Chapter 11: Buying Someone Over with a Single Meal

After warming up for a while, Li Qiang pushed the door open, wiped his nose, and said

"Uncle, my mom told me to call you guys for dinner."

"Alright, we're coming right over." Li Long stood up, and he and Tao Daqiang followed Li Qiang to the west room.

As soon as they entered the room, they smelled a rich, savory aroma.

On the eight-immortal table in the west room, a large basin of stewed "quack-quack chicken" with potatoes was set out, with six bowls and six pairs of chopsticks laid out.

Li Long knew that the seat facing south was for the head of the household, Li Jianguo. He was already sitting on the kang, and seeing them enter, he first gestured for Tao Daqiang to sit on his right.

There was no custom here of women and children not sitting at the table, so Liang Yuemei soon sat down with Li Juan and Li Qiang.

"You must be exhausted. I saw the fish you caught—they’re quite big. We’ll make fish soup tonight!" Liang Yuemei said with a smile. In the dead of winter, the quack-quack chicken on the table and the fish thawing in the kitchen signaled that they would have good meals for the days to come.

What comforted her even more was that her brother-in-law had turned over a new leaf and knew how to bring things home.

After all, in this era of scarcity, the housewife has the hardest time. Being able to eat chicken and fish now was already a better meal than what they had for the New Year.

"Alright, let's eat," Li Jianguo said. "Daqiang, don't be shy, eat as much as you want."

"Exactly, once we're full, we still have to make a trip to the Small Lake," Li Long said. "It wasn't easy to break that ice hole; we can't let it go to waste."

"What? You're going again?" Li Jianguo asked.

"The ice we broke is already half a meter deep," Li Long explained. "There are plenty of fish in the lake. If we wait a while, even more fish will gather at the ice hole. If we go back this afternoon, we might be able to get even more."

"Then I'm coming with you," Li Jianguo said immediately. "Let's get more, and we can freeze them to eat until the New Year!"

"I want to go too!" When Li Qiang heard they were going to catch fish, he wanted to tag along, but Liang Yuemei glared at him

"You're not going! What can you do? Just cause trouble?"

Li Qiang felt indignant but lowered his head, feeling wronged.

"Alright, alright, let's eat." Li Jianguo picked up a chicken leg and put it in Li Juan's bowl, then picked up another and put it in Li Qiang's bowl. He said to Tao Daqiang

"Daqiang, don't be a stranger, eat up."

After saying that, he looked at Li Long, who hurriedly said

"I'll help myself!" He then picked up a piece of potato.

Tao Daqiang followed suit, picking up a piece of potato to eat.

In this large basin of food, there were mostly potatoes and a little meat, mixed with a bit of dried chili, and the taste was quite good. The potatoes were grown in their own garden and stored in the cellar for the winter; they were soft and very flavorful.

Because it had been stewed for a long time, the meat of the quack-quack chicken fell off the bone easily. Everyone ate with focus, and soon a pile of bones grew on the table.

"Daqiang, eat some meat," Li Long said, seeing Tao Daqiang only focused on shoveling potatoes into his mouth. "There's still plenty of meat."

"That's right, Daqiang, don't be polite," Liang Yuemei added. "We have to go net fish later, so eat more now, eat the meat."

"Brother Daqiang, eat the meat," Li Qiang said, mimicking the adults.

"Hehehe." Li Long laughed; Li Qiang was being very helpful.

Soon, the basin was nearly empty, with only a little soup left at the bottom. Liang Yuemei went to cook a strainer-full of wide noodles and poured them into the basin. Li Jianguo mixed it up and said

"Eat up, these noodles are really flavorful."

This meal finished off the entire basin of food and noodles. Finally, everyone drank a bowl of soup to help with digestion, and Li Long felt like he didn't want to move at all.

"Uncle, that was so delicious. Can you catch more quack-quack chickens in a couple of days?"

"I'll try, but I can't guarantee it." Li Long didn't dare to promise. He believed that the news of him catching the quack-quack chickens had definitely spread through the village via Wu Shufen's mouth. Once there's a harvest, others will naturally get ideas. They could follow the footprints to find the spot, so he really couldn't guarantee there would be any left by evening.

"If there are no quack-quack chickens, fish is fine too," Li Juan chimed in. "I looked just now, that big crucian carp was so beautiful. It was as wide as my two palms, and its belly was so fat—it looked delicious just by looking at it!"

As she spoke, Li Juan's eyes were bright and earnest.

"Exactly, I can't guarantee the chickens, but there will definitely be fish." Li Long stood up to help Liang Yuemei clear the bowls and chopsticks, which made Liang Yuemei feel that her brother-in-law had truly changed.

He would never have done something like this before!

After resting for half an hour, Li Long went back to his room and saw that his clothes were almost dry, so he told his older brother, Li Jianguo, that they should go now.

Li Jianguo was also mostly ready, so he got dressed and went out.

"Take two fertilizer bags, otherwise the fish will be hard to carry," Li Long reminded him. "The ice hole might have a thin layer of ice over it, but a shovel will break it."

"That works." Li Jianguo prepared the tools and then followed Li Long and Tao Daqiang toward the Small Lake.

Liang Yuemei watched the three of them leave, then took Li Juan and Li Qiang to process the fish. All the fish were put into an oval laundry basin. Li Juan scraped the scales, Li Qiang helped remove the gills, and Liang Yuemei used scissors to gut them.

After she sliced open the first big crucian carp and saw that its belly was indeed very fat, she smiled.

It was so good.

Thinking of the smile on her husband's face when he left with Li Long and the others, Liang Yuemei found it somewhat amusing.

If she understood it correctly, this was what they called "men remain boys until they die." When it came to catching fish or grabbing shrimp, the interests of an eighteen-year-old and an eighty-year-old man were usually the same.

Tao Daqiang took the lead again, clearing the path. After walking it twice, the knee-deep snow had been trampled into a narrow path, making it much easier to walk.

Twenty minutes later, the three of them arrived at the ice hole.

Sure enough, the original water surface had frozen over with a thin layer of ice. Tao Daqiang used his shovel to smash the ice, scooped out the shards with a net, and went down first to start "scooping fish."

Li Long didn't stay idle; he gathered a pile of reeds and started a fire.

The first net came up, and three or four fish were dumped onto the ice along with the ice shards. They were all carp and grass carp weighing over a kilogram.

Li Jianguo hurriedly picked up the fish and put them into the urea bag, looking over at Tao Daqiang from time to time; he was eager to try a net himself.

The second net came up, and a dark, fuzzy thing was dumped out along with three or four fish—Li Jianguo was startled!

Li Long had sharp eyes, and upon seeing this thing, he said with great joy

"Big brother, that's a water rat! Hurry, stomp it to death!"

A water rat?

What was a water rat?

Although Li Jianguo didn't understand what it was, he didn't hesitate. He grabbed his shovel and slammed it hard onto the slow-moving creature on the ice.

The front of this thing looked just like a large rat, not much smaller than a rabbit, but its tail was very strange—hard, hairless, and like a vertical, flattened stick.

Even though it moved slowly, the two large teeth in its mouth were anything but slow. Pinned there, it could only gnaw at the ice with a grinding sound, quickly chewing a hole into it!

Li Jianguo hurriedly struck it two more times, killing the creature.

He looked at Li Long, wanting to hear his younger brother explain what this thing was.