Old Sun dragged the roe deer back to his shop and, at the best market price, prepared a full sled of New Year's goods for Zhou Cang. Zhou Cang packed the smaller items into a sack and tied it securely with a rope.
With 20 yuan left, Zhou Cang wondered what else to buy, so he asked Old Sun, "Do you have anything else good here?"
"Uh, that depends on what else you want."
"Do you have dynamite?" Zhou Cang asked in a low voice, staring at Old Sun.
"Of course, how much do you want?" Old Sun said nonchalantly. Zhou Cang was stunned, then remembered that it was 1960, and firearms and dynamite were things that could be bought on the Black Market, without strict control.
"Just for this 20 yuan, buy as much as you can."
"Then I'll give you six kilograms." After saying that, he returned to the inner room, took out a package, and handed it to Zhou Cang.
"Be careful when using it, don't blow yourself up."
"Last year, there was a guy in Dacou Village who was fishing with dynamite. He made the dynamite pack himself, but his craftsmanship wasn't good, and there was air trapped inside the pack. He rowed to the middle of the water, lit the fuse, threw it in, and started rowing towards the shore. But the dynamite pack floated on the water and didn't sink, and the waves from the small boat carried it along, following him almost to the shore before it exploded."
"That guy's ears were deafened by the blast. Luckily, he was just fishing and only packed dynamite, no nails or anything, otherwise he would have been blown to death!"
"Don't worry, I know how to use it!" Zhou Cang said. Are you kidding? He was an expert with dynamite!
Dragging a full sled of New Year's goods back to the Village, it was already past noon. A few Old Men and Old Ladies were sunbathing by the wall at the Village entrance, half-asleep. From a distance, they almost blended into the mud wall.
It wasn't until Zhou Cang passed in front of them that they all opened their eyes wide.
"Fugui, what are you pulling there?" an Old Man asked.
Zhou Cang thought back, and it seemed there was no information about this Old Man; he must have been someone the original Fugui wasn't familiar with either.
So he didn't stop and continued dragging the sled, "Nothing much, just some New Year's goods."
Watching Zhou Cang's receding back, the crowd became agitated.
"I heard that kid went into the mountains and caught something!"
"Yeah, the wild pheasant Captain's family had was caught by Fugui, it's really tempting!"
"Wild pheasant? Hehe, you don't know, do you? He also caught a roe deer!"
"I heard about it, Zhang Deben went to Fugui's house yesterday, and Fugui was stewing meat. As a result, Zhang Deben, who is his uncle, didn't even get a bite of meat! Haha!"
"Does his Zhang Deben deserve to eat meat? He's rotten to the core, ptooey!"
"How about we go ask Fugui to trade for some meat?" an Old Lady asked her Old Man.
"Get the hell out of here, are you full or something? Still want to trade for meat!" The Old Man kicked the Old Lady's calf, and the Old Lady immediately fell silent.
Actually, it wasn't that she wanted to eat; the two little grandsons at home were thinner than each other, but their bellies were bulging like they were inflated.
A barefoot doctor who came to the Village before said that this was due to not eating meat, and they would get better if they ate some. Or they could get some bean cakes, which are cakes made from the residue left after pressing soybeans for oil.
What the doctor said was actually correct; this was nutritional edema, or hypoproteinemia. During the famine years, insufficient protein intake caused many people's plasma protein levels to decrease, making it easy for fluid in the blood vessels to seep into the tissue spaces, including the gastrointestinal tissue spaces, leading to gastrointestinal edema, affecting the normal function of the gastrointestinal tract, and causing symptoms of abdominal bloating.
But where could any household find meat now? There probably wasn't even a mouse left in the Village. You used to hear dogs barking often, but not anymore.
Why can't you hear them anymore?
What else could it be for, they were eaten!
Working livestock, like oxen, mules, and donkeys, were the property of the Production Team, and no one dared to have ideas about them. But things like dogs and cats were basically eaten long ago. Even the field mice and snake nests around the Village were dug up clean.
In this era, every household was starving, but not only did Fugui have meat to eat, he even managed to get New Year's goods!
Before, when Fugui lost his parents and almost froze to death, the villagers still had some sympathy, but they were also powerless, as it wasn't uncommon for anyone to die in those years.
But seeing that only a few days had passed, Fugui was already eating meat and had a sled full of things, which made people feel a bit uncomfortable.
Ignoring the envious gazes of the villagers, Zhou Cang pulled the sled back home, a slight sweat on his forehead.
He was thinking about getting a few dogs back; they could serve as hunting dogs, and he could use the sled to drag back anything he caught, how wonderful!
"Grandma, Zhang Yue! I'm back!" As soon as Zhou Cang entered the yard, he saw Zhang Yue fly out.
"Fugui Ge! So much stuff!" Zhang Yue helped pull the sled to the door, shouting happily as she unloaded the goods.
"Oh my, there's candy!" Zhang Yue held a small wax paper package containing half a pound of the bare-bottomed candy balls Zhou Cang bought, round with patterns like orange segments.
Zhang Yue put a candy in Grandma's and Fugui's mouths, then put one in her own.
"So sweet!" the Xiao Yatou narrowed her eyes, savoring the sweetness of the candy.
At this moment, all three briefly stopped what they were doing. Fugui put down the rice in his hand, and Grandma also put down the roe deer hide in her hand. They were all carefully experiencing the immense feeling of happiness brought by the candy melting in their mouths.
After savoring it for a while, the three of them moved the things into the house together. Now this home finally looked like a home!
Zhou Cang looked at the roe deer hide in Grandma's hand; it had been scraped very clean. It seemed Grandma was planning to make a roe deer fur coat.
In winter, the roe deer fur is thick, and the fur coat made from it is very warm, able to withstand temperatures of minus twenty to thirty degrees Celsius!
However, to wear it, it would take at least a month. This stuff needs to be dried, tanned, cut, and sewn. And the thread used for sewing is made from roe deer tendons that are air-dried, separated into fibers, and finally twisted into thread.
Watching Grandma and Zhang Yue busy, Zhou Cang decided to go back into the mountains to get more big game. He hadn't expected that one roe deer would trade for such a large pile of grain and daily necessities.
If it were a larger elk, wild boar, or Tiger, how much money could it sell for?
With a gun in hand, getting something every few days to trade for money, wouldn't that be an easy way to get rich?
Thinking of the gun, Zhou Cang couldn't sit still. He hadn't tried the gun since he got it and didn't know if it was good or accurate.
So, after simply eating a bowl of thin porridge and a cornmeal bun, he carried the gun and pocketed the bullets, heading to the woods outside the Village.
He didn't need to test the buckshot; you didn't even need to aim with that stuff, just shoot in the right direction.
He needed to test the slug rounds. There were fifteen slug rounds in total, and over fifty buckshot rounds. He planned to use at most two slug rounds, which would be enough to zero the gun.
Pressing the unlocking spring, the shotgun barrel folded down, revealing the chamber. Zhou Cang picked up a slug round, put it into the chamber, and gently pushed the barrel upwards.
"Click!"
The barrel and stock perfectly closed and locked.
He raised the gun and aimed at a pine tree about ten meters away, the thickness of a calf.
Bang!
A shower of wood chips flew out, and a large gash was blasted into the pine tree, almost breaking it!
He kicked the ejected shell into his pocket and inserted another round.
He raised the gun and aimed again.
Bang!
Crack!
The small pine tree broke in response!
Zhou Cang grinned, "I'm still a marksman!"
