Chapter 98: An Attempt Before Thawing

It was four or five kilometers away from the winter shelter, it was not impossible to drag the two wild boars back by hand, but it was a bit difficult.

Li Long simply opened the internal organs of the wild boars here.

Halimu didn't come up to help, he said to Li Long:

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

"Good."

Li Long used the knife not very skillfully to cut the carotid artery of the two wild boars, and kept stepping on them to let the blood out. If this blood wasn't let out, the meat wouldn't taste good.

After letting the blood out, Li Long started to open the internal organs, clearing out the stomachs and intestines of the pigs.

These things were actually not bad, but there was no time to deal with them now, and it wasn't certain that all the pure meat could be taken back.

However, he had to keep the wild boar stomach, at least it was worth three yuan.

And this thing was medicine, it had an effect on stomach disease, whether it was kept or sold, it was not wrong.

The rest was skinning, Li Long hesitated when using the knife, didn't know where to cut, and when he really started to cut, he couldn't care so much.

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

He didn't want to hit the idea of Halimu’s sheep. Since helping Halimu and Yushanjiang deal with dozens of sheep last time, the fodder for the two families was now enough, and the mood of the two families was also much better.

With money on their bodies, and no shortage of materials, these sheep were not only food, but also wealth, career, and the sustenance of life.

The weather was still very cold, one pig was skinned halfway, and it was completely frozen, making it difficult to cut.

Li Long didn't struggle anymore, although the wild boar skin was skinned in a mess, the initial feeling was practiced.

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

When Halimu came over on horseback, he tied the bundled "pig ball" to the saddle with a rope.

"Do you want to come up?" Halimu asked.

"No, you drag it directly to the foot of the mountain, far away from your winter shelter," Li Long said, "Don't affect your family. I’ll walk over, and after arriving, I’ll find two pieces of wood to carry on the back of the bicycle, tie these two guys on it, and take them away."

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

Li Long wore felt boots and carried a gun, walking back step by step.

But before walking far, Li Long felt his hair stand up again.

He skillfully shook his shoulder, took the semi-automatic rifle in his hand, opened the safety, turned around and aimed at the way he came.

Damn it!

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

There was blood on the corner of the wolf’s mouth, Li Long guessed it should have just eaten the wild boar skin or internal organs he left behind. [98

"Bang!" Without a moment's hesitation, Li Long fired a shot at the wolf!

The bullet struck not far from the wild wolf, kicking up a spray of snow!

The wild wolf was startled and turned to vanish on the other side of the ridge.

Li Long didn't chase after it; he knew that even if he did, it would be hard to catch a glimpse of the wolf.

After watching for a while, the wild wolf didn't reappear, so Li Long turned around, cradled his rifle, and continued his walk back.

How nice it would be to have skis—it was a pity that even if he had them, he wouldn't know how to ski.

Li Long looked back from time to time, but he didn't see the wolf, and that premonition of impending danger had also faded away.

Over an hour later, he reached the foot of the mountain at the winter camp. To Li Long's surprise, the two wild boars were already bundled up and tied to his bicycle, and 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. It gave me a start."

"A wolf?" Halimu paused. "I thought you'd found some other prey—if that's the case, I'll have to be careful too."

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

He wrapped the Type 56 semi-automatic rifle, tied it to the bicycle, and rode slowly back to the county seat as the sky grew dark.

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

He entered the courtyard, parked the bicycle, and set up the stove. Once the fire was roaring, he ate the buns and then unloaded the bike.

He managed to squeeze the two boars into the kitchen, set the fire again, boiled water, and continued to busy himself in the kitchen.

Fortunately, there was electric light here, so he didn't have to work in the dark. As Li Long continued to practice skinning, he wondered if he should ask the neighborhood office tomorrow where to pay the electricity bill.

!.

Li Long worked until midnight before he finally finished skinning both boars. It hadn't gone smoothly; the pigskin was stripped in ragged pieces, and the meat underneath was pitted and uneven, but overall, he had at least finished the job.

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

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

Relying on his strong internal clock, Li Long opened his eyes the next day before dawn. He got up, rubbed his face, and saw the stove had gone out, so he didn't bother with it. He dressed, went to the kitchen, used the plastic sheet to drag out several pieces of meat, and headed out with his scale.

It seemed he still needed to get a sled—he had originally intended to use the bicycle, but he was worried about running into those who made arrests. A bicycle cost over a hundred yuan, and the problem was that the ration coupons were hard 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 twenty or thirty stalls already set up. There were quite a few people coming and going, forty or fifty of them, and some were still whispering their wares.

Li Long spotted a stall selling eggs that was packing up, immediately dragged his plastic sheet over, and took the spot.

Two other people wandering the black market had also set their sights on this spot, but they weren't as fast as Li Long and had to keep "roaming" while eyeing the location.

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

Li Long smiled and said:

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

"One yuan per kilogram, but there are few buyers. A regular customer said that a while ago, someone was selling them for only two yuan a piece—those two or three-kilogram ones. With that fish vendor selling so cheap, it's hard for us to move our stock."

"Where did you catch these fish?" Li Long thought to himself that the person he was talking about was him, but he wouldn't admit it even if he died. "They look quite nice."

"Nice, right? Caught them by breaking holes in the ice at the reservoir," the vendor said proudly. "See this big one? The biggest is twelve kilograms!"

Li Long thought to himself, even if it's twelve kilograms, you still need someone to buy it.

The vendor 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 fatty as domestic pigs, and the skin has to be peeled off—it's a real hassle."

Thanks to the reader Yun Dan Tian Gao for the tip!

(End of chapter)