Chapter 8: Breaking Ice and Catching Fish to Trade Favors

Li Jianguo eventually agreed to Li Long’s plan, but he insisted on going along.

“No need, Brother. If I go alone, I can haul more. Our team’s horse isn’t exactly in prime shape; if you add another person’s weight, that’s dozens of kilograms of wood less we can bring back.”

Li Jianguo was left speechless.

“Then wait here; I’ll go borrow the horse later,” Li Jianguo said, retreating to a middle ground. He had always viewed Li Long as a child, feeling that any important task required his own oversight to be done properly. Though he felt Li Long made a good point this time, he felt uneasy not doing anything himself.

“The captain might not lend it just because I ask,” Li Long said confidently. “Brother, don’t worry about that part; I’ll handle it.”

“You? How will you handle it?” Li Jianguo found it incredible. His younger brother seemed like a completely different person now. He’s going to handle this ‘major’ task? How could he possibly pull it off?

“Xiao Long, do you think it’s easy to borrow a horse from the production team?” Li Jianguo asked. “We only have three wagons, three horses, and two donkeys in the whole team. The horses are the backbone for next year’s plowing and hauling—we only have one tractor, and it can’t keep up. You know they won’t lend them out for nothing. Don’t tell me… you plan to bribe the captain with a rock partridge?”

“I won’t use the partridges. I’ll get something else,” Li Long stood up. “Brother, Sister-in-law, you go ahead with lunch. I’m heading out. If I manage to get something this afternoon, we’ll do as I said. If I don’t, I’ll see if I can catch more partridges tonight.”

Li Long headed to the east room. Li Jianguo and Liang Yuemei looked at each other, bewildered.

“I don’t think Xiao Long’s time at the factory was wasted,” Liang Yuemei said. She had been pained by the fifty yuan they had given away, but seeing Li Long’s transformation since yesterday, she felt it was worth it—even if he had lost his job. Raising a brother-in-law was her duty as the eldest sister-in-law, but if she were raising an ungrateful wolf, it would have been a waste. She wouldn’t have liked that. She had felt that way about Li Long in the past, but since last night, she had truly felt a change. He was showing care, worrying about his niece and nephew, and learning to share the burden. If he had become responsible, she didn’t mind treating him like an extra son.

Li Jianguo shook his head. “Let’s see what he does. If it doesn’t work, I’ll step in. The worst-case scenario is we go catch partridges together tonight.”

The death of their “superstitious” pig and the resulting lack of meat had weighed heavily on them. Combined with the anxiety over firewood, life had been hard. But now, all the problems suddenly seemed solvable. Li Jianguo realized that as long as his brother was sensible, nothing was insurmountable. He wondered why he himself hadn’t thought about hauling wood from the mountains before. It was a matter of perspective: villagers only thought of digging tamarisk roots in the nearby dunes for fuel, never considering the wind-fallen timber twenty kilometers away—unless they knew the mountains, they lived in fear of the unknown. And those willing to try were the ones who became successful early on.

Back home, Wu Shufun was feeling restless. Her mother, Wang Yuzhen, immediately sensed it. “Shufun, did that Li boy refuse to break up? Is he still pestering you?”

“No, he agreed to it.”

“Isn’t that great?” Wang Yuzhen smiled, glad the breakup had gone smoothly. “Tomorrow, Mom will find someone to introduce you to a proper worker—someone in the city with a steady ‘imperial’ job! I never thought that Li Long was city material anyway; look at him, he’s already back!”

Noticing her daughter didn’t look happy, she asked, “Shufun, breaking up with him is a good thing! Why are you upset?”

Wu Shufun couldn’t help but blurt out, “When I went over, they were plucking those rock partridges. Mom, do you know how many he caught yesterday? Five!” She gestured with a palm. “Five! And he didn’t even think to give me one—even if we’re broken up, we could still be friends! In the past, he definitely would have given me one, no, two! And he didn’t even ask me to stay…”

If Li Long had heard her, he would have realized that “princess behavior” wasn’t something exclusive to the future. Some people simply felt the whole world owed them affection.

Wang Yuzhen didn’t overthink it, consoling her, “Shufun, don’t worry about the birds. His family has no meat because their pig died of ‘superstition,’ that’s why they’re fussing over those partridges. We killed our pig; Mom will stir-fry some meat for you at noon!”

“Mom, I want meat, but I also want rock partridges…”

Wang Yuzhen shouted toward her husband, Wu Laohan, who was napping on the kang: “Old man! Shufun wants partridges, why aren’t you going to catch her some?”

“To hell with that! Where am I supposed to catch partridges? I’m not going out in this freezing snow to get half-frozen to death!”

Wu Shufun pouted, unhappy.

In the east room, Li Long gathered a pickaxe, a crowbar, and a fertilizer bag. He put on his cotton hat, heavy coat, felt socks, and leather boots—made of cowhide and laced with rope, they were stiff as boards in the winter, but warmer than rubber shoes. He had to go to the “Small Sea” to break the ice and fish; rubber shoes wouldn’t cut it.

The village had several water holes. In this era, any living water source had fish—mostly crucian carp, some large, along with carp, grass carp, and silver carp. The Small Sea had existed for ages, and according to Li Jianguo, the fish had never run out.

Li Long knew that in a few years, a flood would destroy the dam they were building at the Small Sea, washing the fish downstream. The village men would hunt them with homemade spears, with some fish reaching over a meter long and weighing twenty or thirty kilograms. After that, the Small Sea would be barren.

He estimated the ice would be thirty to forty centimeters thick—breaking it would be grueling work. But to gain standing in the eyes of others, one had to be willing to suffer behind the scenes.

He grabbed a landing net from the shed. Breaking the ice would take an hour or two, and he’d have to wait for the fish to surface. He packed his gear and stepped out. The village path was cleared, but the road to the Small Sea was buried in knee-deep snow.

Alone, he disappeared slowly into the snowy landscape.

[End of Chapter]