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, are you still dizzy?" Li Long asked with a smile, carrying the bag.

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

"Not dizzy anymore," Li Jianguo blushed rarely, and he 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 onto the ground and threw it to death! I saw it with my own eyes!"

"Good, good, good, go wash your hands and prepare to eat." Li Jianguo now felt that sending his younger brother to work in Wucheng was truly a wise decision. Although he was fired after going there, the younger brother who returned seemed to have been reborn; not only did he know how to 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, okay? Tao Dayong and Gu Ermao were both arrested. Although they were released, it's not just shameful, but they were also fined. We can't go in!"

"Brother, don't worry, I won't go to the black market to sell things anymore; there are too few buyers there." Li Long explained his plan, "I plan to go to Wucheng first. I brought back two pieces of jade this time. I asked in the county, and there are people in Wucheng who collect 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, so fish sells well. Earn a wave of money, and wait until spring..."

He lowered his voice and said:

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

"Are you saying it's true?" Li Jianguo was immediately excited when he heard this news, "Is the land really going to be divided?"

"It's true. I heard it in Wucheng. Many provinces in the interior have already divided it. We will also divide it this time, but the first time, maybe one person will get two mu of land..."

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

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

Is it really going to come true?

"So, just relying on people carrying things or borrowing other people's carts won't work; we must have our own." Li Long took the opportunity to say, "Time waits for no one. I must save more money while I can..."

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

"Brother, you can't go. If something really happens, one must be left at home." Li Long hurriedly waved his hand, "I'll be as careful as possible. If something really happens, I'll still 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 with you to catch fish."

"Okay, then we'll go break the ice holes in a while. We'll catch some today, and I'll go to Wucheng first tomorrow. After I come back and catch some more, I'll go sell fish. Later, I have to go into the mountains again..."

Li Long found that his itinerary was full.

But this is also good; having things to do means earning money, which is better than most young people in the team staying at home, bored, and 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 it at the neck and tear it hard with your hands, and you can tear the whole skin off directly.

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

When processing the offal, someone came into the courtyard. The person pushing the door 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 trade bullets for meat..." "Yes, five bullets for one kilogram of meat." Li Jianguo said with a smile, "But this wild boar meat is different from domestic pork meat..."

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

A big deal. Li Long stood up, took the bullets, and went 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 person knew how to eat. However, in this day and age, everyone didn't like meat with bones very much, so cutting more was no problem, and then he threaded it with thin wire and handed it over.

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

In the morning, seven or eight people came one after another to trade or buy meat, all in the two or three-kilogram range, some to try something new, 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, and some traded with bullets. Li Long finally calculated that he had traded for more than a hundred bullets!

That's quite a lot!

!.

At twelve o'clock, Li Jianguo and Li Long, together with Li Juan and Li Qiang, took their tools and went to Xiao Haizi.

According to their idea, they wanted to break two more ice holes. After breaking through, they would wait for fish to come into the ice holes on one side, and use a scoop net to catch fish in the old holes on the other.

Arriving at Xiao Haizi, 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; 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 wouldn't necessarily dare to open their mouths.

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

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 accumulated snow on the ice surface by the reed bushes and then started knocking on the ice with a pickaxe.

He felt that the ice surface had become much harder, and 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 almost an hour, an irregular ice hole was finally knocked out.

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

Apparently, his ice hole had already been finished.

Li Long put down his tools 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)