Chapter 349

Quite a few people in the village heard the pig squealing at the Old Horse Corral and knew that the Li family was slaughtering a pig again.

Those who had brought bullets to trade for meat the day before were waiting. Li Long had said it: slaughtering today, trading meat in the afternoon. They knew they could probably get meat if they went over now, but that would be a bit like begging for food.

When a host family slaughters a pig and holds a feast, if they call others but not you, then very few people will take the initiative to join in, because they know the relationship isn't close enough and there's no need to force it.

But there are also individuals who want to drink that wine and eat that meat; usually, if they go, the host won't drive them away.

But the Li family had already held one pig-slaughtering feast, and last time they didn't call outsiders for the second day's slaughter, so others should have already understood.

So although some people really wanted to go and join the fun, they didn't go.

Therefore, besides the Li family, only Old Uncle Luo, Tao Daqiang, and Yang Yongqiang—three people with different surnames—were there.

Although wild boars are wilder than domestic pigs, to be honest, with a few big young men around, there was basically no situation where they couldn't be held down, and besides, they were experienced.

So in less than two hours, a wild boar was cleaned up clearly.

Although these people present, except for Yang Yongqiang, weren't really short of meat to eat, they still had a wonderful meal at noon.

After noon, Tao Daqiang and Yang Yongqiang each left with a strip of meat. In the empty room at the Old Horse Corral, the remaining meat of the wild boar was divided into two-kilogram strips and laid out neatly.

Take your pick.

Some of the internal organs were eaten, Li Jianguo took some away, and the rest, along with the small amount of caul fat, were left at the Old Horse Corral. After all, there were many people here, the consumption was high, and they were all their own people, so the food definitely wouldn't be bad.

In the afternoon, people came one by one as agreed. Li Long directly opened the door of the spare room and pointed to the strips of meat on the plastic sheeting on the boards, letting them pick according to the amount of meat they brought.

Take your pick, very much like a self-service supermarket of later generations.

This point made those who traded bullets for meat feel exceptionally novel; there's such a thing?

Half a pig was traded away that day.

The next morning, another quarter was traded away—and then the four legs remained. Because there wasn't much fatty meat, everyone disliked them.

Before trading meat, Tao Daqiang and Yang Yongqiang each left with two bags of fish. Tao Daqiang didn't ride his bicycle; like Yang Yongqiang, he pulled a homemade wooden sled. He didn't even drive the donkey cart from home.

Li Long asked him why, and he smiled honestly, saying he was worried the donkey would freeze if taken out, and he was afraid he wouldn't be able to take care of it while selling fish.

Fine, different people have different thoughts. No wonder there's the saying that character determines destiny.

Li Long let them be—they didn't go very early either; they listened to Li Long's words. Going too early meant not many people in the market.

Not long after breakfast, people came to trade bullets for meat.

While Li Long was still trading meat, Xu Chengjun rode his bicycle over.

Watching Li Long finish dealing with the people trading meat, Xu Chengjun asked:

"Without Xiao Long, is your family very short on bullets?"

"Quite short. I have enough here, but I have many friends in the mountains, so there's no way around it. For the past two years, there have been too many wolves in the mountains, and they often run into the sheep pens at night to bite the sheep, causing big losses." Li Long said, half-truthfully.

"Alright, let's put this matter aside for now." Xu Chengjun said. "Township Armed Forces Director Qin originally intended to report the situation of this competition to the county, and then hoped to promote the competition model to the whole county and hold a county-wide competition. However, the situation in the county this year is special, so his suggestion wasn't adopted; the county Armed Forces Department has other matters. Director Qin originally intended to reward you after the county finished its competition, but now it can only end here. He called and said that our reward, besides a certificate, includes a notebook and a fountain pen. He knows you like hunting, and originally thought if you could get good results in the county competition, he'd give you a big prize, but this matter... let's talk about it later."

"I understand." Li Long said. It was indeed as he had guessed. At this time, the township didn't have much funding, so a particularly large prize was unlikely. After all, this didn't have a very strong guiding effect like his older brother's pig farming.

"Don't be discouraged either; your ability is there, and there will be a day when you stand out sooner or later. When I have time, I'll go to the township to collect the reward, and then I'll have someone bring it to you."

"Good." Li Long nodded. He knew this matter ended here for now. At least for him, this matter was over. As for the Director Qin that Xu Chengjun mentioned, who still hoped to continue suggesting to the county to promote this matter, he didn't feel there was any possibility of it continuing.

After all, everyone is now rushing on the path to prosperity. Although the south is still not very stable, this place is too far from there, so the impact isn't very large.

After Xu Chengjun left, Li Long continued to trade meat for bullets.

The four legs still couldn't be traded away in the end, but he had over two hundred bullets in his hand, which was quite a lot.

Li Long was also very satisfied; he would just leave this meat here to eat.

When it was almost dark, Tao Daqiang and Yang Yongqiang returned. When the two found Li Long, their expressions were quite excited.

"Sold out the fish?" Li Long asked with a smile. "Why so long?" "The market in the county is really not as good as Shicheng. We finally sold out our two bags of fish in the afternoon. At first, we wanted to sell at a high price; after all, there aren't many people selling fish in the market, ninety cents, which is cheaper than others' one yuan." Yang Yongqiang spoke more fluently, so he was the one talking. "It was okay in the morning; Daqiang and I both sold more than a bag. After eating lunch, the fish wouldn't sell. It wasn't just us; the whole market was like that, not many people, and the stall owners were all just waiting hard. Then the two of us discussed lowering the price, lowering it to eighty cents, and later to seventy cents, and that's how we sold out."

"Selling out is fine." Li Long nodded and said, "Then continue tomorrow?"

"Continue. We plan to go earlier tomorrow and go directly to Shicheng." Yang Yongqiang said. "There should be more people in Shicheng."

"Decide for yourselves."

The two each gave Li Long fifty-six yuan and then went home happily.

Li Long guessed that each of them earned at least twenty-some yuan, which was definitely worth being happy about.

Originally he thought there would be a notice from the township, but now that there was nothing from the township, Li Long didn't plan to wait any longer. He went to Li Jianguo's place in the afternoon.

Liang Yuemei was stitching shoe soles at the sewing machine, and Li Juan and Li Qiang were doing their homework. Winter days are short, and the classroom is cold, so the children's homework has to be brought back to be done.

Seeing Li Long come over, Li Juan and Li Qiang were both quite happy. After greeting him, Li Juan continued doing her homework, and Li Qiang didn't want to write and wanted to cling to Li Long, but was dragged away by Li Juan by his collar.

Li Long smiled, sat by the fire wall, and said to Li Jianguo:

"Older brother, I'll use the horse cart tomorrow to pull some things into the mountains."

!.

"Take it, we don't need it right now anyway." Li Jianguo nodded and didn't ask how long he would use it.

"I'll have Junfeng and Junshan follow. After the business in the mountains is done, I'll have them drive the horse cart down the mountain tomorrow. You don't need to rest too long either; Daqiang and Yongqiang plan to go to Shicheng to sell fish tomorrow. Each of them will take two bags. Later, selling fish in Shicheng might be slower than before. But I promised them..."

"It's fine." Li Jianguo didn't care about this at all. "One or two bags more or less doesn't matter. We've earned quite a bit of money these past few days, and Daqiang and Yongqiang have helped a lot following you, so it's time to let them earn some money. When we pull fish later, we'll see if they want to go with us. It's fine for you to use the horse cart for a few more days."

"I'm just pulling things up. The bicycle isn't enough—Junshan and Junfeng just want to follow to see hunting. Let's see, if I can take them hunting, I will; if not, I'll have them come back. Hunting in the middle of winter isn't that easy."

"Alright." Li Jianguo knew this was the truth, not Li Long making excuses; after all, hunting really isn't that easy. Li Long could catch so many things before because someone pointed them out; now it's definitely not easy.

Li Long went out, Li Jianguo followed, the brothers harnessed the horse cart, and Li Long led it away.

Returning to the Horse Corral, Old Uncle Luo was feeding the deer. Seeing Li Long pull the horse cart over, he helped him unharness it, cleaned up the pen for Number 76, put in feed, and then continued his own work.

Li Anguo, Chen Xingbang, and Li Junshan were playing cards. Li Junfeng must have lost the last round and was watching from the side. When Li Long knocked and entered, they hadn't finished that round yet.

"Junshan, Junfeng, I'm pulling things into the mountains tomorrow, you two follow me to do some work." Li Long ordered his two big nephews naturally, and the two big nephews also responded naturally.

Chen Xingbang played a card and asked:

"Without Xiao Long, what are you doing in the mountains?"

"Delivering some supplies to friends in the mountains. I have a wooden house in the mountains, right? It's snowed, so I have to clean it up, lest the heavy snow collapses the house."

"Sweeping snow, we can do that." Li Junfeng asked with a smile, "Then Uncle Without Xiao Long, are we hunting?"

"Depends on the situation, if there's something, we'll hunt. I'm bringing a gun, but I don't know if we'll catch anything."

"Alright." Li Junfeng wasn't disappointed by Li Long's ambiguous statement. Such things aren't that certain anyway; if Li Long said he was sure to catch something, they would instead be suspicious.

After settling this, Li Long returned to his room.

His own shoulder bag of bullets and the large bag of bullets he traded for were all packed. His Type 56 semi-automatic rifle had to be brought. There was some dried meat in the wooden house, but he definitely had to bring some grain up. After arriving, he had to clean up first and wouldn't have time to cook, so he had to buy some steamed buns at the Large Meat Canteen. By the way, there was firewood in the mountains, but no coal, so he had to go to the free market to buy some coal to take up.

Of course, the most important thing was to get a stove for the wooden house and install the stovepipe; this required Li Junshan and Li Junfeng's help. They were skilled workers, so this should be a piece of cake.

The rest was the things to bring for Halimu and the others. Since the goat-snatching and horse racing were not far from his wooden house, as the "landlord," he definitely had to treat these friends well. So how to do it?

Li Long thought for a while and planned to buy some brick tea, sugar cubes, and salt as gifts or prizes. He didn't know if they had rewards for their competition; if they did, his would be the icing on the cake, and if not, it would be like sending charcoal in snowy weather.

After thinking through all these things and feeling there were no mistakes or omissions, Li Long hurriedly washed up and went to sleep. He had to leave early tomorrow and couldn't sleep too late.

However, Li Long still got up later than Tao Daqiang and the others. By the time he got up, Tao Daqiang and the others had already come to pull the fish.

Li Long told them what Li Jianguo had said, and the two were also very happy, but Yang Yongqiang was still a bit worried, worried that their selling fish would conflict with Li Jianguo and the others. His idea was that if Li Jianguo and the others went to Shicheng to sell fish, he and Tao Daqiang would return to the county.

Li Long didn't persuade him, telling him to discuss it with Li Jianguo when the time came.

The two pulled the fish away with the wooden sled, and Li Long and the others ate breakfast, harnessed the horse cart, and set off. (End of chapter)