Return to 1983 Hunting Xing'an Mountains

Chapter 383: Can the cute little black bear be eaten as food?
Mountain roads are difficult to walk on at any time, whether day or night, spring, summer, autumn or winter. There are always various reasons, the most important of which is that there are almost no roads in the mountains.

Like the path behind the forest farm, it was made by the people walking on it, and the mountain behind Shuangfengling is lush and leafy, with dead leaves and fallen trees underfoot...

Xu Ning was quite familiar with this mountain area, so the route he chose was the shortest and easiest one, with no rocky cliffs or broken rocks, and no fallen trees blocking the way.

The group hurried down the mountainside. They were tired and hungry. The excitement of their rich harvest and unexpected encounter with the two little black blind men had passed.

Now the goal that supported them to move forward was to go home and have a full meal. Da Laba secretly told Xu Ning on the way that he was a little regretful. If he had known that he would go down the mountain now, he would definitely fill his stomach first...

Xu Ning just smiled at Da Laba's choice. He knew that Da Laba wanted to share the joys and sorrows with Liu Daming and Lao Jiang. He didn't want them to think that he had returned to the village to eat and drink enough, and then left them at three or four places in the mountains...

At this moment, seeing the car parked on the side of the road, several people were excited and walked quickly towards the car.

They pulled the sled to the rear of the vehicle, unloaded the wild boars on the sled first, and two people grabbed the pigs' legs and swung them into the vehicle, throwing the wild boars into the back of the vehicle one by one, followed by the sled, the sacks of fish, and the sacks of two little black blind cats.

Lao Jiang struggled to climb to the back of the car, turned around and dragged Liu Daming with Da Laba. Just as Xu Ning was about to drive, Da Laba said, "Brother, just let Taiping go."

"What are you doing? Let's go back and have a meal together. Don't you have to ask Guifang to prepare a meal for you when you get home?" Liu Daming tilted his head.

Xu Ning looked up and said, "Let's go back and have a meal together. After that, let my eldest brother drive you to Taiping. There are two little bear cubs here. We need to go back and discuss how to deal with them."

Big Trumpet grinned and said, "Ah, what can I come up with? It's up to you, brother! I'm just afraid that my wife will be worried at home. If I go back too late, won't she scratch me?"

Li Fuqiang said with a smile: "Just scratch it. I'm not going to scratch your face now. What are you afraid of? Besides, you've been staying with us all the time. How can your sister-in-law be angry? Stop it. I'll take it back to you after dinner."

"Okay then, let's go home."

Immediately, Xu Ning, Li Fuqiang and Wang Hu got into the car, and Xu Ning drove towards the village.

On the way, he chatted with Li Fuqiang, mainly about how to deal with the two little black blind dogs. They definitely couldn't keep them, as no one had the time to do so. Xu Ning was even more averse to raising them, as he had raised chickens and ducks before, in addition to dogs...

But chickens and ducks frequently died unexpectedly before they could be eaten. Some were bitten to death by yellow foxes, some died of illness, and even a big rooster was strangled to death by a snake...

So Xu Ning was more inclined to sell it. Wouldn't it be nice to get money in exchange? The six of them could all share some to supplement the family expenses.

"Brother, our uncle and Uncle Jiang are not good at talking, but Brother Huang is good at talking. I was thinking of asking Brother Huang to find a buyer. What do you think?"

Xu Ning smiled and said, "I thought so too. He knows people in every village, so he can sell more."

"Second brother, can you sell it for more money?"

"Two little black blind dogs, they should be able to sell for at least three hundred yuan, right? I'll talk to my brother about the selling price while we eat later."

"Okay."

Evening, 11:46.

The night sky is lonely and the village is silent.

Suddenly a beam of light illuminated the street, and a car roared into the village.

About thirty or forty meters away, Xu Ning, who was holding the steering wheel with both hands, saw four people standing in front of Li Fuqiang's house.

"Oh my god, my uncle and aunt..."

It was Xu Laonian, Liu Lizhen, Wang Erli and Yang Shuhua.

As soon as the car stopped, the four of them walked towards the door. Seeing Xu Ning open the door and jump out of the car, Xu Laonian asked, "Why did you come back so late?"

Xu Ning said, "I made some extra money in the mountains, which delayed me for a while. Why are you here?"

Liu Lizhen patted her son's arm and said, "Where else can we put it if not here? It's already so late..."

"Uncle and aunt! Second uncle!" Li Fuqiang jumped out of the car with an excited look on his face.

Wang Erli nodded and said, "What kind of extra money did you get in the mountains?"

Xu Ning smiled and said, "Second Uncle, let's talk about this later when we get inside. Let's unload the animals first."

"That's fine too. I heard that your uncle and his two uncles killed six wild boars?"

At first, Xu Laonian was a little surprised to hear this, because he and Wang Erli, Liu Daming, and Xu Long had been hunting together for so many years, but they had never hunted six wild boars together, at most four, and they were all small yellow-haired boars. Because they only had two guns at that time, and while they were changing bullets, the wild boars heard the noise and ran away.

"That must be the case!"

At this time, the three people sitting in the back car also jumped out of the car. They leaned their heads sideways and just happened to see Xu Laonian and others walking towards the back car. The three of them raised their hands and greeted them.

When Liu Lizhen saw Lao Jiang for the first time, she said, "Jiang'er, Xiaoqiu'er is staying at my house with Juan'er. She will also eat at my house tomorrow morning. You don't have to worry about her."

Old Jiang smiled when he heard this and said, "Sister-in-law, I was not worried when you were on the mountain, otherwise I would have gone home long ago."

Liu Lizhen nodded and said, "Hurry up and unload your clothes. Shuhua and I will go into the house to prepare dinner."

"Hey, thank you for your hard work, sister-in-law Shuhua."

Liu Lizhen waved her hand: "You are just being polite. Hurry up and fix it."

According to the time Xu Ning went in and out of the mountain, they would be home around nine o'clock. However, it was almost twelve o'clock now, and Xu Laonian, Liu Lizhen and others could not help but think about it, so they let Jin Yumantang and Jiang Qiuer go to Old Xu's house to live with Wang Shujuan, and Liu Tianen also went home to keep Wu Qiuxia company.

"Oh my god! I've really done a lot of things. The wild boar has been very heavy in the past six days."

Xu Laonian and Wang Erli stood at the rear of the car, staring at the six wild boars in the car and exclaimed in amazement.

Liu Daming reached out and pulled the sack containing the little black bear over and said, "Brother-in-law, guess what's in it?"

"What? Oh..."

"Why is it moving? Is it a living thing?"

Lao Jiang smiled and said, "Yeah, it's definitely alive."

"Brother-in-law, guess what."

Xu Laonian waved his hand: "How can I guess? Just tell me now."

"Little black blind man!"

"What?"

"What the fuck?"

Xu Laonian and Wang Erli were shocked again, staring with eyes wide open in disbelief.

"Little black blind man? Where did you get two of these?"

Xu Ning patted Xu Laonian's back with a smile and said, "Dad, let's go get the wild boars and other things to clean up the house first, and then we can sit on the kang and talk later. We are all so hungry that we are tightening our belts."

Xu Laonian gnashed his teeth and said, "It's your fault! Who told you not to bring some food into the mountains? Don't you have a brain?"

"I thought I'd be home by half past eight, but who would have thought I'd run into two little black blind guys."

Xu Laonian sneered twice, grabbed half a sack of fish, and walked into the house with it. Seeing that he only had so little, Xu Ning immediately picked up the sack of little black bear and chased after him.

"Dad, you go and help the little black blind man get out of the house."

Xu Laonian was stunned, but said nothing. He took the sack and walked into the yard.

The eight people moved the wild boar, fish and sled quickly, and the room was empty in just a few minutes. They placed the wild boar and fish in the west room, while Xu Laonian moved the little black blind cat to the east room and was untying the rope that tied the mouth of the sack.

"Brother, find a bag for Lao Lin to put some fish in, and give him the little yellow-haired fish."

Li Fuqiang asked: "Give him a whole head?"

"Well, it's a bit inappropriate to take half of it. Every time I borrowed a car from him, he didn't hesitate. He was very happy. We can't let him down." Lao Jiang nodded: "That's the thing. If we don't have a car today, the six of us will be exhausted. Qiangzi, give him more fish."

"Eh."

When the door curtain of the east room was opened, they saw Xu Laonian leading two little black blind dogs. The two little toys looked silly and were very popular among people of Xu Laonian and Wang Erli's age. Wang Erli pinched the scruff of the neck of one of the little black blind dogs and lifted it up.

"Hey, this little thing only weighs a little over ten pounds."

Xu Ning said: "Of course, how big can it grow in just two months..."

Liu Lizhen and Yang Shuhua entered the house and took a look at the little black blind cat. They were startled at first, and then asked, "Erning, are we going to raise them after bringing them back?"

"Why should I raise them? I won't! Let my brother find a buyer tomorrow and sell them to them. I can make some money anyway."

Liu Lizhen clapped her hands and said, "It's good to sell them. If we feed them and so many dogs, how much food will we have?"

Xu Laonian was a little unhappy and muttered, "Why sell it? It looks so cute and beautiful..."

"Can being cute and pretty be eaten? Don't be so silly. You work all day and never go home. Who will take care of them if you leave them at home?"

After Liu Lizhen scolded him for a few words, Xu Laonian shut up and just lowered his head to play with the little black blind cat.

Wang Erli next to them didn't say a word, because he knew he couldn't keep these two little guys.

Da Laba, Liu Daming and others washed their faces and went into the house. They sat on the edge of the kang and lit a cigarette. Li Fuqiang came in carrying the kang table, and Yang Shuhua followed behind with the bowls and chopsticks...

"Where did you put it?" Xu Laonian couldn't help but ask.

Xu Ning took off his shoes and sat on the kang, saying, "Let's go to Xiaoshi River to continue..."

While she was telling the story, Liu Lizhen and Yang Shuhua had already brought the meal to the table. The staple food was freshly cooked dumplings and rice, and the side dishes were cold-mixed prickly ash sprouts, pork with basil, and pork ribs stewed with sauerkraut.

The six of them gathered around the table and started talking. They were all very hungry, so they were eating their food and dipping dumplings in garlic sauce. He had only told half of the story of how he found the little black blind man, and Xu Laonian and Wang Erli were so anxious that they stamped their feet, but they couldn't hurry him up.

"Tell me! You met a little fox, and then what happened?"

Xu Ning swallowed the dumplings and said perfunctorily, "Then the little fox led us for a while, and we saw two little black blinds in a tree warehouse."

"Yes, brother-in-law, this is what happened."

Xu Laonian looked down at the little black blind man and said, "What should we feed them?"

"Let's make some cornmeal porridge. The prickly ash sprouts should be edible. Sister-in-law, do you still have any prickly ash sprouts?"

"There are still quite a few left. I'll go and plant some cornmeal. Can I plant a little bit first?"

"Just feed them a little bit, don't feed them too much at first."

Wang Erli asked, holding a cigarette in his mouth: "How are you going to sell it? Are you going to deliver it to the streets, or sell it in the nearby villages?"

Xu Ning said: "We will sell them in a few nearby villages first. If we can't sell them, we will send them to the streets."

He turned to the loud speaker and said, "Brother, I'll give this job to you. You're good at talking. Go ask around in the Yongzi and Taizi villages when the time comes."

"Okay! I've found the right person for this job. I'm willing to do this kind of job that requires talking."

Lao Jiang said with a smile: "Guoxing is a good talker. At the beginning, when we went door to door to ask if they wanted meat, it was Guoxing who talked to them, and Daming and I decided on a price."

"Brother Jiang, stop praising me...Brother, how much are you going to sell these two little black blinds for?"

"Three hundred at least!"

"Three hundred? That's fine too..."

Xu Ning picked up the chopsticks and pricked the old buds, saying, "Three hundred yuan for two small black blinds is not expensive. You can add a little bit, but don't add too much."

"Then how much should we add?" asked the loud speaker.

"It's just a lie. These two are sold for 500 yuan in total..."

Xu Laonian interrupted, "250 per head? You're pretty good at pricing."

Liu Lizhen patted him and said, "Don't interrupt! Do you know how to sell? Why are you talking so much?"

Xu Ning continued, "For example, if both are 500 yuan each, and we don't sell them separately, if he wants to buy them separately, you will have to pay 300..."

"But our ultimate goal is to sell these two products. The lowest price is 300. You should explain to the buyer the benefits of buying the little black blind.

For example, bear bile is quite expensive now. If you buy two little black bears and raise them for a year or two, you can sell their bile for nearly two thousand yuan. You can also eat the bear meat and make two mattresses with the bear skin..."

Xu Ning sat on the kang and talked a lot. At first, Da Laba only understood half of what he said, but he would ask questions when he didn't understand. After Xu Ning's patient teaching, Da Laba finally understood.

"Brother, do you think this is okay? Let's take these two little guys around the village tomorrow. If anyone asks about it, I'll talk to them..."

Xu Ning clapped his hands and said, "That's it! Brother, you better pull a sled. These two guys can't go far now."

"understand!"

After finishing talking about this matter, Liu Lizhen sat on the edge of the kang and asked, "Old man, are you going to Dongshan tomorrow?"

Xu Ning thought for a moment and said, "Let's go. The grass on this mountain is all green. If we don't go up the mountain, my uncle Ma will be worried."

It is now the end of April, a good time to raise queen bees, and Ma Liu is indeed a little anxious, because he has already built a shack and is waiting for the two to go up the mountain to learn beekeeping from him.

Xu Laonian said, "If you ask me, you should just stay home and rest for a day. It won't make a difference."

"I'm afraid if I rest any longer, something will happen to me... Go early, you can be back in half a month or so."

At this moment, everyone had finished their meal. Liu Lizhen and Yang Shuhua were clearing the table. Xu Ning and others chatted for a while, and Lao Jiang and Da Laba were getting ready to go home.

"Brother, you can send it home to my elder brother first, and then take the fish home directly."

Loudspeaker shook his head: "Don't take it yet. I have to come over tomorrow. Let's talk about it later."

"Then you guys make the arrangements. I'm going to Dongshan tomorrow anyway."

Liu Daming said, "Tomorrow the three of us have to unload the pigs, divide the fish, and sell the little black bear. We have a lot of things to do."

Lao Jiang and Liu Daming went home together. Li Fuqiang and Wang Hu drove to deliver the loudspeaker, while Liu Lizhen was picking fish in the west room, preparing to bring them to Dongshan for Xu Ning the next day.

"It's a shame to sell them...these two toys should be able to grow into good stuff in two years..."

Hearing Xu Laonian's nagging, Xu Ning said, "After raising it for two years, can you still kill it? It has been free of charge for food and drink in the past two years. This black blind cat eats more than our dogs. What can we use to feed it? Dad, stop asking for trouble."

Xu Laonian stiffened his neck and said, "Can't I grumble a few words? Your mother scolds me all the time, and you also scold me every day..."

"When I sell them, I'll give you ten dollars, okay?"

"That's fine!" Xu Laonian bared his teeth: "Why didn't you say so earlier!"

Wang Erli looked at his elder brother's expression and said with a smile, "Brother, your expression changes too quickly."

"What do you know... If you can swallow your pride, Hu Zi would like to give you all the money in his pocket."

Wang Erli shook his head: "He doesn't have as much money in his pocket as I do. Last time I looked through his pocket, there was only five or six yuan in total."

Xu Ning sat on the edge of the kang and listened to the two old brothers chatting, and smiled in his heart. Why couldn't Wang Erli get Wang Hu's money?

Xu Ning told him that Wang Hu had hidden all his money and only left some in his pocket to hide it from others. Otherwise, Wang Hu's money would have been taken away by Wang Erli long ago.

(End of this chapter)