Chapter 129

The next morning, Li Juan went to school, and Li Qiang went to preschool. The loudspeaker in the team shouted to send work to clear the canals. Li Jianguo went, Liang Yuemei went to the fields to pull weeds, and Li Long started to organize the nets he bought back.

The snow had melted, the ice in the small lake had almost disappeared, and green had appeared in the fields. Then, it was time to do his own business—what others called "not doing his proper job."

In later generations, there were quite a few non-professional "fishermen" in the village, setting nets to catch fish during the farm slack season, taking fish early in the morning, and then going to the market to sell fish, and hanging up the nets during the busy farming season, becoming authentic farmers.

However, such a situation would not happen for at least three to five years in his previous life. Now Li Long made it happen in advance.

When he was organizing the nets, Tao Daqiang came to the courtyard.

"Brother Long, are we setting nets this afternoon?"

"Yeah," Li Long responded and said, "You haven't set nets before, right?"

"No." Tao Daqiang stepped forward to touch the net. He was curious and also a bit careful. This net was not cheap!

Because he had to buy a donkey and make a donkey cart, Tao Daqiang borrowed 80 yuan from Li Long. According to Li Long, it would be deducted from his future wages. Tao Daqiang could calculate that this would require at least sixteen days of actual work wages.

So although he didn't know how to set nets, he very much hoped that Li Long would take him to start work—he was very unaccustomed to the feeling of being in debt, and it was uncomfortable.

"Then I'll teach you how to organize the nets first. We set the nets, take the fish out early tomorrow morning, and then I'll take the fish to sell. You have to organize the nets well at home, and we'll go set the nets again tomorrow afternoon."

"Okay." Tao Daqiang didn't say much, but his attitude was very serious, and Li Long was very satisfied.

Li Long taught Tao Daqiang to organize the nets once, and told him how to tie the ropes after picking them up.

In order to make it easy to find the position of the sticky net in the water, Li Long specially found some colorful cloth strips and tied them to both ends of the net, so that when setting the net, it would be easy to fix in the water and easy to find.

After Tao Daqiang learned how to organize the nets, Li Long took the cast net and practiced casting it in the courtyard, from half a net at the beginning to barely casting it into a circle.

This was indeed a job of technology and strength. Tao Daqiang looked at it with envy and wanted to try it. As a result, it looked like the real thing, but when the net went out, it was basically a line or a crescent when it landed. Li Long didn't want to laugh, fearing to hurt Tao Daqiang's self-esteem, but it was really hard to hold back.

"Brother Long, if you want to laugh, just laugh. Anyway, I know I'm stupid," Tao Daqiang said. "It's okay, I'll practice more when I'm free."

Tao Daqiang now liked to follow Li Long to catch fish. He knew that this could bring cash, which was more valuable than doing farm work.

Although he was stupid, maybe he could succeed if he practiced more?

Just before work ended in the morning, Li Long and Tao Daqiang picked up the nets, and he started cooking.

Both his big brother and sister-in-law did physical labor, so Li Long planned to make a dry meal.

In his previous life, he didn't know how to cook at the beginning, and even if he did, he would just muddle through a meal. But later he knew that if he wanted to eat well, he had to cook it himself, otherwise others wouldn't accommodate him.

So the food Li Long cooked slowly became delicious, at least home-cooked meals were no problem.

First, mix the flour, cover it with a damp cloth after mixing, and let it wake up. Then find dried chili from the idle room, soak it, peel the green onions and garlic, and scoop a large spoonful of fried mutton with oil to prepare.

After the chili skin was soaked soft, cut it into small cubes and set aside. He planned to roll the chili skin meat and mix it with pulled noodles.

Because mutton oil is easy to solidify, commonly known as "soaked," he didn't stir-fry the vegetables first, but boiled water, preparing to cook the noodles first.

Pulled noodles are also a technical job. In his previous life, Li Long didn't basically learn it until he was nearly fifty—this learning means being able to mix the flour well, wake it up well, and pull it very thin without breaking. Like this kind of technical job, some people learn it at seven or eight years old. Li Long remembered that a friend of Li Qiang's age brought a bowl of pulled noodles over to show off to Li Qiang when he was eight years old, while Li Long didn't learn to pull noodles until he was nearly fifty.

The technology is very simple, one poke and it breaks. But some people might not understand that paper for a lifetime.

It was hot, and the stove in the room was not often burned, and it would be dismantled in two days. So Li Long was cooking noodles on the firewood stove in the courtyard.

Firewood stoves were relatively common at this time. Although they were not as convenient as gas stoves in later generations, the things cooked were delicious.

Pour water into the pot, hold a bundle of corn stalks and sunflower stalks and put them on the side of the stove, then pull a handful of reeds as kindling, pull a few corn stalks and stuff them into the stove, put the reeds underneath, and light them. White smoke came out of the chimney, and the fire soon burned up.

"Little Uncle, are you cooking?" Li Qiang came back first. Seeing Li Long busy at the stove, he immediately ran over to help, "I'll set the fire!"

"Okay, be careful, don't make the fire too big." Although Li Qiang was only six years old, rural children could already do work at this time. Based on Li Qiang's current situation, he could enter the first grade in the autumn.

Thinking that Li Qiang's teacher might be Wu Shufen, Li Long felt a bit strange.

"Uncle, the water is boiling!" Li Qiang shouted outside. The noodles inside were also pulled open by Li Long. He picked the noodles with chopsticks, took a strainer to the stove, saw the water boiling, put the noodles in, stirred them gently and slowly, and then went into the house and brought out a basin of water and put it on the stove. This was for cold noodles.

When Liang Yuemei and Li Jianguo came back, the noodles were already served, and the noodle soup was poured into the basin. Li Long saw people entering the courtyard and started pouring oil into the pot, stir-frying meat, and rolling chili skin.

When a large plate of red chili skin meat was served on the table, the fragrance mixed with the spicy smell rushed to his face, and Li Jianguo couldn't help but say:

!.

"Little Long, when did you learn to cook this? It smells quite fragrant!"

"I saw it in the big meat canteen. I thought you were tired, so I did a test," Li Long was very satisfied with the reaction of his big brother, sister-in-law, and Li Qiang.

"It looks fragrant!" Liang Yuemei originally planned to come back to cook. In her memory, Li Long didn't know how to cook and belonged to the kind who would overflow even when boiling porridge. Although he looked much more sensible in these two months, he couldn't have learned to cook without a sound.

He really learned it, and it looked very good! This made her very surprised.

"Eat quickly, the vegetables are going to be cold, and it won't be good if it's cold," Li Qiang urged. The family still kept the old rules, Li Jianguo ate first, adults first, and then the children.

Eating mixed noodles requires a plate. The family ate happily. Li Long habitually poured some vinegar into the plate, Li Qiang followed suit, and soon he was stimulated by the spicy smell to have tears and snot flowing. He wiped it with his sleeve and continued to eat in large mouthfuls. While eating, he looked at the plate of chili skin meat on the table, obviously not intending to end it with one plate.

For a time, only the slurping sound of eating noodles remained in front of the table. Li Long smiled while eating.

In the afternoon, Li Jianguo continued to go out to work, Liang Yuemei went to the fields to pull weeds after tidying up, and Li Qiang went to preschool somewhat reluctantly—at the dinner table, he heard that Li Long was going to the small lake to set nets, and he especially wanted to follow, but was scolded by Li Jianguo.

It's not like winter now. The water in the small lake is two or three meters deep in some places. If a child falls into it, it's really over.

Tao Daqiang came to the Li house early. After getting Li Long's consent, he practiced casting the net in the courtyard by himself.

After the sun slanted west, Li Long and Tao Daqiang together put the nets into the urea bag and walked toward the small lake.

A new round of "not doing proper work" began.

(End of chapter)