Chapter 466: One Unexpected Candidate After Another

When Li Long found Xie Yun Dong, he was carrying an iron shovel, preparing to head to the fields. Seeing Li Long approach, Xie Yun Dong guessed something and set down the shovel, asking:

"Xiao Long, you're back. Does this mean there's news?"

"Mm, work has come in. It's confirmed: one thousand units this year, much more than last year. It's best to head into the mountains within these two days. What do you think..."

"Then I'll go notify the others right away," Xie Yun Dong said immediately. "When will the work be finished? Do we need to add more people?"

"By the end of May. My eldest brother and Big Brother Lu Yingming are going too. We won't add anyone else; just the people you all know from last time. I heard from the team leader that you've called up Old Huang?"

"Mm, someone has to do the cooking," Xie Yun Dong said. "Your father-in-law said he isn't going this time, so I had to find someone else. Old Huang is the team's master chef; there's no going wrong with him cooking. Since the team isn't providing the personnel this year, we can't give him work points, and we can't afford to pay him ourselves, so I discussed it with the others—we'll pay him money. Everyone will chip in. He thought that was fine; he originally thought he could earn sixty or seventy yuan in a month out there, but now it's even better—he can earn one hundred. He's very happy."

"That works. I'm going to Tao Daqiang's house now to see if he's going. Whether he goes or not, I'll have him tell you later. I came by tractor; I'm heading into the mountains today. Anyone planning to go today, come find me later. By the way, how were you originally planning to travel?"

"We were originally planning to take your tractor. But then we thought you might not have the time, so we thought about using the team's horse-drawn cart—rent it, just pay the money. It's only a day's trip anyway."

"Fine, then go prepare quickly. This trip will take at least a month; you'll definitely need to settle things at home." Li Long pushed his bicycle and left.

Xie Yun Dong hurriedly shouldered his shovel and headed home; this indeed required some quick packing.

When Li Long arrived at Tao Daqiang's house, Tao Daqiang was already pumping up his bicycle, preparing to head to the Li house to meet Li Qing Xia to go set nets.

"Yo, Brother Xiao Long is back?" Tao Daqiang's wife, Yang Pingping, was the first to see Li Long, her belly protruding, and she greeted him with a smile. "Sister-in-law didn't come back?"

"Mm, she's at work, have to wait until Sunday," Li Long said with a smile. "How many more months until you give birth?"

"Three or four months," Yang Pingping said, rubbing her belly. "It's been quite restless lately."

"That might be a boy, being so naughty," Li Long joked.

At this time, some people still had strong feelings about having a son, so hearing Li Long's words, a smile appeared on the face of Tao Jian She, who was sitting at the doorway.

"Brother Xiao Long, you came over for something?" Daqiang knew that if Li Long came over, it was highly likely for a reason; otherwise, he would have just waited for him to go over.

"The work has come through. We're weaving carrying frames, and the price has gone up—four yuan each," Li Long said. "See if you want to go, but looking at your wife's condition, you'd better not."

"Mm, mm, I won't go," Tao Daqiang said with a smile. "My dad said he wants to go."

"Uncle Tao? You're going?" Li Long was a bit surprised. "The conditions in the mountains aren't very good."

"Heh, what's good or bad about it? When your eldest brother and I were in the side-line team heading into the mountains to dig fritillaria, wasn't it harder than now? Now we can bring plenty of food and supplies. Back then, we could only eat steamed buns and gnaw on dried mushrooms..." Once Tao Jian She heard Li Long say that, he immediately became unconvinced.

"That works too." Li Long thought about it; Tao Jian She was not yet fifty. By later generations' standards, he certainly wasn't old. People of this era, aside from those who got sick from being too fat, basically lived past eighty as long as they kept moving.

"I'm going to the county seat in a little while by tractor to buy supplies, then head into the mountains. Uncle Tao, are you following Xie Yun Dong and the others later, or are you coming with me tonight?" Li Long asked.

"Later," Tao Jian She thought for a moment and said. "Today is too rushed; I can't get packed in time, and there are still things at home to arrange."

"Fine, then I'll be off." After finishing the business, Li Long got on his bicycle and left.

"Four yuan for one carrying frame, and if you can weave five or six a day, that's twenty or thirty yuan," Tao Jian She became excited after Li Long left, counting on his fingers: "Daqiang, it's no worse than catching fish."

"That's true, but Dad, let me tell you, the requirements for weaving these frames are very high. Brother Xiao Long was able to secure this work because he said it's all based on the quality of the frames submitted. If the quality isn't good and he has to return them, you'll lose face."

"Do you think I don't know that?" Tao Jian She glared. "I knew that when we were making reed mats last year. Xiao Long usually looks polite and courteous, but he's very serious when it comes to work. Don't you worry; I won't lose face for you!"

"Hehehe!" Tao Daqiang rubbed his head with a silly grin.

On his way back, Li Long stopped by the old horse corral to tell Uncle Luo about the lynx bones. Uncle Luo nodded with a face full of smiles. After Li Long left, he looked at Li Long's retreating back, thinking that when he chatted with his old brothers, he'd have something to brag about again.

Oh, no, Xiao Long said these bones aren't plentiful, so he can't let it slip; if he tells people, too many will want them, and it'll be hard to give them out. Mm, wait until the medicinal wine is soaked, then go tell them. Heh, don't say where it came from—make them die of envy!

Li Long rode his bike back to Li Jianguo's courtyard and found Li Jianguo refueling and watering the tractor. Lu Yingming was also in the courtyard. Seeing Li Long arrive, he said with a beaming smile:

"Xiao Long, I'm coming along today too. You're heading straight into the mountains?"

"Mm, heading into the mountains today," Li Long said. "Big Brother, are you going in today too?"

"Going in. The sooner we go in, the sooner we can weave frames." Li Jianguo pointed to the tractor bed; he had already put his luggage inside.

"Xie Yun Dong and the others discussed it; for every frame woven, they'll give Old Huang, who's doing the cooking, two jiao," Li Long said. "Each person submits ten kilograms of corn flour, two kilograms of white flour, and one kilogram of rice. Old Huang brings the cooking utensils; they'll come along later."

"Then I'll go get the grain." Lu Yingming hurriedly walked toward his house. "I forgot about that."

Li Long smiled. After Li Jianguo finished adding water, he had Liang Yuemei prepare grain for him too.

"How are you all managing tonight?" Liang Yuemei asked with some concern.

"Big Brother and the others will stay in the wooden cabin with me tonight," Li Long said with a smile. "The three of us can just squeeze in. Tomorrow morning we'll go to Little White Poplar Gully to get the dugout shelter ready, and by the afternoon we can start weaving frames."

"Then take some of the steamed buns from home. Old Huang can't make it tomorrow or the day after; you'll need something to eat." Liang Yuemei thought for a moment and said.

"No need, no need, I have everything in the wooden cabin," Li Long waved his hand. "I have buns, and I have meat. It's just a bit far, and I don't have any willow strips there, otherwise I'd just have my brother weave them there."

"Heh, we're going to earn money, not to enjoy ourselves," Li Jianguo said with a smile. "I'll definitely stay with everyone else. If others can endure hardship, can't I?"

That was true.

Lu Yingming came over carrying bags of grain; because they were packed separately, there were three bags of different sizes. He also brought a canned jar of stir-fried pickled vegetables, which must have been prepared earlier and packed just now.

"I'm going to the department store to pick up stock in a while; I'll just buy some more red bean curd while I'm at it," Li Long said, looking at them.

"Pick up stock?" Lu Yingming asked, puzzled. "What stock are you picking up?"

"I have a wooden house in the mountains. I use supplies there to trade with the drifters in the mountains for the fritillaria they dig."

"They can still dig it?" Lu Yingming glanced at Li Jianguo and asked.

"The forestry team is watching. But those drifters dig secretly; if they get caught, it's confiscated, but if they don't get caught, they make a profit." Li Long explained. "The forestry team members also come to me to trade for things; what they bring are the fritillaria they've confiscated from the drifters. Some drifters even get caught and end up in the detention center; it depends on luck."

"Is that so? Then will we be okay going to weave frames?"

"It's fine, I have an introduction letter from the supply and marketing cooperative, and one from the forestry team too." Li Long didn't mention that he was also an unofficial forest ranger for the forestry team; being too flashy wasn't good.

With the bedding, tools, grain, and personal items packed, and the water and oil topped off, Li Jianguo and Lu Yingming climbed into the back of the tractor. Li Long cranked the tractor and backed out of the courtyard. Both families waved goodbye at the gate, and Li Long drove off toward the county seat with a chugging sound.

It was just past five in the afternoon when the tractor reached the department store; the sun was still high. After buying rubber shoes, matches, brick tea, granulated sugar, and other supplies, he went to the market to buy a few bags of rice and flour, then drove the tractor toward the mountains.

If he had ridden his bicycle as usual, it would have been dark by the time he reached the mountains; if he had taken a horse-drawn cart, he would have just waited until tomorrow morning. With the tractor, he drove straight there, and by the time he reached the wooden cabin, the sun hadn't set yet.

There was no one at the cabin. When Li Long killed the engine and got off, Li Jianguo got off too.

Lu Yingming stood in the tractor bed and looked around:

"Xiao Long, this place is nice. This house is nice too. Did you build it?"

"No, a friend helped me build it." Li Long checked the door lock; it was fine, no one had touched it. He took out the key, unlocked the door, and began moving things from the vehicle. "I do have a few friends in the mountains."

"Heh, this is pretty good." Lu Yingming followed him to help move things, while Li Jianguo began arranging items inside the cabin; seeing the shelves, he roughly knew where things should go.

After the items were arranged, Li Long began to build a fire, saying as he did so:

"Let's have a simple meal tonight. I'll stew some meat; there's still some air-dried meat over there, and some offal, I'll chop it up. There are also steamed buns; just toast them and they'll be fine."

"Why go to all that trouble?" Lu Yingming waved his hand. "Just set up the stove and toast a bun. Don't we have red bean curd? Just eat some of that."

"There's nothing else to do, why is it a bother to make some food?" Li Long set up the stove, put on the pot, and began boiling water to prepare porridge. "Let's have a good meal today, and tomorrow morning too. Then I'll drive the tractor to take you to Little White Poplar Gully. There's a drifter there, a friend of mine who lives there; I'll introduce you later."

"Does he dig fritillaria too? Isn't he afraid of getting caught?"

"He knows a forest ranger from the forestry team; they know him, so they don't catch him." Li Long brought over an armful of firewood, lit the stove outside, and put the pot on to heat the food. The beef offal brought from home had to be heated every day, otherwise it would spoil. In this day and age, it was one thing if vegetables spoiled, but if meat spoiled and wasn't eaten, that was a huge sin. After all, even if the team had plenty of land and people were getting rich fast, there were still many people who couldn't eat meat a few times a year until the late nineties, when meat became something that could be eaten regularly.

!.

And in this regard, the Li family could already be considered to have surpassed the standard of a moderately prosperous life.

Li Long vaguely remembered that when Li Qiang and the others reached junior high, which was the early nineties, the school was still using carrying frames and large brooms for work. Of course, government units had basically stopped using carrying frames by the late eighties; two-wheeled handcarts were slowly becoming popular, and human-powered tricycles were also in use, so this work of weaving carrying frames should still be viable for another three or four years.

Completing the initial accumulation in these three or four years and gradually investing in mechanization, Li Long believed that in terms of making money, he could still remain at the forefront of the team.

The requirements weren't high; just living comfortably and well was enough.

Lu Yingming took care of the porridge and buns, while Li Long went to get wild celery. Li Jianguo did the stir-frying; he didn't think much of Li Long's cooking skills.

Li Long was naturally happy to eat what was prepared for him.

Just as the sun was about to set, to Li Long's surprise, Sun Jia Qiang came over.

"Why did you come over?" Li Long asked. "You should have known I went back, right?"

"I guessed you should be back by now. Actually, I came over once this morning." Sun Jia Qiang nodded to Li Jianguo and Lu Yingming and explained to Li Long, "Last time, didn't I run into that scoundrel trying to pry open your door? I thought since you were gone, I'd keep an eye on things here. I came over this morning to check, and then Bolati came over too. After he arrived, I left, telling him I'd come back in the afternoon."

Hearing him say this, Li Long was quite moved.

"You don't need to thank me; I just thought that when I sell my fritillaria to you later, you could set the scale a bit higher for me and give me a better price," Sun Jia Qiang said seriously.

Although he knew he was joking, Li Long couldn't help but pat him on the shoulder:

"Since you're here, don't leave. Just eat and stay here tonight."

"That won't do," Sun Jia Qiang waved his hand. "It's over an hour's journey; it won't be dark anyway. Don't worry, the wolves won't dare touch me before dark; I have a stick with me. I just came over to check and I'm heading back."

Li Long insisted on not letting him leave. Just kidding—if he left now and really ran into wolves, wouldn't he be in trouble?

"My eldest brother and my neighbor, Big Brother Lu, are going to the place where you're staying tomorrow. That's where our village's side-line team stays to weave carrying frames. They'll go over tomorrow to keep you company. They'll weave frames, and you can dig your fritillaria; it'll be good to look out for each other."

"That would be great!" Sun Jia Qiang was happy when he heard this. "Are you going over tomorrow?"

"Of course we have to go tomorrow. It's not easy to sleep in those dugout shelters if we go now."

"Good, good, I was just worrying about having no one to keep me company." Sun Jia Qiang nodded vigorously. "If you all go over, I won't be afraid of wolves at night by myself."

Since they were all going over tomorrow, Sun Jia Qiang didn't insist anymore and joined Li Long and the others for dinner.

After dinner, the four of them cleaned up together. Sun Jia Qiang gave the fritillaria he brought to Li Long, saying he didn't want money this time, he wanted rice and flour.

During dinner, he heard Li Long say that the people going over to weave frames were submitting rice and flour, and paying money for each frame, with a master chef doing the cooking, so he thought he'd join in too.

As for paying money for frames, he wasn't weaving frames, but he could pay for food.

If that didn't work, fritillaria would do. He asked Li Long, and according to Li Long's calculation, it was about one kilogram of fritillaria every three days.

At his current speed, he could dig five or six kilograms of fritillaria a day, which was seventeen or eighteen kilograms in three days; submitting one kilogram for food really wasn't much.

He brought over four kilograms of fritillaria today, and that was even after wasting time.

Li Long gave him ten kilograms of corn flour, five kilograms of rice, and five kilograms of white flour. He also gave him six yuan.

Watching this "drifter" trade fritillaria with Li Long so skillfully, Lu Yingming whispered to Li Jianguo:

"I know how Xiao Long makes money now; this money is really not earned through hard labor!"

"Heh heh, you have to have the procedures; ordinary people can't do it." Li Jianguo nodded.

"That's true, your Xiao Long is no ordinary person!"

At night, Li Jianguo, Lu Yingming, and Sun Jia Qiang slept on the wooden heated bed. This bed could actually fit four people without any problem; it was very spacious. But Li Long couldn't stand the sound of the three of them snoring, farting, and grinding their teeth, so he simply went to the small room, spread out his bedding, and made a floor bed. Anyway, there were plenty of wooden boards, so he wasn't worried about catching a cold.

The next morning, the four of them worked together to finish a relatively hearty breakfast. Taking advantage of the fact that the sun hadn't come out yet, Li Long drove the tractor and chugged along with Li Jianguo and the others toward Little White Poplar Gully.

In Little White Poplar Gully, the dugout shelters dug last year were still there. Sun Jia Qiang occupied one, and the rest were already taken. Seeing that it was still early, Li Jianguo and Lu Yingming decided to dig one new one each, which would be more convenient for them to use.

Sun Jia Qiang also asked Li Long and learned that even if he occupied one, the remaining shelters were enough, so he didn't dig anymore. Li Long didn't make him work either; after putting down the things, he let Sun Jia Qiang go dig fritillaria by himself. He couldn't delay someone else's money-making.

Li Jianguo and Lu Yingming dug the shelters, while Li Long went to cut tree branches, which were used to cover the shelters. Li Jianguo and Lu Yingming were very skilled at digging shelters, and the places they chose were good; digging down more than a meter, the soil was still dry and no water was seen, so such shelters wouldn't be very damp to live in.

The tree branches Li Long cut were laid by them over the dug pits, covered densely with a layer, and then covered with soil, and the roof was done.

The rest was fine-tuning, which Li Long didn't participate in. By this time it was already noon, so he picked up some stones to set up a simple stove and heated the food they brought. This meal was relatively simple, but anyway, everyone came over to make money, so they didn't think much about enjoying themselves, and having meat to eat was already very good, so everyone was very satisfied while eating.

After eating, Li Jianguo chased Li Long away, thinking that there might already be people waiting to trade things at the wooden cabin. With a house full of things, he shouldn't let people steal them.

They were going to cut willow strips in the afternoon to prepare for weaving frames, and Li Long staying here was just idle, so he might as well go back.

Li Long didn't stand on ceremony, gave a few instructions, and drove the tractor back to the wooden cabin.

Halfway there, he went to the place where the wild boar had rooted around and saw fresh prints, so he thought about whether to come over tonight to set a trap? (End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 467 =====