Chapter 131: Reward of your own choosing?

There were nearly two hours before the sun came out. Now it was dawn, which was the coldest time of the day.

Li Long wrapped his clothes tightly, but still felt bursts of chill drilling into his bones.

Early spring in the Northern Frontier was still quite cold.

Arriving at the Little Haizi, Tao Daqiang said to Li Long:

"Brother Long, is there any saying about collecting nets?"

"Nothing much, just collect the nets one by one like collecting ropes, then roll them up and put them in a bag." Li Long said, "The main thing is not to fall into the trench."

"Then Brother Long, don't go into the water. I'll collect the nets. Otherwise, I'd feel guilty taking this five yuan." Tao Daqiang said earnestly.

Li Long thought for a while and said, "Okay."

Tao Daqiang smiled, took off his pants, bent down and wiped some water to stuff into his clothes to pat his chest, and then slowly entered the water along yesterday's position.

Walking more than thirty meters forward, he found the position of the net head, bent down to untie the rope, and began to organize and collect the nets.

Li Long had sharp eyes and soon discovered that there was a fish hanging on the net two or three meters away from the net head, it seemed to be a silver carp. A silver carp that could be caught by a four-finger net must weigh at least one or two kilograms. That silver carp was still alive, flicking its tail and jumping on the net.

"Daqiang, collect one net, untie it, and put it in the urea bag!" Li Long shouted on the shore.

Tao Daqiang responded "Okay," then took the urea bag off his belt, put one net into it, and then collected the next one.

Because Tao Daqiang's body was blocking, Li Long changed his position, and then saw fish of all sizes hanging on the net he lifted. Overall, it was not bad.

Although it looked like it definitely wasn't as much as the fish caught by digging ice holes, this was alive enough to be taken to the county, and it felt different just looking at it!

More than half an hour passed, Tao Daqiang dragged the urea bag back. Li Long could see that the urea bag was full, and didn't know if it was because water had entered or if there was indeed a big harvest.

"Brother Long, the biggest fish is a carp, two or three kilograms!" When he was about to reach the shore, Tao Daqiang said excitedly, "It's a pity that a bigger one only hung by the edge, so it ran away when I shook the net..."

"It's okay, the net is like this, if it can't hang on, it can only let the fish run away. Come up quickly!"

Tao Daqiang came up and opened the urea bag to show Li Long. Li Long patted him:

"Put on your clothes quickly!"

He could see that Tao Daqiang's face was white and his body was shivering, just because he caught fish, so he was excited and didn't feel cold at all.

Tao Daqiang put on his long johns and pants, and only then did he feel cold, while Li Long had already drained the water from the urea bag and carried it on his back to rush home:

"Let's go quickly, we'll talk when we get back!"

Tao Daqiang snatched the urea bag from Li Long's back and said:

"Brother Long, leave this to me!"

He was tall and had long legs, and soon darted to the front, as if he had endless energy in his body.

The old saying that there is fire in fish was indeed correct. Now Tao Daqiang should not have come out of the excitement of catching fish yet.

The two arrived at the Li house. Li Long took a plastic sheet from the room, spread it out, and poured the nets and fish from the urea bag onto the plastic sheet. Some fish immediately started flopping.

"Now the nets are messy, we need to separate them one by one, and then take the fish off each net, trying not to hurt the nets." Li Long said to Tao Daqiang, "Of course, it's best not to let the fish die, otherwise it won't be easy to sell for money."

Li Long went into the room to get a laundry basin, seeing Liang Wenyu stir-frying vegetables. Li Juan had to go to school early, and Liang Wenyu had already cooled the cornmeal porridge for her on the outer windowsill.

"Back?" Liang Wenyu asked, "Eat first or take the fish first?"

"Take the fish first." Li Long took the laundry basin out. Li Jianguo and Li Qiang followed out. Li Juan, who had already finished washing, also came out to take a look. Although she really wanted to continue watching, she had to eat and go to school immediately, so she had to carry the porridge to the inner room.

"Yo, big fish." Li Jianguo said with a smile, "Looks like a good harvest today." Three adults plus Li Qiang, the little one, surrounded the plastic sheet and began to take the fish. Li Jianguo had worked in a fishery and was an old hand, naturally knowing to first organize the nets together and then take the fish.

Tao Daqiang followed suit, but Li Qiang wanted to take whichever fish was big, and was scolded by Li Jianguo:

"Qiangqiang, don't take them randomly! It won't be easy to organize if the nets get messy!"

Li Qiang listened obediently, leaning against Li Long's side. When Li Long organized the nets, he helped take the fish.

Fish were taken off one by one, and a strong fishy smell permeated the courtyard.

Neighboring Lu Lu Dasao came out to pour water and happened to see it, so she shouted across the courtyard:

"Li Juan's dad, did your family go catch fish again today?"

"Yes." Li Jianguo responded, "Little Long set nets to catch fish, will go to the street to sell fish in a while."

"Very good." Lu Lu Dasao carried a basin over to see. Li Jianguo picked up a silver carp weighing more than a kilogram and stuffed it to her. Lu Lu Dasao declined, but Li Jianguo put it directly into her basin, "Take it and eat, it's not worth much."

Lu Lu Dasao said "That's so embarrassing" in her mouth, but carried the fish happily and went back.

Li Long smiled and continued to take the fish. Ten minutes later, the fish on the four nets were all taken off. Li Long was just about to change clothes when he heard Liang Wenyu saying in the room:

"Eat some vegetables! You'll be hungry again in the middle of the morning if you only drink porridge!"

"I'm running out of time!" Li Juan shouted loudly, "No time."

!.

Li Long hurriedly went over, opened the door and said to Li Juan:

"Juan, don't worry, eat your fill before leaving. I'm going to the street to sell fish now, I'll just ride the bike to take you to school."

Hearing that her little uncle was going to ride a bike to take her to school, Li Juan smiled immediately: "Okay!"

Li Long went to the east room to change clothes and pumped up the bicycle. At this time, Li Jianguo had habitually picked out the fish, packed them into two urea bags, poured water, tied the bag mouths together, and placed them on both sides of the bicycle.

Liang Wenyu walked out of the room and said to Li Long:

"Little Long, eat before you go."

"Not eating, the morning market opens early, go see the situation earlier, and eat on the street after selling the fish."

Li Jianguo asked Tao Daqiang to eat here, but Tao Daqiang said his father at home had already prepared it, and he would come to organize the nets after eating. Li Long said to him:

"After you finish organizing the nets in the morning, if you have nothing to do, take the cast net to the reservoir to try. I'll also go see if I can cast some fish when I come back."

Tao Daqiang responded and walked quickly toward home.

Li Juan finished eating quickly. Li Long spread a double-layered sackcloth on the back seat, let her sit on it so as not to get her clothes wet by the urea bags containing fish, and then rode the bicycle toward outside the village.

Along the way, Li Long could see many students walking to school. Occasionally someone would greet Li Juan, and Li Juan would also greet her classmates, her voice full of pride.

Outside the primary school, Li Long got off the bike. Li Juan greeted him and was about to leave. Li Long took out five yuan from his pocket and handed it to Li Juan:

"If you're hungry at noon and don't want to eat buns, go to the store to buy something to eat. You're growing, don't get hungry and thin."

"Thank you, Uncle!" Li Juan's voice was very loud. Li Long smiled and waved his hand, letting her enter the school.

Riding the bike along the road toward the county. Li Long hadn't been to the morning market for many days. He was really curious about what changes would be in the morning market now. Are there many people selling fish? Will it affect him?

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 132 =====