Reborn in the 1980s, starting with fishing and hunting to build a fortune

Chapter 105 Win-Win

Li Xiangyang went to Chen Guodong's house, asked for a detailed list of sheep that had frozen to death by herders in the pastoral area, and then hurriedly returned home.

When Chen Guodong asked him what he needed it for, he said that his father's back injury had just healed and he wanted to buy some mutton to help his father recover.

To be honest, this reason is a bit far-fetched, but everyone knows the real reason.

It's an open secret within the team that Li Xiangyang frequently goes to Wuzhen to sell things.

After a moment's thought, Chen Guodong realized that Li Xiangyang probably wanted to collect the sheep that had frozen to death from the herders and sell them, but it didn't really matter.

He could earn some money himself and also help the herders recover some of their losses, which could be considered doing a good deed, so Chen Guodong naturally wouldn't stop him.

After receiving the details, Li Xiangyang ran back to the Li family home, intending to first get some money from Liu Xiulan before going to collect the sheep.

In the Li family's west room, on the heated kang (a traditional Chinese bed-stove).

Liu Xiulan was happily making new clothes for the New Year.

Before she married into the Li family, she had learned how to make clothes from the village tailor for a few days. She brought all the clothes-making tools, such as measuring tape, wooden ruler, patterns, scissors, and needles and thread, with her when she married into the Li family.

The only problem is that I haven't had any money in the past two years, and I haven't made any new clothes. All my tools are just sitting in a camphor wood chest collecting dust.

Logically speaking, the most convenient way is to lay the old clothes on the fabric, trace the dimensions, and then cut them out.

But since giving birth, her figure has changed. Her hips have widened, her belly has protruded, and even her breasts have grown much larger because she is breastfeeding. She used to wear tight-fitting cotton-padded clothes, which were very uncomfortable.

At that moment, she was naked, measuring her shoulder width and bust and waist with a tape measure, completely absorbed in the process, when Li Xiangyang suddenly barged in, startling her.

"ah----"

He called out and hurriedly grabbed the old cotton-padded clothes on the kang (a heated brick bed) to cover his bare upper body.

"Xiulan, it's me."

Li Xiangyang was also taken aback, slightly stimulated by the spring scenery in front of him. He instantly felt something rapidly expanding and immediately turned around to bolt the door.

The perks posted by my own wife are only for me to see.

He then couldn't help but joke, "His youthful body is just amazing!"

"Phew~ That scared me to death, I thought it was someone else—"

Upon seeing that the person who came was Li Xiangyang, Liu Xiulan finally breathed a long sigh of relief, and then complained in a low voice.

"Xiangyang! Didn't you go out? Why are you back all of a sudden? And—you didn't even knock before coming in!"

Upon hearing this, Li Xiangyang became displeased: "Knocking on the door? What door are you knocking on? It's broad daylight. I'm going back to my own room. Why would I need to knock? Besides, you didn't even lock the door yourself."

"Ah—..I didn't bolt the door—..!" Liu Xiulan's head was about to explode; she hadn't even bolted the door.

If anyone else were to come in—she would be so embarrassed—

"Yeah, the door wasn't bolted. Look at you, so careless. Luckily I saw it, so you didn't suffer any loss."

Seeing that Li Xiangyang still had that smug look on his face, Liu Xiulan got angry and immediately raised her voice, saying, "Then why did you come back now? Oh no, you should go out first so I can get dressed."

Why would I go out?

Seeing that half of Liu Xiulan's body was already flushed with embarrassment, Li Xiangyang deliberately looked her up and down with a flirtatious expression, and then said with a wicked smile, "It's not like I haven't seen it before, why are you covering yourself up so tightly? I know your own worth better than you do."

Li Xiangyang continued speaking as he approached.

"Ugh... What are you doing back here? What do you want? Don't be ridiculous, it's broad daylight."

Liu Xiulan was genuinely flustered this time, thinking that Li Xiangyang wanted to have sex with her in broad daylight.

But the more she acted like this, the more Li Xiangyang wanted to tease her.

He deliberately rubbed his hands together, a lewd smile on his face, and said, "My own wife, I can do whatever I want! Even if the King of Heaven himself came, it wouldn't be my problem!"

"Ah—no, don't do this—"

Liu Xiulan was terrified.

Li Xiangyang stretched out both hands forward, his five fingers gesturing a grasping and clenching motion.

Suddenly, he pounced on her. As Liu Xiulan blushed and resignedly bit her lip and closed her eyes, he quickly grabbed her breasts twice with both hands, then reached into the camphor wood box behind her and took out the clothes that Liu Xiulan usually hid money in.

It's over? So fast?

Liu Xiulan was suddenly filled with conflicting emotions: a sense of relief at surviving a disaster and a feeling of lingering regret.

She had just opened her eyes when she saw Li Xiangyang rummaging through her precious money pouch. Puzzled, she asked, "Huh—Xiangyang, what are you doing with the money?"

"Look at this."

Li Xiangyang slapped the disaster statistics table of the herders' sheep flocks, which he had copied from Chen Guodong, onto the kang (a heated brick bed).

"You're going to buy sheep that just froze to death from other herders—?"

Liu Xiulan immediately guessed it; she also knew that Tu Weimin had asked Li Xiangyang for help in finding the sheep that morning.

"Mmm, as expected of my wife, Li Xiangyang." Li Xiangyang affectionately kissed Liu Xiulan on the forehead, then turned and got off the kang (a heated brick bed).

"Xiangyang, wait a minute." Liu Xiulan suddenly remembered something and called out to her.

"What, are you getting into it?"

"Go away, you're so irresponsible. What I'm trying to say is, even if you want to sell, people might not be willing to sell to you. After all, they can probably make more money by taking them to the county town to sell themselves."

Li Xiangyang nodded and said in a deep voice, "Don't worry, I've already come up with a reason why they have to sell me the frozen sheep!"

And they even rushed to sell it to me.

Oh, and tell your brother to borrow a horse so we can take the sheep to sell tomorrow.

"What reason—?"

Just as Liu Xiulan was about to ask for clarification, Li Xiangyang had already pushed open the door and walked out.

Following the details, Li Xiangyang arrived at Zhao Jinzhu's house at the east end of the village. The details clearly stated that a 50-pound immature ewe had frozen to death on his ranch the day before.

The breeding sheep are fine? The pregnant ewes are fine? But a juvenile ewe just died?

Li Xiangyang estimated that it was very likely because his ranch didn't have enough hay stored for the sheep, and he wanted to feed the rams and pregnant ewes in time, so he deliberately froze the immature ewe to death.

Sacrifice the pawn to save the king.

After all, the team had repeatedly issued orders strictly prohibiting herders from slaughtering sheep privately. If herders wanted to better preserve their flocks, this was the safest way to eliminate excess sheep.

"Uncle Jinzhu, I'm Li Xiangyang, the son of Li Zhensheng. I wanted to ask if you're selling the ewe that froze to death at your ranch yesterday?"

Li Xiangyang knocked on Zhao Jinzhu's courtyard gate. Since they didn't usually interact much, he went straight to the point and asked.

"Are you selling ewes that froze to death?"

Upon hearing this, Zhao Jinzhu's first reaction was, how did Li Xiangyang know? Their homes aren't even close, are they? Besides, he only reported it to the team yesterday. Logically, it shouldn't have spread so quickly.

Never mind, none of that matters now. The sheep is dead, and the brigade has registered it. If someone wants to buy it, he'll sell it. So he asked, "You want to buy mutton? How many kilograms?"

"The whole one!"

"A whole sheep? Xiangyang, are you sure you want to buy a whole sheep?"

Zhao Jinzhu was somewhat surprised.

"Yes, Uncle Jinzhu, I'm very sure. It's a whole sheep, including the meat, bones, and offal. How much do you want?"

"this----"

Zhao Jinzhu's eyes darted around.

He had heard a lot about Li Xiangyang's deeds recently, and knew that he had been going to Wuzhen to sell fish for a while. In just over twenty days, he had hunted all kinds of wild animals, including deer, wolves, wild boars, rabbits and pheasants. He was a man who never lacked meat at home.

So, he probably wanted to buy this mutton to sell in Wuzhen?

I want to become a secondhand lamb butcher!

"Before the snow disaster, this mutton was 65 cents a pound, but now there are snow disasters everywhere—if you really want it, I'll give it to you for 1.5 yuan a pound."

"That's too expensive. I can only offer you one yuan per pound at most."

At 1.5 yuan per jin, state-run restaurants might buy it, but definitely not much, and they wouldn't make any profit at all.

"Never mind then, I'll keep it for my own family."

Zhao Jinzhu suddenly turned hostile.

I don't want to sell to Li Xiangyang anymore. If he offers one yuan per kilogram, I can probably sell it for one yuan and two or three yuan per kilogram in town. It's hard work, but I can make a profit from the price difference.

"Oh, so that's what they were trying to do to me." Li Xiangyang raised an eyebrow, but wasn't annoyed.

Youyou said, "The mutton is one yuan per jin. You can take cash or exchange straw for the same price from me at 3 fen per jin!"

"What? Straw? You can trade frozen sheep for three cents a pound of straw?"

"Xiangyang, do you really still have extra straw on your ranch? You're not kidding me, are you?"

Zhao Jinzhu was somewhat incredulous.

Just two days ago, straw on the black market was being sold for eight cents a pound, but even so, many herders who wanted to buy it but didn't have the means to do so still couldn't get their hands on it.

They could only watch helplessly as their sheep lost weight or starved to death day by day.