The two brothers looked at each other. They knew that two yuan was a bit too much, but they were just trying it out. When Wang Tianxiao disagreed, they said, "How about one yuan and eighty cents?"
Wang Tianxiao thought for a moment and then smiled and said, "Alright, I'll give you sixty yuan a month, which is equivalent to two yuan a day, to make it a round number. What do you think?"
The two brothers were overjoyed.
They were very satisfied with the price.
Their odd jobs don't bring in much income, and the income is unstable. Sometimes they earn, sometimes they don't, so it's hard to say how much they can earn in a month.
Now that such a well-paid, stable job with room and board included has suddenly appeared, I'm overjoyed; it's like a pie falling from the sky.
They immediately agreed, much to the envy of the other two employees from the supply and marketing center, who were itching to defect immediately.
"Alright, it's settled then. You two brothers, go home tonight and pack your bags. Once you're settled at home, report back here tomorrow. From now on, we'll settle your accounts weekly in case you run out of money. We'll settle fifteen yuan each time, and we won't hold any of your money back. What do you think?"
"Good, good, that's great."
"Yes, that's nice."
The two brothers had never seen such a cheerful boss before, and they nodded their heads as if they were dozing off.
"Then you should hurry down the mountain. It's getting late, and the driver must be getting impatient."
"Goodbye, boss."
"Okay, I'll remember tomorrow morning."
"Me ma da".
The two responded in unison, and then turned and left with the other two.
Wang Tianxiao and Wang Tiancheng stood on the mountain ridge, watching the four masters leave with flashlights. Slowly, the light from the flashlights turned into two small halos, like a few stars falling to the ground.
"Let's tidy up the site first. After we're done, we'll go down the mountain to check the cages and see what we've caught today. We were supposed to go collect them during the day, but we've been busy until now and haven't had a chance to."
Wang Tianxiao withdrew his gaze and said to Wang Tiancheng.
"Okay, brother, what should I do?"
"You heat the kang (heated brick bed) for us. Heat all six rooms in the middle. Be careful when you open the last door. There are two leopard cats inside. Don't let them run out. They are not capable of living on their own yet. If they run outside, they will surely die."
"Okay."
Wang Tiancheng immediately got to work.
Wang Tianxiao also fed the deer and the three dogs, cleaned up the deer's room, and then took a broom to clean up the mess left by unloading goods at the door.
As he passed the warehouse, he peeked through the crack in the door. It was pitch black and he couldn't see anything clearly, but he still nodded in satisfaction.
These seeds were the beginning of Artemisia and dandelion, and also his beginning.
He finds it hard to imagine how far things will develop in the future, but he knows that a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step, and taking that first step is the most important thing.
Wang Tiancheng finished quickly as well. Wang Tianxiao then instructed Wang Tiancheng to carry a gun and lead three dogs into the mountains along the path in front of the gate.
The three dogs had been locked up for two days and couldn't stand it any longer. As soon as they were released, they excitedly ran around everywhere. Wang Tianxiao had to call them back to his side after shouting a few times, but they still excitedly circled around the two of them.
The two searched along the marks on the cloth cover one by one, and their haul was pretty good, considering they hadn't been here for two days.
There are four pheasants and nine rabbits.
Unfortunately, several of them were on the verge of death and looked like they wouldn't live much longer.
Soon, they were down to just one point.
"Hurry up, let's go home quickly, it's almost midnight."
As Wang Tianxiao spoke to his younger brother, he wrapped his coat tighter around himself. It was almost the coldest time of day, and the mountain wind at night was particularly biting.
"good."
Wang Tiancheng stayed close to Wang Tianxiao.
He could feel the weight of the gun on his back and imagined what it would be like to join the army next year.
I wish I could be as accurate with a gun as my brother.
"rustle."
The two walked forward, their footsteps making a soft rustling sound.
The last cage was placed under a blazing pear tree.
"Mao Huo Li" is a dialect term, and also the name of a type of fruit. Wang Tianxiao had never seen this fruit before, which was similar in shape to a hawthorn but slightly smaller.
Every autumn, the fire pears turn golden yellow. If many trees are planted side by side, they look like a blazing fire when viewed from afar.
That's why it's called the "fire-breathing pear".
Unlike hawthorn, the Maohuo pear is very sweet and tastes great. It is one of the fruits that Wang Tianxiao and his fellow poor people eat most often.
On the plains, the fire pears are usually harvested quickly, but in the mountains, no one eats them at all. Every year, they blossom, bear fruit, and slowly fall to the ground, gradually forming a thick layer of orange-red mud from the fire pears.
The mud turns into fertilizer, continuing to nourish the trees, which then grow more vigorously and bear more fruit.
The cycle repeats itself.
In winter, many small animals will look for and eat the not-completely-rotten fruit of the Fire Pear, so Wang Tianxiao also put a cage here and put a lot of fresh Fire Pears in it.
The cage is quite simple; it's a single-door design. The door can be pushed open from the outside, but once you're inside, it can't be pushed open again.
When they were still dozens of meters away from the cage, the dogs suddenly started barking.
Immediately, Wang Tianxiao also smelled a strong stench, which made him feel nauseous.
Wang Tiancheng also smelled the odor, quickly covered his nose, frowned, and asked in a low voice, "Brother, what's that smell?"
Wang Tianxiao shook his head and waved, signaling his younger brother not to go any further.
He reached out and took the gun from his brother's shoulder, checked its condition, and was about to continue when he saw three dogs that had been circling around from behind suddenly pass by them and rush straight ahead.
"Woof woof woof!"
"Woof!"
"Waaaaah!"
The dogs were incredibly fast. Before Wang Tianxiao could even react, they had already rushed forward and started tearing at something.
He quickly shone his flashlight over and saw three dogs and several small but strange animals fighting with the dogs.
That thing was much smaller than the smallest wind, not much bigger than a tabby cat, and weighed at most a dozen kilograms.
They look a bit like small corgis, with very short limbs, and the claws on their two front legs are longer than those on their backs.
The fur on its body appears to be of varying shades, and under the light of a flashlight, it presents a hazy gray color, making it difficult to distinguish the specific color at first glance.
Despite their small size, they are just as tenacious as any wild beast, and the three little guys managed to keep the dogs at bay for a while.
Their fighting style is simple: they lower their heads and bulldoze the dogs like bulldozers. Although the dogs are large, agile, and can dodge their attacks, they can't find a way to defeat them.
The three little ones made very unpleasant noises as they fought.
It was like the frantic roar of a castrated donkey without anesthesia. If the three creatures weren't right in front of us, we would have thought a demon had emerged from the deep mountains.
"What's that thing? It's so fierce!"
Wang Tiancheng was stunned.
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