Chapter 259

The bus started, and Li Long sat by the window, watching the changes in the scenery outside the window.

After a row of low bungalows, the next was a large poplar forest, and behind the poplar forest was a large area of farmland.

Those who have read "Praise of the Bai Yang" should be clear that white poplars, or what locals call drilling-sky poplars, grow straight, and a large area is good for blocking wind and sand. So there are usually several rows of white poplars planted along the roads and fields here. Bitter beans grow under the poplar forest, a lush green.

Occasionally, one or two low bungalows appeared on the roadside, with words like "Add Water," "Change Tires," or "Hotel" written in white lime on them.

These, by reason, all belong to illegal construction, because private houses were not allowed to be built on the roadside at the beginning. It's just that these people are making a living here, which is convenient for long-distance drivers, and there was no specialized management agency at this time, so these people survived.

Over time, these roadside buildings became more and more numerous, even forming a scale, gathering at some important points, and this became a fixed place for drivers to rest. Later, there were more restaurants, bathhouses, repair shops, etc.

And the construction time was long enough, so the illegal construction became legal construction. Li Long remembered that there were people in the village where Liang Wenyu and the others were who set up a small restaurant on this road, and later when the 312 road was expanded, they were given quite a bit of demolition compensation.

The bus from the county to Wucheng usually doesn't stop halfway, because it's only a hundred kilometers away, but what made Li Long a bit confused was that this time, when it was about to reach Huxian, the bus turned to the roadside and stopped.

"Get off the bus to relieve yourself, rest for a while, there are things for sale on the roadside, you can buy some."

The driver shouted at the front of the bus, then got off.

Li Long looked outside the bus, and there were really a few people selling things.

Tea eggs, boiled water, and people selling watermelon and sweet melon.

He vaguely remembered that a few decades later, there were people selling peaches here.

Li Long didn't get off the bus. He had eaten breakfast, and he also carried a military water bottle in his satchel, which contained mung bean water to relieve the heat. He drank a sip from time to time, and it would be finished by the time he reached Wucheng, so it wouldn't go bad in the water bottle.

Most of the passengers got off the bus—the road runs east-west, and it's hot now, so the seats on the south side are too hot. Li Long sat on the north side, so it didn't affect him.

After about ten minutes, the passengers who got off the bus got on, and the driver arrived late after another two minutes, started the bus, looked at the people, and then drove.

It took more than two hours for the bus to reach Wucheng. The road conditions were not very good at this time. Li Long got off the bus and hurriedly took the bus to the jade factory.

The jade factory hadn't finished work yet at this time. Li Long took out a cigarette and handed one to the guard, asking:

"Comrade, hello, I would like to ask if you can buy jade here?"

"You can't buy large pieces; the ones in the factory have all been sent to the store. Over there, there is a small door on the side, you can buy some small pieces there... but it's not cheap."

"Fine, Comrade, thank you." Li Long only wanted to buy small pieces; he couldn't afford large ones either.

Carrying his satchel, he arrived at the side door. Li Long first smelled a scent of food. He saw that the side door was open, and a window was opened next to it. Inside the window was a glass cabinet, and jade pieces were placed casually in the glass cabinet.

Jade bracelets, jade Buddhas, hand-held pieces, rings, thumb rings, etc., were all there.

Looking at the jade quality, mutton-fat white jade, jasper, ink jade, and even jadeite were there.

"Young man? Want to buy jade?" A hoarse voice asked inside.

Li Long poked his head in and saw a man in his fifties or sixties holding a spatula, poking his head out from the inner room to ask.

His hair was gray and messy, his beard should have been unshaven for a long time, he wore black-rimmed glasses, and there were several patches on his shirt.

Li Long noticed that the index finger of his right hand holding the spatula was missing a joint; he didn't know what caused the injury.

"Hmm, I heard that jade is sold here, so I came to take a look."

"Look, these are actually made by apprentices. Of course, they are not waste products, they can be used, but the carving is just like that. Of course, the benefit is that it's cheap."

This person spoke very honestly, and Li Long immediately had a lot of good feelings.

"There is jadeite here too?" Li Long couldn't help but ask. Whether it was Northern Xinjiang or Southern Xinjiang, neither produced this.

"Hmm, there are a few pieces, not many. We are a jade factory, jadeite is also jade, it's just harder, not easy to carve. Of course, it's not a good material either—"

Good heavens.

Although Li Long was an outsider, he also knew that the jadeite in the glass counter, the peace buckle that caught his eye, was at least ice-type, and the green was very thick, and there was a pair of earrings, although it didn't look like ice-type yet, it was full green.

There was a bracelet, the ring mouth was a bit small, but it also looked very beautiful.

"What's the price for these things?" Li Long looked at those jade pieces again. To be honest, he really couldn't see what was bad about this carving.

"Which piece do you want?" The man served the food in the pot, put it on the small table against the wall, and then walked to the side of the glass counter to ask, "You look at it and I'll tell you."

"Give me all these jadeite pieces." Li Long said, "I want them all."

"What?" The man didn't believe it a bit, "You want them all? Even if these are apprentices, the price is there. With so much money, you might as well go directly to a large store to buy a good one."

Li Long thought to himself that I don't understand, I just want to possess them; I look at them and they are all about the same.

He asked:

"Then what's the difference between apprentice carving and master carving?"

"What's the difference? The difference is huge! Do you see this Buddha?" The man took it out of the glass cabinet and gave it to Li Long to look at. He didn't follow the rule of "jade doesn't pass through hands," but just put it in Li Long's hand and pointed for Li Long to look:

"See? The Buddha's appearance is complete, right?"

"Hmm." Li Long thought to himself, it's indeed complete, it has a nose, eyes, mouth, and everything.

"But do you see, it's dry, there's not much vitality, is there no such spirituality?"

"This..." Li Long could feel a little bit, but not much.

"You look at this again." The man casually took out a small jade Buddha from his pocket, "Compare them."

Comparing the two Buddhas together, Li Long saw it.

This is really different. The things carved by apprentices are really relatively stiff; they have everything they should have, but they lack that bit of spirituality.

The jade Buddha the man took out later was Maitreya, and you look at it smiling, it's really auspicious. And the jadeite jade Buddha, looking at it, makes people feel no respect.

He immediately thought of the ancient wooden Bodhisattva and Heavenly King Buddha statues he saw in Jinzhong in his previous life; each one really had that kind of "image" mentioned in novels.

And many modern young men and women on short video platforms make machine carvings, which look vivid at first glance, but look closely and they lack that spirituality; it feels like this is just an ornament.

"Understood, this is indeed good!" Li Long pointed to the jade carving behind, "It can be called master carving!"

"Young man, you have a good eye!" The man smiled, "Then why are you still buying so many?"

"Buying." Li Long's words made the man stunned, "Why don't you listen to advice?"

"I can't buy many master carvings, right?" Li Long smiled, "I want to buy them for my father and mother, my eldest brother and sister-in-law, my nephew and niece, my partner, and myself. How can I afford master carvings?"

"Ho? So many?" The man was extremely surprised.

"Hmm, they are all family, so if I want to buy, I naturally buy for all. By the way, I also have to buy for my father-in-law."

"Fine, fine." The man reached out to take back the small jade Buddha he had just taken out, and Li Long asked:

"How much for this?"

"This... do you want it?" The old man asked.

"Hmm, it's quite good."

"Twenty... five, is that okay?" The man asked tentatively.

"Fine, I'll buy it." Li Long said. "Are you really buying?" The man was surprised, "This... the jade material is not big, the carving..."

"The carving is very good." Li Long said, "I want it."

The man's breathing suddenly became heavy. He suddenly turned around and walked quickly inside, and brought out a pile of things, put them on the glass counter, and said in a hoarse voice:

"You look, what else do you want? I'll sell it to you cheaply!"

Li Long was stunned for a moment, then looked at these things.

They were all small pieces, the largest was only a fist-sized hand-held piece.

Most of the materials were seed materials like those Yusufu sold to Li Long, and some looked like scraps.

Li Long vaguely understood that these things should be carved by this old man, right?

The old man took out twelve things in total, mainly hand-held pieces, jade Buddhas, peace buckles, thumb rings, peace-and-nothing-to-do plaques, etc.

Li Long wanted them all.

The old man was a bit shocked—including the previous jade Buddha, he collected a total of one hundred and forty yuan from Li Long.

Li Long felt he had taken advantage, but the old man said he had just said he would sell cheaply.

Li Long bought all those jadeite materials from the glass counter again, and also bought four jade bracelets, two belt buckles, a hand-held piece, and some small things. He mainly looked at the material. When he said this, the man picked out the ones with better materials in the counter for him.

!.

These things were even cheaper, and the man said very indifferently:

"These things are all for practice. The material quality itself is okay, it's just too small, and there's not much cost in the factory. You just give five yuan per piece on average."

Fine, another pile, ninety-five yuan.

Seeing Li Long take out two hundred and thirty-five yuan very neatly, the man couldn't help but sigh:

"Are young people nowadays so rich?"

"That's not it." Li Long said with a smile while wrapping these jade pieces:

"I just happened to pick up some things in the mountains and sold them for money."

The old man used newspapers to wrap the jade pieces, and there were no better things, let alone gift boxes.

However, newspapers were not bad. Li Long wrapped them carefully one by one, then put them into his satchel, which was bulging.

The old man also invited Li Long to eat together, but Li Long refused; he had to rush back to the county.

Sending Li Long away, the old man spun around several times in excitement on the spot.

It took a while to calm down his mood, and he sat at the table and started to eat.

The staple food was cornmeal steamed cake.

Although no customers came in the afternoon, he was still a bit unaccustomed.

Before getting off work, the man went to the factory's finance department and slapped seventy-six yuan on the table:

"This is the money for the jade sold today, a total of seventy-six, open a ticket for me!"

"Yo, Liu Gong, you opened for business today?"

"That's it." The man's voice was very loud, "A connoisseur came, bought quite a lot?"

The finance personnel collected the money, opened a ticket, and gave a document to Liu Gong.

Liu Gong left the finance office, and the two people still muttered in a low voice:

"Connoisseur? With those apprentice carvings of his, still a connoisseur? I'm afraid he ran into a fool, right?"

"Who says not? If he really ran into a connoisseur, wouldn't they go to a large store to buy?"

"Exactly!"

Liu Gong left the finance office and went to the processing workshop. Before entering the door, he ran into a short, middle-aged man who also wore glasses. As soon as that person saw Liu Gong, he immediately said respectfully:

"Master, you are here?"

"Xiao Xu, I'll see if there are any scraps or small seed materials. My hands are itchy recently, and staying there is just staying there, so I want to slowly carve some small things."

"Master, isn't your hand... injured?" Xiao Xu pointed to Liu Gong's finger and asked.

"Take it slow, anyway, it's idle anyway. Besides, these scraps, you will clear them out in the end..."

"That's no problem, tomorrow at work, I'll take a bag for you."

"Good, I'll wait for you tomorrow." Liu Gong said and turned around and walked out with big strides.

Xiao Xu was a bit surprised. After Master injured his finger, the factory knew he couldn't carve large pieces, so he was put at the side door to watch the store as retirement, and he wasn't treated badly, but he had always been relatively depressed.

Did he change his nature today?

Entering the family courtyard and returning home, Liu Gong shouted loudly to the room:

"Old woman, take out my wine, I want to drink two cups today!"

"Yo? Why did you suddenly think of drinking?" The woman walked out of the kitchen wearing an apron and asked curiously.

"Opened for business today!" Liu Gong slapped a stack of tickets on the table with a "slap," "The small things I carved were all bought by someone! I'm happy!"

"Then we really have to drink two cups to celebrate!" The woman was also very happy; she could see that her husband had really walked out of that depression.

Li Long took a satchel of jade pieces and took the bus to the South Station, still a bit excited.

A bit hungry, he found a noodle shop under the South Station Bayi Guesthouse to eat, and then bought a ticket to go back.

According to Liu Gong's idea, he made a fortune today.

According to Li Long's idea, he also made a fortune today.

Master carving—this material is good, and the carving is also good. Keep it, must keep it!

Not for whether it can appreciate in value later, at least when these things slowly disappear later, he has them in his hands, and his family has them.

That's enough.

The ticket he bought was a bit late, and this time it was a seat by the south window. Although Li Long was exposed to the sun, his mood was not bad.

He spent quite a bit of money in two days, and next he had to earn money well.

Returning to the large courtyard, Li Long saw that Gu Xiaoxia hadn't returned yet, so he rode his bike home first.

Since he had already bought things for everyone, he would distribute them to his family to make them happy.

Passing by that bridge hole, Li Long specifically looked, but didn't find that little girl; maybe she was busy.

Returning to the village, when he was about to reach home, Li Long saw his father Li Qing Xia and Tao Daqiang carrying tires and bringing nets out.

"Are you going to catch fish?" Li Long asked with a smile.

"Yes, you've been busy in the mountains recently, we thought there was nothing to do, so why not catch fish." Li Qing Xia said, "Are you going?"

"Yes. You wait for me, I'll come over after I put the bike down!" Li Long thought it had indeed been a few days since he went to the small lake, so he would go over to take a look today. (End of chapter)