Chapter 201 I will do my best

Chapter 201 I will do my best

Chapter 201 I will do my best
"You're lucky. Did you catch any cuttlefish?" Li Changle looked at the big fish in the cargo hold. "The blue shark will be kept for Uncle Kun to make shark fins. He just bought so many big fish yesterday. The swordfish will be given to Adong's family."

"We have several dozen kilograms of cuttlefish!" Brother Li said as he took out the bamboo basket. "Uncle Kun wants some?"

Li Changle smiled and shook his head, "No, for drying goods! Don't sell the shrimp, mackerel, and eel, save them and take them back to kill and dry them!"

Brother Li hurriedly said, "Uncle Jin's family and the Lai family also have cuttlefish."

"Great." Li Changle said, looking at Jin Hui and Lai Lao Er, "Ah Hui, Brother Lai, save your cuttlefish for me!"

Jin Hui nodded, "I have 50 or 60 kilograms at home, do you want them all?"

"I have fifty or sixty kilograms at home. I'll keep them all for you if you want them." Lai Laoer on the other side also said.

"Okay! Keep them all for me." Li Changle happily jumped onto the shore, took out the beam scale from Chen Dong's house, and started weighing.

The two families collected exactly 110 kilograms, plus the more than 60 kilograms at home, so a total of more than 400 kilograms of cuttlefish were collected today. If there were more, we would be worried that there would not be enough space, so we dried a batch first and continued in two days.

Li Changle said hello to his two brothers and rode his tricycle back.

When they reached the gentle slope at the corner of the pier, Brother Li saw him hunching over and pedaling the tricycle with great effort. After trying several times but failing, he hurried over to help him push the tricycle up the slope.

"Ale, do you want me to help you push it back?"

"No, there's flat ground ahead. Go and help sort out the fish, find Adong's house, and buy some ice to freeze the fish."

"I know!" Brother Li walked a few steps forward before turning around and walking back.

Li Changle arrived home panting and sweating profusely. Zhou Ruonan had already gone to help with the new foundation.

Seeing that they had brought back so many fresh products, Li's mother quickly put down her work and helped lift the bamboo baskets out of the car, "Has your brother returned to the dock?"

"I'm back. Today's catch is pretty good!" Li Changle picked up a handkerchief and wiped the sweat off his face. "Mother, please go and ask a few women with nimble hands and feet to come home and help kill the fish!"

Mother Li frowned and said, "It's not worth it to hire more people. I'll go to the new base and call An Nan and your sister-in-law back. We'll kill them by midnight at most."

Li Changle was speechless. He really valued money over life. "Mom, there are more than a thousand kilograms of fresh goods, and the whole family is working until midnight?

I can hire a few people to work with me for just over ten bucks, and they can finish the job by ten at most. It won’t hurt your health, and it won’t delay your departure for the next day. How can it not be worth it?”

Li's mother glared at him and said, "You are the only one with a lot of money! You can hire ten people with ten dollars..."

"Then ask ten people to come back and help. Let's catch them while they are fresh." Li Changle stuffed ten yuan into her hand without hesitation. "Hurry up, I still have to pull the cart to the dock to bring back the fish."

Father Li also said, "Ah Hua, just listen to Ah Le. If it's kept for too long in hot weather, it won't be fresh anymore."

"Oh!" Li's mother turned and walked towards the alley.

Father Li hurriedly limped to the wing room, lifted the cart frame down and placed it on the tire bearings, and tied the cart handle to the tricycle. "Ride slowly, don't fall into the ditch."

"Don't worry, you won't fall into the ditch even with your eyes closed." Li Changle got on the tricycle and pulled the cart towards the dock.

When he arrived at the dock, the eldest and second brothers Li had already sent part of the fish to Adong's house to sell, and moved the fresh goods he had deposited there outside. As soon as he arrived, the three brothers loaded the fish and shrimp that were left to dry into the car.

The Chen family sold it for more than 80 yuan. We still have dozens of kilograms of cuttlefish, more than 30 kilograms of shrimp, a dozen eels, and more than 20 kilograms of green mullet. The mantis shrimp and mackerel were not sold.

Including those big shipments, today’s harvest was pretty good.

Li Changle was riding the tricycle while Brother Li was pulling the cart. When they left the dock and reached the embankment, they saw that there was no one around and couldn't help asking him, "Ah Le, what's the good news?"

Brother Li, who was helping to push the cart, stepped forward and patted him, "Hurry up and say it. I hate people who speak half-sentences and keep people on suspense."

"All the dried fish we brought to Lucheng today have been sold out." Li Changle looked at the two people proudly, "Not only have they been sold out, but we will also send several hundred kilograms every two weeks in the future."

"Kill Jia! Did you meet someone from the mess group?" Brother Li asked excitedly.

Brother Li nodded repeatedly, "Of course, apart from the mess group, who else can eat so much?"

Li Changle explained the reason to the two people, "We need to ask my brother-in-law to find more craftsmen to work together and build the house as soon as possible so that the fish can be dried."

"Tell Ajin to hire a few more teams of craftsmen to work on all four houses at the same time. It should be finished by the New Year."

"My mother has asked someone to pick a good date for our brothers and sisters. The day after tomorrow is an auspicious day for breaking ground and building a house."

"Oh!" Li Changle said with a smile, "What time will we go to the waterway to celebrate the boat race tomorrow morning? The border police station will come to present awards to me and Awei in the afternoon."

"Wow, you've made great progress! The police station even gave you an award!"

"Just the mine last time..."

"Good people and good deeds deserve praise." Brother Li looked at him with a smile, "The tide will start to rise at around 3 o'clock tomorrow morning. We will go to the waterway to set up a sacrificial boat. We have to go to bed early tonight!"

"Luckily I asked my mother to hire someone, otherwise we would have to work until midnight again." "My mother is used to being frugal, and spending ten dollars to hire someone is almost like cutting her flesh."

The three brothers returned home chatting and laughing. It was already dark, and they saw that Mrs. Li had already started working with a dozen other women.

Father Li sat at the table with several children peeling shrimps, while Mother Li and Zhou Ruonan were cooking in the kitchen.

Today the whole family is working together, and the brothers are having dinner at their parents' house.

Li Changle went over with a basket of mackerel and found that the women were chattering like sparrows in the woods. When they saw him coming, they praised him without paying anything, which made his pores stand up.

I feel more comfortable than when a group of women fell silent when they saw him coming.

Chen Yongwei came over with a basket full of shrimps, poured the water into a large bamboo basket, walked to the cart, and whispered:
"Brother, Octopus and Tide Watch only sold for over sixty dollars in total. I think the jar may have been stolen again."

"Next time, take the jar out to sea!"

Several people unloaded all the fresh goods from the car. There were still a few large goods frozen in the rubber bucket. They were going to offer sacrifices to the boat tomorrow morning. Chen Yongwei rode his bike with a headlamp to deliver them to Tuxia Bridge overnight.

Li Changle and Li Erge helped to mix salt water to pickle the drained Spanish mackerel, bluefin bream, and capelin...

Brother Li took a knife and helped kill the eels. The locals call killing eels "splitting". Unlike killing other fish by cutting from the belly, killing eels is the same as killing eels, where the knife is cut from the back.

Use a knife to chop the eel from the tail along the spine all the way to the head and mouth. The meat at the cut should be flat and smooth, and the entire spine should be completely exposed. Only in this way can the eel be chopped and the dried eel made into a good appearance.

Then remove the internal organs, gills and other debris from the split eel, scrape off the dirt with a knife, do not wash it, just wipe it clean with a cloth towel or a cloth towel dipped in white wine.

The cleaned eels do not need to be marinated. Instead, use bamboo strips to stretch the fish body as far as possible to make it into a sheet shape. Then use fishing line to pass through the fish head, tie a knot and hang it up.

After a day of drying in sunny weather, place the bamboo rack for hanging eels in the alley or in an open place with good ventilation and shade. On windy days, it only takes two or three days to dry.

"Uncle, Dad is ready to eat!" Li Xiaohai and Li Xiaotao ran out from the kitchen.

"Here I am!" Li Changle looked at Li Xiaotao and suddenly thought of Xiang Xiaoyu, "Xiaotao, does Xiang Xiaoyu want to play with you guys?"

"We used to play together, but not now." Li Xiaotao looked at him, "His mother and father are both dead, and he is raising his younger brother alone. His family can't even get enough food."

Li Xiaohai took over and said, "Dad, he is in my mother's class. My mother asked him to go to school, but he said his family didn't have money to pay for his studies."

Li Changle didn't expect that he was still Zhou Ruonan's student, so he said to the two children, "Go and call your aunt, your second aunt, and your grandmother to have dinner."

"Oh!" Li Xiaotao pulled Li Xiaohai and ran towards the well.

Brother Li put down the mackerel in his hand and said, "Ah Le, why did you think of asking that child?"

"I saw him at the dock this afternoon. He looked pale and thin, and looked quite pitiful."

"A child without a mother or a father is bound to be pitiful." Brother Li sighed and walked towards the well.

Li Changle washed his hands, went to the kitchen to say hello to Zhou Ruonan, went home to get some bean flour, some dried fish for the family, poured out half a bag of shredded sweet potatoes and half a bag of rice, and walked towards Ge Changfa's house.

He remembered that Xiang Xiaoyu used to live in the back row of Afa's house, diagonally opposite his house, and should still live there now.

After Li Changle arrived at Ge Changfa's house, he looked around and walked into Xiang Xiaoyu's yard. Seeing that the door was closed, he raised his hand and knocked on the door, "Is Xiaoyu home?"

"Here I come!" Xiang Xiaoyu opened the door and saw Li Changle. He thought he was here to ask him for compensation, so he quickly said, "Uncle Le, I don't have the money to compensate that uncle now."

"I'm not here to ask you for compensation." Li Changle looked into his dark eyes and said, "You recognized me, why didn't you call me at the dock this afternoon?"

Xiang Xiaoyu came out and said, "I'm sorry Uncle A Le, please tell that uncle, I will compensate him when I have money in the future."

"I believe you will pay it back." Li Changle put down the bag and rubbed his head. "There is some food in it. You can carry it in yourself. Also, my family needs to hire someone to kill fish, pick shrimp threads, and peel shrimps. If you can do it, you can come to my house to work."

Xiang Xiaoyu looked at him with sparkling eyes after hearing this, "I can also peel shrimps and pick out shrimp threads. When does your family need someone to help?"

"I want it now. I'll pay you one dollar for working until ten o'clock tonight."

"I'll go. Uncle A-Le, you go back first. I'll tell my brother and then I'll go to your house to work."

"Okay, you can take your brother with you later."

"Yeah!" Xiang Xiaoyu nodded, her eyes reddened. "Did Teacher Zhou ask you to come? Does she know that I stole other people's fish?"

"I haven't told her yet." Li Changle didn't expect that he was actually worried that Zhou Ruonan would know. "Your teacher Zhou said that you are a good child and that you can do a lot. Let me ask you to give it a try."

Xiang Xiaoyu lowered his head and said, "I will do my best."

(End of this chapter)