Chapter 836: Father-in-Law Saved All His Cleverness for This!

At this moment, Gu Gu Bo Yuan erupted with a calmness and sharpness rarely seen in him; after firing one shot, he did not immediately chase the thief who had tumbled out the window screaming, but instead kicked down the young man kneeling before him, drew out his leather belt to bind his hands, and only then opened the door and stepped outside with his gun raised.

As he walked out, he did not forget to threaten the bound man:

"Don't move! Move even an inch and I'll shoot you dead!"

"I wouldn't dare, I wouldn't dare!" The bound thief was so terrified he nearly wet himself; who the hell would have known that the half-grown lad inside this acquisition station had a gun!

When he had scoped out the place yesterday, he had watched from the side for quite a while; Gu Gu Bo Yuan had been so polite and enthusiastic toward those carrying bags of fritillaria bulbs to sell their goods that even when some spoke poor Mandarin and he couldn't understand them after several repetitions, this man never grew angry, appearing refined and reasonable.

Who could have imagined that when this fellow shot someone, he would do so without a shred of hesitation!

If he moved even slightly, he might truly be shot dead; how would he dare to move?

Seeing that the fellow inside was behaving honestly enough, Gu Gu Bo Yuan turned his attention to dealing with the thief outside.

When he tumbled out through the window, this outer thief thought he was surely dead.

That was a shotgun; at such close range, let alone himself, even a bear would have been killed! Could anyone survive bullets striking their back?

When he fell from the window and discovered he could still move, he immediately crawled toward the courtyard exit with joyful surprise; although waves of severe pain in his back told him he had been hit, at least his hands and feet were still functional, and bleeding a little was fine—as long as he wasn't caught, for under the current strict regulations, being caught meant who knew how many years of waiting!

Careless, so careless; this reconnaissance was poorly done! Who could have imagined a private acquisition station would possess a gun!

Yet just as he struggled to his feet and stumbled forward only a few steps, the main gate swung open to reveal Gu Gu Bo Yuan pointing his gun at him and roaring:

"You worthless scum! Take one more step forward and I'll blow your brains out!"

This thief immediately froze, standing motionless with a face ashen as death.

"Squat down, hands behind your head!" Gu Gu Bo Yuan continued commanding, "Speak! What is your name? Where are you from and where do you live?"

How would the thief dare to speak? He could only beg for mercy repeatedly:

"Uncle, please call a doctor for me quickly; I've been shot, the blood is flowing..."

"You won't die!" Gu Gu Bo Yuan shut him down with a single sentence, "Now you know to fear death, but what were you doing earlier? You have quite the nerve, daring to come here to steal?"

Though he spoke thus, he still approached with gun raised to inspect the situation.

The problem was not serious.

Although he had made the decisive move to fire, Gu Gu Bo Yuan had no intention of taking a life; he had loaded his hunting gun with buckshot, and even then, he had removed half the lead pellets from each shell and reduced the powder charge, intending primarily to intimidate.

That previous shot had struck the thief's back; while it looked perilous, in reality only six or seven lead pellets had embedded themselves, not deeply, failing to penetrate through the back, merely drilling holes into the surface.

Seeing that this thief was unharmed, Gu Gu Bo Yuan was about to fetch rope to bind him when a loud inquiry came from outside the courtyard:

"What is the situation inside? We are the Public Security Bureau!"

"Officer Guo? This is Gu Gu Bo Yuan, Li Long's father-in-law!" Upon hearing the voice, Gu Gu Bo Yuan immediately replied:

"Some thieves came to steal, and I gave them a shot..."

"What? You fired? Did you hit them? Is it dangerous? Can the person still move..."

"It's fine, it's fine; I used a shotgun with reduced powder and fewer pellets, just some bleeding on the back, similar to an air gun." While speaking, Gu Gu Bo Yuan had already opened the main gate and ushered Guo Guo Tiebing and the others inside.

Hearing Gu Gu Bo Yuan's explanation, Guo Guo Tiebing breathed a sigh of relief; although burglary at this time was no minor crime, it basically did not warrant death unless the circumstances were particularly egregious.

He could tell that Gu Gu Bo Yuan had been prepared in advance; after entering with his colleague, Guo Guo Tiebing looked at the two thieves squatting and kneeling on the ground, carefully identified them, and shook his head—these were unfamiliar faces, not habitual offenders.

Come to think of it, this was normal; habitual offenders at this time were still sitting in prison and had not yet been released.

With the Public Security Bureau present, the two thieves also breathed a sigh of relief; to be honest, they had also worried that Gu Gu Bo Yuan, in a moment of tension, might shoot them again; although the bullets were not lethal, being shot into the body still hurt terribly!

Guo Guo Tiebing's colleague went to check on the condition of the fellow shot in the back and found that, just as Gu Gu Bo Yuan had said, the injury was not severe.

Since someone had to remain at the acquisition station and could not leave, Guo Guo Tiebing and his team planned to take Gu Gu Bo Yuan's statement there before taking the thieves back with them.

Just at this moment, a person came rushing over from the east.

Li Long's hearing was extremely keen; when the gunshot rang out, Xiao Hei in the courtyard had stirred and barked twice toward the west; Li Long immediately climbed out of bed, waking Gu Gu Xiaoxia as well; he asked Gu Gu Xiaoxia to watch the child while he ran out, guessing that the gunshot had originated from the acquisition station.

By the time he exited the large courtyard, Li Long had already seen Guo Guo Tiebing and the others heading toward the acquisition station, so he immediately quickened his pace to catch up.

"Uncle, are you alright?" Upon reaching the courtyard, Li Long's first question concerned Gu Gu Bo Yuan's condition.

"I'm fine; two thieves tried to steal," Gu Gu Bo Yuan said with a mix of reserved pride and satisfaction, "I picked up the gun, one tried to run, and I gave him a shot; rest assured, he is fine too; I reduced the powder and the pellets."

"As long as you're fine, as long as you're fine," Li Long said, his heart completely at ease.

With the acquisition station doing such substantial business, it was inevitable that people with ulterior motives would be attracted; providing Gu Gu Bo Yuan with a gun had merely been a precaution against a rainy day, yet he had not expected it to be put to use so soon.

The sequence of events was very clear, and the two thieves confessed to their actions without hesitation, so Guo Guo Tiebing and his team quickly completed the statement and took the two thieves away.

"Go back and rest; you are the only man in that large courtyard, so you must also pay attention to safety," Gu Gu Bo Yuan told Li Long, who was still wearing a vest and large shorts and now felt somewhat embarrassed.

"It's fine; our courtyard is right next to the police station; Uncle, you should still reload the bullets into the gun; given this situation, one cannot say whether there will be more trouble later."

"Rest assured, I am not yet old, and this gun is not to be trifled with," Gu Gu Bo Yuan said, brimming with confidence now that he held the weapon.

Li Long then hurried back, needing to inform Gu Gu Xiaoxia of the situation, as his wife must surely be worried.

Upon reaching the large courtyard, Li Long discovered that Sister Yang and Han Fang had already awakened and were waiting in the yard; Gu Gu Xiaoxia, unable to leave while attending to Mingming and Haohao, stood at the entrance of the main house gazing toward the main gate.

"It's fine, it's fine; some thieves tried to steal, and Mingming and Haohao's maternal grandfather shot one of them; the Public Security Bureau has taken both thieves away, so everything is fine; go back to sleep."

Li Long's voice was loud enough for all three to hear, serving as an explanation for everyone.

"As long as it's fine, as long as it's fine," Sister Yang responded, pulling Han Fang inside to sleep.

"My father is truly something!" Gu Gu Xiaoxia said softly after entering the room with Li Long, her mind at ease, "He actually dared to fire at a living person! If it were me, I would have only tried to intimidate; firing a gun risks taking a life."

"Your father is so clever; he reduced the powder and lead pellets inside that buckshot shell, so hitting a person is like being struck by an air gun pellet; the sound is quite intimidating, but the actual power is not that great."

At this time, shotgun shells could all be reloaded; the casings could be reused, primers could be purchased, and the lead pellets inside could be cast using a homemade mold.

People's manual capabilities at this time were extremely strong; even a child as big as Li Qiang could use tools and materials at hand to create at least three different types of toy guns.

Let alone adults; in this era, there were countless people using ammonium nitrate to fry explosives for fishing or blasting badgers, and quite a few accidents occurred as a result.

The next morning, when Gu Gu Bo Yuan came over for breakfast, he recounted the details of the incident to Li Long and the others.

Li Long listened hastily, then started the jeep to buy naan bread; after the Department Store Building and the Free Market opened, he purchased some supplies, loaded them up, and headed into the mountains.

Passing by Passing Qingshuihe Village, Li Long noticed that some villagers were outside in the woods, whittling poles.

He was momentarily bewildered before realizing: could it be that these people were already preparing the poles for making large brooms?

This preparation for a rainy day is a bit early.

Li Long drove the car into the mountains, turned, and headed straight for the small wooden cabin; Sun Jia Qiang was currently standing at the cabin's entrance, craning his neck to look east. For the past two days, even the work of washing and sifting fritillaria bulbs had decreased; he minimized his activity as much as possible to avoid consuming extra food.

The main reason was that the supplies in the wooden cabin had already been traded away; even the food inside was nearly gone. With Sun Jia Qiang having nothing left to trade, those nearby digging for fritillaria bulbs knew the situation and simply stopped coming.

Let alone trading for supplies; now the rice, flour, and oil in the wooden cabin were down to the dregs. If Li Long didn't arrive soon, Sun Jia Qiang would have to go hungry.

Sun Jia Qiang, who had been staring eastward, felt a sense of life suddenly emerging from despair the moment he spotted the jeep approaching.

Seeing Li Long get out of the car, carrying a bag of naan bread and walking toward him, Sun Jia Qiang was almost moved to tears.

Those digging for fritillaria bulbs had been truly frantic these past two days; the naan bread Li Long had brought for him, which should have lasted a week, had been forcibly traded away by those people. Sun Jia Qiang himself wasn't skilled at steaming mantou; the ones he made were always substandard, uncomfortable for him to eat, and unwanted by others, so for the past two days, he could only gnaw on unleavened flatbread. Sun Jia Qiang's stomach wasn't very good; that unleavened flatbread was hard to digest, and he felt that even defecating had become difficult.

After eating wild vegetables and wild mushrooms for the past two days, Sun Jia Qiang felt somewhat nauseous; now, seeing the naan, he seemed to already smell its fragrant aroma. He rushed over, first taking the large bag of naan from Li Long's hands, quickly opening the bag, urgently breaking off a piece and stuffing it into his mouth, eating while explaining the situation to Li Long.

"Boss, why did you only come now? I'm almost starving to death! Do you know that all the supplies at our wooden cabin have been traded away? Even the food is down to the bottom. If you hadn't come, those digging for fritillaria bulbs would have revolted. They came carrying bags to trade for goods, but I had nothing to give them; they mocked me one by one... Boss, did you forget about me?"

Li Long hadn't expected that being away for just three days, the shortage of supplies would have forcibly turned Sun Jia Qiang into a chatterbox.

While unloading the supplies, he said:

"Didn't I go to a meeting? When I went to Beiting for the meeting, I conveniently collected some fritillaria bulbs there and asked the sellers about the situation, discovering that their purchase price there was much lower than ours here.

So I told the people selling fritillaria bulbs there that they could come to our acquisition station here to sell.

As a result, things have escalated; these past two days, large numbers of people from other counties have come here to sell fritillaria bulbs, along with furs and other supplies.

My father-in-law couldn't handle it alone, so I was helping out. Furthermore, because the volume of shipments was so large these past two days, we were targeted; even in the middle of the night, two thief Jun Wa Zi came to the acquisition station to steal things.

Fortunately, we were prepared in advance, and my father-in-law gave one of them a shot..."

Chewing on the naan, Sun Jia Qiang helped Li Long move the goods, listening to Li Long describe the situation in the county as if hearing a story.

"Your father-in-law is truly fierce! Daring to fire at thief Jun Wa Zi; isn't he afraid of killing someone?"

"He used a shotgun; the gunpowder and lead pellets inside the shells were reduced in quantity. It makes a loud noise, but hitting someone feels like being struck by an air gun pellet," Li Long explained, then asked:

"How many fritillaria bulbs have you collected these past few days?"

"Over forty kilograms of dried goods," Sun Jia Qiang said proudly. "The weather has been good these past two days; they've all been dried."

"Good, good, very impressive," Li Long nodded appreciatively.

Although forty-plus kilograms was far less than what the acquisition station had received, how many supplies were here in the first place? Worth perhaps two or three hundred yuan? Trading for this much fritillaria was already very considerable.

The profit margin for trading fritillaria bulbs at this small wooden cabin was terrifyingly high. If calculated strictly by price, it was even lower than the prices in Beiting's Miquan area.

But since this was business conducted in the mountains, this was understandable. Those trading for fritillaria bulbs understood this too; after all, not everyone was willing to haul supplies into the mountains, taking risks to trade with these people for fritillaria bulbs.

After all the supplies on the car were unloaded, Li Long and Sun Jia Qiang loaded the two sacks of dried fritillaria bulbs onto the vehicle.

"I need to hurry back to help at the acquisition station," Li Long said to Sun Jia Qiang after washing his hands at the spring, "You stay here and keep busy for now."

"Aren't you going to wait for Hearing Hearing Bolati? He has come several times in a row, all looking for you."

"Did he bring any fritillaria bulbs?"

"He did, but seeing you weren't here, he wouldn't give them to me," Sun Jia Qiang said, still harboring some resentment about this point.

"Did he say what he wanted with me?"

"It seemed he said their warehouse has quite a lot of stuff again, asking you to go pick it up when you have time," Sun Jia Qiang said after thinking for a moment.

"Alright, I know," Li Long said, driving the jeep out of the mountains; before reaching Shankou, he encountered Hearing Hearing Bolati, who had ridden over on horseback.

"Hey, Li Long, what's going on? Haven't seen you for several days; are you not doing business anymore?" Hearing Hearing Bolati shouted loudly as he dismounted upon seeing Li Long.

"I went to the prefecture for a meeting the past two days," Li Long explained. "I heard from Sun Jia Qiang that you were looking for me? Is it urgent?"

"I've collected a lot of fritillaria bulbs, and we have a lot of fritillaria bulbs in our warehouse too; when are you going to collect them? Captain Captain Aili is getting anxious."

While speaking, Hearing Hearing Bolati untied two plastic bags from his horse; these two plastic fertilizer sacks contained at least thirty kilograms of fritillaria bulbs.

"Take a look, take a look," Hearing Hearing Bolati said somewhat proudly, opening the bags for Li Long to see.

"This batch of fritillaria bulbs is very clean; shouldn't the price be a bit higher?"

"Let me see; good, good, good, indeed the price will definitely be higher."

The fritillaria bulbs Hearing Hearing Bolati brought this time were quite clean, as if they had been washed, and dried very thoroughly.

Li Long guessed that these fritillaria bulbs were most likely what those digging for bulbs had prepared to haul out of the mountains to sell at the acquisition station; he just hadn't expected Hearing Hearing Bolati to intercept them.

"Three people, carrying four sacks of fritillaria bulbs; before the sun even rose early in the morning, they were shouldering the sacks and walking out of the mountains. They didn't expect that I would intercept them halfway. Actually, now we all understand that those digging for fritillaria bulbs have started transporting them out; they've run out of things to eat and use, and the sacks for the dug bulbs are nearly full, so some are preparing to descend the mountain early.

Therefore, we get up very early every day to patrol the mountains; we catch many people. Nowadays, early morning and dusk, when the sun is setting and it's getting dark, are the easiest times to catch people."

Li Long hadn't expected that Hearing Hearing Bolati and his group would also use their brains in this aspect; both sides were engaging in a battle of wits and courage.

"I didn't take all their fritillaria bulbs; I left one sack for the three of them. Taking it back, they can still sell it for some money. However, it's also a lesson for them; they shouldn't come here again in the future."

Listening to this, Hearing Hearing Bolati's words seemed quite reasonable. However, Li Long didn't concern himself with that; judging who was right or wrong wasn't his role. He grabbed a handful from the bottom of the fritillaria bulbs to check, finding the top and bottom were consistent. Then he asked Hearing Hearing Bolati whether he wanted money or to trade for goods.

"Trade for money; for a sack of fritillaria bulbs like this, it must be worth at least two or three hundred yuan, right?" Hearing Hearing Bolati still knew the market rates.

"One sack is around fifteen kilograms; I'll give you five hundred yuan," Li Long said. "How about one thousand yuan for these two sacks of fritillaria bulbs?"

"So high? Won't you make any profit?"

Hearing Hearing Bolati hadn't expected Li Long to offer such a high price.

"The price of fritillaria bulbs has risen somewhat this year, and the bulbs you gave me are very clean and all dried," Li Long said with a smile. "Naturally, the price will be a bit higher."

Although Li Long was collecting goods door-to-door and could have pressured the price lower, speaking from the heart, Hearing Hearing Bolati and his group had treated Li Long well. Li Long gave quite high prices to those outsiders bringing fritillaria bulbs to the acquisition station, so he felt too embarrassed to pressure Hearing Hearing Bolati and his group too much on the price.

"I happen to have money with me; here, I'll give it to you now." After loading the fritillaria bulbs onto the car, Li Long took out money for Hearing Hearing Bolati; Hearing Hearing Bolati smiled, rubbed his hands together, and walked up to Li Long.

One thousand yuan, one hundred large bills—a thick stack; after Li Long finished counting, he handed it to Hearing Hearing Bolati. Hearing Hearing Bolati took the money and stuffed it inside his clothes; Li Long hurriedly said, "Count it."

"No need to count, no need to count; I watched you count it, so it's definitely correct," Hearing Hearing Bolati said with a smile, patting the pocket where the money was stored. "One child needs to go to school, and another child is about to get married; I need to prepare things for him."

"I still have several thousand yuan saved up for you there," Li Long said with a smile. "Are you sure you don't want it? Is it just to buy a courtyard for you?"

"Then let's buy it; my eldest son is about to get married. The partner he's dating doesn't want to stay in the mountains; she wants to live in the county town. So I was thinking of buying a house for him in the county town."

"Are there any requirements?" Li Long asked again.

"No, no; having a courtyard in the county town is enough. Of course, it would be best if the original owner was of our ethnicity; in that case, we would also like the decoration style."

"Alright, I understand. I'll keep an eye out and try my best to buy it for you this year."

"Then when will you come to our warehouse over there to haul the goods?" Hearing Hearing Bolati asked. "The fritillaria bulbs stored in our warehouse there now are even more than last time. Nowadays, many people have already started shipping them out; it's not just me intercepting a lot—others are intercepting quite a bit too."

"In another two days," Li Long said. "I'll finish up my affairs here first, then head over to your place in two days. Tell your Team Leader Captain Aili that I'm quite busy these couple of days and that there are also many matters to handle in the county."

"Good, good." With his own affairs settled, Hearing Hearing Bolati had already set down a heavy stone from his heart; as for the forestry team's matters, it sufficed for him to simply relay the message.

After all, one could distinguish very clearly between the individual and the public.

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