Chapter 745: A Customer Who Comes Knocking

When Li Long took the children to Old Ma's Post to see the sheep, he happened to run into Song Ming.

Song Ming was very happy to see Li Long, and Uncle Lao Luo was also quite delighted to see Li Long and Gu Gu Xiaoxia holding two children.

Uncle Lao Luo had never married or had children, but he loved kids immensely; in the past, whenever Li Qiang brought the children over to see the roe deer and red deer, he would be overjoyed.

He had seen Li Long's two children before and liked them greatly, even giving them New Year's money; now the two kids had clearly gained another round of weight, showed no fear of strangers, and grinned "Hei-hei" at Uncle Lao Luo, which was quite endearing.

Song Ming looked at the children and smiled happily as well.

The sugar dregs had already been unloaded; Song Ming had only stayed because he saw Li Long arriving.

"How's it going? With you hauling sugar dregs during your off-hours after work, hasn't your factory said anything about it?"

"Nothing at all; since those sugar dregs were going to be discarded anyway, being able to make use of them means the factory doesn't care. Besides, Section Chief Hu has already spoken up, so everything has gone very smoothly for me."

The sheep in the pen seemed to have gained another round of fat; their bellies swayed back and forth as they walked, and their coats looked splendid; the pen was swept clean, with grass scraps and stalks cleared away regularly; Uncle Lao Luo and the others, drawing wages, worked without any slackness whatsoever—Ma Jinbao's sheepfold was far inferior to this one.

"Comrade Li Long, are you selling these sheep?" Song Ming suddenly asked.

"Yes, but we don't plan to slaughter them just yet; the market price for mutton hasn't risen, so we intend to slaughter a batch before the New Year." Li Long did not conceal Ji De Xiang Fa. "By then, the sheep will be even fatter, yielding an extra kilogram or two of meat each."

Seeing the way Song Ming stared at the cattle and sheep in the pen, he said:

"If you want them, I'll give them to you at cost price."

Although Li Long had paid Song Ming for hauling the sugar dregs here, it was still a personal favor, and Li Long did not lack for that small amount.

"I was thinking that our sugar factory will soon be distributing year-end benefits; your sheep are so fat—could you speak with Section Chief Hu about getting these sheep allocated to our factory for the welfare distribution?"

"Sure," Li Long said with a smile. "I'm certainly willing, but for the factory, we can only charge the wholesale price."

The whole point of fattening these sheep was to sell them for profit; selling them one by one versus selling dozens at once, he would definitely choose the latter.

It was more convenient.

"That's good then; I'll mention it to Section Chief Hu as soon as I get back. Your sheep clearly look fatter than those on the market; the people at the factory will surely like them—everyone loves fat."

Li Long was quite pleased, and Song Ming was equally happy.

The next day, after starting work, Song Ming took a break to go speak with Section Chief Hu about the matter.

"You're saying that Li Long is fattening sheep? That they're kept in pens and quite plump?" Section Chief Hu asked with some surprise. "Is that true or false?"

"It's true; Section Chief, if you saw them, you'd know those sheep are genuinely fat—I estimate the leaf lard in their bellies alone must weigh two or three kilograms or more," Song Ming asserted emphatically. "If we really use their sheep for welfare distribution, we absolutely cannot skip the offal, trimmings, intestines, and fat."

Section Chief Hu nodded; although as the Logistics Section Chief his household lacked neither meat nor oil, he had endured hard days and knew just how important offal and trimmings, especially leaf lard, were to an ordinary family.

Having these things meant being able to extend the period of eating meat by at least one or two months.

In 1984, eating meat was a rather luxurious affair for ordinary folks; even if one didn't have to wait until Chinese New Year to eat meat at all, at least eating hearty portions of meat was still very difficult.

"In that case, have Comrade Xiao Li..." Hu paused, then changed his mind. "Never mind; this afternoon, you drive and take me to have a look." Section Chief Hu knew it was indeed time to start preparing for the welfare distribution.

This year, a connected party had given advance notice, and Section Chief Hu was still considering whether to agree or not; since Li Long had not approached him, Hu had not included Li Long in his considerations.

But if what Song Ming said was true, then it was indeed worth considering; sometimes, when benefits are not urgently needed, fulfilling a task and earning praise from leaders and workers constitutes a spiritual need that is also very important.

"Should we call Li Long this afternoon?" Song Ming asked.

"No need," Section Chief Hu waved his hand. "We'll eat lunch in the cafeteria shortly, then leave immediately to inspect the situation; if it's truly good, we'll seek him out after the visit."

Song Ming didn't know whether Section Chief Hu worried that notifying Li Long might lead him to falsify things, but it didn't matter; after all, he had seen those sheep himself—they were genuinely fat, fed on sugar dregs, bran, and the like, with nothing messy mixed in, and he himself thought that if the welfare goods were such items, that would be excellent.

At noon, the sugar factory cafeteria served meals as usual; after Section Chief Hu finished eating, he exchanged greetings with a few leaders, then found Song Ming, and they drove the automobile toward the Fourth Small Team.

Before leaving, Song Ming assigned the sugar-dregs hauling job to his apprentice; the motor pool had more than this one vehicle, and his apprentice had already completed his training and could drive independently.

The car drove out of Shicheng, passed Ma County, and arrived at the Fourth Small Team; Section Chief Hu noticed Song Ming's skilled route familiarity and wanted to ask, but recalling what he had said about delivering sugar dregs to Li Long, he refrained from questioning further and simply gazed at the scenery on both sides.

The post-snow scenery in Northern Xinjiang was largely the same everywhere: a vast expanse, stretching endlessly to the horizon.

At this time, there were not yet as many people as in later generations, and many areas had not been reclaimed, so the view was extremely open.

When the car reached Old Ma's Post, Uncle Lao Luo came out upon hearing the engine roar; he found it somewhat strange, since it was not yet time for the sugar-dregs delivery.

However, seeing Song Ming guide a stout middle-aged man out of the car, Uncle Lao Luo immediately realized what was happening; he sent Yang Laoliu, who was holding a wooden shovel and preparing to unload sugar dregs, back inside, then stepped forward with a smile and asked:

"Comrade Song, who is this gentleman..."

"This is Section Chief Hu from our sugar factory. Section Chief, this is Uncle Lao Luo, who helps Comrade Li Long raise cattle and sheep."

"Hello, Comrade Lao Luo; I heard from Xiao Song that the cattle and sheep you raise are extremely fat and sturdy, so I wanted to come over and take a look—will this cause any inconvenience?"

"No inconvenience at all; feel free to look!"

Upon hearing that this was a leader from the sugar factory, Uncle Lao Luo's smile grew even brighter; Song Ming had previously mentioned the idea of selling these cattle and sheep to the sugar factory for welfare distribution, and although Uncle Lao Luo hadn't paid much attention then, seeing the situation today, it seemed it might actually happen.

Uncle Lao Luo then guided Section Chief Hu over to the new pens.

By this time, the cattle and sheep had already been fed grass twice and fodder once; under the bright sun, some were wandering in circles within the open pens searching for tender grass, while others had entered the warm pens to lie down and ruminate.

When Section Chief Hu reached the pen entrance, Uncle Lao Luo picked up the whip resting on the wall, flicked it twice into the pen, and shouted, "Yao—yao qi—"

Most of the cattle and sheep stood up, though a few in the corner remained lying down.

"Hey, they really are fat!" Seeing the flattened backs of those cattle and sheep, along with their plump, slightly trembling bellies, Section Chief Hu was immediately impressed. "Not bad, not bad; each of these sheep should yield at least thirty kilograms of meat, right?"

"About that, about that," Uncle Lao Luo said with a smile. "There's still a lot of fat; normally they'd yield twenty-something kilograms, but this year they've been fed very well."

"Fat is good," Section Chief Hu sighed emotionally. "Back when we first joined the factory, if the cafeteria dishes had some fatty bits, everyone would fight over them; even the oil-crisp buns were snatched up—the fragrance was incredible..." In fact, "oil-crisp" referred to the cracklings left after rendering fatty meat with some lean still attached; there were two methods of rendering: one was to put fatty meat and oil directly into the wok, essentially frying out all the oil from the fat until only dry cracklings remained—which were basically thoroughly dried fatty meat.

The other method used meat with alternating layers of fat and lean, added leaf lard, and rendered it without drying out the fatty meat and oil completely; one only needed to liquefy the leaf lard and extract most of the oil from the fatty meat.

At that point, the wok contained not only oil but also small pieces of meat; when ladled out into jars or enamel basins, the oil on top covered the meat below, creating a vacuum-like environment; without contact with air, it would not spoil.

Uncle Lao Luo had experienced this himself; he smiled and said, "That's right; back then, being able to eat some oil-crisps felt just like celebrating the New Year."

Section Chief Hu nodded repeatedly, appearing to share the sentiment deeply.

The reason this wasn't called "oil dregs" was that at this time, "oil dregs" referred specifically to the waste residue left after pressing sunflower seeds or rapeseeds for oil—that substance was called oil dregs.

"Comrade Lao Luo, how many cattle and sheep do you have here?"

"Two hundred and forty-nine sheep and eighteen head of cattle; among the sheep, forty-one are ewes with lambs, which may give birth around the Spring Festival, while all the cattle are ready for slaughter."

With over two hundred sheep, the sugar factory side would certainly have enough; after all, it was impossible to distribute one sheep per person, so distributing a few kilograms of meat per person would already be quite good.

Therefore, the Logistics Section did not need to purchase one sheep per person headcount; purchasing just a few dozen would suffice for distribution; given the current weight of Li Long's sheep, they might even need to buy a few fewer than last year.

!

Of course, Section Chief Hu couldn't possibly buy less; by distributing a bit more fatty meat to everyone, even if the number of sheep was about the same, the amount of meat each worker received would increase, so surely everyone would owe him a favor for that.

Section Chief Hu calculated in his heart: fifty sheep should be enough, right?

What if he bought two more cows? Cows were good too; although beef was more expensive than mutton, beef was superior.

He glanced at this pen, then suddenly turned his head to ask Old Uncle Luo:

"Comrade Old Luo, this is a new pen, isn't it?"

"Yes, it was only built in the autumn," Old Uncle Luo answered truthfully. He was quite friendly toward the people from the sugar factory; after all, those sugar dregs were given to them free of charge by the factory. Although transporting them incurred freight costs, wouldn't fetching them oneself still require manpower, carts, and effort? Moreover, one couldn't haul nearly as much that way.

It wasn't that no one in the team had thought about going to the sugar factory to fetch the dregs, but apart from the few households that owned tractors, even if others used donkey carts or horse carts, how much could they carry? Could it amount to even one-fifth of what this truck could haul?

Apparently not, right?

"Is that over there also a pen?" Section Chief Hu pointed toward the old pen and said, "Are there animals being raised inside that one too?"

"Mm, over there they raise wild boars, roe deer, red deer..." Old Uncle Luo replied.

"What? These also belong to Li Long? He raises these creatures too?" Section Chief Hu asked with some surprise, "Are there many?"

"Anyway, there are quite a few," Old Uncle Luo said with a chuckle, "Leader, would you like to take a look?"

"Look? Of course we must look!" Section Chief Hu exclaimed with wonder and surprise.

He had never seen anyone raising red deer, roe deer, and wild boars like this before.

He had seen them in zoos, but that was different.

As soon as he entered the courtyard of the old pen, Section Chief Hu heard the grunting of wild boars, a sound he hadn't heard in a long time; back then, he had gone to help the corps workers dig up sugar beets, and during those autumns, wild boars in the fields would root up and eat the sugar beets.

How long had it been since he last heard such sounds?

While reminiscing, Section Chief Hu walked into the pen and saw the wild boars inside, both large and small.

Although they had been penned for a long time, with most of the young wild boars born right inside the enclosure, they obviously looked different from domestic pigs.

They were very active, spirited, and alert; whenever there was movement at the pen's entrance, the little wild boars would shrink back one by one toward the far end of the enclosure.

Wild boars were not particularly rare; as Section Chief Hu continued walking inward, he saw Yang Laoliu adding sunflower stalks to the pen over there.

He walked over, and Yang Laoliu smiled at him before picking up his basket and continuing to handle the fodder.

Yang Laoliu had seen many high-ranking officials in the past, so he didn't pay this one much special attention.

For now, working steadily with a wage, meat to eat, and wine to drink, he felt content.

Section Chief Hu leaned over the pen to peer inside, where he saw over a dozen roe deer and red deer leisurely eating fodder across two enclosures.

"Hey, there really are some!" Looking at these wild animals raised fat and strong, Section Chief Hu suddenly had an idea: would it be feasible to get one red deer to take back and distribute?

These red deer weren't very large, slightly smaller than elk; he didn't know that Li Long here had no intention of letting the red deer grow too big, as meat from overly large ones didn't taste good.

"Are these also Comrade Li Long's?" Section Chief Hu turned to ask Old Uncle Luo.

"Yes, they all belong to Little Long; a few of us help him feed them," Old Uncle Luo said, "Come, Leader, let's go inside for a drink of water."

"Alright." Section Chief Hu had originally planned to leave after finishing his inspection, but now that he had taken a liking to the red deer, he naturally wanted to inquire further about the situation.

Upon entering the room, he immediately felt warmer; Section Chief Hu sat down while Old Uncle Luo poured tea for him and Song Ming.

People around here mostly drank brick tea; only Yang Laoliu preferred jasmine tea, which was more expensive than brick tea. Old Uncle Luo figured that since guests had arrived, he might as well brew jasmine tea with boiling water for the two of them, which somewhat surprised Section Chief Hu.

"Regarding these red deer of yours, Comrade Little Li surely sells them too, right?"

"Of course, as long as someone pays, we certainly sell them," Old Uncle Luo replied. Previously, when red deer and roe deer were scarce, he hadn't wanted to sell them, but now, with these two species breeding on their own and Li Long able to catch new ones every spring, he no longer hesitated about it.

Aside from eating the meat, what else could one do with raising them? Selling them for money was quite nice too.

"This red deer isn't cheap, is it?" Section Chief Hu continued asking.

"No, it's not cheap; just think about it, the antlers alone fetch nearly ten yuan per kilogram, and the hide goes for seventy or eighty. The deer is a treasure from head to toe; if you buy a male deer to raise, you can harvest velvet antlers every year, providing a continuous stream of income. Even just for meat, it's worth it; in the past, only high-ranking officials could afford to eat such things..."

Section Chief Hu wanted to ask for a specific price, but Old Uncle Luo couldn't determine one precisely either.

However, now that he knew these could be sold, he figured no matter how expensive they were, how high could the price really go? Could they be more expensive than a cow?

Still, the fact that every part of the deer was a treasure was undeniable, so hearing this actually strengthened Section Chief Hu's resolve to buy a red deer.

Just to let everyone taste something fresh!

Of course, there was no need to decide this urgently; he could wait until returning to discuss it further.

He also needed to ask Li Long about the price of these red deer.

The prices for cattle and sheep weren't much of an issue; they would certainly follow the market rates, so only these two items required some consideration. (End of chapter)