Chapter 12

"This guy is a water rat, officially called a muskrat," Li Long explained, "also called a green-root sable, its fur is very valuable. This one can sell for at least five yuan!"

"Five yuan?" Hearing that the fur of this water rat could sell for five yuan, Li Jianguo and Tao Daqiang's eyes lit up.

At this stage, in the production team, one work point at the end of the year was worth eight cents! A slightly better production team with some side businesses could have one mao two, which was the limit.

Five yuan, how many work points would it take to earn it?

In this day and age, because the land in the northern border was large and the grain produced was much, they could at least get enough to eat, but it was not easy to earn money.

Eating meat mainly relied on the pigs raised at home. As for money, basically, there was none.

Li Long remembered that when the production team settled accounts at the end of last year, Li Jianguo's family had a balance of twelve yuan and eight mao, which was considered a relatively wealthy family in the brigade.

Almost half of the farmers owed the production team money!

Work points were not valuable, and it was relatively difficult to earn money. The production team had a side business team that went into the mountains to dig fritillaria and codonopsis in the summer, but that required technique—ordinary people went there and couldn't dig much in a day, and although the work points were more than ordinary work, it was also tiring.

"Daqiang, hurry up and scoop, see if there are any more!" Li Jianguo immediately said.

Tao Daqiang also reacted and immediately bent down to scoop into the ice hole.

In order to expand the range as much as possible, Tao Daqiang straightened his arms and drew a semicircle on the bottom of the ice with the landing net before lifting it up.

The net was very heavy, and when he lifted it up, the ice water dripped and made his clothes wet.

This net had seven or eight fish, adding up to almost twenty kilograms.

But there were no more water rats.

If he had seen these fish earlier, he would still be happy, but now the fish didn't smell that good anymore. Tao Daqiang was a bit unwilling, and after dumping the fish, he came for another net, but this net only had two small fish.

"Daqiang, you come up, I'll try the ice hole over there!" Li Jianguo said impatiently, "You come up and roast by the fire, look at your clothes, they're all wet!"

The water rat successfully stirred up Li Jianguo and Tao Daqiang's enthusiasm even higher.

In this day and age, everything is difficult without money.

However, Li Long was not optimistic—being able to catch a water rat at the ice hole was a matter of great luck. This thing was not like a fish; it dug holes underwater and had multiple exits, and you never knew which reed cluster on the shore had its hole.

It was probably attracted by the swimming fish and ended up in the net.

Sure enough, Li Jianguo scooped seven or eight fish from the other ice hole in two nets, but didn't see the shadow of a water rat.

"Big Brother, Daqiang, don't be impatient now. This water rat comes out in nests when the ice melts in the spring, and it will be easy to catch then."

Although Li Jianguo was a bit unwilling, he knew that was all he could do.

The three of them took turns using the landing net to scoop the ice hole until the sun set in the west, and only then did they decide to go back. Before going back, Li Long covered the ice hole with snow.

"Won't we use it in two days?" Tao Daqiang was a bit puzzled by his actions.

"If we don't cover it, the water will slowly overflow in two days, and it will be troublesome to smash it open then. Now cover it with snow, and when the time comes, shovel away the snow, and the ice underneath won't be that thick."

Tao Daqiang felt that what Li Long said made sense.

Both urea bags were more than half full, and it was tiring to carry them, so they simply put the fish in the bags and placed the bags on the shovel head, using the shovel as a sled to pull them, which saved a lot of effort.

There was indeed fire on the fish. They didn't feel it when scooping, but now when walking back, they felt their whole bodies were ice, and there was no warm place on their whole bodies, and their little birds were about to shrink back. The three of them hurried back to the Li house before the sun set. Liang Wenyu had already boiled fish soup with a silver carp, and after the three entered the house, they each drank a bowl first, feeling their bodies warm up all at once.

"Brother Jianguo, Brother Long, I'm going back first." Tao Daqiang said after drinking a bowl of fish soup.

"Roast your clothes dry first, otherwise your dad will definitely complain when you go back."

"He can't complain about me." Tao Daqiang said seriously, "I'll take a few fish back, he'll definitely be happy!"

"Then roast them dry too, I'm leaving early tomorrow morning, if you want to go with me, you have to dress warmly."

Li Long persuaded him, let Tao Daqiang drink another bowl of fish soup, and only then did he carry the fish and go back.

Originally, Li Long meant that the water rat was caught by his net, so Tao Daqiang should take it, but Tao Daqiang firmly refused, saying that it was caught by the Li family's net. He was already very grateful to the Li family for being able to get the fish.

Originally, Li Long intended to divide the fish into three equal parts, each part having more than ten kilograms, but Tao Daqiang only used reeds to thread five fish and left carrying them.

"Daqiang is... not stupid." Li Jianguo said, watching Tao Daqiang leave.

Li Long naturally knew Tao Daqiang wasn't stupid, it was just that others thought he was stupid, and his family thought the same.

The fish were put aside first, and the family happily drank fish soup. Liang Wenyu used a large silver carp weighing three kilograms, boiled it for a long time, and the fish meat almost melted into the soup. Every family member had a bowl, and the cornmeal pancakes were soaked directly in the fish soup, and the taste was called fresh!

!.

Li Long thought that if there were some fresh green onions or coriander, it would be perfect!

Li Juan drank it in small sips, her eyes curved into crescent moons, and her mood was incredibly good.

Before yesterday morning, they couldn't even eat meat, but in just one day, first sparrows, then guagua chickens, and now fish was enough—this life was truly happy!

Li Qiang also held a large bowl, using chopsticks to pick out the fish meat to eat, wiping his nose from time to time, and he would occasionally look at Li Long, thinking about how to tell his uncle later so that he could also go catch fish.

"Big Brother, I'll take two fish to Brigade Leader Xu's house, and by the way, talk about borrowing the horse-drawn carriage." Li Long said after finishing the fish soup, feeling his whole body warm, and stood up.

"Two, isn't that a bit few?" Li Jianguo hesitated and said.

"It's not few. Two two-kilogram carp, that's very good." Li Long said, "He won't lend the horse-drawn carriage just because of this fish, there's no need for us to bring more things."

A handful of rice breeds kindness, a bucket of rice breeds enmity. This time two fish is fine. If he brought too many, what would he do if there were no fish next time he borrowed it?

Besides, you bring a lot of fish when you borrow a horse-drawn carriage, what should others say when they borrow it?

Li Long had never considered these things before. But his eldest brother died in his previous life, and his sister-in-law's family hated him, so he was considered to have no one to rely on, and finally lived with a widow, which was considered to have understood life after suffering a lot of losses.

In those days, he often thought, if he hadn't been such a jerk before, and his eldest brother was still there, how good that would be.

Now he cherished this life even more.

Picking out two relatively symmetrical fish from those fish, Li Long threaded them with reeds and carried them out of the door.

In this day and age, wild carp are very beautiful, with red heads and red tails, two long whiskers, and shimmering scales, which makes people happy at first glance.

Then not long after going out, Li Long ran into Gu Ermao.

Seeing Li Long, Gu Ermao greeted him with a smile:

"Xiao Long, did you catch fish? Share one with me!"

Li Long was amused by this cheap person.

(End of chapter)