1983Fishing and Farming between Mountains and Seas

Chapter 250: Shirtless Fighting for a Future
After picking this black fish, I have to pack up and go back.

The four people got on the boat, put away all the fishing gear and today's catch, and started to sail back to shore.

When they returned to the village dock and were about to carry the sea bream to sell, Liang Ziqiang reminded his father:

"Dad, pick out your spotted sea bream and put it in a basin for later use. I'll take this to a restaurant in the city and sell it to you. The price is higher than here in Zheng Liu!"

Among the few people, Liang Ziqiang was the only one who caught several grouper sea breams, and Liang's father also caught one before the rope was bitten off.

Liang Ziqiang decided to take his own fish and one of his father's spotted sea bream to Yuehai Restaurant to sell them. The price would definitely be higher.

Of course, he went to the Moon Sea not just for a few spotted sea breams, but also for something even rarer: two black hairs.

Treasures like Heimao can never be sold to Zheng Liu. The rarer the item, the more of a mystery its price is to him.

Turning around, Liang Ziqiang saw Zhu Tianpeng already packing up and preparing to return to Xiaolang Village. He was surprised and said:

"Where's that bucket of fish you caught? Why don't you sell it to Zheng Liu first?"

Zhu Tianpeng's expression turned out to be even more surprised than his:

"I caught those for you! You can sell them later and pay me tomorrow."

Liang Ziqiang stuffed the bucket into his hands:
"Where does the money come from? Today, a few people are going fishing together. Whoever catches the fish gets it and sells it themselves!"

Zhu Tianpeng was confused for a moment: "How can that be done?"

Liang Ziqiang ignored him and took him to the purchasing point.

In fact, when Li Liang asked Deng Zhaocai to help him, sometimes they would go fishing or sea angling, and the fish caught from the sea angling and sea fishing always belonged to Deng Zhaocai himself.

After all, in addition to working together as helpers, the two parties are also friends.

Zhu Tianpeng's current situation is actually very similar to Deng Zhaocai's. Liang Ziqiang will certainly be like Li Liang, and all the catches from seabed diving and fishing will belong to Zhu Tianpeng himself.

When they arrived at the purchasing point, Zheng Liu saw them carrying buckets and asked curiously:

"There are so few people today. Didn't we encounter the spring flood?"

Liang's father replied: "It's not easy to encounter spring floods every day. You are the only one in the village who can pick up money every day. Just sit here and make money!"

"Well, I'm sitting here serving you and earning some service fees," Zheng Liu said as he walked forward to weigh the fish.

But when he saw what was in the bucket, his eyes bulged: "Black porgy, no, there are also cow dung porgy, and there are also quite a few Bao Gong fish?!"

He quickly said to Deng Fei, "Separate them out quickly and weigh each type of sea bream separately. They may not look like a lot, but each one is more valuable than the other!"

The fish was weighed first for Liang's father, and then for Liang Tiancheng.

When it was Liang Ziqiang's turn, Deng Fei exclaimed: "You have more Bao Gong fish than them!"

Start weighing him one by one.

Liang Ziqiang's hands were tired from fishing today. He caught at least a hundred fish in total.

Zheng Liu asked Deng Fei to weigh the Bao Gong fish for him first.

It turned out that there were two types of Bao Gong fish, real and fake, so they were separated again.

There are six fake Bao Gong, also known as the flowertail mullet.

"Six pepper sea breams, a total of four pounds and five ounces. One dollar and fifty cents is the highest I can give you. Let me calculate it for you. It's six dollars and seventy-five cents!" Zheng Liu looked at the scale, fiddled with the beads quickly, and reported a number. Another waiter next to him quickly wrote it down on a piece of paper.

The fake Bao Gong, which cost 1.5 yuan, was basically in line with expectations, so Liang Ziqiang didn't waste his breath on him this time.

"There are twelve real Bao Gong sea breams, weighing nine catties and six ounces. This is more expensive than the pepper sea bream, so I'll give you two yuan per catty, which comes out to twenty-one yuan and twenty cents!"

"Why are there only so many black wives? Three pounds and one ounce, this one costs 1.5 yuan, which works out to 4.65 yuan!"

"There are only a few red snappers, three pounds and a half ounces, and one pound for $3.50, which is exactly $3.50!"

"The yellow-legged lily weighs eight pounds and seven ounces, and this one is also one dollar, eight dollars and seventy cents!"

"There are a lot of bull dung breams, more than twenty of them! Seventeen pounds and nine ounces, one dollar and two cents, that's twenty-one dollars and forty-eight cents!"

"The rest are all black porgy and flathead porgy. Weigh the flathead porgy first. There are more than 40 flathead porgy, weighing 29 kilograms. That's only 0.40 cents per kilogram, which is 11.60 yuan!"

"More than thirty black porgy, 27.6 jin, 60 cents per jin, 16.56 yuan!"

Seven or eight kinds of sea bream, plus one kind of black carp which is not a sea bream, the total cost is ninety-two dollars and forty-four cents.

"You only caught a few hundred fish, but your income is equivalent to catching several hundred kilograms of fish!"

Zheng Liu sighed as he counted the money.

I paid the bill for him, also known as Zhu Tianpeng.

Zhu Tianpeng does not have as many cow dung sea bream as he does, nor does he have as many of the most valuable Bao Gong fish as he does. However, he does have quite a few flat sea bream and black sea bream, even more than Liang Ziqiang.

After all the calculations, the income is over sixty thousand.

Liang's father got close to eighty yuan, while Liang Tiancheng and Zhu Tianpeng got about the same, close to seventy.

After receiving the money, Zhu Tianpeng looked at the sixty-plus yuan bill in his hand and was still a little unconvinced. After leaving the purchasing point, he pulled Liang Ziqiang aside:

"How about this, you give me half of it. I'm using your boat, so I should at least pay for the diesel, right? Oh, and I'll also destroy your two fishing rods!"

Liang Ziqiang didn't answer him: "You can get a new fishing rod. You can use it for fishing in the future anyway!"

To be honest, Zhu Tianpeng took a leave from the brick kiln and came all the way to build a house for him, but he has never paid Apeng a penny!
If someone truly regards him as a friend, Liang Ziqiang will certainly treat the other person sincerely in the same way.

The others had sold their catch, but Liang Ziqiang hadn't yet. He returned to his boat, picked up the valuable grouper and blackfish in the bucket, and then went home.

On the way, Liang Tiancheng also expressed his gratitude:
"I really owe this income today to Aqiang! If Aqiang hadn't asked my dad and I to raise shrimp together, we wouldn't have gone to such a remote place to find an island, and we wouldn't have come across so many bull dung bream and baogong fish!"

Liang's father said, "By the way, we have to go to the shrimp pond to feed the shrimps. Ah Cheng, you should also pay attention and learn more about shrimp farming from the second brother. Even if you can't master fishing at sea, you can still make money by learning shrimp farming. There must be a way for the family in the future, right?"

As they talked, they started to criticize Liang Tiancheng.

Liang Tiancheng didn't care. He was not very proficient in fishing, and it was not uncommon for him to be scolded by his old father. He was usually scolded every day on the boat...

After returning home, Liang Ziqiang kept the bucket containing black-haired fish and grouper at home, and raised the fish in it with seawater.

He turned around and was about to go to the shrimp pond, but quickly took two steps back and said hello to his wife:
"There are a few fish in Xiangbei's bucket. I didn't save them for dinner. You and mom should not kill the fish later. They are too expensive!"

This call must be made. No matter how delicious black-haired fish is, or how much you need to supplement nutrition during pregnancy, you dare not set your sights on black-haired fish. Every bite you eat is money!

"Okay, I'll tell mom later. Oh, and I'll put you somewhere else, somewhere higher, so Duobao doesn't see you and eat you!"

Chen Xiangbei agreed, put down the work in her hands, and really got up to clean up the bucket.

Duobao stood up from the ground, with a look of bewilderment on his face:
Am I such an ignorant dog? When have I ever eaten half a fish at home?

"Come back early for dinner!" His wife turned her head and reminded him while cleaning up the bucket.

"I'll feed the shrimp and be back!"

Liang Ziqiang took a hand net, a shoulder pole and an empty bucket and headed east of the village.

After walking a few steps, his father came over with the same business. The father and son took advantage of the light before it got dark and walked quickly towards the east of the village.

When we got there, Liang Tiancheng was already there.

The three of them went to the abandoned fields to catch Artemia, and the amount they caught was all in accordance with Liang Ziqiang's suggestions.

Then they returned to the shrimp pond together and fed Artemia into their respective broodstock ponds.

After returning from the sea, I rushed to take care of the shrimp pond. Although I was usually so busy that I couldn't stop, when I thought about the considerable income today and the more continuous income after the shrimps were raised, I was still in a good mood.

The father and his two sons were almost done when they heard a barking sound. It turned out that Duobao had run to the shrimp pond in the east of the village. He was sent here to ask them to go back for dinner.

After packing up, they headed home along the dirt road in the twilight. Along the way, Liang Ziqiang was already thinking about tomorrow's plan.

According to preliminary estimates, tomorrow is likely to be another sunny day with a high temperature.

If this is the case, Longjuling is definitely not an option. Tomorrow, we can continue to go to Niushi Island like we did today and go fishing for porgy with my father and brother. If we are lucky, we might even catch some blackfish.

When we have collected a few black-haired fish, we will take them to the city to find Du Ziteng to sell them. This way we can save an extra trip. Anyway, it is no problem to raise them in seawater for two or three days.

If it is a cloudy day, it is a good time to go to Longjuling to collect the nets. This time the floating gill net has been fixed in the strait for two days, and it should have caught a lot of spring fish.

Whether going to Niushi Island to fish for black hair or going to Longjuling to collect large amounts of barbed fish, both things are very exciting.

What Liang Ziqiang didn't expect was that both of his ideas were wrong. In the middle of the night, it suddenly started to rain heavily, and it didn't stop until dawn.

Niushi Island and Longjuling were both gone. Liang Ziqiang lifted the curtain to look at the heavy rain outside, then lay back on the bed.

He hadn't rested for the past few days and was quite tired. This was God's initiative to let him rest for a day.

He lay back on the bed with nothing to do, so he hugged his wife and started rubbing her belly with his hands.

His wife glared at her and said, "Normally when he kicked me, you didn't come to touch me. Now he's just sleeping, why are you bothering him?!"

As soon as I finished speaking, my belly began to tremble.

Not only could his hands feel it, but even his eyes could see his belly bulge.

His wife was delighted: "You woke up, and I came to greet you early in the morning!"

He put his face close to it, trying to listen for any movement. His stomach moved from time to time, as if it could sense his breath.

Liang Ziqiang felt it for a while and judged: "This kid has a regular schedule. He knows to go to bed early and get up early. He has had good habits since he was a child!"

"You're such a good talker!" Chen Xiangbei curled her lips, but she couldn't hide the smile in the corner of her eyes.

I couldn't go anywhere in the morning, so I had to continue piercing the half-finished sea bass.

After lunch, the rain stopped and the sea became calm again. But at this point, it was not suitable to go out to sea anywhere.

Liang Ziqiang thought about it and decided that he could go to the middle school in the county town in the remaining afternoon. Yesterday, he had planned to take some time to visit Liang Zifeng, but now it was better to do it now.

If you go there by boat, an afternoon will be enough for a round trip.

He told Chen Xiangbei his idea and planned to take a few dozen dollars from the box.

The money at the bottom of the box, plus the money I brought back the day before yesterday, totaled fifteen hundred, plus the ninety or so I earned from selling the sea bream yesterday, totaling sixteen hundred.

After taking out a few dozen dollars, the sum was back to over 1,500.

Chen Xiangbei had been supportive of Liang Zifeng's application for schooling from the very beginning, and now she naturally had no objection to helping Liang's father pay part of the money.

Since his elder brother had said yesterday that if he went to the county town, he should also call him, so Liang Ziqiang went to call Liang Tiancheng.

Ah Cheng had nothing to do in the afternoon, so the two of them went to the beach together and took Liang Ziqiang's boat to the county town.

After mooring the boat at the bay near the county town, the two men went ashore and headed towards the location of the high school.

Since Liang Zifeng wrote down the address of his rental and left it at home, the two of them found it in no time by following the address on the paper.

When I arrived at this quiet house, I didn't see anyone yet, but I saw a wire tied between two palm trees in front of the house, with two shirts hanging on the wire.

The door was half-open, and when they looked through the crack, they saw Ah Feng, but he looked strange.

Liang Zifeng, who usually rarely goes out shirtless even in the hottest weather at home, was now shirtless, with his head down, concentrating on doing his homework at the table.

The weather was not hot after the rain. Liang Zifeng even seemed a little cold. He put down his pen from time to time and subconsciously hugged his shoulders and arms, but he had no intention of putting on clothes and just continued to do the questions.

"Afeng! Aren't you cold?" Liang Tiancheng also saw the scene inside the house and shouted loudly.

Liang Zifeng was startled, stood up from the table, and instinctively went to the bed to look for clothes. After searching for a while, he seemed to realize something and came over with his upper body naked to open the door.

"Brother, why are you here today?" Liang Zifeng hugged his arms twice while speaking, as if to ease the embarrassment, or as if it was really because it was cold.

"I came to the county town to buy things, and I found myself here to see you. Why are you not wearing a shirt? Do you think of ideas faster when you're doing the questions naked?" Liang Ziqiang said as he entered the house.

"..." Liang Zifeng was silent for a moment, "It was raining heavily this morning, and there was an important class in school that morning. I didn't want to miss the opportunity, so I ran to the window to listen. On the way back, the rain got heavier, and my umbrella fell over. I was soaked through. I rubbed my wet clothes when I got back to the house, and put them outside on the wire to dry in the afternoon sun!"

"You have more than one shirt, right? Can't you change into another one?" The eldest brother Liang Tiancheng didn't know what to say to him.

"I brought both pieces from home. One was just washed last night and is not dry yet, and the other one was soaked today!" Liang Zifeng explained, pointing to the wire outside the house.

The two glanced at the two pieces of clothing on the wire again, and now they finally understood what was going on.

There were two small stools in the room. They sat down and asked Zifeng, "You should have had lunch a long time ago, right?"

As he was talking, he saw half a steamed bun left in the big bowl on the table.

Liang Ziqiang pouted and said, "You didn't eat this for lunch? There must be something in the restaurant nearby. Did you run out of money?"

Liang Zifeng waved his hands anxiously and said, "I really do have some money. I attended that class this morning and I was in a hurry to digest it as soon as I came back, so I didn't go to the restaurant. It just so happened that I bought too many steamed buns in the morning, and I was full after eating them at noon!"

Looking at his elder and second brothers, he chuckled and said, "Not every family in the village can afford steamed buns. This is a good thing. I like it very much! Oh, are my parents all right at home? Have they started fishing in the sea for the spring season?"

The two briefly talked about their family situations, and Liang Ziqiang asked, "Do you think you can understand all the things in the high school textbooks?"

"There were many things I didn't understand before, but I have finally understood them here. There are still more than two months left, and I feel like I should be almost there!" When talking about learning things, Liang Zifeng's eyes flashed with excitement.

This was the first time Liang Ziqiang had seen someone shirtless and full of confidence.

The three chatted for a while, and Liang Ziqiang said, "You two can chat for a while. I'll be back soon."

There were shops not too far from the middle school, so Liang Ziqiang went to the street and found a clothing store.

Unlike the tailor shop in town, the clothing shop sells ready-made clothes.

Liang Ziqiang went in and took a look. The style was hard to describe. They were all uniform, like a large number of work uniforms, and the colors were either gray, blue or black.

But in this era, it doesn't matter, as long as you have neat clothes to wear. He bought a set of clothes and pants based on his brother Liang Zifeng's height.

Without staying, he immediately returned to Liang Zifeng's residence.

"Brother, why are you buying clothes? No need, my clothes will dry after hanging them out to dry!"

Liang Zifeng kept muttering to himself, but Liang Ziqiang pulled him over and forced him to put on his clothes.

The two of them didn't stay too long, and told him to get enough rest, keep up his strength for the exam, and eat on time.

Before leaving, they both took out some money and stuffed it into Liang Zifeng's hands. Liang Zifeng kept dodging: "I still have money, my mother gave me some, and I still have some on me..."

Without saying anything, the two of them stuffed the clothes he had just bought into the pockets, one in each pocket.

Liang Ziqiang gave fifty yuan. He didn't know how much his elder brother gave, and he didn't bother to look.

In the county town, Liang Tiancheng bought some steel wire and slightly larger fishing hooks specifically for dealing with spotted sea bream.

Last time, Liang Tiancheng and Liang's father's fishing lines were all bitten off, so they had to replace them with new ones.

Liang Ziqiang also bought some steel wire for fishing and kept it at home as a backup.

When they got home, it started to drizzle again. Fortunately, it didn't rain on the way, so neither of them got wet.

The rain stopped the next day, but the sky was still overcast and the temperature was much lower than the previous few days, which felt like a late spring cold snap.

It was a rare day with such low temperatures and no waves, so Liang Ziqiang called Li Liang, and several people drove the boat to Longjuling again.

It took three days from the time the floating barbed net was placed to the time it was collected today. Liang Ziqiang didn't know what would happen to him this time...

Two chapters are combined into one, a 5,000-word chapter. This is the only chapter to be published this morning. Happy reading, fellow readers!
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(End of this chapter)