Chapter 167: The Flood Is Coming, Little Haizi

After Li Long's short treasure-hunting trip of less than an hour, the harvest was more than forty fiat currency and gold yuan coupons—mainly because a stack was stuffed in a slightly larger wall seam behind.

Then there were three Yuan Datou and seven or eight copper coins.

These copper coins and Yuan Datou were all rusted. Li Long didn't know how to handle them, so he wrapped them all in paper, ready to take them back and put them in the money bag in his east room.

Save them, anyway, he wasn't short of money, and this thing wasn't worth much now.

After cleaning the courtyard, Li Long pushed his bicycle out, locked the door, and went home.

Passing by the middle school, Li Long specifically rode in. He came often, and the old school worker already knew him, smiling and pointing to a classroom:

"Teacher Gu is in there having class."

Li Long then smiled and said to him:

"Old Uncle, please help me tell Teacher Gu that the shoes fit well, and I like them very much."

"Alright." The old school worker said with a smile.

Li Long rode his bicycle out of the school, and his mood was beautiful.

However, when he reached the reed lake outside the village, his mood wasn't so good.

Because the ditch that originally had flowing water in the reed lake was now almost full.

This ditch was less than one meter deep, occasionally had water, not much. Now the water was muddy, obviously the flood had arrived.

Li Long immediately turned and walked upstream along the reed lake. Less than a kilometer away was the Little Haizi.

Before he reached the Little Haizi, he heard the rumbling sound of water. Obviously, the water here was bigger.

Parking his bicycle, Li Long immediately ran to the junction of the dry ditch and the dry canal—although he had given money last time to let the team dig this section through, he hadn't seen the digging situation.

In front of him was a very muddy water surface, almost leveling the dry ditch, but the water in the dry canal was still half a meter from the top.

The water in the dry ditch surged down, rushed into the dry canal, and then turned almost ninety degrees to the east.

Originally the water in the dry canal was quite clear, but after merging, it also became muddy water.

What made Li Long a bit gratified was that when the team worked, they not only dug through the dry ditch and the dry canal, but also anticipated the impact of the flood coming down from the dry ditch on the dry canal, so they used half-cut cement boards (cement boards) brought from somewhere to block several layers here.

So although the flood rushing down from the dry canal had great impact, with the cement boards blocking it, it wouldn't wash away the canal embankment, and there was no problem.

Li Long breathed a sigh of relief, and then saw that the water flowing into the reed lake was actually seeping out from the gate of the Little Haizi. The gate here had been there for too long, the concrete wall had cracks, and it would seep water.

However, because the quality of the project at that time was very focused on, although there were cracks, the water felt like it couldn't wash away the gate no matter what. Li Long was relieved.

Because the dry canal and the dry ditch were connected, although the water in the Little Haizi was also rising, it was still far from full, and the gate there was also constantly releasing water, relatively safe.

Li Long turned back, pedaled his bicycle, and when he returned to the reed lake, he got off the bicycle, carried it, and waded across.

What about students finishing school?

Li Long thought and returned home.

At this time, his brother and sister-in-law hadn't returned from the fields, and Li Qiang hadn't finished school either. Li Long was cooking while thinking about the students finishing school.

He planned to wait at the reed lake when school was about to finish.

Li Long was still making pulled noodles. Cooking rice in a pot was a technical job. He couldn't do it, afraid of cooking it into half-cooked rice, which wouldn't be good.

Li Jianguo pulled the horse cart back first, and the horse was still loaded with a lot of pig grass—actually, it was just gray vegetables, pulling seedlings, dandelions, and wild amaranth.

He saw Li Long cooking and asked with a smile:

"Xiao Long, with you at home, we have saved a lot of effort."

"It won't be easy tomorrow." Li Long said while putting the noodles in, "Big brother, do you need the horse cart tomorrow? If not, I plan to go into the mountains, send them some things, and bring back some manure. We also need to plant vegetables in our courtyard, let's apply some manure first."

"Alright, I don't need it tomorrow." Li Jianguo tied the horse, then gathered the pig grass together, pulled over the old vegetable knife, and started chopping. Now that it was tidied up, the dishwater could be used to boil pig food later.

Liang Yuemei and Li Qiang returned one after another. She also carried a bundle of pig grass, put it next to Li Jianguo, untied her headscarf, and said:

"With Xiao Long here, I can enjoy the blessing, don't even need to cook at noon."

"It'll be busy tomorrow, I'm going into the mountains tomorrow." Li Long served the noodles and put them by the stove, "Go into the mountains to be lazy once."

"What's that called being lazy? That's the real business." Liang Yuemei knew Li Long was joking, but she still corrected, "You get busy with yours, I was just joking."

Li Qiang came over to help Li Jianguo, putting the chopped pig grass into the pig food basin. After these were tidied up, they washed their hands and ate.

"Water passed through the reed lake ditch, I'll go pick up the children after school this afternoon." Li Long said while eating, "I'll go find the captain tonight to see if he arranged for someone to guard it there in the afternoon."

"You don't need to worry about this." Li Jianguo said while peeling garlic, "Daqiang's dad said he would pull the donkey cart to pick up the children there, the team is paying attention to this matter. Children going to school is a big deal, can't be delayed."

This is a newly built village. Except for two or three households that are locals with a history of hundreds of years, the others are from all over the country, some are supporting the border, some are fleeing famine and settling down, and some are visiting relatives. Because of different habits in different places, they have thrown away some bad habits like valuing boys over girls and not letting girls go to school.

Plus, it's easy to get enough to eat here, and there are examples like Gu Xiaoxia who went to school, passed the exam to be a teacher, and ate public food, so the villagers attach great importance to education. As long as they can go to school, whether boys or girls, they will try their best to let them go.

Hearing that the team had arrangements and someone took the initiative to pick up the children, Li Long felt relieved. However, when school was about to finish in the afternoon, he still went to the reed ditch, and then saw Tao Jian She already waiting with the donkey cart. There were two other people from the team rolling up their trouser legs and chatting there. Seeing Li Long come over, they said with a smile:

"Yo, Xiao Long also came to pick up students after school?"

"Hmm, you guys too?"

"Right. The water rose, can't drown the children."

Li Long nodded fiercely, incomparably agreeing with this sentence.

He smiled at Tao Jian She, took out cigarettes from his pocket, and distributed them to several people. Although he didn't smoke, he still kept cigarettes in his pocket.

A cigarette shortened the distance, and the two people asked Li Long about the situation in the mountains, talking and laughing. Li Long could feel that since the land was divided, the smiles on the faces of the people in the team had obviously increased.

The children came over one after another. Several adults took turns to carry or carry the children across the canal. Tao Jian She couldn't help, so he simply put several children on the donkey cart together and sent them home.

When Li Juan came over, it was already half an hour later. "Xiao Long, you just pick up Juan and go back, we'll send the rest." People in the village said to Li Long, "It doesn't need so many people here, staying is also a waste of time."

Li Long didn't act pretentious either, carried Li Juan's schoolbag, and went home with her.

Li Jianguo and Liang Yuemei had already gone to the fields to work. After Li Long heated the food for Li Juan, he went to the east room and started wiping the gun.

By the 1990s, guns would be completely banned, the 56 semi-automatic would definitely be confiscated first, and the small-caliber could be kept for a few more years. This gun must be well maintained so that the hit rate could be improved when hunting.

After wiping the gun, Li Long started to tidy up things. There was nothing on the winter shelter side, so he had to bring some things to put there for emergencies. Grain could be bought, but he planned to bring some of the cured meat and braised meat here. This stuff could be kept, and he would definitely have to cook in the winter shelter in the future. It wasn't that he could hit something every time he got there, so bringing some was not wrong.

Besides these things, there weren't many other things that could be brought, most still needed to be bought in the county tomorrow.

The next day, Li Long finished breakfast, pulled the horse cart, and drove Li Juan to the outside of the village.

On the way, he picked up primary and middle school students who were going the same way, and soon the horse cart was full. The students weren't picky, and if they met more students, they would squeeze together and laugh happily. If they met smaller children, the older children would take the initiative to jump down and carry the small children onto the horse cart.

Li Long pulled the horse cart and watched this scene, feeling quite happy. People at this time were mostly carrying simple kindness, and wouldn't worry about being blackmailed or misunderstood. Li Long felt that they should be the batch of people who were well protected, or survivor bias. Anyway, until he had a cerebral hemorrhage in his previous life, he had never seen human traffickers or the like, nor had he encountered anyone faking a collision.

Arriving at the primary school, a large group of young men jumped off the horse cart happily. One child even shouted "Thank you, Uncle", and the students behind followed. Li Juan said "Little Uncle, goodbye", and other primary school students followed, making everyone laugh out loud. Until he walked to the middle school, the corners of Li Long's mouth were still curled up.

!.

Passing by the middle school, the old school worker at the school gate looked at Li and said with a smile:

"Teacher Gu is in the office."

"I won't go over to see her, I'll get busy first, we'll talk when I come back."

Li Long sat on the horse cart and drove to the county. He went to the department store first to buy bedding and sundries, then went to the supply and marketing cooperative to buy some pots, bowls, and chopsticks, and finally went to the morning market to buy some grain, went to the medicine company to buy some common medicines, and then turned back to the courtyard to load the scythes before rushing into the mountains.

The family members of the sideline team in the team knew that they could eat meat while working in the mountains, so they were no longer worried, and just asked Li Long to bring a few words.

When Li Long arrived in front of Halimu's winter shelter, he found that they were also preparing things here.

When the dogs barked, Nasen ran out, followed by Halimu.

Li Long greeted them with a smile:

"Dorsen, are you doing well?"

"Good, good. You are..."

"I brought the scythes, fifteen of them, you distribute them to them. There is also some grain, let them come and get it themselves later, I don't know where they live."

Li Long hugged the package of scythes, and Halimu followed him to the winter shelter carrying a bag of grain.

Li Long put down the scythes and opened the packaging to show Halimu:

"Look, it's correct, right."

"Correct, correct! Brand new, good stuff!" Halimu looked very happy, "This kind of one isn't cheap, right?"

"Not expensive, just a few kilograms of mutton."

"Is it that cheap?" Halimu didn't believe it, he looked at Li Long.

"Really, we are Dorsen, I don't lie to you." Li Long said seriously.

"Fine, fine, fine, I believe you." Halimu said hurriedly, he picked up a scythe and gestured, very satisfied, "Install a handle, it'll be much more convenient to cut grass. The one we have at home is almost worn out."

"Forgot, should have brought you a few whetstones."

"No need, no need, we aren't used to that, we have them in the mountains, whetstones, there are plenty in the mountains!"

Li Long unloaded the grain again, and kept a small bag of rice and a small bag of flour for himself, which he planned to put in his own winter shelter.

"There is also a bag of medicine here, I'll tell you how to use it. Look, they are all packed separately, this is for pain, this is for fever, this is white medicine, for stopping bleeding, can be eaten, if you hit your stomach and bleed, it can also be used, and this is for diarrhea..."

Li Long told Halimu about the medicine again. He prepared quite a lot, at least ten bottles (boxes) of each, enough for those herdsmen to use in an emergency.

To ensure they didn't take the wrong medicine, Li Long asked Halimu to make a mark on each bag of medicine again, so it would be convenient to distribute to those herdsmen later.

"Are you about to transfer pastures?" Li Long asked.

"Yes." Halimu said, "Spring came earlier this year, the grass in the mountains is already green, in a few days we might be at the summer pasture, when we meet again, it will be winter."

"It's okay, I will often come to the mountains, maybe one day when I'm free, I'll run into the mountains."

"Then I'll tell you the location of our summer pasture." Li Long's joke was taken seriously by Halimu. He pulled Li Long to squat down and said seriously:

"Look, this is the ditch we are in now, follow this ditch, walk into the mountains, until you walk to a place where there is an open grassland in the ditch, from here, towards this side—that is the direction the sun rises, continue walking in here, need to cross... hmm, cross seven mountains, there is a bigger grassland there, that is our pasture.

From here, towards there, should take five days."

Well, Li Long immediately dismissed the idea of going over. Walking for five to six days, is he planning to cross the Northern Tianshan Mountains?

"Alright, you guys get busy, I'll pull some things to my winter shelter, and then come over to dig some manure from you, by the way, when I leave, I want to take those two little deer back."

"Fine, fine." Halimu said with a smile, "Little deer, very lively, but they don't get along with our sheep, need to be raised separately, this thing, very delicate."

Li Long pulled the horse cart and walked towards his winter shelter. Because there was no road, when passing through the ditch, the horse cart would be very bumpy. Fortunately, there wasn't much loaded on the horse cart, it could tilt thirty degrees, but not to the point of things falling off.

Seventy-six was often walking in the mountains, so it was used to it, occasionally would call out, but wouldn't stop.

Arriving at the winter shelter, Li Long opened the door lock, unloaded the things, and then took the things inside and loaded them onto the cart—mainly some jade and skins.

After loading the things, locking the door, and returning the same way, by the time he reached the winter shelter, Li Long was already a bit tired. The sun had already risen to mid-air, Halimu smiled and called him into the house to drink tea and eat naan.

"Meat, it's what was left last time, you eat a little, we'll load manure together later."

"Good." Li Long saw the time was still early, so he didn't plan to leave in a hurry. He unloaded the horse cart, wiped the sweat for seventy-six, and then drank milk tea. He originally planned to go to Little White Poplar Ditch, but without a bicycle, Li Long was also a bit lazy, planning to load the manure today and take it back to unload, and then go after riding the bicycle here.

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 168 =====