Chapter 407: Being a lazy person for a while is also not bad

The next morning, it was still Gu Xiaoxia who cooked breakfast. After the two finished eating, Li Long tidied up, and Gu Xiaoxia went to work.

He planned to stay in the county for a few days. Of course, the time couldn't be long, because there wasn't much fodder in the large courtyard. He could stay, but No. 76 couldn't.

After tidying up the kitchen and feeding No. 76, Li Long put on his overcoat and leather hat, walked out of the courtyard, locked the door, and walked toward the seed company.

The units in the county now aren't very complete, but the seed company, which is mainly agricultural, was established very early. The seed company's facade isn't large, with a front room and a back courtyard. Unlike the front and back courtyards of the purchasing station and the supply and marketing cooperative, here, right by the street is a row of bungalows, some for office and some for a seed shop.

Li Long strolled into the seed shop and found that there was only one person inside, sitting behind the counter by the stove reading a book.

Old-fashioned wooden counter, actually equivalent to the simple square cabinet of later generations. Outside is a board, just like a table, and inside are square grids of twenty centimeters, where things can be placed.

Behind is also a row of cabinets, marked with various seeds. Of course, there aren't many seeds now, mainly common grain and vegetable types like wheat, rice, chives, and Chinese cabbage.

The one reading the book is a woman in her fifties. She took a look at Li Long, put down the book in her hand, but didn't speak.

"Hello, comrade." Li Long scanned it and didn't find what he wanted, so he took the initiative to ask:

"I'd like to ask, do you have any seeds for oil-seed watermelons here?"

"Oil-seed watermelons? No." The female comrade shook her head. "You even know about oil-seed watermelons?"

"En, heard it from someone." Li Long said vaguely, "Our place isn't divided into land, so I'm thinking about trying to plant it in the spring, so I wanted to come over and ask if you have seeds here."

"No. Very few people know about this kind of crop, and not many people know how to plant it. Actually, we also want to collect some seeds of this kind, but no one plants it, and no one sells it."

Li Long's heart moved, and he asked:

"If I can find seeds to plant, do you collect the harvested melon seeds?"

"Of course we collect them." The female comrade nodded, "Actually, the seeds we have in stock here are also quite few. Although the experimental station and the state seed company will provide us with some seeds, the gap is still quite large, and we need to collect some high-quality seeds from the growers."

This reminded Li Long that two years later, the wheat of the accountant's family in the village had a high yield, and then it was publicized. People from ten miles and eight villages all came here to buy seeds, which led to their family finally buying wheat from others to pay the public grain.

For a considerable period of time, the seeds for the common people to plant were still a combination of self-saved seeds and purchased seeds, especially in terms of vegetables. Li Jianguo's idle house had a special place for seeds. Every year when tomatoes matured, the women in the village would also specifically pick some tomatoes with large size and good appearance to save seeds when making sauce.

Not just tomatoes, seeds for chili, eggplant, cucumber, etc., were all self-saved at first. I don't know when they became purchased.

Li Long was relatively stubborn, and until he passed away in his previous life, the tomatoes in the vegetable plot were still old seeds. A considerable part of them didn't look very good, but the taste was really good.

"Then, if you do purchase oil-seed watermelon seeds, what is the price?" Li Long asked a key question.

"One or two yuan." The female comrade said uncertainly, "This also depends on the specific quality at that time."

Oil-seed watermelon seeds are mainly used for roasting and eating. However, Li Long vaguely remembered that in some year, the school's work-study program also required them to turn in oil-seed watermelon rinds, saying they were used as medicinal materials. As for what specific purpose they served, he wasn't sure.

He remembered that one mu of land could yield one to two hundred kilograms of oil-seed watermelons. If calculated at one yuan per kilogram, one mu of land could bring in one to two hundred yuan—for the current time, this was almost an astronomical price!

You know, one mu of wheat now, the good one only harvests two hundred kilograms, and the price of wheat is about three cents, so the income of one mu of land is only sixty yuan!

Of course, this is gross income!

The investment for oil-seed watermelons is naturally higher than for wheat, but how much higher could it really be?

Of course, the difficulty of obtaining oil-seed watermelon seeds is also a very large hurdle. As long as one can find suitable seeds, then planting oil-seed watermelons is highly likely to be profitable.

Make big money!

After confirming this line of thought, Li Long came out of the seed company, pondering where he could find oil-seed watermelon seeds.

He felt he could first go to the Shicheng Seed Company. Li Long vaguely remembered that the earliest planting of oil-seed watermelons in this region started from a certain company of the Shicheng Corps, and later it gradually spread. It was just because the purchasing was unstable—unlike wheat, which the national Grain Bureau could purchase directly—that there had never been many people planting it, and the area was not large.

After all, besides the seed company, only the stir-fry factory collected it. Later, the seed company only collected a little bit, and then the seed company didn't collect it anymore.

And the stir-fry factory did collect it, but the capacity of the stir-fry factory was limited after all. Later, there were private stir-fry factories, and this phenomenon improved.

This is considered an information gap.

Li Long felt that these oil-seed watermelons could still be planted for a few years; at worst, he could transition later—for example, by planting cotton ahead of time?

Of course, the yield of cotton now is also relatively low, and the price isn't high. Only later, with the application of thin film and new technology, especially after the drip irrigation technology was formed, the yield of cotton had a qualitative leap, and then it started to make money.

Otherwise, it really wouldn't make money, and there were several years of losing money.

Li Long looked at the time, thinking about going to Shicheng in the afternoon, so he went to the market.

The flow of people in the market now is much more than yesterday afternoon, and he also saw several people from the team selling fish, such as the Zhao father and son.

Li Long was a bit surprised. Didn't the Zhao father and son say they were going to Shicheng to sell fish? They went once and didn't go again?

Li Long didn't ask in detail, just greeted them and continued strolling.

And then he saw Yang Xiulan and Han Fang pushing a cart selling soup noodles. Li Long found that what sold best at this time was soup noodles—that is, soup noodle slices. This thing has vegetables and hot soup inside. If the noodle slices are thick, they are filling to eat and can also warm the body. Using tomato sauce, the sour and spicy taste is also flavorful.

Yang Xiulan and Han Fang also saw Li Long. When Li Long walked over, Yang Xiulan took a bowl to scoop rice for him, but Li Long hurriedly waved his hand:

"No, no, I just finished breakfast not long ago, I won't eat. Just cook a bit more at noon—are there many people eating?"

"It's okay." Yang Xiulan smiled and said, "It's cold, everyone didn't bring hot water, my hot soup noodles aren't expensive, most of them are willing to eat a bowl, and they can sell out a pot before noon."

"That's good." Li Long smiled. This is considered a formal livelihood. Although there is no stall, it wins in having business, people are willing to eat, and from the current point of view, the reputation has already been established.

"Is Han Fang going to school later?" Li Long asked again.

"Comrade Gu said to insert her into a class when school starts in the spring to see if she can keep up." Yang Xiulan said, "I want to let her attend, even if she can attend junior high school, it's good."

Li Long nodded. This idea is correct.

Why can China rise generation after generation, and why can Chinese people stand firm wherever they go and develop a small world?

Hard work is a big reason.

And another important reason is that no matter how bitter or tired parents are, usually as long as there are conditions for children to go to school, they will provide it.

In the past, some public intellectuals and Westernized articles on the Internet talked about how much Jewish people value education. In Li Long's view, actually, if the protagonist of that article were changed to Chinese people, it would be about the same.

Because even if it's a bad guy among Chinese people, he also hopes that his children can go to school well, and the higher the education, the better.

This thing is almost engraved in the genes—people who hold the theory of uselessness of learning are only a very small minority.

Li Long remembers that a few years later, some factories were built south of the Wuyi Highway in Ma County, and the factory recruitment was broadcast on the TV station. For the same job, high school students had fifty yuan more salary than junior high school students—in the nineties, that is, more than ten years later, fifty yuan was not a small amount.

This is the proper priority of academic qualifications.

Gone too far again.

"Then you guys get busy, I'll stroll around again." Li Long said.

Yang Xiulan nodded, and then gently pulled Han Fang, Han Fang said shyly:

"Uncle Li, goodbye!" Li Long nodded at her with a smile and turned to leave.

Often strolling in the Shicheng market, Li Long didn't have much interest in the market here. There weren't many things to buy, so he simply turned out and walked toward the purchasing station.

Usually, riding a bicycle doesn't feel like it, but walking, the distance from the market to the purchasing station is still a distance.

Calculating that today is Wednesday, Chen Hongjun should be there. Li Long arrived at the purchasing station, saw that the snow in the courtyard was cleaned quite cleanly, half-closed, but there was blue smoke coming out of the chimney on the roof, so there should be someone.

Li Long patted the door, then pushed the door in—usually, those who come to sell things almost push the door directly, and few knock on the door.

Chen Hongjun was squatting by the counter tidying up something. He looked up and saw it was Li Long, and said with a smile:

"Yo, Comrade Xiao Li, you have time to come over? I heard you've got a big project this time!"

"Comrade Chen, your news is quite well-informed." Li Long turned to close the door, pulled the chair by the stove and sat down, watching Chen Hongjun busy there. He guessed it should be the news revealed by Li Xiangqian.

Anyway, this trip itself was to ask about this, so he wasn't afraid of Chen Hongjun knowing.

"Heh, Old Li's smugness," Chen Hongjun was using a wooden piece to pad the corner of the counter. The counter should have been there for a long time, one leg was a bit shaky, not stable. Chen Hongjun found a wooden piece to pad the leg, which was convenient for use.

"I came over this trip just to ask about the situation." Li Long watched Chen Hongjun stand up, patted the dust on his hands, and went to the washbasin stand in the corner to wash his hands. After he finished, he asked:

"This brown bear gall, how much is it worth?"

!.

"This thing, in places where there are many bears, such as the Northeast, it really isn't as valuable as imagined. A normal-sized black bear gall is about five. Of course, if the gall is large, the price can also be increased. Brown bear gall is slightly worse, but five hundred yuan won't be less."

"About the same as I guessed." Li Long said with a smile.

"But that's the producing area." Chen Hongjun waved his hand, "Not here. We haven't seen black bears here, only brown bears, which are the brown bears in the herdsmen's mouths. Being able to get a brown bear is also an amazing skill, after all, there are few, and there are few people who hunt professionally here, or it can be said there are almost none. So brown bear gall, even if it's ordinary, how can it be worth seven or eight hundred, and if it's a bit larger, it's over a thousand."

Chen Hongjun sighed as he said this:

"Comrade Little Li, it's really hard to say whether you are lucky or not. I've been working at this purchasing station for ten years, let alone bear gall, I haven't even seen a piece of bear skin..."

"Is bear skin valuable?" Li Long hurriedly asked again.

"Look at the size. If it's a full skin, the price is about the same as bear gall. If there's a break, the price will be discounted."

Li Long calculated it this way, Li Xiangqian's leader Director Wu gave a price that was about the same, neither high nor low.

After all, this bear wasn't big, and the skin was ruined, but with that meat, it's hard to say who lost and who gained.

"The bear I hunted wasn't two meters tall, I feel it wasn't two hundred kilograms, one hundred and something kilograms, it should be a young bear."

"Hmm, that's indeed the case. It's normal for an adult brown bear to weigh three to five hundred kilograms, and it's normal for it to be over two meters tall, but such large brown bears are usually in the deep mountains, and you can't see them near the mountains." Chen Hongjun, although he hadn't seen a bear, still understood the habits of bears, "The one you hunted is indeed considered a young bear, the kind that is three or four years old. How big is the bear gall?"

Li Long gestured.

"A gall this big, it's worth about seven or eight hundred yuan. The skin should be ruined, right?"

"Hmm, there are about five or six or seven or eight bullet holes." Li Long wasn't sure either, "The distance was close at the time, and I was also afraid, all the bullets from the Type 56 rifle hit its body."

"Then the skin is ruined." Chen Hongjun shook his head, "It's a lot to sell for three or five hundred."

Li Long nodded, still okay. At least this trip, not a loss.

"You are really lucky, you can even encounter a hibernating bear."

"I even encountered a live bear in the summer," Li Long remembered the bear he encountered at the hot spring, and said, "It ran away when it saw me."

"Generally speaking, bears are not willing to provoke people." Chen Hongjun said, "Except for special circumstances, such as being extremely hungry. Of course, you often go into the mountains, and it's right to carry a gun with you. There are too many dangers in the mountains... By the way, didn't you get any good things this time?"

Li Long thought of the skin Huang Yang gave him when he delivered grain last time, but thought about saving some things, so he said:

"None this time, wait for next time."

"Okay..." Chen Hongjun said with a smile, "Mainly because every time I see you, there are surprises, so I'm used to it."

"Then next you should rest well, right? Can you have a peaceful New Year?"

"Should be okay. I'll ask about things in the county these two days, and go back to the team for the New Year in two days." Li Long said.

Chen Hongjun got up and poured a cup of water for Li Long, asking:

"What are you asking about, tell me, let me see if I know."

Li Long took the enamel cup with "Serve the People" written on it, drank two sips of water, and said:

"Oil-seed watermelon seeds—you've actually thought of a good project." Chen Hongjun pondered for a moment. "I can get the seeds, but the quantity won't be large, maybe just ten-plus kilograms. But this thing only needs one or two thousand seeds per mu, so it doesn't take many seeds—three hundred grams is already plenty. Ten-plus kilograms is enough for forty or fifty mu—do you have that much land?"

"Land contracting starts next year, so contracting a few dozen mu is no problem." Li Long said, "It's just that I'm afraid I won't be able to manage the planting, and since it's the first year, I plan to just plant ten mu. It's hard to guarantee success with more. Of course, more seeds can be kept, and since I raise pigs at home, the pigs can eat the fruit after it's harvested."

"Land contracting will be implemented next year, contracting dozens of mu of land is no problem." Li Long said, "It's just afraid that I can't plant it, and it's the first year of planting, I plan to plant ten mu. Too much is hard to guarantee. Of course, seeds can be saved more, and I raise pigs at home, that thing can be eaten by pigs after it comes out."

"That's true, killing two birds with one stone." Chen Hongjun said, "The seed company said they don't have it, how much do they collect it for?"

"Two yuan? They didn't determine it either." Li Long said.

"I can also collect some here," Chen Hongjun said, "Because not many people planted this before, I haven't collected it, so I have to ask the prefecture, I guess it should also be two yuan or more."

"It's okay, I heard that the yield per mu of this thing is only one hundred and something kilograms of melon seeds, if it doesn't work, I'll find a stir-fry factory to sell it."

Li Long felt that he didn't worry about the market. This thing has always been a niche agricultural product, there have always been people planting it, but not many. The units that collect it have always been there, especially those stir-fry factories, including small stir-fry shops that are collecting it.

After chatting for a while, Li Long left. Chen Hongjun sent him to the door, looking at the back of this young man, he felt that Li Long was even more different.

Having chatted at the purchasing station for nearly an hour, Li Long only realized after coming out that in this hour, not a single person had come to the purchasing station to sell anything.

Chatting here at the purchasing station for nearly an hour, Li Long came out and found that in this hour, no one came to sell things at the purchasing station.

Is there nothing good to sell in this middle of winter?

Li Long thought about it, it seems there really isn't. If it weren't for him going into the mountains to hunt and getting some wild things, and coming over occasionally, I'm afraid he wouldn't visit this place much in winter.

This is just thinking about it. When Li Long walked toward the courtyard where Yang Xiulan lived, he was calculating, after eating, he would take the bus to Shicheng to see the situation of the Shicheng Seed Company.

Shicheng has a stir-fry factory, and he can also go and ask if they collect it there.

When he thought about this matter clearly, Li Long had already passed the Wuyi Highway and was almost at the courtyard where Yang Xiulan lived.

The snow on both sides of the courtyard gate was cleaned very cleanly, including the snow on the road outside the courtyard, and the snow on the roof was also shoveled. Li Long nodded, this is a person who lives a life.

But he had to remind Yang Xiulan that when sweeping the snow on the roof, he had to be slow and don't slip down. Every few years, there are people who fall from the roof—most are fine, but if something happens, it's a big deal.