Chapter 264: Some Ways to Earn Money Can Only Be Found by Exploring

Li Long, Li Li Qing Xia, and Tao Daqiang all walked back carrying urea sacks—eight sacks in total, just the bags themselves!

By the time they got home, dawn had broken; the sun would not rise for a while yet, but in the courtyard the plastic sheeting was already laid out and the large sorting tray set in place.

Even so, seeing the three of them lugging so many sacks, Du Chunfang in the courtyard was still somewhat surprised:

"How did you get so many?"

"It's not just fish; there's also waterweed, and wild ducklings and watercoots." Li Long set down the tire and net bag, then poured everything onto the plastic sheeting.

A huge pile of netted fish stacked high; the three of them automatically began sorting the fish while simultaneously untangling the nets.

After all, once the fish were sold, they would have to come back to retrieve the nets; if they messed up the nets now, they would only be making trouble for themselves.

Since early spring, everyone had grown accustomed to this: when sorting fish, try not to squeeze them hard or knock off their scales, so the fish remain unharmed and can stay alive a little longer.

They filled four large half-sacks with fish; the ditch fish were not particularly numerous, so they were placed separately in a small sack, some water was added to each, and then they were tied to both sides of two bicycles.

Li Long felt the bicycle tires were a bit low on air, and since he still had to carry Tao Daqiang, he fetched a pump from the spare room, unscrewed the cap from the rear tire's valve, clamped the duck-bill nozzle onto it, and began pumping.

After seven or eight pumps, he pressed down on the rear seat to test it, then gave another five or six pumps; satisfied, he put the pump away.

"Let's go!" Li Long said to Tao Daqiang and Li Li Qing Xia.

Li Li Qing Xia's bicycle rear rack held a basin and a scale, while a small sack containing the ditch fish hung from the front handlebars; he had already ridden off ahead.

Li Long pushed his bicycle onto the road, pedaled a few times to mount it, and only then did Tao Daqiang climb on behind.

The bicycle wobbled slightly; Li Long exerted himself, pedaling hard as they shot forward.

Upon reaching the township, Tao Daqiang and Li Long switched places; now Tao Daqiang carried Li Long.

During this period while Li Long had been in the mountains, Tao Daqiang back at the team had also learned how to ride a bicycle.

He was even wondering whether he should buy a bicycle for himself.

When they arrived in the county town, Tao Daqiang handed the bicycle over to Li Long, ran off to the market, while Li Long went to the big courtyard to fetch the scale and basin.

Gu Gu Xiaoxia had already left for work; Li Long took his things, locked the door, and headed straight for Shicheng.

The old street in Shicheng was still crowded; today there were not as many fish buyers as yesterday, but within less than an hour, the fish were all sold. Such is the advantage of heavy foot traffic: as long as the goods are good, there is no worry about selling them.

After returning from Shicheng, Li Long did not go to the free market to look for Li Li Qing Xia and the others; instead, he went to the procurement station.

"Oh, Comrade Xiao Li has arrived." Chen Hongjun had only just opened the door a short while ago; no one had come in yet today, and seeing Li Long made him quite happy. "Did you go to sell fish?"

"Mm." Li Long nodded, then asked, "Comrade Chen, I wanted to ask: do you accept Suoyang?"

"Suoyang?" Chen Hongjun put down the Mao Jin he had been using to wipe the table and said, "We used to buy that, but we don't anymore."

"You don't buy it anymore?" Li Long felt somewhat disappointed.

"Mm, but I know where they do." Chen Hongjun said with a smile. "Do you have a lot of Suoyang over there?"

"Lots, far too many; everywhere under the white thorn bushes on the alkali flats."

"Then that might work..." Chen Hongjun said. "The Pharmaceutical Company buys this; it's actually a fairly good medicinal herb. Of course, the Pharmaceutical Company doesn't buy everything; it depends on the scale and how it's processed."

Li Long knew this; in his previous life, many people in the team had learned this was a medicinal herb, and some had entertained the idea: if it couldn't be sold at the procurement station, they would take it to the Pharmaceutical Company, only to return saying the Pharmaceutical Company wouldn't buy it either.

But in the few years before Li Long fell ill and died in that previous life, the price of this thing had soared; dried goods fetched dozens to over a hundred yuan per kilogram, and wild ones were even more expensive.

By then, the alkali flats in the team were no longer abundant; most had been reclaimed and planted with cotton, and the few remaining ones were all extremely distant, so no one in the team bothered to dig specifically for this, simply because there was too little of it.

Instead, there were specialized diggers who rode electric tricycles all over searching for it; after digging it up, they took it home to process themselves.

So although the entire team possessed this resource, to be honest, very few actually made money from it; occasionally one or two had sold some for cash, but later they stopped, saying it was too troublesome and that the Pharmaceutical Company's requirements were too high.

"This requires processing," Chen Hongjun said. "It must be washed clean, must not be rotten or broken, must include the roots, and you know that fuzzy, hair-like part on top? That must not be damaged or lost; also, when drying, it must not be too dry, otherwise it will be difficult to slice later..."

Li Long carefully memorized all these words.

Leaving the procurement station, he did not go to the Pharmaceutical Company but headed to the market. Seeing that Li Li Qing Xia and Tao Daqiang still had a little fish left unsold, he wandered around the market twice; once they finished selling their fish, the three of them went together to Daroushitang for breakfast, then returned to the team.

Du Chunfang had already begun retrieving the nets, Li Juan was helping in the courtyard, and Li Qiang was leading a watercoot around to play.

The three of them joined the net-retrieving crew; Li Long took over for Li Juan. Li Long could clearly feel Li Juan exhale deeply; she must have been quite tired.

With the addition of three people, the nets were all retrieved in just over an hour. Tao Daqiang went back to cook, and Li Long also began cooking here. Du Chunfang could not handle cooking for so many people in the household, and Li Li Qing Xia certainly could not cook either; this was something Li Long had become familiar with.

After eating, Li Long did not return to the horse stable; instead, he took an iron shovel, clamped a sack onto the rear rack of his bicycle, and rode eastward to the alkali flats.

The alkali flats grew abundant white thorn, red willow, and seepweed. These plants all grew quite distinctively. White thorn spread in large patches across the ground; it had already borne red and purple fruits, which tasted sour with a hint of sweetness and carried a medicinal scent; one should not eat too many, or one would get a nosebleed. As for red willow, needless to say, in later generations one mostly saw it as shrub-like, but here, because there were so many, although people cut some, due to their abundance many had grown into trees, some three or four meters tall.

As for seepweed, it formed lush green clumps; without any pruning, it naturally assumed a spherical shape, and some birds, like what the local dialect calls big-headed sparrows and yellow sparrows, would even build nests within the seepweed.

Seepweed was also harvested by local ancestors here to burn into alkali ash; the resulting ash was emerald green, resembling tourmaline, extremely beautiful. Of course, the scraps were disregarded.

Li Long did not even need to search; beside the road, next to the white thorn, he could see purplish-red Suoyang protruding upright like donkey penises from the white alkaline soil.

Propping up his bicycle, Li Long took his iron shovel and sack and walked toward the nearest Suoyang.

Because this thing is purplish-red and full of moisture, like dye, children would pull off the heads and use them as pens to write and draw on hard earth surfaces.

Li Long found a large one and dug carefully, trying not to damage it. One shovel stroke directly unearthed three; the longest was over one chi long, the shortest over twenty centimeters, and their roots were still connected.

Gently brushing off the soil above, Li Long placed the three Suoyang into the sack and continued digging.

The alkalinity of these flats was very strong; the top layer of soil was pure white, even crystallized, so only salt-alkali-tolerant plants like white thorn, red willow, and seepweed could grow; occasionally one could see reeds, but they did not grow tall.

Li Long spent half an hour digging half a sack, then directly clamped it onto the rear rack of his bicycle and rode back.

Returning to the horse stable, Li Long first used a brush to clean the soil off the Suoyang roots, then climbed onto the roof and spread them out to dry. The roof had a gentle slope, ample space, and few miscellaneous items, making it perfect for drying things.

Boom!

He planned to conduct an experiment.

For the next two days, Li Long continued setting nets, catching fish, and selling fish; on the third day, he went up to the house roof, saw the Suoyang had dried, carefully gathered them, and put them into a sack. Taking advantage of the break after lunch, he rode his bicycle to the county town.

When Li Long rode his bicycle to the Pharmaceutical Company, they had just opened for business.

At this time, the Pharmaceutical Company also undertook the responsibility of selling medicine, so although Li Long entered carrying a sack, the person behind the counter still mistook him for a medicine buyer and asked:

"Comrade, what medicine are you buying?"

"I'm not buying medicine; I'm selling Suoyang," Li Long said.

"I cannot decide this myself; I must find our director."

Li Long went up to the second floor to find the director; he had been there once before, and at that time the director had said he would not accept any.

This time, Li Long found the other party again.

"Didn't I say I wouldn't accept any?" the other party was also quite impatient; these people were just so annoying, so persistent!

"This time I've brought a sample; Director, could you take a look?" Li Long wasn't angry, speaking with a smile.

It was just to earn money; there was no shame in it.

That director had no choice but to wave his hand.

Li Long took out the dried Cynomorium he had sun-dried and placed it on the table.

"This... was processed by you?" The director glanced at it, originally intending to reject it outright, but he hadn't expected the quality of this Cynomorium to be quite good!

"Yes, I processed it." Li Long knew things were getting interesting; he said, "If all the Cynomorium I bring is like this, will you buy it here?"

"Then—if all of it can reach this quality, we will buy it." The director hadn't bought any before, naturally because the items brought by those who came knocking were mostly damaged goods, or carried soil, or simply came with soil and impurities along with other things; buying them would require secondary processing, how troublesome!

"Then I guarantee they will all be of this quality." Li Long said, "Director, could you tell me the price?"

"You guarantee? How can you guarantee that?" The director truly did not believe Li Long's guarantee very much.

"Actually, I am a procurement officer for the Supply and Marketing Cooperative, while also handling some of my own affairs." Li Long took out that certificate, "Section Chief Li of the Procurement Section of the Supply and Marketing Cooperative can vouch for me."

After looking at the certificate, the director's expression softened; he handed the certificate back to Li Long, picked up that Cynomorium to examine it carefully, and then said:

"If they are all of this quality, for dried goods I can give you a price of fifty cents per kilogram."

Li Long did a quick calculation: fifty cents per kilogram for dried goods meant that fresh goods were just over ten cents per kilogram—that is, four or five kilograms of fresh goods dried to make one kilogram of dried goods.

If he bought them from the team at five cents per kilogram of fresh goods, surely plenty of people would come to sell to him.

He would only need to find a place to sun-dry them.

Anyway, there was so much Cynomorium in the alkali flats; aside from labor, there was almost no cost; he figured that as long as he got Tao Daqiang to spread the news, there would be plenty of people willing to come and dig for him.

The wheat harvest season had already passed; the oil sunflowers and corn would not be harvested for some time yet. With such a gap period, everyone should be motivated to dig for Cynomorium.

"Will you buy whatever amount I bring?" Li Long asked finally.

"Yes, whatever amount you can bring, I will buy—of course, on the premise that the quality is this good."

Li Long smiled; that was definitely no problem.

This matter was settled just like that! (End of this chapter)