Chapter 769

Li Long looked at the people queuing in the courtyard in the bitter cold and sighed.

He had originally thought about taking on fewer jobs in the winter and living a more relaxed life, preferably with no work at all, just giving himself a vacation.

He didn't expect that just by coming over to clean up the purchasing station's courtyard, he would end up taking on such a big job for himself!

For three consecutive days, Li Long had been cleaning up the things that had been piled up in the rooms and hadn't been cleared away.

Some wooden shelves could be utilized, while some of the remaining sundries could only be treated as trash.

To prevent people from coming to queue up to sell things, he even locked the big iron gate.

Unfortunately, the locked big iron gate couldn't stop the enthusiasm of these people to sell things; after all, Li Long had to set up the stove.

In the coldest days of winter, the temperature outside was over twenty degrees below zero during the day, and it was the same inside the house if the stove wasn't set up, so Li Long definitely had to set up the stove.

After the first day of heating, the stove outside was now burning very well, as were the two stoves inside.

Li Long hadn't been clear about the inside of the purchasing station before, but now he could see it.

The row of flat houses at the purchasing station was "T"-shaped. There were three rooms in the front; the middle one was the purchasing station counter room that Li Long and the others often entered, the east one was a temporary dormitory, and the west one was a utility room.

Entering from the counter room, there was a corridor. To the east of the corridor were offices and utility rooms, and to the west was a row of warehouses.

Every office had a stove, and the utility rooms had newspapers, wooden shelves, old carrying poles, broken big brooms, and several old office desks that hadn't been moved away.

The original iron shelves in the warehouse had already been moved away, leaving behind some boards and similar things.

The corridor also had a door leading to the outside. In the backyard, there were coal sheds, car sheds, and some sundries covered under the snow that Li Long hadn't had time to clean up yet.

The snow in the backyard wasn't urgent; he had originally planned to finish cleaning these rooms before going to clean the backyard.

Anyway, it was the dead of winter, and there was plenty of time. His strength had been increasing since his rebirth, and these jobs were really just a drizzle to him.

Moreover, the courtyard area was very large, and it was really quite cost-effective to rent it for use.

Li Long was even thinking about putting the purchasing station and agricultural machinery sales here later, so that his own big courtyard could be completely for living, and not mixed with work.

Anyway, the place was large, and those harvesters, including the handcarts and pesticide sprayers that might be handled later, could all be put in the backyard.

There was no need to build a house; with such a large space in the backyard, a color steel shed could be set up... Oh, color steel sheds didn't seem very realistic right now.

We'll see.

It was just unexpected that just as he started to set up the two stoves and was cleaning, people came over to sell things, and the number of people coming became more and more.

And the variety of things brought to sell also opened Li Long's eyes.

Not to mention the fritillaria, jasper, and various wild animal skins he had received before, there were even wild donkey skins!

The herbs not only included fritillaria, licorice, cynomorium, and safflower, but there were even astragalus, cistanche, and other things he had originally thought weren't produced locally.

Of course, there were both velvet antlers and deer antlers; these were also things that the purchasing station often collected before.

In just these three days, he had already collected over ten varieties, worth more than three thousand yuan. He had pulled all these things back to his big courtyard—no one lived here, and although it wasn't far from the police station, Li Long didn't dare to put these quite valuable things here.

He was afraid of them being stolen.

Right now, he couldn't afford not to collect them.

It wasn't that he was afraid of losing customers, but mainly because he couldn't bring himself to say no when looking at the expectant eyes of those people.

Alright, there was a reason he could be called "Secretary Hot" in his previous life, which was due to his own personality. Although he had changed in this life, he still felt that if he could help, he would help—actually, it wasn't helping, it was a win-win situation.

Because Li Long didn't bring a scale and wasn't as familiar with the market price as Chen Hongjun, the estimates he gave were actually on the low side.

He knew he was different from the state-run purchasing station and didn't have such strong risk-resistance ability. He had to tie up his own capital, so the purchase price was lower than the prices he originally knew.

For example, he bought a wild donkey skin for seventy—this was much larger than a wolf skin, but Li Long didn't dare to buy it at a high price.

For a wolf skin, a full skin was fifty. He vaguely remembered that when he sold it to Chen Hongjun at that time, a very good full skin was worth more, but now it was fifty.

As for fritillaria, when those people brought it, Li Long gave forty per kilogram, which was still an estimate because there was no scale.

He didn't know if the price of fritillaria would rise next year, so he could only give this price.

He gave the price for cynomorium based on the price he sold it for in the previous two years, and the same for cistanche.

As for safflower, because he hadn't collected it before, Li Long didn't collect it that day. He went to ask at the medicinal herb company the next day, and then his purchase price the next day was half of their selling price.

There was no way around it, because he discovered that the dried cynomorium from the medicinal herb company was also double the price he sold it for at the time.

In other words, the things collected by the medicinal herb company would double in price after processing and cleaning.

The purchase price he gave for jasper wasn't high either, mainly because the quantity of this stuff was too large. Except for those jades with relatively good texture and little to no "fly specks," he didn't collect ordinary Mahe jasper.

If he collected it, there was nowhere to sell it. If it was tied up for twenty or thirty years, it wouldn't sell for a good price, so it was better not to collect it.

Even so, the things he collected every day these past few days had to be pulled back in a full carload.

Sometimes one carload wasn't enough.

"Hey, brother, you have quite a lot of stuff here. I think you've been here twice already, right?" Li Long said while looking at the skins placed on the counter by the man in his forties in front of him.

Two fox skins, one Mongolian gazelle skin, all looking quite fresh; they were excellent winter skins.

And what surprised Li Long a bit was that the winter skins obtained by this red-faced brother were all intact, without a single bullet hole.

An expert.

"Heh, I'm just helping my neighbor sell them." That brother grinned and said, "Earlier they said the purchasing station wasn't going to operate anymore, and we were so anxious. Now that you've reopened, I quickly brought the skins hunted in the winter over to exchange for some money to buy New Year goods."

One fox skin was golden yellow and looked very beautiful; one was gray-white, and although the fur color wasn't as good, the skin was very good. Li Long gave thirty for each.

The remaining Mongolian gazelle skin was larger than the one Li Long got for his mother's skin vest, so Li Long gave a price of forty.

"Brother, I'm going to close for a while in a few days. Actually, you could take these skins to the leather factory."

"They don't collect them when I only have one or two." This brother was also an expert and didn't dislike the price Li Long gave. While counting the money, he explained, "The leather factory is a big player, and they collect skins at wholesale prices. How could we ordinary folks have so many skins?"

Alright, since that's the case, Li Long would act as a middleman for once.

After processing the things brought by the people in the long queue, most of them could be collected, but some things couldn't be collected—for example, there were two pieces of spotted jasper weighing seven or eight kilograms, which he really couldn't collect.

There was also a large pile of rabbit skins; he wasn't sure about this either, he had to go to the leather factory to see before deciding.

He had originally said he would deal with the skins in the old horse corral as soon as possible, but since he came back, he had been busy with the purchasing station's courtyard and hadn't had time to go over.

After sending these people away, Li Long hurriedly moved everything to the jeep, put the stove out, locked the door, and drove away.

Driving the jeep to the gate of the courtyard, Li Long habitually honked the horn, and Han Fang's voice rang out in the courtyard:

"Coming, coming, Uncle Li, wait a second!"

Han Fang had been quite happy these past few days. After returning from the Fourth Team, she worked hard on her homework during the day. Li Long had said he would go to the Fourth Team to pick up sheepskins in two days and would take her along to play some more, which made Han Fang very happy.

The gate opened. After Li Long drove the jeep in, Han Fang immediately closed the gate and then ran to the side of the jeep.

After Li Long turned off the engine and got out of the car, Han Fang helped Li Long move things down, saying while moving:

"Uncle, you collected so much stuff again today. Are you still going?"

"Not going for now." Li Long said, "Let's stop collecting things for a bit. I need to organize the things I've collected these past few days and then plan where to sell them."

Good skins and medicinal herbs could wait for Jia Tianlong to come over; it would be fine to hold them for a while. Other things had to be considered.

Of course, while waiting for those two people to come over, Li Long also planned to go to the surrounding cities to ask, especially the purchasing stations in Beiting, Wucheng, and Shicheng.

If the profit was acceptable, he could completely sell a batch first to recover some funds. Li Long was still quite cautious when starting this.

"Then Uncle, when are you going to the team?" Han Fang couldn't hide her thoughts and asked the question she most wanted to ask.

"Tomorrow." Li Long didn't tease her either, saying while moving things, "The purchasing station is almost organized. I won't go tomorrow; let's sell the sheepskins first."

"Great, great!" Han Fang was very happy. Although Li Long wouldn't stay in the Fourth Team for very long, she was very happy to be able to meet and play with her little friends.

Before dinner, Li Long told Gu Xiaoxia about this, and Gu Xiaoxia naturally had no objections.

During dinner, Sister Yang knew her daughter was going to the Fourth Team, so she glared at her and then asked Li Long if it would be too much trouble.

"What trouble is there? They're all our own people. It's good to let Let Xiao Fang play with Juan and the others. The kids are small and don't have playmates, how lonely that would be."

If it weren't for making a living, Li Long would have wanted to let Hongqin, Li Xue Qin, and Xueping all be together. With more children playing together, there might be conflicts, but more importantly, they would be familiar and intimate, and when they grew up, their relationship would be better.

"Then go," Sister Yang said, "Don't cause trouble for others when you get there, and hurry up and finish your homework when you get back."

"Got it, got it." Han Fang smiled very happily.

The classmates' homes here weren't close, and wanting to find them to play wasn't very realistic. Going once in a while was fine, but Sister Yang wasn't at ease with her running around often.

But there was no such concern in the village; she could play wildly, and no one cared.

The next day, Li Long waited for Sister Yang to finish cleaning up the kitchen and take over watching Mingming and Haohao before driving the jeep away.

He took Han Fang to the department store first and bought a soccer ball and two air needles. When the jeep passed by the purchasing station, Li Long saw three or four people still surrounding the iron gate, carrying bags in their hands, probably waiting for the purchasing station to open.

"Uncle, there are still people selling things." Han Fang knew the location of the purchasing station's courtyard. After seeing those people through the window, she said to Li Long, "Don't know what's in the bags."

"Doesn't look like much, probably medicinal herbs." Li Long said, "Don't worry about them, let's do our own thing first."

Li Long remembered that when his big brother planted things or collected things before, he usually put them in an idle room first. Now there were no buses from the village to the county, and going to the county wasn't easy, so he usually concentrated many things and then went to the county town, calculating the time to finish everything in one trip.

How could these people run to the county often now?

Thinking about this, Li Long smiled again.

Now there was a population of tens of thousands in the whole county. Even if people from the countryside came to the city once a month, the number of people gathering at the purchasing station was quite a large figure.

He was taking things for granted.

The jeep drove to Li Jianguo's courtyard, and Li Qiang and the other children who were kicking the pig bladder in the snow in front ran over.

What surprised Li Long a bit was that this pig bladder was still there. In his impression, this thing would only be kicked for two or three days before it was ruined by the destructive power of these children.

Didn't expect it to still be there.

"Qiangqiang, I bought you a soccer ball, you guys go play." Li Long got out of the car and handed the soccer ball to Li Qiang, "Know how to inflate it?"

"I know, I know!" Mingwa from Xu Chengjun's family was also there, and he hurriedly shouted loudly, "Need a needle!"

"I have one." Li Long took out an air needle and handed it to him, "There's an air pump in the room, Qiangqiang, you go get it."

The children excitedly surrounded Li Qiang, looking at the soccer ball. The envious gazes made Li Qiang feel a bit floaty, and he held the soccer ball with his head held high and chest out, going into the room to get the air pump.

After Han Fang got out of the car, she asked where Li Qiang's sister was. Li Qiang pointed to the room and said:

"My sister is in the room, playing knucklebones with Xiaoni and the others." Han Fang immediately walked toward the room.

Li Jianguo heard the commotion and came out of the room. After seeing him, Han Fang immediately greeted him:

"Hello, Uncle!"

"Hello, hello." Li Jianguo responded with a smile, "Go find Juan to play, she's in the room."

After meeting with Li Long, Li Long stated his purpose.

"Starting that tractor isn't easy." Li Jianguo's tractor was frozen; if he wanted to start it, he had to add boiling water and roast under the engine with charcoal fire.

The reason Li Long didn't drive his own tractor over was, one, to save trouble, and two, because there were not only his sheepskins at the horse corral, but also Niu Dajun's rabbit skins. After he sold the skins, he had to drive back to give people money or give an explanation, so it was just right to come over and drive his big brother's tractor and leave the jeep here. After selling the skins, he would drive the tractor back and then drive the jeep back.

Han Fang could also play here for a while longer.

Since Li Long said he wanted to use the tractor, Li Jianguo had no objections; let's boil water then.

Now he was also free at home. The pig was slaughtered, and what was left at home were chickens, dogs, and that Mongolian gazelle that had already recovered from its injuries.

This little bit of work wasn't considered work for a farmer. These past two days, he had also been thinking about going to break the ice holes with his old man to get some fish. He thought if he got a lot, he would sell them for money; if he got a little, they would eat them themselves.

Li Qiang and the others inflated the soccer ball, and then a group of children, like a flock of sparrows taking flight, rushed toward the south. The open space there had been trampled out these past two days, and it was just right for playing soccer now.

Li Long went out the gate and looked south, watching the children who had already run there, led by Li Qiang and Mingwa, playing rock-paper-scissors to pick teams, preparing to play soccer.

The people who were just picked ran to find things to set up the goal; three hats and a pig bladder were enough.

Soon, the children on both sides stood in their positions and started kicking. More children nearby were running over there; have to say, news really spreads fast.

Du Chunfang stood at the door looking at Li Long happily. After knowing he wanted to use the tractor, she pointed to the stove in the east room and said:

"Put a pot on this too, it boils water fast!"

Indeed. One pot of boiling water definitely wasn't enough. The tractor was frozen through; after a pot of boiling water was poured into the water tank, the water would soon turn cold. He had to drain the cold water from below and then add boiling water again.

The charcoal fire under the engine also needed to be constantly replaced.

Li Long had a big advantage, which was that he had great strength. Just because of this, he could save one-third of the time to start the tractor.

After the tractor started, Li Long let Han Fang play here, while he drove the tractor to the old horse corral.

Li Jianguo sat on the tractor and followed along. He was bored and wanted to move, so he thought about going to the leather factory with Li Long to take a look.

Old Luo Shu heard the sound of the tractor and came out with Yang Laoliu and several others.

Seeing Li Long driving the tractor, Li Jianguo was a bit surprised while holding the handle of the tractor bucket.

"Old Luo Shu, I'm taking the sheepskins to the county today to see if I can sell them." Li Long jumped off the tractor and said, "Everything alright?"

"Nothing much, just that Niu Dajun sent some more rabbit skins yesterday; there should be over thirty now. This guy, he's really good at trapping rabbits!"

Li Long smiled. He knew there were still many rabbits in the wild. When he was trapping them two years ago, he could catch twenty or thirty rabbits in one morning.

The sheepskins were already frozen solid. Several people moved them together, stacking them in the tractor's bucket. Over a hundred sheepskins and over thirty rabbit skins filled the bucket directly.

Old Luo Shu gave Li Jianguo seven or eight sacks to put on top, otherwise, it would freeze his butt while sitting.

The tractor drove out of the old horse corral, chugging along lightly toward the county.

Three years after the household responsibility system, every household had become a bit richer and had added quite a few things. They went to the county more often, so the road had been trampled out.

When the tractor started, it kicked up a lot of snow powder. Li Jianguo sat with his back to the front of the car to avoid the uncomfortable wind.

Li Long suffered a bit more. Although he wore a fur hat and had the ear and nose flaps down, the tractor drove fast, and the cold wind still seeped into his head, face, and body.

He didn't feel it when driving the jeep these days, but as soon as he drove the tractor, Li Long felt uncomfortable.

If only he had a motorcycle helmet, the kind that could protect his face.

Unfortunately, let alone motorcycle helmets, motorcycles were nowhere to be seen now. For most families, having a bicycle was already very good.

Wait a bit; the development of the era takes time, can't be rushed.

As a "big enterprise" in Maxian at present, the leather factory's status was still quite transcendent. Laying a 15-caliber sewage pipe from the county to the Dahaizi ten kilometers below was not a small project.

Washing skins required a large amount of water, and the discharged sewage flowed into the reservoir, and besides irrigation, it was discharged into the sand dunes.

So the guard was also quite arrogant.

When Li Long stopped the tractor at the gate, he watched the guard refuse someone riding a bicycle and carrying over a dozen sheepskins:

"Too few skins, we don't collect them."

Really quite arrogant.

PS: Are there any spare monthly tickets? Can I ask for one? The current monthly ticket ranking is a bit low. (End of chapter)