Chapter 31 The Black Market is Really Black When Li Long got dressed and went out to the west room, he saw a big black man hanging around outside the courtyard gate. He was startled and shouted, "Who?" "Brother Long, it's me." Tao Daqiang's voice. "Da Qiang, why are you here so early?" Li Long breathed a sigh of relief, then asked in confusion, "I was planning to go to your house to find you after dinner." "I'm afraid... I'm afraid I'll miss the time." Tao Daqiang scratched his hat and responded with a silly smile. "Come in quickly." Li Long came over to pull him, and then he saw that Tao Daqiang's hat was covered with white frost, as were his eyebrows and eyelashes. He couldn't help but ask: "What time did you come?" "No...I don't remember." Tao Daqiang's mouth was so stiff from the cold. "Come in! Didn't you sleep last night?" Li Long just made a random guess, but he almost hit the nail on the head.
Tao Daqiang went home after dinner last night and found that there was no meal for him at home. He didn't say much and went to bed early. However, after falling asleep, I was worried that I would not be able to get up in the morning because Li Long said he would leave before daybreak. As a result, he tossed and turned, but was still afraid to fall asleep, so he simply got up, put on his clothes, and sat on the kang waiting. Tao Jianshe had fallen asleep a long time ago. Tao Daqiang felt that he had waited enough, so he quietly went out and came to Li's house. As a result, Li Long hadn't gotten up yet, so he waited at the gate of the yard until Li Long got up. He didn't know how long he waited. Li Jianguo heard voices outside, opened the door and saw Tao Daqiang and Li Long, and immediately invited them in. Liang Yuemei hurriedly served them cornmeal porridge. Tao Daqiang leaned against the fire wall and it took him a while to recover. After washing up, Li Long helped Liang Yuemei carry the bowls for rice. In the morning, there was cornmeal steamed cake, mutton fried with pickles, porridge and the leftover fish soup from last night. Li Long and Tao Daqiang were not polite and wolfed down the food. Li Long wiped his mouth and said to Li Jianguo: "Brother, I have a few quack chickens in my room. I'll take a few to sell, and you can clean up the rest and we'll eat them." Tao Daqiang looked at Li Long with envy. Brother Long was really awesome. He could get meat with just a few moves. Li Jianguo took off the key chain from his waistband, opened the chest of drawers, took out a stack of food coupons, counted out a few and handed them to Li Long: "Here, is that enough?" "Not enough, get some more." "Okay." Li Jianguo didn't say anything. Now that his younger brother is capable, he is naturally happy. Li Long would not think that he was better than his elder brother. After all, when the land was divided in the spring of next year, that would be the time for his elder brother to show his ability. His two acres of land would also be left for his elder brother to farm. Holding the food coupons, Li Long and Tao Daqiang went out, pulling the sled. Li Jianguo put the urea bag containing the fish on the sled. Li Long took out the bag of quacking chickens from his room, took out six of them, twisted them one by one and put them on the ground. The remaining five that were still alive were tied up in the bag and put on the sled. Tao Daqiang pulled the rope on the sled and strode out. This simple sled is similar to a stretcher, but the front is raised and thick iron wires are embedded in the two sticks below to reduce friction. A rope is tied at the front, and the two ends are tied together, so you can pull it to move. Now the snow on the road was pressed into ice, and the sled slid on it, and it flew up without much effort. Tao Daqiang was so excited that he pulled faster and faster. Li Long found it funny and reminded him from behind:
"Da Qiang, be careful when you use your strength, don't throw the things on the sled off." "Well, I see!" The two people slowly disappeared at the end of the road. At dawn, Mrs. Lu came to the Li family again. "Hey, auntie, do you eat early at home?" Looking at Li Juan and Li Qiang playing on the kang, Mrs. Lu said with a smile. Liang Yuemei, who was sewing the soles of shoes, nodded without saying anything more. She didn't want to say that she got up early because Li Long and his friends were going to the county to sell fish. Although the policy is much more relaxed now, it's not good to give others something to talk about. Besides, Mrs. Lu is a talkative person. "Aunt, have you heard? Yesterday, the team borrowed three horse-drawn carriages to go into the mountains to pull wood. Only the captain's carriage pulled half of the wood, and the rest pulled nothing!" Mrs. Lu lowered her voice and told Liang Yuemei the news she had heard. "Why didn't you pull it? There are so many trees in that mountain." "They said they couldn't find the way. People can go in, but carriages can't." Mrs. Lu thought those people were really stupid. In the summer, the sideline team could go in, but in the winter, they couldn't find the way. "Your little dragon is really good. He always comes back with a full carriage of stuff!" "Well, Xiaolong is lucky." Liang Yuemei said vaguely. "I don't think it's just luck, it's Xiaolong's ability." Mrs. Lu had no awareness of what she had said a few days ago about Li Long being a prodigal son, and she started praising Li Long. "By the way, his aunt, my niece is 19 years old, graduated from elementary school, can work, and is good-looking. Can you talk to Xiaolong about her..." "Then I have to ask Xiaolong." Liang Yuemei said with a smile, "Xiaolong's vision is not low." "Hehe, I know, I know. I'm just asking. If Xiaolong wants to agree, then we can meet first. Whether it works out or not is another matter." Li Long didn't know that someone had already started planning to invest in him as a potential stock. When they arrived at the black market, it was just dawn. But here in the black market, some people are already planning to leave. "Did they come so early?" Seeing someone pushing a bicycle with two empty baskets on the back, Tao Daqiang couldn't help but ask, "When did they leave?" "They are close." Li Long said, then found an empty space, parked the sled, and started taking things out. "What are you selling?" someone came over and asked immediately. "Fish." Li Long didn't even look up. "And the quacking chicken." "Fish? What fish?" "We have carp, crucian carp, grass carp, silver carp, and black carp." Seeing that the man was asking so many questions, Li Long immediately looked up and answered seriously, "Which one do you want? How many do you want?" "What's the price?" The man was in his fifties, wearing a Mao suit and looked like a cadre. "I see you didn't bring a scale." "By the piece, a large carp or black carp costs two yuan, silver carp costs one yuan and a half, and ten small crucian carps and miscellaneous fish costs one yuan. The big ones I have are over one and a half kilograms, so they are absolutely cheap!" Li Long didn't have a scale, and he didn't plan to bring one. In the summer of his previous life, crucian carp were sold in large bowls, and each bowl held about a little over a kilogram. Now it was winter, and the fish were frozen, so he couldn't use bowls, so he had to use strips. "Then take out the fish and let me see it." The man seemed to want to buy it, so Li Long took out the fish and placed it on the sled. More people came over to watch.
"It looks good, quite big." "Wudaohei, this fish garlic meat is delicious!" "That crucian carp is a big crucian carp, it looks quite fat..." Some of the onlookers who knew what was going on were looking at it one by one. Li Long took out one of the five quacking chickens and showed it to the audience: "Newly caught quack chicken, three dollars a head, tastier than chicken, wild game!" There were many people watching, but only one or two were picking out the fish. Tao Daqiang stared at the people picking the fish nervously, fearing that these people would take the fish and run away. "Young man, how much is this carp?" a woman in her forties asked, picking up the largest carp. "Two." Li Long said with a smile, "This is the biggest one. Look at its red head and red tail. How beautiful!" "When was he caught?" The woman was still a little hesitant. "Yesterday, if you pry open the cheek cap, you will see that it is red. We dug a hole in the ice that was nearly a meter thick to catch it. It was not easy!" "Then I'll take it." The woman took out the money. First order, accomplished! (End of this chapter)