Rebirth of Bayi Fishing and Hunting in the Northwest

"Juan's mom, your Xiaolong is really something!" Sister-in-law Lu said to Liang Yuemei while sitting on the sofa in the Li family's house and sewing shoe soles. "Those fish that couldn't be sold, he just said one word and they bought them all... He's really amazing!"

As she spoke, Sister-in-law Lu used an awl to poke a hole in the sole of her shoe. After pulling it out, she inserted the needle, pulled the hemp rope attached to the needle to the end, wrapped it around twice, and then pulled hard. That completed the stitch.

It's so troublesome. Just look at those dense stitches, and imagine how many hundreds of stitches it would take to make just one shoe. What a troublesome project!

However, the women were used to it; only shoes sewn in this way had sturdy soles. At this time, walking was the most common way for all farmers to get around.

If daily step counts were available, which farmer wouldn't walk tens of thousands of steps a day?
"Hey, that's just a coincidence, we just happened to run into each other." Liang Yuemei, who was also sitting on a stool sewing shoe soles, smiled and said. She rubbed the awl on her head and then stuck it into the shoe sole.

She knew the truth, and she knew that her brother-in-law Li Long was indeed lucky, but she didn't want the team members to praise him too much.

Although as a rural woman she didn't know the term "praise to death," she knew that this situation was not a good thing for Li Long.

These past few days, the team has been buzzing with how Li Long resolved the issue of these people having trouble selling their fish. The day Xie Yundong and his group returned, many people found out that they hadn't sold their fish, and the sarcastic remarks were practically plastered on their faces.

The next day, Li Long found a big buyer and sold all the fish.

This reversal was a slap in the face for some people, so the story became increasingly exaggerated.

Li Long has done so many things that are hard for people to understand, yet he always succeeds. As a result, when people talk about his stories now, they can't help but embellish them.

When it comes to creating gods, the common people are the best at it.

Leaning against the fireplace, Du Chunfang loved hearing others praise her youngest son. She knew it wasn't a good thing, but she just enjoyed it. Her son was capable; that was a good thing, after all.

She mumbled something, and both Sister-in-law Lu and Liang Yuemei looked at her—neither of them could hear her clearly.

Liang Yuemei then spoke up: "Mom, what did you say?"

"It's nothing," Du Chunfang smiled. "Xiaolong hasn't come over for two days, has he?"

"Yeah, they're probably busy. They said they brought in another batch of cars and hides from overseas, so they're probably busy with that," Liang Yuemei explained.

"Xiaolong is really amazing. He's doing business overseas. Hey, he can make money from foreigners. He's really capable!" Aunt Lu kept praising him.

They wanted to join the cooperative, but since the cooperative wasn't accepting new members for the time being, they had to first "maintain" the Li family's position. Although Xie Yundong was the manager of the cooperative, everyone in the team knew that Li Long's words carried the most weight.

As they were talking, there were loud footsteps in the yard. A moment later, Li Jianguo pushed open the door and came in. He carried a bag into the kitchen and then went into the inner room.

"Is the meeting over?" Liang Yuemei asked. "It didn't take long."

"It's over," Li Jianguo said, taking off his coat. "We just talked about the land allocation for the new residents and asked for everyone's opinions."

"Newly moved in?" Sister-in-law Lu was a little surprised. "Like your Xin Junhai?"

“Not only that, there are newborn babies, but also wives who have married into the family,” Li Jianguo explained. “In the past, we only got one plot of land a year, and at the end of the year, the land was given out directly.”

The team now feels that this system is too fragmented. With land leased out annually, the fertilizer and manure applied by others don't even show results in a year, and the land belongs to someone else the following year. They feel they're losing out. So the team is now proposing a three-year land allocation system.

This matter wasn't of much concern to either the Li or Lu families, so they listened and moved on, without saying anything more.

When Sister-in-law Lu saw Li Jianguo return, she stood up, took her shoe sole, and went home. Liang Yuemei checked the time and said, "I'm going to start cooking now. Mother, what would you like for lunch?"

“I ran into Xiaolong at Lao Ma’s place on my way back just now,” Li Jianguo said before Du Chunfang could answer. “He slaughtered a sheep at Lao Ma’s place and was planning to sell some of them. I brought back half a sheep to see if I could make some pilaf.”

“Then you’ll have to make the pilaf,” Liang Yuemei said with a smile. “I can’t make it as well as you.”

“I’ll do it, you get some carrots and onions,” Li Jianguo said with a smile. “When I ran into Xiaolong, he was arguing with Yang Laoliu.”

"How could they be arguing?" Liang Yuemei asked, somewhat puzzled.

Du Chunfang was originally thinking about whether to tell her eldest son to use less oil when making the pilaf, but when she heard him say that Li Long had argued with someone, she immediately became nervous:
"Then why didn't you stay there and help Xiaolong? Won't Xiaolong suffer a loss?"

"You won't suffer a loss!" Seeing her mother-in-law so worried about Li Long, Liang Yuemei was both amused and exasperated. "He's quite formidable..."

"That's hard to say... What if a bad guy secretly tries to harm him?" Du Chunfang was still very worried.

"Mom, it's alright," Li Jianguo said with a smile. "Xiaolong's idea was to sell most of the sheep at Lao Ma's, but Yang Laoliu didn't want to sell, so the two of them were arguing about it. It's alright, I misspoke, we didn't quarrel."

Hearing that there was no argument, Du Chunfang muttered again, "If there wasn't an argument, then there wasn't. You scared me half to death... You couldn't even speak clearly..."

Li Jianguo and Liang Yuemei exchanged a glance and then went about their own business.

That's just how the old man is. He's usually cheerful during meals and conversations, but he immediately gets a little nervous whenever he hears about Li Long.

That's normal.

Li Long did not actually argue with Yang Laoliu; they only had a disagreement.

Sister Yang's orders alone for Liu Gaolou amount to several tons, so they need to expand production.

Li Long thought about Old Ma's place. The cattle and sheep were alright in the summer; they could just graze in the fields. But winter was a real hassle. They had to be fed grass several times a day, along with feed, and the leftover hay stalks in the pen had to be cleared away.

The important thing is that the lambs have started to be born now. Every night, Yang Laoliu and the others have to get up several times to check the warm pen to see if any lambs have been born. If so, they have to bring them inside to prevent them from getting cold.

First-time mothers may not be able to nurse their lambs, or they may have insufficient milk and need to supplement their milk supply, etc.

Newborn lambs have their tails tied with rubber bands to artificially cut off the blood flow. Otherwise, when they grow up and their tails get long, the coarse wool sheep's diarrhea will stick to their tails, making them very dirty and prone to disease.

The testicles of male lambs are removed so that they won't have too much of a gamey smell when they grow up.

It's really troublesome anyway.

Li Long meant that Yang Laoliu and the others were all quite old, around sixty years old. Although people of that age in the countryside are still relatively agile, they are still old and shouldn't be bossed around all the time.

But Yang Laoliu, the shepherd, was not happy. He felt that such a large herd of cattle and sheep was like his soldiers: "When I was a colonel, I had no men under my command. Now that I'm retired and old, it's really impressive to be able to herd so many cattle and sheep!"

Li Long was both amused and exasperated. He had already brought Yushanjiang here so that he could get rid of these cattle and sheep before the New Year.

Old Yang tried to stop them, not that he absolutely refused, but he gave a whole host of reasons.

Li Long asked Yushanjiang and Bieke to slaughter a few sheep first, planning to keep two for Lao Ma Hao, take one back himself, and leave one for his elder brother.

When Li Jianguo passed by, he didn't want a whole sheep, saying it was too much, and only took half a sheep.

The final result of the argument between the two was that all the rams and bulls were disposed of, leaving only the ewes that had already given birth and the ewes pregnant with lambs—and a few breeding rams were also kept.

This way, the flock size is reduced to about two hundred adult sheep with a group of lambs, which is better.

“Hey, anyway, it’s still bigger than Ma Jinbao’s flock. In this whole brigade, my flock has the most sheep.” Yang Laoliu adjusted quickly and said with a smile, “Let them take it. With this flock of ewes, it won’t be long before we have a big flock again in two or three years.”

Li Long thought to himself that it would take another two or three years. When the lambs grew up that winter, another batch would be taken away, including the ewes. That way, the number of sheep would be reduced to a little over a hundred – a little over a hundred would be normal.

In fact, Li Long thought that it would be enough to get a few dozen for Yang Laoliu to play with; too many would be difficult to release.

But judging from Yang Laoliu's stance, he really wasn't going to let go.

After slaughtering four sheep, Yushanjiang and Bieke did not stay for dinner. Instead, they drove the cattle and sheep back to the county. They needed to find a place to settle the cattle and sheep before dark and then slaughter them one by one.

As for the money for the cattle and sheep, it still needs to be settled with Li Long. After all, it's not considered Li Long's investment; it's more like the two partners bought the sheep from Li Long, a business-to-business transaction.

The task of cleaning up the water was left to Uncle Luo and the others. After Yu Shanjiang and the others left, Li Long went to his elder brother's house.

The pilaf wasn't ready yet. When Li Long came in, his older brother, Li Jianguo, was wearing an apron and holding a spatula, stirring the pilaf in the pot.

"Hey, it smells delicious!" Li Long said with a smile. "Brother, I think there's a lot of oil in this."

"It won't smell good if there's not enough oil," Li Jianguo said habitually. "Come inside and rest, warm yourself by the fire, it'll be ready in a little while."

Li Long didn't go in immediately. He heard his mother talking to his sister-in-law inside and was worried that he would bring cold air into his mother's room, so he chatted with Li Jianguo by the stove for a while until he warmed up before going into the inner room.

"Did you have a fight with someone?" Du Chunfang asked as soon as she saw Li Long.

“Mother, I’ve already said we didn’t argue,” Liang Yuemei retorted.

"So they've started arguing?" Du Chunfang wanted to know the truth.

“I didn’t argue, I just persuaded him,” Li Long said with a smile as he took off his coat. “Old Yang wanted to keep the flock and become the head shepherd, but I didn’t let him. I sent away the sheep that were to be slaughtered.”

"Then you won," Du Chunfang said with a smile. "That's good, that's good. It's good that you didn't lose out."

Regardless, Du Chunfang was happy that her youngest son hadn't suffered any loss.

“Hey, I’m really biased,” Liang Yuemei said with a laugh.

Li Long smiled too. Anyway, this was something everyone knew, so it was normal for his older brother's family to joke about it. He then asked:

"Sister-in-law, shouldn't Juan and Qiangqiang be on holiday by now?"

"Yes, we have exams these two days. After the exams, we'll have a holiday," Liang Yuemei said.

"Shouldn't you be going to the parent-teacher conference?"

“I didn’t say, I guess I’ll go after the exams,” Liang Yuemei’s smile widened. “Every year I go after the exams.”

"I bet Qiangqiang is number one in the grade again, right?" Li Long asked.

Li Juan no longer attends parent-teacher conferences in high school, but Li Qiang still does in junior high. Every year after the conference, Li Jianguo and his wife are happy for several days—because both Li Juan and Li Qiang are very promising, always ranking first in their class, though whether they rank first in the grade depends on the situation.

Anyway, attending parent-teacher meetings always brings praise from teachers, and that sense of honor is something that ordinary things can't compare to.

"Clear the table, it's time to eat," Li Jianguo called from the outer room. "Xiaolong, come and get your bowl!"

The aroma of lamb chop pilaf filled the entire outer room. Li Jianguo had already taken the pot down, and Li Long came out to help cover the stove, leaving the small stove plate and placing the teapot on it.

I brewed tea this morning. After eating pilaf, I don't need to wash the bowl. I just pour most of it into the bowl with brick tea, drink it, and it feels soothing to cleanse the oil from my mouth and throat.

"After you finish eating, take those rabbits from the spare room. Oh, and a pair of pheasants too," Li Jianguo said. "Daqiang and the others caught them yesterday. They said they'd let you come down and take them whenever you wanted."

"Hmm." Li Long nodded. "They've switched to this again?"

“If we don’t do this, we have nothing better to do,” Li Jianguo said. “If we catch fish but can’t sell them, you help them sell the fish, and they’ll know that this can’t be done anymore, so they’ll turn to catching rabbits.”

Although a lot of wasteland has been cleared, there is still a lot of undeveloped wasteland, where wild rabbits, pheasants, and quails are still easy to find.

The lambs slaughtered were winter lambs from that year, and the meat was very tender. Even Du Chunfang could easily gnaw on the meat on the lamb chops.

Before long, there was a pile of bones in front of everyone on the table.

“In the past, when we ate meat, we always gave it to the kids,” Liang Yuemei suddenly said with emotion. “The adults just enjoyed the taste. But these past few years, we can eat meat every day… Hey, these days are really good.”

“Sister-in-law, I remember when I first came here, you said you liked to eat fish heads when we were catching fish,” Li Long said with a smile as he ate. “Back then, I thought you really liked eating fish heads.”

When Li Long first arrived, there were more fish resources than there are now, but there was less oil, so stewing fish wasn't something they did every day.

Fish and meat were given to Li Long, Li Juan, and Li Qiang first. Li Jianguo and Liang Yuemei basically ate cornbread soaked in fish soup, or gnawed on a fish head to taste it.

Now everyone eats fresh mutton, and only thinks of eating frozen meat when there's no fresh meat available. Life is really good.

“Back in our hometown, we can’t even afford mutton.” Du Chunfang put down the bone in her hand, licked her fingers and said, “On the first and fifteenth of the lunar month, we can get some mutton to make mutton soup, and that’s considered a good day.”

Li Long quickly changed the subject. "What's going on? Are we getting into this 'bitter memories and sweet present' nonsense?"
After having dinner at his elder brother's house, Li Long drove back to Yushanjiang's courtyard, where he saw him, Buick, and Talihar sorting out the cattle and sheep, deciding which ones to keep and which ones to slaughter in the next few days.

When he saw Li Long coming over, Talihar greeted him with a smile.

"You came down too? When did you come down?" Li Long asked. "Coming down to play, or are you planning to stay for a while?"

“I had nothing to do on the mountain, so Yushanjiang asked me to come down and help him,” Talihar said. “There’s not much to hunt these days, so I came down.”

Li Long chatted with him for a few minutes and learned that Halim had also come down, but he had come down to see his mother and child before going back up.

Li Long already knew that Talihar and his group would be moving their belongings to the village in the spring, where they had a yard. Some of the older people were not suited to going to the summer pasture, so they would probably continue living in the yard.

“I’m planning to slaughter some cattle in a couple of days. When do you guys have time to come over?” Li Long said to Yu Shanjiang and the others. “We’ll slaughter a cow, two deer, and a few sheep.”

"Do you need our help?" Yushanjiang asked.

"No need, just come and eat meat," Li Long smiled. "How about three days from now? Are you free?"

Yu Shanjiang thought for a moment and said, "Yes, how about we go to your old Ma's place? I'll talk to Halim today and see if anyone else can come."

"Okay." Li Long nodded, then said goodbye to them and left.

Two days later, Gu Boyuan returned with his wife. Mingming, Haohao, Juanjuan, Qiangqiang, and even Han Fang were all on holiday. Li Long planned to give the purchasing station a two-day holiday as well, so that everyone could get together.

Anyway, Old Ma has so many animals on board, and he's not short of money, so there's no need to sell them. He can just slaughter them and eat them.

Starting next year, Yushanjiang and his group will go their separate ways. Although they will still be a tribe in name only, once they are dispersed to different production teams, they certainly won't be able to maintain the same close contact as before.

Is this also a way to summarize the last of the tribes that have come together?

Li Long had already planned it all out. Not only would he slaughter a red deer, but he would also slaughter a roe deer and a domesticated wild boar. However, the slaughter of the wild boar would have to be done before or after that, at least to show some respect to Halimu Yushanjiang and the others.

Back at the purchasing station, I told my father, Li Qingxia, about it. Li Qingxia was quite supportive; after a busy year, it was time to relax and have some fun.

Li Long notified each household, and Yushanjiang, Beke, and Talihar divided the cattle and sheep into pens. Then Yushanjiang was about to tell Halimu that Talihar had taken on the task.

“Our yard isn’t far from theirs, I’ll go talk to them.”

“Then have him tell the people in the mountains to see who can come down,” Yu Shanjiang said. “Although Li Long said we shouldn’t slaughter sheep, we still need to get there as soon as possible and see what we need to bring.”

Talihar responded. In fact, he had already made up his mind. A few days ago, he found a pair of very beautiful red deer antlers in the mountains, and he planned to give them to Li Long's family as a gift.

Harim was clearing snow in the yard when Talihar came over and saw that he was steaming.

Three people usually live in the small courtyard: an old lady and her two children. Although the two children are quite old, they mainly attend classes, so the snow in the courtyard is cleared rather roughly, and the snow on the roof has not been pushed down.

When they saw that Talihar had arrived, Harim, who was pushing snow off the roof into the vegetable garden, stopped. After listening to him talk about Li Long, Harim nodded and said that he would go back to the mountains today and ask about it tomorrow.

The two children will finish their exams tomorrow and it'll be almost time for their vacation. Before the vacation, Halim will have to attend a parent-teacher meeting at school, so he'll go to Old Ma's place then. Li Long returned to the courtyard and saw Han Fang talking to Sister Yang; she had arrived at his house today.

Although she would always come back every week or two during the semester, Li Long felt that Han Fang really seemed to have grown up.

He had grown taller, and the baby fat that had appeared on his face due to a period of better living conditions had disappeared, making him more handsome. Upon seeing Li Long, he shyly called out, "Uncle Li."

Li Long then smiled and said, "Is it shy around strangers? How long is your leave?"

"School starts on February 25th," Han Fang said. "It's a little earlier than primary and junior high school."

"It's alright. I have over a month to rest properly. Is there any homework?"

"Yes, there's a lot of homework." Once school was mentioned, Han Fang's initial unfamiliarity disappeared, and she complained a bit, "Besides the regular homework, the teachers assigned some other things, so there's not much time to play."

“Three days from now, we’re going to Old Ma’s place to slaughter sheep and cattle for winter slaughter. It’ll be lively then. Juan and Qiangqiang are going too. I’ll take you all with me,” Li Long said. “Studying is so stressful. Now that we’re on holiday, let’s relax first.”

"Really?" Han Fang's eyes lit up with surprise, and she turned to look at Sister Yang.

"Won't it be too much trouble?" Sister Yang looked at Li Long, her first thought being not to cause him any trouble.

“What’s the trouble? We can just drive there in one car. We’ll all go, and Xiaoxia will go too.”

Three days later, January 14th was a Sunday. Gu Xiaoxia's school was also on holiday, and everyone was resting, so they all went together.

The advantage of being at school compared to working at the education bureau is that when students have holidays, teachers also get holidays. There might be some duty shifts or other things to do, but most of the holiday time can be spent resting at home.

Han Fang went to pack her things, while Li Long processed the mutton he had brought back that day, removing the meat and cutting it into pieces, planning to make mutton soup that evening.

He ate pilaf during the day, but Sister Yang and the others haven't had any fresh mutton yet. Since Han Fang is back, we'll just make some mutton soup for dinner to warm them up.

(By the way, the temperature in Ma County has been below minus thirty degrees Celsius these past two days, it's really freezing cold.)

I mentioned this to Gu Xiaoxia at dinner. Gu Xiaoxia didn't say anything, but Mingming and Haohao were the first to get excited, saying they would soon be able to go to the team and play with Qiangqiang. The two kids were shouting so loudly they could lift the roof off.

When Li Jianguo called his older brother's family that evening, he was somewhat surprised, since Li Long hadn't mentioned it during the day, but he thought it was a good thing.

Why keep so many animals around? Isn't it all just for a bite to eat?

The next day, after breakfast, Li Long drove to the fourth team again, first going to Old Ma's place.

He saw that Yang Laoliu was already in the sheepfold. The ewes that had given birth were separated from the other sheep. At that moment, he was holding the head of one of the ewes so that the two lambs could nurse.

"That Grayhead guy had twins, but he only lets one of them nurse. Damn, he's really cunning. Maybe the other lamb is biting the nipple and keeps nudging it." Old Yang explained, "Otherwise, the other lamb wouldn't be able to get any milk."

Are these situations common?

"Not many. One ewe's lamb died right after birth, and another young ewe had her first lamb this year but didn't produce any milk, so I gave that lamb to the old ewe..."

"Can we eat the old ewe?" Li Long asked.

“I smeared some of the ewe’s milk on the lamb’s head—the ewe doesn’t produce milk when it’s born, so the lamb has the smell of the ewe, and I let it eat it.”

As Yang Laoliu explained, he laughed, a cunning laugh as if he had done something incredibly clever.

This method is actually commonly used by herders; it works for some, but not for others.

There was a lot of feed scattered around the ewes' pen, mainly sugar residue and wheat tails. The ewes were eating quietly, and most of the lambs were obediently following their mothers.

Only a few of the early-morning lambs are now quite big, jumping around restlessly or butting against each other. One of them even curiously ran up to Yang Laoliu, sniffed his trouser leg, and then stretched out its mouth to chew on his trousers.

"Go away, go away!" Old Yang raised his leg and gave the little lamb a feint kick. "Go away!"

As soon as he moved, the ewe beneath him became restless, so Yang Laoliu immediately patted her to calm her down.

Uncle Luo came out when he heard the car, saw Li Long, smiled and asked, "Why don't you go inside? It's so cold outside—"

“Cold? Not cold at all,” Yang Laoliu interjected. “He’s young and energetic, so he’s not cold.”

"Let me see the lambs," Li Long explained, then told Uncle Luo about the winter slaughter.

"Hey, they should have been slaughtered a long time ago." Before Uncle Luo could speak, Yang Laoliu said with a smile, "If we don't slaughter those deer soon, they'll cause chaos. They're causing trouble in the circle every day now, and they've even knocked Uncle Luo over several times."

Li Long looked at Uncle Luo, who was a little embarrassed, but still nodded and said, "I went to clear the grass in the enclosure. Those half-grown deer are very aggressive and knocked me over when I wasn't paying attention."

"Are you alright?" Li Long was a little nervous. It would be troublesome if the deer had hurt Uncle Luo.

"No, no, I just used a stick to whack those deer a few times, and they behaved themselves," Uncle Luo said. "They were still half-grown, they didn't know their place."

A newborn calf is not afraid of a tiger, let alone a horned deer.

How much should you fleece?

"We'll slaughter two red deer, two roe deer, a cow, and a few sheep the day after tomorrow," Li Long said. "We'll slaughter the wild boar in two days. It's not appropriate to slaughter a wild boar when my herder friends from the mountains come down that day."

"That will require quite a few people to come and help," Uncle Luo said.

"It's alright, I'll go get some people right now. We'll build a stove, cook meat and offal in a big pot, and anyone from the team can come and eat."

"Hey, that'll be lively!" Old Yang said happily. "It's been a while since our Old Ma's shop has been so lively."

They are all recipients of the Five Guarantees (a government-provided social welfare program for the elderly, disabled, and orphans), and have no family. Although they have friends, the feeling is different.

Now, when cattle and sheep are slaughtered, at least the children in the team, if not the adults, will definitely come over, and that makes it lively.

Li Long chatted with them for a few more minutes, then drove off to inform others. Uncle Luo went inside to talk to the others about it.

The old men immediately got to work, first clearing out the area in front of the old horse stable. A shed had been built there after the previous slaughterings of cattle and sheep, and now it was coming in handy.

As for building the stove, although it was the dead of winter, bricks and clods of earth were readily available. Mud was hard to come by, so Yang Laoliu suggested breaking up some prepared clods of earth, mixing them with warm water, and that would make mud. They didn't even need to sprinkle wheat tails on it.

"The mind of someone who's been a spy is just different!" Old Zhao casually mocked Yang Laoliu.

"Go to hell!" Yang Laoliu was always sensitive about people saying he had been a spy, but it was fine for the people in Lao Ma's place to joke around. Anyway, everyone knew each other well, so it wouldn't lead to a falling out.

Before lunchtime, the area in front of the sheepfold had already been cleared out, and the fodder that had been stored in the shed had been moved to other places.

The two large stoves have been built, and charcoal has been lit inside, but no pots have been placed in them yet, because boiling water is not necessary at this time.

After lunch, Uncle Luo and the others started preparing the tools. They took out all the enamel basins they had bought and used before, washed them clean, and scrubbed the large pot clean for later use.

All the basins in the spare room were cleared out and the accumulated dust was washed away, as these basins would be used to hold meat and waste.

One by one, new urea bags were taken out, rinsed clean with water, and may be used to store meat later.

Then there's the house where the old men live. It might be a bit messy when they're living there normally, but with so many people coming in a couple of days, it can't stay messy any longer, or it wouldn't be good if others saw it and said something.

All the unused items in the house were cleared out and the house was tidied up, and the stove was also cleaned up. Uncle Luo also went to the store to buy some missing seasonings.

While you're at it, please give a shout-out to Lao Ma Hao in the store. They're going to be slaughtering meat this winter, so the kids can come over and enjoy some.

Hey, this news has excited everyone in the store. It looks like the Li family is going to be generous again.

Li Long went to Xie Yundong's house to inform him, and then he also informed Tao Daqiang, Liang Dacheng, and Jia Weidong's houses. He also went to Xu Haijun's house, but Xu Haijun wasn't there.

Finally, they went to the captain's house. Xu Chengjun was there. When Li Long mentioned that he was going to smuggle something in Dongzai, he laughed and said, "Hey, I'll go and take advantage of it too."

He asked Li Long if they should announce it over the loudspeaker, but Li Long said no. Those who already know can come; there's no need to make a big fuss.

After all, it wasn't the first time. People he was on good terms with would definitely come, but those he wasn't on good terms with wouldn't be invited, and those people wouldn't remember his kindness.

Finally, when they arrived at his elder brother's house, Li Junfeng was talking to Li Jianguo about the matter. Li Long then recounted everything he had just informed his elder brother and listened to his opinion to see if anything had been overlooked.

"If we're going to cook meat, then everyone should go and help with the bowls, plates, and all the women in the family. Old Luo and the others definitely won't be able to handle it all; we'll be the main force."

As long as your herder friends aren't too superstitious, it'll be fine. You should also prepare extra benches and such, otherwise it's not good for them to just stand around.

As the saying goes, "Two heads are better than one," and once this matter was mentioned, Li Long knew that there was still a lot to prepare.

Fortunately, the cooperative members chipped in and managed to get the meat ready. Although it's cold in winter, one advantage is that the meat won't spoil; it freezes soon after slaughtering.

Moreover, Old Ma's house has many rooms, so with that shed, we can just set up a few more stoves.

After having lunch at my older brother's house, Xie Yundong and the others came over in the afternoon to discuss things together.

Li Long went to buy some necessary supplies, while Xie Yundong and the others were responsible for bringing tables, benches, and other items to Lao Ma's place. Each household had these things, so they could just put them together and it would be enough.

Since it's not a banquet, there's no need to be so particular.

The next day, Liang Yuemei went to the middle school for a parent-teacher meeting and helped Li Qiang collect two certificates of merit.

At that time, the school issued very few certificates of merit. There were only three good students, outstanding members of the Communist Youth League, and occasionally outstanding class cadres. There were usually only one or two three good students in a class, which were counted as school awards; there was one outstanding class cadre per grade; and there was one outstanding member of the Communist Youth League per class.

Those who receive the award are among the top students in the class, and are generally recognized as such.

Li Qiang once again won the title of "Excellent Student" and ranked first in the class.

As for the grade's grades, the school didn't evaluate them, and Liang Yuemei didn't ask either. However, Li Long inquired about it himself and found out that he was tied for first place in the grade—he was in Class 3, and there was a girl in Class 2 with the same total score as him.

Several teachers chatted with Liang Yuemei for a few minutes, especially the Chinese teacher, who spoke more, mainly telling Liang Yuemei to go back and check on Li Qiang's composition.

“Your son Li Qiang gets almost perfect scores in everything except for the composition. Losing five points on the composition has dragged down his overall grade.” The Chinese teacher sounded utterly distraught. “He could have gotten even higher, but this has made Chinese his lowest score of all subjects!”

Liang Yuemei repeatedly assured the Chinese teacher that she would check on the child's homework when she got back, and only then did the teacher nod and leave.

The other teachers all spoke to Liang Yuemei with smiles on their faces. Li Qiang's academic achievements were obvious to all, and the teachers were naturally happy to have such an easy-going student.

Some parents came over to talk to Liang Yuemei, trying to find out how she raised her son. Liang Yuemei said that the parents didn't say much, but Li Qiang's older sister had good grades, and the younger brother was raised by his sister.

This kind of thinking was very popular at the time; if there was an eldest child in the family who did well in school, it was easy for the younger siblings to follow suit.

Of course, this idea is no longer so "magical" after many years. Those who are good at studying will still do well, and those who are not good at studying will not do well in other subjects, no matter how good they are in other subjects.

After Li Qiang finished helping the homeroom teacher fill out the report card, he came out and hurriedly asked Liang Yuemei, "Mom, is my uncle slaughtering a cow the day after tomorrow? Can I bring my classmates with me?"

"Sure. Is it convenient for your classmate?"

"What's inconvenient about that? I can just ride my bike over then—I'm going to tell them now!" Li Qiang ran off excitedly.

After this holiday, there will be only one semester left in junior high school. Li Qiang also has his own good friends, and he wants to take this opportunity to treat his classmates to a big meal and have some fun.

On the morning of the 14th, after breakfast, Gu Xiaoxia and Sister Yang cleaned the kitchen together, while Li Long fed the dog and locked the doors. Han Fang helped Mingming and Haohao put on their cotton coats, and then Li Long and Gu Xiaoxia drove off separately.

Li Long's father, Li Qingxia, had already returned yesterday, so the two families on Li Long's side went straight to the old horse ship of the fourth team.

Mingming and Haohao were very excited and kept talking the whole way. They were on holiday and had told their parents well in advance that they would be staying in the fourth team for a while.

This September, Mingming and Haohao will be starting first grade, and this remaining holiday is their last winter break during kindergarten, so they are quite concerned about it.

Gu Boyuan returned yesterday. He drove with Teacher Song, stopped briefly in the courtyard, had lunch, and then went back to the fourth team. Knowing that Li Long was going to slaughter livestock in the winter, Gu Boyuan said he should hurry back and tidy up the house, as he also needed to go to Old Horse's place today.

Teacher Song had participated in the winter slaughter of Kazakh herders in the valley, but she had never seen a Han Chinese herder's slaughter before, so she wanted to see it for herself.

When Li Long and his group arrived at Old Ma's place, they found that tables and benches were already set up, one inside the shed and two outside. The two stoves were already lit, and the water in the pots was boiling, steaming.

Several children who had arrived earlier were playing around the stove, while Uncle Luo and the others had already led out the livestock to be slaughtered and tied them to the stakes.

Two cars were parked one after the other in the snow. Mingming and Haohao got out of the car and ran towards the stove with cheers, looking curiously at the older children. Soon after, they were all together.

Han Fang followed behind, watching over them like a mother hen, afraid that the two children would run to the large livestock and get hurt.

Seeing that the slaughtering hadn't started yet, and with nothing else to do, Sister Yang went with Gu Xiaoxia to greet the elders and then look at the red deer and roe deer in the enclosure.

Li Long took out his knives from the car; he was going to make a move today.

Since we're inviting Yushan Jiang and the others to eat meat, it's best not to let them do any work. They're guests now, so it's best to finish the work before they arrive so they can come over mainly for a meal.

A short while later, Li Jianguo drove up. After parking, Li Qingxia, Li Juan, and Li Qiang got out of the car. Mingming and Haohao ran excitedly towards Li Qiang, and Han Fang followed. She huddled together with the smiling Li Juan, holding hands and whispering.

Han Fang went to teachers' college, and Li Juan was curious about life there. Han Fang also had many things she wanted to share with Li Juan, so after handing Mingming and Haohao over to Li Qiang, the two girls went to the stove to warm themselves by the fire and started talking.

Soon Xie Yundong and Tao Daqiang arrived in their car, along with women and children, and tools. Li Long then said:

"Then let's not wait any longer, let's kill them first."

The important thing is to slaughter the cattle and sheep as soon as possible and cook the meat.

The sun rose, and it was still very cold, but my heart was warm.

Xie Yundong and Tao Daqiang slaughtered a sheep, while Li Long, with the help of Liang Dacheng and Xu Haijun, brought down a cow. He hadn't yet learned how to kill a cow with a single blow, so he could only slit its throat.

Just as the cattle and sheep were laid down, Wang the Money-Grubber arrived. Seeing him carrying a set of things, Li Long smiled and said, "Brother Wang, perfect timing! We have a lot of things to slaughter, could you help us slaughter one of the sheep?"

"Hey, that's perfect, I just came over to see if I needed any help." Wang Caimi was still thinking about how to ask, but Li Long's words gave him an opening.

Although he is greedy for money, he has his own principles. He can come and eat, but he also has to work.

The slaughterhouse was divided into several stalls, where the women began collecting blood, processing the aftermath, and preparing ingredients for cooking.

The mutton is boiled, but the offal must be stir-fried.

Just as Li Long was slaughtering the ox and skinning it, Yu Shanjiang and his group arrived.

The scene immediately became lively!

PS: Thank you to reader 20250227012518717 for the generous donation! Thank you everyone for your support... It's so cold! (End of Chapter)