Chapter 54

When the three Li family members returned home with the rabbits, Liang Yuemei had already finished cooking all the food and placed it on the table, waiting for them to return.

Li Jianguo had also sobered up and was waiting for them in the courtyard after washing up.

"Brother, is your head still dizzy?" Li Long asked with a smile, carrying the bag.

Li Jianguo was happy yesterday, and he drank a bottle and a half of Gucheng Daqu by himself. He was happy while drinking, but after sending people away, he got dizzy and slept from the afternoon until this morning.

"Not dizzy anymore," Li Jianguo blushed rarely, and changed the subject: "How many rabbits did you catch?"

"Five!" Li Qiang shouted loudly, "Dad, five rabbits! Two are alive, one even wanted to kick my uncle, and my uncle smashed it to the ground and it died! I saw it with my own eyes!"

"Good, good, good, go wash your hands and prepare to eat." Li Jianguo now feels that sending his brother to work in Wucheng was truly a wise decision. Although he was fired after going there, the brother who returned was like a reborn person; not only could he do everything, but his personality had also changed, and he was much more mature.

After breakfast, Li Jianguo and Li Long processed the rabbits together. While skinning them, he asked Li Long:

"Xiao Long, let's rest for a few days next? Tao Dayong and Gu Ermao were both arrested. Although they were released, it's not only shameful but also fined. We can't go in!"

"Brother, don't worry, I won't go to the black market to sell things anymore, too few people buy there." Li Long explained his plan, "I plan to go to Wucheng first. I brought back two pieces of jade this trip, asked in the county, and someone in Wucheng collects them, maybe I can sell them for a few hundred yuan.

After I come back, I plan to catch fish and sell them in Shicheng. There are many people buying fish in the factory family quarters there. It's almost New Year, fish is easy to sell, earn a wave of money, and wait for early spring..."

He lowered his voice and said:

"Brother, I heard that land will be distributed in early spring, and the things in the team will also be distributed. We must prepare early. We can't get a tractor, but getting a horse cart or something, at least it's convenient to transport things!"

"Are you telling the truth?" Li Jianguo was excited immediately upon hearing this news, "Really going to distribute land?"

"Really. I heard it in Wucheng. Many provinces in the interior have distributed it, and we will distribute it this time too, but the first time maybe one person will get two mu of land..."

"Two mu is fine too!" Li Jianguo is a farming expert, "If you farm well, you can also harvest a few hundred kilograms of wheat, and even more corn; if you farm well, you can get over a thousand! Even after handing in the public grain, the remaining wheat ground into flour is enough for the family to eat..."

When children are growing, which parent in this day and age hasn't hoped to eat fine grains every day?

Is it really going to come true?

"So, just relying on people carrying it on their backs or borrowing other people's carts won't work, you have to have your own." Li Long took the opportunity to say, "Time waits for no one, I have to save more money while I can..."

"Then it can't be just you alone." Li Jianguo said, "I'll go with you, so we can look after each other."

"Brother, you can't go. If something really happens, one must stay at home." Li Long hurriedly waved his hand, "I'll try to be careful. If something really happens, I'll have to wait for you to get me out."

"Go away, what are you saying." Li Jianguo patted Li Long, "Then be careful... I'll go catch fish with you."

"Alright, then we'll go smash the ice holes in a while, catch some today, I'll go to Wucheng tomorrow first, and after I come back and catch some more, I'll go sell fish. Have to go into the mountains once later..."

Li Long found his schedule was full.

But this is also good; if there is work to do, there is money to earn, which is better than most young people in the team staying at home, bored, gossiping about this and that.

The two of them finished skinning the rabbits in a while—rabbit skin is very easy to peel, just cut the neck and pull hard with your hands, and you can tear the whole skin off directly.

The skins were stretched and nailed in the spare room by Li Jianguo; if they can be sold, they will be sold, if not, they will be made into leather gloves.

When processing the internal organs, someone came into the courtyard. The one pushing the door and entering was Bai Fazhan from the team, forty years old, an outsider who had only come in the last two years. Seeing Li Jianguo, he said with a smile:

"Qiangqiang's dad, I heard you can exchange bullets for meat..." "Can exchange, five bullets for one kilogram of meat." Li Jianguo said with a smile, "But this wild boar meat is different from domestic pork..."

"I know that, I've hunted in the mountains before and eaten it." Bai Fazhan smiled, "I'll exchange for five kilograms."

A big deal. Li Long stood up, took the bullets, and went over to cut the meat. While holding the knife, he asked:

"Brother Bai, which part of the meat do you want?"

The steelyard was borrowed from the team and hadn't been returned yet, so it was just right to use it now.

"Ribs, can you cut more?"

"No problem." Li Long marked six kilograms for him—this is someone who knows how to eat. However, in this day and age, everyone doesn't like meat with bones very much, so cutting more is no problem, and then he threaded it with thin wire and handed it over.

Bai Fazhan looked at the rabbits, knew they were snared by Li Long, smiled and praised Li Long for being capable, and left after chatting a few more sentences while carrying the meat.

In the morning, seven or eight people came one after another to exchange or buy meat, all of the two or three kilogram kind, some to taste, some because they didn't raise pigs at home and planned to get some meat for the New Year.

Some brought money, which was one yuan per kilogram, some brought bullets to exchange. Li Long finally calculated that he had exchanged for more than a hundred bullets!

This is quite a lot!

!.

At twelve o'clock, Li Jianguo and Li Long, together with Li Juan and Li Qiang, took tools and went to the small lake.

According to their idea, they wanted to smash two more ice holes. After smashing them through, they would wait for fish to come to the ice holes on this side, and use a scoop net to catch fish in the old ice holes on the other side.

Arriving at the small lake, Li Long was surprised to find that there was no one there.

He thought about it and understood; it was probably because Tao Dayong and Gu Ermao were arrested, so the people in the team were afraid. After all, the input-output ratio was not normal, and the money from selling fish wasn't enough for the fine, and it was shameful, so who would dare to go again?

It certainly wasn't that no one wanted to go to Shicheng to sell fish, but at this time, most farmers, even if they arrived in Shicheng, couldn't find the family quarters, and even if they found them, they might not dare to open their mouths.

In this era, those who can take the first and second steps early on became ten-thousand-yuan households and ate the first dividend of the reform wave.

Li Jianguo let Li Juan and Li Qiang go to collect reeds, and he and Li Long were each responsible for one ice hole.

Li Long shoveled away the snow on the ice surface by the reed bushes, and then took a pickaxe and started knocking on the ice.

Feeling that the ice surface had become much harder, his hands were numb from the vibration. However, after the small hole was knocked open, it was easier to chisel later. Now he missed the electric ice drill from his previous life immensely; it didn't require any effort at all, just start it and rotate it, and the ice hole would come out.

After knocking for nearly an hour, an irregular ice hole was finally knocked out.

Li Long used a shovel to remove the broken ice on the surface of the water that had surged up, and saw that his brother Li Jianguo had already caught fish in the old ice hole with a scoop net.

Apparently, his ice hole had already been smashed.

Li Long put down his tools and went over to help, and then saw a big guy walking over from the direction of the production team.

Tao Daqiang?

What is he doing here?

(End of chapter)