Chapter 37: Distinguishing the Distant Relatives Tao Daqiang had dinner at Li's house. Li Long told him to call him at six o'clock the next day. He responded and went home. It was completely dark, but the moon was big and the reflection of the snow made it possible to see the road clearly. When he entered his own yard and saw that there was a light in the house, he thought of his father's habit and prepared to break some coal and bring it into the house so that he would not be cold anymore. At worst, when I earn money tomorrow, I can ask Brother Long to take me to buy some coal. I have to take a horse-drawn carriage to sell fish tomorrow anyway. When he arrived at the coal shed, Tao Daqiang was a little surprised to see so much extra coal. He thought of a possibility and immediately scooped up a handful of coal and brought it into the house. Tao Jianshe was still leaning on the kang smoking, and the room was filled with smoke. "Did my brother bring the coal?" Tao Daqiang asked. "Yeah." Tao Jianshe sat up straight, watched Tao Daqiang put down the coal, pointed at the kang and said: "Change your clothes and come sit over here to talk."
Tao Daqiang rarely saw his father so serious, and he was a little uncomfortable with it. He quickly changed his clothes and sat on the kang. "Your brother scolded your sister-in-law and sent coal over, saying that what you said made sense. He is a member of the Tao family and should consider the Tao family. He originally said that he would let your sister-in-law's brother send the wood back. I thought that since we are all relatives, he just gave the wood to her." Tao Daqiang was a little surprised that his brother could change, but since there was a change, he might as well give the wood to him, so he nodded. "Then you two brothers should stop being angry with each other." Tao Jianshe knocked on his pipe and said, "People say that brothers working together can break any stone. Although your brother has separated from the family, he is still your brother." "I know that." "There's one more thing. I see that you and Li's waiter are making a lot of money by catching fish and selling them. Your brother can't be left out of this. I'll go borrow a landing net tomorrow, and you don't have to follow Li's waiter anymore. They have two brothers, so what's the point of you getting in between them?" Tao Daqiang was about to explain, but Tao Jianshe raised his hand to stop him: "They have two brothers. Don't you have two brothers too? Tell Li's waiter tomorrow that you won't go fishing with him anymore. You and your brother will go. There are a lot of fish in the small lake. They're public fish. Whoever catches one gets it. When you two catch some, you and your brother can sell them together. You can split the money between the two of you. Take this opportunity to earn more before the New Year so that you can relax in the spring." Tao Daqiang stopped talking. Does what my father said make sense? Of course there is. In fact, if Li Long didn't take me with him, I could get more money. The reason why he took me along was because I took the initiative to get close to him. Of course, Li Long was kind-hearted and loyal, which Tao Daqiang firmly believed in. But am I willing to give up Li Long and follow my brother to do this? Tao Daqiang asked himself, he was resisting. My brother is not a smart guy. He may be good at catching fish, but he will never make a good name for himself by selling fish. I followed Li Long to watch, but I couldn't figure out anything. How many rural people nowadays can think of various ways so flexibly? Most likely he went to sell fish, just like those people in the black market, sitting there, not even opening his mouth to shout, just waiting for people to come and ask. However, my father's meaning was also very clear. No matter how good the Li family was, they were still other people. If my brother didn't help them, what was that? Make sure he can't say anything against it. At this moment, Tao Daqiang felt a bitter taste in his mouth.
After Li Long saw Tao Daqiang off, he went to the home of team leader Xu Chengjun. "Come to borrow the carriage?" Xu Chengjun looked at Li Long with a slightly embarrassed expression. He took his brother-in-law to the mountains, but found that things were not as simple as they thought. The snow was nearly one meter thick and it was impossible to walk, and no one knew which road Li Long took. As the production team leader, he couldn't ask Li Long for directions. So the next day, the horse carriage was not used and someone else borrowed it. As a result, two days passed and no one came back with a large pile of wood, so the horses in the team were idle. "Well, I'm going to the county tomorrow and need to borrow a carriage." Li Long put three dollars and two cents on the table. "I need to borrow it for two days." "Okay." Xu Chengjun took the money and wrote a note, "Go to the county or to the mountain?" "It depends on the situation." Li Long said vaguely. Xu Chengjun knew that Li Long went to sell fish. Although the current policy has not been completely relaxed, he also knows that some things are not strictly controlled or even not controlled at all. There are only a few families in the production team who have radios, and his family has one. Listening to the people talking about policies on the radio, Xu Chengjun knew that the wind had changed. So when Li Long and his friends went to sell fish, Xu Chengjun did not stop them. Li Long took the note to Lao Luo, who took it with a smile: "Ah, you are really awesome. Those people took the horse-drawn carriage out, and they just picked up the wood from the mountains. When they came back, they all looked sad. They were so depressed. They didn't know how to take care of the horses, and they had a hard time!" Lao Luo could have said such a thing, but Li Long did not respond. He just said that he would come early tomorrow morning to pick up the carriage, and Lao Luo agreed. Li Long returned home, said something to Li Jianguo through the window, and went back to his east room. The next day, before dawn, Li Long woke Li Jianguo up. After hurriedly eating breakfast, he went to the stable, got the carriage, and went to the Tao family. Tao Daqiang quickly went out and walked towards Li's house with Li Long. After pulling up the fish, the two men drove the carriage towards the county. After walking more than three kilometers, Tao Daqiang hesitantly told Li Long what his father meant. "This is a good thing." Li Long was a little surprised. Have Tao Jianshe and Tao Dayong changed their personalities? Because Tao Daqiang has become "useful", the Tao family pays attention to him? Good things are indeed good things. At least it can change Tao Daqiang's life, and it seems to be changing for the better, which makes Li Long sigh. "Then let's..." Tao Daqiang thought Li Long would be angry, but he didn't expect Li Long to have this expression, which made him a little confused. "Don't worry, follow your brother to catch fish." Li Long thought for a moment and said, "After I sell the fish today, I will stop for a while and go to the mountains to take a look." Tao Daqiang stopped talking. It was clearly he who proposed to "break up", so why did he feel abandoned after Li Long said that? "It's definitely okay for you to catch fish," Li Long said as he drove the carriage, "but you still need to be more vigilant when selling fish. Although the supervision is loose now, if you are careless, someone will still catch you. If you see someone wearing an armband coming, run away, even if you don’t want the fish anymore, or you’ll be fined.” When Tao Daqiang listened to Li Long's words, he felt as if he was being taught a secret technique, and his nose felt a little sour. We talked and chatted like this until we arrived at the county town, when it was still dark. "You stay here, I'll drag the fish over to sell." Li Long said, "I won't drag too much at a time, so it's easier to run away if something happens. You stay away, and if you find something wrong, drive the carriage to the north of the city, and we'll meet at the Big Meat Canteen after we go around."
After saying that, seeing Tao Daqiang nod, Li Long carried more than ten kilograms of fish and walked towards the black market. There are still quite a lot of people selling things now, but basically they don’t talk much. When Li Long saw someone leaving, he immediately took the seat with the bag, spread out the urea bag, and put the fish on it. It's not easy to eat meat these days, so as soon as he put the food on the table, someone came over to ask the price. The opening was good. (End of this chapter)
