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

Passengers boarded the bus one after another. After Li Yunlan and Qianqian were seated, Li Yunlan waved to Li Yunshan through the window.

A short while later, when it was time to depart, the bus roared and drove away from the passenger station.

After the bus drove out of his sight, Li Yunshan checked the time. It was only a little past one in the afternoon. So he bought a few bottles of wine and two boxes of bullets for his Tiger Head brand hunting rifle at the county department store before riding his bicycle home.

Although Li Yunshan still had plenty of bullets left in his Tiger Head brand hunting rifle, he knew that with the reform and opening up, the awareness of environmental protection and wildlife protection in China had begun to increase, and at the same time, the control of firearms had begun to tighten.

If you don't take advantage of this opportunity to buy more shotgun ammunition now, it will be difficult to buy it later when you need it.

After selling his shotgun ammunition and liquor, Li Yunshan left the department store, got on his bicycle, and prepared to leave the county town.

Braving the biting north wind, Li Yunshan rode his bicycle along the main road of the county town. After leaving the county town, he turned onto the dirt road leading back to Guapigou Village.

Because he had made a good profit selling venison in the county town yesterday, Li Yunshan was in a good mood on his way home. He hummed an unknown tune as he rode his bicycle, and in just an hour and a half, he returned to the village from the county town.

This was mainly because my fourth sister, Li Yunlan, and my niece, Qianqian, were sitting on the back of my bicycle when we went to the county town, which is why it took us almost two hours to get there.

On the way back, he rode his bicycle alone. Although the dirt road was a bit bumpy, the bicycle went much faster than when he went to the county town.

Upon returning to Guapigou Village, Li Yunshan did not go straight home, but instead went to his elder brother Li Yunshi's house.

"Mother, I'm back."

Li Yunshan leaned his bicycle against the gate of the courtyard and quickly walked inside.

Pushing open the door to the main room, the room was warm and cozy.

Huang Zhifang was sewing shoe soles when she saw Li Yunshan return. She placed the needle and thread, along with a half-finished shoe sole, on the table beside her and asked, "Have you put Yunlan and Qianqian on the bus yet?"

"Yes, I bought them tickets and only came back after watching the bus leave the station."

Li Yunshan nodded.

It is said that a mother worries about her son even when he travels a thousand miles away. Although my fourth sister, Li Yunlan, married far away, only a hundred miles away, her mother still worried about her.

However, in her previous life, her mother was most concerned about her fourth sister, Li Yunlan, because when her fourth sister was born, there was a large-scale famine in the country, which was commonly known as the "Three Years of Natural Disasters".

At that time, many people across the country were starving, and some even died of hunger.

Even though Qinghe County is located in the Northeast and has fertile soil, many people still didn't have enough to eat during the years of famine.

At that time, there were already three children in the family: his eldest brother, his second sister, and himself. His parents had suffered a lot in order to ensure that they had enough to eat.

After finishing his farm work during the day, Dad would go hunting with the village hunters in the mountains near the village at night to supplement the family income. After finishing her farm work, Mom would go home to cook and do housework. As a result, she started bleeding when she was more than seven months pregnant, and the baby in her belly was born prematurely.

The premature baby was the fourth sister, Li Yunlan.

At that time, it was the late 1950s, and the medical level in major cities in China was still very backward, let alone in their remote and impoverished rural areas, where medical conditions were even more lacking.

After the fourth sister, Li Yunlan, was born prematurely, the village's barefoot doctor predicted that she wouldn't live much longer, but her parents refused to believe it and insisted on keeping her alive no matter what.

As a result, my parents spent all of the family's meager savings and even borrowed money.

Perhaps it was God's blessing, but with the best efforts of her parents, the fourth sister, Li Yunlan, survived unharmed. However, because she was born prematurely, she was left with a weak and sickly constitution.

To nourish her weak body, her father often went into the mountains to hunt and bring her a lot of wild game, such as precious medicinal herbs like wild ginseng and lingzhi, as well as various kinds of meat.

Thanks to the efforts of her parents, her fourth sister, Li Yunlan, was able to grow strong and healthy.

But as he said, before his fourth sister got married, when she was at her parents' home, her cheeks were chubby and she was far from being as thin as she is now.

Just by looking at her now, you can tell that she is not having a good time in the Wang family. No wonder her mother is always thinking about her fourth sister, Li Yunlan.

"That's good, that's good."

After hearing Li Yunshan's words, Huang Zhifang finally felt much more at ease. Next, she just needed to wait for Li Yunlan to return and call back so that the people in the village office could help send a message home.

"Mom, I'm planning to take Xiulan and Doudou to the county town for a couple of days."

Li Yunshan said.

"Go ahead. Xiulan has been married into our family for almost four years. She hasn't enjoyed any happiness for so long. Instead, she's been worried and tired all the time. It's only recently that you've learned to be good and started earning money that Xiulan has been able to have a few good days."

"Since you want to take Xiulan and Doudou to the county town, then go ahead and have fun. I won't interfere. But there's something I need to say first: don't do anything reckless in the future. Be nice to Xiulan and Doudou too. Even if Xiulan's baby is born and it's a girl, don't be disgusted by it."

"Mother, don't worry, I will treat Xiulan and Doudou well. Even if Xiulan's baby is a girl, I will still treat her as the apple of my eye."

Li Yunshan felt somewhat ashamed and immediately pointed to the sky and swore an oath.

Don't let his current fearlessness fool you; he's terrified of his mother, older brother, Gao Hongmei, and Lin Xiulan bringing up his past misdeeds. Whenever that comes up, he feels guilty.

"You decide what to do."

"By the way, you still have to go to your Uncle Zhou's for dinner later. If you don't have anything else to do, hurry up and go, otherwise if you go too late, your Uncle Zhou will have finished eating, all the meat, and even the wine."

Huang Zhifang waved his hand, signaling Li Yunshan to hurry over to Uncle Zhou's place.

"Okay, I'll go right away."

Li Yunshan agreed and then took his leave from his elder brother Li Yunshi's house.

When he returned home, he found the courtyard gate tightly closed and the door to the main room locked. Lin Xiulan had already taken Dou Dou to Uncle Zhou's house.

He put the two boxes of shotgun shells he was carrying at home before taking a few bottles of wine from the back of his bicycle to Uncle Zhou's house.

In his past life, due to his own reasons, he rarely participated in the activities of the hunters in the village. He had never gone hunting in the mountains with Uncle Zhou and the others, nor had he participated in a gathering like today's after hunting.

But after being reborn, he found that the activities among the hunters in the village were quite interesting. For example, this time when they went hunting in the mountains, everyone went out together, tracked the prey together, spent the night together in the deep forest, and roasted meat together...

Through this hunting trip into the mountains, Li Yunshan has begun to integrate into the village's hunter community. Moreover, he has learned some hunting skills that he never had the chance to learn in his previous life.

When he arrived at Uncle Zhou's house, the banquet was just starting.

"Oh, Yunshan, you've arrived just in time! We were just about to start the feast when you arrived."

"Hehe, I'll have to punish myself with three bowls of rice later."

Upon seeing Li Yunshan, Cai Er couldn't help but joke, and Zhang Sange chimed in.

Peng Youlian and the others burst out laughing.

Actually, everyone knows that the reason Li Yunshan didn't come to help today is because he took his fourth sister, Li Yunlan, to the county bus station to catch a bus back to her husband's family home.

"Alright, I'll punish myself with three bowls of wine. I even brought some wine with me."

Li Yunshan patted his chest and readily agreed, even picking up the few bottles of wine he had recently bought.

"Oh, this is good wine! You can't punish yourself by drinking three bowls. If you drink three bowls, we won't be able to drink much of this good wine. We'll just punish you by making you drink one cup instead."

Cai Er took a closer look and discovered that the bottles of wine Li Yunshan had brought were actually good wine, so he quickly changed his tune.

"Second brother, you can't do this!"

Li Yunshan smiled.

"Hehe, Yunshan, you're just taking what I just said as nonsense."

Cai Er, shameless and brazen, said...

"Ha ha."

A burst of laughter immediately erupted around them.

"Quickly set up the table and arrange the long benches; get ready to serve the food."

At this moment, Uncle Zhou came out of the kitchen and gave instructions.

Soon, Li Yunshan and his group set up tables and benches.

After all that was done, the food was served.

Stewed venison, stewed chicken with mushrooms, stewed wolf meat, braised wild boar, pork stew with cabbage, stir-fried shredded potatoes with vinegar, steamed white flour buns... Although there weren't many dishes, the portions were generous, with each dish filling a large bowl.

The hunter's family's elderly, women, and children ate inside the house, while Li Yunshan and Uncle Zhou set up a table in the yard, lit two bonfires around it, and ate there.

In those days, the houses of every household were not very large. The hunter's family, consisting of the elderly, women, and children, totaled more than forty people, and had long since filled Uncle Zhou's house.

However, Li Yunshan and the others were not afraid of the cold while eating in the courtyard.

When they went hunting in the mountains, it was much colder than this, and they experienced that too.

"Come on, let's drink."

"Fill my cup, let's drink to our hearts' content today."

"Brother Zhang, let's have a drink together."

"..."

This year, everyone had a good hunting harvest; the tiger that entered the village had already earned them a lot of money.

The few deer they hunted in the mountains earned them more than the tiger they killed, but it was still much more than their usual winter hunting haul.

So everyone was happy, eating meat and drinking wine heartily during the meal, thoroughly enjoying themselves.

And Li Yunshan really did keep his word, and really drank three bowls... no, it should be more than three bowls of wine.

After a hearty meal, he staggered back home from Uncle Zhou's house, only managing to do so with the worried support of Lin Xiulan and Li Yunmei.

As soon as he got home, Li Yunshan fell asleep immediately.

"Fortunately, he didn't go on a drunken rampage."

Seeing Li Yunshan fast asleep on the earthen pit, Li Yunmei breathed a sigh of relief and said to Lin Xiulan.

"Second sister, you've worked so hard today."

"Don't worry about it, you should get some rest too. I'm going back now."

After Li Yunmei finished speaking, she left Li Yunshan's house.