When Li Zhengtang dragged Li Zhengting to the wooden house, Li Long opened the door and prepared to use the open-air toilet at the back.
When he saw the two brothers, he was stunned for a moment. He was so perseverant that he rushed back in one night?
"Boss Li, help me." Li Zhengtang couldn't care less about the embarrassment. He supported the weak Li Zhengting and shouted: "Help me."
"What's wrong?" Li Long looked at Looking at Li Zhengting's burning red face , asked: "You have a fever?"
"Well, last night we slept in the crevices of the rocks. The wind blew in the middle of the night and we caught a cold. Zhengting himself was weak, and the root cause of the last illness was not broken yet. The result..."
"Come on, come on, come in first." Li Long couldn't help but drive people away, and said, "Come in and drink some hot water, I have some medicine here."
"Thank you so much, thank you so much !" Li Zhengtang's face was filled with gratitude, "Mr. Li "Boss, you are a good person!"
"No! I didn't save you for nothing, I paid for this medicine." Li Long was aroused by something and helped Li Zhengting to the stove. He sat down next to him and said, "I'll give If you take one or two pills of medicine, he will definitely have to take it for at least three days. "
"How much does it cost?" Zhengtang had earlier regretted not buying medicine after getting the money yesterday. Now that Li Long asked him to pay, he spoke without hesitation, "We still have some money..."
"It's not expensive. , for this pack of medicine, just give me five kilograms of fritillary.”
"Are you robbing money?" Li Zhengting was not unconscious yet, but weak. Hearing what Li Long said here, he couldn't help but speak.
"Okay, you don't have to, you can leave here now." Li Long mocked, "I didn't ask you to come to me for medicine, did I?"
"Zhengting ! Shut up!" Li Zhengtang scolded his cousin. At this time, let alone five kilograms of fritillary, he would give up even fifty kilograms. If his cousin's body was really burned, he wouldn't have to go back to his hometown. Besides, is five kilograms of caladium too much? Isn’t it just a day’s supply? When people said this, it was obviously to give a reaction to the fact that the two of them went to the mountains to sell Fritillaria. If he really kept silent, then he would be worried.
After scolding his cousin, Li Zhengtang smiled and said to Li Long:
"I'm sorry, Boss Li, our surname is Li. We may have been the same family five hundred years ago. Look. For the sake of sharing the same surname, just give us this medicine, five kilograms of Fritillaria, no problem! Don't listen to Zhengting, he is confused and doesn't mean what he says... Please. Please!”
"Okay, there's a bowl over there. You pour him boiling water and I'll get the medicine." Li Long pointed to the divestment bowl on the cutting board and said to Li Zhengtang: "This medicine is given twice a day. You can give him two tablets at a time. I don’t think I can hold it down. Don’t leave in a hurry after eating. It’s very cold outside now. You wait until the sun comes out before leaving.”
After Li Long finished his instructions, he went to the cabin to get a plate of medicine. Li Zhengtang. This long plate of aspirin contains 20 pills, and the medicine company sells it for more than one piece. The price Li Long offered is more than ten times higher, of course with a little punishment included.
If he didn’t see it, that’s fine. If he saw it, then he would naturally have to act.
You can’t be too kind in the mountains, or you won’t be able to survive. After all, not all of these blind migrants really came from the mainland to make a fortune like Sun Jiaqiang. No one can guarantee whether the next kind and loyal face is a desperado.
However, Li Long, the two brothers Li Zhengtang and Li Zhengting, knew some details. The way they behaved determined that they were neither ruthless nor bad people.
Li Zhengtang fed his cousin the medicine and asked him to drink an extra bowl of water. At this time, Li Long had already placed a grate on the stove, went to the chopping board, cut the cold steamed buns into slices, and baked them. Tofu is also good to eat.
He baked three steamed buns, and after baking them, he handed a few slices of steamed buns to Li Zhengtang and Li Zhengting.
Li Zhengtang hesitated whether to accept it or not. Li Long said:
"Those five kilograms of Fritillaria include food money."
The tone was flat, which made people unhappy. He felt grateful, but actually gave them food.
By this time, the two of them were already hungry. One of the reasons why Li Zhengting fell ill was because he had not eaten, was hungry, and had poor immunity. Now that I had something to eat, and thinking that the five kilograms of Fritillaria were converted into part of the meal money, I took the steamed bun slices and started eating.
Li Zhengtang still thanked him. Li Long took two pieces of red tofu with chopsticks and gave one piece to each person, and the two people took it silently.
Li Zhengting ate two slices of grilled steamed buns. He calmed down and felt a little stronger. Then he continued to eat. At this time, there was a voice outside.
“Is Boss Li here?”
Li Long recognized that it was Wu Benzhong’s voice.
"Here, Lao Wu?" Li Long shouted, "Come in and have something to eat."
Wu Benzhong walked in with a bag of Fritillaria and was stunned for a moment when he saw Li Zhengtang and Li Zhengting. He had seen these two people in the mountains, but he didn't expect to eat with Li Long here. He knew that Sun Jiaqiang and Li Long had a good relationship, could it be that the same was true for these two?
“Come, let’s eat something together.” Li Long was a little warmer to Wu Benzhong, “Would you like some baked buns?”
“Of course I do.” Wu Benzhong didn’t either. He was polite, put down the bag, took the steamed bun and started eating.
Li Long cut two more steamed buns and baked them, and asked while baking:
"Is this a two-day-old caladium?"
"Well, the caladium has bloomed in the past two days. It grows very fast, so you have to dig it as soon as possible, otherwise it will be exhausted by the time it blooms."
"I saw a guy weighing 14 to 5 kilograms. You're so good at this!"
"I can't help it. I took away a lot of it earlier. Now I have to make up for it." Come back. Just give it to me. I have to go back and dig after eating. I was worried when I came here just now, for fear of running into that boy."
Li Long knew that he was talking about Hamiti. It was really black, and it specialized in collecting Fritillaria. Li Long even suspected that someone might come here to exchange for something, and he would snatch it away halfway.
Li Zhengtang and Li Zhengting felt really bad when they looked at the Fritillaria dug by Wu Benzhong. If the two of them had not gone down the mountain, then there would have been so many caladiums in their underground nests, right?
It’s too late to regret saying anything. I’ll never do such a fucking thing again.
Wu Benzhong stopped eating after half a toasted bun. He stood up and asked Li Long to settle the bill for him.
"Let's weigh them." Li Long said, "How else can we calculate them?" He took a scale from the small room and weighed these fritillaries.
“Fifteen kilograms is a bit high, how about I give you forty-six yuan?”
After Li Long weighed the fritillaries, he poured them into the big basin. The caladiums are fresh, with mud and leaves, but not much. There are all sizes.
"Okay." Wu Benzhong naturally had no objection. "I just thought of coming here every two days. This is good. I don't have to carry the burden of carrying it to the county."
He said this , Li Zhengtang and Li Zhengting felt even more uncomfortable. Why did I come up with such a stupid idea before?
Li Long took out the money from his inner pocket, counted out four big solidarity notes, one for steelworker and one for female tractor driver, opened the new note and handed it to Wu Benzhong in a fan.
Wu Benzhong took the money, put it to his nose, smelled it, and said with a smile:
"The new money smells so good! I can't bear to fold this money. Okay, Boss Li, I'm leaving. I'll come back after digging for another two days."
After Wu Benzhong left, Li Zhengtang and Li Zhengting There was no thought of eating anymore.
Li Long didn't care about them. He put all the baked steamed bun slices into the steamed bun plate, spread some red tofu on one slice, and covered it with another slice. It was just like eating a meat sandwich steamed bun. You can eat it in one bite. Eat nearly half of it.
When the steamed buns were finished, Li Long didn't ask the two people whether they wanted to eat or not, and started to clean them up. Li Zhengtang hurriedly helped clean up. He took the enamel basin to the spring to wash it. He washed it several times before coming back. Here Li Zhengting stared blankly outside the door, not knowing what he was thinking.
After a while, the sun came out and the temperature outside the house rose a little. Li Zhengtang looked at Li Zhengting. Li Zhengting stood up and took two steps. He felt okay and nodded to him.
"Boss Li, let's go then. I will bring the five kilograms of fritillary owed to me tonight or tomorrow morning." Li Zhengtang said sincerely.
"Okay." Li Long nodded.
In fact, he just said it and let the other party know that he gave the medicine for free the first time, but later he actually said that he received a reward, which was considered a double deal. This time I asked for Fritillaria, and I also told the other party that I couldn't give the medicine in vain.
If these two brothers don't show up in the future, Li Long won't do anything to them. After all, the mountain is so big. If they hide in, Li Long really can't find them.
But he believed that Li Zhengtang would not do such a stupid thing.
After watching the two people leave, Li Long took the Fritillaria brought by Wu Benzhong to the spring to wash, and after washing, dried it on the table outside.
Then he drove the tractor to the west side of the wooden house and stopped. He used a big broom to sweep the wooden floor in front of the house clean. He went to the cabin to take the caladiums collected yesterday and poured them on the wooden floor to dry.
After drying the caladiums, he took out the bedding from the bedroom and hung it on the tractor outside to dry it in the sun to kill bacteria and disinfect it.
After all this was done, when Li Long was about to take out the wild boar meat and continue to dry it, the sound of horse hooves sounded, and Polati rode over from a distance.
“Did you gain something again?” Li Long was a little surprised, “Whose fritillary was this harvested from?”
"It's not what you collected." Polati waved his hand and said, "This was given to me by the leader of my group in our forestry team. He asked me to exchange it with you for some rice noodles, some wine, some salt, and brick tea. , sugar cube."
He took the bag off the saddle and handed it to Li Long.
This bag is quite heavy. Li Long weighed it and felt it weighed about ten kilograms. But when he opened the bag, he found that it was too dirty inside. Li Long opened the mouth of the bag, frowned and said to Polati:
"See for yourself, this is too dirty."
"It's okay. If it's dirty, you can give me a lower price." Polati didn't turn to his team leader at all, "I know you, it's fair, just give me the price and exchange it for something."
Li Long took a large basin and poured these caladiums into it. He felt that there must be at least one and a half kilograms of impurities in ten kilograms of caladiums.
“These caladiums cost twenty-five yuan in total.” Li Long said, “How much rice and noodles do you want?”
“Can I have a bag of each?”
< br>"Okay, I'll give you a bag of each." One bag is twenty-five kilograms, which adds up to about twelve yuan.
"You need a cage for loose wine. Can a five kilogram one be okay?"
"Okay."
"You can give the rest to yourself. It doesn't matter if you have it." Now that the most important things are in place, Polati won't comment on the rest.
"Okay, rice noodles, wine, and five more bricks of tea and five salts."
That's it, Li Long finally made another sugar cube and put Bolati Happy, Li Long moved things and put them on the horse. He also took a big cloth sheet to wrap the rest without fear of damage.
After mounting the horse, Polati pointed to Li Zhengtang and Li Zhengting who were still walking in the distance and asked:
"Are those two your friends? Do you want to take care of them in the future?"
"No, no, no." Li Long waved his hand, "I'm here to exchange things too, you can figure it out. By the way, where's Hamiti?"
"Let someone give it to me. Beaten." Polati waved his hand, "This young man is so cruel. He stares at a few people every day and waits for them to finish digging the cowries before confiscating them. Fortunately, they got together and beat them up. I don’t want to cause trouble. He was not beaten to death. One of his legs was broken, and he probably won’t be able to come back for a few months.”
Bolati shook his head and left.
Li Long was really surprised, and then he couldn't figure it out.
The people in their forestry team have guns in their hands. How could they be beaten by others? Is this a fairy jump?
Or are there other reasons?
It seems that people in this mountain cannot be too nice, otherwise, they will be beaten easily!
Li Long waited until Bolati had gone far before he took out the dried wild boar meat and hung it on a rope outside to dry. The meat was not very dry yet. If it was not dried, there would be some problems in preserving it. It's easier to store and exchange after it's dried.
After drying the dried meat, Li Long closed the door, carried a gun and a machete, and walked toward the forest ahead. He planned to cut some branches and build a toilet.
Although the road was relatively short, because of Hamiti's incident, he thought it would be better to put the gun on his back. No one dares to say whether there is any danger nearby.
When Li Long was walking towards the wooden house carrying an armful of branches, Li Zhengtang and Li Zhengting also entered the forest.
"Brother, put me down and go get our things back from the cracks in the rocks. Otherwise, if we keep them for a long time, I'm worried that those things will be damaged by wild beasts." Li Zhengting said.
He was still relatively weak. He felt uncomfortable walking out of Li Long's house for more than ten meters, but since he had already walked out, it was difficult to go back, so Li Zhengtang had to help him move forward.
After walking less than a kilometer, his head was already covered with sweat and he couldn't hold on any longer.
"Don't leave yet. What will you do if you encounter something here while I'm gone?" Li Zhengtang glared at him, "Human life is the most important, and everything else is secondary. You want If you can’t walk, come and let me carry you.”
Although Li Zhengtang is older than Li Zhengting, he has a solid foundation and has never been sick, so it is no problem to carry someone on his back.
Li Zhengting was not happy, but Li Zhengtang didn't want to waste time here anymore, so he put Li Zhengting on his back and quickly went to their nest.
After four rests, they finally reached their nest. Li Zhengtang was also exhausted. He helped Li Zhengting into the nest, covered him with a quilt and let him rest. He reluctantly went to get some firewood to light the three-stone stove. He filled a steel pot with water and boiled it. He went to rest in his den on the ground and waited until the fire under the stove was almost extinguished and the water in the steel pot was almost dry. After that, Li Zhengtang got up, took down the pot with a torn towel as a cushion, found two enamel basins that had half of the porcelain smashed, poured boiling water into them, and then went to the stream to get water and put it on the stove. After adding some more firewood to the stove, he took out some corn noodles from the hole in the ground and prepared to make some paste to drink.
The supplies we bought are not there anymore, so we can only get closer. Although Li Zhengting is now safe in Diwozi, Li Zhengtang does not plan to get his things now. He is worried that if he goes now and meets the young man from the forestry team when he comes back, his things will definitely be confiscated. The young man was unreasonable and would not ask where this thing came from. He had a gun in his hand and was very talkative.
He did not know that Hamiti had been beaten and would not see them again for a while.
Li Zhengting has fallen into a deep sleep and his fever has subsided a little, but Li Zhengtang knows that he will probably still have a fever in the afternoon, and the most important thing now is to get through the day.
Of course, you have to have something to eat to get through it. Now he regretted not buying something to eat from Li Long. Although they still have some stock here, there is nothing nutritious.
I knew I would have changed to some meat.
After Li Long used branches to tie up the toilet, he felt like a good person and clapped his hands with satisfaction.
Originally, he planned to hang a sign on it, saying that one side was occupied and the other side was unoccupied, but after thinking about it, he decided to forget it. There's no need to go through this trouble anymore.
After finishing the toilet, the morning is almost over and we have to prepare lunch.
We had just made do with food last night and this morning, and Li Long planned to make a good meal at noon.
He stewed rice in the house, got some wild onions and mushrooms, added meat and fried two vegetables. Since the Fritillaria took up his time, he simply filled an enamel basin with rice, covered it with thick vegetables, and sat on the doorframe to mix it and eat it.
So beautiful!
After dinner, Li Long saw that the sun was just right, so he moved the stool to the door, and took a nap in the sun and listened to the radio. Not to mention how comfortable it was.
Then he was interrupted.
Two strange blind people came over carrying bags.
Li Long reached out and picked up the gun from the door.
He squinted his eyes and looked at them, and he was very sure that this was the first time he saw these two people.
“Boss, I heard that you can exchange money for Fritillaria here?” The thinner of the two spoke in the northwest dialect, which was similar to Xinjiang dialect.
"Yes." Li Long nodded, "What do you want to change?"
"I will change money."
"I will change things. Do you have rice and noodles? Do you have matches? ”
"In exchange for money, one kilogram of Fritillaria costs three yuan." Li Long said, "In exchange for something, I will exchange it at this price."
"Three yuan? Is it a little less?" The man who said he wanted to exchange money was a little dissatisfied. , "My Fritillaria is half dry in the sun..."
"Open the bag and let me take a look." Li Long was still quite wary. Someone injured Hamiti, could it be these two people?
"Okay." The two men put down their pockets and took two steps back.
Very knowledgeable.
Li Long stepped forward and grabbed a handful of Fritillaria and took a look at it.
It is indeed semi-dry, with a dryness of about 40%. It will probably take a few days to dry in the sun.
The inside is also a bit dirty, with dry stones and stones.
"Well, I'll charge you ten yuan for this." Li Long said, "There are a lot of impurities."
"Okay, ten yuan, that's fine!"
"What about me?" the other person asked.
Li Long also grabbed a handful of the opponent's Fritillaria and looked at it. This one was much cleaner, but not as dry as the other one. He said:
"Exchange for 11 yuan."
"Okay!" Both of them were very happy.
Li Long was also very happy. (End of chapter)