Hunting 81: Gathering Goods in the Mountains, I Spoil My Ex-Wife to the Extreme

"mother!"

"grandmother!"

As soon as they arrived at Li Yunshi's house, before they even entered the yard, Li Yunshan called out to the house, and Dou Dou followed suit, calling for her grandmother.

In his past life, he was idle and caused his mother a lot of worry.

But he was oblivious and disappointing at the time, unable to appreciate his mother's good intentions.

When he finally turned over a new leaf and vowed to make something of himself, his mother had already passed away. Looking back, he realized that he had never been able to fulfill his filial duties to his mother.

But now it's the dead of winter, a time for hibernation, and there's not much to do, so he takes DouDou to his older brother's house every few days, saying that DouDou misses his grandmother, but isn't it really him, as her son, wanting to stay by his mother's side a little longer, to spend more time with her, to make up for the regret of not being able to fulfill his filial duties to his mother in his previous life?

"Oh, Grandma's sweet granddaughter is here! Come to Grandma, Grandma will give you some White Rabbit milk candy."

Huang Zhifang's voice came from the main room.

"grandmother."

DouDou got out of Li Yunshan's arms and ran inside.

Soon, the main room was filled with Dou Dou's silvery laughter and Huang Zhifang's kind and gentle laughter.

"Mother, I bought you a piece of pork belly." Li Yunshan carried the pork belly into the main room.

"Oh, Uncle, you're just dropping by. Why did you bring meat? We have plenty at home."

Upon hearing the words "pork belly," Wang Xiaolian popped out of the house and enthusiastically took the pork belly from Li Yunshan's hands.

Seeing how mercenary his sister-in-law was, Li Yunshan didn't care much. As long as she didn't mistreat his mother and could live a good life with his older brother, that was fine.

Of course, based on his understanding of his elder brother, if his sister-in-law dared to treat their mother badly, she would definitely suffer the consequences.

"Sister-in-law, make braised pork for Mom. Remember to stew it until it's very tender and not sticky."

Li Yunshan gave him a word of advice.

"Okay, I know." Wang Xiaolian replied.

As soon as she picked up the piece of pork belly, she knew it weighed about three pounds, enough to feed her family for several meals.

Just then, my two teenage boys were craving it, and this pork belly came at the perfect time.

Inside the main room, Huang Zhifang was playing with Dou Dou when Li Yunshi returned from outside.

Upon seeing Li Yunshan, Li Yunshi was also surprised: "Third brother, so early."

"Brother, there's someone selling pork at the village entrance. I bought a piece of pork belly and asked my sister-in-law to make braised pork for Mom to enjoy." Li Yunshan smiled.

Seeing Li Yunshi go inside and come out with an ice pick and a net, Li Yunshan asked curiously, "Brother, are you going to break the ice?"

"I've been resting these past two days, and I was bored at home, so I made plans with Uncle Zhou and Brother Zhang to go to the river and try to dig a few holes in the ice to see if we could catch any fish," Li Yunshi said with a smile.

"Break holes in the ice to catch fish? I'll go too."

Li Yunshan immediately perked up and turned to Huang Zhifang, saying, "Mother, my older brother and I are going to break a hole in the ice to catch fish. Please look after Dou Dou for us."

"Go ahead, I'll look after DouDou, nothing will happen."

Huang Zhifang smiled and waved to him.

Li Yunshi took his ice pick and net and set off with Li Yunshan.

The place they were going to was called Xiaoqing River, which originated in a small town dozens of miles away. Along the way, it was formed by the convergence of many streams and tributaries, creating the Xiaoqing River, which is more than twenty meters wide.

The Xiaoqing River flows through Xiangyang Commune, passing through several villages including Guapigou Village. It is an important water source for the villages along the way, and a large part of the water for farming and irrigation comes from here every spring.

In spring and summer, the banks of the river are covered with vegetation, but now in the dead of winter, the banks are bare, presenting a desolate scene.

When Li Yunshan and Li Yunshi arrived at the riverbank, Uncle Zhou and Brother Zhang San had already been waiting there for a while, but since Li Yunshi hadn't arrived, they continued to wait by the river.

Seeing Li Yunshi, Uncle Zhou and Brother Zhang were filled with envy.

Originally, Li Yunshi was just like them, a hunter in the village. He farmed during the week and went into the mountains to hunt when he had time to earn money to supplement his family's income.

But now, Li Yunshi has a secure job and has become an employee of the Hongxing Forest Farm.

But what can they do when someone has a great younger brother? That's something they can only envy.

However, even after Li Yunshi became a forestry worker with a secure job, he still treated people the same way he always had.

"Uncle Zhou, Brother Zhang, I've come to see what's going on."

Li Yunshan greeted him with a smile.

"You've come at the right time. Many hands make light work. You'll have to lend a hand when we're chiseling the ice hole later."

Zhang Sange said with a smile.

Li Yunshan offered a cigarette to Uncle Zhou and Brother Zhang San, then lit one for them with a match before lighting one for himself.

He wasn't a heavy smoker and didn't smoke much normally, but seeing Uncle Zhou and Brother Zhang there, he offered them cigarettes out of consideration for social interaction, and he smoked one too.

"Smoking this Daqianmen cigarette is so much more comfortable than our newspaper cigarettes."

Uncle Zhou took a deep breath, exhaled a puff of smoke, and said with a hint of reminiscence.

After finishing their cigarettes, the four of them went down to the river.

It was freezing cold, and the river was covered with a thick layer of ice, so even big people like them could walk steadily on it.

They tied a piece of cloth to their feet to increase the friction of their shoes before stepping onto the frozen river.

"Ouch."

But after walking only a few steps, Brother Zhang slipped and fell on his backside.

Li Yunshan quickly helped him up.

Based on his experience, Uncle Zhou found a spot: "I think there should be fish around here. If we dig a hole in the ice, we're sure to have a good catch."

Li Yunshi picked up the ice pick and began to chisel.

Chiseling holes in the ice isn't a particularly technical task; anyone with strength can do it.

Li Yunshi picked up an ice pick and began chiseling at the frozen river surface, while Uncle Zhou stood by with a shovel, shoveling the broken ice aside.

After chiseling for about twenty minutes, Li Yunshi got tired and Zhang Sange took over.

After about five minutes of chiseling, Brother Zhang managed to create a small hole in the frozen river, through which the river water surged up.

Li Yunshan used a net to scoop up the ice shards floating on the surface of the water.

But the notch wasn't big enough, so Zhang Sange continued chiseling.

Li Yunshan scooped up all the broken ice with a net and threw it aside.

After about twenty minutes, an ice hole about half a meter in diameter and fifty centimeters deep was completed.

Zhang Sange was so exhausted that steam was rising from his head.

Looking at the ice hole, Li Yunshan felt that productivity in the early 1980s was really backward.

If it were thirty or forty years from now, chiseling an ice hole wouldn't require such a complicated and laborious process. You could just buy an ice chisel, install a rotary drill bit, plug in the power cord, and start chiseling away.

Those who drill quickly can chisel out a dozen or twenty ice holes in an hour.

However, although they successfully carved out a hole in the ice, no one rushed to lower the net.

In the dead of winter, the entire Xiaoqing River is frozen over, and the fish in the river are lacking oxygen. Now there is a hole in the ice, and the fish in the water will come to it on their own, but it will take some time.

While waiting for the fish to come looking for him, Li Yunshan offered cigarettes to his elder brother, Uncle Zhou, and Brother Zhang San.

After lighting a cigarette, the eldest brother took a deep drag, and the smell of the smoke helped alleviate everyone's fatigue.

After resting for a while, Li Yunshan picked up the landing net and tiptoed toward the ice hole to see if any fish were already surfacing to breathe fresh air.

And sure enough, when he looked, he saw fish floating on the surface of the ice hole.

Seeing this, Li Yunshan gripped the net tightly with both hands, plunged it into the water, stirred it vigorously, and then pulled the net up.

With this pull, he felt the net was quite heavy, and he could even feel the fish struggling in the net, the force of which traveled through the net and the rod to his palm.

With a sudden burst of strength, he lifted the net up.

Just as he lifted the net up, a large carp weighing several kilograms jumped out of it and landed on the ice with a "plop," where it hopped and jumped around.

Just as the big carp was about to jump back into the ice hole, Li Yunshan kicked it aside.

Seeing this, Brother Zhang quickly grabbed a wooden stick and struck the big carp on the head.

With that blow, the big carp finally calmed down.

Li Yunshan emptied the remaining fish from the net: three or four crucian carp, small carp, some willow root fish, and a catfish.

"This haul has been quite substantial."

Zhang Sange couldn't help but grin.

This can be considered a good start.

"If we dig two more holes in the ice, we can take turns catching fish."

Seeing so many fish caught in the first net, Uncle Zhou was full of energy.

After Uncle Zhou and the others left, Li Yunshan rubbed his hands together, took a net, and squatted on the ice. When he saw fish floating to the surface in the ice holes, he would scoop them up with the net.

In less than half an hour, more than a dozen crucian carp, three or four carp, two catfish, and a silver carp weighing seven or eight pounds appeared on the ice.

In addition, there are many small, miscellaneous fish, each about the thickness of one or two fingers.

Li Yunshan loved eating fish in his past life. Seeing so many fish caught, he had already figured out how to eat them.

Carp is braised, crucian carp is stewed in soup, catfish is steamed, and the big silver carp is stewed in a large pot.

Fry those small, miscellaneous fish in lard until golden brown on both sides, sprinkle with plenty of salt, and they're perfect as a snack with drinks.

"Third brother, come over here quickly."

At that moment, Li Yunshi shouted from not far away.

"Okay, wait a minute."

Li Yunshan quickly picked up all the fish on the ice and put them in a sack, then went to the newly drilled ice hole to scoop up more fish.

"Wow, you caught so many fish."

Brother Zhang opened the sack of fish and grinned from ear to ear when he saw how many fish were inside.

"Absolutely! There are plenty of big carp, catfish, silver carp, crucian carp, and willow root fish. I've already figured out how to cook them."

Li Yunshan smiled, picked up the net, and fished it out of the newly dug ice hole.