Chapter 173 Thanks to the method you taught me
"Hey! Qiangzi, where have you been?"

On the village road, Xu Laosan put his hands into his sleeves, hugged his chest, and walked on the snow with one foot deep and one foot shallow. Then he saw Li Guoqiang coming towards him pulling a sled, and hurriedly smiled and said hello.

"Nowhere!"

Li Guoqiang smiled slightly, then replied loudly, "The Chinese New Year is coming soon! I was thinking of going to the Little River Bay to fish for some fish."

"Oh?"

Hearing this, Xu Lao San raised his eyebrows, and then asked in confusion: "The ice in Xiaohewan is so thick now that it's hard to make a hole in the ice, and the fish don't bite the hook very much. How did you think of going fishing?"

"Harmful!"

Li Guoqiang waved his hand, then laughed and explained: "Isn't this just sitting around doing nothing?"

"That's true!"

Xu Laosan nodded, then asked curiously, "Did you catch any fish?"

"Ok!"

Hearing this, Li Guoqiang had no intention of hiding anything, and immediately nodded and said, "We were lucky, and caught quite a few fish, about a hundred pounds in total!"

"what?"

Xu Laosan's eyes widened, and he asked in astonishment, "A hundred kilograms of fish? Are you kidding me?"

You know, he had tried to fish in the small river bay before, but after a whole day of fishing, he could only catch about ten pounds of fish at most, and most of the time he would return empty-handed.

In addition to the ice and snow, it is really painful to be outside in the cold for a whole day.

Therefore, over time, he stopped fishing.

"Look what you said!"

Li Guoqiang was delighted, and then he said seriously: "How can I joke with you about this? If you don't believe me, come and see for yourself!"

As he spoke, he pointed to the basket tied to the sled behind him.

Seeing that Li Guoqiang was so sure, Xu Laosan could only walk forward with some doubt, stick his head over the basket and look inside. He was instantly shocked by the basket full of fish.

"This"

"Did you catch all these fish?"

"Yup!"

Li Guoqiang nodded, pointed at the fishing rod tied to the back of the sled, and said with a laugh: "Look, the fishing rods are all there!"

"you"

Xu Laosan glanced at the fishing rod, then asked in disbelief: "How did you do this?"

If he had not seen the fishing net, he would never have believed that these fish were caught by Li Guoqiang and the two little girls.

“It’s actually quite simple to say!”

When Li Guoqiang heard Xu Laosan's question, he immediately repeated the fishing techniques he had previously told Shang Xiuzhen and others.

After hearing this, Xu Laosan instantly showed a very strange look on his face, "You mean before fishing, sprinkle 10 to 20 kilograms of cornmeal and some cow dung into the water?"

"That's right!"

Li Guoqiang nodded, and then explained seriously: "I call this technique "making a nest". This can not only attract fish, but also make the fish less vigilant, thus increasing the success rate of taking the bait."

"I can understand what you're saying!"

Xu Laosan frowned, and then said in a very tangled tone: "But we have to sprinkle so much food in at once. What if we don't catch any fish? Wouldn't that be a loss for Grandma's family?"

“I can’t say that!”

Li Guoqiang shook his head and said softly, "You know, fishing is all about luck. If you're lucky, you can catch fish. If you're unlucky, it's hard to say."

"The technique I just told you can only increase the success rate of fishing, but it can't guarantee that you will catch fish."

"That's true!"

After hearing this, Xu Laosan was stunned for a moment, then nodded with some emotion and agreed, "If it was possible to ensure that fish could be caught, then all the fish in this small river bay would have been caught long ago."

After saying that, he glanced at the fish in the basket and couldn't help feeling envious.

Let’s not talk about how much these fish are worth. Just the feeling of catching fish over and over again is enough to make people yearn for it.

"Come on, Third Brother, take this fish back and try it!"

Li Guoqiang noticed Xu Laosan's envious look and hurriedly picked up a grass carp weighing 11 or 12 pounds from the basket and handed it over.

"no!"

Seeing this, Xu Laosan quickly waved his hands and refused, "No, this fish is so big, it must be worth a lot of money! I can't take advantage of you, you should take it to the purchasing station another day to sell it!"

"oops!"

Upon hearing this, Li Guoqiang immediately pretended to be angry and said, "It's almost the New Year, and the purchasing stations may have already closed for the holiday. Where can I sell it?"

"Besides, I will rebuild my house next spring, and I will need your help! You are so polite to me now, how can I dare to ask you for help when the time comes!"

"That"

After hearing what Li Guoqiang had said, Xu Laosan could only nod and agree, "Okay then! Consider this fish as your advance payment to me. When you want to rebuild the house, just let me know in advance and I'll definitely come over to help you!"

"to make!"

Li Guoqiang smiled slightly, and then said very straightforwardly: "Then it's settled!"

After saying that, he stuffed the fish into Xu Laosan's hand, then pulled the sled and continued walking towards home.

Xu Laosan held the frozen grass carp in his hands, stood there, watching Li Guoqiang's back gradually disappearing into the distance, and couldn't help but praise him.

"Everyone is right. Qiangzi is really kind. Such a big grass carp should be worth at least three or four dollars. He just gave it to me. He deserves to catch so many fish."

After praising it, he looked down at the grass carp in his hand. His mind couldn’t help but recall the fishing techniques that Li Guoqiang had introduced before, and he suddenly felt eager to try it.

Although the cost of doing this is relatively high, it would be so cool if you can really catch a fish.

Thinking that he might be able to catch hundreds of kilograms of fish in a row like Li Guoqiang, he couldn't help it and quickly turned around and ran towards his home.

As Li Guoqiang was walking, he suddenly stopped and took out six fish weighing seven or eight kilograms from the basket. He asked Zhu Caixia and Xu Dani to take them to give to Xu Guangfu, Sun Maocai and other six brigade cadres to avoid letting them know that he gave the fish to Xu Laosan but not to them.

Soon, Zhu Caixia and Xu Dani left with the fish in their hands. Not long after, Li Guoqiang also returned home pulling the sled.

When Xu Yuping saw that Li Guoqiang had caught so many fish, she was immediately surprised. She then hurriedly picked out a bighead carp weighing seven or eight kilograms and prepared to make a dish of chopped pepper fish head to taste.

When she put the fish into the pot to steam it, Xu Dani and Zhu Caixia also came back, carrying some mushrooms, fungus, vermicelli and other wild delicacies, saying that they were return gifts from Xu Guangfu and others.

At noon, Li Guoqiang drank a few glasses of liquor with the delicious chopped pepper fish head and felt relaxed all over.

After dinner, he lay on the kang, accompanying Xu Dani, Zhu Caixia, Xu Yuping and Qu Yinfeng, chatting and listening to the radio. It was so comfortable.

Before I knew it, an afternoon had passed.

Li Guoqiang, who was trying to tame a sika deer at home, suddenly heard a joyful voice coming from outside the yard.

"Hadron, hadron!"

"Hey! Third brother, why are you here?"

"Haha! Look what this is?"

"Oh! Great! Third brother, you have a great harvest!"

"Not bad, not bad, thanks to the method you taught me and the two ice holes you opened, otherwise I wouldn't have been able to catch so many fish."

When Xu Laosan heard Li Guoqiang's praise, a smile immediately broke out on his face.

Although the fish he caught were not as big as those caught by Li Guoqiang, he caught a lot of them!
He had lived for thirty or forty years, but he had never experienced such a great time fishing!
As soon as he came back, he didn’t even bother to take care of his family and ran straight to thank Li Guoqiang.

This shows how happy he is.

"Eh!"

Li Guoqiang waved his hand, and then said modestly: "You are flattering me. I just gave you some experience in fishing. How many fish you can catch is up to you."

"oops!"

Xu Laosan's eyes widened, and then he said seriously: "Don't be so modest with me. Everyone in our village knows your ability."

"I know you won't like these fish, so I won't give them to you. I'll buy you two bottles of good wine when I go to the commune some other day."

After saying that, he picked up the bucket and turned away without waiting for Li Guoqiang to refuse.

When Li Guoqiang saw Xu Laosan's look, he couldn't help but shook his head with amusement. Then, when he was about to go back to continue training the sika deer, he saw Shang Xiuzhen coming over with a carp weighing seven or eight kilograms.

"Li Guoqiang, we followed your instructions this afternoon and caught more than a dozen fish weighing more than 30 kilograms. This is the biggest one, and everyone asked me to bring it to you to thank you."

Shang Xiuzhen walked up to Li Guoqiang and spoke with mixed feelings.

At the beginning, she looked down on Li Guoqiang's sickly appearance, but she never expected that after just over a month, Li Guoqiang would transform into a genius and capable person that she needed to look up to.

She knew that if nothing unexpected happened, she would never be able to surpass Li Guoqiang in her lifetime.

Fortunately, Li Guoqiang had no intention of becoming the leader of the male educated youth group, otherwise, she didn't know whether she would have the courage to continue to serve as the leader of the female educated youth group.

"Row!"

When Li Guoqiang heard Shang Xiuzhen say this, he nodded without hesitation and agreed, "Then I won't be polite to you guys!"

After saying that, he reached out and took the carp.

Seeing this, Shang Xiuzhen didn't say anything else. She just said hello and turned away.

Nowadays, although they have caught a lot of fish using the method taught by Li Guoqiang, they still need a lot of salt, cooking oil and spices to turn these fish into delicacies on the dinner table.

Plus, they weren't sure whether they could catch so many fish next time, so she had to go back early to organize a meeting to discuss what to do next.

Seeing that Shang Xiuzhen had left just like that, Li Guoqiang had no intention of trying to keep her. He simply took the carp in his hand and put it in the clay jar in the corner of the yard. Then he went back to the shack and tried to tame the little sika deer.

After this period of continuous feeding and taming, the little elk no longer resists his touch and can even understand the commands to lie down and stand up.

This gave him a glimmer of hope for successful taming, and naturally he became more enthusiastic.

He planned to train the elk for another ten days or half a month, and after the Chinese New Year, he would put reins and a leash on the elk and try to let it pull the sled on the road, especially to let it see the villagers, to see if it would be easily frightened.

If not, it means he has successfully tamed it.

If so, he can also conduct targeted training based on the performance of the fawn.

The next day arrived in a blink of an eye.

Early in the morning, Xu Dani and Zhu Caixia looked at Li Guoqiang eagerly, hoping that he could take them to Xiaohewan to fish, as if they were addicted to fishing.

Qu Yinfeng and Xu Yuping were busy making clothes as usual.

As time was tight, they estimated that they could only make a new cotton-padded jacket and a new undershirt for Xu Dani and Zhu Caixia before the New Year, and then make a new cotton-padded jacket and a new undershirt for themselves and Li Guoqiang after the New Year.

Li Guoqiang had no objection to this at all.

Anyway, he doesn't need a new cotton-padded jacket to save face, nor does he have the obsession to wear new clothes in the New Year.

As long as we can live happily, that's enough.

Soon, he took Xu Dani and Zhu Caixia and set off, just like yesterday, to go fishing at Xiaohewan.

However, he didn't expect that as soon as he reached the village entrance, he met three or four villagers who were preparing to go fishing, and he immediately felt something was wrong.

When he pulled the sled to the river bend, he was suddenly startled by the huge crowd on the river.

Why are there so many people fishing all of a sudden?

Could it be that the villagers saw him, Xu Laosan, Shang Xiuzhen and others catching fish, so they all came to join in the fun?

Thinking of this possibility, he suddenly felt amused, and then he couldn't help but feel worried for these villagers.

You know, if you follow the method he taught, you have to sprinkle more than ten pounds of corn into the water before you catch any fish.

If you don't catch any fish, it's like throwing a small dollar into the water for nothing.

Moreover, even if you can catch some fish, you can only sell them for some money at most, but once the food is gone, it’s gone forever.

Now, he can only hope that the villagers will not get too carried away, otherwise they will be the ones who suffer.

Just as he was thinking about whether he should go to Xu Guangfu to talk about this matter and ask Xu Guangfu to warn the villagers, cheers suddenly broke out on the river in the distance, immediately attracting all the attention around.

(End of this chapter)