Chapter 494: This finally fulfills a wish

Finally saw it again.

A two-headed deer.

However, the distance was too close, and this time Li Long saw it clearly.

It wasn't that this deer truly had two heads; it only had one head, and the antlers on its head were very long and large, with another head that also had antlers hanging from them, only at this moment, that head was nothing but bone.

This reminded Li Long of a video he had seen in his previous life. Two deer locked antlers in a fight, one was killed by the other, but the two deer's antlers were tangled and couldn't be separated. To survive, the winning deer had no choice but to drag the dead deer's carcass along until the dead deer's flesh rotted and the head and neck fell off; only then could the deer be considered somewhat liberated.

It was just unclear why this robust stag's antlers hadn't fallen off, nor had it grown velvet.

Are the antlers too sturdy now?

Li Long is not a zoologist and doesn't know the reason. However, when he saw that deer, the deer also saw him. At this moment, the deer still carried the other deer's skull on its head, and a single antler still hung from that skull, while the other antler had already fallen off, heaven knows where.

It looked quite bizarre.

When this deer saw Li Long, it instantly accelerated, then moved to block the path in front of the fawn, using its own body to protect it.

However, just at this moment, a roar came from the grass, and a brown bear as tall as an adult human lunged out standing on its hind legs. Seeing the fawn in front, it immediately raised both paws and pounced!

The adult stag panicked; it hurriedly turned to protect the fawn. The fawn, hearing the brown bear's roar, also grew anxious, its body swaying as it ran toward the forest above, then it tripped over the grass, fell down, and tried to climb up twice but couldn't.

The fawn's anxious cries made the stag unable to help but be distracted. When it turned its head to look, the brown bear had already launched its attack—a pair of bear paws swiped toward the stag.

Only then did Li Long see that the stag had several wounds on its body, but it was brave; head and antlers held higher than the brown bear, it lowered its head and charged straight at the brown bear!

Li Long felt like he was watching a movie. Is this stag this brave? Actually daring to go head-to-head with a brown bear!

The antlers struck the brown bear first; although they didn't pierce it, they caused the brown bear quite a bit of pain. It roared in anger, and with one claw, it swiped at the stag's face, the claws, comparable to small daggers, immediately leaving deep bloody marks!

The stag let out a mournful cry, yet struggled hard to break free from the brown bear's claws, took a step back, and charged again. Against this bear, this was the only way it could resist.

The brown bear learned to be smart this time; it dodged once, then swiped another claw at the stag's neck.

The stag knew it was no match, turned its head, and ran. The direction it ran was opposite to the fawn, heading down the gully. This left the brown bear a bit dumbfounded as to which one to chase.

And this was the moment Li Long had been waiting for; he aimed at the brown bear's head and pulled the trigger!

"Bang! Bang! Bang!"

Three bullets fired in succession. After the brown bear was hit by one, it roared and charged this way, then was hit by two more. The brown bear still wanted to turn its head and run into the grass—it really wasn't stupid, knowing that if it couldn't win, it would flee—but it only managed to turn its head before collapsing to the ground.

The power of the Type 56 semi-automatic bullets cannot be underestimated!

Li Long didn't let his guard down. This time it was a case of unintentional success, an ambush that was even simpler than the last. He turned his head to look down; the two-headed deer had already disappeared into the grass. Looking further up, the fawn was still struggling in the grass; not knowing if it was too heavily injured, it wasn't crying anymore, just floundering there.

It seems this fawn should be the two-headed deer's offspring; the two-headed deer had fatherly love for it, though it's estimated that this love was limited. It's unknown where the doe is, or if it had already been finished off in the grass ahead.

Li Long observed carefully and found that the brown bear's body wasn't rising or falling; it didn't look like it was playing dead, but he still didn't dare to be careless, raising his gun again to fire one more shot at the bear's body.

The bear's body didn't move at all.

Li Long was relieved. If a brown bear could play dead so well that it wouldn't move even after being shot, then Li Long would be willing to be fooled.

However, he still stayed in place, filled the magazine with bullets, and then walked toward the bear with the gun held ready.

The bear's body wasn't very large, somewhat similar to the bear he had hunted last time, giving the impression of a fifteen or sixteen-year-old youth in this era, not yet an adult, but already rebellious, not wanting to follow the adults, wanting to carve out a world of its own.

And then it carved itself to death.

Li Long walked to the bear, nudged it with his bayonet, and the bear didn't move at all. He then set the gun aside and pulled out his knife, preparing to skin it.

The most valuable part of a bear is naturally the gallbladder. Having had the experience once, it was easy to extract the gallbladder from the bear's body this time, wrap it in a prepared cloth, and put it in his satchel.

Then, facing such a half-grown bear, Li Long was truly troubled.

The tractor couldn't get in, and this bear was about the size of an adult human, weighing over a hundred to two hundred kilograms.

He could take at most two legs back; the rest would be wasted.

But there was no other way.

In the end, Li Long decided to skin the bear and take it, and as for the meat, taking one side of the ribs and one leg would suffice.

While he was skinning and butchering here, there was movement in the grass again. Li Long hurriedly put down his knife and picked up his gun.

Then he saw a wild boar emerging from the grass, sniffing its nose; it was clearly smelling the scent of blood.

Li Long raised his gun to shoot, but the wild boar was extremely alert; seeing Li Long, it turned and retreated into the tall grass.

It was unclear if he had hit it or not.

Li Long didn't pursue. Right now, he couldn't even carry all of this bear; getting a wild boar would just be a waste if he couldn't take it back.

Better not to shoot.

He continued skinning the bear. This bear was quite fat; if it weren't for its large size, skinning it would have been quite easy. Li Long skinned the entire bear, then removed the bear ribs and bear legs, wrapped them in the bear skin, tied them with a rope, and left.

After walking two steps, he returned; there was another thing on the bear that was quite good, and that was the bear paws.

He couldn't cook them well, but this thing could be given as a gift.

Li Long turned back, cut off the two bear paws, tied them with a rope, and hung them around his neck; he really couldn't carry any more.

That fawn didn't know when it had struggled and run into the mountain forest; Li Long thought it might not survive.

But he had no time to look for it.

Li Long carried his spoils and spent nearly two hours returning to the wooden cabin, where he saw Sun Jia Qiang.

"You are..." Sun Jia Qiang was sitting on the tractor seat, and when he saw Li Long, he was also startled. He jumped down to help, asking while helping Li Long take things off his neck:

"What is this? It doesn't look like a wild boar; could this be a bear?"

"Right, it's a bear." Li Long placed the bear skin and bear meat on the tractor rack, then said:

"Yesterday I heard someone digging for fritillaria say he encountered a bear in the mountains, not very big, so I thought I'd go over and hunt it, didn't expect to really run into it, and hit it too."

"Your luck is too good, isn't it?" Sun Jia Qiang said with envy, "Heard about it, saw it, and hit it. Back in my hometown, I never heard of hunting being this simple."

"My luck is good." Li Long said with a smile, "Hunting has always been like this."

Li Long was telling the truth; since he started hunting in the mountains with a gun last year, almost every result was immediate, rarely requiring continuous pursuit, which was truly different from what he had imagined hunting to be.

Different is different; as long as there's a harvest, it's fine.

"What about the rest of the bear meat? Did you throw it in the mountains?" Sun Jia Qiang asked.

"Yeah." Li Long waved his hand, "Can't carry it back, so I had to throw it in the mountains."

"Where is it? Tell me, I'll go find it!" Sun Jia Qiang grew anxious upon hearing this, "That's a bear, so big... if we bring it back, we can eat for a long time, right? Looking so fat..."

Li Long didn't hide it from him, drawing a detailed map for Sun Jia Qiang on the ground. Sun Jia Qiang had also spent quite some time in the vicinity, and with Li Long's description, he asked a few questions and knew the specific location, then took a bag from Li Long, grabbed a kitchen knife, and ran quickly into the mountains.

It wasn't until Sun Jia Qiang ran far away that Li Long remembered he hadn't asked why he had come over.

However, seeing a bag of fritillaria standing by the tractor, Li Long understood.

He didn't have time to deal with the fritillaria for now; first, he boiled water, processed the bear gallbladder, then rubbed salt on the bear skin, spread it out, and hung it on the tractor's cargo bed to air-dry.

Then he processed the bear meat. He rubbed salt on the cross-sections of the two bear paws to avoid attracting flies. He stripped the meat from the bear ribs and bear legs, boiled the bones that still had meat on them in the pot on the outdoor stove, and cut the stripped meat into small pieces, simmering them with the lard Li Long had specifically brought back.

This bear wasn't big, but the bear fat was comparable to lard. Soon, the pot simmering the meat produced oil as clear as water, rolling and diffusing a slightly different aroma.

Li Long guarded the pot, occasionally looking in the direction of Sun Jia Qiang. Before long, another person came to sell fritillaria. What surprised Li Long a bit was that the fritillaria this person brought was also half-dry and half-wet. Li Long also bought it from him at six yuan.

This person had originally intended to explain, but then stopped. It was that bear skin that caught his attention, and he asked:

"Boss Li, did you hunt this?"

"Yeah."

"Is the gallbladder there?"

"It is."

"Can you sell it to me?" That person said with a smile, "I have good stuff here, I'll trade with you!"

"What are you trading with me?" Li Long asked curiously.

"Take a look." That person took something out of the bag containing his personal belongings.

Li Long took one look and was amused. Isn't this jasper?

The quality of this jasper was not bad, but it wasn't large, weighing about two kilograms. Looking closely, there were slight black spots, not as good as the jade he had first obtained from Halimu.

!.

"Jade, understand? This piece sells for several hundred yuan; if you run into someone who knows the trade, selling it for over a thousand isn't impossible!" That person said mysteriously, "I'll trade this, and you'll still have to give me some money back."

"Forget it, I don't understand this stuff, and I don't want it. I think the bear gallbladder is quite good."

Once he said this, that person was put on the spot.

He had originally wanted to trade for a bear gallbladder to take back to the county and resell for more money, but the other party wouldn't take the bait.

However, this person immediately realized that Li Long was a local; it was impossible that he hadn't seen jade, and impossible that he didn't know the value of this bear gallbladder.

It was his own greed for money that had blinded him.

Li Long, however, was somewhat puzzled as to why he was carrying these dozen kilograms of fritillaria and not going down the mountain to sell them.

"It's still dozens of kilometers down the mountain; carrying this stuff, I'd have to walk until tomorrow. Too tired, better to just trade for money here." This person said quite honestly.

But Li Long really didn't quite understand. If you say they can endure hardship, these people stay in the mountains for over a month, like wild men; this is definitely enduring hardship.

But if you say they can't endure hardship, they clearly could take these fritillaria to the county dozens of kilometers away, and after drying them, they could get double the price, but they aren't willing to carry them for these dozens of kilometers.

Fine, can't understand.

After this person traded for money, seeing the pot of meat boiling, he pestered Li Long to cut him a small piece of bear meat, saying he wanted to taste it.

Li Long granted his wish.

Eating the bear meat, that person carried his bag and walked toward the back mountain, satisfied.

Li Long poked the meat with chopsticks; it wasn't tender yet. However, the meat and oil simmering over there were about done, so he removed the fire. He had to wait for it to cool, scrape it into a basin, and then let it cool further; once it set, he could take it away directly, basin and all.

Seeing Sun Jia Qiang hadn't returned, Li Long went to the wooden cabin, intending to steam some rice. After the bear meat was boiled tender, he would cut some for a cold dish, and then fry an egg, which would be enough.

After the rice was steaming, Li Long scraped the meat and oil from the outdoor stove into a basin and brought it back into the room to cool. There was some oil left in the pot on the stove, so Li Long went to get some wild onions and fried some wild onion eggs with the oil.

He cracked eight eggs, and with the meat, it should be enough for two people to eat.

It wasn't until Li Long saw the bear meat was tender that Sun Jia Qiang's figure appeared in the distant mountain forest.

What made Li Long somewhat amused was that Sun Jia Qiang was carrying one bag and dragging another; he had clearly brought back all the remaining bear meat.

Li Long hurriedly went to meet him and took the bags from his hands; he could feel that Sun Jia Qiang was almost exhausted.

Li Long carried the bags back to the wooden cabin, one in each hand, and said to Sun Jia Qiang:

"Why did you take so much? Not leaving a little... look at you, your clothes are soaked with sweat."

"Since I took it, I took it all, otherwise wouldn't your hunting have been in vain?" Sun Jia Qiang leaned against the tractor, panting and smiling, "When I went over, I saw that strange deer again, the two-headed one. It ran away as soon as it saw me. Hey, saw it clearly this time, that's not a real two-headed one; that thing has a deer skull pulled onto its head, still with one antler, don't know how it got it on there."

Li Long didn't expect that deer hadn't gone far; he suspected whether the doe had really died in the mountains, or was half-dead and not dead?

Or did this deer not find its child, so it came back to look for it?

But for now, don't think about that so much; must eat first.

There are many good things in the mountains; it's impossible for them all to fall into his hands.

However, Li Long thought about going back there again after returning from the county to see if there would be other harvests.

Sun Jia Qiang rested for quite a while before standing up. By this time, Li Long had already served the rice, and the meat was cut and plated. He wasn't polite either; he went to the table and started eating.

"Not bad, not bad, this meat is just delicious." Sun Jia Qiang said with a smile, "Boss Li, your skills aren't worse than Old Huang's."

"Worse is definitely worse. But it's home-cooked food, so it's just like that." Li Long said with a smile, "Besides, you must be hungry too, otherwise you wouldn't eat like this."

The two of them ate two bowls of rice each, and the fried eggs and cut meat Li Long made were eaten clean. He was worried Sun Jia Qiang wouldn't be full and wanted to cut more, but Sun Jia Qiang waved his hand, saying no need. After all, he was already stuffed.

"How do you plan to handle this?" Li Long pointed to Sun Jia Qiang's bag of fritillaria and asked, "Are you going to keep digging later?"

"Not digging, not digging." Sun Jia Qiang said, "You've got this bear meat now, when do you plan to go back?"

"In the afternoon." Li Long pointed to the meat Sun Jia Qiang brought back and said, "This meat of yours has to be processed here, right? Once processed, I plan to go back."

"What do you mean my meat? This is your meat." Sun Jia Qiang waved his hand, "What do I want this meat for? No use. This is just helping you bring it back. I've eaten a meal, and I've eaten this meat just now, you handle the meat yourself."

Li Long didn't expect Sun Jia Qiang to think this way; he was stunned for a moment, shook his head, and said:

"Can't do that, if I do that, I won't be able to face people."

"Alright, alright." Sun Jia Qiang waved his hand, "For this month, I've been able to earn money steadily and have a place to eat, that must be thanks to your favor. Let me tell you, there are almost no blind drifters like me digging for fritillaria within dozens of kilometers in these mountains who haven't been caught by the forest rangers. Once caught, the fritillaria dug in a day is gone, a day's work for nothing. Some people have even been caught several times, and me? Digging for fritillaria steadily, and not worrying about food. Old Huang's skills, plus you sending meat over every day..."

"You also handed over rice and flour, didn't you."

"Without you, would Old Huang know who I am?" Sun Jia Qiang smiled, "Alright, don't beat around the bush, I have to pay you for this fritillaria normally, but you can take this bear meat with peace of mind. I want to be your friend, but I can't take advantage of you and say nothing, right? Friends aren't made like that."

Fine, he said it all, so Li Long had nothing to say. He went to weigh the fritillaria for Sun Jia Qiang and then calculated it for him at six yuan.

Sun Jia Qiang wasn't pretentious either; after receiving the money, he leaned against the wall of the wooden cabin and said:

"You're good at processing meat, I won't interfere, I'll rest for a while, tell me when you're leaving, I'll take your car down the mountain."

Li Long nodded and went to process the meat.

Not only meat, but also the internal organs.

"When I went, that meat hadn't been gnawed by anything, quite strange." Sun Jia Qiang said with his eyes closed.

"I encountered a wild boar when I left, and later there were deer, maybe the wild beasts nearby knew there was a bear, so they didn't dare to go over." Li Long guessed.

This meat and internal organs had quite a lot of grass leaves, mud, and other dirty things on them. After Li Long washed them, he turned the stomach and intestines inside out, and then boiled them.

Because he had to go back today, he couldn't wait until they were completely tender before fishing them out and putting them into a basin.

And the remaining meat, once chopped, could only be simmered in the pot in the room. Once the door is locked, it won't be affected when people leave.

In the afternoon, Li Long drove the tractor, carrying four bear paws, one bear skin, and a basin of simmered bear meat and oil, along with Sun Jia Qiang and the fritillaria collected over these two days, and drove toward the county. (End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 495 =====