Chapter 25: Is the Carriage Asking for Permission to Pass?

When Li Long and Tao Daqiang appeared at the production team, leading a horse carriage one after the other, many children rushed toward the carriage, while others ran back to their homes.

"Li Qiang, Li Qiang, your uncle is back!" Li Qiang was reminded once again by someone else.

Li Qiang looked up at the distant carriage, sniffled, pulled his old ox away from its rapid spinning on the ice, and charged toward the carriage: "Uncle, Uncle!"

Seeing Li Qiang rush up to him, Li Long grabbed a handful of candy from his satchel and handed it to him

"Here, go share it with your friends."

Holding the candy, Li Qiang ran back, howling loudly.

"Li Qiang, Li Qiang! Your uncle said he's going to share with us!"

"Yeah, give me one, just one! I'll give you an empty cigarette box to play with tomorrow!"

A group of children chased after Li Qiang, and Li Qiang relished the moment.

Smiling, Li Long reached into his satchel again and pulled out another handful of candy to hand to Tao Daqiang

"Daqiang, here, take this."

Tao Daqiang hesitated for a moment but did not refuse; it had actually been a long time since he had eaten candy.

The carriage arrived at the Tao family's place first this time.

To Li Long and Tao Daqiang's surprise, not only was Tao Jianshe present, but Tao Daqiang's eldest brother, Tao Dayong—who had already moved out to start his own household—and his wife, Ma Chunhong, were also there.

"Oh, Li Long is here. Daqiang is back? And this is..."

"Half the wood on this carriage belongs to your family." Li Long understood the situation at a glance. Without wasting words, he pointed to the carriage and said

"Since you're all here, let's unload it together."

Seeing so much wood on the carriage, the Tao family members' faces lit up with joy. Yesterday there were only a few pieces of wood, and they weren't large. This time, it was half a carriage—quite a lot!

The group worked together, unloading half a carriage of wood, large and small. The carriage lightened instantly. Li Long used a rope to tie up the remaining simple loads and prepared to head home.

Tao Jianshe had already spotted frozen mutton under the carriage and something else in another bag, but since Li Long hadn't said anything and was preparing to leave, he grew anxious. He cleared his throat and gave his eldest son, Dayong, a meaningful look.

Left with no choice, Tao Dayong took the initiative to speak

"Um... Xiaolong, I see there's mutton and things on the carriage. Does our Daqiang get a share too?"

"Mhm, there's a leg of mutton," Li Long said while tying the load. "Once I get home and unload the mutton, I'll have Daqiang come over to pick it up!"

"Only one leg?" Tao Jianshe couldn't help but interject. "I saw those two sheep..."

"Dad! Brother Long traded for those sheep, it has nothing to do with me!" Tao Daqiang was dying of embarrassment. How could his own family act like this?

"Shut up! Go do the work. Everyone who sees it gets a share; if you put in the effort, you have to fight for your portion!" Tao Jianshe glared at Tao Daqiang, then looked at Li Long to see what explanation he would give.

"Uncle Jianshe, you don't actually think I really just found these sheep, do you?" Li Long turned his head and looked at Tao Jianshe with a half-smile. "I'm giving Daqiang a leg of mutton because he put in the work. Actually, I didn't have to give anything at all, because I gave half the wood to your family—that is what Daqiang's labor is truly worth."

Having said his piece without further explanation, he led the carriage out of the Tao family courtyard.

Tao Jianshe was stunned by Li Long's retort and couldn't react for a long time.

Fuming, Tao Daqiang stomped his foot and chased after him.

By the time Tao Jianshe snapped out of it, his younger son was nowhere to be seen.

"That brat, he's going to kill me!" Tao Jianshe cursed and turned to go into the house.

It was unclear whether he was cursing Li Long or Tao Daqiang.

Tao Daqiang caught up to the carriage and said sheepishly to Li Long

"Brother Long, my dad..."

"It's fine. Your dad is your dad, and you are you. Besides, it's not wrong for your father to fight for your interests; he's just being a bit greedy." Li Long wasn't actually angry. In these times, no family was wealthy. The saying "poverty breeds cunning, wealth breeds conscience" was quite applicable in certain situations.

Seeing that Li Long truly wasn't angry, Tao Daqiang breathed a sigh of relief.

When the carriage arrived at the Li family home, Li Long noticed quite a few people at the door.

Li Jianguo was already waiting at the entrance. Seeing Li Long and the others approaching, he hurried forward to greet them, looked them up and down, breathed a sigh of relief, and asked

"You didn't freeze, did you?"

"No, we even had a good meal," Li Long replied softly.

"Haha, that's good." Li Jianguo smelled the gamey scent of mutton and knew his brother must have had a good day, so he smiled.

The carriage entered the courtyard, and the wood was quickly unloaded. Many people saw the two sheep and a significant amount of coal beneath the wood.

"You even got some coal?" Li Jianguo was also somewhat surprised.

"I ran into someone I knew; his family has plenty of coal, so I traded some things for it." With so many people present, Li Long spoke vaguely. "It's not much, anyway."

"Mhm." Li Jianguo understood the situation.

Someone watching the commotion couldn't help but ask

"Xiaolong, did you find those sheep by chance too?"

"Something like that," Li Long joked. "I've been lucky these past two days."

"Is it that easy to find them? Then I'll go looking too. How did you get into the mountains?" someone else asked.

"See there?" Li Long pointed to a mountain pass visible from their location. "You just go in through there."

"Looking at the mountain can exhaust a horse." Without a guide, if you didn't know the way, you wouldn't even know how to enter even if you saw the pass.

Even if you found the pass, there were so many layers of mountains inside; it was perfectly normal to get lost or take a wrong turn with every layer you traversed.

After finishing the unloading, Li Long whispered to Li Jianguo

"Big brother, when you unload the mutton, give Daqiang a leg."

"Just one leg?" Li Jianguo was somewhat puzzled.

"One leg is enough. He can come to our house for meat in the future. If he takes too much now, he won't be able to afford to eat it later," Li Long whispered.

"Alright, I understand. Are you returning the carriage?"

"Yes, I'm going to return the carriage."

Li Long left Tao Daqiang at home and went to the stables to return the carriage. After returning it, he went to the Captain's house.

"Xiaolong, you've brought the carriage back?" Xu Chengjun asked with a smile.

Seeing Xu Mingwa there, Li Long pulled a handful of fruit candies from his pocket and handed them to him

"Mingwa, have some candy."

"Look at how you spoil the boy," Xu Chengjun said chuckling.

"It's only right," Li Long replied.

"Xiaolong, let me tell you something. I thought you might need to borrow the carriage again, but just now, all the production team's carriages have already been borrowed out," Xu Chengjun said, which caught Li Long somewhat off guard.

But thinking about it, it made sense. His harvests over the past two days would surely make people envious. The road wasn't that difficult to travel, so people would certainly want to use it.

"I see, then never mind." Li Long suddenly smiled, then asked about something else

"Captain, I wanted to ask if you happen to know of any bicycle coupons or sewing machine coupons?"

Constantly borrowing the production team's carriage wasn't a long-term solution. Once spring arrived, driving a horse carriage would be a bit slow. If he could get a bicycle, the speed of making money would increase.

Of course, the money he had on hand was still too little; for now, making money was the priority.

"As for those coupons, I can certainly look into it for you." Xu Chengjun neither said he had them nor that he didn't.

Li Long understood instantly.

(End of Chapter)