Chapter 328

Li Long didn't drink much wine; those few cups were nothing for his age and body.

Around four o'clock in the afternoon, he came out with Gu Xiaoxia. Gu Bo Yuan had also finished eating early and gone back; he didn't drink either. Li Long packed two basins of pickled vegetables stewed with meat, one to send to Gu Bo Yuan and one for Gu Xiaoxia to take away.

This yellow enamel basin with a lid is really practical, and although it's not very fashionable, it's still the standard equipment for many rural households to hold vegetables and lard even thirty or forty years later.

When he arrived at the Gu house, Gu Bo Yuan was leaning against the fire wall in the room listening to the radio, with a book by his side. Li Long glanced at it; it seemed to be "Chronological Table of Major Events in Chinese History," but he didn't see the name clearly.

"Without Xiao Long is here." Gu Bo Yuan stood up. "We just ate, why did you bring more?"

"Just keep it and eat it." Li Long said with a smile. "Uncle Gu, this is clean, specifically left in the pot, not the leftovers mixed together."

"Haha, I know, I know, I'm not that picky." Gu Bo Yuan was quite satisfied that Li Long specifically explained it to him. "Your eldest brother drank too much again today, right?"

"Not yet, I guess when everyone leaves, he'll have to go to sleep." Li Long said.

His eldest brother Li Jianguo has a high tolerance for alcohol, and basically, every time he drinks, he doesn't lose his composure on the spot. When he drinks outside, he goes home after drinking, drinks a cup of water, and then lies on the bed to sleep. When he wakes up, he's basically fine.

He had almost never seen him do anything excessive after drinking too much at a wine party.

"Your eldest brother is still impressive; this is the foundation he laid when he worked at the winery back then." Gu Bo Yuan sighed. "But drinking too much is still not good for the body; you have to persuade him."

"Okay." Li Long didn't know Li Jianguo had worked at a winery before; this was probably another legendary piece of history.

"Dad, I'm packing up and getting ready to leave now." Gu Xiaoxia was packing some things in the inner room and came out to say, "I might not be back next week."

"See how things go next week. Daqiang is getting married, aren't you coming back?" Gu Bo Yuan thought for a moment and said, "We've been invited. See how things go; if there's nothing major and the weather is good, come back."

"Okay." Gu Xiaoxia said.

The basin Li Long brought was tied up like a package with a cloth, so it only needed to be hung on the bicycle handlebar. Gu Bo Yuan found a basin, poured the vegetables Li Long brought into it, washed the basin clean with hot water, and handed it back to Li Long.

Li Long greeted Gu Bo Yuan and sent Gu Xiaoxia out. Gu Xiaoxia pushed her bicycle, and Li Long walked side-by-side with her. After sending her to the old horse corral, Li Long also pushed his bicycle, and the two of them headed west together.

After the heavy snow, because students were going to school, the road had been trodden out, but it wasn't wide, and the snow on the ground had been pressed into ice, which was quite slippery. The two of them rode side-by-side, keeping a close distance and riding very slowly, until they reached the commune, where they reluctantly parted ways.

The road from the commune to the county was much wider, but also more slippery. Li Long urged Gu Xiaoxia to be slow, and watched her ride away before he went to the blacksmith's shop.

"Buying a pig-slaughtering knife? And a hair-scraping knife?" The blacksmith laughed after hearing Li Long's idea.

"Do you want the ready-made ones?" He dug out a bag from the corner and put it in front of Li Long. "Take a look."

A hook for the pig, a knife for slaughtering, a knife for trimming meat, a rod for sharpening the knife, and a scraper for pig hair—all were newly forged.

"You have a complete set here. How much? I'll take it." Li Long thought to himself that only a fool wouldn't want it; since there were ready-made ones, he would naturally take them directly.

"Fifteen for the whole set." The blacksmith didn't ask for a high price. "This was forged for a pig slaughterer in the township. He ordered it more than two months ago, and not long after, he went back to his hometown. Later, his wife and children also went back, so I guess he's not coming. Not many people really want this stuff..."

"Okay." Li Long measured the pig-slaughtering knife on his finger and felt it was really good, with conscientious materials, so he paid directly.

He rolled up the things, tucked them on the back seat of his bicycle, and rode back humming a song.

He returned to the old horse corral. At this time, his second brother Li Anguo and the others hadn't returned yet, but Uncle Lao Luo had returned and was preparing pig feed.

"Uncle Lao Luo, we won't be able to feed the wild boar for many more days; let's slaughter them all in the next few days."

"In another half a month, Daqiang is getting married, his father spoke up, wanting half a pig."

"No slaughtering, no slaughtering. If we can get some small ones when we go into the mountains, we'll raise some more."

The last time he sold two small deer for six hundred, Li Long was quite happy; it was extra income, after all.

If he could get some more between this winter and next spring, that would be even better.

It seems that wild deer and such aren't that hard to raise.

By six o'clock in the afternoon, Li Anguo and the others walked back laughing and talking, with Li Junshan carrying a basin of vegetables in his hand.

Mixed vegetables.

Seeing Li Long, Li Anguo gave a thumbs up:

"Without Xiao Long, the pig-slaughtering feast at our river is truly fragrant! We all ate until we were stuffed today, it was fragrant!"

"That's right, Uncle Without Xiao Long, it was really fragrant! We used to eat it back home, why wasn't it this fragrant..."

Li Long smiled:

"If it's fragrant, eat more. We'll slaughter again in a few days. Brother-in-law, didn't you say you could slaughter? I brought back a set of knives, take a look tomorrow..." "What tomorrow? Look now!" Chen Xingbang's wine had clearly gone to his head, and he was slurring his words. Li Long hurriedly waved his hand: "Not today, you rest first. Those knives are sharp, don't cut your hand."

After much persuasion, he helped him inside. Uncle Lao Luo looked at the basin of vegetables and said with a smile: "Heh, heat these vegetables up, dipping them with steamed buns is truly delicious."

Li Long didn't know if these were left in the pot or left over from the table. He hesitated, and Li Junshan said:

"Uncle Without Xiao Long, these vegetables were specifically scooped out of the pot by our aunt. Our aunt said you don't like eating the mixed vegetables from the table, so those vegetables were all divided among the others... Those people were very happy."

"That's fine, let's heat up the vegetables and eat tonight."

For the pig-slaughtering feast, women are the main cooks. At this time, they will divide some vegetables to take back. As for whether they are leftovers from the table, there's not that much to be picky about; being able to eat meat is already a very good thing.

And in later generations, besides dividing vegetables, they would also divide some pig blood buns to take back.

I guess those women are still helping in the kitchen now. Because cleaning up after eating is their job, and they still have to help steam buns after they finish eating.

Although tired, they are all very willing to come. Coming shows, first, that they have a good relationship with the host; they wouldn't be called if the relationship wasn't good. Second, they can divide some meat, vegetables, and oil to take back, which is definitely good food in these times.

Even though every family in the team this year is definitely living a step higher than last year, they are used to frugal days, so no one will miss such a good opportunity to improve their lives.

Li Long returned to his room, lay on the bed, and felt really comfortable.

Then he heard a burst of shouting next door. He listened carefully; it seemed like his brother-in-law Chen Xingbang had vomited—thinking about it, it was normal. He must have drunk a lot of wine today, and after coming over from there, experiencing the wind for a while outside, the wine went to his head, and once he lay down in the room, he had to vomit.

!.

Li Long didn't go over there; he lay on the bed and didn't want to move. He had also drunk a few cups of wine at noon, although not many, but he had been busy for a while afterward, running back and forth in the wind, and now lying on the bed, he felt lazy and didn't want to move.

About ten minutes later, the noise over there subsided. Chen Xingbang should have finished vomiting, and Li Junshan and the others should have cleaned it up and gone to sleep.

It's rare to have such a lively event in the rural winter, and I guess the Li family's pig slaughtering this time will be talked about by many people in the village for several days.

It's just that the Li family didn't "stop" afterward; starting from the next day, they slaughtered pigs one after another.

Because they had already gone through the New Year pig slaughtering, the Li family didn't call anyone else for the subsequent slaughtering, but started cleaning up themselves.

Chen Xingbang took the lead in slaughtering the pigs, and Li Long assisted from the side.

Regarding Li Long's assistance, no one had any objections, and Li Junshan even said:

"Uncle Without Xiao Long, you've hunted so many wild things in the mountains, why don't you and your brother-in-law each set up a stall to slaughter? We'll finish these pigs at Uncle Jianguo's house in two or three days."

Previously, making reed bundles and collecting fish allowed Li Anguo and the other four to each get a lot of money in their hands, and this was in less than a month.

So they were sincerely grateful to the Li family and Li Long, and their enthusiasm for work was beyond words.

Although Chen Xingbang got drunk the first day and even vomited and made a fool of himself, he drank two large bowls of cornmeal porridge the next morning, and his spirit returned. He was measuring the knife and, hearing Li Junshan's words, said with a smile:

This feeling of collecting goods openly is really good. It reminded Li Long of when he went to Yili for tourism, when passing by the side of Provincial Highway 315, he encountered two Kazakh herdsmen selling mushrooms. A woven bag of that kind of big white reed mushroom, estimated to be forty-five kilograms heavy, the other party wanted one hundred, he bargained for fifty, and finally traded for sixty... it could be considered a quite big leak he picked up in his previous life.

Later when he went again, ordinary Bachu mushrooms were sold for one hundred yuan per kilogram—it can only be said that there are more people, and the price is also rising.

Now is the time to pick up big leaks, or rather, the time for a win-win.

When Li Long wandered in the crowd, he would occasionally scoop up a big fish, but most of the time he was still looking for target people.

Those who came early were mostly in groups of a few, and then one person guarded a pile of fish, and others picked fish and put them here.

Li Long walked to a twenty-six or twenty-seven-year-old woman and asked:

"Big sister, how did you ask, are you selling these fish? If you sell, I'll pick them now, and pay now."

That woman said in a dilemma:

"My man said, if we sell, we sell all together, don't let pick..."

"If you don't pick, I'll give at most three yuan for this pile of fish." Li Long shook his head, "There are too many small crucian carp..."

"This crucian carp is not small!" That woman felt Li Long was wrong and argued, "So big, we didn't pick the small ones."

"But compared to those big fish, your fish are small. You have forty or fifty kilograms of fish in this pile, and a small half are crucian carp, if so, it's not worth it for me to buy..."

"That's too cheap, it's not even one mao per kilogram... the fish in the market are seven or eight mao per kilogram."

"That's different, now the whole big Haizi is full of fish, the fish before needed nets to catch, now you just bend over and pick them up... I'll go collect fish elsewhere first, you guys look again."

Saying that, he went to others.

In a while, another order was traded, he collected a bag of big fish, and carried it to the south bank.