There were noticeably more people at the Old Street market than before. Li Long drove his horse-drawn cart to the three-way intersection and could go no farther. After circling the outskirts to look around, he finally led the cart across the road and stopped.
He tied the reins to a roadside tree. Seeing that the horse was barely sweating, Li Long untied the ropes on the cart, took down the plastic sheeting and spread it beside the road, then began unloading fish.
He covered more than half the sheeting with fish, arranging the large and small ones neatly in separate groups, then pulled down a dozen or so rabbits and laid them out too. Only after taking out his scales did Li Long begin calling for customers.
The spot was a little out of the way. As he called out, Li Long also pulled a stick from the cart. Bringing out a gun was inappropriate here, with market administrators patrolling back and forth.
After a few more calls, people came over to look. Seeing the fish and rabbits laid out so neatly, someone asked the prices.
"Common carp and five-stripe perch are one yuan ten a kilo, crucian carp and silver carp are one yuan," Li Long said. "Four yuan for a big rabbit, three for a small one." He separated the big and small rabbits too. The sheeting was large, and the separate piles were clearly distinguishable, which also prevented disputes when customers picked their purchases.
Everything was so neat that shoppers could see it all at a glance. An old man immediately said with a smile:
"These five-stripe perch look good. Come on, weigh me one... that one!"
"Sure!" Though his spot was out of the way, practically on the edge of the market, Li Long was still