Chapter 208: More Thugs on the Streets: Selling Fish Now Requires Carrying Weapons

The next day, Li Long and Tao Daqiang went out to retrieve the nets; unable to sleep, Li Li Qing Xia followed along.

Although he could not personally sell that basin of fish today, just looking at them made him happy.

This time, Li Long entered Little Little Haizi himself to fetch the nets; with eight large-meshed nets, big fish were certain to be caught, and he worried Tao Daqiang might get knocked into the water by a fish again, which would not be worth it.

Upon reaching the head of the first net, just as Li Long untied the rope fastened to the reeds, he heard something splashing in the water not far ahead; lifting the net rope, he saw the splashing creature beneath the mesh.

They had caught a fish.

Li Long felt a surge of excitement but suppressed it, slowly hauling in the net.

Over a distance of more than ten meters, by the time he reeled the net in, Li Long saw a grass carp over half a meter long entangled in the mesh, struggling occasionally in vain.

It was not a carp; feeling somewhat disappointed, Li Long bent down, used the gathered net to slowly wrap the fish tight, and then lifted it up.

The grass carp began to struggle violently, but Li Long had already pinched its gills and mouth, quickly stuffing it into a urea sack.

This was a net with four-and-a-half-finger meshes; the grass carp weighed about five or six kilograms. Li Long continued hauling forward, and soon finished retrieving this net; besides some large crucian carp, two silver carp were caught on the mesh—one flower silver carp and one white silver carp, each weighing around two or three kilograms, not particularly large.

For the first five or six meters of the second net, there was no movement at all, but soon Li Long spotted a yellow-red shadow rising and sinking there; he immediately loosened his pull on the net line, paddled twice with his oar, and upon drawing near, saw it was a carp of about three kilograms, its head and tail yellow-red, its body looking very fat and broad; it must have struggled fiercely, leaving the net in a complete mess.

Li Long smiled; this fish was excellent!

Following his old method, he directly wrapped the fish round after round with the net, and once certain it could not escape, reached into the water, lifted it from below, and just as it neared the surface, hooked his fingers into the fish's gills—

"Slap!"

The fish's tail whipped up violently; Li Long, having anticipated this, leaned back to dodge the strike while simultaneously lifting the fish and stuffing it into the sack.

The catch from these two nets alone had already filled one urea sack.

On the shore, Li Li Qing Xia, following Tao Daqiang's directions, had already retrieved the fishing basin.

Today's catch was not as abundant as yesterday's; he did not know whether the location was wrong or if there was a problem with the bait inside.

When Li Li Qing Xia brought the basin ashore, he felt somewhat disappointed and said to Tao Daqiang:

"This basin of fish has four or five kilograms less than yesterday..."

The basin was placed on the shore, and hearing considerable commotion from within, Li Li Qing Xia suddenly cheered up:

"Not bad, not bad; although there are fewer fish, listening to them, they are swimming vigorously, so they should all be alive, and live fish fetch a good price!"

Tao Daqiang nodded vigorously in agreement, still amazed by Li Li Qing Xia's superb water-treading skills; when would he ever acquire such technique?

Today, Li Long took longer than usual to retrieve the nets; from the shore, one could occasionally see water splashing wildly over there, suggesting quite an intense struggle.

As Li Long slowly rowed back, dragging four urea sacks, Li Li Qing Xia could not help but call out:

"Xiao Long, do you need me to swim over and help you?"

"No need, no need; it's mainly because the duckweed has grown thick, making rowing more tiring, but it's manageable. Father, please don't come over; there are many water mites in the water, and getting bitten is troublesome."

The so-called duck mites and chicken mites mentioned here are parasites on animals, similar to grass mites but also resembling bedbugs; chicken mites grow on chickens or in the cracks of chicken coops, feeding on blood, and a single bite on a human causes itching and pain, and can transmit diseases.

Duck mites are similar but grow in the water; when people swimming or catching fish in the water get bitten, it usually results in a large red bump that is red, itchy, and painful; often, people cannot resist scratching until they break the skin, leading to infection and ulceration.

Tao Daqiang threw a rope with all his might, landing it beside Li Long; Li Long grabbed the rope and was pulled ashore by Tao Daqiang.

"Are there many fish? Are there many big fish?" Li Li Qing Xia asked.

"Quite a lot; there are four or five large carp weighing two or three kilograms each. Father, take a few to Uncle Liang's house today. By the way, Daqiang, you also take two back to eat; these fish look truly beautiful..."

"I won't take any." Tao Daqiang waved his hand. "The fish look beautiful but do not taste good at all; they are not even as good as small crucian carp... I'll take some ditch fish back to fry and eat."

Li Long smiled.

At one time, Tao Daqiang was someone who could not even get a hot meal when returning home; now he could eat fried fish—how wonderful.

"Today we also caught something rare: a water hen!" Li Long said with a smile. "It's alive; once we take it out of the net, we'll give it to Qiangqiang to play with."

The three of them carried their respective loads, chatting and laughing as they returned.

Back at the Li family home, while they were cleaning the fish, Li Qiang immediately spotted the water hen struggling on the net, shouted, and lunged forward, only to let out an "Ah!" and flee.

He had been pecked by the water hen; clutching his hand, his face wore an expression ready to cry.

If so many people had not been present, he might well have burst into tears.

The water hen is a rather peculiar type of bird; its claws lack webbing, yet it is an excellent swimmer; in summer, there are many of these creatures in Little Little Haizi, even more than wild ducks.

In his previous life, Li Long had looked up information; the water hens here were a species of bird called the little grebe (piti), aquatic birds that liked to eat small fish and shrimp, smaller than wild ducks.

The one entangled in Li Long's net was an adult; its peck was very painful. He remembered that in his previous life, when setting nets in Little Little Haizi during June and July, he often entangled small water hens; these creatures were impatient, struggling fiercely when caught, and many small water hens, entangled for too long, ended up killing themselves.

"Qiangqiang, this water hen belongs to you. I'll untie it; you decide whether to play with it or cook and eat it—it's up to you, so you can take your revenge." Li Long went to untie the water hen, holding it by the head to avoid being pecked—its beak was sharp.

After tying the water hen's two feet together so it could not move, Li Long tossed it against the wall, effectively handing it over to Li Qiang.

Li Qiang was overjoyed; he ran up to the water hen, squatted down, and cautiously observed the creature.

Li Long could tell that Li Qiang did not intend to eat the water hen anytime soon, so he stopped paying attention to it and focused on sorting the fish.

Since they needed to take the big fish to the Liang family, Li Long was very careful while sorting, trying not to scrape off their scales, which made his actions somewhat slower.

"You can pick a few of these carp to take." After sorting, there were five large carp meeting the criteria; Li Long said while packing the other fish into urea sacks, "There are quite a few big fish today; if we put them in the large basin now, they can stay alive a bit longer." "Taking two is enough," Liang Yuemei said. "We cannot eat more, and we have no place to keep them." She was speaking the truth.

Since Li Jianguo was going yesterday, they had to bring not only fish but also some meat and wine; this already constituted a very fine gift.

The meat was all hunted by her younger brother-in-law, but he never asked how much to take; asking would only result in them giving even more—he had delivered fresh, live meat to the Liang family more than once.

"Take a few more; the carp are beautiful, and take some large crucian carp as well," Li Long thought for a moment and said. "If you cannot eat them all, you can give some to relatives; Uncle Liang's side has helped us considerably over these past few years."

His words were meant for his father and mother to hear; although it slightly boosted his parents' face, what he said was the truth.

They kept two large carp and seven or eight large crucian carp; Tao Daqiang took two kilograms of ditch fish, and Li Long packed the rest into three sacks, still covering the top with two layers of burlap, before setting off out of the village with Li Juan.

Li Juan had not ridden in her uncle's cart for several days; once seated, she opened her floodgates, chattering incessantly all the way.

Li Long responded occasionally, feeling quite pleased; at least they were not traveling in silence with heads bowed.

Upon reaching the primary school, he dropped Li Juan off; watching her walk into the school with her head held high amidst the envious gazes of her classmates, Li Long smiled and continued on his journey.

Since there were many fish today, he planned to go to Shicheng to sell them; the customer flow there was large, and fish sold quickly.

Otherwise!

With the sixty or seventy kilograms of fish he was carrying today, plus those ditch fish, he might not even be able to sell them all at the county town's morning market.

Arriving at the courtyard to fetch basins and a scale, he rode all the way to Shicheng; by the time he arrived, the sun had already risen.

Upon reaching the area of Old Street, Li Long slowed down, observing left and right; to his surprise, at the prime spot of the Sanchalukou intersection, a vendor was packing up, and judging by the basket in his hand, Li Long guessed he must have been selling eggs.

Since the man hadn't fully risen yet, Li Long quickly rode over and claimed the spot before another vendor could move their goods there.

"Thanks," Li Long said to the vendor. "I happen to be planning to sell fish."

"Haha, this is an excellent spot," the original vendor said with a laugh. "Lots of passersby, sells fast. Alright, I'm off!"

Li Long first propped up his bicycle to hold the position; as the vendor finished packing and left, he set down three basins and began pouring out the fish.

Before he could even call out, people had already gathered around.

"How much for the fish?" someone asked, squatting down immediately while reaching out a hand.

"Don't touch, don't touch!" Li Long saw the other party about to handle them and immediately stopped them. "These fish are still alive; if you poke around and kill them, it won't be good. Tell me which one you want, and I'll scoop it out. Loach is eight mao, small crucian carp is eight mao, large crucian carp, carp, and five-striped bass are one yuan, silver carp is nine mao..."

That was a young man, looking like a hooligan; he continued reaching into the basin while saying:

"If I'm buying fish, naturally I pick them. You pick? Who knows if you'd swap a dead fish on me?"

"Take your hand out!" Li Long knew he had encountered a troublemaker; he slapped the other's hand out of the basin. If he showed weakness now, he wouldn't be able to sell any fish today. "I won't pick the wrong ones for you. I've already told you how I sell; if you want to buy, then follow my rules, otherwise go somewhere else!"

Beside that young man were two others, wearing Type-65 green military uniforms and green military caps without red stars, looking at Li Long with arrogant expressions.

Li Long knew he had run into hoodlums.

He smiled.

"I think you haven't quite understood the situation yet," Li Long said. "Do you know? The gang of thieves who were hanging around here a couple of days ago were held at gunpoint by me and sent straight to prison. Are you planning to go in and try it too?"

"Blowhard, keep blowing," the person whose hand Li Long had slapped reached out to push Li Long, saying as he pushed, "Using a gun? Where's your gun? Pull it out and let me see! You hit my hand, so you'd better compensate; my hand feels uncomfortable now, and it won't heal without fifty yuan! Otherwise, you'll have to leave one of your hands behind too!"

Li Long stepped back, looked around at the others who had already retreated, not intending to buy fish but ready to watch the spectacle, and knew that this matter today would not end peacefully.

He picked up the scale, removed the weighing pan, holding the weight in one hand and the beam in the other, and said with a cold smile:

"Then come over and see whether you break my hand first, or whether I smash your legs first!"

These three hoodlums hadn't expected Li Long to be so tough, leaving absolutely no room for compromise!

They hadn't encountered just any vendor; their demands weren't high, just looking to scrape together some pocket money. Encountering Li Long, reaching out was naturally looking for trouble; otherwise, how could they have an excuse to extort money?

They just hadn't expected Li Long to give them no face whatsoever, refusing to act according to their script!

Seeing the three stunned, Li Long immediately realized they were probably new to this life of hooliganism, not seasoned veterans, so he said:

"Alright, leave, before the administrators arrive and you get caught... You've extorted quite a bit of money from others, haven't you? Just think about what those people will say when the administrators investigate!"

Threatened by Li Long like this, and seeing more and more people gathering around, the leader pointed at Li Long and threw out a harsh threat:

"Just you wait!"

Then the three of them quickly departed.

Li Long knew he had made another enemy.

Not bringing his gun today was truly a mistake!

The problem was, it was impossible to carry a gun here every day just to sell fish!

But since things had come to this, he would sell the fish first; worst case, he could just change directions and return. A true man can bend and stretch.

Although there was only one road from Shicheng to Ma County along the Ma River, there were many roads out of the city, not just this one.

However, these guys were too bold; coming directly to extort money like this, weren't they worried about being discovered and arrested by those joint-defense patrol members?

Li Long wasn't afraid of their retaliation afterward, so after scaring them off, he continued selling fish.

The other elderly men and women, the customers buying fish, seeing the troublemakers leave, still felt somewhat hesitant.

Knowing these people had concerns, Li Long began calling out loudly again; while hawking, he also reminded them a few times:

"Whichever one you fancy, I'll get it for you; don't reach your hands in! I just beat off three of them; if too many hands go in, the fish will die, and if others can't eat fresh live fish, the loss is everyone's!

Loach and crucian carp are eight mao, large crucian carp, carp, and five-striped bass are one yuan, silver carp is nine mao, fresh live wild fish!"

"This loach? Isn't this a flower loach? Come to think of it, having been here so long, I really haven't eaten loach much! Here, weigh out three yuan's worth for me; I haven't had this fish in so long... I've been craving it!"

"Good, good, good, Uncle, you really know your stuff; its scientific name is Gaoshan Loach, very fresh, and it can even boost vitality! Here, this is three yuan's worth, the scale is tipped high; did you bring a basin? Perfect, perfect!"

Business had opened!

(End of Chapter)