Chapter 37

Tao Daqiang ate dinner at the Li family's house. Li Long told him to come call him at six the next day. He responded and went home.

It was completely dark. Fortunately, the moon was quite big, and with the reflection of the snow, the road could be seen very clearly.

Entering his own courtyard, seeing the light in the house, he thought of his father's habit, so he prepared to break some coal to take into the house; he couldn't be frozen anymore.

At worst, after making money tomorrow, he would let Brother Long take him to buy some coal back. Anyway, he had to drive the horse-drawn carriage to sell fish tomorrow.

Arriving under the coal shed, Tao Daqiang was a bit surprised to see the extra coal. He thought of a possibility and immediately scooped a basket of coal and took it into the house.

Tao Jian She was still leaning on the kang smoking, and the house was full of smoke.

"Did my brother bring coal over?" Tao Daqiang asked.

"Yeah," Tao Jian She straightened his body, watched Tao Daqiang put the coal down, and pointed to the kang, saying:

"Change your clothes, sit over here and talk."

Tao Daqiang rarely saw his father so solemn, and he was a bit unaccustomed to it.

He quickly changed his clothes and sat on the kang.

"Your brother scolded your sister-in-law, sent the coal over, and said what you said made sense, that he is a member of the Tao family and must think for the Tao family. Originally, he also said he would have your sister-in-law's younger brother send the wood back, but I thought they were all relatives, so if the wood was given, it was given."

That his brother could change, Tao Daqiang was a bit surprised, but since there was a change, then if the wood was given, it was given. He nodded.

"Then in the future, you two brothers shouldn't have any more idle anger," Tao Jian She knocked on the pipe and said. "People say that if brothers are of one mind, they can break gold. Although your brother has separated the family, he is still your brother."

"I know that."

"There's one more thing. I see that you and Li family's second son catching fish to sell is quite profitable, this matter can't leave your brother behind. I'll borrow a landing net tomorrow, and in the future, you don't follow Li family's second son anymore. They are two brothers, what are you doing being stuck in the middle?"

Tao Daqiang just wanted to explain, but Tao Jian She raised a hand to stop his words:

"They are two brothers, don't you also have two brothers? You tell Li family's second son tomorrow that you won't catch fish with him in the future, and you and your brother will go. There are many fish in the small lake, it's public property, whoever catches them gets them. In the future, you two catch them, you and your brother go sell them together, and you split the money you two get equally. Take this opportunity to earn more before the New Year, and you can be more relaxed in the spring."

Tao Daqiang didn't speak.

Did what his father said make sense?

Naturally, it did. In fact, if Li Long didn't take him, he could get more money.

Taking him along was entirely because he took the initiative to cling to him. Of course, Li Long was kind-hearted and loyal, which Tao Daqiang firmly believed.

But was he willing to abandon Li Long and follow his brother to do this?

Tao Daqiang asked himself, he was resistant.

His own brother wasn't the kind of shrewd person; catching fish might be okay, but selling fish definitely wouldn't sell any good name. He followed Li Long and saw it once, and didn't see anything. Now, among rural people, how many can think of various ways so flexibly?

Most likely, they would go to sell fish, just like those people in the black market, sitting there, not even knowing how to open their mouths to shout, just waiting for people to come and ask.

However, his father's meaning was also very clear. No matter how good the Li family was, that was someone else's, and if he didn't even help his own brother, what was that?

It made him unable to say words of opposition.

At this moment, Tao Daqiang felt his mouth was bitter.

Li Long sent Tao Daqiang away and went to team leader Xu Chengjun's house.

"Coming to borrow the horse-drawn carriage?" Xu Chengjun looked at Li Long, his expression slightly awkward.

He took his brother-in-law to the mountains, but discovered that things were not as simple as he thought. The snow nearly a meter thick was completely impassable, and he didn't know which road Li Long took.

As a production team leader, he couldn't bring himself to ask Li Long about the path. So the horse-drawn carriage wasn't used again the next day, and then he let others borrow it. As a result, two days passed, and not a single family hauled a big pile of wood back, so the team's horses became idle.

"Yeah, going to the county to look around tomorrow, need to borrow the horse-drawn carriage," Li Long put three yuan and two jiao on the table. "Need to borrow it for two days."

"Sure," Xu Chengjun took the money and wrote a note. "Going to the county or to the mountains?"

"Depends on the situation," Li Long said vaguely.

Xu Chengjun knew Li Long was going to sell fish. Although the policy hadn't been completely liberalized now, he also knew that some things were not strictly managed or even not managed much at all above. There weren't many families in the entire production team with radios, and his family had one.

Listening to the policies talked about by those people on the radio, Xu Chengjun also knew that the wind direction had changed. So Xu Chengjun didn't stop Li Long and the others from going to sell fish.

Li Long took the note to find Uncle Uncle Lao Luo, and Uncle Uncle Lao Luo took the note with a smile:

"Sigh, you're still the amazing one. Those people pulled the horse-drawn carriage out, each feeling that the wood in the mountains was everywhere and could be picked up at will, but when they came back, each had a mournful face, not to mention how discouraged they were. They didn't know how to take care of the horses either, and they were exhausted!"

Uncle Uncle Lao Luo could say such things, but Li Long didn't respond, only saying he would come earlier tomorrow morning to pull the horse-drawn carriage, and Uncle Uncle Lao Luo responded.

Li Long returned home, said a word to Li Jianguo through the window, and went back to his own east room.

The next day before dawn, Li Long was woken up by Li Jianguo. After hurriedly eating breakfast, he went to the horse shed to pull the horse-drawn carriage and went to the Tao family.

!.

Tao Daqiang quickly went out and walked toward the Li family with Li Long.

Loading the fish, the two of them drove the horse-drawn carriage toward the county. After walking more than three kilometers, Tao Daqiang hesitantly told Li Long his father's meaning.

"This is a good thing," Li Long heard it and was a bit surprised. Had Tao Jian She and Tao Dayong changed their nature?

Because Tao Daqiang became "useful," the Tao family valued him?

A good thing was indeed a good thing. At least it could change Tao Daqiang's life, and it looked like it was changing in a good direction, which made Li Long sigh a bit.

"Then we..." Tao Daqiang thought Li Long would be angry, but he didn't expect Li Long to have this expression now, which made him a bit confused.

"You can rest assured and follow your brother to catch fish," Li Long thought for a while and said. "After I finish selling fish today, I'll stop for a while and prepare to go to the mountains to look around."

Tao Daqiang didn't speak.

It was clearly him who proposed to "break up," so why did he have a feeling of being abandoned when Li Long said this?

"You guys catching fish is definitely no problem," Li Long said while driving the horse-drawn carriage. "But you still have to be vigilant when selling fish. Although it's looser now, if you are careless, there are still people who will catch you.

If you see people wearing armbands coming, run quickly, even if you don't want the fish, you have to run, otherwise the fine will be quite troublesome."

Tao Daqiang listened to Li Long's words, feeling as if he were being taught secrets, and his nose felt a bit sore.

Just like this, talking and chatting, when they arrived at the county town, the sky wasn't completely bright yet.

"You stay here, I'll drag the fish over to sell," Li Long said. "I won't drag too many at once, this way it's easy to run if something happens. You stay further away, if you find the situation is wrong, drive the horse-drawn carriage toward the north of the city quickly, and after circling around, we'll meet at the Big Meat Canteen."

After seeing Tao Daqiang nod, Li Long carried over ten kilograms of fish and headed toward the black market point.

There were still quite a lot of people selling things now, but basically, they didn't talk much.

Li Long saw someone leave, immediately carried the bag to occupy the position, spread out the urea bag, and set up the fish.

It wasn't easy to eat meat in this day and age, so as soon as he set it up, someone immediately came over to ask for the price.

The opening was not bad.

(End of chapter)