When Li Long found Xie Yundong, he was carrying a shovel and preparing to go to the fields. Seeing Li Long coming, Xie Yundong made some guesses. He put down his shovel and asked:
"Xiaolong is back. Is there any news?"
"Well, it's time to live. Already. It’s confirmed, there will be a thousand this year, much more than last year. It’s best to go into the mountains in these two days, you see...”
“ Then I'll go and notify people." Xie Yundong said immediately, "When will the work be completed? Do we need to add more people?"
"My elder brother and Lu Yingming will also go, and the others will be there. No more, just the people you knew last time. I heard from the captain that you called Lao Huang?”
"Well, someone has to cook." Xie Yundong said, "Your father-in-law can't say it this time, so I have to find someone else. Lao Huang is the master chef in the team, so he must be good at cooking. This year is not the team's responsibility. People, you can't give work points to others. We can't give it ourselves, so I will work with others. After some discussion, he thought it would be fine if everyone contributed. He originally thought he could earn sixty or seventy yuan a month, but now he can earn one hundred yuan. He is very happy. "
"That's okay. I'm going to Daqiang's house now to see if he's going or not. I don't care. If you don't go, let him tell you. I drove the tractor here. I want to go into the mountains today. If you want to go today, come and see me. By the way, how did you plan to go? "
"My original plan was to ride on your tractor. But then I thought about it, and you might not have the time. I just want to rent one of the team’s carriages and pay for it. I’ll be back in a day anyway.”
“Okay, then go and prepare for this trip. "Yue, I must explain it to my family." Li Long pushed the car and left.
Xie Yundong hurriedly carried the shovel and went home. He really needed to pack it up quickly.
When Li Long arrived at Tao Daqiang's house, Tao Daqiang was already inflating the bicycle. After getting ready, he went to Li's house to ask Li Qingxia to go off the net together.
"Hey, Brother Xiaolong is back?" Tao Daqiang's wife Yang Pingping was the first to see Li Long, with a bulging belly. She smiled and said hello, "Sister-in-law is not back?"
"Yeah , she goes to work and can only wait until Sunday." Long Xiaoxiao said, "How many more months will it take to give birth?"
"Three to four months, probably." Yang Pingping touched her belly, "It's getting serious now."
" That might be a naughty son," Li Long joked.
At this time, some people still had ideas about having a son, so after hearing Li Long's words, Tao Jianshe, who was sitting at the door, smiled.
"Brother Xiaolong, is there something going on here?" Daqiang knew that if Li Long came over, there was a high probability that something was going on, otherwise he would have waited until he had passed.
"I've survived here. I've made a lot of money, and the price has also gone up, four yuan a piece." Li Long said, "It's up to you whether you want to go, but seeing how your wife is like this, you still have to Don’t go.”
"Yeah, I'm not going." Tao Daqiang said with a smile, "My dad said he wanted to go."
"Uncle Tao? Are you going?" Li Long was a little surprised, "The conditions in the mountains are not good. Great.”
"Hey, what's so good? When your eldest brother and we went to the mountains to dig fritillaries as a sideline team, wasn't it harder than it is now? Nowadays, we can bring a lot of food with us. At that time, we could only eat wowotou and gnaw dried mushrooms... "When Tao Jianshe heard what Li Long said, he immediately became unconvinced.
"That's okay." Li Long thought about it. Tao Jianshe was considered to be less than fifty. According to future generations, he was indeed not old. People of their time would not be old in future generations except for eating too much. Apart from being obese and sick, as long as he keeps moving, he can basically live for more than eighty years.
"I will drive the tractor to the county to buy things later, and then go to the mountains. Uncle Tao, are you going to follow Xie Yundong and the others, or are you coming with me tonight?" Li Long asked.
"Let's go back." Tao Jianshe thought for a while and said, "Today is too urgent and I can't finish it. I still have some things to arrange at home."
"Okay, I'll leave first. "After Li Long explained the matter, he got on his bicycle and left.
"It's four yuan for a lifter. If you can weave five or six pieces in one day, that's twenty or thirty yuan." Tao Jianshe became excited after Li Long left. He counted on his fingers: "Big Qiang, no better than you." It’s bad at catching fish.”
“That’s right, but let me tell you, this editor’s skills are very demanding. Brother Xiaolong can win this job, he said, it all depends on the skills he hands in. good quality If the quality is not good, you will lose face if he returns it.”
“Then I don’t know?” Tao Jianshe glared, “I knew it when I made the reed last year. If you are polite and polite, then you must be serious about what you do. Don't worry, I won't embarrass you!"
"Hehehehe!" Tao Daqiang smiled and touched his head.
When Li Long returned, he turned to Laoma No. and told Uncle Luo about the lynx bones. Uncle Luo nodded with a smile on his face. After Li Long left, he looked at Li Long’s back. , I thought that chatting with my old brothers now would be fun again.
Oh, no, Xiaolong said there weren't many bones, but he couldn't tell anyone. There were so many people asking for it that it wouldn't be easy to give them to him. Well, wait until the wine brews and then tell them, hey, if you don’t tell them where it comes from, they will be jealous!
Li Long rode his car back to Li Jianguo's yard and found that Li Jianguo was refueling and adding water to the tractor. Lu Yingming was also in the yard. When he saw Li Long coming, he said with a smile:
"Xiaolong, I will follow you today. You Go directly into the mountain?"
"Well, go into the mountain today," Li Long said, "Brother, will you go in today too?"
"Go in one day early and make up for it one day early. ." Li Jianguo pointed to the car and he had already put his luggage in it.
"Xie Yundong and the others discussed that for every handful they make, Lao Huang, the cook, will be given 20 cents." Li Long said, "Each person will pay ten kilograms of corn flour, two kilograms of white flour and one kilogram of rice. Lao Huang will also bring cooking utensils." , they walked together behind ."
"Then I'll get the food." Lu Yingming hurriedly walked home, "I forgot about this."
Li Long smiled, and after Li Jianguo finished adding water, he asked. Liang Yuemei also prepared food for him.
"What are you going to do tonight?" Liang Yuemei was a little worried.
"Brother, I will live with them in the wooden house tonight." Li Long said with a smile, "The three of us can just squeeze in. Tomorrow morning we will go to Xiaobaiyanggou to finish the den, and in the afternoon we will I can make some tricks.”
"Then bring some steamed buns from home. If Lao Huangming won't be able to come the day after tomorrow, he must have something to eat." Liang Yuemei thought for a while and said.
"No, no, no, I have everything in my wooden house." Li Long waved his hand, "There are also steamed buns and meat, but it's a bit far away. I don't have any notes there, otherwise I would let my brother make them there. Okay.”
“Hey, it’s not about making money,” Li Jianguo said with a smile, “I will definitely live with everyone. Others can endure hardships, but I can’t.”
That's true.
Lu Yingming came over with bags of grain. Because they were packed separately, there were three bags, large and small. He also brought a can of fried pickles, which must have been fried before and now packed.
"I'm going to the department store later to buy some goods. I'll just buy some more red tofu." Li Long looked at it and said.
"Buy goods?" Lu Yingming asked with some confusion, "What goods are you buying?"
"I built a wooden house in the mountains, where I use supplies with the blind flow in the mountains. Replace the fritillary they dug."
"Can we still dig it?" Lu Yingming glanced at Li Jianguo and asked.
"The forestry team is watching. But those blind people dig secretly. If they are caught, they will confiscate it. If they are not caught, they will make money." Li Long explained, "The forestry team members also come to my place to exchange things. They The ones they took were the fritillaries collected from blind people. Some blind people would be taken to the detention center to wait and see their luck.”
"Is that so? Is it okay if we go make some work?"
"It's okay. I have a letter of introduction from the supply and marketing cooperative and from the forestry team." Li Long didn't say that he was still a non-staff ranger in the forestry team. , it’s not good to be too public.
Bedding, tools, food and personal supplies were packed, and water and oil were filled. Li Jianguo and Lu Yingming got on the back of the tractor, and Li Long shook the tractor and dumped it out of the yard. The two families waved goodbye at the door, and Li Long suddenly drove towards the county.
It was only after five o'clock in the afternoon when the tractor arrived at the department store, and the sun was still very high. After buying rubber shoes, matches, brick tea, sugar cubes and other supplies here, he went to the market to buy a few bags of rice and noodles. , and then suddenly drove the tractor towards the mountains.
If you usually ride a bicycle, it will be dark when you are in the mountains. If you are driving a carriage, you might as well leave tomorrow morning. With the tractor, we drove over in a hurry, and when we arrived at the wooden house, the sun had not yet set.
There was no one here in the wooden house. When Li Long turned off the engine and got out of the car, Li Jianguo also came down.
Lu Yingming stood in the cart and looked around:
"Xiaolong, this place is nice. This house is also nice. Did you build it?"
" No, my friend built it for me." Li Long looked at the door locks. They were all good and no one had touched them. He took out the key and opened the door locks and moved the things in the car down. "I still have a few things in the mountains. of a friend.”
"Hey, this is weird." Lu Yingming followed and moved things down, while Li Jianguo placed things in the wooden house. He roughly knew where to put things by looking at the shelves.
After setting the things, Li Long started to set the fire, and said as he did so:
"Let's have a simple meal tonight, I'll cook some meat, there's some dried meat over there, and some offal, Cut everything. There are also steamed buns, just bake them."
"Why bother?" Lu Yingming waved his hand, "Just bake the steamed buns. Well, just get some to eat.”
“It’s nothing, what’s the point of getting some food?” Li Long set up the stove, sat on the pot and started to boil water to make porridge, “Today it’s okay. Have a good meal, tomorrow morning too, and then I will drive you on the tractor to Xiaobaiyanggou, where there is a blind stream, and my friend lives there, and I will introduce you to him then.”
"He also digs fritillaries? Aren't you afraid of being caught?"
"He knows a ranger from the forestry team. People know about him, so they won't arrest him." Li Long came over with an armful of wood chopping, After lighting the fire outside, put the pot on and prepare hot dishes. The beef offal brought from home must be heated every day, otherwise it will go bad. It's okay to say that the vegetables are spoiled these days, but if the meat is spoiled and you don't eat it, it will be a big sin. After all, even if there is a lot of land in the team and people get rich quickly, there are still many people who cannot eat meat for a few meals a year. It was not until the late 1990s that meat could be eaten regularly.
From this point of view, the Li family has already reached a certain indicator of the well-off standard ahead of schedule.
Li Long vaguely remembered that when Li Qiang and the others went to junior high school, that is, in the early 1990s, the school still used handles and brooms to work. Of course, government agencies basically no longer need to carry handles in the late 1980s. Two-wheeled trolleys have gradually become popular, and tricycles are also in use. Therefore, this work of carrying handles should still be able to be done for three or four times. Year.
In the past three or four years, he has completed his initial accumulation and gradually invested in mechanization. Li Long believes that he can continue to be at the forefront of the team in terms of making money.
The requirements are not high, just live comfortably and well.
Lu Yingming was taking care of the porridge and steamed buns. Li Long got wild celery and Li Jianguo was cooking. He didn't like Li Long's craftsmanship.
Li Long is naturally happy to eat ready-made.
When the sun was about to set, Li Long was a little surprised that Sun Jiaqiang came over.
"Why did you come here?" Li Long asked, "You should know that I went back?"
"I guess you should be back now. In fact, I came here this morning." Sun Jiaqiang, Li Jianguo, and Lu Yingming nodded and explained to Li Long, "Didn't you encounter that bad guy who broke into your door last time? I just thought about you and left, so I came here to take a look. Then Polati came over, and I left when he came. I told him that I would come back in the afternoon."
Li Long was quite moved when he heard what he said.
"You don't need to thank me, I just thought that when I sell my Fritillaria to you, you can give me a higher scale and give me a better price." Sun Jiaqiang said seriously.
Although he knew he was joking, Li Long couldn't help but slap him:
"Since you're here, don't leave. After eating, you can stay here tonight. .”
"That's not possible," Sun Jiaqiang waved his hand, "It will take more than an hour, and it won't get dark anyway. Don't worry, the wolf won't dare to touch me until it's dark. I have a stick with me. I just came here to take a look and then go back."< br>
Li Long still insisted not to let him leave. He was joking. If he left now, if he really encountered a wolf, wouldn't he be blinded?
"My eldest brother and my neighbor Brother Lu will go to the place where you stay tomorrow. That's where our village's sideline team stays to make up the handlers. Tomorrow they will go over to be with you. They make up the handlers. Bangzi, you dig up your Fritillaria, and they happen to be mutually exclusive. Please take care of me.”
“That’s great!” Sun Jiaqiang was delighted. “Will you go there tomorrow?”
“Can’t we go there now? It’s hard to sleep.”
"Okay, I'm worried about having no one to accompany me." Sun Jiaqiang nodded vigorously, "You guys come over, I won't be afraid of wolves alone at night."
Since tomorrow is over, Sun Jiaqiang will no longer be reluctant, Following Li Long and the others, they had dinner.
After dinner, the four of them cleaned up the place together. Sun Jiaqiang gave the Fritillaria he brought to Li Long and said that he didn’t want money this time, but rice and noodles.
While eating, he heard Li Long say that in the past, the workers would pay rice and noodles, and each worker would pay, and a master would cook for him, so he thought about joining the team.
As for paying the bills, he didn’t make up the bills, but he could pay for the food.
If it was not possible to pay for the Fritillaria, he asked Li Long. According to Li Long's calculation, it would take about three days to pay for one kilogram of Fritillaria.
At his current speed, he can dig five or six kilograms of caladium in one day, which is 17 or 18 kilograms in three days. It is really nothing to pay one kilogram for food.
Today he brought more than four kilograms of Fritillaria, which was a waste of time.
Li Long gave him ten kilograms of corn flour, five kilograms of rice and five kilograms of white flour. I gave him the remaining six dollars.
Seeing this "blind flow" trading fritillary with Li Long very skillfully, Lu Yingming whispered to Li Jianguo:
"Now I know how Xiaolong makes money. It's really not tiring to make money!"
"Hey, there must be procedures, ordinary people can't do it." Li Jianguo nodded.
“That’s right, your Xiaolong is not an ordinary person!”
Li Jianguo, Lu Yingming and Sun Jiaqiang stayed on the wooden kang at night. It was actually no problem to squeeze four people into this wooden kang, it was very spacious, but Li Long couldn't hear the sound of the three of them snoring, farting, and grinding their teeth, so he simply went to the small room and spread the quilts on the floor. Anyway, there were plenty of wooden boards, so Don't worry about catching a cold.
Getting up early the next day, the four of them worked together to eat a relatively sumptuous breakfast. Li Long took advantage of the sun to come out, drove the tractor, and took Li Jianguo and the others towards Xiaobaiyanggou. .
In Xiaobaiyang Valley, the nests dug last year were still there. The Sun family had seized one, and the rest were all owned. Li Jianguo and Lu Yingming saw that it was still early, so they decided to dig a new one each, which would be convenient for themselves.
Sun Jiaqiang also asked Li Long and found out that even if he occupied one, there would be enough holes left, so he did not dig any more. Li Long didn't let him work either. After putting the things down, he asked Sun Jiaqiang to dig the fritillaries by himself. You can never delay others from making money.
Li Jianguo and Lu Yingming dug a nest in the ground, and Li Long went over to cut branches. These were used to spread on the nest as a cover. Li Jianguo and Lu Yingming are good at digging nests in the ground. No matter where they choose, the soil will still be dry after digging for more than one meter and there will be no water. Living in such a nest will not be very damp.
They put the branches cut by Li Long on top of the dug pit, spread them densely, and then covered them with soil to create a roof.
The rest is intensive cultivation, and Li Long did not participate. It was already noon. He picked up stones and set up a simple stove to heat the food he brought. This meal was relatively simple. After all, everyone came here to make money and didn't really think about enjoying themselves. Moreover, meat was already very good, so they were very satisfied while eating.
After eating, Li Jianguo drove Li Long away. According to him, there might be someone waiting to change things at the wooden house. If there are a lot of things in the house, don’t let anyone steal them.
In the afternoon they were going to cut strips and prepare to weave the ropes. Li Long had nothing to do if he stayed here, so he might as well go back.
Li Long was not polite, and after a few words of warning, he drove the tractor back to the cabin.
On the way, he went to the place where the wild boar had passed, and saw that there were still fresh seals, so he wondered if he should come over tonight to get a condom? (End of this chapter)