Chapter 694: This money should be earned by them

Tao Daqiang refused the job Li Long had mentioned. After Li Long drove the jeep away, Ma Xiao Yan held the child and came over to ask:

"Why didn't you go?" Actually, just now when Li Long told him about this job and Tao Daqiang refused, Ma Xiao Yan had thought about persuading Tao Daqiang.

But Ma Xiao Yan knew her husband's personality. Tao Daqiang's relationship with Li Long was closer than with his own elder brother Tao Dayong. Under normal circumstances, Tao Daqiang would definitely not oppose whatever Li Long proposed.

And this time Li Long also wanted to take Tao Daqiang to earn money. Ma Xiao Yan actually quite wanted Tao Daqiang to go.

But since her husband had decided, Ma Xiao Yan respected it. She didn't say anything at the time and only asked afterwards.

"That job requires living outside, I don't want to do it," Tao Daqiang shook his head and said, "Our family doesn't lack money now, and there's a lot of work in the fields recently. Dad and Brother Long's father have been catching fish during this time and have earned quite a lot of money. They go out early and return late, and are very happy.

The work in the fields has to be done by us. I don't want you to carry the baby to work in the fields after I leave. Besides, when I was weaving handles in the summer, I stayed for more than twenty days, and I missed the child so much!"

Ma Xiao Yan smiled and handed the child in her arms to Tao Daqiang.

That was right. At present, their family's situation in the Fourth Team could be considered top-notch. They didn't lack food or clothing, had a tractor and a bicycle, her husband was good to her, and there was no mother-in-law to manage her.

They should be content.

Let others earn that money.

After Xie Yun got the news from Li Long, he immediately started packing things. Knowing that he might live outside, he had to prepare bedding. Deng Guilan didn't stop him this time; she turned to the kitchen to knead dough and prepare dry rations for her husband.

Regarding the matter of driving a tractor with a harvester to cut wheat, the plan she had chosen earlier was to work for Li Long, which had no risk. At that time, Xie Yun opposed it and chose the self-financing type.

As a result, after this season of cutting wheat, their family earned several thousand yuan, which was much higher than weaving handles.

It felt like if they worked for another season next year, they would be able to earn back the money for the tractor.

This speed of earning money scared Deng Guilan. She could also feel her husband's correct choice and Li Long's care for their family.

So this time she didn't express any opinions, just made preparations and ensured logistics.

"This time it won't be as long as weaving handles," Xie Yun said while packing the bedding, "Cutting grass, that family has three to five hundred mu, at most we will stay for two or three days, and then change to another family. Although this price isn't as high as the last time, the quantity is large. Before the melon matures, we can earn a good sum again!"

Deng Guilan looked at her husband's dark face that hadn't recovered from cutting wheat and sighed:

"Look at your face, it hasn't recovered yet, and now you have to go get tanned again."

"Being a farmer, how can you not be tanned by the sun? Look at so many people in the team, how many want to be tanned like this? Isn't it just us few who can do this job?"

"That's true," Deng Guilan smiled, "This speed of earning money... is scarily fast. Three years ago, even if you beat me to death, I wouldn't have thought that I could earn several thousand in one season! At that time, I remember that after calculating the work points at the end of the year, the family only got a total of seven yuan..."

"Now seven yuan, that's earned in one hour of driving the tractor," Xie Yun echoed, "These days are really getting better and better."

He didn't know what the Matthew effect was, he only knew that since he started working with Li Long, earning money seemed to have become much easier. Just taking a random job was worth what others earned in several years.

It was incredible!

The situation at Liang Dacheng's house was similar.

Only Li Jianguo's side was a bit more troublesome. He had to drive the tractor away. On one hand, he had to go to Tao Daqiang's place to pull the harvester over, and on the other hand, he also had to get another means of transportation for his family.

Thus, Li Jianguo went to the old horse station again and found Uncle Luo to pull the number 76 horse-drawn carriage back.

Number 76 actually worked at Uncle Luo's place too. Besides feeding wild boars and deer, Uncle Luo would lead the carriage pulled by number 76 to cut grass and prepare materials all over the village every day. Otherwise, for those livestock in that circle, the sugar dregs and feed left in the horse station wouldn't be enough at all.

The three families in the Fourth Team who owned tractors were all preparing, and this matter soon spread in the village.

Those who were envious and jealous were still envious and jealous. How much money could be earned by a tractor with a harvester cutting wheat could be calculated. In one wheat season, their own family only harvested a few dozen bags of wheat, but others earned several thousand yuan.

Next, they had to prepare for harvesting corn and oil sunflowers, and others were going to earn big money again. At this moment, the sky over the Fourth Team was filled with a thick smell of vinegar.

After returning to the big courtyard, Li Long parked the jeep and turned off the engine, and Sister Yang brought out the food.

Li Long had left a bit hurriedly earlier and hadn't explained the detailed situation. Now, while eating, he told Gu Xiaoxia about this matter.

"This is a good thing," hearing that Li Long had found work for his eldest brother and Xie Yun and the others again, Gu Xiaoxia said with a smile while helping the two children drive away mosquitoes, "Jobs that earn money like this should come more often."

As the daughter-in-law of the Li family, she naturally hoped that their family would get better and better, including Li Long's eldest brother's family and his sister-in-law's maiden family.

"This is the only big job this year," Li Long said while eating, "But after finishing this job, my eldest brother and the others can also spend the year comfortably."

This year, taking his eldest brother and the others to weave handles, cut wheat, plus this grass-cutting, they could earn at least ten thousand yuan (Li Jianguo didn't deduct money for weaving handles). Later, there might be big brooms and reed brooms, plus the money from melons, which could allow his eldest brother to earn ten thousand yuan in a year, and that would be enough.

Anyway, at the township level, it could be considered top-tier.

Late August was already early autumn. In the morning, there was dew on some grass leaves. The temperature difference between morning and evening was large, and some people still had to wear coats when they got up early, otherwise, they would feel cold.

Just after breakfast, Li Long heard the *tut-tut-tut* sound of a tractor outside.

He hurriedly went to open the door and saw three tractors already parked outside the door. Li Jianguo turned off the engine and got out of the car, followed by Xie Yun and Liang Dacheng carrying the starting handles.

"I'll go see Mingming and Haohao." Li Jianguo was still carrying fish in his hand—this was fish caught by Li Qing Xia and the others with nets yesterday. After taking the nets and sorting them out this morning, he was in a hurry to clean a portion of the crucian carp and a big carp and bring them over.

Gu Xiaoxia heard the movement and also came to the door of the main room. Seeing Li Jianguo, she hurriedly greeted him.

"Are the children sleeping inside?" Not hearing any movement, Li Jianguo handed the fish to Sister Yang who came to take them and asked.

"Not sleeping, they are playing on the bed," Gu Xiaoxia said with a smile.

"Then I'll go see." Li Jianguo walked over, followed by Xie Yun and Liang Dacheng, and then greeted Gu Xiaoxia.

The children were in the inner room. Li Long had specially found someone to make a crib, which was quite wide. Both children were lying on it playing with cloth dolls sewn by Sister Yang.

Hearing the movement, the two children tried hard to look at the door, but they couldn't sit up yet.

Li Jianguo stood at the door of the inner room and didn't go in. He was worried that the cold air he was carrying would affect the babies.

After looking with a smile, he turned and came out. Xie Yun and Liang Dacheng behind him also looked at the door and praised "so obedient."

Indeed, they were very obedient.

Li Long told Gu Xiaoxia, then drove the jeep out and led the way in front.

It would take two or three hours for the tractor to drive to the Taxi River estuary.

After waiting until they walked a few hundred meters into the mountain pass, Li Long saw Tuerxun riding a horse here.

Beside him were three other herdsmen. Seeing Li Long's jeep and the tractors behind coming over, smiles appeared on their faces.

After Li Long's jeep drove to the front of the horse and stopped, Tuerxun stepped forward and shook hands with Li Long with a smile:

"You came quite fast."

Actually, it was already morning, but people in this day and age knew that going out for a trip wasn't easy. Driving a tractor and running like this, arriving here in the morning, showed that they had left quite early.

"Are we going to the grass field now?" Tuerxun asked after Li Long introduced Li Jianguo and the others to him.

He only connected with Li Long, and only shook hands and nodded to the others.

"Let's go now, don't delay time," Li Long said, "Finish cutting early, end early."

"Good, then let's go, go inside, let's go to the first family first."

Tuerxun didn't even introduce these three herdsmen, got on his horse, greeted, and ran forward.

Then the tractors continued to *tut-tut-tut* and follow the jeep.

Entering the third layer of the mountain, it was a fork that Li Long hadn't reached before, where there was a relatively flat slope, by the small river.

Fortunately, the small river was also relatively slow, and the tractor could drive across.

Tuerxun rode his horse over to the edge of the grass field and dismounted. He said to Li Long, who had followed closely and got out of the car:

"Their people came over this morning and marked out the big rocks inside."

Li Long looked up at the slope. This piece of grass field must be over three hundred mu, overall relatively long, and the edges were irregular due to the mountain terrain. There were people walking and patrolling inside the grass field, likely looking for those rocks.

The tractors had all driven over. When walking, Li Long had asked whether his eldest brother and the others should separate and work family by family, or if the three tractors should work on one family together.

Li Jianguo's suggestion was for the three tractors to work together—mainly because Xie Yun understood the Uyghur language and could talk to the herdsmen, making it easy to solve any trouble or difficulties. If the three families worked together, the money would be divided equally, which Li Long felt was also good.

So he said to Tuerxun:

"How many mu is this grass field?"

"Two hundred and sixty mu," Tuerxun said, "I asked, he said it was two hundred and sixty mu when it was divided."

Li Long took a glance, it was about the same, he thought Tuerxun wouldn't be too excessive on this.

After all, this could be measured. If it was really measured and there was a problem, it wouldn't look good for anyone.

"Then let's go by two hundred and sixty mu, a total of three hundred and ninety yuan, right? Trade with things?" Li Long asked.

"Yes, trade with things." Tuerxun didn't say anything about handing over things after the harvest this time. The tractors were already here, it wasn't lacking this little bit. He went to talk to one of the herdsmen, and that herdsman took a sack down from the horse's back and carried it to Li Long.

The sack was bulging, and Li Long opened it to look carefully.

Three wolf hides—looking at the hides, they should have been kept for quite a long time. These three hides occupied most of the space in the sack.

Then there was a deer antler. Li Long picked it up and looked at it, feeling it was over a kilogram.

At the bottom of the sack, there was also a black stone. Li Long bent down to pick it up and look at it; it was a piece of ink jade.

(Note: The text contains a repeating filler phrase here, which is ignored in translation.)

There was very little jasper over at Taxi River; the main production area of jasper was upstream at Maxian, which was inside the mountain pass where Halimu and the others were.

Li Long looked at this piece of ink jade; he couldn't estimate the value.

He looked into the bag again and found another stone at the bottom, a bit bigger than an adult's fist, but the color was very red.

Li Long put down the ink jade and took out the red stone.

Chicken blood stone.

The kind that was particularly red, very bright.

In his previous life, Li Long had seen a piece of chicken blood stone at a domestic exhibition stand in the China Jasper Garden. It was bigger than the one in his hand, but the red color wasn't as bright as this one, it was dark, and there wasn't as much of it.

At that time, the owner of the exhibition stand said that stone was worth hundreds of thousands. At the time, Li Long felt that the person had some elements of bragging, but even if it was reduced by ten times, being worth tens of thousands was fine.

This piece was almost entirely bright red, and it felt oily and moist to the touch; it should be much better than that one.

It should be a good stone. Li Long weighed it and said:

"Fine, just these."

Tuerxun was originally worried that Li Long would say it wasn't enough. After all, in his view, these things were far from enough for three hundred and ninety yuan.

But Li Long agreed just like that, making Tuerxun feel that Li Long's eye for things wasn't good.

However, being able to save money for his tribesmen was also a good thing.

Except for this piece of chicken blood stone, the remaining wolf hides and deer antlers added up to less than three hundred yuan. But Li Long knew this piece of chicken blood stone wasn't simple, so he carried the things and said to Li Jianguo and the others:

"Eldest brother, I'll take the things to trade for money. The three hundred and ninety yuan harvesting fee, I'll divide it for you after I trade for money here. You have to cut this nearly three hundred mu of land for a day. I'll come over again in the afternoon. At that time, we'll see the situation. If it's not finished, we'll stay here. If it's finished, we'll go to the next family."

Three hundred and ninety yuan, one hundred and thirty a day for one person—this money... was too easy to earn!

"Don't be too fast when you cut grass. Although they marked out the rocks, you still have to be careful. You all brought the harvester's tool kits, right?"

All three nodded.

"There are blades inside. If a blade is broken, just take it off and replace it with one. But missing one or two blades doesn't affect cutting grass. You don't have to be too rigorous when cutting grass; cutting wheat is different from this."

"Fine, you go do your business," Li Jianguo waved his hand, "We have to work."

Li Long was about to leave, and Tuerxun was about to greet the other two herdsmen to leave. But one of them ran to Li Long's jeep, pulling the car door and gesturing while speaking.

Li Long couldn't quite understand.

Tuerxun came over to translate:

"That red stone, do you want it?"

"Yes, I want it." Li Long thought to himself, could it be that he also had one? This thing wasn't that easy to pick up, right?

"I have some at home too, can it be used to pay for the grass-cutting money?"

"I'll go to your place tomorrow or the day after, look at the situation of the stones. If it's also this red..." Li Long took out that piece and gestured, "Then that's good."

Li Long drove the jeep away. Li Jianguo and the three of them discussed, and the three of them separated to work. The three tractors on the left, middle, and right started together—the scene was quite shocking—at least in this era, it was like that.

Watching the tractors *tut-tut-tut* all the way up, the grass fell down in a piece, arranged neatly. The herdsmen watching were really sighing.

Although Tuerxun had seen it, looking at the three tractors walking together now, he was shocked again.

This money, it really should be earned by them.

If they had to use sickles to cut grass, how long would it take to equal one lap of others? At least a few days, right?

Tuerxun didn't quite understand why Li Long wanted that red stone. It was neither jade nor a gemstone, it just had a bright color, it was actually just a stone, it wasn't valuable at all.

Even the acquisition station didn't want it.

He thought for a while, only feeling that Li Long was young, inexperienced, and thought he had picked up a treasure.

Still too young!

Forget it, don't care, anyway, it didn't concern his own business, it was his choice.

"If you can find that kind of red stone tomorrow, give it to him. But the things can't be too few. Maybe he will regret it tomorrow, that red stone isn't worth anything." Tuerxun said to the second herdsman.

"Then what about me?" the third herdsman asked.

"You wait first, go and pick out the rocks, wood stumps, and such in your grass field, don't break the harvester," Tuerxun instructed, "Go back and tell everyone, it can all be cut. You have all seen it, this grass-cutting speed is very fast, don't be in a hurry."

The two herdsmen got on their horses and rushed to their own grass fields, while Tuerxun went toward the animal husbandry team.

He still had his own things to do and couldn't stay here for too long.

It was already noon when Li Long's jeep drove back to the county. Gu Xiaoxia, Gu Bo Yuan, Sister Yang, and the others were eating.

Li Long coming back surprised them. Sister Yang hurriedly went to serve rice for Li Long—it was rice at noon.

"I came back after settling the matter," Li Long washed his hands and ate, explaining while eating.

"Is there any problem with your brother and the others over there?" Gu Bo Yuan had already learned the ins and outs of the matter from Gu Xiaoxia and asked.

"No problem. Brother Yun understands Uyghur and can communicate with them. When I go over tomorrow, I'll pull a few barrels of fuel over for them to add. At that time, if they have any difficulties, I'll solve them one by one."

Li Long had to run between two ends this time, but this was nothing. Anyway, the jeep ran fast. Although the road conditions weren't great, it was much better than driving a tractor and bumping along.

And it earned money.

He gave all the grass-cutting money to his eldest brother and the three of them according to the fixed price—but just by reselling these things, he could earn quite a lot from it.

For example, this piece of chicken blood stone, it might not be sold right now, but after a few years, it would definitely have a good price.

Anyway, it wasn't a loss.

After eating, Li Long took the hides and deer antlers he had brought from Halimu and the others a few days ago, along with today's, to the acquisition station.

Chen Hongjun happened to be there. After Li Long sold the hides, he chatted with him about the chicken blood stone.

"We definitely don't collect chicken blood stone, we don't even collect jade," Chen Hongjun's reply didn't surprise Li Long at all.

"However, chicken blood stone is a good thing. If the blood color is bright and full, it's priced by the gram," Chen Hongjun also knew a little, "There are people in the city who collect this, there are few people playing with this around here."

Li Long nodded, then let's keep it first, and sell it when there is a suitable opportunity later.

Anyway, it was a profit no matter how you look at it.

Just these hides and deer antlers today were worth quite a lot—he didn't sell the bear skin and snow leopard skin, they were useful.

Very useful. (End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 695 =====