Chapter 203

The family sat on the horse cart. Li Jianguo drove relatively slowly. Li Qing Xia had been here once, but that was many years ago. Now looking again, he felt there were some changes.

Du Chunfang came here for the first time and was curious about everything. Looking south, she could see the mountains tens of kilometers away, murmuring in her mouth:

"This is by the mountains, this place is really big, there is so much land, why don't you open it and plant it?"

"No one." Li Long sat on the horse cart home for the first time and was also a bit novel. He responded to his mother's words:

"The people in a county in Northern Frontier add up to less than a town in the hometown. There are many lands and few people, so naturally, they won't open so much wasteland."

"Otherwise, how could the eldest brother form a family here, and be able to pull Xiao Long up?" Li Qing Xia took the words, "There is a lot of land here, you can eat full no matter what..."

"The eldest brother also suffered." Du Chunfang was silent for a while, murmuring.

Li Jianguo laughed: "What suffering? That's all in the past, the life is good now."

"The two brothers exert force together, then the life can be good." Li Qing Xia said with a smile, "One farms and one hunts, this life is so beautiful... Xiao Long, do you still catch fish? I didn't see a river when I came last time?"

"No river, there is Little Haizi, just like a small lake." Li Long heard it was true, father really had a playful temper, so he said, "There are many fish in it, you can catch three to five kilograms just by casting a net."

"Three to five kilograms? That's almost ten catties?" Li Qing Xia's eyes widened, "So many fish?"

"That's for sure. Xiao Long casts a net once, it's a sticky net, he can catch sixty or seventy kilograms once, otherwise how could he sell that much money..."

Li Qing Xia showed a shocked expression again.

There was a big river by the village in the hometown, which responded to the lyrics of the song "A big river has wide waves". Li Long heard from eldest brother Li Jianguo that in the famine years, the people in the village relied on that big river to cross. It's just that the fish in the river were not as many as the Little Haizi here, or that there were many people eating, so naturally, it was impossible to have so many fish.

The horse cart drove back leisurely, and it was already more than an hour later, just noon.

Arriving at the courtyard, Li Long smelled a rich aroma—thinking that sister-in-law should make a table of dishes today.

Hearing the horse cart sound, Liang Wenyu came out of the room, and Li Qiang also followed, curiously looking at the two old people on the horse cart.

"Father, Mother!" Liang Wenyu greeted with a smile, "Is the journey tiring enough? Hurry down and rest, I cooled tea, and the meal is also ready..."

Li Qing Xia got off the horse cart with a smile, nodded to Liang Wenyu, and then bent down to look at Li Qiang:

"You are Qiangqiang, right? Do you know who I am?"

"Grandpa!" Li Qiang was not shy. The changes in family life in the past six months gave him enough confidence, "You are Grandpa!"

"Sigh!"

Liang Wenyu touched Li Qiang again, and Li Qiang shouted to Du Chunfang:

"Grandma!"

Du Chunfang was getting off the cart. Hearing the eldest grandson shouting, she hurried down, and went to the parcel to take out a sesame seed cake and handed it over:

"Hey, hey! Eldest grandson, obedient grandson! Qiangqiang, right? Come, eat, this is the sesame seed cake your little uncle liked to eat most when he was young..."

Sitting down to eat, Li Long looked at the table, braised pork, stewed ribs, scrambled eggs with chives, stir-fried mushrooms...

The staple food was rice.

"This is not passing..." Du Chunfang looked at these dishes and murmured, "How much does this meal eat... this is not knowing how to live..."

"Mother, what are you saying?" Li Long knew that mother was not easy to say anything good, relying on the youngest son being doted on, and said, "Sister-in-law is not seeing that you haven't come for so many years, so she made such a table of dishes. This is welcoming you! Besides, this meat doesn't cost money, eat it if you eat it..."

"Doesn't cost money? How is that possible?"

"Didn't I tell you, my eldest brother and sister-in-law farm, earn work points, I hunt and catch fish... Go, take you to the idle room to see."

Li Long took his mother to the idle room to see the hanging meat. Du Chunfang finally believed that there was really a lot of meat in the family.

"Then... at that time, the landlord's family didn't have this much meat." Du Chunfang murmured, "This life is something even that landlord couldn't live, right?"

After the small episode, everyone ate. Li Long asked Liang Wenyu:

"Sister-in-law, did you leave some for Juan?"

"Left." Liang Wenyu said with a smile, "Everything was made a lot, and some were served and left for her."

Li Qing Xia had a big appetite, and he didn't eat well on the train these days, so he ate beautifully this meal. Du Chunfang had a small appetite, ate half a bowl of rice, two pieces of braised pork, and said she was full.

"This meat is really well-cooked, rotten, and rotten," she said, "I have never eaten such rotten meat... how can there be so much firewood at home to stew this meat—this side is really good!"

Liang Wenyu saw that her mother-in-law ate little, and thought she was not used to it or she didn't cook well. Hearing this, she smiled.

"Father, Mother, you sleep in this room, I have another place to sleep." Li Long took Li Qing Xia to the east room and said, "Rest for a while at noon, I will take you around in the afternoon, or at home is also fine. My eldest brother and sister-in-law still have to go to the fields to work, there are more than ten mu of land, there is a lot of work, they are busy with their own..."

"Then where do you live? Is that place okay?"

"How can it not be okay?" Li Long said with a smile, "The courtyard is bigger than our house here, newly made furniture, I sleep in a large room alone, very beautiful!"

Li Long left. Du Chunfang was tidying up clothes in the east room and asked Li Qing Xia:

"You said Xiao Long went to other places to live, is it good to live there? He won't be squeezed to sleep with others, right? I see there is a room on the west side, the two children live alone, why bother? Squeeze with adults..."

"Don't you have so many things!" Li Qing Xia complained:

"Didn't you see? Xiao Long doesn't even have a bit of callus on his hands, that's not someone who does farm work. Such a big young man, who doesn't work at home? Look at him white and clean, dressed like a city person, what does it explain? It explains that his eldest brother and sister-in-law didn't treat him badly!

We couldn't afford to raise him, and throwing Xiao Long here for several years, at that time Xiao Long grew like a bean sprout, and a gust of wind could blow him down!

Now? 1.8-meter big tall, taller than his eldest brother, looking strong, and his complexion is also good, explaining that he eats well and sleeps well! The brothers have a good relationship, no conflict, and Xiao Long is also sensible, that's it! Don't pick things up again, otherwise, we will leave after staying for two days, don't add chaos here!"

"Okay, okay, I'm just worried about whether Xiao Long can sleep well..." Du Chunfang muttered, "I also know they live well, I haven't seen him for many years, just feel... Xiao Long is not very close to us..."

"Then how can he be close? At such a young age, he was sent here, his eldest brother and sister-in-law raised him, how can he be close to us? Just be content, his sister-in-law didn't give you a cold face, and made this table of dishes for you, that's enough. Try someone else? Just say Li Lou village, try it, which daughter-in-law can do this?"

"That's true." Du Chunfang also recognized this point, "To say that the eldest brother's life is really good..."

"Can't talk nonsense when going back." Li Qing Xia remembered the things Li Jianguo vaguely mentioned on the road, "Otherwise, a bunch of relatives will come here, they can't take care of it."

"Know, know, I won't talk nonsense, you manage your mouth!" Du Chunfang tidied up her clothes and suddenly said: "No, I have to go to the place where Xiao Long lives in the afternoon, otherwise I won't be at ease."

Li Qing Xia sighed and let her go.

When Li Jianguo and Liang Wenyu went to the fields to work, they greeted Li Qing Xia. Li Qing Xia said he wanted to go to the fields to see. Li Jianguo refused, saying let them rest well first, don't rush for this moment.

In the courtyard, Du Chunfang looked at the vegetable garden, murmuring:

"This place is really spacious, whose vegetable garden in the hometown can be so big? This must be one mu of land, right?"

"Yes." Li Qing Xia nodded, "The ration land we divided doesn't have this much."

Li Long and Tao Daqiang came over together. Tao Daqiang carried two bottles of wine and two bottles of canned food in his hand.

Seeing Li Qing Xia and Du Chunfang in the courtyard, Tao Daqiang looked at Li Long with some restraint, and then shouted:

"Uncle, Aunt!" "Father, Mother, this is Daqiang, catching fish with me."

"Good, good, good." Li Qing Xia said with a smile, "The young man is really strong, this name is good! Are you going to catch fish now?"

"Well, going to set nets now, take fish tomorrow morning, then I go to the county to sell fish, Daqiang picks up nets at home."

"Then that's good, I'll go with you..."

"Mother, then you stay at home." Li Long said to Du Chunfang, "Juan will be back in a while. Anyone who can come to the courtyard is from the team, there are no bad people, is it okay?"

"Then what's wrong?" Du Chunfang said with a smile, "This is considered at home, it's okay, it's okay."

Li Qing Xia curiously watched Li Long and Tao Daqiang take the tires, water-repelling boards, sticky nets, changed into old shoes, and carried them to Little Haizi.

"Why still use this?" Li Qing Xia was a bit puzzled about the tire.

"The water is deep, need to go to the deep water area to set nets, two or three meters, then need to row over." Li Long said, "There are many fish in the deep water area."

"What kind of fish are there?" Li Qing Xia was like a curious baby now, asking constantly.

！.

"Carp, crucian carp, five-striped black, ditch fish, etc."

"Five-striped black? Haven't seen that yet." Li Qing Xia said with a smile, "In the hometown, there are crucian carp and carp, and there are Ge Ya (yellow spicy ding), grass carp..."

Chatting while walking, soon arrived at Little Haizi.

"This water surface... is not small." Li Qing Xia glanced at Little Haizi and said.

"Uncle, this is not big, there is a big Haizi behind, that is big." Tao Daqiang said, "It's just that there is no grass in the water there, and the fish don't taste good."

"What's the point of tasting good or not, it's not bad to have something to eat." Li Qing Xia said, "It's also that there are many fish here... if it were in the hometown..."

He didn't continue.

Li Long put the tire down and took the net to the deep water area to set the net. Tao Daqiang watched on the shore.

Li Qing Xia saw that there was a bag on the shore, so he asked:

"What is that?"

"Uncle, that is a cast net." Tao Daqiang said honestly.

"There is also a cast net? Then I'll try." Li Qing Xia immediately bent down to pick up the bag and took out the cast net.

"Still a new net." He looked at it and said with a smile, "Can I cast it here?"

"Need to find a place without reed roots below, otherwise it's troublesome if it hangs." Tao Daqiang was an honest child and hadn't reacted that this could also be considered an old fisherman.

Li Qing Xia weighed the cast net, tested the weight, and then began to organize the net.

Looking at Li Qing Xia's skilled movements, Tao Daqiang immediately thought, no wonder Brother Long is so powerful at catching fish, it's family-inherited!

He naturally didn't know that when Li Long was in his hometown, he really didn't follow Li Qing Xia to catch fish much. It wasn't allowed much in those years.

The net was organized. Li Qing Xia looked at the water surface, twisted his waist and cast the net. The net was cast out like a dark cloud, and then "shua" fell on the water surface, and an almost perfect circle was revealed.

"Uncle, you cast this net well!" Tao Daqiang praised sincerely.

"It's okay, it's okay." Li Qing Xia said while slowly collecting the net.

He had already felt that there were fish moving in the net, and the strength was not small. The feeling transmitted to his hand, this fish must be at least two catties or more!

When most of the cast net came out of the water, the fish had already started to flutter. Li Qing Xia was very surprised:

"Are there so many fish in this water?"

In the big river in the hometown, cast nets are usually cast three or four times, and it's not bad to have fish in one net. It's all about luck.

How can it be like this, one net has so much harvest?

According to Tao Daqiang, this net had five or six kilograms of fish, big and small, the most were small crucian carp, the biggest was a silver carp of more than one kilogram, and there was a carp of less than one kilogram.

"There are many fish in this Little Haizi." Tao Daqiang explained, "There are reed grass, there is food, so there are many fish."

After picking up the fish, Li Qing Xia cast the net again. This time the net was still very round, but there were not as many fish as last time, there were more than one kilogram of small fish.

This was also quite happy, there were fish every time.

At home, Du Chunfang turned around in the vegetable garden, looked at the pressure well, looked at the courtyard wall, and the little pigs being fed, feeling everything was fresh.

When Li Juan carried her schoolbag to the courtyard, she saw Du Chunfang in front of the pig corral.

Parents had already said it the day before, she understood that this was grandma, so she walked over quickly and shouted with a smile:

"Grandma!"

"Hey!" Du Chunfang turned around, looked at Li Juan, and said with a smile: "You are Juan, right? Grown this big... is this schoolbag heavy? Hurry up and put it down to eat, your mother left food for you in the kitchen, today stir-fried a lot of meat!"

"Okay." Li Juan was no longer so nervous, returned to the room to put down the schoolbag, served food for herself, and started eating.

Du Chunfang moved a small stool and sat beside Li Juan, watching her eat, and asked questions, what grade she was in, how her studies were, whether she did farm work at home, etc.

"Grandma, the pig grass for the pigs raised at home was all cut by me." Li Juan said very proudly, "Every day I finish my homework at school, come back to cut pig grass to feed the pigs..."

"Hey! Juan is really capable!" Du Chunfang praised, "Can help the family do farm work..."

Although Du Chunfang was a bit patriarchal, to be honest, the current living conditions of the Li family were not a problem to support two children to go to school, and she wouldn't say much.

After Li Juan finished eating, she tidied up neatly, said to Du Chunfang, and carried the basket and small sickle to cut grass.

In less than half an hour, Li Qing Xia, Li Long, and Tao Daqiang came back chatting and laughing.

Besides the tires and cast nets, there was also half a urea bag of various fish.

"Xiao Long's mother, look how many fish I caught!" Li Qing Xia took the urea bag and showed it to Du Chunfang, "There are really many fish in this small lake... catch it casually!"

Du Chunfang was also startled, are there really so many fish?

(End of chapter)