Chapter 106: Did Li Long's Situation Come to Light?

Li Long ignored the wild boars scrambling all over the mountain, leaped up, ran to Harimu's side, and looked in the direction his gun was pointing.

"A wolf, a lone wolf. This lone wolf has probably spotted us." Harimu turned to look at Li Long, "Let's go take a look?"

"Let's go!" Li Long thought of the wolf from a few days ago, wondering if it was the same one.

Being watched by such a creature was certainly uncomfortable; who knew when it might launch a surprise attack.

The two men walked into the forest with their guns, went thirty-plus meters, and saw the wolf's paw prints in the snow along with a spot of blood.

"It's been wounded." Li Long bent down, wiped a few drops of blood from the snow with his hand; it had already frozen.

"It shouldn't be seriously wounded." Harimu looked in the direction the wolf had bounded off, "Forget it, we can't catch up. Pity about those wild boars."

"It's fine, one will do." Li Long pointed to the hillside, "If there were more, it would be hard to carry them back."

"Let's go handle it." Harimu looked into the forest again; seeing that the wolf's tracks showed blood only after a long distance, he knew the wolf was only lightly injured.

Li Long silently admired Harimu's marksmanship—it wasn't even fully light yet, yet he had hit the wolf in the forest just by sound. Truly impressive!

The wild boar, even in its dying moments, struggled to push uphill, but blood had already flowed everywhere, and it had no strength left.

Li Long stepped forward, slung his gun, drew his knife, bled the boar, and then gutted it.

A foul, gamey stench rushed out from the belly, nearly knocking Li Long over. He took a look and felt a bit disappointed; it was a male wild boar. Although not large, males didn't taste as good as females.

"Did you bring the plastic sheet?" Harimu asked from the side.

"Yes," Li Long said, "I'll drag it to the mountain pass. You go back and get the bicycle over, and I'll just load the boar and ride back."

"No rush. We should at least have breakfast before leaving. It's been frozen for so long; let's go back and have some milk tea."

Li Long thought of the milk tea and agreed.

He spread out the plastic sheet, carefully placed the wild boar on it, wrapped and tied it up, then dragged it toward the mountain pass. Harimu followed behind, glancing at both sides from time to time.

Arriving at the mountain pass, Li Long looked left and right, found a spot by the road, buried the wild boar in the snow, and said to Harimu:

"Let's go back."

"Good." The two returned to the winter camp. Li Long drank milk tea, ate naan, chewed on two strips of dried meat, and only then took his leave.

Riding the bicycle to the mountain pass, Li Long was surprised to find the wild boar had been dug open by something. Probably because not enough time had passed, the plastic sheet was just torn apart, and the boar hadn't been eaten yet.

Could it be that wolf?

Li Long looked left and right but saw nothing. Puzzled, he picked up the boar and placed it on the rear rack of the bicycle.

Work really builds character. Before, he couldn't even lift forty kilograms, let alone fifty or sixty.

Now, he didn't find carrying this boar particularly difficult.

After tying up the boar and stowing the gun, Li Long mounted the bicycle, tapped the ground twice with his toes, and the bike, aided by the downhill slope, slid forward. He smoothly stepped onto the pedals and started riding.

By the time the bicycle reached the county town, Li Long was already sweating.

Back at the big courtyard, he stoked the stove and only then took a moment to rest. He planned to sell the wild boar meat, which meant skinning it—a big job.

The boar's offal and intestines needed cleaning. To his relief, there was a running water tap in the main house—it looked like it had been newly installed before the New Year, very convenient.

After thinking it over, Li Long dampened the fire on the stove, put on his clothes, and went out to the street. With just these items, he needed to pay the fees first.

"You're here to pay the water and electricity bills?" the street office worker was somewhat surprised. "Which household?"

"He's number sixty-eight, the new owner of the big courtyard where Old Ma used to live," someone who had previously handled Li Long's paperwork chimed in. "Old Ma's water and electricity bills were indeed due."

"But not many people come voluntarily to pay. Come, let me calculate for you..."

The total came to ninety-four fen for Li Long.

Well, that's not expensive at all. Returning home in peace, he boiled water to clean the offal. Once again, he was assaulted by the gases from the organs, and Li Long thought he would never do this again.

Too troublesome!

Watching Wang Caimi clean the intestines so smoothly, why did it become such a mess for him?

Halfway through, he threw the tools down and went to skin the boar.

Fortunately, having skinned a few before, he managed to finish the skinning with some stumbling, then proceeded to butcher it.

He planned to go to the morning market tomorrow to see if he could sell the meat. If not, he would go to Shicheng.

Having a bicycle was truly so convenient.

After butchering the boar, he didn't want to move. Li Long lay in bed until late afternoon, when it was nearly dark. His stomach was so empty his front touched his back, so he finally got up, went to the big meat canteen, ordered a portion of stir-fried pork with noodles, and added two extra servings of noodles.

At this time, extra noodles were free—even adding ten portions cost nothing. In his past life, Li Long had once seen someone add seven portions, which he thought was astonishing.

One extra portion wasn't enough; two was slightly too much. The stir-fried pork dish at this time had a solid portion, with large chunks of meat that were tender and soft, not tough. Eating it with two cloves of garlic was simply delightful.

After finishing, he took a sip of the noodle soup, believing that original soup digests original food. Li Long rested for a few minutes. Just as he was preparing to leave, Zhong Guoqiang walked over.

!.

"Comrade Li, are you free now?"

"Mm, just finished up."

"Got anything good?" Zhong Guoqiang sat opposite Li Long and asked with a smile.

"Just hunted a wild boar. Want some?"

"That's great. Give me ten kilograms of rib meat, and five kilograms of pork belly. Oh, and do you have the offal?"

"Yes, not fully cleaned yet," Li Long said.

"Then... bring it all to me, but make it cheaper. Cleaning these things takes effort."

"No problem!" Li Long said happily. "I'll carry it over to you in a bit?"

"Fine."

In one go, he sold over ten kilograms of meat and the offal. Li Long was quite pleased. He went out to unlock the door, rode the bicycle back to the big courtyard, cut the meat, and found the offal had already frozen. He tied it all together, placed it on the rear seat of the bicycle, and delivered it to the big meat canteen.

By the time he came out, he had thirty yuan more on him.

He hurried to the supply and marketing cooperative and, before closing time, bought another roll of plastic sheeting—this stuff was a consumable and didn't last long.

Early the next morning, Li Long stoked the stove, boiled water, felt too lazy to cook, went to the big meat canteen for breakfast, returned, placed the meat on the plastic sheet, picked up the scale, dragged the meat, and headed to the morning market.

The morning market was even more crowded; Li Long looked around and saw three fish vendors, one butcher, four or five grain sellers, and many others hawking miscellaneous goods.

He casually picked a spot to set up, and soon someone came over to inquire.

"Wild boar meat, one and a half yuan per kilogram," Li Long said at his usual price. "I just hunted it yesterday. Want some?"

"Yes, please," the buyer immediately agreed. "Weigh out one jin of pork belly for me."

Li Long's voice carried well, and before long, a crowd gathered around him.

The remaining thirty-plus kilograms of meat were sold out in less than half an hour!

Li Long was puzzled. What was going on?

Only when he was packing up did he learn that the lowest price at the other butcher stalls was one yuan and sixty-five fen!

"Prices have gone up these days, and your meat doesn't even require ration coupons. How can you raise the price a bit?" one vendor looked at Li Long with frustration, as if he were a piece of iron that refused to become steel. "Selling so cheap means you're losing a lot of profit!"

Li Long finally understood: even the goods at the morning market had gone up in price.

(End of this chapter)