Chapter 144

Li Long rode his bicycle with Li Juan on the back, riding back amidst the envious gazes of many students and teachers.

Occasionally, when he encountered students playing in the middle of the road, Li Long would ring the bell, and those students would immediately dart to the side of the road like frightened rabbits, then look curiously at the people on the bicycle.

If he encountered children from the village, when they saw it was Li Long riding the bike, they would often shout loudly. They would happily run after the bicycle for a while, then pant heavily and laugh on the side of the road.

In this era, the happiness of children was just that simple.

The bicycle rode into the village. When passing the primary school, Li Long saw the primary school and preschool children had finished school and were walking out of the classroom, so he turned over.

The village school only had two grades, and each grade only had one class. And there was only one class in the preschool. Li Qiang was in the preschool, and he was walking out with another child, arms around each other's shoulders.

The child, Mao Hai, who saw Li Long first, shouted loudly:

"Li Qiang! Qiangqiang! Your uncle has come to pick you up! He came to pick you up on a bicycle!"

Hearing this, Li Qiang turned his head sharply, saw Li Qiang and Li Juan sitting on the back seat, and a bright and surprised smile bloomed on his face. He let go of his little partner and shouted from the side of the road as he ran toward Li Long:

"Uncle, sister!"

When Li Qiang ran up to him, Li Long let him climb onto the main bar, then pedaled the bicycle and headed home.

When turning, he happened to see Wu Shufen coming out of the first-grade classroom with books. Both of them were stunned for a moment. Wu Shufen reacted first, held her neck high, and turned to go to the office like a proud swan.

Li Long smiled and continued riding home.

"Uncle, I don't like her!" Li Qiang suddenly said, "She even glared at me yesterday, rolled her eyes..."

Li Long couldn't help but want to curse. Was Wu Shufen mentally ill? They had broken up, so what did it have to do with the child? How could she vent her emotions on a child?

"Don't pay attention to her!" Before Li Long could speak, Li Juan spoke up from the back seat, "She's just seeing that our uncle can make money now, is doing better than her, and isn't looking for her, so she's glaring at you—it's best if you ignore her and let her feel uncomfortable!"

Li Long couldn't help but laugh or cry. In his previous life, he once thought that children in the 21st century were very clever and precocious, understanding many adult things at five or six years old.

He didn't expect that children in this era actually knew quite a few things too.

"You don't need to worry about adult matters. Study well, and when you grow up, get into a good university and find a good job," Li Long couldn't help but enter the nagging parent role, "Then you won't have to cut wheat in the middle of summer or cut reeds in the reed lake in the middle of winter."

"Mm!"

"Got it!"

Both children answered seriously—these two tasks were indeed like nightmares to them. Both children had experienced cutting wheat in the summer, and although they hadn't done cutting reeds in the winter, they knew how hard it was.

Back at the Li house, Li Long saw that no one was home and the doors were locked. Li Juan nimbly got off the back seat and went to the windowsill to find the key to open the door. Li Qiang got off the bike and went to the chicken coop, soon happily touching two eggs and bringing them over.

There was leftover rice in the kitchen. Usually, they would just eat the leftovers, but Li Long said eating cold food was bad for the stomach, so he prepared to heat up some dishes, while Li Juan burned the fire at the stove to help.

The food was heated up quickly. Li Long wasn't very hungry. He served rice for the two children—mainly Li Juan. Li Qiang had gone home at noon and eaten with his parents. Li Long also served some for himself, watching the children eat the meat dishes in their bowls heartily, feeling it was pretty good.

Being able to make himself and his family a little happier was really pretty good.

After eating and cleaning up the bowls and chopsticks, Li Juan carried a basket to pick pig grass. Li Long asked her about her homework, and Li Juan said proudly:

"I finished my homework during the break at noon."

The little piglets were very hungry now. Pig food was mainly a pot of bran mixed with chopped pig grass. At this time of year, the only grass pigs could eat were a few kinds like gray amaranth and wild amaranth. Fortunately, there was enough wasteland now, and these wild vegetables that people could actually eat were easier to find.

Li Qiang didn't run out to play for a change, but ran out of the courtyard, caught up with Li Juan, and the two of them went to find pig grass while talking and laughing.

Li Long was cleaning up the courtyard while waiting for Tao Daqiang. In order to buy both radios, he definitely had to catch fish.

"Little Long, you're here, I have something to tell you." While Li Long was checking the tire, someone came into the courtyard, but it wasn't Tao Daqiang, it was Xie Yundong.

Xie Yundong was in his thirties, about the same height as Li Jianguo, less than 1.7 meters, a very honest and down-to-earth farmer.

"Brother Yundong, what's up?" Li Long put down the tire and asked.

"The team leader asked me to take the people from the side-line team to the mountains to weave carrying baskets. I heard from the team leader that you took on this job, so I'm here to discuss with you what needs to be brought, and see if it's complete."

Xie Yundong had worked in the mountains for a period of time and was more familiar with life there. Li Long remembered that Xie Yundong led the team last year, bringing the team an income of over 200 yuan, and the people in the side-line team also had gains. This person was capable, steady, and could convince the crowd.

"Brother Yundong, you're in charge of the mountain business, I don't have as much experience as you. Actually, I'm just a middleman. I'll check the quality of the carrying baskets when they are delivered, but the rest is up to you."

"No, no," Xie Yundong was very humble, "I heard from the team leader that you took on this job, and you've spent quite a bit of time in the mountains this winter. It is said that a forestry team has been established in the mountains now, and there are rules for some things, which is different from before. It's right to listen to your suggestions more. Listen, see if what I've prepared is complete."

He took a piece of paper out of his pocket, opened it carefully, and began to read:

"One quilt, one hatchet or sickle, one shovel—for digging dugouts; two boxes of matches, one bag of salt, one bag of chili powder, ten kilograms of corn flour..."

Speaking of this, Xie Yundong looked up and explained to Li Long: "The team leader said to bring a cook, so I asked around and discussed it with the team leader, and let Old Gu, Gu Bowuan, go."

"Uncle Gu knows how to cook?" Li Long was a bit surprised. In his two lifetimes, he wasn't particularly familiar with Gu Bowuan, so he didn't expect him to know how to cook?

"Of course he does. When this production team was established, your brother and Old Gu were both cooks. When the big canteen was around, your brother was the steward, and Old Gu was the chef—"

He didn't expect there to be such history. Li Long thought about what his brother had done before he came to the production team in his previous life, and he really hadn't understood it carefully.

He also discovered that Xie Yundong still called Xu Chengjun the team leader, which should be a habit.

"So Uncle Gu doesn't have to weave carrying baskets? Does he get work points?"

"Yes, he gets work points. Now the team's work points have risen, 0.2 yuan per work point. The side-line team gets two work points a day, and Old Gu can do other things besides cooking. This month is better than being in the team."

"What about his family's land?" Li Long asked again. Although Gu Xiaoxia ate commodity grain, Gu Bowuan's family only had two mu of ration land, but that also needed to be taken care of.

"He said he handed it over to your brother." Xie Yundong smiled. That smile made Li Long feel a bit unusual, so he didn't dwell on this issue and reminded him:

"Brother Yundong, I think everyone can buy some red fermented bean curd. Two cents a piece. Now the wild vegetables in the mountains shouldn't be fully out yet, so buying red fermented bean curd can last for a while, it's cheap and goes well with rice."

"Mm, I'll note this down." Xie Yundong followed the advice, took a pencil stub out of his pocket, and wrote it down carefully on the paper.

He and Li Long discussed some things that needed to be brought. When he was about to leave, Li Long asked:

"Besides you and Uncle Gu, who else is going this time?"

"Tao Daqiang, of course," Xie Yundong said, "Lin He, Wang Dagui, Xu Jianjun, Tian Siping, Wei Zhonghua..." Lin He was an honest person, obedient, everyone liked to ask him for help when they had something, and he would take the initiative to help others when they had something. This person was fine.

Wang Dagui was Wang Caimi's younger brother. Wang Caimi's real name was Wang Dafu, who was also a shrewd person, quite capable, and knew many things. He also wove carrying baskets quite fast.

But hearing Xie Yundong mention Xu Jianjun, Li Long frowned.

Xu Jianjun was Xu Chengjun's cousin. This person was a bit idle and disobedient. If you talked about working, he had a lot of things to say, but if he went into the mountains, he would definitely be more focused on other side-lines than weaving carrying baskets.

"This is the list decided by the team leader. I actually don't want to either, but there's no way." Xie Yundong smiled bitterly, "But fortunately, there's Daqiang, there's Dagui, the task will definitely be completed..."

"That should be no problem, but Brother Yundong, you have to make it clear that if the quality is not up to standard when I check it, I will send it back. Don't say I don't give face to the people in our team. After all, if unqualified things are handed in and they want to return the goods, the loss won't be ordinary."

"Don't worry about this. One carrying basket is one yuan. If this matter ruins everyone's way of making money, I don't need to say anything, others will hammer him."

Knowing how to use everyone's mentality of making money to solve the problem of individual disobedience, this Xie Yundong still had something in his brain.

Xie Yundong hadn't left yet when Tao Daqiang walked into the courtyard. He was stunned when he saw Xie Yundong, then smiled honestly and didn't greet him.

"Daqiang is here. Just in time, let me tell you, I just discussed with Little Long what we need to bring into the mountains this time, you remember..."

Saying that, Xie Yundong read it to Tao Daqiang according to the paper and asked him if he remembered.

!.

"Brother Yundong, read it again, my brain is stupid..." Tao Daqiang said with a red face.

Xie Yundong wasn't in a hurry and read it again. Tao Daqiang nodded and remembered.

After Xie Yundong left, Tao Daqiang asked:

"Brother Long, are we still catching fish?"

"Yes, let's set the net one more time today, and we won't set it tomorrow. I'm going into the mountains tomorrow, and you guys need to prepare things too."

"Okay." Tao Daqiang nodded, "I'll listen to you this time when I go into the mountains."

"You weave the carrying baskets well. If there's a way to make money, I'll tell you then."

"Mm!" Tao Daqiang nodded vigorously.

The two of them checked the tire and the net, carried them, and went to the small lake.

To ensure that they could catch more fish this time, Li Long set the net on the edge of the reeds two or three hundred meters away from yesterday.

Crucian carp were easier to sell, and there were more crucian carp on the edge of the reeds. This time Li Long brought two nets with two-and-a-half-finger mesh, two with three-finger mesh, and one each with three-and-a-half and four-finger mesh. Six nets were almost enough.

After setting the nets, the two of them didn't cast the nets again and went straight back to the team.

Li Jianguo and Liang Yuemei had already returned. Li Juan was chopping pig grass in the courtyard, and Li Qiang had already gone out to play somewhere.

The next day, they got up early as usual. Li Long and Tao Daqiang went together to retrieve the six nets.

Sure enough, as Li Long expected, this time the six nets were covered with crucian carp. The crucian carp on one of the two-and-a-half-finger nets were dense, at least fifteen or sixteen kilograms.

"Yesterday when I was looking at the wheat in the wheat field, there were quite a few small crucian carp in the field." Tao Daqiang said on the way back, "You can also see some bigger ones. The gate released water, and the fish were released too."

Crucian carp are particularly prolific. The female fish caught at this time, even if they are five or six centimeters long, are full of yellow roe in their bellies—that saying "don't eat crucian carp in the third spring" really isn't practical here. Because those crucian carp flow into the fields with the water, and when the water dries up, they all die.

Every time water is poured every season, you can see pits of dead fish in the water channels and fields. This is when the feast of flies comes.

Tao Daqiang carried some crucian carp back and said he would stew them for lunch. Li Long sorted the fish, put them on his bicycle, and left the village in a hurry with Li Juan.

Leaving Li Juan at the primary school, Li Long didn't stop when passing the middle school and didn't see Gu Xiaoxia. He still had to go to Shicheng to sell fish.

The reason he hurried was that Li Long was worried that if he sold the fish late, he wouldn't be able to buy the radio when he came back.

The old street in Shicheng still had a large flow of people. The place where Li Long set up his stall yesterday across the intersection already had stalls set up, selling cured meat, wild vegetables, and people holding small handfuls of coriander to sell.

The place was big, and Li Long wasn't picky. He poured part of the fish into the basin, took the scale, and began to shout loudly.

There were more fish today than yesterday, and there were more big crucian carp and large crucian carp. There were almost no silver carp or grass carp. The fish looked very lively and beautiful.

Sure enough, crucian carp were more popular. Today, in less than an hour, Li Long sold out the fish. The last four kilograms of crucian carp were bought by one person.

This time he sold over fifty yuan. Li Long didn't even eat breakfast and rode his bike back to Maxian, rushing to the department store.

Sure enough, as he thought, there was only one radio left on the counter.

"Are you buying again?" Little Liu remembered what he said yesterday, "This is the only one left, but the radio is good, you can try it."

To be safe, Li Long bought a box of batteries, installed them, and tried it out.

He could still receive the ethnic channel. Li Long smiled, paid, and got the ticket. Li Long said thank you, and Little Liu said in a low voice:

"You're welcome. If you need anything later, you can tell me in advance. If it's in stock, I can help you keep it."

"That's too kind." Li Long thanked her sincerely. Whether it was at home or in the mountains, there were quite a few things needed. Sometimes if you weren't careful, there would be no stock, which would be a real pity.

However, this girl was so enthusiastic, which surprised him a bit.

Not thinking too much, Li Long went to the courtyard, took the previous radio, packed it together, and went into the mountains with the small-caliber rifle.

He wanted to give Ha Rimu and the others a surprise.