Chapter 210: If this family is to develop, it can't be done without me

In the afternoon, when Tao Dayong came to find Li Long to set the nets, Li Jianguo and the others hadn't returned yet. Li Long didn't bother with it. After giving Tao Dayong five yuan, the two of them took the tire, the net, and the basin to the Little Haizi.

"On the Shicheng side, these ditch fish sell even better than crucian carp and common carp." Li Long said as he walked, "There are a few old workers who, when they saw those ditch fish, were so affectionate..."

"Then should we put out a few more basins tomorrow?" Tao Dayong's eyes lit up. "It's just a few handfuls of oil dregs; my family has them too!"

"Alright." Li Long felt this idea was quite reliable. "This is called adapting to market demand."

Actually, he felt that shouting that loach was good for male virility was also a reason; he remembered that most of the people buying at the time were men.

"Long Ge, do you think there will be a day when the fish in this Little Haizi are all caught by us?" Tao Dayong suddenly became worried. "Catching so many every day..."

"What are you thinking about?" Li Long smiled. "Do you know how many fish are in this Little Haizi?"

"I don't know." Tao Dayong said honestly, then looked at Li Long, wanting Li Long to give him a precise answer.

"I don't know either." Li Long gave Tao Dayong an unexpected answer. "But you should know that the small crucian carp in spring have roe by autumn, right? Even common carp have roe after two years. What about these ditch fish? They have roe in the second year..."

"Mhm, I know that. Many of the ditch fish we took back yesterday had roe."

"Then you should know that crucian carp lay at least thousands of eggs at a time, and other fish are about the same. Even if one percent can grow up... you calculate it, how many more fish can there be in a year? Of course, every time the Little Haizi releases water, many fish are washed into the fields, but more big fish are smart and hide in the reeds of the Little Haizi and don't come out."

"Mhm, I've seen it too. In the fields where water is released, the biggest fish are just big crucian carp; big common carp and silver carp are rare, and I haven't seen any five-striped black fish."

"Right, as long as the dam of this Little Haizi doesn't collapse, and as long as it's not the whole team coming over to catch fish, these fish won't be caught to extinction..."

"No wonder you asked the team leader to connect the dry ditch and the dry canal..." Tao Dayong suddenly realized. "It was just to keep the flood from washing away the Little Haizi? The Little Haizi is so big, can a flood wash it away?"

"Then you haven't seen a big flood." Li Long thought about the astonishing flood in two years and sighed. "Being prepared is always better than not being prepared, right?"

"Mhm, mhm. Many people know about this, and they even say you're a fool, spending your own money to assign work for the team, and you didn't get anything..."

"Didn't get anything?" Li Long smiled. "Just watch. As long as those works can keep the Little Haizi from collapsing, I can make you earn one thousand yuan from the Little Haizi in three years. Do you believe it?"

One thousand yuan!

Tao Dayong's eyes lit up instantly!

A bicycle is less than two hundred; one thousand yuan is five bicycles, or ten sewing machines, ten pigs...

Such a large sum of money!

The two of them walked all the way to the Little Haizi, and Tao Dayong still hadn't recovered from Li Long's words.

Li Long sat on the tire and went into the water, first finding a suitable place to tie the basin, filling it with water, sinking it down, and then going to set the nets.

Li Long knew that setting nets shouldn't always be in one place. Although fish swim in schools, if fish are caught in a certain place and struggle there, they will leave traces, and the fish coming later will be careful.

Don't say fish only have a seven-second memory; that's bullshit.

Fortunately, the Little Haizi is big enough, and now there aren't as many reeds as there would be twenty years later in his previous life. The waterways are crisscrossed, and there is enough space for Li Long to change the place to set nets every few days.

Tao Dayong recovered and began to practice casting the net. This casting net still needs a lot of practice; there is no other shortcut. He followed the movements of Li Qing Xia he had seen before: arranging the net, twisting his waist, exerting force, and throwing it out.

The net went out half-way, landing in a half-moon shape, feeling like one-third of a circle—better than before.

Tao Dayong was happy at first, then a bit disappointed. Sure enough, this requires talent.

Alright, continue practicing.

Li Long set the nets quickly. When he finished setting the nets and was rowing back, he saw that there were already fish jumping on some of the nets.

This was a half-kilogram silver carp, nothing interesting. Although he knew that this silver carp would definitely be dead when he took the net tomorrow, he didn't bother with it and rowed directly to the shore.

Tao Dayong cast more than a kilogram of fish, mainly small crucian carp and ditch fish.

"Long Ge, the fish are getting fewer."

"It's the fish getting smarter." Li Long smiled and said, "We are here casting nets and setting nets every day. The fish also know that there are people on the shore who want to eat them. Can they not run?"

Now the sluice gate is still releasing water. Actually, if you are interested, you can set a river-blocking net there—that is, two sticks propped up on both sides, and the net has a string of "tails" behind it. The fish washed down from the Little Haizi go directly into the net pocket, and there are reverse barbs, so they can't get out.

But this also requires having a net. The supply and marketing cooperative doesn't seem to sell river-blocking nets, and Li Long can't get one. Unless someone is watching it all the time, it's too easy for others to take the fish.

"Long Ge, can you cast two nets?" Tao Dayong said, "I want to see how you cast."

Li Long put the tire aside, took the casting net from Tao Dayong's hand, and while arranging the net, he told Tao Dayong the essentials again. These essentials were just what he had summarized himself.

Twist the waist, swing the net, release the hands in order—an irregular circle landed on the water surface, rippling a splash.

Tao Dayong was very envious—although this net cast wasn't as good as Li Qing Xia's, it was much better than his own.

"Not casting anymore, let's go back." Li Long was sweating, and his trouser legs were wet from being in the water earlier. He was in a hurry to go back and change clothes. "There's no one to eat if we cast too many fish."

"I'll take those ditch fish back." Tao Dayong said, "Yesterday I fried a bowl. My dad first said it was a waste of oil, but after it was fried, he ate most of it. I'll fry some more today..."

"Is the oil in your house enough?"

"Enough, there's still half a pot," Tao Dayong smiled and said, "When it's almost gone, I'll go to the commune to get some."

Although the commune had been changed to a township for almost half a year, everyone's habit of calling it that hadn't changed.

Returning home, Li Jianguo and the others had already returned, bringing some vegetables picked from the Liang family. Li Juan had also returned and was listening to Li Qiang excitedly talking about what happened at his grandfather's house at noon. Li Juan had an envious expression on her face.

"Xiao Long, did you buy rice and flour?" Liang Wenyu saw the rice and flour put away as soon as she entered the room and asked when she came out, "There is still some at home."

"Father and Mother are here, right? They probably ate more cornmeal in their hometown. We have the conditions here, so let's eat more fine grains. Juan and Qiangqiang also need to grow their bodies. Let's eat more fine grains during this time."

Liang Wenyu smiled and didn't say anything. She understood her brother-in-law's meaning.

"Spending money again..." Du Chunfang muttered. Although she had already accepted her eldest daughter-in-law, she still felt heartache whenever Li Long spent money.

"Mother, I bought cloth. Let sister-in-law make you a set of clothes when she has time," Li Long immediately spoke up to block Du Chunfang's words, "My sister-in-law has great craftsmanship. Make a set for Father too..."

"You bought cloth?" Du Chunfang's attention was attracted.

"Mhm, it's by the sewing machine." Li Long said. Du Chunfang immediately went over to look, and Du Chunfang followed. Li Long took out ten yuan and handed it to Li Qing Xia:

"Father, this is the money from selling ditch fish today. You take it."

"Why so much?" Li Qing Xia was puzzled. "The fish are fewer than yesterday, how can the money be more?"

"There were old workers, probably from the south, who said they hadn't eaten this loach in a long time, so they sold it all out—not a bit left. Didn't quite a lot remain yesterday?"

"Oh, oh... then I'll go with you tomorrow." Li Qing Xia felt like he was dreaming. It had only been two days, and there were almost twenty yuan in his pocket.

Twenty! How long would it usually take to save twenty?

If he could call the village back home now, he would definitely tell those old buddies that he had earned eighteen yuan in two days!

Was that about as much as he had spent playing cards in the past half year?

When Du Chunfang came out of the room, she was still muttering that Li Long had bought too much cloth.

Li Qing Xia felt his back straighten up a bit more at this time, and he said to Du Chunfang:

"If you buy too much, you buy too much; that's Xiao Long's heart. Besides, it can't just be for us, right? Shouldn't we make some for Juan and Qiangqiang? Money is earned to be spent. He cares about us, isn't it right for him to buy things for his nephew and niece?"

"Every day his eldest brother and sister-in-law take care of him, and now they have taken care of him until he is an adult, isn't it right for him to spend money? Since we are here, just listen to them, ah—every day they provide you with good food and drink, and it still can't block your mouth..."

Du Chunfang stopped talking.

!.

Liang Wenyu hurriedly smoothed things over:

"Father, Mother didn't mean that. Mother meant that Xiao Long has grown up and has a partner, so he should learn to save money to live..."

"That's right..." Du Chunfang also knew she shouldn't have talked too much and went down the slope, "He's already twenty-two..."

Li Long felt a bit wronged:

"I'm only twenty-one..."

"Nominal age!" Du Chunfang glared at him, "The hometown counts by nominal age..."

"Alright, alright, alright." Li Long smiled, "Counting by nominal age, then I have a partner, and she just started working, so we need to consolidate, right? Don't worry, I'll ask the team leader for a homestead in a few days, and then see how to build a house..."

The topic was diverted just like that.

Li Jianguo put the horse away. Here, he had also brought back a lot of bamboo shoot leaves and the like from thinning the seedlings from the Liang family, so Li Juan didn't need to go cut pig grass.

Li Long didn't let Li Juan move. He chopped it up and got the pig feed ready, putting it in the pot to boil.

There were already mosquitoes starting to appear. When boiling the pig feed, Li Long went to the edge of the yard, broke off a few stalks of mugwort, and put them under the stove. The smoke from burning them could smoke the mosquitoes away.

Now this stuff is everywhere, but in a few decades, it won't be easy to find, and you'll have to plant it specially.

While cooling the pig feed, Li Long went to get a few salted dried fish and slowly roasted them by the stove. Li Jianguo walked over, sat beside him, and said:

"Xiao Long, let me say something and see what you think."

"Brother, you say it."

"Today at Juan's grandfather's place, he said that the market is slowly opening up now, allowing people to sell vegetables. Many villages near the county town have started to change to growing vegetables. After growing them, they carry them to the county to sell, and the business is quite good."

"We are far away, it's not easy to sell." Li Long said.

"That's the logic." Li Jianguo said, "But we also have our strengths. That grain field won't move. Juan's grandfather gave me a trick, saying let me grow vegetable seeds. There will definitely be many people growing vegetables later, but the seeds supplied by seed companies are only those few types, so if we grow vegetable seeds, they will definitely sell out, and the money won't be little..."

"This is good." Li Long remembered his previous life; this path was indeed taken, and it was really quite profitable. But it hadn't been two years before Li Jianguo was gone.

"Is it really okay?"

"Of course it's okay." Li Long smiled, flipping the salted fish while saying, "Look, growing vegetables makes money now, everyone wants to grow them, right? But seeds, if they grow vegetables, there's no way to save seeds. Not just this year, next year, the year after, it's all like this."

"That county town has little land, and growing vegetables makes money, but if you grow vegetables, you can't grow anything else. We have a lot of land here. Just that five-mu vegetable sub-group land assigned to us by the team as feed land, you can separate one mu to grow sugar beets, and the rest can all be made into vegetable seed land. Selling seeds also makes a lot of money!"

"Alright, we'll do this next year..." Li Jianguo actually no longer treated Li Long as a child. Li Long had the ability to make money and the ability to lead the team's sideline team to make money, so his vision was not something an ordinary twenty-year-old young man could compare to. He was discussing with Li Long now, completely treating Li Long as an adult, which made Li Long feel quite good.

"Growing bamboo shoots, yellow carrots, cabbage seeds, all are fine." Li Long said, "Now those fancy seeds are not easy for us to get. Although many people look down on such vegetables, they are easy to store and cheap, so many people will definitely grow them..." Li Long's suggestion was exactly what was popular in later generations.

"Mhm, I thought so too. By the way, there are also green onions."

"Mhm, mhm, this is indispensable for eating." Li Long nodded.

When the two of them were discussing, they set the plan for next year's farming.

"How are the wild boars at the old horse corral?" Li Jianguo changed the topic. "By the way, and the roe deer, small deer, are they all alive?"

"The wild boars are okay, the small deer and roe deer still depend on luck." Li Long knew this stuff wasn't easy to raise and said, "They haven't really grown up yet, so I dare not say if they can make it."

"I met Junwazi today. He went to the township for a meeting and said that in May, the township is going to evaluate a batch of labor-to-riches models. Our team counts our family as a professional pig-raising household, and he reported it," Li Jianguo was a bit embarrassed, "He said that everything at the horse corral was counted."

"Then it should be counted!" Li Long's eyes lit up when he heard this. "If this is evaluated, there will definitely be a reward. The township should also have encouragement policies. Brother, this is good!"

"I just thought that the wild boars were raised by you..."

"What yours or mine? We haven't separated the family yet." Li Long interrupted him. "Isn't it all one family... Now everyone is exploring. Brother, you will definitely be evaluated. When the time comes, our family must build a big pen..."

"I thought so too. Keep a sow in autumn, and find a boar to mate next year. Then we can raise more." Li Jianguo also had his own plan.

"Then sugar beets and such still need to be planted." Li Long followed this line of thought, "Otherwise, pig feed will be a big deal... We can plant some melon seeds, the melon seeds can be sold, and the melon can be fed directly to the pigs."

"That works too." Li Jianguo nodded, "The pigs also eat that, it seems the melon peel is also a medicinal material..."

The two of them were imagining the future in front of the stove.

"Little Uncle, the fish is burnt!" Li Qiang had been paying attention to the salted fish and suddenly opened his mouth to remind him.

Li Long looked down and saw that the fish was indeed a bit burnt. He hurriedly pulled the fish out and then laughed out loud.

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 211 =====