Chapter 21: Xiaoxia Comes to Buy Meat

After finishing the mutton offal soup in the house and chatting for a while about daily life, Li Long listened to his elder brother, Li Jianguo, pose problems like "chickens and rabbits in one cage" to his niece and nephew under the light of a kerosene lamp. To Li Long, this was happiness.

Though impoverished, it was peaceful.

Seeing that it had been quite a while, Li Long stood up, informed Li Jianguo, and returned to the east room.

The stove in the east room had been suppressed with coal embers earlier. He poked at the fire with a stove hook, causing a burst of smoke and heat to surge up. Once the smoke cleared, Li Long lifted the stove lid, placed a few pieces of coal inside, closed the lid, and began to take stock of today's harvest and plan for tomorrow.

The earnings from the antlers and water rat pelts, after deducting the sesame cakes, the tea, the gloves bought for Tao Daqiang, and the ten yuan given to his sister-in-law, left him with less than ten yuan in hand, including his original savings.

But with the bag of bullets his brother had given him, Li Long was confident he could exchange them for one or two frozen sheep tomorrow.

He planned to buy more tea, salt, and other necessities tomorrow. Even if Harimu's family had enough, he could keep some for himself and then go to other herders to trade for different items.

Although the herders' winter shelters were not far from the foot of the mountain, they were more cautious and rarely came down the mountain to buy things because they lacked spare cash.

However, they had goods, and Li Long could exchange those goods for money at the collection station.

Checking the time, it was only ten o'clock. He wasn't sleepy yet and wondered how to pass the remaining time.

In this era, there were no radios or televisions, let alone mobile phones; passing the time was truly difficult.

Li Long wondered if he should go to someone's house to play cards. He vaguely remembered that "Fight the Landlord" hadn't become popular yet; there was only "Shuai Erzi" and "Zheng Shangyou."

Entertainment in the eighties was very scarce; otherwise, Gu Ermao wouldn't have asked Li Long to go watch someone else's television.

As of now, there wasn't a single television in the entire production team—not even Changming Electric had pulled a line in.

Just as he was thinking, the sound of barking dogs and footsteps came from outside.

Li Long threw on his clothes and walked out.

A figure stood outside the courtyard gate; from the silhouette, it was a girl.

Li Long called out

"Who is it?"

"Li Long, it's me, Gu Xiaoxia," the girl replied.

Gu Xiaoxia?

Li Long quickly realized she was the daughter of Gu Boyuan, the only college graduate in the production team. According to his brother Li Jianguo, Gu Boyuan had brought his daughter to the production team over a decade ago. At the time, the captain was stunned to hear he was a college graduate.

In those days, forget college graduates—even middle school students were considered intellectuals.

Not many people in the production team knew why Gu Boyuan had come to this godforsaken place, but since a great talent had arrived and wanted to stay, he was naturally welcomed.

When Gu Boyuan arrived, his daughter was only three or four years old; by now, she should be under twenty.

Due to special circumstances, Gu Xiaoxia had returned to the team after graduating high school. In Li Long's memory from his previous life, Gu Xiaoxia had eventually married him because of Gu Ermao's harassment, then divorced due to domestic violence, and subsequently disappeared.

"Xiaoxia, you're here. Is your father alright?" Li Jianguo also opened the door and walked out. Seeing it was Gu Xiaoxia, he asked with a smile, "Come inside."

"No... it's okay. Uncle Jianguo, I... I want to buy some mutton from your house. My father is sick, and I want to give him some nourishment." Gu Xiaoxia's voice was very low; it was evident she felt quite embarrassed saying this.

"Your father is sick? Has he taken medicine? What's wrong with him?" Li Jianguo asked with concern.

He was a middle school graduate, and though his education wasn't as high as Gu Boyuan's, he was still one of the few "intellectuals" in the production team, and the two families had a good relationship.

"He has. My father says it's nothing, just a chill."

"Then wait a moment, I'll cut a piece of mutton for you." Li Jianguo hurried back into the house and came out with a piece of mutton. However, instead of giving it to Gu Xiaoxia, he handed it to Li Long

"Xiaolong, walk Xiaoxia back. It's pitch black out there; it's not safe!"

Gu Xiaoxia did not refuse.

Li Long went back inside to put on his hat, picked up the mutton, and headed out.

Gu Xiaoxia followed silently beside him, maintaining a distance of about one and a half meters.

In this era, people's words could be as dangerous as weapons.

"When did your father get sick?" Li Long asked.

"Yesterday. We were running low on firewood yesterday, and my father was chopping wood in the yard. He sweated and caught a chill."

"That's not serious; he'll be fine once he works up a sweat." Li Long nodded. "There's still medicine at home, right?"

"Yes." Gu Xiaoxia answered every question Li Long asked, her head kept low the entire time.

Finding the conversation dull, Li Long stopped talking.

His brother's warning that it wasn't safe outside was true. Although this place was only twenty kilometers from the mountains, wolves had been spotted in the reed marshes outside the production team just a month ago. The dogs kept by the team were no pushovers either; the local dogs grew quite large and fierce by this time of year.

Even more dangerous were the hooligans who didn't rest properly at night and had no outlet for their energy.

Otherwise, the "Strike Hard" campaign wouldn't have been necessary a couple of years later.

The Li family lived about three hundred meters from the Gu family. The moon hadn't risen yet, but the snow reflected the sky's light, making the path barely visible. Li Long carried a flashlight; although he hadn't turned it on, he was ready at any moment.

Just as they were halfway there and about to turn a corner, Li Long heard footsteps approaching from not far ahead. Gu Xiaoxia leaned back slightly behind him. He reacted immediately and shouted loudly

"Who's there?"

As he shouted, he clicked on the flashlight and aimed it toward the corner.

A dark shadow fled quickly into the distance, soon darting behind someone's courtyard before vanishing.

A burst of barking erupted from that direction.

"It's nothing, probably just someone passing by," Li Long said, turning to Gu Xiaoxia. "Let's go."

Gu Xiaoxia was still shaken. She likely knew what that shadow intended to do, but she hadn't expected that Li Long, who was rumored to be quite timid, would be so "bold" at a time like this.

Li Long remained silent all the way to the Gu family's doorstep. Upon entering the courtyard, Gu Xiaoxia hurried forward to open the door.

Li Long carried the meat into the house and saw Gu Boyuan lying on the bed.

He was sleeping and hadn't heard the commotion.

Seeing that the room was reasonably warm, Li Long said

"Prepare some warm water for your father. Drinking plenty of water will help him recover faster." Having said that, he set down the meat and turned to leave.

"I'll give you money!" Gu Xiaoxia chased after him and called out.

"My brother said this is for your father's illness; no money needed." Li Long waved his hand and walked away.

He seemed to recall Li Jianguo mentioning that the Gu family's work points at the end of the year were even fewer than their own, and they had ended up losing money instead of making any.

Fortunately, Li Long remembered that next spring, the production team would change into a village, and a village primary school would open. The village school would only teach grades one and two, while third graders would go to the brigade school. At that time, Gu Xiaoxia would apparently become a teacher at the village school, and their lives would improve.

As he walked back, he thought about the dark shadow from before.

Who could it have been?

Looking at the silhouette, why did it seem so familiar?

(End of Chapter)