Chapter 163

Li Long rode his bicycle through the winding mountain paths; he felt that after running in the mountains a few more times, his cycling skills had been practiced. Passing the gully entrance where Ha Ha Li Mu and the others' winter shelter was located, Li Long didn't turn in; he still had several tasks to complete today.

The task of weaving carrying poles also needed to be checked for progress.

It was nearly an hour later when he rode to Xiaobaiyang Gully.

Along the way, Li Long did find quite a few mushrooms, wild onions, and wild chives, but he didn't pick them; he didn't have the time.

If they are here, then Xiaobaiyang Gully should have them too.

However, when Li Long rode to Xiaobaiyang Gully, he discovered that the grass here grew shorter than in other places, and because there were many trees, those resources really weren't that abundant.

There was a smell of burning willow branches in the gully, which surprised Li Long a bit. Usually, aren't carrying poles woven by cutting branches in the morning and burning/weaving them in the afternoon?

When he rode over, he discovered that the one weaving the carrying poles was Xu Jianjun.

Only he was squatting by the pit next to the dugout, weaving carrying poles, while the others were scattered in the gully cutting branches and chopping poles.

Hearing the sound of the bicycle, Xu Jianjun stood up and turned his head to look. After seeing Li Long, he was stunned for a moment, then continued to squat down and weave the carrying poles.

Li Long was a bit surprised; he had opened his mouth, preparing to greet him—after all, they were all from the same team, and he was the intermediary for the task.

However, since the other party didn't have that intention, he shouldn't ask for trouble.

Li Long parked the bicycle by the stove and unloaded two wolf legs, placing them on a wooden rack—a wooden rack was placed here, and it was covered with a plastic sheet. Although the rack was a bit crude, some mushrooms, wild vegetables, and the like were placed on it. Li Long guessed it should be something Gu Bo Yuan had gotten while others were weaving carrying poles.

After setting up the bicycle, Li Long carried the small-caliber gun and began to look along the carrying pole pits that everyone had dug.

Some woven carrying poles were placed by each carrying pole pit, some more, some less. The most was five.

Li Long frowned; this progress really wasn't fast.

Fortunately, if calculated by time, there was still more than enough time to complete the task. Now it depended on the quality of the carrying poles.

Li Long picked up a carrying pole at random to look at it and found that the quality of this carrying pole was good; it was woven very densely. Although the branches varied in thickness, they were pressed very tightly. The carrying pole didn't tilt when stood up, the thickness of the two ends of the pole didn't differ much, it wasn't the kind of inferior product with uneven thickness, and the curved depression in the middle was also very appropriate. Not bad.

Li Long nodded approvingly and put the carrying pole down; he could see that the several carrying poles in this pit were all good, and then he looked at the next one.

What made Li Long quite satisfied was that these carrying poles were all good. It seemed that the people from the team who came to engage in sideline work at least had no problems with their skills; he couldn't see any cutting corners, and the quality was all up to standard.

It wasn't until he checked up to Xu Jianjun's pit that Xu Jianjun stood up somewhat reluctantly, but he still didn't speak.

Li Long bent down and picked up the carrying pole woven in front of him. Seeing that it was basically okay, he shook it hard, wanting to see if it was woven tightly.

"Stop shaking it, if you shake it apart, will you pay for it?"

"If this can be shaken apart, then your carrying pole is unqualified; go weave it again." Li Long was expressionless, "Carrying poles are for use, not for looking at. I haven't even put anything on it; if it can be shaken apart, is that called a carrying pole?"

A few words left Xu Jianjun speechless.

However, saying is saying; although his words were unpleasant, the carrying pole was woven okay, with some small flaws. Li Long pointed to the branches on the handle that hadn't been shaved clean and said:

"Shave this clean, otherwise if the person using the carrying pole scrapes their hand and gets injured, won't it still be our fault?"

"Fine, you're the supervisor, whatever you say goes." Xu Jianjun realized that Li Long was the inspector and the supervisor, and immediately cowered, "Isn't it just shaving the knots a bit cleaner? What a big deal."

Saying this, he took the carrying pole from Li Long's hand, then picked up a sickle from the side and began to shave it.

When Li Long finished checking the remaining carrying poles, Xie Yun Dong walked over carrying a bundle of branches. Seeing Li Long, he smiled and said:

"Without Xiao Long is here. How is it? Are these carrying poles all qualified? I checked them one by one last night."

"Not bad, there are some small flaws, like this one..." Li Long pointed to the handle Xu Jianjun was shaving and said, "Shave the handle area cleaner, otherwise if the person using it gets their hand cut and injured, that wouldn't be good."

"Fine, I'll have everyone check again in a while." Xie Yun Dong said readily, "Let's try our best to do a good job, strive for one-time qualification, and it's best not to have to rework."

Li Long nodded. It was naturally best if Xie Yun Dong could have this kind of thinking.

People came back one after another carrying branches and poles. They greeted Li Long one after another. The last one to return was Tao Daqiang; he was very happy to see Li Long.

"Brother Long, you're here." Tao Daqiang put down the branches and ran over, "That... how is my family?"

"Nothing, everything is fine." When Li Long went back, he had run into Tao Jian She and knew he was fine, so this wasn't a lie.

"Brother Without Xiao Long, I saw something." Tao Daqiang's voice suddenly became lower, "When I was cutting branches yesterday, I went into a small mountain gully." Tao Daqiang looked behind him and whispered:

"There was something at the time, like the roe deer you hunted. I saw it eating grass under a tree, so I didn't dare to disturb it..."

"Where?" Li Long's eyes lit up; this Tao Daqiang's luck was good!

"Just in that gully over there." Tao Daqiang pointed behind him, "The grass at the gully entrance is a bit dense, so they didn't go in... That thing also had horns on its head, but the horns looked like they had fur, and I don't know if it's velvet."

Following Li Long, Tao Daqiang also knew what deer horns were and what deer velvet was. He knew this thing was very expensive. If it really existed, Li Long could hunt it down, and he definitely wouldn't treat him badly.

Li Long was about to go over with his gun when Gu Bo Yuan walked back carrying a cloth bag of mushrooms. After seeing Li Long, he smiled and said:

"Without Xiao Long is here. It's just right to stir-fry mushrooms at noon; let's eat together."

"Okay, Uncle Gu, I brought back some wolf meat; I'll leave two legs here for you to add to your meal. You look at how to prepare the wolf meat; I don't know how to eat it well."

"Wolf meat is about the same as dog meat; braising is best. But we don't have enough seasonings, so just stewing it will do." Gu Bo Yuan was very experienced and said, "Leave it to me."

Li Long saw that although his hair and beard had grown long, he was much more spirited than when he was in the village before, so he felt relieved.

After Li Long finished talking with Gu Bo Yuan, the others all came over to ask how their families were. For those he had seen, Li Long told them the situation; for those he hadn't seen, he said he would check when he went back today and then tell them when he came back.

Xu Jianjun had already shaved the carrying pole handle. Seeing that everyone else was asking Li Long, he also wanted to ask, but in the end, he didn't open his mouth.

Xu Jianjun had always looked down on Li Long, especially the Li Long from before the New Year, but Li Long had changed too much in the past half year, yet he still didn't look up to him. However, Li Long could bring such a big business to the team, and Xu Jianjun knew that this second son of the Li family had really changed. Now he was jealous of Li Long's achievements, thinking in his heart that it would be best if Li Long stumbled this time—if the supply and marketing cooperative suddenly canceled the order, would Li Long be at a loss?

But if the order was canceled, he wouldn't be able to earn this money, which was also uncomfortable.

He was very conflicted.

After Li Long finished talking to everyone, he followed Tao Daqiang toward the mountain gully.

Some people guessed what they were going to do, but no one asked to their faces. Xie Yun Dong said while burning branches:

"With that energy, you could all weave another carrying pole. They are different from us; they don't earn the same money. Don't think so much; let's work. Weaving one more means earning one more's money."

This time, the sideline team didn't set specific tasks for each person, so weaving one meant money for one. If you had the ability to weave more, you earned more. Those who wove less naturally got less money. This "more work, more pay" rule made everyone's enthusiasm very high.

Regarding Tao Daqiang's departure, others also felt it was quite good. Tao Daqiang was the fastest to weave carrying poles, and the quality wasn't bad, which gave others a sense of crisis.

Who doesn't want to weave one more and earn more money? But the task was only three hundred; if you have one more, I will inevitably have one less.

Tao Daqiang didn't know what others were thinking; he quietly led Li Long to the entrance of that small mountain gully.

Li Long discovered that the grass here was indeed growing very lushly; the dead grass and green grass almost blocked the gully entrance.

The two carefully pulled apart the dead grass and squeezed into the small mountain gully. Li Long could tell that this small mountain gully was actually a branch of Xiaobaiyang Gully, like a stream flowing into a small river, or a fold in the mountain ridge; it wasn't deep, but ordinary people rarely entered it.

After entering, neither of them spoke. Walking more than twenty meters inside, Tao Daqiang pulled Li Long.

!.

Li Long turned his head to look and found a disappointed expression on Tao Daqiang's face. Pointing to the tree in front, he was about to speak, but Li Long immediately waved his hand. Tao Daqiang understood in a second and covered his mouth.

"Are you saying you found it under the tree in front?" Li Long asked in a low voice.

"Yeah, it seems it's not here today..."

"Let's look inside." Li Long whispered a sentence and walked toward the tree even more quietly.

There was indeed feces under the tree, and in more than one place, indicating that creatures indeed often came here.

Tao Daqiang breathed a sigh of relief, but was still somewhat disappointed. Feces meant he hadn't lied, but if that thing wasn't there, wouldn't there be no harvest?

He wanted to tell Li Long that it wouldn't work and to come back in the afternoon or tomorrow, but Li Long suddenly raised his gun.

Tao Daqiang immediately became nervous; could it be that Brother Long had discovered it?

Li Long had truly discovered it.

From before the New Year until now, whether following others to hunt or hunting by himself, Li Long had slowly cultivated some hunter's habits and feelings. He first smelled a pungent odor, then felt the grass at the top of the gully in front moving. Observing carefully, he discovered a large and a small roe deer eating grass there—or rather, the small one was eating grass, and the large one was smelling the small one's buttocks.

The large roe deer had a pair of deer velvet on its head, while the small one didn't; it should be a female.

It was about one hundred meters away. Li Long felt it was necessary to move forward—after all, he was still a novice at hunting this kind of thing with a small-caliber gun, and he wasn't very confident.

"You wait here, I'll go forward and check; don't move." Li Long whispered to Tao Daqiang and bent down to move forward.

There was a lot of grass in the gully, which was convenient for Li Long's advance. Fortunately, the windward side was at the top of the gully, which was the roe deer's side, so Li Long and the others weren't discovered.

Of course, the biggest reason, Li Long guessed, was that the male roe deer was showing off to the female roe deer, so it had no time to care about this side. After all, they had been here for quite a long time and hadn't encountered any danger.

Li Long crept until he was less than sixty meters away from the two roe deer and stopped, then raised his gun and began to aim.

His hunting method was a clumsy one—get close, shoot. If the prey ran away after getting close, that was just bad luck.

Fortunately, his luck was good today. Even though he was so close, the pair of roe deer were still there flirting; the little female roe deer was playing hard to get, and the male was already a bit impatient. Then Li Long aimed at the chest of the male roe deer and pulled the trigger.

Three shots in a row. Li Long saw the male roe deer dart out two steps after being hit and then fall to the ground, so he felt relieved.

The female roe deer darted toward the mountain ridge the moment it heard the gunshot, then flipped over and disappeared.

He currently didn't have the ability to pierce two with one shot or hit one and then hit another.

Of course, being able to hit one roe deer now was already very impressive.

After the gunshot, Tao Daqiang ran over frantically and asked nervously beside Li Long:

"Did you hit it, Brother Long?"

"Hit it." Li Long put away the gun and engaged the safety, pointing to the distance and saying, "Over there, a male one, it should have velvet."

"Brother Long, you're really amazing!" Tao Daqiang was praising him sincerely. Hitting the target every time; there were a few old people in the team who had hunted before, but they didn't have this skill.

The two went over together. Walking to the male roe deer, Li Long found that this guy was already dead; the bullet should have hit the heart, and blood flowed all over the ground.

Fortunately, the velvet on its head wasn't broken. He immediately took out his knife, cut off the pair of velvet, and smiled at Tao Daqiang:

"Daqiang, this velvet, we'll each take one."

"No, no, no, just give me ten yuan, no, no, no, just wipe off ten yuan from the money I owe you." Tao Daqiang waved his hand hurriedly, "I just told you the news, how can I take so much!"

Tao Daqiang knew that deer velvet was very expensive. He felt he hadn't done anything, just led the way, how could he take so much?

Moreover, this roe deer wasn't even discovered in the place he pointed out.

"That's settled. You get one velvet; as for the meat, I'll take a leg back for your dad. I'll leave some internal organs here, and I'll take the rest. As for the velvet, wait until I sell it for money... Forget it, let me tell you this: this velvet weighs more than a kilogram when wet, and it should weigh half a kilogram when air-dried; the money you owe me will be wiped clean."

"Can't, can't..." Tao Daqiang felt like he was in a dream after hearing Li Long's words. He felt that if he could wipe off the account by working with Brother Long this year, that would be good. After all, his family bought a donkey and also got a cart.

Now it's wiped clean?

"Hurry up and carry this roe deer back; I still have to skin it after we go back, can't wait."

"Okay, okay, okay." Tao Daqiang bent down, grabbed the large roe deer weighing forty or fifty kilograms, carried it on his shoulder, and walked back with big strides, wind under his feet.

Today, luck is really good!

(End of chapter)