Chapter 255: Buying another small courtyard?

Lv Dafeng gave Li Long three bottles of six-kilogram mountain flower honey and absolutely refused to take Li Long's money, and Li Long didn't insist. At the current price, these three jars of honey were worth no more than ten yuan, so if he didn't want it, he didn't want it. In any case, the meat and other things he had brought over were worth more than that, and he had also saved a life.

The old saying goes, "Do not dwell on the favors you bestow, do not forget the favors you receive," but Li Long still hoped to give Lv Dafeng a chance to repay this favor, so that it would be easier to deal with each other in the future.

Otherwise, given Lv Dafeng's personality, he would likely keep it in mind for a long time and feel uncomfortable.

"Is this flower about to go out of season?" Li Long asked, looking at the safflower that was already running low.

"Yeah, there isn't much safflower left, but there are still plenty of other flowers in the mountains," Lv Dafeng said. "They can last through August, and then we'll move to another place."

Li Long carried the honey and left, returning to the wooden cabin.

Drinking a cup of honey water in the evening was truly very sweet. At this time, there was basically no such thing as fake honey.

Thinking of the so-called fake honey and fake royal jelly in later generations, Li Long felt that at least he had been doing quite well all along. He had eaten honey ranging from over a yuan per kilogram to tens or hundreds of yuan per kilogram, and he had never encountered fake honey.

Over the next few days, Li Long left early and returned late, expanding his search area for black tiger palm mushrooms, and the harvest was quite good. In the gully to the east, he even found two northern ibex skulls, one with twenty-one segments and one with eighteen.

Moreover, these skulls were very well preserved; they must have died of old age or fallen.

Li Long planned to keep the one with twenty-one segments in the large courtyard for himself and give the one with eighteen segments to Li Xiangqian.

He had many friends, so this thing should be useful.

A day later, he had another sack of sun-dried black tiger palm mushrooms, so Li Long loaded it up, took the two northern ibex horns, and returned to the county seat.

Before he reached the purchasing station, the sky had already turned overcast, and soon after, it started to rain. Li Long hurried to the large courtyard—looking at this rain, it wouldn't stop for a short while.

But there was also a benefit: after the rain, the mushrooms would grow again.

Summer rain comes quickly and lasts quite a while. Fortunately, when Li Long returned, the meat on the poles had long been taken down, and the few remaining mushrooms drying outside had also been moved into the small room.

Otherwise, getting soaked by this rain would be quite troublesome, and the quality might drop by a grade.

With nothing to do in the courtyard, Li Long listened to the radio while taking out the Codonopsis pilosula and other things tucked among the mushrooms. The Codonopsis he had picked up several times added up to quite a lot, and they were all quite large.

Li Long thought that after autumn, before the reeds were harvested, he would see if he could go into the mountains again to dig for Codonopsis. He heard from Chen Hongjun that the price of Codonopsis was about the same as black tiger palm mushrooms, and since these were large, digging them up after autumn would yield a good harvest; it was worth a try.

Making money, after all, meant working hard, which was nothing. In any case, it was more comfortable than harvesting wheat—thinking of the way Tao Daqiang was stung by hornets, Li Long couldn't help but laugh.

After putting the Codonopsis away, Li Long took out his Type 56 semi-automatic rifle and wiped it down. He had hunted quite a bit back and forth and used up a lot of ammunition, so Li Long was thinking about getting more bullets during the militia training in winter.

He had time to return to the village recently, so he would see if he could find some bullets from someone.

The captain should have some. After all, he was also the militia company commander, so he shouldn't be short on bullets.

Thinking about this and that, after cleaning the gun, Li Long saw that the rain hadn't stopped, so he simply went to the kitchen, leavened some dough with yeast, and prepared to steam some buns.

After kneading the dough, he covered it with a damp cloth in a basin, then covered it with a lid. When Li Long came out of the kitchen, he saw that the rain had eased and was slowly stopping.

The drainage in this large courtyard was quite good; as the raindrops disappeared, there was no standing water in the courtyard. There were iron-welded grates over several inlets, and once the water flowed in, it should have gone into the manhole.

Seeing that the rain had completely stopped and the clouds in the sky were slowly dispersing, revealing patches of clear blue, Li Long took the sack of mushrooms out of the kitchen, mounted it on his bicycle, pushed it out, and rode toward the purchasing station.

Chen Hongjun was standing at the entrance of the purchasing station looking at the sky. Hearing the bicycle, he saw Li Long coming and said with a smile:

"Little Li, you're coming quite often. You're the only one sending these black tiger palm mushrooms."

"Others probably don't know this thing can be sold for money," Li Long got off his bicycle, propped it up, took the sack, and carried it into the room. "If they knew, the mountains would be full of people by now."

"That's not necessarily true. Not everyone can find this thing, and not everyone dares to venture into the mountains. There are plenty of things in the mountains that bite, right?"

"That's true." Li Long thought of the wolves he hunted in the hot springs and said with emotion, "There are plenty of wolves and leopards."

"Did you catch that lynx?" Chen Hongjun remembered what Li Long had asked last time and asked.

"No, that thing darts too fast." Li Long remembered that family of four and shook his head. "I ran into them once, and in the blink of an eye, they disappeared. Let's look at the mushrooms."

"They didn't get wet, did they?" Chen Hongjun asked while untying the sack. "If these things get wet, drying them is fine, but you have to know beforehand; otherwise, they'll get moldy, which is troublesome."

"No, it only started raining when I brought them back, and I moved them into the room while it was raining." Li Long helped spread the mouth of the sack. "Take a look and check them."

Chen Hongjun was quite strict in this regard; he carefully examined the mushrooms and finally simply took out a plastic sheet, spread it out, and had Li Long pour the dried mushrooms onto it to check them bit by bit.

"Hmm, they are all dried goods, the quality is about the same as last time, not bad." Chen Hongjun smiled after checking. "Don't blame me for being fussy; if this stuff isn't checked well and isn't dried properly, it will get moldy in the end, and we would definitely be held accountable here."

"Why would I blame you?" Li Long said with a smile. "Isn't this what should be done? We are all speaking the truth, public to public; once it's laid out, no one will have any opinions."

After weighing them, Li Long finally received 1,024 yuan—this time it was a bit more than last time.

"Little Li, just selling mushrooms alone is worth several years of someone else's salary." Chen Hongjun couldn't help but feel envious. "A young man like this is one of a kind in the whole county."

"But I'm doing hard labor." Li Long showed the cut on his arm from the lynx and said, "Look, this isn't just hard, it's dangerous. If you really run into something big, getting injured is lucky."

"That's true." Chen Hongjun deeply agreed.

In this day and age, there weren't as many people in Northern Xinjiang as there would be later, and the mountains were always a place rarely visited by humans. If Lv Dafeng hadn't run into Li Long, he would have been a goner. And those who dug for mountain goods in the mountains, it wasn't just one or two who died in the woods. In the end, they all disappeared silently.

Therefore, the money Li Long earned was hard-earned money, life-risking money; this was a recognized fact.

Li Long took the money, rode his bike back to the large courtyard, used a sack to cover the northern ibex head with the eighteen-segment horns, put it on the back seat, and rode to the supply and marketing cooperative.

The guard already recognized Li Long and knew he was one of their own, so he smiled and let him in.

Li Long rode his bicycle to the shed, parked it, and carried the sack into the house.

Li Xiangqian was on the phone, and Li Long heard him occasionally mention words like "courtyard" and "guarantee to handle it well."

When Li Xiangqian hung up the phone, Li Long knocked on the open door with a smile. "Come in, come in." Li Xiangqian said with a smile, "Down from the mountains?"

"Yeah, down." Li Long put the things on the coffee table and said, "I picked up a sheep head and brought it over for you, Section Chief."

"What sheep head?" Li Xiangqian asked curiously.

"About the same as last time." Li Long opened the sack. "It looks quite complete; you can see if you want to hang it at home or give it to someone."

Li Xiangqian felt it was quite good when he saw that northern ibex head last time, but he didn't have much interest in it himself. Later, he heard the leaders above say how good this thing was. But he also knew that this was something you couldn't seek out, so he hadn't looked for Li Long.

He didn't expect Li Long to actually find one and bring it over; didn't this just fulfill his wish?

"Not bad, not bad, really quite good—let me see... this is eighteen segments!"

"Yeah, an old sheep head." Li Long said, "Hang it on the wall, it should look quite good."

"That's... but it needs to be handled properly." Li Xiangqian said casually, "I'll take this."

"Section Chief, I just heard you talking about a courtyard on the phone, what's going on?" Li Long asked casually.

!.

Li Xiangqian got up to pour water for Li Long. Li Long blocked him, grabbed the thermos first, poured himself water to make tea, and while blowing away the tea leaves, prepared to listen to Li Xiangqian.

"A leader is being transferred to work in the prefecture," Li Xiangqian explained, "the family is moving with him, and the children are going to school there. His family has a courtyard here, south of Wuyi Road, and he wants to get rid of it."

"How much?" Li Long's heart skipped a beat; a leader's courtyard, it should be well-maintained, right? This thing was different from those old, uninhabited courtyards. If he bought it, it should be quite good—this was something you couldn't seek out.

"You want to buy a courtyard? Don't you already have a large courtyard?" Li Xiangqian asked back, "You're a young man, not even married yet, why are you getting so many houses?"

"To live in." Li Long said with a smile, "My partner works at the Education Bureau now, and my large courtyard is a bit far from the Education Bureau. If this courtyard is suitable, wouldn't it be more convenient for me to take it?"

"Besides, I have a whole family. My brother and sister-in-law are still in the countryside; later, if my niece gets into the county's No. 1 Middle School, it won't be as convenient to live in the dorms as it would be in our own courtyard, right?"

Of course, this was all nonsense. In this day and age, there was no concept of house flipping. People didn't think about hoarding houses or land.

And in two years, when the units started building apartment buildings, everyone would sell their courtyards to buy apartments. After all, in a courtyard, you had to set up your own stove and shovel your own snow.

How comfortable it was to live in an apartment building, no need to clear snow in the courtyard, there was heating, and there was a toilet in the room...

Then, it took many years for this concept to slowly turn around, only after the facilities in the courtyards improved.

This was actually the same principle as in that era, where those living in Beijing's Sihe Academy couldn't compare to those living in apartment buildings. Later, Sihe Academy became expensive, partly because of the location and partly because of the connection to the earth, but that was also after renovation. In the 1980s, there were many uncomfortable things about Sihe Academy.

The large courtyard Li Long lived in now also had a dry toilet, but it was just cleaner and tidier than the dry toilets in the countryside.

"The courtyard is quite good, the area isn't large, there's a small vegetable garden, three main rooms, and the kitchen is in the side room." Li Xiangqian saw that Li Long was really interested, so he said, "The leader is in a hurry to handle it, and the asking price isn't high, 450 yuan..."

"Then I'll take it." Li Long, who had an income of 1,000 yuan today, felt that this price was really not expensive; his income from these few days could buy two courtyards.

"I haven't finished yet." Li Xiangqian glared at him. "But they need to pack up, so it'll take another two days. The clunky furniture in the room will be left behind, but they are taking the other appliances and such..."

"That's for sure." Li Long said with a smile, "If they could leave me a TV, wouldn't I be making a fortune while buying a house?"

"That mouth of yours..."

Li Long took the money out of his pocket, counted out 500 yuan, placed it on the table, and said:

"Section Chief, here is 500 yuan, I want this house. Let me know when the paperwork can be done..."

"Why the extra fifty?"

"Aren't you the introducer? Shouldn't I treat you to a smoke?" Li Long said with a cheeky face, "Can't let you do it for nothing, right?"

"Take it back!" Li Xiangqian's face stiffened. "Am I short of this little bit of money?"

Li Long didn't move. Li Xiangqian reached out, took fifty from the stack of money, and slapped it in front of Li Long: "Take it! I know you earn a lot, but it's hard-earned money. When you have time, if you can find me some things like this, that would be best."

He patted the sheep head and continued:

"As for money, I'm not short of it here. You have a quick mind and do things steadily; I value you, so let's not have this between us! Alright, get out of here! Come over every three or five days; I estimate they'll move out in these two days."

Li Long left the supply and marketing cooperative in a happy mood, rode his bike back to the large courtyard, saw that the dough had leavened enough, and started steaming the buns.

When Gu Xiaoxia entered the door, she smelled the fragrance of the buns, and Li Long was preparing to stir-fry dishes. Seeing her come in, he said with a smile:

"Dinner is a bit late today, wash your hands and wait a while; if you're hungry, eat a bun and see how my skills are."

Gu Xiaoxia was actually quite tired, but watching Li Long cooking there, those annoying things at work vanished into thin air.

What was the big deal? She had a strong backing!

"Then I'll wait!" Gu Xiaoxia gave a brilliant smile. "It's so comfortable to eat ready-made food!"

"Hehe, then wait, I'll wait for your evaluation later!"

"You cook the best!" Gu Xiaoxia happily parked her bicycle. "My dad's cooking isn't as good as yours!"

Half sincere and half praise, it made Li Long feel a bit floaty.

This life, hey, it really has something to look forward to!

In less than ten minutes, the dishes were stir-fried, and Li Long also made a tomato and egg drop soup. The two of them sat head-to-head, each holding a large bun, eating together.

Two dishes, one was the traditional stir-fried eggplant with tomatoes and green peppers, and the other was stir-fried shredded green beans with meat. Li Long cut the shredded green beans very finely; he had nothing to do, so he practiced his knife skills, and they were stir-fried very well, which Gu Xiaoxia loved to eat.

In this day and age, women's appetites weren't small either! (End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 256 =====