Chapter 671: Bolati's trouble: someone was killed

When the jeep drove back to the wooden cabin, it clearly felt much heavier. Even Sun Jia Qiang could tell.

After Li Long got out, he couldn't help but ask:

"Brother Long, those two robbers robbed quite a lot of things, right?"

"It's quite a lot," Li Long nodded. "Not only fritillaria, but other things too. I'm waiting for Bolati to come over and give it back to him."

"Give it all to him? Wouldn't that be a loss?" Sun Jia Qiang couldn't help but say. "If it weren't for you, those two people wouldn't have been caught!"

"Give him a portion," Li Long was also telling the truth. "It's impossible to give it all; if I gave it all, wouldn't I have run for nothing? Someone else is coming."

Li Long pointed to the south; two people were coming over carrying bags.

Li Long looked familiar, but he didn't pay attention, turned back, and sat on the threshold, planning to rest for a while before going to get some more morels.

He had originally come over to get morels, but ended up running into such a mess, and didn't even get his real work done.

Sun Jia Qiang's work here was already finished, and when those two people walked over, he went to meet them.

Usually, he wouldn't meet them; he had worries, and mainly because it was a seller's market now, so he didn't need to cater to these people.

Now that Li Long was here, he had confidence, and of course, he also hoped to exchange for more fritillaria and get more money.

But those two people nodded at Sun Jia Qiang and then came directly toward Li Long.

This made Sun Jia Qiang very embarrassed.

Li Long stood up a bit reluctantly. These two people had set their sights on Li Long; although they saw his bad temper and expression, they still braced themselves and said what they wanted to exchange for.

Money, dried noodles, rubber shoes.

Not exchanging for knives made Li Long a bit surprised; perhaps they had already exchanged for them before.

Li Long busied himself with getting these things ready, checking the weight of the fritillaria and the things to be exchanged with the other party.

Those two people actually trusted Li Long; although Li Long didn't have a smiling face the whole time, these two people always felt that Li Long was honest when exchanging things.

After taking the things and leaving, they specifically greeted Li Long. After the two people left, Sun Jia Qiang came over to Li Long, feeling a bit unconvinced:

"I just don't understand; I feel my service attitude is much better than yours, so why don't they look for me?"

"I don't know either," Li Long didn't understand either, thought for a moment, and said, "Maybe it's because I've been here longer, and you haven't been here long, so everyone might not trust you yet."

Whether that was the case or not, he just took it as such.

Waiting until the sun was about to set and Bolati still hadn't come, Li Long drove the jeep away.

At worst, he would just bring a portion of the fritillaria over tomorrow. Anyway, Li Long decided that no matter what, he had contributed, so he would take three... no, four bags of fritillaria.

He wouldn't swallow it all; just a portion was enough.

Li Long didn't go directly out of the mountains, but went to Xiaobaiyang Gully, picked up his Big Brother Li Jianguo and Tao Daqiang, and went directly back. First, back to the Fourth Team.

Tomorrow, the people from Xiaobaiyang Gully would be withdrawing, and he would need a tractor to pick people up. Right now, the jeep was loaded with eight bags of fritillaria (seven captured, one exchanged) and other things, which was quite full, and he couldn't take that many people.

So he picked up his Big Brother and Tao Daqiang; they would go back, drive the tractor over early tomorrow morning, and together with Liang Donglou's side, they would be able to take the people back directly.

That was the only way to do it; in this day and age, you couldn't get a car.

Although he had a good relationship with the transport company, there was no way to let them drop their work to pick people up during working hours.

In the Fourth Team, after dropping off his Big Brother and Tao Daqiang, Li Long went to Liang Wenyu's house.

Liang Donglou was rubbing straw ropes in the courtyard. There was little land here, few reeds, so they used straw ropes to tie things—but this rice straw wasn't produced here either; the Fourth Team had it, but this place didn't.

In general, this village's resources were far worse than the Fourth Team's; surrounded by several villages, it could only develop characteristic planting.

Right now, they were slowly starting to plant green onions, later starting to plant grapes, and around 2010, there were more people planting saplings, but in the end, basically everyone planted cotton.

After all, the state had subsidies for this thing every year, and planting it on their own land wouldn't lose money, and in years with good prices, they could even make a fortune, making up for the losses from before.

Chen Xiuzhu was tidying up sword beans in the vegetable plot; this thing needed a trellis at a certain time, and only after putting up the trellis would it bear sword beans well.

Hearing the sound of the jeep, Liang Donglou looked, stood up, moved his pile back, and made space for Li Long.

Li Long didn't drive the jeep completely into the courtyard, but stopped at the entrance, killed the engine, and got out.

Chen Xiuzhu came out of the vegetable plot, greeted him, and went to pour water. Li Long followed Liang Donglou to talk about business.

"They're returning tomorrow? Fine, I'll pick people up early tomorrow morning after eating," Liang Donglou said with a smile. "It's time to come back; in a few more days, the wheat will be ready to harvest."

Li Long chatted for a few more moments and then left.

It was almost dark, and he had to rush back to the large courtyard.

Gu Xiaoxia and the others had already finished dinner, and Gu Bo Yuan had already returned. When Li Long returned, Sister Yang hurriedly brought out the dinner she had left for him.

"Why so late today?" Gu Xiaoxia asked. "Did something happen in the mountains?"

"Big Brother and the others are returning tomorrow. I went to the Fourth Team and Big Sister-in-law's maiden home to tell them that we need to drive the tractor into the mountains tomorrow to pick people up, so it was a bit late."

Li Long wasn't in a hurry to eat, first taking down the five bags of fritillaria and putting them into the wing room.

"Why so many today?" Gu Xiaoxia was a bit surprised to see Li Long move so many fritillaria down.

Although the fritillaria brought back every day varied, it was basically about two or three bags; today was truly a bit too much. And she could also see there were still some in the car that Li Long hadn't moved down.

"There were two cowards who used the place where I exchange fritillaria as bait, specifically robbing those who came to exchange fritillaria..." Li Long told the story of the two robbers and then pointed to the fritillaria in the car, saying, "These fritillaria were basically dug out of their nest. What I moved down counts as mine, and the rest will be handed over to the forestry team tomorrow."

Gu Xiaoxia understood, and she also cursed hatefully:

"These people are truly bad! They're all digging for medicine, so how can they rob others?"

Li Long smiled and didn't respond. There were all kinds of people in this world, and even more bizarre ones, just because information transmission wasn't smooth now, so they couldn't hear it.

Once they reached the information age, they would find that there were truly all kinds of birds in the forest.

Moreover, he was considered a fisherman who benefited from the fisherman's profit, which wasn't very glorious, so he wouldn't respond to that.

The next day, after dropping Gu Xiaoxia off at the Education Bureau, Li Long drove to Xiaobaiyang Gully. He knew without thinking that whether it was Big Brother, Tao Daqiang, or Uncle Liang, they would all get up earlier than him and drive into Xiaobaiyang Gully earlier.

"Leave early and return early" has always been the mantra and tradition for people to urge those setting out on a journey.

Sure enough, when Li Long arrived at Xiaobaiyang Gully, they were loading the car, breakfast had already been eaten, and those earth shelters hadn't been touched, obviously intending to continue using them next year.

Li Long didn't stay here long before they had packed everything up, one by one excitedly climbing onto the tractor, greeting Li Long, with the joy of returning home impossible to suppress on their faces.

The money had all been issued, so they could go home and show off to their family members; how could they not be happy?

Seeing that everything was packed, Li Long drove the jeep to lead the way, drove all the way to the mountain pass, and then watched the tractor chug out of the mountains until he couldn't see it anymore before driving the jeep toward the wooden cabin.

Going to the wooden cabin, Li Long found that Bolati was still not there, and Sun Jia Qiang was washing fritillaria there.

"Collected this morning?" Li Long asked.

"No, last night, I was about to lock the door when someone came and said they wanted to exchange things. He said he was afraid of being watched during the day and only came at night. I asked if he wasn't afraid of wolves? He said he was afraid, but he brought a stick and a knife. It was already dark after the exchange yesterday, so I thought I'd wash it early this morning."

"Has Bolati come over?" Li Long asked.

"No," Sun Jia Qiang shook his head. "No one from the forestry team came today."

This was strange. Li Long couldn't figure it out, but he didn't intend to go over there to see, mainly because he didn't know exactly how Bolati had explained this matter, and was afraid that if he went over, what he said wouldn't match up and he would be exposed. With nothing to do for a while, Li Long simply carried his backpack and went into the forest to pick morels. He told Sun Jia Qiang that if Bolati came, he should keep him, and he would be back soon.

Li Long was familiar with every piece of land nearby and had walked it enough times to know roughly where there were places suitable for morels to grow nearby.

He went out for a turn, and sure enough, it didn't take an hour; when he returned, there were over three kilograms of fresh morels in his backpack.

There was no one in Xiaobaiyang Gully, so he had to solve lunch by himself. After drying the morels on the counter, Li Long went to the nearby stream.

The net he had placed there hadn't been checked for a long time, and he didn't know if there were still fish.

When Li Long went over, he found it was quite bad inside.

Some fish had already died, their flesh had completely rotted, and only a few bone spurs remained hanging on the net line.

Some fish had just died not long ago, hadn't completely rotted, and were still inside.

There were also some live fish jumping and struggling inside, looking quite miserable.

Li Long took the net down directly, turned it over on the bank of the stream, picked up the live fish, and cleaned and gutted them on the spot.

He planned to steam some rice and stew some fish for lunch.

(No errors in the content, read on!)

Although there weren't many of these fish, less than two kilograms, Li Long planned to stir-fry some mushrooms, which was enough for two people to eat.

There should still be some dried meat in the wooden cabin, but Li Long didn't intend to make it; it was better to eat fresh ones.

After cleaning the fish, Li Long carried them toward the wooden cabin and found that Bolati still hadn't come.

In the afternoon, Li Long specifically waited until the sun was about to set for Bolati, but Bolati still didn't arrive.

For two days, Li Long went late every day, and he had already agreed with Sun Jia Qiang that as long as Bolati came, he should tell him that if there was no urgent matter, he should wait for Li Long, and if there was an urgent matter, he should come back at noon or in the afternoon.

Li Long wasn't in a hurry to go into the mountains either; he had to sell the fritillaria in his wing room in batches. Now the fritillaria he could receive every day was slowly decreasing, and fewer people were coming to exchange things. Sometimes when Li Long entered or left the mountains, he could even run into people digging for medicine coming out of the mountains.

More and more fritillaria were blooming, and many could no longer be dug.

Those medicinal herb gatherers also knew that this fritillaria season was about to end and were all planning to leave the southern mountains, preparing for the next stage of work.

The fritillaria in the wing room was getting less and less, and Li Long also had to dry the three bags of fritillaria in the jeep every day to avoid them going moldy directly, which would make them worthless.

It wasn't until the fourth day that Li Long waited for Bolati.

At that time, Li Long had just picked morels and was planning to see what to cook for lunch when Bolati rode over on his horse.

Seeing Li Long, he turned over and dismounted, tied the horse to the wood by the shed, and then took the initiative to tell Li Long about his experiences over the past few days.

"Let me tell you, I almost died!" Bolati said, turning his head to look at Sun Jia Qiang who was busy by the stove, and said hatefully:

"This bunch of people digging for medicine, none of them are good things!"

"What happened to you?" Hearing Bolati's words, Li Long was also shocked and hurriedly asked.

"It was those two guys who robbed things," Bolati told Li Long. "That day I was taking them toward where we lived. Walking halfway, near the edge of a forest, the one on the horse's back said he wanted to pee. I thought if he wet his pants on my horse's back, what if the horse got sick? So I helped him down."

Bolati gestured while speaking:

"Wasn't he tied up? At the time, I thought about letting his accomplice help him; I wouldn't help him unzip his pants. As a result, these two cowards colluded together and wanted to kill me!"

Bolati was so angry that he whipped the horse whip in his hand into the air, making a sound, and then said:

"You say if those two ran, at most I would just chase them. The forest was right on the side; if I couldn't catch them, I couldn't catch them. Things like that happen a lot, it's not a big deal.

As a result, these two coaxed me saying they couldn't unzip their pants, and after tricking me over, they both came at me together, wanting to rob my gun! The ropes on their hands had long been untied; they were planning to cut me!"

"Did they rob it?" Although Bolati was right in front of him, Li Long was also quite worried listening.

"They robbed it! At the time, I had no defense at all; who could have thought these two people were so ruthless! After robbing the gun, the one who was shot in the leg aimed at me and pulled the trigger!"

"Ah?" Li Long was shocked! These two were truly ruthless!

"As a result, the gun was on safety, and the bullet inside wasn't chambered! When I saw these two cowards really wanted to do me in, I pulled out my knife and went up!

The one holding the gun was still looking at what was wrong with the gun, while the other one had already run into the forest. As a result, I stabbed the one holding the gun, robbed the gun back, and shot the one who ran away!"

"Well shot!" Li Long felt these two were truly scourges; he really should have beaten them up at the time and properly cleaned them up! At the very least, he should have helped Bolati tie them up together; he shouldn't have been so dismissive.

These two were clearly desperate people!

"As a result, that person was killed," Bolati smiled bitterly. "This person also knelt down. At the time, I was also in a fit of anger and didn't care about that much; I didn't bandage his wound, tied him up and put him on the horse's back, and put the dead one on the horse's back the same way, and led the horse back.

By the time I got back, the one who wasn't dead was also about to die. People in our team took him to the hospital to save him, but they couldn't save him."

"Then these two days..." Li Long asked with concern.

Regarding those two people, he didn't feel any pity at all.

They were clearly able to live well, but they had to go against their own lives.

Li Long was worried about whether these two people were carrying cases on their backs; otherwise, why did they have to rob the gun? If they had really done as Bolati said, untied the ropes near the forest, pushed Bolati down, and run into the forest, they would have truly run away.

Or after robbing the gun, even if they just tied Bolati up and didn't let Bolati chase them, and took the gun into the forest, that would have worked too.

Why did they have to kill?

Seeking death.

"People in our team said this was a big deal and interrogated me for a long time. I just said I ran into them, they were lying in ambush wanting to rob people, and I caught them. Li Long, I didn't tell them about you..."

"I know, I know, you're a good friend," Li Long gave a thumbs up. "Truly a good friend!"

Li Long believed Bolati's words; if he had told them about Li Long, someone would have definitely come looking for him these past two days.

He didn't expect Bolati to have an accident, and after the accident, he truly carried the matter by himself.

"At the time, I was also quite scared," Bolati saw Li Long say he believed him, and a smile appeared on his face. "Let me tell you, killing two people, I didn't expect it myself... how to say, at the time I felt quite angry, later I always thought, those were also two lives..."

"You did nothing wrong," Li Long felt that what he needed to say to Bolati now was to help him establish a belief that he did nothing wrong, so he said: "Think about it, if they had untied the ropes and run away directly, at most you would have chased them; if you couldn't catch them, you wouldn't chase them, it wouldn't be a big deal, right?"

"Right, right, right, that's what I thought too; what big deal is it? Why did they have to shoot me with a gun?"

"So, let me tell you, Adashi, these two people must have had problems. Maybe these two were carrying murder cases back home and didn't dare follow you, afraid that if they followed you over, the past things would be interrogated out, and they might have to die. So..."

"Why didn't I think of this?" Bolati was stunned for a moment, reacted, looked at Li Long, and said, "You mean... they were carrying cases?"

"That's the most likely possibility. Otherwise, even if one had his leg shot by me, if they ran away with your gun, you couldn't chase them, wouldn't that be the end of it? Why did they dare to shoot at you? I feel these two people must have killed people before, so they would shoot first when they got the gun!"

Bolati reacted, and the horse whip in his hand "slapped" onto the shed on the side: "Right, that's how it should be! I was saying why did they shoot at me? If they had run away with the gun, I truly wouldn't have dared to chase them... truly..."

"So, you did nothing wrong. They were the ones who were wrong," Li Long said earnestly to Bolati. "Don't worry about so many things; what you did was right. If it were me, I would have shot both of them at the time; why leave them their lives?"

Bolati smiled.

He felt that Li Long truly had this personality.

"Since you're here, let me tell you, I've been waiting for you these past few days. I dug out the fritillaria they robbed and left a few bags for you. Do you want to take them back to hand over, or exchange them for money here?"

"Exchange for money, exchange for money!" Bolati waved his hand. "I didn't tell the higher-ups that I interrogated them, so what's there to hand over? Now that both people are buried, this matter is over."

Since it was exchanging for money, it was easy for Li Long to handle this side.

Otherwise, it would be troublesome to keep pulling this fritillaria back and forth.

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 672 =====