Chapter 11: One Meal to Win Over One Person

After warming up for a while, Li Qiang pushed open the door, wiped his nose, and said:

"Uncle, my mom told me to call you all for dinner."

"Good, we'll head over right away." Li Long stood up, and together with Tao Da, he followed Li Qiang to the west room.

As soon as they entered the room, a rich, intense aroma wafted toward them.

On the eight-immortal table in the west room sat a large basin of stewed partridge with potatoes, alongside six bowls and six pairs of chopsticks laid out.

Li Long knew that the seat facing south with its back to the north belonged to the head of the household, Li Jianguo, who was already seated on the kang; upon seeing them enter, he first gestured for Tao Da to sit on his right-hand side.

There was no custom here of women and children not joining the table, so Liang Yuemei soon brought Li Juan and Li Qiang over to sit down.

"You must be exhausted; I see the fish you caught are quite large. Tonight we'll boil fish soup!" Liang Yuemei said with a face full of smiles. In this deep winter month, the partridge now on the table and the fish thawing in the kitchen all signaled that the meals for the coming days would be excellent.

What pleased her even more was that her younger brother-in-law had become ambitious and knew how to bring things home.

After all, in this era of material scarcity, the hardest role to fill was that of the housewife; being able to eat chicken and fish now was a feast better than even Chinese New Year.

"Alright, let's eat," Li Jianguo said. "Da Qiang, don't stand on ceremony; eat as much as you like."

"Exactly; once we're full, we still need to make another trip to Little Little Haizi," Li Long said. "It's not easy smashing a hole in the ice; we can't waste it."

"What? You're going again?" Li Jianguo asked.

"The ice we smashed is about half a meter thick," Li Long said. "There are plenty of fish in Little Haizi; after some time, even more fish will gather at the ice hole. If we go again this afternoon, we might catch even more."

"Then I'll go with you," Li Jianguo said immediately. "Let's get more; if we freeze them, we can eat them until New Year!"

"I want to go too!" Upon hearing they were going to catch fish, Li Qiang also wanted to tag along, but Liang Yuemei glared at him:

"No going! What could you possibly do? Just cause trouble?"

Li Qiang felt unjustly treated and lowered his head in grievance.

"Alright, alright, let's eat." Li Jianguo picked up a chicken drumstick and placed it in Li Juan's bowl, then picked up another piece and put it in Li Qiang's bowl, before saying to Tao Da:

"Da Qiang, don't stand on ceremony; eat quickly."

Having said that, he looked toward Li Long, who hurriedly said:

"I'll serve myself!" and then picked up a piece of potato.

Tao Da followed suit, picking up a piece of potato and beginning to eat.

In this large basin of dish, most of it was potatoes and less than half was meat, mixed with a little dried chili pepper; the flavor was exceptionally good. The potatoes were grown in their own vegetable plot, stored in the root cellar during winter, and now stewed until perfectly soft and flavorful.

Because it had been stewed for quite a long time, the partridge meat fell easily off the bone; everyone ate with great focus, and soon a pile of bones accumulated on the table.

"Da Qiang, eat some meat," Li Long said, noticing that Tao Da was only keeping his head down, shoveling potatoes into his mouth. "There's still plenty of meat."

"Exactly, Li Qiang, don't pretend to be modest," Liang Yuemei said. "We're going to net fish later; eat more now, eat the meat."

"Brother Da Qiang, eat meat," Li Qiang also said, imitating the adults.

"Hehehe." Li Long laughed; Li Qiang was quite supportive.

Soon, the basin of food was nearly finished, with less than half a basin of soup remaining; Liang Yuemei went to boil a strainer-full of wide noodles and poured them into the basin. Li Jianguo stirred it up and said:

"Eat; these noodles have absorbed so much flavor."

This meal consumed the entire basin of stew along with the strainer-full of noodles cleanly; finally, everyone drank a bowl of soup to aid digestion, and Li Long felt he didn't want to move a muscle.

"Uncle, that was delicious; can you catch more partridges in a couple of days?" "We'll try; there's no guarantee we can catch any," Li Long replied, not daring to promise. He believed that the news of him catching partridges had absolutely already spread throughout the village via Wu Wu Shufen's mouth. Where there was harvest, naturally people would get ideas; following the footprints would lead them straight to the spot, so whether any would remain by nightfall, he truly could not guarantee.

"Even if there are no partridges, having fish is good too," Li Juan interjected. "I just saw them; those large crucian carp were so beautiful, as wide as my two palms, with fat bellies—they looked delicious just at a glance!"

As she spoke, Li Juan's eyes sparkled brightly, very serious.

"Exactly; we can't guarantee partridges, but the fish certainly won't be few," Li Long said, standing up to help Liang Yuemei clear the bowls and chopsticks, making Liang Yuemei feel that her younger brother-in-law had truly changed.

Such a thing, in the past, he would never have done!

After resting for half an hour, Li Long returned to his room, saw that his clothes were nearly dry, and told his elder brother Li Jianguo that it would be best to go now.

Li Jianguo was also nearly ready, so he dressed warmly and headed out.

"Take two fertilizer bags; otherwise, it'll be hard to carry the fish," Li Long reminded. "The ice hole might have frozen over with a thin layer; a shovel can smash it open."

"Alright then." Li Jianguo prepared the tools, and then, along with Li Long and Tao Da, headed toward Little Little Haizi.

Liang Yuemei watched the three men depart, then took Li Juan and Li Qiang to clean the fish. All the fish were placed into an oval washbasin; Li Juan scaled them, Li Qiang helped gouge out the gills, and Liang Yuemei used scissors to gut them.

After splitting open the belly of the first large crucian carp, she saw indeed that the belly area was very fat, and she smiled.

Truly good.

!.

Thinking of the smile on her husband's face when he left with Li Long and the others, Liang Yuemei found it somewhat amusing.

If she understood correctly, this was called "men remain boys until death"; for matters like catching fish and shrimp, eighteen-year-old men and eighty-year-old men usually shared the same interest.

Tao Da once again took the lead, forging the path ahead. After traversing the route twice, the knee-deep snow had been trampled into a narrow path, making the subsequent walk much less difficult.

Twenty-some minutes later, the three arrived at the location of the ice hole.

Sure enough, the original water surface had frozen over with a thin layer of ice. Tao Da used a shovel to smash the ice several times, then used a scoop net to remove the broken ice, went down first, and once stationed, began "scooping fish."

Li Long did not idle either; he gathered another pile of reed grass and started a fire.

From the first net, three or four fish were poured onto the ice surface along with the broken ice by Tao Da; they were all carp and grass carp weighing over one kilogram each.

Li Jianguo hurriedly picked up the fish and put them into a urea bag, glancing frequently toward Tao Da as he worked, eager to try casting a net himself.

From the second net, a black, indistinct object was poured out along with three or four fish—Li Jianguo jumped in fright upon seeing it!

Li Long, with sharp eyes, spotted the creature and exclaimed with great joy:

"Big Brother, that's a water rat; kill it quickly!"

A water rat?

What is a water rat?

Although Li Jianguo didn't understand what the thing was, his reaction was not slow; he grabbed the shovel and fiercely smashed that slow-moving creature onto the ice surface.

The front of this creature looked entirely like a large-sized rat, not much smaller than a rabbit, yet its tail was very strange: hard, hairless, resembling a flat stick standing upright.

Although its movements were slow, the two large teeth in this creature's mouth were not slow at all; pinned there, it could only gnaw at the ice with a creaking sound, quickly carving out a pit!

Li Jianguo hurriedly slapped it twice more, killing the thing.

He looked at Li Long, wanting to hear how his younger brother would explain this thing.

(End of this chapter)