Chapter 373

Li Long shouted:

"I'm here, Comrade Chen, right? Come on in!"

Chen Hongjun pushed the door open and, seeing Li Long's setup, asked with a smile:

"Little Comrade Li, shoveling snow?"

"Yeah, that's the only bad thing about having a big courtyard." Li Long didn't ask how Chen Hongjun found the courtyard, and said, "Clearing the snow alone takes a day or two—these big piles of snow are enough to keep me busy for a while. It's cold outside, come on, let's go inside to warm up and have some water."

"No, no, I'm here on business." Chen Hongjun didn't beat around the bush and asked directly: "I heard you went to the purchasing station to sell furs this morning?"

"It was me." Li Long said with a smile, "I saw it was Friday today and thought you were there, but I ended up running into someone I didn't know..."

"Hey!" Chen Hongjun also felt it was bad luck. A perfectly good thing had turned into a mess, "That guy is from the prefecture and has been stationed here for a while. It's the end of the year, so it's normal for higher-level units to have some ideas. He said you had a lynx pelt here?"

"Yeah, but it's gone now." Li Long spread his hands.

"Why is it gone?" Chen Hongjun asked anxiously, "Wasn't it still there this morning? It's only been half a day..."

He had heard that guy telling a joke as soon as he started work in the afternoon about someone bringing a fox pelt to sell as a lynx pelt, and how he had seen through it, causing the person to leave in a rage. Chen Hongjun felt something was wrong when he heard it, and after asking about the person's age and appearance, he immediately guessed it must be Li Long.

A lynx pelt!

It's the end of the year, year-end summaries, personnel adjustments, and such are all about to start. Chen Hongjun also wanted to advance!

Supposedly, he had quite a harvest this year, having collected quite a few good things, and his performance was very solid, but who doesn't want to add flowers to the brocade?

So Chen Hongjun found out Li Long's address and ran over.

"It didn't sell this morning, so I went to the supply and marketing cooperative. Our Section Chief Li heard I had a lynx pelt, so he came to see it, and bought it after seeing it."

"Bought it? How much did he pay?" Chen Hongjun felt annoyed. Once it got into Li Xiangqian's hands, it would be hard to get it out!

"One thousand." Li Long didn't hide it; this could be found out by asking.

"Not bad... given your friendship, he didn't take much advantage of you." Chen Hongjun sighed, then thought for a moment and asked:

"Did you only get one lynx pelt? Didn't you get any other good furs? The price of furs has gone up quite a bit now. If you have any good furs, I'll buy them at a high price!"

Li Long almost mentioned the snow leopard pelt, but stopped himself.

The pelt was a gift to him and Gu Xiaoxia from Halimu and Yushanjiang, and he had already told Gu Xiaoxia about it, so he couldn't decide to sell it on his own. Besides, Li Long felt that snow leopard pelts would become more and more expensive and rarer in the future, so if he were to sell it, he should wait until the price was even higher.

"None left, just a few wolf pelts and a deer pelt." Li Long said, "Mostly damaged ones."

"A few wolf pelts? You wiped out a wolf den?" Chen Hongjun was a bit curious.

"Ran into a wolf pack, the kind that's a fight to the death." Li Long proudly recounted the story again, "In the end, the whole pack was gone, but the pelts weren't in very good condition."

"Let me see!" Chen Hongjun thought that since he didn't get to eat the watermelon, getting some sesame seeds would be fine too, so he asked Li Long to bring the pelts over for him to see.

Li Long opened the wing room and let Chen Hongjun look at the pelts.

"Hmm, this deer pelt is quite large, and the deer head is well-preserved. The wolf pelt—it's alright, looks quite fresh—this one wasn't skinned very well, there's a lot of fat on it, this one is pretty good..."

Chen Hongjun commented on them one by one.

"So, are you buying them?" Li Long asked with a smile.

"Buying them. Deer pelt... fifty, I guess." Chen Hongjun evaluated them one by one, "This complete wolf pelt, forty each, ones with bullet holes, thirty..."

A total of two hundred and twenty yuan. Plus the lynx pelt, a total of one thousand two hundred and twenty. This trip out was pretty good.

Li Long carried the pelts and followed Chen Hongjun to the purchasing station. The middle-aged man was still there. Seeing Li Long following Chen Hongjun, his expression turned sour, and he asked directly:

"You've seen it, right? It wasn't a lynx pelt, was it?"

"It was sold." Chen Hongjun shook his head, "Someone intercepted it, sold for one thousand yuan to Old Li from the supply and marketing cooperative."

"What?" The middle-aged man didn't believe it, "How is that possible? One thousand yuan for a lynx pelt isn't expensive, but was it real?"

"Old Li's eye for things is still trustworthy." Chen Hongjun replied, then had someone write a receipt and pay the money.

The middle-aged man's face turned red and then white. A great opportunity had been ruined... If he had gotten that lynx pelt, it would have been a great achievement.

He didn't think it was a problem with his own judgment, but instead blamed Li Long in his heart.

You young man, you knew you had a lynx pelt in your hand, why didn't you insist at the time? If you had insisted, maybe I would have believed you? Now you bring Old Chen over, are you here to slap my face? This young man is not decent!

But he couldn't actually do anything to Li Long. People like this, while extremely self-centered and selfish, are also quite cowardly, and can only mutter a few things to themselves.

Li Long waited for Chen Hongjun to finish the receipt, signed it, and after collecting the money, asked jokingly:

"Comrade Old Chen, when are you usually here?"

"Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, didn't I tell you?"

"Well, I came to find you today and you weren't here, otherwise there wouldn't have been a misunderstanding."

Of course, he was joking. Actually, today turned out pretty well; if Old Chen had been there, the item wouldn't have been sold to Li Xiangqian. By comparison, his relationship with Li Xiangqian was closer.

But usually, he sold things to the purchasing station more often, so Li Long wanted to be clear.

"Usually I'm here on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. Oh—Wednesdays are the most certain. Sometimes I have meetings on Mondays and get out late, and on Fridays, like today, I sometimes go out to look at goods." Chen Hongjun understood Li Long's meaning and explained.

Li Long nodded to show he understood, then left.

Chen Hongjun chased after him and shouted:

"If you have anything in the future, bring it to me first."

"Got it, I actually came to find you first this time too." Li Long replied with a smile and returned to the courtyard.

His steps were very light. With the sale of these furs, this hunting activity in the mountains was basically over. The earnings met his expectations, adding another sum to his savings.

Returning to the courtyard, Gu Xiaoxia hadn't returned yet. Li Long found a handcart—an old one, a bit broken, but the wheels were still barely usable, a leftover item from Old Comrade Ma—and started pushing snow out of the courtyard.

Before last year in the village, when pushing snow out with his eldest brother's family, Li Long would often find an excuse to leave after working for a while, and by the time he returned, the snow would be cleared.

Since his rebirth last year, Li Long had spent most of his time making money and had done very little snow sweeping. Even since the beginning of winter this year, whether at home or at the horse corral, there were plenty of people clearing snow, and he would finish clearing whatever little snow there was before he could do much.

So he basically hadn't experienced the fatigue of clearing snow. Now it was different. With a whole courtyard of snow, even just the front yard, wouldn't these five big piles of snow take fifty or sixty small cartloads to push?

He wouldn't worry about the backyard for now; he rarely went there in winter anyway.

Now Li Long understood a bit why ancient courtyard houses and those who entered them needed so many servants; just sweeping snow was a big job... getting off track, just his own rambling.

After all, when working, if you don't think about something, it's really tiring. Diverging your thoughts is beneficial for combining brain and physical labor.

Some of the snow was piled directly into the flower beds and vegetable gardens in the courtyard. If you pile this stuff high, you can even make a snow sculpture. Some snow was pushed directly to the backyard, where there was a large open space, and the terrain was lower than the front yard. He piled some in every tree pit, and when it melted in the spring, it would directly water the trees.

The remaining snow had nowhere to be piled, so it could only be pushed outside. There were tree fields on both sides of the road, and the snow could be piled in them. Now there are no regular snow-clearing vehicles, and clearing snow on both sides of the street is basically done this way: piling it into the tree fields. Every time it snows, they pile it on top, and in the end, the snow in the tree fields gets compressed into something thick and almost like ice, then waits until spring to melt slowly.

When Li Long pushed a cart of snow out, he saw the police in the police station diagonally opposite also clearing snow. Their courtyard was a bit smaller than Li Long's, but there were no vegetable gardens or flower fields inside. Fortunately, there were many people, and the snow clearing was already nearing its end.

Officer Guo was also in the crowd. When he saw Li Long, he waved, and Li Long smiled back and continued pushing the cart to move snow.

After pushing two piles of snow, Li Long rested for a while, then had a sudden inspiration: he might as well build a snowman in the vegetable garden.

Building a snowman is very simple. Just roll a big snowball for the body, then roll a smaller snowball for the head. Use two coal kernels for eyes. Using a carrot for a nose is a bit wasteful, so Li Long found a tree branch for a nose, and found a leaf to paste under the nose for a mouth.

Looking at it, it was still a bit monotonous. He went to the wing room to look around and found a tattered straw hat to put on the snowman's head, then found two tree branches for arms, and that was it.

It looked quite clumsy, but very humorous, and he felt pretty good about it.

!.

Li Long played for a while, then continued pushing snow.

Quite a lot of snow was soon piled in the tree fields on both sides of the gate. Seeing the snow in the courtyard getting less and less, Li Long felt quite a sense of accomplishment.

However, no matter what, the snow wouldn't be finished today. He deeply regretted not keeping Li Junshan and the others yesterday. If they had stayed, would the snow in this courtyard still be a job?

Just as he was silently complaining, Gu Xiaoxia rode her bicycle back.

Off work.

Seeing Li Long dumping snow from the small handcart outside the gate, Gu Xiaoxia got off her bike and said:

"There's still a lot, right? Wait until I put my bike away, and I'll work with you."

Li Long smiled, dumped the snow clean, tapped the bottom of the handcart, and said:

"No need, you rest, I'll work slowly by myself..."

Gu Xiaoxia didn't speak, but it was clear she didn't intend to listen to Li Long.

As soon as she entered the courtyard, Gu Xiaoxia shouted in surprise:

"You even built a snowman?"

"Yeah, the snow was just sitting there, so I built a snowman to play with." After Li Long pushed the handcart in, he saw Gu Xiaoxia standing in front of the snowman, looking at the silly big guy with curiosity and joy. Seeing Li Long come in, she said sincerely:

"Li Long, your hands are truly skillful—how did you think of building this big guy?"

"There was snow, so I was being lazy and just built it." Li Long's words were a bit of a mood-killer, but it was the truth, "Do you want to decorate it a bit more?"

"I want to..." Gu Xiaoxia clearly had some ideas, but she turned her head to look at Li Long, then smiled and said: "Let's talk about it after we finish the work."

Saying this, she came over, picked up an iron shovel, and started shoveling snow into the handcart Li Long was holding.

Li Long had no choice but to take another iron shovel from the wing room to load the snow. The handcart had two wheels and couldn't hold even half as much as a flatbed cart. The two of them filled it in three or five strokes. Li Long put down the shovel and came over to push, Gu Xiaoxia helped push from the side, and the two of them pushed the snow outside together and dumped it into the tree field.

It was the first time the two of them worked together, but they were very in sync, which made Li Long truly feel the essence of "men and women working together, work doesn't feel tiring." He really enjoyed this process.

There were five big piles of snow in the courtyard. Two piles were dumped into the vegetable garden and flower field respectively. Li Long had already cleared more than half a pile before Gu Xiaoxia arrived, and the two of them cleared another pile and a half, and the sky turned completely dark.

"I'll do the rest tomorrow." Li Long put away the handcart and wiped his sweat, "Let's go, let's go back inside. I'll cook..."

"You cook, I'll wash the clothes you wore yesterday." Gu Xiaoxia didn't decline. She had eaten the food Li Long cooked, and it wasn't any worse than what she cooked herself.

Watching Gu Xiaoxia take off the coat she wore to work, pick up the laundry basin with the clothes that had been soaking since morning, and head to the living room to wash them, Li Long went to the kitchen to cook.

Although it was dark, it was actually not even eight o'clock. In Northern Xinjiang, it's very normal to go to sleep at eleven or twelve at night, so cooking dinner now was a bit late, but not too late.

Li Long used both stoves, boiling rice porridge on one side and stir-frying dishes on the other. His knife skills were average, and the shredded potatoes would be of different sizes, but he had a grater, so he could grate the potatoes into fine shreds. He soaked some chili peppers and brought over a piece of meat. There were no eggs in the kitchen, otherwise, Li Long would have liked to make stir-fried eggs with chili peppers.

One dish didn't meet his expectations, so he prepared to stir-fry some salted vegetables as well.

No choice, in this era of material scarcity, being able to stir-fry two dishes was already quite good, and there weren't such high requirements for the variety of vegetables. Li Long thought that if he lived here for a while longer, he could use garlic to grow some garlic sprouts, or sprout some bean sprouts.

In that special period of his previous life, not only residents in the city staying at home, but also those in the countryside were developing various dishes and snacks they didn't know how to make before through platforms like Xiaohongshu.

Although the memory was a bit distant, the general process was still known.

Salted vegetables need to be rinsed, and potatoes need to be soaked after cutting. I won't go into the specific process, or some people might have opinions.

Because they had been soaking in laundry detergent all day, Gu Xiaoxia was quite fast at hand-washing the clothes. After scrubbing them in the living room, she carried a bucket of water over and started rinsing.

Li Long was quite fast on his end. When Gu Xiaoxia finished washing the clothes and hung them outside, Li Long's two plates of food were already on the table.

Washing clothes in Northern Xinjiang in winter is usually done by hanging them outside first to drain the water, while also letting them freeze. They freeze until they are hard and dry, then they are brought back inside and hung by the fire wall to dry. The sand-brick fire wall usually has a wire nailed to it for hanging things.

Seeing Gu Xiaoxia finish washing the clothes, Li Long ladled out the porridge, brought it to the table, then sliced the steamed buns and toasted them on the stove grate.

"Smells so good—" Gu Xiaoxia looked at the dishes on the table, wiping her hands while saying with a smile:

"I'm truly blessed. The older sisters in my office all say so, not having to cook, it's very relaxing."

"That's right." Li Long nodded very seriously, "Hmm, you're truly blessed to have met me!"

Gu Xiaoxia didn't call Li Long thick-skinned, but smiled and went over to flip the bun slices, while Li Long took the chopsticks and set up the stools.

Then the two of them happily ate together. (End of chapter)