Chapter 10

In this scoop, seven or eight fish were caught, including crucian carp, carp, and the dogfish and a five-striped black fish that Li Long liked very much.

They weighed almost three or four kilograms.

Li Long threw the fish onto the ice, then turned around, changed direction, and scooped another net.

This net only had four fish, the heaviest being a carp weighing less than a kilogram.

"My turn, my turn for a net!" Tao Daqiang begged.

"Alright, you do it!" Li Long handed the net to him and went up to the ice surface himself.

The fish thrown out just now had already frozen.

Tao Daqiang took the net excitedly and went to the other ice hole, stepping down.

"Daqiang, step carefully, this water is deep, at least two or three meters, if you go down, you won't be saved." Li Long reminded, "Be sure to step carefully!"

"I know." Tao Daqiang was originally ready to lower the landing net, but after hearing Li Long say this, he stepped hard under his feet again before bending down and extending the net into the water.

Li Long extended his hands to roast by the fire, his eyes fixed on Tao Daqiang's situation.

The fire roasts the chest warm, the wind blows the back cold.

Fortunately, most of his thoughts were elsewhere, so Li Long didn't feel uncomfortable for a while. After his hands felt hot, he pulled out a reed, began to uncover the gill covers of the fish that were about to freeze, then used the reed as a rope to thread through, and then out from the mouth, threading a dozen fish together.

"Splash!"

Tao Daqiang pulled the net hard and threw the things in the net onto the ice.

Large and small crushed ice blocks carried five or six fish, and those fish jumped desperately as soon as they landed, but after jumping a few times, they lost their strength—the temperature on the ice was much lower than underwater, and they soon froze stiff.

Li Long followed suit, took another reed, and threaded the fish together.

These few fish also had many miscellaneous fish, the largest of which was actually a five-striped black fish. This thing's scientific name is red perch, a carnivorous fish, very fierce. The one in front of him was almost three kilograms, and it looked very fat.

Five-striped black fish is delicious when stewed, with garlic-clove meat, very chewy. Li Long remembered that seven or eight years later, the five-striped black fish in this sea disappeared, and along with it, the small dogfish also disappeared, until a year or two before he died, when the water quality improved, they appeared again.

Happily threading the fish, Li Long said to Tao Daqiang:

"Daqiang is not bad! This five-striped black fish, if taken to the county, can sell for at least two yuan!"

"Really?" Tao Daqiang had just extended the landing net into the water, and hearing Li Long say this, he was shocked, "Can it really sell for so much?"

At this time, a kilogram of pork was only 1.6 or 1.7 yuan, and a kilogram of mutton was 1.2 yuan. In the summer, some people went to sell fish, but it was two or three cents per kilogram, and there were few people who wanted it. After all, the population in this county was not large, and there were even fewer people with money to eat these river delicacies.

"Of course." Li Long said with a smile, "Think about it, it's deep winter now, and the New Year is coming soon, shouldn't those city people pay a higher price if they want to eat fish?"

"Then Brother Long, what do you think about us catching fish and selling them in the county? We can earn quite a bit!"

"That's also suffering." Li Long shook his head, "It's minus thirty degrees now, and we don't have a car, so by the time we get to the county, the fish will be frozen hard. Selling fish, unless you run into someone who wants a lot and can buy them all at once, otherwise just waiting for people to buy, it might be an hour, or it might be several hours. Maybe the fish won't be sold out, and the person will be frozen."

"I'm not afraid!" Tao Daqiang said firmly, "I'm just afraid of having no money!"

Looking at Tao Daqiang's firm eyes, Li Long thought for a moment and said:

"I'm going into the mountains to pull wood tomorrow, let's talk about it after I come back."

Tao Daqiang wanting to catch fish and sell them could only rely on himself. After all, not every family had a landing net now.

People in the production team came from all over the country, and some of them had never eaten fish before. Even if fish jumped to their feet when watering the fields in the summer, they didn't know how to pick them up, because they wouldn't know how to cook them even if they took them back.

It is true that some people in the Loess Plateau in Lu Yao's "Ordinary World" don't eat fish and don't know how to eat fish.

According to Li Long, among the forty or fifty households in the entire brigade, there were no more than five that had landing nets. The landing net Li Long took was modified by Li Jianguo from a broken fishing net when he worked part-time at the reservoir fishery during the slack season in the summer. In this day and age, everything was lacking, and things that were everywhere in later generations were treasures in this era.

"Going into the mountains to pull wood? Are you alone?" Tao Daqiang asked.

"Mm, I'm alone."

"Then I'll go with you!" Tao Daqiang's eyes lit up, "I haven't been out of our township yet. The people in the village side business group didn't take me into the mountains in the summer, saying I was stupid..."

"Then you have to dress warmly." Li Long felt that taking Tao Daqiang along was fine. He didn't let Li Jianguo go, purely because he wanted to do some other things, and it wouldn't be easy to make decisions if his eldest brother followed him.

But taking Tao Daqiang with him, it would naturally be up to him.

As for taking one person along meaning pulling dozens of kilograms less wood—at worst, he would just go one more trip. If he sent the fish to the brigade leader's house tonight, could he not let him use the horse-drawn carriage?

With his plan well-calculated, Li Long was in a pleasant mood, and Tao Daqiang was also happy. The two of them guarded different ice holes and scooped a few more nets, catching more than ten kilograms of fish in total. Li Long felt exhausted, so he said to Tao Daqiang:

"Daqiang, stop, let's go, let's go back and eat."

"Brother Long, let's scoop a few more nets." Tao Daqiang was still unsatisfied, "I see there are fish in every net, maybe there will be big ones later."

It's no wonder the elders say there is fire on fish; as long as there is a harvest in catching fish, people don't feel tired or cold. Looking at Tao Daqiang, it was definitely true.

"We can't wait anymore." Li Long refused decisively, "Look at yourself, your clothes are soaked through. If you stay any longer, you'll definitely get seriously ill!"

!.

Li Long's voice was unquestionable, and only then did Tao Daqiang put away the landing net and climb onto the ice surface.

"My ears are about to freeze off!" Tao Daqiang climbed onto the ice surface and only then felt the cold in the air. He covered his ears and jumped in place, "My feet are almost numb."

"And you didn't want to come up." Li Long said while tidying up the tools and fish, "Let's go, hurry to my house to roast by the fire. By the way, rub your ears with snow on the way, don't let them really freeze."

Many people in later generations say that rubbing ears with snow is wrong. But at this time in the wild, this was the only way. If you roast by the fire hard, the ears will blister and fester, and then they will really be ruined.

"It's fine, just cover them for a while." Tao Daqiang covered them again, then picked up the two strings of fish and walked back with large strides.

Tao Daqiang waded through the snow in front carrying more than ten kilograms of fish, and Li Long followed behind carrying the tools, which made walking a bit easier.

Li Long knew this was Tao Daqiang expressing his gratitude in his own way—and he accepted it.

The sun had risen to the highest point, in the position halfway to the south. The sunlight was a bit warm, but more of it came from the chill in the air.

It was forty minutes later when the three of them panted and hurried back to the Li house.

"Hurry inside!" Hearing the footsteps, Li Jianguo opened the door and came out. Seeing the two of them covered in ice shells, he immediately greeted them, "Throw the things on the ground, go roast by the fire and change your clothes first! The fire is set in the east room, go over there and change!"

Li Long and Tao Daqiang hurriedly entered the east room, took off their overcoats, roasted them by the fire wall, and then took off their shoes.

The cowhide boots were frozen stiff, and when they took them off, there was a layer of snow inside, and their feet were already a bit numb.

There was a basin of water on the stove in the room. Li Long tested it and felt the temperature was a bit hot. He hurriedly ran out, shoveled some snow and threw it into the basin, waited for the snow to melt, tested the water temperature, and then put the basin down and said to Tao Daqiang:

"Come, soak your feet, otherwise you'll get frostbite tomorrow!"

It might be strange for two grown men to soak their feet in one basin, but at this time, who cared about that much.

After soaking for a few minutes, feeling much better, Li Long wiped his feet, changed into cloth shoes, stretched, and said to Tao Daqiang:

"Eat lunch at my house later, rest for a while, and then we'll go catch fish again. I estimate there will be even more fish then."

"Alright." Tao Daqiang nodded vigorously.

He had no tools, no connections, only a bit of strength. Now that Li Long was willing to take him, he was naturally extremely willing.

(End of chapter)