Chapter 12 Li Long has made great progress "This guy is a water rat, and its official name is muskrat," Li Long explained, "also known as a blue-root marten. Its skin is very valuable. This one can be sold for at least five dollars!" "Five dollars?" Upon hearing that a skin of this water rat could be sold for five dollars, Li Jianguo and Tao Daqiang's eyes lit up. At present, in the production team, the salary for a worker at the end of the year is 8 cents! The better production teams with some side businesses can get cents, which is the best. How many jobs do you have to do to earn five dollars? These days, because the land in northern Xinjiang is large and the amount of grain grown is abundant, people can at least get enough food and clothing, but it is not easy to make money. The meat we eat is mainly from domestic pigs. As for money, we basically don't have any. Li Long remembered that when the production team settled accounts at the end of last year, Li Jianguo's family had a surplus of yuan, which made them one of the wealthier families in the team. Nearly half of the farmers owe money to the production team! Work points were not valuable, so it was difficult to make money. In the summer, the production team had a sideline team that went to the mountains to dig Fritillaria and Codonopsis, but those things required skills - ordinary people could not dig much in a day, and although the work points were more than those of ordinary workers, it was also tiring. "Da Qiang, quickly fish it out and see if there is anything left!" Li Jianguo said immediately. Tao Daqiang also reacted and immediately bent down to dig into the ice hole.
In order to expand the range as much as possible, Tao Daqiang stretched out his arms, drew a semicircle on the bottom of the ice with the scoop net, and then pulled it up. The net was very heavy, and when he pulled it up, the icy water dripped down and soaked his clothes. There are seven or eight fish in this net, weighing nearly twenty kilograms in total. But there are no more water rats. If he had seen this fish before, he would have been happy, but now this fish is not so fragrant. Tao Daqiang was a little unwilling, after pouring out the fish, he used the net again, but this time there were only two small fish. "Da Qiang, come up here. I'm going to try the ice hole over there!" Li Jianguo said impatiently, "Come up here and warm yourself by the fire. Your clothes are all wet!" The water rat successfully raised the enthusiasm of Li Jianguo and Tao Daqiang. These days, nothing is easy without money. But Li Long was not optimistic - it was a great luck to catch a water rat in the ice hole. This thing is not like fish, it digs holes underwater with multiple exits, and its hole may be in a clump of reeds on the shore. It is likely that it was attracted by the swimming fish and ended up in the net. Sure enough, Li Jianguo pulled out seven or eight fish with two nets from the other ice hole, but there was no sign of water rats. "Brother, Daqiang, there's no rush now. When the ice melts in the spring, these water rats will come out in droves, and we'll be easy to catch them then." Although Li Jianguo was somewhat unwilling, he knew that this was the only way. The three of them took turns using a scoop net to dig out the ice hole until the sun was about to set, and then they decided to go back. Before going back, Li Long covered the ice hole with snow. "Won't it be needed in a few days?" Tao Daqiang was a little puzzled by his actions. "If we don't cover it, the water will slowly overflow in a couple of days, and it will be troublesome to break it. Cover it with snow now, and then shovel away the snow, so the ice underneath won't be that thick." Tao Daqiang felt that what Li Long said made a lot of sense. Both urea bags were half full, and it was tiring to carry them, so I simply put the fish in the bags, placed the bags on the head of the shovel, and used the shovel as a sled to pull them, which saved a lot of effort. The fish was indeed hot. I didn't feel it when I was fishing, but now when I was walking back, I felt that my whole body was cold, and there was no warmth anywhere on my body. The little bird almost shrank back. The three of them hurried to the Li family before the sun set. Liang Yuemei had already cooked fish soup with a silver carp. After the three of them entered the house, they drank a bowl each and felt their bodies warm up immediately.
"Brother Jianguo, Brother Long, I'm going back first." Tao Daqiang said after drinking a bowl of fish soup. "Dry the clothes first, otherwise your father will definitely complain when you get back." "You can't say that to me." Tao Daqiang said seriously, "If I bring back a few fish, he will definitely be happy!" "Then dry it. I'm leaving early tomorrow morning. If you want to go with me, you'd better wear thicker clothes." Li Long persuaded Tao Daqiang to drink another bowl of fish soup, and then he went back with the fish. Li Long originally wanted to take the water rat away because he had caught it with his net, but Tao Daqiang refused, saying that he had caught it with Li's net. He was very grateful to the Li family for being able to get the fish. Originally, Li Long planned to divide the fish into three equal portions, each portion weighing more than ten kilograms, but Tao Daqiang only strung five fish on reeds and carried them back. "Daqiang is not stupid." Li Jianguo said as he watched Tao Daqiang leave. Li Long naturally knew that Tao Daqiang was not stupid, but others thought he was dumb and stupid, and his family thought so too. The fish was put aside first, and the family happily drank the fish soup. Liang Yuemei used a three-kilogram big silver carp, which was boiled for a long time, and the fish meat almost melted in the soup. Each family member had a bowl, and the corn flour steamed cake was directly soaked in the fish soup, which tasted so delicious. Li Long thought it would be perfect if it had some fresh chopped green onions or coriander! Li Juan drank it in small sips, her eyes curved into crescents, and she was in a very good mood. Before yesterday morning, we couldn’t even eat meat. In just one day, first we had old sparrows, then quacking chickens, and now we have plenty of fish. There are even dozens of fish in the kitchen - these days are so happy! Li Qiang also held a big bowl and picked up the fish meat with chopsticks to eat, wiping his nose from time to time. He would occasionally look at Li Long, wondering how he could tell his uncle later to let him go fishing as well. "Brother, I'm going to Captain Xu's house with two fish, and by the way, I'll talk about borrowing the carriage." After drinking the fish soup, Li Long felt warm all over, so he stood up and said. "Two, isn't that a bit too few?" Li Jianguo said after a moment of hesitation. "It's quite a lot. Two two-kilogram carps, that's pretty good." Li Long said, "It's impossible for him to lend the carriage for free just because of this fish, so there's no need for us to take more." A little bit of kindness will bring grudges. Two fish will be enough this time. If you take too much, what will you do if you have no fish to borrow next time? Besides, if you borrow a carriage to take a lot of fish, what will others say when they borrow it? Li Long never thought about these things before. But in his previous life, his elder brother passed away, and his sister-in-law and her family hated him. He was helpless and ended up living with a widow. He suffered a lot and learned the ropes of life. During those days he often thought how great it would be if he hadn't been such a jerk before and his elder brother was still alive. He cherishes this day even more now. Li Long picked out two relatively well-proportioned fish, threaded them with reeds and carried them out the door. Wild carp are very beautiful these days, with red heads and tails, two long whiskers, and shiny scales, which are a delight to look at. Then not long after he went out, Li Long met Gu Ermao. Gu Ermao saw Li Long and came up to him with a smile on his face: "Xiaolong, did you catch any fish? Give me one!" Li Long was amused by this bitch. (End of this chapter)
