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

The villagers crowded into Li Yunshan's courtyard, watching Li Yunshan and Uncle Zhou cut open the tiger's belly, dismember it, and remove its flesh.

Those who couldn't squeeze into Li Yunshan's yard would peer inside from outside the courtyard wall.

A few mischievous children squeezed through the crowd and into the courtyard. Soon, adults looking for their children started calling out from the crowd, "Looking for the children!"

Soon, the child who had squeezed into the yard was caught by the villagers who were crowding in the village and handed over to the villagers who were looking for the child with smiles.

After all, the scene of disemboweling a tiger is too bloody and unsuitable for children.

Meanwhile, the villagers—farmers, young wives, girls, and the elderly—watched Li Yunshan and his men gut and dismember the tiger with great interest and enthusiasm, occasionally whispering and discussing it with the villagers nearby.

"I wonder how much Li Yunshan and his men will sell tiger meat for per pound. If it's cheap, I'd like to buy some and try what tiger meat tastes like."

Although it was hard to make money in those days, a strong laborer could only earn a hundred or so yuan a year by earning work points in the village collective. After deducting daily household expenses, he couldn't actually save much money. But some villagers still thought about buying some tiger meat to try something new.

After all, tiger meat is a real delicacy, and you might not even see it normally, or have the chance to encounter it only once every few years.

"Just think about it, tiger meat definitely won't be cheap. I remember last year when I was in the county town, I saw tiger meat for sale at the farmers' market. It cost three yuan per pound. Are you really willing to spend three yuan to buy a pound of tiger meat?"

Nowadays, pork from supply and marketing cooperatives sells for 90 cents per pound if you have meat coupons, and for 1.3 yuan per pound if you don't have meat coupons, and even for 1.5 yuan per pound during holidays.

Moreover, when people go to buy pork, they specifically choose the fatty parts.

Why?

Because fatty pork can be rendered into oil, the cracklings can be drizzled with soy sauce, and topped with some chives and scallions, or even just some cabbage. Simply stir-fry them in a pot for a short time, and you have a great dish to eat with rice.

Tiger meat has coarse fibers, is mostly lean meat and has little fat, yet it is expensive.

Ordinary people have to be careful with their money when buying a piece of pork. Who would be willing to spend three yuan to buy a pound of tiger meat that is mostly lean with little fat and has coarse fibers?

At least, although there were many villagers watching the spectacle, very few actually wanted to spend money to buy tiger meat.

Of course, Li Yunshan and Uncle Zhou didn't plan to sell the tiger meat in the village. After all, tiger meat is a rare delicacy and is expensive.

It's not easy for villagers to earn money. If they're willing to spend money on a pound or two of pork, it's considered quite good; it means they're willing to spend money on food and drink.

Li Yunshan and Uncle Zhou didn't even dare to imagine that the villagers would spend more money than pork to buy a pound or two of tiger meat.

This tiger meat has to be taken to the county town to fetch a good price.

After all, the county town has all kinds of units and factories, which are all secure jobs. They can earn at least thirty or forty yuan a month. If it is a dual-income family, the monthly income can be several tens or even hundreds of yuan, which is much better than the farmers who toil in the fields.

With money in their pockets, the purchasing power of employees in those units and factory workers is stronger than that of farmers in the countryside.

Although not every employee or factory worker is willing or able to afford to buy, or necessarily will buy, delicacies like tiger meat, the number of people with high purchasing power in the county town is at least higher than in the countryside.

This is similar to casting a net to catch fish. The chances of successfully catching fish are completely different when you cast a net to catch fish in a pond with only ten fish versus a pond with one hundred or even one thousand fish.

Therefore, Li Yunshan and Uncle Zhou both agreed that the tiger meat should still be taken to the county town to sell for a good price.

After all, everyone knows that a pound of wild boar meat can only fetch seven cents in the village, but it can sell for eight cents on market days in Xiangyang Commune, and nine cents a pound in the county town.

What about the tiger's meat?

Even after the tiger's skin was removed, its internal organs were emptied, and its bones were removed, it still had nearly 300 pounds of meat left.

For example, in a village, a pound might only sell for 2.5 yuan, which others would consider too expensive, and not many people would buy it.

But if you take it to the county town, you can sell it for three yuan a pound, and there are many buyers.

That's a difference of 150 yuan.

Of course, this is just an analogy; everything should be based on the actual situation.

However, no matter what, selling in the village will definitely not fetch a high price, and not many people will buy it; taking it to the county town to sell will allow it to sell out faster, and the selling price will be higher than selling in the village, or even more than selling in Xiangyang Commune.

Fortunately, it is winter now, and the outdoor temperature has been around or below zero for a long time, which is conducive to the preservation of tiger meat.

In summer, tiger meat cannot be stored for long; it won't be long before the meat and internal organs start to smell of decay.

But if someone in the village wants to buy it, they won't stop them. After all, they're all neighbors, and it would be a loss of face to refuse them.

However, after Li Yunshan and his men had completely dismantled the tiger bones and cut the tiger meat into pieces, only a few villagers were willing to spend money to buy some tiger meat to take home and try.

Just as Li Yunshan and his men were preparing to carry the tiger meat and bones into the house to sell in the county town the next morning, the sound of a bicycle bell rang out from outside the crowd.

Liu Jun, a cook at a state-run restaurant in the county town, parked his old-fashioned motorcycle outside the crowd.

Liu Jun set up his old-fashioned scooter and saw so many people gathered inside and outside Li Yunshan's yard. He immediately became curious about what had happened.

Li Yunshan used to be idle and lazy, and he even abused his wife and children. Although I heard that he has recently changed his ways and done two earth-shattering things, I hope he doesn't fall back into his old ways and start abusing his wife and children again.

Thinking to himself, Liu Jun asked a villager, "Auntie, what happened at Li Yunshan's house? Why are there so many people here?"

The aunt glanced back and saw Liu Jun, a cook at the state-run restaurant in the county town. She said, "A few days ago, a tiger came into our village. Last night, the village hunters set a trap in Li Yunshan's yard and killed the tiger. They're dismantling its bones and cutting its flesh right now."

"Hey, Liu Jun, have you ever seen a tiger? Let me tell you, tigers are so big, and their claws are so long and hooked. If you get slapped by a tiger, you won't even know how you died. The hunters in our village are really brave..."

Once that auntie starts talking, she just keeps smacking her lips.

"A tiger? So that means Li Yunshan has tiger blood?"

Upon hearing this, Liu Jun was stunned for a moment.

Previously, when he worked at a state-run restaurant in the county town, he had read reports about Li Yunshan killing a tiger in the Hongxing Forest Farm. Then, when he returned to the village last month, he heard that Li Yunshan had killed a bear that had entered the village.

Now, together with the village hunters, they've killed another tiger...

But that wasn't what Liu Jun was concerned about. What he was really concerned about was the tiger. He didn't know if Li Yunshan and the others had kept any tiger blood, and he was eager to get it.

Because Liu Jun is now over thirty-five years old and has been married to his wife for ten years.

Over the past ten years, his wife has given birth to three daughters for Liu Jun, but he dreams of having a son.

But Liu Jun was afraid that his wife would have a fourth child, another girl, so he sought medical treatment everywhere to improve his health.

Some time ago, he went to the city hospital and found an old traditional Chinese medicine doctor to take his pulse and examine his body.

The old Chinese medicine doctor prescribed him a medicine and told him to get the medicine according to the prescription. After ten doses, he was guaranteed that his wish would come true.

The ingredients in this prescription can be obtained at a pharmacy, but the key ingredient is rare. It requires tiger blood or tiger blood products to achieve its full efficacy.

Liu Jun searched for a long time and asked others for help, but still couldn't find tiger blood.

He never expected that he would run into Tiger Blood, which he had been longing for, while he was taking a two-day vacation to go back to the village to visit his parents.

Thinking of this, He Jun pushed through the crowd and squeezed into Li Yunshan's courtyard.

When He Jun squeezed his way to the front and saw the tiger meat and bones packed in the wicker basket, he knew what was going on. He asked, "Uncle Zhou, do you still have tiger blood for sale?"

Uncle Zhou glanced up and saw He Jun, a cook at the state-run restaurant in the county town. His gaze sharpened slightly before he replied indifferently, "Tiger blood? We don't have any left."

Uncle Zhou had a very bad impression of He Jun.

In the past, He Jun, relying on his position as a cook at a state-run restaurant in the county town, often acted arrogantly and looked down on people in the village.

More importantly, this bastard had also cheated him and the hunters in the village.

Specifically, it was ten years ago when he, Li Yunshan's father, and Li Baotian went hunting in the mountains and caught a sika deer.

At that time, He Jun was still an apprentice at a state-run restaurant. He used sweet words to deceive him, saying that he could help sell sika deer to the state-run restaurant.

As a result, the sika deer was sold to a state-run restaurant, but that bastard He Jun shamelessly took 30% of the money from the sale of the sika deer, claiming it was a kickback for helping him out.

You should know that the sika deer was sold for less than two hundred yuan at the time. If they had taken it to Xiangyang Commune or to the county town, they could have sold it for about the same price.

However, trusting He Jun, they handed the sika deer over to him.

As a result, He Jun betrayed them.

At that time, they had a falling out with He Jun, and because of this, he, Li Yunshan's father, and Li Baotian even went to block He Jun's door with guns.

Under the pressure of the truth, He Jun returned the fifty yuan.

From then on, they basically stopped having any contact with He Jun's family.

Now, when He Jun asks if they have tiger blood, Uncle Zhou doesn't even want to answer.

However, tiger blood is not easy to preserve. If it is summer, it will spoil quickly if not processed properly after being stored.

In this kind of weather, tiger blood can be preserved for a longer time, but to be on the safe side, Uncle Zhou has already had the tiger blood dried.

Dried tiger blood can also be used in medicine, to make pills, or to soak in alcohol.

However, it must be said that the effects of tiger blood are really amazing. Last night they got several kilograms of tiger blood wine, and each of them drank about half a kilogram. It is said that after they went back last night, they all showed off their prowess to their wives.

"No? How come it's gone?"

Upon hearing this, He Jun immediately became anxious.

He searched for tiger blood for a long time, but he couldn't find it.

Now, having finally encountered the village hunters who had hunted a tiger, I thought there should be tiger blood in it.

In the end, it didn't happen again.

What can we do if we don't have tiger blood?

He also wants to have a big, healthy son with his wife.

"I said it's gone, and it's gone. Didn't you hear me?" Uncle Zhou said in a deep voice.

Although the feud with He Jun happened ten years ago, which is a long time ago, it is not something that can be forgotten with the passage of time.

Ten years ago, it was much harder to make money than it is now.

Moreover, there were more wild animals in the deep forests back then than there are now.

Back then, Li Yunshan's father almost slipped and fell off a cliff while trying to hunt that sika deer.

He Jun felt somewhat displeased by Uncle Zhou's indifferent attitude. He was, after all, a cook at the state-run restaurant in the county town. Although he wasn't a head chef yet, he was close. Yet, he was being ignored like this by a farmer who toiled in the fields, which made him feel somewhat embarrassed.

In particular, there are so many villagers gathered inside and outside this courtyard.

However, when he thought about how he had only had three daughters in ten years of marriage with his wife, and not even a big, healthy boy, He Jun suppressed his displeasure and forced a smile: "Uncle Zhou, let's talk this out. I know you still have tiger blood in your veins. Just share some with me, and we can discuss the price."

"I said no, why are you being so clingy, like a mangy dog?"

Uncle Zhou frowned and said unhappily.