Li Long called out:
"I'm here. Comrade Chen, right? Come in!"
Chen Hongjun pushed the door open. Seeing what Li Long was doing, he asked with a smile:
"Shoveling snow, Comrade Li?"
"Yes, that's the trouble with having a big courtyard." Li Long didn't ask how Chen Hongjun had found the Big Courtyard. He said, "Clearing the snow alone takes a day or two-these big piles will keep me busy for a while. It's cold out here. Come on, let's warm up inside and have some water."
"No, no, I came on business." Chen Hongjun got straight to the point. "I heard you went to the Purchasing Station to sell pelts this morning?"
"That was me." Li Long smiled. "Since it's Friday, I thought you'd be there, but I ran into someone I didn't know..."
"Ah!" Chen Hongjun felt it was rotten luck too. What should have been a perfectly good deal had turned into a mess. "He's from the prefecture, stationed with us for a while. It's the end of the year, after all. It's normal for the higher-ups to have plans of their own. He said you had a lynx pelt?"
"Yes, but it's gone now." Li Long spread his hands.
"What do you mean, gone?" Chen Hongjun grew a little anxious. "Didn't you still have it this morning? It's only been a few hours..."
When he had arrived at work that afternoon, he had heard that man telling a story as though it were a joke: someone had brought in a fox pelt to sell as a lynx pelt, but he had seen through it, and the seller had stormed off in embarrassment. Chen Hongjun had sensed something was wrong. After asking about the seller's age and appearance, he had immediately guessed it must have been Li