Chapter 10: Nothing is happier than a delicious meal

With this one scoop of the net, seven or eight fish were pulled out—crucian carp, common carp, and the northern pike and European perch that Li Long liked very much.

They weighed about three or four kilograms.

Li Long tossed the fish onto the ice, turned around to change his position, and cast the net again.

This scoop only yielded four fish, the heaviest being a carp weighing less than a kilogram.

"My turn, let me have a go!" Tao Daqiang pleaded.

"Alright, go ahead!" Li Long handed the net to him and stepped onto the ice.

The fish tossed out earlier had already frozen solid.

Tao Daqiang took the net with an excited look on his face, went over to the other ice hole, and stepped down firmly.

"Daqiang, watch your footing. This water is deep, at least two or three meters; if you fall in, there’s no saving you," Li Long warned. "Make sure you're standing steady!"

"Got it." Tao Daqiang had been ready to cast the net, but after hearing Li Long, he stomped his feet firmly before bending over to lower the net into the water.

Li Long held his hands out near the fire to warm them, his eyes fixed on Tao Daqiang’s side.

The fire warmed his chest, while the wind chilled his back.

Fortunately, since his mind was mostly elsewhere, Li Long didn't feel too uncomfortable for the moment. After his hands warmed up, he pulled out a reed, began to lift the gill covers of the fish that were about to freeze, threaded the reed through them, and pulled it out through their mouths, stringing a dozen fish together.

"Splash!"

Tao Daqiang gave the net a sharp tug and dumped its contents onto the ice.

Chunks of ice, large and small, came up with five or six fish. Once on the shore, the fish thrashed desperately, but after a few jumps, they lost their strength—the temperature on the ice was far lower than underwater, and they quickly froze stiff.

Li Long followed the same procedure, taking another reed to string the fish up.

These fish were also mostly miscellaneous, but the largest one was actually a European perch. This creature, scientifically known as *Perca fluviatilis*, is a predatory fish and quite fierce. The one in front of him weighed nearly three kilograms and looked quite plump.

Stewed European perch has meat like garlic cloves and is very chewy. Li Long remembered that in seven or eight years, the European perch in this lake would disappear, along with the small northern pike, and wouldn't reappear until a year or two before his death, once the water quality improved.

Happily stringing the fish up, Li Long said to Tao Daqiang

"Not bad, Daqiang! This European perch could sell for at least two yuan in the county!"

"Really?" Tao Daqiang had just lowered the net into the water, and upon hearing this, he was shocked. "Can it really sell for that much?"

At this time, a kilogram of pork was only one yuan sixty or seventy, and a kilogram of mutton was one yuan twenty. Some people sold fish in the summer, but it was only twenty or thirty cents per kilogram, and there were few buyers; after all, the county didn't have a large population, and even fewer had the money to eat such river delicacies.

"Of course," Li Long said with a smile. "Think about it, it's deep winter now, and the New Year is coming. Don't you think those city folks would be willing to pay a higher price for fish?"

"Then, Brother Long, what if we catch fish and sell them in the county? We could make a lot!"

"That’s also a miserable ordeal," Li Long shook his head. "It's over thirty degrees below zero right now, and we don't have a vehicle. By the time we get to the county, the fish will be frozen solid. Unless you happen to run into someone who wants a lot and buys them all at once, you might be waiting for an hour, or even several hours. You might end up freezing yourself before the fish are even sold."

"I'm not afraid!" Tao Daqiang said with a look of determination. "I'm only afraid of having no money!"

Seeing the determined look in Tao Daqiang's eyes, Li Long thought for a moment and said

"I'm going into the mountains to haul timber tomorrow. Let's talk about it after I get back."

If Tao Daqiang wanted to catch and sell fish, he would have to rely on himself; after all, not every household had a scoop net these days.

The people in the production team came from all over the country. Some of them had never even eaten fish before; even in the summer, when fish would jump to their feet while irrigating the fields, they wouldn't bother picking them up because they didn't know how to cook them.

It was a true story, like the one in Lu Yao's *Ordinary World*, where some people on the Loess Plateau didn't eat fish and didn't know how to.

As far as Li Long knew, out of the forty or fifty households in the team, fewer than five had scoop nets. The net Li Long was using was one that Li Jianguo had modified from a piece of broken fishing net while working odd jobs at the reservoir fishery during the slack farming season.

Everything was in short supply in these times; things that would be considered junk in the future were treasures in this era.

"Going into the mountains to haul timber? By yourself?" Tao Daqiang asked.

"Yeah, just me."

"Then I'll go with you!" Tao Daqiang's eyes lit up. "I've never been outside our township. The people in the village's sideline group wouldn't take me into the mountains in the summer because they thought I was clumsy..."

"Then you'll have to dress warmly." Li Long felt that bringing Tao Daqiang along wouldn't be a problem. He hadn't let Li Jianguo go simply because he wanted to do some other things, and it would be hard to make decisions if his older brother was tagging along.

But if he took Tao Daqiang, he would naturally be the one in charge.

As for bringing someone along meaning hauling a few dozen kilograms less of timber—at worst, he could just make an extra trip. If he dropped off some fish at the team leader's house tonight, surely he wouldn't refuse to let him use the horse-drawn cart?

With his plan well-laid, Li Long was in high spirits, and Tao Daqiang was happy too. The two of them guarded different ice holes and scooped a few more times, catching a total of over ten kilograms of fish. Li Long felt exhausted and said to Tao Daqiang

"Daqiang, that's enough. Let's go back and eat."

"Brother Long, let's scoop a few more times." Tao Daqiang was still unsatisfied. "I see fish in every net; maybe there are bigger ones later."

No wonder the elders said there was "fire" in fish—as long as there was a harvest, people wouldn't feel tired or cold. Looking at Tao Daqiang, it was clearly true.

"We can't wait any longer," Li Long refused decisively. "Look at yourself, your clothes are soaked through. If you stay any longer, you'll definitely end up with a serious illness!"

Li Long's tone allowed for no argument, so Tao Daqiang finally put away the net and climbed onto the ice.

"My ears are about to freeze off!" Once on the ice, Tao Daqiang finally felt the cold in the air. He covered his ears and jumped in place. "My feet are almost numb."

"And yet you didn't want to come up," Li Long said while packing up the tools and fish. "Let's go, hurry to my place to warm up by the fire. By the way, rub your ears with snow on the way; don't let them actually get frostbitten."

Many people in the future said that rubbing ears with snow was bad, but that was a misconception. At this time in the wilderness, it was the only way. If you just roasted them by the fire, the ears would blister and fester, and then they would truly be ruined.

"It's fine, just covering them is enough." Tao Daqiang covered them again, then picked up the two strings of fish and strode back.

Tao Daqiang walked in front, breaking through the snow with the ten-plus kilograms of fish, while Li Long followed behind with the tools, making the walk easier.

Li Long knew this was Tao Daqiang's way of expressing gratitude—and he accepted it.

The sun had risen to its highest point, halfway across the southern sky. The sunlight was a bit warm, but the chill in the air was more prominent.

It was forty minutes later by the time the two of them arrived back at the Li household, panting.

"Hurry inside!" Li Jianguo, hearing their footsteps, opened the door. Seeing the two of them covered in a shell of ice, he immediately greeted them, "Throw your things on the floor and go warm up by the fire and change your clothes! The fire is lit in the east room; go over there and change!"

Li Long and Tao Daqiang hurried into the east room, took off their heavy coats, leaned them against the fire wall to dry, and took off their shoes.

Their leather boots were frozen stiff, and when they took them off, there was a layer of snow inside. Their feet were already somewhat numb.

There was a basin of water on the stove in the room. Li Long tested it and felt it was a bit too hot. He hurried out, shoveled some snow, brought it back, and threw it into the basin. After the snow melted, he tested the water temperature again, took the basin down, and said to Tao Daqiang

"Come on, soak your feet, or you'll get frostbite tomorrow!"

It might seem strange for two grown men to soak their feet in one basin, but at a time like this, who cared about that?

After soaking for a few minutes, they felt much better. Li Long wiped his feet, changed into cloth shoes, stretched, and said to Tao Daqiang

"Stay and have lunch at my place. After we eat and rest a bit, we'll go catch fish again. I reckon there will be even more fish then."

"Alright." Tao Daqiang nodded vigorously.

He had no tools, no connections, only his strength. Now that Li Long was willing to take him along, he was naturally more than willing.