Chapter 700

The Bayi Agricultural College had already started the semester. The start date for universities at this time felt about the same as for primary and secondary schools; it wouldn't change as much as in later generations.

Li Long arrived at the school gate with his backpack, showed his work ID, and stated that he wanted to see Professor Wu.

The guard checked Li Long's work ID very carefully and also asked Li Long to explain his relationship with Professor Wu and the reason for his visit.

After clarifying these things, he made an internal call inside. After hanging up, he told Li Long that Professor Wu had gone to teach a class and asked him to wait there for twenty minutes.

Waiting was fine; he only had this one thing to do today anyway, so Li Long wasn't in a hurry. He waited outside the main gate with his backpack on.

Perhaps feeling he was too conspicuous, he stepped back to the side of the road, found a clean stone, took off his backpack and placed it on the stone, and stood to one side observing the university.

In Li Long's eyes, the Bayi Agricultural College—which would later become the Agricultural University—was still very impressive. Of course, its ranking might not be great later on, but it was truly solving the problems of agriculture and farmers.

Of course, he hadn't been to university, so he was just guessing.

Occasionally, students or teachers would walk or ride bicycles in and out, and those who did would basically all take a look at Li Long.

During class time, some sounds could be heard faintly from inside, but they weren't loud. After all, this wasn't a primary or secondary school; there was no need for collective recitation or anything like that.

Having lived two lives, Li Long's highest educational qualification was middle school, so he was quite curious about university.

It was just that he was already past the age for school, so for now, he could only sigh with emotion.

Twenty minutes passed quickly. The guard, being dutiful, opened the gate and called for Li Long to come in.

"Don't run around after you go in. Many students are in class, so don't disturb them. You know where Professor Wu's office is, right?"

"Yes, I do," Li Long said, describing the location of the office. The guard nodded and let him in.

The management was still quite strict.

Li Long entered the school gate. Although he remained curious about the inside of the school, he only looked left and right as he passed by, focusing mainly on walking toward Professor Wu's office.

As he approached the office, Li Long saw the door was open. Professor Wu wasn't sitting at her desk; she was at the filing cabinet organizing documents.

Li Long went to the doorway and knocked on the door frame. Professor Wu turned her head, was stunned for a moment upon seeing Li Long, then remembered, turned around with a document in her hand, and said with a smile:

"You're that... Little Li who grows melons, right?"

"Yes, that's me."

"Come, come, come, please sit." Professor Wu smiled, cleared some materials off the two-seater wooden sofa, and gestured for Li Long to sit down.

As Li Long took off his backpack and sat down, Professor Wu had already poured him a large mug of water:

"Here, Little Li, drink some water."

"Thank you," Li Long said, taking the water and asking, "Did the professor just finish teaching?"

"Yes, just finished." Professor Wu sat behind her desk and asked with a smile, "Did you grow melons again this year? How is the situation now?"

"They got pests a while ago. We followed the method you taught us to mix the medicine and treat them, and we've already gotten rid of them. The melons are growing well this year and have set plenty of fruit. It's just that most of us in the countryside haven't had formal training, so we're reluctant to pick off the late-setting melons, thinking that more is better..."

"That's fine, take it slow." Professor Wu listened to what Li Long said and nodded, saying, "Some scientific planting methods and technologies need to be practiced before they can be accepted; this is a long-term process."

Li Long understood this point. The further along they went, the more everyone would realize the benefits of scientific farming—soil testing, plastic mulching, large-scale operations, and so on. Farmers were also moving forward while exploring and learning.

Professor Wu was still very concerned about the current development of the countryside and kept asking Li Long questions. Fortunately, although Li Long hadn't spent much time in the production team this year, he still understood the team's agricultural production and could generally answer them.

When she had asked enough, Professor Wu sighed with emotion:

"When we went to exchange ideas with other agricultural colleges from 'inside the pass' this summer, we found that our side and the Northeast side were developing quite well in terms of mechanization. The foundation for large-scale planting is there, and farmers have a relatively high level of recognition and acceptance regarding planting diversity and economic crops..."

Li Long listened to Professor Wu's words and nodded continuously. Combining this with the situation of the farmers in his own team, he felt Professor Wu was right.

"... Large-scale planting and mechanized planting will definitely have some negative impacts, but from the current perspective, the advantages are still very obvious..."

"It's just that the development of high-horsepower machinery is still a bit slow." Li Long thought about how it would be another ten years or so before he could drive a high-horsepower tractor, and couldn't help but complain.

"It's already very good." Professor Wu wasn't an expert in this area, but she knew some information. "Our country's heavy industry development has a foundation, but wanting to progress also requires a process. After all..."

Some things didn't need to be said too clearly. In short, both of them knew the prospects were very good, but it would take time.

Li Long took a sip of water from the mug, set down the white porcelain mug, turned around, and took something out of his backpack:

"Professor, these are peaches I bought from the roadside on the way here. They taste good, and crisp peaches can keep for a few days."

Li Long had brought quite a few peaches.

He had bought two crates from the peach seller yesterday, and he had given one crate to Director Qian and Xiao Si, which was a significant amount.

He hadn't touched the other crate yesterday, and it didn't seem to have changed much after sitting overnight. This morning, Li Long took five or six kilograms, put them in a bag, and placed them in his backpack; he felt that any more would be too heavy for Professor Wu to carry.

Looking at the large, beautiful-colored peaches, Professor Wu said with a smile:

"Not bad, not bad. We have peaches growing in the experimental fields of our agricultural college, and we ate some in August, but they really weren't this big or this beautiful."

She could accept Li Long giving her some fruit.

But after Li Long took the peaches out and placed them on the desk, he took another bag out of his backpack and said:

"A while ago, I was helping friends in the mountains cut pasture grass, and they gave me some things, so I brought them along."

Five branches of snow lotus that had already been air-dried, and a complete roe deer skin. He had given jade carvings last year, so he didn't give any this year.

These were all considered local specialties.

Skins were still very valuable items these days, and Li Long explained that this was a roe deer skin from the mountains, to avoid Professor Wu mistaking it for goat skin.

"This is too valuable..." Professor Wu immediately wanted to refuse, but Li Long explained the reason:

"Professor, do you know? The year before last, I bought those melon seeds from you. My brother planted them last year, and the total income was several thousand yuan.

The seeds kept this year were distributed to seven or eight families to plant, and the planting area expanded more than tenfold. Even if the price drops a bit this year, it's enough to let seven or eight farming households reach the threshold of being 'ten-thousand-yuan households.'

Just for this, the things I'm giving you are still too light..."

Professor Wu only researched agricultural seeds, fertilizers, and related professional knowledge; she didn't do much research on the prices of agricultural products. Hearing Li Long say this, she smiled, her expression carrying a bit of pleasant surprise:

"Is it really like that? That's truly wonderful. We who study agriculture exist to serve agriculture and farmers. Being able to let farmers become wealthy is truly fulfilling our purpose! Good, good, good, I will accept these things."

Compared to specific information about becoming wealthy, Professor Wu was most concerned about relevant data on agricultural planting. The general aspect was the planting structure of a place, such as the proportion of the planting area for food crops, oil crops, and economic crops.

The second was yield and major pests and diseases, the average yield of various crops, pests and diseases at various time periods, harvest periods, and so on.

Li Long had been in the Fourth Team for ten years. Although he had mainly been making money in the last two years, he still had the relevant data in his memory. He had participated a little in the planting and harvesting in the fields the year before last, so he basically knew some of it.

They talked until almost lunchtime, when Professor Wu stopped, still feeling unfulfilled, and invited Li Long to have dinner at her home.

Li Long refused, making an excuse that he had other things to do, and left the Bayi Agricultural College.

Before leaving, Professor Wu told Li Long to bring some more seeds when the melons were harvested; the school would use them as samples, and they might have experimental fields for research next year.

Li Long naturally agreed—when he came out, he was still wondering if any of the students Professor Wu taught were doing research in this area, which would be a perfect opportunity to share knowledge.

Professor Wu watched Li Long's back as he left, thinking to herself that it was a pity this child hadn't gone to university. He understood a lot, had a clear sense of awe for agricultural science and technology, and had a very clear idea of using technology to revitalize agriculture.

It was a pity his initial educational qualification was too low.

After coming out of the college, he went to the hostel to check out, drove the jeep out, and headed west. Li Long planned to go to that market in Beiting as soon as possible to see if the peach seller was still there.

Although there were some peaches in the car, he wanted to buy more so he could share them with more families when he got back.

The Fourth Team also grew peaches, but they were all hairy peaches. The peach tree saplings Li Long bought last year hadn't borne fruit yet. Maxian also grew peaches, and in two years, they would breed the "May Fairy Peach."

Twenty or thirty years later, the peach industry in Liangzhou, south of the Wuyi Highway, would have scale, and Li Long would often drive there to buy peaches.

From June until October, there would be a continuous supply of various peach varieties.

But right now, there really wasn't this variety, nor peaches that were this delicious and this large. Just as he was about to leave Wucheng, Li Long's jeep stopped.

There were two melon stalls on the side of the road, one selling watermelons and one selling sweet melons.

Locals called cantaloupes "sweet melons"—or rather, they basically called all melons other than watermelons "sweet melons," including but not limited to cantaloupes, muskmelons, Hami melons, Bailan melons, and so on.

Maxian also sold sweet melons, but they were mostly mobile stalls driven in cars. There were markets, but they were few, and if you went late, they were all the ones others had picked over.

So Li Long planned to buy some sweet melons to take back, so he could share them as well.

After getting out of the car, he saw that these sweet melons were not small, and there was half a cut one placed to the side with a small knife stuck in it.

Seeing Li Long come over, the *Adashi* (friend) selling the melons stood up quickly and said:

"Buying sweet melons? They're delicious! Come, come, come, have a taste, have a taste..." As he spoke, he cut a slice of sweet melon and handed it to Li Long.

Li Long tasted it; it was indeed sweet. There weren't as many tricks as in later generations; Li Long had encountered this when he went to a certain regiment farm to buy yellow peaches in later years. He had also eaten a slice, and it tasted really sweet at the time, so he bought twenty kilograms, only to find out when he got them back that they weren't sweet at all.

He later found out that the knife used to cut the peaches had been smeared with sugar water.

"How much per kilogram?"

【No errors, no omissions, read the content at a glance!】

"Nine cents," the *Adashi* said. "If you buy a lot, it's cheaper."

"If I buy a sack, how much cheaper can it be?"

"A sack, seven cents per kilogram!" the *Adashi* said generously. "The more you buy, the cheaper it is!"

"Alright, fill a sack." Li Long actually wanted to buy more, but unfortunately, the jeep was only so big. The limitations of a small car were reflected at this moment.

These sweet melons were five or six kilograms each, and they were large. When the *Adashi* picked them, he also picked the ripe ones.

Li Long felt that in this respect, some *Adashi* had a better way of selling things.

In his previous life, he had encountered ethnic people selling apricots in Yili. They would wholesale two crates of apricots from the wholesale market in the east of the city, then dump them onto a felt-covered cart and hawk them along the streets and alleys.

People who came to buy could pick whatever they wanted, and everyone basically picked the yellow, soft, ripe ones, and the *Adashi* would even help pick these ripe ones.

Because apricots would ripen quickly after being picked, even if they were half-green and half-yellow, the green ones were hard and could be stored. So the yellow, ripe ones were picked away, and the remaining green ones would be half-yellow after a day.

In this way, after wholesaling two crates of apricots, they would be sold out in two days, basically with no waste, and the customers were satisfied.

Some Han merchants did the opposite, as if they were afraid that if the customers picked the ripe ones, the green ones would be hard to sell. One way was not to let them pick at all, but to scoop them directly into the bag; whether you got green or ripe ones depended on your luck.

Another way was for the merchant to pack them, and the merchant might even deliberately pack more green ones, keeping the ripe ones because they felt they would be easier to sell later.

How to put it? In any case, Li Long was speechless.

Of course, it wasn't absolute; after all, what he encountered was only a very small minority.

The *Adashi* before him was like this: the not-so-ripe sweet melons were hard and could be kept for two more days; the ripe ones would become soft, so sell those first. The ripe ones were sweet, and people liked to eat them when they took them back.

Li Long bought a sack and took a few more to make eighty kilograms, which came to less than six yuan.

Really cheap!

More than ten years later, he had also sold similar large sweet melons at the WLMQ South Railway Station, five or six kilograms each, the kind that were fully ripe, for one yuan each, which was also extremely cheap—sold by an old Uyghur man at a stall.

Later on, Li Long didn't seem to have eaten particularly ripe sweet melons again—the sweet melons seen in supermarkets or at stalls all had stems.

When melons are ripe, the stems fall off; sweet melons with stems are picked before they are ripe, so the taste is different.

This is just like people here eating durian; many people from other places have never eaten a fully ripe sweet melon either.

After buying the sweet melons and loading them into the car, he went to ask about watermelons. The watermelon stall was only seven or eight meters away, run by a middle-aged Han man wearing a straw hat.

"Old fellow, how much for the watermelons?"

"Eight cents," the old fellow said with a chuckle.

Li Long turned and walked away. Did he really think that because he was driving a jeep, he could be slaughtered like a sucker?

Seeing Li Long walk away so decisively, the old fellow immediately shouted loudly:

"Seven cents... I'll sell them for six cents!"

Li Long ignored him, got into the car, and drove away.

Although the watermelon season was slowly starting to end, the price of mainstream watermelons was still five cents; this old fellow wasn't honest.

Li Long ignored the melon seller's shouting and drove the jeep all the way to that market in Beiting.

Not long after getting out of the car, he found the person selling peaches; they were still there.

It was still two crates of peaches, and less than a quarter of the thirty kilograms of peaches had been sold.

There were still people gathered around, but more were haggling than buying; everyone still felt they were expensive.

He didn't know if it was because Li Long had bought out both crates yesterday, but the seller still wouldn't lower the price this time.

Li Long didn't have time to wait. He pushed aside the people haggling and watching the excitement in front and said directly to the peach seller:

"How much is left? I'll take it all—yesterday's price, how about it?"

"Good, good, good!" The peach seller looked up, saw it was Li Long, and immediately stood up with a smile, hooked the carrying pole onto the crates, and said:

"Where is the car?"

"One more condition: give me the two crates. I have no way to carry them otherwise."

"This... that's fine." The peach seller thought to himself, how much were these crates worth? Two old crates together didn't exceed two yuan, but this crate and a half of peaches could sell for thirty or forty yuan. It was worth it, it was worth it.

Some people were unconvinced and wanted to say something, but some recognized Li Long as the one who bought the peaches yesterday and explained it to them.

He was a big spender with money; if you weren't buying, don't be unconvinced.

Li Long paid thirty-five yuan for the crate and a half of peaches; actually, it was like buying the crates too. But he didn't count that little bit of money.

There were people selling melons at the head of the market, so Li Long went over and asked. Watermelons were five cents, which was the market price. There were cut ones, and Li Long looked and tasted one; it was sandy and very sweet, so he bought a sack of those too.

Now the jeep was full. After Li Long took out the oil drum and added fuel, he headed west.

He ate on the way in Dafeng Town; it was already afternoon by then. When he was almost at the county seat, he turned south and drove directly to the pastoral team's holding point.

It had been a while since he had come to see Halimu and Yushanjiang's families, so Li Long came to check on the situation.

As he drove into the village and before he reached Halimu's house, Li Long ran into Captain Adili.

Captain Adili was a bit surprised to see Li Long, but he immediately realized that Li Long was here to visit Halimu and Yushanjiang's families. He greeted Li Long with a smile and then went back to his own business.

Li Long drove to the gate of Halimu's courtyard and saw that there were still people in the courtyard pressing the well to get water.

The well platform had been reinforced with cement and bricks and was quite sturdy. The people getting water were also quite orderly, lining up without fighting or scrambling.

Halimu's mother was sitting at the entrance, using a chopstick through a potato as a spindle to spin wool.

Seeing Li Long, the old lady stood up with a smile, saying something in a language Li Long still couldn't understand.

Li Long was a bit speechless. Actually, he had always wanted to learn the Kazakh and Uyghur languages, but every time he ran into Halimu and Yushanjiang, he would forget about it. By the time he remembered, there was no one around who could teach him, so he put it aside.

Fortunately, there were people among those getting water who understood Chinese. After exchanging a few words, Li Long left some sweet melons, watermelons, and peaches, and then went to Yushanjiang's house.

There were also people getting water at Yushanjiang's house. These two wells had now become the main source of water for the whole village, which Li Long thought was actually quite good.

He stayed there for an even shorter time. The children weren't there, and Li Long confirmed that Yushanjiang and the others had returned from cutting grass and that the family wasn't lacking anything, so he said goodbye and left.

He still had to hurry home—he had to go to the Fourth Team as well. Watermelons and sweet melons were fine, but he had to share the peaches he brought back.

They wouldn't keep well. (End of chapter)