Rebirth of Bayi Fishing and Hunting in the Northwest

Chapter 930 The Ma family steals fish, the Liang family smashes pots!
After leaving his elder brother's house, Li Long did not go back immediately, but went to Liang Dacheng's house instead.

The trawl net was left at the team's location, and Li Long hadn't bothered with it since catching fish last time. He asked around today and found out his father hadn't gone fishing again, and Tao Daqiang and Xie Yundong had only caught fish once. Liang Dacheng and his two brothers had followed suit a few times, and they were basically fishing every day.

This is understandable. After all, the three Liang brothers are all married. Liang Dacheng is not married yet. If all three of them were to get married, the expenses for building houses, buying furniture, and other things would be a huge sum.

The three brothers are also hardworking, doing whatever makes money, and their current life is much better than that of other people in the village.

But we're still trying.

When the jeep arrived at the Liang family's house, Li Long saw Liang Dacheng and Liang Shuangcheng picking up nets in the yard.

Seeing Li Long's jeep parked at the door, Liang Dacheng stopped what he was doing. After Li Long got out, he smiled and asked:

"Xiaolong, you're back? Is something wrong?"

"Hmm, let me ask if you used the internet at Xiaohaizi today?"

"Down, four nets." Liang Dacheng responded.

“Two fingers three and a half, two fingers four,” Liang Shuangcheng added.

"That's good. We'll pick up the net first thing tomorrow morning, right?" Li Long asked again.

"Yes, we'll retrieve the nets early tomorrow morning. If there are any fish, we'll drive the tractor straight to Shicheng to sell them."

"If there are any big fish tomorrow, save a few for me. Carp would be best, but black carp will also do," Li Long said. "I'll come and pick them up when it's just dawn tomorrow."

“Okay.” Liang Dacheng nodded.

"Okay, I'll calculate the money for you tomorrow when we see the fish."

"What's the price? We can't charge you for fish!" Liang Dacheng hurriedly waved his hand. "You can pick whatever you want tomorrow... but don't be shy. You don't treat us brothers like outsiders, so don't be polite when you come to my house."

Li Long laughed, chatted for a few more minutes, and then drove his jeep back to the county.

Gu Xiaoxia hadn't finished get off work yet, and Gu Xiaoyu and Han Fang were playing with Mingming and Haohao. Li Long parked the jeep, and after getting out, Mingming and Haohao immediately abandoned the two of them and wobbled towards Li Long.

"You're so heartless," Gu Xiaoyu complained deliberately. "I've been coaxing you for so long, and it's not as good as you coming over here like this."

"Haha, they're familiar with me after all." Li Long smiled, hugged the two children, spun them around twice, and then carried one toy in each hand for more than ten meters. The two children giggled in Li Long's arms, not scared at all.

Gu Xiaoyu felt a sense of dread watching, but fortunately Li Long quickly put the child down—he had big hands and great strength, and he knew what he was doing.

After Mingming and Haohao came down, they ran to find Gu Xiaoyu. Clearly, the two children were still quite curious about the new member who had joined the big courtyard.

Right now, Minghao is probably at the most fun stage of his childhood. Although he is naughty, he is still a cub and not yet at the point where he is full of destructive power, so he is very attractive.

Gu Xiaoyu loved playing with the two children, so Li Long let her be and went into the house to start planning what to do next.

I'll definitely bring enough money, but I can't bring guns. Luckily, I should be safe here; my brother and I don't cause trouble, and of course, with my current skills, I'm not afraid of anything.

When buying a ticket, you naturally want a hard sleeper; a soft sleeper isn't an option, and flying is out of the question. For the average person, a hard sleeper is the only ticket they can get. It's only because of the reforms that hard sleeper tickets are impossible to obtain.

Prepare winter clothes for the children; this is something you probably won't have to worry about. Next is the itinerary after you arrive.

Although I've already thought of a strategy, I'll have to wait and see the specifics later.

Gu Xiaoxia left work first today; she asked Director Wang for leave when she went to the office.

In the past few years of work, Gu Xiaoxia has hardly taken any leave except for maternity leave. Just like the day before, Director Wang readily approved her leave and even suggested that she could take a few more days off, even until the Chinese New Year.

Anyway, in northern Xinjiang, people generally treat the end of the New Year as the start of the new year, even though the official notice says that the new year begins on New Year's Day and the work of 1986 will begin. Whether it's government agencies or ordinary people, everyone considers the end of the New Year as the start of the new year.

Gu Xiaoxia's leave request went smoothly, and she was in a great mood, humming a song as she returned. She shared the good news with her family, and both Gu Boyuan and Li Long were delighted.

After dinner, Li Long continued to take care of Mingming and Haohao as they prepared for bed, while Gu Xiaoyu pulled her sister to chat in the east room.

Gu Xiaoxia had never left Xinjiang before, and she was very excited about going to Yanjing. Because she also had to take care of her child, she asked Gu Xiaoyu what clothes to bring.

After Gu Xiaoyu explained the details, she exclaimed, "Sister, you're so lucky. Seeing your life now makes me afraid to even look for a partner..."

"Why don't you dare to look for him?" Gu Xiaoxia said while thinking about the clothes for the children she needed to bring. "Let me tell you, if you meet someone good, you should take the initiative to pursue them. Your brother-in-law back then... actually, I was the one who took the initiative. Wu Shufen even asked me why I was looking for him, and I said he's good. He wasn't good with you before, but now that he's good, you two aren't dating anymore."

"Back then, your brother-in-law seemed capable, but he wasn't as successful as he is now. So my judgment was pretty accurate..." Gu Xiaoxia said with a hint of pride, "But I'm different from you. My circumstances are what they are; I can only find someone average. You're a college graduate and a university teacher, so you definitely need to find someone better..."

"Brother-in-law is just average? He's already amazing!" Gu Xiaoyu said, indignant on Li Long's behalf. "No one in our unit earns more than him. Although he's not highly educated, his experience is different. Unlike our young teaching assistants, who are all talk and no action, they wouldn't even know how to fix a clogged sink..."

Gu Xiaoxia chuckled sheepishly. She knew perfectly well that she had struck gold, but she couldn't be too smug while her sister was complaining.

"Then, sister, will you go to see Mom then?" Gu Xiaoyu asked a crucial question.

“I want to see her, but I don’t want Mom to know I went there. Tell me where Mom works, and I’ll secretly meet her.” After learning about her mother’s experiences over the years, Gu Xiaoxia no longer missed her as much as before.

Especially knowing that her mother had deliberately left her for her father, it was impossible for her not to feel some resentment.

Gu Xiaoxia used to think that her father made sense when Gu Boyuan blamed himself for dragging her mother down. Back then, before her younger sister came over, all she could think about was how hard her mother's life had been and how unfortunate she would be now.

But after learning about her mother's life, Gu Xiaoxia's complaints reached her mother. While she and her father were struggling in the village, her mother had already gotten married and was living a life in the big city that most farmers could only dream of.

Since that's what my mother thinks, then we won't have a formal meeting.

At this point, she and her father agreed that not interfering was probably the best course of action, and perhaps her mother thought the same way.

Gu Xiaoyu listened in silence. Although her mother had wronged her sister in this respect, she had been good to her. At least she hadn't neglected her in any way and had supported her through university.

My sister can complain, but I can't.

The next day, as soon as it was light, Li Long got up, tidied up the jeep, started it, and drove off.

At this time, Liang Dacheng and his younger brother Liang Shuangcheng had already dragged their sleds to Xiaohaizi and were preparing to cast their nets.

But when he got to the ice cave, his expression changed!
There was a net lying on the ground next to the ice hole. The net was torn into a mess. He looked at it and saw that the net on the ice was more than 30 meters long, and part of it had not been pulled up.

Clearly, someone had come ahead of time to collect the fish from the net!

Upon closer inspection, fish scales were found on the edge of the net, the fresh kind. It looked like a large carp, with scales much larger than a thumbnail. This fish must weigh at least five or six kilograms!

"Shuangcheng, you get the net, I'll go find it!" Liang Dacheng immediately turned back to the team, "If I find out which bastard took my fish, I'll beat him to a pulp!"

"Brother, I'm going too!" Shuangcheng was also furious. "Grab that thief and break his arm!"

The three brothers felt that if someone wanted to eat fish and asked them for some, they wouldn't refuse.

Taking something without asking is theft, and it deserves to be punished!

“You stay here. Li Long is coming to collect the fish again today, and we can’t delay our business. You take the fish out first, and clean up the net… damn it, the net is torn to shreds.”

He could tell that the guy had torn the net wires in order to catch fish, so the net wouldn't be as effective at catching fish anymore.

Something like Moriguchi!

Liang Shuangcheng said to the brother who had already walked back, "Brother, look at the water on the ground, he must have gone back to the team, to our team!"

"I understand!" Liang Dacheng said. "Get the net first and bring the fish back."

Liang Dacheng walked back along the road. The watermark left by the thief carrying the fish was actually only a dozen meters away, but it was practically impossible for the people from the third team to go to the fourth team's small lake to catch fish. Only the fourth team members would be so skilled at catching fish so early in the morning, and they must be the ones who knew about the nets.

However, since his brothers had been going online every day for the past few days, many people in the team knew about it. Since he didn't have a target at the moment, he went to the first house at the entrance of the village to ask around.

At first, neither of the two families knew about it, and they were also puzzled as to who would do such a thing.

Liang Dacheng knew this matter had to be resolved today. If this trend wasn't stopped, his brothers wouldn't need to go fishing anymore. Anyone who wanted fish would come and get fish, and there would be no point in selling them.

But how to find him? No one saw him at the first two houses. Liang Dacheng thought that if he still couldn't find him, he would go from house to house asking and smelling. He still didn't believe that this person stole the fish and didn't cook it.
Fortunately, when they asked the third family, Xu Feihu's family, Xu Feihu didn't know either, but his younger brother overheard and said:
“When I got up to pee this morning, I saw Ma Chenyang carrying something and walking back, with his father Ma Jinbao following behind.”

"Did you see clearly?" Liang Dacheng was delighted and hurriedly asked the child nicknamed Spoon Boy.

"I didn't see clearly, but I heard it clearly." Spoon Boy wasn't silly at all; he was just a little slow-witted when he was little. He said seriously, "I heard Ma Chenyang telling his dad to hurry up as he was walking, and his dad scolded him. I could tell it was both of their voices."

Shaowa is eleven years old. At that age, he's not capable of lying or mishearing. Liang Dacheng patted Shaowa's head and said, "I'll give you candy when I come back from selling the fish tomorrow."

After saying that, he left in a hurry.

Although he didn't say what happened, the Xu family all knew that the Ma family had stolen the Liang family's fish.

The Ma family hadn't divided their property yet. When Liang Dacheng entered the courtyard, he smelled the stewed fish—the aroma hadn't fully wafted out, and the fishy smell was quite strong.

He was certain it was the Ma family.

There were people talking inside the house, but the voices were unclear. Liang Dacheng looked around but couldn't find anything he could get his hands on, so he simply ran to the coal shed, grabbed a piece of coal about the size of a volleyball, and pushed open the door to go inside.

The stove was right next to the room, and there was a fish stewing in the pot. The fish was quite large, so only the head and middle section were stewed; the rest hadn't been put in—the pot was too big.

There's no doubt about it; nobody in the Ma family knows how to catch fish, so these fish were caught from their own nets.

Ma Chenyang and his wife were chatting when they saw Liang Dacheng come in, and both of them showed unnatural expressions.

Liang Dacheng completely ignored them and smashed the piece of charcoal down onto the Ma family's pot!
If you cut off my livelihood, I'll smash your pot; neither of us will get away with it!

"Bang! Bang!"

With a few loud cracks, the piece of charcoal smashed a large hole in the Ma family's pot, spilling all the contents into the stove, and a plume of grayish-white smoke shot up.

"Liang Dacheng, do you want to die?" Ma Chenyang suddenly exploded, "You son of a bitch..."

"I think you're looking for death, aren't you?" Liang Dacheng shoved away the five hands that were grabbing at him, and then grabbed the man's collar instead. "Was it you who went to the small lake to take our net? If you want to eat fish, go catch your own! You're quite the expert at being a thief, aren't you? Have you always been like this?"

Hearing the commotion, Ma Jinbao, who was in the inner room, hurriedly got off the kang (a heated brick bed), lifted the curtain, and came out. Seeing the mess on the stove, and then looking at Liang Dacheng, his face immediately darkened, and he angrily said:

"Hey Liang, what do you want? Let me tell you, if you don't give me a straight answer today, I'll call the police to arrest you..."

"Let's see who the police arrest first!" Now that Ma Jinbao had appeared, Liang Dacheng shoved Ma Chenyang aside and said with a sneer, "Hey Ma, let's see if the police deal with you, you little thief, first, or talk about my business for coming to our door! You stole the fish I caught, come on, let's go and settle this matter."

Knowing that his scheme had been exposed, Ma Jinbao's tone immediately softened:
"Let's talk this out. You can't just come in and start smashing our pots and pans... Let me tell you, back in the day, your dad and I..."

"Don't go off on a tangent!" Liang Dacheng knew Ma Jinbao was a scoundrel, so he didn't bother arguing with him. He turned and went out into the yard, shouting:

"Hey you, surnamed Ma, let me tell you, you stole my fish today, so I smashed your pot as a lesson! If you dare touch my fish again, I'll burn your house down!"

After saying that, Liang Dacheng strode away.

That's good—since the fish has already been chopped up, let's smash the pot. But if the Ma father and son really fought, he might not have the upper hand, so after venting his anger, he might as well leave.

His loud shouting was heard by all the neighbors. The Ma family had no right to this, and they were just waiting to be scolded by the villagers.

Ma Chenyang ran to the gate of the courtyard, cursing and swearing. He saw that Liang Dacheng had already walked thirty or forty meters away. He wanted to continue cursing, but he knew he was in the wrong, so he had no choice but to turn back dejectedly.

The pot was smashed, so the fish was inedible. He went back into the house, and while cleaning up the things on the stove with his wife, he complained to his father:
“Dad, I told you not to go, but you insisted on going. Look at the mess you’ve made… Everyone in the team knows about it now, and who knows how they’ll scold us.”

Ma Jinbao was starting to regret his actions, but he still wanted to save face. He said loudly, "What are you afraid of? It's just eating his fish. Besides, who can prove that we ate his fish?"

Ma Chenyang thought to himself, "You're shameless, but we're not that thick-skinned."

He decided to stay home for the next few days.

When Li Long arrived at the Liang family's house, the three Liang brothers were tending to their nets. Upon seeing Li Long's jeep, Liang Shuangcheng hurriedly brought out two bags from the house.

"Three big fish, two big carp, and one black carp. Actually, there are also two silver carp and one grass carp. Do you want them?"

"No need, this is fine." Li Long thought to himself that this was good enough, and he took the bag and looked at it.

"If it weren't for the Ma family stealing our fish, exactly four carp, that damned thief!" Liang Shuangcheng said angrily.

"Stealing fish? Which Ma family?" Li Long was somewhat surprised.

“Ma Jin, Bao Ma, and Chen Yang’s family! They tore our nets to shreds and took one fish, a big carp… My brother chased after them and smashed their pot!”

Li Long glanced at Liang Dacheng, who looked a little embarrassed.

Looking back, I think that smashing the pot was a bit too much.

But since they've already smashed it, there's nothing to say at this point. Besides, the point is to set an example and let others know the consequences of stealing fish.

“The Ma family is really outrageous.” Li Long nodded. “You should be careful too. If you smash their pot, they might come after you.”

“He wouldn’t dare! If he dares to cause us trouble, the three of us brothers aren’t going to be trifled with,” said Liang Quncheng, the youngest brother.

Alright, if the three brothers work together, then there's nothing to be afraid of.

Since the three Liang brothers didn't want any money, Li Long didn't say anything more. After taking the fish, he put it in the trunk of his car and drove towards the county.

"These four fish, if we take them to Shicheng, we can probably sell them for several tens of yuan, right?" Liang Quncheng said, watching the jeep drive away.

"What money? These fish in this little lake should all belong to Li Long, by all accounts," Liang Shuangcheng said, patting his younger brother's head. "It's already good enough that he hasn't asked us for money."

"That's not what I meant... I was just wondering, what was Li Long going to do with this fish?" Liang Quncheng blushed as she tried to explain, then realized, "Didn't I tell you not to touch my head? You can't touch a man's head or a woman's waist, are you a spoon?"

“I know, but I’m your brother,” Liang Shuangcheng said matter-of-factly. “What’s wrong with touching me? I just think you’ve grown up so fast, you’re almost as big as me…”

"That's because I'm good-looking! You just don't want me to surpass you, so you're touching my head, right? Let me tell you, if you touch me again, I won't be polite!"

"You're not going to be polite? What can you do if you're not polite?" Liang Shuangcheng asked with a grin.

"Alright, alright..." Liang Dacheng spoke up, "Hurry up and fix the net. Since Li Long doesn't want the remaining fish, let's freeze them first, and then we'll set the net again this afternoon and sell them together tomorrow."

"What if someone steals it again?" Liang Quncheng asked.

"I guess no one dares to do it anymore." Liang Dacheng thought of the pot belonging to the Ma family.

The news that the Ma family had stolen the Liang family's fish spread throughout the team.

PS: Thank you to my fellow villager Chaotic Changji for the generous donation, thank you to reader Shiwuciren for the generous donation, thank you to reader Shutiaobao for the generous donation, thank you to reader 20171009213952189 for the donation, thank you to readers Guguaren, Crocodile Tears L, Watermelon Big GG, and 20230715115447995 for the donation, and thank you to all readers for your subscriptions, monthly tickets, and recommendation tickets.

The red apricots are ripe, so let's arrange the June monthly pass lottery for them. The results are already in our neighborhood group chat; it was shipped via SF Express airmail, so it should be fresh when it arrives. The food I ordered for myself should arrive tomorrow too—all of the above doesn't include the cost.

(End of this chapter)