Chapter 39: Not Afraid of the Cold, Only Afraid of Poverty

A woman walked into the building carrying two fish, with a child trailing behind shouting, "We're eating fish today!" Her presence piqued the curiosity of the neighbors and simultaneously brought Li Long new customers.

The residents of this community were mostly workers and their families. In these times, most workers lived significantly better than farmers, so they had some extra money to spend on fish.

Seeing a crowd gathering, a middle-aged man hurriedly picked out a carp and a five-striped blackfish. As he paid, he said to Li Long, "Young man, can you come again before the New Year? We get a wage subsidy before the holidays; if you can make it then, you definitely won't lack customers."

"We'll see," Li Long smiled. "Catching fish in the lake depends on luck, so I can't say for sure."

The middle-aged man nodded in understanding and left carrying his fish.

The crowd wasn't large, but most people were buying only one or two fish. After looking at the selection, a middle-aged woman asked, "Young man, do you have any smaller fish? These are too big for me to cook properly."

"I do. Do you want crucian carp or small river fish?" Li Long said. "I didn't bring all my fish. I'm not sure if I can sell them all, but I also have a large bighead carp weighing ten kilograms."

"Then bring it over. I'll wait for you here," the woman said, stepping aside.

Li Long acknowledged her and waited until the others had finished picking their fish and paying. Seeing no one else left, he said, "Sister, please wait for me. I'll go get it right away."

In that short interval, more than half of the dozen or so fish in the bag had been sold, and Li Long was in a very good mood.

He hurriedly carried the urea bag outside to find the horse carriage to load the fish.

People who had heard the news rushed down, but seeing no fish for sale, they asked the middle-aged woman, "Sister Yu, did the fish seller leave?"

"No, he went to get more. I didn't want the big ones, I wanted small ones. He went to fetch the small ones."

"Alright then, I'll wait too." Although factories issued welfare before the New Year these days, supplies were truly scarce. With the heavy snow in the middle of winter, many goods couldn't be transported, so encountering someone selling fish was a rare opportunity.

Tao Daqiang, who was guarding the horse carriage, saw Li Long coming out and hurriedly drove the carriage over.

"Brother Long, how are the sales?"

"Pretty good, a lot of people want them. Just park the carriage outside the residential compound. I'm going to load more fish to sell now," Li Long said with a smile. "If you get cold, just stomp your feet."

"I'm not cold," Tao Daqiang said with a smile. In reality, frost had already formed on his eyebrows, eyelashes, and hair. The twelfth lunar month was truly freezing; even with cotton-padded jackets and trousers, one could freeze to the bone if they stayed outside too long. His feet had long since gone numb.

But more uncomfortable than the cold was the poverty. Now that he could see a glimmer of hope to escape poverty, Tao Daqiang didn't feel that this bit of hardship was anything at all.

Li Long entered the courtyard again, carrying a full bag of fish. The old man guarding the gate merely glanced at him and paid no further attention.

There were already four or five people waiting in the courtyard. Seeing Li Long return with another full bag of fish, they hurriedly crowded around.

"Everyone, everyone, don't rush!" Li Long said quickly. "Wait until I lay the fish out, otherwise it'll be hard for you to choose, right?"

"Alright, we'll listen to you, young man." The crowd made way.

Li Long pulled another urea bag from the bag, spread it flat on the ground, and began laying out the fish one by one.

Looking at the large bighead carp weighing over ten kilograms, several people gasped in amazement.

"That fish is huge!"

"Exactly! I've never seen a fish this big before!"

"Young man, how much for the big one?"

"Nine yuan for this one." Li Long raised the price slightly; after all, he had to account for transportation costs.

The man fell silent. His monthly salary was less than forty yuan; spending a quarter of it at once was a hard pill to swallow.

The middle-aged woman who had first asked for small fish looked at the crucian carp and asked, "How much for these small crucian carp?"

"Ten for one yuan, regardless of size." In truth, even the smallest crucian carp were about the size of a palm; he had kept the tiny ones at home.

"Then give me two yuan's worth," the woman said immediately, realizing this was a better deal than the big fish.

"Give me two yuan's worth too!" another person chimed in.

Li Long hadn't expected the small fish to sell better than the large ones. He was quite happy and quickly counted the fish and collected the money. The customers were all carrying things—bags or basins. After receiving their fish and paying, some rushed home to thaw the fish for cooking, while others lingered, unwilling to leave.

In less than half an hour, only the large bighead carp and two silver carp remained on the stall.

Seeing that no one was left, Li Long simply packed up the stall and hurried out to bring out the remaining small crucian carp.

Half an hour later, the crucian carp were sold out. Just as Li Long thought he might have to take the bighead carp back, a tall man in his fifties strode over.

Seeing only the bighead carp left, he frowned and asked, "Is this the only one left?"

"Yes," Li Long said. "The others are all sold out."

"Will you be back tomorrow?"

"I can't," Li Long shook his head. "I live far away in the countryside of Ma County. It takes half a day for a round trip. By the time I get back, I won't have time to catch more fish. The next time I can come will be in three to five days."

"Alright then." The man hesitated, then pointed at the bighead carp and asked, "How much for this one?"

"Eight yuan." Li Long didn't insist on nine yuan; earlier, several people had gone silent when they heard the price.

"Make it cheaper, and I'll buy it," the man said. "Six yuan, how about it?"

"Seven yuan." Li Long felt that for such a large fish, weighing over ten kilograms, selling it for six yuan was a bit of a loss.

"Deal." The man smiled, pulled out the money readily, and then shouldered the fish and walked out of the residential compound.

He wasn't from this unit, then?

Li Long packed up his bags and began counting the money.

He had brought a lot of fish today. Out of the seventy-plus kilograms he had caught yesterday, Li Long had sorted through them in the evening, keeping the smaller carp, silver carp, and tiny crucian carp under one kilogram at home. He had brought sixty kilograms of fish.

Aside from the large bighead carp, the large fish accounted for nearly forty kilograms across nineteen fish, and the small fish accounted for over ten kilograms. In total, he had sold forty-eight yuan and fifty cents.

This truly equaled a worker's monthly salary!

Included in this was fifteen yuan for Tao Daqiang—Li Long had calculated this based on labor, tools, and effort.

He took the bag back to the horse carriage and counted out fifteen yuan for Tao Daqiang.

"Daqiang, here is your money for today. When you and your brother come out tomorrow, do you want to take this money, keep it with me, or use it to buy things when you go back?"

"I'll take five yuan, and keep the rest with you for now," Tao Daqiang said after thinking it over. "I want to see if the supply and marketing cooperative has fishing nets for sale. If they do, I'll buy one too."

"Then let's look around here in Shicheng. This place is large and has plenty of supplies."

"Okay." Tao Daqiang's eyes lit up with curiosity; he had never wandered around Shicheng before!

The two of them drove the horse carriage toward the Shicheng Department Store—Tao Daqiang didn't even ask how Li Long knew the location. In his eyes, it was only natural that Brother Long was all-knowing.

In truth, Li Long was also curious. How much would the Shicheng Department Store of this era differ from the ones in the future?