Chapter 594: A Minor Interlude That Doesn't Affect the Big Picture

Sister Yang made crucian carp soup and stir-fried salted vegetables with meat for breakfast this morning. The staple food was the flower rolls steamed yesterday. Here, flower rolls are usually made with one of two fillings: either chili oil or fragrant beans. The scallion kind is rarely made in ordinary households.

They drank cornmeal porridge. Even though they often eat fine grains now, this coarse grain breakfast hasn't changed much, and everyone likes drinking it.

Making such a hearty meal with two types of soup was just Sister Yang worrying that some people might not be used to one or might want to drink both. She is used to getting up early, and by the time Li Long and Gu Xiaoxia got up and finished washing, the food was already on the table.

"Sister Yang, we'll start paying you a salary this month," Li Long said. "You're busy with all this every day; it's hard work."

"What salary?" Sister Yang's eyes widened. "My daughter and I eat here, and I can earn money myself. You didn't ask for food money or rent for letting us live here for free, so why would I take a salary for cooking? If this were back in my hometown, people would curse me if they found out."

She pointed at Han Fang and said:

"You even arranged a school for Xiao Fang and bought her clothes. Everything she wears and the schoolbag on her back were provided by you. When my Xiao Fang goes to school, people think she's the daughter of a ten-thousand-yuan household."

"Uncle, don't mention this again. It's not that I don't want money, but I have to have a conscience."

Alright then.

At this time, many people were still very simple and valued gratitude. It's estimated that if people nowadays knew that in the future there would be cases of people being extorted for helping others, they would curse the perpetrators' ancestors for eighteen generations.

Then, from now on, he would just buy more things for Sister Yang and Han Fang.

After eating, Li Long wanted to take Gu Xiaoxia to her workplace, but Gu Xiaoxia refused. The older colleagues at her unit had all gone through this, and she didn't want others to say she was delicate.

"Then walk slowly; the road is very slippery now," Li Long urged. He planned that in a while, he wouldn't let Gu Xiaoxia ride her bicycle anymore; he would have to pick her up and drop her off no matter what.

At this time, once the snow on the road was packed down and turned into ice, it was hard to clear. The snow-clearing machines of the future were nowhere to be seen. Currently, the county town wasn't small, but there weren't many units, and the courtyards of each unit were quite large, occupying a long stretch of the road.

The ice on these roads was very difficult to clear. Ma County town didn't have a large garrison, so snow and ice removal could only rely on each unit, which required a process.

Sister Yang tidied up the kitchen and then cooked, while Li Long added water and gas to the jeep, started it, and drove toward the team.

Since they had already started collecting fish, they couldn't stop. There should still be many people in the team waiting and watching; if Li Long stopped collecting fish now, some people with ideas would naturally lose their nerve.

When the jeep drove to the Li family courtyard, Liang Yuemei and her mother-in-law Du Chunfang came out to look.

"Dad and your big brother have already gone to Little Haizi," Liang Yuemei explained. "Without Xiao Long, come into the room and drink some fish soup to warm up."

"No," Li Long waved his hand. "I'll go to Little Haizi to take a look."

Everyone knew that earning money and completing tasks were the most important things right now, so Du Chunfang and Liang Yuemei didn't stop him.

After Li Long left, Liang Yuemei said to Du Chunfang:

"Mother, you stay in the room. I'll go to the front yard and set up the stove for Without Xiao Long."

"Okay, okay, go quickly," Du Chunfang said, urging Liang Yuemei because she didn't know how to set up a stove well. "Put in more charcoal; don't be stingy."

"Hey, I know," Liang Yuemei replied with a smile. Actually, if one were to talk about being stingy, it was her father-in-law and mother-in-law who were stingy. They had a stove in their room too, but every time, she and Li Jianguo had to urge them to add more coal.

Both the father-in-law and mother-in-law said it was already warm enough and there was no need to add too much coal, as coal was quite expensive.

Liang Yuemei heard from Li Jianguo that coal in their hometown was indeed quite expensive, several times the price here in Northern Xinjiang. Since they couldn't afford it, they bought honeycomb briquettes mixed with yellow mud, which were relatively cheaper.

Perhaps they were used to being cold, which is why they felt adding a little coal was enough.

But how could Li Jianguo and she bear to let them be cold? They just had to help them add coal to the stove.

But for Li Long, they were truly generous. Liang Yuemei wasn't jealous at all; Li Long deserved this favoritism.

Li Long's performance over the past two years truly deserved this favoritism. Whether it was toward his parents, his brother and her as his sister-in-law, or his nieces and nephews, Li Long was caring enough, especially toward Li Juan and Li Qiang; in some aspects, he did things even more meticulously than they did as parents.

He had truly grown up.

When the Lu family's eldest daughter-in-law came over to visit, she often said that it was truly rare to have a family like the Li family where the brothers were harmonious and there were no trivial matters at all.

Which family with two brothers didn't argue over trivial things? Every family has its own difficulties, but it felt like the Li family didn't.

Liang Yuemei would smile when she heard this. The current days were the happiest period she had ever felt; although working in the summer was still tiring, it was a happy kind of tiredness.

She felt life was getting better and better, and there was something to look forward to even in tiredness. The life right in front of her was already a wonderful life that others could only look at and never reach.

Now, many eldest daughters-in-law and young wives in the village would come to her house from time to time to chat while doing chores, which never happened before.

Slowly, the Li family was becoming a "women's home" in the residential area.

Liang Yuemei had the confidence to speak directly and persuade when those eldest daughters-in-law and young wives complained, which resolved many family conflicts.

Some women even said that it would actually be best to let Liang Yuemei be the director of the Women's Federation.

Liang Yuemei hurriedly declined; she wouldn't do that. It was enough to live her own family's life well. She hadn't attended school for many years, didn't understand many principles, and didn't have too many ideas; she just wanted to live her own family's life well.

Li Long walked quickly along the road to Little Haizi and found that Tao Dayong was indeed with Tao Daqiang.

The two of them were not scooping fish at that ice hole, but were about twenty meters away, sweeping the snow off the ice surface and breaking the ice.

It seemed they were planning to open another ice hole.

That was right; both brothers were considered strong laborers. If they relied on just one ice hole, it might really not be enough.

Seeing Li Long come over, those who were scooping fish nearby greeted him one after another.

Those who delivered fish to the Li family yesterday had received cash, so today, everyone was in even better spirits.

In this day and age, when delivering public grain, one often received IOUs and had to wait until the end of the year to settle accounts. Li Long, on the other hand, never owed money for whatever he collected; he always collected and settled on the spot, and in two years, he had established his reputation.

Although some people complained that Li Long was sometimes too strict when collecting things, no one had ever complained about Li Long's credibility in paying money.

Li Long's behavior over the past two years had subtly left an impression on everyone's mind: as long as Li Long was collecting things, he would definitely not cheat anyone.

Don't underestimate this impression; such established credibility could be "overdrawn." For ordinary people, such credibility was truly rare.

When Li Long arrived at Li Qing Xia's side, Li Jianguo was just scooping the net up from the middle of the ice hole.

Seeing Li Long come over, Li Qing Xia said with a smile:

"Without Xiao Long, that method of yours yesterday was good. After putting the net down and waiting for a while, when scooping it up, there were more fish than yesterday!"

"Hehe, let's see." Li Long couldn't really say whether it was truly useful or just good luck, so he walked up to take a look.

There were two big fish, one bighead carp and one silver carp, both weighing two or three kilograms. The small crucian carp and northern pike weighed two or three kilograms, all gathered in a pile.

The big fish were already frozen hard; it seemed they had been scooped out for a while.

"Big brother, shall I take over?" Li Long asked, seeing his big brother scoop out seven or eight more small crucian carp with this net.

"No need, let's do a few more times." Li Jianguo wasn't in a hurry; big fish or small fish, they were all fish, as long as there were some.

Li Long then went to tidy up the reeds.

The reeds nearby had been collected several times and were gone.

Li Long went to a place further away, and then he heard someone arguing at the ice hole to the northwest.

"... I said to send the big fish to the Li family, but you insisted on going to the county town to sell them for a higher price. Now look, we went to sell them early this morning, and for two hours, we were frozen like monkeys, but what happened? Half the fish didn't sell! In the end, we had to sell them to a peddler for eight mao per kilogram... how much did we lose!"

"Who could have thought there would be so few people buying fish at the county market? In the past, when we went to Shicheng in the summer, the fish would be snatched up in a moment..."

"Can the county town compare to Shicheng? We don't have a bicycle or a tractor, and Shicheng is more than ten kilometers away. Dad, I'm telling you, we should just choose to sell the big fish to the Li family; it's so much better to get cash directly!"

"If we calculate it this way, we'll suffer less, and we won't have to run back and forth to the county town. If we had a bicycle, I wouldn't stop you from going to Shicheng to sell them for a higher price. But now, running back and forth to the county town is not only a hassle, but we also can't sell them for a good price, and it wastes time..."

"Fine, fine, whatever you say."

Li Long didn't look over there, but from the voices, he could tell it was the Zhao father and son. The two of them hadn't been catching fish for just a day or two; they would go to the county town to sell in the summer and occasionally catch some in the autumn. They came to catch fish as soon as the winter ice could support a person, but at that time, there weren't many fish to be caught by breaking ice holes.

After all, the fish weren't lacking oxygen at that time.

Li Long was seventy or eighty meters away from them, and their voices weren't loud; ordinary people wouldn't be able to hear them from such a distance, so although they saw Li Long tidying up the reeds there, they weren't worried about the conversation leaking out.

But Li Long heard it.

Fine, actually, collecting fish was originally a win-win situation; they didn't have to go to the trouble of setting up a stall in the county town to sell, and he could collect suitable fish.

Carrying a large bundle of reeds to the ice hole, he put the reeds down where he had lit the fire yesterday and lit them, then Li Long went over to Tao Dayong's place to take a look.

The ice hole had already been broken to water, but it still needed to be widened, and the edges needed to be repaired.

Seeing Li Long come over, Tao Daqiang greeted him with a "Brother Long is here," and Tao Dayong was a bit embarrassed, but then he also took the initiative to greet him:

"Without Xiao Long is here. I'm catching fish with Daqiang... helping him out..." Li Long smiled; it was rare to see Tao Dayong so humble, which was actually quite good. If you want to live a good life, don't think too much. Sometimes, taking the initiative to show a smile really isn't as servile as one might think.

"It just needs repairs now. Actually, one of you can stay here to repair, and the other can already go to that ice hole to scoop fish." Li Long suggested. "That ice hole hasn't been touched all night, so the fish must have gathered there."

When Li Long said this, the two brothers realized it; at the beginning, they were thinking about taking turns to open the ice hole quickly, so they were both here.

Now, repairing the ice hole was a delicate job, so there was no need for two people to take turns.

"Daqiang, you go scoop fish over there; I'll work on it a bit more here, this side will be done soon." Tao Dayong said proactively.

"Brother, you go. I've broken several of these ice holes, I know how; you go scoop and see if you can get any fish." Tao Daqiang picked up the scoop net, stuffed it into his brother's hand, and gave him a push. "Try it, anyway, we didn't plan on getting many fish today."

"Then... okay." Tao Dayong carried the scoop net, smiled at Li Long, and then went over there.

Tao Daqiang picked up the iron shovel and continued to repair the ice hole.

"You keep repairing, I'll go replace my big brother." Li Long watched for a while and said.

"Okay." Tao Daqiang used the scoop net to scoop out the broken ice in the water of the ice hole and flipped it onto the ice surface, replying.

He used to envy the brotherly relationship between Li Jianguo and Li Long very much. Now that his own big brother had taken action to change for the better, he was also quite proud.

!.

His own brother would slowly become reliable. This reminded him of when he was young; when others bullied him, his brother Tao Dayong would stand up for him and help him fight those big kids who bullied him.

When did the change happen, and when did they start to drift apart?

I don't know if that method of letting the scoop net stay in the water for a while was really effective, but this morning, the three Li family members scooped out twelve big fish, totaling seventeen or eighteen kilograms.

There were also nearly ten kilograms of small fish.

That was a lot.

When the three Li family members were walking back carrying the fish, it was like a signal to the others scooping fish at Little Haizi, and everyone started packing up their things, preparing to return.

Everyone was thinking about delivering the big fish to the Li family before lunch.

The weather was cold, and the big fish were basically frozen, so Li Long felt there was no need to freeze the fish outside anymore; they could be taken directly into the house.

"Should we break another ice hole?" Li Qing Xia asked suddenly on the way. "Is it a bit insufficient for the three of us to use one ice hole?"

"We're just playing; it's best if we can catch some." Li Long opposed. "Why make ourselves so busy? Taking turns is also quite good. The ice is half a meter thick, and breaking a hole takes at least an hour..."

Li Jianguo didn't say anything, but actually, he had thought about this problem too.

"It's not that we aren't catching, it's just that I feel idle," Li Qing Xia said with a smile.

"Then let's break another one this afternoon." Li Jianguo felt that there was nothing to do anyway, and at home, it was just feeding the chickens and pigs. Many of those pigs had already been processed.

Now that they planted more land in the summer, they could barely keep up with the pigs. Although they weren't professional pig farmers, the five mu of feed land would be taken back by people, but they didn't care anymore.

Li Jianguo planned to process most of the pigs by next year. Except for raising two pigs every year to slaughter for the New Year, he wouldn't raise any more.

As for the wild pigs and such that Li Long had at the Old Ma Hao, Li Jianguo hadn't thought about them. Those were Li Long's things, and he wouldn't have any ideas about them.

It was just that for the pigs he raised himself, when slaughtering for the New Year, he would inevitably give half a pig to Li Long's side. When Li Anguo and Chen Xingbang's families came over, each family could also take a pig leg back.

This was what it meant to be a big brother; one had to take care of everyone.

"Then let's break it." Since his father and big brother both agreed, Li Long didn't insist anymore. It was just an hour's work, and with three people together, it might not even take an hour; after all, he was strong.

Li Jianguo and Li Qing Xia went back to the backyard, while Li Long went to his own courtyard and took out the scale.

Just now, from afar, he saw smoke rising from his chimney, obviously, the stove had already been set up.

His heart felt warm.

The first to come over was Liang Dacheng, who came over smiling, carrying a bag.

"Yo, the fish this time aren't small!" The first thing poured out of the bag was a bighead carp weighing at least four kilograms, and Li Long exclaimed in admiration, "This fish head is delicious when cooked."

"Yeah, Zhongcheng caught it; he almost got pulled in." Liang Dacheng couldn't hide the pride on his face. "It's rare to see such a big bighead carp."

"Yeah, the others are also not bad." There were five or six crucian carp and northern pike weighing over a kilogram left, so it seemed the harvest was indeed good.

After weighing and paying, Liang Dacheng walked out carrying the empty bag, just in time to run into the Zhao father and son coming in.

Seeing Li Long, both of them were a bit embarrassed. They didn't know that Li Long had already heard their conversation, so looking at the plastic sheet Li Long had spread out, they poured out the fish from their bag.

The fish were quite regular, all over a kilogram, and the biggest was less than three kilograms.

There were seven in total, and Li Long weighed them; they were eleven point eight kilograms. He rounded it down and gave them twelve yuan.

Both the Zhao father and son were a bit embarrassed and wanted to say something, but Tao Daqiang and Tao Dayong came over.

The two of them then left with a smile.

Twelve yuan! The fish sold at the morning market didn't even sell for twelve yuan, and this was only half a day's work!

Tao Dayong carried the bag and poured the fish out. Tao Daqiang didn't move, and Li Long guessed that the bag in his hand should contain small fish.

Sure enough, there weren't many fish, six in total: two grass carp, one silver carp, one crucian carp, and one northern pike, so all varieties were complete.

Li Long weighed them, and the six fish were exactly ten kilograms.

He gave Tao Dayong ten yuan, and Tao Dayong took it and gave it to Tao Daqiang.

Tao Daqiang took it and gave it back to Li Long:

"Brother Long, please split it, two five-yuan notes."

"Okay." Li Long took out two five-yuan notes from his stack of money and handed them over, then took the ten-yuan note.

Tao Daqiang handed one of the five-yuan notes to Tao Dayong.

"Daqiang, this..." Tao Dayong didn't expect his younger brother to split it equally. Actually, of these six fish, Daqiang had scooped four. He himself didn't have much experience, and being able to scoop two was considered good luck.

"Brother, take it, don't let Brother Long laugh at us." Tao Daqiang said.

"Then... okay." Tao Dayong was a bit excited and didn't say anything more.

After the two left, the next person waiting outside the courtyard entered.

Tao Dayong stopped by his home on the way, and Tao Daqiang asked him to take the small fish.

"I have quite a lot of small fish at home." Tao Daqiang said, "You take these back to cook and eat; the fish are small, but the taste is good."

"Okay." Tao Dayong didn't say anything more.

Returning to his own courtyard, Ma Chunhong heard the movement, and seeing Tao Dayong return with a bag, she smiled and took the bag, opened it to look, and her face changed immediately.

"Busy all morning, and you only got these small fish?"

"What? Don't want them?" Tao Dayong said while walking into the room. "If you don't want them, I'll send them to Daqiang."

"That... that can't be, there isn't even one big one?"

"There's also five yuan." Tao Dayong took out the five yuan and shook it in front of Ma Chunhong. "Is that enough? Daqiang and I split it equally; I didn't catch as many fish as he did!"

"Wow! Five yuan, in one morning?" Ma Chunhong knew that this time was not like the time of collecting reeds and tying big brooms. At that time, there were raw materials, but now, just by taking a scoop net and an iron shovel out, and coming back with five yuan, how good!

She smiled immediately.

"Dayong, then can you call my younger brother..."

"Don't you talk to me about that." Tao Dayong was unhappy as soon as he heard it. "If he wants to scoop, let him break the ice hole himself! Little Haizi is a big place, he can break it wherever he wants!"

Ma Chunhong was a bit unhappy.

"Don't you show me that face! In the past, how many things did our family take care of for your brother? What did we get in return in the end?" Tao Dayong said angrily. "Don't force me to say ugly things! If your brother knew what was good for him, I could take him with me, but does he know what's good for him?"

Ma Chunhong stopped talking.

Did he know?

She herself couldn't be sure.

She could pretend not to know the character of her brother from her maiden home, but did she really not know? (End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 595 =====