Chapter 890: The slippery Shaokelaiti

Zhao Hui came the next day.

Li Long's phone call disrupted his plans. Zhao Hui had originally planned to go to Southern Xinjiang after returning from Yili. Someone in Southern Xinjiang had called and left a message saying they had gotten some skins, including bear skins, and asked him to hurry over to collect them.

It was just that after returning and seeing Li Long's message, Zhao Hui thought that Li Long's place was close, and at most it would delay him for a day, so he would come over first.

Knowing Zhao Hui was coming today, Li Long ate breakfast, took the snow leopard skins and bear skins, and went to the purchasing station with Gu Bo Yuan. By this time, there were already people waiting outside the purchasing station. Sun Jia Qiang was holding a steamed bun in one hand while opening the big courtyard gate to let people in, telling them to line up.

The tea in the courtyard was already prepared. Obviously, as soon as Sun Jia Qiang got up, he boiled the tea first. This stuff was too hot to drink, so it was usually boiled first, and by the time work started, it was lukewarm. Even if it was a bit hot when scooped into a bowl, blowing on it made it drinkable.

It seems his bonus wasn't given in vain. The work was done so well.

Li Long and Sun Jia Qiang greeted each other with a smile, first putting those skins into the warehouse in the back, and then going to the front yard.

The arrival of Li Long and Gu Bo Yuan meant that the purchasing station officially started collecting things. Sun Jia Qiang put the steamed bun on the windowsill and prepared to come over to help, but Li Long waved his hand and said:

"You go eat first, I'll help out here, and when you finish eating, come and replace me."

He wasn't a capitalist and didn't have the idea of exploiting employees. Sun Jia Qiang did a good job; as soon as he got up in the morning, he cleaned the courtyard and boiled tea. Of course, eating only dry steamed buns also had a factor of laziness.

But no matter what, he was an adult, so it wasn't easy to talk about this, so Li Long took over his work.

A middleman joked at the door:

"Yo, Boss Li is helping out personally, then even if the price is a bit low today, I'll accept it..."

"That's fine, then I'll count this yellow sheep skin of yours as a damaged skin," Li Long also said with a smile, "Twenty, what do you think?"

"Don't, don't, don't..." The middleman immediately became nervous and hurriedly waved his hands: "I was just joking... Although my skin isn't a whole skin, there are only two bullet holes on it, look, one on the butt and one on the leg, both are in unimportant places, at least add a bit..."

"Hahaha, I was also joking, I don't make the decisions on valuation," Li Long responded while tidying up the counter.

"Thirty." Gu Bo Yuan flipped through the skin and looked at it. Sure enough, as the middleman said, the two bullet holes were unimportant, but the skin was a spring skin, and the fur color wasn't very good, so he gave that price.

The middleman had obviously estimated it himself, it was about right, so he nodded. Gu Bo Yuan recorded the account and paid the money, while Li Long picked up the skin and put it aside. This skin hadn't been tanned, so it was like a piece of cardboard, hard and couldn't be rolled up. He had to wait for other people selling skins to come, collect several skins together, and then take them to the back.

Sun Jia Qiang felt a bit embarrassed, ate the steamed bun in a few bites, and ended up choking. He hurriedly went outside, scooped half a bowl of tea, and drank it while blowing on it. It took several gulps to push the steamed bun down his throat. He let out a long breath, and his face was already flushed red.

Returning to the counter, he took over Li Long's work. Li Long smiled and went to the back. Seeing that Sun Jia Qiang had already hung up the dried wild mushrooms, he went over to take a look.

After drying for half an afternoon yesterday, these wild mushrooms had only shrunk a bit. It mainly depended on the drying situation today.

He checked the other skins in the warehouse along the way. Those skins prepared to be sold to Zhao Hui had all been organized. The snow leopard skins and the larger half of the bear skin were placed separately; this was a surprise for Zhao Hui.

After twelve o'clock in the afternoon, Zhao Hui came over with his people.

Having been to Li Long's place several times, he had basically determined that every time he came, the skins at Li Long's place were piled up quite high, and one person couldn't handle it.

He didn't like hiring a car either, so he brought people over to carry the skins directly to the station, which could save some shipping costs.

Quite calculating.

"Snow leopard skins? Three of them?" Zhao Hui had originally looked at so many skins in the warehouse and thought they were quite good, but soon his gaze stopped on those snow leopard skins, and a surprised expression appeared on his face:

"Boss Li, you are still the best... let me see, let me see... eh? There are also bear skins? This bear skin is a bit small... is it damaged? Damaged is fine..."

Large quantity and satisfying, three snow leopard skins already made Zhao Hui feel that this trip was truly worth it. Plus the larger half of the bear skin, that was even better.

As for the hundreds of other skins left in the warehouse, they were of course the icing on the cake.

Of course, with Zhao Hui's eye, he knew that the money earned from those hundreds of skins added together wouldn't be less than the profit these three snow leopard skins could bring him.

In the end, three snow leopard skins, plus that larger half of the bear skin, for a price of eight thousand seven hundred, both sides were satisfied.

The remaining two hundred plus skins were checked one by one—actually, Zhao Hui's checking wasn't that serious this time. The final price was nine thousand five hundred, which was about the same as Li Long's estimate.

He was already calculating that he wouldn't go to Southern Xinjiang on this trip, but would personally take these three snow leopard skins to the interior, have them tanned and processed, and then talk about selling them.

The good skins he had gotten from Northern Xinjiang in the past two years were very popular with customers, and some people had already placed orders in advance.

Although these spring skins weren't as good as winter skins, these were snow leopard skins!

Now, snow leopard skins in the whole country were only produced in those few provinces in the Northwest, and the quantity wasn't large.

Although this stuff wasn't as noble as tiger skin, to be honest, it was quite popular with some noble ladies.

On this trip, Zhao Hui felt he could earn at least five thousand yuan!

Li Long was also quite satisfied; the total price was about the same as his estimate. The skins brought back from the mountains added up to less than the price of two tractors, but with the jade, it was about right.

Li Long didn't really make much money from Yushanjiang and the others, but the skins collected by the purchasing station earned him over two thousand yuan.

That was fine too.

Zhao Hui greeted the people he brought to pack the skins and carry them out of the purchasing station. He shook hands with Li Long and left in a hurry.

Having over ten thousand yuan in hand wasn't very safe. Li Long put the money into his bag, took it, and left the purchasing station, deciding to put it away first.

Actually, he was already used to it. Every once in a while, he could earn ten or twenty thousand yuan. Li Long would either deposit it in the bank or keep it at home, and a portion of it had to be kept at the purchasing station as working capital.

Basically, the purchasing station had already entered a virtuous cycle stage. Now Li Long still had a lot of cash on hand, and he didn't know where to invest it for the time being.

Although he knew the development trend of later generations, he was still very cautious in terms of investment.

After all, his economic mind was being exercised, but having lived two lives as an old farmer, his vision still needed to be improved.

After depositing the money, the morning passed. He guessed that Shaokelaiti or the Animal Husbandry Team might go into the mountains, but Li Long wasn't in a hurry to rush over.

Anyway, Yushanjiang and Talihar's tractors were harvesting grass for their own tribe, so they couldn't be pulled away. Even if the conditions were negotiated, they could only start working in ten days.

No rush.

In July, the children were already on vacation, and there were more people on the street. Even though it was hot, there were still many people from the countryside coming over, either to buy things, sell things, or bring their children out to see the world.

It would eventually become more and more lively.

The next day, Li Long drove the jeep into the mountains. The road on the mountain had dried and hardened, no longer muddy, and the original tire tracks were slowly becoming shallower.

Passing by Qingshuihe Village, Li Long found that the wheat harvest here was nearing its end. A tractor was turning on the threshing floor pulling a roller. It was a bit far, and he couldn't see clearly if the person sitting on it was Meng Hai.

His jeep didn't stop and drove directly into the mountains, arriving at Yushanjiang's winter shelter.

There was only one person preparing lunch at the winter shelter, and the others had all scattered.

The rumbling sound of tractors could be heard in the valley; obviously, the grass harvesting work was in progress.

Li Long vaguely remembers the person cooking was called Ye Erlan, an honest and simple young man who didn't talk much. Seeing Li Long come over, he just gave a constrained smile.

He was making naan.

Kazakh naan is a bit different from Uyghur naan; the naan is thicker, and milk is usually added when kneading the dough—now there were no such conditions, so it was basically equivalent to a round baked cake.

Of course, it was delicious.

Meat soup was boiling in the pot. Most of the bones of the red deer and wolf hunted a few days ago had been eaten, and some meat was left to be air-dried. Today, they were eating naan soaked in meat soup.

"Did Talihar and the others catch anything?" Li Long walked to the side of the naan pit and asked Ye Erlan.

Some of these names were quite confusing. There were many called "Bieke," and there were also many with the surname "Ye," such as Ye Ersen, Ye Erlan, Ye Erjiang... and there were also names like Revolutionary Bieke and Red Star Dulan. Hmm, very much in the spirit of the times.

"No, Talihar went out once and said he ran into a group of wild boars, but didn't shoot."

Then there was nothing to be done. Even if they shot them, they couldn't eat them. And there was still meat here, so no rush.

"They picked some mushrooms and put them in that room," Ye Erlan said, "They said when you come over, take them. Although they didn't catch any prey, there were really many mushrooms."

Li Long pushed open the door of the spare room in the winter shelter and saw that there were indeed four or five sacks of wild mushrooms inside, and some were simply piled on the ground because they couldn't fit.

Yushanjiang, Talihar, and the others were people from the mountains and were very clear about where things in the mountains grew. They didn't pick mushrooms before because they didn't eat them, but now that they needed them, it was very easy to pick them.

Of course, this only applied to people from the mountains. Ordinary people going into the mountains at this time would be doing quite well if they could find wild vegetables and a few wild mushrooms. Only people who stayed in the mountains all year round could pick seasonal things in any season.

Li Long looked at these two or three hundred kilograms of wild mushrooms, smiled, and started loading them into the car.

As Yushanjiang said, he didn't need to be polite with the herdsmen; being polite would be looking down on friends. When he helped Yushanjiang and the others, he didn't think about letting them be polite either; it was all mutual.

The jeep was full, and he barely managed to load these mushrooms. Li Long said a word to Ye Erlan, telling him to tell Yushanjiang and the others that he had taken the wild mushrooms and would come again tomorrow.

When he left, Ye Erlan had already baked the first pit of naan. Li Long took one, broke off a piece, and started eating while driving.

Hmm, so fragrant!

Before the car had left this gully, he saw Shaokelaiti walking towards here leading a horse.

There were two sacks on the horse's back, bulging. Needless to say, they must be filled with wild mushrooms.

Seeing the jeep, Shaokelaiti was overjoyed and hurriedly accelerated to meet it. When the jeep arrived, he led the horse to the side of the road.

Li Long stopped, turned off the engine, got out of the car, and asked with a smile:

"Are these all mushrooms inside? Quite a harvest!"

"Haha, it's okay." Shaokelaiti also smiled. He had worried about not running into Li Long when he came. If that happened, he wouldn't be able to get the money on the spot.

He didn't expect Li Long to really be there, so trading on the spot made him naturally happy.

"Come, unload them and let me see." Seeing Shaokelaiti's expression, Li Long knew that what he was anxious about in his heart at this moment was to sell the wild mushrooms to Li Long quickly.

While Li Long was talking, Shaokelaiti had already untied the sacks from the horse's back and spread the openings to show Li Long.

Li Long took a look, frowned, and said:

"Shaokelaiti, I told you, these mushrooms need to be cleaned. Look at these mushrooms you brought, many of them have dirt and moss on the roots; there are too many impurities."

As he said this, Li Long opened the jeep's door, pulled out a bag, and untied the opening to show Shaokelaiti:

"Look at this, the roots should either be cleaned or cut off. Otherwise, we have to clean them all over again when we take them back."

"Haha," Shaokelaiti laughed dryly, "This, it was done a bit in a hurry, just bear with it, next time, next time I will definitely clean them."

Shaokelaiti is Ye Laya's uncle. At first, Li Long had a good impression of him. This person has some business thinking. As soon as he mentioned it, he could think of collecting wild mushrooms, which should be profitable.

But the things he brought now, plus what he said, made Li Long feel that this person was a bit slippery.

To be honest, he had told him before that they needed to be cleaned, otherwise, the price would be deducted.

Obviously, he didn't listen, maybe he only heard the two yuan per kilogram. Li Long checked the other sack again; there were clean ones and dirty ones, obviously not picked by the same person.

This showed that these wild mushrooms were collected by him.

As for how much he collected them for, Li Long didn't care, but this trend couldn't be started—once started, it would be hard to suppress the price when collecting mushrooms in the future.

To be honest, Li Long being able to raise the price of these wild resources at the purchasing station to what it is now is due to his export channels to the interior.

Some small purchasing stations or middlemen offer low prices because their goods can only be sold locally and can't raise the price.

So the price Li Long offers is a bit low compared to his export price, but for the seller, this price is already very high, and there are basically not many competitors.

That's why Li Long is very strict about quality. If the quality is poor, the price is low; there's nothing to discuss.

"These mushrooms of yours, there are many, but the quality isn't up to par," Li Long said directly, "So I can't give you two yuan. If you want two yuan, I'll remove the skin for you now—you must have weighed them when you came, right?"

"Weighed, weighed," Shaokelaiti saw Li Long was serious. He had originally wanted to argue, but lost his confidence. Li Long had told him about the quality issue, but he didn't pay attention, thinking that as long as he collected them, it would be fine. Relying on the relationship with Ye Laya, he thought he could fool him with a few words, say a few nice things, and maybe this young man would let him get away with it.

He didn't expect the other party to be serious.

"Let me weigh them." Li Long picked up a sack in each hand, weighed them, and said, "These two sacks of wild mushrooms, they are about eighty-one or eighty-two kilograms, right? Including the sacks, they shouldn't exceed eighty-five kilograms."

"Yes, yes, yes..." Shaokelaiti was shocked by Li Long showing this hand and hurriedly said, "I weighed them, including the skin, eighty-four and a half kilograms..."

"There are quite a few impurities inside," Li Long said, "If I calculate it at two yuan, I have to remove at least fifteen kilograms of impurities. There is too much dirt in here. I haven't looked at the bottom yet, but..."

Li Long put down the sacks, reached out and pinched the bottom corners of the sacks, signaling to Shaokelaiti:

"You don't even need to pour the mushrooms out. Look, these can be pinched together, they must be mud."

Shaokelaiti's face turned red, and he couldn't say anything.

"It's the first time doing business, and there's Ye Laya, so I'll give you some face. I'll calculate it as seventy kilograms, which is one hundred and forty yuan," Li Long said, "How about it, sell or not?"

"Sell, sell, sell!" Shaokelaiti hurriedly said, "Definitely sell, thank you!"

Li Long's one hit, one press, and then mentioning Ye Laya made Shaokelaiti's heart go up and down. Now that he finally said he would buy them, he could finally set his mind at ease.

Actually, how much did he pay? It didn't even add up to fifty yuan, right? When he collected them, seeing these impurities, Shaokelaiti had also pressed the price down.

It was just that after he pressed the price and made a profit, he didn't care anymore. Now he regretted it. If he had been stricter when collecting, and processed them a bit after collecting, could he have deducted fewer impurities?

"If they are this dirty later, I won't buy them," Li Long took out the money, counted out fourteen ten-yuan bills, handed them to Shaokelaiti, and then said, "I'm telling you, these mushrooms of mine are to be sold to the interior. If they are too dirty, people won't want them, and wouldn't I have bought them for nothing?"

Shaokelaiti took the money, dipped his finger in some saliva, counted it carefully twice, and then put it into his pocket.

Li Long had already tied the two sacks of mushrooms and tied them to the top of the jeep. There was no other way; it couldn't fit inside anymore. Although the top of the jeep was soft canvas, it had a frame as a structure, so it could hold up if tied well.

"I will be in the mountains for these two days. If you collect more mushrooms, send them over. Of course, sending them to the purchasing station in the county is also fine," Li Long said to Shaokelaiti when he got into the car.

After saying this, he drove away. Shaokelaiti suddenly thought of something and reached out to call Li Long, but the jeep had already driven far away.

He hadn't returned the sacks!

But thinking that these sacks were also sold to Li Long at the price of wild mushrooms, Shaokelaiti suddenly felt that he seemed to have made a profit.

After all, two sacks didn't even weigh a kilogram, and they couldn't be sold for two yuan!

Earning nearly one hundred yuan in a day, this was something he wouldn't have dared to think about before!

Now, he must, immediately, Shaokelaiti couldn't wait to hurry to the mountain he was familiar with and continue to find people to pick mushrooms.

Of course, this time it had to be cleaner, and he had to put in some effort.

However, did he forget something? Something quite important? (End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 891 =====