Chapter 468: Let Me Use That Whip of Yours

Li Zheng Tang and Li Zhengting helplessly paid the money and began to set up the stall.

"Selling fritillaria? Freshly dug?" Someone saw them setting up the stall and came over to ask.

"Mm, freshly dug." Seeing someone come over to ask, Li Zhengting hurriedly said, "Authentic fritillaria from the mountains, just dug out, the effect is very good!"

"How do you sell it?" That person opened the bag, grabbed a handful, and looked at it. "These fritillaria aren't dry."

"Mm, they were just dug, fresh, this is how you know they're authentic." Li Zhengting had a flash of inspiration and said, "If they were dry, they might be fake. Five yuan per kilogram. Much cheaper than the pharmacy! Take these back, dry them, and they can be used. They are very effective for treating coughs!"

"Five yuan? Are you crazy for money?" That person threw the fritillaria in his hand back into the bag, turned around, and left.

"Hey, hey, hey, don't go! We can negotiate the price, four point five... four yuan!" Li Zhengting had finally run into someone asking for the price, so how could he let them go? He shouted hurriedly, but that person turned a deaf ear and walked faster and faster. He didn't dare to chase too far, so he finally had to return to the stall in low spirits.

Li Zheng Tang saw this scene in his eyes from the side. After Li Zhengting returned dejectedly, he comforted him:

"It's okay, there are many people in this market, someone will definitely come later."

Li Zhengting sat in front of the stall, sulking and not speaking. He regretted it very much now.

Ten minutes later, an old lady walked over. After asking, she bargained for a long time and bought one yuan's worth of fritillaria at the price of four yuan per kilogram.

The problem arose again: neither of the brothers had a scale!

How to sell things without a scale? Only then did the two of them react. They had only thought about having goods and not worrying about selling them, but they hadn't thought that they still needed to weigh things when setting up a stall to sell things.

After much persuasion, they borrowed a scale from the egg stall next door to weigh it for the old lady. When returning it, they had to give the stall owner a handful of fritillaria.

Although they had opened for business, Li Zhengting wasn't happy at all. They had been squatting for an hour, and it was only then that they had earned back the stall fee. The problem was that the two of them had two large bags of fritillaria. If they continued to sell like this, they shouldn't even dig during this fritillaria season; it was ruined.

But since they had already set up the stall and paid the stall fee, even if they had to bite the bullet, they had to set it up for the whole day today.

The sun slowly rose to noon. Li Zheng Tang and Li Zhengting were hungry. They had only drunk a bowl of porridge in the morning, and after running so far last night and this morning, the energy consumption was too great, so it was impossible not to be hungry.

Sister Yang had already closed her stall after pushing her cart to sell porridge; she had already sold her breakfast and was now going back to cook lunch, and would only come over to sell food in the afternoon. However, this business opportunity wasn't only utilized by her; there were also people here selling steamed buns stuffed with vegetables, which was a steamer of mixed-flour buns on a cart, with several enamel basins placed on the side containing several cold dishes. One bun stuffed with several cold dishes cost one jiao and five fen in total.

The two of them took out money, bought one stuffed bun each, and ate it. They didn't feel full, so they each bought another one and ate it.

Li Zhengting still wanted to eat. He asked Li Zheng Tang, but Li Zheng Tang wouldn't eat anymore. If they had these conditions in the mountains, he would definitely eat. But today, money was only going out and not coming in, and they hadn't dug any fritillaria, so they should save some.

Since Li Zheng Tang wouldn't eat, Li Zhengting was embarrassed to eat either. He had eaten too fiercely just now and choked. The bun seller had cold water here, so he asked for it and drank half a ladle before he recovered.

When he sat down again, although his stomach was full, his heart felt cold. This business was too hard to do!

Li Long returned to the wooden cabin, threw the wild boar on the ground, threw the sack containing the three small wild boars onto the tractor bed, and sat on the wooden floor to rest.

After tossing and turning for so long, the sun had just risen. He rested for less than ten minutes, then climbed up and began to skin and gut the wild boar. He planned to send half of the wild boar meat to Little White Poplar Gully to improve the food for the people weaving carrying frames, and keep half here to make air-dried meat.

Last time he brought back a cow, so the family wasn't short of meat to eat, so he could keep more here. If someone came to trade later, at least there would be something.

Skinning, gutting, processing the internal organs, and unloading the wild boar meat into a basin—these were all things he was skilled at. Li Long finished all this, and more than an hour had passed.

It was quite fulfilling. Killing a pig at home would take five or six people a whole morning to finish. Although this wild boar wasn't big, about fifty or sixty kilograms, being able to finish it so quickly was really quite good.

He washed the knife with water, wiped it on his clothes, and put it back into the sheath. Li Long felt a bit hungry, returned to the small wooden cabin, cut some of the dried cooked meat he had left over, stuffed it into his mouth, and chewed slowly.

The fires on both stoves were lit. After Li Long finished eating, he continued to work. Part of the pork was broken down into small pieces, rubbed with salt, and hung in the small wooden cabin to dry first. Part was rubbed with salt and put directly into a large basin, which was then placed on the tractor. The three small pigs were always calling, but Li Long didn't care about them; there was no place to put them if he let them out now.

After locking the door, he drove the tractor toward Little White Poplar Gully and ran into Bolati halfway.

"Where are you going?" Bolati stopped his horse and asked:

"I just got ten-plus kilograms of fritillaria and was just thinking of trading with you."

"Trading for money or trading for things?" Li Long stopped the tractor and asked loudly, "I'm going to Little White Poplar Gully now. My brother and the others are living there preparing to weave carrying frames. I'm going to send them some meat."

"Then trade for money. Did you bring money?" Bolati asked. "Next time I come to trade for things, that wine of yours is pretty good!"

"Good, I'll trade you for wine next time, but aren't you drinking too fast?" Li Long got off the tractor and came to the horse. Bolati got off the horse, and Li Long could smell the scent of alcohol directly. Was he drinking early in the morning?

After weighing it, this bag of fritillaria must have been twelve or thirteen kilograms. Li Long simply took out money and counted out forty yuan to hand to Bolati:

"This is for you."

"You don't need to give so much..." Bolati was a bit embarrassed when he saw the four large bills. "How can there be so much?"

"There is, there is." Li Long smiled. "Just come to me to trade often in the future. Alright, I have to hurry to White Poplar Gully. My brother and the others are busy there, and I have to go see them so no one bullies them."

"No, no! Although that area isn't under my management, I've told my friends. Isn't that Sun guy still there? I've said that people there shouldn't be made difficult," Bolati said when he heard Little White Poplar Gully. "I'll go over in a while and tell my friends that your people have gone over, so treat them as friends and don't bother them!"

"Good, good, good, thank you, I'm off!" Li Long got on the tractor, waved to Bolati, shifted gears, released the clutch, added gas, and left.

Watching Li Long drive away with a chugging sound, Bolati shook his head. This thing, well, it wasn't as good to ride as his own horse.

When Li Long reached Little White Poplar Gully, he found Li Jianguo and Lu Yingming roasting willow strips in front of the fire. Each of them had a large bundle of strips in front of them; he didn't know if they were cut yesterday afternoon or this morning.

Li Long estimated that these strips alone could weave four or five carrying frames.

"Xiao Long is here." Lu Yingming greeted him first. "Did you come over to check? What's in the vehicle? It sounds like a pig?"

"Mm, I trapped a few small wild boars this morning, and got a half-grown one too. I brought some meat over. When Old Huang comes over, this meat will be used to improve the food for you all."

"Heh, that's great!" Lu Yingming's family wasn't as well-off as Li Jianguo's. Although he earned some money last year, he contracted land this year, and the expenses for farming were high. Plus, his children were in school, so it was good if he could eat meat once a month.

Now seeing Li Long catch a wild boar so easily and send the meat over, he was naturally very happy.

Li Jianguo was relatively calm. His family could eat meat almost every day; they weren't short of meat, only money, otherwise he wouldn't have come over. Neither he nor the two children at home had a special need for meat, so he just went over to look at the small wild boars and asked:

"Are you planning to take them back to raise in the horse corral?"

"Mm, let's see if we can get more little guys to raise in the horse corral this year. Selling them is fine, eating them is fine too." Li Long said.

"Then you might as well just take Old Tao and the others back with you." Lu Yingming said. "With few people weaving, there's no motivation."

"Heh," hearing this, Li Jianguo laughed. "You're an outsider, aren't you? Now you can easily get plenty of strips nearby and weave them easily. Once they all come over, you'll have to run into the mountains if you want to get strips. That'll take a lot of time to toss and turn."

"That's true." Lu Yingming reacted. Although it looked like there were many willow and elm trees nearby and it was easy to get strips, the work Li Long received was for one thousand carrying frames. How many strips would that need? Once everyone came over, the nearby strips might be gone in three days, and then they would only be able to go to more distant places.

Li Long smiled and unloaded the meat. These meats were rubbed with salt. Although horseflies and flies flew over, they didn't dare to land, couldn't eat, and then dispersed. Someone, either Li Jianguo or Lu Yingming, dragged a wind-fallen tree here, so Li Long put the bag on the wood and then put the basin containing the meat on the bag.

"Big Brother, Big Brother Lu, you two go ahead and get busy. I'm driving the tractor back. I'll put down the small wild boars and see who else I can take over."

"Fine, you go ahead and get busy."

"I've already greeted people on this side; there shouldn't be anyone coming to find trouble. If someone comes, just say the supply and marketing cooperative and the forestry team allowed it." Li Long thought he still had to find Li Xiangqian to write a certificate when he went back, otherwise, if someone really came who didn't have eyes, at least there would be a reason.

The tractor drove away, and Li Jianguo and Lu Yingming continued to weave carrying frames. Now they could get four yuan for each frame woven, which was solid money, so they had plenty of motivation.

It only took a little over an hour for the tractor to reach the county seat, and Li Long sighed again. He went to the supply and marketing cooperative first and told Li Xiangqian about the certificate.

"That's simple." After Li Xiangqian heard Li Long in the office, he said:

"I'll write a note, and you go over and get a stamp."

He took paper and pen, wrote a note with a swish-swish-swish sound, handed it to Li Long, and then talked about other things:

"Xiao Long, is that lynx whip still there?"

"It is." Li Long smiled. "Section Chief, do you want it? I'll bring it to you this afternoon."

"Hehehe, it's not that I want it, I told a leader in the prefecture about this, and the leader said he wanted to see it."

"Then I'll send it to you this afternoon." Li Long saw that it was almost time to get off work, and it was too late, so he'd go back to the team first.

!.

Li Xiangqian waved his hand:

"No rush, any time in these few days is fine. If you've already started in the mountains, you take care of that side first. I don't have time these two days either; I have to go to the prefecture to handle things in a couple of days."

Li Long took the note to find someone to stamp it, and then drove the tractor to Sister Yang's place to eat.

While eating, Sister Yang told him about running into Li Zheng Tang and Li Zhengting.

"Those two people look like drifters in the mountains. They were so dirty, and they didn't even cut their hair or beards. They looked very sloppy. They didn't even have a scale when selling things, and I don't know how they sold them."

Li Long's heart moved when he heard this. He said to Sister Yang:

"Sister Yang, are you still going to the market to sell food this afternoon?"

"Yes."

"Then you go over and see. If those two people's fritillaria haven't been sold, you collect them. Three yuan... three point five yuan per kilogram. You say you'll collect them all, at this price. I see that those two people's fritillaria combined must be thirty or forty kilograms. Calculating at forty kilograms, I'll give you one hundred and fifty yuan. You collect those fritillaria, and after you bring them back, you dry them in the courtyard. The remaining money is your wages. How about that?"

"Mm, Uncle, what are you doing? Can I still take your money? Collecting this is no problem! I have money here..."

"You having money is your business, and Han Fang still has to go to school, so you have plenty of places to spend money. You have to take this money." Li Long said seriously.

After he said this, Gu Xiaoxia also persuaded her from the side, so Sister Yang accepted the money, but she had a decision in her heart: how much money was used to collect the fritillaria was how much it was, and the remaining money would definitely be returned to Li Long. What kind of wages would she take?

After eating, Li Long and Gu Xiaoxia came out together. Gu Xiaoxia rode her bicycle to work, while Li Long drove the tractor to the large courtyard first, dried the fritillaria brought back this trip, looked at the previously dried fritillaria, turned them over, and then took the lynx whip wrapped in cloth and went out the door.

He went to the supply and marketing cooperative and handed this whip to Li Xiangqian, and then drove the tractor back to the team.

Looking from afar, the old horse corral was still relatively dilapidated, but this large area of buildings was still a unique existence in the whole team. Now the old team headquarters had already had its houses torn down, and many walls had collapsed, slowly becoming ruins. The old horse corral had originally faced the same fate, but now that it had been "saved" by Li Long, he still felt a sense of accomplishment in his heart.

Uncle Luo heard the sound and walked out of the courtyard, looking at Li Long's tractor, and grinned.

Li Long parked the tractor, killed the engine, took the bag down from the back bed, and the small wild boars inside no longer had the strength to call, occasionally grunting a few times to indicate that they were still alive.

"Got more small wild boar babies again?" Uncle Luo asked, looking at the things moving in the sack.

"Mm, trapped three this morning, bring them back to raise." Li Long carried the sack and walked inside. "Uncle Luo, is there still sugar residue?"

"Yes, yes, enough." Uncle Luo said with a smile, "Large livestock, small roe deer, I feed them grass every day, these little guys just eat feed, and there's still feed."

"That's good. In a few days, I'll go to the grain bureau to get some wheat bran and chaff to mix and feed them."

"Heh, this is really good. People used to eat these things before." Uncle Luo was old, and when he saw or heard something, he would associate it with the past.

People of this age were the most grateful to this society and the Party. They had experienced the darkest times in China and had also caught up with the new life. Now they were full and warm, and in the future, they would be able to eat meat every meal and complain about it getting stuck in their teeth. Their feelings were the deepest.

Putting the small wild boars in the corral to adapt, Li Long went to find Xie Yun Dong.

As soon as Xie Yun Dong saw Li Long, he breathed a sigh of relief. Before Li Long could speak, he said:

"I originally planned to leave today, but some people haven't finished packing, so I have to wait until tomorrow."

"Then you go ask which people are willing to go with me today. I'll take those people first, and the rest can take the horse-drawn cart tomorrow." Li Long said. "Anyway, I'm making a trip back, and I'm driving an empty vehicle back, so I might as well take some people over first."

"Take Old Huang, the Xu brothers, Daqiang's dad also wants to go, and Jia Wei Guo also wants to go. Actually, I want to go too, but since I'm responsible for organizing people, I can only wait for them to come over together at the end." Xie Yun Dong was quite worried.

Li Long thought and said:

"Brother Yun Dong, you're going to a lot of trouble. After this work is finished, I'll give you a bonus of fifty yuan. For the team's work last year, you organized the team and could get work points. I can't give you work points, but I can't let you work for nothing."

When Li Long said this, Xie Yun Dong was embarrassed and said: "That's not what I meant. It's just that people, once there are many of them, their minds are different."

"It's okay, Brother Yun Dong. If you do more work, you should get more money. I can't let you use your brains and effort for nothing. Organizing people is a job that takes thought. How about this fifty yuan be your salary for organizing this month?"

"Xiao Long, since you've said so, then for this month, don't you worry, I'll manage it well for you."

"Mm, you manage it boldly. If someone doesn't obey, let them go back."

The two of them settled the matter in a few words. Xie Yun Dong had motivation, and Li Long was also happy. He himself was a lazy person and didn't like managing people or things. Now that someone was managing for him, he just had to pay a little more money. How good!

"Brother Yun Dong, I'll wait at my house until five-thirty in the afternoon. Those who can come, come; those who can't, I won't wait. We'll reach the mountains in about seven hours. They still have to clean up the dugout shelters, so the time can only be set like this."

"Fine, I'll go notify them one by one now." Xie Yun Dong said. "You go back and rest first. It must be tiring enough to run back all the way."

Li Long drove the tractor back to Li Jianguo's house and saw his mother, Du Chunfang, chopping pig feed in the courtyard. No one else was there.

"Your two sisters-in-law went to the fields to weed." Du Chunfang said. "Your dad is fixing your vegetable plot in the front yard. He also wanted to go to the fields to work, but your sister-in-law wouldn't let him, saying it wasn't necessary. He still has to go set nets later, so he didn't go."

Just as she was speaking, Li Qing Xia returned to the courtyard shouldering an iron shovel, looking at Li Long with a face full of smiles.

Although there were no old friends to chat and play cards with, life was better than in his hometown. Several sons were living well here, his grandson was studying well, and he himself could earn a lot of money every day. What else was there to say? (End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 469 =====