Rebirth of Bayi Fishing and Hunting in the Northwest

Li Long walked forward with his gun in hand. A pheasant a few dozen meters away was startled and flew into the woods, chirping.

It can fly one or two hundred meters at a low altitude. This male pheasant is quite powerful, and its tail feathers look very beautiful. Li Long raised his gun, took a look, and then put it down.

Can't hit.

Continuing forward, there are more stones on both sides of the slope, with some thorny bushes growing between the stones. There is a big stone about ten meters in front of the left hand.

Li Long stopped.

It was clear that one could walk through the front of the ditch, but the footprints went over the big rock and made a sudden turn.

There's something fishy.

The footprints were very shallow, but Li Long had sharp eyes and managed to find them.

Li Long followed the footprints upwards. The footprints circled above a big rock and then turned into a cave when they went down. Behind the big rock, there was a cave with an entrance facing northwest, and outside the cave were bushes.

Li Long took a look and returned to the bottom of the ditch. He walked forward along the three large rocks at the bottom of the ditch. After passing the big rocks, there were bushes in front of him, and then there were rocks again.

You can’t even see the cave from the bottom of the ditch!

Hey, it’s quite hidden!
Li Long went back to the cave, holding the gun and turning on the safety.

Bolati said that these three people were a group, but now they are not here, who knows if someone else will take over the nest and enter the cave first.

Li Long slowly entered the cave with a gun in hand, and continued walking inside after adapting to the light.

The situation here surprised him!
It looks like a simple cave from the outside, but inside there is actually nearly twenty square meters of space.

Three blankets were placed side by side in the innermost part, two of which were not folded, and one was simply folded. There were bags next to the blankets - one of which was very similar to the mountaineering backpacks of later generations.

Are there such large backpacks at this time?
Compared with this big backpack, the homemade backpack that Li Long carried looked very rustic.

The other two backpacks are made of canvas and look good and new.

In the innermost corner on the right hand side of the entrance, there were four bags of different colors. Li Long went over and touched them and found out that they were all filled with mother-of-pearl.

Of the four bags, two are large half bags, one is half bag, and one is small half bag.

There are some tools placed against the wall near the door in the mother-of-pearl bag.

What surprised Li Long was that these tools included tools for digging Fritillaria, shovels, sickles, and... hoes!
It can be seen that the wooden handle of the hoe has rotted away, and only the tip is left.

Not like what people use nowadays.

In the corner of the wall on the left side of the entrance is a stone stove with a small steel pot on it with a lid on it. No one knows what's inside.

There was folded firewood next to the stove.

Li Long saw that there was no one inside, so he walked over and took a look at the large backpack that looked quite high-end.

Li Long plans to change into this backpack, it is so convenient to carry it.

There are side pockets on both sides of the backpack, where you can put things, and there are drawstrings on them. Although there are no buckles like those in later generations, there are metal buckles with straps that can be inserted and fastened.

In the past, all yellow school bags were closed in this way.

Li Long opened the drawstring and the first thing he saw was a few clothes. He threw the clothes on the bed with disgust and continued to rummage inside, intending to empty out the contents and then change into his own things.

Under the clothes was a wallet. I opened the wallet and found two ten-yuan notes, a stack of one-yuan and two-yuan notes, and fifty-cent notes.

Li Long packed up the wallet, rummaged down, pulled out some clothes and threw them on the bed, then found a plastic bag.

This plastic bag was hidden quite deep, and Li Long felt good when he touched it. After he opened it, he found that it was unsorted, with loose change ranging from one or two cents to five or ten yuan.

Was this stolen?

Further down is a box of batteries and other odds and ends.

Li Long didn't like them, so he put them all on the bed.

He put the things in his backpack - mainly bullets and the like - into this backpack. Li Long also put the backpack sewn by Sister Yang into it, and then went to check the two canvas bags.

The canvas bags were basically filled with clothes. What surprised Li Long was that there were some loose change wrapped in clothes in the innermost parts of the two canvas bags.

Li Long guessed that these three people might not be of the same mind, so they kept the money they got among themselves.

After emptying the canvas bag, Li Long lifted the bed sheet on one of the beds. He planned to pack up the clothes that were still decent and take them out, but he didn't know whether Sun Jiaqiang would wear them or not.

At this moment, Li Long heard some noise outside. He immediately stopped what he was doing, took off the gun on his back and pointed it at the door.

A fox poked its head in, bringing with it a foul smell.

When the fox saw Li Long, it was stunned for a moment, then screamed and turned around and ran away.

Li Long hesitated and didn't shoot.

The main thing is that the meat of this thing is inedible and it is troublesome to handle.

It’s better not to fight.

Li Long put the gun away again, then turned around to tidy up the bed sheets. He was surprised to find something under the pillow in the middle.

Li Long squatted down and looked inside. There was a pile of copper coins and some other things, such as small porcelain bowls.

Did these people touch the antiques?
Li Long opened up all the boxes and found about a hundred copper coins and a dozen relatively intact small items, including ancient jade, copper knives, small seals and the like.

Li Long didn't know whether these things were valuable or not, but he found a piece of clothing that looked pretty good, packed them all up and put them into his backpack.

While packing up, Li Long occasionally looked up and saw words carved on the wall.

Traditional Chinese characters.

After a lot of guessing, some parts are a bit vague, but I finally concluded that this was the residence of a group of gold diggers from the mountains. They came here to pan for gold, a total of eleven people, and wanted to get the gold and then return home.

As for whether he found it or not, Li Long had no idea, and it was not written on the wall.

It was not easy to find this place. And they also found antiques nearby. It seems that these three people are not simple.

Li Long wrapped some clothes with a bed sheet, but did not take them immediately. He first put the mother-of-pearl together and made three bags out of it.

It takes some effort just to transport these fritillarias to the jeep.

But these things have to be done.

Li Long put both canvas bags into his big backpack, along with the ancient coins and the like, and finally walked out carrying a mother-of-pearl bag in each hand.

It took nearly an hour of going back and forth to finally move all the things - of course, Li Long did not touch the remaining bedding and clothes, and he picked up the tools last.

Li Long guessed that in two days either new people would move in here or it would become an animal's den.

After a few moves, the trunk was full and Li Long drove the jeep away from the area.

After the jeep left the area, the man dared to come out of the forest and head towards the area that Li Long was looking for.

He climbed over the nearby hills and entered the ravine where the cave was.

He did not have as good observation skills as Li Long. He walked along the ditch all the way. He did not look carefully when passing by the big rock. He continued to walk forward, looking back from time to time, but he did not find the cave.

Finally I reached the end of the ditch and found nothing.

After crossing another ridge, we found a dense forest on the other side. After entering, we no longer saw any footprints.

However, there are quite a few Fritillaria in this forest, so the man thought, why not just dig them here.

Li Long drove to Xiaobaiyanggou to have lunch, and Old Huang asked about Xiao Sun.

"He is in the wooden house. There are steamed buns there. He is eating over there. He will not come over at noon."

At noon, Lao Huang steamed rice and fried wild vegetables and mushrooms.

Now it is the beginning of May and there are abundant things in the mountains, so this meal is much easier to prepare.

Old Huang half-jokingly told Li Long that he would have to ask him to cook in the future. Li Long also half-jokingly said that this matter was under the jurisdiction of Xie Yundong. If you want to continue doing this job, you have to take good care of Yundong.

Old Huang just laughed.

After lunch, Li Long drove his jeep to the wooden house. He planned to see if there was anything wrong. If not, he would leave the clothes in the wooden house and prepare to go back.

After all, I gained a lot this time and I have to sort it out when I get back.

When he arrived at the cabin, Li Long was surprised to find that Sun Jiaqiang was eating steamed buns in front of the cabin. Not far away, two people were sitting on the grass with bags beside them. These two people... Li Long remembered that in the first two days, the middle-aged man and the young man came to exchange things.

It was the middle-aged man who scolded the man who pried the door open, saying that this man almost ruined their chances of collecting herbs.

Seeing the jeep coming, Sun Jiaqiang and the two men stood up.

"Hello, comrade." The middle-aged man came over quickly with a bag in his hand. "I want to exchange some things with you."

"What do you want to exchange?" Li Long looked at the four or five kilograms of Fritillaria in his bag and asked:

"Noodles are still edible?"

As he spoke, he took down the clothes wrapped in the sheet on the back seat, untied them and spread them on the ground, then said to Sun Jiaqiang:
"Look at the ones you can wear and keep them. For the ones you can't wear..."

Li Long didn't know what to do with the clothes he couldn't wear. At this moment, the young man saw the clothes and his eyes lit up:
"Can you change some clothes?"

"Sure." Li Long didn't expect that the other party would want to change these clothes.

But to be honest, the clothes of these three people are really good, the styles are quite fashionable, and some of them are even better than the black, gray and blue clothes commonly worn by people in Shicheng, Ma County.

"Then I want this one and this one." The young man quickly picked out two pairs of trousers, looked at them, and picked out a piece of clothing.

After choosing, he handed the bag beside him to Li Long:

"Look...is it enough?"

These second-hand clothes definitely can't be sold at the price of new clothes. Although Li Long is not a clothes seller, he and Gu Xiaoxia have both bought clothes. If these three things were new, they would cost at least fifty yuan, but now they are second-hand. Li Long weighed the bag he gave him and found that the mother-of-pearl weighed about five kilograms. He shook his head and said:
"not enough."

Although it is a way to recycle waste, you can't sell it at too low a price.

"Then give me this." Seeing that the young man really liked the three pieces of clothing, the middle-aged man held up the bag and said, "Can you spare some? If you can, we can exchange it for two pieces of meat."

"Okay." Li Long asked Sun Jiaqiang to get two pieces of dried meat for the other party.

If it really comes to it, this mother-of-pearl is not enough, but since it is just picked up clothes, Li Long doesn't care.

While Sun Jiaqiang was taking the meat, the middle-aged man whispered to Li Long:

"I know you two are colleagues, so I don't want to trade with him. I'll keep you in mind. Next time I get Fritillaria, I'll trade with you..."

Li Long was a little amused, but he didn't explain anything. He didn't want to let others down.

The two men took the things and knew they had gotten a good deal, so they thanked Li Long profusely and left Beimu behind.

Li Long was still listening to the young man saying to the middle-aged man as they walked:
"Uncle, I picked these pants for you. They are jeans, very sturdy. Even though they are tight, they are not easily torn. Your pants have been torn several times and cannot be repaired..."

After the two people left, Sun Jiaqiang pointed at the clothes and said:

"What to do?"

"What else can we do? You pick one set, and if someone wants to exchange the rest, then we can do it." Li Long said.

The package of bed sheets contained seven or eight sets of clothes, both thick and thin. The young man picked out three pieces, leaving quite a few.

Sun Jiaqiang didn't mind. He found something that fit him almost perfectly, took a thick coat and a pair of jeans, and put them away with a smile.

After putting away the clothes, he said to Li Long:
"These two guys are very stubborn. They insist on exchanging with you. I want to exchange. I tell them that I am with you and I work for you, but they don't believe me."

Li Long smiled and didn't reply.

In fact, he didn't care much about this, but since those herb diggers cared about it, he might as well stay here longer when he had nothing to do.

In the end, the bulk of the money goes into your pocket anyway.

Didn't you hear about some stores that compete with each other in selling the same products and lowering prices to attract customers, only to find out that they have the same boss? You can try this yourself.

In less than three hours in the afternoon, four groups came to exchange things. Three groups went directly to Li Long, and the remaining group saw Li Long washing the Fritillaria and went to find Sun Jiaqiang.

"Brother Long," Sun Jiaqiang jokingly called Li Long the same way as Tao Daqiang, "People recognize you but not me."

"Take your time." Li Long washed all the Fritillaria. Today, he collected about 100 kilograms of Fritillaria. Sun Jiaqiang collected about 20 kilograms. In total, he earned about ten yuan a day.

Not as much as before.

Those things that Li Long received were naturally his own. He would not be so kind as to blame Sun Jiaqiang if others came to him specifically to exchange things.

Sun Jiaqiang took a set of clothes of considerable value and didn't say anything else.

Seeing that the sun was still high in the sky, Li Long drove the jeep back. When he was almost out of the mountain pass, he met Bolati.

Li Long got off the car and saw Bolati staggering and smelling of alcohol. When he saw Li Long, he dismounted and greeted Li Long.

"Li Long, don't tell anyone about those three people. This matter is over." Bolati was still quite sober. Li Long turned back to the jeep and stuffed the three small bags of money he had found in the cave into Bolati's hands:
"Here is the money found there. Take it."

"Is there money in there?" Bolati was a little surprised. "They didn't tell me."

"Yes, I found it. But after today, I won't admit it." Li Long was also half joking, "There were some Fritillaria in it, so I took it away."

"Okay, okay." Bolati opened the plastic bag, looked at the colorful banknotes inside, looked at Li Long, and said seriously:
"Li Long, you are such a good friend!"

"Haha," Li Long smiled, patted him and said, "I'm leaving first. I'm going back to dry the Fritillaria."

"Okay." Bolati didn't say anything else and waved to Li Long.

When Li Long drove the jeep back to the county, he was just in time to pick up Gu Xiaoxia.

The time card is just right.

Taking Gu Xiaoxia back to the yard and helping her sit down in the yard, Li Long began to carry the things out of the trunk, especially the mother-of-pearls.

The side room was almost full of space for the Fritillaria, so Li Long had to clean up two more side rooms to store the Fritillaria.

The Fritillaria he brought back at the beginning had already dried. He planned to go to the purchasing station tomorrow to sell some of the dried Fritillaria before going back to the mountains.

May is a season of harvest.

Gu Xiaoxia sat on the cotton chair that Li Long had made for her, watching her husband busying around. It was called a special chair because it was made of wood with cotton pads on the back and seat.

Then the legs of the chair are inlaid with the same bent wood as the rocking chair, but it is not as long as that of the rocking chair, just a little bit shorter, with slots at both ends, so it can be rocked slightly without worrying about it falling over.

Gu Xiaoxia finds this chair very comfortable to sit on. She sits on it and rocks for a bit every day when she comes home.

After Li Long took down all the Fritillaria and spread them out in the side room, he emptied the three backpacks and took a large basin of laundry to soak them.

Be prepared to scrub it thoroughly, let it dry overnight, and carry it again tomorrow.

"Where did this backpack come from? It looks quite high-end." Gu Boyuan entered the yard and saw Li Long fiddling with the backpack. He walked closer to take a look and asked.

"I got it from the mountains." Li Long replied, "It was carried by a herbalist in the mountains."

"Can you carry this backpack and go to the mountains to dig for herbs?" Gu Boyuan was a little confused and didn't quite believe it.

Li Long didn't want to dwell on this topic, so he went to the jeep, took down the pile of antiques and spread them on the ground for Gu Boyuan to see.

Sure enough, Gu Boyuan put aside the matter of the backpack and studied the antiques.

"This... the copper coins are easy to distinguish, but these things are not easy to distinguish. This small copper seal is quite interesting." Gu Boyuan identified them one by one.

At this time, Sister Yang called for dinner. When Gu Xiaoxia was about to stand up, she said to Gu Boyuan:

"Dad, you took those things, wash your hands quickly, there's a lot of rust on them, they're not clean."

Gu Boyuan was quite obedient. He put down his things and washed his hands, then sat at the dining table. When Li Long sat down, he asked where these things came from.

Li Long casually said that those people got it in exchange for something else.

He thought Gu Boyuan should know more, so he asked about Sheng Shicai's treasure.

"It is said that such a thing happened. I also heard about it from the elders in the village. But I came late and have never studied it." Gu Boyuan said while eating, "I also heard that when they were escaping, a truck overturned in Wucheng, and the wooden boxes on the truck broke open, and all that flowed out were silver dollars."

"How many silver dollars would it take to load them in a truck?" Sister Yang asked in surprise, "How rich must those people be!"

"The wealth of those people is beyond our imagination." Gu Boyuan shook his head and said.

This reminded Li Long of the reply in a crosstalk in his previous life.

Quite funny. (End of this chapter)