Chapter 172

Li Long put down the bicycle he was preparing to push away and came to the gully entrance.

The people from the sideline team had just finished eating, and as they were cleaning up their respective bowls and chopsticks, their gazes were still looking toward this side.

Xie Yun Dong originally wanted to follow, and Tao Daqiang also wanted to follow, but Li Long waved his hand to indicate it wasn't necessary.

He actually vaguely guessed the other side's intention.

Those two people were riding horses, and seeing Li Long coming over, they dismounted.

"You said you would collect fritillaria, is it true?" the ethnic person responsible for translating asked Li Long.

Li Long thought of one thing: these two herdsmen, including the others he saw at the dugout earlier, were not carrying guns on them.

The forestry team isn't issuing guns anymore?

"I collect them." Li Long saw the urea bags on their horses and was secretly surprised in his heart.

Those bags were bulging, and they were carrying quite a lot!

"Do you have a scale here?" that person asked, "We collected some fritillaria here and want to sell them to you, look..."

"I do collect them. For one, I have to look at the goods; after all, the sizes are different, and the prices are different. For another, because my people dug your fritillaria earlier, the price I offered was higher, and some of it was counted as the fine for you. If I collect them now, the price won't be that high."

The translator told the words to the other person.

The team leader's expression changed after listening, and he asked a question. The translator said:

"Then how much money will you give? If it's too little, we won't sell."

"Let's look at the fritillaria situation first."

Li Long pointed at the bags on the horse's back, expressing his meaning.

He turned his head and found that the few people from the sideline team were all staring at this side, knowing they were nervous for him, so he smiled to indicate it was fine.

The two forestry team people untied the bags from the horse's back and opened the mouth to signal Li Long to come over and look.

Li Long leaned over and took a look, finding that the fritillaria inside were mostly about the same size as those Xu Jianjun dug, but there were also some that were relatively small, half the size of a silkworm bean. Furthermore, the fritillaria inside weren't considered clean, carrying quite a bit of mud; it was highly probable they were dug in the morning or dug in relatively wet places.

Li Long grabbed the mouth of the bag and shook it, seeing that the bottom was roughly the same, so he raised his head and said to that person:

"Three yuan per kilogram, how about that?"

The translator clearly breathed a sigh of relief after hearing this price, didn't even translate for the team leader, nodded, and said:

"Alright, this price, it's okay!"

Li Long weighed the bag and said:

"This bag, it's ten kilograms, right?"

Because the fritillaria were wet, this urea bag was filled more than halfway, and Li Long felt it should be about that much when he lifted it.

"How much money will you offer?" The translator actually didn't know how much was in this bag either; in this day and age, who would bring a scale when going into the mountains? It was basically all estimated.

"Thirty yuan." Li Long put down the bag and said, "There's no scale, so let's just count it like this."

"Good." The translator turned his head and told the team leader, the team leader nodded vigorously, and the translator agreed.

Li Long took out the money; he still had more than fifty yuan in his pocket, took out three ten-yuan notes, and handed them to the other side.

The translator quickly reached out to take the money, and the team leader reached out from the side to take it over.

Li Long pointed at the ground and said:

"I will be here every day from now on, if you have any, I'll still collect them."

"Do you still have money?"

"If you have fritillaria, then I have money." Li Long smiled, "I can definitely collect them."

"Do you collect no matter how much?" The translator's voice suddenly became louder after hearing this, "You can collect all of it?"

"Yes." Li Long thought to himself, of course I collect it; the price difference from this back and forth is much more profitable than these carrying poles!

He remembered that Chen Hongjun seemed to have said that the acquisition station collects dried fritillaria for thirty-five per kilogram. Spring fritillaria is five to six kilograms to dry one kilogram, and early summer fritillaria is four to five kilograms to dry one kilogram.

Calculating it, fresh fritillaria is about five or six yuan per kilogram. The bag of fritillaria Li Long is holding now can dry about two kilograms of dried goods, and sixty or seventy yuan is a sure thing.

A profit of one hundred percent, just by moving his lips, how refreshing!

He was very clear that the fritillaria these forestry team people had should also have been collected from people who stole fritillaria like Xu Jianjun—a business with no capital, so both sides could be considered happy.

The two people left. Li Long carried the bag to the bicycle, tied the bag to the back seat of the bicycle, and said to Xie Yun Dong:

"Brother Yun Dong, you all pay attention to safety at night, there are more people coming into the mountains recently, it's a bit chaotic."

"You too." Xie Yun Dong also gave a word of advice.

"Rest assured, I have a gun." Li Long patted the small-caliber rifle on his back, then rode the bicycle and went to the winter shelter.

Returning to the winter shelter, the sky was almost dark. He directly pushed the bicycle into the small room and locked the door, then entered the big room, barred the door from the inside, and lay on the wooden kang.

There were a lot of things today, and Li Long didn't fall asleep for a while, reviewing the day's activities.

Ili Fritillaria, or Tianshan Fritillaria, can also be considered a relatively famous medicinal material in the region. Li Long guessed that quite a few people would come into the mountains to steal fritillaria in the near future, and this situation continued until the 2020s of the next century without being cut off.

Every year, Li Long could hear on the news that the police or forestry departments caught people stealing fritillaria in the mountains, and the confiscated fritillaria were all calculated in tens of kilograms.

Since the forestry team is helping to collect it, Li Long felt it was necessary for him to go down the mountain tomorrow to get some money back.

Although both rooms here were locked, Li Long wouldn't put valuable things here, such as guns, money, or jade; basically, he would bring them down the mountain after collecting them.

The next morning, Li Long had a simple breakfast here, packed up, put all the fritillaria in one bag, clamped it on the back seat of the bicycle, and rode to Ha Ha Li Mu's place.

"Li Long, we are transferring to the summer pasture in two days, saying goodbye to you in advance." Ha Ha Li Mu said first after seeing Li Long, "See you in the autumn!"

"Good, I'll come to see you off the day after tomorrow." Li Long nodded and said, "Do you need me to bring anything from down the mountain?"

"No need," Ha Ha Li Mu hurriedly waved his hand, pointed at the winter shelter, and said, "Do you know? Because of you, we have now stored a lot of food and tools, and we will have a very pleasant summer! Those Duosens say the scythes are very good, they will bring some things over in these two days, and when you come over tomorrow or the day after, take the things away."

"Good." Li Long wasn't polite either. After saying goodbye to Ha Ha Li Mu and the others, he rode his bike back to the county town.

He weighed the fritillaria first and found that the two bags combined were less than fourteen kilograms, so the weight he weighed at that time was basically not far off. Feeling a bit proud, he dried the fritillaria in the side room of the courtyard and found idle rooms to place other jade, skins, and so on. After finishing, he went to look at the deer antler of the roe deer and found that the salt mud had completely dried through. After carefully knocking it open, the antler inside had also dried, so he carried the two sections of deer antler to the acquisition station.

"Comrade Chen, hello, I'm here to sell the deer antler of a roe deer." Li Long saw Chen Hongjun sitting behind the counter reading a book when he was free, so he took the initiative to greet him.

"Roe deer antler? Rare, bring it here to see." Chen Hongjun also said with a smile when he saw it was Li Long, "Comrade Xiao Li, you can always bring me surprises."

Li Long placed the two sections of deer antler on the counter, and Chen Hongjun picked up one section, smelled it, and looked at it carefully.

"Not bad, this deer antler is well preserved." Chen Hongjun praised after looking, "Yesterday someone also brought a section of red deer antler, but it wasn't preserved well. When I touched it lightly, the outer velvet skin rotted away; clearly, they didn't know how to preserve it. This section of yours is very good."

"Using the local method told by the elderly." Li Long said with a smile, "Look at these two sections..."

"Roe deer antler is not comparable to red deer antler, but the price is not cheap either. Now red deer antler has increased in price, sixteen yuan per hundred grams, I'll give you fourteen yuan and five jiao for roe deer antler."

"Good." Li Long naturally had no objections, and Chen Hongjun weighed the two sections on the platform scale.

"The two sections total one kilogram and one hundred and fifty grams, totaling one hundred and sixty-six yuan and seventy-five fen. Come, issue the ticket, you sign it."

After collecting the money, Li Long was about to leave, and Chen Hongjun said to him:

"Now that spring is almost over, the good things in the mountains are slowly coming out. Whatever you can collect, bring it over. During this period, we are concentrating on collecting goods, and the price is also good."

"That's just right, I collected some fritillaria, and I'll send it to you when it's dried." Li Long said with a smile, "There are also a few skins, I'll bring them together then."

!.

"Alright, waiting for your news." Chen Hongjun smiled and watched Li Long leave from inside the counter.

Li Long took the money, first went to the Zhang Xin Hua Bookstore to buy a box of small-caliber bullets, and after packing them up, went to the canteen for big meat, eating a portion of mixed noodles beautifully.

Manager Zhong Guo Qiang smiled and asked after seeing Li Long:

"Comrade Xiao Li, haven't seen you recently, what are you busy with?"

"I've been in the mountains for a period of time recently," Li Long said while peeling garlic, "Manager Zhong, I see there are quite a few people eating here, much more than before."

"Haha, isn't it because the weather is hot? There are more people coming out to find work and do some small business. When will you catch fish again? I have old customers here saying the fish now isn't as delicious as before, the fish you sent me at that time was not bad."

"Still more than half a month." Li Long shook his head and said, "I'm doing procurement tasks for the supply and marketing cooperative in the mountains, I can't come down the mountain to stay often until it's finished."

"Understand, understand." Zhong Guo Qiang nodded, "Then when you come back and have time to catch fish, send me a few big carp then."

"Good, good, good."

After eating the mixed noodles, Li Long returned to the courtyard, found two gunny sacks and an iron shovel, loaded some corn, pumped up the bicycle, and rode toward the mountains.

Smoke was still drifting in Little Bai Yang Gully. Li Long found Wei Zhong Hua and said to him:

"I plan to dig a trap pit in the place where you discovered the wild boar. When I trap the wild boar, I'll share some meat with you."

"Good, good, good." Wei Zhong Hua nodded immediately, "Do you want me to go over and dig?"

"No need." Li Long waved his hand, "You just honestly weave carrying poles, I'll just try to see if it works."

Actually, if it weren't for the fact that there were no shrubs in that area, Li Long would have thought about going over there to set a snare.

He took the iron shovel and went into that gully. The others weaving carrying poles all showed envious eyes; this is truly doing whatever one wants, how carefree this life is!

Li Long arrived in that gully, looked carefully, and was pleasantly surprised to find traces of new arching, which indicated that the wild boar should have come over again early this morning.

Li Long found a suitable place and started digging.

He didn't dig it big this time, just a pit two meters square and one point two or three meters deep—just this one pit took him more than three hours, and by the time he finished digging, he already regretted it.

But since he had dug it, he gritted his teeth and dug to the end.

After digging, Li Long rested for a while, scattered the dug-up soil, then went to the nearby forest to cut some poplar branches to spread over the trap pit, and then cut some grass for camouflage.

By the time these were done, the sun had already set, and the mountain wind had become cool. He hurriedly scattered the corn kernels he brought around the trap pit, and finally scattered the most on the grass above the trap pit.

Because it was just an experiment, Li Long just thought about trying his luck. After these were done, he hurried back.

Passing by Little Bai Yang Gully and Ha Ha Li Mu's winter shelter, Li Long didn't stop, rushing all the way to his wooden house. By the time he arrived at the wooden house, the sky was completely dark.

Li Long was exhausted and had no strength to cook, so he simply locked the door and went to sleep. Fortunately, he ate mixed noodles at noon, which kept him full, otherwise, he would definitely have been woken up by hunger this night.

The next morning, Li Long climbed up, made a fire to cook porridge for himself, and after eating, went to Ha Ha Li Mu's place first.

"The young men sent you a few skins, as well as a few pieces of stone and a section of deer antler." Ha Ha Li Mu pointed at the things placed in front of the winter shelter, "Take them away quickly, we are leaving tomorrow."

"I'll come to take them in the afternoon, now I have to go to Little Bai Yang Gully to see the labor situation of my people."

"Alright, just remember to take them." Ha Ha Li Mu was also busy and didn't have time to entertain Li Long now.

Li Long rode his bicycle to Little Bai Yang Gully. Xie Yun Dong saw him and said to him:

"Those two people from that day came again last night, didn't find you, and said if you have time today, wait for them in the evening."

"Good." Li Long knew they must have collected fritillaria again.

These goods are quite a lot!

Li Long rode the bicycle carrying the gunny sack to the place where he dug the trap pit, and he was disappointed to find that there was no movement above the trap pit; the green grass and leaves had already dried, and the trap pit was also exposed.

Li Long then got some grass and leaves to cover the exposed parts tightly and dug some soil to put on it loosely.

Rushing back to Little Bai Yang Gully, Li Long said to Wei Zhong Hua, who was full of expectation:

"No, the wild boar didn't go over this morning."

Wei Zhong Hua was a bit disappointed, but Li Long comforted him instead:

"This is very normal. Wild boar is an animal with strong mobility, and there is a lot of food outside now, so it won't always stay in one place."

Waiting until the afternoon, Li Long finally waited for the two people from the forestry team riding horses again.

Seeing Li Long, they clearly breathed a sigh of relief. After dismounting, the translator said to Li Long:

"Yesterday, you weren't there, we had quite a lot of fritillaria. Today, some were handed in, you look at the remaining ones..."

Li Long had actually already seen it; the urea bags on their horses were still quite bulging, but it seemed there weren't as many as that day.

(End of chapter)