Rebirth of Bayi Fishing and Hunting in the Northwest

After coming out of Xiaobaiyanggou, Li Long returned to the wooden house and began his busy day.

Nearing noon, dozens of kilograms of Fritillaria that had been collected in the morning had been washed and hung out to dry. Li Long took a piece of meat that was about to be completely dried from the rope and prepared to make lunch.

A man with a bag on his back came from the southeast.

Li Long narrowed his eyes, a little surprised.

Qiu Bingyi, the last time he came here, he and his cousin carried his nephew, in a panic, and then took a tractor all the way to Qingshui River, and finally to the county.

Is this already over?

When Qiu Bingyi came up, Li Long asked:
"When did you come back? How is your nephew? Is he alive?"

"He's alive." Qiu Bingyi nodded and said, "The doctor checked and found that his lower leg had been amputated, but luckily he survived."

Li Long felt a little regretful, but there was nothing he could do. The snake medicine he had was at most for early-stage prevention. When the two men brought the person over, his leg was already swollen, and they had done their best to save him.

"My brother is watching over me in the hospital. He's fine now. Although his leg is amputated, being alive is a good thing." Qiu Bingyi was optimistic and accepted the reality. "I'll come back to pack up. I have to go back. These Fritillaria are to repay you for saving my life. Thanks to you."

"Okay, the person has been rescued, but we'll have to spend money later. I just said that at the time." Li Long waved his hand, "Take it to the county and sell it. We'll definitely have to spend more money later."

"Yes, yes." Qiu Bingyi was very firm. "The three of us have been digging for Fritillaria for half a month, so we have earned money. It doesn't cost much to cut it off, and we will be discharged from the hospital in a few days, and we will go back. We have land at home, but not as much as here. We originally wanted to earn more money to settle down here, but we will do it later."

Qiu Bingyi put down the bag of Fritillaria and left. Li Long chased him and stuffed twenty yuan into his pocket. The bag of Fritillaria was estimated to be seven or eight kilograms, which should be all they had left.

After Qiu Bingyi left, Li Long washed and dried the Fritillaria, then chopped up the dried meat and fried it with wild celery. No steamed rice was made today, so the noodles were pulled into noodles, and the chopped mutton was fried in oil and spicy skin. It tasted so delicious.

It's just that my appetite is not very good. He thought of the young man Qiu Chunlei. Without listening to his accent, he looked like a very handsome young man. I think there should be many girls in the village who like him.

Unfortunately, my calf was gone.

Things are unpredictable. In the future, I may just work and labor in obscurity in the village.

The trajectory of life has completely changed.

While we were eating, another person came over from a distance, carrying a bag of Fritillaria, which looked like a good harvest. The bag was almost full, probably weighing more than 20 kilograms.

Li Long quickened his eating speed and ate the noodles and vegetables in a hurry. He scooped a ladle of soup from the pot to rinse the plate, and then put it on the table to cool.

The man has arrived nearby.

This was a middle-aged man who smiled before he even spoke. He was not tall, half a head shorter than Li Jianguo, about 1.6 meters tall. He took the initiative to greet me before I even came up to him:

"Boss Li is getting rich."

"Make a fortune, make a fortune, you got a lot of Fritillaria!"

"Hehe, the Fritillaria have grown well these past two days. There are so many in the ditch. I can only dig more in these two days."

"Selling for money or exchanging for things?" Li Long went to the small room to get out the scale and asked.

"To sell for money." The man's purpose was very clear.

Li Long first opened the bag and took a look, and found that the mother-of-pearl was relatively clean and did not contain many impurities.

I grabbed a handful and it was okay.

After weighing, the man seemed to trust Li Long very much and did not look closely. Li Long was also very fair. The scale gave a high number of 23 kilograms and 300 grams. Li Long put down the scale and showed him the label:

"Twenty-three kilograms and three hundred grams, how about that for twenty-three and a half kilograms?"

"Okay, okay, how can I not trust you, Boss Li?"

This person is smiling.

What he said was very comfortable to listen to.

Li Long went to the wooden house to get a large basin, picked up the bag and poured the Fritillaria into it, then gave the bag to the man and took out money from his pocket.

When I took out the money, I habitually glanced at the Fritillaria, and then I found the problem.

Some of these Fritillaria have been dried. They are mixed in with other Fritillaria and are quite conspicuous.

These dried fritillarias have been washed.

Although these Fritillaria were deliberately mixed with other fresh Fritillaria and even stirred when packing them in bags, Li Long, who washes and dries Fritillaria every day, could still tell them apart at a glance.

His hand that was about to take out the money paused, but finally he took the money out from his pocket.

Normally, I would carry two stacks of money, two hundred yuan. This way I could give more money to others. Not too much, so as not to attract others' covetousness, but enough to give.

While counting, he asked casually:

"My fellow, have you ever washed this Fritillaria?"

"No... ah, I washed some, but not much. At the time, I thought I'd make it cleaner so I could sell it for more money... so I washed it, but it was still too much trouble."

Li Long looked up at the man's slightly panicked eyes and sighed. You said you stole it, so why did you sell it to me?

Li Long kicked forward, but the man was actually prepared and actually dodged. After dodging, he immediately turned around and ran away.

How could he possibly outrun Li Long? Li Long chased him for more than ten meters before catching up with him. He raised his foot and kicked him again, sending him rolling on the ground.

Without waiting for the man to get up, Li Long stepped forward, pressed his collar and asked:

"You were the one who stole my Fritillaria that day, weren't you? Where's my rice?"

"No, it's not me..." The man was still defending himself, "You saw it wrong..."

"Did I see that?" Li Long sneered and slapped the other person. "I have collected more than a ton of Fritillaria, and I have never seen a Fritillaria washed after digging it out! I wash all the Fritillaria after I collect them. You said you have the habit of washing Fritillaria? And you wash half and keep the other half? And you mix them together?"

After saying that, he slapped the other person in the face.

The guy who was slapped twice started bleeding from his nose, and the slap marks on his face were clearly visible. Li Long asked again:
"Tell me! Did you steal it from me? Where's the rice? Where's the eggs?"

Seeing Li Long's hand raised again, the man finally let go: "I ate the rice that day, and I fried the eggs when I got home."

Li Long didn't really care about the rice and eggs, and he asked just to get the other person to tell him the truth. When he heard that it was really him, Li Long slapped the other person hard a few times, then found a rope to tie his hands and feet behind his back and put him on the grass.

Hearing the rustling sound in the truck bed, Li Long knew that the big hedgehog was hungry again, so he went over and threw some leftovers to it.

In the afternoon, someone came to sell Fritillaria, saw the man tied up, and asked the reason.

"Two days ago, a man who was digging Fritillaria was bitten by a snake, and his relatives sent him here. I was worried, so I drove a tractor to send him to the county. When I came back, the Fritillaria that were drying outside were gone. Today I saw him coming to sell Fritillaria, and the Fritillaria mixed in there were the ones I dried at that time." Li Long explained the whole story.

"Damn it." The other person cursed when he heard that Li Long left the Fritillaria outside in order to save someone and it was stolen by this person.

No matter if it was just a gesture or he really thought so, this was the effect Li Long wanted.

When it was getting dark, Li Long collected dozens of kilograms of Fritillaria, and then Bola brought them over.

What surprised Li Long was that this time, Bolati not only brought Fritillaria, but also a basket containing four hedgehogs.

There is a big one, similar to the one in the truck bed, and three slightly smaller ones, which are actually adult hedgehogs, each weighing more than two kilograms.

"You want this? I caught it when I saw it. There are a lot of them on the beach," Bolati handed the basket to Li Long. He also saw the tied man and asked:
"What's wrong with this person?"

"Steal my Fritillary."

"A coward." Bolati used a Chinese word he had just learned to evaluate this person.

"Shall I take it?"

"It's left for you to take away." Li Long said.

Polati took sixty dollars and left with the man.

That person may still have some savings and a home in the mountains, but that has nothing to do with Li Long.

Since you have done it, you have to bear the consequences.

Li Long put all four hedgehogs into the truck bed. He was a bit troubled, as it was impossible to raise so many of them.
And there's not enough leftovers to feed them. It's okay to feed them with leftovers here, but if I go back, I might get criticized for feeding them with this.

Forget it, I’ll eat one tomorrow.

Li Long made a decision.

After collecting the Fritillaria outside, Li Long let the hedgehogs move around in the truck bed. Anyway, it was not so cold at night, so they would not freeze to death.

The next morning, there were still people waiting outside the wooden house to sell Fritillaria. Li Long collected the Fritillaria, put them in a small room without washing them, and then drove the tractor to Xiaobaiyanggou to inspect and carry the goods.

What surprised Li Long was that Sun Jiaqiang did not go out too early, or he had already gone out in the morning and was having dinner with everyone at this time.

The number of poles woven these past two days was slightly less. Li Long guessed that the strips nearby had all been cut, so they had to go to the distance to cut strips and chop poles, which took longer.

Even so, Li Long inspected and accepted forty-seven porters that day.

All qualified.

Li Long was very satisfied.

Sun Jiaqiang dug 17 kilograms of Fritillaria these two days. Li Long brought a scale this time. After weighing it for him, Li Long paid. Sun Jiaqiang said with some worry:
"The Fritillaria has grown quite tall. I'm afraid it will bloom in a while."

Li Long knew what he was thinking. Once the Fritillaria bloomed, the Fritillaria season would almost be over.

But think about it, in one Fritillaria season, at Sun Jiaqiang's current rate, he can dig more than 200 kilograms of Fritillaria, and he can earn more than 600 yuan just from Li Long.

A lot.

It’s equivalent to more than a year’s salary for some workers.

After returning from Xiaobaiyanggou, Li Long went to the spring and mixed a pile of mud.

He found a half-grown hedgehog from the truck bed, smashed it to death, and then covered it with mud. When the stove outside was almost burning, he stuffed the hedgehog with mud into the stove, buried it with charcoal ashes, and then waited.

After more than an hour, the hardened mud was taken out. Li Long waited for it to cool down a little, then knocked it open.

The hedgehog's hard spines fell off along with the mud, revealing a round ball of flesh.

Li Long went to the cabin and fetched a small dish, put some salt on it and brought it out. Then he tore off the hedgehog's meat strips and ate it with salt.

good smell.

Two days later, Li Long returned to the county with a cart of Fritillaria. He first unloaded the Fritillaria into the large yard, and then gathered the dried Fritillaria drying in the wing room and sold them at the purchasing station.

The more than 80 kilograms of dried Fritillaria thunbergii brought Li Long an income of nearly 4,000 yuan.

If the newly brought back Fritillaria are completely dried, there should be about 100 kilograms.

Afterwards, Li Long went to the supply and marketing cooperative and found Li Xiangqian in his office.

"Hey, Xiaolong, are you back from the mountains?" Li Xiangqian hadn't seen Li Long for a long time, and enthusiastically poured him some water. "It must have been hard staying in the mountains."

"Not bad." Li Long smiled. "Section Chief, we should have enough money for another five days. Should we talk about the car?"

"Okay," Li Xiangqian said, "It's quite fast, five days, right? Let me see..." He looked at the calendar on the table. Five days later, it was Wednesday.

"Then five days later, I'll take my car to the mountains to pull the cart. It's still the same place, right?"

"Yes, Xiaobaiyanggou. I'll wait for you at the mountain pass." Li Long said, "A thousand porters will require several vehicles."

"Don't worry, I will definitely finish the delivery on the same day." Li Xiangqian said with a smile, "Is the quality okay?"

"No problem. I check every day. Only qualified ones will be considered. Otherwise, I will send them back." Li Long was very confident in this regard. "Don't worry about this."

"That's good."

"Section Chief, I got two hedgehogs from the mountains and brought them here for you. You think they'd be good to eat or keep." Li Long offered a sacrificial gift, "Should I put them here for you?"

"Hedgehog? Sure." Li Xiangqian was also curious. Li Long went outside to the truck bed and brought the two hedgehogs to him in a basket.

Li Long threw the remaining big hedgehog that he had caught at the beginning into the yard.

The yard is large, with plenty of room to move around and easy to find food, so Li Long thinks it should be able to survive.

After staying in the county for a day, Li Long drove his tractor back to Xiaobaiyanggou early the next morning. He inspected and accepted the equipment, and then told everyone the final deadline.

There are only five more days before the work is over. Some people are reluctant to leave, some are surprised, and some feel that they can finally go home.

In the next five days, people who were digging Fritillaria also went crazy. Basically, Li Long received about 150 kilograms of Fritillaria every day.

Four days later, Li Long had to go down the mountain again to sell the Fritillaria he got last time and dry the Fritillaria he got this time.

Is this the final madness?

On the fifth day, Li Long did not go up the mountain with Li Xiangqian and the others. There was still one last batch of porters in the mountain that needed to be inspected, and the people in the team also needed to pack up their luggage and prepare to go back.

Li Long wanted to go over to help and coordinate, after all, he was the one taking the lead in this matter.

The last batch of porters, forty-seven in total, passed the inspection and, as Li Long expected, all of them passed.

Everyone had been anticipating this day, so they spent within their means and got about the same materials, with only a few strips and poles left.

Sun Jiaqiang had eleven kilograms of Fritillaria. After getting the money, he hurried into the ditch to continue digging without even having time to say a word.

"Let me tell you about it." Li Long asked everyone to check and sign, and finally said:
"Today's work of making the handles is over. Everyone's number is here. Today the county supply and marketing cooperative will take the handles away. We will go back together. You go back to the team and I will go to settle the bill. I will notify everyone to pay in the afternoon or tomorrow. You all know how many handles each of you have made. Now pack up and prepare to go back. The supply and marketing cooperative's truck will come later. After it passes the inspection, everyone will help load the handles onto the truck."

That would definitely be no problem, everyone nodded.

Jia Weidong, who usually doesn't talk much, suddenly said:
"What if there are unqualified items in the random inspection? Should we not rush to pack up?"

Li Long knew that he was thinking about himself, and said with a smile:

"Don't worry, I've added 20 to 30 extra ones. If there are any that don't meet the standards, the remaining ones are enough. You should all know that I'm quite strict when I check. If there are still any that don't meet the standards, it's not your problem, it's my problem."

Li Long was responsible, and these people understood that. As they went to pack up, someone whispered that if they really didn't want to cooperate, they could just make up some more today and go back later in the evening.

I have actually been packing the things I need to pack these past two days. Now that I am ready to leave, I just need to roll up the bedding.

Old Huang still had some rice and flour left, so he came over to ask Li Long what to do with it. Li Long said it belonged to him. There wasn't much left, only two or three kilograms, so I guess no one cared. Old Huang himself had organized thirty or forty people to carry the goods these days, and if we counted the money, he would have made more than a hundred yuan. As for how much money others wanted to pay Old Huang, Old Huang kept the account himself, so Li Long didn't need to worry about it.

Li Long finished his work here, then drove his tractor to the mountain pass to wait for Li Xiangqian and the others.

I think there should be someone waiting in the wooden house now, but Li Long can't care about that and just focuses on this side first.

Big things matter.

At about twelve o'clock, smoke and dust rose in the distance, and four trucks could be seen coming in a flash. Li Long thought this was a big deal. With so many trucks, were they planning to pull all the goods in one trip?

When the car came over, Li Long waved his hand, then started the tractor and drove into the mountains.

The mountain road was difficult to travel on, and even the truck couldn't get up to speed. After going around in circles, we finally arrived at Xiaobaiyanggou.

Li Long drove the tractor inside and stopped it. The four cars drove directly to the place where the handles were piled without any instructions.

Li Xiangqian and several quality inspectors and warehouse managers got out of the car. Li Long went up to them, shook their hands, and introduced the people here and the bosses.

"Go ahead, you guys check it out. You are experts. I'll take a look around." Li Xiangqian said, "The scenery here is nice."

"If the section chief is interested, you can take a look around." Li Long actually knew that Li Xiangqian was joking. He had time to play in the mountains? The main task of this trip today was to get the boss. He kept doing this job, naturally hoping that he could make him look good. It was just that he could not participate in this inspection, to avoid suspicion.

"Just walk around, no need to be so troublesome." Li Xiangqian also smiled.

The quality inspector and warehouse manager went over to check together, and while checking, they loaded the goods onto the car. Li Long came over and helped count the goods.

The inspection this time was very strict, and every person in charge had to go through it. Li Xiangqian was a little worried, and so were Li Jianguo and the others. However, Li Long's expression was always calm, and he believed in the results of his inspection.

Soon, one car was full and one stack of carts was empty.

Passed. (End of this chapter)