Chapter 29: Forgot Something Important!

Li Qiang came over to call the two of them for dinner, and only then did Li Long and Tao Da finish dressing and head to the west room.

Seeing the plate of grass carp on the table, Li Long chuckled. Sure enough, Li Qiang's revenge knew no delay; he had brought back the grass carp, and by evening it was already stewed.

Besides the grass carp, there was also fish soup simmered from small crucian carp, served with cornmeal flatbreads, steaming hot and smelling delicious.

Li Juan was on the kang tidying up the ankle bones, having clearly just finished playing with them.

Once everyone was seated at the table and Li Jianguo picked up his chopsticks, they all began to eat.

Tao Da continued to keep his head down, eating slowly; if not for Li Long occasionally reminding him, he would hardly have picked up any fish, merely soaking his corn flatbread in the fish soup.

"Eat more of the fish meat," Li Long said with a smile. "This is Qiangqiang's enemy; let's destroy it together."

"Mm," Tao Da responded.

Although Li Qiang had spoken of revenge, in reality, he took only one chopstick-full of the grass carp before turning to the crucian carp beside it. The grass carp had thick flesh, and despite Liang Yuemei having scored cuts along its spine while stewing, most of the meat still tasted somewhat bland.

Moreover, it lacked oil.

Li Long mused that tomorrow, after selling the fish, he should check the black market to see if anyone was selling clear oil. In these times, everything required coupons; while the family had some grain coupons, they did not have many of the others.

"Big Brother, give me some grain coupons tomorrow; after I sell the fish, I'll buy some grain to bring back," Li Long said, watching Li Juan and Li Qiang struggling fiercely with their cornmeal flatbreads.

"We still have plenty of cornmeal at home," Liang Yuemei remarked.

"Buy some fine grain," Li Long said. "If we only eat coarse grain, look how poorly Juan and Qiangqiang are growing."

Liang Yuemei fell silent. How could she not wish for her children to eat more fine grain? But the rations distributed by the production team were never abundant to begin with, and the fine grain had already been allocated mostly to Li Long.

Fortunately, her younger brother-in-law had changed now, and he was also capable.

"Alright," Li Jianguo said, chewing his cornmeal flatbread, which tasted exceptionally sweet and fragrant.

In truth, Li Long knew that once they endured these next half-year or so, things would improve. Next year, when the land was distributed, even if each person received only two mu of ration land, once truly cultivated, the harvest—after handing over the public grain—would be more than enough for everyone to eat.

Good days were coming!

After the meal, Li Long instructed Tao Da to come over early the next morning; Tao Da gave a response and departed.

"That child Da Qiang is quite honest," Liang Yuemei said while clearing the bowls and chopsticks. "We must not treat him unfairly."

"Mm," Li Jianguo replied, rolling a Mohe cigarette; as he rolled, he began telling stories to the two children.

Under the kerosene lamp, the two children listened with rapt attention.

"... In this place of ours, over a hundred years ago, it was known as 'Golden Plate, Jade Bottom.' Why say so? Because back then, the Manas River had gold deposits in its riverbed and jade deposits at its source. Many wealthy families of that time lived right where Broken City stands now..."

Li Long, who had already intended to go to sleep, heard this and slapped his own thigh with a loud clap, saying in frustration:

"How could I be so stupid, forgetting such an important matter?"

"What?" His slap was so loud that Liang Yuemei heard it from the kitchen and hurried over to ask, "What did you remember?"

"Jade!" Li Long slapped his own head again. "There are jade mines in our Nanshan! In the dry riverbeds upstream of the Manas River, aren't there seed materials? That herdsman even asked me what to keep an eye out for, and I forgot all about this!"

Manas River Jasper had once produced national treasures; jade mining occurred here during the Qing Dynasty. Although its quality was inferior to Hetian Jasper, with most pieces containing black specks resembling fly droppings, high-grade seed material jasper was still extremely rare.

Li Long remembered that in his previous life, while his elder brother was still alive, Li Juan had once come home from school and recounted an incident: her classmate's father had bought a piece of jasper seed material weighing over ten kilograms from a herdsman for just over ten yuan in the 1970s, and by 1985, he had sold it for over two thousand yuan.

Two thousand yuan in those days was a huge sum!

Ha Li Mu and his people had lived in the mountains for generations; they certainly knew where the jasper could be found. In his previous life, when Li Long was in his thirties and Manas River Jasper had just become famous, he had entered the mountains to acquire jade. By that time, many herdsmen no longer possessed seed materials but instead privately extracted mountain materials from Yushan using explosives.

Being an amateur, Li Long had acquired a piece of mountain material; on the surface, it looked just like stone, and when polished, it indeed revealed jade, but unfortunately, the explosives had left the interior riddled with cracks, rendering it useless.

In his previous life, from 1985 until the time of Li Long's death, whenever floods receded and the riverbeds along the Manas River ran dry, numerous people would arrive daily with mineral water bottles to scour the riverbeds for jade.

Upon spotting a stone that resembled jade, they would sprinkle water onto it from a mineral water bottle with a hole drilled in its cap; a quick glance would reveal whether it was truly jade.

Around the turn of the century, every year people discovered extremely heavy, large chunks of jasper in the upper reaches of the riverbeds, ranging from dozens of kilograms to several tons.

"Then we can just go ask when we have time," Li Jianguo smiled. "That stuff isn't going to run away. Nowadays, jade isn't necessarily more valuable than grain."

By "more valuable," he meant more important.

Li Long thought about it and agreed.

"Uncle, you're not stupid at all!" Li Qiang shouted loudly. "Uncle is the smartest! You can even catch francolins and trade them for ankle bones—no one else has that ability!"

"Haha, Qiangqiang is the best," Li Long laughed.

!.

Returning to the east room, Li Long thought about the francolins Li Qiang had just mentioned.

Since he was selling fish tomorrow, perhaps he should go check again to see if there were any francolins? Catching a few to sell would work too.

Thinking led immediately to action; he secured the stove, grabbed his flashlight, put on gloves and a hat, went outside, picked up his landing net and urea sack, and headed east.

After walking a few hundred meters, Li Long realized this trip would likely be in vain.

Footprints followed the tracks he had made. Clearly, he was not the only one who wanted to catch francolins or knew their locations.

Fortunately, Li Long knew of more than one spot where francolins tended to hide; carrying his flashlight, he walked all the way to the location where he had previously caught francolins, and sure enough, not a single one was there.

Then he would have to change locations.

Turning south and wading through the snow, Li Long panted heavily; he was beginning to regret this, as the going was too difficult.

But since he had already come this far, walking those remaining few hundred meters made little difference.

Suddenly, a black object darted out from the side, startling Li Long; he switched on his flashlight and illuminated a gray shadow with a half-white rump.

A wild rabbit!

The wilderness truly held many treasures!

Li Long watched the wild rabbit dash through the snow until it vanished from sight before switching off his flashlight.

To be honest, rabbits were not particularly fast, but since it had not snowed recently, the accumulated snow had become quite compact, allowing the rabbit to run freely.

He planned to return after the next snowfall to chase rabbits and set some snares.

The meat from such creatures was more abundant than that of francolins.

Soon, Li Long approached the second location where francolins were known to hide.

He slowed his pace and cautiously crept forward.

Thanks to the readers Bai Fo Wo Wei Shou Dou Zhan and 20220308131935841 for your monthly tickets, and thanks to everyone for your recommendation tickets and support!

(End of Chapter)