Chapter 98

It was four or five kilometers away from the winter camp here. It wasn't impossible to drag the two wild boars back by hand, but it was somewhat difficult.

Li Long simply gutted the wild boars right here.

Halimu didn't come forward to help; he said to Li Long:

"You work here first; I'll go back to lead the horse over, and then help you drag the two wild boars back."

"Alright."

Li Long, not very skillfully, had already used his knife to cut the carotid arteries of the two wild boars, constantly stepping on them to let the blood drain. If this blood wasn't drained, the meat wouldn't taste good.

After draining the blood, Li Long began to gut them, clearing out all the stomachs and intestines inside the pigs.

These things were actually quite good, but right now he had no time to mess with them; he might not even be able to take all the pure meat back.

However, he had to keep the wild boar stomach; it was worth three yuan, after all.

And this thing was medicine, effective for stomach ailments; keeping it or selling it was both fine.

The rest was skinning. Li Long still hesitated when using the knife, finding it hard to make the cut, but once he really started cutting, he couldn't care about that much anymore.

Besides here, where else could he practice skinning so easily?

He didn't want to have designs on Halimu's sheep. Since the last time he helped Halimu and Yushanjiang process dozens of sheep, the two families' forage was now sufficient, and the moods of both families had improved quite a bit.

With money on hand and no shortage of supplies, these sheep were not just food, but wealth, a career, and a sustenance for life.

The weather was still very cold. By the time one pig was half-skinned, it had already frozen completely, making it hard to use the knife.

Li Long didn't dwell on it anymore. Although the wild boar skin looked a mess, at least he had practiced some initial feel.

Then he tied the two pigs together, dragged them onto the plastic sheet, and rolled the plastic sheet up.

When Halimu rode the horse over, he tied one end of the rope of the bundled "pig bundle" to the saddle.

"Do you want to get on?" Halimu asked.

"No need. You just drag them to the foot of the mountain, a bit further away from your winter camp," Li Long said, "don't affect your family. I'll walk over, and when I get there, I'll find two pieces of wood to carry on the back of the bicycle, tie these two guys on, and take them away."

"Alright." Halimu nodded, rode the horse, and dragged the two wild boars away.

Li Long, wearing felt boots and carrying his gun, walked back with deep and shallow steps.

But before he had walked far, Li Long felt his hair stand on end again.

With a nimble flick of his shoulder, he had the semi-automatic rifle in his hands. He disengaged the safety, turned around, and aimed the gun back the way he came.

Damn it!

Right on the ridge where he had just come down from the mountain, a wild wolf was staring at him!

There were still bloodstains on the corner of the wild wolf's mouth. Li Long guessed it must have just eaten the wild boar skin or internal organs he had left behind.

"Bang!" Li Long didn't hesitate at all and fired a shot at the wolf!

The bullet hit not far from the wild wolf, splashing up a spray of snow!

The wild wolf was startled, turned around, and disappeared to the other side of the ridge.

Li Long didn't rush over; he knew that even if he did, it would probably be very difficult to see the wolf's shadow.

After watching for a while, the wild wolf didn't appear again, so Li Long turned around and continued walking back with his gun.

It would be great if he had skis—unfortunately, even if he did, he wouldn't know how to ski.

Li Long looked back from time to time, didn't see the wolf, and that premonition of danger approaching never appeared again.

Over an hour later, he arrived at the foot of the mountain at the winter camp. What surprised Li Long somewhat was that the two wild boars had already been bundled and tied to his 28-inch bicycle, while Halimu was chopping wood outside the winter camp.

"I heard you fire a shot just now, what happened?" Halimu asked.

"A wolf appeared where we were shooting; I was startled."

"There's a wolf?" Halimu was stunned for a moment, "I thought you had discovered some prey again—if you put it that way, I'll have to be careful too."

After warming up in the winter camp for a while and drinking two bowls of milk tea, Li Long took his leave.

He wrapped up the Type 56 semi-automatic rifle, tied it to the bicycle, and rode slowly back to the county seat. The sky had already darkened.

With no heart to cook again, Li Long went to the meat canteen to buy a few steamed buns and then went to his old house.

Entering the courtyard, he propped up the bicycle and set up the stove. After the fire grew strong, he ate the buns and then unloaded the vehicle.

He barely managed to put the two pigs in the kitchen, set the fire again, boiled water, and continued to busy himself in the kitchen.

Fortunately, there were electric lights here, so he didn't have to process them in the dark. Li Long thought while continuing to practice skinning, after finishing the main business tomorrow, should he ask the neighborhood office where to pay the electricity bill.

!.

Li Long was busy until twelve o'clock at night before he managed to skin both pigs. It wasn't smooth; the pig skins were skinned in a fragmented way, and the skinned pork was also pitted, but overall, he had at least finished.

He found an axe again and chopped the two wild boars open—legs were legs, ribs were ribs, pork belly was pork belly—and then planned to try his luck at the black market tomorrow to see if he could sell them.

Sleeping on the solid wood bed at night, Li Long soon started snoring—he was exhausted.

Relying on his powerful biological clock, Li Long opened his eyes before dawn the next day. He got up, rubbed his face, saw that the stove had already gone out, so he didn't busy himself anymore, put on his clothes, went to the kitchen, used the plastic sheet to drag the pieces of meat again, and walked out carrying the scale.

It seemed he still had to get a sled—he had originally planned to use the bicycle, but was worried about running into people making arrests. The bicycle was worth over a hundred yuan, and the problem was that the ration coupons weren't easy to get; if it were confiscated, he would suffer a huge loss.

When he dragged the wild boar meat to the black market, he found that twenty or thirty stalls had already been set up, and there were quite a few people coming and going, forty or fifty of them, with some still shouting in low voices.

Li Long spotted an egg seller packing up, immediately dragged the plastic sheet over, and occupied the spot.

Two other people wandering in the black market also took a fancy to this spot, but they weren't as fast as Li Long, so they had to continue "wandering" while eyeing the spot.

"Brother, what are you selling?" the stall owner selling fish next to him asked.

Li Long said with a smile:

"Wild boar meat. Brother, how are you selling your fish?"

"One yuan per kilogram, but there are few buyers. Some regular customers said that a while ago someone sold them for two yuan each, the kind that were two or three or four kilograms—that fish seller sold them so cheaply that it's hard for us to sell our goods."

"Where did you catch this fish?" Li Long thought to himself, the person you're talking about is me, but I'll die before I say it, "It looks quite beautiful."

"Beautiful, right? Caught by breaking an ice hole in the reservoir." The stall owner said proudly, "Look at this big guy of mine, the biggest one is twelve kilograms!"

Li Long thought to himself, even if you have twelve kilograms, there still needs to be someone to buy it.

The stall owner was quite talkative and asked Li Long again:

"Where did you get this wild boar meat? It's not domestic pig, is it?"

"Wild boar, hunted in the mountains." Li Long pointed to the skin and said, "Not as fat as domestic pigs, and the skin still has to be skinned; it's very troublesome."

Thanks to the book friend 'Yundan Tian Gao' for the reward!

(End of chapter)