Chapter 19

When Li Long and Tao Daqiang led the horse cart to the county town, it wasn't yet time to get off work.

"Daqiang, let's go to the acquisition station to sell the deer antlers first, and then buy some things to take home."

"Alright." Tao Daqiang naturally had no objections; he also wanted to know how much those deer antlers could sell for.

The two arrived at the acquisition station. Tao Daqiang watched the horse cart outside, and Li Long took the deer antlers into the acquisition station.

Chen Hongjun had already tidied up his things and was preparing to get off work.

Seeing Li Long walk in, he was a bit displeased. Who was so blind to come right at the time to get off work?

However, after seeing the things in Li Long's hands, a smile immediately hung on Chen Hongjun's face.

"Little comrade... eh? Didn't you come by this morning?"

"Yeah, comrade, hello. I want to ask, do you accept these deer antlers here?"

"Accept, accept, accept." Chen Hongjun thought to himself that there were still some tasks not completed this winter, so didn't goods just come now?

"These deer antlers of yours—collected in the mountains?" Chen Hongjun let Li Long put the deer antlers on the counter, and he picked up the complete one to look at it. "Not bad, this one is quite complete, this one... is a bit missing."

"How much per kilogram do you accept them for?" Li Long asked for the price anxiously first.

"These deer antlers should have fallen off last autumn, the quality is still not bad," Chen Hongjun said. "I'll give you three yuan per kilogram, that's not little."

"Alright." This price was much higher than the price in Li Long's mind, so he nodded and said: "That's the price then."

Chen Hongjun took a scale and weighed it, saying: "Six point seven kilograms, let me calculate it for you, three times seven is twenty-one, three times six is eighteen, twenty point one yuan, come, take the money well."

Li Long counted the money and put it away.

"Young man, if you have any good things in the future, just bring them over, I'll give you a good price." Seeing that Li Long was about to leave, Chen Hongjun said hurriedly, "I'm here on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays."

"Alright." Li Long agreed readily, and then walked out.

Walking to the horse cart, Li Long took out a five-yuan note and handed it to Tao Daqiang:

"Daqiang, this is your share. When we go back, I'll unload some more wood for your family."

"Brother Long, I can't take it." Tao Daqiang immediately pushed the money back. "I just came along to help, how can I take your money?"

"Take it, this is what you deserve." Li Long didn't think about giving Tao Daqiang half; that wouldn't be helping him, but harming him.

"Brother Long, I really won't take it..." Tao Daqiang refused very firmly. "If this money is put in my hands, in the end, my dad will definitely take it away."

"Then I'll buy you some things." Li Long thought it was the same, so he changed his mind. "If I buy things, your dad can't take them away, right? By the way, you don't have gloves, look at the frostbite on your hands. Let's go, let's go to the department store to buy you a pair of gloves. When you go back, just say I bought them for you, don't let your dad give them to your brother again."

The two led the horse cart to the department store. Seeing that it was about to get off work, Li Long couldn't pick anymore, took a pair of cotton gloves with strings and no four fingers, took out four yuan, and came out.

"Wear these gloves, don't give them to others." Li Long gave the gloves to Tao Daqiang. "When you go home, take a kilogram of sesame cakes, and unload some more wood, that way your dad won't scold you."

"Alright." Tao Daqiang put on the gloves and felt warm.

When the two led the horse cart back to the production team, the sun had already set.

The horse cart hadn't reached the Li family yet, and quite a few people had seen it and followed over to look.

"Yo, Li Long really hauled the wood back!"

"This cart of firewood is not little!"

"Looks like there must be several hundred kilograms, enough to burn for a month or two, right?"

"Didn't expect that this kid Li Long has become promising?"

"Look, that wood is all pine wood, it's a pity to burn this wood!"...

Li Qiang was playing with an old ox on the road. Seeing Li Long and Tao Daqiang driving the horse cart back, he rushed over to follow the horse cart. Li Long took out a sesame cake from his pocket and gave it to him, then let him run back to report the news to Li Jianguo.

"Dad, Dad! My uncle is back! Hauled a cart of wood!" Li Qiang rushed into the room holding the sesame cake he had bitten twice. "Many people are following!"

Li Jianguo hurriedly walked out. Seeing that Li Long had already driven the cart to the courtyard gate, he waited for Li Long to drive the cart into the courtyard and asked:

"Was it smooth all the way?"

"Quite smooth." Li Long said with a smile, "There were other harvests."

"Other harvests?" Li Jianguo sized up Li Long from top to bottom, then looked at Tao Daqiang, didn't find that the two were injured, and felt relieved. "What harvest?"

"Got a frozen sheep back." Li Long handed the horse reins to Tao Daqiang, pointed to the horse cart and said: "Can eat meat for a few days."

"Frozen sheep?" Li Jianguo still wanted to ask, but seeing many people surrounding the courtyard, and some had already come in to watch the excitement, asking Li Long one after another where this wood was hauled from and how it was hauled, he greeted them:

"Don't ask first, help unload the wood and then talk!"

Quite a few people came, everyone helped, and soon the wood was unloaded. Li Long took the opportunity to hand the bag containing the things to Li Qiang and let him take it back to the room.

Li Qiang had seen earlier that Li Long took the sesame cakes from this bag, so he immediately carried the bag into the room and handed it to his mother.

!.

The wood was unloaded to the place where firewood was piled in the corner of the courtyard, and Li Long shouted:

"Leave three pieces of wood, they need to be hauled to Daqiang's house."

"Still giving to Daqiang, Li Long is quite righteous."

"Eh? Is that a sheep?" Someone had sharp eyes and saw the sheep that had frozen to death under the wood.

"Yeah, sheep, picked up a sheep that had frozen to death in the mountains." Li Long said.

"Picked up?" Sister-in-law Lu exclaimed: "This luck is too good, right? But wouldn't this be a sheep poisoned to death?"

"Hard to say."

Many of the onlookers showed envious and jealous gazes, while some maliciously speculated about the cause of the sheep's death.

The sheep wasn't big, so it wasn't easy to distribute to every family. Li Jianguo let Li Long and Tao Daqiang go into the room to rest, and he put the horse cart away first.

Li Long shook his head and said:

"Brother, I'll send the wood to Daqiang's house first, and then return the horse cart."

Li Jianguo knew this was the right thing to do and didn't stop him; he still had to deal with that frozen sheep.

Others saw there was no excitement to watch and dispersed one after another. Li Long entered the room, took a kilogram of sesame cakes, stuffed them into Tao Daqiang's hands, and then walked out together.

After unloading the wood at Tao Daqiang's house, Li Long went to the horse stable alone to return the horse, and only then returned home.

"Little Long, was this sheep really picked up?" Li Jianguo asked worriedly.

Li Juan and Li Qiang were both staring at the bag of sesame cakes, not paying attention.

"No, I sold the skin of a water rat, bought tea leaves and salt for five yuan, and went to the mountains to trade with herdsmen." Li Long said in a low voice, "This sheep froze to death at the herdsmen's place when it snowed heavily in the mountains two days ago. It only died three or five days ago, it's fine!"

"That's good," Li Jianguo felt relieved. "After it thaws, I'll skin the sheep, and some of that meat must be given to Daqiang's family."

"Yeah, just take a leg." Li Long nodded. "That family of his... a leg is enough."

(End of chapter)