Chapter 131: Hunting Bamboo Chickens at Night and Buying Yellow Pelicans in the Afternoon
"Bamboo partridge?" Lin Heng was stunned. He hadn't hunted for a long time and hadn't noticed this.
He hasn't gone out hunting much at night recently because he is really busy.
Grouse is a flock-loving bird with flaxen feathers, black eye-like spots on its belly and sides, and a patch of green hair under its neck.
This is a very common bird here. The largest one weighs only 5 or 6 taels, and the average one weighs more than 4 taels. But this bird has a characteristic that it likes to gather in a group, and finding one often means finding five or six.
"There are at least six or seven bamboo partridges resting together, and their calls are very loud. We can go and hunt them when it gets dark." Li Baiquan whispered.
As soon as it gets dark, bamboo partridges like to rest in groups on a bamboo branch. You can catch a lot of them with a shot from a hunting rifle.
"Then I need to borrow a hunting rifle. I'll go and ask Tian Baishun to borrow it and try." Lin Heng said after thinking for a while. It just so happened that Tian Baishun was also helping to thresh the grain today.
He came uninvited. The old man was quite familiar with Lin Heng and knew that Lin's food was good, so he shamelessly came over in the morning to help and get a free meal.
Lin Heng's bow and slingshot are not very effective in the bamboo forest, so he has to use a shotgun loaded with some small iron sand. One shot can kill all the bamboo partridges with scattered damage.
"That's what I mean. Let's go together." Li Baiquan said with a smile.
Lin Heng nodded and went to find Tian Baishun with his uncle.
I asked someone and was told that Tian Baishun had just returned with a bag of grain and was now heading to the fields.
The two chased after him, and before they had gone a few steps, they spotted the old man. He was holding a snakeskin bag behind his back and chatting with Liu Lan.
Liu Lan was squatting on the ground picking vegetables. From time to time, he looked into her collar. It seemed that the weather was hot and Liu Lan was not wearing any underwear.
Lin Heng secretly laughed at the old man, saying loudly, "Old Man Tian!"
Tian Baishun was startled, and quickly turned around, saying angrily: "What are you doing, Boss Lin? You are yelling so loudly. Do you dislike the old man?"
"Why are you afraid if I call you?" Lin Heng smiled and continued, "Lend us your hunting rifle."
"What? You are using a bow and arrow, why a hunting rifle?" Tian Baishun asked curiously.
"We found bamboo partridges while hunting them," Lin Heng said with a smile.
"I won't lend you the bamboo chicken." Tian Baishun shook his head, then laughed, "Let me, the old man, beat them. I don't want the bamboo chicken, I'll give it to you."
Lin Heng glanced at him and said, "That's fine."
The three of them discussed it and then went to the fields together to help move the grain.
"You old boy, are you white or not? Are you big or not?" Li Baiquan said sarcastically with a smile on the way.
Tian Baishun scolded seriously: "You think bad things about people. I am not that kind of person. Lin Heng, you should believe me, right?"
Lin Heng smiled without saying anything and gave him a look that showed his own understanding.
"I can't wash myself clean even if I jump into the Yellow River..." Tian Baishun was still pretending.
By the time they carried all the millet back home, it was already half past seven and Lin's mother and others had already prepared dinner.
Tian Baishun came back first to get the shotgun and gunpowder, and then came back to eat.
"Are you going hunting?" Father Lin asked curiously.
"My uncle found a bamboo partridge right in front of the door and will catch it soon." Lin Heng said with a smile.
"You're so lucky to meet a bamboo partridge in front of the door." Father Lin couldn't help but smile. There are very few bamboo partridges in front of the door now.
After a few words, we went to the table to eat. The dinner was also very sumptuous, and it was worth it just to eat these two meals.
Lin's mother's chicken is fried with hot and sour sauce. No matter how you cook your own local chicken, it tastes delicious.
Lin Heng was gnawing on the chicken, and Xiongba was watching him beside him, licking his lips from time to time, as if saying, "Silly dog owner, don't eat it so cleanly, leave some meat for your good friend."
"Give it to him, give it to him. Look at how silly you are." Lin Heng took two bites and stopped chewing it. He just threw it to it.
“Ouch~”
Xiongba raised his head and caught the chicken, ate it happily, and then looked at him again.
When they finished eating, it was completely dark. Tian Baishun picked up his shotgun and shouted, "Let's go."
"Are you okay? Are you drunk?" Lin Heng was a little worried.
Tian Baishun waved his hand: "It's just a few glasses of wine, who are you looking down on?"
"That's good." Lin Heng nodded and went home to get a bow and arrow. It wasn't very heavy anyway, so it was better to take it with him just in case.
Lin Heng also gave each of them a high-intensity flashlight that he bought in the city, which can be recharged repeatedly.
The light is much brighter than the silver-white aluminum shell flashlight with No. 1 dry battery that I used before.
As soon as it was turned on, a bright white light appeared, which made Tian Baishun show an envious expression: "How much is your flashlight?"
"This can be recharged, but it's not cheap at only five bucks a pair." Lin Heng said with a smile. This is much more expensive than ordinary ones, so he bought three.
"It's too expensive. I'd better use batteries, old man." Tian Baishun was discouraged by the price.
Li Baiquan, who originally wanted to get one, took back what he had said, and it needed to be charged, but Murakami had no power yet.
When they reached the bamboo forest, the three of them shone their flashlights upwards, looking for the bamboo partridge. This creature would not fly even if you shone a flashlight on it at night.
Xiongba also followed Lin Heng around in the bamboo forest. The bamboo forest covered an area of half an acre, and it would take some time to find it.
Lin Heng kept looking up and didn't pay attention to his feet.
In the dark night, Xiongba suddenly accelerated and pressed a black shadow to the ground. Lin Heng shone the flashlight over only after hearing the squeaking sound.
Seeing what Xiongba caught, Lin Heng couldn't help but widen his eyes: "Damn, such a big bamboo rat."
At this time, Xiongba had already bitten off the bamboo rat's spine and threw it in front of Lin Heng. He picked it up and saw that it was a big bamboo rat weighing five or six kilograms.
"Xiongba is so awesome." Lin Heng touched its head. He didn't expect such an unexpected surprise.
After a summer, the bamboo rat had eaten so much that it became round and fat.
"Come on, the bamboo partridges are all over here."
At this time, my uncle-in-law Li Baiquan suddenly called out.
"Old Man Tian, the bamboo partridge is over here." Lin Heng walked over and called out to Tian Baishun.
"Okay." Tian Baishun nodded, and he and Lin Heng came to Li Baiquan one after another.
"Look, there are seven or eight of them." Li Baiquan used the outermost circle of the flashlight to shine on the bamboo partridges.
There were seven or eight of them resting on the tip of the bamboo in front of them, each of them curled up into a ball.
"You two stay away." Tian Baishun said as he put up his shotgun, loaded it and checked it again.
Lin Heng and his uncle retreated a few meters, keeping the flashlight on dimly.
There was a crisp sound of nails, and a dark red light emerged from the dark forest. Almost instantly, a large amount of gunpowder wrapped in red-hot iron sand scattered out.
“BOOM!!”
With a loud bang, many birds around were frightened and flapped their wings and flew away, and Xiongba's four legs also trembled.
Then there was the sound of something falling.
"How many did you catch?"
Lin Heng and his uncle ignored the temporary buzzing in their ears and came over with basins and flashlights to pick up bamboo partridges.
The air was filled with the smell of gunpowder, and there were holes on the chair made by iron sand, emitting a slight smell of coke.
Lin Heng picked up a bamboo partridge. Many of its feathers were burnt and it smelled like burnt nails.
"Lin Heng, how many did you pick up? I picked up four." Li Baiquan asked with a smile.
"I picked up three." Lin Heng said as he walked over holding a bamboo chicken.
"How's my shooting skill, old man?" Tian Baishun chuckled and started bragging.
"You are still bragging. It's less than five meters. If you can't hit it, go home and herd cattle." Li Baiquan mocked him.
Tian Baishun puffed his beard and glared at the cunning defense: "Hey, you know shit, it takes skill to kill all the bamboo partridges at a distance of five meters."
"Uncle, take three bamboo partridges back. Old Man Tian and I will each take two." Lin Heng distributed the bamboo partridges.
"I don't want it. After processing it for half a day, there will only be a few pounds of meat." Tian Baishun shook his head.
Li Baiquan also shook his head: "I don't want it either, you can take it back and eat it."
"I have a big bamboo rat caught by Xiongba." Lin Heng mentioned the bamboo rat and said, I haven't hunted for a long time, and my luck is pretty good tonight.
Tian Baishun insisted on not taking any, so Lin Hengqiang forced three of them on his uncle.
When they got home, all the guests had left, and only Lin Heng's eldest uncle and third uncle were still there. They planned to help thresh the remaining millet before going back.
"Lin Heng, let's go now. I'll bring detonators down in a few days and we'll fry fish." Li Baiquan said that he had to go back tonight.
The aunt took Lin Heng and sincerely invited him to her home when he had time. Lin Heng smiled and agreed, and sent the two of them to the street.
When he got home, Lin Heng showed his wife the bamboo chicken and then the bamboo rat: "We had a great harvest tonight, and we'll have meat to eat tomorrow."
"I have boiled water for you. You know there will be a harvest." Xiulan said with a smile.
"Dad is so awesome!" Xiaoxia said crisply. When she saw the bamboo rats and bamboo chickens, she knew that she would have meat to eat again, so she stretched out her hand to catch the bamboo rats.
Lin Heng quickly picked up the bamboo rat and said, "You can only look at it, but not touch it."
"Oh!" Xiaoxia nodded slowly twice and stood there watching Lin Heng and Xiulan deal with the bamboo rat.
Bamboo rats can be skinned or their hair can be plucked using hot water. Lin Heng chose to skin them and keep the skin. It is very useful whether he sells it or keeps it to make gloves or something.
"This bamboo rat is all thanks to Xiongba." While skinning the rat, Lin Heng also praised Xiongba who was squatting beside him and watching him.
“Ouch~”
Xiongba stuck out his tongue, looking somewhat happy.
All the bamboo rat and bamboo chicken viscera were cooked, which was considered a big meal for Xiongba. He ate so much that his stomach was bulging.
The next day was the 26th day of the seventh lunar month, the day for the market. While Lin's father and others were threshing grain, Lin Heng went to the town alone, because he still wanted to take a look.
If Liu Qicheng does something tricky again, Wang Zhou may not be able to solve it.
It was just seven o'clock when we arrived in town, and Wang Zhou was up and cleaning. He was very serious about his job, not only did he clean the place thoroughly, but he also checked the collected mountain products every day.
"Brother Lin!" Seeing Lin Heng, Wang Zhou hurriedly greeted him with a smile.
"You don't have anything to do these two days, right?" Lin Heng asked with a smile.
Wang Zhou shook his head: "Nothing, it's just that business is very bad. I only bought ten kilograms of epimedium and sold two bags of salt and one bag of cigarettes."
Lin Heng was not surprised by this: "This is normal. There are only people here on market days."
After taking a breath, he asked again: "What about Liu Qicheng? Is there any movement?"
Wang Zhou said: "I heard that he was looking for a place to rent a house recently, but it seems that he couldn't come to an agreement and he even had a quarrel with someone."
"It seems there is no threat today." Lin Heng smiled. He knew that Liu Qichen would definitely adopt this method.
When he walked into the store, he greeted Grandpa Gao and looked at the account book. Wang Zhou wrote the accounts very clearly and his work attitude was extremely serious.
Wang Zhou suddenly remembered something and said quickly, "By the way, Brother Lin, didn't you say before that you wanted to buy a horse? Uncle Li came yesterday and said he found one. Someone wants to sell a yellow pony, more than two years old, very docile."
The Uncle Li that Wang Zhou mentioned is the tractor-trailer driver, and his surname is Li.
Lin Heng put down the account book and became interested: "Yellow Horse, where is the horse? Is it far?"
Lin Heng had wanted to buy a horse for a long time, otherwise he would be too tired and slow every time he walked.
He originally had 9,200 yuan, and he spent a total of 1,700 yuan on shopping and opening a store to purchase goods, and he still had 500 yuan in cash for receiving the goods.
Not counting the money he took out, he still had 7,000 yuan in his savings account, but he didn't want to buy a motorcycle. The money was for building a fish pond, so he couldn't spend it carelessly. He knew what to buy and what not to buy.
Although it seems like a lot of money, it is actually far from enough. Whether it is raising fish or shrimp, feed is very expensive.
"It's in their Liwan Village, only two kilometers from the town, not far away," said Wang Zhou.
"Then let's go and take a look in the afternoon after we're done." Lin Heng nodded.
"Okay." Wang Zhou.
Soon, customers began to arrive one after another. Because the news that an extra purchasing station had been opened during the last market had spread, the purchase prices of various mountain products had increased a lot, so many people came to sell today.
Liu Qicheng didn't come up with any good ideas, so all the business today belonged to Lin Heng.
While doing business, Lin Heng did not forget to spread the news that he wanted to buy a horse.
This puzzled Wang Zhou: "Brother Lin, isn't there news from Uncle Li?"
The driver was very nice to him and wanted to help him settle the matter.
"We may not be able to reach an agreement, so it's not a bad idea to be more selective." Lin Heng shook his head and said that it was impossible to only look at one store for something worth four or five hundred yuan.
The two men were busy for a long time and collected four or five times more mountain products than last time. His profit from collecting mountain products alone was more than one hundred yuan that day. Even if he could use the funds from the canteen to recover them, he still had to go to the credit union to withdraw another three hundred yuan.
"Brother Lin, Lin Heng has become rich." Lin Wei said with a smile when he was doing the accounts in the afternoon. He collected 500 yuan worth of mountain products today, and the profit was about 150 yuan. The canteen also made 30 to 40 yuan in profit.
"There's nothing to be happy about. We harvested a lot today, but there will be less next time." Lin Heng shook his head.
After settling the bill, Lin Heng and Wang Zhou went to find the driver and prepared to buy the horse.
He didn't bring a dime with him, and his passbook was in the store. It was not good to bring money to a strange village, if the negotiation was successful, the host would just follow him to Huangtan Town to get the money.
When he saw the driver, Wang Zhou ran over and explained the situation.
The driver looked at Lin Heng and said, "Boss Lin, that horse is very good. It is tall and mighty with bright eyes. Most importantly, it has a gentle temperament and is very easy to ride."
"Let's go and take a look first." Lin Heng didn't care much about these words.
This place is not a place where good horses are produced, and there is no bloodline to speak of. His requirements are also simple, healthy and strong, docile and obedient.
"Okay, I'll lead the way for you." The driver nodded and took Lin Heng and Wang Zhou to Liwan Village.
In just over ten minutes, the three of them arrived at Liwan Village, and under the guidance of the driver, they came to the door of a family surnamed Li.
"Li Gui, this is Mr. Lin who I told you wanted to buy a horse." The driver said to a middle-aged man who was younger than himself.
This middle-aged man has a pair of small green eyes, and from a distance you can't tell whether they are open or closed.
He was a little surprised that Lin Heng was so young, and said with a smile: "Boss Lin, do you want to see the horse directly?"
"Let's just look at the horses." Lin Heng said, not wanting to waste time.
"Then come with me." Li Gui led Lin Heng and others to a stable at the back.
There were three horses in the stable, all of which were yellow-brown in color, with average body color and fairly well-proportioned build. Their shoulder height was estimated to be about 1.12 meters, quite ordinary, not as mighty as the driver boasted.
"These two horses are one male and one female. The male is two years old and the female is three years old. I have trained them both. They can be ridden or pulled carts without any problems." Li Gui said, pointing to the two horses on the outermost side.
The horse that was not mentioned must be the mare that gave birth.
Lin Heng walked over and touched the two horses. Both horses were relatively well-behaved, with no obvious emotional fluctuations.
The stallion looked stronger and ten centimeters taller than the mare, but he felt that the stallion was a little too well-behaved and docile.
"Are you only selling this male?" Lin Heng asked Li Gui.
Li Gui shook his head: "No, they can all be sold, but the mares are more expensive, and this mare has not given birth yet."
Lin Heng nodded and looked again. These two horses were Mongolian horses with big heads and necks, which were incomparable to pedigree horses. He mainly wanted to see if they were healthy and if there were any minor problems.
He didn't know much about horses, but he knew that a good horse must have a strong heart and lungs and well-developed muscles. The nostrils of this stallion were obviously larger than those of the mare, and his chest muscles were well-developed, and his legs were farther apart.
Compared to stallions, mares look more symmetrical and obviously more docile.
Then I checked the eyes and hooves and there was nothing wrong with them.
After taking a closer look, Lin Heng asked, "Can you ride it a few laps for me to see?"
"Don't worry, Boss Lin, there will be no problem with the horse." The driver said with a smile.
Lin Heng shook his head: "No, I have to run a few laps, otherwise how can I know the specific situation."
Although he didn't understand much, he could definitely tell whether a horse was good or not by just running a few laps.
"Okay, I'll run two laps for you." Li Gui did not refuse and led the stallion to run first.
After running back and forth for a few hundred meters, Lin Heng discovered that something was wrong with the stallion and his breathing was a little rapid.
Lin Heng looked at the two and asked, "Has this horse ever been sick?"
"No, that's it, very normal." Li Gui shook his head.
The driver nodded and said, "It's normal to run a few laps all of a sudden."
Lin Heng glanced at the two of them, and without asking any more questions, he continued, "Then please help me ride the mare for a couple of laps."
Li Gui rode the mare for several hundred meters. Lin Heng listened to her breathing again and it was obvious that the mare's breathing was much more even.
Lin Heng smiled in his heart, this stallion must have been sick and left with sequelae.
Although he had never raised horses, he had raised pigs, cows and sheep, and knew a lot about veterinary medicine, so it was not easy to deceive him.
The main reason was that he had heard that stallions were wild and fierce, but this stallion was a little too docile.
Under normal circumstances, it was athletic and docile, so it was definitely a good horse. But he didn't quite believe that he was so lucky to meet such a good horse.
I listened carefully to my breathing and immediately realized that something was wrong.
"How much is this mare sold for?" Lin Heng didn't expose the truth and directly asked about the price of the mare.
Li Gui and the other man had no expression on the surface, but their hearts were already in turmoil. How could Lin Heng be so experienced when he was so young?
(End of this chapter)
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
