Chapter 783: Meng Hai Has New Thoughts

After clarifying the situation with Meng Hai, Li Long wanted to leave, but Meng Hai insisted on pulling him to find the old hunter in the village to load the snow lotus.

"I'll come again tomorrow. I'll find you after I finish my business, and we'll talk about the snow lotus then."

"Good, good, good, then hurry back, it'll be cold when the sun sets in a while." Meng Hai waved at Li Long to let him get in the car, and watched the jeep go far away before walking back with his sleeves tucked.

Hey, sure enough, he blocked the right one, another job came!

He was already thinking about who to find. Meng Hai actually also knew that this matter of weaving *taibazi* probably wouldn't last long. Although the team headquarters and schools were still using *taibazi* now, the country was developing so fast, and so many tractors were made, so handcarts would definitely be easy to make.

When the time came, the work of *taibazi* would be gone, so he had to find other ways.

He Changqing and Meng Hai were also pondering, and at the same time, they hoped to strengthen their connection with Li Long.

This was a capable person, definitely had a way.

Sure enough!

Not to mention whether the work was much or little, as long as there was some, and people remembered this Qingshuihe Village, that would be fine.

Li Long's timing for returning to the big courtyard was very coincidental. Gu Xiao Xia had just returned, and Aunt Yang had just finished cooking.

"Sigh, it won't be this easy in two days." Gu Xiao Xia sighed, "Little Fang doesn't go to school, when Aunt Yang cooks, she can help watch Ming and Hao. In a few days, Little Fang will start school, and when I'm at work..."

"Rest assured, I'm at home." Li Long said, "I'll concentrate on finishing the things that need to be handled in these two days, then I'll stay in the county, go to the collection station when I have time, and come back early."

"Sigh, this job of mine..." Gu Xiao Xia was also quite depressed. When she was there, Li Long was almost always there, and work seemed to have become her main business.

"Why say these things, eat, eat." Li Long patted her back with a smile, "Isn't it good that we are both with the children?"

Gu Xiao Xia asked with some doubt:

"Then we are definitely with the children, right? Can the children run away?"

"No, no, just suddenly felt emotional." Li Long pursed his lips toward the kitchen side, and Gu Xiao Xia understood in seconds.

Actually, what Li Long was feeling emotional about was that in twenty or thirty years, left-behind children would appear on a large scale, and it would be the norm for children's parents not to be by their side.

After finishing breakfast the next day, Li Long opened the small gate himself, then opened the big gate from the inside. Han Fang said in the morning that the school was having a big cleanup today, and she had taken tools to school. She should not have finished cleaning yet.

Schools were opening one after another, and Gu Xiao Xia and the others had to get busy. Li Long thought while unloading the skins, he would just stay in the collection station for these days. It was spring, he estimated that some people would buy agricultural supplies, and if they didn't have money, they might take some of their family's inventory to sell.

The skins had a strong smell. Aunt Yang came out wanting to help, but Li Long sent her back, saying it was more important to watch Ming and Hao.

He moved the skins to another wing room, spread them out to dry, then moved the two boxes of fruit to the storage room, and finally the Mongolian gazelle and red deer.

It hadn't frozen yet, and these two were frozen solid, so they could be stored for a while. Li Long wasn't in a hurry, planning to use this free time to slowly process the meat in the storage room.

Mainly cutting them into pieces, air-drying or curing them, and eating them slowly.

He was thinking about whether to take time to go to Wucheng to buy a refrigerator. At this time, Wucheng already had refrigerators for sale, but they weren't big and couldn't store many things.

But it was still better than nothing—in the middle of summer, getting meat and curing it all, it really wasn't as delicious as thawed meat. In this era, there wouldn't be a freezer full of meat like in thirty or forty years later, which couldn't be eaten even in two or three days.

The era was different, and the situation was different.

After Li Long finished tidying up these things, washed the smell of mutton off his body, changed his clothes, and went to see Ming and Hao, Aunt Yang finally had time to cook dinner. Fortunately, dinner was simple: porridge, pickles, steamed buns, done.

The next day, Li Long went to the collection station. When going to the collection station, he also brought a Mongolian gazelle. Li Long thought if no one came, he would just decompose the Mongolian gazelle here.

Of course, first arriving at the collection station, Li Long needed to set up the stove. He left from time to time during these days, and the stove fire in this collection station was sometimes lit and sometimes not. After the door opened, a wave of cold air rushed in, which was quite uncomfortable.

After the stove was set up, Li Long simply cleaned up the inside. He felt that this big wooden board counter was quite suitable for cleaning the Mongolian gazelle, but thought about it and gave up. If someone came to sell things, it wouldn't be very appropriate.

Li Long spread two sacks on the ground by the stove, then put the frozen Mongolian gazelle on it to thaw slowly.

The axe and machete brought along were placed on the side for backup.

After tidying up the room and the stove fire becoming vigorous, Li Long took off his coat and looked at the Mongolian gazelle, which was a bit soft, so he started chopping with the axe.

This Mongolian gazelle wasn't very big, about thirty-plus kilograms, and the stomach was cleaned very cleanly. It could be roughly seen that it was a ewe, not very old, and the meat was very tender.

Li Long cut the Mongolian gazelle in half directly, changed to a machete, and prepared to unload the legs when there were footsteps outside.

Li Long stood up with the machete and watched two young men walk to the door.

The one in front was holding a black briefcase, and the one behind was empty-handed. Both of them, one with a middle part and the other with a slicked-back hair, looked quite imposing.

Outside, two bicycles were parked in the courtyard of the collection station, leaning against the jeep.

"Hello, may I ask if you are Comrade Li Long?" the one holding the briefcase asked with a smile.

"It's me." Li Long put the machete on the counter, nodded and said, "The two are..."

"Hello, hello." The one holding the briefcase put the briefcase in his left hand, took the initiative to reach out and shake hands with Li Long, "My name is Huang Quansheng, I came to discuss something with you."

"Go ahead." Li Long shook hands with him and nodded, "What's the matter?"

Although this person was very polite, Li Long felt that what he was saying wasn't anything good.

"It's like this. This collection station courtyard, actually I also took a fancy to it. It's just that I was delayed by something in winter, and when I came over to rent the courtyard, I found that you had already handled this matter first."

Huang Quansheng's words made Li Long understand, so this person also had this idea.

In this era, there shouldn't be many people in this small county with business acumen who saw the long-term benefits of replacing the collection station—or rather, saw the long-term benefits of replacing the collection station so quickly.

"So I came over to discuss with you, look if this works, I'll refund the rent for this courtyard to you in full, and give you another one hundred yuan to compensate for the loss, transfer the courtyard to me, how about that?"

Only one hundred yuan, is this person thinking with their butt?

Li Long thought disdainfully, but didn't show it on his face. He shook his head and said:

"Sorry, no transfer."

He knew that this person definitely had some connections, otherwise it would be impossible to find out that it was he who rented this courtyard.

But he also had connections, so he wasn't afraid.

If the other party's power was too great and directly took this courtyard away, then he really wouldn't have any way.

But if the other party didn't have that strength, then it was just that their actions were too slow and they couldn't grab it from Li Long.

The collection station itself was indeed a point of making money, but for Li Long, this point was just one of many points where he made money, belonging to the icing on the cake. Whether it was there or not didn't actually have much influence.

"Then you still haven't seen it clearly." The young man holding the briefcase lost the smile on his face. "We came to find you to discuss and solve it because we thought some things could be discussed and solved. But, if you think we are easy to talk to, then I'm afraid you thought wrong. Do you know the phrase 'politeness before force'?"

"If you want to threaten me, then you also thought wrong." Li Long smiled, "In the mountains, I used a gun to take down two escaped murderers, and on the way to Shicheng, I knocked out five robbery groups alone, one of which is already dead. If I were scared, I wouldn't be opening a collection station here. The two of you, please return!"

Li Long's words also made these two young men stunned for a moment. They thought Li Long was a businessman and wouldn't be softened by a scare. They didn't expect the other party to have such a history!

Then looking at Li Long picking up the machete and fiercely chopping at the half-piece of Mongolian gazelle, one chop down, the bones of the Mongolian gazelle broke in response, and these two knew they had run into a hard nut to crack.

This person's strength wasn't ordinary!

The two turned and left.

They knew very well that the collection station was a money-making project.

They originally thought Li Long was just an extra-budget employee of the supply and marketing cooperative, and a scare would make the other party soften.

They didn't expect that not only was the other party not scared, but they were scared by the other party instead.

These two were second-generation officials in the county, and although they had iron rice bowls, they also wanted to get some extra money.

These two thought very clearly, if they could take over this collection station, find a suitable person to stay here, collect things and sell them, the net profit wouldn't be low.

Borrowing the name of the original collection station, the money would definitely flow in like water.

Didn't expect Li Long to be soft and hard-headed! And Li Long's momentum when holding the machete, as well as what he said, made these two hesitate.

Porcelain doesn't collide with broken tiles, should they wade into this muddy water?

PS: My body is still recovering, planning to resume two updates after the Qingming Festival, don't know if it can be done.

Thanks to book friend 20250329195321195 for the ten-thousand reward. Many digital friends might have changed, thanks to everyone for the rewards, subscriptions, recommendation tickets, and monthly tickets. The monthly tickets finally reached one hundred, not very stable, asking for more. (End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 785 =====

"Who is it?"

"It's me, Meng Hai."

"Come in, come in. Xiao Hai, what brings you here? Is something wrong? Are you out of medicine at home?"

The old man's accent sounded like it was from the Lu region, though Li Long couldn't hear it very clearly. After all, having lived two lifetimes, he had primarily grown up in the Northern Tianshan and hadn't traveled much outside, so he wasn't familiar with it.

The old man who emerged from the room was tall, only about five or six centimeters shorter than Li Long, nearing 1.8 meters. Even if he wasn't broad-shouldered and thick-waisted, he was at least much sturdier than the average person.

A person like this, roaming the mountains—no wonder he wasn't afraid of wolves, insects, or things like that.

"Old Dong Shu, this is Comrade Li Long, a leader from the Supply and Marketing Cooperative. He came by this time wanting to buy some snow lotuses. Take a look at what you have..."

Meng Hai explained the purpose of their visit to Old Dong Shu.

"Snow lotuses? How many do you want? I don't have many left; those fellows already took most of them to soak in wine. If you can wait, you can pick some more in the autumn."

"I'll take however many you have," Li Long said. "Five yuan a flower—a flat rate."

"That's not a low price." Old Dong Shu had a flushed face, and Li Long smelled alcohol on him; he was likely drinking in his room right now.

"Come, let's go inside to talk." Old Dong Shu glanced at the jeep, then beckoned them, "I roasted a rabbit, let's have a couple of drinks together."

"I'll pass," Li Long said with a smile, waving his hand. "Old Dong Shu, I have to drive, so I can't touch alcohol."

"That works too." Old Dong Shu didn't insist. After leading them inside, he had Meng Hai pour water for Li Long while he went out himself. When he returned, he was carrying a wicker basket containing dozens of snow lotuses.

"This is all that's left." Old Dong Shu placed the snow lotuses in front of Li Long. "See if these are alright; they were picked last year."

Li Long squatted down to take a look.

The old man was very particular; these snow lotuses had all been cut from the stem, not dug up by the roots. At this time, many people who obtained things from nature truly held a sense of reverence—with the exception of Li Long at times.

He counted them: thirty-four in total, including twelve small ones. However, since it was his first time purchasing snow lotuses, Li Long paid the full price.

"Thirty-four flowers, one hundred and seventy yuan. Here you go, Old Uncle."

"No need for that much." Old Dong Shu took the money and pulled out two ten-yuan bills to hand back to Li Long. "The price you gave is high, so I can't charge that much for the small ones. When we pick and sell medicine, we value peace of mind."

The meaning behind his words was not for Li Long, but for himself.

Li Long smiled, put the money away, and asked, "Then, Old Dong Shu, do you have Codonopsis? What about Fritillaria?"

"No Fritillaria. The Forestry Team is strict about that; I have less than a kilogram on hand, so I won't sell it. I'll use it myself, and people in the village who have coughs need it too. I do have a few kilograms of Codonopsis, though. Wait a moment."

Old Dong Shu went out again, and when he returned, he was carrying a bundle of Codonopsis in each hand.

They were all nearly a meter long, looking from afar like two bundles of firewood.

Li Long was a bit speechless. He naturally understood that with the Tianshan being so vast, he couldn't possibly be the only one who knew the Codonopsis here was of such great age, but for the old man to treat the Codonopsis like this was truly a bit improper, wasn't it?

"The purchasing station was shut down, and the medicinal herb company isn't buying, so this stuff just sits here if I keep it." Old Dong Shu placed the Codonopsis in front of Li Long. "Over five kilograms. Let's count it as five. Most of it is from last year, with a bit from the year before. You name a price and take it."

Li Long had given a high price for the snow lotuses, and Old Dong Shu was even thinking that this young man was generous; he would have even given him the Codonopsis for free.

Li Long looked carefully at the Codonopsis.

The Codonopsis in the Tianshan grew differently from mountain to mountain due to the terrain. For example, in the Ili Valley, the Codonopsis from the Southern Tianshan of Zhaosu was known for its length, usually growing over half a meter.

Meanwhile, the Codonopsis in the Tangbula area of Nilka in the Central Tianshan was thick and short, with many knots and various shapes.

The Codonopsis Old Dong Shu brought was the long kind, and they all looked quite intact.

Over five kilograms—that was no small amount.

"Then I'll name a price. I can't offer a high price for this," Li Long said. "Twenty yuan per kilogram, how does that sound?"

"Fine, fine, fine. Why wouldn't it be?" Old Dong Shu said with a smile.

Li Long took out another eighty yuan and handed it to Old Dong Shu along with the twenty yuan that had been returned earlier.

Meng Hai watched with some envy; with this one transaction, Old Dong Shu had essentially earned enough to buy a bicycle and a sewing machine.

That was no simple feat!

Li Long carried the items and put them into the car, then bid the two men farewell.

After watching Li Long leave, Meng Hai humbly asked Old Dong Shu for advice:

"Old Dong Shu, are those snow lotuses easy to pick?"

"If you say they're easy, they're easy. Once you find the spot, you can pick dozens at once."

"Then... you have to travel quite far, right?"

"That's for sure. You have to trek at least dozens of kilometers into the mountains, and it might take three to five days to return." Old Dong Shu said proudly, "Not just anyone can pick them."

Meng Hai, of course, wanted to learn. Weaving carrying poles was such a hassle; the poles woven in a day weren't worth as much as two days spent in the mountains looking for snow lotuses.

But the Tianshan was so vast; without a target or someone to lead the way, trying to pick snow lotuses was like looking for a needle in a haystack.

In fact, if it hadn't been for Halimu guiding Li Long at the beginning, it wouldn't have been easy for Li Long to establish a foothold in the mountains.

Even now, when Li Long went into the mountains to hunt, he still needed to check the few spots he knew, though he could also ask Halimu and Yushanjiang for help.

Old Dong Shu had spent so many years in and out of the mountains; although he didn't have any handy weapons, he had truly carved out a path for herb gathering. He knew several places where snow lotuses grew and which ravines held which medicinal herbs.

In the past, no one bought snow lotuses, and the medicinal herb company had its own specialized channels and wouldn't buy from individuals, so Old Dong Shu would just store what he picked and basically never sold them.

Now that Li Long was suddenly offering a high price, he truly intended to wait until July to go into the mountains and do some serious harvesting.

As for the wheat planted at home, he could just entrust it to someone else—the yield from an acre of wheat wasn't worth as much as three or five snow lotuses, and he knew which was more important.

Meng Hai also wanted to know how Old Dong Shu picked snow lotuses; he even had the idea of whether he should entrust the wheat to his wife and follow Old Dong Shu when the time came.

As for whether Old Dong Shu would be willing, there was still nearly half a year left, so he could just wear him down.

When Li Long was driving the jeep back, he was actually thinking about similar things.

He also really wanted to make a trip deep into the mountains.

He had toured these outer layers of the mountains enough and felt they were all much the same. He had never been to the inner mountains, only hearing bits and pieces from Halimu and the others: vast alpine meadows, snow-capped mountains that never melted, brown bears living together, and snow leopards that often raided sheep.

He really wanted to go into the inner mountains to see the magnificent scenery there.

Li Long knew that behind the Southern Mountains of the neighboring Huxian, there was an ancient path leading to the Southern Tianshan. This ancient path was a place many travelers dreamed of, but it was extremely dangerous. In later generations, to avoid casualties, the road was closed off entirely.

But those who had walked it once said that the scenery along the way was breathtaking, surpassing the Wusun Ancient Path and the Xia Ta Ancient Path. There were snow lotuses on the snow-capped mountains along the way, as well as some rare animals.

He wondered if he would have the chance to see it in this lifetime.

Li Long only collected his thoughts after driving the jeep back to the large courtyard. He had been busy all day, and there was another day tomorrow. Once tomorrow's work was done, he could take a short rest and fulfill what he had told Gu Xiaoxia about staying at home for a while.

Of course, he didn't know how long he could stay; the snow would melt soon, and once it did, Professor Luo from the Agricultural Academy would likely bring people over.

That was when he would have to get busy with new work.

A child had a fever and wanted peaches; when buying them, he chatted with the proprietress, who said that children nowadays could have whatever they wanted. When they were young, they didn't dare ask their families for anything, as they couldn't even get enough to eat. Comparing the two, 1982 was still better in Xinjiang. (End of chapter)