At this time, inside the county government compound, past the gatekeeper, there were guards with loaded guns!
After the old man took a drag of his cigarette and exhaled a cloud of smoke, Wang An spoke with a smile, "Hello, Grandpa. I'm a friend of Wu Dong; he asked me to come find him."
Wang An spoke with great solemnity, but casually told a lie!
"I haven't heard of him having any friends here," the old man said, looking very puzzled, seemingly trying hard to think.
Wang An didn't answer and just looked at the old man with a smile.
After a while, Wang An realized that the old man's brain might have short-circuited!
Because after staring at him for a long time, the old man just kept thinking without any reaction.
Waiting a bit longer, Wang An couldn't take it anymore and raised his voice, saying directly, "Hey, Grandpa, what are you doing?"
The old man seemed slightly dissatisfied at being interrupted by Wang An's voice. He gave Wang An a sidelong glance, took another drag of his cigarette, and said, "Wait here, I'll go call him for you."
Then the old man left!
Wang An checked his watch and waited for a full 24 minutes before Wu Dong finally ran out, greeting Wang An happily: "Wang An, why did you only just come to find me? That's not very loyal of you!"
"Haha, listen to you, as if you actually missed me?" Wang An responded with a chuckle, while thinking back to that old man.
He then asked Wu Dong in confusion, "I waited here for 25 minutes. Why did it take you so long to come out?"
Wu Dong was stunned upon hearing this and said with great dissatisfaction, "How could it have been as long as 25 minutes? As soon as Grandpa Cao called me, I ran out so fast my shoes almost flew off. I ran faster than when Da Xiong was chasing me, and you're still complaining it was slow?"
Wang An now had reason to suspect that old man Cao had absolutely gone to take a shit! Either he was constipated or had the runs! He only went to call the person after he was finished!
Every single day with this! Forget it, respecting the elderly and loving the young is a traditional Chinese virtue!
Wang An stopped dwelling on it and smiled, "Brother Wu, I've brought you some good stuff. I'll let you taste what real delicacies and mountain treasures are!"
Hearing this, Wu Dong immediately became interested and followed Wang An out of the government compound.
The current county government consisted of single-story buildings—several rows of them—all within one large courtyard!
Walking over to the sledge, Wang An lifted the reed curtain, revealing three yellow sheep inside.
"Holy shit, yellow sheep? Are these yellow sheep?" Wu Dong shouted, his face full of excitement.
Wang An seriously doubted Wu Dong's level of education; shouting "holy shit" right out of the gate was truly an affront to refinement!
He replied with a smile, "Yep. How about it? This stuff is damn delicious!"
"Brother, you're the real deal. How much would be a fair price for one of these?" Wu Dong was very happy. Only those who had eaten yellow sheep knew what they were all about!
"Fuck, with our relationship, why talk about money for a few sheep? Giving me money would be like slapping my own brother in the face!" Wang An said, pretending to be angry.
This left Wu Dong stunned, not quite understanding what Wang An was playing at. He pulled his hand back from his pocket where he had been about to take out money. As a "second-generation" youth, he figured it out instantly: Wang An wanted a favor!
However, in DJ County, there weren't many things that could actually make Wu Dong feel troubled!
Wu Dong suppressed his excitement and stopped focusing on the yellow sheep, instead looking at Wang An, seemingly waiting to hear what he wanted. If it was something he wasn't sure about, Wu Dong wouldn't get involved!
No one was stupid. Seeing Wu Dong's expression, Wang An knew his little scheme was completely useless; it was better to be direct!
"Brother Wu, it's like this. I managed to get quite a few of these yellow sheep this time, and I've also got some wolf meat and red dog meat. I was thinking of asking for your help to sell them," Wang An said in a flat tone.
"That's all?" Wu Dong's expression visibly relaxed after hearing this.
"Yep. There's a fair amount—probably around seven thousand catties," Wang An said after doing a rough calculation in his head.
"Hah! Forget seven thousand, even seventy thousand wouldn't be a problem. Look at how scarce meat is right now!" Wu Dong said nonchalantly.
"In that case, I'll have to trouble you then," Wang An said with a smile.
Then, Wang An drove the sledge, taking Wu Dong along to deliver the three yellow sheep to Wu Dong's residence!
After leaving Wu Dong's house, at Wu Dong's request, Wang An took him to the government cafeteria.
With Wu Dong there, the cafeteria director readily agreed to take 10 whole yellow sheep, and the price he offered wasn't low. For whole animals on the scale, he actually gave 50 cents per catty!
Subsequently, Wu Dong had Wang An drive the sledge to the supply and marketing cooperative. The procurement director of the cooperative was surnamed Wei; Wu Dong called him Uncle Wei. During their conversation, Director Wei scolded Wu Dong a few times.
As an observer, Wang An could tell that Director Wei clearly didn't treat Wu Dong as an outsider; he scolded him like his own junior, not spoiling him at all! Wu Dong just chuckled and didn't argue.
Once the small talk was over, they stated their purpose. Upon hearing there were dozens of yellow sheep, Director Wei was also very surprised!
As the procurement director of the cooperative, he knew a great deal about mountain game. Yellow sheep were hard to track; sometimes in these mountains, they might not pass by even once a year. For Wang An to kill so many was truly remarkable!
When he further heard there were wolves and red dogs, he couldn't help but look at Wang An in a new light!
No matter the era, a person with skill is never looked down upon.
Director Wei calculated in his head and then said, "Our cooperative only purchases 'white strips'—meaning head, skin, and organs removed. Is that a problem for you?"
Wang An said without any hesitation, "No problem at all, Uncle Wei. I wonder how the price is calculated?"
Director Wei thought for a moment and said, "Yellow sheep are rare, so let's say 80 cents per catty. For wolves and red dogs, 25 cents! How does that sound?"
"That's perfect, Uncle Wei! I've got to get you a yellow sheep to eat regardless," Wang An said, pretending to be very excited.
In reality, this price was just the normal rate, but for Wang An, it was already quite good!
Because this was a unit purchase, there would be procurement slips. With such a large transaction volume, he didn't have to fear anyone investigating—that was the most important part!
Otherwise, if he were accused of "speculation and profiteering," he'd end up squatting in a cell, and that would be fucking disastrous!
"You're trying to lead me into making a mistake; that won't do," Director Wei said with a smile, clearly pleased at the prospect of being gifted a sheep.
With his years of life experience, Wang An knew he had to strike while the iron was hot! It would make selling other things much easier in the future!
He smiled and said, "That's not possible. It's just some cheap mountain produce. Besides, a nephew giving his uncle a sheep hunted from the mountains—there's absolutely nothing wrong with that!"
"Hahaha, you slippery brat!" Director Wei laughed loudly, seemingly agreeing with Wang An's logic.
They agreed on a delivery date two days later—the day after tomorrow—and Wang An and Wu Dong left Director Wei's office.
Walking back to the sledge, Wang An said to Wu Dong, "Brother Wu, I won't bother with thanks. If there's anything from the mountains you want to eat, just tell me, and I'll definitely get it for you."
Seeing that Wang An didn't seem to be faking, Wu Dong said directly, "If you put it that way, there actually is something. My old man said that when he was young, he ate lynx meat once. He said the meat was like garlic cloves and he wants to taste it again. Help me keep an eye out, brother."
Wang An was stunned by this request. It was common knowledge that tiger cubs were hard to hunt, mainly because felines were too cunning, walked silently, and unless they were starving, they were generally nocturnal and impossible to find!
But how could it be such a coincidence? He had just caught one!
However, the meat of that thing tasted very mediocre. Of course, it was much better than wild leopard meat, but not as tasty as wolf meat. He didn't know why Wu Dong's old man wanted to eat it.
Thus, he said in surprise, "Brother Wu, you must be a fortune teller! I actually have that thing. It doesn't taste that great, but when I deliver the sheep to the cafeteria tomorrow, I'll definitely bring it to you."
"Holy shit, brother, are you that badass? You can even hunt lynx!" Wu Dong said, even more surprised than Wang An.
"Coincidence, just a coincidence, hahaha!" Wang An remained humble.
But it truly was a coincidence; even a veteran shooter might not find one even if they went looking specifically for it!
"Brother, you're definitely the boss now! In a few days when the other two arrive, we've got to go into the mountains with you for some fun!" Wu Dong said with a smile.
As they spoke, they reached the sledge. Wang An climbed up and said while pulling the reins, "Let's go, Brother Wu. I'll drop you back first, then I have to hurry back to skin the sheep."
Wu Dong said, "Haha, alright, let's go. I won't keep you then."