Chapter 131: Reward of Your Choice?

It was still nearly two hours before sunrise; the sky was just beginning to lighten, marking the coldest time of the day.

Li Long tightened his clothes but still felt chills seeping into his bones.

Early spring in the northern frontier was still quite cold.

Upon reaching Xiaohaizi, Tao Daqiang said to Li Long:

"Brother Long, is there any special method for hauling in the nets?"

"Nothing special. Just pull the nets in like pulling a rope, roll them up, and put them in a bag," Li Long replied. "Just make sure they don't fall into the trough."

"Then Brother Long, you shouldn't get in the water. I'll haul the nets in myself; otherwise, I'd feel guilty taking this five yuan," Tao Daqiang said earnestly.

Li Long thought for a moment and said, "Alright."

Tao Daqiang smiled, took off his pants, bent down to scoop some water into his shirt to pat his chest, then slowly entered the water at the same spot as yesterday.

He walked forward about thirty meters, found the end of the net, bent down to untie the rope, and began gathering the net.

Li Long, with sharp eyes, quickly spotted a fish caught on the net about two or three meters from the end, seemingly a silver carp. A four-finger mesh net could only catch a silver carp weighing at least one or two kilograms. The carp was still alive, thrashing its tail on the net.

"Daqiang, as soon as you pull in a section of the net, untie it and put it in the urea bag!" Li Long shouted from the shore.

Tao Daqiang replied "Okay," then took a urea bag from his waist belt, placed a section of the net inside, and moved on to the next.

Since Tao Daqiang's body blocked the view, Li Long changed his position and saw that the net he lifted was covered with fish of various sizes. Overall, it was good.

Although it clearly wouldn't yield as many fish as pulling them from ice holes, these were alive and could be taken to the county; just looking at them felt different!

More than half an hour passed. Tao Daqiang dragged the urea bag back. Li Long could see the bag was stuffed full, though he couldn't tell if it was due to water or a truly large catch.

"Brother Long, the biggest fish is a carp, weighing two or three kilograms!" Tao Daqiang exclaimed excitedly as he neared the shore. "Pity there was an even bigger one that only got caught by the edge, so it slipped away when I shook the net..."

"It's fine. That's how the nets work; if it doesn't hold, the fish gets away. Hurry and get out!"

Tao Daqiang climbed out, opened the urea bag for Li Long to see. Li Long patted him and said:

"Put your clothes on quickly!"

He could see Tao Daqiang's face had turned pale and his body was shivering, but the excitement of catching fish made him feel no cold.

Once Tao Daqiang put on his long johns and pants, he finally felt the cold. Meanwhile, Li Long had already drained the water from the urea bag, slung it over his back, and hurried home:

"Hurry, 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!"

With his tall stature and long legs, he quickly darted ahead, seemingly possessing endless energy.

As the old saying goes, fish carry fire within them; indeed, it was true. Tao Daqiang was still riding the high of catching fish.

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

"Right now the nets are tangled. We need to separate them into individual sections, then remove the fish from each net without damaging the mesh," Li Long explained to Tao Daqiang. "Ideally, don't let the fish die, or they won't sell well."

Li Long went inside to get a laundry basin. Seeing Liang Yuemei cooking, he noted that Li Juan needed to leave early for school, and Liang Yuemei had already prepared cornmeal porridge for her on the outer windowsill.

"You're back?" Liang Yuemei asked. "Eat first or remove the fish first?"

"Remove the fish first." Li Long brought the laundry basin out. Li Jianguo and Li Qiang followed. Li Juan, having already washed up, came out for a look. Though she wanted to stay and watch, she had to eat and go to school, so she took her porridge to the inner room.

"Oh, there are big fish," Li Jianguo said with a smile. "Looks like a good catch today." The three adults, plus the small Li Qiang, gathered around the plastic sheet to remove the fish. Li Jianguo had worked at a fish farm and was a veteran; naturally, he knew to straighten the nets section by section before removing the fish.

Tao Daqiang copied the method, but Li Qiang just grabbed whichever fish looked biggest. Li Jianguo scolded him:

"Qiangqiang, don't grab randomly! If you mess up the nets, it'll be hard to fix!"

Li Qiang obediently listened, leaning against Li Long. As Li Long straightened the nets, Li Qiang helped remove the fish.

As fish were removed one by one, a strong fishy smell filled the courtyard.

Neighbor Lu Dasao came out to dump water and happened to see this. She called out across the yard:

"Li Juan's father, did your family go fishing again today?"

"Yes," Li Jianguo replied. "Xiaolong set the nets and caught these. We'll go to the market to sell them later."

"That's great." Lu Dasao carried her basin over to look. Li Jianguo picked up a silver carp weighing over a kilogram and handed it to her. Lu Dasao tried to decline, but Li Jianguo directly placed it in her basin. "Take it and eat; it's not worth much money."

Lu Dasao said "That's so embarrassing" while happily carrying the fish back home.

Li Long smiled and continued removing fish. Ten minutes later, the fish from all four nets were removed. Just as Li Long was about to change clothes, he heard Liang Yuemei calling from inside:

"Eat some food! If you only drink porridge, you'll be hungry again by midday!"

"I don't have time!" Li Juan shouted loudly. "There's no time."

!.

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

"Juan, don't rush. Eat your fill before leaving. I'm going to the street to sell fish now and can take you to school on my bike."

Hearing her uncle would take her to school on his bike, Li Juan immediately smiled: "Okay!"

Li Long went to the east room to change clothes and pumped up the bicycle tires. By then, Li Jianguo had habitually sorted the fish, packed them into two urea bags, added water, tied the bag openings together, and draped them on either side of the bicycle.

Liang Yuemei stepped out of the door and said to Li Long:

"Xiaolong, eat before you leave."

"No time to eat. The morning market opens early. I'll go check the situation first. I can eat on the street after selling the fish."

Li Jianguo invited Tao Daqiang to eat there, but Tao Daqiang said his father had already prepared food at home. He would finish eating and come back to gather the nets. Li Long told him:

"After you finish gathering the nets this morning, if you have nothing else to do, take your casting net to the reservoir and try your luck. When I get back, I'll go see if I can catch anything too."

Tao Daqiang nodded and walked briskly home.

Li Juan finished eating quickly. Li Long laid a double layer of burlap sacks on the rear seat so she wouldn't get wet from the fish-filled urea bags, then mounted the bicycle and headed out of the village.

Along the way, Li Long saw many students walking to school. Occasionally, someone would greet Li Juan, and she would respond, her voice full of pride.

Arriving outside the primary school, Li Long got off the bike. Li Juan was about to leave with him, but Li Long took five yuan from his pocket and handed it to her:

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

"Thank you, Uncle!" Li Juan's voice was loud. Li Long smiled and waved her off, letting her into the school.

He mounted his bike and rode along the road toward the county seat. Li Long hadn't been to the morning market in quite some time; he was genuinely curious about what changes it might have seen. Were there many fish sellers? Would it affect him?

(End of chapter)