Chapter 58: Wild Bison, Selling Them Alive!

After laughing, Jiang Lingen pointed at Xiao Qi and said, "This little girl is going to be something else when she grows up."

Tang Jiancheng chuckled, "She's just a little show-off."

"What kind of show-off?"

The others were taken aback.

Just as Tang Jiancheng was about to explain, Xiao Qi wriggled in his arms and chimed in, "Daddy, I want to get down. I want to play with Goudan."

Tang Jiancheng set her down.

Xiao Qi immediately ran over to Goudan and announced, "Goudan, my name is Qidan now! Both of us have 'dan' in our names now!"

Xiao Ba scurried over, shouting, "I want a 'dan' too!"

Sixth Sister chimed in as well, "I want one too! I want one too!"

Hearing this, the adults burst into laughter. Xiao Qi, Xiao Ba, and Sixth Sister had no idea what was so funny, so they just giggled along with them. Fifth Sister, however, seemed to understand a little. She quickly called her three younger siblings away and took Goudan with them as well.

At first, Jiang Lingen was a bit worried that the children might end up quarreling, but seeing how capable Fifth Sister was at managing her younger siblings and keeping them in line, he let them be.

They walked all the way to Tang Jianbo's pigpen. Inside, besides a few pigs, were six fierce, wild bulls.

Jiang Lingen, Jiang Chengfa, Huang Tianyue, and the two tractor drivers all wore looks of sheer astonishment.

When they had first heard about it, they merely thought it sounded a bit unbelievable. But now, seeing six massive, living wild bulls with their own eyes, they finally understood what true shock felt like.

Such rare wild bulls—most people would consider themselves lucky just to encounter one, yet Tang Jiancheng had managed to capture six alive!

"Brother Jiancheng, are you planning to sell all of these wild bulls?" Huang Tianyue asked.

Tang Jiancheng replied, "I won't be selling the two cows for now. They should be giving birth soon. We'll see how things go after the calves are born. The other four bulls will all be sold."

Huang Tianyue said, "Each of these bulls weighs at least a thousand pounds. I only brought one tractor, so there's no way to haul them all away at once. We'll have to take them one by one. Also, are you planning to slaughter them and sell the meat, or sell them live?"

"What's the difference?" Tang Jiancheng asked.

Huang Tianyue explained, "If you slaughter them and sell the meat, you can definitely make a bit more money, but it's a lot more troublesome for you. If you sell them live, it's much easier, but you'll make a few hundred yuan less."

"A few hundred yuan less?"

Before Tang Jiancheng could say anything, Tang Genshui and Tang Jianbo were both startled. They quickly chimed in, "Well, then we should definitely slaughter them and sell the meat ourselves! Selling them live would be a terrible loss."

Huang Tianyue smiled. "Slaughtering them to sell the meat yourself also comes with a risk: what if the beef doesn't sell? If all that meat ends up left on your hands, your losses would be huge."

Hearing this, Tang Genshui and Tang Jianbo hesitated once more.

Jiang Lingen suggested, "The New Year is just around the corner. Why don't we wait a few more days, until around the twentieth of the twelfth lunar month, to slaughter the cattle? Beef shouldn't be hard to sell by then."

"Linong is right! Slaughtering and selling them around the twentieth of the twelfth lunar month is the way to go. If worst comes to worst, we can carry poles and sell it from village to village!" Tang Genshui agreed.

"That's one way to do it, I suppose."

Huang Tianyue smiled and looked at Tang Jiancheng.

Tang Jiancheng thought for a moment, then shook his feet—no, shook his head—and said, "Let's just sell them live. It saves both worry and effort."

Tang Jianbo and Tang Genshui both looked at him without speaking, but their meaning was clear: since waiting just another ten or twenty days would net them several hundred yuan more, why not wait?

Several hundred yuan was no small sum; that amount of money could easily support a rural family for several years!

Jiang Lingen couldn't understand Tang Jiancheng's decision either.

Tang Jiancheng smiled and said, "Like I just said, it saves worry and effort. Sure, slaughtering them for meat might earn a few hundred yuan more, but these four cattle weigh at least four thousand pounds in total. How long would it take to sell all of that?"

"Even if Dad, my older brothers, my younger brothers, and Tang Lin宝 all pitch in, each person would still have to sell at least five hundred pounds of beef. Which village in our Sanchong Township would buy that much beef?"

"If we take it to the county town to sell, or to other townships, the travel expenses, time, and the consumption of human and material resources would be massive."

"Besides, keeping four cattle alive for another ten to twenty days isn't too difficult, but where is all the fodder going to come from?"

Tang Jianbo nodded. "That is indeed a troublesome issue."

Tang Genshui argued, "That's just a bit of hard work, what's there to fear? If there's no fodder, we can go cut grass in the mountains and fields. If we're worried it won't sell, we just need to use our legs and run to a few more places, right?"

For the older generation, grueling physical labor and exhausting efforts truly did not scare them.

To make money, they were willing to risk their lives!

"What I just mentioned were secondary reasons. The main reason is: which of you has ever done business? Let alone walking the streets to sell, even if you were just standing in one spot to sell, you probably wouldn't even know what to say."

"On top of that, we have quite a few things to take care of next, and we genuinely don't have the time to wander all over the townships and villages selling beef."

With that said, Tang Jiancheng turned to look at Huang Tianyue. "Tianyue, that's settled then. We'll sell them live! Pick one today, and haul the remaining three away tomorrow."

"Deal!"

Huang Tianyue nodded. "Does your village have a large scale? Bring it over so we can weigh the wild bulls."

"Our village doesn't have a scale that big. Just haul them away first, and let me know the numbers after they've been weighed," Tang Jiancheng said with a smile. "I still trust you on that."

Huang Tianyue chuckled. "Alright then, let's haul this biggest wild bull away first."

Since they were selling cattle, Tang Jiancheng naturally couldn't leave out Tang Linbao or his other brothers. He immediately sent a nephew to call everyone over.

Hearing that Tang Jiancheng was going to sell the wild bulls, not only did Tang Linbao and the others arrive, but other villagers crowded around as well.

Tang Linbao's brothers felt bitter inside and held a grudge against him. Such a great opportunity, yet he only called Tang Jiancheng's brothers while forgetting his own flesh and blood—it was simply outrageous!

Tang Linbao, however, couldn't be bothered to care about them.

Ever since they were kids, his relationship with these biological brothers had never been good. After growing up and dividing the household property, the relationship grew even colder. They wouldn't even visit each other once from the beginning of the year to the end. Even during the New Year when they went to their parents' house for the family reunion, each ate their own meal and barely spoke a single word to one another.

Usually, it was just constant fault-finding, disdain, nitpicking, and arguing...

With a sibling relationship like that, did anyone expect Tang Linbao to think of them when good fortune struck?

In their dreams!

Tang Linbao was also one hundred percent certain that if his brothers ever struck gold, they would never think of him either.

Therefore, no matter what weird remarks his brothers made, he pretended not to hear them. Instead, he openly declared to outsiders that Tang Jiancheng and his brothers were his true family!

Well, no—they were more like his biological grandfathers!

Learning that Tang Jiancheng was going to sell the live cattle, neither Tang Linbao nor Tang Jiancheng's brothers had any objections. They left everything entirely up to Tang Jiancheng to decide.

Huang Tianyue turned out to be quite a character as well.

Seeing so many villagers gathered around—even though payment was supposed to be settled after the weighing—he raised his voice and announced, "Brother Jiancheng, wild boars are very common in our Sanchong Township, which is why they're cheap. But wild bulls are different. Not only are they rare, but they're also hard to catch, so the price is much higher!"

"They're at least one yuan and eighty cents a pound!"

"Even though this wild bull hasn't been weighed yet, I'll calculate it based on a thousand pounds for now. We can settle the difference later—refund if it's less, pay more if it's over!"

"So, that comes to a total of eighteen hundred yuan! Here, this is the money for the cattle. Go ahead and count it!"

Huang Tianyue pulled a thick stack of banknotes from his bag and handed them directly into Tang Jiancheng's hands right in front of everyone.

Seeing that thick stack of large-denomination bills, all the villagers stared with wide, unblinking eyes.

Eighteen hundred yuan!

They had never seen so much money in their entire lives!

The visual impact of this scene was so monumental that none of them would ever forget what happened tonight for the rest of their lives.