,” she said.
In the chatter of the grandmother, always appear together with the huangyu, and the village young Bao Luo.
1
Baoluo first went fishing in Qinghai Lake, where my grandfather took him. For my grandfather’s generation, every year when the north wind blows and the lake becomes frozen, we should go to qinghai Lake to catch huangshi fish, just as they harvest a season’s food from the field in autumn, which is natural and temperate.
The huangshui fish is a specialty of Qinghai Lake, and in the eyes of the herdsmen who believe in gods around the lake, they cannot overfish. If they catch more than one fish, the herdsmen will not allow the villagers who are fishing to pass through their pasture — and to get to Qinghai Lake, they have to go through those stretches of grassland.
It is a tradition that people in Shuimang village go fishing in Qinghai Lake. Mother was still a child and every winter, my grandfather would go fishing in Qinghai Lake. Some of his countrymen drove a carriage to the lake, and returned laden with a carpool. Send a few to the neighbors, invite some close friends, come over for dinner. The rest of the fish, gutted, hung in the house facing south of the wall, not to let the sun, can eat until the end of the year.
Bao Luo’s mother is in poor health and has been taking care of herself at home. His family life was originally very poor, stepfather was stingy, there was no adequate nutrition, mother’s health never improved. Po Luo with grandpa to go fishing, is to make huangshui soup for mother, health.
On the morning of departure, Bao Luo wore a thin broken cottonpadded jacket. His face turned blue and his body trembled with cold. His grandfather gave Bao Luo a sheepskin jacket and said, “If you wear such a thin jacket, I’m afraid you can’t reach Qinghai Lake.
The River valley east of The Sun Moon Mountain, under the shelter of high mountains, is not too cold. From the Sun and the Moon mountain to the side of Qinghai Lake, all are low rolling grassland, without the barrier, the cold wind raging recklessly, the temperature drops sharply. From Shuichang village to Qinghai Lake, driving a carriage, about two days to walk, according to the speed of previous years, the first day near the Black Horse River, it was dark, grandpa and a few people in the same company, will sit together, set up a campfire, took out the barley liquor brewed at home. Bao Luo at home, stepfather strict, rarely touch the wine, go out, no constraints, he let go to drink.
“Baby drink less! The body is not cold, drunk careful frozen into an ice knot.” The adult of the companion told bao Luo, he smiled shyly, but his mouth did not stop.
After a long day’s journey, everyone was tired and fell into a deep sleep. My grandfather and Boro slept in a coach. Bao Luo first drunk, but the spirit up, for a long time did not fall asleep, only feel limp and weak. In the drowsiness, he vaguely heard some movement in the grass around, rubbing his eyes, looking for a sound, he saw a big Wolf dog lying in the grass not far away.
“Where did the big Wolf dog come from in the wilderness?” Many years later, Bao Luo talked about the night of the thriller encounter, is still haunted. Knowing the situation, Po Lo felt a shiver running down his spine: it was clearly a coyote!
Moonlight splashed on the open grassland, Po Lo watched the Wolf with fearful eyes, the Wolf crept, hiding behind the carriage, Po Lo side around. Polo was thinking whether to call someone, when the carriage suddenly leaned back: the Wolf’s front PAWS were on the back of it. Po luo heart racing, strength is gone, eyes closed, or did not cry out: he is not exposed, perhaps the Wolf will not attack their first. The man, who never believed in god, even began to pray to God in his heart to save his life.
In the extreme tension waiting for a long time, Po Luo forbear the fear, his head out of the sheepskin coat, glanced ahead: the Wolf is gone! However, just a few breaths, suddenly heard a terrible cry from the carriage behind, everyone was awakened.
Bao Luo strong support the soft body, turned to see the Wolf bite a person’s thigh, dragging into the grass. The others ran after him and struck him on the head with sticks. The Wolf, however, showed no fear. He did not let go, and growled threateningly. A bold man, took out a long knife, chased the past, to the Wolf’s belly mercilessly stabbed a knife, immediately piercing howl to the ears of Bao Luo. The Wolf let go, and the attacked man lay on the ground, groaning with his mangled legs.
Two of the injured were taken to a nearby hospital. The others gathered round again, made the fire bigger, and sat waiting for daylight. The next day, on the way to Qinghai Lake, Po Luo told his grandfather about the sight of a hungry Wolf. After listening to him, my grandfather gasped and said, “Po Luo! Your destiny is great!”
Grandpa said that the Wolf loathed the smell of alcohol on people’s bodies, Po luo did not listen to advice and got drunk, but saved his life. After that, Bao Luo went to Qinghai Lake fishing, again dare not drink drunk, a long sharp knife from the body.
Some one who knew the master of the meadow said hello, and several carriages rolled out onto the ice. Qinghai Lake in winter, more than three feet thick, people and carriages walking on it, smooth and safe.
When my grandfather was still alive, I asked him the secret. He just shook his head and said, “It’s a skill that comes from experience.
Pick a spot, use a chisel and a sledgehammer to begin digging. Only experienced people can use a sledgehammer to prevent the ice from cracking as a whole. After drilling an ice cave to the size of a man’s waist and waiting for a bag of smoke, a large number of huangshui fish will swim to the ice cave, huddled together, and keep writhing and jumping. At this point, brandishing the barbed wire of the fishing ladle, into the crowded shoal, which is a large group of fresh huangshui.
Grandfather they use a big net spoon, the mesh size should be just right, only the net big fish, let small fish. The owners of the meadows, who believe in Buddhism, will check the spoons of the fishermen. If the net is too small, they will not be happy. If they net the small fish, they will kill too many lives. If fishermen don’t enlarge their nets, the devout herdsmen ban them.
Out of the water a scalpel comes alive, but soon becomes frozen stiff. Pooro fills a carriage with these “clumps of ice”. Back in the village, my grandfather divided half a car of huangyu among his companions. Po took so many fish home, even the stepfather was overjoyed, straight praised his ability. Tired for several days bao Luo, also regardless of the fish, fell asleep.
The next morning, bao Luo home yard, but a fierce quarrel occurred. While Po Lo slept, his lame stepfather took matters into his own hands, packing up the carnauts into portions and giving them to his relatives, leaving only a few shrivelled fish for his mother, who needed to replenish her health. Po Lo woke up and found that with his stepfather red eyes. The stepfather did not show his weakness, but scolded his son, “You white-eyed Wolf, I fed you with food, now you eat a few fish baby, you still red eyes ask me!”
My grandfather later became ill and could not bear the bitter cold of the long journey. Every year when it came to the fishing season, Baoluo would drive his carriage to Qinghai Lake. In those hard days when there was no meat for several months, only Baoluo could relieve our family’s hunger for meat. Grandmother cooks huangyu, And Baoluo also stays to drink qingke liquor with grandpa all night.
2
As a farmer who has been working on the plateau for a long time, Bao Luo has a big body, waxy skin, a thick beard and two sunken eyes. Living in the wild all year long, he has developed a pair of owls’ eyes, full of alertness and dark breath. He has the typical personality of a man in the northwest plateau, speaking and doing things, uninhibited, and taking risks like a lone Wolf.
One year, grandma’s family killed a pig, I quietly hide behind the crowd, peeking at the bloody scene. Treasure, see I fear, also in blood kill pig knife in hand, a hand grabbed my arm and waved kill pig knife made a cut in my nakedness posture, also on me that little organs with some pig blood, then pretend to pocket things, laugh and announced to the crowd: “baby chickens wretched cut off, and before I pretend store in the store (dialect, the meaning of the pocket), home to the halogen on eat!”
I immediately burst into tears. I ran to my grandmother’s thighs and cried. My grandmother laughed so hard that everyone in the yard burst into laughter. Later, Bao Luo sat on our kang, big to drink meat, but also picked up a chunk of fat to give me: “eat it, put the pocket of chicken for you.”
I swallowed the fat for the sake of my chick.
Bao Luo his family altogether three brothers and sisters, brother Bao Chuan, sister Bao Qin. His biological father died of stomach cancer when he was three years old. His stepfather was a live-in son-in-law and his right leg was disabled. The stepfather came to the door and said he had no children, but before long, he brought back a son. Stepfather took a dominant position in the home, the preference of his own son, young Bao Luo was not little beaten.
family is difficult, bao Luo two brothers young shoulders on the shoulders of the heavy burden, when the rolling field, only bao Luo home without cattle. In the harsh ultraviolet light of the plateau, the lean, dark Boro pulled a hundred pounds of stone wheels like a mule. “Borlaug is very (poor).” My grandfather often said, especially take care of Po Luo.
Bao Chuan because of the parents of physical drag, poor family, has not said on the media. the old man let bao Chuan separated, but the faithful Bao Chuan did not agree: one is not put down the weak mother; Second, he is waiting for a girl, two two of a kind, but the other side’s parents have not agreed to let the daughter marry into the poor and struggling family.
Bao Luo see brother’s mind, they secretly find the girl, brother heart pain, add vinegar to pour out. The girl listened to be touched, directly with bao Luo back home. The next day woke up, people found that the family has lived in a daughter-in-law.
Young Bao Luo by recklessly will brother’s marriage cooked mature rice, sister-in-law’s family also helpless, see bao Chuan diligent steadfast, also no longer opposed.
But the incident became a problem for Bao Luo a year later. Originally, Bao Luo’s sister-in-law has been betrothed to a man called Sun Xing, one day, Bao Luo home and Sun Xing home quarrel, Sun Xing play, played the treasure and stepfather. Bao Luo also scuffle with Sun Xing, he raised the hammer in the yard, hit the other face is blood.
that night, the treasure to go out to ask about sun Xing injury, bao Luo is hiding in uncle’s house. bao Chuan mournfully back to the news: Sun Xing has not, his several uncles, Cousins are Shouting to let bao Luo pay for life. Po Luo uncle without any hesitation, immediately took his nephew into the mountains to dig for caterpillar fungus, “no matter the news is true or false, hide for a while and then.”
3
Bao Luo followed uncle, a line of more than ten people into the mountain, a man with a bag of dry steamed buns.
Digging for cordyceps is hard work, and the mountains are inaccessible. Wild animals and bandits can come and go at any time. night camping, need to keep a vigil, Po heavy sleep, the first time into the mountain, the sense of crisis is not strong, even in the wake to play a nap. Be the person that take the lead to see, that person blunt past to treasure luo fist kick, the mouth straight scold: “thief baby, so many people’s life let you guard, you still sleep sweet, tomorrow you roll egg ball son!”
Uncle also ao but leader, the second day, had to entrust bao Luo to the old herdsman Zhaxi, “and so on home there is too peaceful, then take bao Luo back.”
home can not go back, Bao Luo had to temporarily zaxi cattle and sheep. Zhaxi has three daughters, the eldest daughter and two daughters have married, the youngest daughter central lived not married, he see bao Luo and diligent and smart, like the strong young man, want to recruit Bao Luo as a live-in son-in-law. For the central living, Bao Luo did not feel moved, more do not want to stay here for a lifetime to graze cattle and sheep, he was waiting for uncle to come back to pick him up, has been shirking, “My parents are not, I am not ha Lord.
Four seasons replace, pasture withered and glorious, when Bao Luo again in the accounting room to see uncle, has passed two years. Uncle brought the latest news of Sun Xing: their uncle and nephew two people fled, the sun family has been said, Sun Xing to Xining treatment, has not been well, they will not let bao Luo. Until two years later, unscathed sun Xing back to the village, the Bao Luo home just know, sun has been lying, Sun Xing injury had been good, he has been doing business in Xining.
the next day, bao Luo bid farewell to Zaisi, with uncle back home.
After two years as a herdsman’s Baoluo, it is difficult to adapt to the heavy and orderly farming life.
Not long after returning home, Bao Luo found a new way to make a living: into the mountains to dig for gold. The village said that many people have dug gold, but few people have the luck of Bao Luo, half a year back, more than twenty years old Bao Luo, built three pine houses.
Later Po luo in grandpa’s home, drunk with grandpa said the truth: “Lucky ball! I met a black boss who didn’t give us any of the gold we dug up!” while the boss and guards drunk, Bao Luo and two companions escaped from the mine, after that, Bao Luo has never dug gold, he dug cordyceps in the summer, winter to Qinghai Lake to catch huanghuang. “Digging for cordyceps is a careful work, suitable for women to do, But I prefer to fish for huangshui.”
Baoluo, who was young and vigorous, took huangshui out of fishing as his elders did, and together with some young men from the village, he piled into the yard more than a dozen carriages full of huangshui, the largest of which had half a man and the smallest half an arm long. Their hosts sent two to families on the west, and families with plenty of fish to the east. Every night they would cook a large pot and invite their neighbors in front and backyard to taste it. In those days when food was scarce, eating huanghuang fish was a rare tonic.
He can dig for gold and cordyceps, he can fish for carloads and he can build new pine-wood houses. People say, “He is so big that he has turned a poor family into a rich one.” Door-to-door marriage more and more people, fast to 30 years old, bao Luo chose a neighbor village know the girl. He often runs outside, is forthright, has many friends, holds the wedding ceremony, very lively.
But not long after marriage, Po Luo beat his daughter-in-law. He came to my grandpa to drink, but also complained to himself: “tube ball son wide, even I go out to go to a toilet all want to ask, I go out front foot, her buttock behind follow, I go back to smoke to give a meal!”
Later bao Luo daughter-in-law also came, to my grandmother poured out grievances, said, is bao Luo mother directed his tube Bao Luo, also said the heart of Bao Luo run wild, now no matter live, the future can not say a word.
4
After marriage, Bao Luo went to Xining in the restaurant when the cook’s cousin as an apprentice, wash vegetables, wash dishes, cut meat, a month to get no less than a little salary, his daughter was born.
Bao Luo found xining hotel guests like a point of huangyu, especially outside the guests to this highland specialty is full of praise, “put outside the already eat extinct!
In the 1990s, huangshui gradually become xining major restaurants of high prices of specialty dishes, Baoluo saw the business opportunities of huangyu, he is as decisive as when helping his brother to get a daughter-in-law, before the coming of winter, gave up the apprenticeship, returned to the countryside, find a few familiar people to board, from Qinghai Lake more huangyu than in previous years.
Po Luo is dragging a carload of huangyu from my grandfather’s home, by the way to pass two big, grandpa asked Po Luo, pull so many huangyu do? “Po Luo answered loudly:” The huangyu in the poor village is worthless, but when they sell it to the city, they make money.
Those fresh huangyu were sold to the major hotels in Xining, Baoluo came back boasting that, “The money earned in the last six months is worth ten years’ money earned in the countryside!” He built larger houses, took his mother to his side, and provided her with more than she could eat.
Later, Bao Luo has rarely stayed in the village, when he returned to the village, he would shout loudly, holding up his mobile phone, and sway to and fro in the street, talking and laughing at the door of the house, with a grandiose voice. Grandpa asked Po Lo, who already had a big belly, “What do you have?” Po luo but with a smile secretly told grandpa: “This is a friend of, borrowed support face, there is no signal in the village, I did not get through to the phone!”
Baoluo co-founded a company which not only supplied huangyu for hotels in Xining but also sold into Lanzhou and Xi ‘an. “Xining is so backward that business is not big!” he said.
In the eyes of the people of Shuimudang, Baoluo has broken too many rules — he fishes not with a spoon but with a net ten meters long, and during the spring and summer, when the scalpel fish will run for their seeds, baoluo, who is red-eyed, will not hesitate to cross the last taboo of “catching but in winter.” The herdsmen would not allow fishermen to pass through their grasslands in the summer, but Bao Luo used money to build up government relations and establish a stable protection umbrella. “Those herdsmen can’t get their hands on it!”
Treasure los cheerfully to the villagers described his situation: to go fishing in spring and summer migratory put the fish in the clear lake in qinghai, to gather into a heap, as wall series of fish, as long as a net, tons of pool fish that is easily into the net, “don’t say is to the depths of lake fishing, even in lake edge on the kick, can also play two fish come up! In those days, there were huang fish taken out of the river by cars and pulled out by more than you can think of!”
Bao Luo rich, money for the village to build roads, build primary school classrooms, play she fire, and to the village to donate three fat pigs. The villagers all say that Baoluo has a mind, ability, and wealth, but also do not forget the neighbors, unlike those near the Qinghai Lake conflict with Baoluo herdsmen, they hope baoluo “good wealth, life peace”.
5
Before qinghai Lake was closed to fishing, Baoluo continued his fishing spree.
A fishing on the way to the lake, just met the local herdsmen in the release, a few herdsmen walked over to bao Luo, want them to leave immediately. The herdsmen have long been resentful, and their attitude towards Baoluo is very insolent. Bao Luo do not want to go, the fish did not catch, face also can not pass, with the herdsmen deadlock up.
Two people more quarrel more fierce, each other a young spirit filled boy hit bao Luo a fist, bao Luo immediately fire, a fist will knock down the young man on the ground, Bao Luo men more, around the young man punched and kicked.
The young man’s grandmother was so frightened that she knelt on the ground and kowtowed to them, begging them to spare her grandson, only to be kicked away. The young man saw grandma was kicked down, pulled out a long knife from the backpack, get up to try his best, cut bao Luo several knives. They were trying to get the knife when the young man accidentally cut his thigh artery and bled to death on the spot. The old man held his bleeding grandson in his arms and cried aloud, while Po Lo stood by, terrified at the sight of the misery.
According to the situation told by bao Luo, the police investigation up, because is the other side provocation prior, death is not bao Luo initiative. According to legend, Po Lo also did a lot of raking.
However, the matter did not end there. The young man who died had a sick mother, and the day he was released, it was the young man’s blessing for his mother. When the young man’s mother learned of her son’s death, she got worse and died soon after. The young man’s father was a devout Buddhist who was well known in the area and often spent long stings around Qinghai Lake, where fishermen would buy the fish with their small savings and release them. After the death of his wife and children, many of the herdsmen by the lake sent word to Bao Luo to get out of his pasture.
This matter, gave Po luo a lot of psychological pressure, the physical condition is also getting worse and worse, so he also invited the Lama, for their blessing. lama let Bao Luo do not kill again, his wife also followed the advice not to fish, but bao Luo instead scold his wife do not know firewood and rice expensive.
Bao Luo once said, he tried so hard to make money, is for his own girl do not like his childhood so poor. My grandfather said that Baoluo had turned his back on the river all his life, and he wanted to fish because the money he had earned was not enough to guarantee his daughter’s safety for a lifetime.
Not long after the lama left, Baoluo’s five-year-old daughter fell into a pond and drowned.
little girl’s body salvage, the whole village went to see, Bao Luo ran stumbled, first holding the body of his daughter cried: “The wench’s birthday is coming, she said let me take her to Lanzhou wave, can’t go! And crazy to his wife punched and kicked, let her return to her daughter, the wife also did not resist, also do not dodge, let bao Luo beat and scold. Paoluo beat, stopped, knelt on the ground and cried, “Good Heavens! This is all I build nie, you zha let my wench return?”
Bao Luo for a row at home to sleep for half a month, the whole person has fallen into decay, chanting: “Often listen to the Lama said, life is in vain in the end, this is the truth! Grandpa came to see Po Luo, I was surprised to hear this — this wild yak as strong as the spirit, never said such a desponding words before.
6
“I have caught huangshui fish all my life, and when I die I feed huangshui fish.” Not long before fishing was banned in Qinghai Lake, Drunken Bao Luo was always saying such things.
In the hotels of the city, the demand for huangshui fish did not stop, and more and more people joined the ranks of “fishing for gold” in Qinghai Lake, the lakeside herdsmen could not stop so many people, “Every day in the dark are black fishermen, than there are huangshui fish in the lake!”
The scalafish, which have grown up in the deep brine of Qinghai Lake after decades, are being wiped out. Within a short time, the number of huangshui fish in Qinghai Lake has decreased sharply. Finally, the government stepped in, enforcing a stricter ban on fishing and organizing regular patrols of the lake.
The business of bao Luo suffers heavy blow, the nonlocal boss that partners with him, do not see development foreground, also returned home.
With nothing to do, Po Lo began to learn Buddhism, which he had rejected, and often went to nearby monasteries to make offerings and give alms and listen to the monks. He began to be enthusiastic about releasing animals. Whenever he heard of any activity, he would definitely go there, especially for fish.
He stopped fishing and declared that he would never eat fish again. Without business worries and social dinners, Po lo looked much better. He did not show off and his voice dropped. Someone in the village occasionally satirizes him, Bao Luo is also a laugh, even grandpa said, “Now Bao Luo like a man of practice.”
At the beginning of spring, the boss of the field of partnership with bao Luo came to Xi Ning again. His wife is not willing to see Bao Luo, bao Luo only said, that year to earn family business, or thanks to the support of others.
Bao Luo and the boss in Xining meet, two people talk about the side of the Qinghai Lake a herdsman, think of two people when the business started, the man helped a lot. Two people on a whim, decided to see the herdsmen that night, so, drove to the qinghai lake.
The herdsman was so pleased that he took out some barley liquor for entertainment. When the liquor was drunk, the local boss recalled the delicious taste of huangyu and regretted that he could not eat huangyu any more.
Bao Luo heard this, reckless habit came back, then lie to go to the toilet, out of the tent, secretly picked up the herdsman’s sledgehammer and fishing net spoon, deliberately ran away from the tent more far, ready to chisel ice fishing.
The lake was still frozen, but it was not as thick as it had been in the winter, when no one would go fishing by digging holes in the ice. Neither would Bao Luo before, but he went straight to the bottom of Qinghai Lake, and on the dark, icy surface, Bao Luo swung the sledgehammer again. The ice cracked open and Poole’s body fell into the icy water.
That night, his friends did not find him.
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