Chapter 52: No Time for Idle Chatter, Business Comes First

Xu Haijun immediately pulled out twenty bullets. Li Long didn't refuse; he simply led him out to the kitchen and pointed to the already butchered pig, asking

"Which part do you want?"

"Fat, of course," Xu Haijun said as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.

There was a borrowed scale in the kitchen. Li Long weighed out over four kilograms of fat for him, cut a piece of thin iron wire to thread through it, tied it to make a handle, and handed it over.

"Let's not head back yet. Come on, let's go to your room and shoot the breeze."

"Shooting the breeze" meant chatting, and Li Long naturally had no objection.

"Li Long, tell us about your hunting," another girl, Qin Hongyan, asked curiously.

Wu Shufen sat on the heated kang with her head lowered, staring at her shoes. She hadn't originally intended to come, but when Qin Hongyan called, she had actually agreed.

But now that she was here, it was awkward; as a result, she, who was usually the most lively of the group, had become a silent wallflower.

Li Long acted as if he didn't notice her. Hearing Qin Hongyan's question, he continued making a "dagger" out of a pig tusk while saying

"It's actually very simple. It's no different from the militia target practice we do. You hide near where the wild boars are active beforehand and just wait for them to come out. There was a group of about a dozen boars. Once they arrived and started rooting around the grass for food, I just aimed and shot."

"That simple?" Xu Haijun asked in surprise. "You don't need to hunt them with dogs like in the stories, or worry about them ambushing you?"

"I didn't run into that. But this boar was quite formidable." Li Long brandished the tusk in his hand. "But no matter how formidable, can it be more powerful than a gun? After my friend shot it once, it charged at us. In the end, it was one shot from him and one from me, and the boar went down."

He made it sound so simple that the others found the story unsatisfying and urged him to provide more details.

As Li Long's former romantic interest, Wu Shufen keenly noticed that Li Long had truly changed. In the past, if something happened, Li Long could turn a three-part story into a seven-part one. But this time, despite it being a moment where he could clearly show off, he finished it with just a few casual words.

This didn't seem like the old Li Long!

Just then, footsteps were heard in the courtyard, followed by a knock on the door.

"Come in." Li Long was somewhat surprised. Who was being so polite?

The one pushing the door open was Gu Xiaoxia. She was startled to see a room full of people and froze for a moment before reacting. She whispered to Li Long

"I heard you're exchanging bullets for meat. I want to exchange some..."

"Alright," Li Long nodded and said, "Follow me."

Wu Shufen watched the two of them leave and the door close, stunned for a moment.

For a time, no one spoke.

Xu Haijun cleared his throat, wanting to break the silence, while another man said with a laugh

"If it's really as simple as Li Long says, you've got me interested. It's easy enough to find a gun anyway. How about this, Haijun, in a couple of days, let's head into the mountains?"

The speaker was Huang Siping, nineteen years old, at that age where one fears neither heaven nor earth.

"It's not that simple." Xu Haijun had heard his cousin talk about the mountains. Although he had never been inside, he knew there were many unknown dangers. He shook his head and said

"Maybe Li Long doesn't want to draw attention, or maybe he doesn't want to..."

"Doesn't want us to show off like him?" Huang Siping sneered. "The mountains don't belong to his family. If he can hunt wild boars, we definitely can."

"Then you have to know where the boars are, right? We aren't hunters; how are we supposed to find their location? Where do we ambush them? When will they appear? Who knows?" Xu Haijun was more level-headed after all. After he fired off a string of questions, Huang Siping fell silent.

"Think about Gu Ermao and Tao Dayong," Xu Haijun said. "Li Long is different from before. Anyone who treats him like a fool is the real fool. I think it's a good idea to stay on his good side."

Li Long took Gu Xiaoxia to the kitchen and weighed out four kilograms of pork belly for her. Gu Xiaoxia could read the scale and hurriedly said

"I don't have that many bullets, just two kilograms' worth."

"The rest is for your father. Your father took such good care of my brother back then; this bit of meat is nothing." Li Long tied the meat with wire, handed it to her, and added, "By the way, how is your father doing now?"

"Much better." Unable to refuse, Gu Xiaoxia took the meat and handed a paper-wrapped bundle of bullets to Li Long

"Here are the bullets. Take them, I'm leaving."

It wasn't dark yet. Li Long merely escorted her to the main gate and returned to his east room after seeing her leave.

"Xiao Long, what do you plan to do next?" Xu Haijun asked with a smile as he saw Li Long enter.

"I plan to go to Wucheng in a couple of days. I also want to check out Shicheng." Li Long was telling the truth; since he had to borrow a horse carriage anyway, he couldn't hide it. Tao Dayong being caught selling fish had served as a warning. Since the purchasing power of this county was limited, he might as well expand his market elsewhere.

Chinese New Year was approaching, and spring would follow shortly after. He estimated that the land distribution matter would be settled soon, and by then, it would be too late to prepare.

He had to earn enough money before the land was distributed. This meant he had to make more trips and work hard before the New Year so that things would be easier later.

"You're still traveling?" Huang Siping was somewhat surprised. "Gu Ermao and Tao Dayong were both caught. Aren't you afraid?"

"What's there to fear?" Li Long smiled. "They were caught because they couldn't read the situation. Why wasn't Daqiang caught? Before I went into the mountains, I told Daqiang that if things looked wrong while selling fish, he should run immediately—better to lose the fish than to lose himself. Look, Daqiang escaped, while his brother was a fool for staying with the fish..."

The details of Tao Dayong's arrest had already spread through the production team; Li Long could only say the idiot had brought it on himself.

Fifty yuan—how much fish would it take to earn that?

Looking at Li Long's confident expression, the others fell silent.

Li Long didn't say much; he basically only answered when someone asked him a question. In the meantime, he went to the east room to get a teapot and bowls to pour water for everyone. At this time, there were no disposable cups, and even glass cups were rare, so people drank water from bowls.

Li Long was a very attentive host, but everyone still felt the atmosphere was quite dull, so they eventually rose to leave before ten o'clock.

Li Long truly wished they would leave early, because he was planning to wake up early tomorrow to set his rabbit traps.

After they left, Li Long went to the west room.

The oil refining wasn't finished yet. Li Jianguo was happy today; having worked hard all day and having had some alcohol, he had already gone to sleep. Li Long had originally wanted to discuss some matters with his elder brother and sister-in-law, but seeing the situation, it wasn't going to happen, so he simply turned back to his east room.

That night, the Li family became the center of discussion for the entire production team.

That night, Tao Daqiang slept on his kang, feeling exceptionally vexed. If he hadn't agreed to his father, hadn't split up with Li Long, and hadn't gone with his brother to sell fish, would all this bad luck have been avoided?

That night, Gu Xiaoxia hesitated over whether or not to make "that" decision.

That night, Wu Shufen was also hesitating over whether to try and reconcile with Li Long—she discovered that although the people she had been dating recently were all workers, none of them were like Li Long today: calm, yet possessing a certain... temperament. Yes, that was the word: temperament.

(End of Chapter)