Chapter 129: I started to be idle again
The next morning, Li Juan went to school, and Li Qiang went to preschool. The loudspeaker in the team called for workers to clean the canal, and Li Jianguo went, Liang Yuemei went to weed the fields, and Li Long began to sort out the nets he had bought.
The snow has melted, the ice in the small lake has almost melted, and the fields have turned green. So next, it’s time to do our own business - which is considered "unproductive" in the eyes of others.
In later generations, many non-professional "fishermen" emerged in the village. They would cast nets to catch fish during the slack season, catch the fish early in the morning, and then go to the market to sell the fish. During the busy season, they would hang up the nets and become real farmers.
However, such a situation would have taken at least three to five years to occur in the previous life, but now Li Long made it happen ahead of time.
While he was sorting out the nets, Tao Daqiang came into the yard.
"Brother Long, are we going to go online this afternoon?"
"Yeah." Li Long responded, "You've never been to an Internet cafe before?"
"No." Tao Daqiang went forward and touched the net. He was a little curious, but also a little cautious. This net is not cheap!
Tao Daqiang borrowed 80 yuan from Li Long to buy a donkey and make a donkey cart. According to Li Long, it would be deducted from his future salary. Tao Daqiang could calculate that this would require at least 16 days of actual wages.
So even though he didn't know how to get off the Internet, he really hoped that Li Long would take him to work - the feeling of being in debt was very unfamiliar and uncomfortable.
"Then I will teach you how to organize the nets first. Let's set the nets and take out the fish early tomorrow morning. Then I will take the fish to sell. You need to organize the nets at home. We will set the nets again tomorrow afternoon."
"Okay." Tao Daqiang didn't say much, but his attitude was very serious, and Li Long was very satisfied.
Li Long taught Tao Daqiang how to organize the net and told him how to tie the rope after it was done.
In order to make it easier to find the sticky net in the water, Li Long specially found a few colorful cloth strips and tied them at both ends of the net, so that it would be easier to fix and find the net in the water when it was lowered.
After Tao Daqiang learned how to arrange the net, Li Long took the casting net and practiced casting it in the yard, from half a net in the beginning to barely a full circle later.
This is indeed a job that requires both skills and strength. Tao Daqiang was jealous and wanted to try it too. It looked like he was doing it, but once the net was out, it landed in a straight line or a crescent. Li Long didn't want to laugh, fearing that it would hurt Tao Daqiang's self-esteem, but he was really uncomfortable holding it back.
"Brother Long, laugh if you want to. I know I'm stupid anyway." Tao Daqiang was not annoyed, "I'll practice more when I have nothing to do."
Tao Daqiang now likes to go fishing with Li Long. He knows that this can make cash and is more valuable than doing farm work.
Even though I'm stupid, maybe I can succeed if I practice more?
When it was almost time to get off work in the morning, Li Long and Tao Daqiang put away the nets and he started cooking.
Both his elder brother and sister-in-law were doing physical work, so Li Long planned to make a quick meal.
In his previous life, he didn't know how to cook at first, and even if he did, it was just a mess. But later he realized that if he wanted to eat well, he had to learn how to cook, otherwise others would not accommodate him.
So the food Li Long cooked gradually became delicious, at least it was home-cooked food.
First, knead the dough, then cover it with a wet cage cloth and let it rise. Then, soak some dried chilies from an empty room, peel the onions and garlic, and then scoop a large spoonful of braised mutton with oil and prepare it.
After the chili was softened and cut into small pieces, he planned to roll the chili meat and mix it with some noodles.
Because mutton fat is easy to coagulate, commonly known as "soaking", he did not cook the vegetables first, but boiled water and prepared to cook them first.
Pulling noodles is also a technical job. In his previous life, Li Long was almost fifty years old before he basically learned how to do it. What this means is that he could knead the noodles well and pull them into thin and continuous pieces. Some people can do this kind of technical job at the age of seven or eight. Li Long remembered that a friend of Li Qiang's age came to Li Qiang with a bowl of pulled noodles when he was more than eight years old to show off that he could pull noodles. However, Li Long didn't know how to do it until he was almost fifty.
The technique is very simple, it can be broken with just one poke. But some people may never understand the paper in their lifetime.
The weather was hot, and the stove in the house was no longer used often. It would be removed in two days, so Li Long boiled water on the wood stove in the yard.
At that time, wood stoves were quite common. Although they were not as convenient as gas stoves of later generations, the food cooked in them was delicious.
Pour water into the pot, put a bundle of corn stalks and sunflower stalks next to the stove, pull a bunch of reeds as fire starter, put a few corn stalks into the stove, put the reeds underneath, and after lighting them, white smoke came out of the chimney and the fire quickly started.
"Uncle, are you cooking?" Li Qiang came back first. Seeing Li Long busy at the stove, he immediately ran over to help, "I'll light the fire!"
"Okay, be careful, don't make the fire too big." Although Li Qiang is only six years old, rural children are already able to work at this age. With Li Qiang's current situation, he will be able to enter the first grade in the fall.
Li Long found it a bit weird to think that Li Qiang's teacher might be Wu Shufen.
"Uncle, the water is boiling!" Li Qiang shouted outside, and Li Long also started to boil the noodles inside. He picked up the noodles with chopsticks and came to the stove with a strainer. Seeing that the water was boiling, he put the noodles in and stirred it slowly and gently. Then he went into the house and brought out a basin of water and placed it on the stove. This was for the cold noodles.
When Liang Yuemei and Li Jianguo came back, the noodles had been served and the noodle soup had been poured into the basin. Li Long saw people entering the yard and started pouring oil into the pot, frying the meat and boiling the chili peppers.
When a large plate of red spicy pork was served, the aroma mixed with the spicy taste hit the nose, and Li Jianguo couldn't help but say:
"Xiaolong, when did you learn to make this? It smells weird!"
“I saw it in the big meat canteen, and thought you guys were tired, so I decided to give one a try.” Li Long was very satisfied with the reactions of his eldest brother, his wife, and Li Qiang.
"It smells delicious!" Liang Yuemei originally planned to come back to cook. In her memory, Li Long couldn't cook. He was the type that could make porridge overflow. Although he seemed to be more sensible in the past two months, he couldn't cook without making any noise.
She was surprised that he could actually do it and it looked really good.
"Eat quickly, the food will get cold, it won't taste good if it gets cold." Li Qiang urged. The family still kept the old rules, Li Jianguo ate first, then the adults, and then the children.
You need to use a plate to eat mixed noodles. The family started eating happily. Li Long habitually poured some vinegar into the plate. Li Qiang followed suit, and soon the spicy taste made him cry and run. He wiped his mouth with his sleeve and continued to eat with big mouthfuls, looking at the spicy meat dish on the table while eating. It was obvious that he didn't intend to finish it with just one plate.
For a moment, the only sound at the table was the slurping of noodles. Li Long laughed as he ate.
In the afternoon, Li Jianguo continued to work. Liang Yuemei went to the fields after cleaning up. Li Qiang went to the preschool class reluctantly - at the dinner table he heard that Li Long was going to Xiaohaizi to cast nets, and he really wanted to go with him, but was scolded by Li Jianguo.
It's not like winter now. The water in the small lake is two or three meters deep. If a child falls in, it will be the end of him.
Tao Daqiang arrived at Li's house early and after obtaining Li Long's consent, he started practicing casting nets in the yard.
After the sun set, Li Long and Tao Daqiang put the net into the urea bag and walked towards the small lake.
A new round of idleness has begun.
(End of this chapter)
