Chapter 770: Something happened in the mountains

When Li Long and the others drove their tractor to the entrance, he could clearly see that the man riding the bicycle was still unwilling to give up, asking the guard:

"How many pelts do I need to sell here?"

"At least a hundred, we don't take any less." The guard held his head high.

Li Long thought to himself, that was close; it was only because he had plenty of pelts that it wasn't a wasted trip.

A big shop bullies its customers. At this time, light industrial enterprises like textile mills and leather factories were major taxpayers, with high output value and high tax revenue. Local support was strong, the factories had good benefits, and the workers felt very good about themselves.

This was the era of the leather factory; it would be doing well for at least the next ten years. It was only later that the leather factory slowly faded from everyone's view, and the new stars were the thermal power plants, followed by cotton textile mills and various other enterprises, including wineries and so on.

They all thrived for a period, and then slowly, new substitute enterprises emerged.

At least for a considerable time, the leather factory's benefits were still quite good, so it was no wonder the guard was so arrogant.

By this time, there were already people going from street to street and village to village to collect pelts, accumulating a certain amount before coming to the leather factory to sell them in bulk.

They might buy a pelt for ten yuan and sell it for eleven or twelve. Going down to the countryside once, earning a yuan or eighty cents per pelt, was also quite hard work.

But at this time, the price of pelts was indeed not low. Li Long vaguely remembered that in the summer, a dead dog's pelt could sell for ten yuan.

The guard stopped paying attention to the man on the bicycle and shouted to Li Long, who hadn't gotten off the tractor yet:

"Selling pelts, right? Turn right after entering the gate; the procurement section's door is open. The road is slippery, be careful, don't hit anyone."

Li Long thought to himself that it seemed there were quite a few people driving tractors to sell pelts.

After going in, he knew he had been wrong; there weren't many tractors, but there were two horse-drawn carts lined up in front.

The owners of the two carts were unloading pelts. There was more than one person collecting pelts, so there was no need to queue on both sides. Li Long had good hearing, and with the tractor engine still running, he heard, "This pelt has a tear, count it as eleven yuan..."

"Can you raise the price a bit? This eleven yuan..."

"If you don't want to sell, put it aside!"

Sure enough, it was a seller's market; there was no helping it.

Li Long didn't really care; the money from collecting sheep had already been recouped and he had made a good profit. These pelts were just a bonus, and he was just here to scout the market.

Li Long was still thinking about waiting when two people came out of the collection point. One was holding a ticket folder, and the other was wearing gloves. They asked:

"Selling pelts, right? What kind of pelts, and how many?"

"One hundred and sixty-eight sheep pelts, four cow pelts, and thirty-four rabbit pelts."

"Hey, that's quite a lot. Do the sheep pelts have small intestines?"

"They all do."

"Alright then, come on, start unloading."

"What's the market price?" Li Long and Li Jianguo asked while unloading.

"Sheep pelts are fifteen yuan each, depending on the size, with some fluctuation up or down. Your quantity of rabbit pelts is a bit small, but since you have plenty of other pelts, that's fine. Three yuan and fifty cents each, also depending on size, with a fluctuation of thirty cents. Cow pelts are more expensive, forty-five yuan each."

Li Long calculated, and the price was even better than he had imagined.

He remembered the matter with Wang Dagui and asked again:

"Then if I bring rabbit pelts alone, what's the minimum quantity you'll collect?"

"One hundred."

The man replied while flipping through the stacked sheep pelts. He looked at one and said:

"The skinning technique is good. This pelt... hmm, the quality is acceptable. Count this one as fifteen yuan and fifty cents."

The person with the ticket folder recorded it right then. This person looked like an old hand, checking very quickly and carefully. When he had flipped through about ten, he said with some surprise:

"Young man, not bad. You collected these sheep pelts from a ranch, right? The skinning technique is very sharp; there isn't a single damaged pelt here, and there's no grease on them either. The pelt quality is also good. If they were all like the pelts you brought, we would certainly welcome them."

Li Long smiled, and Li Jianguo smiled too. Thinking about it now, Li Long's decision to slaughter and skin the sheep after bringing Ha Ha Li Mu and the others down from the mountains was truly a correct one.

If it had been left to Li Jianguo's skinning skills, at least a quarter of these sheep pelts would have been damaged.

Just checking these pelts took nearly half an hour. The people with the two horse-drawn carts had already finished and settled their accounts, and only then did they start checking the rabbit pelts.

"The rabbit pelts are average," the inspector said. "Three yuan and fifty cents, unified collection, how about it?"

"Fine." Li Long naturally had no objections.

Finally, settling the account, the sheep pelts sold for two thousand five hundred and seventy yuan and forty cents, and the cow pelts sold for one hundred and thirty-nine yuan. Li Long himself received two thousand seven hundred and nine yuan and forty cents.

The rabbit pelts were standard, and he ended up with one hundred and nineteen yuan.

"Young man, these aren't pelts you collected yourself, are they?"

"No," Li Long said while signing. "These are sheep raised by my own family."

"Impressive. I haven't seen a Han person who could slaughter so many sheep at once. In the future, if you have pelts like these, just send them over. Never mind a hundred, fifty is fine too. When you get here, tell the guard that Old Zhang from the procurement section said so, and he'll definitely let you in."

"Alright, thank you, Brother Zhang." Li Long smiled, thought for a moment, and asked:

"Brother Zhang, let me ask you something. Do you collect other types of pelts here?"

"What other pelts?" Old Zhang had nothing to do at the moment and was willing to chat with Li Long.

He could tell that Li Long was likely a potential big client, and for such a client, he was willing to build a relationship and have a good talk.

"I mean pelts from wild animals like wolves, Mongolian gazelles, red deer, and roe deer."

"We collect them, yes. These pelts aren't cheap." Old Zhang said with a smile: "Little comrade, can you get your hands on them?"

"Yes, I have friends in the mountains who asked me to inquire."

"Not bad. Seeing how young you are, I didn't expect your connections to be so wide." Old Zhang glanced at Li Long, then at Li Jianguo, who had been quiet the whole time, nodded, and said:

"Since we are a leather factory, we certainly collect all good pelts. For example, wolf pelts, if they aren't damaged, are basically fifty or sixty yuan each. Red deer pelts are more expensive, ranging from sixty or seventy to seventy or eighty. If there are bear pelts, then that's really expensive; one can be several hundred, and a large brown bear pelt can go over a thousand! Of course, the even more expensive snow leopard pelt could almost be traded for a tractor!"

"What about Mongolian gazelle and roe deer pelts?" Li Long felt the collection price for these high-end pelts was a bit vague here, so he asked about the ones he could get often.

"Mongolian gazelle pelts are a bit more than wolf pelts, and the price is about the same, around fifty or sixty. Of course, they must be intact pelts. If they are damaged, skinned poorly, or have bullet holes, then they drop a grade; all pelts are the same in that regard. As for those roe deer pelts, they are a bit worse than red deer pelts, but they are also good, and they are about the same price."

It was about what Li Long had expected; he could earn about ten yuan or so on each of the pelts he had collected.

Li Long had a bottom line in his heart, so he stopped asking.

After signing, under Old Zhang's guidance, he took the ticket to collect the money.

After Li Long and the others left, the ticket clerk said to Old Zhang:

"Technician Zhang, why were you so polite to that young man?"

"That young man is not simple." Old Zhang said while directing people to move the sheep pelts into the warehouse: "He was able to ask about so many ins and outs, which shows he has seen all these pelts before.

Didn't you see me mention bear pelts and snow leopard pelts later? When that young man heard that, his expression was a bit dismissive. I suspect he might have had bear pelts, or even snow leopard pelts! The price we gave wasn't within his expectations, which is why he asked about Mongolian gazelle and roe deer pelts."

"That's not very likely, is it? A young man like that, how could he have so much experience?"

"Hehe, trust my eyes. Now that we're doing a market economy, maybe he really does have a bunch of friends in the mountains. These things are rarely seen in our plains area, and some people haven't even heard of them, but people in the mountains see plenty. Those things live in the mountains. I was polite to him just to build a relationship; if he really wants to sell pelts in the future, we are one of his options."

The ticket clerk nodded; so that's how relationships were built.

"Brother, shall we eat in the county?" After leaving the leather factory, Li Long saw the guard still explaining to someone that they didn't collect small quantities of pelts. He ignored him and turned to ask Li Jianguo loudly.

"Let's go back. I told your sister-in-law when we left that we'd be back for lunch." Li Jianguo wasn't trying to save money; he had eaten out a few times and always felt that eating at home was more convenient and comfortable.

Then let's go back.

The tractor chugged its way back to the Fourth Team, and it was already two-thirty in the afternoon.

Li Long looked at the open space on the south side of the courtyard; those children were still playing soccer, but there weren't as many as when they had left.

Seeing the tractor chugging back, a few children reluctantly dispersed. Li Qiang came back holding the soccer ball, with the big lad Tie Tou by his side.

"Qiangqiang, are we still playing this afternoon?" a child in the distance shouted and asked.

"Yes!" Li Qiang answered loudly.

He wore his hat crookedly, and sweat was steaming from the gap between his hair and the hat.

Walking into the gate and seeing his father and Li Long getting off the tractor, Li Qiang wiped his nose with his sleeve and shouted:

"Dad, Uncle, Mom has made the food, she's waiting for you!"

"Did your mom say that as soon as we got back, you'd come back to eat?" Li Long asked with a smile.

"Yes." Li Qiang smiled, looking quite proud.

Li Jianguo went to drain the tractor's water, and Li Long went to get a basin to catch it. Leaving this stuff on the ground was fine, but there were elderly people at home. If this water was poured on the ground, it would become a patch of ice in ten minutes, which could easily cause someone to fall.

As soon as the door opened, Li Long smelled the fragrance of food: rice, two meat dishes, and the remaining pickled cabbage stewed with pork.

Li Juan and Han Fang were no longer playing with knuckle-bones; they were in the kitchen helping Liang Yuemei tidy up the bowls.

"Did you sell the pelts?" Li Qing Xia, who was sitting on the sofa, asked, "How did it go?"

"The price was okay, sheep pelts were over fifteen yuan," Li Long said, "cow pelts were over forty."

"Good, good." Li Qing Xia nodded, and Du Chunfang asked with a grin, "Is it very cold? Look at all the frost on your clothes."

"It's quite cold." Li Long and Li Jianguo took off their outer coats, preparing to eat.

After the meal, Han Fang reluctantly said goodbye to Li Juan, and Li Long drove the jeep to Wang Dagui's house; he still had to give that one hundred and nineteen yuan to him.

When the jeep arrived at Wang Dagui's gate, Wang Dagui was already in the courtyard.

Li Long didn't drive into the courtyard; he parked on the side of the road, got out, and went over to greet him:

"Brother Dagui, have you eaten?"

"Just finished. Have you eaten? If not, come in and have some?"

"I've eaten. I sold the rabbit pelts, and this time I'm here to deliver the money." Li Long took out the one hundred and nineteen yuan and handed it over, "The leather factory collects rabbit pelts, three yuan and fifty cents each, which is more expensive than the collection station. You had thirty-four pelts, so this is one hundred and nineteen yuan."

"Hey, this is all thanks to you!" Wang Dagui said with a laugh, "It's my fault. If I had known you were selling pelts today, I should have followed along; I could have at least helped unload them."

"It's fine, call you next time if there's an opportunity. By the way, the leather factory said they collect rabbit pelts in batches of one hundred, they don't take small quantities." Li Long reminded him, "If you have more, save them up before going to sell."

"Alright, I know now. Sorry to trouble you, Little Long."

"No trouble, it was on the way."

The matter was settled, and Li Long got into the jeep and drove away.

Wang Dagui wouldn't give Li Long a commission; they were all fellow villagers, and giving money would feel distant. This was different from Li Long collecting big brooms and such.

So Wang Dagui decided to trap some more wild game and send it directly to Li Jianguo's house.

That's how human relationships work.

Having sold the pelts, Li Long had put another worry to rest. Now, when pelts accumulated, he could go to the leather factory to sell them, or wait for Zhao Hui to come and collect them; there were multiple paths to take.

For the next two days, he didn't go to the collection station's courtyard. Occasionally passing by, or when Gu Xiaoxia passed by after getting off work at noon, she said there were still people waiting there from time to time.

Li Long knew there were people there but didn't go over, staying at home to accompany the two children, occasionally taking them out to endure the cold, feel the breath of winter, and touch the snow to get grounded.

The winter sun wasn't strong, but leaning against the wall, one could still sunbathe, which was better than being stuck in the room every day.

Mingming and Haohao also liked being outside, and it was obvious that their moods were much better when they were outside.

After resting for more than a week, Li Long felt restless and, after telling Gu Xiaoxia, drove the jeep to the department store to buy some daily necessities, went to the market to buy some potatoes and onions, and then headed into the mountains to see Ha Ha Li Mu and the others.

The reason the sheep pelts sold so smoothly this time, and at such a high price, was largely due to Ha Ha Li Mu and the others' craftsmanship, and Li Long wanted to go and thank them.

Smoke was drifting from Ha Ha Li Mu's winter den. When Li Long's jeep crossed the gully, the dogs barked and ran over, as if greeting him.

Ha Ha Li Mu came out of the winter den, and when he saw Li Long getting out of the car, he smiled.

The two shook hands and exchanged greetings, then Li Long began unloading things from the car, and Ha Ha Li Mu didn't stand on ceremony, following along to help.

After the things were unloaded, when Li Long entered the room to have some milk tea, he saw someone who surprised him.

Ta Lihaer, his arm wrapped in thick gauze, with blood seeping through. There were also wounds on his face, and the corner of his mouth was swollen.

"What happened?" Li Long asked hurriedly, "Did you fall or..."

"Chased by a group of wild boars..." Ta Lihaer's mouth was swollen, and his speech was unclear, but Li Long could barely understand him.

Looking at his condition, it was quite serious! (End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 771 =====