Chapter 753: Resuming old business and peaceful life

Li Long didn't go to the Little Lake immediately, although he knew that at this time, Tao Daqiang and Xie Yun and the others must be breaking the ice, or maybe they had already broken it and were getting fish.

He and Li Jianguo and the others moved the meat down, hung it in the idle room, and returned to the west room, chatting in the room.

Li Long didn't say much, mainly listening.

"Eldest, take some time to send some meat to Juan's maternal grandfather's house, there's so much meat, send more."

"Fine," Li Jianguo rolled a *mohe* cigarette and handed it to Li Qing Xia, and rolled one for himself, answered, and then struck a match to light the cigarette.

Li Long took out a lighter to light the cigarette for Li Qing Xia, Li Qing Xia stood up and went directly to the stove in the outer room, burned the stove hook red, leaned over to light the cigarette, and then came back to sit and continue talking.

He was reluctant to use that match, and also reluctant to let Li Long press the lighter once, saying it wasted oil and flint.

Older generation, experienced suffering, used to being frugal.

When Li Qing Xia and Du Chunfang ate here, they never left a bit, this habit was also slowly influencing Li Juan and Li Qiang imperceptibly.

"Without Xiao Long, do you still sell sheep later? I heard from your brother that quite a few people in the team bought sheep, the mutton your eldest brother and sister-in-law brought back is so fat, I only ate one piece, hey, really fragrant!"

Du Chunfang opened her mouth, saying while smiling.

It had been a long time since she chatted with Li Long properly, at this time the younger son was sitting by the fire wall, looking tall and big, really good.

Previously Li Long came over every week, and didn't chat honestly, running around, she still had to look after the children, chatted little.

"I'll go to the Little Lake to see Daqiang and the others break the ice in the afternoon, start catching fish tomorrow, after catching enough fish, there's nothing else to do." Li Long said honestly, "Can pass the New Year quietly... not necessarily, there are still sheep in the pen, slaughter another batch before the New Year, and send some to the county seat to sell."

According to reason, it had long broken even, and earned money, but he didn't intend to raise those sheep for another year. Fattening, just slaughter when it reaches a certain stage, maximize efficiency.

Anyway, Sister Yang still had a shop unused, the door was locked, before the New Year, when entering the twelfth lunar month, tidy up that shop, sell meat first.

This was Li Long's plan, he simply said it out.

"Fine." Li Jianguo felt it was not bad, "This fat meat is popular. New Year, who doesn't want to cut two kilograms of meat to eat?"

Saying this, they chatted about what to plant next year. Li Long still intended to plant sugar beets and such, saline-alkali land, currently not much can be planted, wait to see the situation with Professor Luo later.

"Intend to send some meat to a few professors, and some friends before the New Year." Li Long said, "Just that deer meat, this supplements the body, old father and mother, eldest brother and sister-in-law, you also eat some."

Winter itself is the time to supplement, eating a little of this is nothing.

"We won't supplement." Liang Wenyu smiled, "We aren't old."

"Then you have to eat." Li Long said, "Tired for a year."

To be honest, at this

At this time, saying that women hold up half the sky was no exaggeration at all; when it came to farm work, Liang Yumei truly did not lose to Li Jianguo.

"Heh, Juanjuan's mom is really capable when it comes to work." Although Du Chunfang didn't go down to the fields much, after watching for two years, she could see it too. "Back in our hometown, she could definitely be used as a pillar of the family."

It was rare for his mother to praise his sister-in-law, and Li Long couldn't help but smile as he watched.

In truth, chatting like this didn't have much specific content, but Li Long truly felt relaxed. Just chatting like this, the pressure and fatigue deep in his heart slowly dissipated.

Home is the best harbor. The large courtyard in the county seat carried Li Long's happiness; there, he was the pillar of the family, the head of the household, and he had to shoulder a man's responsibilities.

It was different here; he was his father and mother's youngest son, his eldest brother and sister-in-law's little brother, the young man who had been raised like a son for nearly ten years.

Here, he could even act spoiled—even though he was already a famous figure within a radius of ten-plus kilometers, here he was still someone who could act willfully and throw tantrums.

This was the only place where he could completely relax.

After realizing this, Li Long cherished such moments especially. Even if, in others' eyes, this was completely meaningless.

But in reality, having lived two lives, Li Long knew that such moments were truly precious.

It wasn't until past five o'clock, seeing his mother sitting there already nodding off, that Li Long stood up and said he was going to Little Haizi.

Nowadays, going to Little Haizi no longer required walking or pulling a sled. When the road was being repaired in the summer, Xu Chengjun had specifically built a relationship with the driver hauling sand and gravel, and the team paid for a lot of sand and gravel to be laid on the road to Little Haizi, so there was now a gravel road to get there.

Although the road wasn't great, at least tractors and cars could get through.

This gravel road was originally supposed to appear more than a decade later, but for now, it could be considered to have come into existence ahead of schedule.

When Li Long drove the jeep to Little Haizi, he discovered there were still quite a few people on the ice. There was a thick layer of snow on the ice, most of the reeds had already been cut down by people, and some scattered ones were still fluttering in the north wind.

Tao Daqiang and the others were scattered in three locations, each having made two ice holes. These three points were all located in relatively open areas of the ice, and the two ice holes at each location were also about ten meters apart.

The snow on the ice was very thick, and occasionally one could see tracks left by birds or rabbits moving in the snow; these tracks basically all led in and out of the reed clusters.

Li Long parked the jeep at the end of the road, by the edge of the North Dike Reed Ditch, and walked over to where Tao Daqiang was.

The snow on the ice near the ice holes had already been cleared away, with axes and iron picks placed to one side. Tao Daqiang was holding a scoop net in his hand, scooping out the broken ice floating on the ice hole.

This ice hole must have just been smashed open; the water surface was sloshing, with broken ice chunks of various sizes mixed in, making it impossible to see clearly if there were fish below.

"Brother Long, you go check over there in a bit; there should be fish under that one." Tao Daqiang was a bit excited when he saw Li Long come over. "The ice hole over there was opened early, and just now Brother Xie Yun Dong scooped up two small crucian carp."

Looking at this ice hole, Li Long felt a bit dazed. How long had it been since he scooped fish like this?

He smiled, took the scoop net handed over by Tao Daqiang, and strode toward the ice hole over there.

The ice hole here had been scooped out quite well, and the place to stand was clearly marked. Li Long leaned down, his feet planted on the ice, and extended the scoop net into the ice hole, stirring it vigorously.

At first, he couldn't feel any fish, but after stirring a few times, he began to feel some things starting to bump against the scoop net, and occasionally there were larger movements.

Li Long didn't rush to lift the scoop net up. He stirred a few more times, and after feeling the larger movements bump it twice, he anticipated the other party's swimming direction, suddenly scooped forward with a fierce motion, pulled back with force, and quickly lifted the scoop net up.

Splash!

He didn't even care about the water droplets from the scoop net landing on his pants—he could already feel that there was a catch in this scoop net!

"A big carp!" Tao Daqiang's voice of surprise drifted over the Little Haizi. "It's at least two or three kilograms! Brother Long, you're amazing!"

Daqiang's voice attracted Xie Yun Dong, Jia Weidong, and the Liang brothers from the other two locations.

Li Long got onto the ice, turned this net over and dumped it onto the ice, and his mood improved as he watched the fish jumping about.

A large carp with a red head and red tail, just as Tao Daqiang had said, looked to be about two or three kilograms, along with four or five crucian carp and two small northern pike.

That big carp was very unconvinced, jumping vigorously on the ice, but after a few moments, the cold and water loss made it helplessly stick to the ice despite its reluctance.

"So big!" Xie Yun Dong, who was closest, ran over, looked at that big carp, and said with surprise: "Really beautiful! Without Xiao Long, you're amazing, a good omen!"

"Yeah, a good omen!" Jia Weidong, who didn't talk much, couldn't help but add a sentence.

Liang Shuang Cheng, who had run over from behind, squatted down and picked up the fish, felt it, and said: "It's got to be at least two point five or six kilograms, really beautiful. Look at the whiskers on this fish, heh, this color... it's just like in a painting!"

Li Long smiled; he felt this was also a good omen.

"I'm going to try a net too!" Liang Shuang Cheng was a bit unconvinced and also a bit curious. He took the scoop net off the ice, went down to the ice hole, and half-squatted to try a net as well.

He was a bit impatient; the scoop net had just gone down and stirred for half a circle before he lifted it up, and then, just like Li Long, he boldly turned the scoop net over and slapped it onto the ice.

Well, a small crucian carp was mixed in with some broken ice chunks, jumped twice, and stopped moving.

"Hahahaha..." The others all burst into loud laughter.

They could naturally see Liang Shuang Cheng's unconvinced attitude toward Li Long and the competitive spirit of a young man.

There was nothing bad to say about it; actually, young people should be like this.

So, if you dare to compete, you have to bear the consequences of failure. Liang Shuang Cheng was still a bit unconvinced and scooped another net. This time he stirred longer under the water, and when he lifted it up, there were two more small crucian carp inside.

"The fish down here have all been scared away." Liang Shuang Cheng said with a red face, finding a way to save face for himself.

Everyone laughed again.

Daqiang asked Li Long to scoop another net, but Li Long didn't move. He felt that if he were to scoop out more fish, this Shuangcheng might really have to jump into the ice hole.

Tao Daqiang didn't care about that much; even though he already had children and had become much more steady, Li Long was still his idol.

Seeing Li Long not take it, he took the scoop net down to the ice hole himself, stirred vigorously four or five times, and then lifted it up and dumped it onto the ice.

A silver carp weighing over a kilogram and a smaller grass carp appeared.

"Hahahaha..." This time everyone's laughter was even louder.

Even Liang Dacheng was laughing non-stop; his second son was arrogant and needed to take a hit to make him recognize reality.

PS: It's a bit late today, and a bit short, mainly because someone on Tomato is plagiarizing this book of mine. They changed the place names and people's names, many paragraphs are almost the same, and the general plot direction is basically consistent. I reported it on Tomato but it was useless. I prepared to go to Longkong to post and expose it, but discovered my Longkong account was banned, so I had to re-apply for one, which took a long time. I have to continue tomorrow.

We'll see how it goes tomorrow. (End of chapter)