Chapter 164: Looking at Gu Xiaoxia: Feeling More and More Like Home

Tao Daqiang was carrying the roe deer in front, and Li Long was holding two roe deer antlers in the back. In just this short while, less than half an hour, it really felt a bit magical.

Looking at that big guy and the things in Li Long's hands, many people's gazes became eager.

Some of them had been to the sideline production team and knew how valuable this stuff was.

If you could really get one, even if it wasn't velvet antler but just deer antlers, that would still be dozens of yuan!

It was equal to a month's work for themselves!

"Daqiang, where did you get it?" someone asked immediately.

"It must have been hunted by Xiao Long," another person said. "Right, Daqiang? Xiao Long, your marksmanship is good! Is it a small-caliber rifle? Impressive, impressive!"

"Just in the ditch ahead..." Tao Daqiang was still honest, pointing behind him and saying, "I saw it when I was cutting the willow branches. I just mentioned it to Brother Long, and I didn't expect that Brother Long would hit it as soon as he went... Hehe..."

Daqiang's silly laugh made others feel that his luck was really good. If it were them, they could surely do it too, perhaps even better!

"Xiao Long, is that velvet antler in your hand? It looks like it's still bleeding..."

"Is this a roe deer? Roe deer have velvet antlers too? First time seeing this!"

Gu Bo Yuan was washing vegetables and preparing to cook. Seeing Li Long holding the pair of velvet antlers, he asked immediately:

"Xiao Long, did you just cut these? Do you know how to process them?"

"Air-dry them?" Li Long was a bit uncertain.

"At this temperature, they'll rot before you can air-dry them." Gu Bo Yuan had an "I knew you'd say that" expression, then pointed to the salt jar nearby and said:

"Clean the surface, take some salt, mix it with some mud, then smear it on the outside of the velvet antlers, wrap it tightly, and put it in a cool, dry room until it's completely dry. Actually, you can also bake it dry, but I don't know if you can manage the heat."

Li Long understood immediately that this must be the old way of processing velvet antlers. He honestly thanked Gu Bo Yuan, took salt from the jar by the stove, and went to the stream to mix the mud.

After wrapping the two roe deer velvet antlers well and setting them aside, Li Long pulled out his knife and began to skin the roe deer.

"Xiao Long is capable, look how neatly he skins it!"

"That's for sure, Xiao Long must have hunted quite a few good things in the past half year, right? His skinning technique must have been practiced."

Some people were burning branches to start weaving a carrying frame, while others came to Li Long's side, watching him skin the roe deer.

Li Long didn't pay much attention to them. After opening the carcass, he dragged out the internal organs and gave them to Tao Daqiang. Tao Daqiang asked Gu Bo Yuan for a large basin and took the offal to wash.

"Xiao Long, how are you handling these internal organs? Are you taking them away?" someone asked.

"No, I'll take the stomach, you guys can keep the rest to eat," Li Long said. "Daqiang discovered the thing, so these organs are his, and he's also taking a leg back for his dad."

Li Long had left wild boar meat for the sideline team before, and today he had sent wolf meat, so he left the favor of the roe deer organs to Tao Daqiang.

This stuff couldn't be kept for too long, and everyone was working together, so Li Long didn't mind sharing some out.

After all, Li Long took a cut of the money from their work.

Everyone surely had their guesses about this, but no one would speak ill of Li Long. Without Li Long, they wouldn't even have the qualifications to earn this money.

Li Long skinned the roe deer, and at this time Xu Jianjun came over and asked:

"Do you want the roe deer's gun and eggs? If not, give them to me."

"I want them." Li Long replied with only one word, not even looking at him, and continued skinning.

Xu Jianjun turned bright red, and the others had varied expressions, not saying much.

After skinning, Li Long wrapped the whole roe deer with the skin again. Gu Bo Yuan came over and greeted him:

"Xiao Long, eat something before you go, the food is almost ready."

"No, Gu Shu," Li Long used to call Gu Bo Yuan 'brother' following Li Jianguo, but now he had changed his address unconsciously, "I need to rush back and take the meat and antlers back, otherwise if they spoil, the loss will be huge."

"Alright." Gu Bo Yuan stopped persuading him. These precious things were more important. He held a cloth bag of mushrooms and said:

"These are wild mushrooms I picked this morning. Keep some, and take the rest to Xiaoxia."

"Alright." Li Long didn't use polite words either; they were all their own people, and saying too much would only be awkward.

Tao Daqiang had already washed the stomach and brought it to Li Long. Li Long stuffed the stomach into the roe deer's cavity, then hugged it onto the back seat of his bicycle. With Tao Daqiang's help, he tied it up and greeted Xie Yun's group:

"Brother Yun, I'm leaving first. I'll come back in a day or two. Do you guys need anything brought over?"

"Nothing, nothing." Xie Yun waved his hand, "We only arrived a couple of days ago, nothing needed."

"Alright then, I'll check with each family when I get back, and if there's anything or any message, I'll bring it over for you."

Li Long pedaled his bicycle, carrying his rifle, and headed out of the ditch.

Seeing him ride far away, Xu Jianjun shook his head and said:

"A young man having that gun is useless anyway."

"Would it be useful if you had it? Are you failing in that department?" someone who couldn't stand him said half-jokingly.

Tao Daqiang didn't participate in their gossip and took the offal to help Gu Bo Yuan.

Xu Jianjun didn't want to let him go and asked loudly:

"Daqiang, you discovered this roe deer, and Xiao Long said he'd leave a leg for your family, but the antlers are the most valuable part, did he take them all?"

"The roe deer was hunted by Xiao Long. Without Xiao Long, Daqiang would just be staring even if he saw it, right? Besides, didn't Xiao Long say he left the offal here, and there's also a leg being put at his house..."

Xie Yun was dissatisfied with Xu Jianjun's provocation and said loudly:

"Xiao Long has been righteous enough doing this. You guys think about it, if someone told you where something was and let you hunt it, after you hunted it, what would you give the other person?"

"Yeah, yeah!" Others put themselves in his shoes. If they had hit the prey, would they give the other person the offal and a leg?

"Probably not, a leg would be about it."

Tao Daqiang turned his head and said:

"Brother Long also gave me one antler, saying that the money my family owes him would be wiped out... I can't afford it. He gave me too much."

"You heard that!" Xie Yun turned his head to look at Xu Jianjun, then looked at the others, "Xiao Long is a righteous person, let's not talk behind his back anymore. When you guys discover something, you can actually find Xiao Long to hunt it. You might not be able to hit it yourself, but finding Xiao Long at least means you can share quite a bit of stuff."

He thought to himself that if he discovered something, he would definitely find Li Long to hunt it.

He had been in the sideline team for several years and had seen too many people who bragged big but were cowards when things actually happened.

He also believed that among these people, at least half would go for it themselves if they discovered something; hogging it all was more in line with most people's character.

"Are those velvet antlers that expensive?" someone exclaimed, "Dozens of yuan a branch?"

"Depends on the size." Gu Bo Yuan said from over there while washing vegetables, "Velvet antlers are sold by the ten grams or hundred grams when weighed. If you talk about kilograms, a kilogram would cost at least a hundred yuan, of course, that's dried." "That's not cheap either!" The person asking didn't know the price of velvet antlers. It was his first time at the sideline team, and it was this sentence that brought the matter out into the open, "The money from selling a pair of roe deer velvet antlers is more than what can be earned in a year!"

This was everyone's inner voice.

Gu Bo Yuan smiled, Xie Yun also smiled, and Tao Daqiang simply lowered his head to work without speaking.

Who is stupider than whom?

Li Long pedaled his bicycle, riding with the wind towards the county. Arriving at the courtyard, he put the pair of velvet antlers into the side room. In the courtyard, he cut a wolf leg and a roe deer leg and tied them up, then locked the door and went east, arriving at Liang Yuemei's maiden home.

It was noon, and every household had finished lunch and was resting.

Li Long's bicycle entered the courtyard, and Liang Wenyu got up. Liang Donglou was closing his eyes to rest his mind; he had heard the sound outside.

"Wenyu, I just came back from the mountains. This is a wolf leg, and this is a roe deer leg, just got them today. You guys keep them to eat, I'll take the rest back."

"You just came back?" Liang Wenyu only then noticed Li Long's dusty appearance, "Come into the house and drink some water."

Liang Wenyu truly felt the changes in Li Long. He was certain that Li Long coming to deliver meat definitely wasn't something his sister had urged him to do; it was Li Long's own idea.

Previously, Liang Wenyu was a bit puzzled about his father always actively helping the Li family, but now he understood a little bit.

For one, the Li family were relatives, his brother-in-law's family, and for another, the Li family knew how to be grateful.

!.

"No, I need to rush back and process the meat. Although it's not hot today, meat can't be kept for long."

The Li family wasn't short of meat, but they wouldn't waste meat either.

"Xiao Long, then thank you for your hard work." Liang Donglou walked out of the house and said, "Come sit when you're free, you go ahead and get busy."

"Alright, Uncle Liang, I'm leaving first." Li Long greeted him, then pedaled his bicycle out of the courtyard and slipped away.

Although he could return directly to the team from here, Li Long still took a turn and circled around to the Hongqi Township Middle School.

At this time, the students had already started class in the afternoon. When Li Long arrived at the female teachers' dormitory, he found Gu Xiaoxia wasn't there.

Did she go to class?

Just as Li Long intended to go to the classroom to look for her, he found Gu Xiaoxia walking over from the office.

"You're here? From the mountains? You haven't been home yet, right?" Seeing Li Long's attire, Gu Xiaoxia understood, "Come, come to my dormitory and wash up."

"No, I brought you some things." Li Long pushed the bicycle to the dormitory door, stood it up, pulled out his knife, and asked:

"Do you eat wolf meat?"

"No." Gu Xiaoxia hurriedly waved her hand.

"Then I'll leave you some roe deer meat." Li Long cut a large piece from the roe deer's body, about three to five kilograms, and put it on the cutting board in Gu Xiaoxia's dormitory, "Cook this meat for dinner or lunch. If you can't finish it, send some to your colleagues, or make it into cured meat."

Then he took the cloth bag Gu Bo Yuan had given him off the bicycle and said:

"These are mushrooms Gu Shu picked in the mountains that he asked me to bring down for you. He's in very good spirits in the mountains, so you don't need to worry."

"Alright. Come over, I've drawn water for you, wash up." Gu Xiaoxia had already taken a washbasin and poured water, and brought a towel and soap, "Look at all the dust on your face and body."

As she spoke, she naturally took her own towel and brushed the dust off Li Long's body—this made Li Long freeze for a moment.

It seemed that in some movie clips in his mind, it was the wife helping the husband do this when he returned from work. This scene was so familiar.

He froze for a moment, then simply started washing with the basin—to be honest, he didn't feel it in the mountains, but when he started washing his face properly, he realized the dust on his face could be rolled into pills.

After just a simple wash, the water in the basin had turned gray. Gu Xiaoxia smiled, picked up the basin, changed it for a new one, and asked while handing him the soap:

"Is it very hard in the mountains?"

"It's alright." Li Long didn't act pretentious. After washing thoroughly and wiping with a towel, he picked up the basin of water, walked a few steps outside, splashed it on the ground, then put the basin on the rack and said to Gu Xiaoxia:

"Friends in the mountains built me a winter shelter, just like a wooden villa. When you're free, I'll take you to see it. Now wild mushrooms are out in the mountains, there are many wild vegetables, and the scenery is good, suitable for a trip."

"Then when I'm free, I'll go see it?" Gu Xiaoxia revealed a yearning expression, "I haven't even left the county yet."

"It's not considered leaving the county, but the scenery is different from ours here." Li Long had just said it casually, but he didn't expect Gu Xiaoxia to be really interested, and his heart skipped a beat, "Then when Sunday comes, shall I take you to see your dad?"

"Okay!" Gu Xiaoxia nodded repeatedly, "Then I'll prepare well these few days! How about next week? I have nothing to do next Sunday..."

"Alright." Li Long said with a smile, "Anyway, my time is flexible, it depends on you."

"Then it's settled!" Gu Xiaoxia looked at Li Long seriously.

"Alright." Li Long walked to the bicycle and said, "You process this meat, I also need to take the rest back and tidy it up. I'll come find you when the time comes."

"Okay."

Gu Xiaoxia watched Li Long leave until she couldn't see his figure anymore, then she entered the dormitory and started to tidy up the meat and mushrooms.

The wild mushrooms had all been processed one by one, the soil on the stalks had been scraped off, and they looked very clean, uniform, and beautiful.

The meat was cut from the fatty parts, with bones and meat, quite a large piece. If it didn't spoil, this piece alone would be enough for her to eat for a week or two.

Gu Xiaoxia started calculating what to bring for her father while cutting the meat.

She also wondered if Li Long would think the shoes she made for him were ugly when he got home?

Li Long rode very fast, and ten minutes later he arrived at the village. He went to the Tao family first, and seeing Tao Jian She wasn't there, he rode back to the Li family.

There were no students on the road; those in preschool were in preschool, those in primary school were in primary school, Li Juan and the others hadn't finished school yet, and the adults were all working in the fields. Li Long returned to the courtyard and found the door locked, so he found the key at the window, opened the door, and started processing the meat.

This was the hottest time of the day. Although Li Long had eaten two pieces of mutton in the morning, he felt hungry after such a long time.

But there were flies coming, and he knew he had to process the meat as soon as possible, otherwise if the flies laid maggots on it, although the meat could still be eaten, that stuff would be so disgusting.

While shooing away the flies, he peeled off the last bit of skin from the roe deer, then unloaded the remaining three legs and divided the meat. By the time the roe deer and wolf meat were processed, the sun was already slanting west.

More than half of the meat had been salted by him, the rest had been cleaned and was ready to be braised, and there was one leg ready to be sent to the Tao family later.

Finally, he could rest. It was only at this moment that Li Long felt he was truly exhausted.

The kind where you could fall asleep just by closing your eyes.

From now on, never rush like this again.

It's too exhausting.

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 165 =====