Interesting stories about catching old turtles | Liu Jiafan In the early years, there were dozens of fish, turtles, shrimps and crabs in the Qinshui River east of our village and the surrounding canals and bays. Among them, the old turtle is the most cunning, and it is extremely

Funny things about catching old turtles

Text | Liu Jiafan

In the early years, there were dozens of fish, turtles, shrimps and crabs in the Qinshui River east of our village and the surrounding canals and bays. Among them, the old turtle is the most cunning, and it is extremely difficult to catch it. When someone is very sensible, he will say that he is "more than the turtle". The soup stewed with old turtles is very delicious. In those years of poor material conditions, we have put in a lot of effort to catch an old turtle to satisfy our cravings, and thus left many interesting stories.

The old turtle has no teeth, but its upper and lower jaws are extremely hard and have a strong bite force. Not only that, it also has the nature of "not letting go without thunder", which makes people dare not attack it easily. If you want to catch it, you must quickly turn it upside down and pinch its "intact (dialect sound, root of the two hind legs)" with your thumb and index finger, so that it will be willing to submit. On weekdays, when someone’s handle on doing bad things is controlled by others, it will be said to be “snatched and embedded”.

One summer, a young man in the village caught an old turtle about two kilograms. He tied the old turtle's hind legs with a rope, and held it on the street like walking a dog, attracting a large group of people to watch the fun. His cousin Yusheng thought it was quite fun, so he went up to tease him with his hands. He first curled up his fingers and bounced on the old turtle's shell. After bounced for a while, he felt unsatisfied, so he bounced on the old turtle's head that was hunched in the shell. After three or five strokes, it probably hurt the old turtle. The old turtle suddenly stretched out its neck and bit it on his finger. This was awesome. He shook it hard but couldn't shake it off. The blood immediately flowed down his fingers, making him scream. When Yushu saw it, he found a copper pot and kept hitting the old turtle's head with the cigarette pot. But no matter how you beat me, the old turtle closed his eyes and didn't let go.

This time, the fun of watching the fun was so exciting that he shouted: "Wait, the old turtle bites people - don't let go without thunder." My cousin nicknamed "naughty", also came up with a bad idea to tease him: "I'm bitten by the old turtle. If you want it to let go, unless you can learn to scream loudly." It was so painful that Yu Sheng believed it, but he actually raised his voice and screamed like a donkey. But these tricks were useless at all. The old turtle always closed his eyes and refused to let go, and forced his heart to burst into tears.

As the saying goes, "Ginger is still the spicy thing in old age." After hearing this, my grandfather rushed over and immediately used fire sickle to ignite the fire twists and burn the old turtle's tail, which made the old turtle let go of his mouth. The ears are false and the eyes are true. Just like that, "The old turtle bites people - you won't let go without thunder", which is a confirmation in our village.

In the 1980s, an article was published in " Digest News " saying that someone was drunk and fell to the pond on the way home. He vomited a lot, and then fell asleep deeply. When he woke up, he was shocked. Dozens of old turtles were drunk after eating his vomit, and lay motionless on the edge of the pond. He hurriedly put it together and took it home, and sold it to a hotel, so he made a small fortune. This was originally a rumor, but a guy in our village took this matter seriously and almost lost his life.

Once, he went to his sister's house in a neighboring village to have a wedding banquet for his nephew's wedding. Because he is his uncle and is sitting in a seat for a guest, he is only dedicated to making him eat and drink. He had a small amount of alcohol, and he was unable to refuse his affection, so he unknowingly drank too much. When he returned home, he refused to arrange for someone to see him off from his sister's house, and staggered back with his bicycle. Not far from the village, the alcohol was rising, and I wanted to find a place on the side of the road for a while. When he saw that the Great Bay in the north of the village was not far ahead, he suddenly remembered the rumors of the drunk turtle, and also dreamed of getting rich. He insisted on coming to the Great Bay, and suddenly fell to the shore and vomited heavily. I also drank too much, and after vomiting, I fell asleep in a daze. Because I felt really uncomfortable, I kept turning over and rolling over, and finally rolling into the big bay. Fortunately, the water on the shore of the Great Bay was not deep, and his head was just exposed on the water, so he did not lose his life.

I don’t know how long it took, but the villagers went to work and walked here. They saw a bicycle thrown in the middle of the road from afar, so they hurried over to see what was going on. When I got closer, I heard something was happening in the water. When I looked up, I found that there was a person lying in the water, with only his head exposed on the water surface, so I hurriedly dragged him to the shore. When he saw many neighbors surrounding him with drunken eyes, he shouted in a hurry: "Hurry, see if any old turtles are drunk!"

His "magic operation" was really " dung gang fell into the cesspool - it smelled so bad." If you fail to catch the turtle, you will become an "old turtle" first, and it will spread in the village all at once, and it will become a classic that "famous in the countryside". Later, this story also appeared on " Story Meeting ".

Speaking of old turtles, there is another common saying related to them in our hometown - "Making money is like a donkey climbing a tree, and spending money is like a turtle brushing the bay." This sentence originates from the living habits of old turtles. Whenever the weather is the hottest at noon in summer, the old turtle will quickly turn around and have fun along the water surface of the Great Bay. We usually call this "old turtle swims the Bay". It also indicates that the weather is not far from heavy rain.