Chapter 497: It's hot, time to go home

The weather gradually became hot, even in the mountains, one could feel the power of the sun at noon.

Fortunately, as long as one hid in the shade, one could avoid the physical damage brought directly by the sun, and even feel a trace of coolness.

Lunch was quite simple, cold-mixed mushrooms, steamed bun slices roasted on the stove in the room, deer meat soup, plus boiled meat.

Li Long was full and didn't want to move. However, the simmered meat and oil had to be scooped out, otherwise, it wouldn't be easy to take if it soaked in the pot.

The boiled meat was simply taken out, rubbed with salt, and hung on a rope to air-dry. Air-dried meat is mostly made from raw meat, Li Long made it into cooked meat just thinking it would be convenient to eat. Even if it's not easy to light a fire, tearing off a piece directly can also be eaten.

After all these things were done, he took a chair and leaned against the wall of the wooden cabin to rest.

In the afternoon, Li Long sat here for over an hour, looked at the time, stood up, and turned around.

No one came, indicating that this mountain was really empty.

In fact, he could leave now, but this finishing work made him feel like continuing for a while.

When the sun was about to set, Li Long started to collect the meat and fritillaria. He thought about staying for one more day tomorrow, no matter if anyone came later or not, he was leaving.

He had already done as much as he could, and he also needed to go home and enjoy life.

When he finished packing and was ready to return to the room, the sound of horse hooves rang out in the distance.

Li Long looked to the east, it was Hearing Bolati.

He rode his horse at a trot to the wooden cabin, flipped off the horse, and took two bags tied together from the saddle.

"Finally, there's this much left." Hearing Bolati said, "When we were patrolling the mountains, we stopped them on the mountain road. Those people, they are smart, specifically walking after the sun sets. Thinking we don't care anymore—but they don't think about it, walking like this, there are wolves behind the Beishan, what if they get bitten? Don't want your life anymore?"

Li Long shook his head, there are many people who take risks, eighty percent of the possibilities in the world have a fluke mentality, thinking they are luckier than others.

He opened the bag to look, a bit surprised.

On the surface, these two bags of fritillaria were quite clean, should have been washed. Grab a handful and squeeze it in the hand, eighty percent dry, only need to dry for one more day, and it will basically be dry.

Even if taken to the purchasing station now, it's estimated that the staff would be willing to accept it, the price is slightly lower, but it's definitely better than selling it here.

"Alright, alright, weigh it quickly, I have to rush back." Hearing Bolati said, "This is the last time. I estimate there won't be any later."

"Hmm, I'm also going back to the county in a day or two." Li Long went to get the scale, saying while weighing, "If you have time later, come to the mountains, then go to the forestry team to find you."

"Good. Exchange all these for money."

Two bags of fritillaria, thirty-three kilograms, Li Long gave Hearing Bolati five hundred yuan.

"So much?" Hearing Bolati didn't expect these two bags of fritillaria could sell for so much money.

"Hmm," Li Long smiled, "Relatively clean, and dried."

"Then give it to you." Hearing Bolati took out a large group of money from it and handed it to Li Long, "Exchange for a cage of wine! If there's so much, I have to treat everyone to wine! Right, also come with some meat! What meat is this?"

"Deer meat!"

"Good, good, good, deer meat is good!" Hearing Bolati took out another large group of money and gave it to Li Long, "Give me a few pieces, is it cooked?"

"Cooked."

Li Long found a bag, packed some deer meat for him, and also carried a cage of five liters of wine for him.

"Alright, leaving. Li Long, good friend!" Hearing Bolati smiled, carried the things, flipped onto the horse, raised the whip, and galloped toward the east.

Li Long carried the fritillaria into the room, stood at the door and looked around, no one else was there, so he closed the door, fastened it, and prepared to sleep.

The next day early morning, Li Long climbed up as soon as the sky was bright. Opened the door and felt a chill. Even though it was May, the temperature difference between morning and evening in the mountains was still very large.

Li Long tightened his clothes, went to the toilet to urinate, and then came back to wash.

Lit the stove, boiled water, and then locked the door, carried a bag, carried the gun on his back, and walked into the forest.

This time coming out wasn't for hunting, mainly wanting to get some precious ingredients, it wouldn't be easy to get later if he wanted to eat.

In May, morels in the mountains should be out.

Morels, this kind of thing, for many people outside the mountains, are strange, even if it's only dozens of kilometers away from the Northern Tianshan, most of the people in the village where Li Long is really don't know of its existence, and what it looks like.

Information is closed to this extent, it's still very normal. After all, before the information explosion of smartphones and various internet platforms, this information was mainly based on word of mouth. Some things were passed on wrong, some things were artificially hidden by people when passed to a certain link, interrupting the spread, then the news was equivalent to being cut off, gone.

Some people don't believe that people in the big mountains know that some things are very rare but don't take them to make money, this is really not understanding the actual situation at the time.

Take the simplest example, Kazakh herdsmen basically didn't eat wild vegetables or mushrooms before the beginning of the 21st century. These things basically weren't in their recipe range.

Even until the 2010s of the 21st century, some local herdsmen were still laughing at those Han people who went into the mountains to dig wild vegetables as people who eat grass.

At that time, they also didn't understand why Han people would eat mushrooms. In their eyes, one kilogram worth over a thousand yuan, once speculated to two or three thousand yuan morels, weren't more precious than a few kilograms of potatoes or onions.

Most people indeed looked at it this way.

But information is in the hands of a few, and those few who master this information, some made a fortune based on this information, some didn't care about this at all, so the spread of information became narrower and narrower.

The so-called saying unintentionally, listening intentionally. In fact, sometimes it refers to this. Some information you master in your eyes may be useless, can only serve as talk, but in the eyes of others, this is very good monetization information, can be exchanged for money.

Some people can make a fortune not purely by luck, this is one aspect, and there is another aspect because they grasped the business opportunity.

In the 2010s of the previous life, in the Qiaerma section of the Duku Highway, a few years earlier when Northern Xinjiang tourism hadn't opened every year, some herdsmen's children would lead horses and wait by the side of the highway, waiting for tourists to come and then shout loudly, "Ride a horse for twenty", a holiday could earn over ten thousand.

Didn't other children know? Couldn't think of it?

Sorry, really couldn't think of it.

In Musi Township, NLK County, there is a pasture, the main plant in the pasture is corn poppy, also known as wild poppy, commonly known as Tianshan red flower. Every June when the red flowers bloom, the mountains and plains are full, looking particularly beautiful.

The pasture is surrounded by wire mesh, the main role is to prevent cattle and sheep from entering and gnawing, because this piece of pasture is used for mowing and preparing for winter in July and August.

But tourists don't care, such beautiful scenery, then stop and look, and then some people drill into the wire mesh to take pictures in the pasture, this naturally will trample the pasture.

The pasture owner was very angry, no way, specifically rode a motorcycle to come here to watch, not letting people in.

Later, someone gave him an idea, let them in, ten yuan for one person, take pictures as they please. The herdsman felt those people couldn't possibly pay money.

However, there are plenty of people who want to pay. Spending thousands or tens of thousands to travel, still lack this bit of money to take pictures? Such beautiful scenery!

And then the herdsman found that the photo money collected in a season of red flowers was more than the money for all the grass in his pasture.

So it spread, and then there was imitation. This is still the mountain plain area.

What about the herdsmen in the mountains? Maybe for a year, three or five years, they only communicated with those dozen herdsmen in the same tribe, basically didn't have too many sources of information, wanting to update concepts is very difficult.

Radio is a good thing, it has already started to change the fate of the tribe. This is the benefit of information circulation.

So, sometimes smartphones are really good things, popularizing a lot of information, and then everyone knows how to make money. Herdsmen in the mountains know that mushrooms can be sold for money. From the initial bag of fertilizer mushrooms selling for fifty yuan, to later actually knowing that one kilogram of Bachu mushrooms sells for one hundred yuan.

At first, vegetable sellers in the county went into the mountains to pick morels, collected them from herdsmen at twenty yuan per kilogram of fresh goods, and turned around to sell them in the county for one hundred and fifty.

But with the popularization of mobile phones, various great gods of picking mushrooms popularized, herdsmen communicated with each other, and then knew that those things in the mountains that were useless in their eyes were actually very valuable.

It will take another thirty years to reach that level, so now Li Long can go to pick morels very easily.

Morels, like fritillaria, belong to seasonal "crops", but fritillaria is clearly purchased by the purchasing station, with high demand. And fritillaria is easy to find in the mountains, a month ago as long as you find a mountain gully rich in fritillaria, then the whole gully is fritillaria, can dig for a day without moving.

But morels are different, this thing although it also grows in patches, but one patch can find twenty or thirty, it is already very much.

So finding this requires running all over the mountains and plains, maybe looking for a day, at most can find a few kilograms.

The purchasing station also gives a price, not as good as the price of fritillaria, so ordinary mountain people who dig fritillaria even if they know this thing is good stuff, they won't specifically look for it.

Not worth it.

Li Long doesn't care, anyway waiting to collect fritillaria, these two days it's estimated that not much can be collected. For more than a month, in fact, he has collected enough. Now he wishes no one would come to send fritillaria, so he can pick mushrooms for two days with peace of mind, and take them back to show off to his family.

!.

Morels in the mountains mostly grow in pine forests, the shape is different from those growing in poplar forests on flat ground. Those in the mountains have pointed heads, and are slightly black. Those on flat ground mostly have round heads, and the color is gray-white.

This is the experience Li Long picked out himself. He brought a small knife, and when he encountered a morel, he would directly use the knife to cut the morel from a place close to the ground, so it would be cleaner.

Those merchants in later generations who pick morels wish they could bring the soil on the roots. In fact, people who eat this thing now all know that picking with soil is really very troublesome to wash, because morels have many folds, a little soil inside is not easy to wash out. And this thing is especially fragile when fresh, it will break if you use too much force when washing.

Waste.

The sun hadn't risen yet, there were occasional wild rabbits passing by in the pine forest, and they ran away in fright when they saw Li Long. He carried the gun on his back, and in a piece of mossy ground under the forest where he looked for it last year, he discovered morels.

Morels, like other mushrooms, grow fixedly. Usually, unless the mycelium underground in one place is completely destroyed, or the environment is completely changed, otherwise, they can be picked in the same place every year.

Li Long saw this piece of morels undisturbed, the largest was the size of an adult's fist, but it grew a bit too much, the top was already a bit dry.

Morels are similar to Bachu mushrooms, they dry up when they grow old, unlike straw mushrooms, which are eaten by insects when they grow old, insects seem not to like morels.

This piece has more than twenty, big and small are different. Li Long used a small knife to cut them one by one, looking at the fungus body clean, he was also very satisfied.

Take them back and wash them to cook, very convenient.

After more than an hour, when the sun rose, Li Long carried half a bag of morels, satisfied, and walked back.

Does this count as wild hunting? After all, the mountains now are really ownerless, the forestry team guards mainly forestry resources. And those who use the name of wild hunting in later generations to run into the mountains contracted by others to pick persimmons, pick kiwifruit, that counts as stealing, right?

Returning to the wooden cabin, sure enough, no one was there. It's also possible that someone came, didn't see anyone, and left.

Li Long didn't care so much, he opened the door, took a basin, washed the morels, and air-dried them on the lifting pole. The water in the stove in the room had boiled, Li Long scooped the water into the thermos, then added water again, and started to boil porridge.

Went to move for an hour in the morning, just hungry, breakfast planned to be richer.

Used chili oil, vinegar to adjust a seasoning bowl, cut some cooked deer meat and offal and put them on a plate, and put two steamed buns to roast under the stove.

Morels are suitable for stewing soup, not suitable for cold mixing, he had eaten cold-mixed mushrooms for these two days and was satisfied, so he went to the grass to turn around again, picked four or five fresh straw mushrooms that had just grown, went to the spring eye to wash them and put them on the case. The water was boiled on the outdoor stove, and it would be fine after passing through the boiling water in a while.

Breakfast took more than half an hour, after it was completely done, Li Long had already swallowed his saliva several times.

On the case outside the house were porridge, sliced meat, dipping sauce, and golden roasted steamed buns, as well as cold-mixed mushrooms.

The vinegar taste was quite heavy, but Li Long liked it. He started eating with steamed buns, although he tried to make himself eat slowly, in fact, it was like a wind sweeping away clouds, two roasted steamed buns, a large plate of deer meat and offal, plus a plate of mushrooms, finally a bowl of porridge.

Less than twenty minutes, clean.

The sun rose, the world was quiet, as if he was the only one existing.

Took out all the fritillaria to dry, air-dried meat was also hung up, it would be dry today, if there's nothing, go pick some mushrooms tomorrow morning, and then can pack up and go home.

All day long, only one person came to sell two kilograms of fritillaria at noon, he wanted money, and then carried his bag and walked toward the Beishan with money.

Another person left. Now Li Long also didn't know how many were left in the mountains, but it was definitely getting fewer and fewer.

Taking advantage of the leisure time, he finally put the wood he cut back last time into the cargo bed. Originally planned to set up a trellis directly, but considering that if the trellis was set up, he wouldn't be able to enter the gate of the big courtyard in the county, the gate in the village could enter, so he thought about pulling the wood back, and when it was necessary to pull wheat bundles, then set it up.

Now he is equivalent to packing things up. Some things in the small wooden cabin were also packed out. Fritillaria must be taken back. Air-dried meat needs to be taken back mostly, leave a part here, so that there will be things to eat when not hunting later.

The simmered meat sealed with lard also needs to leave a part, the same reason as air-dried meat. Other materials, leave two bags of grain here, salt, tea, granulated sugar, etc., also need to leave some.

The remaining materials used to exchange for fritillaria need to be taken back. Leaving them here is useless, if you want to do this again next year, then talk about it then. The fewer things left here, the less loss there might be.

After all, can't count on people in the mountains to be very disciplined. Previously there were undisciplined ones, let Li Long and Hearing Bolati handle a few batches, so these people are relatively disciplined. But if it's discovered later that no one is here for a long time, then they definitely won't mind opening the door and taking things inside at will.

After packing everything up, the bedding was also air-dried, Li Long waited for tomorrow morning.

In the afternoon, no one came to send fritillaria, Li Long knew that this fritillaria season was completely over.

The next day early morning, Li Long was the same as yesterday, ran to another piece of forest, started picking morels. Now there is no shortage of meat at home, but these ingredients are eaten less, so get more.

This morning the luck was relatively good, saw several pieces of morels growing relatively lushly, big and small, later Li Long simply didn't pick the small ones, mainly based on the big ones.

In less than two hours in the morning, Li Long got half a urea bag of morels.

The feeling of a big harvest!

If this is put in later generations, it can make many people envious, he vaguely remembers that someone picked a few morels and felt very lucky, after all, can stew a pot of soup.

His own this is a bit exaggerated.

In this era, these things are unknown, and a person like himself in such an environment is really happy.

Carrying the morels, returned to the wooden cabin like a victorious general. This morning it wasn't so delicate, finished breakfast in a hurry, lifted the stove lid, used water to extinguish the fire, and then moved the materials one by one onto the tractor, fixed them, locked the door, and then Li Long shook the tractor, started it, and drove toward outside the mountains with a chugging sound.

Might have to enter the mountains again in a short time, but at least in Li Long's mind, this fritillaria season was completely over.

Although it was in the name of weaving lifting poles to enter the mountains, Li Long knew that although weaving lifting poles was really profitable in the eyes of people in the village, the one he really got the big head was still fritillaria.

Now these three bags of fritillaria in the tractor can still sell for over a thousand yuan, and this is still the last two days.

Think about how much money he earned when there were many fritillaria earlier!

The tractor drove on the country road with a chugging sound, Li Long's face was calm, and in the bottom of his heart, it was considered a completion of a task, what to do next, he hadn't planned, but it was finally considered to be able to rest for a while.

Had long agreed with Gu Xiaoxia to prepare to have children, but always gathering less and parting more, there was no big movement after all. (End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 498 =====