Chapter 350

The supply and marketing cooperative had stoves and the necessary sheet metal. Li Long, Li Junshan, and Li Junfeng went to the supply and marketing cooperative, bought what they could, and then went to the department store.

Then they went to the market.

Five cents per kilogram, there were several people pulling carts selling coal. Li Long bought four bags, thinking it would be enough for the winter. If it wasn't enough, he could go into the mountains to pull some later. Li Long already regretted not pulling some coal back from that open-pit coal mine when he lived in the mountains in the summer. After all, the coal there was free.

Of course, there was no medicine for regret. After loading the coal, Li Long bought some rice and flour, as well as storage-resistant cabbage and potatoes, packed them in bags, and pressed them down with the old bedding he brought. He didn't know if they would freeze and spoil in the end.

Then they returned to the Large Meat Canteen, and the three bought twenty steamed buns, eating as they walked. They were all their own people, so no need to be fussy; hurrying was important. The sooner they reached the mountains, the sooner they could finish the work.

By the time they reached his wooden house in the mountains, the three were drenched in sweat, and Number 76's neck was also covered in sweat—this stretch of road hadn't been cleared, and with the horse cart loaded with things, the three had to help push and pull, which was very strenuous.

"It'll be much better when you go back." Li Long said with a smile. "When the cart is empty, it'll be much easier."

Work.

Li Junshan and Li Junfeng took tools from the small room Li Long opened and started clearing snow. Actually, the area that needed clearing in front of the wooden house wasn't large, and the two-eye stove wouldn't be used for a short time.

Mainly, there needed to be an activity space. After the snow was cleared, it was the roof. Although there was no ladder, it was too simple for three big men to get onto a roof.

Li Junshan and Li Junfeng hadn't done this kind of snow clearing in their hometown, but that didn't mean they couldn't do it. The snow on the wooden roof was pushed directly to the back, and the snow around it was cleared, especially on the south side, where the wooden floor was completely cleared and extended outward by more than a meter, which was enough.

During this time, Li Long had already moved the supplies from the horse cart into the small house and put them away in categories. He unharnessed the horse cart, tied Number 76 to a piece of wood by the house, wiped off its sweat, and put down grass for it to eat.

There was space in the large house. Li Long selected the location for the stove, first placed the sheet metal, put the one-square-meter sheet metal in place, and then moved the stove over and placed it in the middle. After pressing it down, it was time to set up the stovepipe, which required the cooperation of the other two.

Li Junshan and Li Junfeng pondered for a moment and knew how to do it. They went to the mountain spring to get some mud—the mountain spring water hadn't frozen, which was a pleasant surprise for Li Long; at least there was no need to melt snow water.

After all, he had once heard a ridiculous and disgusting story that happened more than a decade later. At that time, some people still melted snow to eat. It is said that when a family was eating, the husband asked the wife why she put so little chili in today's meal. The wife said strangely, no, I didn't put chili in today's meal?

The husband used chopsticks to pick out red chili fragments from the dish to show the wife, and the wife thought about it and vomited.

A bit like a cold joke, figure it out yourself.

With mountain spring water, there was mud under the flowing water. They used mud to seal the places where the stovepipe segments weren't very airtight. By this time, Li Long had already brought firewood from outside and pulled some grass left over from autumn—it hadn't been wet by the snow. He chopped the firewood into smaller pieces, put soft grass on the stove plate, then put the firewood, put a lot, put a few pieces of broken coal on top, and lit the fire.

Lighting the fire was both to test for smoke and to bake the stove. Places where the seal wasn't perfect would still leak smoke, so they continued to seal them with mud. After the fire was lit, the smoke needed a process of going upward. At the beginning, smoke would come out from under the stove; this is called back-smoke, because the stovepipe was facing outside, it was cold outside, the stovepipe was full of cold air, and the hot air below couldn't rush out.

At this time, one had to blow air from below to rush the hot air out. As long as it rushed out at once, the remaining flue would be smooth.

They were all experienced people, and soon they cleared the flue, and the fire inside the stove burned slowly. Although the soft grass wasn't wet, it was definitely damp. With fire, baking for a while would ignite the broken wood pieces below. After the flame accumulated to a certain degree, it would overcome the dampness, the fire would rise, and it would ignite the broken coal. At this time, Li Junshan and Li Junfeng also finished the chimney, connecting it firmly and sealing it well. The rest was Li Long's work.

Half an hour later, the stove was burning vigorously. Li Long added some charcoal, let the stove burn by itself, and baked the dampness in the wooden house. He took Li Junshan and Li Junfeng to sweep the path to the spring. Water is essential for life, so this path was definitely very important.

When the snow path was cleared, Li Long returned with a bucket of water. By this time, the stove was already burning vigorously. With sheet metal underneath, even if small red charcoal fell, it would only fall on the sheet metal and wouldn't burn the wooden floor.

Li Junshan brought a pot from the small house and placed it on the stove. There was a bit too much coal in the stove, so he pressed it hard with the pot. After seating the pot firmly, Li Junshan poured the water in.

Burn it.

"Let's go, let's look around nearby." Li Long said. "When I came back that day, I saw a group of yellow sheep, but didn't catch any. Today let's go over and see if we can run into them. If we can, we'll hunt them."

"That would be great, I've never eaten yellow sheep meat!" Li Junfeng had heard Li Long talk about hunting yellow sheep and was very envious.

Unfortunately, he had never seen one.

The pot was full of water and wouldn't boil dry for a while. There was sheet metal under the stove, so no need to worry about a fire. Number 76 was eating grass steadily here, and Li Long didn't plan to run too far, so he wasn't worried about it getting lost.

Li Long carried the gun, stuffed a bag of bullets into his pocket, and took the two big nephews toward the North Mountain.

!.

Two mountains north of the wooden house was outside the Tianshan range. These two mountains weren't high and were considered the activity range of yellow sheep. Li Long planned to just look in the mountain north of the wooden house; if there were any, he would hunt, and if not, it would be like taking a walk.

They waded through the snow and walked back. Half an hour later, they reached the top of the mountain. Looking south from here, it was the wooden house. Looking out, there wasn't a single person. Let alone people, they didn't see any living creatures.

The sun was bright, and the snow-covered ground was all white, dazzling.

The three of them retracted their gazes in time and looked north.

The valley to the north, including the mountain further north, didn't have any decent trees, but there were some shrubs. Then, to Li Long's surprise, at the bottom of the valley, there was a patch of animal tracks. Although covered with a thin layer of snow, one could still see that before the last snowfall, there were things active here.

Then, to the west of those tracks, there was something not completely covered by snow. Was that... a wild boar?

He was a bit excited, pointed there, and said to Li Junshan and Li Junfeng:

"Let's go, go over and see, it might be a big one!" (End of chapter)