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 antler and velvet antler on the counter, Chen Honggui was a bit surprised and said with a smile.

He had seen plenty of deer antlers, but this velvet antler was different. He just glanced at the deer antler, set a price of two yuan eight per kilogram, and then picked up the velvet antler.

"This velvet antler is well-preserved." Chen Honggui looked at the outer fur and the texture of the cut of the velvet antler like an expert, smelled it, squeezed it, and then 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 for you, fourteen yuan five per hundred grams."

Li Long naturally had no objections.

The three kilograms six of deer antler sold for ten yuan and eight fen, and the one kilogram three of velvet antler sold for one hundred eighty-eight yuan and five mao, adding up to nearly two hundred.

Chen Honggui wrote the slip, paid the money, and after putting the things away, said to Li Long with a smile:

"Little Li, the things you've sold over these few days add up to quite a lot of money, and plus those two pieces of jade, you could be a thousand-yuan household."

Li Long laughed it off:

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

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

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

When he went out, seeing someone watching the fun by the carriage and pointing fingers, he hurriedly untied the reins and led the carriage back.

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

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

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

"He's joking." Li Long didn't know whether to laugh or cry; this Li Qiang was really something.

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

"Wolf skin, are you afraid or not?" Li Long pointed to the tied-up wolf skin and said, "You know what a wolf is, right?"

"Know, know," another child raised his hand boldly and said, "The story 'The Wolf is Coming' told it, 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, so it couldn't be hidden, and there was no need to hide it.

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

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

Hearing the movement, Liang Wenyu hurriedly rushed 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 sounded first, "What did you bring back from the mountains this time?"

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

Seeing the things loaded on the carriage, 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 really won't lack meat to eat!"

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

"Sister-in-law, where is my brother?"

This was asking what he already knew; he didn't want to say much to Lu's eldest sister-in-law.

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

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

Lu's eldest sister-in-law took over the matter of calling people and then walked toward her home.

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

"Why say such distant words?"

Liang Wenyu decided that when the things on the carriage 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, otherwise, this is the truth. Li Long unhitched the carriage, tied the horse well, and entered the room. He put the jade away, changed his clothes, and went to the west room.

"Drink some hot water." Liang Wenyu 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 bought buns in the county on the way and ate them, so I'm not very hungry now."

"Alright then, I'll prepare lunch."

Ever since the family started catching fish to sell, Liang Wenyu had become busy. The two meals a day were changed to three, and they ate not only well but also a lot.

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 rushed back.

Li Long had already unloaded the two wolves and hung them in the idle room. This thing was quite scary if alive, but dead and skinned, it wasn't much different from sheep or pigs. 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.

Seeing that it was two wild boars again, Li Jianguo really had a headache this time; it was a happy trouble.

!.

"Call people to help?" Liang Wenyu spoke up, "Our family alone simply can't handle it."

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

While Li Jianguo was still thinking about who to call, Lu Tie Tou's father, Lu Yingming, from next door, had already strode to the courtyard. Seeing the two wild boars, he said enviously:

"Is this Little Long who hunted them back again? Your Little Long is truly promising!"

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

"Being able to cause this kind of trouble, if it were our family, I could laugh my mouth crooked every day," Lu Yingming said with a smile, "Alright, call Old Chen from the backyard, and Wang Cai Mi 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 Li Jianguo's thoughts. He went to call people and borrow tools, while Li Long went to return the carriage.

Li Jianguo and Tao Daqiang had caught more than thirty kilograms of fish that morning. Li Long strung two strings of fish with thin iron wire; one string of small crucian carp was given to Old Luo at the horse station, and one string of two carp was brought to team leader Xu Chengjun's home.

Handing the fish to Xu Chengjun's wife, Ma Chunhong, Li Long put down three yuan and two mao, and said to Xu Chengjun:

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

"Empty, you just use it." Xu Chengjun had received more than ten yuan just from Li Long's carriage rental fees 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 haven't 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 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 it's okay."

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

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