The trampling of many feet grew louder; more wild boars were heading this way.
"Let’s go!" Li Yang had no desire to linger. He said to the others, "Let’s just get these things moved!"
None of the three boars were dead. The first had its leg crippled by Li Yang, while the other two had just been knocked unconscious.
It took the three of them two trips. They tied the boars up tight and carted them back on a motorized tricycle.
Li Yang, however, was a real beast—he carried one of the boars back all by himself.
They put the boars in the pigpen, and everyone went to bed.
The next day, Li Yang harvested the oyster mushrooms bright and early, then called Han Qiuyue.
"President Li..." Han Qiuyue’s voice on the other end was urgent. "Let me tell you, your oyster mushrooms sold like crazy yesterday! You have to give me more today. Also, what about those wild goods I asked you to look for? Did you find any? If you did, get them over to me ASAP!"
Li Yang chuckled. "Manager Han, I’ve got some wild goods for you. Three wild boars. How about it?"
"Wild boars?" Han Qiuyue shot to her feet. "Are you serious?"
"Of course I am!" Li Yang said with a laugh. "The wild boars in our village can be legally hunted and sold. You can arrange for a truck to come load them up."
"Great, I’m heading over right now!" Han Qiuyue was already getting excited and immediately arranged for a truck to go load up the wild boars.
In less than two hours, Han Qiuyue arrived at the village along with a truck.
Li Yang led Han Qiuyue to the pigpen and pointed at the three wild boars. "Look, two of them are still alive. The third one’s leg was broken by me, so you can take it back and slaughter it immediately."
"Perfect!" Han Qiuyue was delighted.
People in the city loved eating this kind of stuff these days.
Besides, wild boar meat was indeed firmer than regular pork, with a lower fat content.
"Pork prices are pretty high right now; lean meat sells for over thirty yuan per jin. And wild boar has always been more expensive than regular pork. Let’s do this, and I’m not lowballing you: fifty yuan a jin. How does that sound?"
Fifty!
Li Yang glanced at Li Jianzhong and Li Dahai.
The two men were already ecstatic!
That was a fantastic price!
"Deal!" Li Yang rubbed his hands together, smiling. "Then you can haul them away now."
"Alright!" Han Qiuyue nodded.
Soon, the three wild boars were on the truck. After being weighed, each was over three hundred jin, for a grand total of one thousand and eighty jin!
That came to fifty-four thousand yuan!
Adding in the roughly thirty jin of Li Yang’s oyster mushrooms, that was another seven hundred fifty yuan.
Han Qiuyue paid him fifty-five thousand yuan flat!
"Now my banquet menus are saved!" Han Qiuyue said, very pleased. "You have no idea, my banquet clients complain every day that the dishes are too conventional. They keep pestering me for something special, and now I have something special. Oh, and if you get more of these things, bring them to me. I’ll buy as many as you can find."
Li Yang nodded and saw Han Qiuyue off.
"Xiaoyang..." Li Jianzhong and Li Dahai both approached, looking thrilled.
Over fifty thousand!
"The two of us don’t need to split it with you!" Li Jianzhong was an honest fellow and said, a bit sheepishly, "After all, we just helped carry them. Two hundred would be fine."
’It was a lot of money, but I really didn’t do much to earn it.’
Li Yang just smiled, pulled out four thousand yuan, and gave them two thousand each.
The two men were stunned. This was far too much money.
"Uncle Hai, Brother Jianzhong, we went in on this together. If I just gave you two hundred yuan, what kind of person would that make me? So, two thousand each. After all, everyone put in the effort."
Since Li Yang put it that way, the two men couldn’t really argue, and left happily.
He still had fifty thousand yuan on hand.
’Not enough!’
’It’s still not nearly enough to pay off the debt.’
Li Yang thought for a moment, then called Han Qiuyue again. "Manager Han, could I ask you for a favor?"
"Speak," Han Qiuyue said, a little puzzled. ’I just left, and he already has something else to discuss with me?’
"Could you advance me fifty thousand yuan?" Li Yang said after a moment’s thought. "As for the boars, I can get you a few more. I’m also planning to expand the mushroom operation soon, and then there are the vegetables... You can rest assured, I can definitely pay it back."
Han Qiuyue was surprised. "You... It’s not that I don’t believe you can pay it back, I just didn’t expect you to need money so urgently. Fine, I’ll transfer fifty thousand yuan to you right now."
"Thank you so much!"
Once the money arrived in his account, Li Yang went to the township to withdraw the cash.
「By the time he got back to the village, it was already noon.」
Li Yang took the hundred thousand yuan and headed for Xia Lian’s house.
It was lunchtime.
But there was no peace at Xia Lian’s house; the child was making a scene.
"Here, Xiaomu!" Li Yang pulled a bag of candy from his pocket for the child.
The child toddled over, saw the candy, and broke into a happy smile.
And just like that, the fussing stopped.
"Xiaoyang, what are you doing here?" Xia Lian asked, surprised. She had Li Yang sit at the table. "Here, have some water."
"You’re too kind," Li Yang said. "Aunt Lian, you owe them eighty thousand. With interest, how much is it?"
Xia Lian shook her head. "I don’t know how much it is with the interest. I just know he borrowed eighty thousand."
Li Yang raised an eyebrow, then finally took out the hundred thousand yuan. He placed it on the table and said seriously, "Aunt Lian, this is one hundred thousand yuan. It should be enough to pay them back."
The sight of the hundred thousand yuan sitting there made Xia Lian’s eyes go wide.
"Xiaoyang, I... I can’t accept this!" Xia Lian was stunned, but she shook her head.
"Aunt Lian, a debt must be repaid. No matter how you look at it, they have the moral high ground here," Li Yang said earnestly. "Let’s pay them back first, then we can talk about everything else."
"Xiaoyang, for you to be so good to me... you wouldn’t happen to be after something else, would you?" Xia Lian dropped the polite act, giving Li Yang a suggestive look and a little giggle.
Her words sent a jolt through Li Yang.
"As a matter of fact, I am," Li Yang replied, his expression unreadable.
’This little rascal... so it’s true!’
’Still, Li Yang is quite handsome, and considered an intellectual in the village. Having a fling with him wouldn’t be a loss.’
"You really are a bold one!" Xia Lian said, moving to close the door.
"Aunt Lian, you’ve misunderstood!" Li Yang said quickly.
"What for?" Xia Lian shot him an annoyed glare. "Don’t act all prim and proper now."
"You really have misunderstood!" Li Yang glanced at her exquisite figure and couldn’t help but swallow. However, he would never do something like take advantage of someone in their time of need.
"Actually, I came here to ask you if you would be willing to come work for me."
"What?" Xia Lian was genuinely stunned. It was only when she saw Li Yang’s mischievous smile that she realized the guy had just been messing with her.
"You ungrateful little devil, have you forgotten all the times I used to cook for you!" Xia Lian’s face felt hot. "Out with it," she said, exasperated. "What’s the job?"
"Managing the mushroom shed!" Li Yang said with a grin, finally revealing his true purpose. "I’m going to expand the operation, and I can’t be there watching it all day. I need to hire someone to help me keep an eye on things, and you, Aunt Lian, are the most suitable person for the job."