Chapter 46: Some Families Weep, Some Families Rejoice

As Li Long drove his horse carriage away from the black market, Tao Dayong and Tao Daqiang headed toward Xiaohaizi together. Meanwhile, their father, Tao Jian She, stayed home to make a sled.

Everything was traceable; they only needed to follow the steps Li Long had taken.

It felt like it wouldn't be difficult at all.

When they arrived at Xiaohaizi, Tao Dayong didn't even bother breaking a new hole in the ice; he simply used the one Li Long and the others had already made. As a result, after more than an hour, they had caught less than ten kilograms of fish.

Tao Dayong simply went to find the Wang family's ice hole, but the Wang family members arrived half an hour later and chased him away.

Tao Daqiang advised Tao Dayong

"Brother, why don't we just break our own hole? If we catch too many fish in this one, they won't come back."

"How could fish be that smart?" Tao Dayong said dismissively. "We'll just keep fishing here. We'll surely catch thirty or fifty kilograms a day."

Thirty or fifty kilograms of fish was a lot. Tao Dayong didn't think he was being greedy; even if he sold the fish for fifty cents a kilogram, he could make over ten or twenty yuan—he had already learned the prices Li Long was selling at from Daqiang.

Two yuan for the big fish, and the small ones could be sold in batches; it was so convenient.

Making money was supposed to be this easy!

The two of them didn't even go back for lunch. It was Tao Jianshe who brought them cornmeal pancakes on the sled. After eating the pancakes, the three of them kept working until dark, only catching less than forty kilograms of fish.

Upon returning home, following Tao Daqiang's suggestion, they kept the very small carp and silver carp—those under one kilogram—at home, but Tao Dayong was unwilling

"If we take these to the county, we can at least get some money for them. Why keep them? If we want fish, we'll just go back to the ice hole and catch more."

He forgot that the fishing net had been borrowed from someone else.

The excitement of the catch indeed made it easy to lose one's head. As Tao Dayong spoke, his mind was already filled with visions of making a fortune, buying a bicycle, and walking with his head held high in front of the production team, his wife, and his mother-in-law.

Consequently, he rose early the next day. He cooked cornmeal porridge, heated up some pickles and pancakes, wolfed them down in a hurry, and ran to his father's courtyard. He then urged Daqiang to eat quickly so they could head to the county black market together.

By the time they reached the black market, it was not yet dawn, but the place was already bustling. As soon as Tao Dayong set up his stall, he immediately attracted a crowd.

Having learned the prices Li Long was charging, he secretly decided to drive the prices down to ensure a quick sale!

So, when he announced, "One yuan fifty for big fish, one yuan for twenty small ones," the few people who had been hesitating immediately began picking through the fish.

In less than half an hour, Tao Dayong had ten yuan and fifty cents in hand. He was ecstatic!

If he had known money was this easy to make, he would have come long ago!

Tao Daqiang had originally intended to wait at a distance, but seeing that half of the fish were already sold, Tao Dayong hurriedly waved him over to restock.

After Daqiang arrived, Tao Dayong even criticized him

"What are you afraid of? Haven't you seen that no one is bothering anyone else? It's wide open now; no one is watching!"

They did not yet know that Gu Ermao had been arrested.

As dawn approached, the people nearby began to pack up their stalls. These people all knew about the joint prevention team coming to make arrests yesterday, and they tacitly avoided mentioning it to avoid drawing the attention of the buyers.

Seeing many people packing up, Tao Daqiang felt something was wrong. He noticed some people were packing up even though they had only sold half their goods, so he warned Tao Dayong

"Brother, those people are packing up. Should we pack up too?"

"Pack up what!" Tao Dayong had just collected another yuan and was blissfully counting his money. "In just a moment, I've made sixteen yuan and fifty cents. I didn't expect it to be this profitable. Let's sell for a bit longer; we've only sold a little over half the fish..."

Tao Daqiang felt a sense of unease and remained on high alert.

Sure enough, in less than ten minutes, chaos broke out on the west side of the black market. Someone shouted

"Don't run! If you run, we'll arrest you!"

That shout only made the chaos worse!

Tao Daqiang was tall, and when he saw two people wearing red armbands arresting people, he was startled. He turned to his brother and said urgently

"Brother, someone's here to clear the stalls! Let's go, quick!"

There were only about a dozen stalls left in the black market. Although the other vendors hadn't left, most were prepared; as soon as they saw people coming to make arrests, they packed up and ran into the narrow alleys.

Tao Dayong's previous confidence vanished instantly. In a panic, he scrambled to pack his stall while shouting to Tao Daqiang

"Hurry up and help me load the fish onto the sled!"

"Load what? Forget the sled!" Remembering Li Long's words, Tao Daqiang grabbed his brother to run, but Tao Dayong was unwilling to leave the fish and the sled behind. He insisted on pulling them, and in the surge of the crowd, the two were separated.

By the time Tao Daqiang burst out of the narrow alley, his brother was nowhere to be seen.

He naturally did not know that although Tao Dayong was only about 1.6 meters tall—a head shorter than his brother—the sled was a large target. He was immediately spotted by the joint prevention team and caught as he ran.

By then, it was too late to abandon the sled and run; he was arrested along with three or four other vendors.

Unable to find his brother in the county town, Tao Daqiang could only walk back, despondent.

By the time he learned his brother had been caught and fined fifty yuan, it was already daylight.

...

Li Long took a deep breath, feeling somewhat nervous, then turned to look at Hamu.

Hamu was also looking at him, then held up five fingers.

Li Long understood; this was what they had agreed upon—to fire after counting to five.

Turning back, he saw through the sight gap that the wild boars had quieted down. Occasionally, they would grunt as they rooted through the snow for grass roots, fallen fruit, and pinecones.

He once again placed the sow within the crosshairs. Following the method Xu Chengjun had taught him, he aimed and pulled the trigger!

*Bang!*

*Bang!*

The crisp gunshots rang out almost simultaneously.

Li Long didn't even care if he had hit the target; he slightly adjusted the muzzle toward the next small boar he had planned for and pulled the trigger again.

At a distance of seventy or eighty meters, after two shots, the surviving boars scattered in all directions. Li Long saw the largest boar charging toward him and was startled. He quickly aimed and fired a shot at it!

The gun fired, and the boar collapsed—only then did he realize, whether from nervousness or excitement, that he was sweating.

Hamu stood up with his gun and said with a smile

"Alright, two boars. Not bad at all!"

As he spoke, he began walking down the mountain toward the boars.

Li Long clearly saw more than one bloody wound on the largest boar; before long, a large patch of red soaked into the snow.

He realized then that the one Hamu had shot first must have been this one. "To catch the bandits, one must first catch their leader"—that was roughly the idea. Once the leader was dealt with, the rest of the boars wouldn't be much of a threat for a while.

Then Li Long looked at the first boar he had aimed at. It was currently lying where it had been rooting, twitching occasionally, not yet fully dead.

Li Long smiled.

(End of Chapter)