sjar Chapter 126 The Forestry Farm Leader Meets Li Ju'an
Chapter 126 The Forestry Farm Leader Meets Li Ju'an
The next day, Li Ju'an fed the eleven hunting dogs and ate some cornbread. When he went out, his mother, Song Lanhua, had already cooked the meat and fried it in oil, and tucked a warm sticky rice cake into his arms.
"Going into the mountains again, be careful."
Over the past few months, his mother has gotten used to him going into the mountains. There are many dogs, especially Da Hu, who is reliable. His mother is becoming more and more at ease with him going into the mountains.
Little sister Li Xiao ate a cornbread, crumbs still stuck to the corners of her mouth, and stared wide-eyed like a doe, mimicking her mother's earnest admonition: "Brother, drive carefully on the road."
Li Ju'an felt a warm glow in his heart and smiled as he ruffled Li Xiao's hair. His younger sister's once dry and yellowish hair was now much smoother, jet black and shiny, and her complexion looked healthy. She was probably at the age where she was growing, just a little thin.
He thought about going to the forest farm, then rushing to town to sell the tiger cub's pelt. An adult tiger with large paws can be 2 meters long, and a raw tiger pelt can sell for at least a thousand yuan. The price of a tiger cub's pelt depends on its size; his cub was too young, only about two or three months old, so the price would depend on the quality of the pelt, but it could sell for five or six hundred yuan.
He beamed with joy at the thought of the price he could get. "That's great! A trip into the mountains, five or six hundred yuan—just thinking about it makes me happy."
Li Ju'an fed the hunting dogs and left the injured Hua Er to rest by the kang (a heated brick bed). He pulled the tiger cub out of the snow, then carried the cub, called Da Hu, Tie Chui, and the three mixed-breed wolfhounds, and went to Lao Tao's old house.
Making leather is too much work for one person; he needs help. This time, he wasn't shy at all. Carrying a raccoon dog and a large pork knuckle, he walked in and loudly called out, "Brother Tao, business is here!"
It takes three days to process raw hides. Tiger cub hides and raccoon dog hides are processed together.
Raccoon meat is worthless. After the tiger cubs are skinned, the tiger meat looks coarse with large cross-sections. Its texture is quite different from lamb or beef. Furthermore, tiger muscle has a rare purplish-black color, while the meat on the belly is almost the same color as pork.
The meat of tigers, a carnivore, has very different fiber structure than that of herbivores.
Old Tao cursed him for being shameless, trying to bribe him with a pork knuckle. Li Ju'an refused, saying, "What? Just a hind pork knuckle? It's all meat. Tiger meat is much rarer."
Old Tao snorted coldly, calling him cunning: "The flesh of those big paws is sour and smelly, not even as chewy as lion meat. Tiger meat is either too tough or too fat, how are you supposed to eat it?"
Li Ju'an deliberately teased him, "Brother Tao, don't take advantage of my lack of education. Lions are all on the grasslands, where would we get lions from in the Xing'an Mountains?"
Old Tao got angry, his face contorted with rage, his beard bristling and eyes wide: "We've never eaten lion meat, but we've never heard hunters from all over the country brag about it? Tiger meat is just not good enough, we can't eat it. Take it away, take it away."
Li Ju'an picked up the tiger cub meat, stuffed it into his cloth bag, and then took out more than a dozen bundles of firecrackers and a meter-long steel wire rope from his shoulder bag. The firecrackers were given to him by the old man of the Lu family, and the steel wire rope was something he bought through connections at the forest farm; he couldn't get it anywhere else.
Seeing him rummaging through this and that, Old Tao lightly patted the back of his head and chuckled, "You little rascal, still playing these silly games with us. We're not going into the mountains. If you have so much free time, you should teach Iron Hammer properly, so you don't corrupt the Three-Headed Wolf Cub too."
Li Ju'an was secretly pleased to hear this. Who said Old Tao was hard-hearted? He was clearly just being stubborn. He still cared a lot about the three mixed-breed wolfhound puppies.
"Don't worry, Brother Tao. Your five precious heads are in my hands; they'll be living the high life every day."
It was very warm in Lao Tao's house. He sat on the edge of the kang (a heated brick bed) with Lao Tao and the widow of the Chen family, making leather together.
Three days later, the tiger cubs' raw hides were finished, and the raccoon dogs' raw hides were also finished.
He had two soft, fluffy furs draped over his shoulders. The tiger cub's fur had a golden base with brown spots, and when you blew on it, it would swirl. It felt very comfortable to touch.
Old Tao's eyes were filled with envy: "It's been so many years since I've seen Big Claw Skin. You're lucky, kid, you picked up a tiger cub's carcass and didn't encounter Big Claw. Otherwise, you would have lost half your life."
Li Ju'an left the steel wire rope behind, along with a few more pieces of venison and wild boar meat. He called out to Lao Tao, "Brother Tao, once I get the big claws and big hides, I might have to trouble you to help me with the skinning again."
Old Tao couldn't help but laugh and scold, "You still want to make use of us old bones, but you feed us hay and make us vomit. Milk."
"No way! Tao-ge doesn't even look down on venison and wild boar meat. I'll bring him some tiger claws later so he can have a taste of meat! Our Tao-ge has to eat tiger claws."
Old Tao laughed heartily and kicked him out the door.
……
Li Ju'an took the prepared tiger cub hide and called 10 lively hunting dogs to the forest farm.
He didn't enter the forest farm alone. At the entrance, he ran into Li Guaizi, who was chatting with Old Zhang from the security department. Li Guaizi's eyes widened when he saw the tiger cub skin he was carrying on his shoulder.
Seeing Li Guaizi's surprised and puzzled expression, he quickly said, "I didn't hit him, I picked the body up from a branch."
Li Guaizi glanced down at the eleven hunting dogs at his feet, his expression becoming even more complicated. The last time he saw Li Ju'an, Li Ju'an had begged and pleaded with Lao Tao to give him a big tiger. How come only a few days later, this kid has become the leader of the dog gang?
These dogs are more than the number he had at his peak.
Li Ju'an and Li Guaizi walked together into the Dashan Forest Farm. Before they even entered the office building, they heard a loud bang.
boom!
On the opposite mountain, there was a constant roar, and snow and smoke billowed into the sky.
Immediately following was a flash of light and the sound of gunfire.
At first, the gunfire was chaotic, "Bang! Bang!" but soon it became rapid and continuous. Intermingled with the gunfire were the sounds of countless wild boars howling and running.
Li Guaizi looked up at the hillside forest and said, "That whole area is full of hickory trees."
Wild boars love to forage in the snow. This year, the snowfall wasn't too heavy, so the wild boars were also able to root up acorns and walnuts in the snow. This hickory grove, like the wild fruit tree gully, is a grazing area for wild boars. If they can't find either of those, the wild boars have to resort to plucking grass.
Li Ju'an said, "The wild boar herd hasn't broken up yet."
Li Guaizi asked curiously, "You've seen that group too?" "Of course. Such a big group, who wouldn't see it?"
The wild boar herd grew larger and larger, from forty or fifty heads to fifty or sixty heads after more stray yellow-haired ibex joined. Many hunters had seen wild boar herds, but they usually turned and ran to avoid contact with large herds. Those who dared to confront a large wild boar herd head-on were either unlucky guys like Li Ju'an, who got tricked by slippery dogs, or legitimate hunting teams that had organized themselves to go into the mountains.
Li Guaizi pointed to the area on the hill where the gunfire was more intense and shouted, "See that team? Zhao Pao was injured a few days ago. I heard he was injured while chasing Big Claw and got into a fight. He only rested for a few days before going back into the mountains to catch wild boars. They're quite capable."
Old Zhang from the security department found it interesting and, with curiosity piqued, asked, "Isn't Zhao Pao the gunner of Eagle Village? He's incredibly skilled at falconry. He cherishes his falcon like the apple of his eye, treating it like a precious treasure. How did he end up in a fight? And he didn't even come out on top; the other group was even more capable."
"Maybe they fought over the big claws."
Li Guaizi suddenly turned his head and looked at the tiger cub that Li Ju'an was carrying on his shoulder, his eyes widening: "You've seen Big Claw?"
He slapped his forehead. Wasn't this obvious? Who else could possibly be fighting with Zhao Pao over a big claw?
Isn't that Li Ju'an standing right in front of me?
Li Ju'an laughed and said, "If none of you are going in, I'm going in."
He found Assistant Chen and gave him a box of badger oil. Assistant Chen was very surprised to see the tiger cub skin on his shoulder. He took the badger oil without making it obvious and advised him, "Introducing you to the leader is no problem. But there have been quite a few hunters recently. In the end, the leader will have to decide who to choose."
Li Ju'an nodded.
He followed Assistant Chen into the office. The forest farm office was clean and tidy, much nicer than the office of Yang Dezheng, the brigade leader in the village.
"Leader Chen, Li Pao Tou'er is here."
Assistant Chen knocked respectfully on the door, and after receiving permission, invited Li Ju'an in.
Li Ju'an felt uneasy. Although he had met countless wealthy merchants and businessmen during his previous life when he traveled south, this was the first time he had met the top leader of the forest farm. There was a huge difference between those who held power and status and the nouveau riche.
"Li Pao, you're here."
The man inside spoke, and his voice sounded somewhat familiar.
He took a closer look at the man, paused, and realized his suspicions were correct. This middle-aged man in glasses and a Zhongshan suit was none other than the person who had given him his phone number in the county town last time. He had even given the man a wolf's tooth, telling him to take it home for his children to play with. Song Desheng, with his bad temper, had been cursing and scolding the man for talking without buying anything.
Leader Chen looked at Li Ju'an with a smile and gestured for him to sit down: "I've been waiting for you for so long, Li Pao. Why didn't you call me?"
Li Ju'an breathed a sigh of relief, and without being pretentious, he carried the tiger cub to the guest chair and sat down, saying with a smile, "What are you saying, Leader Chen? I'm just a rough man from the village, I never imagined you were such a big leader."
Listening to the barking of the hunting dogs outside the window, numbering around ten, Leader Chen turned to look at the tiger cub skin on Li Ju'an's shoulder, his eyes revealing admiration and praise.