Chapter 96: The First Fish-Selling Setback After the New Year

It was not until the tenth day of the new year that Li Long and Tao Da finally resumed the work of breaking ice holes to catch fish.

After a break of more than ten days, the fish in Little Little Haizi became increasingly desperate for oxygen; in just one day, the two men caught over a hundred kilograms of fish. This huge catch startled them both, so they dragged the fish back and began sorting them, leaving the overly large and overly small ones at home. The Li family kept a portion, while Tao Da took some back to his own home.

The next day, Li Long and Tao Da took the fish to sell, but to their surprise, demand for fish was not so urgent in either the black market of Maxian or the family compounds of Shicheng. Although the fish were displayed there and Li Long shouted loudly to attract attention, and though many people came to look, few actually made offers.

By the time the two returned at dusk, they had not even sold all the fish!

Li Long simply gave the remaining seven or eight kilograms of medium-sized fish to Zhong Guo Qiang of the Big Meat Canteen.

Upon returning to the team, Li Long handed Tao Da a five-yuan note and said to him:

"Daqiang, I do not plan to catch fish for the next half month. As you have seen, fish are hard to sell now. If you want to catch fish for your own family to eat, just take the net from my house. For now, we will stop dealing in fish."

Tao Da was also deeply disappointed; without Li Long catching and selling fish, he had lost his means of earning money.

All the money he had earned previously had been spent on his family, buying New Year goods and charcoal; now, all he had in hand was the five yuan Li Long had just given him.

When he had been earning money before, he had spent without much thought, but now he felt that these five yuan in his hand were precious and could not be spent carelessly.

"Then, Brother Long, when—when can we sell fish again?"

"Let us wait a while," Li Long thought for a moment and said. "Let us see after another half month."

"Alright." Tao Da returned home.

Half a month was something he could wait for.

In fact, during this outing, Li Long had also discovered a new situation: although people's enthusiasm for buying things had declined considerably after the New Year, the black market had become even more active.

The number of people setting up stalls in the Maxian black market had more than doubled compared to before; eggs, meat, rice, flour, rabbits, and all sorts of other items were being sold, and some people were even selling small baskets and creels they had woven by hand. In short, it was now evident that the market had been revitalized, and the authorities seemed to have relaxed restrictions on setting up stalls to sell goods.

Although competition had increased, with the market revitalized, the number of buyers had naturally grown as well. Li Long was delighted by this change.

Upon returning home, Li Long explained the situation to Li Jianguo, who nodded and said:

"If we are not catching them, then we are not catching them. In any case, Little Haizi is so large and full of fish; whenever we want to catch them, we can. However, once spring arrives and the snow melts, it will become difficult to catch fish again."

"It is not that difficult," Li Long said with a smile. "By then, we can simply use gill nets."

He remembered that in his previous life, many fishermen had emerged from the team, using inflated truck tires as boats, binding wooden planks on top, and making two small paddles; they would row while casting nets in Little Haizi, setting the nets in the afternoon and retrieving them at dawn the next day, then taking the fish directly to the county town to sell by bicycle, returning after breakfast to retrieve the nets again.

At that time, the large crucian carp from Little Little Haizi were extremely popular, with prices rising from two or three yuan per kilogram to later fifteen yuan per kilogram; large slab crucian carp could sell for twenty to twenty-five yuan, yet people still bought them.

After all, in the eyes of home cooks, wild fish simply tasted better than farmed fish. Because Little Little Haizi was overgrown with reeds and backed by cattails, the crucian carp had plenty to eat; when caught, they looked beautiful, plump and glossy, instantly distinguishable from the pale, sickly appearance of farmed fish.

Therefore, right up until Li Long's death in his previous life, the fish from Little Little Haizi remained the most popular on the market, bar none.

Calculating it this way, the matter of purchasing a bicycle had to be put on the agenda, and subsequently, buying gill nets and casting nets, acquiring tires, or building a wooden boat would require even more consideration.

Hunting was something he intended to do, and becoming a "fisherman" was something Li Long would not give up either.

It was a way to earn money, and also a hobby.

"Big Brother, do you know how to cast a net?" Li Long suddenly thought of something. In his previous life, his elder brother had died early, so he had rarely seen him cast a net. "I do, but I cannot cast it fully; usually, I can only cast half a net," Li Jianguo said, rolling a Moho cigarette. "Back in our old home, the best at casting nets was Second Brother."

"Second Brother could cast his net into a perfect circle or into angles, covering exactly where he wanted. Back then, when the nearby Dahe River flooded, there were fish under the bridge arches; he would cast such a large net into a small circle, covering precisely an area the size of a square table in front of the bridge arch, and not a single fish escaped..."

The Second Brother Li Jianguo spoke of was their paternal cousin ranked second among the brothers, an older cousin than Li Jianguo. Regarding this, Li Long had no memory; his memories of their old home had become mostly blurred, remembering only that they had not had enough to eat there.

"Father is also good at casting nets," Li Jianguo said, lighting his rolled cigarette and taking a puff. "In those years when grain was scarce, every spring Father would go to the Dahe River to cast nets, bringing back fish and shrimp to boil and eat; although there was no oil, it was still better than having nothing to eat."

Li Long had not expected that his father, whom he had considered unreliable, actually possessed such a skill.

"Actually, learning to cast a net well is simple," Li Jianguo said with a smile. "Once the snow melts, find a net, sweep the threshing floor clean, and just practice. As long as you master the initial hand movements, practicing a hundred or eighty times a day, you will be able to cast and cast in a perfect circle within a week."

Li Long thought about it and agreed; he knew the starting hand movements for casting a net, but instead of casting a straight line, he only managed a small semicircle. The reason for this was simply a lack of practice.

He looked down on the coiled nets common in later generations; the old-style casting net felt more natural to him—he would practice whenever he had time.

The next day, Li Long went to the county town, and when he emerged from the Department Store Building, he pushed out a brand-new, heavy-duty Forever Brand Type 28 bicycle, complete with an air pump. A package of cotton socks, neck warmers, and other cold-weather items was tied directly onto the rear rack.

Then he went to the Supply and Marketing Cooperative outlet, buying several sheets of sandpaper and a steelyard balance. For selling goods in the future, having a scale was indispensable.

Boom—Crack!

After purchasing all these items, Li Long rode to the big house, retrieved five or six Type 56 semi-automatic rifles from the side room, and began gently polishing the rust spots on the receiver covers with the sandpaper.

Once the guns were all prepared, Li Long donned his gear, mounted his bicycle, and headed into the mountains amidst the howling cold wind.

It was truly cold, but the speed was truly fast!

While driving a horse cart required two hours, riding the bicycle took less than an hour, and he had already arrived before Ha Li Mu's winter camp.

Hearing the dogs bark, Ha Li Mu emerged from the winter camp and was greatly surprised to see Li Long riding a bicycle.

"This bicycle must be very expensive, right?"

"Indeed, it is not cheap." Although Li Long had money, buying this bicycle still made him feel a pang in his heart. "It cost over one hundred and sixty yuan, the price of ten sheep."

"That is not expensive either." Ha Li Mu felt that merely ten sheep was truly not expensive.

Handing the cotton socks and neck warmers to Ha Li Mu, Li Long said:

"I plan to roam around the mountains for the next couple of days to see what else can be hunted."

"In these mountains, there are many, many things that can be hunted!" Ha Li Mu said with a smile. "I happen to have free time; I will take you. There are good things to be found in some places even in summer!"

Thanks to reader 20180307133112452 for the donation, thanks to reader Kong Zhi Mo for the donation, and thanks to everyone for the massive support of monthly votes and recommendation tickets over the past two days.

It is basically confirmed that the VIP launch will happen at this time tomorrow; I have prepared twenty chapters of stored manuscripts, totaling over forty thousand words, in response to everyone's long-term support.

I will save more words for the launch reflection post; for now, let us stop here. Goodnight, everyone.

(End of Chapter)