On April 30, Li Long did not go out to sell fish. Instead, he stayed obediently at home.
He had not set the nets the day before and had made a point of telling Tao Daqiang, who said it was a good opportunity to take a day off.
Over the previous ten days or so, people on the team had taken up fishing one after another, only to drop out one after another in the end.
Even Wang the Miser, who had started first, had not kept it up. He still had work in the fields, and the others' price cuts had infuriated him. He had also been cursed at while arguing with them, so he put his nets aside.
That was when he remembered what Li Long had warned him about. But what use was knowing now? Once he understood the problem, he had openly told everyone to keep their prices the same so they could all make money.
Everyone had agreed readily enough, but when it came time to sell their fish, each undercut the others more ruthlessly than the last, until the fish ended up going bad.
Only two people were still catching and selling fish. One was Meng Zhiqiang. He had started out following Wang the Miser and had tasted the benefits. Although his own family did not eat fish, that did not stop him from recognizing that catching fish to sell really did make money.
He had lowered his prices along with the others, but Meng Zhiqiang was clever-or rather, the wife behind him was clever. He kept following every price cut and stuck with it even when he earned only a yuan or eighty cents a day. Now that only two sellers remained, prices had risen again.
A steady income of six or seven