Chapter 879: Evaluation of Li Long in the streets

After distributing the watermelon seeds and talking about this matter with his family, Li Long didn't return to the county.

He had been running around for this period of time, and finally returned to the team. He planned to get some crucian carp to eat—he wanted to eat fish.

There wasn't enough time to cast a net temporarily, so he took a cast net and prepared to go to the Little Haizi. Now the north dam of the Little Haizi hadn't been washed away, so the fish inside hadn't run away. Although people cast nets to catch fish every year, the root hadn't been broken, so there were still many big and small fish inside.

When Li Qing Xia heard that his son was going to the Little Haizi, he naturally wanted to go too. He hadn't caught fish for a few days, and Tao Jian She was busy now and didn't have time to make an appointment with him. Li Qing Xia couldn't finish the fish he caught, couldn't sell them in the county, and it was too far to run to Shicheng, so he simply dried the fish at home.

Now there were already several sacks of dried fish, and he couldn't dry them anymore; there was no place to put them.

At this time, there weren't as many flies and insects as later, and dried fish were easy to dry; just rub some salt on them.

Twenty years later, one could only use that kind of drying net to dry dried fish; otherwise, one had to rub heavy salt. If rubbed lightly, flies would crawl on them, and they wouldn't even be afraid. And even if heavy salt was rubbed, it might not necessarily work. There was a kind of beetle that wasn't afraid of rubbed salt and would still drill into the dried fish to gnaw, which was very troublesome.

Fortunately, there were drying cages; otherwise, one really wouldn't be able to eat local dried fish.

Li Qing Xia and Li Long went to the Little Haizi together, not to say eating fish, but just to play.

Li Long hadn't been to the Little Haizi for some days. After arriving at the place, he saw that the reeds in the Little Haizi were still very dense, and they were watering the land recently, so the water level wasn't very deep.

He knew the situation nearby quite well and knew where casting the net wouldn't hang on the bottom.

After finding the position, he started casting.

Although he hadn't come for some days, his cast net technique hadn't been lost. The first net cast a large semicircle, and the net fell into the water with a "swish," covering ten or so square meters of water surface. He could see small fish darting up from the water under the edge of the net and then entering the water.

There were quite a few fish.

The water was quite deep and green. Li Long waited for the net to fall completely before slowly pulling the net.

Li Qing Xia said with a smile:

"There must be fish in this net—I saw it."

Li Long could also feel fish hitting the net, and the net in his hand shook constantly.

"There are quite a few fish in this Little Haizi." Li Long responded, "I don't know if anyone is casting nets to catch fish now."

Just as they were talking, they saw someone carrying a tire and carrying a sack on his back up the dam from the north. That person stopped for a moment after seeing Li Long and then went around to the west side of the Little Haizi.

It was someone from the team. Li Long didn't recognize who it was, but there was no need to care so much—although the team had already said that he had contracted the Little Haizi, Li Long didn't forbid catching fish, so it was normal for others to come over if they wanted to eat fish or wanted to sell fish.

Finally, the net was pulled up. Seven or eight fish were jumping around in the net, but they couldn't get out.

The largest one was a Wudaohai, over a kilogram, and the rest were crucian carp. The big ones were as long as a chopstick, and the small ones were the size of a palm, which was quite good and very beautiful.

"It's fine, these fish are enough for a meal." Li Long was very satisfied.

"How can that be?" Li Qing Xia took the net from Li Long's hand, "You collect the fish, I'll tidy up the net, how can I not cast a few more nets? If we can't finish eating, we can dry them or give them away."

Li Qing Xia also had an addiction to his hands. Since he was already at the water's edge and had the net in his hand, how could he not cast it twice before returning? That wouldn't do!

Li Qing Xia didn't change places either. He stood firm in the position where Li Long had cast the net, tidied up the net, twisted his waist, and flicked his hand, and the net was cast out—it was cast further and rounder than Li Long's.

Li Long's position was relatively close to the shore. This piece of water was clearer. Li Long felt that small crucian carp should like to come here.

Further in, there was a piece of water grass, which locals called duck-depression grass, which grew very lushly, from the water skin to the bottom of the water.

Further in, five or six meters from the shore, there was a large piece of water surface that was relatively clear, and no water grass could be seen. Li Qing Xia cast the net here.

The net entered the water with a "swish" and slowly sank. Li Qing Xia was relieved—it really was no water grass.

The rope of the cast net was ten or so meters long, so this distance was still enough. He waited until the net completely sank to the bottom before starting to pull it out.

At this time, the fish entering the net were bound by the lead weights and couldn't run away even if they wanted to. Pulling back, even if it passed through the water grass, it wouldn't hinder it.

"Hey, there's a big fish." Li Qing Xia suddenly shouted and pulled harder. He felt the movement of the fish hitting the fish net, which wasn't something an ordinary fish could make.

Li Long also saw the water splashing under the water. A big fish was churning in the net, wanting to escape.

Li Qing Xia's feet were very steady. Although the big fish had quite a bit of strength in the water, it was limited in the cast net, and the space was limited. It couldn't even slap the fish net open after slapping its tail several times, and finally, Li Qing Xia slowly pulled it to the shore.

Li Long saw it clearly this time. This big fish was a silver carp, over a meter long, very fat, and looked like it weighed ten or so kilograms.

He hurriedly went over to help his old father pull the fish up.

Along with the silver carp in the net were several small crucian carp. When Li Long pulled the net up, the small crucian carp darted out from the bottom of the net and escaped.

Naturally, the small fish couldn't be taken care of. Li Long put his hand into the gill cover of the silver carp and lifted the fish up. It was really a big guy!

"Hey, old father, your net was cast really well. This fish is almost becoming a fish king!"

"Hehe, good luck this time." Li Qing Xia was also very excited. Not to say whether the fish was delicious or not, at least such a big fish was rare, and it was happy to see it.

"Just this one is almost enough." Li Long put the fish into the sack and said to Li Qing Xia, "Old father, don't cast anymore, right?"

"Cast another net, cast another net." Li Qing Xia was in high spirits after casting such a big fish, so how could he stop? He said while tidying up the net, "This fish, you take it back later, it's easy to handle no matter how you cook it, chop off the head and boil it into soup, it's very fresh!"

Just as he was casting, Li Long saw someone coming.

Xu Chengjun?

What is the team leader doing here?

After Xu Chengjun saw the Li family father and son, he immediately walked over.

"Is there fish in this sack? You caught such a big one? Not bad." Xu Chengjun walked to the front, looked at the sack, and asked with a smile.

"Just cast a few nets to catch some to take home to eat." Li Long explained, "Do you want to take a few back, Team Leader?"

"No, no." Xu Chengjun hurriedly waved his hand, "Mingwa's mother doesn't cook fish well, so I won't take any. I came over to tell you something."

"Okay." Li Long gestured for his father to continue casting the net, and he followed Xu Chengjun to walk to one side. Walking twenty or thirty meters along the east dam line, Li Long suddenly heard a splashing sound in the water. He looked over; it was a water rat jumping from the grass on the shore into the water, swimming quickly toward the reed cluster ten meters away from the shore.

Water rats were very clumsy on the shore, but very agile once they entered the water.

"This thing is still here." Xu Chengjun looked at the water rat and sighed, "In early spring, people in the team caught them, saying one skin was ten or so yuan. At that time, quite a few were dug out here, and there were several in one nest. I thought they were dug to extinction."

"This guy lives in the water, and there is a Little Haizi, so it's not easy to make it extinct." Li Long said.

"That's true." Xu Chengjun echoed and asked about the proper business, "You brought back a lot of watermelon seeds today. Does that mean these watermelon seeds can still be planted?"

"This is a task given to me by the prefecture." Li Long still gave that explanation, "Last year, the prefecture collected watermelon seeds from the Corps and other places, and they haven't been sold out until now. There are still dozens of tons in the warehouse, and their acquisition price last year wasn't high."

"Not high? How much?" Xu Chengjun asked.

"Two yuan per kilogram." Li Long told the truth, "This is still the price for the support year. This year, there are many more people planting watermelons than last year. Just in our team, there are several hundred mu, and it's not a problem to collect thirty or forty tons. You say, who will buy these thirty or forty tons?"

Li Long's counter-question stunned Xu Chengjun.

He came to find Li Long, actually just wanting to verify whether Li Long's advice not to plant watermelons last year counted.

After all, the watermelon seeds Li Long brought back these two times were thirty tons, which was a large amount that needed to be processed. They guessed that Li Long should have sales channels for watermelon seeds.

If this was really the case, then why not let them plant?

But if it was really as Li Long said, there were too many watermelons planted this year, and there was no place to sell the seeds, then the price would inevitably drop.

If it were two yuan per kilogram, he estimated that everyone could barely accept it—actually, it was already much better than grain crops.

But first, the selling price before last year was three-fifty per kilogram, and now it dropped so much all at once, so it could only be said that they could barely accept it. Second, it was also because there were those planting flower sunflowers in the team. Flower sunflowers could also collect two hundred kilograms per mu if they were good.

Northern Xinjiang had good sunshine, and the flower sunflowers grew large and full, with very good quality. If sold, they could also sell for a mu price similar to watermelon seeds.

And planting flower sunflowers saved quite a lot of labor; there was no need to press seeds and press them flat, just bring the heads back, dry them, knock off the seeds, and then winnow them clean, which was much easier.

If the income per mu was about the same, then eighty percent of the people in the team would be willing to plant flower sunflowers—there was another reason, flower sunflowers were easy to sell. In Northern Xinjiang, there were many more people eating flower sunflowers than eating watermelon seeds.

If watermelon seeds were planted too much, they would ultimately have to be sold to the interior.

After Li Long finished explaining, Xu Chengjun understood, and then he became a bit worried. If the watermelon seeds couldn't be sold at that time, he estimated that quite a few people in the team would scold their mothers again this year.

"Little Long, if these watermelon seeds can't be sold when the time comes, can you contact the Supply and Marketing Cooperative to help sell them? It's not easy for the people in the team to have a good life. If they plant things and can't sell them, then they will lose a lot, right?"

"I can only say I'll help ask, I can't make the decision on whether they can collect them." Li Long didn't make his words absolute, but Xu Chengjun was already very happy listening.

"That's good." He had quite a few relatives in his family who planted watermelons. If they couldn't be processed when the time came, the one who would ultimately be troubled would still be him.

When Xu Chengjun left, he still didn't want fish. Li Long and Li Qing Xia father and son carried the fish back—when Li Long was talking to Xu Chengjun, Li Qing Xia cast two more nets and caught five or six kilograms of crucian carp.

This time it was completely enough.

After coming out of the acquisition station, Bai Xiu Ming didn't go to Wucheng, nor did he go to Shicheng, but went to the canteen to eat.

There were quite a few people in the canteen. Reform and opening up had been going on for several years, and many people had some pocket money in their hands. They didn't need to rush back after handling things, so they ate in the state-owned canteen.

While Bai Xiu Ming was eating, he listened to the things these people were chatting about. Some were chatting about this year's weather, some were chatting about the price of the new watermelon, and others were chatting about the harvest.

Some people finished eating and left, and newcomers came in, chatting and chatting, and finally chatted about the topic Bai Xiu Ming was interested in—about the acquisition station boss Li Long.

Li Long donated quite a few desks and stools to the Education Bureau. These desks and stools had currently been sent to primary and secondary schools in remote mountainous areas.

Those who came to eat were from Qingshuihe Village. Their township middle school received one hundred sets of desks and chairs, and the old desks in the two graduating classes were all replaced.

"My child came back and said that the new desk is really good, no holes, no eyes, the board on top is flat, and when writing papers, one doesn't need to spread a book to cushion it anymore."

Those who had been to school in that era knew that the old desks weren't flat, were pitted and bumpy, and it was fine to use notebooks to do homework, but if one had to do papers, one had to cushion something underneath; otherwise, the pencil would break the paper when writing.

Now that there were new desks, the ones who were happiest were naturally the students.

"This Li Long became a representative and did a good thing." Someone praised.

"People have money." Someone said sourly, "Donated so much... then he must earn more, right?"

"People earn because they have ability. In May, they collected fritillaria. Even those who dug fritillaria from Beiting and Huxian came to his acquisition station in our county to sell them. People from other provinces came to collect fritillaria and pulled them away truck by truck. How could they not make money..."

"That's true. I heard that two years ago, he planted watermelons there, and one mu of land could earn several hundred... This person's vision is really accurate, and his luck is really good."

"It's not luck. A friend of mine is in their team, saying he can also endure hardship. At first, there was no money at home. In the middle of winter, at minus thirty degrees, he smashed ice holes to catch fish, and before dawn, he pulled a sled to Shicheng to sell fish. Ordinary people can't do this work... He has ability, and he also endured hardship."

When these words were said, everyone praised. Think about themselves, go to catch fish to sell at minus thirty degrees? Isn't it better to stay at home in the middle of winter?

So it wasn't that they couldn't make money, but that they couldn't endure that hardship. Think about saying they could do it too, but could they really do it?

Bai Xiu Ming originally wanted to lead some topics to Li Long, but now listening, he didn't need to lead anymore. It seemed that Li Long was still a celebrity, and he had donated desks and chairs recently. Looking at it this way, he shouldn't be someone who would lie or cheat money.

Putting his heart down, Bai Xiu Ming continued to eat and listen.

In the impression of these people, Li Long was still quite good. He was an advanced individual in ethnic unity, often appeared in newspapers, and he also sold harvesters—Bai Xiu Ming knew this point, because there were harvesters placed in the courtyard when he entered the acquisition station.

He hadn't seen this thing in the interior. He knew the name only after asking others in the courtyard while waiting for Li Long.

Listening slowly, Bai Xiu Ming knew more about Li Long. This guy was quite comprehensive, and he grasped opportunities extremely well, growing up step by step, and it was really effort plus opportunity.

Coming from Shaanxi Province, looking all the way, Bai Xiu Ming felt that Northern Xinjiang was relatively backward, whether it was facility construction or people's height of thinking, it was worse than Shaanxi Province.

But people were also relatively simple and honest. The hostility he imagined didn't exist.

Now hearing the "history" of Li Long's development from the mouths of these people, Bai Xiu Ming felt that the thinking of people here wasn't so conservative or backward. If there were many people like Li Long, development would also accelerate.

But no matter what, listening to these people's words, Bai Xiu Ming felt relieved. He believed that Li Long would provide him with enough watermelon seeds in a few days.

He also hoped that the cooperation with Li Long would continue—if this first batch of watermelon seeds was taken back, processed into roasted goods, and put on the market, and the reaction was good, he would definitely continue to order. (End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 880 =====

However, regardless of everything else, after hearing what these people had to say, Bai Xiu Ming finally felt at ease. He believed that in a few days, Li Long would provide him with enough watermelon seeds.

He also hoped that the cooperation with Li Long would continue—if this first batch of watermelon seeds were taken back, processed into roasted goods, and placed on the market with a good response, he would definitely continue to place orders. (End of chapter)