In his later years, Gu Ermao had used that same shamelessness to marry a beautiful woman. Unfortunately, he refused to do honest work or make a decent life with her. He beat her every few days and gambled, until she finally ran away.
After that, he kept drifting through life. Everyone in the village had been allotted a fair amount of land, and he also managed his parents' plots. Once rents for contracted farmland rose, Gu Ermao leased all the land out for ten years in one go, then gambled away the hundred-odd thousand yuan he received in a single night.
During the two years before Li Long died, Gu Ermao had lived from meal to meal. The village work team wanted to help lift him out of poverty, but he was a hopeless case.
He had died of illness in his own mud-brick house several years before Li Long.
Looking at that face now, Li Long felt nothing but disgust. He knocked Gu Ermao's hand away and said:
"I have real business to take care of. I don't have time to fool around with you. Move."
Gu Ermao withdrew his hand and tucked both hands into his sleeves, grinning as he said:
"Why are you getting angry? I was just joking! Zhao Changjiang over in the township bought a television. I just heard about it and came specially to ask you to go take a look. A television! Like having a little cinema at home! You can watch whatever you want. Wu Shufen's going too. Hurry home and get ready!"
As he spoke, he glanced at the fish in Li Long's hand.
What a big, beautiful fish!
Whenever he mentioned that Wu Shufen was going somewhere, Li Long would change his mind and go, even if he hadn't wanted to at first.
He had heard that Wu Shufen had already broken up with Li Long, but surely Li Long hadn't wanted that?
He had also heard that Li Long had caught Gugu Chickens last night, and now he had caught fish today. The fellow had actually picked up some skills in Wu City. Although Gu Ermao had resolved yesterday to teach Li Long a lesson, thinking about his knack for catching things and getting meat made him decide not to cut off their friendship after all.
Where else would he get meat to eat?
"No time." Li Long waved a hand, ignoring the mention of Wu Shufen completely. "I have things to do. Go watch it yourself if you want."
With that, Li Long walked around Gu Ermao and headed for team leader Xu Chengjun's house.
Gu Ermao called after him several times, but Li Long pretended not to hear.
Having been given another life, he didn't need to maintain pointless relationships. He really had been a fool in his previous life.
A kerosene lamp was burning in Xu Chengjun's house too, the same kind as the one in Li Jianguo's home.
Li Long knocked, and Xu Chengjun's son, Xu Mingwa, opened the door. The nine-year-old looked up at Li Long, then turned and shouted into the house:
"Dad, Li Qiang's uncle is here! He brought fish!"
After being demobilized from the army, Xu Chengjun had first served as militia captain for the Production Team. He was in his prime and decisive, and after five years as militia captain, he had taken over as team leader when the old leader stepped down.
He remained decisive as team leader. Through his army comrades' connections, he had organized a sideline work crew to dig fritillary bulbs and codonopsis roots in the mountains and sell them to the county purchasing station. This brought each household in the team some cash every year, earning him widespread support.
"You're here, Long." Xu Chengjun had been sitting on the kang listening to the radio, which counted as a major household possession in those days. Hearing his son say that Li Long had brought fish, he climbed down from the kang, slipped his feet into his shoes, and stood up with a smile.
"You could've just come over. Why bring fish? I heard you're no longer working at that factory in Wu City?"
"Yeah. My abilities are limited. I didn't have much schooling, and I don't know enough to handle some of the work, so I came back. These are carp we caught in Little Haizi today. I brought you two to try."
"These are big fish!" Xu Chengjun's wife, Ma Hongmei, beamed at the sight of them. "Breaking a hole in the ice must've been hard."
"It wasn't too bad. We're young, after all." Li Long handed the fish to Ma Hongmei, then said to Xu Chengjun, "Team leader, there's something I'd like to discuss with you."
"Go ahead." Xu Chengjun stubbed out his cigarette. In those days, men generally didn't avoid smoking around children, and no one talked about the dangers of secondhand smoke. "As long as it's within the rules, I'll help you out."
"You know my family's situation, team leader. Now that I'm back, the coal and firewood my brother prepared won't be enough. I'd like to borrow the team's horse cart to bring back some firewood from the mountains."
"I don't think that'll work." Xu Chengjun shook his head slightly. "Never mind how far away the mountains are, or whether you'll find any firewood when you don't know the area. The terrain up there is complicated. If you get lost and can't make it back, how am I supposed to explain that to your brother?"
"I understand your concern, team leader." Li Long smiled. "One of my coworkers is from Qingshui River. We get along well, and he came back with me. I'll go to his house first. I won't go deep into the mountains. I'll just get some wood from around his place that isn't fit for timber."
"I see..." Xu Chengjun thought for a moment, then said, "In that case, I won't try to talk you out of it. But team business has to be handled by the rules. We only have these few horses, and taking a cart out has to be charged in work points."
"How many work points?" Li Long had already known about this charge, so he wasn't surprised.
Seeing that Li Long was neither surprised nor arguing, Xu Chengjun's opinion of the young man rose a little. He had assumed that, since Li Long had brought fish, he would object when work points came up.
He's quite composed. A few months in Wu City have really helped the young fellow mature.
"A regular person earns one work unit a day in summer and two in winter. A horse earns ten times as much as a person, so that's twenty units. At the current average rate, each unit is worth eight fen, which makes a horse one yuan sixty a day. I won't charge you for the cart. How's that?"
"All right." Li Long took out the money on the spot.
Xu Chengjun didn't drag things out either. Once Li Long handed him the money, he wrote him a note.
"This authorizes Li Long of our team to borrow one horse and one horse cart. Team leader: Xu Chengjun. Year X, month X, day X."
"All right, then. Get some rest, team leader. I'll go over to the stables now and let Uncle Luo know in advance."
"Good." Xu Chengjun didn't try to keep him, and closed the door after he left.
"Li Long's really making something of himself," Ma Hongmei remarked once he was gone.
"Li Qiang said they had Gugu Chicken for lunch today. His uncle caught those too." Xu Mingwa stared at the two fish, then wiped his runny nose with his arm, imagining how they would taste.
"Yes, he seems different from before. City life really does toughen people up." Xu Chengjun nodded. "It's a shame he got fired, though."
"Never mind that. These fish look good. Let's cook them tomorrow."
Li Long returned home, picked up another fish, and went to the stables.
The stables were where the Production Team kept its horses, with someone assigned to feed them. The horses stayed there in summer and winter alike. The keeper's surname was Luo, but Li Long didn't know his full name, so he called him Lao Luo like everyone else in the village.
Lao Luo was slightly hunchbacked and looked to be in his fifties. He lived in a small room beside the stables, which also had a kang and a stove.
Seeing the fish Li Long had brought and the note from Xu Chengjun, Lao Luo smiled and promised to have the best horse ready for him.
When Tao Daqiang arrived home full of excitement, he discovered that his family hadn't saved him any food.
His heart sank.
(End of chapter)
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