Chapter 30: Why Should I Tell You?

This area was a growth ground for Achnatherum grass. Achnatherum grass was excellent material for making large brooms; Li Long remembered that in his previous life, up until the early twenty-first century, people would come to the village to buy it at two yuan per kilogram. Once, while selling fish, he had asked an old man nearby who sold brooms made of Achnatherum grass, and that old man proudly told him that relying solely on this Achnatherum grass, he had bought apartment buildings in the county town for his two sons and still had considerable savings.

Back then, after the land had been incorporated into the cooperative, villagers, having spare time, began engaging in sideline occupations; anything from Sophora alopecuroides to Achnatherum grass could be sold for money.

Nowadays, nobody wanted Achnatherum grass; it grew as tall as a person, and the snow could not even cover it.

Flocks of Black Partridges would nest at the roots of the Achnatherum grass to shelter from the wind and keep warm.

Although Li Long had not turned on the light, the daylight was still bright enough that he could vaguely see black lumps beside the Achnatherum grass.

Could those be them?

He slowly walked over and flashed his flashlight.

Sure enough, many Black Partridges were huddled together at the roots of the Achnatherum grass to keep warm.

Although the flashlight beam startled the few Black Partridges looking in their direction, they had no intention of flying away; they merely shook their bodies and continued lying down.

Li Long stepped forward, squatted down, and gently swept his landing net over them.

With this single sweep, he caught four; if not for the Achnatherum grass blocking him, he could have caught even more!

As soon as they entered the landing net, the Black Partridges immediately panicked; Li Long hurriedly reached in from beneath the net, grabbed the birds, and stuffed them into a urea sack.

The Black Partridges outside the net had begun to scramble up, but because the Achnatherum grass blocked them, they could not take flight immediately and could only run away from Li Long.

The snow was thick; stepping deeply and shallowly made movement difficult, resulting in few Black Partridges managing to escape before Li Long swept his net again.

Thus, by the time the flock of Black Partridges was startled and scattered into flight, Li Long had already caught eleven of them.

What a great harvest!

Carrying this harvest weighing six or seven Jin Zhong, Li Long happily hurried back.

Although the return journey was long, he felt very comfortable in his heart.

Tomorrow, he would keep a few Black Partridges at home and sell the rest along with the fish; surely they would fetch a good price?

After all, they were wild game!

It was forty minutes later when he arrived home. Li Long was so exhausted he was panting heavily; he decided that next time, he should simply go directly to the Achnatherum grass area rather than taking a detour, otherwise, walking such an extra distance was not worth it.

Returning to his own room, Li Long tied the mouth of the sack containing the Black Partridges and placed it in the corner; after changing into cloth shoes, he was just removing his clothes to warm himself by the fire when he heard a sound at the door.

Looking up, he saw it was Zhang Qianjin from the Zhang family in the production team.

Zhang Qianjin was around thirty years old; although he was not much older than Li Long, he still had to address Li Jianguo as "Uncle." Of course, since people had moved here from all over the country, Zhang Qianjin called Li Jianguo "Uncle" also because his father, Zhang Guangzu, had come with Li Jianguo in the same group to establish the team.

Therefore, just like Tao Daqiang, each relationship was counted separately; seeing Li Long, he smiled and said:

"Xiao Long, where did you go? I came by earlier and saw you weren't here."

"Couldn't sleep, so I went out for a walk," Li Long replied while changing clothes; he was not close to Zhang Qianjin. "Is something the matter?"

"Yes, there is something," Zhang Qianjin said, having encountered a soft rebuff but not feeling annoyed; being naturally familiar with everyone, he sat on the kang bed and smiled, saying:

"Today I borrowed the team's horse-drawn cart, intending to learn from you and haul some wood back from the mountains for firewood. But after reaching Passing Qingshuihe, I didn't know how to proceed with the remaining route; I barely managed to lead the cart to Shankou, yet still couldn't find where the wood was, so I ended up just gathering some branches and returning."

Li Long merely hummed "En" and said nothing. Zhang Qianjin felt somewhat depressed. According to Li Long's formerly enthusiastic nature, he would naturally have taken the initiative at this moment to point out how the route should be taken.

Today, just like Li Long, he had spent one yuan and six jiao to borrow the cart, and because he was unwilling to give up, he had spent another one yuan and six jiao to borrow the cart for tomorrow as well.

If he failed to haul back anything valuable, wouldn't these three-plus yuan be wasted?

Therefore, although Li Long's lukewarm attitude made him feel somewhat awkward, he still forced himself to speak:

"Look, as soon as you made your move, you hauled back so much wood and even found a frozen sheep. As for us, three horse-drawn carts went out; only the team leader, leading his younger brother-in-law's cart, managed to find a path into the mountains and hauled back some pine wood.

That wood, in my opinion, is only good for firewood and cannot be used as construction material. You, Xiao Long, are truly impressive!"

Zhang Qianjin praised Li Long because he remembered that formerly, Li Long was extremely vain; upon receiving compliments, he would surely pour out everything like emptying beans from a bamboo tube, saying both what should and should not be said.

However, today, after hearing his words, Li Long still responded with a lukewarm "Where, where," and said nothing further.

Zhang Qianjin heard something fluttering behind the door in the corner, but at this moment, his entire mind was focused on how to extract the route into the mountains, so he thought of nothing else.

Actually, he and the other cart drivers all felt that even without knowing the route into the mountains, they could find the place simply by following Li Long's cart tracks.

But they had forgotten that there was wind at Shankou. Indeed, Li Long and his group had entered the mountains from Passing Qingshuihe, but firstly, the path Li Long took into the mountains was relatively remote, and secondly, the wind at Shankou was strong; on the night Li Long entered, the wind blew snow that covered and erased the cart tracks.

Boom—!

Hence, the outcome was an inauspicious start.

Seeing that Li Long absolutely would not speak, Zhang Qianjin had no choice but to force himself to ask:

"Xiao Long, could you tell your older brother how that route goes? If you tell me, when I haul the wood back, I'll give you a stack of wood, how about that?"

Li Long thought to himself: Not good at all!

Your father was someone who loved taking advantage of others, and you are exactly the same. These sweet-sounding words about favors sound nice, but when it comes to actual deeds, it's a different story. Besides, why on earth should I tell you the route?

"I just entered the mountains from Passing Qingshuihe," Li Long said, pointing southward. "That Shankou is so large; just follow the direction, how could you possibly not find it?"

"We just couldn't find it! There are so many gullies and canals there, and outside the production team grow so many shrubs; there's essentially no path, so we had to force our way through!"

Zhang Qianjin showed Li Long his hands, which bore many small cuts inflicted by shrub thorns while forcing their way through.

"Then I don't know," Li Long said. "That's just how I walked: entered Passing Qingshuihe, then turned a few times, followed the direction of Shankou, and passed through."

It was not that he wanted to keep everything for himself; mainly, these few people had gone too far, effectively cutting off his route.

You have already cut off my route, yet you expect me to point out a path to wealth for you?

Unable to get anything out of Li Long, Zhang Qianjin could only leave dejectedly.

On his way back, he swore fiercely: "I don't believe that without you, Li Long, I cannot find the route into the mountains! Wait until I haul back a frozen sheep; I'll make you die of shame!"

After Zhang Qianjin left, Li Long quickly removed his clothes, blew out the lamp, and got into bed. He believed that if the light remained on in his room, surely more people would come over to ask questions.

With tacit understanding, the light in the west room was also quickly extinguished.

When Li Long got up the next day, he was startled once again!

Thanks to readers heidiww, 20220308131935841, and Li Xiaobai for your monthly tickets; thank everyone for your support with recommendation tickets. Over these past two days, both followers and favorites have been increasing; thank you all again! May Day is approaching; I wish everyone a happy holiday!

(End of Chapter)