"Don't go fishing for now, let's talk about it in a few days."

Li Dazhuang finally made up his mind, but he decided to go to the city and talk to the leaders about it beforehand to avoid any trouble.

It may seem like a small matter, but if it were defined as theft of state property, it could be a real problem.

Li Dazhuang was a man who acted on his thoughts immediately. After saying only a few words, he turned and left, while constantly thinking to himself that this place could be put to good use. If it was done well, it could solve some of the village's food problem.

The town was not far from Daliu Village, only 3 li away. Li Dazhuang was nimble and soon arrived at the town government.

The town mayor was appointed from above. He was over 50 years old and a veteran revolutionary who had crossed the grasslands. His name was Wang Aiguo. He was upright and honest, and full of integrity.

"Captain Li, is there something you need today?"

Li Dazhuang scratched his head. Actually, Li Dazhuang was also a little afraid of the old revolutionary in front of him. He usually went to the town party secretary to talk to him, but obviously the town party secretary was not here.

"Mayor Wang, do you think it's stealing state property if a 5-year-old child goes fishing?"

Upon hearing Li Dazhuang's words, Mayor Wang was clearly taken aback. Who hadn't caught fish and shrimp when they were young? This was a difficult question to answer.

Does it count? It probably does, but no one would target a child, since too many children do this kind of thing. Just like your own grandson occasionally brings back a few bird eggs.

Although Mayor Wang was upright and incorruptible, he was also troubled by this question. What was most popular in this era? Holding large meetings! Whenever a problem couldn't be solved, a vote had to be taken, because things were still very chaotic at this time, and no one was willing to take responsibility and risks.

"This isn't up to me to decide; let's have a meeting to decide."

After Mayor Wang finished speaking, he did not let Li Dazhuang leave, but instead notified his secretary to hold a general meeting.

Such meetings are held frequently. Before long, the three of them—Women's Director Wang, Militia Captain Sun, and Town Party Secretary Dong—arrived at the town mayor's office.

Seeing that everyone had arrived, Mayor Wang spoke to Li Dazhuang.

"You tell us!"

Despite everyone in the village being afraid of Li Dazhuang, he was still timid and hesitant in front of the four leaders here.

"Well, here's the thing. There's a military family member in our village. He only has his wife and children left at home. They have three children, the oldest is 7 years old and the youngest is 5 years old. The youngest caught two small crucian carp. Does that count as stealing state property?"

As soon as Captain Li finished speaking, he received glares from everyone, including Mayor Wang. Mayor Wang was a former soldier and naturally sided with military families.

"Which family's kids don't catch fish and shrimp, or steal bird eggs or something?" the women's director chimed in, naturally siding with Wei Mo. It's already hard enough for a woman to raise three children.

“I think so too. If we’re going to count, I think we should just arrest all the children in the town. Almost none of them will be able to escape.”

Once someone spoke up, the militia captain echoed their sentiments.

Secretary Dong and Mayor Wang nodded in agreement, but Mayor Wang made the final decision.

"Then that's settled. Children under nine years old are too young to be caught fishing or shrimp catching, so it won't be considered stealing state property. Let's vote now. If you agree, I'll report it."

Everyone in the office raised their hands, and Mayor Wang nodded, thus settling the matter.

He picked up the town's only phone and reported to the county. The county head was also an old comrade-in-arms of Mayor Wang. After he finished speaking, Mayor Wang nodded, which meant it was approved.

Li Dazhuang breathed a sigh of relief. With this result, even if some petty people reported it, the town or even the county wouldn't say much. With this good news, he rushed back to the village.

With this authority, Li Dazhuang had already figured out how to solve a huge problem: gather all the children under nine years old and go fishing.

He was afraid that Wei Mo would disagree.

Li Dazhuang went straight to the dilapidated temple upon his return, and Wei Mo was shocked to hear the news.

"Uncle Li, does that mean I can do whatever I want with this?"

Seeing Captain Li nod, Wei Mo thought to himself that he was still at an advantage because he was young. If he were older, he would probably be arrested and taken to the town, where he would be locked up for at least a few days.

The brigade leader was also wholeheartedly devoted to the village, but when he saw the fishing line and hook Wei Mo was using, he still didn't say anything. These things looked very expensive and were probably imported.

The brigade leader left quickly, as he also needed to inform other people in the village so that families with young children could have a better meal. At that time, every family had several, or even more than a dozen, children.

The villagers were delighted to receive the news and went home to teach their children how to catch fish and shrimp. Occasionally, some older children would secretly join in. As long as the villagers didn't complain, the officials didn't investigate, and most of the villagers ate well throughout the summer.

While the brigade leader was in town, Wei Mo took his mother to check the traps. They had a good haul of seven birds, including two larger ones.

Every time Wei's mother saw the harvest, she would exclaim in surprise. Without Wei Mo having to explain where the clips came from, Wei's mother would instruct Wei Mo.

"Don't let anyone know about this clip. It's a little secret between you and Mom, okay?"

Wei Mo nodded, tugging at his mother's clothes.

"Mom, I want to eat bird for lunch, I want it roasted."

Wei's mother nodded, watching her son drooling with envy. She herself started to salivate as well. No wonder, the food cooked in the stove smelled so good. Wei's mother swallowed several mouthfuls of saliva.

Wang Zhenhua cut a lot of willow branches for Wei Mo, and Wei Mo had already finished weaving the basket, but he was still missing a carrying strap. Wei Mo sat on the ground and continued weaving the fish basket, while his mother used a knife to gut the fish.

"Mom, don't throw the fish away after they're in the water. I'll use them. Put them in the fish basket later so we can catch more fish."

Wang Zhenhua nodded in agreement. After cleaning the fish, she worried that the dried fish at home would be stolen, so she took the new basket that Wei Mo had woven for her and brought all the cleaned fish back with her.

The children were somewhat discouraged when they saw Wei's mother take the fish away, and Wei Mo shook his head when he saw this.

"Stop looking. From now until we pack up, whoever catches a fish keeps it."

The eyes of the Shan brothers, Tian Boguang, and Li Fu lit up. They began to focus even more intently on fishing.

Wei Mo, who had already woven four fish baskets, stopped what she was doing and gathered some weeds to weave straw hats for her two older sisters. The color wasn't very good, though, since dry grass was hard to find, and Wei Mo had only cut fresh grass, so the color was green.

If this happened in later generations, probably no one would take it, but in this era, since it's a child, who would care about those things, and there's no such thing as being cuckolded.

Wei Mo wove four straw hats, intending to make one for each member of his family, so that they could stay cool during the hot summer.

It has to be said that there are quite a few turtles around here. My older sister caught two this morning, but Wei Mo took them back immediately.

With 120 yuan in his pocket, Wei Mo was overjoyed. Was this just a case of "the water is shallow and there are many turtles"?