Chapter 209: Given a solid lesson!

Because of these ditch fish as a base, Li Long's fish sold very quickly. In one hour, all the fish were sold out; even the remaining dead fish were bought by a corps worker in his forties.

According to him, he hadn't eaten such loach-like fish in years; just looking at them felt fragrant, and it reminded him of the taste of his hometown.

Li Long hadn't expected that those large fish would be less popular than these tiny ditch fish.

With the fish sold out, Li Long was also starving. He gathered his things, put them on the back seat of his bicycle, and just as he was about to push the bike away, two people rushed over and started arguing over it.

One of them even wanted Li Long to mediate for him. Li Long looked at the man—it was the one who had intended to fight him for the stall earlier. He ignored the man and pushed his bicycle toward the milk tea shop.

When those three thugs came to pick a fight with him earlier, this guy had just watched the show. Now he wanted him to uphold justice? Was his brain flooded?

"One bowl of milk tea, one naan—must be freshly baked—and a plate of ghee, plus a small dish of honey." Li Long parked his bike, and as he entered the door, he asked the Uyghur lad, "You have freshly baked naan, right?"

"Yes, yes, yes." The lad smiled and said, "Was it really you who held those guys at gunpoint and sent them to prison? I heard about it, but I didn't expect it to be you!"

Li Long smiled while paying:

"How come you guys heard about it too? But what's the deal with these hoodlums?"

"What else could it be? They're the ones who don't go to school and haven't been assigned jobs. Some are children of workers, some are dependents. Now, job assignments are quite strict; these people don't want to do the tiring jobs, and they can't get the easy ones—their education isn't high enough—so they just drift along."

"No wonder..." Li Long shook his head. "Looking for trouble for no reason; if they keep drifting like this, they'll cause a disaster sooner or later."

"That... is hard to say. They are different from the previous ones; most of them have backgrounds." The lad said, "You should still be careful; these people... are not simple."

As he spoke, he brought Li Long the naan, honey, and ghee.

"This honey of yours is quite good." Li Long dipped a piece of naan into the honey and took a taste. He felt none of the coarse, grainy texture typical of honey produced by feeding bees sugar; it was smooth, with a hint of tartness amidst the sweetness, followed by a rich fragrance. It was excellent.

"Mm, it's pure honey collected from the beekeepers of the 143rd Regiment. They gathered it from the mountains last year. It's very good."

"Do you have any extra? Sell me some," Li Long asked.

"I don't have any here, but I can help you ask around," the young man said. "How much do you want?"

"Naturally, the more the better."

Li Long had earned about sixty yuan from selling fish today, of which over six yuan was for his father's ditch fish. After deducting Tao Daqiang's share, he was left with about fifty yuan for himself.

He estimated that honey would cost at most two or three yuan per kilogram at this time, so naturally, the more the better.

He could afford it; that's just how bold he was!

"Looks like you really made money selling fish!" the young man said with a smile. "Alright, come back and check in two days."

After Li Long finished breakfast and pushed his bicycle away to leave, he felt that he was being followed.

With no gun in hand, only a scale, Li Long wasn't confident he could take on three people at once.

Back at the stall, Li Long had held the scale rod in one hand and the weight in the other, relying on waiting for the enemy to tire themselves out and catching them off guard.

Now it was different; the other party was definitely prepared. If he confronted them like that again, he would be courting death.

So Li Long walked slowly, looking around as he went to find an opportunity.

As they were about to leave the old street, the three people followed closer and closer. When Li Long looked back, he could see their arrogant smiles and the hard, straight objects hidden in their sleeves.

Then, Li Long saw two auxiliary police officers wearing armbands, who had just finished checking the stalls on one street and were turning back.

Li Long was overjoyed. He quickly pushed his bike over to the two officers and said rapidly:

"Comrades, someone is carrying a weapon and wants to kill me!"

With this shout, not only were the two officers startled, but the three young men behind him were also taken aback!

Damn it, I just wanted some money and to teach you a lesson; how did it become wanting to kill you?

"Them, it's them! They have weapons in their hands!" Li Long turned his head and pointed at the three young men.

Those three hoodlums weren't afraid of the stall owners, but they didn't dare to confront the auxiliary police. Seeing the situation was bad, they turned and ran. One of them, in a panic, dropped the steel pipe hidden in his sleeve, which hit the ground with a "clang."

"You three, stop right there!" one of the officers shouted loudly.

The three men started running directly, and the auxiliary police officers quickly gave chase.

Li Long was left on the side.

Is it over for me?

Li Long was somewhat surprised. Watching the group run into the distance, he got on his bike and left.

It seems that in the future, when coming to sell fish, he really must bring a gun or other items. Otherwise, if he were truly cornered by these hoodlums somewhere, not to mention the loss of money, he might even be beaten and crippled.

These half-grown boys didn't know their own strength.

Li Long didn't feel at ease until he rode his bike onto the Mahe Bridge. He didn't recognize the two police officers checking at the station today, so he didn't get off his bike to greet them.

Returning to the county town, Li Long rode his bike to the market.

The foot traffic here was noticeably less than in Shicheng, and there were only about half as many stalls. Most of those setting up stalls here were clever farmers and unemployed small vendors from the county. Their enthusiasm for actively selling goods was clearly not as high as in Shicheng; some were even a bit shy about soliciting customers, just waiting for people to come and ask for prices.

Li Long came to a grain stall and asked:

"How much is rice per kilogram?"

"Sixty-six cents."

"What about flour? Is this 85-grade flour?" "Mm, 85-grade flour, thirty-seven cents."

"I'll take fifty kilograms of each, rice and flour." Li Long looked at the flour and rice on the stall and said, "Can you make it cheaper?"

"Between these two bags, there's forty-five kilograms of rice and less than forty kilograms of flour," the stall owner pointed to the two bags in front of him and said. "You want it all?"

"I want it all. Give me the bags too."

"Alright, I'll give you a one-cent discount on the rice and two cents on the flour, how about that?"

"Weigh it."

There was still rice and flour at home, but Li Long didn't want his father and mother eating cornmeal.

To be honest, the older generation had suffered through hard times, especially his mother, Du Chunfang. Why did she only eat such a small amount every day? It was because during the famine years, she saved every bite for her children, shrinking her stomach; now she ate little and couldn't digest much.

Li Long guessed that his mother likely had stomach problems.

So, no matter how long he lived here, Li Long hoped his parents would eat better.

!.

His family was used to being frugal. It wasn't that they didn't want to eat well, but after being poor for so many years, their first instinct when they suddenly had good food was to save a little, in case something happened later—a mindset of "long-term planning."

But Li Long had lived two lifetimes; he knew life would only get better. If he could earn money and eat well now, he would fill his belly first, and there would be even better things in the future.

Their generation, including Li Jianguo's generation, was actually the one most capable of feeling the country's strength and the improvement in people's lives. Conversely, those in the nineties and the two-thousands didn't feel it as deeply.

After all, Li Jianguo's generation watched the country go from being destitute and blank, or watched this Northern Tianshan region go from being completely uninhabited to having fields of crops. If not for his accidental early death in his previous life, Li Jianguo could have lived to collect dividends from the cooperative just like Li Long, traveling around without working, and treating catching fish, shrimp, and crabs as a pastime.

If you told them now that every household would have a car in the future, and more than one, they wouldn't believe it—let alone cars, even having a bicycle for every household was a distant, unreachable dream in their eyes.

Tying the openings of the rice and flour bags together and draping them over both sides of his bicycle, then wedging the basin on the back seat, Li Long rode back to the compound.

The reason he returned early was that he had noticed hoodlums wandering around the market here too. Although he didn't see anyone extorting money, the atmosphere wasn't very good.

After Li Long put down the basin and scale at the compound, he went to the house where the jade was kept, took out those stones, and piled them casually under a tree.

Unless an expert looked at these stones, after a layer of dust settled on them, ordinary people wouldn't mistake them for jade.

The troublesome ones were the raw jade pieces. Li Long thought for a moment, put those pieces into a bag, and hid them in the room in the main house filled with old furniture.

It was dusty everywhere there, so no one should care.

He would decide where to hide them later.

Leaving the compound, Li Long rode his bike to the department store again. He bought five meters each of blue cloth, gray cloth, and floral cloth, stacked them together, and carried them out of the building.

As he left, Li Long could feel someone watching him.

He didn't look back, put the cloth on his bike, tied it down, and rode back to the compound.

There was no food at home today, so Li Long simply left his bike in the compound and walked to the meat canteen.

Zhong Guo Qiang wasn't there. Li Long didn't order noodles today; instead, he asked for a bowl of rice and ordered two stir-fried dishes, eating leisurely by himself.

It would be even better if there were a bottle of beer.

But thinking that he had to ride his bike home after eating, he decided against it. Even if it was a bicycle, it was still drunk driving. Life comes first; stay away from drunk driving. Li Long felt it was better to be careful.

Life was so beautiful; he hadn't lived enough yet.

After eating, Li Long wandered back to the compound, pushed out his bike, locked the door, and pedaled away.

Halfway there, when he reached the township middle school, he slipped over to Gu Xiaoxia's dormitory. The door was tightly shut. Li Long guessed she must be taking a nap, so he quietly rode his bike away.

Wang Laoshi saw him, and when Gu Xiaoxia woke up, she told her about it.

"Why didn't he knock on the door?" Gu Xiaoxia was a bit angry.

"He was probably worried about disturbing your rest," Wang Qihua said with a smile. "It's not easy to find someone so considerate. Look at my husband; whenever he comes over, no matter what I'm doing, he just bangs on the door—bang, bang, bang."

"Hehe," Gu Xiaoxia felt a little smug hearing the comparison. "He should come again tomorrow, right? When he does, I'll tell him... Wang Laoshi, your husband is just a bit straightforward in his personality."

Wang Laoshi shook her head and didn't say much more.

When Li Long returned home, Li Qing Xia and the others hadn't returned yet. Li Long put away the rice and flour and placed the cloth next to the sewing machine in the spare room.

Liang Wenyu knew how to make clothes—not as standard as a tailor, but she could do it.

Li Long's intention was to make a set for his parents, and incidentally, make some for Li Juan and Li Qiang as well.

As for the remaining cloth, it would depend on what his sister-in-law wanted to do.

(End of chapter)