Rebirth of Bayi Fishing and Hunting in the Northwest

Chapter 207: There are more scoundrels on the street: Fish sellers need weapons

The next day, Li Long and Tao Daqiang went to close the net, and Li Qingxia, who couldn't sleep, followed them.

Although he couldn't sell the fish himself today, he was happy just looking at the fish.

This time Li Long went into the small lake to get the net himself. The net with eight large meshes would definitely be able to catch big fish. He was worried that Tao Daqiang would be knocked into the water by a fish again, which would not be worth it.

When he reached the head of the first net, Li Long had just untied the rope tied to the reeds when he heard something flapping in the water not far ahead. He lifted the net line and saw the flapping thing under the net.

There’s a fish on the line.

Li Long was a little excited, but he suppressed his emotions and slowly closed the net.

It was more than ten meters away. When he pulled the net there, Li Long saw a grass carp more than half a meter long wrapped in the net, struggling from time to time, but in vain.

It was not a carp, Li Long was a little disappointed. He bent down and slowly wrapped the fish tightly with the net in his hand, and then picked up the fish.

The grass carp began to struggle violently, but Li Long had already grabbed its gills and mouth and quickly stuffed them into the urea bag.

This is a net with four and a half fingers of mesh. The grass carp weighs about five or six kilograms. Li Long continued to pull it forward, and soon the net was finished. In addition to some large crucian carp, there were two silver carp hanging on the net, one bighead carp and the other silver carp, both weighing about two or three kilograms, not particularly large.

There was no movement in the first five or six meters of the second net, but soon Li Long saw a yellow-red shadow floating there. He immediately relaxed the force of pulling the net line and paddled twice. When it got closer, he saw that it was a carp weighing about three kilograms. Its head and tail were yellow-red, and its body looked very fat and wide. It must have struggled violently, and the net was tossed into a mess by it.

Li Long smiled, this fish is good!

He followed the old method and simply used the net to wrap the fish in circles. After making sure that the fish could not escape, he reached into the water, lifted the fish up from under it, and grabbed the fish's gills with his fingers as it was about to come out of the water.

"Snapped!"

The fish's tail flapped violently. Li Long was prepared and leaned back to avoid the attack. At the same time, he picked up the fish and put it into his pocket.

The harvest from these two nets is enough to fill a urea bag.

On the shore, Li Qingxia had already taken out the fishing basin according to Tao Daqiang's instructions.

There are not as many fish today as there were yesterday. I don’t know if it’s because I put them in the wrong place or if there’s something wrong with the bait.

Li Qingxia was a little disappointed when he brought the basin up. He said to Tao Daqiang:

"This basin of fish weighs four or five kilograms less than yesterday..."

When the basin was placed on the shore, he heard some noise inside. Li Qingxia suddenly became happy:
"Not bad, not bad. There are fewer fish, but they all sound like they are swimming happily. They should all be alive. Live fish are valuable!"

Tao Daqiang nodded vigorously in agreement. He was also shocked by Li Qingxia's superb technique of treading water. When would he be able to acquire such a skill?
Today, it took Li Long longer than usual to collect the net. From time to time, you could see splashes of water on the shore, which looked quite intense.

As Li Long slowly rowed back with four urea bags, Li Qingxia couldn't help but shout:

"Xiaolong, do you want me to swim over and help you?"

"No, no, it's mainly because the duckweed has grown. It's tiring to paddle. It's okay. Dad, don't come over. There are a lot of duck turtles in the water. It's troublesome to bite them."

The duck and chicken crickets mentioned here are both parasites on animals, similar to grass crickets, and a bit like stink bugs. Chicken crickets grow on chickens or in the cracks of the chicken coop wall, sucking blood for a living, and a bite from them is itchy and painful, and can also transmit diseases.

It is similar to the duck turtle, but grows in water. When people who swim or catch fish in the water are bitten, they usually get a big red lump which is red, itchy and painful. People often can't help scratching it, which can cause it to break and then become infected and ulcerated.

Tao Daqiang swung out a rope with all his strength and it landed next to Li Long. Li Long grabbed the rope and was pulled to the shore by Tao Daqiang.

"Are there many fish? Are there many big fish?" asked Li Qingxia.

"There are so many of them. There are four or five big carps weighing two or three kilograms. Dad, take a few to Uncle Liang's house today. Oh, Daqiang, take two back to eat, too. These fish look really beautiful..."

"I won't take it." Tao Daqiang waved his hand. "The fish looks pretty, but it's not tasty at all. It's not as good as a small crucian carp... I'll take some ditch fish back and fry them."

Li Long smiled.

Once upon a time, Tao Daqiang, a man who couldn't even have a hot meal when he went home, can now eat fried fish. That's great.

"We caught something rare today, a water chicken!" Li Long said with a smile, "It's alive. I'll take it out of the net and give it to Qiangqiang to play with."

The three of them carried their things and went back talking and laughing.

When Li Qiang returned to Li's house and started to clean up the fish, he saw the water chicken struggling in the net at a glance. He rushed over with a shout, and then ran away with a scream.

He was pecked by a water chicken and covered his hands with a tearful look on his face.

If there weren't so many people around, I would probably have cried.

The water chicken is a rather peculiar bird. It has no webbed claws, but is good at swimming. There will be a lot of them in small lakes in the summer, more than wild ducks.

Li Long had looked up information in his previous life. The water chickens here are a kind of bird called little grebe (pì tī). They like to eat small fish and shrimps. They are aquatic birds and are smaller than wild ducks.

The bird that Li Long had caught in his net was an adult bird, and its pecks were very painful. He remembered that in his previous life, when he was casting nets in the lake in June and July, he would often catch small water chickens. These creatures were impatient and would struggle violently after being caught in the net. Many small water chickens would kill themselves after being entangled in the net for too long.

"Qiangqiang, this water chicken is yours. I'll untie it and you can play with it or roast it. It's up to you. Let me let you get your revenge." Li Long untied the water chicken and held its head to prevent it from getting pecked - this thing has a sharp beak.

Li Long tied the water chicken's two feet together so that it could not move. He threw it against the wall and handed it over to Li Qiang.

Li Qiang was very happy now. He ran to the water chicken, squatted down, and looked at the guy carefully.

Li Long could see that Li Qiang didn't want to eat the water chicken in the short term, so he ignored it and concentrated on choosing the fish.

Because he was going to take big fish to the Liang family, Li Longze was very careful when catching them, trying not to knock off their scales, so his movements were a little slow.

"You can pick any of these carp." After selecting the fish, there were five big carp that met the requirements. Li Long said while packing the other fish into urea bags, "There are a lot of big fish today. Put these fish in the big basin now, so they can live a little longer." "Just take two." Liang Yuemei said, "They won't be able to eat more, so there's no way to put them away." She was telling the truth.

Because Li Jianguo said yesterday that we should not only bring fish, but also some meat, wine and so on. This is already a very good gift.

The meat was all brought back by my brother-in-law, but he never asked how much. If he asked, he would just take more - it was not the first time that he had delivered fresh meat to the Liang family.

"Let's take a few more. Carps are beautiful. Let's take some big crucian carp," Li Long said after thinking for a while. "If we can't eat them all, we can give some to our relatives. Uncle Liang has helped us a lot in the past few years."

He said this for his parents to hear. Although it was a bit of a face-saving move for his parents, he was telling the truth.

Two big carps and seven or eight large crucian carps were left behind. Tao Daqiang took away two kilograms of ditch fish and asked Li Long to pack the rest into three bags, still covering them with two layers of sacks, and then took Li Juan out of the village.

Li Juan hadn't ridden in her uncle's car for several days. Once she got in, she started talking and chattered all the way.

Li Long responded from time to time, which felt good. At least he didn't have to rush on the road in silence.

After dropping Li Juan off at the elementary school, Li Long smiled and continued on his way as he watched Li Juan walk into the school with her head held high amid the envious gazes of her classmates.

There are a lot of fish today, so he plans to sell them in Shicheng, where there is a large flow of customers and the fish sells quickly.

Otherwise, the sixty or seventy kilograms of fish that I brought today, plus the ditch fish, might not be sold out in the county's morning market.

I went to the compound to get a basin and a scale, and rode all the way to Shicheng. The sun had already risen.

Arriving at the old street, Li Long slowed down and looked around. What surprised him was that at the prime location at the three-way intersection, a stall owner was packing up his things. Looking at the basket in his hand, Li Long guessed that he was selling eggs.

Before the man got up, Li Long rode over quickly and took the position before another stall owner was ready to move his things over.

"Thank you." Li Long said to the stall owner, "I just happened to be planning to sell fish."

"Haha, this is a great location." The original stall owner said with a smile, "There are a lot of people coming and going, so the goods sell quickly. Okay, I'm leaving now!"

Li Long first parked his bicycle to reserve a spot. When the stall owner packed up and left, he put down the three basins and started pouring the fish.

Before he could shout, people gathered around him.

"How much are the fish?" Someone squatted down and asked while stretching out his hand.

"Don't move, don't move!" Li Long stopped the other party as soon as he saw that he was about to attack. "This fish is still alive. If you move a few times, it will die. You tell me which one to catch and I'll catch it for you. Ditch fish is 80 cents, small crucian carp is 80 cents, big crucian carp, carp, five-striped black carp is 10 cents, silver carp is 90 cents..."

It was a young man, with a frivolous manner. He continued to put his hand into the basin, saying as he did so:
"Of course I choose the fish when I buy them. How about you? Who knows if you will give me a dead fish instead?"

"Take your hand out!" Li Long knew he had run into a troublemaker, so he slapped the man's hand out of the basin. If he gave in now, he wouldn't be able to sell the fish today. "I won't pick the wrong one for you. I've told you how to sell it. If you want to buy it, then do as I say. Otherwise, go somewhere else!"

There were two other people beside the young man. They were wearing Type 65 green military uniforms and green military caps without red five-pointed stars on their heads. They looked at Li Long arrogantly.

Li Long knew that he had run into a gangster.

He smiled.

"I think you haven't figured out the situation yet?" Li Long said, "You know what? The thieves who were here a few days ago were taken to jail at gunpoint. Are you planning to try that, too?"

"Blow, keep blowing." The man whose hand was hit by Li Long stretched out his hand to push Li Long, saying as he pushed: "You still need a gun? Where's your gun? Take out your gun so I can see it? You hit my hand, so you have to pay for it. My hand is hurting, and it won't heal without fifty dollars! Otherwise, you should keep one hand!"

Li Long took a step back and looked around to see that he had avoided other people who were not planning to buy fish but were ready to watch the fun. He knew that this matter would not end well today.

He picked up the scale, took off the scale plate, held the scale in one hand and the scale bar in the other, and said with a sneer:

"Then come and see, will you break my hands first, or will I smash your legs first?"

These three thugs didn't expect that Li Long would be so tough and leave no room for easing!
They met a different stall owner, and their demands were not high, just some pocket money. When they met Li Long, they naturally wanted to find fault with him, otherwise how could they have a reason to extort money?
But I didn't expect Li Long to not give me any face at all and not act according to the script!

Li Long saw the three of them were stunned, and immediately realized that these three were probably new to the business and not experienced people, so he said:
"Okay, let's go, or the administrator will come over and catch you... You've been extorting a lot of money from others, right? Think about what those people will say about you when the administrator investigates!"

Threatened by Li Long, the leader pointed at Li Long and said something cruel as he saw more and more people gathered around him:
"You wait for me!"

Then the three of them left quickly.

Li Long knew that they had a feud again.

It was a mistake not to bring a gun today!
The problem is, it’s impossible to carry a gun and sell fish every day!

But now that things have come to this, let's sell the fish first. At worst, I can just change direction and go back. A real man can bend and stretch.

Although there is only one road from Shicheng to Ma County at Ma River, there are many roads out of the city, not just this one.

But these guys are too bold. They just come here to extort money. Aren’t they worried about being discovered and arrested by the joint defense members?
Li Long was not afraid of their revenge afterwards, so after scaring them away, he continued selling fish.

The other old men and women, and the customers who were buying fish, were still a little hesitant when they saw the troublemaker leave.

Li Long knew that these people had concerns, so he shouted loudly again, and reminded them a few times while shouting:
“I’ll take the one you like. Don’t put your hands in. I’ve just chased away three of them. If you put your hands in too many times, the fish will die. Others won’t be able to eat fresh fish, and everyone will suffer!
The ditch fish and crucian carp are 80 cents, the big crucian carp, carp, five-tail black carp are 1 yuan, and the silver carp is 90 cents. These are fresh wild fish! "

"This ditch fish? This is a flower loach, right? You know what, I've been here for so long, but I've never eaten loach before! Come, weigh it for me for three yuan, I haven't eaten this fish for a long time... I miss it!"

"Okay, okay, uncle, you really know what's good. The scientific name of this is mountain loach. It's very fresh and can also improve sexual performance! Here, this is three yuan. The scale is high. Do you have a basin? It's just right!"

Business is open!

(End of this chapter)