Chapter 1049

At lunch, everyone gathered in groups of three or five, each with an enamel basin filled with mutton and mutton soup, holding naan in their hands.

Originally, the villagers of Qingshuihe had prepared their own dry rations, and Meng Hai and the others also had pots on their tractors, preparing to boil water for tea and have a simple meal at noon.

They didn't expect the people from the supply and marketing cooperative to come over together, and the herdsmen here treated them warmly, slaughtering these sheep, so they could have a wonderful meal.

If it weren't for the matter of digging up jade, the main topic of discussion during lunch today would certainly have been mutton.

After all, earning money while eating free hand-grabbed meat was such a wonderful thing; although it had happened a few times before, it was generally very wonderful.

However, the people from the supply and marketing cooperative had found jade, and the people in the village had found agate.

Even if these things were sold at a very low price, they were still more than the eight yuan earned from a day's work.

So although they were holding mutton bones and gnawing on naan, the topic of discussion still revolved around valuable things like jade and agate.

The relationship between the villagers and Li Long was limited to knowing each other, being familiar faces, and occasionally greeting each other, but they were much closer to Meng Hai.

So there were more people around Meng Hai, all thinking and talking about digging for jade.

Meng Hai had a firm mind; he put down his chopsticks and warned these villagers:

"Let me tell you, if you happen to dig up jade or something while working, then whoever digs it up gets to keep it. But if anyone wants to take advantage of work time to specifically dig for jade, then don't blame me for not saying it beforehand—as long as I find out, then there will be no work or money for them in the future!"

For the past few years, the work Li Long gave to Meng Hai was organized by Meng Hai, who then led everyone to earn money.

His prestige was established in these repeated organizational activities, so everyone listened to what Meng Hai said. Sometimes his words were even more effective than those of He Yuqing, the team leader.

Therefore, after Meng Hai said this, the villagers agreed one by one with laughter, saying they would absolutely not delay their proper work.

The discussion among the cadres and staff on the supply and marketing cooperative side was much more heated.

They had come here for voluntary labor, with Li Xiangqian mainly in charge of the big picture, following along to work a bit, while Zhou Yuan and other section chiefs were responsible for their own people, turning a blind eye to the work, mainly relying on self-consciousness.

After all, the people who could be brought over had good awareness, and basically, there was no such thing as being lazy and not working.

But now that some people had unexpected gains, everyone's focus was on this.

The cadres and staff of the supply and marketing cooperative were quite familiar with Li Long, so they boldly asked Li Long:

"Comrade Li Long, do you think there will be more jade in this river ditch?"

"Exactly, exactly, someone found two pieces in such a short time, so does that mean there is actually a lot of jade in the river?"

"There is jade and agate, could there be other things?"

Li Long himself also held an enamel basin and sat on a rock, with a piece of mutton neck meat and half a bowl of soup in the basin. He took a sip of soup, gnawed on a piece of naan, and said:

"There certainly is. Let me put it this way: in the southern mountains of our Maxian, almost every ditch has jade.

Why do I say that? Because our Maxian is one of the world's three major producers of jasper. If you go dozens of kilometers further in from here, there are places where the entire mountain is jade.

During the Qing Dynasty, the official government set up a jade factory here, specifically responsible for mining jade.

So if you ask me whether there is jade in these river ditches, there certainly is. But if you ask whether you can encounter it, I can't be sure.

After all, even if there is, it doesn't mean it's everywhere. Our southern mountains are not the southern mountains in the Classic of Mountains and Seas. The southern mountains there are said to be full of jade everywhere. It's already very difficult for people here to be lucky enough to find a few pieces.

So, being able to find it while working next is good luck; not finding it is normal.

Of course, we didn't come here specifically to find jade, but to make it more convenient for the herdsmen in these mountains to transfer, and to do good deeds.

Finding things is an unexpected gain; not finding them, one should also maintain a normal heart. That's the logic, right?"

His words were recognized by everyone. These people indeed had the idea of being able to find good things while working in the afternoon, but this idea was just a possibility, or a hope.

Even if there were those who wanted to specifically come over to find some, they couldn't directly say it, or directly do it.

After all, there were villagers watching over there, so they couldn't lose their cadre status.

At noon, mutton and naan were provided in sufficient quantity. In fact, most of the villagers were still eating their own dry rations, then going to get one or two pieces of mutton, and then adding some meat soup.

No one was greedy, as if they had never eaten before, which led to the fact that after everyone finished eating, there was still less than half of the hand-grabbed meat made from the four sheep left.

According to Li Xiangqian's intention, it would be kept warm in the pot and eaten again when work finished in the afternoon.

After resting for half an hour, they continued to work. Next was repairing the new road. This time, the cadres and staff of the supply and marketing cooperative and the villagers of the village cooperated with each other and soon became one.

In the lively scene, Lanzhou Mandarin, Henan-Shandong dialects, and Mandarin were mixed in talking and chatting. When moving stones together, they asked about each other's ancestral homes; when chopping wood, they chatted about family matters, and even talked about two families—one was a villager, and one was a supply and marketing cooperative cadre—whose children were in the same class in high school and had a good relationship.

This brought them closer, and the work seemed to be more tacit.

The people who came from Qingshuihe were the backbone. When repairing the road last year, they worked for one or two months, laying the foundation, cutting down trees, leveling, and blasting stones to do the preparatory work. These people were very proficient.

Although these cadres and staff of the supply and marketing cooperative hadn't worked on this road last year, they cooperated with these people from Qingshuihe for a while and soon got on the right track.

The progress of road repair gradually accelerated. When the sun was about to set and they were preparing to finish work, Li Long looked at the progress of the day and found it actually exceeded his expectations.

It had advanced by more than 1 kilometer, which was already very impressive.

In the afternoon, they mainly ate mutton, but the way of eating changed. The mutton soup was still there, and the mutton was taken out and stir-fried with spicy skin, and then there was a stir-fried mutton offal.

Perhaps because the hand-grabbed meat at noon was a bit greasy, this stir-fry was particularly popular. Everyone got some from the two large pots of stir-fry, and in the end, nothing was left.

After eating, both sides sent people to clean up these things. The movements were fast, and the cleaning was very clean. The pots and other tools were loaded onto the jeep together.

The supply and marketing cooperative side had a truck to take them back. Li Long said a few words to Li Xiangqian; he had to distribute money to the villagers of Qingshuihe, so he wouldn't go with everyone.

Li Xiangqian naturally had no objections and gave Li Long a few instructions before getting on the truck. Ma Xiao Yan also followed Li Xiangqian and sat in the driver's cab of the truck. Originally, she wanted to take photos of Li Long distributing money to the villagers, but Li Long politely declined.

Generally speaking, although neither side found jade in the afternoon, the enthusiasm for work was still very high, so Li Xiangqian temporarily decided to come again tomorrow, and then come once a week, insisting on coming four or five times would be about enough.

After the supply and marketing cooperative truck left, Li Long took out his black bag from the jeep and went over to check the people who came to work this time with Meng Hai.

Because the work would last for more than twenty days, Li Long first determined the general personnel and directly gave Meng Hai the money for ten days, and also gave Meng Hai the management fee for these ten days together.

The specific matter of distributing money was left to Meng Hai, while he drove the jeep to Ha Ha Li Mu's winter shelter.

"Director Li and the others will come again tomorrow, but they also said that there is no need to slaughter so many sheep tomorrow.

Slaughter one sheep, and they will bring rice to make pilaf tomorrow."

This year, like last year, the supply and marketing cooperative brought a lot of supplies to Ha Ha Li Mu and the others and allocated three thousand yuan as road repair funds.

The reason Li Long came back alone was also to give the sheep money to Ha Ha Li Mu.

Ha Ha Li Mu naturally didn't want it, but Li Long said it was the intention of Director Li of the supply and marketing cooperative, and they couldn't eat and drink for free.

In short, there was some pushing and shoving, and in the end, Li Long left the money.

By the time he got home, it was already dark. He was exhausted from the day, and after a simple wash, he fell asleep as soon as his head hit the pillow.

Gu Xiaoxia and Sister Yang knew that Li Long would definitely be very busy during this time, so they didn't disturb him and let him rest well.

The family courtyard of the supply and marketing cooperative was very lively tonight. Li Fengxia didn't live here, but her name was mentioned the most in the family courtyard today.