Dozens of sacks of fish were piled in the yard. Luckily, Li Long had often gone out to sell fish over the past year and was an "employee" of the Supply and Marketing Cooperative himself, so the family had this many sacks. Otherwise, they would have had nothing to put the fish in!
The fish were all packed in sacks and covered with snow. The work that came next would not be easy.
To make selling them easier later, they needed to pry the fish apart one by one before they froze completely solid, then pack them back into the sacks with some more snow.
Otherwise, by the time they took the fish to the market, every fish in a sack would have frozen into one solid lump. Even an axe might have trouble separating them then, and any fish they did separate might end up in pieces.
Fortunately, the work was not particularly difficult. The fish had not frozen too firmly yet. The next day, Li Long, Li Anguo, and the other three got to work in the yard.
They dragged a sack of fish out onto the snow, tipped it out, and started prying the fish apart. When they put them back into the sack, they mixed in some snow. With snow separating them, the fish would not stick together so tightly even when frozen.
All five wore gloves. Their movements were clumsy at first, but they soon picked up speed. They could finish a sack of fish in a few minutes.
As the sun rose, Li Long called out to Chen Xingbang and the others:
"Brother-in-law, Second Older Brother, don't look off into the distance. You could get snow blindness."
"Right, got it." They had all heard Li Jianguo mention this before, so they took it seriously.