Chapter 800: Grabbing the Foot

Mu Xueli had a very good personality, and most importantly, he was very obedient to Wang An. Therefore, hearing Wang An say this, Mu Xueli said with a face full of smiles

"A walk-behind tractor is fine, a walk-behind tractor is more than fine! Hehehe, by the way, Brother-in-law, I heard from my sister that you guys use rice transplanters for planting seedlings?"

Before Wang An could speak, Wang Li cut in

"Of course! For the seedlings of our three families, we all use transplanters. Those things are really fast, absolutely top-notch."

Mu Xueli ignored Wang Li's words and said to Wang An with a flattering expression

"Brother-in-law, I heard from my sister that you bought two transplanters back then?"

Wang An's heart stirred upon hearing this, and he replied with a casual laugh

"That's for sure. My house has a four-wheel tractor and a walk-behind tractor, so I naturally had to buy two. That way I can switch between them."

In reality, the reason Wang An bought two transplanters was partly because they were priced as scrap metal—they were truly cheap, and it would have been a waste not to buy them.

On the other hand, he had considered the relatives in the family; if any of them bought a four-wheel or walk-behind tractor, these transplanters would come in handy.

As for switching between two, Wang An had never actually thought about that.

Mainly, there were only so many rice paddies; two transplanters were completely unnecessary and purely redundant.

Hearing Wang An say this, Mu Xueli said with a mischievous grin

"I've seen it at your house these past few days. One of the transplanters has never even touched the field; there isn't a speck of mud on its wheels."

Wang An gave Mu Xueli a sidelong glance and said irritably

"If you have something to say, just say it. Stop beating around the bush with this useless talk. I bought the machines; why do you care whether I let them in the field or not?"

Mu Xueli first let out a series of "hehehehe" mischievous laughs before saying

"How about this: once I buy a walk-behind tractor, Brother-in-law, could you spare that transplanter for me? We have to make use of its value, right? It's such a waste just letting it sit there."

Wang An glanced askance at Mu Xueli, took a bite of meat and chewed a few times before speaking

"Spare it how? You just open your mouth and expect me to just 'spare' the transplanter I spent a whole afternoon tinkering with?"

Wang An didn't care about the 30 yuan, but things couldn't be handled this way. Mainly, it wasn't as if Mu Xueli was short of 30 yuan!

Only then did Mu Xueli say with a beaming smile

"My sister said that if you sold it to someone else, it would be at least 50 yuan, but selling it to me for 40 yuan would be fine."

Wang An suddenly realized that his wife was truly wonderful!

She was beautiful, had a great figure, worked efficiently, and knew how to manage a household. Most importantly, she never blindly funneled things back to her maiden home.

And now, Mu Xueqing actually wanted to make 10 yuan off her own biological brother!

She truly knew the difference between her maiden home and her own home.

He had to admit that a wife like Mu Xueqing was absolutely a one-in-a-million existence.

Even Wang Li, hearing Mu Xueli's words, was momentarily stunned.

Because Wang Li knew that those transplanters had cost a total of 87 yuan—80 yuan for the transplanters and 7 yuan for the complimentary cigarettes.

On average, each transplanter cost about 29 yuan.

After adding some grease and a few spare parts, the cost per machine came to 30 yuan.

Yet, Wang Li's fourth sister-in-law, Comrade Mu Xueqing, actually wanted to sell it to her own brother for 40 yuan.

However, after hearing this, Wang Li simply blinked rapidly and then lowered his head to focus intently on eating his meat, operating on the principle that eating meat could keep one's mouth shut.

Furthermore, when it came to money—and specifically his fourth brother's business—the smartest move was to simply shut up.

Wang An wasn't missing 10 yuan, and it really wasn't worth making 10 yuan off his brother-in-law, so Wang An said with a laugh

"Since your sister already priced it at 40 for you, I can't be worse as a brother-in-law. Fine, I'll give you another 10 off and charge you 30 yuan, hehehehe..."

Hearing this, Mu Xueli didn't stand on ceremony with Wang An. He briskly pulled three "Big Unity" ten-yuan notes from his pocket and handed them to Wang An, saying

"Then Brother-in-law, that idle transplanter at your house belongs to me now, okay? Hehehehe..."

Wang An took the money and nodded with a smile

"Yep, it's yours. Take it home whenever you have time."

And so, while chatting and discussing matters, the three of them finished their lunch. They moved the meat back onto the horses' backs and rode down the mountain.

On the way back, Wang An suddenly asked Mu Xueli

"Xueli, does Old Xiao Pao know how to catch deer? Did he ever teach you how to make those specialized deer-catching 'foot-traps'?"

The "foot-trap" Wang An mentioned was, in principle, a combination of a clamp and a rabbit snare.

The trigger mechanism worked like a clamp, but the part that actually did the work of capturing the prey was the rope loop.

The principle was very simple.

One would bend a small, highly elastic tree and tie one end of the rope loop to the top of the tree.

At the same time, another piece of rope would be tied to the tree, with the other end attached to a wooden stick. This stick served as the trigger mechanism.

Of course, this small wooden stick had to be wedged between two wooden stakes previously driven into the ground.

Finally, the rope loop was placed inside the inner circle of these two stakes, and the foot-trap was fully set.

As long as the stick was triggered, causing either end to slip from the wooden wedge, the bent small tree would immediately lose its restraint and snap back rapidly.

As the tree snapped back, it would naturally tighten the rope loop. Any animal's leg inside the loop would inevitably be bound, achieving the goal of capturing the prey alive.

The simplest reason Wang An wanted to study this was that he wanted to catch deer.

Although basically everyone understood the working principle of this "foot-trap," finding a suitable place to set it up was an incredibly difficult task.

Mainly, in these great mountains, to catch a live deer, one had to be on the deer herd's essential path. But in this season, who knew which way the herd traveled every day?

Even if a spot was found, ordinary people wouldn't dare set a trap easily. Deer in these mountains were extremely vigilant; any slight disturbance or strange scent would cause them to change their route.

Therefore, catching deer was a task that required a great deal of technical skill.

Mu Xueli thought about it and said

"I'll go find him as soon as I get back tonight. Brother-in-law, what do you want to catch?"

Without thinking, Wang An replied

"Deer, of course. Other things can just be shot dead."

While Wang An was researching how to catch deer, in the room in the county town where Shang Tianbao was imprisoned, something hair-raising was occurring.

(End of Chapter)