Li Qiang came over to call them to dinner. Only then did Li Long and Tao Daqiang finish dressing and head to the West Room.
Li Long grinned at the plate of grass carp on the table. Sure enough, Li Qiang never put off his revenge. They had brought the grass carp home, and it was already stewed for dinner.
Besides the grass carp, there was soup made with small crucian carp, along with cornmeal flatbreads. Everything was steaming hot and smelled delicious.
Li Juan was on the kang, putting away the Ankle Bones. She must have just finished playing.
Everyone sat down at the table. Once Li Jianguo picked up his chopsticks, they all began eating.
Tao Daqiang still ate slowly with his head down. Without Li Long's occasional reminders, he barely took any fish, simply soaking his cornmeal flatbread in the fish soup.
"Have some more fish," Li Long told him with a smile. "This is Qiangqiang's sworn enemy. Let's finish it off together."
"Mm," Tao Daqiang replied.
Li Qiang had said he wanted revenge, but after just one bite of grass carp, he turned to the crucian carp beside it. The grass carp had thick flesh. Although Liang Yuemei had scored its back before stewing it, most of the meat still tasted a little bland.
There wasn't enough oil, either.
Li Long thought about checking the black market for cooking oil after selling the fish tomorrow. These days, everything required ration coupons. They had some grain coupons at home, but not many for anything else.
"Big brother, give me some grain coupons tomorrow. I'll buy some grain to bring home after I sell the fish," Li Long said, watching Li Juan and Li Qiang struggle with their cornmeal flatbreads.
"We still have plenty of cornmeal at home," Liang Yuemei said.
"I'll buy some refined grain," Li Long said. "They can't live on coarse grain alone. Look at Juan and Qiangqiang-they're hardly growing."
Liang Yuemei fell silent. Of course she wanted her children to eat more refined grain. But the production team's grain allocation was already small, and back then, she had let Li Long eat a larger share of the refined grain.
Fortunately, her younger brother-in-law had changed now, and he was capable, too.
"All right." Li Jianguo chewed his cornmeal flatbread, finding it especially sweet and delicious.
Actually, Li Long knew things would get better once they made it through the next six months or so. Land would be allocated next year. Even if everyone received only two mu of land for growing their own food, once they worked it, the harvest left after paying the grain tax would be enough to feed them all.
Better days were coming!
After dinner, Li Long reminded Tao Daqiang to come over early tomorrow morning. Tao Daqiang agreed and left.
"Daqiang's an honest boy," Liang Yuemei said as she cleared away the bowls and chopsticks. "Make sure you treat him fairly."
"Mm." Li Jianguo rolled a Mohé Tobacco cigarette, starting to tell the two children a story as he worked.
Under the kerosene lamp, the two children listened intently.
"...More than a hundred years ago, this place was known as 'Gold Board, Jade Base.' Why was that? Because back then, the Ma River had gold deposits in its riverbed and jade deposits at its source. Many wealthy families lived in what's now Broken City..."
Li Long had been about to go to bed, but at those words, he slapped his thigh and said in frustration:
"How could I be so stupid? How did I forget about that?"
"What?" His slap was so loud that even Liang Yuemei heard it from the kitchen. She hurried over and asked, "What did you remember?"
"Jade!" Li Long slapped his forehead. "There are jade deposits in our Southern Mountain! And isn't there river jade in the dry riverbed upstream on the Ma River? That herder even asked me what he should keep an eye out for, and I completely forgot about this!"
Jade from the Ma River had produced national treasures. Jade had been mined there as far back as the Qing dynasty. Although its quality fell short of Hetian jade, and most pieces contained black specks like fly droppings, top-grade river jade from there was still exceptionally rare.
Li Long remembered something Li Juan had told them after school in his previous life, while his big brother was still alive. In the seventies, a classmate's father had bought a piece of river jade weighing over ten kilograms from a herder for a little over ten yuan. In 1985, he had sold it for more than two thousand yuan.
Two thousand yuan was a fortune back then!
Harimu and his people had lived in the mountains for generations. They certainly knew where to find jade.
In his previous life, when Li Long was in his thirties, Ma River jade had just become famous, so he had gone into the mountains to buy some. By then, many herders no longer had river jade. Instead, they had mountain jade they had secretly blasted out of Jade Mountain with explosives.
Li Long knew nothing about jade and bought a piece of mountain jade. It looked like an ordinary rock on the outside, and grinding it down did reveal jade. Unfortunately, the blasting had filled it with cracks, leaving it worthless.
In his previous life, from 1985 right up until his death, whenever the Ma River's channel dried out after a flood, plenty of people would search the riverbed for jade every day, carrying bottled-water bottles.
Whenever they saw a stone that looked like jade, they would squirt water over it from a bottle with a hole punched in its cap. One look would tell them whether it was jade.
Around the turn of the century, people found huge pieces of jade upstream every year, ranging from dozens of kilograms to several tonnes.
"Just go ask when you have time," Li Jianguo said with a smile. "It's not going anywhere. Jade isn't necessarily more valuable than grain these days."
By "valuable," he meant important.
Li Long thought about it and agreed.
"Uncle, you're not stupid at all!" Li Qiang said loudly. "You're the smartest! You can catch Gugu Chickens and trade them for Ankle Bones-nobody else can do that!"
"Ha ha, Qiangqiang, you're such a good boy." Li Long laughed.
Back in the East Room, Li Long thought about the Gugu Chickens Li Qiang had mentioned.
Since he was selling fish tomorrow, why not go see if there were any Gugu Chickens around? He could catch a few to sell, too.
He acted on the thought immediately. Banking the stove, he grabbed his flashlight, put on his gloves and hat, then went outside, picked up the Scoop Net and a urea sack, and headed east.
After walking a few hundred meters, Li Long realized this trip would probably be fruitless.
Other footprints followed the trail he had left. Clearly, he wasn't the only person who wanted to catch Gugu Chickens-or knew where to find them.
Fortunately, Li Long knew more than one place where Gugu Chickens liked to shelter. Carrying his flashlight, he went all the way to the spot where he had caught them last time. Sure enough, there wasn't a single one.
He would try somewhere else, then.
Turning south, Li Long trudged through the snow, panting heavily. He was beginning to regret it. Walking was far too difficult.
But since he was already here and had come this far, another few hundred meters wouldn't make much difference.
Suddenly, something dark darted out beside him, giving Li Long a fright. He switched on his flashlight and caught sight of a gray shape with half a white rump.
A wild hare!
There really were plenty of good things out in the wild!
Li Long kept his flashlight on the hare until it bounded out of sight across the snow, then switched it off.
To be honest, the hare wasn't running particularly fast. But the snow wasn't fresh; it had been lying there for some time and had packed down, allowing the hare to run over it.
He planned to come back after the next snowfall to chase hares and set a few snares.
They had more meat on them than Gugu Chickens.
Soon, Li Long approached the second place where Gugu Chickens sheltered.
He slowed his steps and cautiously crept forward.
Thanks to readers Baifo Wo Wei Shou Douzhan and 20220308131935841 for their monthly votes, and thanks to everyone for your recommendation votes and support!
(End of chapter)
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