Chapter 1002

On November 16th, Ma County had its first snowfall in the true sense, with snow more than thirty centimeters thick, which settled down.

There had been two light snowfalls before, but they didn't stop, so Li Long didn't count them.

After this heavy snowfall, the number of people coming to the acquisition station to sell skins suddenly increased.

Thinking about it, it was normal. After the snow fell, whether it was rabbits, foxes, or wolves, red deer, or Mongolian gazelles that didn't hibernate, they moved in the snow. As long as you looked for them, you could find traces.

A rabbit skin had now risen to four yuan, a fox skin sold to the acquisition station was thirty-five to forty yuan, while a wolf skin reached sixty yuan. The skins of red deer and Mongolian gazelles were about the same, and would increase if the quality was better.

This led many people to go into the snow after they were free. Those with guns could hunt Mongolian gazelles, red deer, or even wolves, and those without guns would set traps to catch rabbits and foxes.

Even on a certain day in late November, someone directly sent a half-dead wolf to the acquisition station.

This matter directly startled Li Long, who was accompanying Mingming and Haohao in the big yard. He ran over to see this wolf, which was tied tightly, and was also somewhat surprised.

The wolf wasn't thin, but its leg was broken, its mouth was tied with a rope, and the three good legs were also tied, so it couldn't move at all.

Li Long hadn't thought about raising a wolf. Since someone sent this wolf to him, he naturally had to accept it. Gu Bo Yuan called him over also to ask how he would accept it, and besides, how did he plan to dispose of this wolf?

"A full wolf skin is seventy yuan, plus this meat, let's give one hundred and thirty yuan." Li Long said, "Wolf meat doesn't taste very good, otherwise you wouldn't have sent it over. This wolf can produce thirty kilograms of meat, let's calculate it at two yuan per kilogram, how about that?"

That person also didn't expect that getting a live wolf would be twice as expensive as selling the skin, so he naturally happily accepted this price.

Others heard it and whispered. Gu Bo Yuan registered and paid the money, and Li Long carried the wolf to the back yard.

There was a coal shed over there, and Li Long thought he would put the wolf there first—he didn't see ferocity in the wolf's eyes, but rather some pity.

Should he kill it or not?

He wouldn't kill it today. Today Liang Dacheng was hosting a banquet, and Li Long had received a call from Li Jianguo, so Li Long prepared to go over.

Since the first time Li Long gathered everyone together to treat them to a meal, later it was Xie Yun Dong, and some time ago Tao Daqiang also held one, and now Liang Dacheng had continued it.

These few people already had a good relationship, and there wasn't much to do in winter, so gathering together was a good thing.

Because of this gathering, Li Long planned to put the wolf here first and wait until tomorrow when he was free to slaughter and skin it.

The snow at the acquisition station had already been cleared by Liang Shuang Cheng, and there were more than a dozen people in the yard outside at this time who had come to sell skins.

Li Long went out from the back yard, greeted Gu Bo Yuan, and then drove the jeep to the Fourth Team.

The sheep at Liang Dacheng's house had already been slaughtered, and the skin had been peeled. When Li Long arrived, the offal had almost been washed. Yang Pingping and Deng Guilan were both helping here.

Winter is not like summer; slaughtered livestock cools down quickly, and it is inconvenient to process, so only with many people can things be done.

At this time, the daytime temperature had already reached more than ten degrees below zero. Li Long was wearing a cotton-padded coat, so he didn't feel very cold.

It was just that the world had already turned into a vast expanse of white.

"Come into the house quickly, don't stand outside." Liang Dacheng, who was trimming the mutton, greeted Li Long, "The few of them are playing cards in the house, you hurry in."

Li Long smiled, raised the two things he was carrying in his hand, and said:

"I bought pig ears and pig head meat from the braised meat shop, we'll cut them up and eat them together in a while."

"Hey, just coming is enough, why bring any dishes?" Liang Dacheng complained with a smile.

"If I didn't know, that would be it, but since I already knew, I just happened to pass by the braised meat shop, so I bought some." Li Long said as he entered the house, handed the braised meat to Deng Guilan in the kitchen, and then went to the inner room.

Xie Yun Dong, Tao Daqiang, and Jia Weidong were playing cards. They didn't put stickers on their faces when playing cards, and there was beer on the edge of the table. Drinking beer while playing cards was quite fitting, but it was winter, so it was hard to say whether this beer tasted good or not.

Seeing Li Long enter, Tao Daqiang immediately stood up and said:

"Brother Long, you come and play, you come and play. I can't calculate the cards, I've already drunk a bottle."

Tao Daqiang's face was red, it seemed he wasn't lying.

"That also has to wait until this round is finished." Jia Weidong said very seriously, "You still have cards in your hand that haven't been played."

"Fine." Tao Daqiang thought it was right, so he sat down again, turned his head, and explained to Li Long:

"I'll give you the position after I finish this round."

Li Long didn't make a sound, standing behind him watching the cards.

Tao Daqiang's cards were good, but his card-playing technique was average, and his playing wasn't targeted, so naturally, he couldn't get to the upstream.

Li Long watched Tao Daqiang play a hand of good cards into a middle-stream position, but he hadn't drunk, so it could be considered completing the task.

Tao Daqiang hurriedly stood up, and Li Long sat down without hesitation.

Xie Yun Dong asked while shuffling the cards:

"Xiao Long, how is it on your side? I heard that as soon as it snowed, Xu Haijun drove a tractor and took people to the north to hunt Mongolian gazelles."

"Didn't catch many," Tao Daqiang said, "He asked me to go, but I didn't go. I said if there's nothing to do, I won't mess with that. Now is not the time, the snow isn't thick enough yet, and the large group of Mongolian gazelles hasn't come over from the depths of the sand dunes."

Although Tao Daqiang wasn't good at playing cards, he still had some ideas about this.

"Caught two or three, which isn't a wasted trip." Jia Weidong said, "Went to the county the next day to sell the skins, saying he'll go again after another heavy snowfall."

"There are quite a lot of people selling skins these two days." Li Long said while receiving the cards, "Snowing still has an impact on these wild animals. The snow is relatively thick, and they can't find food, so they can only run out. Those that eat meat also follow them. Someone even sent a live wolf today."

"A live wolf?" This remark stunned everyone else, "Sent to your place?"

"Yeah." Li Long said, "I just accepted the wolf, and then I came over. I haven't had time to slaughter the wolf yet."

"Hey, that's really something, to be able to get a live wolf." Tao Daqiang thought about hunting in the mountains with Li Long before; he had encountered many wild boars, but wolves were very hard to see.

"Yeah, it looks like it was caught with a trap, the leg was broken." Li Long said, "Now these people are also thinking of various ways to hunt."

Chatting about this and that, they played a few rounds. Li Long's card luck was sometimes good and sometimes bad, and he also drank a glass of beer.

The house was very hot, the fire in the stove was burning fiercely, and the fire wall was hot to the touch. In a while, Li Long took off his coat, otherwise, he would have sweated.

In a while, the dishes started to be brought to the table, and the few of them put away the cards and placed the table in the middle of the room. Because the ground wasn't very flat, Tao Daqiang also found wooden chips from the corner of the wall to stabilize the table.

Hand-grabbed mutton, stir-fried sheep heart, large plate of sheep tripe, cold pig head meat, cold pig ears, cold bean sprouts, stir-fried eggs with chili skins, etc.

The table was full of dishes, and the positions were just the five of them; the women ate at another table in the kitchen.

Liang Dacheng was the drinking commander, and he started by drinking with everyone, which made Li Long look at him with new eyes.

As the eldest of the Liang family, leading the three brothers to work and earn money, Liang Dacheng had always taken a mature and steady path. He didn't expect that when hosting a banquet at home, he would suddenly be so straightforward and impulsive.

But Li Long was naturally not afraid. He had a good drinking capacity, his reaction to finger-guessing games was fast, and he had good luck. After Liang Dacheng, Xie Yun Dong, and Tao Daqiang drank with him, he only drank one glass of wine. However, when Jia Weidong drank with him, he directly bet big on small, and he drank one or two glasses.

Drinking with everyone meant three glasses of wine in front of each person. Finger-guessing games to guess big or small, or tiger-stick-chicken, three rounds and two wins for one glass of wine, or one round for one glass of wine directly. This was decided by the drinking commander and the challenger.

Although Li Long's finger-guessing was slow and lacked momentum, he calculated extremely accurately, and it wasn't easy to lose if he didn't make mistakes. As for the others like big-bet-small or tiger-stick-chicken, it was naturally not easy to lose either.

The others' complexions changed from drinking, but Li Long alone was very sober, which made Liang Dacheng feel that he hadn't entertained well, so he wanted to play another round with Li Long. After all, when hosting a banquet and drinking at this time, if the guest wasn't drunk, it would seem that the host's sincerity wasn't enough.

Li Long wasn't afraid either. After finishing the finger-guessing game with Liang Dacheng, he came to big-bet-small again, and finally symbolically drank a glass.

By the time this meal was finished, it was already past five o'clock in the afternoon, and at this time the sun was already in a low position in the west. Li Long felt okay, put on his clothes, came out, started the car, and returned to the county.

The road was uneven, the car swayed, and Li Long had a bit of alcohol, but it wasn't strong. He thought that next time he wouldn't drive when drinking—although he didn't drink much this time, he shouldn't do this kind of thing in the future; it was easy to have a fluke mentality.

Returning to the big yard, after getting out of the car and being blown by the cold wind, Li Long became sober instead. After setting this tone, he drained the water in the car and entered the house.

Thinking that there should be nothing to do for the next few days, he didn't expect someone to come to his door the next day.