Return to 1983 Hunting Xing'an Mountains

Chapter 325: The Leopard is Really Scaled and Chang Beifeng Gets Beaten

How did Xu Ning wipe his butt when he went to the toilet? This has become an unsolved mystery in the Xu family. Perhaps only Xu Ning himself knows how ruthless he was at that time, to be able to grit his teeth and complete the familiar and stiff movements with a twitching expression. To sum it up in four words - hard work and suffering!
Liu Lizhen, Han Fengjiao and others lifted the door curtain and walked into the west room. After seeing Guan Lei take out the complete leopard skin from the sack, they all showed surprised expressions and exclaimed that it was beautiful!

"Oh my god, why is the head still up there? Sister-in-law, look at the tail, it feels so slippery."

Liu Lizhen reached out and touched it, then nodded: "Well, old man, how much can this skin be sold for?"

Xu Ning sat on the edge of the kang and said with a smile: "It's hard to say now. The price given by our street is definitely low. If we sell it in the provincial capital, maybe we can sell it for 500 or 600 yuan more. If we sell it in the south... especially in the newly developed special economic zones, I estimate that it can be sold for 8,000 or 9,000 yuan..."

"What is this? Can it be sold for eight or nine thousand?"

"Oh my god! This piece of leather is worth a millionaire!"

"It's not bad, why is it so valuable?"

Xu Ning said with a smile: "There are no Siberian leopards in the south. Leopards with this kind of pattern are rare, so they can definitely be sold at a high price. Although it is not common here, it is not particularly rare. It can be sold for more than 4,000 yuan at most. But the skin in my hand is relatively complete, so I think I can give it an extra 1,800 yuan!"

Liu Daming said: "Erning, how do you want to sell it?"

"I thought I'd ask the price first. Anyway, we're not short of money right now, and we're not in a hurry, so let's just keep it in our hands for now."

It is now the end of the first month of 1984 and the prices of medicinal materials such as bear bile, deer antler, ginseng and musk have just started to rise, while the price of leather has not moved at all.

Xu Ning remembers that in the fall of 1985, the price of leather was skyrocketing. For example, a yellow leather was 25 yuan now, but it rose to 48 yuan a year later, almost doubling! What about bear skin, wolf skin, jackal skin, and leopard skin? The price would rise even more sharply!

His idea was to sell the bear gall first to raise enough money for building a house and getting married. As for opening a bear farm? He would first use Xu Laonian and Wang Erli's salary as collateral and start the business with the forest farm in the form of installments.

Xu Ning and Zhang Deyu had discussed this matter and had basically reached an agreement. The main thing was to buy cars and tractors, and have some spare money to pay the workers. He wanted to sell bear skins and wolf skins to make enough money.

Besides, the opening of the market will have to wait until the autumn of this year, because the city has to go through the procedures and formalities...

Liu Lizhen really wanted this leopard skin because it had beautiful and colorful patterns all over. She touched it for two or three minutes before stopping. She looked up and asked, "What are we going to do with this leopard meat? Should we keep it for ourselves or sell it out?"

Xu Ning said: "What are you selling? Let's have a taste of it first..."

Liu Daming reminded: "Erning, you can't be so wasteful. How much can we eat? This leopard meat is also very valuable. Why don't you take it to the street and sell it!"

"Uncle, I'm thinking of giving away the remaining meat as gifts. My brother just went to the city to work with my third uncle, so we have to maintain the relationship. We also have to give some to my uncle Guo and Uncle Zhang, as well as Uncle Du and Uncle Meng in our village..."

Liu Lizhen realized that this was the case. Since her family was about to build a house, she thought that since she had this good thing, she should distribute it to all the households so that they could have a taste. Then they would surely contribute when the time came to build the house!
Otherwise, once the news of Xu Ning's killing of Leopard spread, would Du Shoucai, Meng Quezi, and Chang Danian have a chance to smell the scent? That's not the case.

"That's fine... Shuhua? Can you make a leopard?"

Yang Shuhua stood at the door and said, "Aunt, I've never done plastic surgery before, and I'm afraid it won't be done well."

Xu Ning said with a smile: "Sister-in-law, if you don't know how to do it, then my mother doesn't know how to do it either. Just give it a try. Let's try it tonight!"

"Well, no matter how badly you cook it, it's still better than mine. Shuhua, just cook it, stew it and stir-fry it, we'll just have this meal, and divide the rest into piles and send them out someday, don't pile them up at each family, there will be no room left in the house."

Yang Shuhua nodded and said, "Hey!"

Liu Daming turned around and asked, "Erning, have you weighed this leopard? Do you know how heavy it is?"

"I don't know. It was pitch dark, so there was no time. I dragged him to Brother Huang's house, bled him, gutted him, and skinned him. Look, the lantern is still in his stomach."

Liu Daming bent down to take a look and said, "Then let's find a scale and soak it?"

"Let's go."

Then, Liu Daming went to the lower room to find the scale pole, picked up the horizontal bar at the door and went into the house. Wang Hu and Guan Lei carried the horizontal bar, and Liu Daming pulled the weight to weigh it.

"Oh my, it's really big! It weighs 87 kilograms. If you include the lantern, the leather, and the blood, it must be over 110 kilograms!"

This leopard is indeed not small, because the average weight of a male Amur leopard, also known as a Far Eastern leopard, is 94 kilograms, and the average weight of a female leopard is 68 kilograms. It is extremely rare to see a male leopard weighing more than 120 kilograms.

Then Xu Ning asked his uncle and Wang Hu to dismantle the leopard, throw the shaved meat and bones into a large aluminum basin, soak them in water first, and divide the remaining meat into more than ten portions.

They were busy until after 3:30. Liu Lizhen and others had already started roasting the meat in the outer room, and Liu Daming and Wang Hu had just finished unloading the leopard.

Liu Daming said, "There is one rib and two legs left, let's keep them for now."

"That's fine, let's have another meal later."

Wang Hu put the bones into a sack and asked, "Second brother, can these bones be sold?"

"You can sell it, but it won't fetch much. Keep it for now. Maybe you can use it later."

The only valuable parts of a leopard are its skin, gallbladder and whip. A pound of its meat can be worth ten yuan, but who should we sell this thing to? Even if we sell it on the street for two or three months, we may not be able to sell it all. Pharmacies are not willing to buy it. Why?
Pharmacies sell medicinal herbs. Medicines with the same efficacy as leopard meat are cheaper. Who is crazy enough to spend a lot of money to buy leopard meat and take it home to satisfy their craving?

At around four o'clock, Li Fuqiang led Xu Feng, Jin Yumantang, Wang Biao and Liu Tianen into the house. He went home to chop firewood and heat the kang. He had not been home for several days and a lot of work had accumulated at home.

It’s like this when you live in the village. There isn’t much big work to do usually, just small odd jobs. If you don’t clean them up, they will pile up there, and over time you’ll have to work for the entire afternoon.

"Second brother! Second brother!"

As soon as Xu Feng stepped into the room, she started shouting. Xu Ning was taking a nap in the west room and was woken up by her.

"What are you doing?"

"Now everyone in our village is talking about you Leopard! That guy is talking about it very passionately! We just came back and met a few people asking about it on the way."

Xu Ning said: "Just talk if you want to. Can you shut others up?"

"Hey, isn't it because they praised you for being so great that I feel happy? Second brother, how is your arm? Can I rub it for you?"

Xu Feng got on the kang with her slippers grinning, walked around behind Xu Ning, and raised her hand to put on his shoulder and pressed it gently, "How are you, second brother, are you comfortable?"

Xu Ning said helplessly: "What do you want to do now?"

"Nothing to do, second brother, let me tell you, we were skipping rubber ropes in the alley when we heard a fight at Chang Xifeng's house..."

"Fight?"

The story began at noon, when a group of people gathered in a small shop in Taipingtun, talking about the leopard's roar last night. Yang Dong happened to be playing mahjong in the shop and heard it.

He had known for a long time that Xu Ning and others had been guarding Old Leopard at Lao Fang's house these days, but he only heard the general outline of what happened in the convenience store. He was a little unsure, so he got up and went to Lao Fang's house. He stood at the door with Lao Fang and smoked. After understanding the situation clearly from Lao Fang, he ran to Chang Xifeng's house in Qing'an.

But Chang Xifeng, Gao Yanhong and others were not at home, only Zhang Yan and Chang Beifeng were at home. Zhang Yan was furious when he saw him, because it was he who had led the Chang brothers to the southern forest to ambush the old leopard, causing Chang Beifeng to almost have his head bitten off by the old leopard.

"What are you doing here?" Zhang Yan asked him unhappily while standing at the door.

Yang Dong was a little stunned and said, "Just chatting, what's up?"

"What else? Just by coming here, my family has encountered more difficulties. Do you still have the nerve to come here?" Zhang Yan said with her hands on her hips.

"No, what is that? What does it have to do with me?"

Yang Dong had no idea what Zhang Yan was talking about, because he hadn't heard that Chang Beifeng almost had his head bitten off by the old leopard. He only heard that Chang Beifeng picked up a pile of poop and smeared it all over the old leopard's face.

At this time, Chang Beifeng went out and waved, "Dong, hurry up and leave. We will go to Taiping to find you when we have time."

"Still looking for him? You have no shame, do you? Think about it, every time he came here, you two brothers suffered! Once you were almost killed by a black bear, and once our dog was killed by a big pig. This time was even worse, you almost lost your life! Do you understand?"

Chang Beifeng winked and said, "Hey, stop talking."

"Stop talking nonsense!" Zhang Yan pointed at Yang Dong and said with a shrewish look on her face: "I'm telling you! Don't come to my house from now on. You are worse than a damn unlucky star. Every time you come to my house, there will be more troubles..."

Yang Dong was standing at the door, and before he even set foot inside, he was scolded. He came there with good intentions to deliver a letter, and he never expected to be treated like this.

"What does it have to do with me? His brothers can't do it, so they blame me? I came here with good intentions to deliver the letter, hoping to let the brothers make some money. Am I wrong? Do you have any sense?!"

Zhang Yan glared and shouted, "You are right? You always come here for money! Can you tell them that you can't make money?"

Yang Dong was furious when he heard this. He pointed at Zhang Yan and said, "I did this for money? If you have a bit of brains, you shouldn't be so talkative! Ask Bei Feng, have I ever asked his brothers for money? Is there no risk for me to deliver the letter? Without me delivering the letter, would his brothers be able to find Hei Xia Zi?"

"Bullshit!" Zhang Yan spat, "Before you were around, my family beat up black bears a lot!"

Chang Beifeng pulled Zhang Yan and advised: "Hey, stop talking, my brother and sister-in-law are not at home, can you be quiet?"

"Get out of here!"

Zhang Yan pointed at Chang Beifeng and cursed, "You are also a complete idiot. You are never satisfied with what you eat and you are not good at anything you do. How can you make money by hanging out with him?"

Chang Beifeng was scolded, turned around and waved at Yang Dong: "Dong, you go first, we will find you when we have time."

Yang Dong said with a dark face: "I'm not coming here anymore. I came here with good intentions to deliver a letter, but I got scolded!"

After saying that, Yang Dong turned around and left.

When Zhang Yan saw him leaving, he slapped Chang Beifeng in the face and cursed him, "What can you achieve by comparing yourself with someone like this? I won't even blink an eye when I'm going to kill you. Your head is full of snot. You're sold out and you're still counting the money!"

Chang Beifeng was slapped twice in the face, and he felt a little rebellious when he heard this. What does it mean to have snot in your head? You might as well say that your head is full of paste!
"Will you die if you don't scold me a few more times?"

When Zhang Yan heard this, he immediately jumped up half a meter and punched Chang Beifeng on the top of his head, "You dare to talk back? I'll let you talk back!"

Chang Beifeng covered his head and turned around, and his elbow just hit Zhang Yan's face. She thought Chang Beifeng was elbowing her, so she covered her face and burst into tears, gritting her teeth and crying, with two lines of tears hanging on her face. She waved her arms left and right, and slapped Chang Beifeng's face wildly.

"You bastard! I told you to hit me! I'll beat you to death! I'll beat you to death, you bastard..."

At this time, many people had gathered outside the fence. Yu Kaihe, Niu Li, Niu Le and others from next door were all outside. They tiptoed to look into the courtyard and saw Chang Beifeng squatting on the ground with his head in his hands after being beaten. Everyone shook their heads and whispered.

"Oh my, this big palm looks like a windmill..."

"How cruel! Why didn't he run away? The same goes for Zhang Yan. Just hit him a few times. His hands must be hurting from slapping him so hard..."

"Where is Chang Xifeng doing? Why doesn't he come out to stop him?"

"Didn't Li Feng buy a house for the old Dong family? He went over to help clean up the house."

"When did you buy it? Does Li Feng have money in his pocket?"

"I had no money, so Lao Du paid for it. I heard he paid 60 yuan in total."

"60 yuan? Mr. Dong's house is about to collapse. 60 yuan is a lot of money. Where is Mr. Dong going to live?"

"He went to live with his second son in Nantun to retire."

"what!"

Niu Li wanted to stop them, but was stopped by Yu Kaihe. He said, "Can you stop them? Okay, let's not just watch the fun. The more people there are, the harder Zhang Yan will beat them."

Niu Li nodded and walked towards the door. "Well, uncle, do you think Sun Cuiping likes me? Last time we met, she lowered her head and didn't dare to look at me. Was she embarrassed?"

Yu Kaihe frowned and said, "Ask your father about this. I can't say anything."

Niu Le said: "Uncle, my brother is so obsessed with Sun Cuiping that he calls her name in his dreams. How about you be a matchmaker for him?"

"Come on, forget it. Her husband just died. It hasn't even been a hundred days. Why are you thinking so much?"

Niu Li said: "Oh, I am in a hurry to get married. I think Cuiping is really nice. She is gentle and kind when chatting, and she works hard..."

Yu Kaihe waved his hand and said, "Okay, you two can go home quickly. I'm going into the house."

Yu Kaihe did not want to get involved in this matter. He was afraid that he would offend people on both sides and would be in a thankless position. The Niu family was in a difficult situation. Niu Baotian was lying on the kang waiting to die, Niu Li and Niu Le had not yet married, and they had a stepmother and a younger sister at home.

It is easy to imagine how difficult it is for a family like this to find a daughter-in-law. If they really marry Sun Cuiping, wouldn't that be sending her from a wolf's den to a dog's den!

After five or six minutes, the people outside dispersed.

Zhang Yan stood there, holding her waist with both hands, panting, her face flushed as she said to Chang Beifeng, "Do you know how long I've tolerated you? Ah! I've tolerated you for a month, and you see someone at home and you're complaining to me, you think I don't dare to punish you?"

Chang Beifeng stood up and wiped his nosebleed and tears with his hand, "Then you're going to kill me? Look at the way you hit my face, it hurts so much..."

"You deserve it! You made me angry."

Zhang Yan held his armpits and walked into the house. After entering the house, Zhang Yan looked down at him and asked, "Does it hurt?"

"Why doesn't it hurt?"

Zhang Yan raised her hand and startled Chang Beifeng. She smiled and said, "Oh, I won't cut you. I'll rub it for you."

(End of this chapter)