Chapter 460: This is also called a win-win

This person's name was Wu Benzhong, and he had been here for two years. Last year, when Maxian just started contracting land and the market just opened, he came over. He also came over after hearing from his hometown that it was easy to earn money here. Originally, he wanted to do some small business and brought some capital over, but unfortunately, he didn't understand the market here. Some goods he imported from Wucheng didn't sell here, and he lost everything. His capital was gone, and he had no face to go home, so he spent the winter at a relative's place in the Corps. Life in the Corps company wasn't easy now either. Although corn flour could fill his stomach, it was really difficult to earn money. So as soon as spring started, he entered the mountains. This was also because someone pointed out a path for him, saying that there were good things in the mountains, and as long as he got them, he could exchange them for money at the acquisition station. If he could pick up and run into treasures, he would get rich.

Wu Benzhong didn't believe it very much at first. There were mountains near his hometown, and he could be considered to understand the big mountains, but his skill in entering the mountains to find mountain goods wasn't very proficient. Before he came, he specifically went to the acquisition station to ask. At that time, the people in the acquisition station also clearly told him that they collected a lot of mountain goods, such as skins, Codonopsis, fritillaria, deer antlers, etc., and the price wasn't low.

After hearing this, Wu Benzhong entered the mountains. He only knew fritillaria among the herbs in the mountains, and Codonopsis was told to him by others later. Now wasn't the time to dig Codonopsis, so Wu Benzhong only stared at fritillaria. Then he ran into other miscellaneous things.

But it wasn't easy to mix in the mountains. He entered the mountains in late March. At that time, there was still snow in some places. After entering the mountains, he couldn't see fritillaria at first, so he thought about picking up some other things. Once he entered the mountains, it was a bit difficult to want to go out again. There was nothing to eat in the mountains. When the grass just grew, he dug grass roots, picked dried mushrooms, plus some corn flour he brought.

He didn't think about going out of the mountains, because there was no way to go out. He had no money in his pocket and hadn't picked up anything good. Going out would at most be begging for food.

Wu Benzhong wanted face, otherwise he wouldn't have come out of his relative's house in the Corps. He could have lived there by being thick-skinned. Because he wanted face and didn't want to beg for food, he came out, and because he wanted face, he didn't want to go down the mountain to the county to beg for food. He hoped to earn money by his ability and instinct.

Then he picked up a pair of deer antlers in a ditch, which made him very happy. He clearly remembered that everyone in the acquisition station said that the acquisition price of deer antlers was above six yuan per kilogram. This pair of deer antlers must be five or six kilograms, which was equivalent to a worker's monthly salary.

He originally thought about taking the deer antlers down the mountain to sell for money, and by the way, buy some daily necessities to bring up. However, what made him angry was that before he even went out of the mountains, he ran into people from the forestry team, and then his deer antlers were collected. That person also told him to go out of the mountains as soon as possible, otherwise, if he ran into him picking things and digging herbs in the mountains next time, he would catch him.

The other party had guns and horses, and Wu Benzhong couldn't resist, so he could only admit his bad luck.

Without the deer antlers, he wasn't reconciled, but there was no way. Fortunately, fritillaria appeared in early April, so he began to dig fritillaria. Now the corn flour he brought was almost eaten up. He ate wild vegetables every day, and the shit he pulled was green. He really missed the taste of rice, white flour, and meat.

Running into Sun Jia Qiang was also quite unexpected, but seeing the other party's dress similar to his own, Wu Benzhong wasn't so afraid, but still had some wariness. In this day and age, except for his own family, who could he believe?

Sun Jia Qiang was actually quite happy to see Wu Benzhong. Although he had run into bad vagrants before, he kept some kindness in his heart, so he told Wu Benzhong about the matter of being able to exchange for supplies at Li Long's place.

Wu Benzhong didn't believe it yesterday, but today, seeing the shoes Sun Jia Qiang exchanged, he was a bit shaken.

Leaving the ditch, he went out of the ditch after several turns, passed two more ditches, turned west again, and after crossing two mountains, Wu Benzhong came to a small mountain ditch. This mountain ditch was very narrow, and pine trees grew on both sides. Cattle and sheep had never passed through here. The grass grew very deep, and it was very miscellaneous and messy. Because of the cover of pine trees, there was no sunlight on both sides of the ditch, and thick moss grew on the surface.

After Wu Benzhong entered this ditch, he walked forty or fifty meters inside. Beside a wind-fallen pine tree on the hillside, he uncovered a large piece of moss, revealing a cave entrance.

This was the shelter he had worked hard to find. The outside of this cave looked quite small, but the inside was actually quite large. Because it was blocked by tree branches and moss, it wasn't easy to be discovered. Although it was a bit damp inside, it was still better than staying outside.

Wu Benzhong drilled in. There was a cave inside. There were ventilation holes, so it didn't feel stuffy. He stored a lot of dry firewood inside, used four stones to pile up a stove, and an aluminum basin was placed on top to act as a pot. There was also an enamel basin that had lost several pieces of porcelain, which was the bowl for eating.

The left side of the cave was covered with dry grass, on which there were urea bags and sack pieces, and a quilt with several holes was rolled together. This was the place where Wu Benzhong slept.

In the corner on the right side of the cave, there were several bags, and beside the bags were messy things, including two pairs of deer antlers, a pair of roe deer antlers, a northern goat head, the kind with seventeen or eighteen antler joints, and several stones.

Wu Benzhong looked at these things. What he could be sure of was that deer antlers and fritillaria in the bags could be exchanged for money, but the others weren't clear yet.

He grabbed a handful into the bag. The fritillaria was still very wet and a bit damp. Adding these bags together must be twenty or thirty kilograms.

Wu Benzhong was also very worried. He had dug quite a lot of fritillaria, but the ditch where he lived was safe, and the forestry team couldn't find it, but there was no place to dry things here. The places where sunlight could reach above were all pine forests, and the dampness below was so great that there was no place to dry them at all. He wanted to find a suitable place to dry them, but he was afraid of being stolen by others. He still had to dig every day, so he couldn't keep watching all the time.

He remembered Liu Jiaqiang's words, gritted his teeth, picked up the smallest bag of fritillaria, and walked out of the cave.

At worst, he would lose some. His food here was completely gone. Unless he went down the mountain, but the people in the acquisition station said that they only collected dried fritillaria, and they weren't responsible for drying them. Right now, if he wanted to go down the mountain, he had to walk for at least one day. But he didn't even have a clue for tonight's meal. Moreover, there were no matches. At noon, he chewed dried mushrooms. If he didn't have anything to eat tonight, he doubted whether he would have the strength to go down the mountain tomorrow.

Then try it, exchange for some things.

When Wu Benzhong appeared on the east side of the wooden cabin, Li Long was collecting the air-dried meat from the rope. Although it was early April, the terrain here was flat, the light was sufficient, and there was wind, so the meat was almost dried. He planned to collect the meat today and not dry it tomorrow. Tomorrow he would go to the place Sun Jia Qiang mentioned to see if there were any deer.

Seeing Wu Benzhong, Li Long was startled. If it weren't for the broad daylight, he would have thought the other party was a ghost!

Having seen Sun Jia Qiang, the Li Zheng Tang brothers, and that thief, Li Long could be considered to have seen all kinds of vagrants in the mountains, but this was the first time he had seen one like Wu Benzhong.

Others were at most unkempt, but this one was simply like a skeleton. Li Long was even doubting whether he had forty kilograms.

Although he was thin and skin-and-bones, he looked quite strong. Carrying a bag of things over, he was just panting heavily.

From the appearance, Wu Benzhong looked much more down-and-out than Sun Jia Qiang. His clothes had many holes and were worn shiny. His hair was messy, but his beard wasn't long, just because of lack of nutrition, his face was extremely thin. Li Long felt that if he trimmed his hair and beard and got a bit fatter, this person could be called a handsome guy.

"Boss, I heard that you can exchange things here?" Wu Benzhong stood still ten meters away, with the bag at his feet. He planned that if something went wrong, at worst he would abandon the bag and run directly. As long as he wasn't caught, there would be infinite possibilities.

However, seeing that the other party actually had a tractor, Wu Benzhong believed Sun Jia Qiang's words a bit more. This person shouldn't be from the forestry team, right? Without horses, he couldn't drive a tractor to catch people, could he?

"Exchange, yes. What are you using to exchange?" Li Long asked, "Exchange for what? I have rice, flour, wine, drinks, sugar, shoes, and matches here."

"How to exchange? How much money do you exchange for one kilogram of fritillaria?"

"Three yuan per kilogram of fresh fritillaria," Li Long said, "In the mountains, it can only be this price. Of course, it also depends on the quality. If the quality is good, the price can be raised. If the quality is poor and there are many impurities, it must be lowered."

Cheaper than the acquisition station, Wu Benzhong understood this point. After all, others also earned money.

"Then you look at my goods," Wu Benzhong said, "This bag of fritillaria should be quite a lot. I want to exchange all of them for some things."

Li Long estimated that the bag of fritillaria could be nearly ten kilograms. He went into the room to get the scale. When he came out, he saw Wu Benzhong staring at the air-dried meat on the cutting board and swallowing his saliva. He said with a smile:

"Hungry, right? Do you want to eat something first?"

"No, no." Wu Benzhong's wariness was still quite heavy, waving his hands and saying, "Weigh first, exchange things first."

Li Long then used the scale hook to hang the bag and weigh it.

"Nine kilograms eight." The scale was quite high. Wu Benzhong nodded, almost the same.

Putting down the scale, Li Long opened the bag to look at the things inside, and then frowned. He smelled a moldy smell.

"You didn't dry this fritillaria? This smell is a bit strong."

Li Long carried the bag and poured it onto the wooden floor in front of the wooden cabin. The fritillaria rolled all over the ground, and then he saw that it was still good on top, but some fritillaria underneath had already rotted.

Wu Benzhong's face suddenly turned red, very embarrassed.

"That place of mine... is not easy to dry."

"Then pick some out. These rotted ones definitely can't be used anymore." Li Long squatted down, and Wu Benzhong also immediately squatted down to start picking.

There weren't many rotted ones, there was more than one kilogram, and there was more than half a kilogram of moldy ones. The remaining seven kilograms or so were good.

"It's a pity that these rotted ones are moldy. It's estimated that it's also very difficult to be useful," Li Long said, "I don't know if it can be used after washing and drying. In the future, you should deal with fritillaria as soon as possible after digging it, otherwise it will all be like this, which is a pity."

Wu Benzhong also knew this truth, but there was no way to do it in his place at all.

He suddenly thought of one thing, looked up and asked Li Long:

"Then Boss, can you exchange for money here?" "You mean, sell fritillaria to me?"

"Yes, yes, exchange directly for money. Money is easy to pack." After Wu Benzhong determined that Li Long wasn't a "bad person", he immediately had this idea. Instead of worrying about fritillaria in the cave and it would go bad, it was better to sell it directly to this person!

"Yes, but my price won't be high, just three yuan. I can see that this fritillaria of yours has been washed. If it's dried well, it can actually sell for more money down the mountain."

"That's if I can bring it down," Wu Benzhong was extremely clear at this moment, "First say whether it can be dried. If it's dried, maybe I'll run into the forestry team... Forget it, it's not bad to sell it to you."

"Alright, then are you selling these or exchanging for things?"

"Exchange for things," Wu Benzhong looked at the meat on the cutting board and swallowed his saliva again, "Can that meat be exchanged?"

"Yes. I have marinated cooked meat in my room. Do you want to exchange?"

"Exchange!"

Seven kilograms of fritillaria, Wu Benzhong exchanged for a pair of shoes, threw away the rotten shoes on his feet, and exchanged for several kilograms of air-dried meat and half a kilogram of marinated offal. Rice, flour, sugar, the most important matches, and a bag of salt, and he also got a big ten-yuan note from Li Long.

The supplies weren't many, but Wu Benzhong had already decided that he would take out all the fritillaria in his cave tomorrow and exchange them!

It's best to come early, so as not to run into the forestry team and be confiscated again. That would be a pity!

He had already learned from Li Long that the other party not only collected fritillaria but also deer antlers and all valuable things!

Isn't this equivalent to a collection point for the acquisition station in the mountains?

With this kind of thought, he walked back while eating marinated offal.

Li Long began to clean up the rotted fritillaria, washed the moldy ones by the water to remove the mold marks, and spread them on the cutting board.

!.

He also washed the remaining seven kilograms of fritillaria with water and spread them on the floor of the small room to dry.

The sun had already set, so he couldn't put them outside. First, there was dew at night, and second, it would be a pity if wild beasts or something came to spoil them.

After finishing these, he had a simple dinner, closed the door, and went to sleep.

The next day, before dawn, Li Long was awakened by a knock on the door. He carried a gun and asked:

"Who?"

"Me, the one who exchanged fritillaria yesterday. I came to sell fritillaria."

Li Long didn't expect Wu Benzhong to come so early. He carried the gun and opened the door. Seeing two bags of fritillaria placed by Wu Benzhong's feet, he was startled:

"Are these all inside? You are so good at digging!"

"Hehe, it's mainly because there are several ditches full of fritillaria. Without moving my feet, I can get one kilogram in a while," Wu Benzhong was in a good mood, and his words increased, "I really didn't expect the resources here to be so rich."

Li Long knew there were several fritillaria ditches before, but he hadn't seen them. Li Jianguo had seen them.

"Are there any rotted or moldy ones inside?"

Li Long put down the gun and went to get the scale.

"I picked them all last night. I threw away the rotted and moldy ones," Wu Benzhong guaranteed, "Don't worry."

He was actually quite distressed. There were more than two kilograms of rotted ones in the cave. Calculated this way, it was equivalent to working for half a day for nothing.

"Alright, I'll weigh it first." Li Long hooked the bag and weighed them together.

The fifteen-kilogram scale didn't even move, so he weighed the two bags separately.

One bag was twelve kilograms, one bag was eleven kilograms, twenty-three kilograms.

Li Long wasn't easy to just listen to his words. Although there was still some dew on the wooden floor outside, he wasn't afraid of this. It would dry as soon as the sun came out. He poured both bags of fritillaria onto the floor.

Wu Benzhong stared at the gun Li Long just placed at the door of the room, and he was actually a bit scared.

If Li Long pointed the gun at him and collected the fritillaria directly, he would have no way at all!

Why was he so rash, carrying fritillaria and coming over? And it was all his property!

Although this person performed very well yesterday, there were so many fritillaria here now, which was worth nearly a hundred yuan. In this day and age, in the mountains, for so many things, firing a gun wouldn't count as anything, right?

In his original village, there were people who fought until their heads were broken for a pot!

Yesterday he was really hot-headed. Why did he believe people so easily?

"Not bad, there really aren't any bad ones." Li Long looked at those fritillaria and was quite satisfied. This person really picked them.

He didn't know that Wu Benzhong's brain was already fighting between heaven and man. He stood up straight and asked:

"Do you want all money, or part supplies and part money? If you want money, sixty-nine yuan, I'll calculate seventy for you, counting as your hard work fee for picking fritillaria yesterday. After all, to tell you the truth, your fritillaria has no dirty things and is quite good."

"Then... all money." Hearing the meaning of Li Long's words, Wu Benzhong's brain finally operated normally. The other party didn't rob?

Is it a serious business?

Or is it to stabilize himself first, and then sneak attack after he relaxes?

Looking at Li Long's tall stature, and then looking at himself like a monkey, if the other party really wanted to rob him, it shouldn't be so troublesome, right?

When Wu Benzhong was thinking wildly, Li Long had already entered the room to get money, counted seven big ten-yuan notes and handed them over:

"Here, take it well. Seventy, count it."

Wu Benzhong watched Li Long count them one by one, but after he took the money, he couldn't help but count it again. That's right, it was seventy.

This was the most he had earned in the past year!

Half a month's time!

It's really possible to earn money in the mountains!

At this moment, Wu Benzhong was ashamed of his wild thoughts just now. He couldn't help but ask Li Long:

"Boss, do you collect deer antlers?"

"Collect, yes. But the price isn't as high as the acquisition station."

"That's for sure. I have deer antlers and roe deer antlers. If you give me three yuan per kilogram, I can sell them to you!"

On one hand, because of shame, on the other hand, that thing was too big a target. He had money on him now. If he was discovered by the forestry team while carrying deer antlers, being caught was secondary. If the money was searched out, wouldn't his money be earned for nothing?

As for whether he could go down the mountain at night? Forget it, going down the mountain at night, is it to add a meal for the wolves?

Unless he had a gun in his hand like Li Long, otherwise, it would be sending food.

After confirming this matter, Wu Benzhong left in a daze. When he walked more than a kilometer, he suddenly jumped up. At this speed, when the fritillaria season passed in late May, he was sure he could get hundreds of yuan!

Then he would have the money to go home!

Hundreds of yuan! In his original village, how many people had hundreds of yuan! With these hundreds of yuan, he could repair the house at home, add some things, and live a good life!

Li Long was also quite happy. This was running into a big customer.

It seems there are capable people among the vagrants.

He set up the stove to boil water and cook porridge. On this side, he spread out the fritillaria Wu Benzhong brought over to dry. It seems he couldn't go out today either.

However, this thought only rose for less than an hour before it was shattered.

Bolati rode a horse over and brought Li Long a quite good piece of news. Then Li Long took some things and put them in the tractor, cleaned up this side, drove the tractor, and followed him to the mountains in the east. (End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 461 =====