Chapter 51

For a long time, those who participated in this "wild boar feast" at the Li family would praise it endlessly. In the past, at other people's pork feasts, cutting meat was normal, but usually, there was little meat and a lot of vegetables, mostly dried vegetables, and what little meat there was, was mostly lean.

In this wild boar feast at the Li family, there were many large slices of fatty meat. Everyone who participated ate until their mouths were oily, and the two cages of steamed cornmeal buns were eaten clean. When they left, many people even brought leftovers—in this day and age, no one would complain about taking these leftovers back; on the contrary, they would be very happy.

After all, there was a lot of oil in it, and taking it back to stir-fry with other vegetables would also be a delicacy.

Borrowing tables from the Lu family, the Li family had one table in the east room and one in the west room, while the women ate at a small table in the kitchen—it wasn't that women couldn't sit at the table; there was no such rule here, it was just because the women had work to do afterward, helping the Li family render the suet and fatty meat.

Although wild boars don't have as much fat as domestic pigs, these two pigs weren't thin, and rendering the oil required a lot of effort.

Of course, when the women finally left, each of them would take a bowl of rendered oil and cracklings back, which was equivalent to payment.

Throughout the process, Li Long was actually quite idle; the important, technical work was left to others. At this time, no one would be lazy; they worked actively so that they could eat the meat with a clear conscience later.

Even after eating, the Li family didn't need to clean up; the women helping in the kitchen quickly cleaned up the plates and bowls—actually, it was simple to clean up because there wasn't much oil left on the plates; the vegetable juice had all been wiped up by people using buns.

In this day and age, people were truly lacking in oil.

And the Li family gained a reputation for generosity because of this meal of meat and vegetables that was enough for everyone. The rumor that Li Long had been arrested disappeared completely amidst the large slices of meat.

After eating, seeing that the sun was still slanting to the west, Li Long didn't want to be idle. He wasn't actually tired, so he took the dozens of wire snares he had made earlier, put on his cotton-padded clothes, wore his hat, and walked toward the snow-covered land to the southeast.

The production team was located at the easternmost end of the entire brigade, and further east was a large area of wasteland. Currently, the wasteland reclaimed by the production team accounted for about one-seventh or one-eighth of the entire wasteland.

Twenty years later, those reed ponds, alkaline flats, and red willow flats would all be reclaimed, and the land area in the entire village would rank first in the entire township, and the land contracted by each household would be large enough.

Now, these wastelands grew various weeds and shrubs, and by summer, they would grow various medicinal herbs. Like the Cynomorium that would cost dozens of yuan per root in the future, it was everywhere under the white thorns on the alkaline flats here; one could dig up a sack in a morning without even looking for it.

This kind of wild medicinal herb, which would be very expensive in the future, was not even really collected by medicinal companies now; collecting it would fetch at most three to five mao per kilogram, and that was for dried goods.

By the time Li Long was about to die in his previous life, the wasteland had been reclaimed, and the Cynomorium no longer had an environment to grow in, and one could only occasionally find one or two plants on the edges of some cultivated land.

The place he was going to was the Red Willow Flat, where there were many wild rabbits, but walking was troublesome. The top layer of snow had frozen into a crust, but it couldn't support a person; one step down, and you would sink directly in, and underneath were coarse snow particles like sand. Every step was a struggle.

When Li Long reached the edge of the Red Willow Flat, panting, he suddenly heard a "fluttering" sound. He looked up toward the sound and saw a large eagle flying into the air with half a rabbit in its beak.

This guy, its wingspan was so long, at least two or three meters!

Li Long thought to himself that wild animals were truly growing boldly at this time—grow well, grow well; in a few more years, it wouldn't be easy to grow.

He entered the Red Willow Flat, where the red willows were as high as three or four meters and as thick as two arms. Ten years later, the red willows here would be cut down, and the remaining ones wouldn't be taller than a person; later on, it would be reclaimed as cultivated land.

On the edges of the red willow roots, rabbit footprints crisscrossed, and Li Long carefully distinguished them.

In his previous life, when he first started setting rabbit snares, he would just set them randomly whenever he saw rabbit prints, without any method. Of course, the result was that, except for catching one unlucky rabbit by chance, he had no other harvest.

After failing many times and communicating with others, he knew that this thing also required technique. You have to find relatively fresh routes that rabbits often run on, find places that rabbits must pass through, such as between two bushes. Before setting a snare, you can't step on the rabbit prints, otherwise, the rabbit won't take that path. Li Long had experience, so he searched carefully, trying not to go into the middle of the Red Willow Flat, nor close to the edge—at the edge, even if you caught a rabbit, if you couldn't take it away in time, it would quickly become a meal for eagles, badgers, foxes, and the like.

After making a large circle and setting more than twenty wire snares, Li Long came out with the remaining snares. It was a bit cold, so he set the remaining snares more casually.

If others in the team saw this, they would scold him for being a spendthrift. These snares were set in places that were quite random, so finding them would be troublesome. Now, no family was extravagant enough to use this kind of thin wire to "play."

Li Long returned home. He didn't go to the west room—the west room was now full of women helping to render lard, and he couldn't help even if he went over.

When it was almost dark, Li Long was in the room helping Li Qiang process the wild boar tusks—Li Qiang wanted to use this as a toy, and Li Long planned to use thin wire and thread pulled from a tire to wrap a handle for him, when he heard a series of footsteps in the courtyard.

He thought it was the women finishing their work and leaving, but it didn't sound right because there was no sound of the east room door opening, and then the door to his room opened.

Five or six young people poured into the room.

"Xiao Long, what are you busy with?"

Seeing these people come over, Li Long understood.

In winter, the nighttime entertainment life of the production team was very monotonous. These young men and women around twenty years old basically formed a group to visit each other, and they often went to the team's prominent figures first.

!.

Two days before Li Long was arranged by Li Jianguo to enter the factory, these people also came to his room. At that time, Gu Ermao and Wu Shufen were there, and Wu Shufen also agreed to date him at that time.

Now Gu Ermao wasn't there, and Wu Shufen—Li Long was surprised to find that Wu Shufen was actually among the crowd, just not daring to look at him, appearing a bit awkward.

The one speaking was Xu Haijun, the cousin of team leader Xu Chengjun, who was one character away from that future Olympic champion. He was considered quite organized and active among these young people in the team.

"Making a toy for Qiangqiang." Li Long raised the tusk in his hand and said, "Come, come, sit."

There weren't enough stools in the room, but everyone wasn't polite, and no one minded, sitting directly on the heated brick bed—now everyone's situation was about the same, and no one would look down on anyone.

"Xiao Long, you're amazing now," Xu Haijun sat down and said with a smile, "Two wild boars, an ordinary person couldn't do that, right? I heard you even trade meat with others, five bullets for one kilogram. Can I trade for two kilograms? I've never eaten wild boar meat and want to try it."

"No problem." Li Long smiled, "There's plenty of meat; feel free to come and trade."

Everyone could see that Li Long had changed; he wasn't as vain as before and was much more down-to-earth.

The eyes of two girls fell on Wu Shufen.

(End of chapter)