Chapter 198: This

Li Long raised his gun and aimed in the direction of the deer sound, where a young male deer was walking toward the female deer at the bottom of the ditch with relaxed steps.

The male deer is quite big, similar to an adult cow—just not as fat as a cow, the movement is very light, raising its head and calling from time to time, I don't know if it is attracting the attention of the female deer, or calling its companions.

Those female deer stopped when they heard the male deer's call, and a female deer responded.

The velvet on the male deer's head is not very big, smaller than the deer antlers picked up the day before, the top looks like it still has hair, very blunt, and there is still a distance from becoming an antler.

Li Long's eyes aimed at the male deer, and said in a low voice:

"Daqiang, you aim at those few female deer, wait for me to fire here, then you fire, see if you can hit... I didn't fire, you must not fire, understand?"

"Understood." Tao Daqiang's safety is not even open now, just afraid that he will go off accidentally again, ruining Li Long's big event.

Li Long slowly adjusted his breathing, aiming at the front chest of the male deer. Deer skin is important, if it is a good hunter, he should aim at the deer head, but Li Long feels it is safer to be safer. It took several days in the mountains to encounter a male deer. If he misses it again, I don't know how long he will have to wander around—there are many things at home!

Pre-press the trigger, Li Long didn't let Tao Daqiang wait too long, "

Tao Daqiang was in a state of high tension. As soon as he heard Li Long's gunshot, his finger, which was resting on the safety, immediately pulled, disengaged the safety, and then he opened fire, aiming at the panicked does.

Unfortunately, he missed.

Once Li Long finished his shot, he quickly used the circle of his aiming point to frame the stag, watching to see if another shot was needed—it wasn't.

After the stag was hit, it collapsed to the ground and was still twitching in the grass.

Li Long stood up and said to Tao Daqiang:

"I'll go check on that stag; you go see what the situation is like over by the does..."

"Brother Long, I didn't hit anything..." Tao Daqiang said, feeling somewhat ashamed.

"If you didn't hit anything, then you didn't. That's normal. I fired first, and by the time you shot, the doe was already startled and running fast. Alright, let's go, let's go check on the stag; our mission is considered complete. By the way, put the safety back on the gun."

Li Long slung his gun over his back, then quickly rushed down to the bottom of the gully, climbed back up the slope, and arrived in front of the stag.

"Sigh, what a huge loss!"

With just one look, Li Long knew the loss this time was not small!

The stag had fallen forward, and the velvet antlers on its head had knocked directly against the ground, breaking into four pieces—there were two pieces of velvet in the grass on the ground, and the broken surfaces were uneven and still bleeding.

The broken surface of the velvet on the deer's head was also bleeding; the price of this velvet might be discounted.

But fortunately, the main purpose of coming hunting this time wasn't for the velvet, Li Long comforted himself.

"Brother Long, this stag must weigh at least a hundred kilograms, right?"

"More than that, at least one hundred twenty or thirty kilograms," Li Long said. "We definitely can't carry it on our backs, and it's a hassle for the two of us to lift it, so let's just process it here; otherwise, it'll be hard to get back."

"Hmm, then what should I do now?" Tao Daqiang scratched his head and asked.

"You..." Li Long thought for a moment and said, "You go to the wooden cabin and bring the bicycle over. It's too late to go back and find a horse cart or a car now. I'll skin and process this deer right here, and you can use the bicycle to get the venison back."

"Alright." Tao Daqiang immediately left with his gun on his back.

Li Long put the Type 56 semi-automatic rifle aside, pulled out his knife, first bled the stag, and then prepared to skin it.

When processing something like this, you can't skin it completely, or it'll be a hassle when gutting it. After all, it's in the wild, and the meat still needs to rest on the hide, otherwise, it'll be a hassle if it gets covered in grass and dirt.

Li Long peeled back the skin on the stag's belly and first removed the deer penis. Processing this thing is psychologically a bit off-putting, but to use an unpleasant phrase, this counts as a mandatory task; you can't not do it.

After cutting off that nearly two-foot-long thing, along with the two testicles, and finishing the skinning, Li Long disgustedly set the final product aside.

Even though this was the main task for these few days in the mountains, Li Long didn't want to look at it now.

Next was the skinning—the smell of blood had already attracted greenbottle flies. Li Long grabbed a handful of mugwort from the side and waved it from time to time to prevent the greenbottle flies from laying maggots on the venison.

After peeling off most of the stag's skin, Tao Daqiang arrived, panting, while pushing the bicycle. There were no footpaths in this mountain gully, so it was difficult to push a bicycle.

"Brother Long, I brought rope. Do you think we should tie it up first and take it back before processing it?"

"Alright." Li Long straightened his back, looked at the surrounding environment, and since there were more and more flies, he said, "Pack it up and take it back. Once we process the meat, we'll head back. We'll take this meat back for everyone to eat, and we can also get the horse stable matter taken care of."

"Is this meat good to eat?" Tao Daqiang asked with some doubt. "Uncastrated stag meat, is it gamey?"

"I don't know about that. We'll boil some and taste it when we get back, then we'll know."

Li Long didn't expect Tao Daqiang to think of this too, but he felt that Tao Daqiang was being picky because he had eaten too much meat.

Usually, everyone couldn't even get meat to eat; the most they could eat daily was fish. Having meat to eat was already very good, and he was still being picky?

Just now when he was skinning it, he found that this stag was quite fat. When the time comes, boil it in a big pot, roast some more, and then add plenty of seasoning—he didn't believe those young guys wouldn't eat it.

Not eating it was impossible.

As for the living conditions in the production team, even though land was distributed this year, the harvest from that land hadn't come out yet. Although it had been watered, how could this venison be compared to that fish?

Wrapping the deer in its skin, tying it up, and securing it on the back seat of the bicycle, then binding it tightly with rope, Li Long put the deer penis and the broken velvet antlers into a bag. He held the bag and steadied the deer while Tao Daqiang pushed the bicycle in front. The two of them carefully went down the slope and walked all the way out along the bottom of the gully.

By the time they returned to the wooden cabin, the sun had almost reached the top of the mountain.

The two of them lifted the deer down. Li Long gutted it directly, and Tao Daqiang skillfully took a large basin to put the internal organs and offal into it, then went to the spring to wash the intestines and stomach.

Li Long took out the two kidneys, put them together with the deer penis, and took them into the small wooden cabin to air-dry. This stuff needed a period of time to air-dry, but he couldn't wait that long, so he planned to take the fresh ones directly to Li Xiangqian.

As a matter of urgency, he took the saw from the small wooden cabin, sawed off the two pieces of velvet on the deer's head, and together with the two broken pieces of velvet from earlier, mixed salt with mud, wrapped them up, and placed them on the shelf in the small wooden cabin.

Next was dealing with that meat.

Swatting away flies, he rubbed salt on the meat and then broke it down into pieces. With salt on the meat, those flies stopped landing on the meat and started to go after the blood that was flowing out.

Li Long began to break down the meat—legs, ribs, tenderloin, neck, etc., not even sparing the hooves and the head. He peeled off the skin completely, trimmed away the oily meat, rubbed it with salt, and propped it up to take to the small wooden cabin.

Several hides had already been nailed up here; with this deer hide nailed up, it was almost full.

Tao Daqiang finished flipping and washing the intestines and stomach, brought the large basin back, and asked Li Long:

"Brother Long, are we cooking now?"

"Do it. I'll stir-fry some stomach and intestines or something," Li Long said. "After we eat, we'll head down the mountain. It's just that the distance is a bit far, and walking back is a bit of a hassle."

"That's nothing to fear!" Tao Daqiang smiled and said, "It's not like we haven't walked it before..."

"Hmm, one of these legs is yours. When we get back, you take it home," Li Long said. "The remaining meat is enough for everyone to eat. We'll leave some in this wooden cabin. I'll ride over first to deliver the deer penis and such to the supply and marketing cooperative, and you can walk slowly behind."

"Alright!" Tao Daqiang nodded vigorously. "Brother Long, you don't need to worry about me. I'll definitely be able to walk back."

Li Long felt that this was still no problem. When Li Long was stir-frying, Tao Daqiang steamed some rice again. He didn't steam much this time. He was quite curious about the rice-steaming method Li Long taught him; although he couldn't drink the rice soup, at least it wouldn't be undercooked, and there wouldn't be burnt crust at the bottom of the pot, which was quite good.

Just at this moment, a person walked over slowly with a bag on their back.

Tao Daqiang was focused on the pot of steaming rice, and it was Li Long who discovered him first.

"What are you doing?" Li Long scooped the stir-fried dried chili and deer stomach onto a plate, placed it on the chopping board, and asked the person loudly.

"You... do you buy fritillaria?" That person smelled the fragrance of the food, swallowed a mouthful of saliva, and asked from thirty or forty meters away.

"I do. How much do you have?"

"I have... about seven or eight kilograms here," that person said. "Do you have meat here? Can I exchange it for some money and then exchange it for some meat?"

"Then bring the fritillaria over and let me see." Li Long picked up the pot and placed it aside to avoid burning it empty; he still had one dish left to stir-fry.

That person watched Li Long and Tao Daqiang "eyeing him like a tiger," and felt a bit panicked, but since he had already come, it wasn't easy to leave directly, so he slowly walked over while carrying the bag.

This person must not have come out of the mountains for a long time; his hair was quite long, his beard was stubbly, and his clothes were emitting a foul odor. Li Long suddenly asked:

!.

"Is it that if it weren't because you were out of vegetables, meat, and oil, you probably wouldn't have come to sell fritillaria?"

"... That's right." That person was stunned for a moment, but still said truthfully, "We're all like this. We take advantage of this season to dig up more, and we won't dig anymore once they bloom later, and we'll go out to sell them. To enter the mountains again, we'll have to wait until autumn to dig for codonopsis."

Upon hearing that they were digging for codonopsis, Tao Daqiang immediately became nervous.

"Digging for codonopsis isn't as convenient as digging for fritillaria." Li Long smiled and said, "When digging for fritillaria, you can dig several kilograms a day, and it's even more if your tools are good. Digging for codonopsis is just up to fate, depending on whether there are many tree roots under the codonopsis you encounter... Come, let me see how your fritillaria is."

That person opened the mouth of the bag, and Li Long reached out and grabbed a handful of fritillaria to look at in his palm.

The fritillaria should have been air-dried, semi-dry, and not really washed, so it wasn't considered clean. There were still some miscellaneous leaves and dirt, and they were of all sizes, not considered uniform, but there were no fine twigs. According to Chen Zhanggui's standards, it was considered second-grade goods. This bag had seven or eight kilograms.

"For this bag, I'll count it as fifty yuan for you," Li Long said, weighing it. "You have impurities here, and it's semi-dry goods, not even eight kilograms, right? I'll buy it at six yuan per kilogram, how about that?"

That person pointed to the large basin by the wooden cabin and said:

"Then... can you give me another piece of meat? We haven't eaten meat for many days..."

"Alright." Li Long said readily, "I'll give you a piece of meat. Do you want fatty or lean?"

"A bit fatty," that person said immediately.

Li Long took out a stack of banknotes, counted out five "Big Unity" bills, and handed them over. That person's eyes lit up when he saw the bills in Li Long's hand.

"Don't look. I've taken down two guys who ran into this wooden cabin at night wanting to rob money," Li Long pointed out to him. "Those two were also digging for fritillaria. One is now doing hard labor in Shihezi Prison, and the other had a murder on his hands and has already been taken down."

Tao Daqiang went into the small wooden cabin without a word, took out the small-bore rifle, and while fiddling with it, looked at that person.

That person immediately waved his hands:

"I wouldn't dare, I wouldn't dare... We are all honest people, we wouldn't dare to do such things..."

Li Long entered the small wooden cabin, took out a piece of wild boar meat, and handed it to him:

"Here, this is wild boar meat. It has fat, not very fatty, but better than the meat now. Take it and go."

This piece of meat weighed three or four kilograms, and that person left happily while holding it.

After that person was out of sight, Tao Daqiang asked with some worry:

"Brother Long, we still have so many things in this cabin. If these people come to knock on the door and no one is here, do you think they will..."

Li Long was also a bit worried.

But there was no way to solve this matter.

He thought for a moment and said:

"There's no other way, let's just leave it there for now."

"How about this," Tao Daqiang said. "Brother Long, I'll stay here for a day. You take some of the things back first, and wait until tomorrow when we bring the horse cart over, then take all the remaining things back. That way, we won't have to worry. Otherwise, if these hides and meat and such were to be taken away by these people, it would be a pity..."

Li Long worried:

"Will you be okay here by yourself?"

"What could be wrong with that? I won't go out in the afternoon," Tao Daqiang said. "I'll pick some mushrooms nearby, pick them with the gun on my back. I don't believe those people would dare to come and mess with me if they see I have a gun. I'll go into the cabin when the sun sets, lock the door, and if anyone smashes the door, I'll give them a shot..."

"Alright."

Li Long nodded. "Then I'll take the things back now. If I can make it back today, I'll make it back today; if I can't, I'll come over tomorrow morning."

"You don't need to be in a hurry, Brother Long. You've stayed in the mountains for many days by yourself. I can't compare to you, I can't hunt, but I can still stay in the mountains. Just like you said, how could we run into murderers every day?"

Li Long got on the bicycle, put the salted venison into a burlap sack, put the deer penis, deer velvet, fritillaria, and other things into a bag, hung it on the handlebars of the bicycle, pushed it across the gully, and rode all the way back.

In less than two hours, Li Long had already returned to the county. He went to the courtyard first, dropped off the venison, deer velvet, and fritillaria, and took the deer penis and a deer leg in a burlap sack to the supply and marketing cooperative.

It was still Old Man Li at the main entrance. When he saw Li Long, he smiled:

"Little Li is here? Are you looking for Li Xiangqian? He's in, go on in!"

Li Long thanked Old Man Li, pushed the bicycle inside, and then carried the burlap sack to Li Xiangqian's office.

Li Xiangqian was smoking and chatting with a middle-aged man. When he saw Li Long coming with a burlap sack, he was stunned for a moment, then pleasantly surprised:

"Little Li is here, come in quickly, sit, sit, sit!"

Then he said to the middle-aged man:

"Old Wu, I have something to do today, let's chat another day..."

That person left tactfully.

"Did you get it?" After the person left, Li Xiangqian asked impatiently.

"Hmm," Li Long took out the deer penis, the deer leg, and the two kidneys. "Fresh today. I didn't know how to process it, so I brought it directly to you. Look, there's still fur and hooves on this leg, ensuring it's real."

"I believe you... sit, sit, sit. You must be exhausted, right?"

"I won't sit. I have to hurry back. There are still some hides and such in the mountains that I need to go back to the village to get a horse cart to haul back..."

"What horse cart? I'll dispatch a vehicle for you!" Li Xiangqian was very generous:

"We can't let you work for nothing. You wait, I'll write you a slip now and find the director to sign it. It'll be very fast!"

(End of chapter)