Chapter 277

Li Jianguo returned the next morning.

"There was a train in the middle of the night that passed by our old hometown. I bought the tickets and sent Dad, Mom, and that girl onto the train," Li Jianguo said to Li Long while eating breakfast in the courtyard. "When we arrived in Wucheng yesterday, she still wanted to run away, but I chased her back, which even alarmed the public security officers. Fortunately, after they cleared things up, they didn't bother with us."

Li Long hadn't expected such a turn of events in the middle of it all. It was a bit surprising that the public security officers didn't intervene. Under normal circumstances, such "forced" repatriation of people should, by rights, be something they would look into. Of course, it was best that they didn't; after all, if they had, things would have become quite troublesome later on.

"Did you tell Dad to send a telegram back once they get home?"

"I did," Li Jianguo said. "Dad said he'd just send the girl to her family and explain things clearly once they get back. Listening to Dad, if there's nothing going on back home, he still wants to come back here. I told him that if he's coming, he'd best bring Mom along too. The winter back home is too cold, they don't light the stove, and the house is drafty..."

Li Long nodded hurriedly, not disagreeing.

In any case, he didn't want to go back in the winter.

After breakfast, Li Jianguo harnessed the horse-drawn carriage and was about to head back; Li Long thought he should head back too. There was nothing to do staying here, so he might as well go back, sell those cistanche, and catch fish for a few more days. Autumn was a quiet period with no major work.

The two brothers returned to the team, and Li Long felt a bit unaccustomed to the empty courtyard. Li Juan and Li Qiang had gone to school. Usually, the two elders were at home, but now it was empty.

"Xiao Long, you go busy yourself with your own things. Your sister-in-law should have gone to the fields; I'll go take a look."

"Big Brother, are you taking the carriage?"

"I'll take it. I'm going to get some pig grass for the pigs this afternoon."

"Alright," Li Long said. "Then I'm going to the old horse pen."

Usually, he didn't ask about the work in the fields; it wasn't time to break the corn or harvest the oil sunflowers yet. Of course, when it was time to harvest, Li Long would definitely participate—with Dad and Mom away, he couldn't just let his brother and sister-in-law do all the work alone.

Li Long rode his bicycle to the old horse pen, loaded two sacks of cistanche, and went to the county medicinal herb company. After selling them with ease, he returned to the team to load two more sacks and went to sell them again.

By the time he returned at dark, there were still five sacks of cistanche left in the warehouse.

Sell the rest tomorrow.

Uncle Lao Luo asked Li Long with a smile:

"I heard a girl chased you all the way here from your hometown?"

"You heard about that too?" Li Long said irritably. "Uncle Lao Luo, news travels strangely fast; you know about it already."

"Is it true?"

"Half true, half false." Li Long didn't want to say more. "My dad and mom took the person back to the hometown. My mom made a joke, and the person took it seriously."

Seeing that Li Long didn't want to talk about it, Uncle Lao Luo didn't pursue the topic. Li Long saw that the wild boars were growing quite fast; although they weren't as big as the domestic pigs in the Li family courtyard, each one was about forty kilograms, which counted as adult wild boars.

However, they were constantly making a racket, tearing the skin off the brick walls, and squealing non-stop, so they couldn't put on any fat.

It seemed wild boars really weren't meant to be raised now. Meat without fat wouldn't sell.

But since they were being raised, they had to be kept until winter at least before they could be sold.

The leg of that roe deer hadn't fully healed, so it was considered a lifelong disability. It had just grown a bit bigger now and was grazing.

Li Long thought that if he had the chance to catch a live one again, he would bring it back and get it a companion or something. Thinking about how those two deer had sold for a lot of money, this was much more valuable than wild boars.

He would have to wander around the mountains more in early spring next year to see if he could run into any more fawns.

While he was thinking about this, Tao Daqiang came over.

"Brother Long, are you not setting the nets today?"

"Not setting them today," Li Long waved his hand. "I'm not in the mood. Tomorrow I'll go finish processing the cistanche in the warehouse. There shouldn't be anyone digging for cistanche now, so I'll sell the rest and set the nets again tomorrow afternoon."

"Alright." Having a definite time was enough.

"Daqiang, you can set nets to sell fish yourself, right?" Li Long asked Tao Daqiang. "You've gained experience going to sell fish with my old man these past few days, haven't you?"

"I can't do it; I'm not as good as Uncle Li," Tao Daqiang waved his hand. "When those people come to buy fish, Uncle Li can handle them, but I can't."

Li Long couldn't understand what he meant by "can't handle them," but since Tao Daqiang wasn't willing, he wouldn't force it. He changed the subject:

"Daqiang, are the crops in your fields about to be harvested too?"

"Soon, the oil sunflowers have already turned yellow on the back. They can be harvested after another period of drying." Tao Daqiang was very clear about the work at home. "As for the little bit of corn left, we'll wait a bit longer."

There were only two people in the Tao family, and four mu of land wasn't much; whether it was oil sunflowers or corn, they could finish harvesting in a day.

Li Long had originally thought about taking the horse-drawn carriage the next day to sell the remaining cistanche, but later thought he'd better ride his bicycle. He was used to riding the bicycle, and he couldn't quite stand the speed of the horse-drawn carriage.

Because he had to carry things, he couldn't take the two children, so Li Long deliberately delayed the time, and only set off when the two children were almost at school.

Selling the remaining cistanche that day, he brought in nearly a thousand yuan in two days; after deducting costs, he had earned about four hundred yuan.

A small windfall.

Originally, Li Long hadn't thought about doing anything, but that day those people ran to his house to watch the excitement. Li Long understood that most of these people were jealous, so he planned to go buy a television set.

He ran to the department store and found they were out of stock. He inquired and found out that the industrial coupons required for a television set were quite numerous.

Li Long didn't want to go ask Li Xiangqian for coupons again; he had asked too many times, so he went to the Cultural Palace Club to look for coupon scalpers, but ended up finding none.

Let's pause for now.

Li Long rode his bicycle back to the team, feeling a bit disappointed.

Let's catch fish to earn money first.

When he returned, it happened to be the time for students to leave school, and Li Long found Li Juan and Li Qiang on the road. He let Li Juan sit on the back and Li Qiang sit on the crossbar, and pedaled home amidst the envious gazes of a crowd of students.

On the way back, Li Long was surprised to find that the place where the reed ditch was gathered was being repaired, and the people repairing the road were a group of soldiers.

Li Long guessed they were engineering troops—he vaguely recalled a past event from this era.

It seemed that at the time, an engineering unit was repairing something to the east of the production team, and a small unit had even stayed in the team for a period of time. He hadn't paid much attention to it then, and as time passed, he hadn't kept it in his memory.

As for whether they repaired the road or not, he had no impression.

Looking at the current setup, not only were they going to repair the road, but they were also going to build that bridge—this was a good thing. With respect for these people, Li Long crossed the reed ditch and returned home.

After dropping off Li Juan and Li Qiang, Li Long went to set the nets with Tao Daqiang, who had been waiting for a long time. Without someone following, it felt a bit lonely.

"Uncle Li should be home soon, right?" Tao Daqiang asked suddenly.

"Shouldn't be there yet, at least three or four days," Li Long said. "It would be good if he could arrive tomorrow or the day after." He remembered the airplanes and express trains he took for travel in the future, that speed... wait slowly, one day it will come.

The water in the little sea had decreased quite a bit. Now that the wheat had been harvested, the oil sunflowers and corn didn't need watering, so the water here had decreased. He would have to wait for a period of time; when winter wheat was sown, the water here would be full, and then it would be watered again.

Thinking of this, Li Long thought of another thing. Something big might happen at the big sea in early winter, so he must be careful then.

He secretly reminded himself to pay attention to this matter, and then prepared to set the nets.

Tao Daqiang also took off his jacket, and Li Long was a bit puzzled and asked:

"Daqiang, what are you doing?"

"I'm going to swim over and set the basin; this basin can hold quite a few fish."

That's true, loaches were still quite popular in the market now.

!.

In the distance, Meng Zhiqiang and the others heard that the old man of the Li family had gone back to his hometown, and they were quite happy. The market in the county was only so big; if the Li family went early to sell dozens of kilograms of fish, there wouldn't be many customers left for those who wanted to buy fish and then buy theirs. Their fish sold quite slowly.

Now that the old man of the Li family wasn't there, and Li Long didn't look down on the county market, it was easier to sell the fish.

On Saturday afternoon, Gu Xiaoxia, as usual, rode her bicycle back, carrying the things she had bought for her father.

When passing by the township and preparing to turn east, she unexpectedly saw a person, Wu Shufen.

What surprised Gu Xiaoxia a little was that Wu Shufen's belly seemed to have grown a bit larger.

She was wearing floral cloth clothes, standing under the shade of a tree, watching the people coming and going, and when she discovered Gu Xiaoxia, she was obviously a bit excited.

"Xiaoxia?"

Gu Xiaoxia got off her bicycle and pushed it to Wu Shufen.

"Shufen, why are you standing here? The wind is quite strong, why aren't you at home?"

"Nothing to do, just wandering around outside." Wu Shufen touched her belly and said with a smile:

"You come back once a week now, right? Do you know that something big happened in the team!"

"What happened?" Gu Xiaoxia listened to Wu Shufen's slightly schadenfreude tone and understood what she was talking about. "Is it what you said about someone coming from the hometown to find Li Long?"

"You know?" Wu Shufen was taken aback. "How did you know?"

"Of course it's because Li Long told me," Gu Xiaoxia said with a smile. "He doesn't hide it from me."

"He dared to say it? Isn't he afraid you'll be angry?"

"What's there to be angry about? This isn't his fault." Gu Xiaoxia pushed the bicycle forward, not letting the sun shine on her. "The person has already been sent back; it was just a misunderstanding."

"Then you're quite generous." Wu Shufen didn't expect Gu Xiaoxia to downplay this matter so much, and she said a bit sarcastically, "It's just a pity for that girl."

"What's there to pity?" Gu Xiaoxia had figured it out now. "She hadn't even met Li Long, yet she dared to run here based on a single word, so decisively, what's there to pity? This isn't ancient times, where a single word can decide a lifetime? It's a new society now, free love, parents' words don't count, you have to like each other yourself."

Wu Shufen was choked up; she had originally wanted to watch a joke, but ended up almost being stuffed with a mouthful of dog food.

"Then how is your relationship now?" Wu Shufen was still a bit unwilling to give up. "Didn't you meet someone better in the city? After all, Li Long has no job."

"He has a job," Gu Xiaoxia said with a smile. "He has always had a status at the supply and marketing cooperative, he just didn't want to be constrained, so he didn't say it. Our relationship is quite good, and I have to thank you for this! If you hadn't let go, I really wouldn't have seen his good—!"

These words almost choked Wu Shufen to death.

Gu Xiaoxia had already heard that Wu Shufen was trying to undermine her, how could she let her succeed?

"How is your life after marriage?" Gu Xiaoxia asked Wu Shufen.

"My husband and mother-in-law are quite good to me," Wu Shufen said with a smile. "They don't let me do any work, I'm bored to death staying idle every day..."

"Shufen, Shufen!"

A woman's voice came from the courtyard over there:

"Shufen, Shufen! Where did you run off to? You don't wash these bowls, you don't wash the clothes, you only know how to be lazy..."

Gu Xiaoxia listened to this shouting and almost couldn't hold back her laughter. She hurriedly said:

"Someone is looking for you at home, I'm leaving."

Along the way, thinking about Li Long cooking for her from time to time, and then thinking about Wu Shufen's current situation, Gu Xiaoxia was truly glad that Wu Shufen had let go, and glad that she hadn't retreated.

On the fifth day after Li Qing Xia returned, a telegram was sent back. The content of the telegram was very simple, about a dozen words, saying that the person had arrived home safely and the matter had been resolved.

Looking at that telegram paper, Li Jianguo sighed and said:

"I originally planned to wait until after the Mid-Autumn Festival, to have a reunion festival before saying anything. Now it's good, it's split into two sides again."

"Then we have to be prepared. After the autumn harvest back home, when the winter wheat is sown, who knows which relative will come killing over here." Li Long added, "Dad and Mom went back, so that finger definitely can't be small. That Du girl might have spread the news about our family's situation, and if relatives know, and some are having a hard time back home, can they not come?"

"If they want to come, we have no choice." Li Jianguo sighed. "When I came the second time, the ticket money was half paid by the eldest brother (cousin) at the town commune. At that time, there were people blocking the way along the road; if that eldest brother hadn't spoken out, I wouldn't have been able to come out, and you wouldn't have been able to come later. If relatives really come, we should help if we can."

"Hmm, that's true." Li Long had occasionally heard Li Jianguo say that at the time, each province was quite strict about people leaving the province, and usually they wouldn't let you out without an introduction letter.

But with that little bit of land back home, no matter what, it was still a bit difficult to eat one's fill in that era. It was thanks to the eldest brother coming out and taking root here that he had a place to stay when he came over later.

Later, this place became like a transit station, helping and supporting one relative after another.

At the beginning, Li Long felt that he couldn't provoke this trouble, but now thinking about it, let them come if they want, at most it's just an extra pair of chopsticks and an extra mouth.

With the old horse pen, there's no problem with a place to stay. With money in hand and grain in the warehouse, he can definitely take care of the food.

Li Long discovered that his mentality had changed without him knowing. It was probably because he had money, resources, and confidence.

Knowing that Dad and Mom had returned home safely, his heart was at ease. For the next period of time, Li Long caught and sold fish every day, and ate with Gu Xiaoxia in the courtyard at noon. Gu Xiaoxia mentioned the things Wu Shufen said, and Li Long smiled without saying anything.

Not being envied is being mediocre—perhaps he isn't considered an ordinary person in the eyes of others now, right? (End of chapter)