Chapter 190

Not long after Li Long rode out, he turned back.

The two officers were recording, and seeing Li Long return, they were both a bit surprised.

"Comrade Li, is there anything else?" one officer asked.

"Forgot a big thing." Li Long got off his bike, took a stack of wallets out of his pocket, and handed them over, "When I interrogated them just now, I made them hand over their wallets, and I stuffed them in my pocket. I handed the people over to you, but I forgot this—if I took this back, I wouldn't be able to explain it! Glad I remembered—five wallets, here!"

That officer was stunned for a moment, and the other officer leaned over, saw that one of the wallets was bulging, and couldn't help asking:

"Is this all money inside?"

"Yes, I checked, there's quite a lot." Li Long smiled, "Alright, I have to go back."

"You could still think of sending them back, that's really good!" one officer couldn't help saying.

"This money burns my hands." Li Long smiled, "I'm afraid I won't be able to sleep at night."

Li Long rode his bicycle away. The two officers watched his back disappear onto the Mahe Bridge before they started counting the money.

"A total of five hundred sixteen yuan, fifty-one cents." One of them said after counting twice, "This is a huge sum, that Comrade Li is really something."

"We'll report this truthfully. Although the two sides aren't in the same jurisdiction, I think at least a letter of commendation can be sent." The other officer recorded the amount and said, "In this day and age, such people are still worth vigorously commending."

Li Long actually felt quite complicated inside. Handing the money to the officers, there was a tiny bit of regret, but thinking about it, he felt calm. The short guy had killed someone, so this matter would definitely be investigated strictly. The matter of the wallets couldn't be hidden.

He rode his bike back to the courtyard, rested for a while, and went to the side room to look at those fritillaries.

The fritillaries were completely dry, so Li Long gathered them all together and weighed them himself first.

After working back and forth for so long, collecting fritillaries several times, and drying them to the end, he had eleven kilograms and four hundred grams of dried goods on hand.

He had also sold them once.

Li Long thought for a moment, rode his bicycle, and took the fritillaries to the purchasing station.

Through the open gate, he saw Chen Hongjun inside, so he locked his bike and walked in.

Li Long's plan was that if Chen Hongjun wasn't there, he would wait until the next time he sold fish to take these fritillaries to Shicheng to sell—the tone and expression of that woman's questioning earlier were wrong, and Li Long felt it was better to be cautious.

"Yo, Xiao Li is here, haven't seen you for a good while." Chen Hongjun said to Li Long with a smile, "What good things did you bring this time?"

"Collected some fritillaries in the mountains, dried them, and came to take a look. What's the price of fritillaries now?"

"The price of fritillaries has gone up." Chen Hongjun watched Li Long put the bag on the counter and said while untying the rope, "Recently, there's been a bumper harvest of fritillaries, but there are also more people buying them. Some pharmaceutical factories in the interior have also come to buy, so the price has gone up. First-grade is forty yuan per kilogram, second-grade is thirty-eight yuan per kilogram, and the remaining common goods are thirty-five yuan... Your... quality is quite good."

Li Long smiled. It's good that the price went up; he had another source of income.

Even if his were sold as second-grade at thirty-eight yuan, a kilogram of fresh ones would be worth over seven yuan—earning double, really good!

"For these of yours, I'll count them as a mix of first and second grade, thirty-nine yuan." Chen Hongjun grabbed a handful of fritillaries and looked at them carefully, "Hmm, cleaned, dried well, few impurities, and no mold—handled quite well!"

Next, weighing the fritillaries, removing the skin, calculating the account, and issuing the ticket. Li Long finally received four hundred forty-four yuan. With a thick stack of "Big Unities" in hand, Chen Hongjun couldn't help saying:

"Xiao Li, you earn money really fast! Just these fritillaries are worth a year's salary for an ordinary worker!"

"Haha, this has capital, and it's not just mine alone." Li Long laughed it off, "Comrade Chen, you go ahead and get busy, I have things to do, I'm leaving, goodbye!"

"Alright, goodbye, bring more if you have any good things!"

"No problem! By the way, Comrade Chen, I want to ask what the price of muskrat fur is now? Also, do you buy the muskrat scent bags?"

"Muskrat fur? It's spring now, spring fur is cheaper than winter fur, but the price of fur has generally gone up—eight to ten yuan per pelt. As for muskrat scent, this thing can replace traditional musk, and the average price is fifteen yuan per bag. Do you have stock?"

"Hmm, caught two nests, seven or eight of them, I guess." Li Long said, "And a few bags of musk."

"That's great, the fur is one thing, but scent is rare, bring it when you have time!"

Li Long walked out of the purchasing station with a smile, looked up at the sun, and although it was a bit dazzling, it felt warm.

Over four hundred yuan!

One step closer to being a ten-thousand-yuan household!

He suddenly thought, should he go see the furniture he had ordered earlier?

With money in his pocket, Li Long wanted to buy something. He went to the market to take a look and found that most of them were primary agricultural products sold by farmers. There were already large brooms made of jiji grass for sale, three yuan each, which wasn't cheap. There were also baskets woven from willow branches and pot lids made of sorghum stalks.

By this season, there were fewer people selling meat. There was one person selling fish, looking listlessly at the fish basin under the shade of a big tree, and the fish in the basin had already turned belly up.

Li Long scanned the area and didn't see anything worth buying, so he rode his bike to the Cultural Palace.

He saw the ticket seller playing cards with others in the pavilion by the Cultural Palace.

Li Long parked his bike in the bicycle shed, locked it, and went to the person's side, watching the three of them playing "Zheng Shangyou."

Seeing someone approach, the young man was very vigilant. He turned his head to look and recognized Li Long.

"Big brother, you are..."

"Do you have any?" Li Long asked cryptically.

"That's for sure." The young man threw his cards down and said to the other two, "Sorry, wait for me a moment, I'll treat you to melon seeds later."

After finishing, he beckoned to Li Long and walked toward the side of the Cultural Palace.

Li Long followed. After turning the corner, the young man took a stack of tickets out of his inner pocket and asked:

"Big brother, what tickets do you want?"

"Grain tickets, oil tickets, industrial tickets, liquor tickets, sugar tickets, I want them all." Li Long said, "How are ticket prices lately?"

"Ticket prices are okay, haven't dropped much, but haven't gone up either." The young man said, "These tickets I still have in my hand haven't been sold out yet..."

"Let me see." Li Long meant to ask how many tickets he had left. The young man actually didn't guard against Li Long and handed the stack of tickets over directly.

A dozen industrial tickets, over a hundred jin of grain tickets, over thirty jin of oil tickets, sugar tickets, liquor tickets—these were all around ten jin—and other miscellaneous tickets like cloth tickets.

"I want them all." Li Long said, "But I suggest you'd better keep doing this line of work, it should go up later."

The young man didn't hear much of the latter part, but hearing the first part, he became excited all of a sudden:

"Really want them all? This is at least twenty-five yuan..."

"No problem." Li Long thought to himself, less than a kilogram of fritillaries' money, he could afford it!

After verifying the quantity and price and paying the money, these tickets belonged to Li Long. The young man was happy, and Li Long felt at ease. Going to the department store or supply and marketing cooperative to buy things later, at least he wouldn't have to worry about tickets.

After the young man counted the money twice, he looked up at Li Long and said:

"Big brother, what about later..."

"I might need tickets again after a while." Li Long said, "I'll come find you when I need them."

"If I'm not here, just tell the person selling melon seeds and find me—my name is..."

"Your name is Xiaoliu, Cao Liu, right?" Li Long remembered the young man's name, "Alright, I know you now."

The young man was very happy, probably because a "big customer" like Li Long remembered him, which made him feel quite respected.

Cao Liu went to the melon seed seller to get two cups of melon seeds and distributed them to the people who were playing cards in the pavilion. Li Long also went over to take a look. The young girl selling melon seeds saw Li Long coming and handed him a triangular paper cup filled with melon seeds:

"Please have some melon seeds."

"Sell all of these to me." Li Long thought that his family really didn't have melon seeds now. The team distributed oil sunflowers at the end of the year, which were meant for pressing oil, and even then, there wasn't enough oil to eat.

If Li Long hadn't gotten a lot of game and oil in the mountains this year, the Li family wouldn't have had enough oil to eat.

As for eating melon seeds, only during the New Year would families be willing to roast a little oil sunflower to put on the table for guests.

!.

"You want them all?" The young girl was a bit surprised, "Then..." She looked down, a triangular cup was five cents, this basket could hold twenty-plus cups, she said: "One yuan."

Li Long took out one yuan and handed it over, then poured all the melon seeds into his shoulder bag, fastened the buckle, and went to the bike shed to ride away.

Li Long returned to the courtyard again, searched around, and only found two oil bottles, so he carried them to the grain and oil store, bought two bottles of vegetable oil, and rode back.

Arriving at the township, Li Long found Carpenter Qu's courtyard. Just as he reached the entrance, he smelled the thick scent of wood shavings and saw many wood shavings placed in the corner of the courtyard.

Carpenter Qu had a pen tucked behind his ear and was measuring a chair leg. Seeing Li Long come in, a young man beside him stood up and asked:

"Who are you looking for?"

"I'm checking how the furniture for my house is coming along." Li Long asked, "Xinhu, the Li family."

"Li Jianguo's family? You're Li Long? It's done." Carpenter Qu said with a smile, "Your brother never came to pick it up, I thought he had forgotten. So much furniture, piling it here isn't a solution... want to take a look?"

"Okay." Li Long went over to look at the furniture.

Cabinets, chests, shelves, chairs, etc., were all painted. They were old-fashioned, but they looked sturdy. Li Long touched them; the paint had long since dried, and they were sturdy when he shook them.

There was a lot of furniture, more than a horse cart could carry. After Li Long finished looking, he asked:

"Master Qu, has my brother paid?"

"He paid the deposit, still ten yuan short for the labor." Carpenter Qu said happily, "No rush, are you satisfied with this furniture?"

"Satisfied." Li Long smiled. He took out a "Big Unity" and handed it over, "I've paid the labor, I'll bring a horse cart to pick it up tomorrow or the day after."

"Alright." Carpenter Qu took the money, "If I'm here, find me, if I'm not, find him, Xiao Gao."

Xiao Gao was the young man who had taken the initiative to ask earlier. Li Long nodded and turned to leave the carpenter's shop.

"This young man is quite rich." Xiao Gao couldn't help saying, "Ten yuan, just like that."

"His brother is quite capable, and this young man isn't bad either. It's said he got into the Supply and Marketing Cooperative, didn't you see he's already riding a bicycle?" Carpenter Qu explained, and then said to Xiao Gao, "Learn well, once you've learned this carpentry skill, once you've finished your apprenticeship, you'll be able to buy a bicycle in less than a year!"

Li Long went to the middle school. Gu Xiaoxia was still in class, so he left a bottle of oil and some roasted melon seeds, then locked the door and went home.

Returning home, Liang Yumei was cooking lunch. Tao Daqiang had just finished picking up his nets and left the courtyard. Seeing Li Long return, he asked with a smile:

"Brother Long, you're back? Nets are picked up, are we still going in the afternoon?"

"Still going." Li Long thought of the price of musk that Chen Hongjun mentioned, his heart burning, "Let's bring iron shovels and go see if there are any water rats. I asked around today, this thing is quite valuable."

"Alright, alright." Tao Daqiang was also very happy, "We'll go early then, and look carefully."

"Okay. Come, take some melon seeds back." Li Long packed some melon seeds from his shoulder bag and handed them to him. Tao Daqiang wasn't polite either, held the melon seeds, and went back.

Tao Daqiang, who returned home, didn't cook. Tao Jian She had gone to the fields. Today the team had public work, and Tao Jian She brought steamed buns and pickles, preparing to work for the whole day—mainly because his donkey cart counted as five work points, and Tao Jian She was very satisfied.

Although the stove was cold, Tao Daqiang's heart was burning. He wasn't hungry originally, but thinking he would have to exert effort in the afternoon, he went to the kitchen and took a steamed bun—thinking that his family could also eat white flour steamed buns from time to time now, was this life something he dared to imagine before?

He poured himself a cup of cold tea. In farm households at this time, it was common to boil a pot of water when getting up in the morning, pour a bottle into the thermos, and put some brick tea blocks in the teapot to brew a pot of tea. If there were few people, they would drink it all day; if there were many, they would boil another pot when cooking lunch.

Tao Daqiang went to the kitchen again and took two green peppers, carefully removed the stems and seeds, held the tail of the green pepper, put some salt in this green pepper "jar," poured some vinegar, and shook it. Once the salt dissolved, he bit the edge of the green pepper and ate a mouthful of steamed bun along with the spicy taste.

Powerful!

Li Long had also eaten like this. If Li Long were here, he would say he was eating too roughly—wouldn't it be better to slice the green pepper into shreds and pickle it with salt and vinegar?

But no one was too particular about this. During the busy farming season, they had even eaten raw eggplant with steamed buns, let alone this?

Being able to eat green peppers in this season was already a very high treatment.

Li Long put the oil bottle in the kitchen and found a plate to put the melon seeds on the dining table. Li Jianguo looked at it and complained:

"What are you buying that thing for? What a waste of money!"

"Money, you earn it to spend it," Li Long said with a grin, "I went to Carpenter Qu's to see the furniture today, it's all done. I'll go to the horse stable to clean up the house today, and bring a part of it back tomorrow."

"Alright, I'll go clean up with you in the afternoon." Li Jianguo said.

"No need, no need," Li Long waved his hands hurriedly, "I'll just call Daqiang. I don't do the work in the fields, you guys are busy enough, if I let you do this too, where would I put my face?"

"Eat, eat." Liang Yumei thought the two brothers were arguing about something, brought the dishes over and put them on the table, "Whatever it is, talk after eating!"

Li Qiang ran in from outside at this time, shouting loudly:

"Mom, I'm hungry!"

"Why are you covered in mud again?" Liang Yumei saw Li Qiang's appearance and immediately got angry, "Why are your shoes wet too?"

"I was catching ditch fish in the big canal behind, caught a lot, let Uncle take them to sell tomorrow..."

"Sell my foot!" Liang Yumei transformed into a roaring mother dragon, "Go change your clothes quickly!" Saying this, she led Li Qiang to the other room and gave Li Qiang a slap on the butt on the way.

Li Long was amused; this was the daily life of a farm household.

(End of chapter)