Chapter 46

When Li Long left the black market with the horse-drawn carriage, Tao Dayong and Tao Daqiang were heading toward Xiaohaizi together. Meanwhile, their father, Tao Jianshe, was at home making a sled.

Everything was traceable; they just needed to follow what Li Long had done.

It felt like there was no difficulty at all.

Even when they arrived at Xiaohaizi, Tao Dayong didn't bother to break a new ice hole; he just used the one Li Long and the others had knocked out. As a result, after more than an hour, they had only caught less than ten kilograms of fish.

Tao Dayong simply went to find the ice hole belonging to the Wang family, but a few people from the Wang family arrived half an hour later and drove him back.

Tao Daqiang advised Tao Dayong:

"Brother, why don't we break our own ice hole? We've caught too many fish in this one, and the fish aren't coming anymore."

"How could fish be that smart?" Tao Dayong disagreed. "Just keep fishing here; we can catch thirty or fifty kilograms a day."

Thirty or fifty kilograms of fish was a lot. Tao Dayong didn't think he was being greedy. If one kilogram of fish sold for five mao, he could make ten, twenty, or thirty yuan—he already knew from Daqiang the price Li Long sold fish for.

Two yuan for big fish, small fish in a pile—how convenient.

It turned out making money was so simple!

The two of them didn't even go back for lunch; Tao Jianshe brought them cornmeal cakes on the sled. After eating the cakes, the father and two sons continued working until dark, catching less than forty kilograms of fish.

After returning home, according to Tao Daqiang's idea, they should keep the very small carp and silver carp under one kilogram at home, but Tao Dayong was unwilling:

"If we take these to the county, we can sell them for some money. Why keep them? If we want to eat fish, we can just go to the ice hole and catch more."

He forgot that the landing net was borrowed from someone else.

Being obsessed with money indeed makes people lose their sense of proportion. When Tao Dayong was talking, his mind was already thinking about how he had made big money, bought a bicycle, and could hold his head high in the team, in front of his wife, and at his mother-in-law's house.

Therefore, he got up early the next day, made cornmeal porridge, heated up pickles and cakes, hurriedly gulped down a few bites, and ran to his father's courtyard, urging Daqiang to hurry up and eat so they could go to the county black market together.

When they arrived at the black market, it wasn't dawn yet, and it was already bustling. As soon as Tao Dayong set up his stall, it immediately attracted some people.

After knowing the price Li Long sold fish for, he secretly decided to lower the price so he could sell them faster!

So when he said, "One yuan and five mao for big fish, one yuan for twenty small fish," the few people who were originally hesitant immediately started picking out fish.

In less than half an hour, Tao Dayong had ten yuan and five mao in his hands, and he was extremely proud!

If he had known money was so easy to make, he would have come long ago!

Tao Daqiang had originally thought about waiting in the distance, but when Tao Dayong saw that half the fish on the stall had been sold, he hurriedly waved for Tao Daqiang to come over to replenish the fish.

After Tao Daqiang came over, Tao Dayong even criticized him:

"What are you afraid of? Didn't you see that no one else cared? Now that things have opened up, no one cares!"

They didn't know yet about Gu Ermao being caught.

As dawn approached, the people around them started packing up their stalls. Most of these people knew about the joint defense team members coming to make arrests yesterday, so they tacitly didn't mention it, fearing it would attract the attention of those buying things.

Seeing many people packing up, Tao Daqiang felt something was wrong. He noticed that some people were packing up even though they had only sold half their goods, so he reminded Tao Dayong:

"Brother, those people are packing up their stalls. Should we pack up too?"

"Pack up what!" Tao Dayong had just collected a yuan and was counting it happily. "In just this little while, we've made sixteen yuan and five mao. I didn't expect it to be so profitable. Let's sell for a while longer; we've only sold half the fish..."

Tao Daqiang always felt something was wrong, and he raised his vigilance.

Sure enough, in less than ten minutes, the west side of the black market started to get chaotic, and someone shouted:

"Don't run! If you run again, we'll catch you!"

As a result of this shout, it became even more chaotic!

Tao Daqiang was tall, and he saw two people wearing red armbands catching people. He was startled, turned his head, and hurriedly said to his brother: "Brother, someone is coming to clear the stalls! Run!"

Now there were only a dozen stalls left in the black market. Although those other stall owners didn't leave, most of them were prepared. As soon as they saw people coming to make arrests, they packed up their stalls and ran into the small alleys.

Tao Dayong's confidence from just now was all gone. He was packing up the stall in a panic, still shouting at Tao Daqiang:

"Hurry up and help me load the fish onto the sled!"

"Load what? Forget the sled!" Tao Daqiang remembered Li Long's words and pulled his brother to run, but Tao Dayong couldn't bear to part with the fish and the sled, insisting on pulling it. Then, being rushed by the crowd, the two of them were separated.

By the time Tao Daqiang darted out of the alley, he could no longer see his brother's figure.

He naturally didn't know that Tao Dayong, dragging the sled—although he was only one meter sixty-something, a head shorter than his brother—was a big target. He was immediately spotted by the joint defense team members, who ran over and caught him.

By the time he wanted to abandon the sled and run, it was too late. Along with three or four other stall owners, he was taken away.

Tao Daqiang couldn't find his brother in the county town, so he had to walk back in a daze.

By the time he found out his brother had been caught and fined fifty yuan, it was already dawn.

!.

Li Long took a deep breath, feeling a bit nervous, and then turned to look at Halimu.

Halimu was also looking at him, and then he raised five fingers.

Li Long understood; this was what they had agreed upon earlier: count to five, then fire.

Turning his head back, he saw through the sight that the wild boars had quieted down, occasionally grunting and rooting in the snow for grass roots, fallen wild fruits, and pine cones to eat.

He framed that female wild boar in the sight ring again, and following the method Xu Chengjun had once taught him, he aimed and pulled the trigger!

"Bang!"

"Bang!"

The crisp sound of gunfire rang out almost simultaneously.

Li Long didn't care at all whether he had hit or not. He adjusted the muzzle slightly, aimed at the next small wild boar he had planned for, and pulled the trigger.

At a distance of seventy or eighty meters, after two shots, the surviving wild boars scattered and fled. Li Long saw the largest wild boar charging toward them and was startled. He hurriedly aimed and fired a shot at it!

The gun fired, and the wild boar fell—only then did he feel that, whether because of nervousness or excitement, he was already sweating.

Halimu raised his rifle and stood up, smiling as he said:

"Alright, two wild boars, really not bad!"

As he spoke, he walked down the mountain toward the place where the wild boars were.

Li Long clearly saw more than one bloody hole on the largest wild boar's body, and before long, a large patch of red had soaked into the snowy ground.

Only then did he realize that Halimu must have shot this one first. Catch the ringleader to catch the gang—that was probably what it meant. Once this wild boar leader was taken care of, the remaining wild boars wouldn't be a threat for a while.

Then Li Long looked at the first wild boar he had aimed at, which was now lying in the place where it had been rooting, occasionally twitching, not yet completely dead.

Li Long smiled.

(End of chapter)