“Apart from the busy farming season, the members of the brigade just dawdle at work every day and don’t take the brigade’s sideline business seriously at all.”

After the three of us educated youth arrived, the brigade cadres saw that we were able to finish work early every day and hand in a lot of medicinal herbs. They calculated the money we received over a month and probably understood what was going on. A couple of days ago, when the money was distributed, the brigade leader even specifically mentioned it at a meeting.”

"How much did you receive, and how much did those two educated youth receive?"

"After deducting the 10% that the brigade kept, my sister received 126.35 yuan and 22 receipts. As for how much Chen Enpeng and the other two received, I don't know the exact amount, but after some back and forth, I figured they each got at least half of what I received."

"That's quite a lot. If you calculate it that way, it's about 30 yuan a month, which is better than what a newly employed, regular worker earns."

"There won't be as many next year. Everyone knows about this year, and they will definitely join in. At that time, there won't be enough common medicinal herbs by the roadside for everyone to grab. As for going up the mountain, everyone will only dare to stay on the outskirts."

I roughly estimated that from the beginning of spring until the heavy snow closes the mountain passes, it would be at least half a year. An adult would need to earn at least a hundred or two hundred yuan in that time.”

That's still quite a lot.

"Mianmian, we don't lack money, but we can't let her go deep into the mountains," the older brother said worriedly.

"Don't worry, brother. Even in the middle area, let alone the outer perimeter, there are many medicinal herbs that most people don't recognize. Besides, the brigade only accepts the most basic ones. They would like to accept the others, but they're afraid of something going wrong. The brigade cadres just want to play it safe. So they've taken some of the more valuable herbs to the county town themselves."

"That's good, but we can't sell too many at once, or we'll attract attention, you know?"

"Don't worry, brother and sister know what they're doing."

"That's good"

"Brother, we don't have any fresh fish at home. How about we use salted fish for the New Year?"

"How do other families do it?" the older brother asked.

"My sister really knows! We went to exchange meat on the 27th, didn't we? I saw someone put fish in the snowdrift in their yard at one of the houses, but I only saw the fish tails. However, I'm sure that family hasn't been far from home in the last few days."

"Then it couldn't have been a gift from someone else."

"Brother, how could that be? Who would come out in this cold weather? Besides, the other day at the wedding of Seventh Grandfather Gu Zhengyu, who is your comrade-in-arms, there were fish on the table, and they weren't small either. Do you know where they got them?"

Where did you get this?

"Those guys smashed the ice hole late at night."

Will this work?

"It should be possible, otherwise they wouldn't be able to invite the whole village to dinner, and every table would have fish."

"Then let's give it a try. That way, if there's any leftover, you can freeze it and eat it slowly. Otherwise, after working for half a year straight, if you don't take advantage of the off-season to nourish your body, it won't be able to take it."

"Alright, if there's too much, you can give it to Uncle Shen and Aunt Zhou later."

We'll see.

When are we going?

"How about tomorrow night? I'll go out and see where's suitable first thing tomorrow morning."

"Okay, should we call the two of them too?"

"Invite them along, otherwise if you keep cooking fish every day, they'll start to have doubts even if they don't say anything."

"OK"

So, in order to have fish to eat on New Year's Eve, we wrapped ourselves up like bears on the night of the 29th and set off to the place our eldest brother had chosen. We used everything we could to break the ice hole, and finally we did. We quickly put the ice hole in our baskets.

I originally planned to use a fishing net, but my older brother said, "Keep this for yourself and use it secretly. It'll be convenient when you want to eat fish. Otherwise, who knows who it'll end up with and spoil."

"Okay, so what should we use?"

"A basket will do; just put a rope on it beforehand, and it should work."

"That's good"

Chen Enpeng and Chen Junjie didn't say anything, they just followed along. They knew that following them would definitely bring them benefits, and besides, there was Brother Mianmian there, still in his military uniform, who certainly wouldn't betray them.

So, we worked from midnight to 2 a.m. and pulled out over 200 pounds of fish! And the fish froze almost immediately after being brought ashore, thankfully we had brought nylon bags with us. The biggest one weighed nearly 20 pounds.

"It's getting late, let's hurry back. Leave the fish with Mianmian for now, we'll divide them tomorrow morning."

“Okay, no problem, Brother Shen.” Chen Junjie had become familiar with his older brother and started calling him Brother Shen directly.

It was almost 11 a.m. on New Year's Eve when Chen Enpeng and the other man finally arrived.

"Have you two eaten? Did you sleep in until now?"

"We ate our way here," Chen Enpeng said.

"That's good. Otherwise, make a little more and we can have lunch together."

"No"

"Then let's divide the fish."

How to divide it?

"Average score"

"That won't do."

"You and Brother Shen are the ones who did the physical work, no, no!"

"Yes, Mianmian, you've taken such good care of us."

"That"

"Let's do as Mianmian says! We're worried about her being alone in this house; with you two friends here, we family will feel more at ease."

"Alright, Brother Shen."

"Then let's divide it into four parts."

"Assign three points"

"Four points. If it's three points, then we don't want it."

"Oh well"

So, my older brother and I shared almost 100 jin (50 catties) of various things. Then my older brother said, "Tonight we'll all celebrate New Year's Eve together, so you two don't need to bring anything."

"This won't do."

"Why not? Just listen to your brother, or you can stop calling him Brother Shen."

"Alright, Brother Shen."

"But you two need to come over early to help, and also make sure all your pots and pans are cleaned."

"Do whatever I tell you when the time comes."

"Okay, let's take it back first."

"Go now, come over here quickly and follow my instructions."

"Yes, Chief Li."

"Mianmian, do you know where those two are from?"

Why did you suddenly ask that, brother?

"These two look a bit like people I know, so I wanted to ask them something."

"Oh, I see. I know that. They're both from the same place, Jin City."

"Jinshi, I understand."

Is it the same place?

"Yes, then brother, why don't you ask during dinner later? Maybe that's it."

"You can ask."

Chen Junjie and his companion returned quickly. They asked, "What do you need us for?"

"Can either of you make dumplings?"

"Won't"

"All right"

"Then, brother, you can make dumplings. I've already prepared the filling and kneaded the dough."

"Can"

"Which of you two will clean these two fish? And someone else, get this chicken out of here."

"I'll clean the fish."

"Then I'll clean up the chicken."

"Let me know when you're done tidying up, then go inside and prepare the other dishes."