Chapter 8: Breaking the Ice to Catch Fish and Win Favors

Li Jianguo eventually agreed with Li Long’s idea, but he insisted on going with him.

“No need. Big brother, I can haul more if I go alone. The horses in our production team aren’t exactly in prime condition; if we add another person, that’s dozens of kilograms of wood less we can carry.”

Li Jianguo was left speechless.

“Then wait here, I’ll go borrow a horse in a bit,” Li Jianguo said, retreating to his second option. He always treated Li Long like a child, feeling that things were only done properly if he handled them himself.

Although he felt Li Long made sense this time, he felt uneasy if he didn’t do something himself.

“The team leader won’t just lend them out for nothing,” Li Long said confidently. “Big brother, don’t worry about this. I’ll handle it.”

“You’ll handle it? How?” Li Jianguo found it hard to believe. His younger brother seemed like a completely different person now. He was going to handle such a “major task”? How could he possibly pull it off?

“Xiao Long, do you think it’s easy to borrow horses from the production team?” Li Jianguo asked. “Our team has a total of three horse-drawn carts, three horses, and two donkeys.

You’ll definitely need a cart to haul wood in the winter. Those horses are the backbone of our team’s plowing and transport for next year—we only have one tractor, and it can’t keep up. You know they won’t lend them out for free, so don’t tell me… you’re planning to give the team leader a pheasant?”

“I won’t be giving him a pheasant; I’ll come up with something else.” Li Long stood up and said, “Brother, sister-in-law, you two go ahead and get lunch ready. I’m going out for a bit. If I manage to get something this afternoon, then we’ll do as I said. If I don’t, then I’ll see if I can get a pheasant tonight.”

Li Long went to the east room. Li Jianguo and Liang Yumei looked at each other.

“I think Xiao Long’s trip to the factory wasn’t in vain.” Liang Yumei had originally felt a bit of heartache over the fifty yuan they had given away, but seeing Li Long’s changes from yesterday to today, she felt it was worth it, even if the job was lost.

Liang Yumei didn’t think there was anything wrong with helping her father-in-law raise his younger son. After all, Li Jianguo was the eldest.

But if she were raising an ungrateful wolf, it would be a waste, and she wouldn’t be happy about that.

In the past, she felt Li Long was like an ungrateful wolf, but from last night until now, Liang Yumei had truly felt the change in him.

He knew how to care for people, knew how to dote on his niece and nephew, and knew how to share his big brother’s burdens.

Now that he had a sense of responsibility, Liang Yumei felt that raising him was no different than raising another son; it was fine.

Li Jianguo shook his head and said

“Let’s see how he does it first. If it really doesn’t work out, I’ll be the one to ask. At worst, I’ll go out with Xiao Long tonight to trap some pheasants.”

The family raising a “superstitious pig” and having no meat to eat was a heavy burden on Li Jianguo’s heart. When Li Long first returned, he was still worried about how to make charcoal.

But looking at it now, it seemed as if all those problems were no longer problems.

Li Jianguo also realized that as long as his younger brother was sensible, these problems could truly be overcome.

Why hadn’t he thought about going to the mountains to haul wood before?

He didn’t realize this was a matter of perspective. Even if the villagers knew in the autumn that they wouldn’t have enough charcoal, they would only think of digging for red willow roots in the sand dunes behind the village, rather than thinking of hauling wind-fallen wood from the mountains twenty kilometers away—except for a very few who understood the situation in the mountains, no one else knew what it was like up there.

Therefore, they had an innate fear of the unknown and were unwilling to try.

And those who were willing to try had long since made their fortunes.

Wu Shufen returned home, feeling somewhat distracted.

Her mother, Wang Yuzhen, saw her daughter’s expression and immediately asked

“Shufen, did that Li boy refuse to break up? Is he still pestering you?”

“No, he agreed to break up.”

“Isn’t that great then?” Hearing that the breakup went smoothly, Wang Yuzhen smiled. “Tomorrow, Mom will have someone look around for you. We must find a worker so you can go to the city and eat the emperor’s grain! I knew at a glance that Li Long wasn’t cut out for city life, and sure enough, he came back!”

Wang Yuzhen had expected her daughter to be happy after breaking up with Li Long, but seeing Wu Shufen looking unhappy, she asked with concern

“Shufen, it’s a good thing you broke up with him, why do you look so unhappy?”

Wu Shufen couldn’t help but say

“When I went over, I saw his family plucking pheasants. Mom, do you know how many pheasants Li Long caught yesterday? Five!”

She held up a hand

“Five whole ones! He didn’t even think to give me one—even if we broke up, we could still be friends, right? In the past, he definitely would have given me one, no, two! In the end, he didn’t even ask me to stay…”

If Li Long had heard Wu Shufen’s words, he would have immediately realized that “little fairies” weren’t unique to the future.

Some people were born thinking the whole world should dote on them; if a stranger didn’t pay for their meat sandwich, they’d think the other person was beneath them!

Wang Yuzhen didn’t think that much; she comforted Wu Shufen

“Shufen, let’s not think about those pheasants. Li Long’s brother’s family has a superstitious pig and no meat to eat, so they had to go get those pheasants. We slaughtered a pig, Mom will stir-fry some meat for you at noon!”

Although that meat had to last them almost a year—the fatty parts had long been rendered into oil and buried in lard—if her daughter wanted to eat it, she would make it.

“Mom, I want to eat meat, and I want to eat pheasant too…”

Wang Yuzhen turned her head and shouted at Old Man Wu, who was napping on the kang

“Old man, Shufen wants to eat pheasant, aren’t you going to go catch one for her?”

“To hell with that! Where am I supposed to catch a pheasant? It’s freezing cold out in this heavy snow, I’m not going!”

Wu Shufen pouted, unhappy.

After Li Long entered the east room, he found a pickaxe and a crowbar, packed them into a fertilizer bag, and placed them by the door. Then he put on his cotton hat, heavy coat, felt socks, and leather boots—this gear was made from whole cowhide, with holes punched along the edges and laced with cowhide rope. They froze rock-hard in the winter, but with felt socks, they were at least more cold-resistant than cotton-rubber shoes.

He was going to the Small Sea to break the ice and fish; cotton-rubber shoes wouldn’t cut it.

There were several water holes near the village. In this day and age, as long as there was running water, there were fish—mostly crucian carp, large plate crucian, common crucian, as well as carp, grass carp, and silver carp.

The Small Sea had existed for many years. According to Li Jianguo, when they first arrived here from all over the country, the Small Sea was already there, and the fish in it had never died out.

A few years later, a massive flood would wash away the dam of the Small Sea, which had been converted into a reservoir, and the fish would be washed into the reed lakes downstream. The young and strong in the village would take their homemade fish spears to catch them; Li Long had seen fish nearly a meter and a half long, weighing twenty or thirty kilograms.

After that, there were no more large fish in the Small Sea.

He estimated that the ice in the Small Sea was at least thirty or forty centimeters thick now; wanting to break a hole to fish was definitely hard labor.

But if you want to show off in front of others, you have to be prepared to suffer behind their backs; there is nothing in this world that doesn’t come with a price.

After stepping out, Li Long went to the shed to grab a landing net. Breaking an ice hole would take at least an hour or two, and usually, the fish wouldn’t come immediately after breaking it; it required waiting for a while.

However, the ice was frozen solid now, and there were plenty of fish in the Small Sea. Although the reeds provided some oxygen for the fish underwater, it wasn’t much. So he thought that perhaps after opening the ice hole, he might be able to wait for some fish.

The sound of Li Long opening the door startled Li Qiang, or rather, the little guy had been waiting for it. He ran out from the west room, and seeing Li Long “fully armed,” he immediately clamored to follow.

“You can’t come today. The snow is very deep where I’m going, and I won’t be able to look after you.” Li Long refused Li Qiang, then shouldered his gear and walked toward the south of the village.

With such heavy snow in winter, people usually only cleared the roads within the village and the road leading to the township.

The path to the Small Sea was covered in thick snow; one step down, and it reached his knees.

He was alone, slowly disappearing into the snowy landscape.

(End of chapter)