Chapter 268: A lone wild boar, and grateful fellow villagers

Li Long was awakened early in the morning. He heard a small movement outside, climbed up quietly, put on his clothes, carried the semi-automatic rifle, and came to the window.

And then he heard Halimu's voice:

"We, put the skins and these here—wait for Li Long to wake up and he will take them himself..."

"Halimu," Li Long was a bit dumbfounded, he said loudly: "I am inside, I am awake, I heard it."

After saying that, he opened the door.

Halimu and another young man were moving things down from the horses outside, several skins, two deer antlers, two roe deer antlers, and a bundle of snow lotus flowers.

"I thought you were still sleeping." Halimu said after putting the things down, "Then are you going down the mountain now? We are not in a hurry."

The other young man wanted to say something, but didn't say it.

"Since you guys are here, then take some flour first." Li Long pointed to the small room and said, "I put half a bag of rice and half a bag of flour inside, and a canned bottle of oil."

"Alright." Halimu didn't decline either, "Then we won't be polite."

After Halimu and the others left with the rice and flour, Li Long went to the spring water to wash his face and looked at the skins.

A roe deer skin, two wolf skins. The deer antlers looked quite fresh, they should have fallen off this year, the roots of the roe deer antlers were stained with blood, Li Long guessed they should have been taken directly from the roe deer's head.

The grass mowing season was at most half a month, these skins and deer antlers were enough to buy food to eat.

Li Long pushed the bicycle out, clipped the skins on the back seat of the bicycle, then bundled the deer antlers and roe deer antlers and put them on top of the skins, then tied them well, locked the door, carried the gun case, and went down the mountain.

Returning to the county town, Li Long went directly to the collection station.

Chen Hongjun was cutting watermelon with his colleague under the shed in the courtyard of the collection station. Seeing Li Long come over, he greeted him with a smile:

"Come, come, come, eat watermelon together. You are quite something, you can still get deer antlers at this time... these deer antlers are of good quality."

"Friends sent them down, need to trade for some things."

"Mm, eat watermelon first, talk after eating."

Li Long wasn't polite either, propped up the bicycle, stepped forward, picked up a piece of melon, and started eating. After eating two pieces of melon, Li Long stopped, went to the water basin by the side of the courtyard to wash his hands, and then took down the antlers and skins.

"Mm," Chen Hongjun washed his hands and said, "Come, let me see your skins and antlers. The antlers are not bad, these deer antlers are six yuan per kilogram, roe deer antlers are five yuan—skins, this wolf skin has a bullet hole, the position of the bullet hole is a bit damaged..."

After grading them, Chen Hongjun went into the house to get the scale, weighed the deer antlers and roe deer antlers, and finally calculated the account and issued the ticket.

"Deer antlers, a pair, thirteen kilograms two, seventy-nine yuan and two cents, roe deer antlers, three kilograms one, fifteen yuan and fifty cents, roe deer skin, twenty-seven yuan, wolf skins, two, one nineteen, one thirty-seven, a total of one hundred seventy-seven yuan and seventy cents, come, sign here... is what you put in that bag snow lotus?"

"Comrade Chen, your nose is quite sharp," Li Long joked, "Friends brought them down from the mountain, planning to give them to my partner."

"Mm, this snow lotus flavor is authentic, it should have been picked not long ago, not bad." Chen Hongjun understood Li Long's meaning and said with a smile.

After signing and taking the money, Li Long said goodbye to Chen Hongjun and left. Seeing that it was almost noon, he went to the big meat canteen, bought ten steamed buns, and returned to the large courtyard.

Seeing that Gu Xiaoxia hadn't returned yet, Li Long went to the vegetable garden, pulled a handful of coriander, pulled two more small scallions, washed them, cut them into pieces, mixed them with oil chili and vinegar as a dipping sauce, and placed the steamed buns on the dining table.

Just eating steamed buns certainly wouldn't do, he made another egg drop soup, and could drink it after eating the steamed buns later.

Ten minutes later, Gu Xiaoxia pushed the bicycle into the courtyard.

Seeing Li Long, she said with a smile:

"Coming from the team?"

"No, I returned from the mountains." Li Long said, "Planned to go into the mountains to get some game, and encountered herdsmen friends. Come, come, come, just in time for you to see, the snow lotus flowers they picked just a few days ago."

"Quite fragrant, this fragrance is quite unique." Gu Xiaoxia put the bicycle away, held the bunch of snow lotus flowers, and smelled them, "A bit of a cold feeling."

"This grows on high mountains, it should have that characteristic." Li Long said, "After drying in the shade, it can be used as medicine later."

"Mm." Gu Xiaoxia put the snow lotus flowers aside, went to wash her hands, and said while washing:

"Then are you still going up the mountain?"

Li Long asked while serving soup for the two of them:

"Yes. They brought some skins and deer antlers down, I sold them for them, and then I'm going to buy some food to take up. Are you busy recently?"

"These few days are preparation, it will be busy after a while." Gu Xiaoxia sat at the dining table, and said while preparing the bowls, "School is about to start. After the village primary school is cancelled, the pressure on the brigade primary school will certainly be greater. We will patrol then. Although I am a newcomer to the Education Bureau, a seconded cadre, I also have to participate, to see the preparation situation and enrollment registration situation of each school."

"Mm, this shouldn't be difficult for you." Li Long poured some dipping sauce into his bowl, picked up a steamed bun, dipped it, and started eating.

Ten steamed buns, Li Long ate four, Gu Xiaoxia ate two, when Li Long persuaded her to eat more, she said she was full.

"I've been sitting in the office recently, no physical work, plus the weather is hot, my appetite is much smaller."

"Is there any watermelon in the house? Should I buy a few more later?"

"Don't go." Gu Xiaoxia waved her hand, "I can't finish a melon by myself, buying too many is a waste. You rest for a while after eating, and then go do your business. I guess they won't need few things."

Indeed not few.

Gu Xiaoxia went to work, and Li Long started buying various things.

A bag of rice and a bag of flour, brick tea, granulated sugar, rope, whetstone, salt...

All in all, Li Long bought many things, and went into the mountains with them.

Bringing the things to Halimu's winter nest, he really didn't see anyone, and the winter nest door wasn't locked, the lock nose was just hanging, so Li Long moved the things inside.

Returning to the wooden house, locking the bicycle, Li Long carried the semi-automatic rifle and walked slowly into the mountains.

He planned to continue to take a look at the hot spring, if there was nothing today, then look tomorrow morning. Regardless of whether there was anything tomorrow morning, he would go down the mountain to buy things again.

The weather was a bit overcast, the clouds in the sky were running very fast, and there was some wind, feeling a bit cool.

Don't know if it would rain at night.

Li Long thought so in his heart, his feet didn't stop, but his speed wasn't fast either, carrying the gun and the sack, he entered the hot spring ditch.

Li Long discovered that the water flow was a bit larger than yesterday, don't know if it rained in the deep mountains, so the groundwater level rose.

Walking upward along the stream, Li Long's movements were very slow, and his search was very careful, he walked all the way to the pool, and didn't discover any movement.

But Li Long wasn't discouraged either. He looked around, and found that there were indeed new feces.

Li Long turned and went into the forest, waiting at the place where he had ambushed yesterday.

Now it was a competition of luck and patience.

Time passed minute by minute, Li Long watched the light from the sun shining through the forest move upward little by little, and in the end, when it was almost gone, just when he planned to leave, movement came from the pool below.

A small wild boar came running over grunting.

This wild boar looked like it was born at the beginning of this year, and now it was less than fifty kilograms, quite thin, after running over, it looked left and right, with some vigilance, and then rushed toward the stream between the two pools, and started rolling there. It actually didn't take a bath in the pool, was it because there was no mud in the pool?

Li Long guessed.

He slowly opened the safety of the semi-automatic rifle, and aimed at that wild boar.

This wild boar seemed to be alone, without companions, Li Long waited for several minutes, watched this wild boar having a great time in the muddy water, and knew that waiting any longer wouldn't bring any others, so shoot.

Thinner is thinner, it's better than nothing.

"Peng!"

A shot passed through the wild boar's shoulder blade and hit its head, the wild boar's head lifted suddenly, it seemed it planned to jump up, and then it fell heavily, and a pool of blood seeped out under its body.

Li Long opened the bayonet, held the gun and moved forward, walked to a place two or three meters in front of the wild boar, looked carefully that this wild boar really had no breath, and only then set his heart at ease.

The wild boar was all covered in mud, Li Long dragged one of its legs to the pool, flipped it hard, washed the muddy water clean, and then stuffed it into the sack, and carried it downstream.

It wasn't safe to skin it here, if it attracted wolves, it wouldn't be worth it.

There was wind in the valley, and it wouldn't take long for the blood smell to dissipate, and the bloodstains would also be washed clean by the water.

!.

Carrying something weighing forty or fifty kilograms, Li Long didn't feel very tired, when he returned to the front of the wooden house, the sun had already set.

He rested for a while, then took the wild boar to the spring water, fetched another basin, and started skinning and gutting.

Although Li Long was considered a hunter, the smell of the viscera when gutting still made him couldn't help but turn his head.

Not good to smell.

The knife passed between the skin and the meat, directly cutting open the gap, without damaging the skin—Li Long could already do this. Of course, he still admired Halimu, this brother used his fist most of the time when skinning sheep, directly using his fist to push between the sheep skin and sheep meat, and the skin was separated.

The skin of a wild boar was a bit different, not easy to handle.

After skinning the wild boar, gutting it, and removing the internal organs, Li Long thought that Halimu and the others probably wouldn't be coming over tomorrow morning. He decided to trim off a portion of the meat first, then rubbed salt onto the bones and the rest, hanging them on that wooden pole to air-dry.

He put the meat in a basin and covered it, then went to handle the viscera.

With enough time, he started cleaning the stomach and turning the intestines.

The spring water was living water, that was the only advantage, whatever was there was washed away directly.

What wasn't washed away directly became fertilizer—the grass around this spring grew very well.

Li Long was even thinking, should he open a vegetable plot or something in this area.

Later he thought, forget it, the wild vegetables in the mountains couldn't be finished, why bother with planting.

After cleaning the intestines and stomach, Li Long started adding firewood under the stove, boiling water, preparing to boil and braise these viscera.

As for the wild boar skin, bury it. No use.

At this time, the sky was already dark, and it was cold outside. Several wolf howls came from afar, Li Long wasn't afraid, and even felt some emotion—this stuff, in a few years, if you want to hear it, you can only hear it in film and television programs.

The younger generation like Li Qiang hadn't really seen wolves in the wild.

After the viscera were boiled, Li Long looked at his watch, it was one o'clock in the morning.

At this time, in his previous life, he would have just finished brushing short videos and novels, preparing to rest.

At this time, it felt already very late.

He looked up at the north, the Big Dipper and Polaris were hanging clearly in the sky, flashing from time to time.

Mm, very good.

It's a pity there was no mobile phone—sigh, the habits of the previous life hadn't been thrown away, seeing something good-looking made him want to take a picture.

Annoying habit!

Sleep!

Early the next morning, Li Long got up, fished out the things in the pot, put them in a basin, carried them to the small room, and then carried the gun and went to the hot spring again.

The time was a bit late, when he arrived at the hot spring ditch, the sun had already risen.

The pool was a bit dirty, and there were many hoof prints beside it, Li Long knew this should be roe deer or wild mountain goats that had come over.

He was a bit disappointed, and a bit happy. It was confirmed that there were indeed things in here, it was just that he came late.

Then come over earlier tomorrow morning.

Returning along the original path, Li Long looked at the meat bones hanging on the rack, there was no big change. He pushed the bicycle, clipped the basin of viscera on the back seat of the car, and rode down the mountain.

Returning to the large courtyard, he put the viscera away, and then went out to buy food.

He estimated that those foods might not be enough for Halimu and the others. After all, doing heavy physical labor, plus modern people lacking oil and water—even herdsmen were the same, so buying more was not wrong.

Another bag of rice and a bag of flour, then went to the market to buy a large basket of chili, tomatoes, potatoes, and onions, and a small basket of eggs. For Halimu and these people, as for vegetables, usually it was just these few kinds, and they couldn't make many others.

After buying and tying the things well, Li Long rode the bicycle and returned to the large courtyard.

He looked at the time, only rice could be steamed. He steamed the rice, and then cut a few chilies, stir-fried a plate of green chili tripe, a plate of green chili large intestine.

The portion was quite large, if they couldn't finish it, it would be Gu Xiaoxia's dinner.

At this time, leftover rice wasn't wasted, and it was meat dishes.

Gu Xiaoxia returned more than ten minutes later than yesterday, seeing Li Long, she explained while propping up the bicycle:

"On the way back, I met Steel Egg's mom from our team, said she came to buy things, chatted for a few sentences."

"The team is not very busy now." Li Long said, "Wash your hands and eat."

"Not busy, she said, a few days ago she took the child to dig Cistanche and sell it to you, earned some money, school is about to start, today she took the child to the street to buy some things, to reward them."

"This is not bad." Li Long said with a smile, "This way the child has motivation to go to school."

"Praised you for a while, said you did a great good deed for the team. Otherwise, there would be no spare money at home, and the miscellaneous fees for the child to go to school couldn't be paid."

"Haha, I love hearing this." Li Long picked up a chopstick of tripe and put it in Gu Xiaoxia's rice bowl, and said with a smile, "Earned money, and got a reputation, it seems this thing has to be done often in the future."

The two talked and laughed while finishing the meal, Gu Xiaoxia cleaned up the bowls and chopsticks, while Li Long went to cut and dry the remaining braised things. This stuff couldn't be allowed to go bad, couldn't afford to waste it. (End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 269 =====