Chapter 258

Li Long didn't handle "private business" in the supply and marketing cooperative; he felt a bit embarrassed. Although there were people in the next office who came to watch the excitement and clamored to see the things in the sack, he still took Yusufu away from the supply and marketing cooperative. Before leaving, he joked that he would treat everyone to watermelon in two days.

At this time, although everyone had a salary, the burden at home was usually quite heavy, and treating everyone to food was still relatively rare. Li Long's words directly calmed everyone's enthusiasm, and some people muttered in a low voice:

"I don't know if one office can even get one melon?"

"Don't worry, Xiao Long isn't that stingy." Li Jianguo heard it and said with a smile. He was certain that Li Long was not a stingy person; how could one office not even get one melon?

Li Long took Yusufu to the small courtyard, opened the door, and said to Yusufu while walking inside:

"Come, just look in the courtyard; the room is still being tidied up, it's not very convenient."

Yusufu looked at this courtyard and was also muttering in his heart: is this Li Long moving? Is this place not being lived in anymore?

The reason he dared to come over was also because he found Li Long directly by hitting the supply and marketing cooperative, which proved that what Li Long said earlier was true; he was indeed an employee of the supply and marketing cooperative.

Otherwise, Yusufu wouldn't have dared to come over.

In this era, public servants naturally brought a trust bonus; if one could be proven to be a public servant, ordinary people would really trust them quite a bit.

"Come, look, these were all collected from the Adashi who digs jade by the river. I didn't bring the bad ones over; they must all be very good."

Yusufu didn't stand on ceremony either; he directly poured the jade seed materials in the sack onto the ground for Li Long to see.

Li Long didn't look directly; he first went down to the vegetable garden, picked two tomatoes, wiped them, handed one to Yusufu, and said:

"Taste it first, I'll treat you to a meal later."

"Good, good, good." Li Long's promise made Yusufu very happy, "Adashi, your appearance is good!"

Li Long smiled, and while eating the tomato, he squatted down to look at those seed materials.

Most of these seed materials looked quite good, and some were really very beautiful.

The largest one was also a bit bigger than the last one, slightly smaller than Li Long's fist, a green-skinned white jade seed material; in Li Long's eyes, it could reach the level of mutton-fat jade.

He picked it up, looked at it, and asked:

"How much for this piece?"

"Twenty." Yusufu said while eating the tomato, "The price is definitely not high; this piece is two hundred grams, first-class goods, I gave a very low price."

"But the jade factory won't take it; your material is too small." Li Long sighed, "Ten yuan. What do you think this can be used for?"

"Carve a hand-held piece." Yusufu naturally wasn't ignorant of everything.

"But why doesn't the jade factory carve it?" Li Long asked back.

Yusufu stopped talking.

Of course, it was because now that the market had opened up, more people were digging jade, more jade material was produced, and the jade factory only collected large pieces and carved large goods, naturally looking down on these small materials.

To put it bluntly, why would he bring such materials here to sell to Li Long? Because those public or private merchants who collected by the Yurungkash River would pay a few yuan per kilogram for such small materials, or even a few cents per piece!

"Ten yuan, fine." Yusufu knew that Li Long was also half an insider, and this price couldn't be fooled.

Fine, the start was not bad. Li Long smiled. Next, it wasn't about pricing piece by piece; he calculated the ones with similar quality together, and Yusufu wasn't that calculating either. To be honest, the price sold at Li Long's place was nearly ten times higher than the price collected by those who came from the eastern coast.

So it was already very profitable.

Li Long finally spent two hundred and ten yuan to buy more than fifty seed materials.

There were still more than ten pieces left that Li Long didn't want, and Yusufu didn't take them back either; he gave them to Li Long.

He was already very satisfied. These materials were all rejected by the jade factory; in previous years, they would either be thrown away, carried back, or sold at a rock-bottom price to local acquaintances—not even a third of the price given to Li Long.

Although he didn't know why Li Long would want these cheap goods, as long as they could be sold, that was a good thing.

Yusufu finally gave the sack to Li Long as well.

Li Long collected the seed materials with the sack, put them into the room, and locked them up, then took Yusufu to the free market.

"What are we doing here?" Yusufu asked with some confusion.

"Buying watermelon. Didn't I tell my colleagues when I came out just now that I would treat them to watermelon?" Li Long found a watermelon seller; this stall owner was selling watermelons pulled by a horse cart. Li Long asked:

"Are these melons from the Pingyuan Forest Farm?"

"Yes, yes." The stall owner said hurriedly and asked:

"Do you want to buy melons?"

"If they are sweet, I'll buy a sack." Li Long said.

"Guaranteed sweet!" Hearing Li Long buy so many, the stall owner directly picked up a watermelon, smashed it open with a fist, broke it, and handed two pieces to Li Long and Yusufu.

Li Long tasted it; it was indeed quite sweet.

Yusufu ate the watermelon, and the melon juice stained his beard directly, but he didn't care.

"Really sweet."

"Weigh it, weigh it..." Li Long calculated. He remembered that there seemed to be five offices in the supply and marketing cooperative, so he said, "Weigh sixteen watermelons. By the way, how much per kilogram?"

"Two cents."

This price was really too moving.

Li Long looked left and right; there were four or five watermelon stalls. It was just the right season, so it was no wonder.

One hundred and eighteen kilograms, two yuan and thirty-six cents.

"Can you deliver it to the supply and marketing cooperative?" Li Long asked.

"Fine, fine, fine, no problem." There was still convenience for big customers.

The horse cart delivered the watermelons directly to the supply and marketing cooperative, and Li Long had them unloaded into Li Jianguo's office.

"Yo, these watermelons came fast." Li Jianguo said with a smile. Li Long buying a sack directly fulfilled his words and really saved him face.

"Section Chief, you go to the trouble of distributing them to everyone, and put the rest in your office." Li Long said, "I'll take Yusufu to eat."

"Go, go." Li Jianguo waved his hand, "You don't need to worry about it."

The supply and marketing cooperative actually distributed watermelons too, but this was different from Li Long treating. Li Jianguo knew, and Li Long knew, that handing some tasks directly to Li Long would definitely make some people talk.

Li Long made the quality of the carrying poles and large brooms good, blocking the mouths of those people. But there should be other aspects of things, and they should also be there.

These watermelons were not bad.

"Alright, alright, each office come over to collect watermelons!" Li Jianguo said loudly, "Xiao Wang, Xiao Cao, take two watermelons and send them to the Director and the Secretary!"

Halal Canteen.

Li Long treated Yusufu to a meal of oil-spilled mixed noodles. Li Long didn't expect this guy to be able to add six noodles in one meal!

"Full, full!" Yusufu wiped his mouth and said while drinking noodle soup, "Full, I don't need to eat tomorrow." Li Long could only say he admired him—this guy didn't look like he had a big belly, but he didn't expect him to be able to eat so much.

He took Yusufu to the naan shop to buy five naans for him to take along.

"This naan, it's not as good as our Kuqa big naan." Although Yusufu was picking faults, he took the naan without fail. Li Long smiled; this was normal. After all, Kuqa big naan was really very famous.

Sending Yusufu to the bus station and buying a ticket, Li Long didn't care anymore.

He rode his bike back to the small courtyard, loaded the half-sack of seed materials onto the bike, and brought them to the large courtyard.

Gu Xiaoxia knew Li Long had something to do today, so she cooked and ate by herself, and now she had already gone to work again.

Li Long put the seed materials in the corner of the side room and locked the door.

This thing was inconspicuous now; it was estimated that even if a thief saw it, he wouldn't think it was a valuable thing.

For dinner, Li Long made soup noodles with potatoes; making soup noodles could better show his craftsmanship.

Gu Xiaoxia returned, and Li Long took out some of the seed materials to show her.

!.

"These stones are so beautiful!" Gu Xiaoxia didn't know much about jade, but touching and looking at them, she could feel the difference between this jade and stones, "It feels very comfortable to touch."

"Hmm, isn't it very moist? This is the feeling of mutton-fat jade. Mutton-fat is mutton oil."

"It really is like it, but it's so small, what can it be used for?" Gu Xiaoxia asked.

"Drill holes in the small ones to make a bracelet. Carve hand-held pieces, jade Guanyin, etc., for the large ones." Li Long said based on his memory, "But keep them for now; for the time being, this thing is not worth money."

Gu Xiaoxia was not very interested in this for the time being; after all, she hadn't reached that age, and there was no such atmosphere now.

After cleaning up the bowls and chopsticks, Li Long said:

"Shall we go for a walk?"

"A walk?" Gu Xiaoxia looked outside; it was already dark, there were no streetlights outside, what was there to walk around for?

"Let's walk, just to digest." Li Long stood up, took Gu Xiaoxia's hand, and walked out, "You sit in the office every day, and you sit and read books when you come back. It won't do if you don't move around like this."

Gu Xiaoxia's face turned red as soon as her hand was held by Li Long, and her feet followed involuntarily.

After going out, Li Long let go of her hand, locked the door, and then took Gu Xiaoxia's hand again and walked east—there was a road to the east, but there were fewer people, and it was close to the urban-rural fringe.

Gu Xiaoxia struggled for a moment and said in a low voice:

"It's not good to be seen..."

Li Long said with a smile:

"It's dark, who's looking? Besides, we're already engaged, it's open and aboveboard."

"That won't do either..." Gu Xiaoxia was still shy; she always felt she had to pay attention to the influence.

"Let's go, there will be no one if we walk further." Li Long pulled her to walk a few steps faster. Seeing that she couldn't break free, Gu Xiaoxia stopped struggling. She also felt a kind of excitement of breaking taboos.

The defense between men and women now is still quite heavy; usually, even if they are dating, they have to avoid people if they have any intimate behavior. Although it was late now, it wasn't completely dark yet. If someone came over and saw two people holding hands, the influence would certainly not be very good.

The road to the east was not very good, there were pits, and after walking for a while, it was a gravel road. At this time, there was no light pollution, and no mobile phones to affect eyesight. After walking for a while, the two adapted to the darkness and could basically see the situation on the ground. The two walked side by side, and their steps slowed down.

"In your unit, no one is making things difficult for you, right?"

"No. Recently, because the village primary school is to be abolished, a large number of teachers have to be dealt with, and there are quite a few requests from the brigade primary schools. The workload of dealing with these things is very large, and everyone is very busy."

Gu Xiaoxia slowly got used to her hand being held by Li Long, and she said in a slightly brisk tone:

"Besides, I was seconded by Deputy Bureau Chief Wang. Deputy Bureau Chief Wang often comes to our office to find me. Seeing her face, everyone won't make things difficult for me."

Li Long nodded and said: "Hmm, ability is still the most important thing. You are so excellent, the leader won't turn a blind eye."

Being praised by Li Long like this, Gu Xiaoxia felt sweet in her heart, even happier than being praised by Deputy Bureau Chief Wang. She subconsciously held Li Long's hand back and walked forward swaying.

"It must be very hard for you to stay in the mountains, right?" Gu Xiaoxia asked about Li Long's life in the mountains, "I stayed for half a day, and it felt quite good. But it's so remote there, it must be inconvenient to do anything, right?"

"Actually, it's quite good." Li Long saw a pit in front, took her hand and led Gu Xiaoxia to the side a little bit. Gu Xiaoxia thought Li Long was deliberately getting close to her, and was a bit shy, but didn't refuse. Their bodies were closer together, and Li Long continued:

"With enough supplies, it's actually more comfortable there than here. Although it's sunny during the day, it's very comfortable in the woods, and the air is very good. It's very cool at night, and you have to cover yourself with a quilt. Of course, it's colder in winter..."

"Then are you still going over in winter?" Gu Xiaoxia subconsciously exerted some strength with her hand, "It's so cold..."

"If I go hunting, I will go occasionally. Like now, I won't live there often, but I will go occasionally." Li Long said with a smile, "Winter is suitable for hunting, and it's idle anyway."

Gu Xiaoxia didn't speak.

The two were walking forward when a person turned out from forty or fifty meters ahead, walking towards them, and coughing.

Hearing the movement, Gu Xiaoxia subconsciously let go of Li Long's hand and walked two steps to the side. She was worried that Li Long would misunderstand, so she turned her head and glanced.

Li Long was looking at her with a smile. Gu Xiaoxia's face was red, and then she lowered her head.

Li Long turned his head to look at the person coming. He found that it was an old lady in her sixties or seventies, with a hunched back, carrying a basket in her hand, not knowing whether she was going to dump trash or what.

The old lady kept coughing, and when she passed the two, she raised her head and looked at each of them, then continued to walk forward.

Li Long thought of something and took Gu Xiaoxia to one side.

Gu Xiaoxia didn't quite understand, but she followed Li Long away from this area.

"Let's change direction and go back." Li Long said in a low voice, "That old person just now might have tuberculosis."

"What?" Gu Xiaoxia was startled when she heard it, "Really?"

"I heard that coughing sound and felt it was." Li Long said in a low voice, "Better safe than sorry."

Gu Xiaoxia knew a little about tuberculosis and knew that the disease was contagious, so she immediately followed Li Long to change direction and left quickly.

The county town is an old city, and the main city didn't have much change even after more than twenty years, only a new urban area was built south of the Wuyi Highway.

The old city area has a benefit, which is that the city was built in a relatively flat place, the roads are usually horizontal and vertical, and after a few turns, they walked back to the large courtyard.

The two held hands and entered the courtyard, each washing up.

The relationship went a step further.

When Li Long climbed up the next day, Gu Xiaoxia had already made breakfast. The two became more and more tacit, and their hearts seemed to be closer.

After breakfast, Gu Xiaoxia went to work, and Li Long went to the bus station.

He planned to go to Wucheng. (End of chapter)