Chapter 10

With this scoop net, seven or eight fish were pulled out, including crucian carp, common carp, and the northern pike and five-striped black fish that Li Long liked very much.

They weighed about three or four kilograms in total.

Li Long tossed the fish onto the ice, then turned around to change direction and scooped another net.

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

"My turn, let me have a go!" Tao Daqiang pleaded.

"Alright, you go ahead!" Li Long handed the net to him and stepped onto the ice himself.

The fish tossed out earlier had already frozen solid.

Tao Daqiang took the net with an excited look, went over to the other ice hole, and stepped down.

"Daqiang, watch your footing. This water is deep, at least two or three meters; if you fall in, you won't be saved," Li Long warned. "Make sure you stand firm!"

"Got it." Tao Daqiang had been ready to lower the scoop net, but after hearing Li Long, he stomped his feet firmly again before bending down to extend the net into the water.

Li Long stretched out his hands to warm them by the fire, his eyes fixed on the situation over at Tao Daqiang's side.

The fire warms the chest, while the wind chills the back.

Fortunately, his mind was mostly elsewhere, so Li Long didn't feel uncomfortable for the moment. After his hands warmed up, he pulled out a reed, began to pry open the gill covers of the fish that were about to freeze, threaded the reed through them as a string, and pulled it out through the mouths, stringing a dozen fish together.

"Splash!"

Tao Daqiang gave a sudden, sharp pull on the net and tossed its contents onto the ice.

Fragments of ice of all sizes came up with five or six fish. Those fish struggled desperately once they hit the shore, but after a few jumps, they lost their strength—the temperature on the ice was far lower than underwater, and they quickly froze stiff.

Li Long followed the same method, taking another reed to string the fish up.

These few fish also had a lot of miscellaneous species, and the largest among them was actually a five-striped black fish. This creature's scientific name is Eurasian perch; it's a carnivorous fish and very fierce. The one in front of him weighed nearly three kilograms and looked quite plump.

Stewed five-striped black fish has garlic-clove-like meat and is very chewy. Li Long remembered that seven or eight years later, the five-striped black fish in this lake would disappear, along with the small northern pike, and they wouldn't reappear until a year or two before his death, when the water quality improved.

Happily stringing the fish up, Li Long said to Tao Daqiang:

"Not bad, Daqiang! This five-striped black fish could sell for at least two yuan in the county!"

"Really?" Tao Daqiang had just extended the scoop net into the water, but hearing Li Long say this, he was instantly shocked. "Can it really sell for that 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 only 0.2 or 0.3 yuan per kilogram, and there were few buyers; after all, the county's population wasn't large, and even fewer had the money to eat such river delicacies.

"Of course," Li Long said with a smile. "Think about it, it's mid-winter now, and the New Year is coming. Don't those city people have to 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 could earn quite a bit!"

"That's also suffering," Li Long shook his head. "It's over thirty degrees below zero now, and we don't have a vehicle. By the time we get to the county, the fish will be frozen hard. Unless you happen to run into someone who needs a lot and can buy them all at once, otherwise, just waiting for people to buy them might take an hour, or even several hours. Who knows, the fish might not be sold, and you'd be frozen stiff."

"I'm not afraid!" Tao Daqiang said with a determined look. "I'm only afraid of having no money!"

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

"I'm going into the mountains to haul wood tomorrow. Let's talk about it after I get back."

If Tao Daqiang wants to catch and sell fish, he can only rely on himself; after all, not every household has a scoop net these days.

The people in the production team come from all over the country, and some of them have never even eaten fish before. Even in the summer, when fish jump to their feet while watering the fields, they don't know to pick them up because they wouldn't know how to cook them if they took them back.

It is a true story that some people on the Loess Plateau, as mentioned in Lu Yao's "Ordinary World," do not eat fish and do not know how to eat fish.

As far as Li Long knows, among the forty or fifty households in the whole team, no more than five have scoop nets. The scoop net Li Long is using was modified from a piece of broken fishing net when Li Jianguo was doing odd jobs at the reservoir fishery during the slack farming season in the summer. Everything is in short supply these days; things that would be worthless in the future are treasures in this era.

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

"Yeah, just me."

"Then I'll go with you!" Tao Daqiang's eyes lit up. "I haven't even left our township yet. The people in the village's sideline group wouldn't take me into the mountains in the summer because they thought I was stupid..."

"Then you'll have to dress warmly." Li Long felt that taking Tao Daqiang along wouldn't be a big deal. He didn't let Li Jianguo go purely because he wanted to do some other things, and it would be hard to make decisions if his older brother followed him.

But if he takes Tao Daqiang, then naturally he will be the one in charge.

As for taking one person meaning hauling a few dozen kilograms less wood—at worst, he'll just make an extra trip. If he sends the fish to the team leader's house tonight, surely the leader won't refuse to let him use the horse cart?

With his plans well-laid, Li Long was in a pleasant mood, and Tao Daqiang was also happy. The two of them each guarded different ice holes and scooped a few more nets, pulling out a total of over ten kilograms of fish. Li Long felt exhausted and said to Tao Daqiang:

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

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

No wonder the elders say there is fire in fish; as long as there is a harvest in catching fish, people don't know fatigue or cold. Looking at Tao Daqiang, it was clear this was definitely true.

"We can't wait any longer." Li Long refused decisively. "Look at yourself, your clothes are soaked through. If we stay any longer, you'll definitely end up with a serious illness!"

!.

Li Long's voice allowed no argument, and only then did Tao Daqiang put away the scoop net and climb onto the ice.

"My ears are about to freeze off!" Once Tao Daqiang got onto the ice, he finally felt the cold in the air. He covered his ears and jumped on the spot. "My feet are almost numb."

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

Many people in the future say that rubbing ears with snow is bad and wrong. But at this time in the wild, it's the only way. If you roast them by the fire, the ears will blister and fester, and then they would really be ruined.

"It's fine, just covering them will be enough." Tao Daqiang covered them again, then picked up the two strings of fish and strode back.

Tao Daqiang walked in front through the snow carrying the ten-plus kilograms of fish, while Li Long followed with the tools, making the walk easier.

Li Long knew this was Tao Daqiang's way of expressing gratitude—and he accepted it.

The sun had already risen to its highest point, halfway in the south. The sunlight was a bit warm, but the chill in the air was more prevalent.

It was forty minutes later by the time the two of them, panting, hurried back to the Li family home.

"Hurry inside!" Li Jianguo, hearing footsteps, 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 and go warm up 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 coats, leaned them against the fire wall to roast, and then took off their shoes.

The leather boots were frozen stiff, and when they took them off, there was still a layer of snow inside. Their feet were already somewhat 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 hurried out, shoveled some snow, brought it back, and threw it into the basin. After the snow melted, he tested the water temperature with his hand, took the basin down, and said to Tao Daqiang:

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

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

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 place in a bit. After we eat and rest for a while, we'll go catch fish one more time. I reckon there will be even more fish then."

"Okay." Tao Daqiang nodded vigorously.

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

(End of chapter)