Seeing that the middle of the fishing net had been stretched far back by the fish, Li Xiangdong and the others stopped and worked together to lift the bottom of the net upwards.

"Splash!" The sound of water rang out, and a bunch of small, white and black fish appeared in the center of the net.

"So many fish! Second Brother, you guys are amazing!" Li Ping, standing on the shore, jumped up and down in cheers!

Li Zhen and Ning Ruoruo both had joyful expressions on their faces.

This is the joy of harvest! This joy of harvest from nature makes people feel happy from the inside out!

Several people put two bamboo poles together, trapping the fish in the net. Five people then pulled the bamboo poles together and walked towards the shore. When they were almost on the shore, they lifted the bamboo poles, and the water receded, releasing the fish!

"Xiao Wu, quickly bring the gourd ladle over!" Li Jiabao ordered Li Ping like a victorious little general.

Li Ping ran over excitedly with a gourd ladle in hand, scolding Li Jiabao, "Call me Fifth Sister! If you call me Little Fifth again, I'll break your head!"

Li Zhen also brought over the bucket.

"Wow! There's a huge carp! It must weigh at least five pounds!" Li Xiangjie exclaimed.

A two-foot-long black-backed, white-bellied carp was seen wagging its tail among a group of small fish. Li Xiangdong reached out and grabbed the carp. "Hey!" With a forceful throw, he tossed it into the bucket.

Guo Yuxi took the ladle from Li Ping's hand and poured it in. The ladle was full of lively little fish, including grass carp, whitebait, minnows, palm-sized crucian carp, silver carp, transparent shrimp the size of a little finger, and even many water scorpions!

Li Xiangdong felt extremely satisfied!

This kind of exhilaration is not the kind of exhilaration that comes from making money, but the joy of overcoming a challenge. People enter a cycle of "challenge, gain, challenge again, gain again" and this joy is accumulated. This may be due to the subtle influence of the ancient hunting genes of humankind.

"Second brother, what's this? It looks weird," Li Guoqing asked, pointing to a dark brown insect.

This insect has a long belly, six legs, and two bulging eyes.

“Yes, it’s kind of scary,” Li Xiangjie said.

"You bunch of idiots, this is a good thing!"

Li Xiangdong grabbed one, wow! It was quite ferocious, swallowing a small shrimp in no time!

"This is called a naiad, also known as a water scorpion, and it is the larva of a burrowing worm," Li Xiangdong explained.

"Maleng" is the local name for dragonflies in Huichuan County.

"Really? Really? Let me see!" Guo Yuxi and the others crowded around to look at the strange insect. Could it have grown into a dragonfly?

Li Xiangdong hadn't eaten water scorpions in a long time. When he was a child, nobody ate them. Later, people discovered that water scorpions were especially fragrant when fried in oil and were a high-protein food, so they started to catch them in large quantities. As a result, they became increasingly scarce and expensive.

Several people passed around the water scorpion, still unable to believe that it could taste good.

“Now that we’re short on oil and salt, what can taste good? This thing is like a cicada nymph. Just fry it in oil, sprinkle some salt on it, and it’s juicy and crunchy in your mouth. It’s so delicious.” Li Xiangdong described to everyone, thinking about the fried water scorpions he ate in his previous life.

"I want to eat it too!"

"Me too!"

But we don't have any oil!

After the initial excitement comes the frustration of facing reality.

This is indeed a particularly thorny problem. Nowadays, each household only has two or three catties of oil per year. If there isn't enough oil, they can only hope that the pork they buy can be used to make some lard. But where can they find so much pork?

Therefore, oil and sugar are precious commodities in rural areas.

Li Xiangdong was really fed up with the bland and unsalted food; he wished the oil problem could be solved.

But now the production brigade doesn't grow peanuts, sunflower seeds, rapeseed, or other crops, so they can't press oil themselves...

Hey!

It seems like I have a solution!

I used to see people pressing oil from wheatgrass seeds when I was scrolling through short videos on Douyin (TikTok), but now there's wheatgrass everywhere!

As the wheat ripens, the wormwood gradually turns yellow, and its long seed pods are filled with wormwood seeds smaller than sesame seeds. If enough wormwood seeds are collected, can't oil be extracted from them?

Li Xiangdong got excited and immediately called over his friends who were preparing to go down into the river to catch fish again, "Now there's a chance to make a fortune, I wonder if you guys want to do it?"

"Of course! Jin Chanyi has almost been captured by now." After Zhao Xiaojun finished speaking, the others echoed his words.

The number of cicada shells is decreasing as cicadas are caught, and the money earned is also decreasing.

“Go and collect wheatgrass seeds, dried wheatgrass seeds, without any impurities, one cent a pound, I’ll buy them!” Li Xiangdong said.

"The wormwood in the wheat field? What do you need the seeds of this weed for?" Zhao Xiaojun asked curiously.

"Don't worry about that. I'll tell you what it can be used for after I finish the experiment. Also, let me tell you a little trick. Don't just go and cut wheatgrass and harvest the seeds yourself. You can tell other people that you can buy theirs for five cents a pound. That way, you can make more money easily."

Li Xiangdong wanted to cultivate his friends' business acumen.

Li Xiangjie was quick-witted. "Can we not limit ourselves to our village? If we can collect it in every village, we can quickly collect a large amount of wheatgrass seeds."

"This is a good idea, but second brother, can you really afford to take so much? Won't you lose money in the end?" Li Guoqing asked worriedly.

A warm feeling washed over Li Xiangdong. His brother was truly exceptional, having shown him unwavering sincerity in both past and present lives.

Li Guoqing's past life was far from happy. His wife was a ruthless woman who constantly drained their small family to support her younger brother. When Guoqing's son was seven, Guoqing went on a business trip while his wife went to her brother's house to help look after the child, leaving Guoqing's son alone at home. The child was starving and had no food. His mother had locked him in the room, so he turned on the gas stove to cook. What did a seven-year-old know? After cooking, he left the gas stove on, and the child was gone. Later, Guoqing divorced and never remarried.

My dear reader, there's more to this chapter! Please click the next page to continue reading—even more exciting content awaits!