Chapter 1058: Not Selected This Year, Yet Able to Present the Awards

The life of Chen Hongjun's family changed because of the acquisition station, and many more people who entered the mountains to gather herbs also earned money because of it.

At this time, people's exploration of Northern Tianshan was only an extremely small part; even thirty or forty years later, even those hikers who frequently trekked into the mountains would have only a very one-sided understanding of Northern Tianshan.

The Northern Tianshan mountain range, stretching for thousands of kilometers, held countless secret realms, and coupled with the fact that the population in Xinjiang had always been sparse, this situation would continue for an even longer time.

Therefore, even though more and more people entered the mountains each year to dig for medicinal herbs and their annual harvests increased, the treasures and resources within the mountains still seemed inexhaustible.

Of course, it was also possible that the environment of Northern Tianshan was particularly harsh relative to human survival; the outer layers of Tushan, the several layers of shrub mountains further inward, and the few paths leading into the mountains blocked the steps of some who wished to develop the area.

This ensured that the vast forests, grasslands, and rivers of Lishan, along with the precious flora and fauna living within them, were able to continue surviving.

In another thirty or forty years, because hikers frequently went missing or died in the mountains, many ancient hiking trails originally considered secret realms by hikers were directly closed off, making the environment within the mountains even more "natural."

Of course, in the 1980s, Northern Tianshan was still in a stage of disordered development; although the forestry team had begun managing the area, after all, this mountain range was too vast to guard every Shankou.

More and more people entered the mountains seeking wealth, with outsiders like Mo Linsheng and the Wu uncle and nephew serving as the main force.

After seeing Jia Jia Tianlong off, unable to resist Mingming and Haohao's pestering, Li Long took the two brothers into the mountains again the next day, arriving at the wooden cabin.

As he had expected, after the leaves on the shed dried, more sunlight shone through.

After moving the supplies from the jeep into the wooden cabin, Li Long took Mingming and Haohao to Lin Zi to cut branches; what put him at ease was that during these recent trips into the mountains with the children, they had not encountered any wild beasts, so safety was relatively assured.

After the seven small wild boars raised at home had nearly ruined the remaining vegetables in the warm shed, Mingming and Haohao also felt they were no longer fun, so Li Long packed them up and sent them back to Lao Ma Hao.

The ultraviolet rays in the mountains were very strong; without Li Long needing to instruct them, Mingming and Haohao picked mushrooms under the shade of nearby trees and did not run far.

Li Long cut six or seven branches, specifically cutting two smaller ones so that the two children could have a sense of participation and drag the branches back with him.

However, when he gathered the branches together, he discovered the two children had already used their clothes to carry a full load of mushrooms over to present as treasure to him.

"The mushrooms you picked are really good! There are even morel mushrooms; I'll cook them for you to eat when we get back. But we can't eat them now; we need to sort them first, as a few of the mushrooms are poisonous."

Seeing the two little ones excited about picking mushrooms, Li Long figured it was because they had stir-fried and eaten the mushrooms they brought back that day, feeling a great sense of accomplishment, so they continued today.

Therefore, he didn't let them carry the branches, but instead had them bring the mushrooms and return with him.

Returning to the wooden cabin, Li Long first put down the branches, then taught the two children how to pick out the poisonous mushrooms, having them take enamel basins to the spring to wash the mushrooms.

He himself arranged the cut branches on top of the shed.

After finishing this and going to the grass shed to get firewood to start a fire, he noticed signs that someone had been there.

He smiled, realizing that someone must have slept there during the night.

This was nothing serious; they were quite well-behaved and had not pried open the door here.

He entered the room, took out the bedding to air it in the sun, and then started a fire beneath the stove.

Before the two children had finished washing the mushrooms, someone arrived carrying a bag to trade goods.

It was a man and a woman he had never seen before; unknown whether they were husband and wife or a couple, both appeared to be in their twenties, and although somewhat disheveled and dirty, one could sense a youthful vitality about them.

The two had been playing and joking as they approached, but upon seeing Li Long, Mingming, and Haohao, they reined in their smiles.

Each person carried a white cloth bag; there were not many Fritillaria bulbs in the bags, looking to be only about four or five kilograms.

Walking up to the two, Li Long took the initiative to ask:

"Do you want to trade the Fritillaria for goods or for money?"

"For food."

"For money."

The man wanted food, the woman wanted money, and they failed to reach a consensus.

"I have naan, steamed buns, egg cakes, and sesame biscuits for food; I also have raw rice and flour, depending on what you want to trade," Li Long said to the man first, then turned to the woman and said:

"If trading for money, let me see the quality of your Fritillaria."

The woman approached Li Long, opened the bag, and spread the mouth of the sack wide for him to inspect the condition of the Fritillaria inside.

The Fritillaria was stained with mud and had some grass leaves attached, not very clean; Li Long grabbed a handful to look, seeing it was fresh stock, likely dug up yesterday.

He weighed the bag in his hand and said:

"A bit over four kilograms, not quite five. Your Fritillaria is quite dirty; since it's new stock, I'll give you eight yuan per kilogram."

"So cheap? Add a little more, big brother!" The woman felt she was selling too cheap and began bargaining, her voice drawn out with a hint of acting coquettish.

"This is the price everywhere in the mountains; if you go wash it clean right now and remove the leaves, then I can add a little more for you." Li Long also knew it wasn't easy for them in the mountains, but since prices were about the same everywhere, he wouldn't raise his offer higher.

Accommodation was possible, but it depended on whether the other party was willing to do the work.

"I want ten steamed buns, five naan, and two bags of egg cakes," the man decided simply, "and if there's anything left over, exchange it all for sesame biscuits for me."

He didn't want raw rice or flour, likely feeling that cooking them would be too troublesome.

"There's also red fermented bean curd; do you want some? If so, I can give you another jar," Li Long offered proactively; the man's Fritillaria was slightly more than the woman's, and if the quality was the same, it could fetch thirty or forty yuan.

The total value of all the items he mentioned didn't even add up to twenty yuan, so Li Long thought he might as well promote a few more goods, and if that didn't work, he would just give the man some cash.

"Then I'll go wash it," the woman, still wanting to get more money, thought for a moment and agreed to Li Long's suggestion, "How much money can I get after washing it?"

"If you can wash all the mud and leaves out of it, bring it over and I'll give you ten yuan per kilogram."

Adding two yuan per kilogram just for washing it clean; actually, this price was a bit startling, as merely rinsing it could increase the value so much.

The woman almost thought Li Long had taken a fancy to her and paused for a moment, but upon seeing Mingming and Haohao, she dismissed that thought.

Although the price increase was a bit high, it saved Li Long some trouble; actually, he also wanted to establish a concept for those coming to sell Fritillaria: as long as the Fritillaria was cleaned, the price could be raised.

Regardless, the fact that a simple wash could raise the price gave the woman a pleasant surprise, and she lifted her bag and headed toward the spring; Mingming and Haohao happened to be coming around from that direction, and Li Long watched the woman's back, fearing she might make some unfavorable move toward the children.

Mingming and Haohao had been educated at home, so when they saw the woman approaching, they took a detour; the woman still wanted to pat their heads, but unexpectedly, the two children dodged her.

The two children brought the washed wild mushrooms over to show Li Long; he told them to place the wild mushrooms on the cutting board, praised them a couple of times, and then sent the children into the wooden cabin.

After the two children entered the wooden cabin, Li Long went to Let Xiao Fang to take out the goods to give to the man.

"If I wash the Fritillaria clean, can I exchange it for more goods?" The man was quite clever and had grasped the meaning behind Li Long's words.

"Yes, if you wash it clean, I can give you a few more bags of egg cakes," Li Long smiled.

The man hurriedly followed the woman over to the spring and began rinsing the Fritillaria.

The two talked while washing by the water's edge.

"How can these clean Fritillaria bulbs be worth so much more than the ones from earlier? Is this person lazy or just sick?" The woman seemed to be deliberately distancing herself from the man beside her; her words were far from polite. She probably thought Li Long couldn't hear her, given they were at least twenty or thirty meters away.

"Why bother worrying about that? If they're paying a high price for you to wash them, then just wash them properly. This afternoon, when I go dig up more Fritillaria, I'll make sure to clean them thoroughly after digging. That way, in a couple of days when I come back to exchange them for money, I'll get a bit more."

These two didn't dig up Fritillaria very quickly, yet even so, they could still earn a few dozen yuan a day, proving this was fairly easy money.

However, different trades are as distant as separate mountains; outsiders knew nothing about this line of work. In fact, most people didn't even recognize what a Fritillaria bulb looked like, which was why so few could do this job.

After the two had finished washing and sorting the Fritillaria, Li Long, who had already prepared the money and goods, asked them to pour out the bulbs and spread them across the table. To his slight surprise, the man had washed his portion cleaner than the woman's.

Once the contents were poured out, the woman looked at the two piles of Fritillaria, her face flushing slightly, and said, "I didn't look closely enough. I'll go wash them again now."

With that, she scooped the unclean Fritillaria into a bag and hurried off to wash them again.