Rebirth of Bayi Fishing and Hunting in the Northwest

Chapter 215 Short-sightedness, human nature

The next morning, when Li Long and Tao Daqiang went to the small lake to retrieve the nets, there was no one there.

Li Long first went to get the basin, brought it back to the shore, and then started to get the net from far to near.

Tao Daqiang was standing on the shore looking at the fish in the basin.

There are seven or eight kilograms of ditch fish and small crucian carp in it.

After putting the basin down a few times, Li Long and his friends have gained some experience. If they want to attract more ditch fish to go in, they have to make the rope tied to the basin longer and try to keep the basin in the lower layer of water, not at the bottom. In this way, ditch fish that like to move at the bottom of the water will smell the smell of oil residue, then drill in through the hole in the sock waist, and then cannot get out.

So most of the fish in this basin are ditch fish, big and small. The largest one is as long as chopsticks and very slippery.

When Li Long was halfway through closing the net, Tao Daqiang heard some noise. Turning his head, he saw Wang Caimi and Meng Zhiqiang walking to the edge of the small lake together.

When they saw Tao Daqiang, they whispered a few words there and then walked over together.

"Daqiang, where's Xiaolong?"

"Closing the net inside." Tao Daqiang pointed inside the lake.

"What's in your basin?" Wang Caimi had already noticed the movement in the basin and asked deliberately.

"Small ditch fish." Tao Daqiang took out a handful and said, "It tastes good when fried."

Wang Caimi was a little confused and didn't quite believe it. He vaguely remembered that when Li Long and his father were selling fish yesterday, they were selling small ditch fish.

But what's the point of eating ditch fish? There's not much meat and they're small. Big fish are more fun to catch and they sell faster, right?

I think people in the city probably like to eat big fish.

"Then you wait, we'll go get the net." Wang Caimi looked at Li Long who was collecting the net in the small lake and felt envious. However, he knew he couldn't learn from him, so he turned around to get the net.

It's pointless to just look at and envy others. It's better to look at the fish you catch.

When he came over just now, he passed by the net he had set and actually saw fish in it, so Wang Caimi was very confident that he would be able to catch a lot of fish today!

When Li Long collected all the nets and rowed the tire to the shore, Wang Caimi and his friends had already gone into the water to retrieve the nets.

"One, a big crucian carp!"

"This one of mine is a carp, and it's not small..."

……

Hearing the shouting over there, Li Long and Tao Daqiang looked at each other and laughed.

As usual, Tao Daqiang carried the three bags and walked back, while Li Long held the tire on his head and held the basin behind him.

When passing by Wang Caimi and Meng Zhiqiang casting their nets, Li Long took a look and then smiled again.

Tao Daqiang heard Li Long's laughter in front and asked in a low voice:

"Brother Long, what are you laughing at?"

"I laughed at them...I'll tell you later." Li Long was about to say it when he saw Wang Caimi turned around and looked at them. There was a bit of pride in his eyes, and he obviously felt that he had made a good harvest in this network.

When Li Long and Tao Daqiang had walked two or three hundred meters, he said:

"Da Qiang, did you see the net they set up just now?"

"I saw it," Tao Daqiang said. "One person tied two nets together and pulled them down to the shore. I saw the nets were stretched straight. Did they catch a big fish?"

"That's not the case. They tied both ends of the net to reeds. In other words, it became a river-blocking net... I'm sure a lot of his net will be torn today!"

"Ah? Didn't he let go?" Tao Daqiang was surprised.

In fact, he didn't understand. When Li Long first taught him how to cast the net, he asked him to tie one end of the net and leave the other end loose. He just had to unroll it and let it float on the water.

Now, after hearing Wang Caimi cast the net like this, he finally realized, "Isn't that wrong? If you cast the net like this, the fish aren't stupid. How can they not run away when they encounter something hard?"

"That's the reason. When you cast the net, one end should be loose and the other end should be tied. This is a sticky net, not a river-blocking net. If a fish touches the net, it will naturally run away. If you tie the two ends of the net together, it will be stretched tight when the water hits it. Even the dumbest fish will know that it is an obstacle and will naturally run away when it touches it.

If one end is loose, the net will be in a slack state. The fish will bump into it and by the time it reacts, it will have been caught in the net. The more it struggles, the more it will be entangled in the net..."

Tao Daqiang then realized that Li Long had taught him the key to the sticky net unintentionally.

It all makes sense, but it is just a layer of window paper. However, many people may have to pay a lot of price to break through this layer of window paper.

Some people may never be able to break through in their entire lives.

"Then I see they are also online..."

"That's because there are a lot of fish in our small lake." Li Long smiled. "Wait until he gets the nets today and you'll see. The fish in his two nets may not be as many as in our one net."

Tao Daqiang shut his mouth.

He was determined to keep this secret, not even telling his father.

Li Long didn't tell him to keep it a secret, but Tao Daqiang was scared.

I have already gotten into trouble twice. Normally, if it were someone else, they would have chased me away long ago.

Brother Long is a kind and righteous man, so he allowed me to follow him, but I can't do such tasteless things anymore.

The two men returned to Li's house, exhausted and out of breath, but they just wiped the sweat off their foreheads and started choosing fish.

The Li family members worked together, first pouring the small ditch fish into the basin, and picking out the dead ones and small crucian carp.

Over there, Li Long had already started selecting the big and small fish on the net.

"Xiaolong is really good. There are a lot of fish of all sizes on the net every day!" Liang Yuemei praised.

"Did you meet Wang Caimi?" Li Jianguo asked while carefully selecting fish.

He was much more careful in selecting fish than Li Long, basically trying to ensure that he would not break even a single filament. Li Long was different, he was very lavish, and if he couldn't select the fish, he would simply tear the filaments stuck on the net. This made Li Jianguo frown from time to time, what a waste!
But he had no complaints about his younger brother making money. He frowned because he was used to being frugal and couldn't stand waste and destruction.

"I see," Li Long suddenly laughed, and threw the big crucian carp in his hand to the side. The fish fluttered twice, and Li Long said:

"Wang Caimi lowered the net and tied both ends, turning it into a river-blocking net...hahahaha..."

"What? How can he do that?" Li Qingxia was also a little surprised, "How can the sticky net be set like that?"

"They have never used a net." Li Jianguo shook his head and said, "Not to mention him, more than half of the families in our team have never used a net, and one-third of them don't know how to eat small fish. The earliest people in the team who lived here saw a lot of fish in the roadside ditch when we came here. They would rather eat wild vegetables than fish. We asked them why, and they said they would try big fish, but small fish have too many bones and are not tasty."

"That's really..." Li Qingxia was speechless.

"It's just a trick." Du Chunfang muttered as he picked the fish, "After being hungry for three to five days, what can't you eat?"

Li Long thought that his mother's way of thinking was quite funny, but when he thought about the people who lived through that era and knew that they had really been hungry, the urge to laugh immediately disappeared.

Those who have never experienced hunger are not qualified to judge these elderly people who have walked along with the Republic.

"Did you tell him?" Li Jianguo asked. "No, I wouldn't tell him unless he asked me." Li Long raised his head, "Skills are not cheap and skills are not easily passed on. I told him directly, but he thought it was nothing. I will tell him when he falls, or comes to ask for advice with an open mind."

"That's the truth." Li Jianguo was very pleased that his younger brother understood human nature.

This is not to be mysterious. The main thing is that even if you tell him actively, he will not think that you are helping him - some people are really not worth helping.

Kindness should be used where it is needed.

After picking the fish, Li Long changed his clothes. When he came out, Li Jianguo, Tao Daqiang and others had already tied up the fish bag and placed it on the back seat of the bicycle.

Li Qingxia was a little worried and asked Li Long:

"Then you alone..."

Li Long patted the gun bag behind him and said:
"Dad, I have this thing, even if there are ten or eight of them, I'm not afraid!"

"Okay then." Li Qingxia nodded, feeling relieved, but still reminded him: "Even if you have an identity, don't take that thing out easily."

"I know that." Li Long assured his father.

Riding a bicycle out of the village with Li Juan, he saw Wang Caimi and Meng Zhiqiang also hurried out with their bags on their backs.

"It's great to have a bicycle!" Meng Zhiqiang looked at Li Long's back with envy.

The ten-kilometer journey to the county town takes Li Long half an hour to forty minutes by bicycle, but it would take them more than an hour to walk.

"Look at how many fish are in Li Long's bag, why do we only have so few?" Seeing that Wang Caimi didn't say anything, Meng Zhiqiang asked another question.

"He went to the middle of the lake, where there are naturally more fish. We went to the edge, so it's natural that there are fewer fish."

Although Wang Caimi's explanation was reasonable, he himself was not convinced.

The two nets caught less than five kilograms of fish in total, and the largest one was a carp weighing less than one kilogram. Although we talked about catching one fish after another in the small lake, we actually only caught a few fish.

Wang Caimi was very unwilling.

How come Li Jia Xiaolong caught so many fish?

Should I wait until I get back and ask, or ask the older people in the team who know about fishing?

I walked forward while thinking. Each of them carried a urea bag and held an enamel basin in their hands, which was used to "weigh" the fish. Neither of their families had a scale, and they heard about this from others.

The fish in the urea bag splashed water, and the water droplets flowed down the corners of the bag, quickly wetting their backs, which were sticky and very uncomfortable.

But I can’t control that much.

Making money while you are free is the real thing. In fact, since they bought the net, some people in the team have been laughing at them behind their backs, thinking that they are overestimating their abilities and want to learn from Li Long.

But now the arrow was on the string and had to be shot. The money for the net had been spent, and the fish had been caught. If I didn't sell it, I would be embarrassed.

When the two arrived at the county market, the sun had already risen for a while. At this time, some people had already cleared their stalls, so they quickly found a place, put down their fish bags, untied them, took out the fish, and put them in the basin.

The fish basin was not very big, and there was one fish in each basin, and it was a live fish.

Meng Zhiqiang was embarrassed to shout, but Wang Caimi was not afraid, but he had never drunk before and was a little nervous.

At this time, someone came over to ask the price, and he immediately said:
"Fish... one piece per basin."

"By basin?" The man was surprised to hear that it was sold by basin, and asked with a smile, "Does it matter what size or species of fish you sell?"

At this time, Wang Caimi knew that he had acted rashly, but he had no idea how much each type of fish would sell for, so he followed his own logic:
"A basin of carp costs one yuan, a large crucian carp costs eighty cents, and a silver carp costs seventy cents..."

"Okay, okay, give me two pots of big crucian carp--" the man was happy.

As soon as he arrived, the business opened and Wang Caimi started laughing.

Someone from Meng Zhiqiang's side also spoke up, and he set a lower price, 70 cents per pot - but he said it in a low voice, because he was afraid that Wang Caimi would know and scold him.

But who cares about that now? Selling the fish is the most important thing.

As a result, in less than half an hour, all the fish for both of them were sold out.

"How much did you sell it for?" After packing the bags, Wang Caimi ran to ask Meng Zhiqiang.

"Three dollars and thirty cents for you?" Meng Zhiqiang was still a little excited.

"Four dollars and two cents...why are you selling it so cheap?"

"There are a few dead fish there..." Meng Zhiqiang felt a little guilty, "Then we have to sell them at a lower price, otherwise no one will want them."

"That's fine." Wang Caimi calculated that four dollars was not bad. Four dollars a day would make one hundred and twenty dollars a month... Isn't that equivalent to two workers?

"Then come back tomorrow?" He had originally thought that if he couldn't sell it, he would not make it in the future. Now he had completely given up on that thought. He excitedly said to Meng Zhiqiang, "Think about it, three or four yuan a day, then a month..."

"One hundred!" Meng Zhiqiang also came to his senses, "This means that my monthly salary is equal to that of two workers! No wonder Li Long catches fish and sells them every day..."

When Li Long was mentioned, Wang Caimi felt a little discouraged: "He makes more money than us!"

"Yes, those three bags must have at least 40 to 50 kilograms... so that means..."

When two people look at each other, the look in their eyes is different.

"I'll go buy another net!" Wang Caimi was no longer excited. "This is the right way to go. No one will investigate. This money is easy to make!"

Meng Zhiqiang originally thought that he would pay off Wang Caimi's debt when he made money today, but when he saw that Wang Caimi was going to buy a net, he gritted his teeth and said:
"I'm going to buy a net too!"

The two of them excitedly went to the supply and marketing cooperative to buy a net, and then went home.

They were reluctant to go to the big meat canteen for a meal, so they saved the money for it to be of great use later!
Wang Caimi had already set his sights on buying a bicycle. He wanted to earn enough money in a month to buy a bicycle!

In the next few days, everyone in the team knew that Wang Caimi and his team had made money by catching fish, and they had not been caught yet. The county also encouraged them to set up stalls and do small business.

Those who wanted to earn some spare money immediately became active.

If others can catch this fish, we can too!

As a result, more and more people in the team started catching and selling fish.

In the market, the price of fish has been reduced to 50 cents per kilogram.

After hearing the news, Li Long felt that at least this matter would be over. There would be chaos, but after the chaos, order would be restored.

The strong will wash away the weak.

Thanks to book friends Wukong Babujie and 20220209184610225 for their rewards, thank you all for your subscriptions and recommendations, and thank you all for your monthly tickets.

Qidian has a rule that one ticket can be drawn for every thousand monthly tickets. Yesterday, we were short of more than 200 tickets for 4,000, so I begged for tickets. I didn’t expect... Thank you very much!
Today is the anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China. People of our generation don't feel it very obviously, but the old man and his generation feel it too obviously. Although the current society has some shortcomings, in their eyes, it has changed drastically compared to the past. It is really an unimaginable change. To be honest, it is what old man Li Qingxia said, let alone the landlords, even the high officials in the past did not eat and dress as well as they do now!
Thanks to the Party, thanks to the teachers, and thanks to the contributions of generations of people, I can sit here and write safely.

Thank you.

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(End of this chapter)