Rebirth of Bayi Fishing and Hunting in the Northwest

One day in late August, Li Long finally drove out again a few days after returning from the mountains.

In less than half a month, Gu Xiaoxia will be leaving home, and the melons at home will soon be harvested. Li Long estimates that the work of making the big brooms in September may also be done.

He had to take advantage of this gap to go out and get things done, so as to avoid being in a hurry and unable to take care of everything.

Gu Xiaoxia also knew that Li Long was busy all year round. Although she was already a state official, her thinking was still relatively traditional. She believed that men were money-makers, so it was natural for them to make money outside.

So she supported Li Long going out to do things, and Li Long also made it clear to her that he would be back in three days at most. If things went well, he would be back the next day or the day after tomorrow.

Comparing the road conditions of the Wuyi Highway, Li Long wanted to complain about the road from the township to the fourth team.

The road is a dirt road with ditches on both sides. There will be loose soil in some sections at ordinary times, but it is still easier to walk on, and it is also better in winter.

The most uncomfortable time is rainy days. When it rains lightly, you can barely walk normally. But when it rains heavily, the road is full of mud. Two kilograms of mud can be stuck when you step on it. Students can only walk in the ditches when going to school, otherwise their speed will be greatly reduced.

Not to mention the cars. If a tractor was driven out from the team on a rainy day, by the time it reached the village, both the people and the car would have turned into clay figurines.

Although the jeep has better performance and is considered more advanced by people, the result will be the same if you take this road on a rainy day.

It won't be too good on sunny days. Dust will fly up behind the car when it drives by. The car's sealing is not good at this time, and there is a lot of dust in the car.

Only after a few more years did the township begin to pave the roads leading to the brigades with gravel, and another ten years or so before they were paved with asphalt.

Driving on the Wuyi Highway, although not as smooth as the Lianhuo Expressway thirty or forty years later, is really comfortable at this time. The road is flat, there are few cars and people, and there is no traffic jam.

Li Long’s first stop was Beiting.

The income from the job of carrying handles is more than 10,000 yuan. Li Long naturally knows that the amount for carrying handles was approved by Director Qian.

Director Qian is now in a high position with great power, and even a little bit of his money would be enough to fill Li Long's stomach.

Li Long naturally knew that Director Qian did this most likely because of that tiger skin and felt that he had not repaid the favor enough.

But in Li Long's opinion, the tiger skin would just gather dust if he kept it with him. After exchanging it for this jeep that played a big role, he was even on good terms.

Everyone gets what they need.

Now that he has received such a huge benefit, Li Long has to go and express his gratitude no matter what.

At first, Li Long wanted to get tiger bone wine, but then he thought better of it.

I said at the beginning that I didn't take the tiger bones. Now if I take tiger bone wine over, wouldn't that be slapping myself in the face?

So this time he brought the snow leopard skin that Halimu and his men brought.

There are two snow leopard skins in the house, one was brought by Halimu and his friends when they got married last time, and the other was brought down from the mountain by Yushanjiang and his friends this time.

Li Long took the leather and other remaining items with him.

Ma County is about 100 kilometers away from Beiting, which is about the same distance as Kuitun. As he drove along, Li Long found that large tracts of wheat fields had not been plowed yet. The only crops he could see on both sides of the road were sunflowers and corn, and there were very few cash crops.

Right now the situation here is similar to that in Ma County, with grain still the main crop planted on a large scale.

Some threshing grounds still had wheat straw left, and other crops were drying in the sun on other threshing grounds. When passing through villages, a few dogs would occasionally run out and chase after the car, barking, but they would soon be left behind and turn back in disappointment.

There are more cars on the road than before, but still far less than later generations. These days, there are basically no private cars here, and being a driver is still a high-paying and enviable profession.

The car drove into Beiting, and Li Long parked it in the open space diagonally opposite the State Supply and Marketing Cooperative. Then he went in with his work ID and went to find Xiao Si.

The last time I looked for Xiao Si was in the small car class, and Li Long knew the location. The guard saw Li Long's work ID and although he was a little curious about this unfamiliar face, he still let him in.

After entering, Li Long went straight to the car class. He planned to contact Xiao Si to see if Director Qian was free. If he was, he would go to visit him. If not, he would entrust the things to Xiao Si and go to do other things.

"Xiao Si? He's out. The leader is going to the state for work today, as he said yesterday." Another driver from the small car team heard Li Long looking for Xiao Si, stopped cleaning the car, and said to Li Long, "Come over this afternoon, he should be there this afternoon."

"Okay, thank you, comrade." Li Long looked at the gasoline barrel next to him, so he didn't take out a cigarette. He thanked him and turned to leave.

Since Director Qian and Xiao Si were not here in the morning, he had to adjust his plans and stay in the city a little longer and do some shopping.

After his rebirth, Li Long went to Wucheng several times. Although he had been to Beiting, he basically didn't go around much.

Just take this opportunity to take a look around.

As the provincial capital, Beiting is definitely more prosperous than Ma County, and even more prosperous than Shicheng at this time.

Many shops along the street were open, some public and some private, and people were already pushing carts and carrying loads to sell things along the street. Li Long wanted to find out about the market here, so he asked a few people and was told that it was on the east side of the city. However, Li Long didn't know the way, so he didn't go.

He drove his jeep slowly along the city road, thinking that he would go wherever he wanted.

Passing by a park, I saw an old fighter jet inside. I don’t know if it was the J-J or an earlier type. It was probably a model for people to visit.

Unlike the roads in Shicheng Old Street, the roads here are straight and square. After turning twice, Li Long arrived at a small market.

The market is located in the northern suburbs and is not very large. People carrying loads on their shoulders and occupying stalls come and go here, and there are also many people walking around and buying things on both sides of the road.

Li Long parked his car at the edge of the market, got out to join the crowd, and began looking for things he wanted to buy.

It is similar to the market in Shicheng Old Street. There are people selling chickens and eggs, apples and watermelons, baskets and loquats. There are also some middlemen who push carts selling needles, thread, electronic watches and calculators.

There was a time when these things would be investigated and investigated, but now that the market has been liberalized, everyone can sell them openly.

When he was halfway around, Li Long saw a man selling peaches with a basket on his shoulder and stopped.

The peach was about the same size as Gu Xiaoxia's fist and looked of good quality.

The peach seller is quite good at displaying the peaches. He puts some peach leaves in the basket and then piles up peaches on top, like a pagoda. On the top is a big peach with a bright red tip and a pink body. It looks very festive.

There were many people around asking the price, but Li Long could see that few of them wanted to buy.

"One dollar and fifty cents a kilogram... Why don't you go and rob them? This kilogram of peaches is equivalent to half a kilogram of flesh. If we have this much money, why don't we buy some meat and eat it?"

"That's right, peaches aren't really expensive, so why are they so expensive?"

"Comrade, if you sell it at a lower price, we will buy it all. How about 50 cents per kilogram?"

Li Long was a little stunned after hearing this. This bargaining was quite harsh!
The peach looked good. He could smell a faint fragrance. Also, the peach leaves underneath looked quite fresh, so they must have been picked this morning.

"It can't be cheaper." The boss hesitated for a moment, then insisted, "Our peaches are among the best in the area. We have been carefully tending to them since they sprouted, and we put in a lot of effort. This one dollar and fifty cents is a fair price - if you think it's too expensive, you can find someone selling hairy peaches over there, 70 cents a kilogram, that's cheaper."

"That peach is so small, it's as big as a walnut, and it's green. How can it be as pretty as yours?" The onlookers were quite picky. They wanted the best but also wanted to pay less.

This is normal. After all, these days, except for people like Li Long who are stuck with bugs, few people have much spare money.

Moreover, it is such a small market that most of the people who come here are from nearby. Most of the wealthy people go to shopping malls and big markets and cannot come here.

Li Long moved forward, and the person in front of him turned around and complained to him:
"Young man, why are you pushing so hard? Don't you see there are people in front of you?"

Li Long originally wanted to join in the fun, but as soon as he heard the voice he knew it was the one who had been bargaining for fifty cents to buy the peaches. He felt unhappy and said:
"So are you going to buy it or not? If not, let me have some time. If you do, buy it."

The man was in his thirties, with middle-parted hair. He looked a bit ruffian. He was a little unconvinced when he heard what Li Long said, and tried to push Li Long, but failed.

Li Long was not polite either. He stretched out his hand and pushed him aside. Then he stepped forward to the empty seat he had "let" and asked the boss with his head down:

"Comrade, how many kilograms of peaches are there?"

"I weighed it before I brought it here. Two baskets are thirty kilograms." The man answered quickly. "Well, if I want all of them, can you give me a discount? How about forty yuan?"

The peaches are very good. Li Long has been to Ma County and Shicheng, but to be honest, he has never come across peaches as good as these - the peaches in later generations are bigger than these, but even if Li Long has never tasted them, he knows that they definitely don't taste as good as these.

There was no technology and hard work these days.

"You want them all?" the peach seller asked in surprise. "Sure, sure!" If I sell them all, I can save five yuan, which is equivalent to less than 20 cents per kilogram. Of course, it is a good deal.

When some people heard that Li Long wanted to buy the whole thing, they were unhappy:

"Young man, you can't do this. What do we buy if you buy it?"

"You didn't buy any either." Li Long would not indulge them. Such good peaches would be lost forever, and he didn't want to miss it.

The peach seller would not indulge others, so he took out a scale and hung it on Li Long:

"Look, my scale is 15 kilograms, and the basket is 15 kilograms high. How about that?"

"Okay." Li Long said as he took out the money:

"I didn't bring anything, you carry it over here, my car is over there, help me put it in the car."

"Okay, okay." The peach seller put down the scale and hung it on the basket. He bent down and hooked the shoulder pole on the handle of the basket, picked it up and was about to leave.

The man who wanted to buy peaches pulled the basket and wouldn't let him go. The peach seller was not happy:

"What? Do you still want to force me to buy? I'm telling you, I'll bring two more baskets this afternoon, so come over when you want to buy. But the price won't drop much, as you can see, there are people who know the goods!"

Let me tell you, in order to produce good peaches, I buried so much oil residue fertilizer under this peach tree, that's all money... Okay, okay, let go, don't delay me from making money!"

After hearing what the peach seller said, those people felt embarrassed to continue pestering and let go of the basket.

Li Long took the man to the car, took out two bags, and carefully put the two baskets of peaches into the bags one by one.

He squeezed it gently when he took it, and was somewhat surprised that the peach was hard.

"We grow crisp peaches at home." The peach seller looked at Li Long's actions and explained, "They will gradually become soft if left at home for two days. They are quite sweet now, but they will be sweeter after they soften.

But if it’s too soft, it can’t be sold. It will rot if touched slightly…”

"Okay, okay, that's perfect." Li Long put the peaches into the bag one by one, then took out money and asked, "Where are you from? Do you sell peaches here every day?"

"Yes, I have been here these days. We have seven or eight peach trees in our vegetable garden. We planted them five or six years ago, and they are now in the fruit-bearing period. My father studied agronomy and knows about this. Our peach trees have been grafted, so they are different from ordinary peaches."

No wonder, this peach tastes really good.

Li Long thought about buying some when he came back, but was afraid that he would not be able to find it, so he counted out 40 yuan and handed it to the other party, saying:
"Where is your home then? If you are not here, where can I find you?"

Seeing Li Long driving the jeep, the peach seller had already classified him as a leader's driver. He felt honored to be able to talk to such a person. When he saw Li Long asking about his family, he immediately said:

"My family is from Guangdong. It's the third house on the right after entering the village. Just ask for Old Fourth Lu's family."

Now that Li Long knew the exact location, he was no longer worried.

After buying the things, Li Long no longer had the heart to drive around in his jeep. He found a state-owned restaurant, went in and ordered a bowl of fried pork noodles, as well as an extra serving of noodles and noodle soup.

Money and food coupons are still required here. After Li Long gave them, he found a seat and started peeling garlic.

The new garlic has come down. Li Long peeled four or five cloves of garlic, crushed them one by one and put them into the tea bowls under the surprised eyes of several diners.

He looked around and saw that most people were eating fried noodles, fried dough sticks and vegetarian noodles, and some were eating meatball soup. There were only two people who had eaten the fried meat like him.

In the past, I could feel a little superior, but not today.

Maybe because few people ordered fried pork noodles, his noodles were served quickly, followed by additional noodles and noodle soup.

Under the envious gazes of several people, Li Long poured the noodles into a large open bowl, covered it with the vegetables, then scooped up the garlic from the tea bowl and put it in, then started mixing and eating.

It's just like eating voraciously. Pick up a piece of noodles with chopsticks, rely on your youth and good spleen and stomach, put it in your mouth, chew it twice and swallow it directly, then take another chopstick.

The big bowl of noodles was finished in an instant. Li Long ate the remaining dishes and then poured the noodle soup into the bowl. He put down his chopsticks and picked up the bowl to shake it, so that the juice from the vegetables on the sides could be shaken into the soup. After it was slightly less hot, he drank it all in one gulp.

Finally, take a sip of tea to rinse your mouth, and the meal is finished.

Back in the car, Li Long felt a little unsatisfied, but he didn't plan to eat any more noodles. If he had ordered more noodles, he could have finished it, but he was mainly worried that he would have a bad breath when he went to see Director Qian in the afternoon.

After thinking for a while, he took out a peach from one of the bags, wiped the peach hairs on his clothes, and then started to eat it.

It has a sweet fragrance with a slightly imperceptible sourness. Overall, it tastes very good.

After eating a peach slightly smaller than his fist, Li Long felt satisfied.

After resting for a while in the jeep, Li Long drove to the open space where he had parked his car in the morning. After parking the jeep, he got out of the car, holding a black canvas bag filled with snow leopard skin in one hand and a bag of peaches in the other, and then walked towards the state community.

The guard was the same one from the morning. After seeing Li Long, he waved his hand and let him in without waiting for him to say anything, obviously recognizing him.

Li Long smiled and walked towards the car team with the bag.

Xiao Si must have heard from his colleagues in the morning that Li Long was coming, so he was waiting outside early. When Li Long came over with something in his hand, he greeted him with a smile:

"Hello, Comrade Li Long!"

He led Li Long to his jeep and the two started chatting.

"I came here to see Director Qian and you." Li Long had already observed that there was no one else around, so he pointed at the black and said, "There's a roe deer skin inside for you. There are also some peaches that I just bought. You keep some and I'll give some to Director Qian."

"The director is here, you can go up and see him first." Xiao Si said with a smile, "There's no rush for things."

"Okay." Li Long took out the roe deer skin from the black bag and handed it to Xiao Si. He also took out some peaches. Xiao Si took the water bucket and filled it with three or four kilograms of peaches and stopped there.

Li Long carried the rest and walked into the office building.

Director Qian already knew that Li Long was coming, so when Li Long knocked on the door, he stood up with a smile.

Director Qian meets a lot of people every day, including those from the autonomous region, the prefecture and the commune, and relevant units in the prefecture.

It’s just that today Li Long’s smile seemed more sincere.

After Li Long entered the office, he put down his bag, stretched out his hands, shook hands with Director Qian, and greeted him.

Someone came over to pour tea for Li Long and then left.

After the two exchanged a few pleasantries, Li Long explained his purpose.

"My friends in the mountains went down to cut grass, and I went to help them. They gave me a snow leopard skin, but I had no use for it, so I brought it to you. I saw some pretty good peaches in the market today, so I bought some too..."

Director Qian was delighted by these two gifts which did not match each other at all. This young man was really honest.

"Then I can't take your skin for nothing." Director Qian pretended to be serious and said, "Although this snow leopard skin is not as good as..." He didn't finish, but Li Long knew.

"Although it's not more expensive than that one, it's not cheap either." Director Qian said seriously.

"This is to thank you. I won't accept the money." Li Long was also very firm. "It's more useful to keep it with you than with me." (End of this chapter)