The crowd watched as the big golden carp, pale green grass carp, and silver carp were pulled from the buckets one by one. Thrown onto the ground, they still jumped and flopped about, slapping the dirt with a THWAP, THWAP. The onlookers roared, pointing and chattering like a pot boiling over.
"See? I told you we should divide them up at noon," a man said, smugly taking credit. "Every year we wait until all the netting is done, and by the time we get them home, the fish are dead. This way, we get to eat some fresh ones today."
"They're fresh, alright, but there aren't enough carp to go around," Shorty Zhou retorted bluntly. "When we run out, you'll be getting a silver carp."
The man laughed, unconcerned. "Fine by me. When we net the fish from Tiaozi Pond this afternoon, you won't still be giving me a silver carp then, will you?"
Silver carp have lots of small bones, so they weren't as popular as the common or grass carp.
