Tao Daqiang helped Li Long twist rabbit snares together while Yang Yongqiang went out to find the people cutting holes in the ice, hoping to see whether they would sell their fish to them.
Small-scale dealings no longer appealed to him much. He planned to do something bigger.
Just look at Tao Daqiang. After following Li Long for a year, he had a bicycle and a wife, and life was sweet. He needed to work toward that goal too!
After finishing thirty rabbit snares, Li Long prepared to take Tao Daqiang to set them at Red Willow Flats to the east.
Few villagers set snares. For one thing, fine iron wire was still rather expensive, and for another, most people did not know how to set them or when to check them.
Most people who caught rabbits with snares had experience. Some tried copying them, but after setting a dozen or more snares without catching a single rabbit, or catching only one every few days, they lost interest.
Catching fish was different. Once they broke a hole through the ice, they could catch fish as long as they were patient. In the past, if they caught more than they could eat, they could only keep them to give away. Now that they could sell them, everyone was naturally much more enthusiastic.
Li Long and the others had just left the village when they saw Yang Yongqiang running briskly toward them.
"How did it go?" Li Long waited for him, then asked once he arrived, "Anyone willing?"
"Only the three Liang brothers." Disappointment was plain on Yang Yongqiang's face. "Everyone else wants to sell their own fish. The Zhao father and son said the price was too low and wanted me to raise it. I offered sixty cents a kilogram, but