Chapter 165

They're all products of the Interstellar Mall, so it's not surprising that there's little difference between female and male shrimp.

After deciding to breed in the pond, the two went directly to town to buy net cages.

The owner of the net cage shop was surprised that they wanted so many net cages at once. "I don't have that many in my shop. Including the ones in the shop and warehouse, I only have about ninety. The main problem is that net cages age quickly, and if they sit for too long, they won't work properly."

Qing Mengzhu didn't mind. "Then sell me all the net cages you have in the store first, and remember to give me a discount. You guys will help with the installation, right?"

The shop owner readily agreed, "Sure, sure, sure! I'll give you a 12% discount. I'll come with my brother-in-law to help with the installation later, okay?"

Qing Mengzhu: "Alright! Let's take stock then."

Soon, all ninety-seven net cages were counted.

Although the boss didn't have that many two-square-meter cages, he did have one-square-meter cages, so Qing Mengzhu ordered sixty one-square-meter cages to make do.

The shop owner was all smiles. After collecting the money, he closed the shop and took his whole family to help install the net cages.

In addition to raising shrimp, lotus leaves are also planted in the pond.

Now the pond is covered with lotus leaves, so when we put the net cages in the pond, we have to squeeze them together with the lotus leaves.

Fortunately, lotuses are plants and have a certain degree of resilience. Even if they are squeezed to one side, they will recover after a while.

Chen Yi also said, "The lotus leaves are a good thing; they can provide some cover for the shrimp eggs and prevent predators from coming down and taking them."

If their practice of breeding birds in net cages in ponds were to proceed without any cover, it would truly be providing a buffet for wild birds in the sky.

Some water birds, in particular, fly down and peck at the female shrimp in the net cages, leaving the female shrimp nowhere to escape.

Qing Mengzhu shared the same idea. "It will also provide some shade from the sun. The sun is too strong this time of year, and the water is too clear. I'm afraid the sun will kill the shrimp."

The water in Qing Mengzhu's pond has always been much clearer than that of ordinary ponds. Generally, the required water clarity for hatching shrimp is around 40, but the water in their pond is far clearer than that standard.

To say that their pond water is particularly poor and lacks organic matter would be an exaggeration.

Their pond has geese, and they regularly fertilize it, so there's enough organic matter. However, because they added Spirit Pearl Dregs, the water environment is exceptionally good, resulting in exceptionally high clarity.

Qing Mengzhu and Chen Yi, along with several people from the net cage shop owner's family, spent the entire afternoon installing net cages in the pond, finishing only when it got dark.

Chen Yi also said that they would bring over the aerator in a couple of days, otherwise the shrimp eggs would easily suffer from oxygen deficiency after hatching.

After inspecting the net cages, Chen Yi said to Qing Mengzhu, "We can start harvesting the berried female shrimp tomorrow. It's best to harvest them all at once. See if you can hire a few more people to come over. Be careful and don't injure the female shrimp."

Qing Mengzhu agreed, "No problem, I'll make the arrangements."

Qing Mengzhu and his team own a company, so they don't need to look for people outside; they can just pull out the most meticulous people from within the company.

The next day, when Chen Yi arrived, Qing Mengzhu was already waiting with her men.

Chen Yi had no objection to the people Qing Mengzhu had arranged. After a brief training session, he prepared to lead everyone to catch the berried female shrimp.

Chen Yi into the pond and caught some berried female shrimp to demonstrate. "You need female shrimp like this. Be careful when catching them, as berried female shrimp are particularly fragile, and the eggs are very easy to fall out."

Qing Mengzhu and the others looked at it carefully and said they understood.

Chen Yi then instructed everyone to spread out in the pond and catch the female shrimp.

The caught female shrimp do not need to be transferred to another container; just put them directly into the nearest net cage. Put fifty shrimp in a large net cage and twenty-five shrimp in a small net cage. We'll deal with any remaining shrimp later.

The water in the pond is quite deep now, so it's not easy for them to move around in it.

The prawns are very agile; even the females carrying eggs swim incredibly fast, making them quite difficult to catch with small nets.

Fortunately, the pond water was clear enough; otherwise, even after a whole day of work, we probably wouldn't have been able to scoop up much.

When they were catching shrimp here, many villagers came to watch.

Many people were quite surprised to see net after net catching so many lively and energetic shrimp.

The pond is usually covered with lotus leaves, and there are geese guarding the area, so many people have no idea that his shrimp have grown so big.

Seeing the nets full of translucent female shrimp laden with roe, many people's mouths were practically watering.

"These shrimp are huge! If they were sold during the Lunar New Year, they would cost at least 120 or 130 yuan per jin (500 grams)."

"I estimate they could sell for 120 or 130 yuan per jin now. I just happened to look at some when I went to the market to buy vegetables the day before yesterday, and the live shrimp there weren't even as big as the ones at his stall, yet they were selling for 110 yuan."

"What kind of shrimp is this? It seems different from the green shrimp in the market?"

"It's shrimp, right? Mengzhu mentioned last year that they raise shrimp in their pond."

Some young people watched as shrimp were being caught and found it quite fun, standing on the shore and calling out, "Brother Mengzhu, do you need any help? We can help catch them too."

Qing Mengzhu wiped the sweat from her forehead and politely declined, saying, "I'll let it go this time. I'll ask you for help next time."

He was worried that some young people might be clumsy and hurt his family's precious berried female shrimp.

Someone else asked, "Brother Mengzhu, where are you going to raise all these bred shrimp? Are you going to raise them in the newly rented big pond?"

Qing Mengzhu: "Let's raise them in our rice paddies."

Qing Mengzhu had already planned it out: these shrimp would be raised in the rice paddies.

They used Soil Fertility Restoration Agent in their rice paddies, and the soil there is in very good condition.

The shrimp breeding season is late this year. It will be about a month before this batch of shrimp is fully bred. By then, the Rice should be quite large and won't be damaged by the shrimp.

This is also why the breeding started so late this year—he had to accommodate the conditions in the rice paddies and wait until the Rice seedlings grew a bit larger before releasing the shrimp, so as to avoid the rice seedlings becoming food for the shrimp.

Chapter 165

Chen Yi's aquaculture techniques are excellent, and his guidance to Qing Mengzhu's family on shrimp breeding went very smoothly.

After they scooped the egg-bearing prawns into net cages, the prawns began to lay eggs one after another within a few days.

That afternoon, Qing Mengzhu, wearing waterproof pants, stood in the pond and scooped up the female shrimp that had already laid eggs from the net cages, placing them into a bucket floating on the water.

The otter stood beside him, its round head poking out, its big, round eyes fixed on the shrimp, filled with longing.

Seeing this, Qing Mengzhu simply tossed the shrimp in her hand to the otter.

Otters are very agile in the water; one leaps up and catches a shrimp in its mouth, then uses its front paws to grab and gnaw on it.

Qing Mengzhu didn't know if other otters had this feeding habit, but she always found them exceptionally cute and was even more eager to feed them.

The otter grabbed a shrimp and took a bite. Its pupils dilated instantly, and its eyes became dark and bright, clearly showing its great fondness for the shrimp.

Seeing this Qing Mengzhu smiled and asked, "Is it delicious?"

It happily swam around Qing Mengzhu twice, as if responding, "Eek!"

Seeing its condition, Qing Mengzhu simply grabbed another shrimp from the net cage and threw it to it.

The otter caught it accurately, devoured the shrimp in a few bites, and then looked up at Qing Mengzhu.

Qing Mengzhu threw it another shrimp. "This is the last one. Once it's eaten, there won't be any left."

When Qing Mengzhu threw shrimp to the otters, the red fox hiding on the shore couldn't resist any longer. It poked its head out of the grass and said to Qing Mengzhu, "Eek."

Qing Mengzhu was interacting with the otter and was unable to respond immediately.

Seeing that Qing Mengzhu seemed not to have heard, the red fox became even more anxious and pawed at the ground. "Eek!"

Qing Mengzhu originally planned to finish picking the shrimp from the net cages before feeding it on the shore, but seeing that it was getting more and more impatient and almost wanted to go into the water, she quickly said, "I heard you, just a moment, I'll come over and feed you after I finish picking the shrimp."