Chapter 162: Midnight Terror

Kazakh herders don't eat mushrooms much at this time, so the young men were curious about Li Long's actions, but mostly just helped without interfering.

But when Li Long added salt to the mushroom soup and the aroma of the mushrooms wafted out, even more young men gathered around.

To ordinary people, it seemed herders could eat meat every day; the food-streamers from pastoral areas in his previous life had conveyed exactly that impression.

But only after Li Long actually interacted with Harimu and others did he truly learn that herders only slaughtered sheep to eat during festivals or when guests arrived; on ordinary days, they had milk tea and naan, living quite austerely.

So today, working and eating mutton was very important to the young men. Yet at this moment, the scent of mutton and the scent of mushrooms held equal power over them—after all, those white mushrooms were not eaten by cattle or sheep; how could they possibly eat them?

Li Long remembered meeting herders in his previous life; once they became familiar, they would ask him, "You Han people are really strange, aren't you? You eat grass that cattle and sheep eat, like alfalfa, wild chives, wild scallions and the like, happily. Isn't meat delicious?"

Of course meat was delicious, but that stuff, the Han stomach couldn't possibly endure every day.

One by one, young men rode back on horseback; some had girls or children on their saddles, some simply carried the dombra instrument, and others brought sacks that made heavy thuds when placed on the wooden floor of the winter dwelling.

Li Long guessed they must be stones.

It had to be said that jade resources in this mountain range on the northern slope of the Tianshan were extremely abundant; the basics were all mountain jade, with few fine pieces among the river jade. In later times, newspapers often reported someone discovering a huge jade stone of three to five tons in the upper reaches of the Ma River, worth hundreds of thousands of yuan, but such items had a market price yet no actual buyers; many owned them, few bought them.

Of course, now there were even more.

The young man holding the stones called Harimu over to help translate.

"He says let you look at these stones. These stones were picked up by his father and him in the river; he doesn't know if they're valuable. He wants to trade them for a few large scythes to use for cutting grass when they reach the summer pasture."

As soon as Harimu spoke, some young men gathered around and started talking all at once.

"They say Ye Ersen is truly sensible, unlike them who only traded for radios. Some young men already regret it and want scythes too, saying they'll go back and see what else they have at home that can be traded."

"I'll have to check on that first." Li Long didn't agree outright, saying, "Scythes aren't commonly used where we're from; the supply and marketing cooperative might not have them. If they do, I'll buy them and give everyone two each, no problem. If not, I'll have to find someone to forge them, which will take some time."

After Harimu conveyed the words, the young men immediately started talking all at once again; when Harimu translated back, Li Long smiled.

The young men said Li Long should visit more often; this was really important.

For the young men who made direct requests, Li Long found them quite straightforward and cute, without so many hidden agendas. Some might not accept such directness, but he thought it was fine; at least there was no need to guess.

Having lived two lives, he was most annoyed by guessing other people's thoughts.

The roasted meat was done; the scent of meat drifted over. Someone brought a skewer of roasted meat and distributed it; Li Long received two skewers and happily began eating.

Having lived two lives, his view on roasted meat was simple: right beside the grill, freshly roasted meat tastes best. Even if you sit at a table not far from the grill, once the roaster takes the meat from the grill to the table and sets it down, by the time you eat it, the taste is already somewhat different.

It was similar to the taste of pig-killing feast dishes on the day they were made versus stir-fried pork the next day; they were completely different.

Eating only roasted meat made him very thirsty. After finishing his two willow-skewers, Li Long tossed them aside—not just him; everyone did the same after eating. The skewers were not collected for reuse; after all, willow grew everywhere in the gullies, easy to break off, no need to recycle.

He went into the small hut, took out the drinks he had brought earlier, and handed out one small bottle of champagne to each person, including the women preparing the ingredients.

The women shyly smiled, accepted the small bottles of champagne, and set them aside. Li Long used his teeth to pop the caps off the small bottles, then gestured to everyone. After he took a sip, the other young men also popped their caps with their teeth and drank.

Back then, with strong teeth, popping bottle caps with one's teeth was perfectly normal; there weren't so many doctors explaining it would damage teeth.

Harimu took a sip himself, realized it wasn't liquor, then went to open the cap for his wife and handed it to her.

Most of the girls hesitated, but after one or two drank, the others followed suit.

Eating roasted meat while drinking small bottles of champagne tasted really good, very stimulating!

Li Long vaguely remembered that small bottles of champagne disappeared from the market around the time rumors spread that they contained dichlorvos during production. He didn't know if it was a merchant rumor like MSG causing cancer, or if it was true; he just felt that in his previous life, suddenly, for a very short period, small bottles of champagne vanished from the market.

Originally, Li Long had planned to hold a gathering at night, but now the eating and drinking had already happened early. Still, thinking about it, it was good; if everything were left until night, these young men would finish eating and drinking too late, making their return journey unsafe.

Two sheep seemed like a lot, but these young men could really eat. After finishing the roasted meat, each young man took another small bottle of champagne, then they started eating hand-grabbed mutton.

What Li Long didn't expect was that at this moment, the most popular dish wasn't the mutton soup, but his mushroom soup!

Mushrooms naturally carry umami; now these were freshly picked mushrooms. Although only a little salt was added, with green wild scallions and wild chives floating on top, the taste was simply so fragrant—

Of course, Li Long thought the most likely reason was that the meat was very oily, and the mushroom soup was just right to lighten the palate.

Therefore, of the enamel basin full of mushroom soup, Li Long only ladled and drank half a bowl when first tasting it; then the rest was completely finished by others.

During breaks in eating and drinking, the young men and girls would take out radios and play the music inside. Li Long was surprised to discover that these people precisely knew the broadcast schedule of the radio station; at this moment, the music from the radios became the perfect accompaniment for everyone's dancing and singing.

After the music from the radios ended, someone started playing the dombra and singing alone. Li Long couldn't understand the lyrics, but some people began dancing, some sang along, and others simply sat on the ground, lost in the music.

Even the children joined in, dancing quite properly; Li Long felt ashamed of his own inability.

This feast of eating and drinking continued until the sun was nearly setting before ending. The young men each bid farewell to Li Long and rode away, swaying on their horses.

Li Long was still somewhat worried, but Harimu and Yushanjiang told him not to worry.

"They've been on horses since they were two or three years old. Don't be fooled by their swaying now; they're actually quite sober. That tiny bit of alcohol won't get them drunk. They'll keep swaying like this all the way to their own winter dwelling."

Well, Li Long didn't fully understand, but he could agree.

Most of the women stayed behind to clean up, gathering the bones into a pile; those with dogs at home would take them back to feed the dogs. The leftover meat was placed in basins and carried into the winter dwelling. "You divide the meat among yourselves. I'm returning to the county tomorrow; this meat definitely won't be easy to carry." Li Long hurriedly told Harimu, "It can't be left here either; it might attract wolves, which would be bad."

Harimu and Yushanjiang discussed it briefly, then the remaining people divided the meat, though they still left two pieces for Li Long, saying it was for breakfast tomorrow morning.

Li Long asked Harimu to take the young deer back to their winter dwelling; he would bring it back himself when he had time to lead the horse-drawn cart over.

The sheepskins had already been rubbed with salt and were now nailed to the walls of the small room. Flies hadn't really multiplied yet; in two or three days the sheepskins would dry, so there was no need to worry too much.

Li Long waited until Harimu, Yushanjiang, and the others had all left before relaxing, yet feeling somewhat tired, and moving to the back of the winter dwelling. A toilet had been built there with wood—of course, an outhouse. He needed to relieve himself.

"Damn, I ate too much." While relieving himself, smelling the pungent scent of urine mixed with the strong smell of mutton, Li Long knew this meal had truly been excessive.

The mutton was fresh; grass-fed sheep aren't that gamey, at least not while eating, so the sensation wasn't strong. But after eating, the gamey smell in the urine was very pungent.

Pulling up his pants, Li Long returned to the winter dwelling; now it was his own territory alone.

Both doors could be locked to declare that this winter dwelling had an owner. Sitting on the wooden kang, Li Long smelled the faint scent of wood and felt very satisfied; this was his own house.

This feeling wasn't present even in the old large courtyard he had bought from Master Ma.

!.

Lying on the sheepskin spread over the wooden kang, Li Long looked up at the wooden planks on the ceiling. Though rough, they were all made with care.

He decided that after visiting Tao Daqiang and the others tomorrow, he would go down the mountain to the county to buy scythes. If he couldn't find any, he would seek out a blacksmith shop to forge some.

In his previous life, Li Long had seen scythes, so he believed that even if the blacksmith had never made one, he could describe it clearly. It was just a large-sized sickle, only with the horizontal part made very long, since herders at this time could only cut grass by hand, unlike later times when various types of mowers were available.

Thinking and thinking, somehow he fell asleep. Then Li Long was woken by the cold. When he opened his eyes, everything was pitch black; it took a while to adjust. At some point, the door had been blown open a crack, and the biting cold wind blew in, making him shiver.

In these mountains, the temperature difference between day and night was too great!

Feeling the urge to urinate in his lower abdomen, Li Long got up, intending to go out to relieve himself before returning to sleep again. The moment he stepped out the door, he shot back inside as if struck by lightning!

Outside, damn it, there were wolves!

Several pairs of green eyes were prowling around the spot where the meat had been roasted and boiled earlier, searching for food. Li Long hurriedly climbed onto the wooden kang, grabbed a small-caliber rifle, disengaged the safety, and did it all in one smooth motion.

With the gun in hand, he finally felt safety had returned to his grasp.

Li Long was no pushover either. Holding the caliber rifle, his courage surged considerably, and he raised it to walk toward the door.

Reaching the door and looking out, Li Long saw that the wolves with those green eyes had apparently been startled just now and had already retreated further away, though they were currently pausing to observe his side.

Clearly, the wolves must have been lured by the strong scent of sheep scattered all over the ground outside the winter camp, unaware that there was still a living person inside the house!

At this moment, Li Long felt fortunate that he had let Harimu take the young deer back first; otherwise, that young deer would likely have ended up in a wolf's mouth.

Li Long immediately crouched halfway, racked the bolt to chamber a round, aimed at the nearest wolf, and fired steadily.

"Crack! Crack!"

After the crisp sound of gunfire, Li Long looked again and saw that wolf lying crooked on the ground, while the others fled like arrows in panic toward the forest.

Since he started hunting with a gun, Li Long rarely judged the outcome after just one shot when facing such large beasts; this was a lesson learned from experience. Firing a couple more shots cost only a few cents in ammunition, but if the first shot missed or failed to hit a vital spot, the second shot could make up for it. If he waited to check first, he would lose the initiative.

Facing the wolf that had fallen and was still twitching, Li Long did not let his guard down. Gripping the small-caliber rifle tightly, he walked over slowly, pointed the gun at the wolf's head, and fired another shot.

The wolf's body twitched once, then went completely still.

Li Long scanned the surroundings warily, noticing that the wolves still seemed quite afraid of humans, or perhaps quite afraid of guns; as soon as a shot rang out, they scattered. The scenario of wolf packs swarming, as depicted in novels from his previous life, did not occur. Of course, it might be due to different wolf breeds or different regions.

Nevertheless, he did not dare to be careless. Dragging the wolf carcass toward the winter camp, he recalled the situation from the previous night when he hunted wolves; these creatures were cunning, and who knew if an ambush lay waiting somewhere.

After dragging the wolf to the entrance of the winter camp, Li Long relieved himself nearby, then entered the wooden house, locked the door, covered himself with sheepskin, and went back to sleep.

Early the next morning, after Li Long woke up, he still felt very cold. He decided to get the stove set up and arranged early, otherwise, he wouldn't be able to endure the night.

The sun had not yet risen, and dew covered the tips of the grass. Li Long found some dry wood from under the firewood pile, pulled out some dry grass to start a fire, placed an enamel basin on the stove, and began simmering yesterday's mutton soup and sheep bones, while he took out a knife to start processing the dead wolf.

After several months of practice, Li Long's skinning skills had improved. Although he couldn't process things in half an hour like Harimu and the others, it only took him a little over an hour to obtain a relatively intact wolf pelt.

And a wolf carcass.

He dug a pit to bury the guts and organs. As for the meat, he planned to salt and cure part of it here for later use, take some with him, leave a portion when he went to see Tao Daqiang and the others later, and bring the rest home.

After all, wolf meat is still meat. Right now, Tao Daqiang and the others were probably still eating cornmeal buns, and that wild boar meat was likely finished too?

Ten young men plus one middle-aged old man; that amount of meat certainly wouldn't last long.

By now, the mutton soup in the enamel basin had been boiling for quite a while. Li Long pulled the firewood from under the stove, ladled out a bowl, blew on it, and drank it with great satisfaction.

This little life was not bad at all.

(End of this chapter)