Chapter 496: Curtain call

After coming out of Sister Yang's house, Li Long and Gu Xiaoxia parted at the intersection, then drove the tractor to the oil depot, added oil, and brought two more pots of oil, and drove toward the mountains.

The sun was quite big, fortunately, there was wind while driving the tractor, so it wasn't dry and hot. All the way west, when close to the Ma River, turned south toward the road to Qingshuihezi. There were occasional pedestrians on the road, and it was obvious that the number of people riding bicycles had indeed increased.

After passing Qingshuihe, felt the temperature was a bit lower, and occasionally could see the figures of wild animals in the bushes on both sides of the road. They didn't run, staring with wide eyes, curiously watching the tractor's figure whiz by.

During the day, there were no jumping rabbits running after the tractor, Li Long felt a bit bored. But he was glad that this thing fortunately didn't run after it during the day, otherwise, it would have been extinct long ago.

When less than a kilometer away from the mountain pass, Li Long saw a person standing in the middle of the road, carrying one bag and backing another. The one on the back was a sack, the things inside were irregular, Li Long guessed it should be daily necessities. Li Long was very familiar with the bag in the hand.

Inside, eight out of ten were fritillaria.

Li Long stopped the tractor ten meters in front of this person, didn't turn off the engine, and asked:

"What are you blocking the road for?"

"Selling fritillaria. I went to your wooden cabin, you weren't there, so I had to carry this thing out, it tired me!" That person kicked the fritillaria in the bag with his foot and said, "Buying or not?"

"This is already out of the mountains, why not go directly to the county to sell it?" Li Long was a bit puzzled, he got off the tractor and asked, "Selling in the county is more expensive, can get more money."

"Don't want to carry it anymore, can't carry it. Thinking of getting to the county early, to see if I can catch the night bus to Wucheng. Carrying it, at least have to walk for more than an hour."

Li Long stepped forward to open the fritillaria pocket.

The fritillaria inside was quite clean, half-dry and half-wet. Li Long grabbed a handful, dug down, and found the quality below was also the same.

He guessed that this person's original intention was really to take this bag of fritillaria to the purchasing station at the foot of the mountain to sell, but carrying it from the mountains to here, it should be that he couldn't carry it anymore.

This bag of fritillaria is over twenty kilograms, carrying it for a short time is nothing, but carrying it for several kilometers now can be done. Carrying it for dozens of kilometers... this is not ordinary work.

"Alright, but there's no scale, I'll estimate it for you, over twenty kilograms, your fritillaria is clean, I'll calculate it at seven yuan for you, how about giving you one hundred and fifty yuan?"

"Good." That person was a bit surprised, he thought he could get one hundred, just to solve the bus ticket money.

Didn't expect Li Long to give more.

Li Long took money out of his pocket, paid, that person didn't even want the bag, took the money, counted it twice with saliva, folded the money and stuffed it into the inner pocket of his clothes, patted it, and then said to Li Long:

"Alright, Boss, wish you wealth, I'm leaving."

After saying that, he picked up a stick from the ground and walked north with big strides.

"Wish you peace." Li Long said loudly to his back.

In fact, he had been on guard. He was also worried that if someone suddenly jumped out from the side of the road to hit him with a club during this transaction. So the gun hanging on his shoulder, his hand also touched it from time to time, and his eyes kept observing the surroundings.

Fortunately, nothing happened.

Tied the fritillaria bag tightly, put it in the cargo bed, Li Long sat on the tractor, and continued to move forward.

When he arrived at the wooden cabin, the sun was in the west, the time was five o'clock or so, no one was here.

And no one destroyed it.

The sunlight was just right, not dazzling, quite hot.

Li Long washed this fritillaria once and air-dried it on the lifting pole.

Yesterday, all the fritillaria in the small wooden cabin was taken down, right now there was only this twenty-plus kilograms. Although that person cleaned it quite cleanly, that was relative, and there was still a difference in quality from what Li Long did himself, so he had to wash it again.

Next was processing those bear meat and internal organs.

Bear meat is certainly not as delicious as domestic beef and mutton, but at least it's meat.

Yesterday, it was just boiled, so the meat with bones was rubbed with salt to make air-dried meat, and the stripped meat continued to be simmered. Although the taste wasn't very good, there were plenty of people who wanted to eat this kind of meat.

The wooden cabin's stove was also set up, boiling water was the priority, and then the dough was leavened.

Having eaten unleavened pancakes for two days here, Li Long thought about steaming some steamed buns in the afternoon.

People in the mountains were indeed fewer, and it wasn't until it was almost dark that one person slowly came over carrying half a bag of fritillaria.

Arriving here and smelling the meat aroma, Li Long saw that the person was forty or fifty years old, quite thin, obviously malnourished, so he cut a piece of meat for him.

"Hey, haven't eaten meat for a long time." That person wasn't polite either, took the bear meat and chewed it a few times, swallowed it, and asked:

"Boss Li, can this meat of yours be traded for fritillaria?"

"Can, pour out the fritillaria and let me see." Li Long said.

The fritillaria was poured out, it could be seen that it was newly dug, but not very clean.

"The quantity is not much, and not very clean." Li Long gave an evaluation.

"No way." That person complained, "Now some fritillaria have bloomed, have to find those that haven't bloomed to dig, it's hard work. This is what I dug in three gullies, don't be picky anymore, if you pick again, there won't be any this year."

"None is the best," Li Long smiled, took the scale to weigh it, and said while weighing, "If there's none, I can go down the mountain, staying here is so boring."

That person originally wanted to use words to handle Li Long, but didn't expect Li Long to be even more casual than him.

Five and a half kilograms of fritillaria, Li Long didn't raise the price, just three yuan. Some of the fritillaria inside were already a bit shriveled, Li Long guessed it should be the bloomed fritillaria that was dug. Once fritillaria blooms, it's like that lily, the nutrition is supplied to the flower there, the bulb below is naturally shriveled.

Traded a piece of air-dried cooked meat for that person, and gave him fifteen yuan, sent the person away, Li Long still had to wash the fritillaria.

These fritillaria won't be sold, after washing them clean, keep them to give to people. Anyway, eating them also has an effect, just not good-looking.

In the evening, Li Long steamed the steamed buns, made a cold dish of wild mushrooms for himself, cut a plate of bear offal, and eating it with steamed buns was very delicious.

Packed the things outside into the room, fastened the door, Li Long went to sleep.

The next day before dawn, Li Long climbed up.

The stove wasn't extinguished, after he went outside to release water, he poked the stove open, added some coal to boil water, roasted two steamed buns under the stove, and he took out two pieces of red fermented bean curd from the jar. Since he planned to save time, using this thing to eat with rice was also not bad.

Steamed buns roasted, hot tea brewed, Li Long took the steamed buns and patted them a few times with his hands crossed, patted off the floating ash on top, then broke them open, spread red fermented bean curd, and then clamped two pieces of the offal he cut yesterday that he hadn't finished eating, eating it like a meat-clamped bun.

After eating two steamed buns, poured the boiling water into the thermos, used coal slag to press the fire in the stove, Li Long took the gun, brought the satchel, tied the belt, stuffed two urea bags in the back waist, and went out.

The sky was still slightly dark, he carried the gun and walked toward the southeast with big strides.

That big stag he once thought was a two-headed deer suffered serious injuries, its companion was suspected to have died in the mountains, Li Long wanted to go over and see.

Whether there is or not, it can be considered to have an ending.

Fortunately, the dew on the grass wasn't heavy at this time, Li Long was full, the target was relatively simple, climbed mountains and crossed ridges all the way, didn't stop for a moment, and before the sun came out, arrived at the valley where he hunted the bear.

He smelled a faint smell of blood.

Walking to the position where he killed the bear, Li Long saw bloodstains on the ground, things had been arched, maybe wild boars, and there were quite a few hoof prints, and claw prints, presumably wolves had also come.

He turned his head to the direction where the stag had fled after being scratched by the bear earlier, in the grass below the left side of the road.

After turning around, Li Long found the deer skull in the grass that he had once mistaken for the stag's other head.

Only one antler remained on the skull, but it looked very beautiful.

If there were two branches, that would be too good.

Li Long carried the deer skull to the side of the sheep-gut road, put it on the side of the road, and he himself held the gun, slowly walking into the tall grass.

There was no sound in the grass, there shouldn't be anything nearby.

This piece of tall grass was quite mixed, Li Long found after entering that the position he walked actually counted as having a road, but it was blocked by the grass growing on both sides.

After entering, he knew that this grass didn't grow densely, there were gaps, people could pass, but after entering, one must be careful, because some grass grew in clusters, no one was sure if there would be danger hidden behind.

Li Long walked very slowly, the grass was deep, but the soil below wasn't damp, so whether he would run into snakes, he wasn't sure either.

Passing through about two hundred meters of grass, the vision ahead opened up. The grass finally returned to its normal form and became shorter.

The valley was still very wide, the grass was low, looking like it felt bigger, and then Li Long's gaze fell into the distance.

Over there, a stag was lying down, its head held high. Opposite it was a not-so-big gray wolf. That wolf hadn't discovered Li Long, was circling the stag, clearly, it was extremely patient, waiting for the stag to be powerless before making a move.

That stag struggled to climb up, however, when it climbed halfway, it let out a powerless mournful cry and lay down again. At this time Li Long saw, not far from the stag, there was a stag's remains. The meat on its body had been gnawed for the most part, revealing bones.

The gray wolf saw the stag had no strength left, boldly walked forward a few steps, to the stag's remains, pulled the smelly meat and ate two mouthfuls, but then set its target on the stag.

Clearly, it wanted to eat fresh meat.

The stag turned its head, lowered its head, and used its antlers to threaten the gray wolf. The gray wolf circled behind the stag and launched an attack, biting hard on the stag's leg, the stag struggled to climb up, the gray wolf hurriedly retreated, and the stag fell down again.

The gray wolf saw the stag was really not working, it boldly charged toward the stag's neck from the front and bit over. The stag seemed to be waiting for this moment, lowered its head, and fiercely used its antlers to stab and pick toward the gray wolf.

The gray wolf couldn't dodge in time, one leg was picked by the stag, its body was flipped half a somersault, it howled and retreated backward.

This move by the stag could also be considered to have used up all its strength, the raised head fell down, and it lay on the ground entirely.

The gray wolf didn't stay far away, although injured, it still felt that it might win.

For this huge stag, everything was worth it.

Li Long watched for a while, he pondered for a moment, half-squatted down, aimed at that side with the gun.

When the gray wolf launched an attack on the stag for the third time, it was determined to win, it believed this stag really had no strength left, couldn't move. This time it could really drink deer blood.

"Bang!"

One shot, the gray wolf that had just gathered momentum to pounce tilted its body, let out a mournful cry, and fell beside the stag.

The stag heard the gunshot and was scared to move, the deer head raised to look at Li Long's side, after seeing Li Long's figure, finally lowered its head powerlessly again.

!.

Li Long carried the gun and slowly walked to the front.

He saw the doe's remains, full of maggots, don't know what gnawed it, less than half of the body remained.

The gray wolf wasn't big, felt like a one or two-year-old half-grown wolf cub out foraging. At this moment it was completely dead. Li Long's shot hit its head, shattering several pieces of the skull.

The stag was also very miserable, the two wounds on its neck scratched by the bear also had quite a few maggots at this moment.

There were also wounds on its hind legs, don't know if it was bitten by a wolf or injured by other animals, at this moment this stag was also at the end of its life.

It took one look at Li Long and closed its eyes.

"Fine, dead is dead, I can be considered to have avenged you." Li Long knew that even if it lived now, it was suffering.

Li Long looked around, there was no trace of the fawn, don't know if it had escaped danger, or had been eaten by other animals.

No danger, Li Long put away the gun, took the knife to the stag, and slit the stag's throat.

The blood coming out of the stag's neck wasn't much, it seems that most of the blood in its body had flowed away in these two days.

The sun hadn't come out yet, the temperature was very low, the flies hadn't come out to ravage, Li Long didn't dare to wait anymore, otherwise, he wouldn't be able to stay here in a while.

This stag was less than two hundred kilograms, almost there, Li Long alone definitely couldn't move it away, like the bear, he planned to take the important things away, and leave the rest here.

After all, wild animals from the mountains, returning to the mountain forest in the end is normal.

He, is just a predator.

The skin must be taken away, so Li Long started skinning.

Found a small stick, picked off the maggots on the neck. He had done this kind of thing in both lives. Remember the one with the greatest life was a rural dog raised in the nineties in the previous life, fought with other dogs, and was knocked on the head by the dog owner with an iron rod.

Li Long went to beat that dog owner, came back, and applied medicine to the dog's wound.

It was midsummer, and in two days, the dog's head was full of maggots—this thing shouldn't be seen by people with trypophobia. The maggots grew neatly in the hole, and the dog didn't die.

What Li Long had to do was to let his own dog lie down well, he took tweezers to pick off the fat maggots one by one, then used tweezers to clamp cotton dipped in medicine to dip out the necrotic meat inside the wound, and then applied Clarin into the wound.

This thing is for washing sheep, to remove insects on the sheep.

In fact, Li Long was also treating a dead horse as a living horse at the time, this kind of thing wasn't just one case in the village. Dogs injured and grew maggots, on legs, mouths, and even testicles. It wasn't strange on the head either, because dogs would pounce on people, and people would hit the dog's head first when they had something.

In Li Long's view, the skull was broken, the maggots could still grow, wouldn't it grow into the brain? Could it still live?

It really lived.

There wasn't just one dog in the village that lived like this.

After picking the maggots, Li Long skinned the deer.

The deer head was definitely wanted, that pair of antlers was really beautiful, with seven or eight branches alone.

The skin was also wanted, although rotten, it didn't have much impact, not in important parts.

The whip, tail, and deer tendon were all wanted. Then it was the deer meat.

Li Long brought two bags, he not only skinned the deer, but also skinned the wolf.

Wolf teeth, wolf astragalus were all removed, wolf meat forget it, not as delicious as deer meat.

One bag was deer skin, wolf skin, and other odds and ends, one bag contained deer meat, including deer ribs and legs. Removing the internal organs, there was over a hundred kilograms of deer meat, Li Long took oil and forty or fifty kilograms of meat with ribs, this was about enough.

The sun just showed its head, and horseflies had already flown over with the dew.

Li Long carried the gun on his back, carried the meat bag on his shoulder, held the other bag, and turned to walk back.

When Li Long returned to the wooden cabin, the sun had already risen a tree high.

Li Long was also panting from exhaustion.

In fact, at this time his strength was already much stronger than ordinary people in this era. If he really wanted to take it, a hundred kilograms of deer meat could also be brought back. But he felt forget it, no need to tire himself like a dead dog.

Put the meat at the door, Li Long sat on the threshold, started to rest.

A few minutes later, feeling a bit relieved, he opened the door, went into the room to get salt. The first thing to deal with was the deer skin and wolf skin. At this time, flies had already smelled the scent and come over.

He rubbed salt on the two skins and spread them out to dry outside, then started to deal with the meat.

Stove fire lit, added water, boiled meat. Cut oil, simmered meat.

After all these were set up, Li Long went over to wash the fritillaria, together with the fritillaria in the room, air-dried outside.

This time it was still air-dried on the lifting pole, so the space in front of the room could be a bit larger.

He went to look at the deer skin, there were still flies landing on it, he took another handful of salt and rubbed it.

The water boiled, the air in front of the wooden cabin was filled with a meat aroma, and also carried some mutton smell.

Li Long meticulously held a spoon, gently stirring the deer oil in the pot and the meat below.

This was the ending of this deer since he discovered the two-headed deer.

Whether it counts as dying in its proper place, don't know, but Li Long felt he had done enough. If there was any regret, it was not being able to find that fawn. If he found it, Li Long wouldn't mind bringing it to the big courtyard to raise it.

But for now, better deal with the deer meat first.

Not long after Li Long left, an animal with yellow and black patterns walked out of the forest, sniffed around, and then walked to the stag's remains.

There was a fox eating here, and two vultures, but when this animal, which was quite large, came over, these small guys all ran far away.

This animal unceremoniously swallowed the stag's internal organs in big mouthfuls.

Fresh blood full of mouth! (End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 497 =====

He went to check the deer skin; there were still flies landing on it, so he brought over another handful of salt and rubbed it on.

The water was boiling, and the air in front of the wooden cabin was filled with the scent of meat, carrying a hint of gamey odor.

Li Long meticulously held the ladle, gently stirring the deer fat and the meat beneath it in the pot.

This was the final outcome for this deer since he had first discovered the two-headed deer.

Whether it could be considered a fitting end, he didn't know, but Li Long felt he had done enough. If there was any regret, it was not being able to find that fawn. If he had found it, Li Long wouldn't have minded bringing it back to the courtyard to raise.

But for now, it was better to finish processing the venison first.

Not long after Li Long left, an animal with yellow-black markings emerged from the woods, sniffed around, and then walked over to the remains of the male red deer.

A fox was already eating there, along with two vultures, but when this rather large animal approached, these smaller creatures all ran far away.

This animal unhesitatingly began to gorge itself on the red deer's entrails.

Fresh blood filled its mouth! (End of chapter)