Chapter 976: Bring the jade back? Let's talk about it after the road is built!

When Li Long drove the jeep out of Hongshanzui, the sun had just set, and the west was full of red sunset clouds.

"So beautiful! When I read the text "Fire Clouds" as a child, I wondered what fire clouds were. Later I found out it was like this." Ma Xiao Yan, sitting in the back row, leaned against the car window and looked out. "Not coming tomorrow..."

"You can still see it even if you don't come," Li Long said while driving in front. "You can see it in the county, right? After all, you work in the county, and there are so many things to do, how could you be like us, watching it every day? It's already not easy for you to follow us for a few days like this."

This wasn't what Ma Xiao Yan wanted to hear, but Li Long was married and very upright in this regard. Although she had some small thoughts, she couldn't say anything.

Arriving at the county, Ma Xiao Yan asked Li Long to send her to her home, saying that there was nothing left to take at the county committee.

Ma Xiao Yan's home was in the south near the urban-rural fringe—or rather, now, except for the very center of the county, other places weren't much different from the nearby rural areas.

The location of her home was actually quite close to the courtyard where Sister Yang used to live, separated by three alleys. Sister Yang's home was near the Wuyi Road, and Ma Xiao Yan's home was at the very end of the alley.

Li Long drove the jeep to the entrance of the alley, and Ma Xiao Yan asked him to stop, saying it was easy to go in but troublesome to go out, so stopping here was fine.

Li Long was in a hurry to go home, so he didn't send her inside. After Ma Xiao Yan got out of the car, he said goodbye and turned away. The car drove a long way, and Li Long inadvertently looked in the rearview mirror and could still see Ma Xiao Yan standing there watching this side.

Was she waiting for someone? Or was there something else?

Li Long just had a fleeting thought, then accelerated and headed home.

Knowing that Li Long had been going to build the road and coming back for dinner these past few days, Gu Bo Yuan said today to wait and see if he could wait for Li Long to come back before eating together.

Others had no objections. Only Gu Xiaoxia took care of Mingming and Haohao to eat first, then took the two children to play for a while.

The two children now still needed a lot of sleep. Although it didn't get dark until nearly eleven o'clock now, the two children were sleepy and wanted to lie on the bed around ten o'clock.

When Li Long came back, the two children hadn't slept yet. After the car stopped steadily, they couldn't wait for Li Long to hold them.

After Li Long got out of the car, he picked up the two children and poked them with his beard, making the two children laugh and push his face. After playing for a while, Gu Xiaoxia let the two children down and urged Li Long to wash his hands and eat.

Dinner had stewed fish soup. Before Li Long asked, Sister Yang said:

"Mingming and Haohao's grandfather sent it over this morning, saying that he was free these two days and went to catch fish. He couldn't dry them in time because he caught too many, so he came out to sell some. This is cleaned and fresh, just right to eat."

"The fish from Little Haizi is still delicious," Gu Bo Yuan sighed, then complained, "It's just that there are fewer people planting rice in the team. What good land it is. Planting rice, how fragrant that rice is..."

"Dad, it's not like you don't know how troublesome it is to plant rice!" Gu Xiaoxia said. "Now that production is contracted to households, everyone must want to plant something simple and easy to make money. Rice prices aren't high and it's troublesome, so naturally, fewer people plant it."

The logic was the logic, and Gu Bo Yuan was just complaining. He didn't expect to be criticized by his daughter. He didn't feel good saying anything at the dinner table, so he turned his head and asked Li Long:

"How is the road construction going?"

"It's been built for more than a kilometer," Li Long told about blasting the rock and passing the big willow tree today. "I'm thinking that's how it will be later. They build behind, and I look ahead to see where there are troublesome places and clear them first."

If it were in the later generations, family members would definitely say something about tinkering with dynamite. Now, to tell the truth, there were many people in the Fourth Team who had dynamite. In the past two years, some even used this as firecrackers for the New Year, so even Gu Bo Yuan and Gu Xiaoxia didn't care much.

"Discovered a jade stone weighing several tons today!" Li Long finally didn't hide this secret and said it at the dinner table. "The jade quality is very good, it's just too big to move back."

"Several tons?" Gu Bo Yuan was startled. "That... jasper? Even if jasper isn't worth much, something this heavy must be worth several thousand or ten thousand yuan, right?"

"That should be more than that," Li Long said. "It's just not easy to transport back. The terrain in the mountains is too complex. That thing needs a crane and a truck to go in and get it."

"Sigh, there really are good treasures in these mountains!" Gu Bo Yuan sighed. "Such a big jade stone..."

Although the Mahe was known as "gold version and jade bottom," jade stones were often found in the Mahe, and now jade pickers were appearing one after another. Li Long had brought back many jade seed materials from the mountains a few years ago.

But this matter was still information that was not easy for most ordinary people to come into contact with.

The information at this time was quite underdeveloped, and some "common sense" that was taken for granted in later generations was precious knowledge and data now.

For example, there was a Jade Mountain in the South Mountains of Maxian. There was official jade mining in the Qing Dynasty. Even forty years later, it was estimated that not many people knew about it—although by that time Maxian had already created the "China Jasper Garden" and promoted jade culture, because the South Mountains were closed and not allowed to enter, these things faded away.

"People must have picked it up before, it just couldn't spread." Li Long said. "If I can overcome the difficulties of entering the mountains and pull the jade back now, many people in our county will know."

"Knowing is knowing, not knowing is still not knowing." Gu Xiaoxia shook her head. "Information dissemination has a certain range. When it spreads to the margin, it might be changed. By the way, how is the texture of that jade stone?"

Having seen many good seed materials with Li Long over the years, Gu Xiaoxia also had a certain amount of research on jade. At first, she had no concept of the jade bracelets Li Long brought back, but once she wore them and let her colleagues see them, the colleagues exclaimed that the jade quality was very good.

Also, her younger sister Gu Xiao Yu would call her on weekends and occasionally talk about jade stones, saying that the jade bracelets she gave her made her colleagues amazed when they saw them.

Slowly, Gu Xiaoxia also knew that the jade artifacts Li Long brought back, as well as those stone eggs, were all very valuable things.

She was even discussing with her sister Gu Xiao Yu whether to send jade stones from here to Gu Xiaoxia's side to earn the price difference. Because Gu Xiao Yu's colleague wanted her to help purchase a bracelet of similar quality, and the asking price was at least eight hundred!

Although Gu Xiaoxia didn't know how much Li Long bought the bracelet she gave her sister for, it definitely wouldn't exceed five hundred yuan!

Wasn't it satisfying to earn this price difference?

So when Li Long talked about the jade stone, Gu Xiaoxia was still quite concerned.

"The jade quality is good, not the ordinary kind with black spots," Li Long remembered the evaluation of the jade stones given to him by the two factory directors and section chiefs when he first went to the Wucheng Jade Factory, and said: "The whole jade stone, where I can see, is basically above grade one.

If calculated according to the jade price in 1982, such a jade stone, even if only half of it is of this quality, must be worth several tens of thousands..."

Of course, in reality, it was far more than that. After all, the bigger it was, the more valuable it was. It didn't increase in multiples, although it couldn't reach geometric progression, it wasn't far off.

"Then you must hide this matter well, uncle." Sister Yang had also been listening. "Such a big treasure, you can't let others get it..."

"Hmm, I hid it well, others don't know that place," Li Long said with a smile. "It's deep in the mountains and old forests, few people go there, and even fewer people know."

"That's good."

After dinner, Gu Bo Yuan carried his hands behind his back and returned to the acquisition station. Li Long took Mingming and Haohao to sleep, while Gu Xiaoxia helped Sister Yang tidy up the kitchen.

When Gu Xiaoxia returned to the room, Mingming and Haohao were already asleep. Li Long was watching TV.

Gu Xiaoxia brought foot-washing water for Li Long to soak his feet. When she sat by Li Long's side watching TV, she told Li Long about Gu Xiao Yu wanting a jade bracelet.

"The price difference is really not small." Li Long didn't expect the jade price there to be so high. It could really be a part-time job for the sisters to test the waters.

"Do we have any suitable ones at home?" Li Long asked. "I'll take them out to see after I finish soaking my feet. If they are suitable, we'll mail them over. When I have time in a few days, I'll go to Wucheng to buy some more."

At the moment, the price of seed materials had begun to rise, but it wasn't rising very fast. Li Long could get more than two master-level carved jade bracelets from Engineer Liu every time. He had saved quite a few over the years.

"There should be. Gu Xiao Yu told me the size of the circle the other party wanted. We'll measure it when the time comes." Gu Xiaoxia smiled and said when she heard Li Long agreed. "Gu Xiao Yu has an extra sideline, which can also make life better."

Since Gu Xiaoxia knew about her sister's situation, she had been thinking about how to let her sister earn some money. Although the job of a university teaching assistant sounded noble, it was unlikely to be very rich. ===== CHAPTER 977 =====