Chapter 707: If You Want to Earn My Money, Then You Must Bow Your Head

Cutting feather grass isn't exhausting work, but to tie qualified large brooms, the feather grass must be selected for length, the stalks must be uniform in thickness, and a certain number of red willow branches must be included to prevent breakage due to the feather grass being too brittle.

This year, the price of large feather grass brooms has risen, and the quantity is also high; every household wants to earn some extra pocket money during the gaps between harvesting corn and oil sunflowers—not to mention anything else, working hard for half a month is enough to earn a set of clothes for the whole family, old and young.

Therefore, not only are the adults working, but children over seven or eight years old are also busy.

After school and finishing their homework, the children go to the Red Willow Beach to snap off red willow branches; if they carry an armful of red willow branches home before dark, they are sure to hear praise from their parents.

Some older children, however, set their sights on the thick stalks in the Red Willow Beach, and disputes and shoving matches even occur over a single stalk.

Usually, no fights break out, because children lack the strength to snap off and carry back such thick stalks; they have to go home and tell the adults.

This is the third year of tying large brooms, and stalks are certainly insufficient, so everyone first cuts the feather grass, dries it, uses wooden stakes and wire to tie the large brooms together, and then waits for the stalks.

Thus, every day at the crack of dawn, the sound of "thump, thump, thump" from hammering in wooden stakes can be heard in the courtyards of every household.

Some people feel their home courtyards are not spacious enough, so they go to the main gate or the wheat threshing floor to tie the brooms, bringing them back only after finishing.

Usually, a husband and wife work together: the wife brushes off the excess leaves from the feather grass stems and assists, while the husband does the main tying.

Some young people are not very skilled at tying, so they learn from their elders; now everyone clearly understands this is a long-term job, and the gossip about quality that Li Long mentioned has already been spread throughout the entire village by Xu Haijun.

Now, when everyone ties large brooms, they feel a sense of pride and are even more attentive; after all, if the quality fails to meet standards, it would be slapping Fourth Squad in the face.

While Li Long was discussing this matter at Passing Qingshuihe, Li Jianguo had already driven the tractor to transport people to the wooden cabin in the mountains.

Besides Lu Yingming, those who came with Li Jianguo included Tao Tao Jian, Jia Weidong, He Jianxin, Wei Dahai, and five others in total.

Among these five people, except for Jia Weidong who was slightly younger, the others were all in their thirties or forties and above, belonging to the same generation as Li Jianguo and his group.

At the time, Lu Yingming wanted to cut stalks together with Li Jianguo, who told him to call a few more people, so Lu Yingming summoned these individuals; Jia Weidong happened to be discussing matters with Tao Daqiang at that moment, seized the opportunity, and simply came along.

He had entered the mountains before and knew that many stalks grew in certain gullies within the mountains; as long as they flew Li Long's banner, they certainly would not be caught by the forest rangers.

With each stalk worth seven or eight mao, cutting over a hundred stalks a day was no problem, making money much faster than tying large brooms.

The main issue was that competition for feather grass near the squad was too fierce; he did not want to participate in that competition, so he simply switched tracks.

What Li Jianguo did not expect was that someone was actually living in the wooden cabin here—people he did not recognize.

Li Jianguo knew that Li Long had once let that little Sun, who dug for fritillaria bulbs, stay there for a while, but these two people were clearly not them.

These two people looked somewhat bewildered upon seeing Li Jianguo and his group, yet they still forced themselves to remain calm, holding their clubs as they asked Li Jianguo, who had just gotten off the tractor:

"What are you doing?"

"What are we doing? We should be asking what you are doing!" Lu Yingming and the others all knew Sun Jia Qiang; seeing at a glance that these two were clearly not him, and noticing that the lock on the door latch had been pried off, he jumped off the tractor holding a machete and shouted loudly:

"Do you know whose house this is that you're living in? You even dare to pry the lock? I think you're tired of living!"

Li Jianguo and his group outnumbered them, and furthermore, they were in the right, so each one spoke with great confidence.

"That... that still doesn't prove it's yours!" Although those two felt somewhat guilty, they were unwilling to give up such a good place; the one who spoke first said, "There's no one inside..."

"Just because no one is inside means you can pry someone's lock?" Li Jianguo walked over holding a crank handle, his face filled with anger, "Put down your sticks; let me see what kind of mess you've made inside. If you've damaged the wooden kang or anything else, or ruined any items, you'd better prepare to compensate!"

He pushed the two aside and entered the main room; seeing the quilts and bedding already in use, the cooking stove, the pickle jars tossed into chaos, and the enamel basins holding oil and meat, his expression turned grim.

"You two are quite bold." Li Jianguo went to check the small room as well, finding that some items inside had also been used; there were two burlap sacks in the room, and bending down to rummage through them, he discovered they contained dried mushrooms and similar items, though not many.

Presumably, since those forest rangers came by occasionally, these two people had not been living here for long.

"Let me tell you clearly: this wooden cabin belongs to my family; you used the items inside, wasting quite a bit, not to mention making them dirty and unusable for the future. Now, you two go wash everything inside; scrub it clean, or I'll beat you to death!"

Lu Yingming said several things they refused to admit, but Li Jianguo didn't care whether they admitted it or not; he simply pinned the blame on them directly, and these two immediately became obedient.

After all, several others were watching them while holding machetes; if they didn't comply, here in this desolate wilderness, if Li Jianguo truly led people to hack them to pieces, there would be nowhere to report the crime.

Although the two wore expressions of extreme reluctance, they could only obediently throw down their clubs; one cleaned the room while the other went to wash the bedding. At first, the two argued over who had to do the washing, neither wanting to do it, but the moment Li Jianguo picked up a club and raised it, they immediately stopped arguing.

The others were not idle either; they took the quilts and bedding off the tractor, and the six people split into two groups: four staying in the large room and two in the small room. Since they were out here to work and earn money, squeezing together a bit wouldn't affect anything.

Li Jianguo and his group did not make things difficult for these two; after having them wash the bedding and sweep and clean the mess they had made in the room, they let them leave.

As they were leaving, Li Jianguo scared them a bit more, telling them that he had recorded their identities and would inform the other forest rangers; if they ever returned here to cause destruction in the future, they would be arrested.

Those two immediately grabbed their belongings and ran into the forest; in truth, they had intended to seek revenge, but hearing Li Jianguo's words, they no longer dared to harbor any other thoughts. Among this group, they saw Li Jianguo carrying a hunting rifle, and they also knew that those forest rangers all carried guns; if they were truly caught, there would be no escape.

Li Jianguo and his group had brought their own dry rations and naan bread, so this time there was no dedicated cook. Originally, they thought that if one person cut well, they could cut over a hundred stalks a day; with six people, they could get seven or eight hundred stalks daily, and in three to five days, they would have gathered nearly enough stalks for the entire squad, allowing them to return directly.

Therefore, they would just make do with their meals; fortunately, there were still mushrooms on the nearby grassy slopes, and some wild vegetables could be gathered, scalded simply in boiling water, then mixed with vinegar and chili oil served cold alongside steamed buns, which tasted quite flavorful.

Of course, red fermented bean curd was indispensable.

Li Long had told Li Jianguo that his original intention was for Fourth Squad to tie four thousand brooms and for Passing Qingshuihe to tie four thousand brooms, which would be sufficient; of course, if either side achieved higher quality and tied faster, finishing early was also acceptable.

Therefore, Li Jianguo thought that these six people could cut nearly enough stalks in three to five days—after all, there were places near the squad where stalks could be cut, so gathering nearly a thousand stalks should not be a problem.

The key was to enter and exit quickly so they could return in time to tie large brooms; after all, during the first few days, the main task was cutting and drying feather grass, so the feather grass everyone was currently using to tie large brooms was stockpiled beforehand.

Li Long's next task was to collect the large brooms every day, which was a somewhat troublesome matter.

But this was something that had to be done; he had already planned it out himself: spend the morning at Passing Qingshuihe and the afternoon at Fourth Squad, without needing to start too early, just like going to work—go early, return early, and collect however many there were.

Thinking that he would need to drive the tractor for this later, Li Long felt somewhat worried; he had originally thought that getting a car would make things easier in the future, but now it seemed that having only a jeep was not enough; given his current situation, it would be best to get a truck.

Currently, trucks were not yet sold to private individuals; they had to be affiliated with a unit, a transportation company, a motor pool, or various large units that had transportation operations.

Li Long wondered if, after this work was finished, he should ask Xiang Qian or Director Qian to see if there were any leads on second-hand trucks elsewhere.

After all, every year he had many tasks just transporting lifting poles, fritillaria bulbs, large brooms, and sugar residue.

Relying solely on finding other people's vehicles meant utilizing time after getting off work, which was quite troublesome.

Because of that rumor, Li Long attached great importance to these large brooms; he did not want quality issues with one or two large brooms to prevent him from undertaking this work in the future—in fact, in his previous life, this line of work truly disappeared after only a few years.

Therefore, Li Long believed this quite firmly and, conversely, placed even greater emphasis on it; he planned to inspect and collect all the brooms every day, storing them in his own courtyard, which was large enough to pile them up; when there was no more space, he would simply deliver them to the supply and marketing cooperative.

After eating breakfast early in the morning, Gu Gu Xiaoxia played with the two children for a while before going to work, while Li Long left the jeep aside and drove the tractor to Passing Qingshuihe to collect large brooms.

It must be said that the efficiency on the Passing Qingshuihe side was indeed higher, and they cherished this year's opportunity even more, handing over more than three hundred brooms on the very first day.

After Li Long inspected them, he found that three hundred and one were qualified, which was a lot.

A wooden frame was tied onto the tractor; otherwise, these three hundred brooms truly could not be transported.

"If it's like this every day, I'll complete my task in ten days or so," Li Long said with a smile to He Yuqing and Meng Hai, who were helping with the inspection.

"It won't be that easy," Meng Hai shook his head: "The reason so many large brooms could be tied is that the squad members prepared some feather grass in advance; this feather grass will be used up in two days, and afterward, materials will need to be prepared again. The feather grass must be cut and dried, and the bark stripped, so things will definitely slow down later." Li Long thought about it and agreed; it couldn't be rushed, but since the pass rate for these large brooms was quite high, he was quite satisfied.

The money was handed out on the spot, so the team members were naturally very satisfied.

Li Long didn't leave until after lunch; otherwise, He Yuqing wouldn't have let him go, and upon his departure, she even packed him some cleaned Gaoshan loaches along with two roosters and two hens.

"Our village doesn't have any special local products, so we don't know what to give you; please take these things home to nourish your family, as a token of our team's goodwill."

Li Long didn't refuse and took them, telling He Yuqing that he definitely wouldn't be eating lunch tomorrow since he had to visit other teams to collect large brooms and wouldn't have time.

Upon hearing this, He Yuqing and Meng Hai exchanged a glance, both understanding that their team faced fierce competition.

They couldn't afford to be careless!

Li Long drove the tractor nonstop back to the large courtyard with the large brooms; after unloading, he handed the chickens and fish to Sister Yang, ate two wedges of melon himself, finished unloading the brooms, and without resting, headed straight to the Fourth Small Team.

When he arrived at the team leader's home, Xu Chengjun was in the courtyard tying large brooms, with two already finished lying there; nearby, Ma Hongmei, wearing a headscarf, was spreading freshly cut ji-ji grass in the yard to dry.

Seeing Li Long arrive on the tractor, Xu Chengjun didn't stand up, asking instead, "What's this about?"

"What else could it be but collecting large brooms?" Li Long said with a smile. "In another day or two, the team should have tied quite a few; I need to collect them now, otherwise, once they accumulate, it'll be hard to gather them all."

Not a single mistake, every word published internally!

"That's true. As it happens, I tied two today; see if they pass muster." Xu Chengjun pointed to the two brooms beside him. "The team probably won't have many, mainly because there are too few stalks."

"We'll take whatever there is." Li Long pointed toward the inner room and said, "I'll make the announcement first, then inspect yours."

"Alright."

Li Long entered the house, flipped the electric switch for the loudspeaker, tested the sound, and began shouting.

He repeated it three times; the main content was that every afternoon he would wait in the Li family courtyard to collect large brooms for two hours, where finished brooms could be brought for inspection and acceptance, with payment made on the spot for those that passed.

After speaking, Li Long turned off the loudspeaker, walked out to Xu Chengjun, and said half-jokingly:

"Team Leader, don't think that just because we have a good relationship, I'll accept these if they don't meet standards."

"Rest assured; I was trained in the army, after all, so I wouldn't do such things. Inspect them carefully; the reputation of our Fourth Small Team is important."

Li Long picked up one large broom and yanked hard at the ji-ji grass in the middle, but it didn't come loose.

Since his strength was great, he used his own pulling power as the standard: if it came loose, it failed; if it didn't, it passed.

Of course, for large brooms tied by ordinary people, most couldn't pull the middle ji-ji grass loose anyway, since the grass was driven in using stakes.

Even if a broom didn't pass, an ordinary person still couldn't pull it out; it's just that the force used during sweeping differs, so poorly tied ones might start shedding ji-ji grass within three to five days and then become useless.

Since Li Long couldn't pull it loose and saw that the broom was tied in a standard, proper manner, he smiled and said:

"This one passes; three yuan fifty."

The other broom was the same; Li Long placed both brooms into the tractor's cargo bed, took out money, counted out seven yuan, and handed it to Xu Chengjun.

"Hey, not bad." Xu Chengjun took the money, tucked it into his left upper breast pocket, buttoned it, and patted it, saying, "Then you go ahead; before dark, I'll see if I can tie two more."

Li Long drove the tractor back to his front courtyard, turned off the engine, got out, and went to the back courtyard to see his mother.

His eldest sister-in-law wasn't there; his mother, Du Chunfang, said she had gone to the melon fields.

"Your sister-in-law said there's some ji-ji grass at the edge of our field; she cut some to bring back, wondering if we could tie some large brooms with it later."

Li Long naturally understood that in his sister-in-law's eyes, tying large brooms was odd-job work; although it earned money, working the melon fields was more important.

Last year's income from ten mu of melon fields had given her tremendous confidence; after the household responsibility system allocated land to individual families, she realized farming could actually earn so much money!

After chatting briefly with Du Chunfang, Li Long went to the front courtyard.

Less than twenty minutes after Li Long arrived in the front courtyard, someone arrived leading a horse-drawn cart loaded with a full cart of large brooms.

Li Long looked and was somewhat surprised; the person was Zhang Qiang.

How did he have the nerve to show up?

Last year, in order to make money, Zhang Qiang had tried to intercept Li Long's business, only to end up stuck with fifteen hundred large brooms himself; ultimately, forced by his father-in-law, he had to go to Shicheng every day to sell them.

Later, Li Long heard that Zhang Qiang could still make some money selling brooms, but this depended on the season; selling goods on Shicheng's Old Street in winter was no easy task, requiring one to stay there all day.

Those with money could go to a milk tea shop for a drink; otherwise, enduring temperatures below minus twenty degrees Celsius was unbearable—with nighttime lows reaching minus thirty degrees and early mornings hitting minus thirty, standing on the street for even a moment, even with a hat on, would turn one's eyebrows and beard white.

It was nearly enough for dripping water to freeze instantly.

Originally, Li Long thought Zhang Qiang had toughened up, but unexpectedly, today he had brought large brooms again—had he changed his ways, or was he coming to reconcile?

However, a single glance from Li Long revealed that these large brooms were indeed old, not new.

The ji-ji grass had turned gray, with some already showing gray spots.

Moreover, because they had been stacked long-term rather than leaned vertically against a wall, the large brooms had become deformed.

There were twenty to thirty brooms in this cart; before Zhang Qiang even reached the gate, Li Long said to him:

"Zhang Qiang, I won't accept these brooms; take them away."

"Won't accept them? Why not?" The smile Zhang Qiang had just plastered on his face froze. "These brooms haven't been used even once; they're practically new. Look how straight the handles are, and the brooms have been reinforced with red willow and tied firmly..."

"The ji-ji grass is old and brittle." Li Long shook his head. "Tied last year, they definitely won't do this year. You'd better sell them at the market; I won't accept them here!"

This fellow had quite the audacity; last year he bought them at two yuan fifty, and this year he hoped to sell them to Li Long at three yuan fifty, making a pure profit of one yuan.

If these large brooms were from this year, that would be fine, but trying to sell last year's stock to him? Was he treating Li Long like a fool?

"Accepting your brooms is also about fulfilling the quota; it's not entirely up to you, is it?" Zhang Qiang lacked last year's arrogance this time, even sounding somewhat humble and supplicating. "Xiao Long, please show some mercy and do me a favor; I still have several hundred of these. Just accept them for me, even if at a lower price..."

He really didn't want to set up a stall in Shicheng anymore; although it earned money, being there year-round was truly too exhausting. At least as farmers, people could hibernate at home during winter, but selling goods didn't allow for that.

Moreover, he genuinely hadn't sold many, and right now he truly didn't want to continue doing it.

Li Long shook his head, ignored him, and walked into the courtyard.

"Li Long, are you really showing no consideration at all?" Zhang Qiang became somewhat enraged and shamed. "We're from the same team; do you want me to kneel before you?"

Several people had already arrived to deliver large brooms, and Li Long guessed Zhang Qiang's intentions.

"Even if you kneel, I won't accept them. I want everyone to keep doing this broom-tying work for several more years, earning money for several more years. If I accept yours, it will ruin the reputation of the Fourth Team's broom-making, and next year there will be no work left. Even if I agreed, would the team members be willing?"

Moral kidnapping—who doesn't know how to do that?

First: One kilometer west of the Huangquan exit of the Lianhuo Expressway, there are two herds of yellow sheep.

Second: As I mentioned last time, I brought my family to Wucheng for medical treatment regarding a cardiovascular disease; those in Urumqi should know how crowded the major hospitals are right now and how troublesome it is to find accommodation nearby. These chapters were temporarily typed on a laptop; managing one chapter a day is already good, and if I can type more, I will, since typing more means earning more.

But when I cannot manage both, I can only attend to one.

Please forgive me; updates should return to normal around the 20th.

My apologies. (End of Chapter)