Chapter 182: Water rats are good stuff!

The next day, Li Long slept until the sun was high before getting up.

It wasn't that he was intentionally lazing in bed, nor was he tired; he just felt listless and didn't want to get up.

After he got up, Li Jianguo and Liang Wenyu had already gone to the fields, and Li Juan and Li Qiang had also left for school early. In the courtyard, apart from the occasional pig grunt, the only sounds were the hens leading their chicks to forage.

The sunlight wasn't too intense yet. Li Long went to the kitchen and saw that breakfast was covered: porridge, steamed buns, and vegetables.

He finished his meal slowly, washed the bowl, stared blankly for a while, and then returned to his east room. He spread a cloth on the floor and began to clean his gun.

During the time he was in the mountains, Li Jianguo had already dismantled the heated brick beds (kang) in both rooms and replaced them with steel-pipe beds.

The steel-pipe beds were very simple: bed frames at both ends connected by angle iron to form a rectangular frame, with wooden boards laid across the middle.

With the fire walls, heated beds, and stoves removed, the space in the rooms was much larger.

Ever since that one shot wounded a deer but yielded nothing, Li Long knew that for hunting in the mountains, the small-caliber rifle's power was still too weak; he had to switch to a Type 56 semi-automatic rifle.

He carefully wiped the small-caliber rifle clean, rubbed it inside and out with an oiled cloth, and put it into the gun case.

This thing could wait until winter for hunting wild rabbits, foxes, and the like.

The Type 56 felt very heavy in his hands. Li Long took it apart piece by piece, wiped it carefully, and then reassembled it.

The only troublesome thing now was that Type 56 ammunition wasn't as easy to obtain as small-caliber rounds. Although he still had a hundred or so rounds, small-caliber ammo could be bought, while Type 56 ammo could only be collected from "civilian" sources.

It seemed he would have to wait until the winter militia training to get some. At worst, he could trade meat for bullets.

Just as he finished cleaning the Type 56, Li Long heard footsteps outside. His room door wasn't closed, so he called out:

"Who is it?"

"Brother Long, it's me." It was Tao Daqiang's voice.

Li Long asked while tidying up the cleaning cloth on the floor:

"Why aren't you resting properly? You're here already?"

"I slept for a day, I'm not tired anymore." Tao Daqiang chuckled, "Brother Long, are we still catching fish?"

"If you're not tired, then let's catch some," Li Long said. "Later, we'll check the nets and go set them in the afternoon."

"Why the afternoon? Can't we do it now?"

"If we go now, the fish will get caught in the nets, and the silver carp won't last half a day before dying. How will we sell them tomorrow?" Li Long explained to him. "Set the nets in the afternoon, and retrieve the fish in the morning. If the fish get caught in the nets, they likely won't die overnight, and even if they do, they won't rot."

"Oh, I see." Tao Daqiang was greatly enlightened.

Li Long put the gun away and walked out of the room. Just as he was about to go get the nets, he suddenly thought of something and said to Tao Daqiang:

"Shall we go dig for water rats?"

"Sure!" Tao Daqiang immediately thought of the water rats and said excitedly, "Water rat fur!"

"They're shedding now, so the fur might not be as valuable as in winter, but they're easier to dig for now than in winter..."

"I'll go get the iron shovel..." Tao Daqiang didn't wait for Li Long to finish speaking; he turned and ran.

Li Long wanted to call out, but in the end, he didn't.

They had an iron shovel at home, but since Tao Daqiang wanted to get one, he could let him.

The two of them carried the iron shovels and walked toward the Little Haizi. As they walked, Tao Daqiang asked:

"Brother Long, do you think there are water rats in the Big Haizi behind us?"

"Probably not, and even if there are, there would be few." Li Long thought for a moment and said, "Water rats like to stay where there are reeds. Most of the Big Haizi side is bare, and even if there are any, they'd be on the south bank. We'll go check when we have time."

The two arrived at the Little Haizi, and Li Long led Tao Daqiang toward the east bank.

"Brother Long, why walk this way?"

"The north side is an embankment," Li Long explained as they walked. "Even if there are water rat burrows, we can't dig them up. Digging on the south and east sides doesn't matter; it won't have any major impact."

"Are there any signs for water rat burrows?" Tao Daqiang asked again.

"Just look," Li Long recalled, shook his head, and said, "The burrow is by the water's edge, half above and half below the water."

The two began to search section by section. Li Long remembered that in his previous life, water rats were quite numerous at this time, and they soon found a burrow in a patch of grass.

The entrance had green droppings and was covered by grass; without looking carefully, one could barely see any traces. However, half of it was underwater, and one could tell that something was frequently entering and exiting.

"This is it, let's dig." Li Long said, "Watch other places while digging; there might be other exits."

Tao Daqiang started digging first, while Li Long watched for movement elsewhere.

"This burrow is quite deep." Tao Daqiang dug out the burrow like lifting a lid. Li Long could see that the burrow was about thirty or forty centimeters deep from the ground and as thick as a large bucket. At first, there was water in the burrow, but deeper down, there was none. Then it turned a corner, and they saw a nest made of reeds and dried grass.

However, there was nothing in the nest at this time, only some half-eaten fresh reed shoots.

"They've burrowed further in, let me dig!" Li Long said immediately, "There must be some in the burrow!"

"Let me dig a bit more!" Hearing Li Long say this, Tao Daqiang became even more enthusiastic. He accelerated his digging speed, while Li Long kept his eyes on other places.

At this time, the water rats were likely planning to escape from elsewhere, so he had to see where their other exits were.

"There!" Li Long suddenly saw a black shadow swimming into the water more than three meters away. He lunged forward, used the iron shovel to scoop the shadow out of the water, and with that scoop, he sent both the water and the shadow directly onto the bank.

Tao Daqiang hurried over and slammed the iron shovel onto the shadow. The thing started squeaking wildly.

Li Long saw another black shadow emerge, and he scooped again. This shadow was quite tenacious, twisting its body in the water. Li Long only scooped half of it; the guy had half its body out of the water and was struggling to run back into the water. Li Long hurriedly used the shovel again, and this time he scooped it out.

Once this thing was on the bank, its speed was obviously slower. Li Long was afraid there might be others taking the opportunity to run away. After slamming this guy with the shovel, he used the shovel to fiercely poke at the burrow entrance. He felt like he had poked something soft, but he didn't dare let go. "There's one here too!" Tao Daqiang turned his head to look at where he had just been digging. A black head had emerged there too. He hurried over. The guy crawled out and wiggled toward the water, but its movements were too slow. Tao Daqiang flipped it over in one go, shoveled it to the bank, and beat it to death.

No more water rats came out. Tao Daqiang continued digging, dug a large trench, and finally pulled out a small one.

This water rat burrow had one main passage and several branches. The one Li Long was pressing down with the shovel was one of the branches. There was a large nest in the main passage, more than two meters from the entrance, and besides the small nest at the beginning of the branch, there were two other small nests.

These nests were made of reeds and dried grass, with the largest being nearly a meter in diameter, feeling very soft. These water rats really knew how to enjoy themselves.

When Li Long brought the shovel down, there was also a water rat here. Its front legs were pressed by the shovel, and fresh blood flowed out. It couldn't pull back, and in the end, it also became their prey.

"Five, not bad." Li Long smiled, "Although it's spring fur, it looks oily and smooth. One pelt can sell for five yuan."

"Hehe." In just this short while, they had made over twenty yuan. Tao Daqiang was certainly happy.

"Brother Long, I don't want this money; I still owe you money that I haven't paid back. When we set the nets in the afternoon and get the fish tomorrow, can I go to the market with you to sell them? When I get back, I'll fix the nets—I just want to see how fish are sold."

"Sure. Actually, if we catch fish tomorrow, I'll give you a portion. You can sell them at the free market, and I'll go sell mine in Shicheng." Li Long said, "I'll take you then, drop you off in the county, and I'll go to Shicheng. But about you owing me money—that's already paid off, don't mention it again."

"No, no! Tomorrow when we get the fish, we'll leave the nets at home, and I'll carry the fish to the street—I walk fast, I can get there in over an hour." Tao Daqiang said excitedly, "You take the fish, and you have to take Juan to school, I won't delay you..."

!.

"Then how about this: you walk to the street, I'll divide the fish, and I'll ride my bike to the free market to find you..."

"Brother Long, really, no need. You go your way. We'll get the fish at daybreak, there's still plenty of time! You go your way. I'll carry the fish, bring a basin, and when I get to the market, I'll just find a spot to set up."

"Alright." Seeing that Tao Daqiang had everything planned, Li Long didn't try to persuade him further. In fact, he wasn't very optimistic about Tao Daqiang selling fish, but since the other party wanted to try, let him try—don't look at how well he was talking to him now, but if he really let him set up a stall, firstly, it would be hard for him to shout, and secondly, he would likely be unable to deal with those clever and cunning little city dwellers.

With five water rats in hand, the two placed the prey aside and began to fill in the dirt.

At this moment, someone shouted not far away:

"What are you two doing, digging this place into such a mess?"

Li Long looked up; it was the team's former shepherd, Ma Jinbao.

Ma Jinbao was over fifty, a lifelong bachelor. He used to herd sheep for the team. When the team's assets were divided at the beginning of the year, he owed a debt and took over a dozen of the team's sheep, saying he would settle the account at the end of the year.

During busy farming seasons, Ma Jinbao would also work, but most of the time he herded sheep. Li Long knew this was a lazy person who had gotten used to herding and didn't want to work—herding was so simple; now there were large stretches of wasteland outside, just drive the sheep to where the grass was good by the canal or field, and one could rest.

"Digging for water rats." Tao Daqiang was still as simple as ever. Li Long shook his head slightly.

"That won't do." Ma Jinbao walked over with his whip handle, "The water stored in this Little Haizi is for irrigating thousands of acres of our team's land. What if you dig this embankment until it collapses? Hurry up and fill it back in, or I'll report you to the team leader..."

Li Long felt this guy was really looking for trouble. He stuck the iron shovel into the dirt and said:

"Old Ma, which eye of yours saw an embankment here? This east side is just a slope, the flat land just floods over. When the water is high, where you and I are standing is all water, what embankment?"

"Hehe," Ma Jinbao originally wanted to bluff Tao Daqiang. Being exposed by Li Long, he wasn't annoyed. He flicked his whip handle and said:

"What's the use of digging these water rats? You can't eat them, there's no meat, and it's a lot of trouble. Li Long, I heard you've made money, let me sell you a sheep cheaply, how about sixteen yuan?"

Li Long was speechless. People who couldn't see the situation clearly were the same everywhere.

This Ma Jinbao had herded sheep for a lifetime in his previous life, herding until he was over seventy. He had been a bachelor his whole life. Other families had gotten rich farming, but his land had been contracted out to others at a low price for a long time, and they gave him some grain and money every year.

At first, he thought it was great, but later, land prices rose, and he regretted it. But he had signed a contract, and the person who contracted his land was considered conscientious and raised the land price for him, but he still wasn't happy and ended up going to court and losing.

Later, he gave up on himself, herding sheep. His perfectly good courtyard at home hadn't changed in twenty years, he didn't grow vegetables, just grabbed a handful from one neighbor and another from another, and in the end, he lived a life that dogs hated and people despised.

"Not buying, your sheep are too thin." Li Long looked at his sheep with disdain, "We still have plenty of meat at home..."

Tao Daqiang suddenly shouted:

"Old Ma, your sheep fell into the water!"

Old Ma turned his head and saw that a naughty goat had indeed fallen into the water to reach for the reeds, and was struggling there.

Old Ma couldn't care about saying anything else; he grabbed his whip and ran over to fish it out. Li Long kicked Tao Daqiang, and the two quickly carried their iron shovels and the water rats home.

Back at the Li house, Li Long took a knife and began to skin the water rats. This time he paid special attention and found the small meat sac between the navel and the genital pore of two of the water rats; this should be the musk of the muskrat.

He didn't know if the acquisition station would accept it.

The skins of the five water rats were soon peeled clean. Tao Daqiang asked Li Long:

"Brother Long, do you want the meat of these water rats?"

"No, do you?"

"Yeah, I think it looks quite fatty..."

"Then when you take it back to eat, be sure to stew it thoroughly." Li Long urged, "Don't catch any diseases."

"I know." Tao Daqiang happily took the water rat meat and left.

The Northern Frontier was vast, and firewood was easy to find in summer, so there was no worry about firewood for cooking.

Actually, among firewood, rice, oil, salt, sauce, vinegar, and tea, why was firewood ranked first? Because in the Central Plains, firewood wasn't always readily available. Li Long didn't understand at first, and only learned about it when listening to Li Jianguo's idle chatter.

In the Central Plains, during the lean season, Li Jianguo would go to the river to catch fish and shrimp, usually either fish or shrimp, and if that didn't work, snails (field snails) would do, and the worst were river mussels and crabs.

He didn't want to catch river mussels because it took a lot of firewood to boil them thoroughly. At that time, there were many people in the Central Plains, unlike here in Xinjiang, where one could grab enough to burn for a day just by stepping out of the courtyard.

That's why Li Long told Tao Daqiang to boil and stew them more; anyway, firewood wasn't worth much here and was easy to find.

After Tao Daqiang left, Li Long rubbed the skins with salt, hung them up, and then went to cook—not working in the fields, he still had to cook.

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 183 =====