Chapter 567: Give and take, this is not just a matter of face

The rope was very long. Li Long tied one end of the rope to his waist and handed the other end to Halimu. He intended to go down and see if the tiger bones were still there.

Before going down, Li Long also found a stick. He also told Halimu that if he fell down and Halimu couldn't pull him up, he should tie the rope to the horse and let the horse pull him out.

Of course, he hadn't fallen into a snow pit before; this was done with the idea of falling into a sand pit.

Halimu also promised solemnly, then walked two or three steps into the distance holding the rope, watching Li Long walk down seriously.

Li Long first probed downward with the stick, but the stick couldn't reach the bottom. This snow pit was different from the kind he usually encountered in the county seat.

When sweeping snow in the county seat, the snow would be piled into a large pit. But the swept snow was compressed in volume, so it became solid.

Even if a person jumped into that snow pit, they wouldn't sink very deep, at most to the thigh; more likely, the snow wouldn't go past the knees before the person stopped sinking.

But the snow here was different. The snow in this snow pit was loose, like light sand; once you fell in, you would sink downward.

Li Long took a step forward into the snow pit and felt his body sink directly downward, soon reaching his legs. He immediately crossed his other leg to the other side, increasing the snow-entry area and stopping his downward sinking momentum.

It was okay; he could feel that there was no bottom under his feet, but his body didn't continue to sink. Of course, this was because he was prepared. Like the previous tiger, stupidly falling in, its body sinking, and struggling desperately, it naturally sank deeper and deeper.

"Over there, a bit more over there," Halimu said, "At that time, I used a wooden fork to dig a snow pit there and buried it. I don't know if it's still there later."

The place Halimu pointed to was still more than two meters away from where Li Long was trapped. Li Long slowly moved toward that side.

As soon as he moved, his body sank downward. He immediately took the stick and poked it diagonally forward, using the force of poking down to resist the downward sinking force of the snow pit.

Moving forward two steps like this, Li Long slowly became familiar with the technique of moving in the snow pit and soon came to the position Halimu pointed out.

He probed with the stick and actually discovered a hard object half a meter under the snow.

He became excited and immediately wanted to pry that object up with the stick. As a result, this chaotic movement caused his body to start sinking again.

The snow had already reached Li Long's waist. He hurriedly tilted his body forward, stabilized his body, and almost lay on the snow.

This actually stopped it.

Feeling that his arms could just reach it, Li Long simply reached out and started digging the snow downward.

Digging out a half-meter-deep pit, Li Long saw the frozen bones and meat.

He didn't know if it was the tiger's or that sheep's. Li Long wasn't excited this time and slowly dug that fellow out; it was the sheep's.

He turned his head to look at Halimu. Halimu understood, took the middle of the rope, and threw the other end over.

Li Long slowly tied the other end of the rope to the sheep's leg, and Halimu exerted force to pull the sheep out.

Halimu and the others wouldn't eat the sheep bitten by the tiger, but Li Long and the others would.

It would be a waste not to eat it.

When Halimu pulled the sheep up, Li Long continued to dig the snow downward.

Below, the tiger's body was not far away, but it was a bit deep at this time, nearly a meter deep, and it was quite strenuous for Li Long to dig.

Mainly because the posture was too uncomfortable.

It felt like doing yoga.

The tiger's body was much larger than the sheep's. Li Long dug for a long time, sweat pouring down, and only dug out half of the body.

"You tie it up, and I'll pull," Halimu said on the road.

"No, no, no, it's trapped, it's not easy to pull," Li Long shook his head, "I'll dig a bit more."

"It's fine, if I can't pull it, I'll let the horse pull."

"Will it pull me up together?" Li Long suddenly thought.

"It's possible!" Halimu laughed.

After speaking, he threw the rope to Li Long.

Li Long also laughed. Once a person enters habitual thinking, it's really easy to become stupid.

Tying one end of the rope firmly to the tiger's leg, Li Long turned his head and said to Halimu:

"It's ready."

Halimu's side was simple. He brought the horse over, looped the middle of the rope onto the iron ring in front of the saddle, and then patted the horse's back lightly.

The horse started to walk outward, and Li Long immediately felt a huge force pulling him outward.

His waist was about to be broken!

It would have been better to tie the rope a few more times!

Just as this thought flashed through Li Long's mind, the horse had already stopped, and he had already been pulled out of the snow pit.

The horse's strength was too great.

As soon as he landed, he immediately untied the rope and went to look at that tiger.

The fur on the tiger's head hadn't been peeled off, and there really was a "King" character on its forehead.

It was a pity that this tiger didn't look majestic at all right now; it even looked a bit pitiful.

Prey, always the proof of a hunter's pride.

These words only flashed slightly in Li Long's mind, and he said to Halimu:

"Alright, let's tie them to the horses and go back?"

"Alright," Halimu naturally had no objections.

From then on, the majestic feeling of the tiger had completely vanished from Li Long's mind.

So it was this simple to shoot a tiger.

Actually, analyzing it carefully, Li Long knew it naturally wasn't that simple. If the tiger hadn't fallen into the snow pit, whether it could be shot was another matter.

Halimu himself didn't want to shoot it. This thing was inherently very fierce in the minds of the Chinese people; otherwise, it wouldn't often be mentioned alongside the dragon.

But it just happened to court death, its luck was low to the point of exploding, falling into a snow pit and unable to climb out for a while, which gave Halimu the chance.

This snow pit was also the reason its body could be preserved. Even if those carnivores wanted to eat it, they would probably run away immediately after stepping on the edge of the snow pit.

Eating and dying versus starving and living, even animals would choose the latter, right?

Li Long took two large plastic woven bags from the horse, one for the sheep and one for the tiger.

Halimu tied the bag containing the tiger to his horse, and also tied the bag containing the sheep to the horse Li Long was riding, and the two of them hurried back.

Li Long was okay at riding horses, but he was a bit lacking in tying such things that didn't have coordination on the horse's back.

The two of them didn't rest much on the way back. If the horses were tired, they would get off and walk for a while, but most of the time they were hurrying on the road.

Even so, by the time they reached Halimu's winter shelter, it was already dark.

Hearing the sound of hooves, Halimu's wife came out, saw the two of them, and immediately went into the house to brew milk tea.

The two of them unloaded the things and threw them into the tractor's cargo bed, then went into the house to warm up and drink milk tea.

Halimu let Li Long stay in the winter shelter, but Li Long waved his hand to indicate it wasn't necessary. He just let Halimu's wife help boil a pot of hot water. He had drained the tractor's water tank when he left, and now that he had to go, he had to add water.

Drinking two bowls of milk tea in the warm winter shelter, Li Long's body warmed up.

Li Long also told Halimu and the others about the benefits of tiger bones, intending to leave a few pieces of tiger bone for Halimu and the others to keep.

Halimu and the others shook their heads. Although they also used medicine from the county pharmaceutical company, they were still not very used to soaking wine to treat illnesses.

Then take them all back. Anyway, this tiger's bones alone must weigh fifty or sixty kilograms; there was plenty of wine that could be soaked. Li Long planned to soak more, and when the elders in the *Dorsen* families were not in good health, he could send some wine over for them to drink.

Pouring boiling water into the water tank and filling it up, Li Long cranked it a few times to preheat, and then Halimu helped press the decompression. He held the crank with both hands and started the tractor in one breath.

The chugging sound echoed in the valley, startling the cattle and sheep in the pen, as well as the pheasants, rabbits, and other wild beasts hiding in the forest.

Li Long greeted Halimu and his wife, and drove the tractor toward the wooden house.

Returning to the wooden house, it was completely dark. Li Long dragged the bag containing the tiger into the wooden house, took down the bag containing the sheep and threw it in too, locked the door, drained the water from the water tank, and then returned to the house.

The fire in the stove had already gone out. He set up the stove with ease.

This time he didn't boil water; the water boiled in the morning was still warm in the thermos. Pouring a bowl of water and drinking it slowly, Li Long touched his thighs; after riding horses for more than ten hours back and forth today, the inner sides of his thighs were sore.

He didn't know how Halimu and these people who rode horses every day could stand it.

Waiting for the stove fire to burn vigorously, Li Long shoveled a shovel of coal dust, lifted the stove lid, and pressed the coal dust onto the vigorous fire. In this way, the newly ignited coal could only burn slowly, and it could burn at least until the second half of the night. The house would always be hot.

With the stove pipe drawing smoke upward and gaps in the window, there was no need to worry about coal smoke poisoning.

Li Long didn't wash up either, hurriedly took off his clothes, lay on the bed, and was soon fast asleep.

He had to participate in another winter slaughter tomorrow, so he had to rest well.

Over the next few days, he had to participate in a winter slaughter activity almost every day. By the time this series of winter slaughters ended, his small wooden house was already piled with twelve sheep *kelangzi* and a pile of hides.

All were to be exchanged for pipes to lead water when spring came.

Li Long naturally agreed to them all; this wasn't very troublesome. He was mainly a technical consultant, and there were people to do the work.

By the time the winter slaughter of this small tribe ended and Li Long returned to the county seat, the tractor's cargo bed was already full.

And he had also become bearded and stubbly, with a mouth full of mutton smell—not the kind of mutton smell that made people unable to eat, but the kind of smell from eating too much beef and mutton.

After all, even his urine smelled like beef and mutton, so how could his body not?

!.

Even his sweat had it.

Li Long couldn't wait to go back and take a bath. In the wooden house, he could at most boil some water to wipe his body.

There were no electric shavers at this time. He wasn't very used to using a razor, and there were a few small red marks on his face, which were scraped by the razor.

When he came back, Li Long also mocked himself; he used to stay in the mountains for a month or two, but now he had only stayed for ten days or so and couldn't stand it.

It's truly easy to go from frugal to luxurious, but hard to go from luxurious to frugal.

It was still morning when the tractor drove to the gate of the compound. Gu Xiaoxia hadn't returned yet, and Sister Yang had already returned from selling food at the market and was preparing to cook.

Hearing the sound of the tractor, she hurriedly wiped her hands and came over to open the gate. No way around it, with water on her hands, sticking to iron would make her hands stick to it, and she had had lessons before.

Not only her, but Han Fang had also had them.

No way around it, many people who came from the interior had had such lessons; after all, such lessons couldn't be spread widely and quickly at this time.

Opening the gate, Li Long was also preparing to get off the car. Seeing Sister Yang open the gate, he drove the tractor in.

"So many sheep?" Sister Yang looked at the cargo bed and was truly surprised.

"Hmm, they are to be sent out," Li Long got off the tractor. This time he didn't drain the water from the water tank; he still had things to do.

"No wonder, I was just thinking, so many sheep, our family can't finish them," Sister Yang had already regarded herself as a member of this family.

Of course, a very well-behaved member.

"Sister Yang, what's for lunch?"

"Pulled noodles. I asked her aunt when she went to work in the morning, and she said she wanted to eat pulled noodles."

"Alright," Li Long smiled, just right. Homemade noodles and the oil-spilled meat noodles outside each had their own flavors, and both could be eaten.

Looking at the time, it was too late for the morning. Sister Yang went to the kitchen to cook, and he sorted out those sheep *kelangzi*, counted out eight, and put the rest along with the tiger's body into the side room.

He intended to hide the matter of the tiger.

There were hides on the car, he picked a deer hide and several wolf hides, and put away the remaining hides as well.

He didn't intend to sell the hides for the time being; he didn't know what the price of winter hides was, so he would wait until he knew.

He didn't intend to keep the tiger hide, but at least he had to wait until the price was good before selling it.

Including the snow leopard hide. After all, that thing wouldn't be allowed to be held by individuals in the end. It was better to sell it for money.

In this regard, Li Long was very practical.

The fire in the stove in the house was pressed down. Li Long lifted the stove lid, sat a small pot on it, poured water to boil for himself, simply washed his face, and went out to find a barbershop to get a haircut.

When he came back, the water in the house was almost boiling, so he scooped out the water, added cold water, and started to wipe his body.

After wiping his body, pouring out the water, and changing clothes, in a short while, Gu Xiaoxia and Gu Bo Yuan arrived one after another.

Li Long was guessing whether Gu Bo Yuan had intentionally come later to avoid suspicion.

This was also normal. At this time, the separation between men and women was much more serious than in later generations. If a man and a woman were alone together, there would definitely be gossip.

Although the situation here regarding the events of 1983 wasn't as serious as in the interior, Gu Bo Yuan himself would still pay attention.

Seeing Li Long return, both Gu Bo Yuan and Gu Xiaoxia were very happy.

Gu Bo Yuan asked:

"Why are there so many sheep pulled on this car? Why not unload them? Come, come, come, it's just a matter of a few moments..."

"No, no, no, these sheep were sent to our Supply and Marketing Cooperative by the herdsmen in the mountains. Our family's sheep have already been unloaded into the house."

"Oh," Gu Bo Yuan nodded, "You went into the mountains once, it seems the harvest is very rich."

Li Long smiled and said:

"Anyway, there's quite a lot of meat; it's enough to eat this winter."

Indeed, although he hadn't hunted much this winter, the meat brought back was truly enough to eat.

Not only that, there were a few extra sheep. He had already planned it out: put one at his eldest brother's place, one at his sister-in-law's maiden home, half at Uncle Lao Luo's place, and distribute some to others.

For example, at Clerk Ma's place, should he send a sheep leg to express his gratitude?

Li Long wasn't doing it to maintain connections; this didn't reach the level of connections, he just simply wanted to express his gratitude.

After all, although that article was written by Reporter Zhang, Clerk Ma also had a share of the credit behind it.

So Li Long felt it was necessary, including Clerk Jiang.

Hmm, it felt like as the end of the year approached, there were more and more relationships to handle, which was quite troublesome.

Don't think about it, eat first.

He had already smelled the fragrance of beef rolled with chili skin; today's pulled noodles were definitely very energetic, he had to have two big plates no matter what!

Han Fang was the last to return. Her school was further away, and she didn't have a bicycle after school, so she had to walk. Sister Yang actually intended to buy her a bicycle, but Han Fang didn't ride it, saying that too few people in school rode bicycles, and it would be too eye-catching for her, a student from another place, to ride one.

Pulled noodles were different from other meals; there was no need to wait for everyone to arrive. Eat as soon as the noodles were cooked, otherwise, they wouldn't taste good after a long time.

Sister Yang knew Li Long had a big appetite, so she made a lot of dough, and in the end, it was basically all eaten. Today, the beef chopped and rolled with chili skin and tomato sauce was especially tasty, and everyone ate more than usual. Finally, a bowl of noodle soup, and they almost couldn't move.

During the meal, others were listening to Li Long talk about the winter slaughter in the mountains. Li Long felt it was ordinary and common, but they listened with great interest.

Although the straight-line distance to Halimu's winter shelter was no more than twenty kilometers, and walking was no more than forty kilometers, for the others in the compound, this was life in two different worlds.

After eating, chatting for a while, and feeling a bit relaxed, Gu Bo Yuan and Gu Xiaoxia went out one after another, and Li Long also drove the tractor chugging out at the same time.

He intended to send the things from the Supply and Marketing Cooperative over right now.

The reason he wanted so many *kelangzi* sheep was to send them to the leaders and various divisions of the Supply and Marketing Cooperative.

As a temporary worker at the Supply and Marketing Cooperative, Li Long had done quite a few things in the name of the Supply and Marketing Cooperative, and had earned quite a bit of money.

He couldn't take all the good things for himself. Although Wei Zhuren and Li Xiangqian supported him, there were many others below.

Li Long intended to take advantage of this end-of-year opportunity, in the name of the herdsmen, to send some mutton to each division as a benefit.

Actually, he believed that although he was in the name of the herdsmen, everyone knew the mutton was obtained by him, so they had to owe him this favor.

The tractor chugging into the courtyard of the Supply and Marketing Cooperative, and then Li Long saw Li Xiangqian walk to the gate.

"Why did you think of coming over today? Didn't I hear you went into the mountains?" Li Xiangqian should have just arrived too.

"Herdsmen friends in the mountains asked me to pull some meat over to send to everyone. They are very grateful for our cooperative's support and help to them," Li Long said official words, his voice very loud, "So they sent some mutton and asked me to distribute it to everyone."

"Yo, these herdsmen friends are quite righteous," Li Xiangqian immediately understood his meaning, "Let's go, let's go find the Director; the Director also just arrived."

Wei Zhuren actually heard the movement outside, but he was the Director and wouldn't easily leave the office unless a leader came or something big happened.

After Li Xiangqian and Li Long entered the office and reported this matter, Wei Zhuren's eyes lit up, and he said very excitedly:

"Herdsmen friends are truly very righteous. We only did some insignificant small things—by the way, Little Li, do you know if they have any difficulties?"

Wei Zhuren had big ideas; this was not just a matter of face.

Li Long immediately thought of that matter. Should he mention it? (End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 568 =====