Chapter 146: Sincerity is the ultimate move: The mutual surprise between Li Long and his friends

Riding all the way to the edge of the mountains, Li Long saw that the grass and trees along the road from the county seat to the mountains had already turned green. The closer he got to the mountains, the more brilliant the colors became. Large patches of "Old Crow Garlic"—what would later become the very famous national second-class protected plant, the Xinjiang wild tulip—were blooming on the slopes.

The reason locals call this stuff "Old Crow Garlic" is because its rhizome resembles a single-clove garlic, and it even has a sweet taste when eaten. So, every spring, children would dig them up to eat.

This "Old Crow" is actually the old raven, the crow; locals just call it "Old Wa."

Walking further into the mountains, wild roses had also bloomed, along with some unknown wildflowers blossoming all over the hills and plains.

The snow on the outer layers of the mountains had already melted completely. The water in the mountain gullies was quite high, and occasionally, one could see dark gray fish darting desperately upstream beneath the churning spray.

There are basically two types of fish here: the small gully fish—which is the alpine loach—and the white-striped fish that looks massive in the reservoir but is actually just a small fish, which locals call "noodle fish."

It seems that when I have time, I can get a small net to catch fish here—of course, that refers to when I'm staying in the mountains for a long time.

Pedaling the bike up the mountain is quite strenuous. Li Long now misses the car from his previous life; with that kind of slope, wouldn't it be easy to just step on the gas and go up?

When he encountered difficult sections of the road, he still had to get off and push. However, he thought to himself that it would be easy on the way back; he wouldn't need to exert any effort, just control the direction and the brakes and coast all the way down.

When he reached the winter camp of Halimu and the others, Li Long discovered that a very high stack of wood had already been piled up by the side of the camp. The cattle and sheep pens were open; Halimu must have gone out to graze the herd.

Li Long parked his bicycle by the side of the road, locked it well, took the bag hanging from the handlebars, and carried it as he walked into the gully.

Now that the snow had melted, walking in this gully wasn't very convenient. Fortunately, the water wasn't very deep here, and Li Long jumped right across.

The black dog over there started barking, and while barking, it dashed to the front of the gully, stopping two or three meters in front of Li Long, wagging its tail.

"Not bad, you still recognize me." Li Long smiled, waved his hand at the dog, and walked toward the winter camp.

Hearing the dog barking, Halimu's wife came out of the winter camp. Upon seeing Li Long, a smile appeared on her face, and then she shouted twice into the camp. Shortly after, Nasen ran out of the camp. Seeing Li Long, he gave a silly grin, then ran to the side of the camp, untied the reins, nimbly climbed onto a horse without a saddle, flicked the reins, and the horse dashed out in an instant.

Kazakh herdsmen's children can already get on a horse at two or three years old—this is something Li Long saw with his own eyes. They can ride before they really know how to walk or run; this is a tradition.

Li Long walked up to the winter camp, and then he saw Halimu's mother carrying a sack as she walked down from the mountain. He guessed the old woman must have gone to pick up dried cow dung.

Halimu's wife couldn't speak Chinese; she reached out and gestured for Li Long to enter the winter camp. Li Long waved his hand, and Halimu's wife went to boil milk tea, while Li Long helped Halimu's mother bring the sack over. It was indeed filled with sun-dried cow dung. Following the old woman's instructions, Li Long placed the dung piece by piece against the wall on the southeast side of the winter camp.

Then he looked curiously at that pile of high wood. What was Halimu doing with all this wood?

Ten-odd minutes later, Halimu and Nasen rode their horses one after the other, galloping to the front of the winter camp.

Halimu jumped off his horse, walked over with big strides, and said to Li Long with a face full of smiles:

"Adashi, why did you only just come—do you know? The medicine you brought last time saved Nasen's life! If it weren't for your medicine, Nasen would have been in trouble..."

Li Long was a bit surprised, but then he smiled and said:

"That's nothing, as long as I could help you out. By the way, I brought you something good this time..."

He opened the sack and took out the radio inside.

"A radio?" Halimu looked amazed. "There's this kind of... without electric wires?"

Halimu had clearly seen a radio before, which made Li Long feel a bit curious and surprised.

"Yes, it uses batteries. I heard there was an ethnic language station on it, so I brought one for you and Yushanjiang's family. I don't know if it can pick up a signal here."

"This... is too valuable!" Halimu waved his hands. "You shouldn't, you shouldn't have bought it..."

"Haha, this really is nothing. The gun you traded me is worth more than two radios." Li Long waved his hand. "Let's not talk about this, come, let's try it out."

When Li Long took out the radio, Nasen curiously crowded over, and Halimu's wife was also peering from the doorway of the winter camp.

Even the old woman sunning herself was watching this side happily.

Li Long turned on the radio, and a "hissing" sound of static came from inside, which made Li Long a bit disappointed.

Did I bring a piece of junk?

He slowly turned the adjustment knob, and then, to his delight, a voice appeared:

"This station is now broadcasting the news..."

The voice of the Central People's Broadcasting Station!

"It really can be heard, good, good, good!" A look of surprise appeared on Halimu's face. "We can hear the news now, this is too good!"

Whether it was the old lady, Nasen, or Halimu's wife, when they heard this voice, they all looked amazed.

Li Long, however, was still not satisfied. He shook his head and said, "It might be a bit low here, I'll go to a higher place to see..."

He looked around, wanting to find a place that was both open and high.

"Go on top of the winter camp." Halimu was energized now too. "It's high up there!"

With Halimu's help, Li Long climbed onto the roof of the winter camp, and Halimu and Nasen climbed up too.

Li Long started turning the radio's adjustment knob, slowly turning it back, and then, amidst a patch of noisy static, a female announcer's voice came through.

A minority language!

Li Long smiled and turned his head to look at Halimu.

Halimu looked surprised and frowned again. He walked over, took the radio from Li Long's hand, and slowly adjusted it again.

This time, very quickly, Li Long heard an old man's voice from the radio again—also in a minority language. This time, Halimu burst into laughter!

"Li Long, you really are our friend! This thing of yours is too good! Too good!"

Li Long was stunned for a moment, then suddenly realized: the previous one probably wasn't Kazakh, this one is!

But regardless, being able to receive it, that's the best thing!

"Later I'll bring you some thin iron wire. When it's not thundering or raining, you can tie it to this antenna, and you'll be able to listen inside the house." Li Long said with a smile. When they came down, Li Long saw that the faces of Nasen, the old woman, and Halimu's wife were all full of surprise. Clearly, they were truly very satisfied with this gift!

Being able to make friends satisfied and happy with the things he brought, Li Long was also very happy.

"We'll go to Yushanjiang's place right now. If he knows this radio can hear the local Kazakh language station, he'll be happy to death!" Halimu led the horse over, let Li Long mount, and he himself rode that saddleless horse, flicked the reins, and galloped out.

Li Long felt that things were pretty good right now. He followed Halimu and hurried toward Yushanjiang's place.

When they arrived at Yushanjiang's home, Li Long saw Yushanjiang pulling wood. The cattle and sheep pens were empty; they must have been let out by the children.

Hearing the noise, he turned around, saw Halimu and Li Long, and walked over with a smile, putting down the tools in his hand.

"Adashi, Jakas ma!"

"Good, good," Li Long smiled and hugged Yushanjiang. "I brought you a radio this time, come, let's tune it, let's tune it."

Yushanjiang's home was on higher ground than Halimu's, and it was open all around. Li Long didn't need to go to the roof; he just tuned it twice and found the local Kazakh language station.

Hearing his own language coming from the radio, Yushanjiang was first stunned, then surprised, and finally ecstatic, grabbing Li Long's hand:

"Is this for me? This is too valuable! This... this is too good! We can hear the news now, this is talking about the new policies for us herdsmen recently—Li Long, I'm so grateful to you—!"

!.

Yushanjiang was already a bit incoherent. Herding in the mountains for a long time, the only people they could communicate with were the few herdsmen families nearby. It was not easy to know news from the outside world.

Now that they had a radio, at least they could hear the district's policies regarding herdsmen, and hear some of their own ethnic programs, songs, novels, and the like. For herdsmen deep in the mountains, the significance was really not as simple as just solving boredom as Li Long had thought!

"Don't leave at noon, I'm going to slaughter a sheep, I'm going to call the nearby herdsmen over to celebrate!" Yushanjiang was truly very excited. He hugged the radio and said loudly:

"Don't leave tonight either, Li Long, do you know? For us, this radio is more precious than gold! We're going to have a party tonight, I want everyone to know that I have a Han friend who treats us sincerely... he brought us grain, medicine, salt, tea leaves, and this precious radio—tonight, you, here, join our party..."

Li Long was also very surprised. Halimu had seen a radio before, so he wasn't that excited, but Yushanjiang's reaction surprised him a bit.

Really, is it that important?

Li Long didn't quite understand.

"You're outside the mountains, you know everything about the outside." Yushanjiang's mood calmed down a bit, and he explained, "For you, a very simple thing is quite difficult for us.

We, actually, also want to know what the outside looks like, but our tribe isn't here. There aren't many herdsmen in the mountains. Our tribe, well, is further north, in Yili, in Aletai, there are only a few people here.

We want to know the situation of our tribe, want to tell our children the history of our tribe, want to know what kind of policies the country has for us herdsmen—but we, well, don't know.

If we go down the mountain to ask, we don't know who to look for. Although now, well, they say they've established pastoral teams, but, well, we just do whatever others say, so we don't know anything.

Now that we have this—this radio, well, we can know how the country treats us, let our children know our history, and when we're free, well, we can also listen to music..."

At this time, music was indeed playing on the radio, which made Yushanjiang, including his wife and daughter in the winter camp, poke their heads out and listen curiously.

"Look, the songs we hum, how can they be as clear as this, how can they be as good to listen to... I can proudly tell my son and daughter, this is the music of our ethnic group, it's so good to listen to..."

Li Long slowly understood.

Information, for those who have been isolated for a long time, is how important it is.

Not to mention that this information is not just news, but also includes history, music, and includes inheritance...

Thinking that the things he brought to Halimu and Yushanjiang were so valuable, Li Long was also happy.

That's great.

Li Long actually thought about leaving after delivering the radio, but Yushanjiang wouldn't let him go no matter what. He asked Halimu to keep Li Long, and he himself rode a horse out, quickly returning with a sheep. He dismounted, took a knife, and slaughtered the sheep. In less than half an hour, the sheep had been processed and was in the pot.

And Yushanjiang's wife and daughter were in the winter camp, working while listening to the radio. Li Long could hear their soft discussions and laughter.

"What are you doing with all this wood?" Li Long pointed to the wood outside Yushanjiang's winter camp and asked Halimu.

"Originally I didn't want to say." Halimu explained to Li Long with a smile, "We feel, well, you are a true friend, so we thought that while the snow has melted and we haven't moved away yet, we'd build you a wooden house nearby. That way when you come, bring your family, it'll be convenient. Now, well, the wood is almost ready, we're going to build the house in these two days..."

Li Long was a bit shocked hearing this!

Build a house for himself in the mountains?

Isn't this a bit exaggerated?

He hurriedly waved his hands:

"No, no, how can I let you go to such trouble?"

"Li Long, treat us as friends, don't say this." Halimu waved his hand. "Since winter, you've been helping us, we all remember it!..."

"But you gave me more things, jade, sheep, guns..."

"We did give you some things, maybe in your eyes, well, those things are quite valuable. But, well, those things are of no use to us here.

I told you, we used deer antlers to trade for grain, but we only got a little bit. Without you, those things would be useless in our hands. In our eyes, they aren't even as useful as a brick of tea, a bag of salt, or a bag of flour.

It was you who helped us trade these things for what we needed. The medicine you brought cured my little Nasen's illness. Look at the radio you brought, it makes Yushanjiang feel we aren't lonely.

The grain you brought makes us not have to go to the trouble of finding people to trade—not everyone is as kind-hearted as you, thinking of helping us do things!"

"Aren't we friends, it's only right..." Li Long smiled. "And I feel I've gained more from you..."

"This gain isn't measured by money." Halimu waved his hand. "Although we haven't been to school much, we remember in our hearts, friends, well, you are real!"

"So, well, you are a good friend to us, don't refuse our gift. Besides, well, when we move away in a while, what will you do? Staying in our winter camp is no problem, but it's not as good as a new one—this way when we come back in winter, you can be our neighbor..."

Li Long had nothing to say.

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 147 =====