Chapter 12: Li Long Has Made It

"This guy is a water rat, officially known as a muskrat," Li Long explained. "It's also called a 'green-root sable.' Its fur is very valuable; a single pelt can sell for at least five yuan!"

"Five yuan?" Upon hearing that a single pelt from this water rat could fetch five yuan, both Li Jianguo and Tao Daqiang’s eyes lit up.

At this stage, in the production team, a full day's labor was worth eight *fen* at the end-of-year settlement! A slightly better-off production team with some side businesses might reach twelve *fen*, but that was the absolute ceiling.

Five yuan—how many work points would one have to earn to make that much?

In this day and age, because the North Frontier had vast plots of land and produced plenty of grain, people could at least manage to get by with enough to eat, but earning actual money was not easy.

Eating meat mainly relied on pigs raised at home. As for cash, there was basically none.

Li Long remembered that when the production team settled the accounts at the end of last year, Li Jianguo’s entire family had a final balance of twelve yuan and eighty *fen*, and even that was considered a relatively wealthy household in the team.

Nearly half of the farming households owed money to the production team!

Work points weren't worth much, making it difficult to earn money. The production team had side-business squads that went into the mountains in the summer to dig for fritillaria and codonopsis, but that required skill—an average person couldn't dig up much in a day, and while the work points were higher than regular labor, it was also exhausting.

"Daqiang, hurry and scoop again, see if there are any more!" Li Jianguo said immediately.

Tao Daqiang snapped to attention and immediately bent down to reach into the ice hole.

To cover as much area as possible, Tao Daqiang stretched his arm out straight, using the landing net to draw a semicircle under the ice before pulling it up.

The net was heavy. As he pulled it up, icy water dripped everywhere, soaking his clothes.

This haul had a good seven or eight fish, totaling nearly twenty kilograms.

But there were no more water rats.

If he had seen this many fish earlier, he would have been happy, but now, the fish didn't seem quite as exciting. Tao Daqiang was somewhat unwilling to give up; after dumping the fish, he tried another net, but this one only had two small fish.

"Daqiang, come up, I'll go try that ice hole over there!" Li Jianguo said impatiently. "You come up and warm yourself by the fire; look, your clothes are all wet!"

The water rat had successfully boosted Li Jianguo and Tao Daqiang’s enthusiasm to a new high.

In this day and age, everything is difficult without money.

However, Li Long wasn't optimistic—catching a water rat in an ice hole was a matter of great luck. This creature wasn't like a fish; it dug tunnels underwater with multiple exits, and its burrow could be in any clump of reeds along the bank.

It was highly likely it had been attracted by the swimming fish and ended up in the net by accident.

Sure enough, Li Jianguo pulled seven or eight fish out of the other ice hole in two tries, but there was no sign of a water rat.

"Big Brother, Daqiang, there's no rush. Once spring comes and the ice melts, these water rats come out in droves. It'll be easy to catch them then."

Although Li Jianguo was a bit reluctant, he knew this was all they could do.

The three of them took turns using the landing net in the ice holes until the sun slanted westward and was about to set, at which point they decided to head back. Before leaving, Li Long covered the ice holes with snow.

"Aren't we going to use them again in a couple of days?" Tao Daqiang asked, puzzled by his actions.

"If we don't cover them, the water will slowly overflow in a couple of days, and it'll be a pain to break through again. If we cover them with snow now, we can just shovel the snow away later, and the ice underneath won't be as thick."

Tao Daqiang thought Li Long’s reasoning made perfect sense.

Both urea bags were more than half full, making them heavy to carry. They simply put the fish in the bags, placed the bags on the head of a shovel, and used the shovel as a sled to pull them along, which saved a lot of effort.

The fish were indeed "fiery" (cold). They hadn't noticed it while scooping, but now, walking back, they felt frozen to the bone. There wasn't a warm spot on their entire bodies; their "little birds" were almost shriveled up.

The three of them hurried and scurried, arriving at the Li household before the sun went down. Liang Yumei had already made fish soup with a silver carp. After entering the house, the three of them each drank a bowl, and they felt their bodies warm up instantly.

"Brother Jianguo, Brother Long, I'm heading back now," Tao Daqiang said after finishing his bowl of soup.

"Dry your clothes first, otherwise your dad will definitely complain when you get back."

"He can't say anything to me," Tao Daqiang said earnestly. "I'm taking a few fish back; he’ll definitely be happy!"

"Dry them anyway. I'm leaving early tomorrow morning. If you want to come with me, you need to wear thicker clothes."

After much persuasion from Li Long, Tao Daqiang drank another bowl of fish soup before finally heading home with his fish.

Li Long had originally intended for Tao Daqiang to take the water rat since he was the one who netted it, but Tao Daqiang had firmly refused, saying it was caught using the Li family's net. He was already grateful enough to the Li family for the fish.

Li Long had planned to split the fish into three equal portions—each share would have been over ten kilograms—but Tao Daqiang only used a reed to string up five fish before heading off.

"Daqiang... he's not stupid," Li Jianguo said, watching Tao Daqiang leave.

Li Long naturally knew Tao Daqiang wasn't stupid; it was just that others thought he was slow and dim-witted, and his own family thought the same.

Setting the fish aside, the family happily drank their fish soup. Liang Yumei had used a three-kilogram bighead carp, and because it had been simmered for a long time, the fish meat had almost dissolved into the soup. Each family member had a bowl, soaking cornmeal steamed cakes directly into the fish soup—the taste was incredibly fresh.

Li Long thought to himself that if there were some fresh green onions or cilantro, it would be perfect!

Li Juan drank in small sips, her eyes curved into crescents, her mood exceptionally good.

Before yesterday morning, they couldn't even get meat to eat. In just one day, first it was the old sparrow, then the "quack-quack" chicken, and now there was more than enough fish—with dozens more in the kitchen—this life was truly blissful!

Li Qiang also held a large bowl, picking at the fish meat with his chopsticks and wiping his nose from time to time. He occasionally glanced at Li Long, wondering how he could ask his uncle to let him go catch fish too.

"Big Brother, I'm going to take two fish to Captain Xu’s house and mention borrowing the horse cart while I'm at it," Li Long said after finishing his soup, feeling warm all over as he stood up.

"Two? Isn't that a bit little?" Li Jianguo hesitated.

"It's not little. Two two-kilogram carp is quite decent," Li Long said. "He wouldn't lend the cart just because of these fish anyway, so there's no need to bring too much."

*A handful of rice breeds gratitude, a bushel breeds resentment.* Two fish were just right this time; if he brought too many, what would he do next time he needed to borrow it and didn't have any fish?

Besides, if you bring a lot of fish to borrow a cart, what are others supposed to do when they need to borrow it?

Li Long had never considered these things in his previous life. But after his older brother passed away in his past life and his sister-in-law’s family hated him, he had been left with no one to rely on. He eventually ended up living with a widow, and after suffering many losses, he finally understood how to live.

In those days, he often thought about how good it would have been if he hadn't been such a jerk and his brother were still alive.

He cherished this life now more than anything.

Picking out two well-proportioned fish from the pile, Li Long strung them up with a reed and headed out the door.

Wild carp in this day and age were incredibly beautiful—red heads, red tails, two long whiskers, and shimmering scales; just looking at them made one happy.

Not long after stepping out, Li Long ran into Gu Ermao.

Seeing Li Long, Gu Ermao walked up with a grin on his face

"Little Long, you caught fish? Share one with me!"

Li Long was amused by this shameless guy.