Chapter 161: Such simple and enthusiastic people

The men were decorating this house, which was a bit different from their winter quarters. In Li Long's view, these young lads were more attentive to this house than to their own winter quarters.

To prevent the wood from cracking directly under the sun, a thick layer of dry grass was laid on the roof, and then mud was plastered on it. At this time, the mud had dried, and the roof looked a bit gray, but it was enough to ensure it wouldn't leak on rainy days.

A layer of mud was also plastered on the walls, so under the double protection of wood and mud, the cold winter wind wouldn't drill in, and it also had fireproof functions.

A two-meter-wide wooden floor extended in front of the house, the empty lawn in front was leveled, drainage ditches were dug on both sides, and the courtyard was repaired, which was very flat. Two wooden poles were erected on the east side of the courtyard, and two sheep were tied there at this time, bleating from time to time, echoing with the calls of the fawns eating grass behind the winter quarters.

Some of the young lads were sitting on the unused wood laughing, and some felt that there were still some inappropriate places in the house, and were still using tools to repair it.

Seeing Ha Li Mu and Li Long pushing the bicycle over, these men shouted excitedly, and all ran over to help push the bicycle to the winter quarters.

After propping up the bike, Li Long and everyone unloaded the things together. Yushan Jiang squeezed over and said with a smile:

"Li Long, the winter quarters are built. You can take a good look now, see if there's anything inappropriate, we can process it now, we must make you satisfied!"

"Satisfied, satisfied! I'm very satisfied!" Li Long smiled until his face bloomed. What else could he be dissatisfied with? A house obtained for nothing! Like a small villa in the mountains!

"No, no, you must go in and see, only then will you know if you're really satisfied." Yushan Jiang said seriously, "The young lads are all here now, it's easy to change anything that needs to be changed. Once we leave, if there are any problems, where will you find people?"

Li Long thought it was true, so he entered the house.

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

The walls were also plastered, using fine mud, which looked very flat. The window had been dug out, made of wooden grids, and nailed with plastic cloth on the outside. There was a place to put the stove by the door in the main room, and the position of the chimney had also been dug out. Yushan Jiang explained:

"As for the stove, you have to find a way yourself. It's more convenient for you to get this stove than us."

"Should, should," Li Long nodded repeatedly.

The wooden *kang* in the main room was quite large, with several sheepskins spread on it, and two newly made wooden boxes placed against the wall.

In the small room, there were some wooden shelves against the wall. Now on the shelves were the grain, drinks, liquor, and other things Li Long brought back last time. Under the shelves were also a few pieces of jade.

"The young lads brought some more stones over. They said these stones are useless at home. If you can sell them for things, that's the best."

"Good, good, good." Li Long was truly very satisfied. He walked out of the winter quarters. Those young lads were all standing in the courtyard looking at him, their eyes full of expectation.

"Very good, this house is built very well! I'm very satisfied, thank you all! Thank you, *dorsen*!"

Li Long remembered the big blunder in the address, and these men were still happily cooperating with him. He felt a bit guilty in his heart, then walked toward the unloaded things and said with a smile:

"Come on, I'll give you the things I traded for you today, see if you like them or not."

Li Long didn't speak about the unloaded things, and these young lads didn't move at all. Only at this time did they start to laugh and talk happily, and their eyes became even more enthusiastic.

Li Long sent a pair of liberation shoes to everyone. The young lads who received the shoes were all very surprised.

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

Ha Li Mu smiled and translated. The young lads laughed happily, and some sat on the wooden boards and tried on the shoes on the spot.

Ha Li Mu hurriedly shouted a few words to them. Li Long guessed it should be to let them try them on and exchange them with each other.

When Li Long bought the shoes, most of them were large sizes like 40, 41, 42. The young lads had big feet, so basically they could wear them, and at most they would exchange one or two times. Li Long bought many shoes, so he wasn't worried about not finding a pair that fit.

After the young lads happily put on the shoes one by one, Li Long took out the radios one by one and distributed them to those who had traded things last time.

These young lads had been playing with Yushan Jiang's radio for these days and were very familiar with it. When Li Long distributed the radios, he brought the batteries and installed them, so they could find the station as soon as they opened them, and some even started singing.

The young lads were studying these things. Li Long was still distributing things, and he gave each person a flashlight. Some young lads were studying the radio, and they were stunned when Li Long gave them a flashlight.

"A gift for them." Li Long turned his head to ask Ha Li Mu for help, asking him to help translate.

Ha Li Mu smiled and translated, and the young lads' faces showed surprise again.

This wasn't a joke told in a sketch at this time; a flashlight was truly a household appliance.

The young lads who didn't have a radio pressed the flashlight from time to time, and even shone it on their eyes and faces. They were truly curious; this was much stronger than a horse lamp.

Seeing everyone liked the gifts he brought, Li Long smiled, and he continued to distribute things to everyone.

After distributing the things he brought, Li Long clapped his hands, attracted the attention of the men, and said:

"Because the things a bicycle can carry are limited, some things need to wait for me to buy them and give them to everyone. The money sold from the things you gave me is a lot, and I will continue to bring things to everyone. In a while, let's distribute the grain first. Tonight, I plan to hold a gathering here, let's listen to music, drink some drinks and liquor, sing songs, and roast meat, how about that?"

After speaking, he looked at Ha Li Mu.

Ha Li Mu didn't translate immediately. He said solemnly to Li Long:

"Li Long, you are our best *dorsen*. You have helped us a lot, and we are very grateful for this. Don't talk about how much money those things were sold for.

How much money it is sold for is your ability. In our hands, those things are just stones, just wood, and at most can be traded for a little bit of grain—we have encountered some people who wanted these things before, they were not sincere to us, they were not friends!

So, you traded these things for us, we are very happy, really very happy. The things you prepared for us have a great help to our life in the summer pasture, much greater than the help of those stones and antlers!

So, we treat you as a true *dorsen* and built a house for you. You treat us as true friends and brought us so many good things. We are all happy, that's enough! In the future, don't say such words again..."

Li Long listened, he knew what Ha Li Mu meant, then turned his head to look at Yushan Jiang, who also nodded, clearly having the same meaning in his heart.

"Alright, I won't say it in the future."

"That's right!" Ha Li Mu smiled and began to translate to the young lads.

After he finished speaking, some young lads asked a few questions, and Li Long couldn't understand, so Ha Li Mu answered, and then the young lad spoke again.

After their conversation ended, several young lads behind were all talking. After they finished, Ha Li Mu said to Li Long: "You see, Bie Li Ke just asked what I was talking to you about. I told everyone what you said, and everyone said you were thinking too much. You brought us so many good things, and we are all grateful to you.

We won't talk about the price of these things, because that's useless to us. We understand very well that it is you who turned these things that are useless to us into things that are very useful to us, that's enough! Now that we can do some things for you, building a house, finding things, is also our heart."

Li Long nodded hard, he understood.

Next was the time for the young lads to show their skills. They took out knives to slaughter sheep, dug troughs for roasting meat, and built *naan* ovens.

Li Long couldn't help, so he simply went to see the fawns.

It was his first time to contact red deer cubs at such a close distance—not counting the zoo in his previous life, that was still separated by a fence.

The fawns were tied to the side of the winter quarters. They were a bit afraid, occasionally lowering their heads to eat grass, but most of the time they were looking left and right, probably looking for their parents.

The fawns were about the same height as sheep, with short hair and very thin legs. Li Long was wondering how this thing supported its body.

The fawns were still very nervous when they saw Li Long coming over, and kept calling, but Li Long didn't move them, so the fawns slowly stopped being afraid. When Li Long stretched out his hand, they even licked it.

Li Long thought to himself, I don't know if this thing can be raised.

He stood up, looked up at the surroundings, and then saw something white in the green grass.

!.

His heart moved, he immediately rushed up, which startled the fawn next to him, and then it ran away.

When he arrived, Li Long saw the white thing and was a bit disappointed.

It turned out to be a puffball. The locals call this thing a "horse dung bag" again. After it matures, it turns gray, and if you pinch it, it becomes a bag of ash. It is a traditional Chinese medicine that can stop bleeding, but at this time it looks exactly like a big mushroom—just without an umbrella, and without a handle.

The one in front of him grew as big as a volleyball, looking white and fluffy. Li Long picked it up and smelled a rich mushroom smell.

At the beginning, it was said that this thing couldn't be eaten, and later it was said that it could be eaten when it was tender, but Li Long didn't have the habit of eating this thing. He thought it was a mushroom.

Throwing away the puffball, Li Long looked at other white objects. The few nearby were all horse dung bags, so he simply walked to a more distant place.

If he could find horse dung bags, then other mushrooms should have grown too.

Sure enough, he walked to a higher hillside, and then saw wild mushrooms of various sizes appearing in the sparse grass—the locals collectively called them grass mushrooms.

Li Long happily bent down and picked them up. Soon, both hands couldn't hold them. He simply used his clothes to hold them, picked more than two kilograms of mushrooms, and then walked back with unfinished interest.

There were still more, but he couldn't hold them.

Returning to the front of the wooden house, he saw that the young lads had already slaughtered the sheep, peeled the skin, and were processing the internal organs. Someone had already set up a big pot, and the trough for roasting meat had also been dug, and was being refined.

He saw a young lad running over from the gully, holding a handful of red willow branches. This young lad seemed to be called Bie Li Ke.

Li Long walked to the small stream in the gully and began to wash the mushrooms. When washing, he directly twisted off the part of the umbrella handle with mud, which was convenient.

When Li Long held a pocket of mushrooms and came to the winter quarters, the fire had already been set up. The high soil on both sides of the roasting meat trough had been cultivated. Bie Li Ke took the red willow skewers to test the length, and at this time, Ha Li Mu and Yushan Jiang's wives had also come over. They brought cooking utensils and began to cut meat.

Only then did Li Long discover that there were even cutting boards cut from logs in the winter quarters. Although they looked quite primitive, this thing was also a rarity in later generations.

There was no pot. Li Long found an enamel basin, broke the mushrooms and put them in, and went to fetch some water—to be honest, there was no way to choose the water here.

Although the spring eye was clearly there, even if he fetched water near the spring eye, he could see black insects under the water.

But at this time, there was really no way to care so much. Anyway, it was to be boiled, so let's just pretend not to see it. After all, even in the village, they were still using well water with a cover, and it wasn't necessarily very clean to say it was very clean.

He had already planned that when he went back and had time, he would definitely dig a pressure well for his family, at least to keep the water he ate clean.

In his previous life, he remembered traveling with a group when he was free. When entering the mountains, someone saw mountain spring water, and they were all excited, not only drinking it directly but also pouring out the mineral water in the mineral water bottles they carried, and then catching this spring water.

The tour guide reminded them that there might be insects or insect eggs in the water, but these people didn't care at all, saying it was impossible, the spring eye was right here, how could there be insects.

Well, it's hard to persuade a ghost who wants to die with good words.

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

The young lads saw Li Long busy, so they followed to help. Soon a small stone stove was built, and then someone took a few pieces of wood that were burning very vigorously from the fire pile over there, added two pieces of firewood on top, and the fire burned.

Li Long hurriedly put the enamel basin on, and then went to the grass slope to find wild onions and wild garlic seedlings.

The resources here were really rich, the grass grew better than in the White Poplar Gully where Tao Daqiang and the others were, and there were many things.

When Li Long picked the things and came back, the young lads had already started roasting meat impatiently.

Although Li Long said the gathering was in the evening, there was nothing wrong with starting at noon.

Some young lads rode horses and left. Li Long asked Ha Li Mu, and he said these young lads wanted to bring things back and bring people over—how could it work with only young lads? The elderly wouldn't run so far, but girls and children could.

Li Long suddenly realized, and he smiled.

Spring is here, this matter, no problem!

The fragrance spread in the mountain slopes and valleys.

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 162 =====