It was not until the tenth day of the New Year that Li Long and Tao Daqiang resumed scooping fish out of holes in the ice.
After a break of ten days or so, the fish From Little Haizi had grown increasingly desperate for oxygen. The two of them scooped out around a hundred kilograms of fish in a single day. The sheer quantity startled them both. They hauled the fish home and began sorting them, keeping the largest and smallest at home. The Li family kept some, and Tao Daqiang took some back with him.
The next day, Li Long and Tao Daqiang hauled the fish out to sell, but to their surprise, neither the Black Market in Ma County nor the residential compounds in Stone City had much demand for fish anymore. They laid the fish out, and although Li Long called out loudly and quite a few people came to look, few offered to buy.
When the two returned after dark, they actually still had fish left!
Li Long simply gave the remaining seven or eight kilograms of assorted fish to Zhong Guoqiang at the Big Meat Canteen.
Back at the production team, Li Long gave Tao Daqiang a five-yuan note, then said to him:
"Daqiang, I'm not planning to catch fish for the next two weeks. You saw it yourself-fish aren't selling well now. If you want to catch some for your family to eat, just come get the net from my place. For now, I'm leaving the fish alone."
Tao Daqiang was disappointed too. If Li Long stopped catching and selling fish, he would lose his way of earning money.
All the money he had earned earlier had gone toward the household, buying New Year supplies and coal. Now all he had was the five