Chapter 183: This fish has become a spirit!

In the afternoon, Tao Daqiang came over to prepare to set the nets. Because Li Long had gone into the mountains, they had let the air out of the big tire beforehand. They blew it up again, tied it, and took the water-paddling board and nets to the Little Haizi.

Tao Daqiang once again witnessed Li Long's "unique skill" of paddling with both hands and setting the nets with his mouth, and he was very envious.

This time they set eight nets. Li Long mainly thought that since he and Tao Daqiang would be selling fish separately tomorrow, they should catch more.

After setting the nets, seeing that it was still early, Li Long found a suitable place again and began to practice casting the net.

Casting a net shouldn't be rushed. One must first shake the net open, cast it in a small circle in front like feeding rice to chicks, and then start retrieving the rope.

Watching Li Long retrieve the net in an orderly manner, Tao Daqiang was very envious on the side.

He suddenly said:

"Brother Long, do you think it's okay if I get a casting net? Watching you practice casting the net all day, I could also cast some fish."

"Sure, why not." Li Long nodded, "Casting nets aren't expensive, buy one... wait until I sell the water rat skins, and I'll buy one back for you."

"No, no, I'm thinking, if I can make money selling fish tomorrow, and sell for a few more days, I'll be able to buy a casting net." Tao Daqiang wasn't greedy at all. He hurriedly explained, "I don't need many fish tomorrow, ten kilograms will do..."

Li Long glanced at him and shook his head with a smile:

"Ten kilograms won't do. Eight nets tomorrow, we can catch sixty or seventy kilograms of fish. You're setting up a stall... you have to get at least twenty or thirty kilograms."

"No, I know what I'm like." Tao Daqiang said seriously, "If there are few fish, I can keep an eye on them. If there are too many, I'm afraid I won't be able to look after them. If I lose too much, that won't do."

Since Tao Daqiang said so, Li Long didn't argue further. The net was already sorted. He held the net with both hands, rotated his waist, and used a clever force to cast the net out.

This time, it felt very good. Li Long looked up and indeed saw the net spread out in the air one after another, finally forming an imperfect circle, and landed in the water with a "swish."

"Brother Long, this cast was great!"

Li Long smiled, knowing that this was likely the best cast of the day, and the next ones might not be as good.

After waiting for more than ten seconds, feeling that the net had completely hit the bottom, Li Long slowly retrieved the net rope.

Feeling something moving in the net, it should have caught fish. Li Long thought of those bloggers he saw in short videos in his previous life who would "explode" their nets when casting, and today it seemed he might also have a chance to "explode."

As more of the net body came out of the water, he could already see fish jumping in the net, occasionally bumping into the net body. The main ones were crucian carp, of all sizes. Occasionally, he could see small ditch fish mixed in. The smaller ditch fish squeezed directly out of the net mesh and escaped into the Little Haizi.

Li Long used his last bit of strength to lift the entire casting net out of the water and threw it onto the grass by the bank.

"Not many big fish, but there are quite a few fish!" Tao Daqiang followed, squatted down, and began to pick out the fish. "These crucian carp are really beautiful—big plate crucian carp, at least half a kilogram!"

Li Long took a look; there were nearly twenty crucian carp, big and small. While sorting the net, he said to Tao Daqiang:

"Throw the too-small crucian carp back, we can't eat them."

Tao Daqiang responded, picked up these fish, and put them into the urea bag that originally held the nets. Li Long glanced at it; the largest one was a silver carp, weighing more than one kilogram but less than two.

When Li Long was ready to cast the net again, Tao Daqiang had already finished picking the fish and poured some water into the bag. Although the urea bag leaked water, it leaked slowly. Most of the fish in the bag were crucian carp, and they could live for a while with a little water.

The next cast was indeed not as round as the last one. Although Li Long changed his position, this cast only caught a little over a kilogram of crucian carp, most of which were small.

"Daqiang, you try." Li Long untied the net rope and handed it over, "Try a different place."

Tao Daqiang excitedly took the net rope and began to sort the net, imitating Li Long.

He had a lot of strength, and his cast was much further than Li Long's, but in the air, the net only opened like a crescent moon and then slammed fiercely onto the water surface.

When this net was hauled up, there were only two small crucian carp. Tao Daqiang was stunned and disappointed.

Li Long smiled, stepped forward to correct his movements, and demonstrated a cast for him.

When Tao Daqiang came for another cast, Li Long said:

"Wait until the wheat field is cleared in two days, before the wheat enters the field, you can practice on the field. The main thing is to use clever force from your waist, and the speed of releasing it from your hands, don't throw it all out at once..."

The sun hadn't set yet. The two carried the tire and the fish bag back.

Li Long looked back; he could already see the position where the nets were set, there were quite large ripples, it should have caught fish.

Back home, Li Long began to divide the fish. The casting net had caught five or six kilograms of fish. Li Long let Tao Daqiang take two kilograms, but Tao Daqiang hurriedly waved his hand:

"My dad and I, seven or eight crucian carp are enough, we can't finish more." Saying this, he went to the courtyard, pulled a thin reed, came over to the basin, threaded seven or eight palm-sized crucian carp, lifted them up, said goodbye to Li Long, and left.

Li Juan and Li Qiang had already returned, and they were quite happy looking at the fish in the basin.

They hadn't eaten fish for a while, and now seeing so many fish, their eyes were full of excitement.

Li Long was also worried looking at such a basin of fish. He thought for a moment, took an enamel basin, and poured in some crucian carp, ditch fish, and a carp.

"Juan, Qiangqiang, you watch these fish, I'll be right back." Li Long said to Li Juan, took the basin, and walked out.

Li Qiang asked Li Juan in a low voice:

"Sister, who do you think Uncle is taking this fish to?"

"It must be Grandpa Gu's house." Li Juan said, "Isn't our uncle dating Teacher Gu? I heard Mom say Teacher Gu even made shoes for Uncle."

"Then Teacher Gu will soon be our aunt?" Li Qiang looked gossipy, "Will we have to change how we address her later?"

"Don't you dare call her that!" Li Juan had already finished cooking the pig feed. She went to the kitchen, took scissors and a clean small basin, brought a small stool in front of the basin, and while preparing to clean the fish, threatened Li Qiang:

"That has to wait until Uncle marries her before we can call her that. If you call her that now, she'll be embarrassed and won't marry Uncle later, see if I don't hit you!"

Li Juan's threat was very effective. Li Qiang immediately said:

"I won't call her that, I won't call her that, I'll just call her Teacher Gu... Sister, you clean the gills, I'll clean the scales."

"Okay, don't move the scissors, okay."

"I know."

Li Long took the fish basin to the Gu house. Gu Bo Yuan had just returned from the fields, put down the iron shovel, and was changing his shoes at the door. Hearing movement, he turned his head, saw Li Long, and said with a smile:

"Little Long, what are you carrying?"

"Just cast a net in the Little Haizi and caught some fish. We couldn't finish them at home, so I brought some for you."

Following the habit developed with Li Jianguo and Liang Wenyu, although it was something delivered specifically, he said it was something extra at home that couldn't be finished or used up, just for fear that the recipient would decline.

"Then I'm in for a treat." Gu Bo Yuan didn't decline. He went to the kitchen, took a basin, and after Li Long poured the fish in, said with a smile:

"Going to sell fish tomorrow?" "Yeah." Li Long exposed his own shortcomings, "Idle is idle. I don't want to work in the fields. Selling fish for a day makes quite a bit of money, and there are other things to do, so I'm not idle all year round."

"That's fine. Now the policy shouldn't change back to the old ways," Gu Bo Yuan picked up a crucian carp and said with a smile, "Although it's not stable, seeing your brain is active, there shouldn't be any problems. You're at the supply and marketing cooperative..."

"A part-time purchaser. It's just a title, but it's quite useful." Li Long didn't hide anything from Gu Bo Yuan, "I plan to let them help me get a forest ranger status, so it will be more convenient to go into the mountains later. There are many good things in the mountains, and if done well, one day can equal a year's income here..."

"But the mountains are also dangerous, be careful yourself."

"Yeah, I know."

Back home, Li Long saw Li Juan and Li Qiang listening to the little loudspeaker on the radio while cleaning the fish, and they had almost finished processing them.

Li Long said with a smile:

"You guys are fast, then let's stew the fish. Don't clean the rest, Qiangqiang, you take those to Old Luo at the horse corral."

"Great, great!" Li Qiang was very happy. He ran to the kitchen, took a basin, filled it with the remaining fish, and carefully carried it to the horse corral.

Fish should be eaten fresh. Li Long went to the well to pump a bucket of water, washed the cleaned fish twice, soaked some dried chili peppers, and then went to the vegetable garden to pick some wild amaranth and green onions that had just grown.

While washing by the well, footsteps came from the courtyard entrance.

!.

Li Long turned his head to look; it was Lu Lu Dasao carrying water buckets.

"Little Long is back. Every time you come back, the family improves their food." Lu Lu Dasao looked at the fish and said with a smile.

"Sister-in-law, take some back to eat." Li Long pointed to the basin and said, "Just finished cleaning them."

"No, no." Lu Lu Dasao said, "When Tie Tou's dad came back from watering two days ago, he picked up a basin under the sluice gate of the head canal, ate it for three meals in a row, and doesn't want to eat it anymore. I'll carry two buckets of water back—you don't say, the water in this well is cleaner than the field well water, clear and sweet!"

"That's right, it's sealed on all four sides, no pollution, and the well my brother and Brother-in-law Lu dug is deep, reaching the sand and gravel layer, so the water quality is good. The water city people drink isn't as good as this."

"Really? That's great!" Lu Lu Dasao smiled and went to pump water, while Li Long began to prepare to stew the fish. Before stewing, he went to knead some dough, planning to stick some unleavened cakes on top of the fish pot.

Li Qiang ran back happily from outside the courtyard. He put the basin on the well platform and said loudly to Li Long:

"Uncle, Grandpa Luo said he was just thinking about eating fish. He also said the little wild boar and the little deer are both fine, and when you have time, you should go over and take a look."

"Okay." Li Long nodded and continued to work.

Li Juan brought a bundle of corn stalks. Once Li Long was ready, she started to light the fire. There was a box of matches on the stove all year round, but this time it wasn't needed.

Li Qiang already had a tacit understanding; he had pulled a handful of dry reed tassels and handed them to Li Juan. Li Juan took them, stuffed them under the stove, and used a fire hook to lift some corn stalks, lowered her head, and blew into the stove. The residual fire left over from cooking the pig feed directly ignited the reed tassels, and a burst of fire shot out.

Li Juan was experienced. At this time, she leaned back to avoid the fire, then slowly lowered the fire hook to let the fire ignite the corn stalks, and the fire started.

"Sizzle!"

Hot pot, oil, Li Long added seasonings, stirred it a few times, then added the fish, simply pan-fried both sides of the fish, then poured boiling water from the thermos to stew the fish.

"Little Long, you make this fish well!" Smelling the spreading fragrance, Lu Lu Dasao said with a smile, "Little Gu will be blessed in the future."

"I'm just stewing it messily." Li Long said modestly.

When he stuck the unleavened cakes on the pot, covered it, and turned to low heat to simmer, Li Jianguo and Liang Wenyu had also returned.

The whole family happily ate the fish and gnawed on the unleavened pot-stickers. Li Qiang picked the most charred and yellow one. What Li Long didn't expect was that Li Qiang actually handed this to his sister Li Juan.

"You eat it, there's more." Li Juan also didn't expect it, her face turned slightly red, and she pushed it over, saying, "You eat it."

"Qiangqiang is sensible now." Li Long praised, and Li Qiang's face turned red, very proud.

"Eat the fish slowly, it's delicious dipped in the soup." Liang Wenyu urged worriedly, "There are small bones."

"I know." Li Juan and Li Qiang nodded in unison.

The next morning, at daybreak, Li Long got up. He put on his clothes and went out, seeing Tao Daqiang already standing outside the courtyard.

"Why don't you come in?" Li Long was a bit surprised. How could this kid get up so early every day? His family didn't have an alarm clock.

"I just arrived not long ago." Tao Daqiang chuckled, "Brother Long, am I retrieving the nets today?"

"Sure." Li Long didn't care. Catching fish was a job one person couldn't finish. In his previous life, there were often several people in the village catching fish to sell, and everyone worked together, so they could look out for each other if anything happened. If he could train Tao Daqiang, it would be good for the two of them to have a companion.

The other "fishermen" in the team would have to wait at least two or three years before they could possibly come to this path.

Carrying the tire and holding several urea bags, they came to the Little Haizi.

Because the water surface was quite large and the humidity was heavy, it was obviously cooler than other places.

Arriving at the water's edge, Tao Daqiang put the tire into the water, took the paddling board, and sat down.

Li Long saw that he was wearing a pair of tattered old cloth shoes, so he didn't remind him. There were reed roots and rotten wood underwater, so he definitely couldn't go down barefoot.

Tao Daqiang clumsily paddled to the net head, put away the paddling board, tied two of the three urea bags behind him, took one in front, bent down to untie the net head, and began to retrieve it.

Fish were hung on the net one by one. Some were no longer moving, while some were still jumping when they left the water, unwilling to accept their fate.

Li Long could see from afar that a fish jumped directly off the net, jumped into the water, and swam away. This should have been hung loosely, so it was easy to break free.

Nothing to regret, because there were many fish on the net, really many.

"Big fish!"

Tao Daqiang suddenly shouted excitedly, and then accelerated the speed of pulling the net.

"Be careful!"

Li Long hurriedly reminded him. For Tao Daqiang to call it a big fish, it must be at least over three kilograms, right?

Then he saw Tao Daqiang pull it forward for two or three meters and stop, stuffing the excess net into the urea bag, his movements a bit flustered.

How big a fish could make him so excited?

While Li Long was still wondering, Tao Daqiang had already bent down and reached into the water, intending to hug the fish?

"Slap!"

Li Long saw a white shadow bring a large spray of water from the water, fiercely hitting Tao Daqiang's face and head. Tao Daqiang shouted "Ah," and was knocked into the water by this blow!

"Daqiang!" Li Long shouted loudly. He didn't expect to encounter such a thing!

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 184 =====