Chapter 888: Whose Tractor Is This Anyway? Brother Yushanjiang Also Has

Every five days to a week during this period, Huang Lei would come to Li Long's place to collect a batch of dried mushrooms.

The quality of the wild dried mushrooms from here was excellent, processed very cleanly, and after being transported back, the customers there were extremely satisfied.

When Li Long saw Huang Lei, Huang Lei had already actively approached with a smile, extending both hands.

At this moment, Huang Lei was far from the awkwardness he displayed when he first met Li Long to buy dried mushrooms; wearing a white Dacron shirt, blue-black suit trousers, and leather shoes, it was a pity that the ground here was quite dusty, though Li Long could tell he had tidied himself up well before arriving.

Alas, the environment did not permit it, making his feet look somewhat messy.

But his mental state was extremely good, looking quite spirited and triumphant; he had applied hair oil that gleamed under the sunlight, and before Li Long even got close, he could already smell a scent of osmanthus.

Following beside Huang Lei was a sturdy young man whose expression held some curiosity, occasionally glancing sideways at the people in the acquisition station with a hint of vigilance.

He carried a black bag in his hand; the bag was bulging, and when the young man held it, he half-hugged it against his body.

One could clearly feel that the bag must contain something valuable.

This attire and demeanor, so full of traditional characteristics, made Li Long want to laugh, but the people around them coming to sell goods, especially the second-hand dealers, looked at Huang Lei's outfit and his companion with eyes full of envy.

Li Long knew that people like Huang Lei were normal; if another two years passed, holding a brick phone would better reveal the aura of having struck it rich—although some disparagingly called them nouveau riche, in reality, even the nouveau riche were objects of envy for many.

Someone like Li Long, who paid no attention to his own clothing, didn't want to use hair oil or wear formal white shirts and black suit trousers, and wouldn't bring along underlings to pretend to be a tycoon, was considered an outlier.

After all, television from Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Singapore currently had a huge influence on people on the mainland; in their view, those exaggerated styles seen in film and television programs were the hallmark of how people who had become wealthy normally dressed.

Bell-bottom pants, jeans, and breakdancing were slowly spreading in the small county town, becoming the forefront of fashion.

Although Huang Lei had come from beyond the passes, to be honest, the aesthetic level of most places inland at this time was just like that, following what they learned from film and television and from stars.

"Comrade Li Long, hello, hello!" Huang Lei said with a smile. "Seeing your business doing so well here, I am truly envious."

"What is there to be envious of?" Li Long shook hands with Huang Lei and led the two men toward the reception room at the back, saying as they walked, "Our place is a small locality; we can only collect some local specialties. Unlike you folks, who travel all over the country, having seen beautiful scenery and famous sites everywhere, and can still make money..."

"Hahaha, Comrade Li Long, you really know how to talk. But to be honest, I think you are doing quite well. I rush about everywhere; it's not as relaxed as you say, though of course, it is much better than a month ago..."

Huang Lei was very satisfied with the current situation. Although collecting goods was no longer limited to just Li Long's place, after all, the Black Tiger Palm fungus grew across the northern slopes of Northern Tianshan, all the way to the Ili River Valley.

Therefore, he had been patrolling various cities on the northern slope; after all, his supply channels could not rely solely on Li Long, for what if a competitor appeared at Li Long's end? Would he not be left flustered?

But to be honest, regarding collecting this Black Tiger Palm fungus on a large scale, only Li Long's place truly did so.

Firstly, Li Long's acquisition station had already made a name for itself in several nearby cities; whether mountain hunters or second-hand dealers in the cities east of Shicheng all knew that Li Long offered high prices for what he bought and had a wide range of purchases.

As for collecting wild dried mushrooms, this was also done on a large scale only at Li Long's place; other locations rarely collected them because they originally lacked sales channels. Li Long had collected first and then found the market.

So although Huang Lei had toured these cities on the northern slope, and had even recently gone as far as Tacheng, the amount of wild dried mushrooms he actually acquired was not large; the total from the other few places combined was not even as much as what he got from Li Long's place.

Of course, after several purchases, he discovered that Li Long's place still honored integrity and had not sold the dried mushrooms to his competitors, a point that also put Huang Lei at ease.

He made money, and Li Long made money; this was what Li Long called a win-win situation.

Of course, another reason Huang Lei felt so reassured was that the quality of goods at Li Long's place was very good; there were not so many impurities in the dried mushrooms, as dirt, crushed fragments, and the like had already been cleaned away.

Although even after cleaning, storing the dried mushrooms in burlap sacks inevitably led to some breakage and fragments, at least there were not so many.

Grabbing a handful of dried mushrooms, one could see they had been processed; the roots had no mud, and the whole batch had no weeds, which was very good.

Or rather, it was extremely good. When Huang Lei went to various places to buy wild dried mushrooms, no other place was as clean as theirs; at best, there were not many impurities elsewhere, but crushed fragments were inevitable, after all, since these were bought with money, others would not throw away these fragments.

But here at Li Long's place, those fragments were gone.

Sun Jia Qiang deserved no small credit for this matter, which was also related to Li Long repeatedly emphasizing quality; items leaving the acquisition station must be of good quality—if hides had holes, there was nothing to be done, but at least the grease on them could be cleaned and the fur combed.

So when Huang Lei went out to collect goods, he would occasionally wear an expression of disdain; in truth, he knew himself that his palate had been "spoiled" by Li Long's goods.

But what could be done about it? The stunning quality of the goods received during the first purchase, which he originally thought was the norm, turned out to be the peak.

"You business people really know how to talk," Li Long waved his hand and said. "There is quite a lot of wild dried mushrooms this time; shall we look now, or take a tour first?"

"Let's look now; after inspecting, I'll find a vehicle to haul them away and can still catch tonight's train heading inland." Huang Lei did not want to delay. His wild dried mushroom business was doing well now, with a fixed market beyond the passes that was still expanding; if he did not occupy the market during the current peak season, by the time the slack season arrived, there would be nothing left for him to do.

After all, Li Long was not the only one with wild dried mushrooms, nor was he the only one with connections. Although Liu Xinjun had not returned to Li Long's place, Huang Lei felt this person was always watching him like a tiger eyeing its prey, and might jump out to snatch his business at any moment.

"Alright, then come over and inspect," Li Long said with a smile. "I've collected quite a lot these past few days; if you didn't come to haul it away, I was thinking about how to contact you. By the way, my acquisition station now has a telephone; if anything comes up, you can call here, and when I'm not around, Xiao Sun can answer."

As he spoke, Sun Jia Qiang poured tea and brought it over; hearing Li Long's words, he smiled at Huang Lei, then went to the front.

There were many people selling goods, and he still had work to do.

Li Long opened the warehouse and let Huang Lei inspect the dried mushrooms.

Now, for every bag inspected, one was taken out; there was no need for repeated inspections, which also made weighing the goods easier.

This was also convenient for Li Long's side.

The dried mushrooms in the warehouse were mainly Black Tiger Palm fungus, with one-quarter being straw mushrooms. If Huang Lei did not want the straw mushrooms, Li Long would store them; he believed that by winter, these would also be in high demand.

After all, although greenhouse technology existed now, it was not yet advanced; there were only a few types of common vegetables available in winter, so whether for restaurants or individual households, who wouldn't want to get some dried vegetables to vary their diet?

Currently, these dried straw mushrooms could be bought for one or two yuan per unit; once rehydrated, two hundred grams could stir-fry a large plate. Come winter, Li Long would not sell them unless the price reached three to five yuan.

Although this was not their first transaction, Huang Lei still carefully inspected the dried mushrooms inside the bags.

Fortunately, the quality was as good as ever, with excellent appearance; the roots had all been processed away.

There were over five hundred kilograms of Black Tiger Palm fungus in the warehouse, earning Li Long more than ten thousand yuan.

Nearly half of that was pure profit.

After Huang Lei hired a vehicle to haul the dried mushrooms away, Li Long took out fifty and handed it to Sun Jia Qiang, stating this was a bonus.

Sun Jia Qiang had become numb to receiving bonuses; in this past month, he had earned far more than he did digging Fritillaria while burrowing in the mountains.

If he had known there was such good work available, why would he have bothered burrowing into mountain gullies? How much better it was to stay here at the acquisition station?

After all this commotion, seeing that it was nearly lunchtime, Li Long no longer thought about going into the mountains.

In the afternoon, he went to the acquisition station and made a phone call to Zhao Hui.

Zhao Hui had a room reserved year-round at a state-run guesthouse in Wucheng; currently, he was not beyond the passes but was searching for goods in the northern and southern Xinjiang regions. When Li Long called, the front desk said Zhao Hui was not in, so Li Long asked them to relay a message that there were good goods here and for him to come over immediately.

With several snow leopard hides in hand, Li Long felt it was better to convert them into money as soon as possible.

In the afternoon, Li Long was in the large courtyard, bringing out those hides to clean and process them properly.

The hides smelled strong; clearly, Mingming and Hao Hao did not come over, watching their father busy at work from a distance.

The two children could now walk and crawl around on their own, but Sister Yang did not dare to leave them for a single step, after all, these two children would put whatever they found into their mouths to test if it was edible.

Comb the fur smooth, clean the blood from the hairs, scrape off the grease from the hide, and tend to the spots with bullet holes.

Although that large piece of bear hide was damaged, it was still much bigger than ordinary sheepskin; the bear fur was sleek and smooth, showing that the creature had lacked for no food in life and had been raised extremely well.

It was just a pity it encountered a natural predator; Li Long had seen brown bears both large and small, with the big ones standing over two meters tall and weighing five or six hundred kilograms, while the small ones stood about one meter fifty-six and weighed fifty or sixty kilograms; at this size, let alone a Northern Frontier tiger, even a few gray wolves circling it could scare it away.

Among the brown bears of the Northern Frontier, some were bold and some timid; the timid ones truly grew such large bodies for nothing, as even a few wolves could chase them away.

After cleaning both the snow leopard skin and the bear skin thoroughly, it was already time for the afternoon meal.

It was quite troublesome—of course, the hides at the acquisition station did not require such treatment; for one thing, Li Long had already told Gu Gu Bo Yuan and Sun Jia Qiang that they needed to slowly instill an idea in those middlemen: items sold at the acquisition station that were cleaned more thoroughly and had better appearance were worth more money.

For the same hide, simply combing it clean, scraping off the grease, and washing away the bloodstains could earn an extra two or three yuan.

The time and energy of these people were not that valuable; gradually they would form the habit of tidying up what they acquired at home before coming to sell, earning a little more money each time, so why not do it?

After all, no matter how capable Sun Jia Qiang was or how much overtime he worked, he had not grown ten hands.

Only by cultivating good habits in the customers could their side save more time and effort.

After all, with better appearance, Li Long could sell at a higher price; consider this money as a transferred payment.

The next morning, after eating breakfast and informing his family, Li Long drove his vehicle into the mountains.

What surprised Li Long somewhat was that it had rained in the mountains yesterday.

After passing two layers of Tushan and gravelly mountains, upon entering the mountainous area with vegetation, Li Long felt the air was exceptionally moist and fresh.

It smelled very comfortable.

Of course, the trouble was also significant; the roads were difficult to travel, as the wet ground turned to mud; although the jeep had strong power, the splashing mud spots caused considerable trouble.

He would just have to go back and wash the vehicle thoroughly.

What puzzled Li Long somewhat was the sight of a tractor heading out of the gully—he had not seen the tractor itself, only the tracks it left behind driving out.

Was it because the rain made mowing grass difficult, so Brother Brother Yushanjiang had gone out to the livestock team's outpost to visit his family?

This was Li Long's guess.

When he arrived at Brother Brother Yushanjiang's winter camp, sure enough, Brother Brother Yushanjiang was not there, but several herdsmen were chatting there instead.

Seeing Li Long approach, those herdsmen hurriedly stood up and waited for the jeep to drive over.

Li Long did not drive the jeep right up to the winter camp; there was too much mud, and he feared splashing it everywhere; moreover, the vehicle was relatively heavy, and pressing tracks into the mud in front of the winter camp would make it difficult to clean once dried.

He got out of the jeep, walked carefully to the front of the winter camp, and while scraping the thick mud clinging to his shoes, he asked:

"Did Brother Brother Yushanjiang go to the outpost to see his sheep?"

"Yes," said the herdsman named Ye Erjiang, "He left early—very early."

The word "early" was drawn out very long, indicating he had left particularly early.

It was the custom of Northern Frontier people to use the length of a sound to describe the distance of a journey or the amount of time.

The longer the sound was drawn out, the farther the distance or the longer the time.

"So no grass can be cut today?" Li Long asked another question; there were still thin clouds in the sky, but seeing them drifting eastward and the northwest direction already clearing, he estimated that in about another hour or two, the sky would be filled with bright sun.

"In the afternoon, well, in the afternoon when the sun dries the rainwater on the grass, then it can be cut," Ye Erjiang said, handing Li Long a piece of nan bread; Li Long shook his head to indicate he had already eaten, so Ye Erjiang began eating it himself.

Since they could cut grass in the afternoon and had nothing to do in the morning, it was perfectly normal and reasonable for Brother Brother Yushanjiang to go visit his family.

After the sky cleared, mushrooms would grow; Li Long had actually come unable to help much with mowing grass anyway, so he took his sack and went into the mountains, thinking he might as well pick some mushrooms first.

One sack of mushrooms, once dried, could weigh ten-odd kilograms and exchange for quite a lot of money; this speed and ease of earning money was far better than harvesting wheat.

However, this applied only to him; if you truly pulled just anyone from the village and put them in the mountains, they would really have no clue—this kind of experience in picking mushrooms was not something that could be explained clearly in just a few words.

Li Long had wandered in the mountains every year for the past few years, essentially wandering this experience into existence.

Just as he had filled more than half his sack with mushrooms, he heard the sound of a tractor in the forest.

Since it came from the north, it was not Talihaer starting up the tractor, but rather Brother Brother Yushanjiang returning.

He's back quite early, isn't he?

Li Long was somewhat surprised; calculating by this time, did he go there once and return directly?

Li Long hesitated for a moment, deciding to fill this sack completely before going out; there were especially many Black Tiger Palm mushrooms in this gully, and he had already gathered more than half a sack in a short while, so he was too lazy to make another trip later.

Even for an old hand, encountering patches of such mushrooms, and moreover continuous patches, was rare, so one had to cherish it. (I wonder if anyone has ever entered Gully No. 15 of Kangsu Gully; the Black Tiger Palm mushrooms there were just this abundant... back then.)

What surprised Li Long somewhat was that before he had even filled this sack, he heard someone calling him from the mouth of the gully.

He recognized it as Brother Brother Yushanjiang's voice.

The voice sounded somewhat urgent, so Li Long hurriedly picked up his sack and walked out.

Where the trees provided cover, the mushroom-picking spot was not very wet, but by the time he reached the gully mouth, there was mud.

What Li Long saw was that beside Brother Brother Yushanjiang stood another person; he had vaguely seen him before and believed he was from the livestock team's outpost, though he was not that deputy captain.

The expression on Brother Brother Yushanjiang's face was somewhat complex, while that other person looked at Li Long with some curiosity.

Li Long's heart gave a thump; he understood that something had happened.

Thinking about it, it was normal; after all, Brother Brother Yushanjiang and the others were nominally members of the livestock team, meaning the cattle and sheep they herded were not entirely their own; their household registration counted as collective registration, making them organized personnel, so they also had to fulfill certain obligations.

Li Long had his suspicions but said nothing; he stepped forward to greet Brother Brother Yushanjiang while also looking at the other person, asking:

"And this gentleman is..."

"Xiao Kelaiti," that person introduced himself, "The storekeeper in the livestock team; I came this time hoping to borrow the tractor..."

This person spoke rather vaguely, but Li Long understood.

He looked toward Brother Brother Yushanjiang.

Brother Brother Yushanjiang said:

"I told them the tractor is yours, and the team said you would definitely agree..."

So that was how it was; however, Brother Brother Yushanjiang's excuse was also normal.

If the tractor belonged to Brother Brother Yushanjiang himself, and he belonged to the livestock team, then if the livestock team wanted to requisition the tractor to cut grass, how could he disagree?

After all, his family still lived over there; they had provided a house, and although it was dilapidated, at least it was habitable; moreover, they let the children attend school without costing much money.

But if he were to abandon the hay-cutting work on his own side to cut hay over there, Brother Brother Yushanjiang would certainly be unwilling.

So Li Long would just have to take the blame for this.

A look of apology appeared on Brother Brother Yushanjiang's face.

Li Long smiled and said:

"How could that work? The tractor is cutting hay here, and I'm charging for it. Once paid, I'll finish cutting the hay here first. As for cutting hay over there—we had such a situation a couple of years ago: negotiate the price first; if the price is suitable, then we go over; if not, I recall you folks bought a harvester, didn't you?"

"Only one," Xiao Kelaiti shook his head and said, "not enough."

That was true; with so many people and so many livestock in the animal husbandry team, one harvester was certainly insufficient for the job. But hadn't they managed to cut hay before they had any harvesters? Did the hay fall from the sky back when there were no harvesters?

Li Long certainly didn't mind having an extra business opportunity, but since they weren't his own people, the price had to be made clear.

Moreover, this time, he was essentially negotiating business on behalf of Brother Brother Yushanjiang and the others. (End of Chapter)