Chapter 257

"I'm in Wucheng." Yusufu said with a smile, "Adashi, I remember you said last time that as long as I found good small seed materials, I could come find you. Is that true?"

"Of course." Li Long said with a smile, "Yes, yes. When are you coming over?"

"Today I plan to go to the jade factory to sell some of the large pieces, and tomorrow morning I'll take the bus to find you, okay? By the way, aren't you coming over?"

"No, I don't have any good materials here." Li Long thought it was better to stay in the county. After all, Maxian is his own territory, so he doesn't worry about being cheated. Although people in this era are relatively "simpler" than in later generations, one cannot rule out things like scams.

"That's fine, tomorrow morning I'll take the bus to find you. Should I go to the supply and marketing cooperative to find you?"

"Yes. After you arrive, just come directly here to find me." Li Long agreed.

After hanging up the phone, Li Jianguo asked curiously:

"You've been in contact with someone who sells jade?"

"Yes, someone from Southern Xinjiang who sells Hetian jade." Li Long said, "Last time I went to Wucheng to sell jasper, I happened to run into him selling Hetian jade. He collected quite a few small pieces of Hetian jade seed material, and the jade factory wouldn't take them, complaining they were too small, so I said it would be better to sell them to me, and told him to sell me some if he had any in the future."

"How big?"

Li Long gestured the size of a pigeon egg.

"What's the point of that?" Li Jianguo glanced at him with disdain, "If you want to buy, buy large pieces, buy raw materials. Aren't bracelets good? Aren't jade pendants good? Aren't charms good? Why insist on getting a small stone egg? What can you do with that little bit?"

"Make a bracelet or something." Li Long said with a smile, "It's not like we don't have money."

"Even if you buy a bracelet, it won't cost much. By the way, you have a partner now, don't you have to buy her a jade bracelet? Young people wearing gold bracelets is a bit tacky; jade is quite good."

When he said this, Li Long was actually tempted.

Why not take a trip to the jade factory? We don't need that top-tier material, nor do we need top-tier carving, just average is fine. Of course, the "average" of today is like the "average" of Li in the Four Heavenly Kings; if placed in later generations, it would also be a heavenly king-level existence.

After all, Li Long has watched short videos for a long time, and he knows the development in this industry; the best materials will be almost mined out by the next century. So some not-so-good materials are slowly becoming popular.

For example, the famous jadeite; in the early 21st century, the so-called Tie Long Sheng, which was not mainstream at all, was just brick material, had no water or color, and only had green, became a new product twenty years later and was very expensive.

And in the early century, such materials were all looked down upon.

In the early nineties, a truckload of Qinghai material only cost a few thousand yuan, and twenty years later, one piece cost thousands or tens of thousands...

Li Long didn't think about hoarding to get rich, but at least he could buy some for his family when he could afford it. When the price rises later, at least others have it, and his own family has it too, that's enough.

"Then are you still coming over tomorrow?" Li Jianguo asked when he saw Li Long silent.

"Yes. Tomorrow I'll come over to pick him up. If he has good materials, I'll buy them and put them away first. I'll treat him to a meal, send him off, and then handle my own affairs."

"Fine, tomorrow when you come over, just wait in my office." Li Jianguo said, "Anyway, I have nothing to do."

Li Long rode his bike back, and when he finished cooking, Gu Xiaoxia returned.

Li Long told her about the plan to buy a jade bracelet.

"No, no!" Gu Xiaoxia said in a very solemn tone, "No need to buy it for me! You... just buy it for Mother. I have a watch to wear; now people at work don't wear these decorations, everyone thinks it's inappropriate."

Li Long realized. Although reform and opening up had already begun, in fact, people's thinking had not yet emerged from that era. Wearing such traditional things would attract some strange looks.

"Alright, I'll buy some for Mother and the others. This thing will definitely become rarer and rarer in the future, so buying some and keeping them is fine."

"Hmm." Gu Xiaoxia had no objection to this, "Today, Deputy Bureau Chief Wang praised me again, saying that when autumn comes, if there are quotas, she will see if she can help me become a regular employee."

"That's a good thing." Li Long smiled, "This is a great thing... but don't hold too high expectations, after all, it's hard to say if there will be any. Some people have been seconded for several years and still might not be able to become regular..."

"I know." Gu Xiaoxia didn't think Li Long was being long-winded; she knew he was doing it for her own good, "Just do my own work steadily."

"You need to report your thoughts to the leaders more, and if you have any confusion, if there is any gossip in the office, you should also tell the leaders. Since the leader seconded you here, it's because she thinks highly of you, so it's not just about work. Don't be a snitch, but don't let yourself be wronged either."

When Li Long said this, Gu Xiaoxia thought for a moment and nodded slowly.

This was still quite different from the education she had received.

"I've heard a saying: 'Keep your head down to pull the cart, but also know how to look up at the road.' If you only know how to work, you won't walk far, and you won't walk long."

Gu Xiaoxia was still thinking about Li Long's words from time to time until she went to work.

Li Long rested in the room for a while, then rode his bike to the free market to look around.

He originally wanted to see if he could run into anyone selling antiques, but he didn't. However, the free market seemed to have been reorganized; the stalls were much neater, and there were quite a few more. The size and distance between the stalls were about the same, and there was no more of that dirty, messy trash, looking much cleaner. What surprised Li Long a bit was that Meng Zhiqiang was still selling fish—there were quite a few fish at his stall, some were already dead, and there were still a few crucian carp alive.

Li Long actually quite admired these wild crucian carp; their vitality was too strong.

Near the residential area, there would be some water pits, water inlets of canals, deep gullies, and stagnant water gathered from watering vegetable gardens.

These originally flowed down from the water in the small lake and would store water for a considerable amount of time. Then, after a period of not watering, the water in these pits would gradually disappear, leaving a little mud at the bottom, and even the surface of the mud might be dry, while it would be a bit damp underneath.

But as long as there was a heavy rain, quite a bit of water would accumulate in these pits, and within a few hours, one would find crucian carp the size of a palm swimming in the pit.

It was extremely magical.

This certainly wasn't water hatching fish eggs and growing them; after all, it was impossible for them to be this big as soon as they hatched.

It was also impossible, like the stories in the storybooks, for the water to be sucked into the air by a waterspout and then fall down with the rain; after all, there had never been a tornado here—the small ones are called whirlwinds locally, not tornadoes.

At this time, everyone was materialistic and knew it couldn't appear out of thin air, so there was only one explanation: there were fish in the pit originally, and when there was no water, the crucian carp would burrow into the soft mud to linger on, and then crawl out when the water came.

Of course, this also required a certain favorable environment. The water pits washed out under the sluice gates of large canals wouldn't work. The soft mud at the bottom of those pits was washed away, leaving only hard soil; without soft mud, the crucian carp couldn't burrow in, and in the end, when the water was gone, the crucian carp would dry to death and become food for flies and maggots.

Li Long had seen such fish that seemed to "appear suddenly" more than once, and later he slowly analyzed the reason.

!.

The survival ability of crucian carp is also reflected in another aspect.

In his previous life, Li Long had caught crucian carp more than once before the water froze in winter. After catching these crucian carp, a dozen kilograms of palm-sized or chopstick-length ones—of course, there were also small crucian carp less than ten centimeters mixed in—he wouldn't gut them, just put them in a basket and put them in an idle room.

When he wanted to eat them, he would go and take some—at this time, the temperature was not enough to freeze, but there were no more flies. At this time, one would magically discover that even after three or four days, just by relying on the layer of mucus on the fish's body, there were still some crucian carp alive.

The longest one Li Long had seen with his own eyes lived for a week.

At this time, it was better not to put them in water; putting these fish in water would make them die faster.

Since they met, Li Long stopped his bike and asked:

"Old Meng, is the fish hard to sell today?"

"Hmm." Meng Zhiqiang smiled reluctantly, not wanting to talk.

He thought to himself, if it weren't for your father and Tao Daqiang bringing dozens of kilograms of fish to sell early in the morning and taking away all the customers, would I be unable to sell them?

He walked over carrying a urea bag. Li Qing Xia and the others came by bike, so naturally, they were faster.

There was a layer of plastic inside the urea bag, and although it wasn't completely waterproof, the water wouldn't leak out that quickly, so the fish Li Qing Xia and the others brought were mostly alive, and customers would definitely like to buy them.

When Meng Zhiqiang carried fish, he would also put some water in the bag, but he couldn't put too much, otherwise, he couldn't carry it.

At this time, he really wanted to harden his heart and buy a bike—but it was really too expensive. Although he had earned quite a bit of money catching fish until now, he was still some distance away from buying a bike. And once he had money, he would spend it directly if there was something at home.

He couldn't save much.

At this time, seeing Li Long still riding a bike, he was really envious.

Li Long and Meng Zhiqiang had an average relationship, so they just greeted each other and he left.

At this time, he saw that some stall owners, seeing there were no customers, took out steamed buns, pancakes, and cornmeal buns from the bags they carried and started eating lunch with the water in their old water bottles.

Their water bottles were also varied; the most common were canned bottles, but there were also old military water bottles and liquor bottles.

Most of the things they ate were still cornmeal pancakes and steamed cakes. This made Li Long realize that people who could eat meat now were still a minority.

His own family's standard of living had already exceeded that of most Chinese people.

He suddenly thought, if he set up a hot food stall here, could he also earn money? After all, just eating steamed buns, watching these people swallow with difficulty, and some choking and hurriedly taking water to wash it down, wouldn't eating hot food be more popular?

This thought just flashed for a moment and had nothing to do with him. He certainly wouldn't do such a thing; he didn't have the leisure, and how much money would that earn?

When he was about to reach the end of the market, Li Long saw people wearing armbands walking over.

So there were management personnel now.

Letting these two people pass, Li Long saw some stalls selling fresh potatoes, fist-sized and even; Li Long bought two kilograms. There were a few families selling tomatoes, and he picked the better ones and bought three kilograms. Then he saw some selling onions, weighed a few, and went back while gnawing on a tomato.

It must be said that the tomatoes at this time were really sour, sweet, and flavorful.

The next day, Li Long went to the supply and marketing cooperative to wait. He didn't expect that not long after work started in the morning, Yusufu came over carrying a sack.

Looking at that sack, the weight of the things inside was not light! (End of chapter)