Chapter 8

Li Jianguo finally agreed to Li Long's idea, but he wanted to go with Li Long.

"No need. Big Brother, if I go alone, I can pull more. The horses in our production team aren't fat enough to begin with, and if one more person sits on it, that's dozens of kilograms of wood less to pull."

Li Jianguo was actually speechless.

"Then you wait, I'll go borrow the horse later." Li Jianguo retreated to the next best option. He always treated Li Long as a child, feeling that everything had to be handled by himself to be secure.

Although he felt that what Li Long said made sense this time, he always felt uncomfortable if he didn't do something himself.

"The brigade leader might not necessarily lend it just because I ask." Li Long said confidently, "Big Brother, you don't need to worry about this, I'll handle it."

"You'll handle it? How will you handle it?" Li Jianguo felt it was a bit incredible; his younger brother now seemed like a different person. He would handle this kind of "big event"? How could he possibly handle it well?

"Without Xiao Long, do you think it's easy to borrow a horse from the production team?" Li Jianguo asked Li Long, "Our brigade has a total of three horse-drawn carriages, three horses, and two donkeys.

In winter, if you want to pull wood, you definitely have to use a horse-drawn carriage. Those horses are the main force for our brigade's plowing and pulling things next year—there's only one tractor, and it can't keep up. You also know that they won't lend it just because you ask, could it be... you want to give the brigade leader a guagua chicken?"

"I can't give a guagua chicken, I'll get something else." Li Long stood up and said, "Brother, Sister-in-law, you go ahead and busy yourselves with lunch, I'm going out for a while. If I get something in the afternoon, then we'll do as I said. If I don't get anything, then I'll see if I can catch guagua chickens at night."

Li Long went to the east room. Li Jianguo and Liang Wenyu looked at each other.

"I think Without Xiao Long's trip to the factory wasn't in vain." Liang Wenyu originally felt a bit heartbroken about the fifty yuan given to others, but from yesterday to today, seeing Li Long's changes, she felt that even if the job was lost, it was worth it.

Liang Wenyu didn't feel there was anything wrong with raising her brother-in-law for her father-in-law. After all, Li Jianguo was the eldest.

But if she was raising an ungrateful wolf, that would truly be a waste, and she wouldn't be happy.

Before, she felt like she was raising an ungrateful wolf when looking at Li Long, but from last night until now, Liang Wenyu truly felt Li Long's changes.

He knew how to care for people, knew how to cherish his niece and nephew, and knew how to share his eldest brother's worries.

If he had a sense of responsibility, then Liang Wenyu felt that it would be no different from raising one more son.

Li Jianguo shook his head and said:

"Let's see how he does it first. If it really doesn't work, I'll go ask, and at worst, I'll go catch guagua chickens with Without Xiao Long at night."

The family raised a "superstitious pig," and the family couldn't eat meat, which was also a heartache for Li Jianguo. When Li Long came back, he was still worrying about making charcoal.

But now, looking at it, it seemed that all problems were no longer problems.

Li Jianguo also realized that as long as his younger brother was sensible, these problems could truly be overcome.

Why hadn't he thought of going into the mountains to pull wood before?

He didn't know that this was a vision problem. Even if people in the village knew that charcoal wasn't enough in the autumn, they would only think of digging red willow roots in the sand dunes behind the village, and wouldn't think of going to the mountains twenty kilometers away to pull wind-fallen wood—except for a very few people who understood the situation in the mountains, others didn't know what the situation was in the mountains.

Therefore, they had an innate fear of unknown things and were unwilling to try.

And those who were willing to try had long since become wealthy.

Wu Shufen returned home, a bit absent-minded.

Her mother, Wang Yuzhen, saw her daughter's appearance and immediately asked:

"Shufen, that Li family boy didn't agree to break up? Is he still planning to pester you?"

"No, he agreed to break up."

"Isn't that pretty good." Wang Yuzhen showed a smile on her face when she heard that the breakup went smoothly, "Tomorrow, Mom will have someone look for you; we must find a worker and go into the city to eat imperial grain! I saw at a glance that Li Long wasn't material for city life, and sure enough, he came back!"

Wang Yuzhen originally thought her daughter would be happier after breaking up with Li Long, but seeing Wu Shufen looking unhappy, she asked with concern: "Shufen, breaking up with him is a good thing, why do you look unhappy?"

Wu Shufen couldn't help but say:

"When I went, I saw his family plucking feathers from guagua chickens. Mom, do you know how many guagua chickens Li Long caught yesterday? Five! Five!"

She gestured with a palm:

"A full five! And he didn't even think about giving me one—even if we broke up, we could still be friends, right? If it were before, he would definitely have given me one, no, two! As a result, he didn't even try to keep me..."

If Li Long heard Wu Shufen's words, he would immediately realize that "little fairies" were not unique to later generations.

Some people were born feeling that everyone in the world should spoil them; buying a meat sandwich, if a stranger boy didn't pay, they would feel the other party was a loser!

Wang Yuzhen didn't think so much, she comforted Wu Shufen:

"Shufen, let's not think about those guagua chickens. Li Long's brother's family raised a superstitious pig, and they only went to get those guagua chickens because they had no meat to eat. Our family slaughtered a pig, Mom will stir-fry meat for you at noon!"

Although that meat was meant to be eaten for almost a year—the fatty meat had long been rendered into oil and buried in lard, but if her daughter wanted to eat it, then she would make it.

"Mom, I want to eat meat, I also want to eat guagua chicken..."

Wang Yuzhen turned her head and shouted to Old Man Wu, who was dozing on the kang:

!.

"His father, Shufen wants to eat guagua chicken, why don't you go catch one for her?"

"Go to hell! Where am I going to catch guagua chickens? Going out in this heavy snow will freeze me half to death, I'm not going!"

Wu Shufen pouted, unhappy.

After Li Long entered the east room, he found a pickaxe and a crowbar, put them in a fertilizer bag and placed them by the door, then put on a cotton-padded hat, wore an overcoat, put on felt socks on his feet, and stepped into cowhide boots—this thing was cut from a whole piece of cowhide, with holes punched in the edges with a hole puncher, and then threaded with cowhide rope. In winter, it froze stiff, but with felt socks, it was at least more resistant to freezing than cotton-padded rubber shoes.

He wanted to go to the small sea to chisel ice and catch fish, so cotton-padded rubber shoes wouldn't work.

There were several water puddles near the village. In this day and age, as long as there was running water, there were fish inside—mainly crucian carp, large plate crucian carp, domestic crucian carp, as well as carp, grass carp, and silver carp.

The small sea had existed for a long time. According to Li Jianguo, when they came here from all over the country, the small sea already existed, and the fish inside had never gone extinct.

A few years later, a major flood washed away the dam of the small sea, which had been transformed into a reservoir, and the fish inside were washed into the reed lake downstream. The young and strong in the village all brought homemade fish spears to catch fish. Li Long had seen the largest fish almost 1.5 meters long and weighing twenty or thirty kilograms.

Since then, there had been no large fish in the small sea.

He estimated that the ice in the small sea now had to be at least thirty or forty centimeters thick, and wanting to chisel open an ice hole to catch fish was definitely a strenuous job.

But if you want to show off in front of others, you have to be prepared to suffer behind their backs; there is nothing that doesn't require a price.

After going out, Li Long went to the shed to bring the landing net. Chiseling an ice hole took at least an hour or two, and usually, after chiseling it open, the fish wouldn't come over immediately, so it required waiting for a period of time.

However, now the ice was frozen solid, and there were many fish in the small sea itself. Although the reeds that had grown could provide some oxygen for the fish underwater, it wasn't much. So he felt that maybe after the ice hole was opened, he might be able to wait for fish after a while.

The sound of Li Long opening the door startled Li Qiang, or rather, the little guy had been waiting for a long time. He ran out of the west room, saw Li Long "fully armed," and immediately clamored to follow.

"You can't follow today, the place I'm going has very deep snow, and I can't look after you." Li Long refused Li Qiang and then carried the things toward the south of the village.

With such heavy snow in winter, everyone usually only swept the roads in the village, and then the road to the township.

And the road to the small sea was covered by thick snow; one step down, and it was up to his knees.

He was alone, slowly disappearing into the snow.

(End of chapter)