Chapter 165: Exhausted Li Long

Li Long was woken up by Liang Yuemei.

"Xiao Long, why did you fall asleep leaning here?" Liang Yuemei said, "Go into the house to sleep, haven't you cooked yet? I'll go heat up some food for you."

Li Long rubbed his eyes, climbed up, and said:

"Exhausted. By the way, I brought back some meat, and some from the Tao family, I have to send a leg to Daqiang's dad later."

"Eat first before you go." Liang Yuemei hurried to the kitchen. Seeing the meat in the pot on the stove, she fished it out, washed the pot, and heated the food.

They had soup noodles for lunch, which heated up quickly. Liang Yuemei filled a bowl for Li Long and said:

"I'll get you another steamed bun, eat it with the bun, it'll keep you full."

"Alright." Li Long carried the bowl into the house. Seeing the cut salted leeks on the kitchen cutting board, he scooped some into the bowl of soup noodles—the soup noodles here referred to soup with dough slices.

"The bun is cold," Liang Yuemei came over with two buns on a plate, "It's too late to steam it, you soak it and eat it."

"Just eat it like this." Li Long took the bun and ate it in large mouthfuls, "Starving."

"Why didn't you know to eat lunch before working." Liang Yuemei said, half-complaining and half-heartbroken, "Your big brother would definitely scold you if he knew."

"My big brother is coming?" Li Long asked while eating.

"Didn't the team's sideline vegetable plot get divided into five mu for our family. In the afternoon, I went to pull weeds in our ration field, and your big brother went to the feed field over there to check the sowing situation. Sugar beets were planted, they'll be sprouting soon."

"Hmm." Li Long nodded, this matter had been discussed.

When it got dark, Li Long had eaten two large bowls of soup noodles and two buns before he was full. When he was cleaning up the bowls, he said to Liang Yuemei:

"On this trip back, I brought back half a wolf and half a roe deer. Earlier at noon, I sent a roe deer leg and a wolf leg to Wenyu's side. I saw Uncle Liang was in good health. Because I was in a hurry, I didn't see Auntie, they should all be fine."

"You went over there?" Liang Yuemei looked surprised, "No wonder... you ran back from the mountains and took a detour over there... no wonder you're so tired. You say... what do you want me to say..."

"Don't say anything," Li Long said with a smile, "Alright, I'll send the meat to Daqiang's dad first, and check on the situation of other families by the way. By the way, I'll cut another piece of meat for Uncle Lao Luo, he's also short of meat."

Uncle Lao Luo was used to a hard life and definitely wouldn't be willing to buy meat himself.

Li Long carried the roe deer leg and a piece of meat, and he went to the horse stable first.

Uncle Lao Luo was feeding the little wild boars. Seeing Li Long come over, he said with a smile:

"Xiao Long, look at these little wild boars, they are much more energetic than domestic pigs, running non-stop all day. It's just that this horse stable pen is big, otherwise it wouldn't be enough for them to toss around."

"Uncle Luo, is the feed enough?" Li Long asked.

"Enough."

"Alright then, I'll bring some more fish meal tomorrow, you mix it into the wheat bran and feed it to them. This is the roe deer meat and wolf meat I hunted in the mountains today, you make it and eat it when you have time."

"There's wolf meat too! Good, good! Xiao Long, only you are willing to give me meat to eat."

"That's because everyone's life isn't good. When life gets better, you'll see there will definitely be many people sending you meat."

In the pig pen, the five little wild boars had all grown a circle, and the one with the injured leg could still slightly be seen to have a little inconvenience.

Seeing there was still grass in the pen, it should have been cut by Uncle Lao Luo; he was very attentive.

"Uncle Lao Luo, I put two little deer at a friend's place in the mountains, can you raise them?" Li Long suddenly thought of the deer problem and asked.

"Can raise them, why can't I raise them, deer just eat grass, just get them more grass to eat. This big courtyard is enough for them to run around in."

"In a while, I'll find someone to build a wall in the middle of the courtyard, one side for the deer to run around, and one side for you to plant vegetables. When I bring the deer back, I'll bring back some manure, it's not worth it not to plant some vegetables in this big courtyard."

"You don't need to bring manure, you can sweep up a pile of manure from any corner of this horse stable." Uncle Lao Luo heard Li Long say this and replied with a smile, "It's just that I didn't know how you planned to do it, so I didn't plant any. You say we can plant, then we'll plant."

So Uncle Lao had been waiting for Li Long to speak. This made Li Long feel very surprised; this Uncle Lao had very strict rules.

The two chatted for a while, and Li Long left here and went to the Tao family.

Tao Jian She was feeding the donkey in the courtyard and was a bit surprised to see Li Long come in.

"Uncle Tao, today I hunted a roe deer with Daqiang, and I'm sending you a leg. He's doing fine in the mountains, weaving the carrying frames very quickly."

Li Long explained his intention, and Tao Jian She said with a full face of smiles:

"How does he have the ability to hunt a roe deer? It must be you who hunted it and then took care of him. Look, the family isn't short of food..."

"It was discovered when Daqiang was cutting the willow branches, he pointed out the place to me, and then I hit it." Li Long explained, "By the way, that roe deer has velvet antlers, we each have one. I told Daqiang that the money your family owes me will be offset by the velvet antlers..."

"It's not like I haven't seen a roe deer, how big can those velvet antlers be?" Tao Jian She said hurriedly, "Can't wipe it out, can't wipe it out. Xiao Long, I know you are righteous and can earn money, but that's not how things are done. It should be what it should be... Don't worry, I'll definitely be able to pay back the money by the end of the year."

Li Long was a bit surprised. Is this still the Tao Jian She who wasn't satisfied when he was given a frozen mutton leg and wanted more?

Why is the turn so big?

Tao Jian She saw Li Long's expression and knew what he had done before. He laughed and said:

"Xiao Long, don't blame your Uncle Tao for being confused before. In those poor days without meat, no one wanted to live like that!

In these few months, I've finally figured it out. Crooked ways, they never last long. How long has Daqiang been following you? Our family has a donkey and a cart now.

I was an old fool before, but I won't be a fool in the future. You don't care about the past because you have a big heart, and your Uncle Tao won't hold you back anymore. But I still have my old face, and it's not good to take advantage of you anymore..."

Tao Jian She's change made Li Long quite surprised, but also quite happy. He also didn't want to have a jerk of a father following behind when he was taking Tao Daqiang to earn money. Now that Tao Jian She's thinking could turn around, he was naturally very happy.

Next was to visit each family. Now the sun had set, and everyone who was working had returned. Li Long went to the families whose people were all there, and they were also very concerned about their family members in the mountains.

When these families knew that their family members were doing quite well in the mountains and had meat to eat, they were all quite relieved. Basically, there was nothing to explain, just asking Li Long to tell the people in the mountains to work hard.

Finally, Li Long went to the home of the village director Xu Chengjun. Xu Chengjun also asked Li Long to manage strictly, strictly control the quality of the carrying frames, and don't lose face in the end.

"Xiao Long," after Xu Chengjun finished talking about the sideline team, he hesitated and said:

"About Gu Ermao, let it be. Although he falsely accused you, he lost his apprentice status, and after he came back, your big brother beat his whole family. Now Ermao feels ashamed and doesn't know where he ran off to, so let's just leave it at that. After all, you didn't lose anything, and his family is almost falling apart now."

Only then did Li Long know that after Gu Ermao ran back, his family was beaten by his big brother!

Really didn't expect that his big brother actually had such a impulsive time!

But he originally intended to come back and finish other things, and go find trouble with Gu Ermao himself, but didn't expect this Gu Ermao to run away! Cheapened him! Otherwise, Li Long really had the heart to break his leg!

"Alright, since you, the captain, have said so, then let it be." On the surface, Li Long naturally agreed very readily; as a winner, one naturally has to be more generous.

Of course, if he met Gu Ermao in private, it would be hard to say what would happen.

When Li Long returned to the courtyard, Li Jianguo was unloading the horse cart. The cart was loaded with quite a bit of pig grass, and Li Juan and Qiangqiang were helping to carry the pig grass to the stove.

"Xiao Long is back." Li Jianguo greeted.

"Little Uncle!"

"Little Uncle!"

Li Juan and Qiangqiang ran over and greeted him enthusiastically. Li Long smiled and touched the heads of the two children. He found that Li Juan and Li Qiang had grown a bit taller.

"Little Uncle, did you hunt a wolf again? I saw a wolf head! And such long teeth!" Li Qiang grabbed the chance to say, "Is a wolf hard to hunt?"

"Not easy to hunt, last night, it almost ate me!" Li Long scared him, "So don't go into the mountains alone, it's very dangerous!"

"Hmm!" Li Qiang now admired Li Long the most, so he had to listen to what he said.

!.

Li Jianguo watched the interaction between the uncle and nephew with a smile, while Li Juan went to chop the pig grass, her ears pricked up high, listening to Li Long talk about things in the mountains.

"Now the team has started to string lines, and in a few days, the electricity will be connected." Li Jianguo suddenly said, "When Qiangqiang goes to school, he will be able to use electric lights, and then he won't be under an oil lamp when doing homework."

He looked at Li Juan and said again:

"Juan going to school is quite hard, but it will be better later."

Li Juan smiled, lowered her head, and continued to chop pig grass, while Li Qiang ran over to help. Liang Yuemei came out of the house, holding two pairs of shoes and handed them to Li Long.

"Sister-in-law, did you make shoes for me again?" Li Long took the shoes and looked at them with some surprise, "These are different from the shoe patterns you used before."

"These weren't made by me for you, these were made by Xiaoxia, one pair for you, and one pair for her dad." Liang Yuemei said with a smile, "Two days ago, Xiaoxia specifically ran to the house and said she hadn't seen you for several days, and didn't know if you were in the mountains, so she put the shoes here, telling you to wear them and take them when you come back."

"Made by Xiaoxia?" Li Long was a bit surprised. Gu Xiaoxia didn't say anything today. Was this intended to give him a surprise?

"You didn't see, before Xiaoxia came that day, Sister-in-law Lu also said that Xiaoxia would be eating public food in the future, and wouldn't be suitable for you anymore, and might not even look at you. As a result, she had just finished speaking when Xiaoxia came over, put the two pairs of shoes there, and that Sister-in-law Lu..."

Liang Yuemei smiled, turned her head to look at the Lu family, and continued:

"Her face was so awkward—Xiaoxia is still a good person, doesn't forget her roots, she's a good girl."

Li Long took the shoes and put them into the east room, then came out and started to process the wolf skin and roe deer skin. He also didn't know how to tan skins. He had already wiped them with salt before, and the next step was to stretch the skins out, stretch them as flat as possible, to facilitate later sale.

After finishing the work, the extra meal for the evening at Liang Yuemei's side was also ready. They cooked cornmeal porridge, so Li Long went to the idle room to get the dried small fish he had dried before, and slowly warmed them by the stove fire. In a while, the dried fish were hot, golden yellow, and Li Long handed the dried small fish to Li Qiang:

"Qiangqiang, go and share them with your parents and sister."

Li Qiang happily took the dried fish and shared them with everyone one by one.

"There are two left." Li Qiang came over with one dried fish in each hand and said to Li Long.

"Both are yours, eat slowly." Li Long kept one for himself, and this one was also warmed up. He broke off the fish head, blew off the ash, put it in his mouth, and chewed it crunchily.

The dried fish was a bit salty, dried quite thoroughly, and because it was warmed well, the bones and thorns inside were all charred, so it was very crispy to eat, and the thorns could be chewed and swallowed together.

The whole family ate the dried salted fish slowly, occasionally taking a sip of porridge, feeling it was really not bad.

After dinner, Li Jianguo, Liang Yuemei, and Li Long cut the meat into smaller pieces. Liang Yuemei told Li Long to go back and rest, while she and Li Jianguo braised the meat. Li Long returned to the east room and tried on the shoes.

Gu Bo Yuan wasn't as tall as him, and his feet weren't as big as his, so the shoes were naturally a small size. Li Long tried the large-sized shoes and was surprised to find that they actually fit quite well.

This girl Xiaoxia is quite attentive, when did she find out his shoe size?

Wearing the shoes, Li Long walked out of the room. He saw Li Jianguo also sitting by the stove in the courtyard smoking, a bit surprised, but then he sat down next to him.

"Big brother, did you beat the Gu family?"

"Hmm, Gu Ermao set you up twice, that's not a joke, he was trying to put you in jail, could I tolerate him?"

Li Jianguo's words were light, but the lines were full of murderous intent:

"It was just that he ran fast, otherwise..."

Li Jianguo didn't continue, and Li Long guessed that the following words must be full of blood.

"Actually, I also thought about coming back to clean them up, just didn't expect him to run away... Besides, our family has Juan and Qiangqiang..."

"What's there to fear?" Li Jianguo didn't talk about his worries at the time, took a puff of Mohe tobacco, "The second day after the beating, I was originally going to take Juan to school, but he ran away, coward!"

Li Long smiled, actually his big brother was also afraid. Beating the Gu family should also have been an impulsive act after hearing the news of him being accused.

The character of protecting the young had never changed.

"Big brother, our family's life is better now, do you think we should bring Mom and Dad over to live for a while?"

Li Jianguo turned his head to look at Li Long, a bit surprised.

Although Li Long grew up by his parents' side until he was ten or so, he had never been very close to the people in his hometown, including his parents.

Now suddenly proposing to bring his parents over, this change was a bit big.

"I remember it seems that in the past two years, there were still people in the hometown who couldn't get enough to eat, unlike us here, where we can eat meat every day." Li Long said with emotion, "Although Dad said he wouldn't care about me anymore and handed me over to you, they are parents after all. The hometown is in such an environment, they are also having a hard time. Now that our life is relaxed, letting them come here to live a good life, isn't that what should be done?"

"Alright, in two days when the fields are busy, I'll send a telegram home to see what they think."

His younger brother having such thoughts, Li Jianguo was actually quite happy.

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 166 =====