Chapter 39

The woman bought two fish and walked toward the building, the child shouting "eating fish today" behind her, which then attracted the curiosity of neighbors and also brought new customers to Li Long.

The people living in this residential area were all workers and their families. In this day and age, most workers were still much better off than farmers, so they had some spare money to buy fish.

Seeing people surrounding, the middle-aged man hurriedly picked a carp and a five-striped black fish, and when paying, he also said to Li Long:

"Young man, can you come again before the New Year? We will have another wage subsidy before the New Year. If you can come then, the number of people buying your fish will definitely not be small."

"Depends on the situation," Li Long smiled. "Whether fish can be caught in the lake depends on luck, I can't say."

The middle-aged man nodded to show understanding, and then left holding the fish.

There weren't many people surrounding, but most bought one or two. A middle-aged woman asked after looking at the fish:

"Young man, are there any smaller fish? This fish is too big, I can't make it taste good."

"Yes, do you want crucian carp and small gudgeon?" Li Long said. "I didn't take all the fish, I don't know if they can be sold, there is also a big variegated carp of ten kilograms."

"Then take it over, I'll wait for you here," the middle-aged woman said, and retreated to the side.

Li Long responded. After others picked the fish and paid, seeing there was no one else, he said, "Big sister, then you wait for me, I'll go get it immediately."

In just this little while, more than half of the dozen fish in the bag had been sold, and Li Long was in a really good mood.

He hurriedly carried the urea bag and walked out to find the horse-drawn carriage to load the fish.

Someone who heard the news rushed down, but didn't see anyone selling fish, so they asked the middle-aged woman:

"Sister-in-law Yu, did the fish seller leave?"

"No, went to get fish, I don't want big fish, want small ones, he went to get small ones."

"That's fine, I'll wait too." In this day and age, although the factory also issued benefits before the New Year, materials were truly lacking. In this big winter, the snow was so thick that many things couldn't be transported over, and it wasn't easy to run into someone buying fish.

Tao Daqiang, who was guarding the horse-drawn carriage, saw Li Long come out and hurriedly drove the horse-drawn carriage over.

"Brother Long, how is the fish selling?"

"Quite good, quite a lot of people want it. You park the horse-drawn carriage outside the family courtyard, I'll load some more fish to sell," Li Long said with a smile. "Stomp your feet if you're cold."

"I'm not cold," Tao Daqiang said with a smile. In fact, his eyebrows, eyelashes, and hair were already covered with white frost. The twelfth lunar month in this day and age was truly cold, even if wearing cotton-padded jacket and cotton-padded trousers, one could be frozen through after staying outside for a long time.

His feet were even more numb.

But what was more uncomfortable than the cold was poverty.

Seeing the hope of getting rid of poverty right now, Tao Daqiang wouldn't feel that suffering this little bit was anything no matter what.

Li Long carried a full bag of fish and entered the courtyard again. The old man guarding the gate just took a look and didn't care anymore.

There were already four or five people waiting in the courtyard. Seeing Li Long carry another full bag of fish, they hurriedly surrounded him.

"Everyone, everyone don't be anxious!" Li Long hurriedly said. "Wait for me to set up the fish, otherwise it won't be easy for everyone to pick, right?"

"Alright, young man, listen to you." Everyone gave up the position.

Li Long pulled out another urea bag from the bag, spread it flat on the ground, and started to lay out the fish one by one.

Looking at that big variegated carp weighing more than ten kilograms, several people were exclaiming:

"This fish is really big!"

"Exactly, such a big fish, I've never seen it before!"

"Young man, how to sell this big fish?"

"Nine yuan for this one," Li Long increased the price a bit, after all, he had to add shipping costs, right?

That person didn't speak. His monthly salary was less than forty, and he had to take away a quarter at once, he couldn't bear it.

The middle-aged woman who wanted small fish first looked at the crucian carp and asked: "How to sell this small crucian carp?"

"Regardless of size, one yuan for ten." In fact, the smallest crucian carp was palm-sized, and the small ones were all left at home.

"Then give me two yuan worth." As soon as the woman heard it, she knew it was actually more cost-effective than big fish, and immediately said.

"Give me two yuan worth too!" Another person immediately said.

Li Long didn't expect small fish to be easier to sell than big fish, and was quite happy, hurriedly counting fish and collecting money. These people who came to buy fish all had things in their hands, either bags or basins. After receiving the fish and calculating the money, some were in a hurry to go home to thaw the fish and prepare to cook, while others were still watching and didn't want to leave.

In less than half an hour, only that big variegated carp and two silver carp were left at the stall.

Seeing no one, Li Long simply packed up the stall, ran out hurriedly, and brought the remaining small crucian carp to set up.

Half an hour later, the small crucian carp was sold out. Just when Li Long thought that big variegated carp might have to be dragged back, a tall man in his fifties walked over with big strides.

Seeing only a big variegated carp at the stall, he frowned and asked:

"Is this the only fish left?"

"Yeah," Li Long said. "Everything else is sold out."

!.

"Then are you coming tomorrow?"

"Can't come," Li Long shook his head. "My home is far, in the countryside of Maxian, it takes half a day to go back and forth, and by the time I go back, there's no time to catch fish, it'll be three or five days before I come again."

"Alright," the man hesitated for a moment, pointed to the variegated carp and asked:

"How to sell this fish?"

"Eight yuan," Li Long didn't insist on nine yuan anymore. Previously, quite a few people asked for the price, and they didn't make a sound when they heard nine yuan.

"Cheaper, cheaper and I'll buy it," the man said. "Six yuan, how about it?"

"Seven yuan," Li Long felt that such a big fish, ten kilograms or so, selling it for six yuan was really not worth it.

"Alright," the man smiled, took out the money readily, and then carried the fish and turned out of the family courtyard.

Not from this unit?

Li Long packed up the bag and started counting money.

There were many fish brought today. Of the more than seventy kilograms of fish caught yesterday, Li Long picked and chose in the evening, leaving the carp and silver carp with smaller size less than one kilogram, and the especially small crucian carp at home. The remaining fish brought were sixty kilograms.

Except for that big variegated carp, there were nineteen big fish weighing nearly forty kilograms, and more than ten kilograms of small fish, selling for a total of forty-eight yuan and five jiao.

It really was a worker's monthly salary!

Among them, there was Tao Daqiang's fifteen yuan—Li Long calculated it based on labor, tools, and degree of effort.

He carried the bag back to the horse-drawn carriage and counted out fifteen yuan to Tao Daqiang:

"Daqiang, this is your money for today. Tomorrow you and your brother come out, will you keep this money, or save it with me, or buy things after going back?"

"I'll take five yuan, and save the rest with you," Tao Daqiang thought for a while and said. "I want to see if there are fish nets for sale at the supply and marketing cooperative, if there are, I'll buy a net too."

"Then let's look here in Shicheng, this place is big and has many materials."

"Alright," Tao Daqiang's eyes shone, a bit curious, he hadn't strolled through Shicheng yet!

The two of them drove the horse-drawn carriage to the Shicheng Department Store—Tao Daqiang didn't ask Li Long how he knew the location either. In his view, Brother Long knowing everything was as it should be.

In fact, Li Long was also very curious. What was the difference between the Shicheng Department Store in this day and age and the later generations?

Thanks to "I am a little ghost" for the reward, there will be the first round of recommendations tomorrow, a bit nervous

(End of chapter)