Chapter 263

In the end, two deer were sold to Huang Xuejun at the price of three hundred each.

Huang Xuejun gave Li Long a deposit of one hundred yuan, then wrote a simple contract, and he hurriedly went to the county.

He had to find a car to pull the deer.

Old Luo watched Li Long collect the money, and after Huang Xuejun left, he said:

"Xiao Long, listening to what you said, is this three hundred per deer sold cheaply?"

"If it's specifically raised, then naturally it's cheap. Think about it, an adult male deer, the antlers alone can sell for more than one hundred every year, and the female deer, although there are no antlers, can give birth to small deer. And the deer is full of treasures, even if it's slaughtered, deer blood, deer whip, deer heart, etc., are all good things." Li Long said with a smile:

"But this money might not necessarily be earned.

We are raising it now, it's fine, but to be honest, this deer is much more expensive than donkeys, horses, etc. If you don't raise it well and get some disease, then it's dead. Now it's still a small deer, later when it grows up, especially in winter, we might not be able to raise it well."

Three hundred is indeed cheap, but Li Long really has his own thoughts.

A family with ten thousand guan, the ones that exhale don't count. It's unlikely that this deer will always be so lively. He went to Ili for tourism in his previous life, and there were people in the corps raising deer there. He heard from locals that someone once raised more than twenty, and then an epidemic, and they were all gone.

It's better to settle for peace.

Hearing Li Long say this, Old Luo understood.

"Then let's just raise it casually. I think this wild boar is not bad, eats a lot, poops a lot, and is lively, and I never see it get sick."

"Hmm, in our place, raising pigs and donkeys is fine, other special breeding, we raise it if we run into it, and it doesn't matter if we don't."

It was just an experimental nature in itself, and now there is a three-hundred-yuan entry, which is already very good.

Li Long rode his bike back to the Li family, and Tao Daqiang was already there.

"Let's set more nets today," Li Long said, "Set ten to twelve. Bring the old nets too, see if we can catch fish." Since the old man is interested, Li Long naturally has to accompany him.

"Little uncle, can I go together?" Li Qiang said on the side.

Li Juan also looked at them.

"Go, go if you want." Li Long said with a smile, "Mother, are you going?"

"What am I going for? I'm not going, I have to cook pig food at home... you guys go."

"Then I'll stay too, I'll go cut pig grass later." Li Juan hesitated for a moment.

A bit sensible enough to make people feel distressed.

"Cut what pig grass?" Li Long waved his hand, "Go for a turn, when I set the net, your grandfather and Daqiang cast the net, you guys follow to pick up the fish! When we come back from setting the net, I'll ride a bike to our sugar beet field to get some leaves. Of course, there are quite a few mosquitoes, if you are afraid of mosquitoes, then don't go."

"Go, I'll go! What's there to be afraid of mosquitoes!" Li Juan smiled as soon as she heard it.

"Go!" Li Long waved his arm heroically, and Tao Daqiang had already taken the tire out of the courtyard.

Li Long took the bag and followed, Li Qiang insisted on taking the basin for catching ditch fish, Li Qing Xia said he was small and couldn't carry it, but Li Qiang insisted on taking it to show his grandfather, talking and making noise all the way out.

Arriving at the small lake, there were still people setting nets on the east bank, yes, not only Li Long was setting nets, those who set nets were also collecting them.

This side was washed by floods, there was an opening, inside the opening was a large area of open water, no weeds, it should have been washed open by the flood.

"You guys cast the net here, I'll row the tire inside to set the net, I remember there is a large area of water inside that didn't grow reeds, I'll set a circle of nets around that area of water."

Li Long said his thoughts, and then pulled out the knife he carried with him, cut some jiji grass from the jiji mound next to it and handed it to Li Juan and Li Qiang:

"Later Daqiang will cast the net, you guys follow to pick up the fish, and then use this to thread the fish, do you know how to thread it?"

"Know, know!" Li Qiang grabbed and said, "Thread in from the mouth, thread out from the gills."

"Right." Li Long patted Li Qiang's head, put the tire into the water, and sat on it with the net bag.

Rowing in for more than ten meters, he started setting nets by the reeds. This time it was more than ten nets, adding up to nearly a kilometer. Even if his net-setting means were superb, it would still take an hour.

Rowing and setting nets, at first he didn't feel anything, but after half an hour, his hands felt tired. After all, he kept rowing, and couldn't row fast. Looking at the net set halfway, there was still a large circle. This area of water was surrounded by reeds, and there was no wind. Although it was afternoon, the water surface was still very hot, his body was already soaked in sweat, and his pants were stained with water, and the water felt hot.

Occasionally, a water chicken or wild duck baby would drill out from the reed bushes, and after rushing out, it would scream in surprise and dive into the water when it saw Li Long. Sometimes it could also startle Li Long.

Li Long also had to be careful not to let these annoying little guys drill into the net, otherwise, this net wouldn't catch fish for at least more than half.

So, money is also not easy to earn, at least the link of setting nets is quite tiring.

More than half of the water surface was set with nets, Li Long looked and there were three nets left, he planned to rest on the water surface.

Putting the water-rowing board on his legs, Li Long shook his arms, feeling a bit sour and numb. After all, maintaining a mechanical posture for a long time, even a strong man would be tired.

He could vaguely hear the sound of Li Qiang shouting on the shore, it should be that the net was cast and fish were caught.

With his father's ability to cast nets, catching fish was certain, it was just a matter of quantity.

There was no cigarette in his pocket, and Li Long didn't have much addiction to cigarettes. At first, he thought about quitting smoking completely, but occasionally he would take a puff, so this matter of quitting smoking couldn't be said to death at the beginning.

Like the current situation, if there was a pack of cigarettes in his pocket, smoking it could also buffer it.

Just thinking about it, Li Long's peripheral vision felt that something was swimming over. At first, he thought it was a noodle fish—this thing likes to swim on the water surface, and can bring up a large water wave, making people think there are big fish under the water, and only after fishing it up with a scoop net did he find that it was at most chopstick length.

However, Li Long soon discovered that the water splash made by this thing was a bit long, and the noodle fish didn't have this ability. His hair stood up, and he picked up the water-rowing board and smashed it towards that water wave.

A snake was smashed out of the water by Li Long, and then fell into the water again!

Li Long didn't dare to stop, holding the water-rowing board and smashing it continuously. He had quite a bit of strength, and now he was in shock, three or five times, and that water snake turned its belly and floated up.

Li Long smashed it a few more times, directly smashing bloodstains all over the snake's body, and blood water also appeared nearby. Only then did he stop.

Using the water-rowing board to carefully pick up the snake, Li Long looked at the snake's body, it wasn't tense, it was soft, it should be dead through.

Still carefully pinching the snake in his hand, he pulled out the knife he carried with him, cut off the snake head and threw it far into the water, only then did he feel relieved.

Remembering which comic book he read, the snake named wild chicken neck could still bite a person after cutting off the snake head, causing death by poisoning, so he didn't dare not be careful. After all, he didn't know what kind of snake this was, and he didn't know if it was poisonous, so it was better to be careful.

Li Long looked around again, and no more snakes came over. He had just slapped the water surface hard, startling some wild duck babies and water chickens into the middle of the reed bushes.

There were nail snails on the water weeds not far away, and this thing couldn't be eaten either. Li Long withdrew his gaze, threw the snake into the net bag, and then set the net quickly.

Can't delay, even if resting, go to the net to rest.

In ten minutes, the remaining nets were set, and Li Long was almost at the shore. He dragged his tired body and rowed back to the place where Li Qing Xia and the others cast the nets, and then was pulled ashore by Tao Daqiang.

"Just now I heard you splashing water over there, what's the matter?" Li Qing Xia asked while tidying up the cast net. "Ran into a water snake, and I beat it to death." Li Long was very calm now, after all, the snake was already dead, thinking about it, it wasn't a big deal.

"What? Water snake?" Li Qiang had seen Li Long catch water snakes, but this thing was both fearful and curious for boys.

But it was different for girls. Hearing that Li Long beat the water snake to death, she moved away from Li Long on her own.

"Hmm, look." Li Long turned the net bag mouth down and poured out the water snake without a head.

Although she had moved away a few steps, Li Juan still screamed in surprise when she saw the snake.

"Eh, it's quite long." Li Qing Xia took a look and said, "There were many snakes this long in my hometown, there was a period of time when students could run into them every day on the way to school..."

"Grandpa, really?"

"Of course it's true." Li Qing Xia said, "Just avoid it, anyway, it doesn't run as fast as people."

Li Qiang squatted down and reached out to touch the snake carefully.

He had already seen it, the snake had no head and was dead.

!.

"Go back." Li Long said, "How many fish did you catch by casting the net?"

"Not many." Li Qing Xia said, "A dozen or so, big and small."

"Little uncle, can we burn this snake and eat it when we go back?"

This burning means burning directly under the stove, which feels a bit like roasting. Li Long had roasted it for Li Qiang.

"Fine, just burn it and eat it like fish later. On the way back, get some sunflower leaves, green ones."

This is a difficult problem, now the oil sunflower has begun to wither and yellow, most of the green leaves are those that sprouted late or developed slowly.

"Good!" Hearing that he could eat, Li Qiang immediately agreed.

A group of five people walked back. Tao Daqiang still carried the tire, Li Long carried two strings of fish and the net bag, and Li Qing Xia and the two children were at the end.

"Brother Long," Tao Daqiang suddenly opened his mouth, "My brother asked me to ask you, see if there is any other work to earn money..."

Li Long could understand Tao Daqiang's thoughts, after all, they are brothers, and this might have been asked by Tao Jian She.

"You wait two days, I'll see the market." Li Long thought for a moment and said.

Actually, he also had an idea, some things don't necessarily have to be done by one person, it still needs to be scaled. Just like weaving carrying poles or tying large brooms, the best way to earn money is to be a middleman yourself, with people working and people collecting goods.

However, for the thing he is currently targeting, he doesn't know if anyone is collecting it, so put it aside for two days.

Tao Daqiang nodded and didn't continue to speak.

Returning home, the sun was still a pole high, and Li Long quickly pulled off the snake skin, chopped it into several sections, and also gutted several palm-sized crucian carp, smeared them with salt and chili powder, wrapped them in the sunflower leaves Li Qiang picked, soaked the Ma Lian leaves in water to wet them, and then stuffed them into the stove.

Du Chunfang had been burning fire earlier, and there were hot ashes under the stove, enough to burn these things cooked.

"You watch it yourself, I'm going to get sugar beet leaves now." Li Long said.

"Little uncle, I'll go with you." Li Juan said hurriedly.

"Fine." Li Long didn't refuse either, one more person would be faster.

Li Long took two urea bags and padded them on the back seat, let Li Juan sit well, rode on, and went east.

Half an hour later, he rode back, the sun hadn't completely set, and at this time, the pigs in the pig pen had already started to call.

Two large half-bags of sugar beet leaves were quickly chopped and put into the large pot, boiled, poured into bran and oil dregs left after squeezing oil from oil sunflower, stirred a few times, and this pig food was ready.

After pouring out the pig food, pour some sugar dregs and mix it, cool it down, and feed the pigs.

When feeding the pigs, Li Jianguo and Liang Yuemei came back from work, the family ate a simple midnight snack, and Li Long returned to the horse number.

Old Luo gave Li Long five hundred yuan and said:

"Xiao Long, that Factory Director Huang brought a car over in the afternoon and pulled the deer away, this is the money he left behind."

Li Long held the money in his hand, pulled out fifty from it, handed it to Old Luo, and said with a smile:

"Old Luo, this is a red envelope. These deer have always been fed by you, without you I wouldn't be able to sell for this much money."

"No, no, it was already agreed, twenty yuan salary, this is already top of a worker." Old Luo hurriedly waved his hand, "Xiao Long, I know you are righteous, but I really can't accept this money.

I have no place to spend money, look at the vegetables in this courtyard, the meat you brought so much, and you brought me honey and Codonopsis pilosula, I dare not accept it—I can't take this money no matter what. Xiao Long, I don't have red-eye disease, I still know what money can be accepted and what money cannot be accepted, you put the money away—you are about to get married, there are many places to use money, you need this more than I do."

Since he said so, Li Long didn't insist anymore.

The next day, Li Long climbed up early and went to the Li family. Tao Daqiang was already standing outside the courtyard. Li Long admired Daqiang, there was no alarm clock or anything, how could he get up?

Hearing the movement outside, Li Qing Xia also put on his clothes and came out of the room. At this time, it was still a bit cool outside, he didn't wear a shirt like Li Long, but wore a coat.

"Go." Li Long knew the old man's body was actually quite strong, and said, "There are many nets today, it will take a while to collect, and it will take a while to pick fish later."

"No matter how many, I'm not afraid, as long as there are many fish, that's fine." Li Qing Xia said with a smile.

"Daqiang, do you want to follow to sell fish today? If you want to go, I'll take you to the county, and you and my father can sell fish in the market?" Li Long asked while walking.

"Good." Tao Daqiang thought for a moment and nodded, but asked again, "Then the net..."

"Pick it up together when we come back, there are twelve nets, you can't pick them up alone."

Li Long mainly thought that if the old man went to sell fish alone, if he ran into a second-rate person, he wouldn't be able to handle it.

The small lake in the early morning was very quiet, except for individual people collecting nets, yes, not only Li Long was collecting nets, those who set nets were also collecting them.

Li Long ran three trips back—the net was not only tangled with water chickens but also water weeds, but the fish were still considerable.

More than one hundred kilograms! (End of chapter)