Tao Daqiang went to the Li Family's home and handed over the fish.
That afternoon, he, his older brother, and his younger brother-in-law had pulled twenty-one kilograms of large fish out of three holes in the ice. Li Long said they had caught more than his group.
Tao Daqiang was not particularly pleased with himself. Of the twenty-one yuan he received, he kept nine, as they had agreed beforehand, while his brother Tao Dayong and his brother-in-law Yang Yong each received six.
With the five yuan he had received that morning, he had brought in fifteen today. Not bad.
He was a little tired. In fact, he had long wanted to work separately from his brother and take only his brother-in-law along. After all, his brother-in-law could not work alone at Little Haizi; the team would not allow it.
But Tao Dayong refused. He insisted on working together.
Tao Daqiang could do nothing about that, so he took him along.
Fortunately, his brother did whatever he said, without making a fuss.
That included dividing the money.
He had heard that his sister-in-law Ma Chunhong objected to the way they split the earnings, but his brother had silenced her with a slap.
Money gave a man confidence. Now that Tao Dayong brought money home every day, Ma Chunhong dared not say much, however unwilling she was.
At most, she grumbled a little. That was all.
In those days, a man who could bring money home, give his wife and children a somewhat better life, and let them eat meat every few days was already a very good husband and father.
Tao Dayong's transformation surprised quite a few of the team's idlers. They would ask him why he worked so hard. Winter was for hunkering down. Wasn't taking it easy comfortable? Why