Chapter 534: Helping each other is the best

Ma Xiao Yan ate three pieces of roe deer meat before she went to wash her hands, and then learned from Li Long to take an enamel basin to scoop soup to drink.

Li Long's tractor is always equipped with an enamel basin in the mountains, just rinse it and use it, there is no such thing as being particular at this time.

Li Long was startled when Ma Xiao Yan ate meat just now, this is too much to eat, aren't you afraid of eating bad stomach?

Apparently not. In this era, whether men or women, there is little oil in the stomach, and it is normal to eat more when encountering delicious food.

Didn't see Liu Jun eat four pieces of meat directly, looking like he still had strength.

Li Long ate two pieces, a leg bone, with a kneecap, he gnawed the meat tendons on the kneecap clean, leaving it for Li Juan and Li Qiang to play with. Then he ate a piece of neck meat.

Originally wanted to eat ribs, this is delicious, but felt it was not very rotten, so he ate the live meat on the neck.

After drinking the soup, the sky was already dark, and then he went to the wooden house, and agreed with Ha Li Mu and the others, continue tomorrow.

Tomorrow is mainly to go to the pasture, one is to shoot the grass-cutting scene, the other is to continue the interview.

Ma Xiao Yan felt that there were still many materials worth digging, she would think about it carefully when sleeping at night, and discuss it with Ye Laya.

The tractor was in front, 212 behind, and finally arrived at the wooden house before dark.

Looking at the wooden house, Ma Xiao Yan's eyes lit up.

Ha Li Mu's winter den was too dilapidated, on the contrary, it matched the image of the winter den in her impression.

Although Li Long's wooden house was smeared with a layer of mud to keep it moist, anyone with a discerning eye could see at a glance that this was newly built.

Plus the shed, the poles for drying meat outside, and the cutting board that hadn't been put away outside, this is like the residence of a master living in seclusion in a martial arts novel.

Too fitting!

Ma Xiao Yan was quite excited, got off 212 and ran over, looking around, including the toilet in the back.

Li Long parked the tractor and opened the doors of the two rooms. The large room could only be given to Ma Xiao Yan and Ye Laya, the small room was barely enough for himself and Liu Jun to live in.

The large room is easy to say, there is bedding on the wooden kang itself, just clean it up. Some things in the small room need to be cleaned up, two people have to sleep on the floor, and bedding needs to be brought from the large room to spread.

Fortunately, it is said to be a small room, but the area is actually more than ten square meters, removing the shelves around, it is enough for two people to sleep. And it can not interfere with each other.

After he spread the bedding in the small room, he built the stove and boiled water.

Can't sleep for a while, wait until the stove fire is burning, the water is boiled, then press the coal dust, remind the two people to pay attention not to carbon monoxide poisoning, and then went to the small room with Liu Jun.

Two big men have nothing to talk about, and both are tired, so they soon fell asleep.

Ma Xiao Yan couldn't sleep here. First, she ate too much, second, she was still thinking about the interview tomorrow, and occasionally discussed it with Ye Laya.

Ye Laya was very conscious, knowing that she was just borrowed, whether she could stay in the county to work depended on whether Ma Cadre spoke well, if she could speak well, she might stay.

Ma Xiao Yan discussed the theme and questions of the interview tomorrow with her, and she also took the initiative to help think about it, cooperating very well, Ma Xiao Yan felt it was also quite good.

Because there was a stove, the temperature outside dropped, but it was still warm inside. Ma Xiao Yan knew that Li Long and the others didn't have a stove. Now knowing that she was staying in the mountains for a night, it actually added a lot of trouble to people.

For example, according to Li Long's idea, this afternoon actually could have cut a hillside of dozens of mu of land, but because of the interview, it was abandoned.

Li Long voluntarily came up the mountain to cut grass, definitely thinking that the sooner he went back, the better. Now that it was delayed for half a day, he would be late for half a day, definitely not happy.

Ma Xiao Yan also thought about finishing the interview as soon as possible tomorrow, not to delay their grass-cutting work.

Although she works in the propaganda organ, she didn't have any bureaucratic habits or official-standard thinking at this time. If people give them convenience, they will also try their best to consider for others.

In the middle of the night, wolf howling came from outside, Ma Xiao Yan was scared awake, she wrapped the quilt tightly, and leaned in as much as possible. Ye Laya also woke up, seeing Ma Xiao Yan like this, comforted her:

"Cadre Ma, it's okay. The door is buckled, the wolf can't get in. And I saw Li Long carrying a gun, if the wolf dares to come over, he will fire."

As she was saying this, she heard "bang bang bang" from the next room firing a few shots in the direction of the wolf howling, the wolf's howling sound of demonstration immediately turned into a scream of running away, and then there was no sound.

So, it's not safe in the mountains.

The next day, several people got up very early. Ma Xiao Yan had something on her mind, plus the wolf howling in the middle of the night. Li Long was because there were guests, he was thinking about how to prepare breakfast fully.

Got up early to pick a pile of mushrooms, wait until Ma Xiao Yan and the others opened the door, Li Long had already built the fire of the stove outside and was boiling water.

Ma Xiao Yan's face turned red, women get up later than men, and men have to cook, in this era, women themselves will feel embarrassed.

"I picked some mushrooms early in the morning. There are not many straw mushrooms at this time, and some black tiger palm mushrooms can still be found, but they are not big. Later, stir-fry the mushrooms with preserved meat, and then cold salad some wild celery—I finally found a handful, almost enough for a plate."

Li Long didn't make Ma Xiao Yan embarrassed, he directly said: "There are buns I steamed the day before yesterday in the room, do you like to eat steamed or sliced roasted?"

Ye Laya didn't care, all listened to Ma Xiao Yan. Anyway, she also knew that Li Long respected Ha Li Mu and the others very much, and there was no wild boar meat here at present.

"Then I will do the stir-frying work. I like to eat roasted, crispy and fragrant," Ma Xiao Yan made the decision directly, "Xiao Ye, help me watch the fire."

As for Liu Jun, no work was assigned to him. The drivers of this era are still relatively bullish occupations, listening to the adjustment but not the announcement, so when work is needed, basically ignore him, anyway, even if work is assigned to him, basically he doesn't do it.

Ma Xiao Yan didn't put all her energy on work, she was quite good at stir-frying mushrooms. She went to stir-fry mushrooms, Li Long went to cold salad wild celery. This thing is regarded as the king of wild vegetables by some people, to say it is delicious, anyway, it is definitely better than cold salad pepper wormwood.

That thing is cold salad, the taste is no less than folding ear roots, those who like to eat it are fine, those who don't like to eat it want to vomit.

After finishing, he went to roast bun slices.

Liu Jun saw Li Long bring a pile of mushrooms, a bit curious, and a bit surprised, didn't expect the resources in the mountains to be so rich.

Most people on the plains don't know much about the Tianshan Mountains, even if it's only a few dozen kilometers away.

So Liu Jun, in addition to surprise and accident, went to the back and released water in the distance, and then looked for it in the grass and forest, and really found some mushrooms.

After bringing it back, he let Li Long take a look, Li Long picked out a part and said:

"Brother Liu, these can't be eaten. The rest can be eaten—the ones that can't be eaten are those I'm not sure about, if you want to keep them, then put them separately, and find someone who knows them to take a look when you go back."

Liu Jun followed the advice and threw away the ones that couldn't be eaten directly.

He didn't want his family to be poisoned by mushrooms.

Three people cooked together very quickly, the sun hadn't risen yet, they had already eaten on the cutting board outside.

The temperature hadn't risen yet, it was actually quite cool outside, but they were all young people, no one cared. Besides, the position in the room was not suitable for four people to eat together, it was better to be refreshing outside.

Ma Xiao Yan had already experienced eating meat in big mouthfuls yesterday, today when stir-frying, she found that Li Long's wooden house actually had quite sufficient meat reserves. Just now when she was stir-frying mushrooms, she put less meat, Li Long actually asked her to put more, saying that putting less is not delicious!

Please! She put quite a lot herself, ordinary families only put half of this amount!

And the amount Li Long asked to put is four or five times that of ordinary families!

So extravagant!

This meal was eaten very quickly, after eating, Ma Xiao Yan and Ye Laya took the initiative to clean up, Li Long took his enamel basin to the spring to rinse.

Ma Xiao Yan saw that spring and sighed:

"Comrade Li Long, the location of your wooden house is simply too good! If you can pull electricity here, it is simply a small villa in the mountains."

Li Long smiled and didn't speak.

This is what people with a little petty-bourgeois sentiment will think. Living in the mountains, there are too many inconveniences, unless you have a car and want to go down the mountain whenever you want, otherwise most people live here for two nights, I am afraid they can't stand it.

Like the wolf howling last night, although knowing that the door is buckled and the wolf can't get in, most women living here will still be afraid.

After cleaning up, Li Long packed three bags of air-dried meat in new bags in the small room, each bag about two or three kilograms, and then carried them out.

"It's not easy for you to come here, I don't have any good things here, air-dried wild goat meat and roe deer meat, you take it home to eat. This meat is Kazakh flavor, Xiao Ye should know, I feel the taste is not bad." Ma Xiao Yan symbolically declined and accepted it.

Liu Jun didn't be formal, Ye Laya didn't expect that there was her share, seeing the other two accepted, she also accepted it.

Three bags were put into the 212 car. Li Long added water and oil to the tractor here, and then drove to Ha Li Mu's winter den.

Everyone had already arrived there, and the meal had been eaten, what surprised Li Long was that Ha Li Mu and the others also hit new naan this morning, although they had eaten, Li Long still couldn't help but break a piece and eat it.

Ma Xiao Yan also tasted it under Li Long's introduction, feeling it was great.

Then they went to the grass slope to cut grass together.

212 was not easy to pass here, Liu Jun simply stayed here. Ma Xiao Yan and Ye Laya sat on the tractor and went over.

Originally Ha Li Mu and the others wanted to ride horses to carry Ma Xiao Yan and the others, but Ma Xiao Yan was a bit worried, still felt that sitting on the tractor was more reliable.

The tractor arrived at the grass slope to be cut and stopped, Ma Xiao Yan looked at the hillside that was a bit steep and asked Li Long:

"Can this tractor go up?"

!.

"Yes." Li Long said, "You interview them first, I will start cutting here."

Saying that, adjusted the position of the tractor, and then cut up along the edge of the grass slope.

The sound of *tut-tut-tut* echoed on the hillside, Ma Xiao Yan first took a picture, thought about it and put away the camera, she planned to wait for Li Long to cut two circles, and then take a few more pictures. That time is more feeling.

Li Long was cutting grass there, other herdsmen had nothing to do. Usually at this time, everyone would go to other grass slopes to find wooden stakes and stones, today because there were cadres from the county, they all gathered here, intending to listen to what the cadres said.

Ma Xiao Yan didn't refuse, on one hand continued to interview, on the other hand let Ha Li Mu and the others hold grass with wooden forks.

Although the grass is green now, it is not suitable for picking up and bundling. But the photos taken are black and white, can't see it.

Sometimes expedient measures are also necessary.

Took suitable photos, Ma Xiao Yan asked some more questions, and then let them do whatever they want, leaving only Ha Li Mu and Yu Shanjiang.

These two people have been in contact with Li Long for the longest time, and the materials they can provide are also the most, so Ma Xiao Yan felt that she could continue to dig deeply from them.

At noon, Ma Xiao Yan took suitable photos, ate a meal of meat with Li Long and the others at Ha Li Mu's winter den, and finally said goodbye to Li Long and others, and had to return to the county.

The materials for writing the manuscript were

She had accumulated enough material for her article, and what could be mined had been mined. Although she didn't want to leave, Ma Xiao Yan knew she had to go.

For one, the vehicle's permit expired today, and for another, Li Long and the others still had work to do; she couldn't keep affecting them.

After the 212 left, Talihaer looked at the shadow of the car and sighed:

"This car looks so beautiful! When will we be able to have a car like this?"

"Just stick to riding horses for the rest of your life," another young man teased him.

Li Long gnawed on a bone and said with a smile:

"As long as you can get a dozen wild goats like that day every year, or get a dozen deer, sell the things from the deer, and save your money for five years, you'll be able to get a second-hand car by then."

A private Santana cost two hundred thousand at the start. But for ordinary people at this time, a second-hand car was not unacceptable. And vehicles like the 212, which were being phased out by the military, were actually very popular; ordinary people couldn't even get their hands on them.

Li Long wasn't bragging; in another three to five years, when the gates opened, if you couldn't afford a Santana, buying a second-hand small van would still be possible.

And it would be cheap.

In 1983, the state decided to introduce a micro-car production line, and next year, the yellow Tianjin Dafa vans would begin assembly and production, priced at twenty-eight thousand.

Of course, it was said that because they were so popular, car dealers drove the price up by almost double.

Li Long couldn't afford one for now, but it was only for now; if he worked hard, there was still hope.

What he told Talihaer was also true. With a dozen deer a year, the deer hide, deer pizzle, plus deer velvet or deer antlers from one deer could easily fetch several hundred yuan. A dozen deer would be several thousand yuan.

In three to five years, if he couldn't afford a new car, a second-hand one should be no problem, right?

Everyone else present took this as a joke, but Talihaer took it seriously.

He said to Li Long:

"Is it really possible?"

"It is. When you hunt a deer, take the antlers, hide, and pizzle off and preserve them well. I'll help you sell them when the time comes, and once they're sold, save the money. In a few years, it'll be about enough," Li Long answered seriously as well.

"Good!" Because he had hunted that herd of wild goats, Talihaer was full of confidence in hunting at this moment; he felt he had the ability.

They continued cutting grass in the afternoon.

Two days later, all the wooden stakes and stones in the grass slopes had been cleared, and a dozen herdsmen had joined forces to clear the two patches of grassland with too much brush to use the harvester on. They were then free, and Halimu's idea was that before the grass dried, they would go hunting to get more hides for Li Long.

When eating lunch, Li Long remembered his big broom task and said to Halimu:

"Since you're idle anyway, why not do me a favor? It's cutting poles. I need to take them back to tie big brooms; I need the handles for the brooms. I don't have time to do it right now, so you can do it for me. Fifty cents a pole..."

"Li Long, don't talk to us about money," Yushanjiang interrupted him. "How many do you need? We'll just go and get them. Tell us the standard, and we'll definitely do it well. Don't talk about money, or we'll get angry!"

Alright, so Li Long stated the standard for the poles.

Hearing Li Long's standard, these herdsmen rode their horses toward different mountain gullies.

They each had familiar areas in these mountains and knew where to get such poles. They were also very skilled at this; cutting poles was actually much easier than hunting.

By the time Li Long finished cutting grass in the afternoon and returned to Halimu's winter camp, the herdsmen who had returned one after another already had bundles of poles, more or less, on their horses' backs.

One end had been sharpened, the bark had been peeled off, and the small twigs had been trimmed clean; they all looked quite good.

After thanking them, Li Long put these poles, bundle by bundle, into the tractor's trailer and drove toward the wooden cabin.

For the next few days, Li Long cut grass while these herdsmen cut poles. It was very easy for one person to get dozens a day. By the time Li Long finished cutting all the grass slopes, there were already over three thousand poles piled up at the cabin.

The herdsmen still wanted to cut poles, but Li Long stopped them. He felt that the grass cut at the very beginning should be dry by now, so he asked Halimu and the others to go bundle the grass. With so much grass, just bundling it would take some time.

The current harvesters were only for harvesting; they weren't like the later grass balers that could bundle it directly after cutting.

Halimu and the others couldn't win against Li Long, so they stopped cutting poles and went to bundle grass instead.

Because they were already used to working together, and since only the grass on Halimu's pasture was dry for now while the others needed more time, all the herdsmen were bundling grass on Halimu's pasture.

Li Long drove the tractor to the cabin, loaded a trailer full of poles, and drove down the mountain.

Although the poles weren't enough in number yet, there was still time. He planned to distribute the poles to each family after going down the mountain this time, and then bring his eldest brother and father up the mountain to cut poles next.

When it came to making money, it was better to prioritize his own family first.

During this grass-cutting trip, the total time spent on the mountain didn't exceed ten days, but Li Long had experienced quite a lot.

What he didn't know was that after Ma Xiao Yan went back, she took two days to write another major article about Li Long's experience. After it was reviewed by the deputy head and standing committee member of the propaganda department, she bravely submitted it to the autonomous region's daily newspaper.

Although Ma Xiao Yan was a bit nervous, she was more confident: she believed this article would definitely be published! (End of chapter)