Chapter 199

When Li Long left, he whispered a reminder to Li Xiangqian:

"Section Chief, there are two kidneys in that bag, also from the stag, still fresh. You handle it as you see fit."

Li Xiangqian chuckled, understanding Li Long's meaning in a second.

While Tao Daqiang was still on the hillside picking mushrooms with his gun on his back, he heard the sound of a car.

His first reaction was that Li Long had brought a car to pick him up.

Only Li Long could manage to get a car to haul things and pick him up at the same time.

He walked from the hillside toward the wooden cabin and saw the car parked at the gully from earlier.

Tao Daqiang thought, should he take the time to fill in that gully when he comes next time?

Not to say filling the gully completely flat, but at least enough to let a car or horse cart pull up to the front, right?

Otherwise, it's quite a hassle to carry things back and forth every time.

Li Long let the driver wait in front of the gully, and he walked quickly to the front of the wooden cabin. By this time, Tao Daqiang had also rushed back.

"Put the things into burlap sacks and load them onto the car," Li Long said. "We can go home and sleep today."

Tao Daqiang thought about being able to go home and sleep, and his heart was also burning with excitement. He immediately opened the small room and started loading things into the burlap sacks.

Tao Daqiang loaded the meat, and Li Long took the hides off the wall, rolled them up tightly, and put them into the burlap sacks.

Besides the meat and hides, there were also some jade stones, which couldn't be left here either.

As for the other daily utensils, there was no worry, so he didn't move them.

Compared to the things that needed to be taken away, they weren't worth much.

Li Long also left behind two pieces of air-dried meat, so that he wouldn't have to eat wild vegetables if he couldn't hunt next time he came.

As for the things that needed to be taken, he packed three and a half burlap sacks. Li Long didn't expect there to be so many things.

The two of them placed the burlap sacks outside, locked the door, moved the things in two trips, and then both sat in the passenger seat. Li Long said to the driver:

"Master, let's go."

The car drove all the way back to the county town. Li Long placed the hides and jade stones in the courtyard, locked the door, and then continued driving.

When they reached the township middle school, Li Long asked to stop again, and he left two pieces of meat for Gu Xiaoxia.

When they reached the primary school, seeing that school hadn't let out yet, Li Long didn't ask to stop.

Seeing that the driver was a bit unhappy, when they reached the horse stable, Li Long and Tao Daqiang unloaded the car. He took a piece of wild boar meat out of the burlap sack and handed it to the driver:

"Master, sorry to trouble you. Take this meat back and eat it. It's not anything good, just some wild game."

The driver immediately beamed with joy, saying "How can this be?" in his mouth, but his hand had already taken the meat.

Li Long unloaded the bicycle, waved to the driver, watched him leave, and then started to tidy up the things that had been unloaded.

Old Man Luo was very surprised to see so many things Li Long had unloaded:

"Little Long, where did you get so many things?"

"Some are for entertaining guests in the next day or two, some are to be left here to eat slowly, and some are for Daqiang and me to keep at home."

After Li Long finished explaining, he said to Tao Daqiang:

"Daqiang, you take the deer leg back first."

"No, no, no, let's finish tidying up here first," Tao Daqiang shook his head hurriedly. "Brother Long, you take the things that need to be put back home first, and then come back to tidy up. I'll process the meat that needs to be used tomorrow first, otherwise, I'm worried about what to do if it smells tomorrow—this production team is hotter than the mountains."

"That's simple," Old Man Luo said. "Find two laundry basins, first use well water to soak them. If you use them tomorrow, it should be no problem to leave them for a day."

"Alright, then I'll go home and get the basins."

"What are you going home for? There are basins here," Old Man Luo said with a smile. "When Little Long's room was tidied up, a new large basin was brought. Isn't that basin enough? Get a few people to work, just don't turn it into a pig-slaughtering feast!"

Li Long realized, "A handful of rice breeds gratitude, a bushel breeds resentment." It was just renovating the horse stable; having a nice meal of boiled meat was enough. The work couldn't be finished in one day; the rest could be stir-fried dishes, rice, or steamed buns. If he really boiled meat every day, what would others think?

If others wanted to find people to help with mudding the roof or building a house, could they provide such meat? Of course, Li Long could hunt and had an advantage, but even half of Li Long's standard wasn't something everyone could provide.

That would invisibly raise everyone's expectations, which wasn't a good thing.

"Hmm, I understand." Li Long nodded. "We'll just prepare one leg and some ribs. Boil a meal tomorrow, stir-fry a meal. We'll leave some of the remaining meat here for long-term consumption, and then haul the rest back to my house."

"That's right." Old Man Luo knew Li Long understood, and said with a smile, "This meat of yours is quite mixed, not just one type of prey, right?"

"Wild boar meat, venison, and wolf meat are all there. By the way, Old Man Luo, how is that roe deer?"

"Just like that, lying down, eating grass, but not eating much. I feed it some feed, it eats, but not much."

"Then keep feeding it. When it doesn't eat for two or three days, then slaughter it."

After Li Long said this, he put some of the extra meat into a burlap sack, clamped it on the back seat of the bicycle, and rode it home.

After riding back and forth twice, he had brought all the extra meat home. By this time, Tao Daqiang had also put the meat to be used tomorrow into the large basin to soak. When Li Long came over, he said:

"Brother Long, then I'm going back. I'll come over tomorrow morning."

"Alright, I'll go call people tonight," Li Long said. "We'll start working tomorrow."

After Tao Daqiang left, Li Long went to look at the live animals.

The little wild boars were still as lively as ever, squealing loudly, and occasionally nudging each other. They looked like they had grown quite a bit.

Li Long asked Old Man Luo:

"Old Man Luo, do the boars in here need to be castrated?"

"They've all been castrated," Old Man Luo said with a smile. "Your eldest brother came over to castrate them a while ago when you were in the mountains. He said you didn't have time to take care of it."

Li Long nodded. So that's how it was.

The two little deer were quite lively, but one looked larger and one smaller. Li Long asked again:

"Old Man Luo, for these two little deer, is the larger one eating grass and feed better?"

"That's right. The larger one has a larger activity level and isn't really afraid of people. I've been feeding the smaller one for so long, but it still hides as soon as I enter the pen. I don't know if it can be raised."

Li Long could only think, let's see what fate has in store. If it's raised, then it's profit.

That roe deer was in a separate pen, single-room treatment, and there was nothing unusual in the air in the pen. Its wound had already scabbed over, and there were flies buzzing around it. The roe deer moved its body from time to time, and it was obviously a bit nervous when it saw Li Long coming over.

Li Long knew that as long as this thing was alive, it was fine. How long it could live, could only depend on its fate.

"Old Man Luo, then you go ahead and get busy, I'll go back first."

"Hmm, hurry back," Old Man Luo said with a smile. "Since you brought meat, I have to stir-fry two good dishes tonight and have a couple of drinks." Li Long rode the bicycle back home. Li Qiang was watching under the stove.

Li Long hadn't seen him when he delivered the things just now. Since he was here now, Li Long asked with a smile:

"Qiangqiang, what are you doing?"

"Little Uncle, you're back? I'm roasting fish!" Li Qiang said excitedly. "I learned from you. I caught a few crucian carp today, wrapped them in sunflower leaves, and lit some fire under the pot to roast them. I don't know if they're cooked or not."

Li Long looked around the stove and saw no firewood. It seemed Li Qiang was quite cautious, so he said with a smile:

"How long have you been roasting them?"

"I don't know, for quite a while."

"Then dig them out and see," Li Long said. "How would you know if they're cooked or not without looking?"

"Hmm." Li Qiang nodded vigorously.

Li Long saw that it was still early and it would be a while before Li Juan came back, so he went to the kitchen.

Seeing that there weren't many steamed buns in the steamer and there were a few unleavened cakes in the bun plate, he thought about steaming a cage of buns first.

He soaked the sourdough starter in water first, and after it dissolved, he poured in flour and water to knead the dough.

!.

"Uncle, the fish is roasted. Will you eat one?" Li Qiang came over with a package of charred roasted fish and showed it to Li Long as if it were a treasure.

"You eat it. I'm steaming buns, and I'll stir-fry two dishes in a while."

"Hmm!" Li Qiang left with the roasted fish, not knowing who he was going to show off to.

He hadn't steamed much in this life, but steaming buns was a basic skill in his previous life, so it was definitely no problem.

After the dough was kneaded and covered, he went to fetch corn stalks and placed them by the stove before uncovering the pot lid.

As a result, he found there was no water in the pot. It turned out Li Qiang had been burning the pot dry earlier.

Li Long couldn't laugh or cry. Fortunately, the pot wasn't too hot at this time. To be safe, he waited a while before pouring in water to boil.

While the water was boiling, he scrubbed the bamboo steamer again, greased it, and set it aside.

When the water was about to boil, Li Long removed the fire, and seeing that the dough had risen, he started kneading the buns.

By the time Li Juan came back, Li Long's buns were already steamed.

"Little Uncle, you're back!" Li Juan greeted loudly. "You even steamed buns?"

"Hmm," Li Long looked at his masterpiece with satisfaction. "Eat half a bun first? I'll stir-fry some dishes in a while."

"Then I'll wait." Li Juan knew that waiting could lead to better results, so she put down her schoolbag and said, "I'll go cut some pig grass."

If Little Uncle was going to stir-fry dishes, there would definitely be meat dishes. Li Juan was sure of this.

She took a basket and a small sickle and went to the fields.

Li Long cut some deer stomach, deer intestines, and deer liver, preparing to stir-fry a deer offal dish. He had eaten a meal in the mountains at noon and felt it was good. These internal organs still needed to be eaten fresh. There was no refrigerator now, so this stuff couldn't be kept for long.

After stir-frying, the rest would most likely be boiled and shared, otherwise, it would just spoil in the end.

By the time Li Jianguo and Liang Yuemei returned from the fields, a rich fragrance of food was already wafting through the courtyard.

Liang Yuemei saw Li Juan and Li Qiang holding white buns stuffed with meat dishes and eating heartily by the stove, and laughed:

"Look at how your Little Uncle spoils you..."

"I am their uncle, if I don't spoil them, who do I spoil?" Li Long came out of the room and said with a smile, "Sister-in-law, wash your hands and eat quickly, you've been tired all day."

After Li Jianguo led the horse away and put it in place, he came over to the well, and while washing his hands, asked:

"How did the matter in the mountains go?"

"It's done. I won't go into the mountains for the next two days. I shot a deer, we'll keep some meat at home, and I'll process some more. I plan to call some young guys from the team tomorrow to build a wall or something at the horse stable."

"Alright." Li Jianguo nodded and said, "There's no big work in the team recently, everyone is doing their own work in the fields. Since you've prepared meat, there should be no problem going to call people tonight."

Calling people to work naturally requires a good meal; this is an unspoken rule. In the past, when calling people to mud the roof, every family had no meat, so at the very least, they had to prepare a fish meal. Even if it wasn't a good meal, at least they had to let people eat their fill.

The Li family was different. Since the New Year, the Li family's life had been "blooming like sesame flowers." Everyone knew that if the Li family called people to work, they definitely wouldn't treat them poorly.

Even for the sake of those two ounces of oil in their stomachs, as long as Li Long called, they would definitely be willing to go.

So when Li Long finished eating and went to call people, Tian Siping, Xie Yun Dong, and others didn't refuse.

Li Long didn't call many people, six people, plus him and Tao Daqiang, a total of eight, which was enough for the work.

"How do you plan to do it?" When Li Long came back, Li Jianguo asked him in the courtyard, "Can you finish it in one day?"

"One day is tough." Li Long thought for a moment and said, "There aren't enough earth blocks, so we have to make more. It'll take at least two days..."

"Why make earth blocks?" Li Jianguo waved his hand. "Can't you use old earth blocks?"

"Of course I can, but where are there any?" Li Long asked in confusion.

"The old team headquarters, look at how it's been torn down now?" Li Jianguo said. "There's no roof, only walls left now, but the earth blocks inside are fine. Tomorrow, call our family's horse cart and the Tao family's donkey cart together. One group of people will dismantle the earth blocks, and the other will haul them over there to build the wall. It'll definitely be finished in one day!"

Li Long just remembered, that's right!

The old team headquarters was right next to Li Qiang's preschool. When the team property was distributed, the original plan was to divide the wood on top with the old horse stable for the team members. As a result, the horse stable was bought by Li Long, and no one wanted the team headquarters, so the wood and windows of the roof were directly dismantled, leaving an empty frame.

Children have strong destructive power and have been digging up the earth blocks on top to play with. Now only the dilapidated walls remain.

"Then I'll take a piece of meat to the team leader's place in a while to talk about it," Li Long thought for a moment and said. "Although that thing will eventually collapse if left there, wouldn't it be bad not to tell the team?"

"Right, it's best to go and talk about it. No matter what, that was the original team headquarters. It's one thing if it collapses naturally, but if we want to dismantle it, someone in the team will definitely have something to say. If you report it to the team, it'll be different."

Li Jianguo actually knew that Li Long was considered a favorite in the eyes of the team leader, someone who could bring big money-making jobs to the team, so he would still give him this bit of face.

But human favors are human favors. That thing gets thinner the more it's used. Li Long is doing things in a fair and square way, so there won't be any issues.

It was already dark. Li Long carried the meat to find Xu Chengjun. Xu Chengjun was washing his feet in the courtyard. Seeing Li Long coming, he greeted him with a smile:

"Little Long is back? I heard a car sent you back. Are you going to be an official in the future?"

"What official? It's just that there was something at the supply and marketing cooperative, and it was on the way." Li Long explained vaguely, handed the meat to Ma Hongmei who came out smiling, and then told Xu Chengjun about using the earth blocks from the old team headquarters.

"Use them, use them. They'll collapse if left there anyway. You can still make some use of them if you take them." Xu Chengjun was quite satisfied with Li Long's approach. "Don't worry, we have a count of this matter in our hearts, go ahead and use them!"

(End of chapter)