Chapter 180

Li Long didn't intend to live in the dugout—living there was prone to rheumatism, and the space inside was small and stuffy.

When he left, Tao Daqiang and the others had already finished work and were no longer weaving carrying poles, but instead started to light piles of fire around the dugout and pressed wet grass on them, causing puffs of smoke.

Li Long knew this was to smoke out mosquitoes—the mosquitoes in the mountains had already risen.

Some mosquitoes here looked big, but they didn't actually bite people, while some were small but very poisonous.

Tao Daqiang and the others just pulled some green grass and put it on the fire, mainly to produce smoke. Li Long knew that mugwort could repel mosquitoes—surprisingly, he saw this in the cartoon "Boonie Bears" at someone else's house in his previous life.

On the way, Li Long encountered mugwort, pulled a few handfuls, and didn't light it when he returned to the winter shelter, but put the mugwort directly into the bedroom.

As usual, he locked the bicycle in the small room, then entered the bedroom, preparing to sleep.

The things in the small room had been moved almost completely, and the remaining Fritillaria would be taken back directly by bicycle tomorrow.

After the task in Xiaobaiyang Gully was completed, Li Long felt that he could walk around in the mountains every day—no, he had to catch some first. Walking in the mountains every day during this time, the fish in the small sea should be lonely, right?

Waking up the next morning, Li Long used the few remaining things here to make himself a relatively rich breakfast. After waiting for a while, he didn't wait for anyone selling Fritillaria to come, so he tied the Fritillaria in the small room to his bicycle and rode towards Xiaobaiyang Gully.

When he arrived at Xiaobaiyang Gully, Xie Yundong and the others had already finished breakfast, and their things were all packed and placed outside the dugout.

However, the atmosphere was a bit strange, which surprised Li Long a bit. Before he could ask, Xie Yundong told him.

"Xu Jianjun ran out by himself last night, saying he wanted to pick up deer antlers. As a result, he didn't pick up deer antlers, but instead attracted wolves! Three wolves came last night... if it weren't for the fact that we had many people and lit torches together to scare the wolves away, Xu Jianjun would have been finished, and it's possible that one of us would have been bitten by the wolves!"

Li Long's face darkened instantly.

Was this Xu Jianjun really that disobedient?

He looked at Xu Jianjun, who was sitting in front of his own dugout with an indifferent expression on his face.

"There's no way to deal with him now. The carrying poles are woven, and he also feels that we can't do anything to him, so you see... anyway, if there's a task next year, I definitely won't want him."

Xie Yundong was also very angry, but there was nothing he could do.

Li Long's heart moved. He walked to the dugout, clapped his hands to attract everyone's attention, and said:

"Everyone has worked hard for over a month. Today is considered a successful completion of the task. Everyone remembers the number of carrying poles, some more, some less, but it's better than digging for food in the fields, right?"

"Right, right, right."

"That's it, more than twenty yuan a month, comparable to an apprentice."

"Eating meat every few days is much better than at home."

"That's all thanks to Little Long, Little Long, it's really thanks to you." The one who said this was Wei Zhonghua, whose family had an extra little wild boar, which was just beautiful.

"I also thank everyone for cooperating with my work. There might be work in the autumn, and I'll look for everyone then—of course, some people can forget it, I can't afford to raise a master."

As soon as Li Long's words came out, most people were immediately excited—earning money twice a year, the urgent needs at home would be earned.

Now with ration fields, eating one's fill at the end of the year was no problem. If there was another way to make money, wouldn't it be happier than a worker—after all, there was nothing to do all winter!

Xu Jianjun was listening indifferently originally. Anyway, the work was finished, and the carrying poles he wove were also qualified. It was impossible to deduct his money—if his money was deducted at this time, he would fight to the death with the Li guy!

It was just that he didn't expect Li Long's casual words to make Xu Jianjun's face look ugly.

Without anyone reminding him, he knew Li Long was talking about him.

If there really was such a sideline job in the autumn and winter, and everyone else had it but he didn't, that would be a huge loss of face!

The problem was, seeing others make money while he couldn't, he felt uncomfortable!

"Alright, next let's wait a while, the supply and marketing cooperative's car will come over in a while. Let's load these carrying poles onto the car. When we go back, everyone will follow the car back to the county, but next, you might have to go back by yourselves."

"That's very good, saving this stretch of road. When we reach the county town, won't the rest be just two or three hours of walking?" Hearing that they could be sent to the county town, these people were all happy.

After about half an hour, the sound of the car engine started, and then three cars appeared at the gully entrance, and then came to them.

Xiaobaiyang Gully was generally flat. After the cars drove over, they turned around and turned off the engines. The drivers didn't move, and two people, a man and a woman, got off.

"Hello, is it Little Li?" The man was very enthusiastic, smiled, and shook hands with Li Long who took the initiative to greet him, "I am Wu Tianshan, the warehouse manager of our supply and marketing cooperative. You can just call me Old Wu. This is our warehousing clerk, He Fang."

"Hello Manager Wu, hello Sister He." Li Long greeted them actively, "Are we checking and loading now?"

"Alright, let's not waste time, let's check and load now."

Li Long turned around and waved:

"From inside to outside, help each other, carry the carrying poles over row by row. After one person's is checked, the next one's."

The innermost one was Tao Daqiang's, which was also the most.

Others chatted and laughed as they went over to pile Tao Daqiang's carrying poles in fives and carried them over.

"The quality is not bad." Wu Tianshan checked the carrying poles one by one and praised, "Woven very densely, the strips are also well-selected, and the poles are also suitable. Very good, load them."

Then they loaded the car.

After checking them one by one, it had been more than an hour after the three cars were loaded.

Finally, Wu Tianshan sighed while signing the document:

"Little Li, the quality of the carrying poles you wove is really good. Since you wove them well, I won't be hypocritical. These are all qualified. Come, take this document, and you can go to the finance department to collect the money when you go back."

The last car had some space left. Li Long and Wu Tianshan had already agreed to let Tao Daqiang and the others bring their luggage onto the car.

"Daqiang, take care of Uncle Gu on the way." After sending them onto the car, Li Long said to Tao Daqiang.

"Don't worry, I know." Tao Daqiang nodded vigorously.

The car drove out of Xiaobaiyang Gully, and Li Long also pedaled his bicycle out.

He also hoped to return to the county town as soon as possible, and then go to settle the account, finishing this matter early.

Li Long pedaled his bicycle to the county, it was already noon, the supply and marketing cooperative had already finished work, so he went to the meat canteen and ordered a bowl of mixed noodles.

Zhong Guoqiang wasn't there. Li Long ate a bowl of noodles with peace of mind, added another bowl, and also asked for a bowl of free noodle soup.

After eating beautifully, he wiped his mouth and left. At this time, he went to the entrance of the supply and marketing cooperative and waited for a while, and work started.

Li Xiangqian wasn't there, and Li Long didn't care about that much. He took the document opened by the warehouse manager and went to the finance department to settle the account.

"A total of one thousand eight hundred and forty-two yuan." The cashier skillfully counted out the money, asked him to count it again, and then asked him to sign on a small notebook.

Li Long looked at it, the notebook similar to a receipt, and signed it. The amount of money was no problem. He put it away, habitually said:

"Thank you, comrade." Then he walked out.

"This young man is quite calm after getting so much money." The accountant sister next to him had been observing Li Long and said in a low voice.

"He should have seen large sums of money often." The cashier was more experienced and said, "The person Section Chief Li cares about shouldn't be simple."

Li Long didn't know the conversation between these two people. He put the money in his inner pocket, rode his bicycle back to the compound, took out his three hundred and seven yuan from that stack of money, packed the remaining one thousand five hundred and thirty-five, put the small-caliber rifle into the gun bag, took it and left the compound, locked the door, and rode towards the free market—he also wanted to try his luck to see if there were any stalls there.

What surprised Li Long a bit was that there were actually stalls in the former black market, the current free market.

There weren't many stalls. Li Long guessed that these people were most likely professional scalpers, the kind who resold goods, but the scale wasn't large, so the crackdown office didn't arrest people.

Li Long walked over to look. They were mainly selling grain, eggs, and agricultural products.

The weather was getting hot. These stall owners had moved their stalls to the shade of trees—Northern Xinjiang, or the whole Xinjiang, was very good in this point. No matter how hot it was outside, it was quite cool under the shade of trees, and there was wind.

Li Long walked to the place selling eggs. Seeing that the eggs were of different sizes, some still had blood on them, and some had chicken droppings on them. Thinking that chicken farms shouldn't have risen in this era, these were pure native eggs, so he asked:

"Sister, how much is an egg?"

The woman selling eggs was in her thirties. Hearing Li Long ask the price, her face blossomed with a smile and said:

"Six cents each—if you want more, I'll give you a cheaper price." She had been here for almost a day, and at noon she only chewed a dry steamed bun and didn't even drink a mouthful of water, almost choking to death. She really didn't want to stay anymore.

!.

Did the price of eggs drop? Li Long was a bit surprised. Previously, an egg was eight cents! He remembered that the impression of egg prices in his previous life was two years later, at which time it was one dime, and this price of one dime lasted for several years.

"No way, there are still few people eating eggs now, everyone has no money." The woman saw Li Long's confusion, "Can't sell, look, I've been selling this basket of eggs for a day and only sold half."

"How many are left?" Li Long asked.

"Thirty-three." The woman said quickly.

"Are they fresh?" Li Long asked again. He was worried about buying bad eggs.

"Don't worry about this! I go to fixed families to collect them every three to five days, it's impossible to have old eggs." The woman said immediately, "Why don't you take one and shake it..."

"Then I'll take them all." Li Long pointed to the basket and said, "Then this basket..."

"The basket can't be given to you." The sister shook her head immediately, "I bought this basket at the stall next to me some time ago."

"Then I can't pack it." Li Long habitually carried an old yellow satchel, which could hold twenty eggs at most.

"Then..." The woman was also in a dilemma. She gritted her teeth and said: "Then you have to add some money."

"Add five cents." Li Long looked at her basket and said, "This basket of yours is at least half a year old, and it's not woven well. The closing wasn't done well, look, the edges are all fuzzy."

"Then... alright." The woman naturally knew the problems with her basket. In fact, she didn't buy it; she just took the basket from someone else's house when collecting eggs.

Thirty-three eggs were one yuan sixty-five cents, plus five cents for the basket, totaling two yuan fifteen cents, which was seven cents and more per egg.

Li Long was very satisfied.

Carding the basket on the back seat, Li Long left with satisfaction. He went to the department store again.

There was already a bicycle shed here, five cents for parking. Li Long locked the bicycle, carried the gun, and carried the egg basket into the building.

Seeing fresh bagged egg cakes, two yuan a bag, Li Long bought six bags directly and asked the salesperson to wrap them in two packages.

Thinking that his family didn't come to the street often, he bought some commonly used things—salt, sugar, and various seasonings, needles and thread. Thinking of the summer and that rotten road, he bought a pair of rubber boots (rain boots) and a pair of sports shoes for Li Juan and Li Qiang, and a few pairs of socks.

As for his big brother and sister-in-law, thinking there was nothing to buy, he turned around and went out of the building.

Little Liu saw him as soon as Li Long came in.

After Li Long finished buying things and went out, the sister next to him said in a low voice:

"It seems to be true. The things bought are all for daily life—it's possible that there is already a partner at home, don't miss him. How was the one the manager introduced to you a few days ago?"

"That driver... I don't like him." Little Liu shook her head, "He invited me to dinner, drank some wine, and his actions... were very rude..."

That sister sighed and didn't speak again.

Li Long pedaled his bicycle all the way to the commune middle school. Gu Xiaoxia hadn't finished class yet. He waited for a while at the door of the teacher's dormitory. Gu Xiaoxia didn't come, but that Teacher Wang came back first.

"Little Li, right? Little Gu still has half a class, do you want to sit in my place?"

"No, no." Li Long waved his hands hurriedly, thinking to himself, this lonely man and woman, go to your dormitory? If Gu Xiaoxia sees it, it really won't be clear.

Teacher Wang was older. Seeing Li Long like this, she was really happy to tease him, and while opening the door, she said with a smile:

"Are you dating Xiaoxia? Let me tell you, Xiaoxia is very popular in our school, you have to keep a close eye on her."

"I trust Xiaoxia." Li Long thought to himself, I know Gu Xiaoxia better than you. This girl is stubborn, once she decides, she won't change easily.

Teacher Wang didn't expect Li Long not to take the bait, and was still very firm, so she felt a bit bored, muttered "Really can't be teased", and then went into the room.

Li Long still looked at the direction of the classroom bungalow, not even looking at her open dormitory door.

Finally, he saw Gu Xiaoxia's figure, and Li Long waved at her happily.

Living two lives, having the nervousness and excitement of falling in love, Li Long felt it was a bit strange.

Seeing Li Long, Gu Xiaoxia also had a flash of surprise on her face. She hugged her books and quickened her pace. When she came to Li Long, she said in a low voice:

"I didn't know you were coming..."

"I didn't tell you either, alright, open the door." Li Long said with a smile, "Quite like a teacher."

Gu Xiaoxia blushed and lowered her head to open the door. Li Long followed her in.

Teacher Wang appeared at her door. She leaned against the door, a smile on her face, a bit envious.

This is the feeling of falling in love.

(End of chapter)