Chapter 271: Returning home together

As expected, in the questions the teacher gave, Qiangqiang scored double hundreds.

He raised his head very proudly.

The dean of studies immediately decided that the school would accept this student.

Assigned to Class A.

The current teaching staff was still insufficient, so the brigade primary school only recruited two classes for the first grade, with over fifty people in one class.

The matter was solved like this, Qiangqiang smiled.

Li Long didn't know that the matter he and Gu Bo Yuan guessed had been fulfilled so quickly.

He returned to the mountains and went to the hot spring two more times, and didn't hunt any prey either time.

Don't know if the animals nearby were scared away by his hunting, or if there were other reasons, in short, there were none.

The remaining wild boar meat had been air-dried, Li Long packed them up and went to Halimu's place in the evening, told him, and prepared to go down the mountain the next day.

"We don't need anything for the time being here." Halimu wasn't polite to Li Long either, in another two months the cattle and sheep on the mountain would go down the mountain, and they would be able to see each other often then.

Early the next morning, Li Long got up, packed the air-dried meat on the back seat of the bicycle, locked the door of the wooden house, and rode down the mountain.

Arriving at the large courtyard, Li Long looked at the door being open with some surprise.

Gu Xiaoxia didn't go to work?

Li Long entered the courtyard and saw Gu Xiaoxia washing clothes in the courtyard.

"Eh? You didn't go to work?"

"Today is Sunday." Gu Xiaoxia said with a smile, "I ran outside for a week, today I'm resting."

"Where did you run to? Riding a bicycle or taking a car?"

"Riding a bicycle, I even helped Qiangqiang go to school." Gu Xiaoxia said with some pride, "That day I went to the brigade primary school, and just happened to meet Qiangqiang..."

She told the story of Qiangqiang going to school, Li Long was a bit surprised, and then praised her:

"Really thanks to you, otherwise don't know how sad Qiangqiang would be!"

"Mm, later he kept calling me Little Aunt..." Gu Xiaoxia was a bit shy, "I told the dean of studies of the brigade primary school that this was my nephew, he should be taken care of a bit, right."

"Certainly. But Qiangqiang is strong-willed, and loves to learn, he should study well." Li Long said with a smile, "Two days ago I was still saying to Gu Shu that if the school teacher knew your relationship with Qiangqiang, they would definitely take care of Qiangqiang, didn't expect it to come true."

"Hehe." Gu Xiaoxia was rarely so proud, "Are you going back to the team now?"

"Going to eat two steamed buns before going back." Li Long said, "Didn't eat in the morning, a bit hungry. Is there still much meat here?"

"Much! The air-dried meat hasn't been moved much. Is this also air-dried meat you put behind? Don't put it, just take it back."

"Mm, shared some last time." Li Long said, "I'll share some when I go back too."

"Then... I'll go back with you." Gu Xiaoxia said, "Originally I planned not to go back first, now that you are going back, then I'll go back with you."

"You still have to go to work tomorrow morning..."

"Now riding home takes an hour, wait until the sky is almost dark and then come back, what are you doing in the afternoon?"

"If there's nothing to do, set nets to catch fish." Li Long said, "Then see, maybe do nothing."

"That's it. If you set nets, then sell fish tomorrow morning, and I'll come back with you then."

"That works too. But you'll be quite tired."

"What's tiring about that, riding a bicycle, much better than walking."

Since Gu Xiaoxia had already decided, Li Long didn't say anything else, he brought up another matter:

"By the way, Halimu and Yushanjiang, my herdsmen friends, sent you a snow leopard skin."

"What? Snow leopard skin?" Gu Xiaoxia was stunned for a moment, "Is the snow leopard a leopard?"

"Yeah, a leopard in the mountains." Li Long propped up the bicycle, took out the snow leopard skin from the side room and spread it out for Gu Xiaoxia to see, "Look, beautiful, right!"

"Really beautiful... this is the first time I've seen such a skin..."

"Over a thousand yuan a piece." Li Long said with a smile, "I sold one for them before, this one is even larger, maybe it can reach two thousand."

"What? Two thousand? That can't be accepted!" Gu Xiaoxia was startled, she hadn't seen so much money in her life!

"Accept it, they said it was a gift to celebrate our marriage." Li Long said with a smile, "Even if I return it, they won't want it. I'll just bring more things to the mountains later."

"Then..." Gu Xiaoxia didn't know what to say, and only after a long while said, "Then their relationship with you is really good... such an expensive thing, they just sent it."

"They don't care about so much when sending things. As long as they feel they are friends, they send it. Before, I earned quite a bit of money from them, of course, the things I gave them also helped them quite a bit, and I even saved the life of one of their children!" Li Long said this, actually to make it easier for Gu Xiaoxia to accept.

After all, sending something worth two thousand yuan, not to mention friends, even sending gifts at this time wasn't sent like this.

Asking someone to help send a son, a hundred or so was already a very large sum.

"Then you quickly put this skin away." Gu Xiaoxia was still a bit panicked, "Wait... when you need money, sell it. We can't really owe them such a big favor, you really have to buy more supplies for them later."

"Mm, I know."

This matter was just revealed like this. Gu Xiaoxia felt that this skin was really good-looking, but it was still safer to hand it over to Li Long. She actually also knew that saying it was for her was of course also because of Li Long's face. If it weren't for Li Long, those herdsmen friends would know who she was? Gu Xiaoxia packed her clothes, Li Long went to buy steamed buns, and after returning and finishing eating, the two went out together.

The sky turned overcast.

Leaving the county town, they felt the wind blowing, and it started to cool down.

"Estimate it will rain in the afternoon." Li Long said, "If so, it might not be easy for you to go back. That muddy road is not easy to ride."

"It's fine." Gu Xiaoxia felt it wasn't that bad, "Just that section out of the team, the section from the township to the county is still not bad."

Li Long then talked about other things, mainly that hot spring.

"Are there really so many animals soaking in the hot spring?" Gu Xiaoxia was very curious, "Are they the same as people?"

"There should be something they need in the hot spring." Li Long thought about the videos and articles promoting the benefits of hot springs in his previous life, and felt it should be like this.

The two rode together to the township middle school, and it already started to drizzle. But the rain wasn't big. The roadbed from the township to the village was a dirt road, the drizzle wasn't big, and it didn't reach the point of being all mud, so riding was still fine.

Li Long was just worried that if the rain was too big, the whole road would be mud, and wanting to ride fast would be fast—he had experienced it many times in his previous life, riding a bicycle to the township and county after heavy rain, riding for a while and having to stop to dig out the mud under the mudguards of the bicycle's front and rear wheels with a stick.

!.

Too troublesome.

The rain wasn't big, but the wind was big, they were wearing shirts and felt a bit cool, and just when they turned back from the township, it was still tailwind—the wind was blowing from the west.

"Are you tired?" During the riding process, Li Long was still asking Gu Xiaoxia.

"It's fine." Gu Xiaoxia regretted a bit, knowing this, she wouldn't have come back, tomorrow might really be quite troublesome.

The rain stopped and started, the ground was wet, but it hadn't reached the point of mud, they passed the reed ditch, and when they arrived at the residential point, the rain actually stopped.

Li Long and Gu Xiaoxia arrived at the Gu family together, Gu Bo Yuan had just returned from the field, and was a bit surprised to see them both.

"Gu Shu, I'll put some air-dried meat for you again..."

"Don't put, put what? The ones put last time are still there and haven't been eaten!" Gu Bo Yuan waved his hand, "Yesterday your big brother sent some fish again, can't finish them. Go back quickly, you haven't returned for many days."

If it were someone else driving people away like this, it certainly wouldn't be polite, but Gu Bo Yuan wasn't an outsider, Li Long also knew his meaning, so he said with a smile:

"Then I'll go back first."

"Go back, go back." Gu Bo Yuan waved his hand.

Li Long rode the bicycle and left, and when he walked far away, he heard Gu Bo Yuan complaining to Gu Xiaoxia, clearly not very welcoming of his return.

Of course, it wasn't really unwelcoming, just felt that she rushed back like this, it had an impact on work.

The older generation attached great importance to work.

Li Long passed by the Old Horse Station, went in and found Old Uncle Luo, and encountered the same problem as the Gu family. Old Uncle Luo wouldn't let him put air-dried meat, saying there was still quite a lot stored here.

Li Long said good things and bad things and put some, after all, he still had to live here, don't know which day he would want to eat it?

Old Uncle Luo pointed to the house used as a warehouse and said:

"Just now I collected all the Cistanche drying on the roof, and the dried ones are all stored there—it's just you, who can get so many sacks, otherwise it really couldn't be packed!"

Li Long went over and took a look, discovering that there must be seven or eight sacks of Cistanche in there—not few!

This was also normal, after all, Cistanche was everywhere on the nearby alkaline beach, and the resources were really abnormally rich.

Li Long pushed the cart and returned to the Li family, Li Qing Xia and Tao Dayong were picking up nets, Li Jianguo was tidying up the bicycle.

That bicycle was turned over and placed in the middle of the courtyard, the rear wheel had been removed, Li Long looked and knew, this should be a flat tire.

"Big brother, is this bike going to be patched?"

"Not easy to patch, the valve core is rotten there." Li Jianguo was holding a basin of water testing the tire, looking at the position where bubbles were coming out in the water, frowning and saying:

"How to patch this place? Can't patch, have to change the tire."

"Then... sigh!" Li Qing Xia made a sound over there, "Daqiang took me to sell fish, and when I came back, I felt something was wrong, couldn't ride, got down and took a look, no air. Thought about pushing it back to pump air, who knew... I'll pay for the tire."

"Certainly you pay!" Du Chunfang complained, "When you left, you didn't know to pump air for the bike, just knew how to ride—older, still not as good as Little Long..."

Li Long smiled bitterly, in his mother's eyes, he was good at everything.

"No problem, wait until I turn back to the county to buy an inner tube." Li Long said, "Just right, keep this broken tire, later it can be cut to patch others."

"That's the only way."

"Then Little Long, can you go this afternoon?" Li Qing Xia asked, "If not, I'll ride your bike this afternoon, this way it won't delay selling fish tomorrow..."

"Selling fish, you only know selling fish!" Du Chunfang continued to complain.

"That's natural, twenty or thirty yuan a day!" Li Qing Xia said righteously.

"That also has to wait until Little Long finishes lunch!" Du Chunfang glared at Li Qing Xia, "Can't you let Little Long rest? He just returned from so far away... can't that fish be put for a day?"

"No problem, no problem, I'll go to the county this afternoon, what a big deal—Mom, what's for lunch?"

"Stewed fish, rice." Li Long opened his mouth, and Du Chunfang's tone was different.

"Good, I've been wanting this bite for a long time." Li Long smiled, he really wanted this bite.

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 272 =====