Chapter 55

Tao Daqiang appeared again, and Li Long was a bit surprised, but thinking about it, it was normal.

He just took a look and went to Li Jianguo's side to help his brother pick up the fish.

At this time, Li Juan and Li Qiang had already collected a large pile of reeds, and Li Qiang shouted:

"Uncle, light the reeds!"

"Are you cold?" Li Long asked, "If you're not cold, don't light them yet. By the way, move that pile of reeds away from the reed bushes, otherwise, it will cause a fire."

"Okay." Li Qiang obediently went to move those reeds, and at this time, Tao Daqiang had already arrived at the old ice hole.

"Splash!" Li Jianguo pulled out another net, and this net caught two large crucian carp and seven or eight small crucian carp and loach. It seemed that there really weren't many fish here anymore.

Logically speaking, there weren't many places in the entire reservoir for air to penetrate, so the fish shouldn't be that smart. Li Long couldn't quite figure it out; was it because there was a lot of movement here?

Tao Daqiang bent down to pick up fish with Li Long, and Li Long asked:

"Is your brother okay?"

"He was beaten up, and his waist is a bit twisted." Tao Daqiang's tone was a bit heavy, "Old Tian in the team said he needs to rest for a few days."

Old Tian was the barefoot doctor in the team, who had received training and knew how to give injections, grab Chinese medicine, and do simple massage and cupping. Of course, a "Barefoot Doctor's Manual" was inevitable.

"That's fine, anyway, there's no work recently." Li Long nodded and stopped talking.

Li Jianguo glanced at Tao Daqiang and continued to bend down to scoop fish.

"Brother Jianguo, I'll pay back the money I borrowed from you later." Tao Daqiang said.

"Don't pay it back; I used the money you kept with me to make up for it." Li Long added, "Just right, now neither of us owes the other."

Tao Daqiang felt that there was another meaning in Li Long's words, but he didn't quite understand it, just saying:

"Brother Long, the money I kept wasn't that much..."

"It was enough. You ran with me a few times; I couldn't let you suffer a loss. Don't worry, it was enough."

Tao Daqiang's lips moved, and he didn't speak again.

He felt that Brother Long was distancing himself from him.

But what could he do? At that time, on one side was his father and brother, and on the other was Li Long. Which side to choose?

"Brother, I'll go scoop over there; I guess no fish dare to come over to this ice hole." Li Long waited for Li Jianguo to scoop another net, and when it only contained one white carp of over one kilogram and a dozen small crucian carp, he said.

"Okay." Li Jianguo handed the scoop net to Li Long and climbed up, pressing his hands on the ice.

Li Long arrived at the other ice hole, stepped firmly after going down, and started scooping fish.

Anyway, knowing there wouldn't be many fish, his movements were a bit bigger. The first net had a little surprise: one "five-striped black" of over one kilogram, one bighead carp of nearly three kilograms, and seven or eight loach.

Tao Daqiang squatted down to pick up fish, and Li Qiang and Li Juan also came to help.

It continued until lunchtime. Li Long finally ran to the two newly broken ice holes and scooped two nets each, but only got twenty or thirty small crucian carp and loach, and no big fish. He knew he had to wait until the afternoon.

The morning harvest was about twenty kilograms of fish, with twelve or thirteen kilograms of big fish and seven or eight kilograms of small fish. Usually, this would be a big harvest, but if it were to be sold, it was still a bit short.

Carrying the fish and tools, they walked back. On the way, Li Juan and Li Qiang kept talking, while the three adults were silent.

When they arrived at the Li house, Tao Daqiang said first:

"Uncle Jianguo, Brother Long, I'm going back first."

"Eat at home?" Li Jianguo said politely.

"No, I'll eat at home." Tao Daqiang left with big strides, as if afraid Li Long would force him to stay.

Lunch was rice, stewed fish, and a stir-fried pickled vegetable wild boar meat. This meal, which seemed very rich in normal times, was now considered home-cooked in the Li family. If it were told, I don't know how many people would be envious. Washing hands and eating, the two children shoveled rice into their mouths. Although the team grew rice, the amount of rice distributed to the family wasn't much, so eating rice was also rare.

Li Jianguo asked Li Long while eating:

"What do you think about Daqiang's matter?"

"What's wrong with Daqiang?" Liang Yuemei asked suspiciously.

"Just now when we were scooping fish, he came over to help."

Liang Yuemei didn't speak and looked at Li Long. The final decision on this matter was with Li Long.

"If he wants to come and help, I naturally welcome it." Li Long thought for a while and said, "Some things are even more convenient for him to follow me—for example, going to Shicheng to sell fish, at least he can help me watch the horse cart. I wouldn't be at ease with anyone else.

Of course, later I won't share money with him like before; it will be calculated as wages for each time he works."

Li Jianguo understood. Before, Li Long treated Tao Daqiang as a partner; now, it was the relationship between a shopkeeper and a clerk.

He nodded; his younger brother's decisiveness was still quite strong.

!.

It was good to do this; at least he didn't have to worry about his brother suffering a loss in the future.

Honestly speaking, Tao Daqiang didn't do anything wrong—people have to distinguish between close and distant relationships. He chose his father and brother over Li Long, which was very normal and reasonable. It was estimated that ninety-nine percent of people would choose this way.

Li Long certainly understood; if it were him, he would choose this way too.

But Li Long had his own position. He couldn't maintain the previous relationship just because Tao Daqiang did the right thing; that was impossible.

This matter had nothing to do with right or wrong, only with position.

Li Long couldn't have the same relationship with him as before. After all, there was one choice; if there were major things in the future, would another choice be needed?

And Tao Daqiang's strength, size, and personality made Li Long not need to worry too much when using him for help. Daqiang was much stronger than Ermao, or even Xu Haijun and Huang Siping.

Knowing Li Long's thoughts, Li Jianguo didn't say anything more and started eating rice in big mouthfuls.

Fish soup with rice—although it wasn't very good for the stomach, the taste was really good!

After eating, Li Juan and Li Qiang were tired from playing and went to sleep on the heated brick bed. Li Jianguo and Li Long rested for a while, then took their tools and walked toward Xiao Haizi.

As soon as they left the courtyard gate, they saw Tao Daqiang wandering outside the courtyard. Li Long said with a smile:

"Daqiang, why don't you come in?"

"I... I just came."

Li Long didn't expose this not-so-clever lie and greeted him to walk toward Xiao Haizi together.

In the afternoon, the two new ice holes started to produce fish. Although it wasn't much at one time, with four ice holes taking turns, they scooped up more than sixty kilograms of fish in an afternoon, most of which were big fish.

Li Long estimated that there were more than twenty fish over two kilograms, while there were fewer over one kilogram, about five or six, and the remaining small fish were about ten kilograms. The biggest one was still a bighead carp, over five kilograms.

Dividing the fish into two bags, the three of them brought them back to the Li house together. This time, Tao Daqiang didn't refuse Li Long's invitation and entered the Li house to drink fish soup.

"Daqiang, I'm going to Wucheng tomorrow. My brother will catch fish; if you have time, come over."

"Okay." Tao Daqiang was a bit surprised to hear this, but he still agreed readily.

Li Long had already confirmed that he was going to Wucheng tomorrow. Now, going to Wucheng meant going to Shicheng to take a bus, because there was no bus between this county and Wucheng. Fortunately, the departure time of this bus wasn't particularly early, twelve o'clock. Li Long estimated that leaving at eight o'clock in the morning would basically be in time.

Thank you Brother Fa for the reward again, thank you book friend 20230401012332143 for the reward, thank you for everyone's monthly tickets, recommendation tickets, and various suggestions and opinions. The SMS for the second round of recommendations has arrived, so I can continue to code with peace of mind. Also, I'd like to ask, should both chapters be posted around midnight, or is it better to have one chapter at midnight and one at nine o'clock like now?

(End of chapter)