Chapter 173: Some people are born with a wicked heart

Before Li Long opened the bag, he thought the fritillaria inside would be about the same as the day before.

However, when he opened it, he discovered that the fritillaria bulbs were of all different sizes and mixed with grass leaves. A slight dissatisfaction arose in his heart—not directed at the two people opposite him, but at whoever had dug them up.

He couldn't help but complain inwardly: "There are so many fritillaria in that gully, don't you know to pick the big ones and leave the small ones to grow for another two years?"

"And when digging, you didn't even remove the grass leaves. Don't you know the purchasing station will downgrade your fritillaria because of that?"

Of course, he only complained in his heart; after all, the two people in front of him were just the ones collecting the fritillaria, not the ones who dug them.

He lifted the bag to weigh it, and his heart skipped a beat—something was wrong!

He looked up at the interpreter and asked:

"Is the fritillaria you got from others usually like this?"

"No, no, no, we dug these ourselves," the interpreter waved his hand. "They weren't taken from others."

Li Long smiled, and after he finished smiling, he said seriously:

"This isn't our first time doing business. Do you know how to dig fritillaria? Impossible. These must have been collected from others. Don't worry, I'm just a purchaser; I don't care about that much."

"Alright, alright, you Han people are too smart—these fritillaria were confiscated by us from a few people. They went into the gully to dig fritillaria without our permission. These were dug by three people..."

"Did you put together what three people dug?" Li Long asked. "This fritillaria... is not good."

"Where is it not good?" The interpreter suddenly became unwilling and retorted with a question.

The team leader next to them sensed that the conversation between the two was a bit off, asked a question, the interpreter replied, and then he said a string of words.

The interpreter translated for Li Long:

"We rely on this to earn some pocket money. This fritillaria is indeed not as good as yesterday's; you can lower the price a bit, we are willing."

The interpreter translated somewhat reluctantly, but he could see that Li Long was truly dissatisfied.

Li Long sneered and said:

"I'm saying, the weight of this fritillaria is wrong! Did you mix something into it?"

He reached out to grab into the fritillaria bag.

The interpreter suddenly became anxious, pushed Li Long away, and said loudly:

"If you don't want to buy it, then don't touch it! Don't talk nonsense; you don't trust us, your heart is wicked! We won't do business with Han people like you anymore!"

Saying this, he pulled the bag, preparing to leave.

Li Long thought that if they didn't want to do it, then fine, but when he looked up, he discovered that it was the interpreter who was anxious. The team leader's gaze was somewhat confused, and he immediately asked the interpreter a string of questions. The interpreter pointed at Li Long very anxiously, his tone very aggressive, and Li Long realized what was going on!

This interpreter had a problem!

He stepped forward and snatched the bag away. When the interpreter tried to grab it, Li Long slid the small-caliber rifle off his shoulder and leveled it.

The interpreter stepped back, his face turning pale. Facing a gun barrel, not many people were truly unafraid!

The team leader's face, however, showed anger. He drew a knife directly from his waist, glared at Li Long, and said a long string of words.

At this moment, Xie Yun Dong, Tao Daqiang, and the others over there saw Li Long draw his gun and immediately ran over, shouting loudly, intending to support Li Long.

After Xie Yun Dong arrived, he asked: "Xiao Long, what's going on?"

"This interpreter has a problem; he mixed something into the fritillaria..."

"Damn it, a profiteer!" Xie Yun Dong's face changed upon hearing this. "I hate these people who cheat others the most! You say how to handle it, should we beat them up first?"

As he said this, Tao Daqiang had already rolled up his sleeves, preparing to go up.

"No, no, no, this interpreter likely did it himself; the team leader probably doesn't know. The trouble now is that we don't understand their language and can't communicate... You watch him, I'll dump the bag out and let the team leader see clearly..."

"No need, no need, I'll translate for you! I still understand a few sentences." Xie Yun Dong smiled upon hearing this. "Although not many, it's enough to make them understand."

Li Long looked at Xie Yun Dong with some surprise; he really didn't expect him to be able to speak a minority language!

It seemed that Xu Chengjun choosing him as the team leader also had reasons related to this.

The two people watched this group of people surround them. The interpreter had already led the horse, preparing to mount and flee, but the team leader was very stubborn, holding a knife while shouting and scolding something.

Xie Yun Dong spoke a few sentences, and the interpreter's face immediately became flustered.

The team leader stopped scolding, but it was obvious he didn't understand.

Xie Yun Dong was a bit embarrassed. He then slowly repeated a word several times, gesturing while pointing at the fritillaria, then pointing at the interpreter, and also pointing at Li Long. The team leader finally understood something.

He turned his head to look at the interpreter, who was explaining something with a flustered face.

The team leader looked at Li Long. Xie Yun Dong pointed at the fritillaria and asked Li Long in a low voice:

"Xiao Long, this fritillaria really has a problem, right? We have to look now; let's not make a mistake..."

"Don't worry, there's definitely a problem! Yesterday, a bag like this weighed at most ten kilograms; now this bag is almost fifteen kilograms. If it's not filled with other things, I can swallow these fritillaria whole!"

Li Long was very certain; the weight difference was quite large!

Xie Yun Dong, having received Li Long's guarantee, immediately became confident and spoke a few more sentences to the team leader in a loud voice. Although it was somewhat intermittent and he had to think while speaking, the meaning was very clear.

Li Long put away his gun at this time. The team leader also put away his knife, stepped forward, scooped up the fritillaria bag, and then, with the bag opening facing up, dumped the fritillaria directly onto the grass!

A large pile of fritillaria scattered all over the ground, revealing the large and small stones mixed inside!

The team leader's face turned red. He never expected that the one causing the trouble this time would be his own subordinate!

The team leader grabbed his horse whip and lashed out at the interpreter, scolding him while hitting him.

"He said that the interpreter disgraced them, brought shame to their ethnic group, and made him lose face..." Xie Yun Dong translated for Li Long in a low voice. "There are other things he said that I don't quite understand."

Fine, knowing the general meaning is enough.

After taking several lashes, the interpreter couldn't take it anymore, mounted his horse, and ran away. The team leader, panting, turned back and said a few sentences to Xie Yun Dong.

Xie Yun Dong translated:

"He said he is sorry to you, and he doesn't want this fritillaria anymore..."

"No, no, no, you tell him I'll still collect the remaining fritillaria." Li Long hurriedly took out twenty yuan and handed it over:

"Fritillaria money is fritillaria money. Since it wasn't their intention, but the act of an individual, then the business continues."

The team leader refused once, but Li Long insisted on giving it. In the end, he accepted the money, said something vaguely with a red face, and left on horseback. "Come, come, come, help pack these fritillaria." Xie Yun Dong said. "Everyone did well today; it's not in vain that Xiao Long often brings us meat to eat."

"That's right, we're all in the same team; can we not stick together at a time like this?" Feeling that he had helped Li Long, Tian Siping said with a glowing face, "Whatever we say in the team is fine, but when we're out, we must be of one heart!"

"Exactly, exactly, bullying Xiao Long is bullying us; can we let them succeed?"

Everyone felt as if they had won a battle, talking while packing the fritillaria into bags.

"Xiao Long, is this fritillaria easy to sell?" someone suddenly asked.

"It's alright." Li Long said. "The purchasing station is still collecting it. However, you've seen the mountains now; they've all been divided into the areas of various forestry teams. If you want to dig fritillaria, it's... quite troublesome."

"Alright, alright, let's honestly weave the carrying poles!" Xie Yun Dong saw that everyone had finished picking up the fritillaria and said, "Just earning money like this, how many people in the team envy us; don't look at one mountain while standing on another! If it weren't for Xiao Long, we wouldn't even be able to do this work of weaving carrying poles!"

After Xie Yun Dong said this, everyone's minds settled, and they each went to weave carrying poles.

Li Long tied the fritillaria bag to the back seat of his bicycle. In fact, he had hesitated for a moment just now: should he, after the carrying poles were finished, take this side-line team to the fritillaria gully near his winter den to dig for a day and earn some extra money for everyone?

But thinking about it, he decided against it. This place was allocated to the forestry team, and the other side was naturally the same. Taking risks for a day's extra money wasn't worth it. If he went to dig by himself, he had procedures and proof, so it could be explained, but taking people over there would be hard to explain.

After packing the fritillaria, Li Long went to check the area with the wild boar that Wei Zhong Hua mentioned.

!.

Before he even arrived, he heard the wild boar calling. Li Long immediately became happy; this time the wild boar was also caught, truly not bad!

However, Li Long didn't lower his guard. He took down his gun, opened the safety, loaded the bullets, and walked down the hillside while leveling it.

The original spot was a mess. The branches and leaves at the location of the pit were scattered everywhere. The wild boar had arched the surroundings into a mess, and the edge of the pit had also been arched and chipped away quite a bit.

Now, there was more than one thing squealing and grunting in the pit, and from time to time, he could see a wild boar poking its head out, trying to dash upward.

There were no wild boars in the surroundings; it was obvious that the other members of this wild boar group had dashed into the mountains for some reason.

When Li Long arrived at the edge of the pit, he saw a half-grown wild boar constantly trying to dash out. A pit of more than a meter wasn't too deep for it, but this pig had an injury on its leg—he didn't know if it was an old injury or one sustained from falling in this time—so its dash wasn't fierce. Each time it was about the same, but it just couldn't dash up.

There were also three small wild boars in the pit. One had already been crushed to death, and of the other two, one was also injured, poked by a tree branch.

This half-grown wild boar saw Li Long coming, turned its head, and grunted at Li Long to show off—or rather, to intimidate. Of course, in Li Long's view, it felt a bit like a paper tiger.

He raised his gun and fired two shots "bang, bang" at the half-grown wild boar's head.

The wild boar fell to the ground before it even understood what was happening.

Li Long put away his gun, went to the edge of the pit, reached one leg down, grabbed the wild boar's front leg, and pulled it up with effort.

The remaining two small wild boars saw the half-grown wild boar being pulled up and were somewhat panicked, squealing even louder.

Li Long didn't have time to deal with them. He went up, pushed his bicycle down, took the fritillaria bag off, and hung it on the front handlebars. Then he placed the half-grown wild boar on the back seat, tied it up with a rope, and stood the bicycle up. Only then did he go down into the pit, put all three small wild boars—dead or alive—into a sack, and carried them up.

In just this short while, green-headed flies had already smelled the scent and were crawling onto the half-grown wild boar.

Li Long hung the sack on the front handlebars of the bike and pushed the bike toward Xiaobaiyang Gully.

When he arrived at the entrance of Xiaobaiyang Gully, Li Long shouted loudly:

"Brother Wei Zhong Hua, Wei Zhong Hua!"

Wei Zhong Hua, who was cutting strips, had actually been paying attention to the movement here all along. As soon as Li Long's voice came over, he immediately grabbed his sickle and dashed over, responding loudly while running:

"Xiao Long, Xiao Long, I'm coming!"

Wei Zhong Hua saw Li Long bringing a half-grown wild boar, as well as the sack on the front handlebars that was moving from time to time, and the smile on his face couldn't be stopped. He threw his sickle there as he passed the dugout and then ran to Li Long's side, helping to push the bicycle over.

"One half-grown wild boar, two live piglets, and one dead piglet." Li Long said while pushing. "Do you want a live piglet, or do you want a wild boar leg?"

"Divided for me?" Wei Zhong Hua listened and smiled even more happily. He thought for a moment and asked Li Long: "Xiao Long, do you think these piglets can be raised?"

"I don't know about that. I have a few piglets in the old horse corral, letting Uncle Lao Luo help raise them, and I don't know if they can be raised either."

"Then... I'll take a piglet." Wei Zhong Hua gritted his teeth and said, "I've been to the morning market; a piglet costs ten yuan! Raising a small wild boar is also fine. Not saying to raise it to a hundred catties, but if it can be raised to seventy or eighty catties, it's enough to eat meat for a winter."

"That's fine. When I go back today, I'll send the small piglet to your house." Li Long said. "Is there anything else you want to send?"

"No, just let your sister-in-law raise it casually. This thing came for free, so we won't make it so delicate."

Although he said this, Wei Zhong Hua's eyes were actually fixed on the sack hanging on the bicycle handlebars.

"Take it down and open it to see." Li Long said with a smile. "It just so happens that I need you to help me clean up this half-grown wild boar."

"Fine, fine." Wei Zhong Hua immediately took the sack down, untied the hemp rope at the mouth of the bag, and looked inside. The two live small wild boars inside immediately wanted to dash out.

"Why is one injured?" Wei Zhong Hua frowned.

"The injured one belongs to me, and the healthy one is yours." Li Long said. "Let's cook and eat the dead one here in a while."

The small wild boar was crushed to death, and it hadn't been dead for long, so there was no problem with eating it.

Tao Daqiang also ran over and helped Li Long get the half-grown wild boar down. He was used to being an assistant and very skillfully began preparing to open the wild boar's belly and skin it.

Others came over to help, and some were cutting strips in the distance and didn't see it.

The half-grown wild boar was only fifty-something kilograms, and opening the belly, skinning, and processing the internal organs took only forty minutes. There wasn't much fat in the belly of this half-grown wild boar. Li Long packed up all the internal organs to take away, leaving a leg and the dead small wild boar here.

Just with this, the people of the side-line team were already extremely happy.

There was meat to eat again!

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 174 =====