Chapter 66: The bicycle ticket is secured

"Comrade Li, you've brought quite a lot of good things this time!" Looking at Li Long placing the deer horn and deer antler on the counter, Chen Hongjun was a bit surprised and said with a smile.

He had seen plenty of deer horns, but deer antler was different. He just glanced at the deer horn, set a price of 2.8 yuan per kilogram, and then picked up the deer antler.

"This deer antler is well-preserved." Chen Hongjun looked at the outer hair and the texture of the cut with an expert eye, smelled it, squeezed it, and said, "The quality is also good. It's just that the person who cut it must have been an amateur. I'll set it as first-grade, 14.5 yuan per 100 grams."

Li Long naturally had no objections.

The three kilograms of deer horn sold for 10.08 yuan, and the 1.3 kilograms of deer antler sold for 188.5 yuan, totaling nearly 200 yuan.

After Chen Hongjun wrote the receipt, paid the money, and put the things away, he smiled and said to Li Long:

"Little Li, the things you've sold over the past few days add up to quite a bit of money. Plus those two pieces of jade, you could be a 'thousand-yuan household' now."

Li Long laughed it off:

"I'm just making the difference in the middle. The things aren't all mine; some are being sold for others, just earning some hard-earned money."

There were still things on the horse cart outside, so Li Long didn't dare to delay. He quickly took the money, went out, and drove the horse cart to the department store.

After walking around, feeling like there was nothing worth buying, Li Long saw that they had Jiang noodles here, so he bought one kilogram.

When he went out, he saw some people watching the excitement by the horse cart, pointing and gesturing, so he hurriedly untied the reins and led the horse cart back.

When he returned to the village, Li Long didn't see Li Qiang among the group of children at the village entrance, which surprised him.

"Erwa, where is our Qiangqiang?" Li Long asked.

"Li Qiang and his dad went to Xiaohaizi to catch fish," said the boy named Erwa, wiping his nose. "He said he's grown up, wants to do serious work, and won't play with us anymore."

"He's joking." Li Long was dumbfounded; this Li Qiang was really something.

"What are you pulling on your cart?" Erwa asked boldly.

"Wolf skin, are you afraid?" Li Long pointed to the bundled wolf skin and said, "You know what a wolf is, right?"

"I know, I know," another child raised his hand boldly, "The story 'The Wolf is Coming' says they eat sheep!"

"That's the wolf." Li Long didn't hide it, because the wolf skin was covering the wild boars and the wolf's body; it couldn't be hidden, and there was no need to hide it.

Land would be divided after the spring festival, so there was no need to hide anything now. Even if those with "red-eye disease" were jealous, once the land was in their hands, their minds would be entirely on the fields, and they wouldn't have time to care about others.

Hearing it was wolf skin, the children were both afraid and excited. Some wanted to touch it but didn't dare. Li Long smiled and let them touch it, then drove the horse cart home.

Liang Yuemei heard the commotion and hurried out, followed by Lu's eldest sister-in-law.

"Yo, Little Long is back?" Although Lu's eldest sister-in-law was behind, her voice rang out first, "What did you bring back from the mountains this time?"

Lu's eldest sister-in-law basically didn't treat herself as an outsider here. Although she hadn't successfully introduced her niece to Li Long, she planned to introduce another relative, and today she came to talk to Liang Yuemei about this matter.

Seeing the things loaded on the horse cart, Lu's eldest sister-in-law had sharp eyes and shouted out:

"Yo, is this wild boar again? Little Long, you're really capable! If anyone marries you, they'll never lack meat to eat!"

"Just good luck, good luck." Li Long laughed it off and turned to look at his sister-in-law:

"Sister-in-law, where's my brother?"

This was a question he knew the answer to; he didn't want to talk much with Lu's eldest sister-in-law.

"Your brother went to Xiaohaizi to catch fish... Then you unhitch the horse first, and I'll go call your brother back..."

"Why are you going?" Lu's eldest sister-in-law interrupted, "Just let my Tietou make a trip. Alright, I'll go back and call Tietou. Little Long worked hard coming back, you hurry up and get him something to eat."

Lu's eldest sister-in-law took it upon herself to call the person, and then walked toward her home.

"Alright then, sister-in-law, sorry to trouble you."

"Why say such distant words?"

Liang Yuemei decided that once the things on the horse cart were handled, she would send a few kilograms of meat to the Lu family—human relationships need to be reciprocal to continue. Distant relatives are not as good as close neighbors; unless they are bad neighbors, this is the truth. Li Long unhitched the horse cart, tied the horse, and went into the house. He put away the jade, changed his clothes, and went to the west room.

"Drink some hot water." Liang Yuemei had already poured the hot water and went to the kitchen to prepare food.

"Sister-in-law, don't be busy yet, I'll rest for a while and then unload the things. I ate buns in the county on the way, so I'm not very hungry now."

"Alright then, I'll prepare lunch now."

Ever since the family started catching fish to sell, Liang Yuemei had become busy, changing from two meals a day to three, eating not only well but also more.

Fortunately, Li Long brought back grain and meat from time to time, and the family had stored enough fish, so the two children's complexions were obviously rosy, and they had grown taller.

Hearing the news, Li Jianguo and Tao Daqiang brought the two children and hurried back.

Li Long had already unloaded the two wolves and hung them in the spare room. This thing was quite scary if alive, but once dead and skinned, it wasn't much different from a sheep or a pig. After all, the head wasn't there.

Because the two wild boars hadn't been fully processed, they were placed directly in the courtyard, waiting for Li Jianguo to return.

When Li Jianguo saw it was two more wild boars, he was really a bit overwhelmed this time; it was a happy trouble.

!.

"Should we call people to help?" Liang Yuemei spoke up, "Our family alone can't handle it."

"Alright, call a few people, but don't be like last time, let's take it slow," Li Jianguo said.

While Li Jianguo was still thinking about who to call, Lu Tietou's father, Lu Yingming, from across the street, strode into the courtyard. Seeing the two wild boars, he said enviously:

"Is this what Little Long brought back again? Your Little Long is really promising!"

"It's troublesome." Li Jianguo wouldn't praise Li Long to his face, but instead complained, "Always causing trouble for the family."

"Being able to cause this kind of trouble, if it were our family, I'd be smiling from ear to ear every day," Lu Yingming said with a smile. "Alright, let's call Old Chen from the backyard, Wang Caimi from in front of us, plus you and Little Long, and by the way, Daqiang, these two pigs can be finished today."

Lu Yingming's words hit the mark for Li Jianguo. He went to call people and borrow tools, while Li Long went to return the horse cart.

Li Jianguo and Tao Daqiang had caught more than thirty kilograms of fish that morning. Li Long strung two strings of fish with thin wire, gave one string of small crucian carp to Old Luo at the horse stable, and took the other string of two carp to the home of the team leader, Xu Chengjun.

Handing the fish to Xu Chengjun's wife, Ma Hongmei, Li Long put down 3.2 yuan and said to Xu Chengjun:

"Team leader, I need to borrow the horse cart again tomorrow—is the horse cart empty now?"

"It's empty, feel free to use it." Xu Chengjun had received more than ten yuan in cart rental fees from Li Long during this period, which was the total amount of work points for a household in the team at the end of the year; he wished this money could be more.

"Alright then, I'll go back first." Li Long was about to leave.

"I heard you also brought back a wolf?" Xu Chengjun asked, "Is that wolf meat delicious?"

"I've never eaten it either, so I want to try it."

"By the way, there's news about the bicycle ticket and sewing machine ticket you asked about earlier. A relative of mine is at the county supply and marketing cooperative. If you want them, you'll have to add some extra things."

"What?"

"Meat." Xu Chengjun made it clear, "Ten kilograms of pork..."

"Is wild boar meat okay?" Li Long's eyes lit up, "It's still fresh."

"You brought back wild boar meat again this time? Then of course that's fine."

"Alright then, I'll send it over in a while!"

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 67 =====