To Li Long's surprise, after he cleared the snow from the courtyard and swept away the snow outside, he went to Little Haizi with Dad and the others sometime after twelve and found that a trail had already been trampled through the snow.
Someone had beaten them to it.
Li Long quickened his pace, wanting to see who was being so "dedicated." He walked fast, but Li Qingxia and Li Qiang, who had come along, could not keep up.
The snow was not particularly deep, but trudging through it was still difficult. Although someone had gone ahead, they had left only footprints, so those following still had to step into the snow.
After climbing onto Little Haizi's northern embankment, Li Long found two groups at the ice holes. One was Liang Dacheng and his two brothers, clearing snow. The other was Lao Meng's family, who had already cleared the snow, broken open their ice hole again, and started scooping up fish.
They really were working hard!
Li Long saw fish already flopping beside Lao Meng's ice hole.
The snowfall had brought the temperature down further, and as the ice thickened, it became harder for air above to reach the water below. Once these ice holes were broken open, fish gathered around them more readily.
Li Long went over to the Liang brothers. The snow had already been cleared from their two ice holes, and they were using a pickaxe and a steel bar to break through the newly formed layer of ice.
"You're here early today," Li Long said.
"Well, after what happened yesterday, we're all worried that people from North White Earth Pit Reservoir and Yawa Gully Reservoir really will start delivering fish. They've got a lot more fish in those reservoirs than we have here, so we'd better