Chapter 9: Smashing ice also requires technique

Li Long heard someone calling him just as he was nearing the Small Sea.

He turned his head and discovered that the person approaching was Tao Daqiang from the village.

Tao Daqiang was the big guy of the village, a year younger than Li Long, and a bit slow-witted; the other young men in the village didn't really include him in their activities. When Li Long first arrived, his relationship with him was decent, but later, after hanging out with Gu Ermao, he followed the crowd and drifted away from him.

Yet, every time Tao Daqiang saw Li Long, he would still greet him with a cheerful smile, looking quite happy, still treating Li Long like a buddy.

In the later years, after the implementation of the household contract responsibility system, Tao Daqiang’s father decided that the family land would be farmed by his older brother. With no land to farm, he went into the mountains to join those digging for fritillaria, taking up side jobs. At first, he would return once or twice a year, and every time he came back, he would go to see Li Long.

Every time he visited Li Long, he would bring something along.

But later on, he wouldn't return for several years. Still later, Li Long only heard from his family that Tao Daqiang had started a family in the mountains, then had his leg crushed by a wild boar, and after that, there was no more news.

He was an honest kid. Li Long felt that in his previous life, he had truly failed to live up to the other man's sincerity.

"Daqiang, what are you doing here?"

"I heard you were back, so I came over this morning to find you. But your family said you came to the Small Sea to catch fish." Tao Daqiang walked up to Li Long, panting, and took the bag from his hand, saying, "Give the bag to me. You're a factory worker; you're not as good at this kind of work as I am."

Li Long laughed. He punched Tao Daqiang lightly and said

"Alright then, once we catch some fish, we'll split them half and half."

"Hehe." Tao Daqiang chuckled.

With a companion, the walk to the Small Sea felt a bit easier.

"Look, there are rabbit tracks, and quite a few of them too." Tao Daqiang pointed to the prints in the red willow thicket nearby.

"If we can get some thin wire and set a few snares, we might be able to catch some," Li Long said, noting that the tracks looked quite fresh.

"You know how to set them?" Tao Daqiang looked at Li Long with some surprise.

"When I was at the factory, I had a coworker from the Qingshui River area. There were many hunters there, and he told me about it." Li Long didn't even blush while lying now. "We'll try it when we have time."

There was no pork at home, and if they wanted to eat meat, they had to find a way themselves.

Fortunately, there were plenty of wild animals outside at this time, and the vast majority of people in the village were farmers by origin. At this time, doing these things wasn't like in the later years when there were all sorts of videos on mobile phones to teach you; even if there were people with the same ideas as Li Long, most were just starting to figure it out.

Therefore, there were plenty of opportunities.

When they reached the Small Sea, Li Long chose a large, flat area of ice near the reeds, and he and Tao Daqiang first cleared the snow off the ice.

Tao Daqiang did most of the work. Only after he had cleared the snow did he ask

"Brother Long, why did you choose this spot?"

"Because the fish in our water are mainly carp and crucian carp. These fish are timid and love the reeds, so when it gets cold in winter, they mainly huddle together for warmth along the edge of the reeds."

"So that's why!" Tao Daqiang suddenly realized, looking as if he had learned something new.

Li Long smiled and began to take the crowbar, smashing it down on the chosen spot.

The ice was frozen very solid. When the rebar crowbar was driven down, it only made a small pit less than the size of a fist, and his hand was left aching from the vibration.

"Let me!" Tao Daqiang took the pickaxe, raised it over his head, and smashed it hard at the small pit.

Li Long saw that when he struck, he had a loose grip, and he nodded inwardly; at least this way, he wouldn't hurt his hands.

The power of the pickaxe was great. With this one strike, a piece of ice the size of a plate was chipped out.

Li Long took advantage of this gap and drove the crowbar down again.

The two of them went back and forth like this, and in less than ten minutes, they had dug out a pit half a meter square and over twenty centimeters deep.

"Test the size." Li Long stopped, put down the crowbar, took the landing net to test it, and found the opening was still a bit small. Tao Daqiang then took the pickaxe and began to widen the pit.

In just this short while, both of them were steaming, and sweat had appeared on their faces.

Seeing this, Li Long turned and went to the reeds, picked up a large armful of discarded, thin reeds that others had cut and left behind, brought them to the cleared ice, and took a lighter from his pocket to light them.

Reeds were good things in this era. In winter, they could be woven into mats or tied into bundles for roofing houses. The county paper mill also bought reed bundles for papermaking.

There were two reed lakes around the village, and the Small Sea also grew quite a few reeds. However, shortly after winter began and the ice was thick enough to support a person, the village would organize people to harvest them as a side income, which also counted as a source of income for the year-end settlement.

Now, the tall reeds in the Small Sea had all been harvested, leaving only some thin, useless reeds that were discarded.

This was a typical case of "relying on the mountains to eat from the mountains." At this time, people would seize every opportunity to make money. It wasn't like in the later years, where reeds were useless except for the leaves used to wrap zongzi during the Dragon Boat Festival. If the reeds weren't harvested that year, it would actually hinder the growth of new reeds the following year.

Therefore, before Li Long was reborn, the reed lakes around the village had already disappeared, and the old reeds that had accumulated year after year in the Small Sea meant the new reeds were no longer as lush as they once were.

With the heat, the two didn't worry about catching a cold from sweating, but at this time, sitting by a fire meant your front was burning while your back was freezing, so they didn't stop for long before picking up their tools and continuing to work.

In less than an hour, the ice hole was finished.

Tao Daqiang couldn't wait to drop the pickaxe, take the landing net, and bend down to scoop into the water.

When he pulled the net up, there was nothing but half a net of broken ice.

Looking at Tao Daqiang's disappointed expression, Li Long said with a smile

"Don't be impatient. Now that you've opened a hole in the ice, you have to give the fish a moment to react."

Tao Daqiang said sheepishly

"Before winter came, it was easy to eat fish. But once the ice formed, I haven't tasted meat for a long time..."

Li Long found this strange. Tao Daqiang's family raised pigs, so how could they not have meat to eat?

"Did your family's pigs become superstitious pigs?" he couldn't help but ask.

"No. The pig my family slaughtered, my dad sold half the meat, and most of the rest is at my brother's house. We don't cook it at home usually; my dad said we'll eat it during the New Year..."

Well, every family has its own troubles.

Seeing Tao Daqiang lower his head, Li Long hurriedly changed the subject, pointing to a spot a dozen meters away and saying

"While we have time, let's open another hole over there."

"Alright, you're the boss."

This time they were more experienced, and forty minutes later, another ice hole was finished.

"Daqiang, let's go see if there are any fish in the first one." Li Long said, carrying the landing net.

"Okay!" Tao Daqiang followed Li Long to the previous hole, full of anticipation.

A thin layer of ice had already formed on this hole. Li Long first stepped down onto the foot-hold carved halfway down the ice hole, then used his fist to gently break the thin ice. He saw a fish shadow flash by in the water.

Feeling a little excited and expectant, Li Long slowly extended the landing net into the water, then held the net with both hands, bent over, and stirred vigorously in the water!

Feeling something moving in the net, Li Long immediately pulled it back, leaned his whole body against the ice behind him, and pulled the net up with all his might!

"Fish, there's fish! A big fish! A big crucian carp!" Tao Daqiang's voice cracked with excitement!