Chapter 99

Soon, someone came over to ask about the price of the meat, and Li Long said:

"One yuan and fifty cents per kilogram. This is wild boar meat."

He sold the wild boar meat cheaper than domestic pork because he mainly wanted to clear his stock quickly.

"Is it really wild boar meat?" The person asking was a middle-aged woman, looking somewhat skeptical.

"It really is." Li Long smiled. "Anyway, you won't go wrong eating it as pork."

"Then weigh me two kilograms—I want the pork belly."

People these days all liked to eat fatty meat, so Li Long chopped off a piece for her. It weighed four and a half kilograms, but the woman didn't fuss; she paid six yuan and seventy cents and left with the meat.

The fish vendor next to him was quite envious; he might not even make six yuan selling several fish.

"I heard that the joint defense team checks for people. Is that true or false?" Li Long asked when no one was around.

The vendor waved his hand:

"Someone checked before the New Year, but after the New Year, no one has checked. Don't you see more and more people coming here to sell things? The policy has been relaxed; otherwise, who would dare to come?"

Li Long knew the policy had indeed been relaxed, but there were always countermeasures for every policy from above, and it depended on the actual implementation.

After waiting here for half an hour, the twenty-plus kilograms of pork belly he brought were all sold out. Two pig legs were also sold, but only two kilograms of ribs had been sold.

Looking at the dozen or so kilograms of ribs and two pig legs left on the plastic sheet, Li Long thought to himself that it was fortunate he hadn't brought all the meat; if he had, he would have had to drag most of it back later.

"Little brother, how about I trade my fish for your meat? One and a half kilograms of fish for one kilogram of meat—your ribs are half bone, so you're getting the better deal," the fish vendor said.

"No trade." Li Long waved his hand. "I'm not short of fish to eat."

"Come on, trade. How about two kilograms of fish for one kilogram of meat?" The vendor also wanted to eat meat; he was tired of eating fish every day.

Besides, the fish didn't have much fat—how could it compare to the fragrance of thick slices of fatty meat!

"No trade." Li Long glanced at the fish on the other's stall and shook his head. They weren't as nice as the fish from the Small Sea, and they didn't look fatty either.

A big reason why the fish from the Small Sea were popular was that they were nice and fatty. Because there were many reeds growing in the Small Sea, the fish had plenty to eat. While most of the fish in the reservoirs now were also wild and naturally grown, there were no plants in the reservoirs, so the fish could only eat plankton—not only were they lean, but they weren't nice either.

The sky gradually brightened, and the number of stalls gradually decreased, but there were still over a dozen left. The number of people browsing here hadn't decreased; there was even a trend of it increasing.

Li Long began to believe that the policy had indeed been relaxed and that no one would come to make arrests; otherwise, with the sun about to come out, the market would have long since dispersed.

From now on, this wouldn't be a black market, but a morning market.

After selling for a while longer, he managed to sell four or five kilograms of ribs. Seeing that the crowd was starting to thin out, Li Long decided to pack up; he planned to go get some breakfast.

He had gotten up too early, hadn't eaten anything, and had been squatting here for nearly an hour; he felt frozen to the bone.

Seeing Li Long wrap the wild boar meat in the plastic sheet and tie it up, preparing to leave, the fish vendor became a bit anxious:

"Little brother, how about I trade three kilograms of fish for one kilogram of your meat?"

"No trade." Li Long waved his hand. "My family really isn't short of fish; I have a reservoir there too."

"Alright, then I'll buy two kilograms of ribs." The vendor had no choice but to take out a roll of crumpled money. "One kilogram..."

"I'll give you one yuan and twenty cents," Li Long said. "How about that? That's fair enough, right?"

As soon as they heard Li Long was selling his ribs to this vendor for one yuan and twenty cents, other vendors immediately crowded around. One wanted three kilograms, another five, and in no time at all, his ribs were weighed out and sold.

This was an unexpected delight. Dragging the remaining two pig legs, Li Long went to the meat canteen.

Zhong Guoqiang wasn't there. Li Long carried the pig legs inside. There weren't many people eating at this time, so he ordered four steamed buns, poured a bowl of tea, and began to eat heartily.

After finishing his meal, Li Long carried the pig legs out of the canteen, returned to the old house, loaded the remaining meat and the two pig legs onto the bicycle, hung the scale on the front, and rode first to the purchasing station.

Chen Hongjun happened to be there, so Li Long brought in a string of pork belly:

"Comrade Chen, this is the wild boar meat I promised you."

Chen Hongjun was overjoyed and said with a smile:

"I thought you had forgotten. By the way, how much for this meat?" "Don't mention money, it's a gift for you," Li Long said, then turned and walked out. "I'm in a hurry to go to Shicheng to sell meat, so I won't say more."

Chen Hongjun carried the meat and rushed out, but seeing Li Long had already ridden away on his bicycle, he shook his head with a smile.

This little Li was really quite interesting.

A bicycle was fast; in less than an hour, he had reached the old street of Shicheng.

To Li Long's surprise, there were even more roaming vendors on the old street. Besides those selling melon seeds and peanuts, there were quite a few selling local specialties, and there were two or three selling fish, just like him, dragging bags and wandering among the travelers.

You couldn't set up a stall here; management personnel would chase you away, but they wouldn't confiscate your goods.

Therefore, Li Long began to push his bicycle and hawk his wares:

"Wild boar meat, fresh wild boar meat! One yuan and fifty cents per kilogram! Pork belly, ribs, leg meat—come and get a taste!"

Li Long's shouting immediately attracted quite a few people. After all, most had eaten domestic pork, but very few had actually tasted wild boar meat.

A middle-aged man wearing a green military overcoat and carrying a briefcase walked over and asked:

"Little comrade, is this really wild boar meat?"

"Of course." Li Long knew some people were skeptical. He still had the wild boar head wrapped in his bag, so he took it out to show the man:

"See? This was hunted just yesterday, and it's been skinned. Domestic pigs don't need to be skinned at all..."

!.

"It really does look like it... Can you make it cheaper? If it's cheaper, I'll take a leg." The man felt Li Long's meat was quite reliable and said, "Can you lower the price a bit?"

"It's already quite cheap. This is wild boar meat; I'm selling it cheaper than domestic pork, and I don't even need meat coupons..." Li Long gave a wry smile. "I'm just earning some hard-earned money, and I even used up two bullets."

"Alright, for the sake of your honesty, I'll take a leg." The middle-aged man took out his money. "You have to weigh it generously."

"Don't worry, I'll weigh it generously."

One leg weighed twelve point four kilograms; Li Long counted it as twelve kilograms. The other party paid eighteen yuan, and Li Long used a thin wire to tie a handle for him. The middle-aged man left happily carrying it.

With the first person buying, the subsequent business went much more smoothly. Travelers coming and going who wanted to bring back some local specialties felt that this wild boar meat sounded and looked good, so in less than two hours, Li Long had sold all the meat.

Only one elderly woman muttered:

"This meat... it's a bit lean, not fatty enough."

Li Long said:

"That can't be compared to domestic pigs; after all, it's wild."

After selling the meat, Li Long rode back, even more determined to continue his life of hunting.

Now that the policy had been relaxed, wouldn't hunting and selling game every few days be better than farming?

These two wild boars brought Li Long an income of over one hundred and twenty yuan—a sewing machine was within reach.

It was wonderful!

Li Long returned to the old house to rest, planning to go into the mountains again the next day.

Halimu was still chopping wood, which made Li Long a bit puzzled. Did they need so much wood?

And he was chopping the wood into two or three-meter-long segments—were they building a house?

Li Long didn't ask. As soon as he arrived, Halimu took him to another place in the east where animals were often active.

"There are snow chickens here, in flocks," Halimu said as they walked. "Occasionally there are roe deer, and sometimes wild goats come down."

"Wild goats?" Li Long was a bit surprised. Were there really wild goats?

"The kind with long horns, not the kind with round horns..." Halimu explained.

Oh, so it was an ibex!

An animal that would be very "illegal" in the future, but in fact, they lived in herds in this area even now.

"Once spring comes, they go to higher mountains; they only come down at this time. As for snow chickens, they're very lean and don't taste as good as domestic chickens."

Well, Li Long was speechless at the comparison between snow chickens and domestic chickens.

This thing was actually a type of pheasant—a galliform bird, so of course it was in the same family as a pheasant.

But besides being eaten, snow chickens had extremely high medicinal value—at least that was the rumor among ordinary people, who said that snow chicken claws could cure rheumatoid arthritis and that snow chicken meat was an aphrodisiac.

As the two walked, Li Long stopped first this time.

He reached out and grabbed the rifle he was carrying—Li Long had seen the wolf!

(End of chapter)