Chapter 402: A Village Deep in the Mountains
The next day, Lin Heng started preparing things for hunting.
This hunting trip is expected to take about a month, so we have to be fully prepared in terms of equipment, food and drink.
Lin Heng finished his breakfast and started to clean up. Xiulan looked at him and said, "Are you not bringing rice and flour this time?"
"No need to bring it. Just make me some steamed buns to eat on the way. When we get to the destination, I will buy some from the villagers. There is no need to carry a lot of food from far away." Lin Heng explained to his wife.
"That's fine." Xiulan nodded and went to make steamed buns.
Lin Heng packed up his things and went to Hongfeng Mountain to take a look. The concrete road had been paved from the top of the mountain to the second platform, and concrete was now being laid on the second platform.
Father Lin did exactly what he had said before, and the concrete was laid very well.
It was already late autumn, and a thick layer of leaves had fallen on the mountains. He liked walking in the woods in late autumn.
Lin Heng looked at the painted cabin, walked around and went down the mountain again.
Then he went to the musk deer pen to take a look. The musk deer were not in estrus yet, so it would take some time to collect musk.
"Lin Heng, you are making Red Maple Mountain more and more beautiful."
Lin Heng had just finished watching the musk deer circle when he heard someone shouting from behind.
Turning around, he saw that it was his uncle Li Baiquan. He was with a dog and was being bullied by Lai Fu Fengshou who was raised here.
Lin Heng smiled and replied, "It's OK. Uncle, how are your Astragalus ginseng plants doing this year?"
"I did it as you said. The germination rate is OK, but it has been damaged by wild boars recently."
Li Baiquan said, then came over and said with a smile, "I heard you guys are going to Changping to hunt, right? Take me with you. I'm not good at hunting, but I can help you see things."
"Okay, but I'll say it. Hunting is about distributing the prey according to merit, not splitting it equally."
Lin Heng looked at his uncle and said, since everyone was here, it would be difficult for him to just chase them away.
"I know, don't worry." Li Baiquan said with a smile.
Lin Heng nodded and took his uncle into the house to drink tea.
At noon, his third uncle and eldest uncle also came down with shotguns.
They will stay in Lin Heng's old house today and will set off for Changping County early tomorrow morning.
As they had discussed it beforehand, they didn't take any food, but only various hunting tools.
Lin's mother cooked a meal at Hongfeng Mountain and everyone drank some wine.
Lin Heng didn't go anywhere in the afternoon and stayed at home with Xiulan and Xiaoxia.
"Try it and see how it tastes."
Xiulan came over with the prepared steamed bun and handed it to Lin Heng.
Two kinds of steamed buns were made. One was a steamed bun similar to a pot cake. It tasted lightly salty, was very dry, and could be stored for a week.
There is also another type which is a round cake with a diameter of ten centimeters, which is filled with ground sesame seeds and tastes very fragrant.
After tasting it, Lin Heng nodded and said, "It's delicious. It's delicious enough to swallow your tongue with some shredded potatoes. But the quantity is a bit too much."
"There are a lot of you here. You can't just eat alone while others are watching you." Xiulan said, and then took a plastic bag and packed the food for Lin Heng.
"Thank you, wife." Lin Heng said with a smile.
Xiulan shook her head and said, "Just remember to be safe when hunting. I heard there are still wolves in Changping. They live in packs and are very dangerous."
"Don't worry, I will definitely put my life first." Lin Heng nodded.
Then he reminded Xiulan to be careful, saying that they were going hunting openly this time and asked her to be careful of bad guys.
Then Lin Heng coaxed his daughter again, and in the evening they all had dinner at their eldest brother's house.
After coming back, Lin Heng talked to Xiulan again on the bed.
After breakfast the next morning, the five of them grabbed their belongings and squeezed into the car. This time they brought two dogs, Xiongba and Fengshou.
It’s not that I don’t want to bring it anymore, but the car can’t accommodate it.
Fortunately, Grandpa Gao didn't want to go this time, so a sidecar tricycle could barely pull the team.
"Uncle, please show me the way. I don't know exactly which way to go."
While driving, Lin Heng said that his uncle had hunted there before, and so did a relative, so he would be the one leading the way this time.
Lin Heng himself had only been to Changping County a few times, so he didn't know which area had more prey there.
"Don't worry, I'll tell you if you come to a fork in the road." Lu Honghai nodded.
Li Baiquan smiled and said, "I know that too. I went to Changping once, a few years ago on foot. There were indeed a lot of prey there, and many people were selling prey."
"That's fine, but I'm just worried there won't be any prey." Lin Heng said with a smile.
We chatted while walking. We didn't want to go into the mountains today. We wanted to go to Changping County first. It's quite far away, about sixty or seventy kilometers.
At noon, they arrived in Changping County, but were still far from their destination.
We found a river and stopped to eat something to fill our stomachs. This time everyone had steamed buns, and they kept their mouths busy while eating.
When women get together, they like to gossip, while when men get together, they like to brag. They talk about everything from ancient history to national affairs.
Lin Yue patted Lin Heng on the shoulder and said, "Brother, I see you have a lot of yellow rubber shoes in your truck bed. Are you planning to sell them?"
Lin Heng nodded and said, "Yes, the things in the mountains are quite valuable. I also brought soap, cooling oil, and cracked seed oil to exchange for some things."
The further you go to the northwest, the poorer and more desolate it becomes. In many places, the roads in towns and villages are not accessible, let alone some villages.
People from those places have never been to the city, let alone the county town, so they can exchange these things for a lot of good goods in the mountains.
Just like their Hongfeng Village, the village party secretary was open-minded and mobilized the entire village, and everyone worked together to build a mountain road that could be used for traffic.
Lu Honghai, who was standing next to him, gave a thumbs up and said, "As expected of you, you have become a millionaire. You have a very flexible mind."
"That's right. You've made some money before we even hunted any prey." Li Baiquan also said admiringly.
Lin Yue also sighed and said, "You really have a sharp mind. You can see ways to make money everywhere."
Before he came here, he had always been thinking about making money by hunting and completely forgot that there was such a way to make money.
"Don't praise me, I just saw others do this and learned it from them." Lin Heng said with a smile and waved his hand.
In fact, if he wasn't reluctant to be separated from his family, he could make a lot of money by transporting goods from the coastal areas to the inland areas.
After a few words, everyone finished their meal and set off again.
At two o'clock in the afternoon, they drove nearly 70 kilometers and arrived at Xiaozhuo Township, the westernmost part of Changping County.
Although it is called a township, it looks like a village, extremely backward, and the road here is also very bad.
"Next, you have to take a small road to go to Liba Village, and your car can only be stored at the post office." Lu Honghai said, pointing to a small road.
The dirt roads leading to the township here are very dilapidated, and the roads leading to the villages are all small roads.
"Well, we can only find a post office to store it for a period of time." Lin Heng nodded. The post office is a place that can be trusted.
After finding the post office in the village, Lin Heng stored his car.
Then he exchanged his food coupons and went to the grain station to buy some rice and flour to eat when he went into the mountains.
After everything was ready, they followed the path into the mountains. Although they were less than a hundred kilometers apart, the mountains here were different from those in Huangtan Town.
There are mostly shrubs on the mountains here, and fewer tall trees. The temperature is also much colder. Fortunately, they were wearing thicker clothes and had made preparations in advance.
"If we go further west, we will reach Gansu, right?" Lin Yue asked as they walked.
Lu Honghai nodded: "Yes, Liba Village is on the border of Gansu. After Liba Village, we are in Gansu."
Li Baiquan said, "I guess we can only bring back leather or something from this hunt, the mountain road is too far."
"It's okay. I'm strong enough to carry you." Lin Heng's uncle Lu Hong, who had been silent, spoke up.
"Let's first think about whether we can hit it." Lin Heng said with a smile.
As we were talking, we walked about seven or eight kilometers and arrived at a small mountain village. Although the village was located beside a stream, there were steep mountains on both sides with slopes of about sixty to seventy degrees.
The hillsides are covered with terraced fields cultivated by villagers, and there are some houses among the mountains.
"This is even more remote than Red Maple Mountain." Lin Yue said.
"Of course, otherwise there wouldn't be so many prey." Lu Honghai nodded.
After entering the village, many people looked at them strangely and seemed a little wary. It was obvious that they were all outsiders.
After a while, under the leadership of Lu Honghai, they came to an earthen house, and suddenly the sound of dogs barking was heard in the house.
"Is my uncle in the house?"
Lu Honghai shouted, the old man in this family is his cousin, and they are related by blood.
The first to come out was a man and a woman. The man looked at Lu Honghai and was stunned for a moment, then recognized him: "It's Honghai and Honggang's cousin, come in quickly, everyone come in."
Although he didn't know why his two cousins brought so many people, he still invited them into the house.
"We are here to hunt, and to visit you, cousin, and my uncle."
Lu Honghai took out a bag of sugar, three pounds of fried dough twist and three pounds of biscuits and put them on the table and said.
After some polite exchanges, the host naturally accepted the things and his attitude became much more enthusiastic, especially when he learned that Lin Heng and his group were not living in his house.
"Hunting? You've come at the right time. We have a lot of prey here. Someone herding cattle saw a black bear a few days ago, and you can hear muntjacs calling every night." The middle-aged man said with a smile.
The woman next to the man also smiled and said, "You stay here for one night. Let Guan Cheng lead the way for you tomorrow morning. If you want to hunt, it's best to go further in. There are still more than ten kilometers to go and you have to pass another village. You can't make it today."
Lu Guancheng nodded: "It's like this, I'll stay for one night. My dad is out herding cattle and will be back soon."
After some understanding, everyone realized that they could only rest here today.
After putting the things down, Lin Heng called his eldest brother to go to the village to sell the things he had taken.
Before entering the mountains, he had inquired about the prices of these things in Xiaozhuo Township. They were more than twice as expensive as in the city. A pair of yellow rubber shoes cost ten yuan, and a box of cooling oil cost four yuan.
This is how inconvenient transportation is in this era. People living in the mountains have no idea about the actual prices of industrial products. They are already poor and become even poorer after this.
Moreover, the sellers have the attitude that it’s up to you to buy or not, because they know you have no other choice and will just rip you off.
Lin Heng set up a stall in the center of the village and offered a lower price than other places in the township. Soon people gathered around to check out the products.
However, most people are just standing by and watching, and few can afford it.
In these days, most of us in the mountains wore shoes with thousand-layer soles made by ourselves, or straw sandals. Yellow rubber shoes were a rare item, and only the rich families in the village could afford them.
"If you don't want shoes, you can try crack oil. It can prevent cracks on your hands. It's free and you can exchange it for herbs or something."
Lin Heng added that he also opened a bottle and gave it to some people with cracks on their hands to apply so that they could feel the effect.
The hands of people working in winter are most likely to crack. The cracks will be terribly painful when they come into contact with water. At this time, crack oil is very necessary. Applying it can be used for both treatment and prevention.
"I have one or two ounces of Ganoderma lucidum here. Can I exchange it for a bottle?" Someone asked as he brought two ounces of dried Ganoderma lucidum.
"Of course, I can exchange it for two bottles." Lin Heng said with a smile. The purchase price of Ganoderma lucidum in Xiaozhuo Township is 30 yuan per catty, and one tael is three yuan.
A bottle of cracked oil in Xiaozhuo Township costs two yuan, and he sells it for one and a half yuan.
"Thank you." Lin Heng was so honest and trustworthy that the woman who bought the crack oil was in a good mood, and the villagers nearby also had a better impression of him.
"I have half a pound of silver thread vine, and I also want to exchange it for cracked seed oil." Soon another woman came with something.
"Okay, give me three sugar cubes." Lin Heng said with a smile.
This time he brought fifty bottles of cooling oil, one hundred bottles of cracker oil, and some candy.
"Can one ounce of Cordyceps be exchanged for two ounces of cracked oil?" Soon, an old man came with Cordyceps and asked.
"Let me see."
Lin Heng was surprised to come across such a good thing so quickly. He took it and looked at it and found that it was indeed the real Cordyceps sinensis. This thing costs 70 yuan per catty in the city, and 35 yuan per catty in the countryside.
But this thing is also a kind of traditional Chinese medicine whose price has skyrocketed. Since 1987, the price has become more expensive every year.
In the 1990s, some people specialized in buying Cordyceps in southern Gansu and then selling it in coastal areas. They could make tens of thousands of yuan in one trip and became small bosses in a few years.
"We picked them all up from the mountains. If they don't work, forget it." Seeing that Lin Heng didn't say anything, the old man spoke.
"Sure, one or two ounces of Cordyceps can be exchanged for three bottles." Hai'an nodded.
According to the prices in Xiaozhuo Township, one or two catties of Cordyceps at 3.5 yuan cannot be exchanged for three bottles of crack oil, but Lin Heng is willing to take this loss.
A can of Cordyceps for 3.5 yuan could be exchanged for three bottles of cracked seed oil, so some people who had Cordyceps at home turned around and went back.
They all knew that the price of Cordyceps must have been driven down by the buyers in the village, but there was nothing they could do. It was too far to go to the county town and they didn't have the time.
Now that Lin Heng can take advantage of them, they are all willing to change.
"I have two ounces, I'll exchange it for two crack oils."
"Me too!"
"We have both. I also have some crack oil here." You said with a smile.
In a short while, he actually collected a full 1.8 jin of Cordyceps, and all he paid for was some cracked seed oil, which was only 40 cents each in the city.
This is mainly because the season for digging Cordyceps has passed, otherwise we could get more.
Whether you take these Cordyceps home to sell or keep them for yourself, you will definitely not lose money.
But it is not a loss for the villagers. Normally, they would not be able to buy so many things if they sold them in the village.
"Can I exchange two silver dollars for a pair of shoes?" Lin Heng was happy when an old man came over and took out two silver dollars.
(End of this chapter)
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