When Li Long led the horse cart back to the Production Team, everyone still outside looked at him in surprise.
A group of children were whipping spinning tops on the road, which had been packed as smooth as ice. When they saw Li Long coming, they immediately crowded around him.
Li Long looked them over and asked one of the children he knew:
"Gawa, where's Qiangqiang?"
"Someone said you'd been arrested. Qiangqiang took his top and went home crying. Were you arrested?"
Li Long immediately understood why everyone had been looking at him so strangely. He smiled and shook his head.
"No, I went into the mountains," Li Long explained.
"You're lying! You didn't bring any timber back!" One child thought Li Long was telling a lie.
"But I brought back wild boars." Smiling, Li Long pulled aside the grass covering them. There was no way to keep the two boars a secret anyway, so he might as well let the children spread the word and put those rumors to rest.
The sight of the big boar frightened several of the children, even with only its head exposed. Its two tusks looked like daggers!
Only after they were sure the boar was dead did the bolder children dare approach. They cautiously touched its tusks, then backed away quickly, saying:
"Those teeth are really huge!"
Li Long smiled and led the horse cart home.
One eager child had already run ahead to the Li family's house with the news. The other children abandoned their tops and followed the cart there too.
Everyone in the Li family ran out through the courtyard gate when they heard. Only when Li Jianguo and Liang Yuemei saw Li Long did they finally feel relieved.
Li Qiang still had tear tracks on his face. At the sight of Li Long, he burst into tears again and rushed over, shouting:
"Uncle! Uncle! They said someone took you away and you weren't coming back..."
"They were talking nonsense. I went into the mountains, remember?" Li Long smiled and patted Li Qiang's head.
Li Juan hadn't cried, but he could tell she was holding back her happiness. She simply watched him with a smile.
"Why did it take you so long to get back?" Li Jianguo complained. "The whole family was worried sick."
There really hadn't been anything to worry about, but after Gu Ermao and Tao Dayong were arrested one after another and the rumors spread, Li Jianguo would have been lying if he said he wasn't worried.
"All that matters is you're back. Come into the courtyard!" Liang Yuemei said with a smile. "Xiao Long, you haven't eaten yet, have you? Go inside and change. Your brother can return the cart, and I'll heat up some food for you!"
Whatever happened to a family member outside, there would be a hot meal waiting when they came home. Everything else could wait until they had eaten.
That was the simplest expression of a family's love.
Li Long remembered an Arab scholar he had seen in his previous life discussing the first thing Chinese people asked when greeting each other: "Have you eaten?" It was so simple and ordinary that people barely noticed it, yet it carried the most unadorned affection.
Now he truly felt it.
Other people cared how much money you made, whether you were thriving or struggling, whether you had a car, money, or a house. Family welcomed you home with a hot meal first.
After bringing the cart into the courtyard, the brothers removed the wood and grass. Li Jianguo stared at the two wild boars in surprise.
"You shot both of these?"
"No, I shot the little one. A friend shot the big one. They don't eat these, so I brought them both back."
"This one's enormous!" Li Jianguo had seen wild boars before, but never one this big. "It must weigh at least two hundred and fifty or sixty kilos!"
"But the meat won't taste as good as domestic pork," Li Long said. "It hasn't been bled either."
"It's still meat!" Li Jianguo stressed. "We're lucky just to have meat to eat! Come on, let's unload them. You go change. I'll return the cart, then we'll boil water and scrape off the bristles!"
With two pigs providing enough meat for a year, who would worry about a little hard work?
What a joke!
Li Jianguo gave Li Long a real sense of just how well the old pioneers of the Production Team could rally people.
He carried the jade into the house. The stove in the East Room was still hot. By the time he had put the stones away, changed, and was ready to eat, the courtyard was already bustling.
The eldest Lu brother, Uncle Chen from the house behind theirs, the village pig butcher Qin Laosan, and even Lao Luo from the Stable had all come over.
"Nicely done, Xiao Long." Lao Luo carried a pot into the East Room and smiled at Li Long.
"Everyone said you'd been arrested along with Tao Dayong. Turns out you weren't arrested at all, and you even brought back two wild boars. Well done! You're a real man!"
"Tao Dayong was arrested? What about Daqiang?" Li Long, now changed, was startled too. Tao Dayong must have been arrested for selling fish. Had Daqiang been caught as well?
"Daqiang got away. He said you'd warned him beforehand." Lao Luo smiled. "Looks like this business isn't something just anyone can do."
Li Long helped Lao Luo set the pot on the stove. Li Jianguo brought in half a bucket of water and poured it in, then they fetched snow from outside in a large basket and added it to the pot.
They opened the stove door, letting the air rush in. The fire blazed up, the snow soon melted, and the water in the pot began to heat.
The courtyard grew even livelier. Everyone was discussing the wild boars. Though there was no need to slaughter them, processing them would be just as much trouble.
As Li Long ate in the West Room, Liang Yuemei told him about Gu Ermao and Tao Dayong's arrests, including how Li Jianguo had lent Tao Daqiang twenty yuan.
"Let him keep that money." Li Long took twenty yuan from his pocket and handed it to Liang Yuemei.
"The last few times Daqiang went out with me, he had a share in what we sold. I've been holding his money for him. We'll count this as him taking it back."
Liang Yuemei accepted the money. She wanted to say something, but the words never came.
As he ate, Li Long said:
"If Daqiang comes along again, though, he'll just be working for me."
There was no faulting Tao Daqiang's work, and he followed instructions-his escape from arrest this time proved that. Li Long had his reasons for not bringing his own brother into the business.
Li Long could tell his sister-in-law had something on her mind. She wasn't questioning him, of course; she simply couldn't quite understand.
Seeing that everyone else was outside, Li Long lowered his voice.
"Yuemei, I've heard something. When spring comes, they're going to divide up the land. Our family should get quite a bit, and my brother will have to handle the farmwork. I'll do some sideline work. Farming still matters most. I don't need work points, but my brother can't go without them."
The words "divide up the land" stunned Liang Yuemei. She glanced outside and asked:
"They're really going to divide it up?"
"They are. Plenty of provinces did it ages ago. We're late to it," Li Long said. "We won't get much in the first round, but it'll be our own land.
"I was also thinking of hauling some manure back from the mountains then-oh, and they might divide up the team's property too. We need to make more money now. If we draw a horse or something, we'll have to pay for it, won't we?"
Li Long clearly remembered how the team's "village assets" had been divided last time. Every household drew lots numbered from one to forty-seven-there were only forty-seven households in the team.
Li Jianguo had drawn number two. Number one was the team's Dongfanghong Tractor, which cost over a thousand yuan to take home. Number two was the big chestnut horse from the Stable, priced at over a hundred yuan. Li Jianguo had simply given up his lot.
But farming still required transport. Later, Li Jianguo spent fifteen yuan on a young donkey, found some wood, and paid someone to build a cart frame. Only after a year did he finally have a usable donkey cart.
If they had the money ready now, they could buy the horse as soon as they drew it and put it straight to use, couldn't they?
The area around Harimu's Winter Camp was full of cattle and sheep manure!
Li Long didn't take Li Jianguo along to sell things now because his brother had authority. If they disagreed, whose decision would stand? Besides, they were the family's two grown men. If something really went wrong, they couldn't both end up arrested, could they? Leaving one at home was safer.
When Li Long finished eating and stepped into the courtyard, all the men there looked at him differently.
Just look at that. They were young men of roughly the same age, all trying to get out and do business. Some got arrested as soon as they went out, while others not only made money but brought home two wild boars!
Those two pigs had to weigh three hundred kilos between them, didn't they? Even if wild boar meat was cheap, worth only half as much per kilo as domestic pork, that was still eighty fen. Three hundred kilos came to over two hundred yuan!
People really were different!
(End of chapter)
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