Early that morning, after returning from hauling in the nets at the reservoir, Li Long sorted the fish while talking to Tao Daqiang.
"Daqiang, once we sell these fish today, we won't set the nets this afternoon. We'll start fishing again after we've harvested the oil sunflowers and corn."
"Sure." Tao Daqiang nodded. "My family doesn't have much land. Once we finish ours, I'll come help with yours."
Although the Li family had plenty of people, and Li Jianguo and his wife were capable workers, they had several pigs to feed and two children going to school. Li Long couldn't really pretend not to see any of it and do nothing.
He really couldn't take part in harvesting wheat, since that was work for the production team, but he could help harvest the oil sunflowers and corn.
Lately, whenever he went to sell fish, Li Long took Li Juan and Li Qiang along. At least they could save plenty of time on that stretch of the journey to school.
Before leaving, Li Long gave Tao Daqiang five yuan, settling the accounts for their recent work.
On the road, Li Long saw someone from the team walking toward the County Seat with a wet urea sack on his back. He greeted him as he rode past.
Old Street over in Stone City was as lively as ever. Li Long found an empty spot, set up his stall, and called out loudly. In just an hour, he sold all the fish, packed up, and went for breakfast.
Recently, his morning catches had been smaller than before. Eight nets brought in what six used to catch, and the fine-mesh nets caught plenty of little crucian carp smaller than a palm. They were probably the fry from spring that had grown up.
Although there