Rebirth of Bayi Fishing and Hunting in the Northwest

Chapter 141 Li Long Saves Nathan’s Life
When Li Long returned home, Tao Daqiang was already in the yard.

He started collecting nets after breakfast in the morning. It was almost noon when he finished, so he went home to cook. After eating with his father, he hurried to Li's house.

"Brother Long, are you going to go online this afternoon?"

"Go." Li Long said to Tao Daqiang, "We're going to cast six more nets today. You did a good job catching fish this morning."

"Hehe." Tao Daqiang smiled innocently.

"I have something to tell you in advance." Li Long said to Tao Daqiang while tidying up the net, "In a few days, our team will send ten people to the mountains to make a bag, which is the work of the sideline team. I talked to the director and added you. You should make some preparations in the next two days. Bedding, dry food, and tools should all be prepared. Your father should know something about it, so you can ask what you need to bring."

"Okay - but Brother Long, what about catching fish..." Tao Daqiang was in a dilemma. Li Long arranged for him to go to the sideline team, so he was willing, but after he went there, there was no one to pick up the nets.

"I'll go into the mountains, too, to hunt or something," Li Long checked the tire again. "I asked for this job, so I have to check the quality of the braided handles."

"That's good, that's good." Tao Daqiang smiled again.

The two men went to Xiaohaizi with tires and nets.

It was still Li Long who used the water-skiing board and sat on the tire to go into the water and lower the net. Tao Daqiang watched on the shore without blinking, hoping to learn this skill from Brother Long.

Even though Li Long told him that he could cast a net if he was bored, Tao Daqiang didn't even look at the net.

Li Long clearly felt that the water level had risen a little.

Could it be that the flood has already started to rush down from the mountains? Is there something we need to prepare for in advance?

Li Long felt that after finishing fishing, he would need to tell Xu Chengjun that the water level in Xiaohaizi had started to rise. If it continued to rise like this, it would sooner or later flood the dam.

The floodgates must be opened to release the water.

This time, the six nets were moved to a different position. After Li Long finished lowering the nets, he paddled the tire back to the shore. After Tao Daqiang pulled him and the tire up, he asked:

"Brother Long, shall we still cast the net?"

"Cast it." Li Long said, "Let's just treat it as practice. In the future, we may encounter some places that are not suitable for casting nets, and we may have to use casting nets."

The two practiced for more than an hour, caught almost ten kilograms of fish, and then went home together.

After returning to the village, Tao Daqiang couldn't wait to go home to prepare things, while Li Long began to collect the fish. Except for the crucian carp that could survive until tomorrow morning, the other fish would probably die overnight. So Li Long had to collect these fish.

The neighbors eat a lot of fish, and it is impossible to send them fish every day, so Li Long plans to pickle the fish. In the summer evenings, the pickled fish is placed by the stove and slowly baked. The baked fish is crispy and delicious.

Liang Yuemei came back from the fields and saw Li Long fiddling with the fish, so she went to prepare to feed the pigs and chickens, and then put the fish Li Long had prepared in the pot to make fish soup.

When Li Long finished cleaning the fish, salted them and hung them up, Li Jianguo and the others came back.

When Li Juan came back, she told Li Jianguo:

"Dad, our school is going to organize a group tomorrow, and we need each of us to carry fifty strips or two poles."

"You guys want to edit it too?" Li Jianguo thought for a moment and said, "Okay, I'll go cut some notes for you later."

"Brother, I'll go in a bit." Li Long waved his hand, "You've got a day's work, just stay home and rest."

"Are not you tired?"

"Why is it tiring to cast the net?" Li Long smiled, "I'm just having fun." "That's right. We dug through the dry ditch and the main channel today, and tomorrow the team will start watering the winter wheat. The utility workers will have to take turns, so I might be the day after tomorrow."

Some of the land in the village that was not divided was planted with winter wheat, while some was planted with corn, sunflower seeds, and some miscellaneous grains in the spring like the food crops.

Li Long was quite happy. Since the wheat field was to be irrigated, the gate of the small lake would naturally be raised to release water, and there was no need for him to remind them.

After drinking the fish soup, Li Long took his machete and went to the east of Donggou. Li Juan quickly followed him. There were many big willow trees growing on the edge of Donggou. These willow trees were old and not very useful, so no one cared about them. Basically, every year, the villagers would cut strips here to make baskets and handles.

The simple road in the village only leads to the edge of the field, and from the edge of the field to Donggou, you have to cross a alkali beach. Li Long saw that the white thorn on the alkali beach had grown small green leaves, and the purple-red Cynomorium below the white thorn had also shown its head.

In the distance, large clumps of Suaeda salsa began to turn green, which was considered a good thing by the locals. It was the raw material for making alkali ash. The alkali ash was as beautiful as colored glaze after burning, and it was a must-have for the locals when making pasta.

It is said that this is also added when making naan.

When he arrived at Donggou, Li Long saw traces of willow trees being cut, so he walked south to where four or five willow trees were lined up, and began to cut willow branches.

Li Long cut down the willow branches as thick as fingers one by one. Li Juan picked them up on the ground, straightened them out, and put a dozen of them in a pile.

When they felt it was about the same, Li Juan said to Li Long:

"Uncle, can you cut two more poles? I'm the team leader and I have to take the lead..."

Her voice became a little low as she spoke later, and Li Long smiled and said:
"Okay, it's okay to cut a few more strips. I'll take you on my bike tomorrow morning. I'll take both the strips and the poles with me, so you can relax."

"Oh!" Li Juan was very happy.

After cutting the strips, Li Long went to cut two red willow poles as thick as his wrists, then tied the strips together, carried them on his shoulder, and went home with Li Juan.

In the mountains.

Halimu looked at Nathan on the wooden bed with a look of pain and resentment:

"Why were you running into the water? The water was so cold after the snow melted, you must have fallen in! You didn't even come back quickly to change your clothes, but you were still playing there... Did you catch a cold?"

Nathan pursed his lips tightly. He did not tell Halim that he actually found a very beautiful stone in the stream and wanted to take it back. However, he did not expect the stone to be a little big. As a result, he failed to carry the stone out and used too much force, so the stone fell into the water.

At night, Nathan felt hot, talked nonsense, but his hands and feet were cold.

Halimu's wife was so worried that she woke him up in a hurry. She was anxious and at a loss, and kept calling Nathan's name.

Got a fever?
The Kazakh people have their own medical heritage, and they had herbs at home. Halimu and his wife immediately boiled some herbal water for Nathan to drink, but the herbs did not work in a short time.

He suddenly thought of the medicine bottles that Li Long had given him at that time, and now he had no choice but to trust Li Long.

Halimu quickly took out the small bottles and looked at the marks he had made on them. He now deeply felt how smart Li Long was. If he had not made the marks at that time, he would not be able to tell what to eat now!

He unscrewed the bottle containing the fever, roughly tore off the paper and cotton stuffed inside, took out two pills and quickly gave them to Nathan.

Nathan couldn't take the medicine on his own, so Halimu forced it into his mouth. After taking the medicine, Halimu was still a little worried, so he went out to harness the horse, planning to take Nathan to the outside of the mountain to find a doctor if the fever didn't go away.

Half an hour later, Nathan's fever subsided a little, he stopped talking, and his hands and feet became warm.

The Halimu family finally felt relieved.

(End of this chapter)