Chapter 286

On the festival, admiring the moon that night, it actually didn't take long. The moon was truly bright, making the other stars basically lose their radiance. The things on the table were eaten casually; Li Juan and Li Qiang, on the other hand, only gnawed on two pieces of watermelon, and didn't have many thoughts about the apples and mooncakes.

"Usually when there isn't any, you all clamor that you want to eat. Now that it's open for you to eat, you don't eat it anymore. It's really hard to serve!" Liang Yumei complained.

It wasn't a real complaint, just not wanting to waste that food. Actually, she was still very happy to go to her maiden home today. Her parents' health was still okay, and the one from the second family was no longer clamoring—their own family was living well, and they took a lot of things from home. The brother-in-law could at most say a few sour words, and he didn't have the original vigor when opening his mouth to Li Jianguo.

Their own family had a solid foundation and confidence, and returning to her maiden home also gave her face.

In this day and age, regardless of gender, people really take face very seriously.

"Eating one mooncake is enough, two is greasy," Li Qiang said loudly, "Can I bring mooncakes to school tomorrow?"

"Bring them, bring them," Liang Yumei waved her hand, "Don't bring too many, wrap them well with paper, don't get oil on your textbooks and homework."

"Got it, Mom."

When Li Long returned to the old horse station, old Luo wasn't lonely here. The three five-guarantee households in the team sat together outside the courtyard of the old horse station. On the table were two bottles of wine, apples, mooncakes, and everything else, and they were stir-frying two plates of hot dishes. The old brothers were talking about the past and drinking happily.

"Yo, Xiao Long is here?" Facing Li Long who was walking over, another five-guarantee household sitting at the table, also an old revolutionary Yang Jukui, raised his glass:

"Have a drink?"

"I won't drink, Uncle Yang, you guys drink. Is there enough food? Do you want me to go get two more?"

"No need, no need, this air-dried meat you brought back is quite good," Yang Jukui waved his hand, "The dried fish is also not bad, old Luo's life is good."

"Then when you leave, take some of this air-dried meat. There isn't much, take two strips to taste the flavor."

"Is there any for me?" Another one turned his head and asked with a smile.

"Yes, there is, for everyone."

This one was named Ma Fengshan, and unlike the other two, this one was a local household. He had been married before and had carried long-term labor for the original landlord. The landlord ran away, his wife died, and in the end, he became a five-guarantee household.

In his previous life, Li Long hadn't been so polite to Yang Jukui. In his view, he was just an old man without children or grandchildren, with a somewhat strange temper, the kind who was maverick.

He vaguely heard Li Jianguo say that this person had already worked on the covert front during the liberation of northern and southern Xinjiang. In the words of the time, he was a "spy" hidden by the Communist Party here. His own treatment was not low; it was said that his salary was higher than some leaders in the township. The higher-ups also hoped he could move to a nursing home, but he just said his health was good now and he wouldn't go.

In his previous life, Li Long had even been jealous of this person, but later, slowly, looking at the things posted on short video platforms, and coming to this life, Li Long was properly filled with respect for these old revolutionaries.

What's eating two pieces of meat? Without them, let alone eating meat, if you wanted to eat chaff, you would probably have to look at others' faces!

It's just that old man Yang Jukui passed away early. It is said that there were hidden injuries in his body—usually not visible, but once they flared up, he couldn't be saved.

"Xiao Long is a good young man," old Luo said with a smile, "Whatever he eats at home, I have here, and there's a salary—old Yang, you say your salary is high, I'm not envious, you exchanged it with your life. I have a salary here, it's also quite good."

"Hmm, Xiao Long is benevolent," after Li Long left, Yang Jukui nodded, "Look at you old fellow, you've gained a circle of weight, it's better than before."

"That's for sure. But I can't stay idle, it's a life of toil." When saying this, old Luo seemed to be complaining, but actually, the other two could see that he was showing off.

The next day, Li Long and Tao Daqiang and the others continued to set nets to catch fish.

"Brother Long, can we bring two more nets?" Tao Daqiang asked when taking the nets, "I see the water near the trough of the big lake is not deep, I'll go into the water to try and see if I can catch fish."

"Alright." Li Long naturally had no disagreement. He couldn't always let Tao Daqiang follow behind to help; he still had to let go when it was time to let go.

Setting the nets meant walking there; no horse cart was needed, it was troublesome. Li Long still paddled the tire to the trough to set them, and Tao Daqiang took off his pants, carried the net, and waded through the water slowly. When it was waist-deep, he started to set the net.

There were no water plants in this water, so he didn't see any insects like water beetles, and Tao Daqiang wasn't afraid.

The water wasn't very light, because the water surface was large, and there would be a ripple. He found a place he felt was suitable and set two nets.

Just after setting the nets, he saw some small white strips already stuck to the net—Tao Daqiang was quite happy, there should be quite a lot of fish tomorrow, right?

Early the next morning, the two hitched the horse cart, pulled the tire and bags, and set off for the big lake. Li Long went to retrieve the ten nets he had set in the trough, and Tao Daqiang went directly to retrieve his two nets.

When Li Long retrieved the four nets and two bags of fish, seeing Tao Daqiang standing on the shore with his head down, he asked:

"Daqiang, how is it?"

"Brother Long, it's all white strips, they are all dead, some don't even have heads, half bodies..."

Li Long watched Tao Daqiang spread out the net. It wasn't really all white strips on it; there were also some crucian carp hanging below, struggling hard.

There were many white strips, most of them hanging on the upper holes of the net, and about one-third of them were missing body parts.

"There are really many white strips here—those should have been pecked away by ospreys. Think about it, white strips die as soon as they hit the net, so they float on top, and ospreys will definitely peck them when they see them."

At this time, it was ospreys, but after thirty or forty years, it would be crabs climbing directly onto the net to eat the fish stuck on it—the most common was eating the fish head or fish eyeballs directly. Those crabs are properly foodies; many of them got themselves tangled in the net while eating other fish and couldn't get out.

"Take them back to feed the chickens," Li Long said, "These white strips can't be eaten."

Actually, they could be eaten, but they were looked down upon.

Tao Daqiang also knew it could only be like this. He took the bag Li Long handed over and started to pick the fish.

After retrieving ten nets, Li Long basically determined that big fish like to be in the trough, but the density of fish in this big lake should not be as good as the small lake; he just found the habitat of the fish.

Returning to the Li family, quickly pick the fish, and then go to sell the fish. Tao Daqiang started to deal with those nets.

A few days later, the sunflower seeds and corn in the team were processed clean, and the land distribution began.

"Xiao Long, are you going?" Li Jianguo asked.

"Not going," Li Long waved his hand, "Eldest brother, you decide this matter."

"Hmm."

Everyone knew that with everyone being allocated another three mu of subsistence land, the Li family suddenly became twenty-five mu of land. Adding the five mu of feed land, it was suddenly thirty mu of land, properly a landlord.

!.

In this day and age, except for sowing and plowing, everything else is manual labor, and planting thirty mu of land is also quite tiring.

"I've thought about it, Xiao Long, don't spend money when digging sugar beets," Li Jianguo said, "You go see if you can hit anything in the mountains. If you hit something, bring it back, call some young people to boil meat and gnaw bones, they will definitely be happy."

"That's fine too." Li Long thought it was also true. Now people lack oil and water, and they are reluctant to spend money if given to them, and it's easy to make the relationship stiff. If everyone is called over to eat meat and let them help with the work, they will definitely be very happy.

Land distribution was still by drawing lots. This time it was distributed to the back of the village, the piece of land adjacent to the big lake. Li Jianguo had good luck and drew the westernmost side again. Further west was wasteland, and west of the wasteland was the reed ditch, the reed ditch that extended all the way down from the small lake.

This land could be expanded outward again.

The day after the land was distributed, after Li Long went to sell the fish, he didn't return to the team. He tidied up his bicycle, bought some supplies, mainly food, and then carried his gun and went up the mountain.

Going to Halimu's winter nest, Li Long found that Halimu was not there, so he put down the things and rode his bicycle to the wooden house.

The door was fine, the plastic paper on the window had been torn, and there were traces of being spread out again. Li Long thought to himself, could it be that a thief had entered?

He opened the door and went in, finding a few bottles of honey on the wooden floor in the small room.

Li Long immediately understood. It must have been put there by Lv Dafeng—he should have left the mountains and moved to the summer pasture at this season, right?

He even knew to leave some honey for himself before leaving; this is a person who knows how to be grateful.

Li Long put the honey away, put the bicycle away, carried the gun out the door, and went to the hot spring.

The grass in the mountains had already withered and turned yellow. The Codonopsis pilosula, which was easy to identify when coming, now had leaves that were almost falling off, and the plant above only had a bare stalk left.

Li Long felt it was time to dig Codonopsis pilosula, otherwise, in another month, it would be very difficult to find.

The leaves of the broad-leaved trees were also mostly falling, the colors were golden or purple-red, looking quite beautiful. The water volume of the hot spring was slightly smaller than the last time he came, but he thought those pools should still be able to soak.

Li Long went up along the stream. When he walked to the hot spring pool, he found that there were no animals here. The water in the pool was very clear and still emitted a faint smell of sulfur.

There was no feces to be seen on the edge of the pool, and he didn't know if these animals hadn't come for a while.

Since there were no animals, Li Long took off his clothes and folded them, put the gun beside the clothes, and soaked in himself.

Really comfortable!

But where to go to hit wild boars?

In the places he had hit before, wild boars might not necessarily come back, but Li Long also knew he couldn't just look blindly. He planned to come over tomorrow morning to see again. If not, he would go to the places where there had been wild boars before to wander around.

After all, those places have food that wild boars like to eat, so he should be able to run into them, right?

Soaked for half an hour, Li Long got up, put on his clothes, carried the gun, and walked back.

On the way, he could occasionally see wild rabbits darting into the forest, but Li Long had no interest in hitting them. The main thing is that it's not easy to chase, and the 56-style gun is still a bit exaggerated for hitting this.

Returning to the wooden house, the sky had already darkened. Li Long was too lazy to cook properly, steamed a little air-dried meat he had saved, and gnawed on it slowly.

He planned to sleep early, but before he rested, the sound of horse hooves came from outside.

Li Long guessed it should be Halimu.

(End of chapter)