There is a small reservoir in our local area, with an area of about 100 mu. The water is not very deep, and there are many shallow beaches, which are very suitable for turtles to bask in the sun and dig nests to lay eggs. These sand stones are accumulated over the years from the upstream mountain stream. We locals call this small reservoir "Youth Dam". After the establishment of New China, in order to control the mountain torrents coming down from Dongshan, local people were organized to build this reservoir to store water for irrigation.

When I was a child, during the summer vacation, on the shoal of this reservoir, it was one of our playgrounds. At that time, we could often catch wild turtles. The big turtle is eaten by himself, and the small turtle is kept in a crock to play! I was once bitten (sucked) by a turtle to the heel, and I screamed through the cloth shoes. When my uncle saw it, he started to cut off the turtle's head, bled it, scalded it with boiling water, removed the fishy mucosa on the turtle, and finally processed it into food. Because my heel is swollen, it hurts too much and I'm not in the mood to eat.

At that time, I heard from the old people in the village that there was an ancient method that killing soft-shelled turtles was the best way to make delicious food. This method was a bit cruel, and frogs were cooked in warm water to kill soft-shelled turtles. In feudal society, rich dignitaries invited private chefs, and these chefs churned out a way, which is said to be delicious. First, put the soft-shelled turtle in clean water for a period of time, and change the clean water to starve the soft-shelled turtle every day. After the first half of the month, the turtle is taken out and placed in a cooking pot. Boil it slowly with a small fire, leaving a hole on it to let the turtle leak its head. As the water temperature rises slowly, the turtle in the tank is thirsty and hungry. At this time, someone puts a bowl of "immortal" soup made of ginseng and aniseed for the turtle to drink ... After cooking the turtle in warm water for half a day, the turtle will drink a lot of artificially prepared "immortal" soup, and finally it will be stuffed in the turtle's body and processed into turtle food.

When I was a child, I heard the old people tell me this anecdote about killing soft-shelled turtles, which was quite fresh. Those landlords and grandfathers enjoyed it too much! Now that I think about it, I feel that they are too cruel, just eat, and they have done so many tricks. In reality, we have never seen anyone treat turtles like that, which is inhuman. Now there are no wild turtles in that reservoir, all of them are local cultured turtles. The villagers usually deal with turtles, that is, they bleed them, add boiling water to remove the mucous membrane on their body surface, clean them up, and then they can stew or braise in soy sauce.