Chapter 146

Riding all the way to the edge of the mountains, Li Long saw that the vegetation on both sides of the road from the county town to the mountains had turned green. The closer to the mountains, the more brilliant the colors. Large patches of wild tulips, which became very famous national second-class protected plants in the future, were blooming on the slopes.

The reason locals call this thing "old crow garlic" is because its root is similar to a single-headed garlic and tastes a bit sweet, so every spring, children dig it up to eat.

This "old crow," actually refers to the crow, which locals call "lao wa."

Going deeper into the mountains, wild roses were also blooming, and some unknown wild flowers were blooming all over the mountains and plains.

The snow on the outer layers of the mountains had melted, and the water in the mountain gullies was quite large. Occasionally, you could see black-gray fish swimming desperately upstream under the splashing water.

There were basically two kinds of fish here, small trench fish—that is, plateau loaches, and small fish that looked impressive in the reservoir but were actually just small fish, which locals called "noodle fish."

It seemed he could catch fish here with small nets when he was free—of course, this meant when he was staying in the mountains for a long time.

Pedaling the bike up the mountain was quite strenuous. Li Long now missed the car from his previous life. With that slope, wouldn't it be easy to go up with a step on the gas?

When encountering difficult road sections, he had to get off and push, but he thought that it would be easy on the way back, just sliding down all the way without effort, controlling the direction and the brakes.

When he reached Ha Rimu's winter shelter, Li Long saw a very high stack of wood piled up on the side of the winter shelter. The cattle and sheep pens were all open, so Ha Rimu should be out grazing.

Li Long parked his bicycle on the side of the road, locked it, took off the bag hanging on the handlebars, carried it, and walked into the gully.

Now that the snow had melted, it wasn't very convenient to walk in this gully. Fortunately, the water wasn't very deep here, and Li Long jumped over it.

The black dog on the other side began to bark, barking while darting to the front of the gully, stopping two or three meters in front of Li Long, wagging its tail.

"Not bad, still recognize me." Li Long smiled, waved at the dog, and walked toward the winter shelter.

Hearing the dog barking, Ha Rimu's wife came out of the winter shelter. Seeing Li Long, a smile appeared on her face, and then she shouted twice toward the winter shelter. Soon, Na Sen ran out of the winter shelter. Seeing Li Long, he smiled, then ran to the side of the winter shelter, untied the reins, nimbly climbed onto a horse without a saddle, flicked the reins, and the horse darted out.

Kazakh herdsmen's children can ride horses when they are two or three years old—this was something Li Long had seen with his own eyes. They can ride horses before they can walk or run well; this is a tradition.

Li Long walked to the winter shelter, and then saw Ha Rimu's mother carrying a sack down from the mountain. He guessed that the old lady should have gone to pick up cow dung cakes.

Ha Rimu's wife couldn't speak Chinese, so she reached out to invite Li Long into the winter shelter. Li Long waved his hand. Ha Rimu's wife went to boil milk tea, while Li Long helped Ha Rimu's mother bring the sack over. Sure enough, it was filled with dried cow dung. Following the old lady's instructions, Li Long placed the dung piece by piece against the southeast wall of the winter shelter.

Then he curiously looked at the very high stack of wood. What was Ha Rimu doing with this wood?

Ten minutes later, Ha Rimu and Na Sen rode their horses one after the other and galloped to the winter shelter.

Ha Rimu jumped off his horse, walked over with a big smile, and said to Li Long:

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

Li Long was a bit surprised, but then said with a smile:

"This is nothing, as long as it can help you. By the way, I brought you something good this time..."

He opened the sack and took out the radio inside.

"Radio?" Ha Rimu looked surprised, "There is this kind of... without electric wires?"

Ha Rimu had obviously seen a radio, which also made Li Long a bit curious and surprised.

"Yes, battery-operated. I heard there's an ethnic channel, so I brought one for you and Yu Shanjiang's family. I don't know if there's a signal here."

"This... is too precious!" Ha Rimu waved his hand, "Shouldn't, you shouldn't have bought it..."

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

When Li Long took out the radio, Na Sen curiously leaned over, and Ha Rimu's wife was also looking out from the door of the winter shelter.

Even the old lady sunning herself was looking over happily.

Li Long turned on the radio, and a "hissing" current sound came out, which made Li Long a bit disappointed.

Did he bring a piece of junk?

He slowly turned the adjustment knob, and then a sound that surprised him appeared:

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

The sound of the Central People's Broadcasting Station!

"Really can hear it, good, good, good!" A look of surprise appeared on Ha Rimu's face, "We can hear the news, this is too good!"

Whether it was the old lady, Na Sen, or Ha Rimu's wife, they all looked surprised when they heard this sound. Obviously, they were really very satisfied with this gift!

Li Long 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 to the top of the winter shelter." Ha Rimu also got into the spirit this time, "It's high up there!"

With Ha Rimu's help, Li Long climbed to the top of the winter shelter, and Ha Rimu and Na Sen also climbed up.

Li Long began to turn the radio's adjustment knob, slowly turning it back, and then, amidst a noisy current sound, came the voice of a female announcer speaking.

Minority language!

Li Long smiled and turned to look at Ha Rimu.

Ha Rimu was a bit surprised and frowned. He walked over, took the radio from Li Long's hand, and slowly adjusted it again.

This time, very quickly, Li Long heard the voice of an old man from the radio again—also in a minority language. This time, Ha Rimu laughed out loud!

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

Li Long was stunned for a moment before he suddenly realized: the previous one shouldn't have been Kazakh, this one was!

But no matter what, it was received, which was the best!

"When I bring you some thin iron wire later, when it's not thundering or raining, you tie it to this antenna, and you can listen to it in the house." Li Long said with a smile. When they came down, Li Long saw that the faces of Na Sen, the old lady, and Ha Rimu's wife were all full of surprise. Obviously, they were really 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 Yu Shanjiang's place now. If he knows that this radio can hear the Kazakh language channel in the region, he will be happy to death!" Ha Rimu led the horse over, let Li Long climb on, and he also climbed onto the horse without a saddle, flicked the reins, and galloped out.

Li Long felt that it was pretty good like this, so he followed Ha Rimu to Yu Shanjiang's place.

When they arrived at Yu Shanjiang's house, Li Long saw Yu Shanjiang pulling wood. The cattle and sheep pens were empty, so they should have been released by the children.

Hearing the sound, he turned around, saw Ha Rimu and Li Long, smiled, put down the tools in his hand, and walked over.

"Adaxi, Jakesma!"

"Good, good," Li Long smiled and hugged Yu Shanjiang, "This time I brought you a radio, come, let's adjust it, adjust it."

Yu Shanjiang's house was higher than Ha Rimu's, and it was open all around. Li Long didn't need to go to the roof, just adjusted it twice and found the local Kazakh language channel.

Hearing the ethnic language coming from the radio, Yu Shanjiang was first astonished, then surprised, and finally grabbed Li Long's hand in ecstasy:

"Is this for me? This is too precious! This... this is too good! We can hear the news, this is talking about the recent new policies for us herdsmen—Li Long, so grateful to you—!"

!.

Yu Shanjiang was already a bit incoherent. Long-term grazing in the mountains, communication was limited to a few nearby herdsmen families. It was too difficult to know the news from the outside world.

Now with a radio, at least they could hear the policies of the region regarding herdsmen, and could hear programs, songs, novels, etc., of their own ethnic group. For herdsmen deep in the mountains, its significance was really not as simple as what Li Long thought about solving boredom!

"Don't leave at noon, I'm going to slaughter a sheep, I'm going to call the nearby herdsmen over to celebrate!" Yu Shanjiang was really very excited, holding the radio and shouting:

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

Li Long was also very surprised. Ha Rimu had seen a radio before, so he wasn't so excited. Yu Shanjiang's reaction was a bit surprising to him.

Really, is it that important?

Li Long didn't quite understand.

"You are outside the mountains, you know about things outside." Yu Shanjiang's mood calmed down a bit and explained, "For you, a very simple thing is relatively difficult for us.

We, actually, also want to know what the outside looks like, but our tribe is not here. There are not many herdsmen in the mountains. Our tribe, well, is further north, in Ili, in Altay. There are only a few people here.

We want to know about 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 want to go down the mountain to ask, we don't know who to look for. Although now, well, it is said that a pastoral team has been established, but, well, whatever others say, we just do it, then we don't understand anything.

Now with this—radio, well, then we can know how the country treats us, and let our children know our history, well, when we are free, well, we can also listen to music..."

At this time, music was indeed playing from the radio, which made Yu Shanjiang, including his wife and daughter in the winter shelter, poke their heads out and listen curiously.

"Look, well, the ones we hum, well, 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 our ethnic music, it's so good to listen to..."

Li Long slowly understood.

Information, for those who have been closed off for a long time, is how important.

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 Ha Rimu and Yu Shanjiang were so valuable, Li Long was also happy.

Really good.

Li Long actually wanted to leave after sending the radio, but Yu Shanjiang wouldn't let him go no matter what. He let Ha Rimu keep Li Long, and he rode his horse out, soon brought back a sheep, got off the horse, took a knife, and slaughtered the sheep. In less than half an hour, the sheep had been processed and put into the pot.

And Yu Shanjiang's wife and daughter were in the winter shelter, listening to the radio while working, and Li Long could hear their small discussions and laughter.

"What are you doing with this wood?" Li Long pointed to the wood outside Yu Shanjiang's winter shelter and asked Ha Rimu.

"Originally I didn't want to say." Ha Rimu explained to Li Long with a smile, "We feel, well, you are a true friend, so we thought, while the snow has melted and we haven't moved away, we'll build a wooden house for you nearby. This way, when you come, well, bring your family, it's also convenient. Now, well, the wood is almost ready, and we will build the house in these two days..."

Li Long was shocked!

Building a house for himself in the mountains?

This was a bit exaggerated, right?

He hurriedly waved his hand:

"No, no, how can I let you be so troublesome?"

"Li Long, treat us as friends, well, don't say this work. Since winter, you have been helping us, we all remember!..."

"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 little use here.

I told you, we used deer antlers to exchange for grain, but what we got was just a little bit. Without you, those things would be useless in our hands. In our eyes, they are not even as useful as a brick of tea, a bag of salt, a bag of flour.

It was you who exchanged those things for what we needed. The medicine you brought cured my little Na Sen's illness. Look at the radio you brought, which made Yu Shanjiang feel that we are not lonely.

The grain you brought makes us not so troublesome to find people to exchange—not everyone is as kind-hearted as you, thinking of helping us handle things!"

"We are friends, it should be..." Li Long smiled, "And I think I got more from you..."

"This gain, well, is not measured by money." Ha Rimu waved his hand, "Although we haven't gone to school much, we remember in our hearts, friend, well, you are truly sincere!"

"So, well, you are a good friend to us, so don't refuse our gift. Besides, well, when we move away in a while, what will you do? It's no problem to live in our winter shelter, 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)