Chapter 161: Such Simple Yet Enthusiastic People

The men were decorating this house, which was somewhat different from their winter camp. In Li Long's view, these young men cared more about this house than their winter camp.

To prevent the wood from cracking directly under the sun, a thick layer of dry grass was laid on the roof, followed by mud. The mud had now dried, making the roof look somewhat gray, but it was sufficient to ensure no leaks during rain.

A layer of mud was also plastered on the walls. With this double protection of wood and mud, the winter cold wind would not seep in, and it also provided fireproofing.

A wooden floor extended two meters wide in front of the house. The empty lawn ahead was leveled, and drainage ditches were dug on both sides. The courtyard had been repaired and was very flat. On the east side of the courtyard stood two wooden poles, where two sheep were currently tied, bleating occasionally, their calls echoing with those of the young deer grazing behind the winter camp.

Some of the young men sat on the unused logs, chatting and laughing. Others felt the house still had some unsuitable parts and were using tools to make repairs.

Seeing Harimu and Li Long pushing their bicycles over, the men excitedly shouted one by one, running over to help push the bicycles to the front of the winter camp.

After propping up the bikes, Li Long and everyone else unloaded the goods. Yushanjiang squeezed over, smiling and saying:

"Li Long, the winter camp is built. Now you can take a good look. If anything is unsuitable, we can work on it right now. We must make you satisfied!"

"Satisfied, satisfied! I am very satisfied!" Li Long smiled so broadly his face seemed to bloom. How could he be dissatisfied? It was a free house! Like a small villa in the mountains!

"No, no, no. You must go inside and look. Only then will you know if you are truly satisfied," Yushanjiang said seriously. "Now that the young men are all here, anything needing change can be discussed. Once we leave, if there are problems, where will you find people to fix them?"

Li Long thought this made sense, so he entered the house.

The wooden floor made him reluctant to step on it—although there were already some footprints, he still looked down carefully.

The walls were also plastered with fine mud, looking very smooth. The windows had been cut out, fitted with wooden lattices, and covered with plastic sheeting on the outside. Inside the main room, there was a designated spot for a stove next to the door, and the chimney flue had also been cut out. Yushanjiang explained:

"As for the stove, you will have to figure that out yourself. It is more convenient for you to get one."

"Of course, of course," Li Long nodded hurriedly.

The wooden kang in the main room was quite large. Currently, several sheepskins were spread over it, and two newly made wooden chests were placed against the wall.

In the small room, wooden shelves stood against the wall. On the shelves were the grain, drinks, alcohol, and other items Li Long had brought back last time. Underneath the shelves lay several pieces of jade.

"The young men brought some more stones. They said these stones are useless at home, but if you can sell them to exchange for things, that would be best."

"Good, good, good." Li Long was truly very satisfied. He walked out of the winter camp. The young men were all standing in the courtyard watching him, their eyes full of expectation.

"Very good, this house is built very well! I am very satisfied. Thank you all! Thank you, Dorsen!"

Li Long remembered the big mix-up with the name. These men were still happily playing along with him. He felt a bit guilty, then walked toward the unloaded goods and said with a smile:

"Come on, today I will give you the things I exchanged for you. See if you like them."

Li Long said nothing as the goods were unloaded. The young men did not move either. Only at this moment did they happily laugh out loud, their eyes becoming even more eager.

Li Long gave each person a pair of Liberation shoes. The young men who received the shoes were all surprised.

"These are for you," Li Long said. "Thank you for building the house for me."

Harimu translated with a smile. The young men laughed happily, and some immediately sat on the wooden planks to try on the shoes.

Harimu quickly shouted a few words to them. Li Long guessed he was telling them to try them on and then swap with each other.

When Li Long bought the shoes, he mostly bought large sizes like 40, 41, and 42. The young men had big feet, so basically everyone could wear them, needing at most one or two swaps. Li Long had bought many shoes, so there was no worry about not finding a pair that fit.

After the young men had happily put on their shoes one by one, Li Long took out a radio for each person, handing them out according to the list of those who had exchanged items last time.

These young men had become very skilled at handling Yushanjiang's radio these past few days. When Li Long handed out the radios, he also installed the batteries, so they could turn them on and find a station immediately. Some even started singing.

The young men studied these items while Li Long continued distributing things. He also gave each person a flashlight. Some were studying the radio and were momentarily confused when Li Long handed them the flashlight.

"These are for them," Li Long turned to Harimu for help, asking him to translate.

Harimu translated with a smile, and the young men's faces showed surprise once again.

This was not a joke from a comedy sketch; flashlights could truly be used as household appliances.

The young men without radios pressed the flashlight button from time to time, even shining it on their own eyes and faces. They were truly curious; this was far superior to the horse lantern.

Seeing that everyone liked the gifts he brought, Li Long smiled and continued distributing things.

After handing out all the brought items, Li Long clapped his hands to attract the men's attention and said:

"Because the bicycle can only carry limited things, some items will need to wait until I buy more to give to everyone. The money from selling the things you gave me is quite a lot. I will continue to bring things for everyone. In a little while, let's distribute the grain first. Tonight, I plan to hold a gathering here. We can listen to music, drink some beverages and alcohol, sing songs, and roast meat. How about that?"

After speaking, he looked at Harimu.

Harimu did not translate immediately. Instead, he said solemnly to Li Long:

"Li Long, you are our best Dorsen. You have helped us a lot, and we are very grateful. Do not talk about how much money those things sold for.

How much they sold for is your skill. In our hands, those things were just stones, just wood. At best, they could exchange for a tiny bit of grain. We have encountered people before who wanted these things, but they were not sincere with us; they were not friends!

Therefore, you exchanged these things for us, and we are very happy, truly very happy. The things you prepared for us are of great help to our life on the summer pasture, far more helpful than those stones and deer antlers!

So, we consider you a true Dorsen and built this house for you. You consider us true friends and brought us so many good things. We are all happy, and that is enough! In the future, do not say such things..."

Li Long listened. He understood Harimu's meaning, then turned to look at Yushanjiang. Yushanjiang also nodded, clearly thinking the same.

"Alright, I will not say that in the future."

"That's right!" Harimu smiled and began translating to the young men.

After he finished, a young man asked a few questions. Li Long could not understand, so Harimu answered, and then that young man spoke again.

When their conversation ended, the next few young men were speaking. After they finished, Harimu said to Li Long: "You see, Bileke just asked me what you and I were saying. I repeated your words, and everyone said you were overthinking it. You brought us so many good things, and we are all grateful to you.

We will not talk about the price of these things because it is useless to us. We understand very well that you turned these things, which were useless to us, into things very useful to us. That is enough! The fact that we can now help you do some things, like building the house or finding things, is our way of showing our gratitude."

Li Long nodded vigorously. He understood.

Next was the time for the young men to show their skills. They took out their knives to slaughter the sheep, dig trenches for roasting meat, and build the nans for baking naan.

Li Long could not help, so he simply went to check on the young deer.

This was the first time he had come into such close contact with a young deer. The previous life's zoo visit did not count; that was still behind a fence.

The young deer were tied near the winter camp. They were somewhat fearful, occasionally lowering their heads to graze, but most of the time they looked left and right, probably searching for their parents.

The young deer were about the same height as sheep, with short fur and very thin legs. Li Long even wondered how such creatures could support their bodies.

When the young deer saw Li Long approaching, they were still very nervous, bleating constantly. However, since Li Long did not move toward them, the young deer slowly stopped being afraid. When Li Long reached out his hand, they even licked it.

Li Long thought to himself that he did not know if these creatures could be raised.

He stood up, looked around, and then saw something white amidst the green grass.

!.

His heart stirred, and he immediately hurried forward, startling a nearby fawn that then darted away.

Running up close, Li Long felt a bit disappointed upon seeing the white object.

It turned out to be puffball. Locals also call this thing horse dung bag; it turns gray when mature, crumbling into dust at a touch, and is a medicinal herb that stops bleeding. But at this stage, it looks exactly like a large mushroom—just without a cap or a stem.

The one before him was as big as a volleyball, looking white and fluffy. Li Long plucked it off, and it smelled strongly of mushrooms.

At first, they said this thing was inedible, then later said the tender ones could be eaten. However, Li Long had no habit of eating this; he had thought it was a mushroom.

Discarding the puffball, Li Long checked the other white objects nearby. The few around were all horse dung bags, so he simply walked further away.

If horse dung bags could be found, then other mushrooms should have sprouted too.

Sure enough, walking further up the higher slope, he saw wild mushrooms of various sizes appearing in the relatively sparse grass—locally known as straw mushrooms.

Li Long happily bent down to pick them up. Soon his two hands couldn't hold them all, so he simply used his clothes to carry them, gathering over two kilograms of mushrooms before returning with lingering satisfaction.

There was more, but there was simply no room left.

Arriving before the wooden cabin, he saw the young men had already slaughtered the sheep, skinned it, and were processing the entrails. Someone had already set up a large pot, and the roasting pit had been dug and was being refined.

He saw a young man running over from the ditch, holding a bundle of red willow branches. This young man seemed to be called Berik.

Li Long walked to the stream by the ditch and began washing the mushrooms. While washing, he simply snapped off the muddy ends of the stems, which was more convenient.

By the time Li Long arrived at the winter camp with a bundle of mushrooms, the fire was already lit. High earth mounds had been built on both sides of the roasting pit. Berik was testing the length of red willow skewers, while at this moment, Halimu and Yushanjiang's wife had also arrived. They brought cooking utensils and began slicing the meat.

Li Long then realized there were even cutting boards carved from logs in the winter camp. Although they looked quite primitive, such items would be considered rare in later times.

There were no pots, so Li Long found an enamel basin, broke the mushrooms apart, and put them in. He then fetched some water—truthfully, there was no choice regarding the water here.

Although the spring eye was clearly visible right there, even drawing water near the spring revealed black worms at the bottom.

But at this moment, there was truly no way to worry about such things. It would be boiled anyway; out of sight, out of mind. After all, even in the village, they currently used well water with lids, so it wasn't necessarily very clean.

He had already decided that once he returned and had time, he would definitely dig a pressurized well for his home, at least to ensure the drinking water was clean.

In his past life, he remembered traveling with a group during his free time. When entering the mountains, some people saw mountain spring water and got excited, not only drinking it directly but also pouring out the mineral water from their bottles to fill them with this spring water.

The tour guide warned them that the water might contain worms or eggs, but these people dismissed it, saying it was impossible. The spring eye was right there; how could there be worms?

Well, good words cannot persuade a ghost determined to die.

After fetching the water, Li Long went to the winter camp and moved a few stones to build a simple stove.

Seeing Li Long busy, the young men helped too. Soon, a small stone stove was built. Someone then took a few burning logs from the fire pit over there and placed them down, adding two more pieces of firewood on top, and the fire roared to life.

Li Long quickly placed the enamel basin on top, then went to the grassy slope to find wild onions and wild garlic sprouts.

The resources here were truly abundant, with grass growing better and more items available than in the Little Poplar Gully where Tao Da and the others were.

By the time Li Long returned with the gathered items, the young men had already impatiently started roasting the meat.

Although Li Long had said the gathering was for the evening, starting at noon was no problem.

Some young men rode away on horses. Li Long asked Halimu, who explained that these young men were taking things back to fetch more people. How could it work with just the young men? The elders wouldn't run such a distance, but the girls and children could.

Li Long suddenly understood and smiled.

Spring has arrived; this matter is perfectly fine!

The aroma spread across the hills and valleys.

(End of this chapter)