Chapter 851

"What path do you have? Let's hear it." Chen Hongjun asked, "Are you sure? If so, I'll call over there and let Li Long come over to talk to you."

"No need, no need." Qi Zhiguo shook his head hurriedly, "I also intend to hear your meaning, Station Chief, to see if Li Long can use the person I mentioned."

"Speak." Since Qi Zhiguo trusted him, Chen Hongjun didn't act coy anymore and let him tell him, and he would also give him some advice.

"I know an old brother who collects ingredients. He once asked me about the dried wild mushrooms our purchasing station collected and wanted to buy a batch. Among the people I know, I think this one is quite reliable. I remember you said, Station Chief, that Li Long also sold dried wild mushrooms, and quite a lot too."

"Hmm, Li Long sold dried wild mushrooms. Like precious fungi, he has picked morels, black tiger palm mushrooms, etc."

"The one I know isn't picky. He collects all dried mushrooms, let alone these precious ones, even ordinary straw mushrooms dried in the sun he collects. He mainly does ingredient business. These wild mushrooms from our Northern Xinjiang can also be sold for a good price when brought to the interior."

"This is possible. Li Long's purchasing station can definitely collect dried wild mushrooms. I don't know how much stock there is, but looking at when we opened the purchasing station, it's no problem to collect several hundred kilograms of dried mushrooms in half a year, so this can be tried."

Ordinary dried mushrooms don't sell for a high price, but the prices of mountain treasures like morels and black tiger palm mushrooms have been rising, and the speed of price increases is not much lower than medicinal materials like fritillaria.

After all, people's living standards are constantly improving, and there are more and more rich people. In the situation of being rich, they naturally want to eat more good things.

In the past, those mountain treasures were either food for mountain people, or delicacies eaten by upper-class people, or good things in literary works.

Now that ordinary people are rich, some people with spare money naturally want to enjoy things that ordinary people couldn't enjoy in the past.

Mountain treasures are naturally the easiest to obtain among them.

Regardless of whether it's hype, things are valuable because they are rare. When there are fewer things, they are naturally valuable, and naturally, the selling price is high.

"If it's possible, then I'll contact him first. After finding the person, I'll ask about the situation. If he can collect, then I'll tell you, Station Chief, and then you can help me contact Li Long." Although Qi Zhiguo drank a lot, he was still very clear-headed and said, "How about it?"

"Alright." Chen Hongjun smiled, "Rest assured, as long as the introduction is successful, Li Long will definitely not be short of referral fees. Maybe we can take a different path then—our wages really aren't very high."

Chen Hongjun himself was actually a bit tempted. Relying solely on wages to make life better was really a bit difficult.

Actually, Chen Hongjun knew many people, but at the time, he felt that the most useful people for Li Long were Jia Tianlong and Zhao Hui.

Now thinking about it, actually, some other people could also be introduced to Li Long.

If there is really a path, who is willing to stay at the bottom and suffer this bitter life?

After Qi Zhiguo got the confirmation, he separated from Chen Hongjun and returned to the dormitory.

Chen Hongjun walked back. Halfway, he bought some braised pig head meat and braised pig offal, carried them back to the new courtyard, and found that the ground had been swept and watered. Now the water marks hadn't completely dried, quite refreshing.

Some weeds and leaves in the vegetable plot had been cleared, and his son Chen Zhixin was using a hoe to loosen the soil for the peppers, working quite properly.

The doors of the main house were all open. After Chen Hongjun said a few words to his son, he went over to put the braised things in the kitchen.

Zhou Xiujuan was cleaning the stove and cutting board in the kitchen. Although the original owner, Old Huang and the others, had cleaned it quite well, they were moving out after all. There were cobwebs and some oil on the stove, cutting board, and walls, which had been there for a long time.

Zhou Xiujuan intended to clean this place up before putting their own bowls and chopsticks in place.

"This is the braised food I bought back, cut it and eat it." Chen Hongjun said, "Is the house cleaned up?"

"Cleaned up." Zhou Xiujuan said with a smile, "The house is all cleaned up, the place where Zhixin lives is also quite good. Old Huang and the others left some old books, I think they are quite good, and Zhixin likes them quite a bit."

"Hmm, read them if you have nothing to do, but it can't affect your studies." At this time, students weren't encouraged to read extracurricular books, but students would often read them secretly. Forty years later, students were obsessed with television, mobile phones, and computers, but schools had to encourage students to read more extracurricular books... strange.

The courtyard was cleaned up. Returning to the house, Chen Hongjun looked at the furnishings, although they were the same, the room was larger and more spacious, looking comfortable.

Hmm, living in a single-family courtyard is indeed not bad!

Li Long didn't return to the county immediately after leaving Chen Hongjun's home, but killed his way to Wucheng, less than fifty kilometers away from Beiting.

Since he made money, he had to spend some. Knowing how to make money but not how to spend it, what is that? A miser?

He is not.

Going to Wucheng, he still had time at the Tianshan Department Store to buy a gold ring for his wife Gu Xiaoxia, a Shanghai-brand watch for his father-in-law Gu Bo Yuan, and milk powder for the two children—at this time, these two children didn't need anything else.

He also bought a watch for his father Li Qing Xia, and a gold bracelet for his mother Du Chunfang.

What he bought for his eldest brother's family was a washing machine, which barely fit in the jeep—it was a single-cylinder one, could be laid down, unlike a refrigerator which couldn't be laid down, and Li Long couldn't take it back even if he wanted to buy it at this time.

He also bought two cases of wine. At this time, the famous wine was Fenjiu, and Wuliangye; Moutai couldn't even rank. Mainly, locals didn't like to drink sauce-flavored wine, saying that thing had too heavy a yeast smell and they couldn't drink it.

He also bought two pairs of Warrior sneakers for Li Juan and Li Qiang each—at this time, there were no sports shoes, just sneakers, and this was already very powerful.

Han Fang also had a pair. As for Sister Yang, it was not easy for Li Long to buy things. He finally decided to buy a sewing machine for Sister Yang—this was a half-year bonus.

Buy it when arriving at Ma County; the jeep couldn't fit it now.

It was already dark when he returned to the county. Hearing the car horn, it was still Han Fang who came to open the door, and Sister Yang was watching in the courtyard.

After Li Long drove the jeep into the courtyard, he got out of the car and began to move the things here down.

"Is this the sneakers for me?" Han Fang asked in surprise.

"Yes." Li Long smiled, "Put them on and see if they fit. If they don't fit, take time to exchange them."

"They fit, they fit, they definitely fit!" Borrowing the large lamp hanging in the courtyard, Han Fang hugged the sneakers and couldn't bear to try them on, saying directly.

"How do you know they fit without trying them on?" Sister Yang also didn't expect a pair of sneakers to turn the child into this, and she wasn't unable to afford them.

It was just that Han Fang was too sensible. Since the time she shared adversity with Sister Yang, Han Fang had almost never taken the initiative to ask Sister Yang to buy anything.

Sister Yang also didn't understand these Warrior sneakers. Han Fang naturally knew when she was at school. Although she envied those wearing sneakers, she never complained about wearing cloth shoes.

"There's a number on it, it's my size." Han Fang explained, "Thank you, Uncle!"

Gu Xiaoxia opened the door and came out. Seeing Li Long return, she greeted him with a smile and went back into the house to see the children.

Sister Yang walked toward the kitchen, saying while walking:

"Uncle, you haven't eaten yet, right? I'll go heat up food for you."

The evening meal was mung bean porridge, steamed buns, and stir-fried dishes. Li Long was hungry, so he washed his hands and ate in large mouthfuls.

After eating, Sister Yang told him to go back to the room quickly and she would clean up the kitchen. After Li Long returned to the room, he found a cup of tea on the coffee table. Knowing this was poured by Gu Xiaoxia for him, he picked it up, took a sip, and entered the inner room.

The two children were asleep, but not soundly. When Li Long came in, they clearly opened their eyes, then closed them again. Li Long smiled and sat down beside Gu Xiaoxia.

He took another sip of water, put down the cup, and Gu Xiaoxia stood up, went behind him, gently kneaded Li Long's shoulders, and asked:

"How did the matter go? Is Station Chief Chen's family okay?"

"Not very good, a family of four squeezed into two rooms, living quite arduously. I left him some money, and he just happened to plan to buy a courtyard."

Gu Xiaoxia nodded and didn't speak. Although their own living conditions were good, she actually knew that the conditions were good because Li Long could make money. Otherwise, their family would be at most the same as their colleagues, calculating how to spend money for firewood, rice, oil, and salt all day long—actually, this is the life of normal people.

Gu Xiaoxia kneaded for Li Long. Li Long took out the gold ring he bought from his pocket, grabbed Gu Xiaoxia's hand, and put it on for her.

In the eyes of Li Long, who had lived two lifetimes, the ring looked quite plain, but Gu Xiaoxia liked it very much.

She had lived without a mother by her side since she was a child, so she never had her ears pierced. Gu Bo Yuan didn't think of this, and when she was older and could make her own decisions, she was afraid of pain.

The gold earrings bought when they got married were the clip-on type, and she didn't have pierced ears, so she didn't like earrings much. Now she liked the gold ring Li Long bought quite a bit.

The children were sound asleep, and only then did the two of them turn on the television and watch the low-volume version of "People on the Journey."

At this time, the relationship between the country and Nanyang was very good. A large number of middle-level cadres were sent to Nanyang to learn advanced management experience, which had a great promoting effect on later reforms, but also allowed Nanyang to successfully cultivate a group of officials close to the West.

Among them, some later reached high levels, and the policies they formulated were biased toward the West—and even spies appeared.

Of course, for the public, the most intuitive impression was that there were a batch of Nanyang television dramas during this period, such as "People on the Journey," "Fog Locks Nanyang," etc.

This television had quite a lot of influence. Even thirty or forty years later, many people of this era still remembered the theme song of the television: Never complain about the mistakes of fate, not afraid of the bumpy journey...

At breakfast the next day, Li Long gave that watch to Gu Bo Yuan.

"Hey, Little Long, you have a heart. This watch of mine is almost unable to run, just right to change it."

Gu Bo Yuan originally had a watch. The old watch had been bumped many times in the special era and had actually almost completed its historical mission.

Li Long smiled and didn't make a sound. Between men, some words don't need to be said much.

Gu Xiaoxia and Gu Bo Yuan went to work. After Sister Yang finished her work, Li Long drove the jeep to the Fourth Team.

The jeep stopped beside the Old Ma Hao, because Li Long saw his sugar beet field was being watered, and the person watering was his eldest brother, Li Jianguo.

Li Long got out of the car and saw Li Jianguo wearing rubber boots in the field, constantly adjusting—although watering is flood irrigation, it is also a technical job.

Although the land of the Fourth Team had to go through processes like cutting, harrowing, and leveling before sowing, generally maintaining the flatness of the land, in reality, this plot of land couldn't reach absolute flatness, and those pits and bumps definitely still existed.

This led to the fact that when watering, if some remedial measures weren't taken, then after the flood irrigation, some places wouldn't be watered, and some places would accumulate water.

Crops are usually more delicate than weeds; if they aren't watered, they will die of drought, and places with accumulated water will drown.

So farmers who know how to farm often build some ridges in the field before watering—the so-called ridge building is actually digging soil in necessary places to pile up some things similar to small earth dams, blocking the water, letting the water stay here for a period of time, or blocking it so that water doesn't accumulate under the ridge.

This is a technical job, and also an experience job—where there are pits in the field and where it is relatively high, one usually knows in their heart.

Just doing the preparatory work like this isn't finished. During the watering process, one must also watch the flow of water in the field at any time, because crops are planted in the field, and some terrain has been changed by crops, so it may be necessary to build ridges temporarily.

So watering crops isn't an easy job—of course, this was at that time.

Thirty years later, watering became a boring and easy job. One only needs to guard the pump house at the head of the field, add chemical fertilizer to the water, then turn on the valve, calculate the time, and after the time arrives, turn off the valve.

Because at this time, watering is completely completed through drip irrigation tapes. Those places that couldn't be watered in the past no longer exist. Water pipes extend in all directions, any place can be reached, and chemical fertilizer can be brought over together, saving a lot of trouble.

People at this time definitely couldn't imagine that watering would be so simple in the future.

When Li Long came down, Li Jianguo was joking with Old Luo Shu at the edge of the field while building ridges:

"I don't dare let your old arms and legs water this water. If you accidentally fall into the water and drown, who will be responsible? You'd better honestly feed your cattle and sheep; that is your true profession."

"Hey, I'm not old!" Old Luo Shu naturally didn't accept being old and said with a smile, "If I really want to water, I'm not worse than you."

"Forget it, don't brag. Little Long is here, ask him if he will let you water..."

"That definitely won't work, Old Luo Shu, it's fine that you don't accept being old, but in this aspect, you aren't better than my eldest brother." Li Long joked, "Alright, alright, I brought you some good wine, just move it over."

"Hey, that's good, I drink little, Yang Laoliu will be happy this time—Laoliu! Come move the wine!"

Yang Laoliu wasn't herding sheep today and was busy with something in the courtyard. Hearing the movement, he rushed over.

Knowing he was going to move wine, he was really happy and walked inside hugging the wine case.

Li Long didn't help. He saw crucian carp moving in the water flowing into the field and hurriedly ran to the canal to see the situation.

The canal water entering the field was quite deep, and the water was quite rapid, but when the water flowed into the sugar beet field, the water flow slowed down, and the water became shallow. Li Long only walked a short distance along the edge of the field and saw a large crucian carp trying hard to swim upstream beside the sugar beet root. It probably also knew that once it stayed in the sugar beet field, only death awaited it.

Hey, good fellow! Li Long squatted down and touched the fish in his hands. This fish must be at least two or three hundred grams, and it had a lot of strength! (End of chapter)