When Li Long and Tao Daqiang appeared at the Production Team, leading the horse cart one behind the other, quite a few children rushed toward it, while others ran home.
"Li Qiang, Li Qiang, your uncle's back!" Someone alerted Li Qiang again.
Li Qiang looked up at the cart in the distance, sniffed back his snot, picked up his spinning top, which was still whirling rapidly on the ice, and dashed toward the cart. "Uncle! Uncle!"
When Li Qiang ran up to him, Li Long grabbed a handful of candy from his shoulder bag and handed it over.
"Here, share these with your friends."
Li Qiang ran back, clutching the candy and whooping.
"Li Qiang! Li Qiang! Your uncle said you had to share with us!"
"Yeah, give me one! Just one! I'll bring you a cigarette packet to play with tomorrow!"
A whole bunch of children raced after Li Qiang, who reveled in the moment.
Smiling, Li Long took another handful of candy from his shoulder bag and offered it to Tao Daqiang.
"Daqiang, here. Take these."
Tao Daqiang hesitated, but he did not refuse. He had not eaten candy in a long time either.
This time, the cart stopped at the Tao family's house first.
To Li Long and Tao Daqiang's surprise, not only was Tao Jianshe there, but so were Tao Daqiang's elder brother, Tao Dayong, who had already set up his own household, and his wife, Ma Chunhong.
"Oh, Li Long's here, and Daqiang's back? What's all this...?"
"Half the wood on this cart is yours." One look told Li Long what was going on. Without wasting words, he pointed at the cart.
"Since you're all here, let's unload it together."
The Tao family beamed at the sight of all that wood. Yesterday, there had only been a few logs, and they had not been big. This time, half a cartload was a substantial haul!
With everyone working together, they unloaded half a cartload of logs, large and small. The cart became much lighter. Li Long gave the remaining logs a quick tie with a rope and prepared to head home.
Tao Jianshe had already spotted the frozen sheep beneath the logs, along with something in another sack. But seeing that Li Long was about to leave without saying anything, he grew anxious. He gave a light cough and shot his eldest son, Da Yong, a meaningful look.
Tao Dayong had no choice but to speak up.
"Well... Xiao Long, I see you've got sheep and things on the cart too. Does our Da Yong get a share?"
"Yes, one sheep leg," Li Long said as he tied the rope. "Once I get home and cut a leg off, Daqiang can come and collect it!"
"Only one leg?" Tao Jianshe could not help speaking up. "I see two whole sheep there..."
"Dad! Brother Long traded for those sheep. They've got nothing to do with me!" Tao Daqiang was mortified. How could his family act like this?
"You shut up! When you go out to work, everyone involved gets a share. You put in the effort, so you have to fight for what's yours!" Tao Jianshe glared at Tao Daqiang, then turned to Li Long, waiting for an explanation.
"Uncle Jianshe, you don't really think I just found these sheep lying around, do you?" Li Long turned to Tao Jianshe with a faint, mocking smile. "I'm giving Daqiang a sheep leg because he helped. Actually, I don't have to give him one at all. I've already given your family half the wood, and that's what Daqiang earned for his work."
Without explaining further, he led the cart out of the Tao family's yard.
Li Long's retort left Tao Jianshe stunned for a long moment.
Tao Daqiang stamped his foot in anger and hurried after him.
By the time Tao Jianshe recovered, his younger son was already nowhere to be seen.
"That little brat! He'll be the death of me!" Tao Jianshe cursed, then turned and went inside.
It was unclear whether he meant Li Long or Tao Daqiang.
Tao Daqiang caught up with the cart and said awkwardly to Li Long:
"Brother Long, my dad..."
"It's fine. Your dad is your dad, and you're you. Besides, there's nothing wrong with him trying to get more for you. He was just a bit greedy." Li Long was not actually angry. Nobody was well-off these days. The saying that poverty bred scheming while wealth nurtured a conscience really did apply sometimes.
Seeing that Li Long truly was not angry, Tao Daqiang breathed a sigh of relief.
When they drove the cart to the Li family's home, Li Long noticed quite a few people at the entrance.
Li Jianguo was already waiting there. Seeing them approach, he hurried over, looked them up and down, and relaxed before asking:
"You didn't get too cold, did you?"
"No. We even had a good meal," Li Long answered quietly.
"Ha-ha, good." Li Jianguo caught the gamey smell of mutton and knew his younger brother must have had a pretty good day. He smiled.
They drove the cart into the yard and quickly unloaded the wood. Quite a few people spotted the two sheep underneath, along with a fair amount of coal.
"You even got coal?" Li Jianguo was rather surprised too.
"I ran into someone I knew. He had plenty of coal at home, so I traded some things for it." With so many people present, Li Long kept his explanation vague. "It's not that much, anyway."
"Mm." Li Jianguo understood.
One of the onlookers could no longer hold back and asked:
"Xiao Long, did you find these sheep lying around too?"
"More or less," Li Long joked. "I've been lucky these past couple of days."
"They're that easy to find? Then I'll go look too. How did you get into the mountains?" someone else asked.
"See over there?" Li Long pointed at the mountain pass visible from where they stood. "Just go in through there."
A mountain might look close enough, but reaching it could wear a horse to death. Without a guide or knowledge of the route, even seeing the Mountain Pass did not mean they would know how to get in.
Even if they found the Mountain Pass, there were so many ridges beyond it that they could get lost crossing any one of them. Taking the wrong trail would be all too easy.
Once everything had been unloaded, Li Long quietly told Li Jianguo:
"Brother, when you butcher the sheep, give Daqiang a leg."
"Just one leg?" Li Jianguo asked, puzzled.
"One leg is enough. If he wants meat later, he can come get some from us. If he takes too much back now, he won't get to eat any of it," Li Long said quietly.
"All right, understood. Are you returning the cart?"
"Yes, I'll go return it."
Leaving Tao Daqiang at the house, Li Long went to the stables to return the cart. Afterward, he headed to the team leader's house.
"Xiao Long, you've brought the cart back?" Xu Chengjun asked with a smile.
Seeing Xu Mingwa there, Li Long took a handful of fruit candy from his pocket and handed it to him.
"Mingwa, have some candy."
"Look at you, spoiling the boy," Xu Chengjun said cheerfully.
"As I should," Li Long said.
"Xiao Long, there's something I should tell you. I thought you might want to borrow a horse cart again, but just in this short while, all the team's carts have been borrowed." Xu Chengjun's words caught Li Long somewhat off guard.
Still, it made sense when he thought about it. His haul over the past two days was bound to make people envious. The route was not especially difficult either, so others would naturally want to try it.
"Oh, in that case, never mind." Li Long suddenly smiled, then asked about something else.
"Team leader, I wanted to ask whether you have any bicycle or sewing machine ration coupons."
Constantly borrowing the Production Team's horse cart was not a long-term solution. Once spring arrived, traveling by cart would be a little slow. If he could get a bicycle, he would be able to earn money faster.
Of course, he still had far too little money on hand. For now, making money was what mattered most.
"As for those coupons, I could ask around." Xu Chengjun did not say he had any, but he did not say he had none either.
Li Long understood immediately.
(End of chapter)
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