Chapter 653: Li Long, this benefit is yours!

The one who came was Bolati.

What made Li Long somewhat surprised was that Bolati's horse was carrying another two and a half bags.

Still Fritillaria?

What is this situation? Is Bolati trying to meet a quota recently? Or have the number of people coming into the mountains to pick herbs increased this much?

Bolati rode his horse over at a trot, dismounted before Li Long, pointed his riding crop at the three people lying on the ground, and asked:

"What's the situation? What happened to them?"

"They came over just now to trade, told Xiao Sun our prices were too high, and it wouldn't work. I came over and told them if they wanted to trade, they could, if not, they could leave. They wanted to hit someone, so I put them down."

"Heh, you didn't use your gun today?" Bolati took the two bags of Fritillaria off the horse's back, and then took the five 【bullets】 off his back..."

Hearing that Li Long had a gun, the one in jeans who had fallen wiped the blood from his nose, feeling a bit lucky.

"Do they also not know that you've broken other people's legs before?" Bolati pulled the bolt, chambered a round, and said to Li Long, "It just so happens my quota for this month isn't finished; leave these three to me."

"You guys still have a quota?" Li Long was a bit surprised. "A quota for catching people?"

"Yeah. There's a reward for catching people too." Bolati smiled. "But the reward isn't big. So when we run into those people, we just collect the goods and that's it. Since these three are so arrogant, that's perfect... Everyone get up!"

The last sentence was directed at the three people.

These three people mainly felt that three against two and still losing—actually, they were mainly facing Li Long—so they were too ashamed to get up and speak.

Now that Bolati was pointing a gun at them, they naturally stood up obediently.

Li Long was happy. With these three people being taken away by the Forestry Team, it would be at least ten days or half a month. By the time they got out, the Fritillaria season would be almost over, and it was unlikely they would come back—the Forestry Team might even deport them.

No need to worry anymore.

Sun Jia Qiang also understood, and he was quite happy while trading over there.

It was just that the person trading was a bit trembling, fearing that Bolati would take him away too.

But from beginning to end, Bolati treated him as a transparent person and ignored him. After weighing the Fritillaria and receiving money from Li Long this time, he got on his horse and pointed at the three people to walk ahead.

Li Long could faintly hear Bolati saying to the three people on the horse:

"You'd best not think about running. If you try, I've got ten rounds in my gun—let's see if you're faster or the bullets are!"

Li Long believed that Bolati really dared to shoot. When facing these people, if you aren't more ruthless than them, then just go ahead and get bullied.

After that person finished trading, he waited until Bolati had taken the people away and they were out of sight before quickly leaving with his goods on his back.

Sun Jia Qiang shouted from behind:

"Don't worry, just trade normally, they won't arrest you."

That person responded hastily, his movements still very fast.

This time Bolati brought about ten kilograms of Fritillaria, that person took a little over four kilograms, and Bolati took the bags those three people were carrying.

Catching people always requires some evidence, and the Fritillaria in those bags was the evidence.

"Do you want to go stay over at the dugout? There are more people there, it's safer." Li Long said to Sun Jia Qiang, mainly worried that someone else might come over.

"No need, no need." Sun Jia Qiang reflected on it now and felt he had been too soft before. Since he came to do business, in a seller's market, being too soft makes it easy for people to bully you.

As for fighting—he was carrying a stick, and if he was prepared, could he really be bullied again?

Li Long didn't force him. He could tell that those three people mainly just wanted to rob some things.

The things left in the small wooden cabin weren't worth a hundred yuan; if they were really robbed, so be it, he wasn't afraid.

Taking all this Fritillaria, when Li Long went to Little Bai Yang Ravine again, the trucks had already arrived.

Xie Yun Dong and the others were loading the trucks, and Li Jianguo and the two drivers were chatting there.

Knowing that Li Jianguo was Li Long's older brother, the two drivers were also quite polite.

When Li Long arrived, both trucks were being loaded at the same time, and they were already more than half full.

Seeing the jeep drive over, those who weren't very busy cast their gazes over.

Li Long got out of the car, first greeted the two drivers, and then went to check the loading situation.

The young men had already loaded several times and had plenty of experience. When Li Long looked, he found they were loaded very neatly, and the sticks for bracing the carriage were all ready, just waiting for the carrying poles to be higher than the carriage to insert the sticks.

After loading these carrying poles onto the carriage, several young people scrambled to sit in the passenger seat of the truck, while Tao Daqiang and Liang Wenyu sat directly in Li Long's jeep.

Li Long went to the jeep and asked Liang Wenyu:

"You're leaving, are those guys okay?"

"They're fine, they know it's not safe at night, so they went into the dugout early." Liang Wenyu said, "Besides, I'll be back at night, it's fine."

"Don't sit too many, otherwise the jeep won't be able to fit." Li Long shouted with a smile, then greeted Li Jianguo, Xie Yun Dong, and the others, and drove the jeep away first.

The two trucks followed behind.

The days were getting longer, and the sun hadn't set yet.

When the cars drove back to the large courtyard, Gu Xiaoxia had already finished work. She knew Li Long was bringing back carrying poles today and didn't have time to pick him up, so she walked back herself.

Tao Daqiang and the others who got out of the car greeted Gu Xiaoxia one after another, their attitudes enthusiastic yet somewhat polite.

After all, Gu Xiaoxia was a state cadre, and her status was different now.

After unloading the carrying poles in the large courtyard, the hanging noodles that Sister Yang had made for the young men were already out of the pot. Including the two drivers, they all held small enamel basins and squatted in the courtyard to eat in big mouthfuls.

The scene was quite spectacular.

After eating, the trucks left. Li Long saw that the sky was still very bright, so he told Gu Xiaoxia and drove the jeep to take the people into the mountains.

This was the time when the young men were happiest—being able to ride in a jeep, this was the treatment for county leaders.

Township leaders didn't even have a car now.

Tao Daqiang, sitting in the passenger seat, rolled down the window and felt the rushing wind, feeling very refreshed.

Because there were many people, it wasn't convenient for Li Long to drive directly back to the Fourth Team or go to the Liang family, so he simply drove back into the mountains. Being away from home for a month, it really didn't count as much.

Earning money was the most important thing.

When the jeep drove to Little Bai Yang Ravine, the sky gradually darkened, and some stars began to twinkle in the sky.

After Li Long dropped the people off, he turned around and drove back. Driving like the wind, he finally arrived back at the county before twelve o'clock.

Fortunately, it was a jeep; if it were a tractor, it would still be bouncing along in the mountains with a "put-put-put" sound.

Returning to the large courtyard, Li Long discovered that Sister Yang, Han Fang, and Gu Xiaoxia hadn't slept and were all waiting for him.

"There will be many situations like this later, just go to sleep when it's time." Li Long saw the three of them sitting on the steps of the main house and couldn't help saying:

"No need to feed the mosquitoes here."

By late May, flies had long since appeared, and mosquitoes were slowly appearing too.

In these few years, not much farmland had been reclaimed, and little pesticide was used, so there were quite a few flies and mosquitoes.

"It's fine, we're chatting." Gu Xiaoxia stood up with Li Long's support and said with a smile, "Sister Yang was talking about the legends of those stars, but she wasn't very clear about which constellations they were.

When I was young, my dad pointed those constellations out to me, so I remembered them. Just now I was identifying them one by one."

The end of April in '84 was just the boundary between the end of the lunar month and the beginning of the next, with no moon, so the stars were particularly obvious.

The Big Dipper and the North Star could be seen very clearly, and at twelve o'clock, the Milky Way could also be seen clearly.

However, it was too late now, and there were things to do tomorrow, otherwise Li Long would really have told them one by one about those constellations he learned from short videos in his later life.

Things like the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl, Orion and Andromeda, and things like the Great Bear and Little Bear.

Li Long was very familiar with this.

Since Li Long was back, Sister Yang and Han Fang went into the house to prepare to rest; after all, Han Fang had to get up early tomorrow.

Li Long supported Gu Xiaoxia to the bedroom. By this time, there were no more programs on TV. He helped Gu Xiaoxia sit on the edge of the bed, and he went to wash up.

Gu Xiaoxia asked him about the situation in the mountains, and Li Long told her about Sun Jia Qiang watching the wooden cabin, but didn't mention the fight with the three people; he didn't want Gu Xiaoxia to worry. The next day, Li Long went to the wooden cabin first, just worried about whether anything happened on Sun Jia Qiang's side.

When Li Long arrived, Sun Jia Qiang was cooking porridge on the stove outside. Seeing Li Long come over, he even showed him the mushrooms he had picked in the forest like a treasure.

"Not bad, no poisonous mushrooms. How do you plan to make them?" Seeing that Sun Jia Qiang hadn't eaten breakfast yet, Li Long asked.

"Stir-fry the mushrooms." Sun Jia Qiang said, "How else?"

"There's vinegar and salt, you can make a cold salad." Li Long said while demonstrating for him, "Wash the mushrooms, boil them in boiling water, then rinse them in cold water, squeeze out the moisture, tear them into thin strips, then dress them with salt and vinegar, and cut some wild green onions on top, it's great!"

He did it while talking, and it was done in a while.

Looking around again, he found there were no steamed buns, shook his head and said:

"Then what are you eating for your staple food?"

"Eat... I didn't plan to eat, I just thought I'd make do." Sun Jia Qiang scratched his head.

"Heh, letting you stay here is not as good as letting you stay in the dugout," Li Long shook his head, "This food is not as good as over there, just stay over there, I'll come pick you up every morning."

Please... collect... 6... 9... books...!

"No, no, it's troublesome, I'll just stay here." Sun Jia Qiang shook his head hastily, "From morning until now, I've traded Fritillaria for two people. If I stayed over there, I'd lose two transactions!"

"Then you do your thing, I'll leaven some dough and steam some buns—do you know how to steam them?"

"No." Sun Jia Qiang looked full of admiration, "Li Long, I found you know a lot!"

"That's right, wilderness survival, how can you do it without knowing a few more skills?" Li Long smiled proudly and went to knead the dough.

Sun Jia Qiang was eating breakfast, and when Li Long had kneaded the dough and left it to rise, Bolati came over again.

He called Li Long to the side and said:

"Those three people confessed yesterday, saying they have a hideout in the mountains, where they store quite a lot of the Fritillaria they robbed. The leader asked me to come find it. I'll tell you, you go find it, and I'll go back and say I couldn't find it."

Saying this, Bolati told Li Long the approximate location.

The location was relatively vague. Li Long listened to Bolati say it twice, and then, judging and guessing, calculated that the location should not be far from Yushanjiang's winter dugout.

"Why don't you go?" Li Long asked Bolati. Isn't this a good job?

"No time to look. If I have time, I might as well catch a few more people digging Fritillaria; that money comes faster." Bolati shook his head, "Those few ravines are too chaotic, I'm afraid I won't find it."

Li Long nodded and said:

"Okay, if I have time, I'll go over and take a look. I've been to that vicinity a few times, I'll tell you if I find it."

"No need to tell me, anything found is yours. Just treat me to a bottle of wine when the time comes. If you can't find it, just pretend I didn't say anything," Bolati smiled, "Alright, I'm leaving. There are quite a few people digging Fritillaria during this period, I have to go around more in those Fritillaria ravines nearby."

After speaking, Bolati rode away.

Li Long thought it was normal. How could those people only dig that little bit of Fritillaria? It was highly likely they wanted to come over and see if they could rob someone.

If he hadn't arrived in time, Sun Jia Qiang might really have been threatened and robbed by them.

This gang was a repeat offender.

Li Long actually knew the location Bolati mentioned, and he planned to go over and take a look in a while.

At this time, there were still about two hours until lunch, and it would take about half an hour to drive the jeep to Yushanjiang's winter dugout.

From Yushanjiang's winter dugout to the ravine Bolati mentioned should also take about half an hour. Excluding the time to find their hideout, it would be barely enough to come back and pick up Sun Jia Qiang.

Li Long went over to see that the dough had risen enough, and while kneading the buns, he said to Sun Jia Qiang:

"I'll go handle something in a while, I'll come pick you up at lunchtime."

"No need to pick me up." Sun Jia Qiang watched Li Long skillfully kneading the buns and said: "When the buns are ready, I'll just stir-fry a dish and eat the buns, it's troublesome to go back and forth. These buns—I'll uncover them myself in a while!"

"You'll have to uncover them yourself. Watch the time, after the water in the pot boils, it will take half an hour. After half an hour, remove the fire, and wait five minutes before uncovering the steamer."

Li Long put the kneaded buns into the steamer one by one, finally covered it with the lid, and then gave instructions to Sun Jia Qiang.

Sun Jia Qiang nodded repeatedly, indicating he had noted it down—at least he had an electronic watch, so he could still watch the time.

Li Long drove the jeep towards Yushanjiang's winter dugout. This road had to go to Halimu's winter dugout first.

Passing by Halimu's winter dugout, Li Long saw that the water flowing out of the pipe had already formed a relatively natural stream, and the winter dugout remained in its original state, with no signs of being destroyed, so he felt relieved.

When the jeep drove to Yushanjiang's winter dugout, Li Long frowned.

He got out of the jeep, took his gun, locked the car door, and went over to check the situation of the winter dugout.

The door here had been pried open, and it was a mess inside; someone had lived here.

When Yushanjiang and the others left, they took everything in the winter dugout, leaving only the wooden kang.

The people who moved in didn't destroy the wooden kang, but there was quite a bit of trash left inside.

Li Long simply cleared out the trash inside, closed the door, and then went to the ravine Bolati mentioned.

Bolati indicated the approximate location. Li Long judged based on the terrain that it should be in this area. He took his gun and walked west, passed a winter pasture belonging to Yushanjiang's family, turned into a ravine, and what met his eyes were shrubs.

There were traces of cattle and sheep coming here, quite a few paths had been trodden out, and it was still easy to walk.

Walking past this ravine and turning northwest, he entered another ravine.

And then Li Long saw someone carrying a bag looking left and right in the ravine.

"What are you doing?" Li Long shouted at the entrance of the ravine.

That person turned his head in a panic, and when he saw it was Li Long, he just froze for a moment, and then immediately drilled into the forest next to him.

He seemed very afraid of Li Long.

Li Long was a bit strange. He could tell, wasn't this person the one who was watching from the side when the three people in jeans were fighting with Li Long yesterday?

What was he doing?

How could he be here?

Li Long suddenly had a guess. That person should know the background of the three people in jeans, right? Could it be that he also ran over to find the hideout of those three people?

Li Long walked inside with his gun. Bolati said that those three people confessed that their hideout was a stone cave. That stone cave seemed to have been chiseled out by people in the past, but it was abandoned. Because the location was good, herb pickers used it every year. This year, the original herb picker was beaten up by them, robbed of Fritillaria, and driven away.

Li Long saw some Fritillaria in this ravine, and also some traces of digging. He thought it should have been done by the original owner of the cave. This place actually counted as a Fritillaria ravine, but now only small seedlings were left.

Continuing forward, halfway through, he found sparse forests and some scattered rocks appearing on both sides of the ravine.

He searched all the way to the end of this ravine but didn't find the stone cave.

Climbing up the ridge, Li Long looked to the side again.

That ravine over there was quite rare, with pine trees growing on both sides, but the pine forest wasn't dense, so Li Long took his gun and walked down.

In the distance, more than two hundred meters away, the person who was carrying the bag just now was watching Li Long's back from behind a pine tree. Although he was somewhat unwilling, he had no other way.

Since Li Long had come over, he knew that the other party should have known the hideout of those three people. It seemed he wouldn't be able to pick up a bargain on this trip.

Although he was somewhat unwilling, he had no other way. The rifle in Li Long's hand was the truth, and he didn't want to confront the truth.

He also didn't want to be caught by Bolati—people caught by the Forestry Team rangers basically faced the fate of being sent to labor reform and then deported.

He didn't want that at all!

Glaring at Li Long's back, that person turned and left.

Since there was no hope, he should find the next Fritillaria ravine as soon as possible and go dig some Fritillaria. After all, once these things were dug out, they could be traded for real things and money.

Li Long walked down that ravine, and after walking not far inside, he confirmed that this should be the hideout of those three people.

There were quite a few footprints at the bottom of the ravine, messy and disorderly. Under normal circumstances, there were at most one or two people digging herbs, and they were all aiming for those Fritillaria.

But the footprints in this ravine were all in the easy-to-walk places at the bottom of the ravine, and there were quite a few Fritillaria on both sides, the location was obvious, yet they hadn't been dug.

This showed that the people here didn't intend to dig Fritillaria at all.

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 654 =====