Once many households in the team got to work, the dead fish along the southern shore of Big Haizi were all picked clean within two days.
Li Long estimated that his family had collected well over a thousand, nearly two thousand kilograms of fish. Tao Daqiang's family had gathered several hundred kilograms too.
"Once the weather clears and the yard dries out, we can borrow the stone roller from the backyard, crush these dried fish, and mix them with bran and chaff to feed the pigs. They'll grow really fast!"
Li Jianguo agreed with Li Long and nodded. "Exactly. Why didn't we think of that before? The ice on Little Haizi is about to thaw too, but I doubt there'll be many dead fish there."
That was certain, because Li Long alone had caught at least a thousand kilograms of fish from Little Haizi, and other households in the team had pulled out plenty too. That reduced the amount of oxygen the fish needed in the water.
Over the next two days, quite a few people from the team went to Little Haizi, and sure enough, they found few dead fish.
The Li Family's yard now reeked of dead fish. Since the snow on the roofs had been cleared after every snowfall, most of the fish were now spread out on the roofs to dry and would be put away once dry.
There was less and less snow in the fields, and the roads were gradually drying out. Walking along them no longer meant trudging through so much mud.
Three days before school was due to start, Gu Boyuan and Gu Xiaoxia came to the Li Family's home carrying a bag of things.
After showing the two guests into the inner room and seating them, Liang Yuemei busied herself pouring