Chapter 601

When Li Long came out of the office building, he discovered that the cargo bed of his tractor was filled with sugar dregs, and ten large burlap bags were also piled on top, which were also filled with sugar dregs.

Sugar dregs were being loaded onto the truck at the dregs outlet.

Li Long went over, and Song Ming asked with a smile:

"Did you meet with the section chief?"

"Met him, met him," Li Long said with a smile. "The section chief really does have something, and it can be considered taking care of me."

"That's good. These sugar dregs are loaded; you'd better haul them away quickly, otherwise, if you wait a while, they'll freeze solid."

"Sure, you go ahead and get busy, we'll talk later." Li Long also knew time was tight, so he started the tractor, waved to Song Ming, and drove out of the sugar factory.

This truckload of sugar dregs was enough for the old horse stables and the livestock and pigs at his eldest brother's place to eat for two or three months. Li Long planned to haul another truckload after delivering the sheep before the New Year, so they could eat until spring.

Before the New Year, he would process another batch of livestock; at the very least, he had to slaughter a roe deer and the raised wild boar. Although there was plenty of meat at home, the New Year had to have the feeling of the New Year.

Sending meat when visiting relatives at this time was the most practical thing.

Alcohol was a bit lacking.

Li Long drove the tractor, *tut-tut-tut*, out of the sugar factory; quite a few people rushing to the large pit to dig for sugar dregs were very envious.

However, Li Long had no time to worry about that; he had to unload the sugar dregs as soon as possible, then tell his eldest brother about collecting fish, and he himself had to drive the tractor into the mountains.

By the time the tractor reached the county, it was still early for lunch, so Li Long didn't stop in the county and drove directly toward the team.

When he arrived at the old horse stables, Uncle Lao Luo was clearing the leftover grass stalks in the pen. Hearing the sound of the tractor, he put down his wooden fork and came out to look, and then watched Li Long drive the tractor directly into the large courtyard of the horse stables.

Seeing Li Long hauling a full truckload plus quite a few bags of sugar dregs, Uncle Lao Luo was overjoyed. Before Li Long turned off the engine, he climbed onto the tractor and grabbed a bag of sugar dregs to throw down.

These sugar dregs contained water and had already frozen on the way over. Each bag weighed over a hundred kilograms, yet Uncle Lao Luo threw them down just like that, with quite a bit of energy.

After throwing down eight bags of sugar dregs, Uncle Lao Luo stopped, jumped off the tractor, and said:

"That's enough, enough to eat for a while."

"Yeah, feed them first; I'll haul another tractor-load back before the New Year, and that will last until spring."

"That's great!" Uncle Lao Luo was even happier when he heard there would be more later. This stuff was more popular with the livestock than bran.

Li Long and Uncle Lao Luo lifted the bags of sugar dregs into the warehouse together, and after watching the livestock and chatting for a while, he drove the tractor toward his eldest brother's place.

Uncle Lao Luo finished clearing the pen before going over to prepare lunch.

He was usually by himself and only ate two meals a day.

The supplies here at the horse stables were very complete, with rice, flour, vegetables, and meat. Uncle Lao Luo wouldn't treat himself poorly. He had suffered quite a bit when he was young, and now that he had the conditions, he was willing to treat himself better.

In Li Long's words, he intended for him to raise livestock in these old horse stables for as long as possible. Only if Uncle Lao Luo ate well and drank well and lived longer could he help him raise livestock for a few more years.

Although he knew it was Li Long trying to comfort him, Uncle Lao Luo still took it to heart.

If there was something, then just eat it. It was the child's gesture, so he would just accept it. As for himself, taking good care of these livestock was the best response to Li Long.

When Li Long arrived at the large courtyard, the fragrance of the meal was already drifting in the courtyard.

Fish was being collected in the front courtyard, but Li Long didn't go over. He threw the remaining two burlap bags down here and dragged them into the shed, then used an iron shovel to shovel the sugar dregs from the cargo bed into the place where the sugar dregs were originally kept.

Later, when his eldest brother had time, he would pack these sugar dregs into bags and put them away. Otherwise, they would be ruined by rats.

Pigs wouldn't even eat sugar dregs that rats had crawled over; the smell was too strong.

By the time Li Long finished unloading the sugar dregs, Li Jianguo and Li Qing Xia had returned from collecting fish.

Seeing that Li Long was almost done, they didn't come over to help.

After washing his hands, Li Long had finished the final touches and entered the house.

"We collected over sixty kilograms of large fish this morning; at this rate, that ton of fish will be enough by this afternoon."

"Even if it's enough, keep collecting," Li Long said. "Eldest Brother, I'm going into the mountains tomorrow; haul the fish back today, and send them to the supply and marketing cooperative first thing tomorrow. If there are still fish later, keep collecting. Once I'm done with things in the mountains, we'll go to Shicheng to set up a stall."

"Sure." Li Qing Xia was most fond of doing this; before Li Jianguo could speak, he immediately agreed.

"That works." Li Jianguo also felt this was a way to make money and there was no need to stop.

"Eat first, we'll talk after eating," Liang Yuemei urged. "The children are hungry."

Adults don't pick up their chopsticks, children can't eat first—this was the rule at the time.

After eating, Li Long wanted to leave money, but Li Jianguo stopped him.

"This ton of fish was collected by you yourself, so it counts as your own. The money collected later will count as our partnership," Li Jianguo said with a smile. "There's a share for me in the money made from setting up the stall, so I'll pay for this fish collection money first."

Li Long didn't refuse. He also planned to give his father and eldest brother a share of the money earned from supplying fish to the supply and marketing cooperative this time.

But he didn't say it for now.

While eating, Li Long talked about visiting his sister.

"Hongqin is by herself?" Liang Yuemei naturally felt a bit sorry for the child. "When you guys set up the stall later, why don't you talk to Xiaoxia and bring Hongqin over to stay for a few days?

Isn't the child lonely by herself? Juan and Qiangqiang are here, and they can take her to play. They're all relatives; being together often makes them closer."

Although it was said that distant relatives aren't as good as close neighbors, the older generation still thought that blood relatives being close was best.

"Sure, we'll ask when the time comes," Li Jianguo nodded.

Du Chunfang grinned while eating and laughing. They were all her grandchildren; she loved both her daughter's children and her son's children, and since she was here, she naturally hoped the children would all be gathered around her.

How lively!

Li Long hauled the fish back that night; he had already calculated that the fish he hauled back last time plus this time must be over a thousand and some kilograms.

Tomorrow he would haul them to the supply and marketing cooperative, settle this matter, and then go into the mountains.

After eating, he talked about this while watching TV with Gu Xiaoxia.

"I won't stay in the mountains when I go; I'll go and return the same day," Li Long's plan was very good. "Every day I'll haul some sheep to the courtyard, and once I've saved up fifty sheep, I'll haul them directly to the sugar factory."

"Yeah." Gu Xiaoxia also felt that way, but then she said, "You don't have to work so hard. If you really can't make it in time, just stay in the mountains; don't drive at night.

We're right across from the police station, so it's safe. A batch of bad people was cleared out last year, so nothing will happen. You should be careful in the mountains instead; there are wolves, and the snow is deep, so don't be in a hurry to come back if you're busy until dark."

"Sure, I'll be careful," Li Long nodded. In fact, this was the truth. He didn't want Gu Xiaoxia to worry, but if he was in a hurry to drive, it was truly easy for something to happen.

The next morning, Li Long first tidied up the tractor and went to the glass house to set up the stove.

After breakfast, Li Long walked Gu Xiaoxia to her unit, then turned back, started the tractor, and drove toward the supply and marketing cooperative with a truckload of fish.

The closer it got to the New Year, the fewer things there were to do at the supply and marketing cooperative. Everything that needed to be hauled back had been hauled back, and everything that needed to be sent to various units in the county had already been sent. Right now, it was just daily activities. Li Xiangqian was holding a small notebook, planning the work for the first quarter after the New Year, when he heard the sound of the tractor and knew Li Long had come.

Sure enough, not long after, Li Long walked into the office with large strides, poured himself some water to drink, and said to Li Xiangqian:

"Section Chief, the fish I collected are all here."

"That's good, let's go, go to the warehouse in the back courtyard to weigh them."

Li Long went to drive the tractor, and Li Xiangqian took the ticket book to the back courtyard.

The tractor drove to the back courtyard, and bag after bag of fish was weighed and then poured into the warehouse for inspection.

During the inspection, Li Long also told Li Xiangqian about the sewage fish from before.

"Is there really such a thing?" Li Xiangqian was still a bit skeptical.

"Of course it's true," Li Long said. "Those sewage fish grow very large, but they taste a bit smelly."

"Heh, now that you mention it, Old He must have fallen for it," Li Xiangqian said with a bit of schadenfreude. "He bought cheap large fish a few days ago, but they had a bit of a smell; it's very likely they were sewage fish. I'll have to go and tease him about it in a while!"

!.

Li Long wondered to himself if he had done a bad thing?

Could people in the supply and marketing cooperative also fall for it?

Thinking about it, it was normal; after all, not everyone in the supply and marketing cooperative was a procurement officer, and not everyone had sharp eyes. It was very normal not to be able to tell sewage fish.

Since Li Long had already said it, he wouldn't take it back. He took the ticket Li Xiangqian had written, went to the finance department to settle the account, greeted Li Xiangqian, and drove the tractor back to the courtyard.

Returning to the courtyard was to refuel; there was diesel in his own courtyard. After refueling, Li Long added more equipment, wore his leather coat inside out to protect his upper body, put on his cotton hat, and bought some things in the county.

The things he bought included but were not limited to daily necessities like matches, alcohol, and tea, as well as cotton shoes, leather gloves, wool socks, and some common medicines, and then he drove *tut-tut-tut* toward the mountains.

From the Wuyi Highway heading south, on the road to Qingshuihe, the accumulated snow had already been trodden open; one could see that at least two tractors and several horse-drawn carts and donkey carts had passed through here.

There were also quite a few footprints of people who had walked by.

All the way to Qingshuihe Township, most of the tracks stopped here, but there was one tractor that continued into the mountains, and it was going back and forth.

Li Long was a bit surprised. What was a tractor doing going into the mountains at this time? And what had it hauled back?

This was also good; his tractor could follow the path opened by the other party, and he didn't need to exert effort to tread a path.

The tractor drove all the way to the mountain pass, and Li Long became more and more strange; the direction the tractor was going was consistent with the location of Halimu's winter camp.

Could it also be collecting sheep?

Li Long had a vaguely ominous feeling.

He didn't view the herdsmen in the mountains as his own private property; he just felt that if someone else had collected the sheep, it would be a bit difficult for him to complete the task of fifty sheep mentioned by Section Chief Hu.

Following the tracks left by the tractor, Li Long drove all the way to Halimu's winter camp, and then he confirmed that the other party was indeed aiming for Halimu and the others.

The tracks of that tractor were heading toward Halimu's winter camp, then toward the mountains, likely in the direction of Yushanjiang's side, and finally returned along the same path.

While Li Long was still thinking, the sound of his tractor had already startled the dogs at Halimu's house, and then Nasen and Sasken ran out of the winter camp.

Seeing Li Long, the two children shouted happily.

Apparently, they were already on break.

Li Long drove the tractor to the front of the winter camp. At this time, Halimu had already come out of the winter camp.

Seeing Li Long, he was also very happy. After greeting Li Long, who had gotten off the tractor, the two of them moved things together.

While moving things, Li Long asked:

"Was there a tractor here yesterday?"

"Yes, from our pastoral team."

"From the pastoral team?" Li Long was a bit surprised. "What did they come over for?"

"To collect sheep," Halimu said as a matter of course. "We are under the management of the pastoral team and have a courtyard at the pastoral team's outpost. The team issues supplies and manages the children's schooling.

We herdsmen also have to hand over sheep to the pastoral team regularly. We hand over culled sheep in the spring and fat sheep now."

Li Long thought to himself, this is trouble!

Once the fat sheep were handed over, it wouldn't be easy for him to complete the task.

While moving supplies, Halimu asked:

"What are you here for?"

Li Long smiled bitterly and told him about the fifty sheep needed by the sugar factory.

"Fifty sheep?" Halimu also found it a bit difficult when he heard that.

"The sheep at my place and Yushanjiang's place aren't enough," Halimu thought for a while and said. "We have to pool the fat sheep from other families."

From the beginning, Halimu hadn't thought about using culled sheep to make up the numbers. Since Li Long wanted sheep, he would give fat sheep. Not every sheep in the flock could be slaughtered for meat. Usually, they were fat sheep.

Most of those ewes had lambs at this time, and a batch would be born before the New Year. There were also some old sheep that were culled sheep, which would be handed over to the pastoral team in the spring. These sheep were usually not slaughtered directly for the food factory but used for other purposes.

The mutton eaten by the mink farm mentioned earlier was mostly culled mutton.

Of course, there were others.

Li Long heard Halimu had a way, and he had hope again. In fact, just now he had already been thinking about whether to go and ask if other tribes had sheep.

He had no connections, but if he couldn't complete the task here, he would have to think of other ways.

Since there was a way now, he naturally hoped to complete it here.

It was just that he had overlooked one thing: the pastoral team had rules, and Halimu and the others were different from before.

But this was also good; organized herdsmen would be calculated as retirement later, which was better than pure self-grazing.

Of course, for now, he was thinking about how to complete the task.

After unloading the things, Halimu had already started saddling the horse.

"Li Long, you stay here; I'll go notify other families to see how many fat sheep we can pool together. You ride the horse slowly and can't catch up with me, so just wait here."

After saying this, Halimu flipped onto the horse, waved the whip, and the horse galloped away.

Li Long watched Halimu's back, hoping he would be safe, and also hoping he would bring back good news.

Nasen and Sasken pulled Li Long toward the winter camp. Li Long could already smell the fragrance of milk tea. (End of chapter)