Chapter 480: Is this considered a fancy way of foraging?

Not long after Li Long entered the forest, he saw a drifter digging for fritillaria. The man was startled when he saw Li Long, grabbed his bag, and ran.

Li Long felt he had seen this person a couple of days ago, so he shouted:

"You dig yours, I'm just passing through."

The man recognized Li Long's voice, stopped, smiled somewhat awkwardly, and said:

"I thought you were from the Forestry Team... So it's Boss Li."

"Why dig here? There isn't much fritillaria here," Li Long asked casually.

"But no one checks here..." the man told the truth. "There's plenty of fritillaria in the gullies to the east, but there are also many people checking there; you might get caught. Going deeper into the mountains is dangerous—there are wolves and bears. So I dig here; I can still get a few kilograms a day."

Fine, to each their own. Li Long nodded and left.

He had no ill will toward drifters. After all, so-called drifters were just people in Northern Xinjiang who didn't have residency yet, but they might have it one day.

Besides, his older brother was considered a border-supporting youth in the past; before he got his residency, he was also a kind of drifter, right? The vast majority of people in the Fourth Squad couldn't survive in their hometowns or ran to Northern Xinjiang due to various difficulties before settling down. Now, getting residency is stricter than before, so those who settled down earlier call the later ones drifters; it actually isn't derogatory. After all, most of those who settled down had the same status themselves in the past.

Li Long used to think the term "drifter" only existed in Northern Xinjiang, but later he learned it existed in both the Northwest and the Northeast. After all, these two vast regions are sparsely populated and easy to survive in.

After passing this area, Li Long continued forward. There was still dew in the forest. The man just now wasn't an expert at digging fritillaria; he was still squatting there digging in the soil. Of course, it also had to do with the environment here—the density of fritillaria wasn't that high, so every plant was precious.

Although Li Long also bought fritillaria last year, he didn't encounter many drifters digging for it. It wasn't just because of the wooden cabin; another possibility was that the Northern Xinjiang market only opened up last year, and news needed time to spread, which is why there were more people this year than last.

After leaving this area, Li Long quickly walked toward another gully. The terrain for a considerable distance in front of the wooden cabin was relatively flat, but after entering the forest, the terrain became complex, with constant large and small gullies. Some branch gullies, or rather folds in the mountains, weren't long—just like Hot Spring Gully—and the gullies weren't wide, making them tiring to walk through.

Unlike Little Bai Yang Gully, which is a long gully; walking in from the northern mountains, one can walk for twenty or thirty kilometers.

The gully where Sun Jia Qiang dug for fritillaria was a branch of Little Bai Yang Gully, like a fork. The terrain of Little Bai Yang Gully and its brother gully, Bai Yang Gully, wasn't complex, but the terrain on both sides was hard to say.

After crossing several short gullies, Li Long's trousers were wet. He was used to it; this stuff would dry in a while anyway. Now he missed the split raincoats, or rain trousers, he bought from the labor insurance store in the last few years before he died in his previous life. Wearing those, at least his trousers wouldn't get wet during the dewy mornings.

The gully ahead was the place the tall, thin man mentioned when he first sold the metal pieces. Li Long gripped his gun tightly. This trip was considered foraging—looking for things no one wanted to see if he could pick up any scraps. Of course, it was done during the gaps in hunting.

Descending into the gully and searching for a while, he saw the place Tang Hongsheng mentioned.

It was covered in footprints, some quite deep, obviously left by people squatting for a long time.

Li Long circled the area twice and indeed found some copper coins in the stream that hadn't been picked up—they were already rusted through.

He looked around; there was no one. The mud around these footprints had dried, so it had been at least a day. Li Long walked upstream along the creek while looking.

After walking twenty or thirty meters, he stopped. The creek branched here. Some copper coins appeared at the mouth of the fork, and not just copper coins, but also some tattered cloth scraps.

Walking a few meters into this branch gully, Li Long saw signs of excavation. Several large stones had been moved to one side, the soil underneath showed signs of being freshly turned, and some broken porcelain was thrown to the side. Li Long lowered his head and picked up an incomplete base; the words "Made in the Kangxi Era of the Great Qing" were revealed.

This should have been a plum vase.

Rags were thrown everywhere, some still having faint patterns, and rusted copper coins were mixed in the soil. Li Long picked up a stick and poked around, picking out several smooth, hole-less copper coins from within.

The people who came to look for things obviously weren't interested in copper coins, and he didn't know if there were originally gold ingots or silver dollars inside, but they couldn't be seen now.

The area wasn't small, but not much was left. Li Long just took a simple look; his harvest was seven or eight copper coins, one Yuan Datou, and a gold ring with a ruby. Perhaps because the items were small, they weren't picked up and were mixed in the soil. The gold was a bit dull, but that ruby was truly beautiful.

After putting them away, Li Long turned and continued walking toward Hot Spring Valley.

These things couldn't be exchanged for money in the short term, so he didn't care much. If he had them, he'd keep them; if not, it didn't matter. After all, he didn't have a great obsession; it was mainly because the things were right in front of him, and taking them was just a matter of convenience. To give a simple example, if he really wanted to get these things, with his current net worth, he could take money to those antique shops in the interior, find connections, find agents, and buy plenty of good things.

It's just that it wasn't necessary. He wasn't in this line of work; as for antiques, if they were right in front of him, he'd just play with them; he wouldn't be greedy.

So he still needed a backpack. These things were fine in a shoulder bag, but if he got a copper incense burner, the shoulder bag might not hold it.

Walking a few dozen meters along the stream and finding nothing, Li Long climbed over the mountain toward Hot Spring Valley.

From this position to Hot Spring Valley, he was almost directly at the pool.

There were no wild beasts in the pool, neither wolves, wild boars, nor wild goats or roe deer. However, there were hoof prints on the side; they should have been there, though he didn't know if it was last night or this morning.

Li Long didn't care. He took off his clothes and draped them on the grass, placed his gun by the pool, and went into the pool, preparing to have a good soak.

Not to mention when it rained; although he wiped himself off when he went back, he still got wet when he came back. Then there was Liu Shanmin, and it wasn't convenient for him to wash, so he just came here. Such treatment as soaking in a hot spring wouldn't be easy to get in the future. He remembered traveling to Yili in his previous life; at the beginning, those famous hot springs were fenced off, such as Xia Ta. When the scenic area wasn't famous yet, there were already hotels at the hot springs, as well as Bulong, Balgaiti, and so on.

Later, even the wild hot spring Kashinaozi was fenced off by people; it was quite troublesome if one wanted to soak. Since he could enjoy it now, he would enjoy it well.

He soaked for about half an hour and then washed. Perhaps because there were minerals in the water, his body felt slippery.

Wiping his body messily, Li Long put on his clothes. Although they weren't completely dry, they were much better than before.

After dressing, he carried his gun and headed southeast. The wild beasts liked to go in two directions after soaking in the hot spring: southeast or southwest. Li Long had hit a wild goat in the southeast, and that bear was also finished off in a rock crevice in the southeast. So he liked going to this side.

Passing through the pine forest and up to the empty slope, Li Long found that there was a lot of fritillaria on this shady gentle slope, and Codonopsis was also in patches, the stalks particularly thick and large. He wondered if he should come over to dig some in the autumn?

Walking further up, he reached the rocky beach; this place wasn't far from where Li Long hit the bear. He gripped his gun tightly and slowly walked toward that side.

The bear cave could no longer see the original traces; the grass had grown, and several clumps of thatch were about to block the cave.

Li Long raised his gun, opened the safety, and walked inside, finding traces of animals having been there. The grass on the ground hadn't grown, and there was a fishy, foul smell.

Walking cautiously to the corner to look inside, he found there was nothing there.

Li Long retreated in some disappointment. This was the furthest place he had ever walked. There were still mountains further up, but not much grass grew there, and there were more large stones, so Li Long simply climbed over.

Near the top, Li Long stopped to rest. He looked down; the forest below was scattered in an orderly fashion, a piece of green, full of vitality.

He couldn't see any human figures, only eagles occasionally flying in the sky, either circling or diving down, perhaps having discovered marmots or rabbits.

Li Long continued to climb. When he reached the top of the mountain, a mountain wind suddenly blew over, and he felt cold all at once.

The mountain wind was quite strong. This was considered the highest mountain within a few kilometers, and the top was all scattered stones, not growing many plants, only some weeds between the rock crevices. Li Long looked toward the south slope and was somewhat surprised to discover Northern goats jumping among some stones below.

Northern goats!

Li Long immediately raised his gun to aim—the position was less than fifty meters away from him, and it was very steep. After aiming, Li Long lowered his gun again.

It was relatively easy to hit, but if he hit it, he couldn't get it. The south slope was too steep; if it rolled down after being hit, Li Long would need about an hour to detour to the bottom of the mountain to carry the goat back.

If it was hit and didn't roll down, getting stuck on some stone in the middle, then it would be a waste.

Li Long put away his gun in disappointment. He picked up a stone and threw it down.

The stone quickly fell behind the Northern goat herd. There were a dozen or so sheep in the herd, and being startled by the stone, they immediately scattered and ran.

What surprised Li Long somewhat was that these Northern goats didn't run down the mountain but ran parallel to both sides. That steep cliff wasn't much of a trouble for them. Fine, this was their territory.

The influence failed, so Li Long had no choice but to watch these mountain elves run until they were out of sight.

Walking further east, Li Long discovered a relative Northern goat skeleton, not only the skull but also other bones of the body.

Li Long picked up the skull and counted—twenty-two sections—it was an old sheep!

This had to be brought back.

Grabbing the sheep horns, Li Long thought for a moment and walked west. He had been walking for nearly two hours; he had to go back.

Walking over from above Hot Spring Valley, Li Long remembered he seemed to have chased a herd of wild boars here and hit one. It was just that now the rock crevices here were full of grass, and occasionally he could see feces, not knowing what it was.

Passing Hot Spring Valley, then passing the head of the valley where he found the gold ring, and further west, Li Long prepared to go down to a relatively flat place when he saw it there—a gentle slope where a spring eye bubbled up, several roe deer were eating grass.

Five of them, three large and two small. The largest male roe deer was about the size of a small red deer, weighing thirty or forty kilograms. The small ones should be last year's cubs, just grown up, weighing about twenty kilograms, foolishly gnawing on grass there.

The old roe deer was very vigilant, looking left and right from time to time. The small ones were more relaxed, jumping from time to time, and occasionally fighting each other, butting heads or something.

!.

Li Long saw that the distance to those roe deer was seventy or eighty meters; he could hit them, but he wasn't very sure, after all, they were all moving. So he carried the sheep horns and slowly detoured west from above, detouring behind a small hill less than fifty meters away from those roe deer. Looking from here, the roe deer were just on one side of Li Long, and behind the roe deer was the swamp formed by the gathering spring water.

Putting down the sheep head, Li Long bent over and slowly walked forward. Arriving at the top of the small hill, he half-squatted and raised his gun.

When he opened the safety and aimed, the male roe deer happened to turn its head and discover Li Long, let out a startled cry, and then dashed toward the north.

The female roe deer followed the male and ran out, and another female followed closely behind. Their target was very clear, in the forest not far north of this swamp.

Fortunately, when Li Long was half-squatting, the target he aimed at wasn't the male roe deer and its partner; he was aiming at one of the young, relatively strong ones.

The male roe deer had dashed out no more than two or three meters when Li Long's gunshot rang out. This shot knocked the young male roe deer to the ground, and when Li Long adjusted the muzzle again to prepare to hit the other young roe deer, he was surprised to find that the roe deer, in its panic, dashed into the swamp and sank. Soon, water mixed with mud reached its thighs!

Hehe, Li Long happily carried his gun, picked up the sheep head, and ran down.

That roe deer trapped in the swamp was extremely worried, crying pitifully there, but the more it struggled, the deeper it sank.

When Li Long arrived, the roe deer's belly was already against the water surface. It looked at Li Long pitifully, obviously unsure if this two-legged monster was here to catch it or save it.

Li Long first looked at the roe deer that had been hit; it wasn't dead yet, the bullet hit its neck, blood was still spurting out, it certainly couldn't live, but it was still twitching.

Li Long looked around; the other three roe deer had long since run out of sight, and there was no one around. He put down his gun and sheep head, preparing to save the roe deer in the swamp.

Of course, he wouldn't save it for nothing; he could raise it when he brought it back.

Seeing Li Long reach out, the roe deer was immediately panicked, hurriedly shaking in the water to avoid Li Long, but the more it shook, the deeper its body sank into the water. Li Long couldn't go down himself; who knew how deep this swamp formed by the spring water was? It wouldn't be worth it to get himself trapped.

The roe deer wouldn't listen, so Li Long took a rope from his shoulder bag, tied a slipknot, and wanted to learn from the Kazakh herdsmen to loop it onto the roe deer; it would be better to pull it out after looping it.

Whether it could be pulled out depended on fate.

He looped it twice, but the roe deer didn't cooperate, plus Li Long's aim wasn't very good; either it missed, or it was shaken off by the roe deer. Li Long got a bit impatient, pointed at the roe deer, and cursed:

"If you want to die, just shake like that; shake a couple more times and you'll be buried underneath. Behave and don't move!"

Whether it was his momentum that scared the roe deer or the roe deer realized Li Long didn't seem to want it to die right now, this guy really didn't move, and Li Long looped its neck this time.

As the rope was pulled and tightened, the roe deer couldn't make a sound even if it wanted to, just opening its mouth, feeling uncomfortable from being choked.

Li Long didn't dare to exert too much force; he didn't know if the mud underneath was thin or thick after the roe deer sank. If it was thin, it would be fine; if it was thick, then pulling might choke the roe deer to death without necessarily pulling it out.

Fortunately, after the rope was pulled tight, the roe deer was actually pulled by Li Long, directly pulled down onto the water surface, and slowly moved outward.

It was just that this guy was sticking out its tongue and looked a bit miserable, its eyes about to roll white, so Li Long could only loosen and pull.

A dozen minutes later, the roe deer was pulled out, lying on the ground wet all over, too tired to move.

Li Long carried his gun on his back; now he was also a bit worried. Carrying the dead roe deer while leading this one, the sheep head could only be abandoned.

Sigh, abandon it if he had to, no choice, and he couldn't grow two more hands.

Carrying the roe deer that was already dead, Li Long dragged the other roe deer toward the north. That guy didn't want to walk, but Li Long didn't indulge it, directly dragging it along the ground.

After dragging it for a dozen meters, the roe deer probably realized that if it didn't follow, it would be dragged to death. When Li Long loosened his grip slightly, it climbed up all at once, following Li Long reluctantly.

In the middle, it still wanted to run, but the rope was very strong, and Li Long's strength was great, so he didn't indulge it. As long as it ran, he pulled hard, enough to make it roll its eyes. After a few times, the roe deer became obedient.

Just like this, dragging and pulling, it was already noon when they returned to the wooden cabin.

What surprised Li Long somewhat was that there was a plate of stir-fried mushrooms, two bowls of rice, and a plate of sliced offal on the table.

Liu Shanmin looked at him proudly. After Li Long looked over, he explained:

"I was hungry, thinking you might take a while to come back, so I made the meal first. My skills are average, just make do with it."

Indeed, the skills were average. Li Long could tell at a glance that the rice was undercooked, and the scorched rice was definitely black. The stir-fried mushrooms also had too much water. It was estimated that when this person was at home, he probably hadn't been in the kitchen much.

But it didn't matter; at least there was something to eat.

"Your harvest isn't small; you got two roe deer in one trip," Liu Shanmin said again:

"Good marksmanship!"

"It's mainly because there are many resources in the mountains," Li Long said modestly. "Fine, let's eat; we'll clean up after eating."

He was also tired.

As for whether the meal was cooked well or not, that was secondary; filling his stomach was the priority.

Liu Shanmin helped Li Long tie up the roe deer. After Li Long picked a bowl of rice, he took the other bowl first and started eating, eating not only the rice but also the vegetables.

Li Long knew this wasn't because he was starving and snatching to eat, but to indicate that the food wasn't poisoned.

Fine, quite honest.

Worthy of his care. (End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 481 =====