Hunting 81: Gathering Goods in the Mountains, I Spoil My Ex-Wife to the Extreme

After buying the hunting rifle and bullets, Li Yunshan, Uncle Zhou, and the other two did not linger in Xiangyang Commune and rode their bicycles back to the village.

When we got back to the village, it was still early.

The village was completely calm, with no pedestrians on the road. Every household had their doors and windows tightly shut, and some even had horizontal strips nailed to the outside of the windows to reinforce them.

On his way home, Li Yunshan saw two daring villagers reinforcing their windows with horizontal bars in their yards, the sound of hammers striking nails particularly crisp.

"Uncle Deng, hurry up and come inside after you've secured the windows!"

Li Yunshan peered over the courtyard wall and offered a reminder.

"Oh... Yunshan, okay, I'll go back inside after I hammer these two nails."

The villagers who were hammering nails thought someone was shouting and were startled. When they turned around and saw that it was Li Yunshan, they smiled and replied.

"I'm leaving now." Li Yunshan turned and left after seeing that the villager was almost done nailing the window strips.

Li Yunshan first went back to his elder brother Li Yunshi's house to let Huang Zhifang and Lin Xiulan know he was safe. After filling his stomach, he saw that it was still early, so he went back to his own house to lie down for a while.

As the sun set and darkness fell, Li Yunshan carried the Mosin-Nagant on his back, locked the door, and headed towards the village's threshing ground.

When he arrived at the threshing ground, he saw the village hunters gathered together, and Zhang Sange's newly bought Gongnong brand double-barreled shotgun was being passed from one hunter to another.

Everyone smiled as they looked at the brand-new hunting rifles.

"San'er, I advised you a long time ago to buy a hunting rifle. A hunting rifle is much more accurate than a bow and arrow. It can hit the target every time you hunt, but you wouldn't listen back then."

Li Baotian said with a smile.

"Back then we were poor, and there were many expenses at home, so we couldn't afford this hunting rifle. I'm so grateful that Yunshan was willing to lend me the money."

Brother Zhang San laughed.

"Third Brother, with the new hunting rifle, life will definitely get better and better, and things will become more and more prosperous."

Cai Er said with a smile.

"Now, I'm the only hunter in our village who still uses a bird gun. Even my third brother has switched to a hunting rifle."

When Peng Youlian saw the brand-new Gongnong brand double-barreled shotgun that had been passed back to Zhang Sange, and then looked at the rusty bird gun in his own hand, he suddenly felt a pang of sadness.

"Youlian, you should change your musket too. Every time you fire this musket, you have to reload it with gunpowder and bullets before you can fire it again. It's very troublesome. If you go hunting in the mountains and encounter danger, you won't be able to fight back after firing once."

Uncle Zhou said.

"Yeah, Youlian, it's not like your family is short of money. Surely you can come up with the money to buy a hunting rifle? Look at Third Brother, his wife needs to take medicine and he has to raise several children, but he still bought a new hunting rifle."

Wu Shenghong chimed in.

"I'll go to Xiangyang Commune tomorrow and buy a hunting rifle."

When Uncle Zhou and Cai Er mentioned it, Peng Youlian got excited and immediately slapped his thigh and said decisively.

"It's getting dark, everyone hurry up and get to your positions."

Uncle Zhou smiled and said.

Soon, the village hunters, according to the groups they had formed the night before, entered the granaries located on both sides of the threshing ground.

"Uncle Zhou, do you think the tiger will appear tonight?"

After closing the door and securing the bolt, Wu Shenghong couldn't help but ask while guarding the granary.

"I don't know. It might happen, or it might never happen. It's hard to say. Maybe that tiger just came to visit our village and then ran off to other places, or went back to the deep mountains," Uncle Zhou said.

"Let's just stay here patiently. What if the tiger hasn't run away and is just wandering around the village? Hehe, if the tiger comes, we might be rich."

Zhang Sange had just bought a new hunting rifle and was quite ambitious and impressive.

If only we could kill that tiger...

But it seemed that fate was playing a joke on Zhang Sange and everyone else. They guarded the granary all night and kept watch all night, but they didn't even see a shadow of a tiger. However, Wang Laojiu's big fat pig suffered in the cold for another night in the fence of the threshing ground.

The next day, when everyone came out of the granary, almost everyone except Li Yunshan was yawning.

At this moment, the big fat pig in the enclosure let out a series of pitiful screams after seeing someone come out of the granary.

"Oh dear, my big fat pig."

Seeing the big, fat pig in the pen shivering from the cold, with snot dripping from its nostrils and freezing solid into icicles, Wang Laojiu felt extremely distressed.

He and his wife put a lot of effort into raising this big, fat pig. They carefully fed it, hoping to fatten it up and sell it for a good price during the Chinese New Year.

Now, in order to lure the tiger into the village, he brought out the big fat pig he keeps at home.

I never expected that just two nights would make this big fat pig sick from the cold.

Seeing how distressed Wang Laojiu was about the big fat pig, everyone felt a pang of sympathy.

As everyone knows, the big fat pig that Wang Laojiu raises is probably the biggest source of income for his family all year round. Whether the family's food, drink, and daily life are good or bad in the coming year, they all hope to slaughter this big fat pig at the New Year and sell it for a lot of money.

When the tiger entered the village, Lao Jiu was willing to use this big fat pig as bait. Everyone remembered this, but what if they failed to lure the tiger out and instead froze the big fat pig to death? That would be troublesome, and everyone would feel somewhat guilty.

If this big fat pig freezes to death, the only option is to gut it and sell it.

A large, fat pig that freezes to death is not as valuable as a large, fat pig that is slaughtered alive.

"Old Jiu, take this big fat pig home and don't bring it back tonight, lest the beast freeze to death," Uncle Zhou said, patting Old Jiu on the shoulder.

"Okay, sure."

While feeling sorry for the big fat pig that had been frozen, Wang Laojiu nodded in agreement.

After Wang Laojiu drove the frozen fat pig back, Uncle Zhou Wu had Li Baotian lead a group of people to patrol the area around the village, but his face was full of worry.

Wang Laojiu has taken away the big fat pig, so the bait to lure the tiger is gone. What should we do tonight? What can we use to lure the tiger out?

"Uncle Zhou, I'll go to the village and buy a sheep. Sheep have wool, which is more resistant to the cold than fat pigs."

Li Yunshan spoke first.

"How can we let you pay for it all by yourself?" Uncle Zhou was a little embarrassed, after all, he was the head hunter in the village now.

"Uncle Zhou, what's wrong with that? I can afford to buy a sheep," Li Yunshan said with a smile.

If they can use a sheep to lure the tiger out of the village and kill it, then the deal will be worthwhile.

Moreover, even if he bought sheep but failed to lure the tiger, Li Yunshan wasn't afraid of suffering a loss; at worst, he would just kill the sheep and eat the meat.

Now, the second sister is divorced and lives at her parents' home, and the fourth sister also lives at her parents' home with her niece Qianqian. Even though the eldest brother works at the forest farm, there are still ten people in the family to eat and drink, so it's a good time to improve their meals.

Seeing Li Yunshan say this, Uncle Zhou stopped insisting.

After leaving the shaiguping area, Li Yunshan went straight to the home of Old Zeng, who raised sheep in the village.

When Li Yunshan knocked on Old Zeng's door, Old Zeng was smoking a pipe at home. Inside, there were seven sheep, three large and four small, some lying in the house, some bleating. Old Zeng's grandchildren were playing with a lamb.

"Who?"

Hearing the knock on the door, Old Man Zeng put down his pipe and asked warily.

"Uncle Zeng, it's me, Li Yunshan."

Hearing the noise coming from inside the house, Li Yunshan spoke.

"Oh, Li Yunshan."

Old Zeng responded and put his pipe and tobacco pouch on the table before going to open the door for Li Yunshan.

"Creak..."

The thick wooden door made a dull thud, and Old Man Zeng opened it from the inside, where he saw Li Yunshan.

"Yunshan, what's up?"

Old Man Zeng glanced at Li Yunshan, stepped aside to let Li Yunshan into the house, and then slowly asked.

Li Yunshan's gaze swept around the main room of Zeng Laohan's house and he saw several sheep locked inside: three adult sheep and four lambs.

The two children who were playing with the lamb were stunned for a moment when they saw Li Yunshan walk in.

Li Yunshan's gaze swept past the two children holding lambs and landed on Old Man Zeng: "Uncle Zeng, it's like this, you know about the tiger entering the village. I came to your house mainly to buy a sheep from you to lure the tiger out."

"Didn't they say someone brought a big, fat pig as bait?" Old Zeng asked curiously.

"Wang Laojiu used one of his big fat pigs as bait, but the pig was frozen for two nights in the village's threshing ground and almost froze to death. So Uncle Zhou told him to take the pig home first."

"I was thinking that you raise sheep at home. Sheep are covered in wool, which makes them more resistant to the cold than fat pigs, so I came to your house to see if I could buy a sheep to use as bait," Li Yunshan explained.

"this……"

Old Zeng hesitated for a moment, then looked back at the sheep in his yard.

The lambs were born before winter, so they definitely can't be sold.

The other three adult sheep included a ram and two ewes.

Old Zeng spent a lot of time and effort raising these three adult sheep.

In spring and summer, as soon as the sun dries the dew on the grass, he rushes out to drive the sheep out to graze.

Before winter, in order to store enough fodder for the sheep to get through the winter, he would go to the foot of the mountain and the riverbank to harvest green grass in addition to herding the sheep, and carry it home to dry.

To be honest, Old Man Zeng was a little reluctant to sell a sheep.

Moreover, if they were to sell a sheep, they could only sell the ram, because the two ewes still had to nurse the four lambs.

After much deliberation, Old Man Zeng finally agreed to sell the ram to Li Yunshan.

"Uncle Zeng, thank you so much."

Li Yunshan expressed his heartfelt gratitude.

"Sigh, actually I didn't want to sell either, but with the tiger entering the village, we can't live in peace until the danger is eliminated."

Old Man Zeng sighed.