Chapter 41 Labor Protection Obtained from the Mine

“Okay! Brother Niu always offers high prices, I know that!
I won’t say much nonsense. The only thing I need to remind you is that you have to be a little careful when killing the greyhound’s skin.

When cutting the neck to let the blood out, you must cut vertically, not horizontally, otherwise the appearance may be affected!” Yue Feng specifically reminded him.

“Don’t worry! I understand this stuff! You’ll know when you come to get the skins later, and it will definitely not affect your selling!
“Xiao Yue, you are really good at releasing hawks. You can catch so many greyhounds! The fur of this thing is not cheap now!”

“Hehe, it’s just luck. Even though there are a lot of things, these prey were caught by four or five of us together. If everyone gets them, there won’t be much left!
Not to mention the greyhound, who climbed trees and used fire to catch these, earning hard-earned money!”

“Haha, you don’t have to worry about me getting jealous. I really earned my money by going up the mountain! Here are today’s accounts and receipts. Take a look!”

Yue Feng hardly caught any flying dragons or sand chickens yesterday, as these two types were mostly caught by Xiao Tao and his father and the Zhang brothers.

Because they caught this big rooster, the Zhang brothers fed the eagle early, so their harvest yesterday was not so good, they only caught seven sand half chickens and 17 flying dragons.
On the purchase order issued by Master Niu, the unit price and quantity were clearly written, and the total price of the goods was 73 yuan.

“Give me 70, and I’ll round off the change of the three dollars!” Yue Feng said generously when he took the money.

Niu Fusheng shook his head, which was unusual for him. “I usually round off the amount, but I won’t round off the amount today. To be honest, the pheasants and greyhounds you sent me have been a great help to me.”

“Ah? What’s going on?”

“It’s a business dispute between Canteen No. 2 and Canteen No. 1! I won’t go into details, just know that I owe you a favor! Count the money and keep it safe.

By the way, come with me, I also got you some labor protection supplies! The mine is not short of these things, you can take them back and use them!”

Soon, Niu Fusheng brought Yue Feng to his office and dragged out a small cardboard box from under the table.

When he opened it, Yue Feng was a little confused. There was a whole box of labor protection supplies, several dozen gloves, a stack of towels, and the largest number of them were blue pure cotton socks, which almost took up about two-thirds of the space in the box.

“So many! I hope it won’t cause you any trouble?” Yue Feng looked at Niu Fusheng with some concern.

“Don’t worry, I got it from the warehouse with the approval of the leader and the formal procedures!
“Yesterday’s reception was a feast for the leader, and our boss was very proud. I took the opportunity to mention the problem of fresh flying dragon birds being difficult to transport, and that we needed some socks. Then he approved it! I kept half for myself, and this half is yours!”

“Then I’d like to thank you, brother!”

“Easy to say, easy to say!”

“Oh, by the way, I have something else to tell Brother Niu. Starting tomorrow, I will change the delivery time to the evening. I will deliver the game that is harvested from the mountain to you on the same day. This will save you from the rush to get to the city in the morning, and also delay my early morning hawk hunting!”

“No problem. I’ll go back and say hello to Lao Wang at the reception desk. You can come anytime before eight o’clock!”

“Okay, I’ll go back first! I’ll keep all the good stuff I find for you!”

“That’s it!”

…After delivering today’s game, Yue Feng dragged a sled and pulled a whole box of labor protection supplies out of the side door of the coal mine’s second canteen.

It was already past seven when he got home. After entering the house, Yue Feng unloaded the box and carried it directly into the north room. He put the box on the edge of the kang, turned around and left the room, opened the lid of the pot and started to eat breakfast.

“Mom, I got some labor insurance back from the mine. Please take some time to count them and share them among us!”

“This is… my dear, why are there so many gloves, socks, towels, etc.? We can’t do anything to steal people!”

Meng Yulan opened the box and took a look. After discovering that the entire box was full of labor protection items, she was completely overwhelmed and thought that her son had managed to steal them from the mine.

“What are you thinking? I was delivering goods before and I didn’t have enough torn socks, so I mentioned it to the chef in the cafeteria. He took it to heart and helped me apply for some labor protection supplies! They were officially picked out from the warehouse, and there was even a list inside!”

“So, you’re going to use this new sock to hold a bird? Isn’t that just a waste?”

These days, the supply of industrial products is insufficient, and primary products such as socks, towels and gloves are also valuable items in ordinary farmers’ homes. People are reluctant to throw away a pair of socks that have been patched over and over again. Even if they can’t be worn anymore, they will most likely keep them and cut patches from the old socks when the new socks are worn out.

Now, my son has brought back a whole box.

“If we don’t use new socks to hold the bird, what should we use? Last time I was lazy and used wire, and Master Niu even gave me some comments!” Yue Feng muttered while drinking the corn porridge.

“Don’t worry about it. I’ll take off some old clothes and go to the secretary’s house to make you a hawk coat! He has a sewing machine at home. You can’t waste these socks except for wearing them!”

“Okay! I’ll listen to you!” Yue Feng didn’t bother with such trivial matters. Let his mother do whatever she wants. It’s the slack season during farming anyway.

After eating and drinking, Yue Feng also packed his eagle and went up the mountain. His mother Meng Yulan, after rummaging through the cabinets on the kang and finding several old clothes of different sizes, felt that the materials were not enough, so she simply went to the home of her neighbor Li Wentong.

Li Wen and his wife Chang Meijuan also searched through their own boxes and cabinets for a long time before they reluctantly found a few old children’s clothes.

In those days, cloth was precious and you needed cloth coupons to buy cloth. After making a piece of clothing, the older child would wear it, then the younger child would wear it. If it was torn, they would mend it. Even if the children couldn’t wear them anymore, they would not be willing to throw away the old clothes. If they were skillful, they would take them apart, mix them with starch, and make soles for shoes. In any case, they would never throw them away.

A small bird-binding coat would require a piece of cloth at least 15 x 25 cm in size. The two sisters took apart their old clothes and roughly calculated that they had enough to make an eagle coat, but they were still far from the required amount!

At this time, Meng Yulan’s decisive side showed up. She gritted her teeth and took out a large piece of light blue printed cotton cloth from the kang cupboard.

I was planning to save this cotton cloth to use as bedding for Yue Feng when he gets married in the future. But I can’t care about that now. Socks are more precious than cotton cloth, so I’ll use this cotton cloth first.

The two sisters worked on the kang for the whole morning, cutting a thick stack of cotton cloth. After lunch, they carried the cloth in a basket to Wang Jianguo’s home, and soon finished everything on the sewing machine.

After lunch, Meng Yulan said hello to Yue Lei and went to Wang Jianguo’s home with a basket.

(End of this chapter)