Chapter Summaries

Gu Xiaoxia traveled to the County Seat to take her exams while Li Long and Tao Daqiang hauled fish to sell in Stone City. After completing the exams confidently, Gu Xiaoxia felt she had seized a chance to change her fate.

• Gu Xiaoxia agreed to travel with Li Long and received a fish from Li Jianguo for her father.
• Li Long and Tao Daqiang loaded fish and a fox pelt onto the cart, picked up Gu Xiaoxia, and took her to the County Seat.
• Li Long and Tao Daqiang checked the morning market, found several fish sellers, and continued to Stone City to sell their catch.
• Gu Xiaoxia entered the exam room, recognized the subjects she had reviewed, and completed both exams confidently.
• Gu Xiaoxia left the Education Bureau believing she could score over ninety on each exam and saw the horse cart approaching.

Li Long learned that Gu Xiaoxia had passed the exam to become a middle school teacher, while the team prepared to divide its farmland among households. The Production Team was set to become a village as the commune became a township, and Li Long agreed to bring a sheep for the land-division feast.

• Li Long heard Xu Chengjun announce that Gu Xiaoxia had passed the county exam and would teach at Commune Middle School, while Wu Shufen would teach in the team.
• Gu Boyuan urged Gu Xiaoxia to thank the Li Family, and women from the team crowded into the Gu home to congratulate her and propose matches.
• Xu Chengjun called the commune member representatives to a meeting, and Li Jianguo went to attend.
• Li Jianguo told the family that the commune would become a township, the Production Team would become a village, and each person would receive two mu of land after the snow melted.
• Li Jianguo said the team leader wanted Li Long to bring a sheep for the land-division feast, and Li Long agreed.

After learning that the team would soon divide the land and encourage sideline work, Li Long and Li Jianguo planned to raise pigs and use the coming thaw to fish for market sales. When Tao Daqiang reported that Big Haizi was full of dead fish, Li Long realized they could dry and grind them into pig feed, and the chapter ended with other villagers following their lead.

• Li Jianguo told Li Long that the team would divide the land soon and reward households that raised livestock, so the brothers planned to build a pigpen and raise pigs.
• Li Long and Li Jianguo discussed sending money to their parents and possibly bringing them over after the land was divided.
• Tao Daqiang told Li Long that large numbers of dead fish were floating near Big Haizi, and Li Long proposed collecting them to make feed for pigs.
• Li Jianguo rented a horse cart, and he, Li Long, and Tao Daqiang hauled a cartload of dead fish from Big Haizi to dry at home.
• Villagers laughed at the Li Family for drying dead fish, but some soon began collecting fish themselves.

Li Long helped Gu Xiaoxia qualify for a middle-school teaching post, then approached Village Director Xu Chengjun about buying the team’s stable to raise animals. Xu Chengjun offered to support the sale for 350, provided Li Long used the stable for animal raising.

• The Li family and other households gathered dead fish to dry and use as pig feed, while people found few dead fish in Little Haizi.
• Gu Boyuan and Gu Xiaoxia visited the Li family to thank Li Long for the information that helped Gu Xiaoxia pass her middle-school teacher exam.
• The Li and Gu families shared a meal, and Liang Yuemei sent Gu Boyuan and Gu Xiaoxia home with food.
• After school started and the snow melted, Li Long asked Village Director Xu Chengjun about the planned division of team assets and the stable.
• Li Long proposed buying the stable to raise animals, and Xu Chengjun offered to persuade the Village Committee to sell it for 350 if Li Long agreed to that use.

Li Long bought the Production Team's Stable for three hundred and fifty and went into the mountains to bring back a sheep for the team. He returned with a large live sheep, while news of his purchase spread through the village.

• Li Long paid three hundred and fifty for the Stable, and Chen Qiang issued him the receipt and certificate.
• Li Long told Li Jianguo he planned to catch animals in the mountains or raise pigs at the Stable, and Li Jianguo let him make his own decisions.
• Li Long hitched a horse cart, bought common medicines for Harimu, and traveled to the Winter Camp.
• Li Long gave Harimu the medicines and asked him to mark the boxes with instructions.
• Harimu chose a large sheep for Li Long and saw him down the mountain.
• Word of Li Long's Stable purchase spread through the village, and people discussed his latest unconventional move.

Li Long helped his family prepare for land allocation, then used the mountain camp’s abundant manure to fertilize their future fields. As the village distributed its assets, Li Jianguo bought a horse, while Tao Jianshe bought a donkey with money Tao Daqiang had obtained through Li Long.

• Li Jianguo drew plot number one in the first-grade fields, giving the Li family a position beside the Alkali Flat.
• While the village continued allocating land, Li Long hauled manure from Harimu’s mountain camp for five days, and Li Jianguo told him to wait until plowing to spread it.
• The villagers drew lots for the Production Team’s assets and had to pay the assessed prices to claim their items.
• Li Jianguo paid 150 yuan for Red Horse Number 76 after two other villagers gave up their horse claims.
• Tao Jianshe bought a three-year-old donkey for 60 yuan, and Tao Daqiang gratefully looked toward Li Long.

Li Long helped the Li Family increase its field by persuading Wang the Miser to plow an extra strip, then avoided the spring canal-clearing labor. He brought cured meat to Village Director Xu Chengjun’s home, where Xu asked what he wanted.

• Li Long paid for Wang the Miser’s agreement to plow an extra width along the Li Family’s field, gaining about half a mu.
• Li Long and Liang Yuemei gathered licorice roots while Li Jianguo collected reeds turned up by the plow.
• Liang Yuemei gave Wang the Miser three kilograms of cured wild boar meat as promised.
• Li Long decided not to join the canal-clearing work and planned to avoid earning work points for now.
• Li Long brought cured meat to Xu Chengjun’s home, and Xu asked him what he wanted.

Li Long persuaded Xu Chengjun to use his money to fund a channel diverting floodwater away from Little Haizi, then arranged for Lao Luo to stay at the Stable and care for animals he brought back. He left hoping that giving Lao Luo work and company would lead to a better life for him.

• Li Long proposed connecting the dry gully above Little Haizi to the main canal to prevent floods from damaging the lake embankment and blocking the students' route to school.
• Li Long offered Xu Chengjun forty yuan to pay for the work, explaining that he wanted to protect Little Haizi because its fish had earned him money.
• Xu Chengjun agreed to include the channel in the team's work plan.
• Li Long told Lao Luo he could continue living at the Stable and offered to pay him to raise animals brought back from the mountains.
• Li Long told Li Jianshe about the arrangement, and Li Jianshe explained that Lao Luo had served in wartime logistics and had refused to live in a retirement home.

Li Long began fishing at Little Haizi, teaching Tao Daqiang to handle nets and preparing to sell their catch. After impressing his family with a spicy mutton noodle meal, he and Tao Daqiang headed out to set their nets.

• Li Long started sorting his nets and taught Tao Daqiang how to prepare them, while Tao Daqiang practiced throwing a cast net.
• Li Long cooked hand-pulled noodles with dried chili and mutton for Li Jianguo, Liang Yuemei, and Li Qiang, surprising them with his cooking.
• Li Qiang wanted to go with Li Long to Little Haizi, but Li Jianguo scolded him because the water was deep and dangerous.
• Tao Daqiang practiced throwing the cast net in the yard, then he and Li Long packed the nets and went to Little Haizi to set them.

Li Long and Tao Daqiang set four nets in Little Haizi despite the icy water. Li Xiangqian then asked Li Long for an urgently needed mountain goat skull, and Li Long agreed to bring him one; the next morning, Li Long and Tao Daqiang returned to check their nets.

• Li Long and Tao Daqiang waded into Little Haizi and set four Four-Finger Nets along a deep channel.
• Li Long hurried home to warm his chilled feet and resolved to get an inner tube for future fishing trips.
• Mingwa told Li Long that Li Xiangqian had called and needed his help urgently.
• Li Xiangqian asked Li Long for a long-horned mountain goat skull with at least fifteen horn rings, and Li Long said he had one with eighteen or nineteen rings and would bring it to the County Seat.
• Li Long and Tao Daqiang went back to Little Haizi at dawn to check their nets.

Li Long and Tao Daqiang hauled in a good catch of live fish, which Li Long prepared to sell at the County Seat. After giving Li Juan a ride to school and money for lunch, he continued toward the morning market, wondering how many other fish sellers would be there.

• Tao Daqiang waded into Little Haizi and hauled in the nets while Li Long watched from the bank.
• Tao Daqiang and Li Long carried the bulging sack of fish back to the Li Family home, where Li Jianguo and the others helped untangle the nets and remove the catch.
• Li Jianguo gave a silver carp to Sister-in-Law Lu, and the family divided the remaining fish between two water-filled urea sacks.
• Li Long told Tao Daqiang to try the cast net at the reservoir, then rode to school with Li Juan and gave her five yuan for food.
• Li Long continued toward the County Seat to sell the fish, wondering whether other sellers would affect the morning market.

Li Long brought live fish to the morning market and sold them as shoppers compared prices and bought from his basins. After a customer who had stirred the fish hoped to take the leftovers for free, Li Long sold the last five crucian carp cheaply to an elderly woman and watched the man leave empty-handed.

• Li Long rode to the morning market with two enamel basins and set up his live fish for sale.
• A woman bought one yuan's worth of small crucian carp, drawing more shoppers to Li Long's stall.
• Li Long told an old man who was stirring the fish to stop interfering unless he intended to buy.
• Li Long sold most of his fish, then lowered his prices as the market began to empty.
• Li Long sold the last five crucian carp for fifty fen to an elderly woman, frustrating the old man who had hoped to take them.

Li Long sold fish, bought eggs and chickens, and delivered an intact Siberian ibex skull to Li Xiangqian, who rewarded him with a truck inner tube and promised to seek him a forest ranger position. With plans to expand his net fishing, Li Long headed to the Department Store.

• Li Long bought twenty-six eggs and four chickens at the morning market, then ate breakfast at the Big Meat Canteen and agreed to bring Zhong Guoqiang two live carp the next day.
• Li Long carried the Siberian ibex skull to the Supply and Marketing Cooperative, where Li Xiangqian eagerly inspected its intact horns, each with nineteen segments.
• Li Long asked Li Xiangqian for a large inner tube to use as a raft and help getting an unofficial forest ranger position on Southern Mountain.
• Li Xiangqian gave Li Long a sound, used truck inner tube and promised to ask about the ranger position.
• Li Long calculated his earnings and planned to set six to eight fishing nets that afternoon before happily walking toward the Department Store.

Li Long visited Gu Xiaoxia at Township Middle School, gave her a scarf, and bought her food after discouraging Lin Bingwen’s advances. He returned home with plans to bring Gu more provisions and found Tao Daqiang back with wet shoes and hair.

• Li Long rode his bicycle to Township Middle School and found Lin Bingwen trying to court Gu Xiaoxia.
• Li Long gave Gu Xiaoxia a scarf, spoke cordially with Lin Bingwen, and invited the teachers to eat with him.
• Li Long took Gu Xiaoxia to the General Store, bought her food, and left her six eggs before returning home.
• Li Long brought a rooster, a hen, and eggs home, and Liang Yuemei agreed to keep the chickens.
• Li Long noticed that Tao Daqiang had returned with wet shoes and hair and wondered whether he had fallen into the water.

Li Long prepared a tire-tube boat and wooden paddles, then took Tao Daqiang to Little Haizi to set a gill net. The chapter ended with Tao Daqiang watching in awe as Li Long skillfully paddled backward and fed the net into the water.

• Li Jianguo and Li Long scolded Tao Daqiang for diving into the cold water to free his cast net, and Liang Yuemei made him warm up.
• Liang Yuemei agreed to prepare stewed meat, oil, and cured pork for Li Long to take to Xiaoxia.
• Li Long shaped boards into paddles and fitted an inflated truck tire tube with a bottom board to make a boat.
• Li Long and Tao Daqiang carried the boat, net, and paddles to Little Haizi and chose a sheltered spot by the reeds.
• Li Long paddled out and set a gill net by feeding it from his mouth as he moved backward, impressing Tao Daqiang.

Li Long and Tao Daqiang set nets in Little Haizi, caught a variety of fish, and discussed the major flood Li Long knew would come. As they returned to the village, Li Long reflected on his peers’ paths and the comfortable future some of them would eventually enjoy.

• Li Long quickly paddled a tire to set six nets, then taught Tao Daqiang how to practice casting a net.
• Li Long cast a net near a bulldozer-dug pit and caught a silver carp, broad-backed crucian carp, and ditch fish.
• Li Long warned Tao Daqiang that a major flood would destroy Little Haizi’s dam, while laborers worked to excavate earth near the drainage ditch and canal.
• Li Long and Tao Daqiang continued fishing, catching more fish despite their later casts spreading poorly.
• Li Long encountered Tian Siping, Qin Hongyan, and other peers, reflecting on their different lives and their future prosperity.
• Li Jianguo and Gu Boyuan told Li Long and Tao Daqiang to go home, and they joined the returning villagers.

Li Long’s family learned that raising eight pigs would earn them specialist status and five mu of feed-growing land, while village electricity was also planned. The next morning, Li Long and Tao Daqiang hauled in nearly sixty kilograms of fish, which Li Long prepared to sell in town while taking a jar of food to Xiaoxia.

• Li Long persuaded Li Jianguo to ask about rewards for specialist pig farmers and proposed having Lao Luo raise their pigs and horses.
• Li Jianguo learned that raising at least eight pigs would bring five mu of land for feed, with possible township rewards, and that the team would get electricity.
• Li Jianguo gave Li Long twenty yuan for piglets, and Li Long planned to buy more pigs and find additional feed.
• Li Long and Tao Daqiang retrieved six nets from Little Haizi and caught nearly sixty kilograms of fish, including a large common carp.
• The Li family sorted and packed the fish, and Li Long prepared to take Li Juan to school and deliver a jar of food to Xiaoxia.

Li Long delivered food and fish to Gu Xiaoxia before selling his catch at the morning market, where he spotted piglets he wanted to buy. The chapter ended as he offered the remaining seller sixteen yuan for a male and a female piglet, leaving the man to decide whether to accept.

• Li Long brought Gu Xiaoxia fish, cooked pork and lamb, and cured pork, while she privately hoped they would soon become a couple.
• Gu Xiaoxia told Wang Qihua that Li Long earned well from selling fish and had built up his family's possessions himself.
• Li Long sold four large fish to Manager Zhong for ten yuan, then hurried to the morning market with his remaining catch.
• Li Long took a vacant stall, attracted a crowd with his fish, and stopped a customer from squeezing them.
• Li Long asked the remaining piglet seller about his male and female piglets and offered sixteen yuan for both.

Li Long sold his fish and piglets, then sought coupons to buy a radio at the Department Store. Li Xiangqian gave him coupons and offered him a purchasing-agent position and a basket-weaving contract for his Production Team, leaving Li Long to decide how to divide the earnings.

• Li Long agreed to sell two piglets for eight yuan each and finished selling his fish at the morning market for a little over forty-one yuan.
• Li Long ate at the Big Meat Canteen, then found portable radios at the Department Store but could not buy one without an industrial goods coupon.
• Li Long visited Li Xiangqian, who gave him coupons and said he would make him a part-time purchasing agent while the forest ranger position was delayed.
• Li Xiangqian offered Li Long's Production Team a contract to make three hundred carrying baskets for six yuan each, and Li Long said he would confirm the team's decision.
• Li Xiangqian advised Li Long to quote the team a lower price and keep a cut for himself, and Li Long considered the warning.

Li Long bought a transistor radio and arranged for his village team to fulfill the Supply and Marketing Cooperative’s order for three hundred taibazi. He left Xu Chengjun to organize the workers while he planned to inspect the finished goods and continue his other work in the mountains.

• Li Long bought a radio with his fish money and decided to sell fish for several more days to afford another one for Harimu and his mountain friends.
• Li Long told Li Jianguo and Liang Yuemei about the weaving order and said he would take a twenty percent cut for arranging the work and inspecting it.
• Li Long offered the order to Xu Chengjun, who eagerly agreed to organize ten villagers to weave three hundred taibazi within a month.
• Li Long called Li Xiangqian at the Supply and Marketing Cooperative, and Li Xiangqian confirmed that Li Long would handle inspection and serve as the team’s contact.
• Xu Chengjun promised Li Long full work credit for the team’s communal labor that year, but Li Long said Xu should appoint someone else to lead the workers.