Chapter 14 Let's Wait and See "Dad, why haven't you cooked yet?" Tao Daqiang put two fish in the kitchen and shouted to his father in the inner room. Tao Daqiang's father, Tao Jianshe, was leaning on the kang and smoking a pipe. When he heard his youngest son's voice, he took down his pipe, knocked on it and said: "I did. You didn't come back so late, and your nephew Maodan came over and said he was hungry after playing, so I gave him the meal I left for you. If you're hungry, there are potatoes in the kitchen. You can roast two under the stove." Tao Jianshe said this calmly, and Tao Daqiang didn't think it was a big deal. Tao Daqiang's brother Tao Dayong was already married and had a son, Maodan, who was the treasure of the whole family. In the past, Tao Daqiang really liked to eat roasted potatoes. He had been called stupid by his family since he was a child. His father, brother and sister-in-law also said so. He was used to accepting everything. But today, after eating the quack chicken and drinking the fish soup at Li's house, and catching some fish, he felt that he was still useful, so he raised his voice and said: "Dad, I caught some fish and I want to cook it!" "You caught some fish? What kind of fish?" Tao Jian was a little surprised when he heard that Tao Daqiang had caught some fish. He got up from the kang and shouted: "Bring it here and take a look." Tao Daqiang walked out of the kitchen proudly, holding the fish. "Wow, this fish is pretty good!" Tao Jianshe originally thought that his son had brought back a palm-sized crucian carp at most, after all, this type of crucian carp is the easiest to catch, but it turned out to be a large fish weighing more than one or two kilograms, which is really rare. "Where did you catch it?" "I caught them in the small lake with Brother Long." Tao Daqiang said proudly.
"Brother Long? Who?" Tao Jianshe didn't understand. "Li Long, Li Jianguo's younger brother." Tao Daqiang said. "You mean that bastard?" Tao Jianshe said disdainfully, "Does he have that ability? He must have been caught by Li Jianguo, right?" Tao Daqiang thought about it and nodded. "Okay. No matter who brought it, just take the fish to your brother's house." Tao Jianshe said, "We don't have much oil at home. Don't we need oil to cook fish?" "I don't use oil, I make fish soup!" Tao Daqiang thought about the fish soup he had at Li's house that night, and an idea came to his mind, saying, "Just use water!" Tao Jianshe suddenly got angry and hit Tao Daqiang on the head with his pipe: "Why are you so stupid? You only use water? Wouldn't that waste charcoal for the stove? You only think about yourself, what are you going to do in the future? Your mother died early, and when I die, you are so stupid that you have to rely on your brother for a living? If you don't curry favor with your brother now, you won't even have food to eat later!" "I can eat!" Tao Daqiang was stubborn today and refused to see him off. "I followed my brother - I haven't had enough to eat this winter. My dinner was even eaten by Maodan! I can still eat enough when I follow Brother Long, and I can eat chicken and fish!" "I told you to eat chicken! I told you to eat fish!" Tao Jianshe never thought that his son, who had always been obedient, would dare to refute him and talk back to him. He was so angry that he smashed Tao Daqiang on the head with his pipe. Tao Daqiang took a few hits and saw that his father did not hold back at all. He opened the door and ran out, leaving an angry voice in the wind: "I don't want to eat fish anymore, you can give it to whoever you want!" Tao Jianshe held up his pipe in a daze. After a while, the heat in the room was taken away by the cold outside the door. He felt the biting cold and hurriedly closed the door, cursing angrily: "This bastard has grown wings and is no longer obedient! He even rebelled against him!" Looking at the fish at his feet, Tao Jianshe sighed, bent down, picked up the fish, and put it into the kitchen. He planned to divide the fish into three pieces for Tao Dayong to take back when he came tomorrow. Now that I'm here, my eldest son may agree to take care of my younger son for my sake. When Li Long came back from the stable, he saw a big black man swaying outside his gate. He immediately became alert, looked around, broke off a piece of soil from the wall in the backyard, and shouted: "Who?" "Brother Long, it's me, Daqiang." Tao Daqiang's voice came over. Li Long felt relieved, thinking that he didn't feel it usually, but in this dark place, the big guy was quite oppressive. "What are you doing here?" Li Long approached and asked, "We have to leave early tomorrow morning, why don't you go to bed early?" "I... I can't sleep." Tao Daqiang stammered, "I want to stay at your house, so I can leave with you tomorrow."
"Okay then." Although Li Long felt a little strange, since Tao Daqiang was here, he couldn't just send him back. "Let's go. I've already borrowed the carriage. Let's go back and tell my brother. Let's rest early and leave early tomorrow." Seeing that Li Long didn't ask any more questions, Tao Daqiang followed him silently. Li Long first went to the west room and told Li Jianguo to borrow a carriage and that Tao Daqiang wanted to stay with him tonight. Li Jianguo heard that Li Long had already borrowed the carriage, so he said: "Okay, you've been tired all day, you should go to bed early. Let's set off early tomorrow and come back early. By the way, Xiaolong, I'll skin the water rat. You can go to the county purchasing station tomorrow to see how much you can sell it for. You can buy some food on the way." "I'll get up early tomorrow and steam some steamed cakes for them." Liang Yuemei said, "Just wrap them in a cloth and put them in your bag." "Okay." Li Long nodded and said, "Then let's go to bed." "Put more coal in the stove over there," Li Jianguo reminded again, "otherwise it will be cold in the middle of the night." He didn't say much. It would definitely be crowded for two big guys to share one quilt, but nowadays basically no one has extra quilts. Fortunately, Li Long had a coat that could barely make do. Li Long had the same idea. He thought that by heating the kang to a high temperature and wearing a cotton coat, he could get through the night. The next morning, Li Long woke up just as it was light and woke up Tao Daqiang. The two of them quickly put on their clothes and went out to the west room. Liang Yuemei was already cooking, and Li Juan and Li Qiang were both up. Li Juan was sweeping the floor, and Li Qiang was washing his face. Breakfast was yesterday's leftover fish soup, fried pickles, and cornmeal porridge. Looking at the fish soup on the table, Tao Daqiang felt sad for no reason. He hurriedly washed his face to cover it up. After breakfast, Li Jianguo rolled up the water rat skin and put it into the urea bag. Liang Yuemei handed the bag containing the steamed cake to Li Long and told him: "If you two are hungry on the way, just eat. Don't be reluctant." After bidding farewell to his family, Li Long took Tao Daqiang to the stable. With the help of Lao Luo, they harnessed the carriage, loaded two bundles of hay, and the two of them got on the carriage and drove towards the county town. The mountain is in the south, but the road goes west. Five kilometers to the west, you will reach the commune, then three kilometers to the south to the county, and ten kilometers southwest of the county is Qingshuihe Commune. Another five kilometers to enter the mountain - in fact, even if you take a horse carriage, you have to walk nearly 30 kilometers on the road. We haven’t reached our destination yet. Not long after Li Long left, the first person to visit the Li family came, the eldest sister-in-law of the Lu family next door. Guests are welcome. Li Jianguo, Li Juan and Li Qiang were cleaning the fish in the east room. Liang Yuemei let them in. After they sat down, the fifty-year-old sister-in-law of the Lu family asked: "His aunt, I heard that your uncle is back? Was he fired? And he went to the mountains to pull wood today? He has caused enough trouble in this village! What a ridiculous thing to do!" In the village, Li Long is actually quite like a joke. After much hardship, I entered the factory, but was fired. I finally chased a beautiful girl in the village, but was dumped by her. Now he was making a fool of himself again, spending money to buy work points for a horse, and driving a horse-drawn carriage to the mountains to pull wood - but was the wood in the mountains easy to pull? It was doubtful whether he could find the way into the mountains in that way! Thanks to Dian Lao for the reward and suggestions, and thank you all for your support! (End of this chapter)