Chapter 611: Replenishing blood before the New Year

Li Long hadn't expected that before even returning to the county seat, nearly half of the wolf meat had been sold.

Qingshuihe village had more people than the Fourth Team. Once shouted on the large loudspeaker that there was wolf meat for sale, quite a few people came, regardless of whether they were buying or not.

"Uncle Liu, is your family buying?" As soon as Meng Hai finished saying that a few families should combine to buy a whole wolf, people immediately started looking for people they were familiar with.

At this time, people who usually appeared more generous and honest were more popular, and people kept pulling them to ask.

"Buying, why wouldn't I buy? Didn't you hear little Meng say it? This wolf meat is the same as dog meat, a great tonic. You have to tonify in this cold winter. I plan to get a leg to taste."

"Then shall we combine?" The aunt who asked was happy upon hearing this. "My family wants a leg and a rack of ribs. If we call two more people, it'll be enough."

"Why call two more people? You two have already discussed it, right? A leg and a leg plus a rack of ribs, right? The rest belongs to me! The three of us combine to take a wolf; that'll be enough to eat until spring!"

This achieved the goal of buying a wolf.

These three were the first to reach an agreement and came directly to find Li Long.

Li Long let them choose, and they took a fancy to a wolf of medium size.

A wolf was about forty kilograms; they couldn't pick one too big. That wolf king placed at the highest spot was obviously not looked upon by anyone.

It was big, but those sixty or seventy kilograms would cost sixty or seventy yuan. Where could they take that out all at once?

Even if they could take it out, would they not farm or buy seeds and fertilizer next spring?

At this time, spending money really required calculation. Being able to buy meat today was because they saw that the meat was cheap and it was strongly recommended by the village.

Of course, the meat had to be fresh. Fortunately, it could be stored in winter. When spring came and they hadn't finished eating it, they could smoke it and store it to eat slowly.

"Forty-three kilograms and three hundred grams." Li Long and Meng Hai lifted the large pole scale together, and Meng Hai's wife looked at the scale marks and read out the number above.

"The three hundred grams are wiped off." Li Long put down the pole of the scale and said.

"That's forty-three kilograms." Seeing Li Long wipe off the fraction, Meng Hai said loudly, "The fraction has been wiped off for you by Comrade Li Long."

Thirty cents wasn't a small amount of money either; it could at least buy more than half a kilogram of flour.

The three families combined to pay the money first, and then carried the wolf away to divide it. The people behind, seeing that a wolf had already been hauled away, immediately accelerated the speed of forming groups.

Li Long thought to himself, it seems that the group buying of later generations actually existed in reality long ago.

Next were two families combining to take a small wolf. This wolf should be a female wolf, weighing thirty-four kilograms, quite a bit smaller than the one above.

People continued to form groups to carry the wolves away, and others continued to come over. After inquiring clearly about what was going on, some watched the fun, while others quickly formed groups to weigh the meat.

Half an hour later, Li Long had sold seven wolves here, totaling two hundred and ninety-one kilograms.

The "wolf mountain" on the tractor had quickly disappeared by half.

That wolf king was looked at by many, but no one took a fancy to it, and no one bought it.

On the contrary, the wolf heads, wolf claws, sheep heads, and sheep hooves below were seen by people, who asked for the price.

"Wolf heads are four yuan each, sheep heads are three yuan each. Wolf claws and sheep hooves are five mao each." Li Long reported the prices.

Relatively speaking, it was cheap.

It was just that those who couldn't figure out why wolf heads that were about the same size, or only slightly larger, would be one yuan more expensive, so some bought sheep heads instead.

Twenty-one sheep heads were sold, and eighty-four sheep hooves were sold, all one sheep head paired with four hooves.

If they couldn't eat mutton, couldn't they eat sheep heads?

Anyway, there was plenty of time in the middle of winter. Although cleaning sheep heads was troublesome, they had time to clean them slowly. Once cleaned, they would also be a good dish.

Moreover, there were sheep brains. At this time, most parents believed that eating brains could tonify the brain, so getting a sheep head not only meant having meat to eat but also having brains to tonify the children, which was quite good.

When the sun was only half a pole high, Meng Hai's courtyard finally had no more people coming. What surprised Li Long a bit was that Meng Hai himself bought a wolf.

"I don't want this big wolf; it's too big and I can't finish it. I'll get a smaller one." Meng Hai picked a wolf that was relatively larger, weighed it, and it was fifty-four kilograms—his family's large scale could only weigh up to fifty kilograms, so this wolf couldn't be weighed, and it was only separated after chopping off a leg.

"Then I'll give you a wolf head and wolf claws." Li Long took the wolf head and wolf claws from the trailer and placed them on the side. "Company Commander Meng, there are wolf teeth on this wolf head. You take those four big teeth off and keep them; these teeth will be valuable in the future."

The reason Li Long sold the wolf heads more expensively than the sheep heads was because of these wolf teeth.

Unfortunately, no one here knew the value of this thing yet.

"Alright." Meng Hai hadn't expected Li Long to say this, but since someone had said it, he would believe it.

"Company Commander Meng, it seems you really don't go hunting often." Li Long was a bit surprised; clearly the militia had guns, and the village wasn't far from the mountains, but everyone was quite happy to eat cheap wolf meat.

This meant they really didn't hunt much. Was it that they didn't know how to hunt, or couldn't hunt?

"Actually, we also want to take guns into the mountains to hunt, but to be honest, those with hunting guns are fine. For those without hunting guns, this militia rifle, we can protect ourselves, but to really go hunting, it's a bit difficult." Meng Hai told the truth:

"The number of bullets and such is counted. Although to be honest, we can get other bullets, we are afraid that if it spreads, someone will report us." Meng Hai was also quite troubled.

Li Long hadn't expected that the management of guns and ammunition here was much stricter than on the Fourth Team's side.

This was hard to say.

Meng Hai wanted to kill a chicken to cook a meal, but Li Long directly refused. After drinking a bowl of hot tea, he started the tractor and went back.

"My wife is pregnant, I promised to go back early." Li Long said, "If there's a chance in the future, let's drink again, how about that?"

"Alright, there's something at home, so I won't keep you. I'll tell Old He when he comes back. Comrade Li Long, this autumn... that broom grass..."

"If there's work, I'll definitely come to notify you." Li Long said sincerely, "We cooperated very well last year; I remember this."

"Good, good, good. With your words, I can rest assured!" Meng Hai said happily.

When the tractor drove out of Meng Hai's house, those dogs were still barking loudly, but they retreated one after another when they saw the tractor coming. They weren't stupid; they couldn't bite such a big thing.

It was just that after the tractor drove away, the dogs followed behind, running and barking.

If Li Long really got down, they wouldn't dare to bite. Li Long remembered seeing in a short video in his previous life that carrying tiger bones on one's body could make dogs not dare to bite.

He was carrying tiger teeth on his body; he imagined those dogs would have to give some face, right?

When the tractor drove to the county seat, the sun had just set. There was still a bit of red light in the west, but the temperature had already dropped rapidly.

It was almost the third nine-day period, and the weather was getting colder day by day. Li Long accelerated. By the time he reached the large courtyard, he happened to see Gu Xiaoxia arriving after getting off work.

This counted as getting off work early. However, for a pregnant woman, this treatment was allowed.

Sister Yang and Han Fang opened the courtyard door. When the tractor drove into the courtyard, Li Long had just gotten down, and Gu Bo Yuan had also arrived.

Li Long went to get a basin, drained the water in the tractor's water tank, and then went to wash his hands and change clothes.

Covered in a fishy and mutton smell, he had to wash thoroughly.

When he came out after changing clothes, Gu Bo Yuan was already staring at that wolf king by the tractor.

"It really is big enough." Gu Bo Yuan exclaimed, "It really is like a big calf. If this guy ran into a person in the mountains, and the person didn't have tools, they really couldn't beat it."

"That's for sure," Li Long used a stick to poke the wolf king's wolf head out of the trailer and said:

"Look at this head, it's bigger than other wolves, and these teeth are like small knives. This has to be kept."

"Hmm."

"Alright, you two hurry over to eat." Gu Xiaoxia stayed far away from the tractor; she couldn't smell the fishy and mutton smell of the wolf, and shouted to the two of them.

"Coming, coming." Li Long smiled and replied, then walked over there with Gu Bo Yuan.

While eating, Gu Bo Yuan asked while eating:

"Are you taking all these wolves and offal to Shicheng to sell?"

"Yeah, and the fish from the team." Li Long said while eating, "My older brother and my father have caught quite a few these past few days and have also collected quite a few fish, planning to go to Shicheng to sell them together in a couple of days."

"That's feasible." Gu Bo Yuan nodded, "Before the New Year, people in the city definitely want to get some New Year goods. The meat in the food factory requires coupons, but your meat doesn't require coupons, and it's cheap, so it must sell well."

With two tractors in the Li family, selling meat and selling fish were both fine.

"Then when are you going?" Gu Xiaoxia asked.

"In a couple of days." Li Long said, "Isn't it the weekend the day after tomorrow? You're resting, and I'll also rest for a while. Running every day these past few days, I'm tired too, so I'll relax for a couple of days. Anyway, these things are all frozen, so there's no fear of them going bad."

Hearing him say this, Gu Xiaoxia smiled.

Li Long had been running back and forth during this period. Although he came back to sleep at home at night, he traveled between the mountains and the team every day, and she felt quite sorry for him.

Now that Li Long had explicitly stated he would rest for a few days, she was relieved. Li Long had good physical strength; as long as he could rest well for a few days, he would be back in peak condition.

After eating, Li Long asked Gu Bo Yuan to take two sheep heads back to process and eat himself, but Gu Bo Yuan waved his hand:

"I won't do this. Your older brother can do this and knows how to do it; I'm not very good at it and can't clean it well. When you've cleaned it well, make it for me to eat." Fine, who let him be a generation older now.

At night, they didn't do anything else. Sister Yang cleaned up the kitchen, so Li Long and the others didn't need to worry about it. Li Long and Gu Xiaoxia went into the bedroom.

"Are you resting at home tomorrow?" Gu Xiaoxia turned on the TV and asked.

"Going to sell those wolf skins tomorrow," Li Long said, "and then see about burning a sheep head or something. There are still quite a few sheep heads left; some can be sold, and we have to eat some ourselves."

"Alright." Gu Xiaoxia nodded, adjusted the channel, and started watching the TV series.

Li Long let out a long breath; things had finally come to a stage. He imagined that now, over at Ha Ha Li Mu's winter camp, there shouldn't be any wolves harassing them.

However, he also had doubts. This winter, the snow wasn't particularly heavy, and it was the same in the mountains.

What exactly was it that drove the wolves out of the mountains?

Li Long guessed blindly, it was either a brown bear or a tiger. The possibility of a tiger was small, right? Ha Ha Li Mu killing a Northern Xinjiang tiger was already extremely lucky; it was impossible for there to be another one, right?

He asked Gu Xiaoxia this doubt, and Gu Xiaoxia shook her head. Li Long didn't know, so she knew even less.

=9+Shu_ba

"No matter what it is, anyway, we don't go into the mountains, and Ha Ha Li Mu and the others have guns, so they aren't afraid of anything. There shouldn't be any danger, right?" Gu Xiaoxia used to have curiosity, but after working for two years, it was gone.

Safe and sound is best.

That was more than a dozen wolves!

If they really formed a pack and besieged a person, even with a gun, it would probably be very difficult to escape, right?

She was actually quite worried about Li Long. It was just that Li Long's bond with the mountains was too deep, and it was impossible for him not to go into the mountains.

So every time Li Long went into the mountains, she was actually quite worried, but she just didn't say it.

After all, now at home, she was the "national treasure" and the one being worried about.

Fortunately, Li Long came back safe and sound every time. Now that the major matters were finished, she was also relieved.

The two chatted about household chores, thinking about those days a few years ago that were relatively hard, and comparing them with now, the changes were really very big.

Li Long didn't feel it so strongly; mainly, he had lived a better life in his previous life and knew that the days ahead would get better and better.

Gu Xiaoxia's life was more of a contrast. In the unit, actually, it could be counted that the lives of her colleagues were in the upper-middle range in the county. After all, there was a fixed salary every month, and benefits were distributed.

Those who ate commodity grain were naturally better off than those working in the countryside.

But Gu Xiaoxia often heard colleagues chatting in the unit about how to buy cheap meat, buy cheap grain, and get cloth that didn't require coupons, which gave her a sense of fragmentation.

She knew that her family's life, under Li Long's efforts, had already exceeded everyone's average standard of living.

But this exceeding was a bit exaggerated.

Li Long gave her seven thousand yuan as soon as he made a move, letting her spend it herself.

She herself had also saved quite a bit of money, a few hundred yuan.

And then she usually listened to colleagues calculating there for a few mao or a yuan, and they also taught her those little tips for saving money.

She knew that normally, she should learn. Normally, she should be like them, needing to live frugally.

However, Li Long didn't give her the chance.

Basically, she didn't need to consider the food and things used at home. The grain and meat to eat; the cloth for making clothes and daily necessities—where Li Long was, problems that could be solved with money weren't problems.

So she basically didn't participate in the colleagues' discussions; there was no way to discuss.

"Today in Qingshuihe, I sold the wolves I hauled back for over four hundred yuan." Li Long took the money out of his pocket and handed it to Gu Xiaoxia, "You take it, see what you need to buy and just buy it."

"I'm not taking it." Gu Xiaoxia was just thinking about this matter, reflexively shaking her head and waving her hands, "I haven't moved the money you gave me last time. My own salary is enough to spend. You keep this money yourself; if you need to prepare any materials, you buy them."

Li Long smiled, split the money into two halves, stuffed half to Gu Xiaoxia, put half in his own pocket, and said:

"That's fine, right? We each take half. We're selling wolf skins tomorrow; I won't split it with you then."

Gu Xiaoxia didn't refuse anymore. She wouldn't spend this money either; she would save it. Li Long was saving money over there, and she was saving it here too.

After all, the main things in life that required spending money were grain and meat. Li Long bought the small things from time to time; Li Long brought the meat back himself; the grain and oil were brought back by the older brother.

This life really didn't cost much money.

The next day after breakfast, Li Long sent Gu Xiaoxia to work. When he came back, Sister Yang and Han Fang were preparing to go sell food.

Li Long waited for them to leave, then went to the tractor to pull all the wolf skins down, found a knife to scrape the grease on them, scrape the salt particles that hadn't melted, and then clamped them behind the bicycle and went to the acquisition station.

There were too many wolf skins, and the bicycle couldn't clamp them all at once. The tractor couldn't be moved, and the Jeep couldn't be moved even more, so he could only use the bicycle.

He didn't know if Chen Hongjun was there.

He took all full skins this time, meaning the bullets hit the wolf's neck, and the skin was complete as a whole.

There were seven full skins in total, and fourteen residual skins. Li Long brought seven full skins.

That skin of the wolf king was a residual skin. When Yushanjiang and the three of them killed it, they didn't pay attention to where they hit, just wanting to hit it.

So three bullets hit the wolf king's body, one of which went through, and two bullets remained in the wolf king's body.

One skin had four holes; although it was big, it was still a residual skin.

Arriving at the acquisition station, Li Long saw a few people selling things in front. What surprised him a bit was that Xie Dafa was also there, holding a stack of rabbit skins in his hand.

"Hey, Little Long!" Xie Dafa was quite surprised, smiled, and asked, "This is... wolf skin?"

"Yeah. Brother Dafa, you've collected quite a few rabbits?"

"Twice already, thirteen skins, I came to sell them together. Selling them for money to buy some New Year goods to take back." Xie Dafa was still quite grateful to Li Long; otherwise, he wouldn't have known about this news.

The people in front were also mainly selling skins, moving forward one by one.

Li Long chatted with Xie Dafa for a few sentences, and then it was Xie Dafa's turn. He wanted to let Li Long go, but Li Long told him to hurry in.

Rabbit skins had been a bit numerous recently, so the price hadn't changed, three yuan each. Xie Dafa took more than thirty yuan, his face smiling like a flower, waved at Li Long, and took the money to the market in a hurry.

Finally, it was Li Long. He carried a bundle of skins and went inside.

Inside the counter were a man and a woman, both quite unfamiliar. Li Long hadn't been to the acquisition station for a while, and didn't know if the people had changed or if something was up, or if there were just many people here. Li Long only knew one.

"Wolf skin?" The people inside had already heard Li Long and Xie Dafa's words earlier, and asked, "Newly hunted?"

"Yeah, hunted two days ago." Li Long spread the skins on the counter, "These are all full skins, no damage."

"You mean, there are residual skins there too?" The man immediately heard other meanings from Li Long's words.

"Yeah, there are more than ten residual skins."

"So many?" The man and woman behind the counter were both a bit surprised, "How did you get so many?"

"The wolf pack attacked the winter camp, and we set an ambush." Li Long said truthfully, "The wolves in the mountains have been a bit rampant recently."

These two behind the counter didn't quite understand; they mainly looked at the skins.

There was definitely no problem with the skins. Ha Ha Li Mu and the others' skinning technique went without saying, and Li Long had also picked out the full skins, so there was definitely no problem.

"These skins are good. Winter skins are relatively better, and they are all adult wolves. I'll give you sixty for these three, and fifty-five for these four that are slightly smaller." The man flipped the skins back and forth to look at them and said:

"Can you bring the remaining skins over too?"

Skins had been in short supply recently, and the acquisition station also hoped to collect more large skins.

"Alright, write the receipt and settle the account first, then I'll go get them."

Seven skins were three or four hundred yuan; he could earn about a thousand yuan today.

Awesome! (End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 612 =====