Chapter 26: Without a Carriage, How About a Sled?

When Li Long returned to the Li family home, Tao Daqiang had already gone back to his own house, and the courtyard was empty.

Li Jianguo was busy butchering a sheep.

"Are you going again tomorrow?" Li Jianguo asked while peeling the sheepskin.

Li Long stepped forward to help and said, "I can't. The brigade's horse carts have all been borrowed."

"Borrowed?" Liang Yuemei was cutting up the sheep tripe and offal, planning to cook another pot of sheep organ soup.

"Yeah. The captain told me when I went to the brigade office to look for him," Li Long sighed. "It seems someone is getting jealous."

"That's normal," Li Jianguo said, sharpening his knife on a whetstone nearby before slowly peeling the skin.

The sheep hadn't fully thawed yet, but the carcass was soft enough that it was easy to skin at this stage. Since one leg had already been taken by Tao Daqiang before it was even thawed, they might as well just skin it now that blood had been drawn.

"Then tomorrow is a good day to rest," Liang Yuemei said. "Xiao Long must be exhausted from these past two days."

"It wasn't actually that tiring," Li Long said with a smile. "I even had a feast of hand-grabbed meat at someone's house for lunch today."

"That's wonderful." Liang Yuemei glanced at her brother-in-law with some surprise; she hadn't expected him to be able to socialize to such a degree now.

Thinking back to what the sisters-in-law and aunts had been saying when they dropped by at noon—how they had painted Li Long in such a terrible light—who could have imagined he had changed so much?

"So, what do you plan to do tomorrow?"

"If I have nothing else to do, I plan to make a sledge tonight," Li Long said. "Brother, do you know if anyone has a saw?"

"We have one at home," Li Jianguo replied. "A sledge? How big?"

"Not that big." Li Long gestured with his hands. "It's for pulling by hand, so something the size of a table will do. Just a frame of wooden slats. I plan to smash some holes in the ice to catch some fish tomorrow, and then head to the county town to sell them the morning after next."

If he wanted to earn enough money to buy a bicycle, just going into the mountains wouldn't be enough. Since he likely wouldn't be able to borrow a horse cart for the next few days, he might as well do it himself.

A sledge wasn't a complicated thing—just a few wooden slats and some proper use of a chisel. He had the wood ready; it didn't need to be beautiful, as long as it was functional!

"That's easy. The two of us can finish it tonight," Li Jianguo said with a smile. "If you were talking about a horse cart, we wouldn't be able to make that, but a small sledge is nothing."

In these times, if a household could do something themselves, they generally did. When it came to manual labor, few people these days were unskilled. Li Long still remembered how his brother, Li Jianguo, had carved a rifle out of wood for Li Qiang; once it was lacquered, it looked exactly like a real Five-Six and a Half.

By the time Li Long and Li Jianguo finished skinning the two sheep, darkness had fallen.

"Brother, let's make the sledge tomorrow. Just dealing with these sheep today was tiring enough." Li Long was truly exhausted; these two sheep had been quite a handful.

"Alright," Li Jianguo said with a smile. "Tomorrow morning I'll go with you to get the fish, and we'll work on the sledge in the afternoon."

Li Long naturally had no objections.

As the sheep organ soup was almost ready, the two of them sat on the *kang*. Li Jianguo rolled a Mohe cigarette, while Li Long watched Li Juan and Li Qiang playing on the *kang*. He suddenly remembered the *bishi* (knucklebone toys) he had brought back, so he went to the east room to fetch them and brought them to the edge of the *kang*.

"Juan, here. Play with your brother."

When Li Long scattered the *bishi* onto the *kang*, Li Juan froze for a moment before letting out a joyful scream!

"Ah—Uncle, is this for me?"

"Yeah," Li Long said smilingly. "A friend of mine in the mountains has plenty, so I asked for some."

"Uncle, you're the best!" Li Juan shouted loudly.

The scream drew Liang Yuemei over. Holding a spatula, she glared at Li Juan and scolded her loudly

"What are you screaming for? So loud you'll bring the roof down!"

Normally, Li Juan would have gone quiet immediately after such a scolding, but today she didn't. She held the *bishi* and said to Liang Yuemei with excitement

"Mom, look! Uncle got these for us! So many... so many *bishi*! Ga Hua only has five, and she treats them like treasures every day, not even letting us touch them! Now I'm going to show her what real ones look like!"

Liang Yuemei looked at the *bishi* and then at her daughter's expression. Her expression softened, but she still put on a stern face

"We'll talk about that later! Come here, grab a bowl and eat!"

She then looked at Li Long and said reproachfully, "Xiao Long, you're just spoiling them!"

"They're my niece and nephew; if I don't spoil them, who will?"

Li Jianguo chuckled, enjoying his Mohe cigarette. Life was truly comfortable!

Just as they were drinking the sheep organ soup, footsteps were heard outside.

As soon as Li Long heard the heavy footsteps, he knew it was Tao Daqiang.

He stood up and opened the door before Tao Daqiang could even knock.

"Daqiang, you're here. Come in."

"Brother Long, I'm not coming in." Tao Daqiang's face showed signs of tension and anger. "I heard several families have borrowed the brigade's horse carts to go into the mountains tomorrow..."

"I know." Li Long pulled him inside. "Sit down first."

Liang Yuemei stood up to invite Tao Daqiang to sit at the table, and Li Juan obediently made room for him, huddling with her brother.

Seeing Liang Yuemei about to serve him sheep organ soup, Tao Daqiang hurriedly declined

"Auntie, don't bother, I've already eaten."

"It doesn't hurt to have a bowl even if you've eaten," Liang Yuemei said, ignoring him.

Tao Daqiang and the Li brothers had their own ways of addressing each other. He called Li Jianguo "Uncle" and Li Long "Brother." This was mainly because Li Jianguo was among the first group to arrive at this production team; although he was young at the time, he had become brothers with the elders.

"Then, what should we..." Tao Daqiang looked at Li Long, hoping he would make a decision.

He felt truly uncomfortable that just as a harvest was in sight, someone else had swooped in to intercept it.

"We're going to smash some holes in the ice to catch fish tomorrow. Are you free?"

"I am!" Tao Daqiang's eyes lit up. "And after we catch them..."

"We'll go sell them," Li Long said. "But don't tell anyone."

"Okay, okay, okay. I definitely won't say anything, and neither will my dad or my brother!" Tao Daqiang took the bowl of sheep organ soup Liang Yuemei handed him, his emotions a tangled mess.

The mutton leg he had taken home yesterday was already gone. Even the leg he had just brought back—his father hadn't even mentioned making mutton. The cornmeal porridge he had for dinner was still cold.

If it hadn't been for the delicious pieces of mutton he had eaten at noon, he felt he might not even be able to get up tomorrow.

The energy consumption was immense!

"Have another bowl." Seeing that Tao Daqiang had quickly finished his bowl, Liang Yuemei moved to serve him another. Tao Daqiang hurriedly stood up to refuse, but the bowl had already been taken.

When he received the bowl again and saw it filled to the brim with sheep offal, Tao Daqiang's eyes reddened, and he nearly shed tears into the soup.

This was an outsider! His own family treated him worse than an outsider!

Li Long could tell Tao Daqiang was troubled, but everyone has their own burdens, and it wasn't easy to comment on it. After Tao Daqiang left, Li Long gave himself a quick wash and went to the east room.

There was a significant amount of money left. In his heart, a portion of this money belonged to Tao Daqiang, but he couldn't give it to him just yet.

That would have to wait.

The priority now was to earn enough money for the bicycle.

The next day after breakfast, once Tao Daqiang arrived, Li Jianguo, Li Long, and Tao Daqiang set off for Xiaohai with Li Juan and Li Qiang.

As they approached Xiaohai, they saw horse carts leaving the village in the distance.

Li Long thought to himself: *Leaving the house only now and still wanting to go into the mountains to haul wood? They must be daydreaming.*