Chapter 447: Brushing past the two-headed deer

Sun Jia Qiang climbed onto the train to Northern Xinjiang in the spring. Although his hometown also distributed land, to be honest, he still couldn't get enough to eat, let alone earn money. There were a few people in the village who ran to Northern Xinjiang for two years, and when they went back, they carried bags and bags of things, and also brought back quite a lot of money, so he was envious.

He was nearly thirty and still unmarried, his family was destitute, no one was willing to marry into his home, so he also thought about going out to earn money, make a fortune, and go back to marry a wife, and live a steady life.

But only after coming over did he know that earning money wasn't easy. Working in the fields was tiring, and factories wouldn't recruit an outsider like him; he was afraid of being tired, and didn't know how to do business. Thinking of what the villagers said about going into the mountains to dig for medicinal materials and get fritillaria to make a fortune, he also ran into the mountains.

It was a pity that the fritillaria had just grown, and he didn't really know how to dig. He had been in the mountains for several days and dug less than one kilogram, and was chased by the forestry team people and driven away by other people who came to dig for fritillaria; those people occupied good places and wouldn't let him go over.

Sun Jia Qiang was also very helpless. In the village, he had a timid personality and didn't dare to compete with others, otherwise, he wouldn't be unmarried until now—any good things were occupied by others, there was no share for him, and those girls also disliked him for being useless.

Although Sun Jia Qiang was driven away in the mountains, he wasn't discouraged. After all, in such a big mountain, he could find food by finding a place at random. He also often ran into the mountains in his hometown, but the mountains there didn't have as many things as here, and weren't as rich. Sun Jia Qiang also had some skills; yesterday he even snared a rabbit and ate some meat. He also kept the rabbit skin, intending to see if he could sell it for a few yuan when he had time.

Now the sack on his back was bulging, filled with all kinds of things, including dug Codonopsis, dug fritillaria, things he picked up that he felt could be used, as well as rabbit skin, and beautiful pheasant feathers.

But how much money these things could sell for, he didn't know either. The sack also contained a rusted knife, and he didn't know which era it was from. He discovered this when he was getting water in the stream, and he felt it might be an antique, so he brought it along.

Sun Jia Qiang walked into a mountain gully where the grass grew relatively little, saw that there were more stones and less vegetation here, so he wanted to change places; anyway, there were gullies everywhere in these mountains.

However, just at this moment, he saw a tall fritillaria on the side of a stone not far ahead, so he immediately walked over happily, bent down, and dug it out.

It was slightly larger than a broad bean; this was a good fritillaria. Sun Jia Qiang wiped the mud off the fritillaria very seriously and put it into the sack.

Just this gully, continue forward.

Soon, he dug up six or seven, and without knowing it, he went up the slope, and then saw the cave blocked behind the stone.

The dugout he lived in when he first entered the mountains was abandoned by others. Last night it rained, and that dugout collapsed, almost crushing him to death. After climbing up, he hid under a tree for half the night, and was currently worrying about where to settle down. Now seeing such a cave, he was immediately happy.

Being able to find a suitable cave to live in the mountains was also quite good. However, Sun Jia Qiang didn't dare to enter immediately. He put down the sack, found an arm-thick stick nearby, and then carefully walked into the cave, tapping the mountain wall with the stick as he walked; if there were wild beasts inside, they would be scared away.

Walking all the way inside, there was no movement, and Sun Jia Qiang felt relieved. There was a smell of urine in this cave, and the ground was bumpy when stepped on; it should be what kind of thing left the poop. However, it didn't matter, these were all easy to clean up. Although the space in the cave wasn't large and there were stones, at least it was better than staying in the wild.

Sun Jia Qiang thought about staying here. He took out a box of matches from his bosom, wanted to light one, and then gave up. There weren't many left in this box of matches, so he couldn't waste them. Matches were good things in the wild. If he hadn't put the matches in the inner pocket of his bosom, they would have gotten wet last night, and that would have been big trouble.

Carrying the stick, he walked out again. He picked up some dead branches nearby, pulled a few handfuls of dry grass, and carried them into the cave.

Sun Jia Qiang intended to light a fire in the cave to bake the dampness in the cave, and at the same time drive away the insects inside, and by the way, borrow the light to clean up the ground so that people could live there.

He couldn't live with a pile of poop and urine.

Piled the firewood together, put dry grass underneath, he carefully took out a match, struck it, lit the dry grass, the fire flame slowly rose, lit the dead branches, and the cave became bright.

The place was quite large, had turns, and wind and rain couldn't enter; this place was quite good.

Sun Jia Qiang was quite satisfied with this place. He was preparing to clean up the ground when he suddenly discovered that there was light on the wall, colorful!

He immediately leaned over to look, saw the stone on the stone wall, or rather, this shouldn't be a stone, why was it so transparent?

Sun Jia Qiang was immediately excited!

There were some broken dregs on the ground. He picked up a slightly larger piece and brought it close to the firelight to look—it was really transparent, and still colorful!

Could it be... could it be that this is a gemstone?

Sun Jia Qiang's body was shaking with excitement at this moment! If this thing really was a gemstone, then he would have made a fortune!

Gemstone! Natural! Even if it was crystal, this whole cave, that would be worth a lot of money!

Although Sun Jia Qiang hadn't gone out much when he was in the village, and this trip was considered the farthest, he had also heard from the old people in the village that the value of gold and gemstones was very high.

Sun Jia Qiang pulled out a lit stick from the fire pile and shone it at the wall, looking at the whole wall of "stones" that were emitting colorful light and were transparent, Sun Jia Qiang wanted to cry with excitement now!

He suddenly ran outside, picked up a stone, drilled into the cave again, and desperately smashed those colorful "gemstones," roaring with excitement while smashing.

The sound came out from the cave. Originally, a group of yellow sheep intended to enter the cave, but after hearing the movement here, they immediately turned around and ran away.

To the south, there was also a strange deer walking slowly towards here, and after hearing the sound, it also ran away.

It was too scary, better run!

Li Long walked to the mouth of the gully at this time. He vaguely heard the roar, his heart tightened. Could it be that someone had arrived first? Wouldn't that be trouble?

He immediately quickened his pace. When he arrived at the cave entrance on the hillside, he heard the "thump, thump, thump" sound of knocking on the wall, and he knew this time it was definitely finished.

This guy definitely didn't look like any animal knocking on the wall. This rhythm was clearly a person!

Arriving at the cave entrance, seeing smoke coming out of the cave, Li Long wasn't angry this time, knowing that anger was useless. He raised his rifle and shouted inside:

"Who is inside, come out!"

After shouting, Li Long thought about it. This place wasn't his own either. What people did here, theoretically speaking, wasn't wrong.

That was to say, do whatever you want.

"Me, me, me..." Sun Jia Qiang ran out from inside, holding a stick, looking at Li Long vigilantly.

He had finally discovered a treasure, and didn't want to be robbed!

However, seeing Li Long had a rifle, he immediately lost his spirit. The other party had a rifle!

Just hoping he could let himself pick up a few pieces and take them away. Of course, if the other party didn't know the situation inside, he could secretly come over later.

"You lit the fire inside?" Li Long thought that since he had already supported his momentum, he couldn't leak it, so he raised the muzzle of the rifle and said:

"Don't you know this is a place for wild animals to eat salt?"

"Salt? Where is there salt?" Sun Jia Qiang shook his head. "I saw a pile of animal poop and urine on the ground when I went in. If this place has other uses, then I can leave, right?"

Saying this, he turned his head and entered the cave, intending to take away a few "gemstones" he smashed down. A good man doesn't suffer immediate losses. The other party had a rifle in his hand, and that thing wasn't a toy!

Watching Sun Jia Qiang come out with his pockets bulging, Li Long regretted a bit. Could this guy be unable to afford salt, so he ran here to hit the idea of rock salt?

He watched Sun Jia Qiang go over and pick up the sack, and kindly reminded him:

"Hey, brother, be careful when you eat that salt. That thing has quite a lot of minerals, eating too much is not good for the body! If you need it, you can exchange it for refined salt with some mountain goods."

"What salt? I don't have salt here?" Sun Jia Qiang was a bit confused. "I do want to exchange for salt, do you have any?"

"That thing in your pocket should be smashed down from the wall in the cave inside, right? Don't be embarrassed, eating rock salt, people have been eating it for hundreds of years, it's not shameful." Li Long thought he was embarrassed to admit it, so he helped him open up, saying:

"However, those on the surface of the wall have all been licked by animals. It's best to wash it when you use it."

Just now he heard the thump, thump, thump sound, and guessed that someone inside was smashing the wall to take salt blocks.

This person was really miserable, having to grab salt from the mouths of animals.

"What? This is salt? How is this possible?" Sun Jia Qiang had a look of disbelief. He took out a colorful "gemstone" from his pocket, shook it in the sunlight, looked through the sunlight, the color was so beautiful, and shook his head firmly:

"Don't lie to me, this is clearly a gemstone... forget it, you say it's salt, then it's salt!"

"Gemstone?" Li Long was stunned for a moment, then laughed out loud. He laughed so hard he almost couldn't lift his head, which made Sun Jia Qiang confused.

"Don't lie to me! This is a gemstone!" Sun Jia Qiang was firm in his own idea. "There's a whole cave here, I just want these few pieces, you don't have to act this play to fool me! If you want to take it, go inside and take it yourself!"

"Have you ever seen such a fragile gemstone? It breaks when smashed with a stone?" Li Long slowly stopped laughing, and said seriously, "Try it, use your tongue to lick your gemstone, hmm, the side that was just smashed, not licked by animals. You'll know if you try it, brother, this is rock salt! Do you know why I brought a rifle? Because this place will attract wild animals, I want to hunt, hit something to add a meal for myself, unfortunately, even if there are animals, they were scared away by you." Li Long felt a bit sorry for this guy, looking at his clothes, he should have been in the mountains for a long time, looking at the sack being so big, containing quite a lot of things, it might be all his belongings. Thinking about money until crazy, able to treat rock salt as a gemstone, hehe.

Sun Jia Qiang held the rock salt half-believingly, found a mark that was just smashed, and licked it lightly.

Salty, with a bitter and astringent taste.

It really was salt.

His face immediately collapsed. The dream was shattered.

Watching Sun Jia Qiang sit on the ground, Li Long also felt a bit embarrassed. It was he who personally broke his dream. He thought for a moment and said:

"I have a few steamed buns here, if you are hungry, I'll give you one."

Sun Jia Qiang raised his head in disbelief.

"However, you can't eat for free, you have to tell me, where you have walked, where wild beasts appear. Wolves, deer, roe deer, and the like." Li Long had to let this person know that there was no free lunch in the world. "You can also see, I came to hunt, but you burned this inside, it is estimated that at least for half a month those wild animals will not dare to come over. My loss is not small either."

"Good, good, good, I'll tell you." Hearing that it wasn't given for free, Sun Jia Qiang immediately became spirited. Although he had a bit of a timid personality, he also knew that free lunch couldn't be eaten. Now the other party clearly wanted to get useful information, and it happened that he had this.

He took the steamed bun from Li Long's hand and gnawed it in big mouthfuls. People who are hungry eating like this is not shameful, not to mention this was a white flour steamed bun that could only be eaten during the New Year at home!

!.

Soon, Sun Jia Qiang choked. Li Long didn't care about him, believing that this person had his own way.

Sure enough, he knocked on his chest hard, stretched his neck, barely swallowed the choked food, his face turned red, fortunately, he didn't stop breathing.

Hiccups were inevitable.

Li Long had water, but didn't give it to him.

Who knew if this guy had any infectious diseases?

Until he ate more than half of the steamed bun, Sun Jia Qiang reacted, eating and saying:

"Walking west from this gully, walking past two gullies and then walking south, there is a pine gully, I have seen deer in it, animals like wild sheep, seen twice. That place should have good grass, often has those animals."

"Walking south from the mouth of the gully here, walk three mountain gullies, there is a broken gully, the mouth of the gully collapsed, very easy to find, I have seen deer in it, but I have seen it from afar once, the day before yesterday, and then it ran inside. I don't know if the end of that gully is connected or blocked."

"Is that deer with horns or without horns?"

"Long half shape." Sun Jia Qiang gestured, "Less than a span long, it should be a male deer, just the horns are too short, but that deer is quite big."

It was heard that this Sun Jia Qiang didn't know that deer horns would fall off, right now that deer should be growing velvet.

"Is there any more?"

"Nothing else. By the way, the place where I originally lived, walking west directly from here, crossing two mountains, and then walking north along a gully, there is the dugout where I originally lived. Two days ago at night I heard wolves howling there, scared me so much that I hid in the dugout all night without sleeping. Just came out during the day, didn't see anything."

Fine, these messages are enough.

"Here, give you another steamed bun. I've been turning around in the mountains recently, if I hit something according to the news you said, if I run into you, there will be a reward. If you dig fritillaria, you can also sell it to me, I collect it."

"You collect fritillaria? How to collect?" Sun Jia Qiang took the steamed bun and asked immediately.

"Three yuan per kilogram for fresh ones." Li Long said the price of last year. "If the size is big and the quality is good, it can rise a bit."

"Then where can I find you?" Sun Jia Qiang thought of a key thing.

"I have a wooden cabin seven or eight gullies west from here, I am there morning and evening, and most likely at noon too." Li Long prepared to develop another potential customer. Relying on Bolati and the others, he definitely wouldn't be able to collect much fritillaria.

Now it was clearly visible that there were many more drifters looking for food in this mountain area than last year. He guessed that it was most likely because the market was gradually opening up, more people from his hometown came, plus most of the locals were busy in the fields, so there were many more outsiders in the mountains.

It was a good thing for him.

The more people who could dig fritillaria, the easier it was for him to make money from it.

It was much better than digging it himself.

Of course, this was a win-win situation. He gave more than those people who went to sell it themselves. After all, these people needed to walk thirty kilometers out of the mountains to sell fritillaria, which basically meant they had to save for a period of time. If they ran into the forestry team people patrolling during this time, it might be directly collected.

And going out to the county to sell, and then buying supplies back, one person couldn't carry many things, and it wasted time.

The existence of Li Long's wooden cabin perfectly solved this intermediate link.

He even intended to drive the tractor to the county to buy a batch of supplies tomorrow morning regardless of whether he hunted anything or not. Rice, flour, oil, and the like, as well as tea, wine, sugar, salt, and other supplies, these hard currencies could be exchanged for more good things in the mountains.

However, before leaving, he intended to go to the place this person mentioned to take a look. He guessed that the place this person mentioned might be a point where red deer often went. Since they were already growing deer velvet, did that mean they had already shed the deer horns on their heads? In this way, even if he couldn't hit a deer, he might be able to pick up deer horns.

"You walk east again, about five or six mountain gullies, there is a small white poplar gully, there is a piece of dugout in the gully, no one has used it recently, you can live there." Li Long said to Sun Jia Qiang, "Wild animals often come here. Last year I even hit a pack of wolves. You are alone here, it is not safe at night, unless you can make a door for this cave."

"Then I won't stay." Sun Jia Qiang also knew that wild animals liked to eat salt. If he was really targeted by wolves, he really couldn't handle it. "I'll leave now."

Li Long didn't force him to extinguish the fire in the cave and pick up the things, no need, anyway, the smoke had already been there, wild animals wouldn't come to this inside for a while. Talk about it later.

Sun Jia Qiang gnawed the steamed bun and went east, Li Long went out of the mouth of the gully and went south, he intended to go to the gully with deer to take a look, to see if there was anything inside.

There was a collapse at the mouth of the gully, looking at the traces, it shouldn't be more than a month, don't know if it was washed down when the snow melted or rained.

Li Long looked inside from the outside, the gully was overgrown with weeds, feeling no traces of cattle and sheep entering, even if there were wild animals, there shouldn't be many.

With a lot of grass, there might be herbivorous animals. He jumped over the small stream, carried the rifle, and walked inside.

The rifle's bullets were loaded, the safety was off, so he was relatively careful when walking, trying not to touch the branches, afraid of accidental discharge.

Of course, doing this was also to be able to fire in time if he really ran into animals.

The last two-headed deer wasn't hit, which made Li Long a bit regretful, so he had such a risky move.

Just look at this trip. (End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 448 =====