Rebirth of Bayi Fishing and Hunting in the Northwest

In the morning, Sister Yang made crucian carp soup and stir-fried pickled vegetables and meat. The staple food was the steamed flower rolls from yesterday. Flower rolls here usually have two kinds of ingredients, either chili oil or fragrant beans. The kind with chopped green onions is rarely made in ordinary families.

We drink cornmeal porridge. We usually eat refined grains, but this whole grain for breakfast has not changed much, and everyone likes to drink it.

Sister Yang prepared such a rich meal with two kinds of soup because she was worried that some people might not be used to it or would want to drink both. She was used to getting up early, so when Li Long and Gu Xiaoxia got up and washed up, the food was already on the table.

"Sister Yang, I'll start giving you a salary this month," Li Long said. "You've been busy every day, it must be hard work."

"Why should I be paid?" Sister Yang glared. "My mother and I eat here too. I can earn money. I live here for free and you don't charge me for food or rent. Why should I be paid for cooking? If this happened back home, people would scold me if they knew about it."

She pointed at Han Fang and said:
"You also arranged a school for Xiaofang and bought her clothes. The clothes she is wearing and the schoolbag she carries are all made by you. When Xiaofang went to school, people thought she was the daughter of a wealthy family.

Uncle, please don't talk about this anymore. It's not that I don't want money, but I have to be conscientious. "

Ok.

At that time, many people were still very simple and honest, and they believed in repaying kindness. If people knew that there would still be people who were blackmailed for saving others in the future, they would probably curse their ancestors for eighteen generations.

Then I’ll buy more things for Sister Yang and Han Fang in the future.

After dinner, Li Long wanted to send Gu Xiaoxia to work, but Gu Xiaoxia refused. All the senior colleagues in the work unit had gone through the same thing, and she didn't want others to say that she was squeamish.

"Then walk slowly, the road is slippery now." Li Long warned. He planned not to let Gu Xiaoxia ride a bicycle for a while, and he would have to pick her up no matter what.

At this time, the snow on the road was compacted into ice and was difficult to clear. There was no sign of the snowplows that came out in later generations. At present, the county town was not small in area, but there were not many units. The yards of each unit were quite large, and the length of the road they occupied was also long.

The ice on the road is difficult to clear. There is no large garrison in Ma County, so snow and ice removal can only be done by various units, which requires a process.

Sister Yang cleaned the kitchen and cooked, while Li Long filled the jeep with water and oil, started the car, and drove to the team.

Now that we have started collecting fish, we can't stop. There should be many people in the team waiting and watching. If Li Long stops collecting fish, some people with ideas will naturally back off.

When the jeep arrived at the Li family's yard, the people who came out to see were Liang Yuemei and her mother Du Chunfang.

"Dad and your elder brother have already gone to Xiaohaizi." Liang Yuemei explained, "Xiaolong, go into the house first and drink some fish soup to warm yourself up."

"No," Li Long waved his hand, "I'll go to Xiaohaizi to have a look."

Everyone knew that making money and completing the task were the most important things at this time, so Du Chunfang and Liang Yuemei did not stop him.

Li Long left, Liang Yuemei said to Du Chunfang:

"Mom, you stay inside. I'm going to the front yard to set up the stove for Xiaolong."

"Okay, go ahead." Du Chunfang didn't know how to set up a stove, so she urged Liang Yuemei, "Put more charcoal in it, don't be reluctant."

"Oh, I understand." Liang Yuemei replied with a smile. In fact, it was her parents-in-law who were reluctant to let her go. They also had a stove in their house, but every time it was Li Jianguo and I who urged them to add more coal.

Both my father-in-law and mother-in-law said that it was warm enough and there was no need to add too much coal, which was quite expensive.

Liang Yuemei heard from Li Jianguo that the coal in her hometown was indeed very expensive, several times the price of the coal in northern Xinjiang. If she couldn't afford it, she would buy honeycomb coal mixed with yellow mud, which was relatively cheaper.

Maybe they are used to the cold, so they think adding a little coal is enough.

But how could Li Jianguo and himself bear to let them freeze, so they had to help them add coal to the stove.

But for Li Long, they were really willing to give him up. Liang Yuemei was not jealous at all, as Li Long deserved this favor.

Li Long's performance in the past two years really deserves this kind of favor. Whether it is his parents, his brother and his sister-in-law, or his nephews and nieces, Li Long cares enough, especially for Li Juan and Li Qiang, in some aspects he does more than himself as a parent.

Really sensible now.

When the eldest sister-in-law of the Lu family came to visit, she would often say that there were very few families like the Li family where the brothers were so harmonious and there were no troubles at all.

Which family has two brothers who don’t quarrel over trivial matters? Every family has its own problems, but it seems that the Li family does not have them.

Liang Yuemei smiled when she heard this. She felt the happiest during these days. Although she was still tired from working in the summer, she was tired happily.

I feel that life is getting better and better, and even if I am tired, I still have a purpose. The life I am living now is a wonderful life that others can only dream of but cannot reach.

Nowadays, many sisters-in-law and young wives in the village would come to my house from time to time to chat while doing work, which was not the case in the past.

Gradually, the Li family became the women's home in the settlement.

Liang Yuemei had the confidence to speak directly and give advice to the sisters-in-law and daughters-in-law when they complained, thus calming down many family conflicts.

Some women even said that it would be best to let Liang Yuemei be the director of the women's department.

Liang Yuemei declined hastily. She didn't want to be a role. It was enough for her family to live a good life. She didn't go to school for many years, didn't know much, and didn't have many ideas. She just wanted to live a good life for her family.

Li Long walked quickly along the road to the small lake, and he found that Tao Dayong was indeed with Tao Daqiang.

The two men were not fishing in the hole in the ice, but were clearing the snow off the ice and breaking the ice about 20 meters away.

It seems that he is planning to dig another ice hole.

That's right, both brothers are good workers. If we just point to an ice hole, it may not be enough.

Seeing Li Long coming, those who were fishing nearby all greeted him.

Those who delivered fish to Li’s house yesterday received cash, and they are all in better spirits today.

In those days, people still paid IOUs for public grain and settled accounts at the end of the year. Li Long never owed money for anything he collected. He settled accounts immediately after receiving the money. He established his reputation in two years.

Although some people complained that Li Long was sometimes too strict when collecting things, no one ever mentioned Li Long's credibility issues when giving money.

Li Long's behavior in the past two years has subtly left an impression in everyone's mind that as long as Li Long accepts something, he will definitely not cheat anyone.

Don't underestimate this impression, the credibility gained in this way can be overdrawn. For ordinary people, such credibility is really rare.

When Li Long came to Li Qingxia's side, Li Jianguo was stuck in the middle of the ice hole and trying to get up with a scoop net.

Seeing Li Long coming over, Li Qingxia said with a smile:
"Xiaolong, your method yesterday was good. After you put the net down and waited a while, when you pulled it up again, there were more fish than yesterday!"

"Hehe, look." Li Long couldn't tell whether this was really useful or just good luck, so he walked over to take a look.

There were two big fish, a silver carp and a bighead carp, both weighing two or three kilograms. Small crucian carps and pike weighing two or three kilograms were gathered in a pile.

The big fish has been frozen solid, so it looks like it’s been a while since we fished it out.

"Brother, can it be my turn?" Li Long asked when he saw his brother catching seven or eight small crucian carps in the net.

"No need, just try a few more times." Li Jianguo was not in a hurry. Big fish or small fish are all fish. It's enough to have them.

Li Long went to pick up the reeds.

The hairy reeds nearby have been collected several times and are no longer there.

Li Long went to a farther place, and then he heard someone quarreling at the ice hole in the northwest.

"...I told you to send the big fish to the Li family, but you insisted that it would be more expensive if we went to the county. Now, we went to sell them early this morning. After two hours, we were frozen like monkeys, but what happened? Half of the fish were not sold! In the end, we gave them to the dealer at 80 cents per kilogram... What a loss!"

"Who would have thought that there would be so few people buying fish in the county market? In the past, when we went to Shicheng in the summer, the fish were sold out in a short time..."

"Can the county compare with Shicheng? We don't have bicycles or tractors, and Shicheng is still more than ten kilometers away. Dad, let me tell you, we should just pick the big fish and sell them to the Li family. It would be much better to get cash directly!

If you calculate it this way, you can suffer less and not have to run back and forth to the county. If we have a bicycle, you can tell me how much you can sell it for in Shicheng, and I won’t stop you. Now, running back and forth to the county is not only troublesome, but you can’t sell it at a good price and it wastes time…”

"Okay, okay, whatever you say is fine."

Li Long didn't look over there, but he could tell from the voices that it was the Zhao family father and son. They had been catching fish for a long time. In summer, they would go to the county to sell them, and in autumn, they would catch fish occasionally. This winter, they heard that they came to catch fish as soon as the ice was strong enough to hold people, but at that time, not many fish could be caught by breaking holes in the ice.

After all, the fish were not short of oxygen at that time.

Li Long was about seventy or eighty meters away from them. Their voices were not loud and ordinary people could not hear them at such a distance, so even though they saw Li Long collecting reeds there, they were not worried about their words leaking out.

But Li Long heard it.

Well, actually, collecting fish is a win-win situation. They don’t have to go to the county to set up stalls to sell them, and they can also get suitable fish themselves.

He carried a large bundle of hairy reeds to the ice hole, put the reeds down at the place where he had set fire yesterday and lit it. Then Li Long went to take a look at Tao Datai.

Water has already come out of the ice hole, but it needs to be enlarged and the edges need to be repaired.

Seeing Li Long coming over, Tao Daqiang greeted him, "Brother Long is here." Tao Dayong was a little embarrassed, and then took the initiative to greet him:
"Xiaolong is here. I'm fishing with Daqiang... helping him..." Li Long smiled. It was rare to see Tao Dayong being so humble. It was actually quite good. If you want to live a good life, don't think too much. Sometimes, if you take the initiative to smile, you're really not as humble as you think.

"All that's left is repairing it. In fact, if one of you repairs it here, one of you can go over to the ice hole over there to fish." Li Long suggested, "The ice hole over there has been gone overnight, so the fish must have gathered here."

After Li Long said this, the two brothers also reacted. At the beginning, they wanted to take turns to open the ice hole quickly, so they were all here.

Repairing the ice hole is a delicate job right now, so there is no need for two people to take turns.

"Da Qiang, you go over there to scoop up the fish, I'll do some work here, and it will be ready here." Tao Dayong took the initiative to say.

"Brother, you go over there. I've dug several holes in the ice before, I know how to fish. Go and try it out and see if you can catch any fish." Tao Daqiang picked up the landing net and stuffed it into his brother's hand, pushing him. "Give it a try. Anyway, we don't plan to catch many fish today."

"Well... okay." Tao Dayong held up the scoop net, smiled at Li Long, and then went over there.

Tao Daqiang picked up the shovel and continued to repair the ice hole.

"You repair it first, I'll go and take over for my eldest brother." Li Long looked for a while and said.

"Okay." Tao Daqiang took the scoop net, scooped the broken ice from the water in the ice hole, and put it on the ice surface with his backhand, and responded.

He used to be very envious of the brotherly relationship between Li Jianguo and Li Long. Now that his elder brother has taken actions to change for the better, he is also very proud.

His brother will also slowly become more reliable. This reminded him of when he was a child, when others bullied him, his brother Tao Dayong would stand up for him and help him beat up those older kids who bullied him.

When did the change occur and when did we start to become distant?
I don't know if it's really effective to leave the scoop net in the water for a while, but this morning, the three members of the Li family caught twelve large fish, weighing a total of about 17 or 18 kilograms.

The small fish weighed nearly ten kilograms.

A lot.

When the three Li family members were carrying the fish back, it seemed to be a signal to the other people fishing in Xiaohaizi, and everyone packed up and prepared to go back.

They always thought about sending the big fish to the Li family before lunch.

The weather was cold and most of the big fish were frozen. Li Long felt that there was no need to freeze the fish outside and they could just bring them into the house.

"Should we make another ice hole?" Li Qingxia suddenly asked on the way, "Isn't it a bit insufficient for the three of us to make one ice hole?"

"We're just having fun, it would be best if we can get something." Li Long objected, "Why keep yourself so busy? It's good to take turns. The ice is half a meter thick, it will take at least an hour to break a hole..."

Li Jianguo didn't say anything, but in fact he had also thought about this problem.

"That's because I feel bored when I'm not fishing." Li Qingxia said with a smile.

"Then I'll smash another one this afternoon." Li Jianguo thought that there was nothing to do anyway, as he only had to feed the chickens and pigs at home. He had already dealt with a lot of the pigs.

Now that we have planted a lot of land in the summer, we can hardly take care of the pigs. Although if we don’t become professional pig farmers, the five acres of feed land will be taken back by people, but they don’t care anymore.

Li Jianguo plans to get rid of most of the pigs by next year. He will not raise more pigs except for two pigs that are slaughtered at the end of the year.

As for the wild boars that Li Long had at the Lao Ma Hao, Li Jianguo had never thought about it. They were Li Long's things, and he would not have that idea.

When the pig he raised was killed for the New Year, half of the pig would be given to Li Long. When Li Anguo and Chen Xingbang came, each of them could take a pig leg home.

This is what being the eldest brother means, you have to take care of everyone.

"Then smash it." Since his father and eldest brother agreed, Li Long did not insist. It was only an hour's work. With three people working together, it might not take an hour. After all, he was very strong.

Li Jianguo and Li Qingxia went back to the back yard, while Li Long went to his own yard and took out the scale.

Just now he saw smoke coming out of his chimney from a distance, and it was obvious that the stove had been set up.

My heart feels warm.

The first person to come over was Liang Dacheng, who came over with a bag in his hand and a smile on his face.

"Wow, this time the fish is quite big!" The first thing that came out of his pocket was a silver carp weighing at least four kilograms. Li Long exclaimed, "This fish head is delicious."

"Well, it was Zhongcheng who fished it out. He almost pulled the person down." Liang Dacheng couldn't hide his pride on his face. "It's rare to see such a big silver carp."

"Well, the others are good too." There are more than one kilogram of carp and five or six black carp left. It seems that the harvest is indeed good.

After weighing and paying, Liang Dacheng walked out with the empty bag, just in time to meet the Zhao family father and son coming in.

Seeing Li Long, both of them were a little embarrassed. They didn't know that Li Long had heard what they said, and when they saw the plastic sheet that Li Long had spread out, they poured out the fish in the bag.

The fish were very regular, most weighed over one kilogram, and the largest was less than three kilograms.

There were seven in total. Li Long weighed them and found they were 11.8 kilograms. He also wiped out a zero and gave twelve yuan.

Both the Zhao family father and son felt a little embarrassed and wanted to talk, but Tao Daqiang and Tao Dayong came over.

The two of them left with a smile.

Twelve yuan. The fish I sold at the morning market didn’t even cost twelve yuan, and it’s only been half a day!
Tao Dayong picked up the bag and dumped the fish out. Tao Daqiang didn't move, and Li Long guessed that there should be small fish in the bag in his hand.

There weren't many fish, just six, two grass carp, one silver carp, one carp and one black carp, so all the species were there.

Li Long weighed them and found that the six fish weighed exactly ten kilograms.

Tao Dayong was given ten yuan, and he took it and gave it to Tao Daqiang.

Tao Daqiang took it and gave it to Li Long:
"Brother Long, please get out of the way. These are five dollars each."

"Okay." Li Long took out two five-dollar bills from his stack of money and handed them over, then took the Great Unity note.

Tao Daqiang handed one of the five-dollar bills to Tao Dayong.

"Daqiang, this..." Tao Dayong didn't expect his brother to split it equally. In fact, four of the six fish were taken by Daqiang. He himself had no experience, so he was lucky to catch two.

"Brother, take it, and don't let Brother Long see you and laugh." Tao Daqiang said.

"Well... okay." Tao Dayong was a little excited and didn't say anything else.

After the two people left, the next person who was waiting outside the yard entered the yard.

Tao Dayong turned back home halfway, and Tao Daqiang asked him to take the fish with him.

"I brought home a lot of small fish." Tao Daqiang said, "You can take these back and cook them. The fish are small, but they taste good."

"Okay." Tao Dayong didn't say anything else.

When Ma Chunhong returned to her yard, she heard the noise and saw Tao Dayong coming back with a bag. She took the bag with a smile, opened it and took a look, and her face changed immediately.

"I've been busy all morning, and I'm just getting you these little fish?"

"What? You don't want it?" Tao Dayong said as he walked into the house, "If you don't want it, I'll give it to Daqiang."

"Then...then there can't be no bigger ones, right?"

"There are still five dollars." Tao Dayong took out five dollars and waved it in front of Ma Chunhong, "Is that enough? Daqiang and I split it equally. I didn't catch as many fish as he did!"

"Wow! Five yuan for a whole morning?" Ma Chunhong knew that this was different from the time when she was collecting reeds and making brooms. At that time, she had the raw materials. Now she could just go out with a scoop net and shovel and come back with five yuan. How great!

She immediately laughed.

"Dayong, can you please call my brother..."

"Don't talk nonsense to me." Tao Dayong was unhappy when he heard it. "If he wants to dig it out, let him dig a hole in the ice himself! The small lake is big, he can dig it as he pleases!"

Ma Chunhong was a little unhappy.

"Don't give me that look! We used to take care of your brother with so much stuff, but what did you get in return?" Tao Dayong said unhappily, "Don't force me to say bad things! If your brother knew what was good for him, I could take him with me. Does he know what was good for him?"

Ma Chunhong stopped talking.

Do you know?

She herself wasn't sure.

Although she could pretend that she didn't know the personalities of her brothers from her mother's family, did she really not know? (End of this chapter)