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

"Stop! There's trouble ahead."

Under the bright moonlight, on the road from the county town to Xiangyang Commune, several green lights suddenly appeared in the darkness directly in front of Uncle Zhou and his group.

Out of caution, Uncle Zhou immediately told everyone to stop. Li Yunshan and the other two, who were riding bicycles, propped up their bicycles and took out the hunting rifles that were on the tractor trailer.

"What's that thing up ahead?"

Zhao Shuanzhu held his hunting rifle, curiously watching the several eerie green lights emerging from the darkness ahead.

At night, on the pitch-black village road, several eerie green lights suddenly appeared, undoubtedly wild animals from the mountains.

However, because it was dark and far away, it was impossible to tell whether it was a tiger, a bear, or a wolf.

"It must be a wolf; a wolf's eyes glow green in the dark."

Cai Er said that he had encountered wild wolves when he went hunting in the mountains and spent the night there.

"Bears' eyes also glow green. I saw it clearly last time a bear came into our village."

Peng Youlian said.

"It's definitely a wolf. Only wolves travel in packs, while bears always hunt alone," Wu Shenghong said confidently.

"It's most likely a wolf, not a bear."

"It's a pity we have to go there. If we had run into a bear, we would have been rich again."

"..."

Although they encountered wild beasts in the middle of nowhere, and despite having several pairs of glowing green eyes in front of them, no one felt particularly nervous at this point.

Some people even lamented that they encountered a wolf instead of a bear.

Wolf meat is worthless; the only thing worth anything is the wolf pelt.

However, in terms of value, wolves are far inferior to bears.

As for tigers, nobody even considered the tigers.

Tigers, like bears, are solitary creatures. According to the experience passed down from the older generation, a tiger's eyes shine with a golden light in the dark, like the North Star in the sky, twinkling.

Besides, if they had encountered a tiger, given its ferocity, it would have charged at them long ago, instead of wandering in the darkness like this.

Sure enough, at that moment, a wolf howl suddenly came from ahead, which made Cai Er and his group even more certain that they had encountered wild wolves.

Li Yunshan didn't say anything, but silently put two bullets into the barrel of the shotgun, chambered it, and turned off the safety.

Thanks to his night vision, he had already spotted five wolves in front of them.

"Let's go take a look."

At this moment, Cai Er spoke to Zhang Sange and Zhao Shuanzhu and the others.

"Um."

Zhang Sange nodded, and then the group of men, guns in hand, walked forward step by step.

Because it was dark, and out of caution, they didn't keep a very large distance between each other.

Li Yunshan did not follow, but stayed by the tractor.

Shortly after, a gunshot rang out in the darkness, followed by the whimpering of a wolf that had been shot and fallen to the ground.

Li Yunshan didn't say anything, but he pressed the muzzle down, released the safety of the shotgun, and took the bullet out of the barrel.

After a while, Zhang Sange, Cai Er, and the others returned dragging the corpses of five wild wolves.

"Hehe, Uncle Zhou, Uncle Baotian, and the five wolves, we killed them all."

"These animals are quite big, each weighing about 70 or 80 pounds. We can get a lot of meat from them, enough for us to have a good New Year."

"..."

When they put the wolf's carcass onto the tractor's trailer, Cai Er and Zhang Sange had smiles on their faces.

Who would have thought that they would make a small fortune on their way home?

Although the meat of this wild wolf is tough, it will be just as good after stewing it until tender.

In those days, many people couldn't even get enough to eat. If they hunted wolves and could eat wolf meat, it didn't matter if it was a bit tough; once stewed until tender, it was still delicious and went well with rice.

However, what they cared about more than the wolf meat was the wolf pelt.

The price of wolf pelts varies depending on their quality and size.

They killed these wolves with a single blow, leaving few wounds on the wolves. Given the size of these wolves, the pelts they produced wouldn't be small either.

Because, in Cai Er and Zhang Sange's opinion, the wolf pelts of these five wild wolves should fetch a good price.

That's all money; it would be a lie for them to say they're unhappy.

"Hehe, let's go back to the village first. When we get home, we'll skin the wolf and share the wolf meat."

Li Baotian smiled as he shifted the tractor into gear, and Li Yunshan and the others rode their bicycles, heading towards Xiangyang Commune under the cover of night, illuminated by the headlights of the vehicles and the miners' lamps they wore.

When they arrived at Xiangyang Commune, they turned a corner and took the road back to the village.

Around 8 p.m., the sound of a tractor chugging along came from the entrance of Guapigou Village.

"Uncle Zhou Wu, Uncle Baotian, we'll head back now."

"We're going back too."

At the village entrance, Cai Er, Zhao Shuanzhu, and others spoke.

"Okay, get some rest tonight, and come to my house again tomorrow for a good meal."

Uncle Zhou said.

It was getting late, and they had been busy for several days. Uncle Zhou didn't ask them to skin and dismember the wolves they had killed on the way back to the village overnight. Instead, he told them to go home and rest first.

After all, they had killed the tiger that had entered the village before, and this time they had hunted down nine-headed deer in the mountains, and the venison was basically all sold out.

Overall, everyone made a lot of money in just over half a month.

Besides, it's freezing cold now, so there's no rush to deal with those wolves. We can wait until tomorrow when everyone has had enough rest and is well-rested before dealing with them.

After parting ways with Uncle Zhou and the others, Li Yunshan also rode his bicycle home into the night.

When Li Yunshan got home, he opened the door to the main room and saw a lamp still lit on the table.

At this time, Lin Xiulan had already put Dou Dou to bed. Li Yunshan didn't wake Lin Xiulan. He tiptoed to put the bicycle in the main room, and also put away the hunting rifle and bullet pouches before going to the kitchen to add firewood to the stove and water to the big pot.

"When did you get back?"

Just as the water in the pot boiled and Li Yunshan was about to scoop some water to take a bath, a figure flashed at the kitchen door. Lin Xiulan, wearing a military overcoat, rubbed her sleepy eyes and appeared at the kitchen door.

Upon seeing Li Yunshan, she asked in confusion.

"I got back half an hour ago. I saw you were asleep, so I didn't wake you."

Li Yunshan said with a smile.

"Oh, the venison is all sold out too?"

"We sold until about 5 p.m., and it was getting dark. There were only a few dozen kilograms left, so Uncle Zhou decided not to sell anymore and we came back."

"Hehe, on the way, we encountered a few wild wolves, and Brother Zhang and his men killed them too."

When Lin Xiulan asked, Li Yunshan briefly recounted his experience of selling venison at the county's farmers' market that day and the events that occurred on his way back to the village.

Lin Xiulan was very curious after hearing this, because she knew that Li Yunshan and his group had gone into the mountains to hunt and obtained 1,300 to 1,400 catties of venison and several hundred catties of deer bones.

Last time, when Li Yunshan and Gao Hongmei hunted two red deer and went to the county town to sell the venison, it was said that it took them most of the day to sell them all. This time, the 1,300 to 1,400 catties of venison were sold out so quickly.

"Because the Lunar New Year is approaching, everyone is busy stocking up on New Year's goods. Our venison doesn't require meat coupons, the price is reasonable, and it sells out quickly."

Nowadays, pork is rationed, with each person receiving only a few ounces or a pound. However, during the Lunar New Year, meat consumption is high, and those few ounces or pounds of meat simply cannot withstand the consumption.

Besides needing to eat at home, you also need to bring something when visiting relatives and friends. You can't go empty-handed, can you?

Pork is a hard currency.

However, due to the limited supply, people who wanted to buy more meat had to pay higher prices. Pork that did not require ration coupons could even sell for 1.5 or 1.6 yuan per kilogram near the Lunar New Year's Eve.

Their venison only sells for 2.2 yuan per kilogram, which isn't much more expensive than pork.

Moreover, venison is a rare delicacy from the mountains and wild game.

Several factors combined may explain why their venison sells so quickly.

"It's good that you sell quickly, so you don't have to spend money to stay in a guesthouse in the county town for a night. On the way back, we even caught a few wild wolves, which is equivalent to saving money and making extra money."

Lin Xiulan smiled.

"What you said makes a lot of sense, haha. After we sell the venison, we'll go to Uncle Zhou's house for a nice meal tomorrow. After we distribute the meat, it'll be Chinese New Year in about ten days. If there's nothing else going on, I probably won't go hunting in the mountains again. I can spend some time at home with you and Dou Dou during this time. Do you want to go to the county town? We can go shopping there and buy some New Year's goods."

In his past life, he not only never treated Lin Xiulan well for a single day, but also never gave her a kind look because she gave birth to a daughter, and he was also unkind to Dou Dou.

He was a scoundrel, a rich man, and a splendid man in his past life, but in the end he was destitute and terminally ill. In the end, Lin Xiulan, Gao Hongmei, and Su Lihua stayed by his side and saw him off on his final journey.

After his rebirth, although he realized his mistakes and reformed, he didn't spend much time with Lin Xiulan.

Busy hunting in the mountains, busy selling the game, making money, and dealing with all sorts of things...

After finishing today's work, there are only about ten days left until the Chinese New Year. There won't be much to do then, and Li Yunshan wants to take advantage of this time to spend some quality time with Lin Xiulan and Dou Dou.

"Want to go to the county town for fun?"

Lin Xiulan was stunned for a moment.

She has been married to Li Yunshan for four years, and has only been to the county town a handful of times. As for going to the county town with Li Yunshan... has she ever been there?

Lin Xiulan searched through her few memories of going to the county town, but couldn't find any recollection of going there with Li Yunshan.

"Yes, let's go to the county town. Let's take DouDou with us and have a good three to five days there."

Li Yunshan filled the bucket with hot water: "You've been married to me for several years, and we've never been to the city together. I was a bastard before; I've let you and our child down. Now that we have money, let's go to the county town for a stroll."