Chapter 36: Try Somewhere Else

Li Long entered the house and saw his sister-in-law, Liang Yuemei, organizing the things he had brought back. He asked, "Sister-in-law, where's my brother?"

"Your brother said you might be going to sell fish again tomorrow, so he thought about heading to the lake now to catch some. By the way, did you sell all the fish?"

"All of them." Li Long didn't bother changing his clothes and spoke as he headed back out, "Then I'm going to check on Little Lake."

"No, no, take a rest first. You've been working all day; there's no rush," Liang Yuemei hurriedly stopped him. "Have some mutton soup to warm up, then eat something. You didn't eat lunch, did you? Where's Daqiang?"

"Daqiang took the things home; he'll be here in a bit."

"Then wait for Daqiang. No need to rush. You've run over twenty kilometers back and forth and been out in the cold for so long, what's the hurry?"

Li Long thought about it and realized she was right. The money was good, but the exhaustion was real. This trip had earned him a month's salary of a regular worker, but it was far more grueling than standard labor.

However, in these times, one didn't fear hard work; one only feared not making money—fearing that all the toil would be for nothing. Next year, when the land was distributed to households, everyone's motivation would become clear.

That said, Li Long had no intention of farming. His two acres would naturally be farmed by his brother, while Li Long planned to roam the mountains; making money was what mattered most.

Opportunities like this wouldn't last forever.

Relying on the warmth of the *kang* bed and watching Li Juan and Li Qiang playing with pebbles on the bed, Li Long smiled. It was truly comfortable.

Liang Yuemei brought him a bowl of mutton soup and said, "Why did you buy so much? Save the money from the sales; you'll need it to get a wife later."

"There's more coming," Li Long said with a smile as he took the soup. "It's not a big deal. We have to have a good New Year, right?"

"That's true. With all this stuff, our family will definitely have a good New Year."

After finishing the mutton soup, Li Long felt revitalized. Seeing there were still two or three hours before dark, he put on his padded coat, hat, and cotton boots, gave Liang Yuemei a quick word, and headed out.

As he stepped out of the courtyard, he saw Tao Daqiang rushing toward him.

"Daqiang, did you get some rest?" Li Long asked with concern.

"I did," Tao Daqiang gave a simple, honest smile. "And I've eaten too."

"Then let's go. My brother has already headed over; he's fishing right now."

The two of them strode toward Little Lake.

Having made several trips, a path had already been trodden, so it only took about twenty minutes to reach the ice hole at Little Lake.

From a distance, they saw Li Jianguo wedged in the middle of an ice hole, struggling to pull a landing net upward. A large silver carp, nearly a meter long, had half its body out of the net and was thrashing wildly.

"That big?" Li Long immediately broke into a run, rushing to Li Jianguo's side to help pull the fish up.

"Brother, this fish is huge! It must weigh ten kilograms?"

"Close enough," Li Jianguo said with a hint of pride. "I just gave it a scoop and felt the net get incredibly heavy and the pull was immense. I thought I had to move fast. It's lucky it's winter; if it were summer, this fish would have shredded the net with one flick of its tail."

Li Long nodded. He gripped the fish by its gill covers to lift it. It was a bighead carp, weighing about ten kilograms and measuring over a meter long. Even as Li Long held it, its tail continued to lash out forcefully.

"We won't sell this one; let's keep it for the family to eat," Li Long said with a smile.

"It doesn't taste great; better to sell it," Li Jianguo said as he climbed out of the ice hole. "It looks good, but the taste isn't that special, so let's not keep it. How did your fish sales go?"

"Sold out. The big ones fetched a higher price, the small ones a lower price, and in the end, we sold a whole batch to that wealthy family in the northeast of the city."

"Makes sense, they are wealthy," Li Jianguo clearly knew of that family.

Li Long set the carp down and looked around, noticing that Li Jianguo had already pulled up more than ten large fish, along with a pile of small ones.

"Brother, quite a catch today!"

"We opened an air vent yesterday, so the fish from other areas should be moving in today. Even with the reeds providing air, it's still not as good as this ice hole," Li Jianguo explained.

Tao Daqiang had already taken the net and started fishing at another ice hole.

Every scoop yielded fish. Though not many at a time, as long as they weren't coming up empty, everyone remained enthusiastic.

After five or six scoops, the fish in that spot thinned out. Li Long took the net and moved to the previous ice hole.

The fish were scarcer there; Li Long's first few scoops only yielded small crucian carp and minnows. He felt they had probably had enough.

Just then, Tao Daqiang suddenly whispered, "Someone's coming."

Li Long looked toward the path and saw three people walking onto the ice.

They were all from the production team: Wang Hongjun, who was about the same age as Li Jianguo, his younger brother Wang Hongbing, and his brother-in-law He Wei.

They were also carrying landing nets. Wang Hongjun's hometown was by the Huai River, and he came from a family of fishermen. He had woven these nets himself; Li Long remembered seeing a weaving shuttle in their house.

"Yo, Jianguo, you've caught quite a lot," Wang Hongjun greeted them with a smile. "This one... must be ten kilograms or so?" He pointed at the bighead carp.

"Just good luck," Li Jianguo smiled. "Are you guys here to fish too?"

"Yeah, nothing to do in the winter, so we're getting some fish ready for the New Year."

Seeing that they only brought a single pickaxe, Li Long knew they likely intended to use these two ice holes, but they hadn't expected someone to be here already.

"Then, Jianguo, can we borrow your steel rod?"

"Sure, take it," Li Jianguo said.

The three Wang men took the steel rod and headed to another part of Little Lake, about a hundred meters away. They began clearing the snow from the ice and breaking through.

Li Long scooped a couple more times before stepping onto the ice.

The fish were noticeably fewer than yesterday.

Tao Daqiang took over, continuing to fish at the other ice hole.

"Are you guys going to sell fish again tomorrow morning?" Li Jianguo asked.

"Yeah, we might as well since we're free."

"I reckon by tomorrow or the day after, no one in the team will be able to borrow a horse carriage," Li Jianguo remarked. "If not, you could just take a carriage to sell them."

"Forget the carriage; if anything happens, we won't be able to run fast enough," Li Long shook his head. "If we're selling fish, we need a sled—actually, a carriage works too, but if we use a carriage, we'll have to go to Shicheng."

Shicheng was less than twenty kilometers from Ma County, but its population was several times larger. The level of consumption there was higher than here.

The three of them worked until nearly dark, catching about two bags totaling over seventy kilograms of fish before heading home.

Li Long glanced over at the Wang family's side and saw they were still working away.

Li Long guessed they were likely waiting for him to leave so they could use his ice holes.

It didn't matter to him. He planned to borrow a horse carriage as soon as he got back and head to Shicheng to sell the fish tomorrow!