Chapter 651: This Is the Free Mountain Life I Wanted

Li Long planned to go check on the hot spring; he felt it had been nearly a year since his last visit, and he didn't know what condition the place was in now.

When he left, he told Sun Jia Qiang to be sure to watch out for his own safety, especially regarding those who looked unwell—he should not approach them.

He also told Sun Jia Qiang about the suspected case of pulmonary infectious disease he had encountered that morning.

"Don't worry, I'll definitely be careful. Boss, actually, let me tell you, the disgusting people I've run into are far more numerous than the ones you've met. Those of us scraping a living in these mountains and forests don't have very high moral bottoms; my things have been stolen and robbed," Sun Jia Qiang smiled. "If not for my quick wits, I'd be a pile of white bones by now."

Li Long nodded, indicating he understood. It seemed this Sun Jia Qiang was a man with a story of his own.

Perhaps only with such an optimistic personality could one stay in the mountains and forests for so long without one's emotions being affected?

Li Long drove the jeep to Hot Spring Gully. This time, the jeep couldn't make it all the way to the hot spring pools, but he could enter from the mouth of the gully and drive up two or three hundred meters.

When he could drive no further, Li Long stopped, locked the car doors, grabbed his rifle, and proceeded upward along the stream.

Smelling the faint scent of sulfur permeating the air, Li Long felt that this was the free mountain life he truly wanted. Being tied down by that wooden cabin over there had been truly unbearable.

There were also fritillaria bulbs on the slopes on both sides of Hot Spring Gully, but not many—just a scattered few—so no one came here to dig them up.

Although bathing in hot springs was beneficial for physical and mental health, everyone who entered the mountains came seeking wealth; no one had the mood to soak in hot springs every day.

With that time, one might as well dig up more fritillaria bulbs.

Li Long slowly walked to the hot spring pools and saw that the water in the pools was somewhat murky; there were quite a few Ti Yin (hoofprints) around the edges, but unfortunately, no animals were present.

Clearly, some animals had been bathing here earlier, but they had already fled by now.

He could identify tracks from wild goats and wild boars, and it seemed there were also red deer.

Li Long examined the direction in which those hooves had departed; they were heading into the mountain forests on both sides, moving upward.

After thinking it over, he abandoned his plan to soak in the hot spring for now, grabbed his rifle, and climbed diagonally upward into Lin Zi (the forest), intending to scout higher up.

After those beasts bathed in the hot spring, they would most likely head to higher altitudes to graze and rest. If he went up and encountered a few, shooting them would allow him to bring them back.

As for the hot spring, he could soak in it later.

The grass in Lin Zi (the forest) grew very lush; in spots where the grass hadn't reached, Li Long spotted morel mushrooms on the moss. He picked those he saw and casually placed them into his backpack—

The satchel could hold too little, so during winter, he had specifically asked Sister Yang to make two backpacks for him.

Li Long requested a style common in later generations; although it lacked the fabric materials of that future era, the carrying style was correct, and it could hold quite a lot of items.

By the time he exited this patch of Lin Zi (forest) and climbed onto a sloping meadow, Li Long's backpack was already half-full of morel mushrooms.

To keep the backpack clean, he had not taken the roots of the morels; those things were difficult to wash later, as the mud would seep into the morels' crevices.

Thus, he simply snapped them off; although it was a bit wasteful, he could afford to waste a little at this time.

There were many, quite a lot indeed.

If not for the fact that Li Long's goal today was hunting, he would have thoroughly gathered here; after all, Chen Hongjun paid a decent price for morel mushrooms.

Hmm, he could let Sun Jia Qiang handle this matter later; if Sun Jia Qiang had nothing else to do afterward, he could gather black tiger palm mushrooms in the mountains during the wheat harvest season—those weren't cheap either.

Last year, he himself had no time to gather them, which counted as a significant loss.

Holding his rifle, Li Long looked around in all directions.

On the grassy slope thirty or forty meters to the front-left, he could see a trail beaten out by foot traffic; it wasn't very clear, but he could see that Ti Yin (hoofprints) had passed by just recently, appearing to belong to red deer or similar animals.

Li Long was quite pleased; he didn't really want to hunt wild boars today, since even if he shot one, Hearing Hearing Bolati wouldn't want it. But if it were red deer, there might be deer antler velvet and such, and everyone could eat the venison.

Li Long followed the Ti Yin (hoofprints) and crept toward the southeast.

This grassy slope lay between two patches of mountain forest, about two or three hundred meters wide, with the forest above being relatively sparse. The trail beaten by the beasts led into the woods; as Li Long pursued it, he saw three red deer grazing while climbing upward in that sparse forest above.

There was one stag and two hinds; the stag had antler velvet on its head, and they all looked quite young, weighing around seventy or eighty kilograms.

To the southwest of this forest lay a pile of jumbled rocks; Li Long vaguely remembered having been here before.

Those red deer moved very quickly; Li Long immediately switched off the safety—the bullet was already chambered. Just as he raised his rifle, one of the red deer turned its head to look, then let out a startled cry and immediately bolted away!

The calls of red deer were not all as "ethereal" as in videos he had once seen; when startled, they sounded quite unpleasant.

Li Long raised his rifle and fired with a "Bang!" hitting the hindmost stag, but only struck its buttocks; the bullet passed clean through. The red deer stumbled, then continued running forward with a limp.

Li Long hurriedly rushed out, running over twenty meters, and fired another shot while on the move; the deer collapsed to the ground.

The remaining two red deer had already crossed over the mountain ridge and were out of sight.

Li Long was still somewhat unwilling to give up; he chased up to the mountain ridge and found that the other side was a grassy slope with shrubs. Occasionally, he could see shrubs shaking in certain spots, but he could not spot the figures of any red deer.

Li Long had no choice but to lower his rifle and turn back to inspect the red deer he had felled.

The red deer's antler velvet had snapped off; both broken ends were still bleeding, and Li Long was heartbroken—this was precious stuff!

He quickly picked up the severed section and placed it in his backpack, then hoisted the red deer onto his shoulder and headed down the mountain.

Fortunately, it wasn't an exceptionally large specimen; otherwise, Li Long himself would have truly struggled to carry it.

The first patch of forest was somewhat better, relatively sparse and easy to traverse, but the second patch of mountain forest was difficult to pass through. The woods were dense with many horizontal branches, forcing Li Long to duck and weave as he moved forward.

If not for his strength far exceeding that of an ordinary person, he truly would have been unable to bring back the entire red deer he had hunted.

When he finally descended to the hot spring pools, Li Long let out a long breath, set the red deer down, and plopped himself down on the grassy slope, gasping for air.

It was truly a task of physical labor.

However, looking at this red deer, Li Long thought it was worth it.

After resting for ten-odd minutes, seeing that flies and horseflies were already gathering around, Li Long once again hoisted the red deer and carried it down to where his jeep was parked; only upon reaching here did his exhaustion end.

After placing that red deer into the trunk, Li Long sat in the driver's seat, rested for a while, started the engine, and turned back toward the wooden cabin.

The back seat of Li Long's jeep often held various items; during her idle time, Sister Yang had sewn a cloth cushion using old fabric and plastic bags cleared out from the side room, so that placing items on it wouldn't dirty the car.

After all, the cushion was easy to remove and wash.

As Li Long drove the jeep over, Sun Jia Qiang was explaining something to another person; that person's voice was very loud, but upon seeing the jeep approaching, his voice immediately dropped.

By the time Li Long drove the jeep to the wooden cabin, that person had already left, carrying the goods he had exchanged.

Li Long got out of the car, glanced at the person's retreating figure, and then asked Sun Jia Qiang:

"What's the situation?"

"He just thought my exchange wasn't fair," Sun Jia Qiang said, pouring the several kilograms of fritillaria bulbs he had collected into a large basin and washing them as he spoke. "He said I should give more, but I told him these fritillaria bulbs aren't clean and are only worth this much..."

Li Long understood; that person had likely seen he wasn't around and wanted to suppress Sun Jia Qiang.

After all, Sun Jia Qiang was neither as tall nor as sturdy as himself, while that fellow was quite tall.

"When I come over tomorrow, I'll bring you a rifle," Li Long said, remembering he still had a small-caliber one at home.

"No need, no need. Holding such a thing, I feel like I'd want to fire whenever I got angry, which would only cause trouble. Moreover, keeping such an item here risks it being snatched away." To Li Long's surprise, Sun Jia Qiang actually refused.

If he didn't want it, then he didn't; Li Long went to the trunk, pulled out the red deer, carried it to the spring, and prepared to skin and gut it.

"Oh, there are truly many things in these mountains!" Sun Jia Qiang said, glancing at the sun. "You were gone less than two hours and returned with such a large red deer... quite the skilled hunter!"

"Not really, not really; I just know some places where game frequently goes," Li Long replied modestly, drawing his knife to bleed and skin the deer.

Of course, the most critical task was to remove the velvet antlers; although one was broken, the other remained intact, and even the broken one was not lightly damaged.

The two pieces weighed two or three kilograms while still wet.

"So this is velvet antler," Sun Jia Qiang exclaimed with emotion. "Quite a large specimen."

Li Long cut off the velvet antlers and set them aside, saying:

"Yes; since I didn't see the hard antlers, I don't know if it had any. Judging by its teeth, this deer should be two or three years old."

Skinning and gutting proceeded; after Sun Jia Qiang washed and hung out the fritillaria bulbs, he came over to help, mainly handling the stomach and intestines.

Li Long cut off the deer penis and set it aside; such an item would surely prove useful later, as someone would want it.

The venison was quite fatty, and the offal filled a large basin; seeing Sun Jia Qiang washing the stomach and intestines there, Li Long went to fetch salt, cut the meat into blocks, and rubbed them with salt.

He treated the hide the same way; once finished, he spread it out on the grass to dry, then went to light the two stoves at the cabin entrance, placed pots on them, added water, and began heating; he put part of the meat into the pots and packed the rest, already salted, into bags.

Some of the offal was also boiling in the other pot, while most was divided into two bags and loaded into the vehicle.

"Old Sun, once the meat in these two pots is cooked, rub it with salt and hang it in the room to air-dry; do the same with the offal," Li Long said. "As for the fritillaria, I'll take it all back with me."

"I'll settle the payment now for the fritillaria you collected today; tomorrow morning I'll come to settle again, and again in the evening. Part of this cooked meat is for you to eat, and part will be used to exchange for more fritillaria."

"Take care of your own safety; bolt the door at night and beware of wolves, especially since there's currently a scent of blood; do not open the door after dark, and beware of bad people."

After giving all these instructions, Li Long settled the account with Sun Jia Qiang and drove away in his jeep.

Clutching the eight yuan in his hand, Sun Jia Qiang felt he had earned the money quite quickly.

After all, he had only been collecting for half a day, and he knew very well that as time went on, more and more people would come to trade goods.

Before the sun had set behind Luoshan, Sun Jia Qiang lifted the cooked meat from the pot into a large basin, sprinkled it with salt to air-dry, and began gnawing heartily on a piece of muntjac meat himself.

Delicious!

Seeing someone approaching from afar, Sun Jia Qiang dropped his bone, grabbed a stick, and watched vigilantly.

Please... collect this... (!)

"I'd like to exchange for some meat..." the person called weakly from more than ten meters away, looking as if near starvation.

Only then did Sun Jia Qiang relax.

Li Long drove his jeep to Xiaobaiyang Gully, where Old Huang had already begun preparing dinner.

Dinner was exactly as Old Huang had said: hanging noodles.

Li Long lifted a bag and handed it to him:

"These are the offal from the red deer hunted today; Brother Old Huang, please handle them."

"Did you catch something today?" Li Jianguo called out loudly from over there.

"Yes; with Little Sun keeping watch, I went hunting and bagged a red deer," Li Long said, walking over to tell his elder brother. "I left some meat at the cabin to exchange for fritillaria, and brought the rest back."

"Won't you stay to eat before leaving?" Li Jianguo asked. "The meal here is almost ready."

"No need; I'll make it back just in time to pick up Gu Xiaoxia."

"Very well, then you'd better head out quickly."

Li Long drove the jeep rapidly toward the outside of the mountains.

It felt like riding alone, leaving nothing but dust behind.

Upon reaching the county town, he hurriedly unloaded the meat in the large courtyard, rolled down all four windows for ventilation, and drove off to pick up Gu Gu Xiaoxia.

It was already a bit late; Gu Gu Xiaoxia had just left the Education Bureau and was on her way back.

Seeing Li Long's jeep, she smiled.

Li Long parked the jeep beside her, got out, and helped Gu Gu Xiaoxia into the vehicle.

"Why are all the windows open?" Gu Gu Xiaoxia asked as she boarded. "It's not very hot, is it?"

"I went hunting while up in the mountains," Li Long explained. "I brought back some meat, and I didn't want to make you feel nauseous."

"I'm not that delicate," Gu Gu Xiaoxia said with a smile. "The scenery in the mountains must be quite beautiful now, right?"

"Yes; today I also gathered quite a few morel mushrooms," Li Long said while driving. "We'll wash them in a while; tomorrow I'll ask Sister Yang to stew some chicken soup with them for you; they are very nourishing."

"I've heard you mention them before; they say the taste is just average."

Chatting casually, the two of them soon returned to the large courtyard.

After entering the yard, Li Long helped Gu Gu Xiaoxia out of the car and seated her, then took the morel mushrooms out of his backpack.

These things were too fragile; after all this jostling, some had already shattered, with less than half remaining intact.

Li Long discarded the finest crumbs, dumping them by the flower bed; for the rest—the intact ones and the larger fragments—he found a basin, poured them in, and began washing them slowly.

While preparing the meal, Sister Yang glanced at the meat and offal, and as Li Long washed the morels, she smiled and said:

"This meat is good; it's venison, isn't it? Uncle, have you been hunting again?"

"Yes; the previous two times it was my elder brother who hunted, but this time it was me," Li Long replied, rinsing the morels twice before placing them on a round tray woven from sorghum stalks to dry.

"Sister Yang, these are morel mushrooms, a very precious fungus; in the next couple of days I'll get a chicken as well, and we'll stew chicken soup with these mushrooms to nourish Gu Xiaoxia."

"Alright," Sister Yang said, nodding with a smile. Last year, Li Long had also brought back some morels, though he hadn't explained them to her then; she simply felt that the mushrooms Li Long brought back were always rather strange, as the black tiger-paw fungi and ordinary mushrooms he had brought last year were also different from the usual kind.

Hearing Li Long say that the previous game had been hunted by Li Jianguo, Gu Gu Bo Yuan came over to inspect this latest catch.

This deer's skeleton was quite large, and there was no small amount of meat brought back; Li Long intended to take some over to the Fourth Squad.

"Deer meat," Gu Gu Bo Yuan recalled the first time he had gone with Li Long to carry the litters; during that period, they often ate meat, and it was truly excellent.

How nostalgic.

After dinner, before night had fully fallen, Li Long drove the jeep to the Fourth Squad; he intended to deliver some deer meat to his eldest brother's home.

The wheat on both sides of the road had already formed ears; he did not know if they had filled out yet, while the corn had also grown quite tall.

The water in Mo Hequ remained abundant; in fact, there were quite a few fish in it. Li Long vaguely remembered that in his previous life, at some point during construction at the middle school, workers at the site had used electric wires to stun fish here; it seemed that just this short stretch of river channel had yielded several buckets.

Large crucian carp.

When the jeep returned to the Fourth Squad, the sun had already completely set; some people working in the fields were only just heading home then, and Li Long's jeep encountered several villagers driving horse carts and donkey carts.

As he rolled down the window, he exchanged greetings from time to time, all the way to his eldest brother's house.

In the courtyard, Li Li Qing Xia and Tao Jian She were talking; Li Juan and Li Qiang were helping Liang Yuemei feed the pigs, while Du Chunfang sat before the stove tending the fire, and what simmered in the pot seemed to be... fish soup?

Hearing the sound of the jeep, everyone in the courtyard looked over.

The jeep drove into the courtyard; after Li Long stepped out, he smelled a rather strong fishy odor.

"Old Dad, did you catch fish these past two days?" Li Long asked with a smile, then exchanged greetings with Tao Jian She as well.

"Mm, the two of us old brothers have been casting nets to catch fish every day lately, then going together to Shicheng to sell them," Li Li Qing Xia said with considerable pride. "Each day we can surely earn ten or twenty yuan; it's no worse than your carrying litters."

"That's good," Li Long smiled, then unloaded the deer meat, along with those offal.

"Did you hunt something again?" Li Li Qing Xia came over, held the bag open to look inside, and asked.

"Mm, I took down a red deer; it was quite heavy, so I brought back some meat."

"Did you keep any for yourself over there?" Du Chunfang came closer to look, then asked.

"I kept some. I kept some in the mountains, and I kept some at the big courtyard too."

Hearing Li Long say he had kept some everywhere, Du Chunfang nodded and continued to tend the fire.

Li Juan and Li Qiang came over from the pigsty, exchanged greetings with Li Long, and Liang Yuemei also approached carrying the bucket of pig feed.

After greeting his sister-in-law, Li Long explained the matter of the meat and also recounted Li Jianguo's situation in the mountains.

"Have some fish soup; have a bowl of fish soup before you go," Du Chunfang called out upon seeing the fish soup in the pot come to a boil.

Although he had already eaten dinner at the big courtyard earlier, he still had room for a bowl of fish soup.

Li Qiang quietly asked Li Long if he could find a few bullet casings for him; Li Long patted his head and said he would bring some next time he returned.

Li Qiang ran off excitedly.

After finishing the fish soup, Li Long bid farewell to his family and drove the jeep away hastily once more.

A cool breeze blew gently; Li Long lowered the window and, while driving back, planned out the next day's affairs.

Tomorrow he would have to haul the litters from Little White Poplar Gully back again. Fortunately, Sun Jia Qiang was now at the wooden cabin; he only needed to speak with the driver from the transport company tomorrow, and after inspecting and accepting the litters in the afternoon, he could have the truck head directly to Little White Poplar Gully after getting off work.

At most, he would bring back a few young men in the evening to unload the vehicle, then send them back again, and that would be that.

This was a familiar task; there would be no problem.

With everything now on the right track, Li Long felt that the current situation was just fine. (End of chapter)