Chapter 389: This path is truly not one that just anyone can walk

Upon hearing Yang Yongqiang's words, Li Long turned his head and pulled a club from the horse-drawn carriage, asking:

"Where?"

"Brother Long, Brother! The person has already run away..." Yang Yongqiang hadn't expected Li Long to react so intensely, so he immediately blocked him and said:

"I was just selling fish, and there were quite a few people wanting fish. I remembered you saying to keep an eye out when it's crowded, so I saw someone going to steal someone else's wallet. I gave a shout of warning, and that thief ran off. I didn't expect that a while later, when there were fewer people, he would bring another person over to find trouble with me. I picked up a brick and fought with them, and I also shouted that they were thieves, so the people nearby helped me. I knocked one over, and the market administrator came over and took him away... I just scraped a bit of skin on my face, it's nothing."

After listening, Li Long calmed down. He handed the club to Yang Yongqiang and said:

"Then don't go back over there. You stay here; we're selling fish quickly here too. When Tao Daqiang comes over later, we'll all be together."

That was alright; those buying fish hadn't stood by idly, which made Li Long feel good—the grit of the people in the Corps was still very strong, after all, they were all veterans or the descendants of veterans.

"No need, no need, it sells fast over there," Yang Yongqiang said. "They've already caught one, I don't think anyone will bother me again."

"Then take the club with you," Li Long said, handing the club to him. "Having something by your side is always better than being empty-handed."

Yang Yongqiang didn't refuse this; having a weapon in his hand always made him feel a bit more at ease.

Under Li Long's reminder, Yang Yongqiang wiped the blood off his face. Only then did Li Long see a patch of scraped skin at the corner of his eyebrow. There were tiny blood vessels there, which was why it bled so much, but the actual wound wasn't big, and it had already scabbed over; it was nothing serious.

Not long after Yang Yongqiang left, Tao Daqiang also returned. He and Yang Yongqiang had been in different directions, so he hadn't seen the fight Yang Yongqiang had been in.

"Daqiang, take the club with you when you go over there," Li Long reminded him. "Yongqiang ran into a thief over there just now and had a fight, so you should be careful too."

"Mm, I know."

Tao Daqiang took the rabbits himself, and Li Long weighed fish for others here. The person buying fish looked at Li Long instructing Tao Daqiang and said with a smile:

"You aren't from Shicheng, are you?"

"No, from Maxian," Li Long said while weighing fish. "Haven't been here in a long time, didn't know it had become like this now."

"Sigh, you'll get used to it, just be more careful yourself," the fish buyer reminded Li Long after getting the fish. "They're all drifters who came over, and who knows where the root of it is, but anyway, they aren't good things."

Listening to the grumbling of this man in his fifties, Li Long knew this was likely the true feeling of most Shicheng people.

There were people coming to the carriage to buy both fish and rabbits, but not many. The advantage was that it was a steady, long-term trickle. This place wasn't considered a gathering point for crowds, so it wasn't crowded. Therefore, although Li Long had been vigilant the whole time, he hadn't noticed any pickpocketing.

It was just that he always felt someone in the distance was observing their side. He would lift his head from time to time to scan the surroundings, but there were too many people, and he couldn't pinpoint a target.

It didn't matter. Three big young men, with guns and clubs, what was there to fear?

Near noon, Tao Daqiang and Yang Yongqiang returned one after the other. The things they had taken over were already sold out.

Every time they returned, the two of them would hand the large-denomination money to Li Long. Li Long didn't have much left here either, just a few fish and one rabbit. He didn't intend to sell them, so he packed up the stall.

He made a rough estimate; this trip had sold for nearly three hundred yuan. The horse-drawn carriage was one he had brought out himself, and the capital for collecting the fish was also his own. It had been agreed beforehand to give Tao Daqiang and Yang Yongqiang wages.

Calculating by time, it was four or five days. He intended to give Tao Daqiang and Yang Yongqiang sixty each. Averaged out to each day, this money was equivalent to the income of the Liang family or the Yang family, but Tao Daqiang and Yang Yongqiang were individuals, while those were families of several brothers or fathers and sons.

So, calculated this way, it was actually quite a lot.

"Let's go, first drink a bowl of milk tea to warm up, then we'll return to the county, and we'll go to the Meat Canteen to eat mixed noodles."

Li Long led the horse-drawn carriage and took Tao Daqiang and Yang Yongqiang to the milk tea house. He discovered that besides the proprietor, there was one more young man there.

The proprietor, Ke Youmu, came over speaking with an authentic Yuzhong accent and asked:

"Three bowls of milk tea?"

"Mm, three pieces of naan, plus a dish of honey," Li Long said with a smile. "Your shop is making money, you even added a helper."

"Making money, what money," Ke Youmu said with a bitter smile. "I don't believe you can't see it, this market is a bit chaotic. I called my younger brother over to help. With two people together, if anything happens, it's easier to look out for each other."

So that was it.

Li Long shook his head slightly; it seemed there was truly some trouble here.

But it didn't matter. He was just a passerby, coming here occasionally. And more importantly, he had things in his hands sufficient to deal with big trouble, so he wasn't afraid.

After drinking the milk tea, the three of them drove the horse-drawn carriage and headed east. Maxian was ten-plus kilometers away from here, requiring over two hours. However, they were empty-handed on the return, and having sold the things and made money, everyone's pace was very light and fast.

When they walked to that patch of white poplar woods and saw the person walking very slowly in front, Li Long sighed. Why was it always this same script?

Couldn't these people change to another place, for example, near that checkpoint for inspection?

That would save a lot of trouble!

"Take the clubs," Li Long said to Tao Daqiang and Yang Yongqiang. "I suspect those two groups of people in front are highly likely to be blocking us to rob us of our money. So, if a fight really breaks out later, don't hold back."

The people in front were walking forward, two in a group, two in a group, four people, ten-plus meters apart. Their pace was slow, and Li Long and the others slowly caught up.

A large truck drove over from the east. Li Long watched as the truck drove very fast, kicking up the snow powder on the ground, which filled the air.

The large truck passed the two groups of people, and after passing the horse-drawn carriage, it drove far away. The two groups of people stopped, and then turned around to look at Li Long and the others.

The two groups began to merge—Li Long's slight doubt was also dispelled.

When they drove the horse-drawn carriage close to them, Li Long saw the weapons in their hands.

Daggers, short knives, steel pipes, and iron rulers.

Seeing that Li Long and the three of them were all holding clubs, these four people were a bit stunned.

Attack or not? Obviously, the other side was also prepared. Four against three, could they win?

After all, Li Long and Tao Daqiang both looked tall and sturdy; a height of one meter eighty was still very intimidating at this time.

"Brother Long, the one on the far right is the one who hit me!" Yang Yongqiang suddenly spoke up, which made Li Long, who was still a bit hesitant, make a decision.

"Attack, fight!" Nothing more to say!

Abandoning the horse-drawn carriage and letting Seventy-Six walk forward on its own, the three of them rushed over holding their clubs.

What greatly surprised Li Long was that one of the four people saw Li Long and the others rushing over and turned around and ran!

Damn it, what is this?

Ten minutes later, Li Long and the three of them caught up to Seventy-Six, who was walking forward leisurely.

"Damn it, that kid was really ruthless. I hit him with three club strikes, and he stubbornly endured the club and gave me one back," Yang Yongqiang said, rubbing the crook of his left arm and baring his teeth in complaint.

"I'm alright," Tao Daqiang said with a simple smile, not looking at all like the person who had just beaten one of them until their nose was bruised and face swollen. "After a few hits, he begged for mercy."

Li Long counted the money searched from the three people.

Yes, three people. The one who ran first ran very fast, and they didn't catch him.

Twenty-seven yuan.

"Nine yuan per person," Li Long smiled. "Fighting a battle and still being able to make money, not bad." He divided the money, and then gave Tao Daqiang and Yang Yongqiang sixty each from the money earned on this trip:

"This money counts as your share for this trip. Are we doing it again when we go back?"

"Doing it!" Yang Yongqiang held the sixty-nine yuan, feeling that he was one step closer to his goal. "Making so much in these few days, of course we're doing it!"

"Aren't you afraid the next robbers will be more ruthless?"

"Hey, Brother Long, I saw it, there's a Five-Six Semi-Automatic pressed under the bag!" Yang Yongqiang had sharp eyes. "I don't believe they won't be afraid of this thing if they really come next time?"

Alright, smart guy!

Tao Daqiang cautiously stuffed the money into the inner pocket of his clothes, and patted it again, only then feeling at ease.

"When we go back later, the three of us will go to the courtyard and sweep the snow," Li Long said. "Xiaoxia is alone over there, and she has to go to work, so she doesn't have time to sweep the snow."

"Alright!" Tao Daqiang and Yang Yongqiang both nodded in agreement.

When they returned to the county, it was already afternoon. Li Long and the others went to the Meat Canteen to eat. Manager Zhong happened to be there. Seeing Li Long, he hurriedly came over and took out ten yuan and handed it to him:

"It was too early this morning, I hadn't started work yet. As soon as I arrived, I heard you had delivered fish. Comrade Little Li, you delivered this fish very timely."

"Haha, just happened to have some," Li Long smiled.

Zhong Guo Qiang didn't disturb Li Long and the others while they were eating, but just went to the back hall and told them to add a bit more ingredients to the oil-splashed meat stir-fry for the three of them.

When the noodles and meat were brought up, Li Long habitually said to the waiter:

"Add six noodles."

"No, no, no, add five," Yang Yongqiang said while pouring the dish onto the plate. "I'll add one, you guys can add two if you can. I see there's quite a lot of this dish, one noodle addition is enough for me."

In this day and age, the appetite of young people was shockingly large, mainly, of course, because their fat accumulation wasn't enough. In the words of later generations, it was because the food they usually ate lacked oil. Even for a family like the Li family that often ate meat, it couldn't be compared to later generations. After all, the ingredients were still relatively monotonous.

"There's more dish and meat today than usual," Tao Daqiang said in a low voice. "It must be that the manager and Brother Long know each other, so he told the back hall to give us special care," Yang Yongqiang said vaguely while eating noodles.

After finishing the noodles and drinking the soup, they wiped their mouths and went out. The three of them drove the horse-drawn carriage back to the courtyard. The door was locked, obviously Gu Xiaoxia hadn't finished work yet.

A portion of the snow in the courtyard had been cleared, but most of it remained in place. Gu Xiaoxia left early and returned late, so she truly didn't have much time to sweep the snow.

The three of them immediately began to act. In less than an hour, the snow in the courtyard was cleared clean, and the sun was also about to set.

The time was still early, not yet seven o'clock.

"Let's go back," Li Long said. "See if we can make it back to the team before dark."

Two hours later, Li Long had already returned to the horse pen.

Today had been spent entirely on the road and being busy. The mixed noodles in the afternoon were quite solid, and he wasn't hungry yet. He drove the horse-drawn carriage back to his eldest brother's house, then returned, hurriedly washed up, and went to sleep.

Sleeping very soundly.

The next day, it spread throughout the team. Li Long and the three of them went to Shicheng to sell fish and rabbits, and made several hundred in one trip!

Although some people knew there was an element of exaggeration in this matter, many people had seen Li Long and the others driving the horse-drawn carriage with many fish and rabbits to Shicheng. What did this explain? It explained that fish sold fast in Shicheng!

And so, some people were moved.

!.

The father and son of the Zhao family immediately went to find others—they didn't look for the three Liang brothers. The fish of these three brothers were definitely intended to be sold to Li Long. Although they were three brothers, their courage was so small that the Zhao father and son looked down on them a bit.

Of course, they only said it in private; it couldn't be mentioned on the surface.

So on the second day, when Li Long took Tao Daqiang and the others to smooth out the rabbit snares, Yang Yongqiang spoke of the situation he knew.

"The day after tomorrow, Old Man Zhao and his son, plus the two Qiao brothers, are preparing to drive the fish to Shicheng to sell."

"Don't worry about them, the Shicheng market is big, their fish definitely won't be hard to sell, it won't affect us."

"Then what about us?" Yang Yongqiang asked.

"Stagger it by a day," Li Long said. "See how much we can collect from fishing these two days, we need to get more fish to sell."

This trip had a gross profit of three hundred. One hundred and twenty was divided between Tao Daqiang and Yang Yongqiang, and he had one hundred and eighty left. Subtracting the fifty for collecting fish, there was one hundred and thirty left, and giving thirty to his eldest brother, he finally had one hundred left.

It really wasn't much.

This made Li Long feel that his speed of making money was a bit slow.

Last year wasn't like this—last year there had been several large transactions. Could he go and inquire about it this year?

Li Long suddenly thought that he hadn't gone to get sugar dregs in a long time. This thing existed in winter too. Should he go and pull a cart of sugar dregs back after selling the fish next trip, and by the way, ask the sugar factory if they needed to get some New Year goods like last year?

Having settled this matter, Li Long set his mind and began to smooth out the snares.

This trip still had quite a harvest of rabbits, eleven. Not as many as the last time, after all, it had been a while since the snow finished falling, the rabbits' range of activity had increased, and there were fewer in this place.

Carrying the rabbits back to the horse pen, the three of them went to Little Haizi again.

Uncle Lao Luo processed the rabbits, and he wasn't impatient at all—with meat to eat, who could complain about work being tiring?

This was something others couldn't even dream of.

If he didn't do anything himself, then eating would be what made him feel uneasy!

When Li Long and the others went to Little Haizi, there were already people there scooping fish.

As expected, the two ice holes Li Long and the others had smashed had traces of having been used—when they were selling fish yesterday, others had come.

This was very normal.

Li Long and the others smashed the thin ice on top and began to work. The sun set, and they finished work. What surprised him a bit was that the Zhao father and son and the Qiao brothers hadn't returned, obviously intending to continue scooping fish.

It seemed they were preparing for going to Shicheng to sell fish the day after tomorrow.

They were truly quite driven.

Li Long and the others entered a regular life in these two days. In the morning, they got up to smooth out the rabbit snares, then went to Little Haizi to smash ice holes and scoop fish. In the evening, they returned to weigh the fish sent by the three Liang brothers and others.

What surprised Li Long and the others a bit was that as the temperature dropped step by step, the fish scooped every day increased. Although it wasn't like last year when they could scoop fifty or sixty or seventy or eighty kilograms a day, the highest day they got forty-plus kilograms of fish, which was also a lot.

According to this, on the second day after Old Man Zhao and the others went to Shicheng to sell fish, Li Long and the others could set off for Shicheng again.

"These fish must be separated and frozen one by one before being put into the bags, otherwise the frozen fish will form a big lump and it won't be easy to sell later." In the evening, after collecting the fish, Li Long was dismantling the fish, and while dismantling, he was telling Tao Daqiang and Yang Yongqiang.

The fish collected were of all sizes, but there were no crucian carp that were too small, which showed that the Liang brothers had picked through them.

Quite good, they could continue to cooperate in the future.

In these two days, the fish scooped up by the Liang brothers had also increased, and they could send thirty or forty kilograms of fish every day. Li Long guessed that if the small fish they picked out were added, the three brothers could get fifty or sixty kilograms of fish a day.

Twenty-plus yuan a day, very impressive.

Currently, there were only these few families on Little Haizi. Li Long felt that in a few more days, when Old Man Zhao and the others returned from selling fish in Shicheng, I'm afraid the people smashing ice holes would increase.

Next year, the fish in Little Haizi would be even fewer—this was also normal.

After a few more years, when the market stabilized and everyone planted more land, they wouldn't rely on this Little Haizi to make money anymore. By then, this Little Haizi would recuperate, and it would still be able to recover.

Should he wait for an opportunity to contract Little Haizi, and then set up a vacation manor or something?

Forget it, there would be no profit for a while, after all, there were too few people coming here.

Putting away his wandering thoughts, he dismantled the fish, and then classified and packed them in bags. Li Long said to Tao Daqiang and Yang Yongqiang:

"Let's wait one more day, and set off the day after tomorrow. Today the Zhao family went to Shicheng to sell fish and returned, they should have sold for quite a lot of money. But we don't envy them either. We'll get more fish to sell the day after tomorrow, and we'll divide more money then."

Tao Daqiang and Yang Yongqiang knew that what Li Long said was the truth, and they both smiled.

The next day, after smoothing out the rabbits, they had changed the location of the snares after smoothing them out yesterday. Today, they retrieved fifteen rabbits. There were nearly forty rabbits accumulated in these few days, which was enough.

When smashing the ice holes, Li Long was a bit surprised not to see the Zhao father and son.

Could it be that they were tired from selling fish, so they were resting today?

"The Zhao family didn't go out today," Yang Yongqiang explained. "Someone went to their house to visit, and said they had a cold and were afraid of infecting others, so neither Old Man Zhao nor his son appeared."

Li Long became suspicious now. I'm afraid this wasn't just being tired, right?

Could it be...

He felt it definitely shouldn't be a cold. Perhaps, something had happened.

Logically, it shouldn't be, right? After all, it wasn't just two people.

That day, Li Long and the others scooped thirty-plus kilograms of fish. The biggest one was a bighead carp weighing over seven kilograms, which Tao Daqiang had scooped up.

Li Long had thought about letting him take the fish back to cook and eat, but Tao Daqiang refused, saying it was better to sell it.

Li Long thought to himself that such a big fish, it wasn't certain someone would want it.

However, since Tao Daqiang didn't want to sell it, then take it along. If it could be sold, sell it; if it couldn't be sold, then talk about it later.

That evening, the few of them packed up the fish, and Li Long went to pull the horse-drawn carriage over beforehand. The horse was put in the pen, the carriage was set up, and the things were packed—this time Li Long directly added the shed boards on all four sides, which was convenient for loading sugar dregs after selling the fish.

For this, he even let Tao Daqiang and Yang Yongqiang put on dirty trousers, otherwise it wouldn't be convenient to load and unload sugar dregs later.

The next day, just as the sky brightened, Tao Daqiang and Yang Yongqiang came to the horse pen. They finished breakfast here with Li Long, drove the horse-drawn carriage, braved the cold wind, and hurriedly rushed toward Shicheng.

The three of them hadn't walked even one kilometer when the brims of their cotton hats, their beards, and their eyelashes were all white.

Li Long estimated that the temperature was at least twenty-seven or twenty-eight degrees below zero now. In this weather, if it weren't for making this bit of money, who would come out?

In the team, the Zhao father and son sat in front of the table with bruised and swollen faces.

"Li Long and the others should be going to Shicheng today, right?" Old Man Zhao asked.

"They went," his son said. "Someone saw them."

"Then look at their luck..." (End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 390 =====