Chapter 176: How good it is to be a quiet medicine dealer

Watching Halimu and the others leave, Li Long actually felt a bit relaxed.

Fortunately, those two suspects didn't go to Halimu and the others' place; otherwise, they might have really harmed people.

Of course, it's also possible they went, but were afraid that there were many people in Halimu's family, so they didn't dare to go over.

Li Long was thinking wildly, pushed his bicycle, and returned to his winter den.

The sky was not completely dark yet. At this time, he discovered that quite a few things were scattered outside his winter den.

There were two deer antlers, a bag, and some fritillaria inside scattered on the ground. Preliminary judgment, this bag of fritillaria should be five or six kilograms, and it was the semi-dried kind.

These were the things dropped by those two people. He didn't know if they dug them or robbed them from others.

That axe was also thrown on the wooden floor outside the wooden house.

Li Long gathered these things together. For a moment, he intended to hide the deer antlers and fritillaria privately.

Subsequently, he dismissed this idea—this thing was at most worth one or two hundred yuan. Taking risks for such a little money wasn't worth it. Moreover, that axe was likely a murder weapon, so it's better not to do this stupid thing.

Seeing that the sky was not dark yet, Li Long found a sack to pack the things, put them on the back seat of the bicycle, and then rushed toward the outside of the mountains in a hurry.

After leaving the mountains, the sky had already darkened, and it was completely dark before he arrived at the county town.

Li Long was not afraid at all, and even a bit excited, but his speed was very fast. The journey that usually took more than an hour was done by him in less than an hour today.

At this time, there were no street lights in the county. Li Long slowed down. He felt that his body was already soaked with sweat at this time.

Arriving at the police station, Li Long knocked on the door. The duty police officer came out. What surprised Li Long was that the person on duty today was actually Guo Tiebing.

"Eh? Xiao Li, you are..."

"After I entered the mountains, I discovered that there were quite a few things they dropped at the entrance of my winter den, so I sent them over."

"You... it's late at night, it wouldn't be too late to send them tomorrow." Guo Tiebing was actually a bit moved. "Actually, they also confessed, but except for an axe, the other things are not very important..."

Li Long thought it was close; those two people really confessed. Fortunately, he wasn't that greedy!

Taking the things out of the sack one by one and placing them on the ground, Li Long said:

"I don't know the rules either. There must be my fingerprints on this, otherwise, I couldn't take it. Look..."

"That's nothing, it should be these things." Guo Tiebing said with a smile. "Alright, come, let me register, and then you go to rest quickly. It's tiring enough to rush over from the mountains from so far away."

After Li Long put the things down, he finally felt relieved and said:

"That's fine, I'm going back to the courtyard to sleep. I'm tired for a day."

"Go quickly. But still, lock the door and pay attention to safety. Look, you caught a thief in the large courtyard, and in these mountains where there are few people, you actually bumped into two murderers—"

Li Long also felt that his encounter was quite special. Reasonably speaking, there shouldn't be many people committing crimes in this day and age, but why was he so special?

Returning to the large courtyard, Li Long locked the large gate, entered the main room, locked the door again, thought for a moment, and then wiped the small-caliber rifle well, maintained it, and only then went to sleep.

Getting up the next day, he went to the large meat canteen to eat breakfast, and then rushed to Xiaobaiyang Gully. After arriving at the place, Xie Yun Dong came to find Li Long.

"Without Xiao Long, that person from that day came over again. He put down a bag of fritillaria. This bag is quite heavy; it looks like it must be fifteen or sixteen kilograms—he said he trusts you, and will come to find you for money in the afternoon. You set the price."

Li Long was somewhat surprised. He knew that what Xie Yun Dong said was definitely not that interpreter but that team leader. However, did the other party trust him so much now? After all, this bag of fritillaria was worth at least forty or fifty yuan.

"Brother Xie Yun Dong, besides this, is there anything else?"

"No, everything is fine. Now the carrying poles we've woven are almost two hundred. It just so happens that you check the ones from these two days."

Li Long nodded, put the bicycle away, and carried the gun to check the carrying poles woven in these two days.

Checking one carrying pole after another, Li Long discovered that the vast majority were good, but not all were qualified.

He pulled out five that were woven relatively loosely, with one end of the carrying pole big and one end small, and placed them by the edge of the pit, which made it easy to distinguish which unqualified one belonged to whom.

"Without Xiao Long, it was my negligence." Xie Yun Dong, seeing Li Long pick out five unqualified ones, said somewhat embarrassedly: "I checked them all, just felt..."

"Brother Xie Yun Dong, none of these five are yours, right?"

"That's not."

"And not Daqiang's either, right?"

"No."

"What does that explain? It explains that you and Daqiang are serious, know the standard, and follow the standard. They, although they also know the standard, didn't feel that the standard was very strict. They wove so many before and nothing happened, so now they relaxed."

Xie Yun Dong smiled bitterly.

When those cutting strips all came back and prepared to weave, Li Long pointed out the unqualified ones one by one.

He had to deliver the goods to Li Xiangqian, so he would absolutely not let the unqualified ones pass. At this time, whether singing the black face or giving a warning, in short, he definitely couldn't let the unqualified ones pass.

After telling those who wove the unqualified carrying poles one by one, everyone also accepted it with red faces. Rework, it's quite shameful.

What surprised Li Long was that among these five unqualified carrying poles, none were woven by Xu Jianjun.

Did he really change his nature and turn over a new leaf?

Li Long didn't think so much. When these people continued to weave carrying poles, he went over to look at those fritillaria.

The fritillaria quality was quite good, little mud, large size, no miscellaneous leaves. He didn't know if the person digging the fritillaria had clean hands or if they were carefully selected. In short, they were even better than the ten kilograms from the first time.

Weighing it, it was about sixteen or seventeen kilograms, and the weight was quite sufficient.

Li Long decided to give the other party fifty yuan. Since people trust themselves, they shouldn't live up to this trust.

During lunch, Li Long saw that everyone was there, and only then did he say the most important thing:

"Now everyone is here, you eat, I'll say something relatively important. Late last night, two murderers were caught in the mountains. These two people were wandering in the mountains digging fritillaria and picking deer antlers. When they met people alone, they killed them and robbed their things. At night, they also went to ambush people in the winter den, and then they were caught."

"What? There's such a thing?" Xie Yun Dong was startled. "Why are these two people so wicked?"

"Did these two people carry guns?" Tian Siping asked. "Brother Long, are they the two people you caught?"

"Then can we still stay at night?" This was Wei Zhong Hua who was startled.

"These two people didn't carry guns; they were caught by me. I fired two shots." Li Long said. "I told you to let you be alert at night. We have already woven more than half, the remaining tasks are not many, try to complete them as soon as possible, and then go back."

"But everyone don't be afraid." Seeing that these people's expressions were still a bit uneasy, Li Long said with a smile, "We have eleven people here. The ones caught were two people. You guys can beat them to death with one hammer each... Besides, even if someone wants to find trouble with you, they wouldn't dare to see so many people here in broad daylight."

"That's right." Xie Yun Dong nodded. "We don't have anything for people to covet. We're not digging fritillaria or picking deer antlers, and they can't carry away a few of these carrying poles; they're not worth much money."

After saying this, everyone relaxed. Tian Siping was even a bit excited: "If there really are bad people who dare to come, I'll be the first to hammer him!"

Others also recovered, each talking about their views, mostly about how to prevent it.

No matter what, they are also farming families, haven't done any great evil, so saying they are not worried at all is fake. First of all, they mostly think about how to prevent it.

"Actually, here, at night, just use branches or something to make a simple door for the dugout. As long as someone breaks in, there's movement, then that's fine. Don't even need to fight back first, shout, others hear, then he can't run even if he wants to!" Xie Yun Dong, after all, is a manager, the first to calm down and say, "We've made preparations, but don't scare ourselves."

This matter was settled like this.

In the afternoon, they continued to weave carrying poles. When the sun was about to set, someone riding a horse came to the entrance of the gully.

!.

Li Long and Xie Yun Dong carried the bag and greeted them.

It was indeed that team leader. He dismounted, looked at Li Long, and said a bunch of things.

Xie Yun Dong listened and asked a few more questions, repeated a few sentences, and only then said to Li Long:

"He said that all the fritillaria they have for these two days is sold to you. These are sold at three yuan, see if it's okay. If it's okay, then take out the money."

Although it was not quite the same as the previous words, Li Long felt it was quite good, so he took out five large unity notes and handed them over, then said to Xie Yun Dong:

"You tell him, I weighed it, this bag is about sixteen or seventeen kilograms, at three yuan, it's about fifty yuan."

That team leader took the money, spat on his finger, counted it carefully, then gave Li Long a thumbs up and said a few sentences.

This time Xie Yun Dong didn't ask again, directly saying:

"He said you are a good person, don't bully them, the price given is fair. However, this group of theirs is changing places immediately, and they won't sell fritillaria anymore later. If there is a chance in the future, they will find you again."

This team leader left, and Li Long also put the fritillaria on the bicycle, preparing to return to the winter den.

Tao Daqiang saw Li Long was about to leave and said with some worry:

"Brother Long, are you dangerous alone over there? Do you want me to dig a dugout for you, and you just live with us."

"No need, no need." Li Long smiled, "I have a gun, those people should be afraid of me. Besides, where are there so many bad people in the mountains? Meeting one is my good luck."

Riding the bicycle back to the winter den, the sky was already dark. Having the encounter of the first night, Li Long went directly into the house and locked the door. The gun was placed by his side, bullets loaded, safety closed, and then he slept.

Nothing happened all night. Li Long got up early the next morning, made some breakfast, went to the mountains to get some wild celery, wild chives, and also touched some wild mushrooms he recognized and put them in a bag. Then he packed all the fritillaria collected in these two days, plus the jade and skins obtained from Halimu, locked the door, and rode his bike toward the county town.

As usual, he put the fritillaria in the side room to dry, put the jade in a special room, locked it, and then Li Long took those skins and went to the purchasing station.

Chen Hongjun was not there. Li Long sold these skins for more than one hundred and forty yuan, mainly because that deer skin was more valuable.

Next, Li Long didn't stop either, rode his bike toward the village, and turned into the middle school halfway.

Gu Xiaoxia had already finished class and was washing rice by the self-flowing well outside the dormitory, preparing to cook. Li Long divided some of the wild vegetables and wild mushrooms he brought for her.

"You just came back from the mountains? Then wait, I'll cook and stir-fry vegetables here very quickly."

Li Long was indeed a bit tired, so he said:

"Fine, then I'll rest for a while, wait for you to cook."

"Come into the room, sit." Gu Xiaoxia led Li Long to the dormitory, pointed to the bed, and said, "No stool, you just sit there."

Li Long smiled and said:

"Fine, you get busy, I'll rest for a while."

Gu Xiaoxia blushed slightly and continued to wash the rice. Seeing her scoop another half bowl of rice over, Li Long stood up and watched at the door.

The school's well platform was eighty centimeters high, an iron pipe extended from the well platform, and then another pipe was welded horizontally, and water kept flowing out from the pipe. Below was paved with cement boards, a groove was dug, and he didn't know where the water flowed.

Li Long remembered that such self-flowing wells were very common in this era because the groundwater level was relatively high. As long as you hit the water-producing layer and connect the pipe, it will automatically flow.

He suddenly thought of the water used at home—should he get a pressure well for his family at this time?

Now the village uses ground wells for water, several families jointly dig a well, which is about three or four meters deep, and then like covering a roof, seal it with wood and reed bundles, cover it with soil, and only leave a well mouth.

When drawing water, use a shoulder pole with an iron hook to hang the water bucket down to draw it up. This is also a technical job. If you don't draw it well, the bucket will fall inside.

The groundwater layer in the village is shallow, but it is divided into several layers. Most of the shallow layer is salt-alkali water. You hit two meters and water comes out, but the water cannot be drunk, and alkali foam comes out when watering the land.

The well for drinking water needs to be hit multiple times, and only after finding a suitable water source can it be dug. In winter, you also draw water in such a well. However, a thick layer of ice will form on the well cover in winter, and it is easy to slip and fall.

Li Long decided that after the carrying pole matter was finished, he would get a pressure well for his family!

Carrying water every day is too troublesome. As long as the pressure well is hit well, it can also be used in winter, which is very convenient.

According to the normal historical trajectory, the pressure well of every household will appear in another five to ten years. Now it is generally ground wells.

Five to ten years later, the team hit another machine well, and they went directly to the machine well to pull water.

Further back, every household found well-digging workers to dig small wells, installed a small water pump, and plugged in electricity to continuously pump water up—at that time, the groundwater level was already very low.

Li Long was thinking about these problems, Gu Xiaoxia came back from washing rice, saw him in a daze, and asked:

"What are you thinking about?"

"Thinking... thinking about future life." Li Long subconsciously replied.

Gu Xiaoxia blushed immediately upon hearing this, lowered her head, and walked into the dormitory, no longer asking questions.

Li Long knew she misunderstood, but thinking about it, he didn't explain. Misunderstanding, it's also quite good.

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 177 =====