Chapter 489

Bolati skinned the sheep quickly, and gutted it quickly too. Lao Huang brought a basin, Li Long helped Bolati take out all the sheep's guts, barely fitting them into the basin. Lao Huang grinned, revealing yellow teeth, very happy.

"Alright," Bolati finished dealing with this sheep and said to Li Long:

"I'm going back. If there are more later, I'll come find you. Just now, I've already removed the place where the snake bit, you'd better not eat that section, oh?"

"Hmm, I know." Li Long nodded.

Bolati wiped his forehead, there were fine beads of sweat there, he wiped the knife back and forth on the sheepskin, then put it into the scabbard at his waist, went to the horse, flipped onto the horse, pulled the reins and turned half a circle, and left at a trot. Soon, the horse's speed was released, and it disappeared at the end of the valley.

The sheep's guts were gutted, the whole carcass was placed on the sheepskin, Li Long took out his knife, unloaded a hind leg and handed it to Xie Yun Dong next to him:

"Brother Yun Dong, leave this sheep leg here for you to eat. Let Brother Lao Huang stir-fry a meal of offal tonight, I'll take the rest away."

"Good, good, good." Although he didn't quite understand the origin of this sheep, no one was unhappy to be able to eat fresh mutton.

Li Long went to Lao Huang to get some salt, smeared it on the mutton to prevent bugs from coming. Lao Huang had already cut a part of the offal to stir-fry. Li Jianguo put down the work of making carrying poles, came over to help wash the stomach and intestines.

Li Long put the mutton, sheepskin, and so on into the tractor car bucket, and then went to help his eldest brother.

"What's going on with this sheep?" Li Jianguo asked while turning the intestines.

"Bitten by a snake. Eldest brother, you also know, they don't eat this kind. The meat bitten by this snake has no problem, so I bought it."

"Hey, how much did you buy it for?"

"Ten."

"Considered cheap. But for them, this is a small loss, no wonder that Bolati would take the initiative to help skin it." Li Jianguo said with a smile, "There aren't many things like this, right?"

"Not many, some herdsmen encounter things like this, the sheep is thrown away, not necessarily can we encounter it."

The two talked and laughed, and turned the stomach and intestines. Lao Huang had already cut some offal and stir-fried it, and the others were also quite happy. Being able to eat fresh meat and add a meal was a good thing for everyone.

Li Long took the intestines and stomach and put them on the sheepskin, smeared with salt, preparing to take them back. Actually, he wanted to leave some, Li Jianguo waved his hand and said forget it. The meaning was that he could exchange for some money if he took them back, leaving them here wouldn't produce any economic value.

Speaking of which, Li Long brought some meat over every few days, the food of these people making carrying poles was considered very good. According to Li Jianguo, when it was the production team before, the people who came to work in the side-job team were basically sallow and thin when they went back. Fortunately, they could earn money, and everyone didn't have any objections.

Now it's good, one by one ruddy, they didn't eat as well at home as they did here.

Conditions being too good wasn't a good thing, after all, it was easy to raise these conditions, later if they wanted to lower them, these people would probably have objections.

A measure of rice breeds gratitude, a peck breeds enmity, wasn't just talk.

So Li Jianguo still let Li Long take the extra things back. Things bought with his own real money, let everyone eat a meal, no need to take everything out to do favors.

Li Long didn't have the nerve to say that one carrying pole could earn four yuan, he wanted to wait until everything was woven and the account was settled, then tell Li Jianguo. Anyway, he definitely wouldn't extract his eldest brother's money. By then Li Jianguo should be able to earn about a thousand yuan.

So for Li Long, ten yuan of mutton, even if all left here, didn't count as much.

Of course, he also knew that the account wasn't calculated like this, if someone else received this job, maybe the extraction would be more ruthless than him.

After finishing these, Li Long went to check and accept the carrying poles, registered the numbers, let people sign, and put the woven ones in the big pile.

The carrying poles over there were also piled separately, one hundred in a pile, easy to count. Now there were already seven piles, although the seventh pile wasn't enough for one hundred, it was almost there.

Soon, the vegetables were stir-fried, Lao Huang shouted, and everyone came over to eat. At this time Sun Jia Qiang also came back with a bag.

Li Long came in the morning for the past few days, when he came, he had already gone to dig fritillaria bulbs, and the two sides couldn't see each other. So this time seeing Li Long come, Sun Jia Qiang was also quite happy.

He took out two large bags of fritillaria bulbs from his dugout like offering a treasure.

"Yo, so many!" Li Long was a bit surprised, "Your efficiency in digging fritillaria bulbs is getting higher and higher!"

"That's right. No one checks here, I dig with peace of mind. There are many fritillaria gullies nearby, plus Brother Lao Huang cooks well." Sun Jia Qiang said with a smile, "I don't need to cook for myself like others, I have more time, naturally I dig more."

The reason was this reason, Li Long smiled.

"I didn't bring a scale today, this can only be estimated for you."

"No problem, I believe you. Right, my bottle of wine is finished, did you bring wine?" Sun Jia Qiang asked.

"Brought a cage, what, you still want?"

"Want." Sun Jia Qiang said in a low voice, "I underestimated the drinking capacity of your fellow villagers, the bottle of wine you brought me isn't enough for these people to drink a meal... bring a few more bottles next time?"

"Sure. This cage is five liters, enough to drink for a while, don't drink too much, pay attention." Li Long took the cage of wine from the car bucket and handed it to him, "These two bags of yours, let me estimate."

Two full bags of fritillaria bulbs, plus today's eight kilograms, Sun Jia Qiang's fritillaria bulbs totaled forty-nine kilograms.

"Count it as fifty kilograms for you, but to be honest, if I don't come in two days, these fritillaria bulbs of yours will be moldy." Li Long poured the fritillaria bulbs into his own bag, looked at it and said, "Why didn't you find a carrying pole to dry them?"

"Hey, didn't think of it." Sun Jia Qiang reacted, "That's right, there are so many people here, I borrow a carrying pole, how good it would be to dry these fritillaria bulbs!"

Sun Jia Qiang wanted one hundred and forty yuan, exchanged the remaining money for wine, and asked Li Long to bring some other daily necessities when he came tomorrow.

After the two of them finished here, the others over there had already served the meal and surrounded it to eat. Lao Huang left dishes for the two, cornmeal pancakes and stir-fried offal, and wild vegetable soup.

"Everyone, my wine arrived today," Sun Jia Qiang said loudly: "We didn't drink enough the past two days, today come, come, come, if you want to drink, pour it yourself, as long as you don't get drunk and don't delay tomorrow's work. I'm young, so I won't drink that much, accompany everyone to drink two cups, this five liters of wine will be put here."

After Sun Jia Qiang said this, the others also opened their mouths with a smile, most of them were saying Sun Jia Qiang was a son of the land, atmospheric, straightforward.

Li Long ate while smiling and watching the lively scene. The people who came to make carrying poles this year were relatively harmonious, without so many miscellaneous things. Plus there was an outsider, even if the people on the team had some unpleasantness, they were all resolved, not wanting to lose face in front of an outsider.

Of course they also knew, some people committed crimes last year and didn't come this year. Now how many carrying poles were made every day was registered, the money earned in one day could top an apprentice's month, whoever couldn't think straight and still made trouble, that was really a spoon baby.

After eating, Li Long said to his eldest brother, and waved to the others, shaking the tractor towards the wooden house. He only drank a small lid of wine, no reaction. At this time Sun Jia Qiang and the others were still drinking. The sky was already dark, work wouldn't be done anymore, today counted as a small rest, everyone was very relaxed, laughter rang in the valley, someone even started singing opera.

Actually, in this era, people of these age groups could basically sing some of the eight model operas, such as "Red Lantern," such as "Shajiabang," etc. After that event passed, no one sang for two years, but now there was nothing, some famous segments were actually spoken as soon as they were opened, simply singing with wine, quite a heroic feeling.

Li Long listened to the singing getting further and further away, and then his tractor faced the wind, turned on the headlights, and went all the way towards the wooden house.

With lights, he encountered many small animals along the way. These small animals were mostly foraging at night, and were also very panicked when seeing the car lights and hearing the movement.

Arriving at the wooden house, there was no movement, thinking that even if someone wanted to exchange fritillaria bulbs, they couldn't see the tractor, so they left.

After Li Long turned off the engine, he had to deal with the mutton in the car bucket in the night. Mainly unloading into many pieces, soaking in a big basin. The remaining offal was dealt with the same way. The night was cool, soaking in cool water could keep it from going bad, deal with it tomorrow morning.

After all, after being full, the stomach and brain competed for blood supply, so the brain wasn't very clear, wanting to sleep.

Every day was spent in busyness, Li Long wouldn't take the initiative to do overloaded work. Since it could be done tomorrow, and there were no lights outside now, then rest.

Early the next morning, Li Long got up to release water and saw someone already waiting outside.

Li Long wasn't surprised that these people came so early to sell fritillaria bulbs, he skillfully stepped forward to weigh the fritillaria bulbs, and asked the other party if they wanted money or supplies.

Twenty-one kilograms of fritillaria bulbs, not a small number, after that person hesitated for a while, finally decided to want sixty yuan, the remaining three yuan, exchanged for some sesame cakes.

Now it's the fritillaria bulb season, people digging fritillaria bulbs also knew to save time, if they could not cook, they wouldn't cook, saving time meant they could dig more fritillaria bulbs.

Li Long kept a heart, before giving the other party money, he poured the fritillaria bulbs into the woven carrying poles, and then found that these fritillaria bulbs were all fresh, not the ones he washed before.

Not him.

Gave the money and sesame cakes to the other party, that person thought for a while, took out another ten-yuan note, and asked Li Long if there was any cooked air-dried meat to exchange.

Li Long found five yuan for him, took three pieces of air-dried cooked meat. One kilogram of cooked meat turned into air-dried meat might only have three hundred grams left, so the price of air-dried meat was higher. After this person left, Li Long set up the stove, boiled porridge, and then started washing those fritillaria bulbs.

Including the fritillaria bulbs Sun Jia Qiang brought yesterday.

After washing and drying the fritillaria bulbs, the porridge was almost ready, Li Long roasted steamed buns under the stove, ate breakfast in a hurry with red tofu and the spicy sauce he brought.

The offal brought back yesterday was washed and boiled, those meats needed to be decomposed into small pieces and also boiled. Now those who wanted to exchange meat basically wanted air-dried cooked meat. Li Long couldn't simply smear salt and dry it. Boil it and then smear salt and dry it, after it was dry they could eat it directly.

By noon, Li Long had finished tidying up the things here, and the boiled meat was fished out and smeared with salt and hung up. Because the net was dry, it only needed to be boiled, no need to stew it very rotten like the kind he ate. The offal needed to be marinated, so it wouldn't be air-dried.

In the gap of work, he collected more than seventy kilograms of fritillaria bulbs again, Li Long washed them intermittently and dried them. Fortunately, there were so many carrying poles, this thing had cracks at the bottom, ventilated, so he wasn't afraid of it getting moldy.

Turn it over every once in a while.

After finishing the work, Li Long wanted to rest before eating. Anyway, there was meat and offal, only needed to adjust some dipping sauce.

Meat soup could also be drunk, now he wasn't afraid of three highs, it was already very beautiful.

Then he saw two people in black clothes walking over in the distance.

!.

At first Li Long thought it was someone selling fritillaria bulbs, but these two people were only holding cloth bags. Then they walked to a place twenty or thirty meters away from Li Long and stopped.

The two people whispered something, and then shouted to Li Long:

"Little comrade, do you have medicine?"

"Yes." Li Long stood up and walked over there, the two old people wearing black clothes hurriedly said:

"Don't come over, don't come over, we just want medicine."

Li Long felt a bit strange, these two people looked quite clean, their hair and beards weren't messy, they should have been dealt with, why did it feel like they were very afraid of close contact with people, but since the other party made a request, he stopped his steps and said:

"What medicine do you want?"

"Aspirin." The other party said the medicine name.

"Yes, have a few bottles."

"We exchange." The two people opened the cloth bag, inside were a few neatly folded pelts.

Deer pelt, wolf pelt, roe deer pelt, looking like they were well-tanned, feeling very soft.

What surprised Li Long a bit was that these pelts were put outside, exchanging for two or three hundred yuan was no problem.

Now prices were rising, these complete well-tanned pelts, one was already sixty or seventy.

Four pelts.

"Exchange for two bottles." One of the old people spoke very briefly. These two people had very short hair, almost sticking to the scalp, and their clothes were also very clean, with layers of patches, Li Long felt they didn't look like people who were often active in the mountains.

"One pelt is enough. And there's more, do you need to exchange for other supplies. Like matches, salt, rice and flour, or other medicine." Li Long didn't want to take too much advantage of the old people and said, "I can exchange four bottles of aspirin for you here. I also have painkillers, analgin, yeast tablets, big hawthorn pills, etc."

The two old people looked at each other, and then said:

"Then want a bag of salt, a bag of matches, besides aspirin, also want some analgin."

Li Long wrapped the things into a big bag, preparing to take them over.

These two people immediately retreated, waiting for Li Long to put the things at the pelt place, the old person who spoke briefly opened his mouth:

"Take all the pelts, then retreat."

"Do you... have an infectious disease?" Li Long suddenly asked, he didn't dare to pick up those pelts. If these people really had a disease like the plague, he really wouldn't dare to use those things.

"No." The other person shook his head firmly, "We... are sinners."

Once he said this, Li Long understood even less.

But the old people didn't speak anymore, so Li Long had no way to guess. He picked up the pelts and retreated back, after those two people came over and took the things, they bowed to Li Long, and then turned and walked into the mountains.

Li Long was stunned there.

He believed these two people wouldn't lie to him, purely a kind of belief. In the mountains, if there really was an infectious disease like the plague, to be honest, if the other party wanted to deceive him, he might not be able to escape. But the other party told the truth, no, so he believed it.

Not foolish kindness, just a feeling.

But what did that last sentence mean?

Waiting until the two people disappeared, Li Long only then went over and picked up the pelts.

Not things killed recently, the pelts should have been preserved for quite a while. The fur was good, the pelts were tanned very well, very soft, and unfolding them could see they were all adult animals, the pelt sheets were large, no gunshot wounds.

Didn't know how they were caught.

Until now Li Long still couldn't think of what these people were doing. Having been in the mountains for so long, he hadn't heard Bolati and the others say that such people existed. Logically, Bolati and Yushanjiang and the others should have been able to encounter them.

But he had never heard of it.

Could it be that there was some secret base in the mountains?

Li Long carried doubts, spread out these pelts to dry.

Just in case, he still used loose wine to wash his hands well, considered disinfected.

Lunch was eaten casually while thinking. He had already eaten some when drying the air-dried meat, so he wasn't hungry.

In the afternoon, he collected some fritillaria bulbs one after another, and when it was evening, those sending fritillaria bulbs concentrated a bit. Most of these fritillaria bulb diggers knew that once they reached Li Long here, those forest patrols wouldn't care. They would even take a big circle and appear from the southwest or west.

Li Long roughly estimated that he collected nearly two hundred kilograms of fritillaria bulbs today.

He had to pull them back again in the next two days.

Seeing the sky was about to get dark, no one came, Li Long collected all the fritillaria bulbs. The collected fritillaria bulbs were washed as they arrived, most of them could only be collected into the wooden house first.

Early the next morning, didn't see anyone coming, Li Long drove the tractor to Xiao Bai Yang Gou.

Smoke and mist still floated in Bai Yang Gou, which made Li Long couldn't help but suspect whether the fire pile of his eldest brother and the others roasting strips was not extinguished all night.

After checking and collecting everyone's carrying poles, Li Long found his eldest brother Li Jianguo, and quietly told the story of the black-clothed person yesterday.

Li Jianguo looked at Li Long and said softly:

"When we were working in the side-job team before, we encountered it. We guessed, these people probably, should be... some people left behind by Sheng Sheng Shi Cai originally."

Didn't expect his eldest brother to really know some.

"At your wooden house, walk south into the mountains, walk more than ten kilometers, there should be another gully to the southwest, in that gully, it's all bones. Human bones." Li Jianguo looked around, and then said in a low voice, "Don't go over, the bones in that gully, we guess either war, or plague."

Li Long noted that place, he really didn't plan to go over.

Life is important.

Knowing the general idea, he wasn't that curious anymore.

Sun Jia Qiang had already gone to dig fritillaria bulbs, this kid usually looked like he was laughing, but regarding making money, he was still quite reliable. (End of chapter)