Chapter 809: Priorities: Father-in-Law Comes to Help

Roasted meat, boiled meat, flatbread, meat soup.

A very hearty lunch — for Meng Hai and the others, it was an unexpected delight.

Actually, when they came, they had prepared themselves to suffer more. After all, Li Long's side had already given them decent treatment — fairly high wages, and being in the mountains, the food would surely be kept simple.

For them, flatbread was actually quite good — after all, some households nowadays still ate according to a ratio of six parts fine grain to four parts coarse grain.

They hadn't fully achieved freedom from coarse grain.

No matter how you put it, flatbread is still white flour, and it's roasted — it tastes good.

They hadn't expected the food to actually be this good!

Some had originally complained that Li Long had run off without doing any work, but now all that was gone.

He went hunting to improve our meals — that's proper work too.

A person is iron, rice is steel — skip one meal and you'll be starving.

With such good food, how could they not work hard?

So Li Li Xiangqian was surprised to find that after lunch and a half-hour rest, these people got up one by one and went to work on their own.

Each one working even harder than in the morning!

"Director, you all keep working — I'll head into the mountains again." Seeing Meng Hai and the others start working, Li Long stood up and said, "I'll see if I can hunt some more game."

"Hunt more? We haven't even finished what's here." Zhou Yuan pointed at the meat and bones still being picked from the basin. "Isn't that too much?"

"Whatever I bring back, I'll share with everyone. Since I'm in the mountains, I should bring back some harvest." Li Long smiled.

Zhou Yuan, who had been about to try to talk him out of it, immediately fell silent.

Right — not only should he not be talked out of it, he should be strongly supported!

"This kid… Li Long, if you want to slack off just say so!" Li Li Xiangqian laughed and scolded.

"Then Director, how about you go hunting and I'll work here? I'll be honest — this work I can do too, but hunting, you really might not be better than me." Li Long joked back.

"Go, go." Li Li Xiangqian was a bit speechless — the kid had actually exposed his weakness directly. "Stay safe…"

The deputy director actually wanted to follow Li Long and have a look, but before he could suggest it, he saw Li Long grab his gun, sling his pack on his back, and stride toward the mountain, reaching the halfway slope in no time.

So he gave up the idea — honestly, he couldn't keep up.

Those long legs of his didn't seem to tire at all, like they had springs in them — he bounded up the mountain in no time.

During the break he had tried climbing the mountain himself, and halfway up he couldn't continue — this kind of work wasn't for someone like him.

Just as Li Li Xiangqian had said, someone like Li Long was born to make a living from the great mountains.

They were the masters of the great mountains.

Wang Qiang, holding a deer leg in one hand and a bag in the other, hurried out of the ravine. Only when he turned his head and could no longer see the man with the gun did he finally breathe a sigh of relief.

Actually, he knew that in those last moments, if that man hadn't fired the shot, he really wouldn't have caught up with the red deer.

He couldn't just throw away the fritillaria he'd worked so hard to dig up, could he? That was the livelihood he'd toiled for over the past few days.

Going down into another ravine, after walking a stretch he saw a pit trap that had already been broken.

The pit was about half a meter across and seventy or eighty centimeters deep — that was where the red deer had gotten stuck.

Actually, it wasn't that it couldn't get out, but because the pit was too small, the deer's hind half had sunk in, making it hard to climb out and push off.

That was also why Wang Qiang had managed to hit the deer's hind leg.

He looked at the pit, then kept walking. When he reached a stretch of scree on the south slope of the ravine, he bent down and crawled under a jutting slab of rock.

This was the hiding place he'd dug out using the terrain.

The rock didn't look that big from the outside, but its base went deep. Wang Qiang had dug out the earth beneath the rock and piled it on both sides, creating a relatively concealed shelter.

Inside the cave was a simple stove built of stones, on top of which sat a rebar pot blackened from use; in the corner was a roll of bedding. Wang Qiang set the deer leg on the rebar pot, put the fritillaria in the deepest part, and covered it with the bedding.

Next, he took the deer leg in one hand and the rebar pot in the other and went to fetch water.

The deer leg weighed seven or eight kilograms — enough to last him several days.

Of course, it had to be cooked first.

In no time, a thin wisp of smoke rose in the ravine.

No fritillaria grew in this ravine, so very few people came here; once the smoke rose, it didn't attract much attention.

Wang Qiang knew there was a wooden hut to the northwest where he could trade for supplies. He had originally planned to go trade today — he didn't have much food left here — but with this deer leg, he could hold out a few more days.

After washing the deer leg and filling the rebar pot with water, Wang Qiang carried it back and set it on the already-lit stove, then took out his knife — already dull and somewhat rusted — sharpened it on a nearby stone, and began cutting the venison.

The knife was very dull. It had been used a long time and sharpened many times; the steel inside was already gone, leaving only iron. The moment it touched anything hard, the edge would roll and refuse to cut.

At this moment Wang Qiang couldn't help envying that man from earlier — what a sharp knife he had. He wondered if that little wooden hut had any knives to trade for.

Knives, salt, rice, flour…

He had too many things he needed to trade for.

He turned to look at the fritillaria he'd hidden away, thinking — this should be enough, right?

After crossing several mountains, Li Long headed toward Talihar's winter camp.

He remembered Talihar once bringing back more than a dozen wild goats. Listening to Talihar tell it at the time, the main reason was that on their side there was a stretch of very rugged rocky mountain — wild goats liked to climb and run on mountains like that to evade predators.

Li Long knew red deer were hard to find in the mountains; if he could find a herd of wild goats, that would work too.

He didn't need to get a whole herd like Talihar had — even two or three would be enough to share.

Each plays to his strength. Meng Hai and the others' strength was renovating houses; Li Li Xiangqian's strength was that, as the leader, he could allocate supplies, making the renovation work more convenient.

Then his own strength was hunting, providing everyone with meat — that was pretty good too.

Soon, he cut diagonally across and arrived on the ridge south of Talihar's winter camp.

Ahead, after crossing two more mountains, he could indeed see rugged terrain, and faintly could make out animals leaping among the peaks. Li Long's spirits lifted, and he immediately headed that way.

Between the two mountains it looked like only a hundred or two hundred meters, but actually climbing it was at least five or six hundred meters, maybe more.

Half an hour later, Li Long reached the ridge opposite that rugged slope.

From here, the straight-line distance to that steep cliff face was less than a hundred meters; Li Long could see seven or eight wild goats leaping between the nearly vertical rocks, grazing.

In spots where Li Long deemed it nearly impossible to stand, the wild goats stood nimbly, stretching their necks to reach the grass growing on the cliff face.

Li Long raised his rifle and aimed at one of them.

At this moment, he felt nothing; he was simply a mechanical hunter.

"Bang!"

"Bang!"

"Bang!"

At the first gunshot, one wild goat fell; the others immediately scrambled up the cliff face in flight. One lost its footing and tumbled down, yet amazingly, during its fall, it kicked off the cliff wall several times, attempting to find a crevice to stand on, before finally being stopped by a bush.

Li Long then fired a single shot to end its life.

Three shots, three wild goats brought down: two tumbled all the way to the bottom of the mountain, while the third was caught by a bush, hanging on the cliff face some ten-plus meters up without falling further.

The remaining wild goats had by now successfully scrambled up the cliff and vanished from sight.

Li Long carried his rifle and walked down toward the bottom of the gully.

Both fallen wild goats were dead. One had been shot in the head, likely killed instantly on impact; the other had been shot in the belly. Li Long guessed it had died from the fall.

As for the wild goat that hadn't fallen, Li Long looked up. It lay on the bush, still trembling slightly; it clearly wasn't completely dead yet.

He attempted to climb up, but after scaling five or six meters, he could go no further. This section of the cliff was too steep, offering no footholds; it was as smooth as if sliced by a knife.

The stone crevices those wild goats could stand on were impossible for Li Long to grip.

After a moment's thought, he found several stones at the bottom of the gully, took aim, and hurled them at the wild goat.

The first stone struck the goat's head, but the force was insufficient to knock it off the bush.

Li Long then threw several more times, trying different angles. Almost every stone hit its mark, causing the wild goat on the bush to shift slightly and lose its balance.

After seven or eight stones had been thrown, the wild goat was finally knocked loose and fell.

Li Long stepped aside, waited for the goat to roll down, then went over to gather it and place it with the other two.

None of these three wild goats were very large; each weighed thirty-something kilograms.

He took a rope from his backpack, tied the two slightly smaller ones together, slung them over his back, carried the third wild goat in his hand, and hurried back.

There was no way to process them here; finishing the job here would make them difficult to carry back.

When Li Long arrived at Brother Brother Yushanjiang's winter dwelling with the three wild goats, he found that the main construction work there was nearing completion.

The roof of the winter dwelling, which had originally been dismantled, was now rebuilt. One could see that the mud plaster applied on top was very thick, with the uppermost layer smoothed over with cement concrete mortar. This way, rainwater would not accumulate on it, and grass seeds would not easily take root, eventually causing leaks.

The walls of the winter dwelling had been entirely coated with a layer of concrete; all the original pitted and flaking areas had been repaired. The entire doorframe had been knocked out and rebuilt with bricks; Li Long now regretted not having brought two new doors to replace the old ones.

Now, those two old doors looked somewhat out of place against the brand-new winter dwelling.

The brick-built water pool was also finished, but since the cement concrete had not yet dried, the water pipes had not yet been moved over.

When Li Long arrived carrying the wild goats, Meng Hai and the others were renovating the shed and pen beside the winter dwelling.

This job was relatively simpler, as the structure was made entirely of wood; they only needed to replace the missing wooden parts and then reinforce everything by weaving it together with wire.

The grass on top of the shed, which had originally been held down by bundles of wood pressing bundle upon bundle, was now woven and fixed together with wire, making it much sturdier.

Seeing Li Long return carrying and leading the wild goats, Meng Hai and the others, though somewhat accustomed to it, still felt envious.

Li Long placed the wild goats by the water pipe, exchanged greetings with Li Xiang Qian and the others, and then began skinning and gutting them.

Li Xiang Qian came over to wash his hands, intending to give Li Long a hand. However, seeing Li Long's skilled movements, he felt his presence standing by was superfluous.

Instead, Meng Hai glanced over, said a word to a young lad, and that lad ran over, cleared out two of the original large basins, and helped Li Long hold the offal and turn the intestines.

This was not the first time Ma Ma Xiao Yan had seen Li Long go hunting. Nor was it the first time she had received meat from Li Long; of course, this time she was just as delighted.

When Li Long arrived, Ma Ma Xiao Yan had already completed her accompanying interview mission for this trip and was on the hillside picking mushrooms and digging wild onions.

Section Chief Zhou Yuan of the Procurement Section was nearby, doing the same. Ma Ma Xiao Yan did it for livelihood, while Zhou Yuan was purely curious; of course, after a trip into the mountains, it was only normal to bring back some local specialties.

By the time Li Long had gutted, skinned, and butchered all three goats, the sun had already slanted westward above the treetops. Meng Hai and the others had finished their work and helped Li Long clean all the wild goat offal.

"Let's divide these goats," Li Long said. "Tonight we'll still eat venison; everyone take a leg of this mutton home as a benefit for this trip into the mountains."

Meng Hai and the others made no sound, then looked at Li Xiang Qian.

Li Xiang Qian smiled and said:

"Since Xiao Long has spoken, everyone hurry up and take yours."

"If you don't take one, nobody else dares," Li Long joked.

"You little rascal, daring to tease me?" Li Xiang Qian scolded with a laugh, but still stepped forward, casually picked up a goat leg, and found a bag to pack it.

Only then did everyone take one leg each; carrying their respective goat legs, their faces were all beaming with smiles.

"The remaining meat is all mine then," Li Long finally said. "Come, come, let's eat first. I see the venison in the pot is still hot; is there any naan left?"

"Yes, yes, yes," the driver called out loudly from over there. He had also received a goat leg and was quite happy.

Although the wild goats weren't large, with each leg weighing only four or five kilograms or so, this was meat, after all.

Free meat; these people certainly wouldn't complain it was too little to stick between their teeth.

Of course, no one objected to Li Long taking the remaining meat—since Li Xiang Qian had no objection, others certainly wouldn't; moreover, this meat was obtained by Li Long himself. Even if he hadn't shared it, no one could do anything about it, let alone that he had given everyone a goat leg, which was quite generous.

Li Long packed the remaining meat into bags and put them in the trunk, then joined everyone else in finishing off the venison still boiling in the pot.

Meng Hai and the others split up their tasks, some washing the pot, others packing up tools; today's work amounted to completing the mission ahead of schedule.

Some bricks, cement, and wood remained in front of the winter dwelling; Meng Hai and the others moved these materials inside the winter dwelling, planning to carry them over to Tarihar and the others tomorrow.

As for the carrying poles, Li Long planned to simply fetch a few from Little White Poplar Gully tomorrow.

Before leaving, Li Long paid Meng Hai and the others their wages for the day on the spot, ten yuan per person. Li Xiang Qian also stated that after this job was finished, Li Long should go to the finance department for reimbursement; the Supply and Marketing Cooperative would cover these wages.

With the jeep in front and the truck behind, the sun was still quite high when they exited the mountains. Li Xiang Qian remarked with emotion:

"If we keep working at this speed, we might finish in less than ten days, right?"

"About that. There are two or three winter dwellings ahead that are relatively close; once we finish one side, we can move to the other to continue," Li Long explained while driving. "Today was essentially a speed test; starting tomorrow, we won't be this leisurely."

"Will you go hunting tomorrow?" Ma Ma Xiao Yan asked.

"We'll see then; we might still go."

"Then can you come pick me up tomorrow? Oh, Director Li, will you be coming tomorrow?"

"Of course I'm coming. I'm not just putting on a show; I will definitely be there tomorrow," Xiang Qian said.

He had actually made up his mind to persist for at least three days. Now that this Comrade Ma was following along tomorrow, he certainly had to come.

Most people in the truck could sense that part of the reason Ma Ma Xiao Yan was coming along was so Li Long might share any game he caught with them. But no one felt there was anything wrong with that.

After the truck arrived at Passing Qingshuihe Village, it stopped to let Meng Hai and the others get off.

After getting out of the vehicle, Meng Hai and the others waved to Li Long, then each went home.

Greenish smoke was still drifting over the threshing floor; clearly, those weaving the carrying poles had not yet finished their work.

When some villagers saw Meng Hai and the others returning, each carrying a leg of mutton, they immediately surrounded them to ask what had happened. Upon learning that Meng Hai and the others not only earned wages but also received a share of meat, every one of these people was extremely envious.

Originally, some people had not been selected to carry the poles; when Meng Hai had invited them to work, hearing it was five yuan a day rebuilding houses in the mountains, some had felt it would be too bitter and tiring and refused to go.

But now that they knew the pay had become ten yuan a day plus a share of meat, those who had previously refused Meng Hai immediately regretted it.

That very evening, someone brought eggs to Meng Hai's home, wanting to ask if the job still needed more hands.

Meng Hai rejected them outright.

He was wary of such people; although ordinary human nature is mostly like this—refusing first, then currying favor later—this was something Meng Hai could not do. They wanted to earn money, wanted goods, yet did not want to exert any effort.

Where could one find such a good deal?

In the future, he would have to keep his distance from these people; they were not suitable as friends.

Li Long drove Xiang Qian and the others to their respective homes, then returned to the big courtyard himself.

Gu Gu Bo Yuan and Gu Gu Xiaoxia had not yet returned, but Han Fang had already finished school and was in the courtyard looking after Mingming and Haohao, while Sister Yang was cooking.

He unloaded the meat brought back this time and carried it into the kitchen.

"There's quite a lot of meat this time!" Sister Yang, who was preparing the vegetables, said with a smile upon seeing so much meat and offal, "Our family certainly doesn't lack for meat."

"It was hunted in the mountains; let's smoke it," Li Long said. "Later, I'll break the bones into small pieces, and we'll make dried meat."

Before dinner, Gu Gu Bo Yuan came over, and Li Long told him something.

Since Li Long would be going into the mountains for the next two days to help rebuild the herders' houses, he would be unable to attend to the procurement station. Li Long thought this work could not stop; having just posted notice that they would open every other day, he could not go back on his word. Therefore, he could only see if Gu Gu Bo Yuan could pause things at his agricultural supplies shop for two days to watch the station instead.

Gu Gu Bo Yuan naturally had no problem with this; he asked Li Long to write down the prices for purchasing goods tonight so he would know how to proceed later.

"I've always been selling things; this is my first time buying. Before, when I sold goods to the procurement station with your elder brother, I watched them wave their hand grandly to grade my goods and felt it was particularly impressive. Now I get to experience it myself," Gu Gu Bo Yuan joked.

"Then you can fully experience it these few days," Gu Gu Xiaoxia said with a laugh. "Once Li Long is done with his busy work and you have finished your experience, we can look at your agricultural supplies shop again."

"What does that mean? Use me and then throw me away?" Gu Gu Bo Yuan said, feigning anger.

Everyone burst out laughing. (End of Chapter)