Li Long stopped his bicycle and said to Li Qingxia:
"Dad, this sort of thing has happened twice. Last time, Daqiang and I came to sell fish, back in winter. There were several of them then too, and Daqiang and I knocked them down. Then there was this time..."
"There were two of you both times. What if you were alone?" It would have been a lie to say he wasn't worried. Li Qingxia knew this money wasn't easy to earn. Back when he did small-time trading himself, he had run into local thugs too. Sometimes he had simply put up with it and gotten through it. He wanted to talk some sense into Li Long.
But after the beating those men had taken today, they certainly wouldn't show any mercy if they came back for revenge.
"Dad, do you think I'm stupid? If I came to sell fish alone and ran into something like that, I'd turn around and run straightaway. There's more than one road from Stone City back to County Town. I could head into the city and take another road home."
Li Long's explanation eased Li Qingxia's mind somewhat, but he still wasn't completely reassured.
After thinking it over, he said:
"Then, Xiao Long, why not just sell fish in the County Seat? Selling in Stone City might be quicker, but it isn't our turf. At least in the County Seat, it's easy to get away, and it's close to home. At worst, we could just stop selling..."
"All right." Li Long agreed readily. "Dad, you know, I don't go out selling fish every day. I've got two guns too. Every so often, I go hunting in the mountains. With a gun in my hands, I hunt wild boars, wolves, things like that..."
"Now that's good!"