Chapter 116: The Joy of Changing History

"Uncle, how are you feeling now? Did you take your medicine?" Li Long asked Tao Jianshe as he stood by the kang.

"I did. Da Qiang insisted on having Old Tian give me an injection. Why waste that money? Taking some aspirin is enough." Tao Jianshe struggled to get up, but Li Long quickly pressed him back down. "Uncle, don't get up. I just came to check on you. Has Da Qiang been cooking for you these past two days?"

"Yes. Da Qiang was worried about me, so he hasn't gone anywhere; he just cooks and feeds me my medicine." Tao Jianshe sighed. "Da Yong came by once, but his whole family needs looking after too. It's hard for him."

Li Long was speechless.

His heart is quite biased.

But this is their family matter, so he had nothing to say. After exchanging a few meaningless words, he went out. Tao Da Qiang saw him off. Li Long took out ten yuan and stuffed it into his hand:

"Find Old Tian to give your father an injection to reduce the inflammation first. Injections work fast; with medicine, who knows how long it will drag on? This transition between winter and spring is when illnesses flare up most easily. We can't wait."

"...Okay." Tao Da Qiang didn't have much money left, so he didn't refuse. Treating his father's illness certainly required a lot of money, but he had spent too freely during the New Year, even giving his nephew red envelopes. Now that his father was sick, he wanted to pay but didn't have much to give.

"If you have any difficulties, come find me." Li Long was somewhat surprised to notice that the height difference between him and Tao Da Qiang seemed to have narrowed. He didn't know if Tao Da Qiang was hunching his back or if he himself had grown taller. He patted Da Qiang's shoulder:

"For the next few days, I won't go into the mountains; I'll be at home."

"Then... Brother Long, will we still catch fish to sell?" Tao Da Qiang asked, his eyes shining. Only when he had no money did he realize how efficient it was to earn money following Li Long.

"Come find me after your father recovers. Before the snow melts, we can catch fish twice more," Li Long said.

Tao Da Qiang thought that twice would be enough. With two trips, he could pay back the ten yuan.

He clutched the ten yuan tightly in his hand. Once the snow melted, they wouldn't be able to catch fish, so they would have to live frugally.

"After the snow melts, the two of us will set nets to catch fish. I've already bought the gill nets, but the water will be cold in early spring, so you see..."

"I'm not afraid of the cold!" Hearing that he could continue catching fish to sell, Tao Da Qiang couldn't wait and interrupted Li Long: "I'm not afraid! When the snow first fell, I went into the reed lake to cut reeds. The ice water was waist-deep, and I wasn't afraid!"

"That's fine," Li Long nodded. "Once your father recovers, we'll discuss it then."

Watching Li Long leave, Tao Da Qiang turned and hurriedly ran to Old Tian's house. He wanted Old Tian to give his father an injection so his father could recover quickly.

Hearing that Tao Da Qiang wanted to give his father an injection, Old Tian said:

"I told you, your father's illness can only be cured with an injection. Those few-cent pills won't do much good. He's been coughing for so many years; doesn't he know his own condition? Wait while I sterilize the needle with boiling water."

Inside the aluminum needle case lay a glass syringe. Old Tian the doctor poured boiling water from a thermos into the case, then took out a box of medicine. After a while, he used tweezers to remove the syringe, drained the water, put the needle back in, placed it in a medicine bag along with the drugs, and followed Tao Da Qiang to his home.

Li Long felt quite happy. In his previous life, Tao Jianshe had survived that winter relying on a few painkillers and aspirin, but when spring arrived, a late cold snap worsened his condition. He endured for another half year before closing his eyes just before winter returned.

Actually, Old Tian had mentioned many times later that if Tao Jianshe had received timely injections to reduce inflammation when his illness flared up in winter, his condition would never have worsened to that extent.

Although he had been reborn, Li Long was not a memory playback machine. Many things only came to mind when he encountered the situation, including Tao Jianshe's illness.

Now, Li Long felt as though he was about to change history, so he was very happy.

With nothing to do in the afternoon, after cleaning the small-caliber rifle, he took the gun, ammunition, and a coil of fine wire snares he had prepared, intending to go to Hongliu Tan.

He hadn't checked the rabbit snares there for a long time. This time, he would see if there was any harvest. If not, he would set a few more snares and come back early tomorrow to check.

If he happened to encounter an animal, it would be a perfect chance to practice with the small-caliber rifle.

Maintaining the small-caliber rifle was a delicate task. He could see that Li Xiangqian hadn't used this gun for a long time. During the last maintenance, too much gun oil had been applied, and the oil around the bolt had even begun to congeal.

Without gun oil, he used the oilcloth included in the gun case to wipe it down thoroughly, including the bullets. The bullets, shaped like fine pencil tips, were polished by Li Long until they shone brightly. These were 5.6mm caliber; although called "small-caliber," they weren't much different in caliber from automatic rifles of the future.

"Uncle, are you going hunting? Can you take me with you?" Li Qiang followed Li Long out the door and asked.

"I'm going quite far. Can you keep up?" Li Long asked with a smile.

"Yes!" Li Qiang immediately agreed, then looked at Li Long expectantly.

"Then go tell your parents, and put on some thicker clothes."

The snow outside had already hardened into a thick crust, with ice particles like sand underneath. Every step was difficult. Although Li Qiang played outside every day, which counted as exercise, walking on such terrain would definitely be tiring.

It would be good exercise anyway.

Li Juan also wanted to go, but school would start in a few days, and she hadn't finished her homework yet, so she had to obediently stay home to do her assignments.

Li Long hadn't gone far with Li Qiang when he saw Wang Caimi walking by the roadside, carrying a red willow basket and bending down to pick something up as he walked.

"Have you eaten, Brother Wang?"

!.

"I have. Where are you going... hunting? What kind of gun is that? It looks really beautiful!" Seeing the gun on Li Long's back, Wang Caimi's eyes lit up. It was the same old saying: no man dislikes guns.

"It's a small-caliber. I'm just checking to see if there are any rabbits, killing time. Are you collecting manure?"

"Yes. Spring is coming soon, and my vegetable garden lacks fertility. I need to use manure to fertilize it."

Watching Li Qiang leave, Wang Caimi sighed to himself; the Li family boy was becoming increasingly extraordinary.

A small-caliber rifle wasn't something ordinary people could afford. Although every household in the brigade had a few standard-issue bullets, guns were not something everyone possessed.

On the road, Li Long also saw several people. Some, like Wang Caimi, were collecting manure. Others, like the Li family had previously, lacked enough firewood, so they had to go to Hongliu Tan every day to chop red willow to burn. The branches were far less durable than the roots, and chopping red willow at minus twenty degrees was hard work.

When Li Long led Li Qiang along the previous tracks to Hongliu Tan, he knew that some of the snares had already been checked.

At the edge of Hongliu Tan, Li Long found three empty snares. Two others had been taken by someone; there were signs of disturbance where they had been placed, indicating they had likely caught a rabbit.

Li Long felt a bit regretful, but there was nothing he could do. Since he hadn't come to check for so long, it was only natural that others had taken the opportunity.

He led Li Qiang further inward. During his recent trip to the mountains, there must have been a light snowfall, and the rabbit tracks in Hongliu Tan had changed. Li Long planned to venture deeper to see. If he encountered something, he would shoot; if not, he would set snares.

"Uncle, did someone take the rabbit?" Li Qiang had been remarkably patient this time, not complaining of fatigue until now. He had noticed something from Li Long's paused movements.

"Yes, possibly," Li Long said. "Let's look further inside. You observe the surroundings too, and see if there's anything alive."

Li Qiang nodded heavily, then began looking around.

After walking less than ten steps, he suddenly saw a brown object moving beside a red willow bush. He immediately called out softly:

"Uncle, there's something over there!"

Upon his shout, the object beside the red willow bush immediately darted away.

Li Long immediately recognized it: it was a fox!

(End of Chapter)