Chapter 102

"This roe deer skin, I skinned it badly in two places." Although the torn places had already been patched by Halimu with roe deer oil skin, Li Long still said it in advance, "You look and give a price."

"Skinned badly? That's really a pity." Chen Hongjun frowned, "Where?"

"Here, and here." Li Long spread out the skin to show Chen Hongjun.

"It's okay, the opening isn't big. If it were big, it wouldn't be easy to purchase." Chen Hongjun looked at the place patched with meat skin, turned it over to look, raised his head to look at Li Long, "For this skin, I'll give you fifteen yuan, how about it? If it weren't torn, thirty wouldn't be a problem."

"Alright." Li Long smiled, "It really has risen in price."

After bookkeeping, writing the bill, and paying the money, Chen Hongjun said:

"Little Li, I suggest you go to the department store or the supply and marketing cooperative. If you need to buy things, buy more. I'm afraid these supplies will also rise in price."

Li Long slapped his head. That's right, the purchase price of supplies has risen, so the things sold will naturally rise in price too.

He hurriedly thanked Chen Hongjun, rode his bicycle, and went to the department store.

After scanning around, Li Long first bought brick tea, salt, white sugar, and other supplies; these were for Halimu and the others.

Then he saw the Liberation shoes piled up on the counter and immediately thought of what his eldest brother Li Jianguo had once said.

The herdsmen they met when they went into the mountains as part of the sideline group to dig fritillaria said that the Liberation shoes they wore were very good and wanted to trade a lamb for a pair of shoes.

Li Long thought of Halimu and the others and immediately decided to buy two pairs for each of them.

Halimu's family of five, Yushanjiang's family of four, Li Long estimated the size of their feet, rounded it up, and bought twenty pairs of high-waisted Liberation shoes. This kind of shoe had countless shortcomings—ugly, stuffy, not breathable, etc., but one advantage was enough to make the herdsmen like it—sturdy and durable.

Carrying a large package of things, Li Long left the department store, unlocked the bicycle, and rode quickly toward the supply and marketing cooperative.

There were all kinds of fishing nets he needed here.

"Comrade, hello, take two of each of the two-and-a-half-finger, three-finger, three-and-a-half-finger, four-finger, and four-and-a-half-finger sticky nets," Li Long looked at the fishing nets on the counter and said, "take one cast net."

"How big of a mesh do you want for the cast net?" the salesperson asked, "How high of a seedling do you want for the sticky net, and how long?"

"I want a one-finger mesh for the cast net." Li Long wanted to see if he could cast for small dogfish, "I want a one-point-two-meter seedling for the sticky net, one hundred meters long."

"Seventeen for the cast net, three yuan and five for one sticky net, fifty-two yuan in total."

Li Long paid the money—it was more than enough from the money he just sold the deer antlers and roe deer skin for.

Looking at the counter, he didn't find any waders. It was estimated that goods hadn't been able to come in at this time, and other things weren't needed in the short term, so Li Long turned and left the supply and marketing cooperative.

After the thaw, catching fish wouldn't be as easy as fishing from an ice hole. But judging from the current trend, the demand for fresh fish among the people in the city was still quite large.

The best way to catch fish then was to set sticky nets, also earning hard-earned money.

But earning money, putting in effort was very normal. Being able to earn money in this era was already very impressive; what's a little bit of hardship?

Riding his bike back to the big courtyard, Li Long began to clean up the two snow chickens.

The chickens weren't big. If he wanted to make big plate chicken or spicy chicken, it would be enough for one person to eat, but Li Long felt that doing so was a bit of a waste.

He plucked the feathers of the two chickens clean, cleaned the internal organs, and then carried the chickens and rode his bicycle toward the production team.

When entering the production team's residential area, he saw a group of children playing with spinning tops on the road. From afar, he saw Li Qiang, who had grown a bit taller, vigorously swinging his whip among that group of children. This month's extra meals made Li Qiang's height shoot up quite a bit, and his original clothes all looked a bit fitting—previously, clothes were made a bit larger so they could be worn for two more years. If it continued like this, by this winter, Li Qiang would have to have new clothes made.

"Li Qiang, your uncle is back, riding a bicycle!" A child with sharp eyes saw Li Long and shouted at the top of his lungs.

With this, all the children stopped caring about their own spinning tops, took their whips, and ran toward Li Long.

In the whole production team, there were only two bicycles. One was the team leader Xu Chengjun's, which he got as a reward from the county when he participated in the county's competition when he was the militia company commander.

The other was the Zhang family, the only old resident in the team who had been here before the production team was established. It was said that they were originally landlords. In Li Long's understanding, it meant the family had surplus wealth, so they could afford a bicycle.

This was Li Long's third one.

"Uncle, Uncle! Did you buy a bicycle? This car is still new!"

"Yes, Qiangqiang, come, get on the car, Uncle will take you back."

"Good!" Li Qiang was just about to climb onto the car, then turned around, stepped on the spinning top that was rotating at high speed, bent down, grabbed it, stuffed it into his pocket, wiped his nose with his sleeve, and nimbly climbed onto the back seat of the 28-inch bicycle.

Li Long pedaled the car quickly toward home, and a group of children followed behind, shouting. By the time Li Long returned to the Li family, the news of him buying a bicycle had already spread throughout the entire production team.

"Li Long bought a car? Is he earning so much money selling fish?"

!.

"He's not just selling fish, right? He's also selling meat."

"A bicycle must be nearly two hundred, right? This kid Li Long has really turned over."

"Originally, it was said that Li Long might be finished after being expelled, but I didn't expect him to turn over so quickly—even if he were a worker, he wouldn't be able to earn a bicycle so quickly, right?"

There were those who were surprised and envious, and naturally there were those who couldn't eat grapes and said they were sour:

"What's there to envy? Isn't it just taking advantage of the winter to catch fish, so he made a killing. When spring comes and the snow melts, look at who eats his fish? By then, won't he have to obediently go to the fields to work?"

"The more he tosses, the greater the possibility of going in! Just wait and see, maybe he'll be arrested before spring comes. This is speculation and profiteering!"

Seeing Li Long ride the bicycle and bring Li Qiang back, Li Jianguo and Liang Yumei were also very surprised. Although Li Jianguo knew that Li Long had obtained a bicycle coupon, he didn't expect him to buy the car so quickly.

"It's inconvenient to carry things by walking, and it's troublesome to rent a horse-drawn carriage every day. Just the rent alone is quite a lot in a month. Yesterday, I happened to pick up two deer antlers in the mountains and hunted a roe deer, so the money was enough." Li Long explained, and then turned to Liang Yumei:

"Sister-in-law, I hunted two snow chickens yesterday. Let's stew them at home today; stew one for soup and stir-fry one to eat. These snow chickens are a great tonic!"

"Can the children eat them?" Liang Yumei asked with some worry.

"They can eat them." Li Long said with a smile, "Just right for growing their bodies, food supplements, they can eat them."

Just as they were talking, there was a commotion outside. Li Long came out and took a look; it turned out to be Xu Haijun and the others, coming to see the bicycle.

In this era, if there was anything new in the team, someone would definitely come to take a look—just like those sisters-in-law looking at the sewing machine before.

Let them look if they want; there was nothing that couldn't be looked at. Li Long simply opened the lock and let those who knew how to ride try it one by one.

"This car is really energetic!" Xu Haijun couldn't help but say. Although his cousin had one, he couldn't necessarily touch it usually.

Thinking that Li Long, who was about the same age as him, had bought a bicycle through his own efforts, Xu Haijun felt a bit discouraged.

Can't compare.

(End of chapter)