Chapter 224: Cut poles, catch thieves!

Actually, if this matter is said out loud, quite a few people might feel disgusted, and if they really see it, some people will vomit.

There was a wound the size of a palm on the hind leg of that yellow sheep near the buttocks. Now the wound there had already festered, and quite a few flies were circling around it, occasionally landing to take a bite.

This wasn't anything, the most disgusting thing was that a piece in the center of the wound had already rotted in, and a mass of maggots was densely, neatly wriggling there... People with trypophobia would faint if they saw it.

Li Long only stayed there for a second, took out the machete he brought, stepped forward to the yellow sheep, and with two cuts, cut off the wound on the back, together with the festering part, and then threw it far away.

"Daqiang, carry it, let's go back."

"Alright!" Tao Daqiang stepped forward, directly lifted the yellow sheep, and walked back.

Li Long estimated that this yellow sheep should be more than twenty kilograms, it should be dragged down by the injury during this period, a bit thin.

"What bit the sheep?" Li Qing Xia asked Li Long excitedly.

"It should be a wolf or something else, small things can't bite a yellow sheep, the biggest possibility is a wolf."

After Li Long finished speaking, he turned his head and asked his dad:

"Dad, you also saw it, the meat was arched by maggots, you don't mind, right?"

"What's there to mind?" Li Qing Xia said with a smile. "Having meat to eat, how can I mind? The place with maggots was cut off by you... Besides, it's not bad to have meat to eat in this year. In the hometown, a few years ago, it was starving, let alone fresh meat, even rotten meat was eaten!"

Li Long understood, there were many people in the hometown, and it should be more scarce in terms of material.

"Without Xiao Long, you don't know, there are many people in the hometown, and there are few things to eat... Do you know? Just the maggots you cut off and threw away just now, some people specifically get them to eat, called what... meat buds?"

Li Qing Xia also had experience, having traveled north and south, and he told Li Long about things he ran into when he was young.

"That's also rich people, specifically getting a piece of rotten meat and hanging it up to let flies lay maggots, and then a basin is placed underneath. The maggots arch the rotten meat and grow bigger and bigger, the rotten meat gets less and less, and in the end, the maggots can't crawl on the meat, fall into the basin, and those people deep-fry the maggots to eat—yuck~~!"

Li Qing Xia looked disgusted, but when talking about these strange things, he was very interested.

Tao Daqiang was listening while walking in front, and couldn't help but interject:

"Isn't it annoying to eat that?"

"Some people like it." Li Qing Xia explained. "Just like some people like to eat snake meat, some people are afraid when they see it; some people like to eat dog meat, some people can't bear to kill dogs... it's the same."

Li Long nodded.

The three returned to the wooden house. The sky was already bright. Li Jianguo had already boiled water and was sticking pancakes and mixing cold dishes. Seeing Tao Daqiang carrying something, he was very surprised:

"Really hit one?"

"Brother Long hit it, hit it with one shot..." Tao Daqiang's voice was very loud. "I didn't even see where the yellow sheep was lying, Brother Long discovered it at a glance!"

"Haha, he's lucky." Li Jianguo smiled. "This yellow sheep is not small... just a bit thin."

"It was injured originally." Li Qing Xia said. "A wolf bit it."

Li Long put away the gun, took out a knife, and after Tao Daqiang put down the yellow sheep, he started skinning and gutting.

"Don't eat meat in the morning." Li Long said while skinning, "I'll finish skinning and gutting here, handle the offal and internal organs, and we'll boil some meat to eat at noon."

"Sure." Li Qing Xia and Li Jianguo had no opinion, Tao Daqiang didn't speak.

Li Long first skinned part of the yellow sheep, opened the belly, put the internal organs and offal into a basin to soak, and then washed his hands to eat breakfast.

"Without Xiao Long, you handle this yellow sheep, and Daqiang and I will continue to cut poles," Li Jianguo said while eating, "Dad will help you here..."

"I'm not staying here, I can see Without Xiao Long can handle this sheep alone, I'll also go to cut poles." Li Qing Xia waved his hand. "It's better to finish this work early."

"Sure, Without Xiao Long, you stay here alone, we'll go to cut poles, and come back at noon to eat the meat you cook."

"Good." Li Long didn't refuse either. Sorting out this meat really had to take some time.

After breakfast, Li Jianguo and the others washed the enamel basin by the spring, and then left with machetes and axes. Li Long reminded them to be careful of wolves and such, and then started to handle the yellow sheep.

The skin was skinned first, then the meat was decomposed and soaked in water, and firewood was placed under the stove. Water was boiled in the big pot, and some leg bones that had been simply trimmed of meat were thrown into the big pot and started boiling.

Two stoves were opened at the same time, one side boiled meat bones, the other side stewed meat. Li Long was busy spinning around, until it was almost noon, the meat was stewed, and two enamel face basins were filled. Fortunately, he bought more basins when he bought things the day before yesterday, otherwise, the basins wouldn't be enough.

Put the stewed meat on the rack in the small room, Li Long started to prepare to handle those internal organs and offal.

This stuff is relatively troublesome, mainly because it's not easy to store. Three people can't finish the internal organs and offal in one meal.

But it's not worth it to send it back specifically for this little bit of offal. Li Long simply thought about marinating these. After marinating, it can be kept for another day or two. When he was washing the pot by the spring, he looked up and saw a shadow flash by the ditch mouth.

Li Long straightened his waist and looked again, but there was no one.

He felt his eyes weren't blurry, more than two hundred meters away, someone did appear just now, probably saw himself or saw someone here at the wooden house, so he hid.

Too far, couldn't catch up, Li Long took the pot to the stone stove, continued to burn firewood, poured water, and prepared to marinate the offal.

Theoretically speaking, this stuff, after being boiled, as long as it's in the pot, boil it once every few hours, and it won't go bad.

Li Long marinated the offal, and then carried the gun and chased after it.

The small caliber was carried by Li Jianguo, and the five-six-half was left to Li Long. When he chased to the place where he saw someone just now, he found footprints here, but the person had already left.

After searching carefully for a while, Li Long found that the footprints were going southeast into the mountains.

Southeast?

That direction is roughly the direction of Halimu's winter nest, right?

!.

Li Long was a bit worried, afraid that something would happen to Halimu's winter nest again, but he didn't dare to be too far from the wooden house now, after all, things were boiling in the pot, and if no one was watching, it would be troublesome if something happened.

Li Long had to turn back first.

Returning to the front of the wooden house, seeing that the meat bones were almost boiled, he then withdrew the fire under the pot, and then went into the room to change his outer clothes, came out, and said to the others:

"You all rest first, I'm going out."

Li Jianguo and the others didn't ask either. Li Long was much more familiar with this area than them. If there was anything, Li Long would say it.

Li Long carried the gun to the place where the footprints were found, and then followed the direction the footprints left and chased down.

When the footprints walked into the grass, it was not easy to find, so Li Long rushed toward Halimu's winter nest along the ditch.

When he was about to reach the ditch of the winter nest, Li Long slowed down, observing the surroundings while walking forward. When he could see the winter nest, he stopped and waited quietly in the woods.

He just had a feeling that the person who hid from him earlier was very likely in this winter nest.

Sure enough, in less than ten minutes, a shadow came out of the winter nest. He held a bag in one hand, and touched his crotch with the other hand. He didn't know if he was tying his belt with one hand or doing something else. Li Long was angry.

He felt that this guy must have done something relatively dirty in Halimu's winter nest!

That shadow left the winter nest, carried the bag, and walked into the mountains along the ditch. After he walked far away, Li Long hurriedly chased down.

Passing by Halimu's winter nest, Li Long glanced at the door, and then was almost angered to death!

This guy actually took a shit on the wooden kang of Halimu's winter nest!

Damn it!

Li Long was furious. Could this be tolerated?

This is a house where people live!

If Halimu were on the scene, he would probably blow this animal thing away with one shot!

Li Long quickly followed. He felt that this person must have a nest. Find their nest, and the remaining things would be simple.

Li Long quickly caught up with that person. That person was still looking around in the mountains. Li Long looked like he was picking mushrooms, after all, the fritillaria had bloomed now, and couldn't be dug. The codonopsis hadn't reached the season, and digging it wasn't of much use.

That person was still humming a tune Li Long couldn't understand, occasionally roaring one or two times, which could startle a few birds.

Finally, after crossing two ditches, that person came to a relatively flat ditch mouth, where there were a few dugouts, arranged not very neatly.

Ropes were tied to the trees by the dugouts, and some bedding was spread on them, which were being sunned. It should be that the dugouts were relatively damp, and it was cool to sleep at night, so they had to sun the bedding during the day.

Li Long only looked at it once and determined that those bedding were absolutely taken from his wooden house!

Looking at the pot set on the stove built of stones by the dugout, that nine out of ten was also taken from his wooden house.

This is finding the thief's nest!

That person arrived at the place, put the bag at the mouth of a dugout, shouted, and another man with messy hair drilled out from another dugout.

The first one looked like he should be forty or fifty years old, the latter also thirty or forty, with patches on his clothes, and looking at the hair and beard, they hadn't been cut for a long time, and the appearance couldn't be seen clearly.

The two said a few words there, and Li Long didn't hear clearly which dialect it was, anyway, he didn't understand much, just vaguely heard that the first one, which was the one Li Long followed, said he didn't find anything, the other one complained a few words, saying he got a lot before, and then the two went to get bowls.

Li Long looked at the number of dugouts, there should be at least four people here, but now there were only two, don't know if the other two went out to work, or left this small gang.

But couldn't care about that much, he held the gun, opened the safety, loaded the bullet, and rushed toward the dugout angrily.

Those two were eating, the young one saw Li Long, and then shouted in horror.

The older one turned his head and looked, then threw away the bowl and ran toward the woods. Li Long raised his hand and fired a shot, directly hitting his arm!

That guy screamed—actually, Li Long wanted to hit in front of him, forcing him to stop, but this person didn't know what he was doing when running, waved his hand, and was hit in the arm.

This scream directly scared the other one who wanted to run—this is too brutal! Didn't even say a word, directly fired?

Li Long walked to the front with big strides, kicked the young one down with one foot, held the gun butt and smashed it a few times, smashing the young one's head and face, and then went to smash the old one with the gun butt a few times, smashing the old guy until he kept begging for mercy, and then stopped.

Can't reason with these people, and Li Long didn't plan to kill the two, after venting the anger in his heart, Li Long started to search these two people's things.

No, not searching, but actively claiming compensation!

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 225 =====

That person was humming a tune Li Long couldn't understand, occasionally shouting a line or two, which could startle a few birds.

Finally, after crossing two gullies, the person arrived at a relatively flat gully mouth, where there were several earth shelters arranged in a somewhat untidy manner.

Ropes were tied to the trees beside the earth shelters, and some bedding was spread out on them, drying in the sun. It was likely that the earth shelters were quite damp and cold to sleep in at night, so the bedding had to be dried during the day.

Li Long only took one look and confirmed that those pieces of bedding were definitely from his own wooden cabin!

Looking again at the pot set on the stone stove beside the earth shelter, that was ninety-nine percent likely to have been swiped from his wooden cabin as well.

Steam was rising from the pot, and the lid was on; he didn't know what was being cooked.

So he had found the thieves' den!

The person arrived at the place, put the bag down at the entrance of one of the earth shelters, and shouted. A man with messy hair crawled out from another earth shelter.

The first person looked to be about forty or fifty years old, and the second one was over thirty. Their clothes were full of patches, and their hair and beards hadn't been cut for a long time, making it hard to tell what they looked like.

The two of them said a few words there. Li Long couldn't hear clearly which dialect it was; anyway, he couldn't understand much. He only vaguely heard that the first person, the one Li Long had followed, said he hadn't found anything, and the other one complained a few times, saying how much he had gotten before, and then the two of them went to get bowls.

Li Long looked at the number of earth shelters; there should be at least four people here, but now there were only two. He didn't know if the other two had gone out to work or had left this small gang.

But he couldn't care about that much anymore. He held his gun, opened the safety, chambered a round, and rushed angrily toward the earth shelters with quick steps.

The two of them were eating, and the younger one saw Li Long and then shouted in terror.

The older one turned his head to look, then threw away his bowl and ran toward the forest. Li Long raised his hand and fired a shot, hitting him directly in the arm!

The guy let out a miserable scream—actually, Li Long had intended to shoot in front of him to force him to stop, but the man happened to wave his hand while running, and he got hit in the arm.

This scream directly scared the other one who wanted to run—this was too brutal! He didn't even say a word and just fired?

Li Long walked up to them in large strides, kicked the younger one to the ground with one foot, and used the butt of his gun to smash him a few times, leaving the young one with a bloody head. Then he went to the older one and smashed him several times with the gun butt, making the old guy beg for mercy incessantly, before he stopped.

There was no reasoning with these people, and Li Long didn't intend to finish them off. After venting his anger, Li Long began to search the two people's belongings.

No, not searching, but actively demanding compensation!

(End of chapter)