After dividing up the watermelon seeds and telling his family about the matter, Li Long did not return to the County Seat.
He had been running all over the place lately. Now that he had finally returned to the production team, he planned to catch some crucian carp to eat-he was craving fish.
There was not enough time to set a net now, so he took his cast net and prepared to head to Little Haizi. Its North Dam had not been washed away, so the fish inside had not escaped. Although people set nets there every year, the stock had never been wiped out, and there were still plenty of fish, large and small.
When Li Qingxia heard that his son was going to Little Haizi, he naturally wanted to go too. He had not caught fish for several days. Tao Jianshe was busy now and had no time to invite him along. Li Qingxia could not eat all the fish he caught, could not sell them in the County Seat, and Stone City was too far away, so he simply dried them at home.
He already had several sacks of dried fish. He could not dry any more; there was nowhere to put them.
There were not as many flies and bugs then as there would be later, so drying fish was easy. A little salt rubbed on them was enough.
Twenty years later, fish could only be dried inside the sort of mesh enclosure used for drying vegetables. Otherwise, they needed a heavy coating of salt. Use too little, and flies would crawl all over them without the slightest hesitation. Even a heavy coating did not necessarily work. One kind of beetle was not afraid of salted fish and would still burrow inside to eat it. It