Chapter 338

Li Long led the horse cart to the market, took a look around, and was surprised to find three other stalls selling frozen fish.

One of them was the person who had once collected fish with him at the Little Haizi Reservoir. That person didn't notice Li Long and was busy bargaining with someone else.

The other two selling frozen fish didn't have as much stock as him, and they weren't as active in business; they were just squatting in front of their stalls, hands tucked into their sleeves, waiting for people to come and ask.

There was no one from the team selling fish, so Li Long guessed that Meng Zhiqiang and the others probably couldn't catch any fish now.

Little Haizi had only recently frozen over. Although the ice could support a person, if you broke a hole in the ice, it would take a while for many fish to come; after all, the oxygen in the water wouldn't be depleted that quickly. It would take some time before breaking ice holes would attract large numbers of fish.

Most of the people in the team had started to hibernate for the winter. Those who were relatively idle might go to the red willow beach in the east to chase rabbits and set traps to burn off some energy. Others basically just stayed home, and the women had to start making paste, layering fabric, and sewing cloth shoes. Making shoes for the whole family for the year during this winter was a very busy task.

Someone was setting up a stall to sell cotton-padded shoes; they looked handmade. In reality, they were just stuffing a layer of cotton into the uppers of corduroy shoes and making the soles thicker. They looked a bit clumsy, but they should be warmer.

When Li Long walked from one end to the other and back again, he saw Yang Xiulan pulling a cart into the market, with Han Fang helping her mother push from behind, and then he felt the cart stop.

When she looked up to ask why, she happened to see Li Long.

"Uncle... I was thinking I could still sell a few yuan this afternoon... I'm very fast here, I won't delay your meal."

"It's fine, it's fine." Li Long waved his hand. "You sell your food, we'll eat whenever you're ready. No need to explain. I think it's great that you're doing this, earning money with your own labor; there's nothing wrong with that."

Hearing Li Long say this, Yang Xiulan felt relieved.

"Then Uncle, what are you doing here..."

"I'm waiting for someone. It's fine, you go ahead and get busy." Li Long led the horse cart to the side, letting Yang Xiulan pull the cart past.

Han Fang smiled at Li Long as she pushed the cart, and left happily.

A few minutes later, Cao Liu walked over, having changed his clothes.

"Brother Li, how about we change locations? There are too many people here..."

"Fine." Li Long wasn't worried. "Same thing as before: I won't go to any place too remote. Just to repeat, I want industrial coupons; coupons for buying radios are fine too; liquor coupons, sugar coupons, tea coupons, oil coupons. You know I need a large quantity every time, so you have to give me a better price. Don't try to fool me with high prices. I'll be buying often in the future, so you'd better not think about a one-time deal..."

"Brother Li, I understand, I understand." Cao Liu explained, "I had no choice this time. My buddy was arrested, and his whole family depends on him to earn money to support them. Now that he's inside, his family is crying every day. His wife comes to me every day asking me to help find a way, but what can I do? I'm just worried..."

"Hmm, I understand." Li Long nodded. "Then calculate the coupons. Do you have enough? If not, just give me a portion first."

Cao Liu hurriedly said:

"Enough, definitely enough. Brother Li, you can rest assured about that. I've been in this business for a while, I have my sources. There aren't many big clients like you; most people only want a little—I brought my entire stock today, so don't worry..."

When the two of them walked to the west end of the free market, two management personnel walked toward them. One of them stopped to look at Li Long's horse cart and asked:

"Are you setting up a stall?"

"No. Just came to see if there's anything to buy." Li Long replied.

The person showed a disappointed expression and left.

Cao Liu's body was tense the entire time. Li Long saw it but didn't say anything; he knew Cao Liu's explanation just now was true. If that management person had done anything extreme, Cao Liu would probably have vanished in a flash.

Fortunately, the other party just wanted to collect a bit more stall fees.

After those two left, they arrived at the west end of the market. Further ahead was the government office compound, and further still was the intersection.

"Alright, hurry up and take out the coupons. I'm in a hurry to buy things." Li Long was a bit impatient; he didn't want to waste time.

"Alright, alright," Cao Liu didn't want to continue like this either. He was also worried about whether any other accidents would happen if they kept walking around, so he took out a stack of coupons, looked left and right, and quickly counted them out one by one.

"Grain coupons are one mao per jin, nothing I can do about that. Oil coupons are more expensive, one mao five..."

Everything was given to Li Long in ten-yuan increments.

"I need more industrial coupons; I have a lot of things to buy." Li Long reminded him, and Cao Liu took out more industrial coupons for Li Long.

In the end, Li Long bought one hundred and twenty yuan worth of various coupons—enough to last for a long time.

After Cao Liu received the money and quickly counted it once, he waved at Li Long and then walked away quickly. He walked faster and faster, and then started running. After crossing the intersection and turning right, he crossed the road and disappeared.

A clever young man.

Li Long put away the coupons. Seeing that some people nearby had noticed him, he led the horse cart forward, crossed the intersection, and headed toward the department store.

"This newly arrived radio has excellent performance. It's the Panda brand; many people buy it for the brand name." The salesclerk was still that pretty girl, Xiao Liu, but she wasn't as enthusiastic toward Li Long as before; she just introduced the product normally. "Two specifications: one plugs in, the other uses batteries."

"Give me five of the battery-operated ones." Li Long looked and said, "How much for one?"

"Sixty-five yuan." Xiao Liu's eyes showed slight surprise, then returned to normal. "Coupons are required."

"Hmm, I have coupons." Li Long said. "Five units. By the way, it uses size 1 batteries, right? Give me thirty boxes of batteries."

Xiao Liu efficiently took out the radios in their packaging one by one, let Li Long inspect them, and then bundled them up. Next came the boxes of batteries.

Calculating the bill and writing the receipt. Li Long had already reached the snack counter and started buying other things.

"White liquor, just that Bai Yang Tequ, thirty bottles." Li Long continued to name items. "Thirty packs of brick tea, thirty packs of sugar cubes, thirty packs of salt..."

Finally, he also bought tin frogs and Rubik's cubes. He bought four Rubik's cubes; he would leave two at Halimu's place and give one each to Li Juan and Li Qiang. This thing was quite good for exercising the brain.

As for the tin frogs, they were for Nasen and the others to play with; this should interest them, right?

With the cart loaded, Li Long paid the money and coupons and left the department store.

He felt eyes watching him, but he didn't look back.

After leaving the building, Li Long led the horse back to the large courtyard. It was a bit late today, so he wouldn't go into the mountains; he would head over tomorrow morning. When he returned to the courtyard, Gu Xiaoxia hadn't returned yet. After settling Number 76, Li Long started preparing dinner. He didn't plan to go to Yang Xiulan's house for dinner; he didn't want to move anymore. To be honest, he had been in high spirits when going into the mountains and didn't feel tired, but once he actually stopped, he felt exhausted and needed a good rest.

Li Long naturally knew that this was also a sign of fatigue; after all, with such heavy snow, leading a horse into the mountains, transporting and moving things, and then running around after returning, it was mentally and physically draining.

He steamed some mantou, sliced some pickled vegetables, stir-fried them with the leftover meat, and then made some porridge; that was enough.

He thought for a moment, then boiled some water and made egg tea—which was actually just two eggs beaten in a large bowl, with sugar and sesame oil added, and boiling water poured directly over the eggs to cook them.

In some places, it's called egg tea, and some say it's called Vermilion Bird Soup in Traditional Chinese Medicine—but in reality, Li Long hadn't found such a description when scrolling through short videos in his previous life, but this thing was good for reducing internal heat.

Gu Xiaoxia had been working overtime these days, and Li Long had even seen pimples on her face, so he thought making some egg tea to reduce her internal heat would be good.

The boiling water could cook the egg liquid, and stirring it with chopsticks could also kill the bacteria in the eggs to avoid diarrhea.

When the mantou were ready, Li Long saw that Gu Xiaoxia hadn't returned yet, guessed she must have gone to Yang Xiulan's place, so he started eating by himself.

He hadn't been full from a bowl of rice at noon, but after eating two large mantou, half a plate of stir-fried pickled vegetables and meat, and a bowl of porridge in the evening, he felt satisfied.

The remaining food was placed in the steamer on the kitchen stove. Cooking in winter also used the stove; with the stove fire, the food would always be warm.

!.

By the time Gu Xiaoxia returned, it was already dusk. She pushed her bicycle in, saw Li Long come out to see her, and while parking the bicycle, said:

"I waited for you for a while at Sister Yang's place. She said she ran into you at the market—I didn't expect you to be back."

"Didn't want to run around anymore, a bit tired, so I thought I'd come back and rest." Li Long said. "Have you eaten?"

"Hmm, Sister Yang made soup noodles in the evening, the taste was quite good."

"Then drink some egg tea. I also made food, steamed some mantou; let's eat the leftovers tomorrow morning." Li Long went to the kitchen to get the egg tea, which was warm in his hands, and handed it to Gu Xiaoxia.

"Did you know I had internal heat?" Gu Xiaoxia also knew the benefits of egg tea and asked with some surprise.

"Guessed it." Li Long smiled. "Drink it quickly, it's not good for your stomach if it's too late."

"Hmm." Gu Xiaoxia nodded vigorously, took it, finished it in two gulps, wiped her mouth, and went to the kitchen to wash the dishes.

The next day, Gu Xiaoxia got up and heated up breakfast. After breakfast, Gu Xiaoxia went to work, and Li Long harnessed the horse cart and headed toward the mountains with those things.

Today's items were varied and numerous, but in terms of weight, they weren't necessarily heavier than yesterday's.

Number 76 was an old horse that knew the way; it didn't need Li Long to crack the whip, and it headed straight along the road toward Qingshuihe. Upon reaching Qingshuihe, it automatically turned onto the road leading into the mountains.

Li Long also jumped off the horse cart, holding the reins and exerting effort along with Number 76.

By the time Number 76 entered the mountain pass, Li Long was sweating, and Number 76 was steaming.

The remaining road was slightly easier to travel, with ups and downs, and even the uphill sections were mostly gentle slopes, unlike the long, steep slope from Qingshuihe to the mountain pass.

With yesterday's wheel tracks, the horse cart soon arrived on the mountain road opposite Dongwozi, and then Li Long saw a quite spectacular scene.

In front of Dongwozi, over a dozen horses were gathered there, and the people were all out on the snow, some chatting, some wrestling, some playing around, and others exchanging things.

The sound of dogs barking reached them, and Li Long's appearance drew the attention of these people.

"Li Long is here!" someone shouted, and then the sounds of "Dorsen" and "Li Long" rang out one after another. Those young men all ran toward this side, while middle-aged men like Yushanjiang were more reserved, but smiles also appeared on their faces.

With the help of these young men, Number 76 easily pulled the horse cart to the front of Dongwozi. Some people had already led those horses away to clear a large open space.

Only then did Li Long shake hands and greet these young men one by one. Some were familiar, some he couldn't name but recognized the faces, and some he hadn't seen at all.

But no need to worry; Yushanjiang or Halimu would introduce them if he didn't know them.

After the greetings, Li Long called everyone to unload the things; as for how to distribute them, he didn't care.

"Li Long, come quickly, the hand-grabbed mutton is already cooked." Halimu smiled and called Li Long over. "Today, let's have a good meal. This is today's lamb; the meat is very tender. We Kazakhs are very good at making this!"

"Good, good, good, I happen to be hungry too." Halimu and the others weren't polite about the things Li Long brought up, and Li Long wasn't polite with them either; eat when it's time to eat, drink when it's time to drink.

A mouthful of hot mutton entered his mouth, and the taste was delicious. In his previous life, such mutton was advertised as being fed Chinese herbs and drinking mineral water, and even their droppings were like Six-Flavor Rehmannia Pills—the words were exaggerated, but grass-fed sheep that hadn't been fed any mixed processed feed were stewed in a pot immediately after being slaughtered, and the taste was truly excellent.

Real mutton is never without a gamey smell. It's just that there's a certain flavor; for example, right now, when you eat it, that fragrance has completely overwhelmed the gamey smell, and you can't taste it.

In his previous life, more than twenty years later, the mutton he ate was mostly feed-fattened sheep, and that feed was different from the feed Li Jianguo used to feed pigs. The feed Li Jianguo used for pigs was purely processed bran, soybean meal, and the like, all natural things.

But those mixed feeds had things like bone meal added; the sheep grew fast, but the meat wasn't as fragrant. It is said that some black-hearted sheep farms would even feed urea to cattle and sheep when fattening them—of course, it's a legend, and I don't know if it's true. Can cattle and sheep eat this stuff?

Anyway, Li Long had eaten that kind of purely gamey mutton twice in his previous life; it was truly gamey. Usually, if gamey mutton is grilled, the barbecue seasoning will suppress some of the gamey smell, but that gamey smell couldn't be suppressed at all.

Having lived two lives, Li Long still remembered it vividly.

But the mutton he was eating now was truly worlds apart from that.

The mutton neck was the most delicious; Li Long gnawed on a piece. The rib meat was the easiest to gnaw; Li Long ate another piece. The meat from the leg was for distinguished guests; Li Long didn't refuse and gnawed on a piece, and then he didn't eat anymore.

He drank half a bowl of mutton soup and felt satisfied again.

"Li Long, in a while, at the end of the year, we are going to hold goat-snatching and horse racing on the snow in front of your wooden house. Do you have time to come over?"

Yushanjiang squeezed to Li Long's side and asked.

Everyone who had been gnawing on meat stopped what they were doing and looked at him.

"I'll come. In a while..." Li Long thought for a moment and said, "Our team is going to have militia training, and I might have to participate for a while, but not the whole time. At the end of the year... I should be able to come." (End of chapter)