Yang Yongqiang was sent back by Tao Daqiang in the evening. He drank too much, and at the end he kept talking about wanting to buy a bicycle for his sister to go to school.
What a good brother.
We ate and drank in Li Long’s room. Tao Daqiang was the most sober in the room. Before leaving, he packed up the things on the table and put them in the kitchen. He also added coal pressure to the stove in Li Long’s room. Light the fire and let the coals burn slowly. Leave after all these are done.
People here in Northern Xinjiang have experience in burning stoves. There are ventilation holes on the door, so there is no need to worry about people being poisoned.
Li Long was dizzy and let Tao Daqiang take care of him. He took off his clothes, covered himself with a quilt, and fell asleep.
Li Long had dry mouth in the middle of the night. He woke up from thirst. After waking up, he felt a little dizzy. He got up and poured half a cup of boiling water from the thermos. He mixed some cold water from the teapot and drank it in large gulps. He felt much better. .
This wine is not bad, at least it doesn’t have a head.
He looked at the fire. The charcoal foam on the upper layer had not been burned out, and the red charcoal below was not very obvious. Tao Da was quite skillful in pressing the coal.
Putting on his clothes, he opened the door and walked out. A gust of cold wind made him shiver, so he quickly ran to the dry toilet and peed in the snow.
Recalling the scene of peeing when he was just reborn, Li Long became childlike, so he waved his little brother and scattered the letters "NB" on the snow.
It's just a pity that I pee a little less, and the last B doesn't close his mouth.
It seems that this bragging is a bit false.
Li Long shivered after urinating, quickly put on his belt and ran to the house. He listened carefully at the door of the house and heard the sound of old Uncle Luo snoring, and then returned with confidence. Close the door and go back to sleep.
It’s good to be young, this thought just flashed through my mind, and then I fell asleep in a daze. There is basically no such thing as insomnia these days.
When Li Long woke up again, it was already broad daylight. Sunlight shines in through the windows covered with plastic paper, spilling on the table and floor. From the bedside, you can see dust slowly floating in the sunlight.
Li Long was stunned for a moment before rubbing his face and getting up.
Get dressed, clean the house briefly, and go out with the basin to get some water and wash up.
The wild boars and deer in the pen screamed when they heard the movement. Li Long looked at the sky, he must be hungry.
Old Uncle Luo was already making breakfast. When he saw Li Long getting up, he smiled bitterly and said:
"Drinking is a waste of time. I got up late. The animals have usually eaten by this time. .”
"Don't worry, it's nothing to be hungry." Li Long washed his face with water, and then prepared with Old Uncle Luo.
The fried vegetables yesterday were basically eaten. This morning, Uncle Luo cut the pickles and prepared them for frying. Seeing that his face was still a little haggard, Li Long probably hadn't fully recovered yet, so he took the kitchen knife and chopped the vegetables, while Uncle Luo went to make porridge.
The two had a simple breakfast. After Li Long helped Old Uncle Luo feed all the animals in the pen, he went to his eldest brother's house.
The Li family has had breakfast and the pigs have been fed. At this time, Li Juan and Li Qiang are doing homework, Li Jianguo is packing the remaining fish and rabbits in the spare house, and Liang Yuemei is in the kitchen. Packing inside.
"Brother, I have to drive the carriage out tomorrow." Li Long greeted his sister-in-law and went to the spare house. While packing up the fish and rabbits with his eldest brother, he talked about his plans, "Here we go. I will take these things to Shicheng and sell them, and then get some grain to take to the mountains. Now there is a shortage of grain in the mountains, and they don’t need money to buy sheep, so let’s use grain.”
"Okay." Li Jianguo said, "People are good to us, and we can't owe them anything. Bring more things. There is heavy snow in the mountains. It is not easy for you to go in, and it is difficult for them to go down the mountain. You bring more things, they It’s easier.”
After the matter was settled, Li Long and his elder brother loaded the remaining rabbits and fish onto the carriage.
There are still more than forty rabbits and two to three hundred kilograms of fish. It is worthwhile to go to Shicheng to sell them.
While the two were loading their things, Jia Weiguo came over carrying two more rabbits.
Li Long took the rabbit, weighed it and said:
"These are all over three kilograms, three yuan each, I will give you six yuan."
As he said that, he put the rabbit in the car and took out a five-dollar piece. Hand it to the other person.
"Are you going to sell rabbits?" Jia Weiguo took the money and looked at the carriage and asked.
"Well, I'll go to Shicheng tomorrow and sell these rabbits." Li Long said with a smile, "Otherwise, they will smell after being piled up in the house for a long time."
"Yeah." Jia Weiguo I didn't know what I was thinking. I was stunned for a while, then helped Li Long and the others load the rabbit and fish into the car, and then left.
Li Long persuaded him to go inside and drink some water to warm himself up, but he refused to do so.
The carriage is loaded with things, and the carriage shaft is propped up with stools. The top is covered with plastic sheeting and tied with ropes, so that there is no need to worry about wild cats at night.
After entering the house, Li Long found a clean sack again in the spare house - this sack was brought back with sugar residue. He planned to use this sack to pack a sheep in the big yard, and then he would give it to Li Xiangqian.
After everything was settled, Li Long originally planned to go back, but Liang Yuemei called out to him.
"The food is almost ready here. What are you going to do when you go back? Lao Luo knew that you were eating here when you didn't come back." She said, "You are running away after dinner time. This is really unintentional. You call this place your home, right?”
When his sister-in-law said this, Li Long stayed. Li Qiang called Li Long outside. After Li Long went out, he found Li Qiang standing in the snow pile outside the door, planning to build a snowman.
"You can't make a pile of snow now." Li Long persuaded him to go back, "Wait until it snows. The snow now is scattered and not sticky. When it snows, the snow will be sticky. Then It’s best to pile it up, and it can be stored for a long time.”
There are few people in the countryside, and everyone in the village knows each other. You can build a snowman just for curiosity and will not destroy it. In his previous life, Li Long heard from his neighbors that when they bought a house in the county, every time it snowed, his grandson would go out and build snowmen under the trees in the community. The snowmen were made in various sizes, and the children even specially found leaves, branches, and briquettes. Decorate it or something.
Then the snowman can only exist for one night at most, and then it will be destroyed by someone. I don’t know if those people think snowmen are scary, or if they simply have a desire for destruction and don’t want beautiful and complete things to exist - the big ones will kick off the heads of the big snowmen and smash their bodies, and stomp the small ones. .
Every time the child goes to see the snowman with joy the next day, he will cry.
Some people are really annoying.
Although Li Qiang was not very happy, he knew this was true because he squeezed the snow outside the courtyard wall for a long time without making a snowball. Now he knows the reason.
Then wait until it snows.
The sun had reached due south. Li Long squinted his eyes and looked at it. He didn't know if anyone was still digging holes in the ice to catch fish in Xiaohaizi.
Things are really unexpected. In the afternoon, Li Long was going to go back to Ma Hao to have a good rest, and then when he got up early tomorrow morning, the second son of the Liang family came over with a bag of fish.
"Xiaolong, do you still want to take it?" He saw the covered carriage and guessed that Li Long was going to sell fish. Now that the fish is going to be sold, should we collect the remaining fish?
"Take it, as long as you sell it, I will definitely take it." Li Long said with a smile, "How is the harvest today?"
"It's not bad." After hearing Li Long's harvest, The second son of the Liang family smiled, "Two carp, one five-striped black, both are We will keep a silver carp at home for two kilograms and more, and some crucian carp, and the remaining pike will be given to you.”
“Okay.” Li Long went to the house. I took the scale and came over to lift it up and weigh it with Liang Laoer.
"Twenty-six kilograms, sixty cents per kilogram, sixty-six thirty-six, two hundred and sixty-two, fifteen yuan and six." Li Long counted quickly, and after finishing the calculation, he put the scale and the bag down. Pay money.
"Fifteen, take fifteen!" Liang Laoer said hurriedly, "There is more than a kilogram of pike. That is for you to ride on."
"Okay." Li Long counted out readily. He handed over a large unity card and a five-dollar bill and said, "Here, take it."
"Hey, Xiaolong, your business is really good!" Liang Laoer took the money and smiled. Put it in your jacket pocket He said, "We will catch you later and bring him here!"
"Okay." Li Long said, "I want as much as you want. Come on, go inside and drink water, I will make a bag for you."< br>
“I won’t go in,” Liang Laoer waved his hand hurriedly, “I smell like fish all over my body. I’m waiting to go back and change clothes. You can go pour the fish, I’ll wait here.”
Li Long couldn't pull him, so he took the fish to the free house, poured the fish on the plastic sheet, and looked at some of the fish that were still moving, which felt a bit magical. Thinking that Liang Lao'er was still waiting, he quickly carried the bag and went out. Liang Lao'er took the bag, smiled and turned around to leave.
Liang Laoer's pace back was obviously much brisker. This made Li Long feel happy. The three Liang brothers have also earned one or two hundred yuan from themselves and their eldest brother these days.
This money is not much for me, but for the ordinary people in the team, it is a lot. In less than half a month, three people can earn roughly forty or fifty each, which is equivalent to the salary of a third- and fourth-level worker. It will definitely be no problem to have a good year.
So, with more resources, there are actually many ways to make money. Just like Jia Weiguo, even if he is physically weaker, there are rabbits in the wild, and two of them are equivalent to four or five days' wages of a worker. And it's winter. Isn't it better to have this kind of income in your spare time than to stay at home or play cards every day?
Li Long used to think that farmers everywhere in northern Xinjiang should be similar. It wasn't until the team organized a tour and traveled to many places that he discovered that in fact, the people in his village were not only aware of their rights protection, their ideas of making money, but also their ability to act. , they are all very forward and proactive.
Not all farmers have the awareness to proactively find ways to make money. Farmers in some places really cannot help themselves. They can only see a small profit in front of them. If they don’t know how to utilize resources and don’t know how to fight for their own rights, they will only suffer from internal friction. I keep arguing with my neighbors over big things, but I don’t know how to think about how to live a better life.
After sorting out the fish, Li Long picked out the pike, found a basin from the kitchen and peeled it here.
He divided the shelled pike into two parts, one part was placed in the kitchen, and the other part he carried back to the horse.
Uncle Luo was listening to the radio, so Li Long went to the kitchen and made dogfish soup. I had a hard time drinking last night, so I just used this dog fish soup to replenish my body.
There are no good ingredients in winter, so I fried the pike in oil first, added ginger and water and simmered it vigorously. The smell of the fish soon came out. After simmering for half an hour, the pike meat was almost free of spines. Add some chopped green onion. and dried coriander, served in a bowl, the taste is amazing.
Old Uncle Luo smelled it and looked at the fish soup made by Li Long with great joy, and said:
"Xiaolong, is this fresh fish? It tastes so good!"
“Well, the second son of the Liang family sent it, so I’ll just It’s done. It would be a pity to freeze such good fish. It’s rare in the middle of winter! Uncle Luo, I’ll make some dishes here later.”
The fish soup will be ready later. The drink was refreshing, neither of us ate much, just full stomachs as usual.
"Xiaolong, if I eat with you, I'm going to get rich and rich." Old Uncle Luo said while eating, "In the past, even if I worked in the summer, I only had two meals a day. How could I have three meals at night? At most, I'm going to take a few bites of dry cornstarch. Now I eat it three times a day. It won't be good in the future. Change it!”
“What change? In the past, we Chinese only had three meals a day. I heard that it was because the Tungus Boar Skin couldn’t stand the good life of the Han people, so we changed it.” Long told Uncle Luo what he heard from the short video in his previous life.
"What does it mean? Wild boar skin?" Old Uncle Luo was stunned for a moment and didn't understand.
Li Long began to show off the knowledge he heard from the short video:
“It’s the Manchu with long braids in the Qing Dynasty. The one named Nurhaci, which translates to wild boar skin. The place where they live is called Tunguska ”
"That's it." Lao Luo was doubtful, "Xiaolong, I didn't expect you to know so much."
"That's right, I read books every day." Li Long joked, "The things in the book are all about "More!"
He remembered that his eldest brother also had a book in his house that specifically talked about Nurhachi's "uprising", how he started with thirteen suits of armor, how he became known as the Manchu Qing Dynasty, and how he defeated the mediocre and corrupt "Ming Dynasty". In it, Fan Wencheng was also a Zhuge Liang-style adviser.
I thought it was nothing before, so I compared it with my memory, hey!
Is this because the Revolution of 1911 was not completely carried out, so someone wrote a book like this?
Well, after showing off and cleaning up, Li Long went out to put in the water, put coal in the stove, then turned on the light and started reading the "Martial Arts" magazine he came to buy this time.
It was really exciting to watch before, but now that I’m watching The Condor from the beginning, I feel like there are so many pitfalls in it... I feel like I want to curse.
Is this a generation gap, or is it incomprehensible?
Forget it, just read it slowly. When Li Long was reading other novels, he even had the urge that I could write it too.
Of course, just thinking about it, it is a common problem to have a good eye but a weak hand.
I fell asleep unconsciously.
Because I went to bed early, it was not even eight o'clock when I woke up the next day, and it was still dark.
Li Long got up, but unexpectedly there was a light on in the kitchen, and Uncle Luo was already cooking.
Last night I mentioned that I was going to the county today, so Uncle Luo made a note of it.
“I’m old and can’t sleep that much.” This is Old Uncle Luo’s explanation. “Getting up early has the advantage of getting up early. I can finish things one by one and I can do whatever I want with the rest of the time. What are you doing? You can listen to the radio and keep listening.”
Okay, the old man always has their reasons. Even though he is helping Li Long, he still wants to use a reasonable excuse.
After breakfast, Li Long dressed neatly and went to his eldest brother's house with a gun holster on his back. Li Jianguo's side Liang Yuemei was making breakfast. Seeing Li Long coming over, she asked:
"Have you eaten?"
"Sister-in-law, I have eaten." Li Long said, "You guys If you're busy, I'll feed No. 76 and get on the carriage."
"Your elder brother has already fed him in the morning and should be drinking water now," Liang Yuemei said. "It will be fine in a moment. ”
Li Long went out to the horse pen and happened to see Li Jianguo coming out with a bucket. You need to use warm water to drink water for your horse in the morning, because you have to be on the road, so you have to be careful.
The two people hitched the carriage, Li Long said something to his eldest brother and left.
The sky was not very bright yet, but both Li Long and No. 76 were used to it. He drove the carriage for a while, and when he saw that the road was okay, he got on the carriage and raised his head slightly. With a crack of the whip, No. 76 sped up.
The road was very quiet. When we arrived at Laozhuangzi, we could see smoke rising from some houses, and some houses were still very quiet. Occasionally, dogs would bark, but they would stop after one or two, and then there would be dogs barking in the distance, like a relay.
After passing Weigou, Li Long counted silently, one kilometer had passed.
It was boring on the road, and now I couldn't sleep, so I could only pass the time by counting the distances.
Then I couldn’t help but start thinking wildly. Although it is not yet the Chinese New Year, the tasks at this stage have been completed. I first had a summary meal with Gu Xiaoxia, then recalled the past with my eldest brother and his family, planned the farming for the coming year, and then had two free thoughts with Tao Daqiang and Yang Yongqiang. A moment about the future.
The feeling of the New Year has begun. From now on, a new stage begins. You need to cheer up and work hard.
Buy a tractor, buy a color TV, and build a house.
Nothing is easy to accomplish. A tractor costs RMB 6,000 to seven thousand, an 18-inch color TV costs RMB 2,800, plus building a house——
Okay, seems okay?
Li Long was thinking this way, the carriage has arrived in the countryside, and people can be seen on the road. There are people riding bicycles, walking, and driving donkey carts and carriages, but they only meet one a few hundred meters or two kilometers away. , all went to the county.
When Li Long arrived at the county seat, half of the sun finally rose in the east.
He drove the carriage to the Big Meat Canteen, bought two steamed buns, drank a bowl of hot water, and then drove the carriage to Shicheng.
Tao Daqiang and Yang Yongqiang were not allowed to follow the fish and rabbit seller this time, mainly because they had to go to the mountains later, and it would be difficult for them to follow them back.
Besides, that stage of work is over and the accounts have been settled, so whether or not to take them with you later is another matter.
The two of them didn't come to the horse hall last night, but they actually knew it in their hearts. Besides, after being busy for a while, people also need to rest.
There are more cars going to Shicheng, probably because of the Chinese New Year. There is a horse-drawn carriage from time to time, as well as buses and trucks pulling goods.
It was quite lively. Li Long looked at it and felt that he was finally a little popular during the New Year.
Otherwise, it’s no wonder that the second brother and brother-in-law said that this place is not popular because the population is small.
Thinking in my mind, the carriage unknowingly crossed the Mahe Bridge and passed the poplar trees, and then the old street was in front of me.
The shouts of sellers came over, and the voices became louder and louder.
In a lively scene, Li Long smiled.
Here I am! (End of this chapter)