Rebirth of Bayi Fishing and Hunting in the Northwest

Chapter 1024 Jiang Zhiyu Takes the Initiative to Find Her (Bonus Chapter for Crocodile Tears Alliance Leader L)

Li Long smiled and took something out of the bag:
"Speaking of receiving gifts, Director, I also brought some local specialties for you. I won't be able to wish you a Happy New Year during the holiday, as I'm going to the village. I'd like to extend my New Year greetings in advance."

As he spoke, he took out the items one by one and placed them on the table.

He didn't try to avoid suspicion, and Li Xiangqian had no objection. Given the relationship between Li Xiangqian and Li Long, and even other people in the supply and marketing cooperative, no one would think that Li Long was giving Li Xiangqian gifts with ulterior motives.

They didn't need to at all.

"What kind of wine is this? It looks pretty ordinary," Li Xiangqian asked, looking at the loose liquor that Li Longxian had taken out.

"Tiger bone wine," Li Long said softly. "It's tiger bones from an old herdsman in the mountains. There aren't many, just a token. We'll drink it ourselves and not tell anyone else."

"Hey!" Li Xiangqian immediately perked up.

He had been really looking forward to deer penis, but his expectations were even lowered – he asked, "Do you have tiger penis?"

"No," Li Long shook his head. "I couldn't get one."

"Then let's take it slow." Li Xiangqian wasn't disappointed; he felt that Li Long would always surprise him.

The rest were just average, but he didn't mind and happily accepted them.

After chatting for a few minutes, Li Long went to the logistics department to collect his supplies.

The bonus wasn't much; even if Li Long got it all, it was only a hundred yuan, which was practically nothing to him.

He asked the finance department and learned that others were also divided into several tiers, ranging from 80 to 60 to 50, which was roughly a month's salary, and was already quite a lot.

No wonder everyone is so enthusiastic when they see him; this is a real benefit.

When Li Long started receiving his benefits, he suddenly realized that he was working at a supply and marketing cooperative!
There are dozens of welfare benefits to be had!

The jeeps need to be properly loaded!

White sugar, sugar cubes, brown sugar, fruit candy... there are seven or eight kinds of sugar alone.

Gloves, towels, socks, work clothes, low-top rubber shoes, high-top rubber shoes, chunky shoes, fleece-lined hats... a whole bag of clothing.

Laundry detergent, soap, toilet paper, iodized salt.

Frozen shrimp, ribbonfish, frozen grass carp, mutton, pork belly, kelp, dried shrimp, sweet potato vermicelli, wood ear fungus, peanuts, shrimp chips, sesame oil... rice, wheat flour, millet, soybeans, mung beans, etc.

There are also firecrackers for the New Year, including small firecrackers, electric firecrackers, double-bang firecrackers, and thunderbolts, as well as two firecrackers.

Li Long felt that if he brought these things back, even someone with nothing to their name could start cooking immediately.

This is fucking comprehensive!
He didn't expect to receive so many things. To be honest, at this time, companies with good performance really did receive a lot of things, almost everything.

After loading everything into the car, Li Long drove off happily, having made quite a haul today.

As Li Long drove back to the courtyard and unloaded the goods, Sister Yang came out to see what was going on. Li Long had brought back quite a few local specialties in the past two days, but none as complete as this.

“Sister Yang, these things are in the storage room, everyone can use them,” Li Long said. “Please don’t be shy.”

"It's so great to have a workplace!" Sister Yang said enviously. "The workplace is so thoughtful, giving us so many things, we don't have to buy many of them ourselves."

"Yeah, let Xiaofang go to university and get a good job. She'll get a bigger salary then," Li Long said, half-jokingly.

With everything unloaded, Li Long finally felt completely relieved. He hadn't even thought to prepare anything before the New Year, but the company had already provided everything. What was there to worry about?
Have a peaceful and happy Lunar New Year!
Because we're going to my older brother's house for the Lunar New Year, there's not much to prepare here before the holiday. However, Sister Yang and Han Fang are going to spend the holiday separately in the south courtyard, so these past few days we've mainly been preparing things to take there, including steamed buns, dumplings, braised meat, and so on.

Of course, this side also needs to be prepared. Cadres and workers have a three-day holiday for the Spring Festival, and the three days after that are still part of the Spring Festival celebrations. If someone comes to visit and offer New Year's greetings, and you invite them to stay for a meal, you will definitely need to prepare food.

Fortunately, Li Long had plenty of ingredients, all sorts of things, and his workplace even provided a lot of seasonings, making it quite easy to cook.

Gu Xiaoxia worked half a day at her workplace until Lunar New Year's Eve, and didn't need to go back after lunch. Sister Yang, after getting ready, went directly to the South Campus with Han Fang.

After the fire at home was extinguished, Li Long drove his jeep with his wife and children to the team.

Li Long handed over Xiao Hei and the dairy goat in the yard to Sun Jiaqiang, leaving him the key to the large yard. He was to come over every day to feed Xiao Hei and the dairy goat twice a day, and at the same time, add firewood to the greenhouse at the back to maintain the temperature.

Sun Jiaqiang was capable of doing this—before leaving, Li Long even brought some leafy greens to Sun Jiaqiang's home, which made Tielanhua very happy.

This stuff is much rarer than meat these days.

When Li Long drove his jeep back to the Fourth Squad, he found that starting from the reed ditch, the two sides, while not exactly distinct, at least had a clear boundary.

On the side of Team Four, the snow on the road had been cleared clean. On the road to Team Three, west of Weigou, apart from the snow in the middle being flattened, much of the snow on both sides of the road remained as it was before.

The sound of firecrackers rose and fell, and some children ran around on the road, scaring each other with small firecrackers, and occasionally lighting one with incense and throwing it out, some making a sound and some not.

Having already experienced the baptism of firecrackers, Mingming and Haohao were not afraid of these firecrackers, which were not very loud—or, as Li Long put it, smaller than a fart—and squeezed together to look out the window.

When they arrived at their elder brother's courtyard, the couplets had already been put up, and Li Juan and Li Qiang were busy in the yard. Seeing the jeep arrive, the two children immediately ran over, greeted Li Long, took Gu Xiaoxia and Mingming Haohao out, and then went off to play.

Li Jianguo came out to help Li Long unload the things. Looking at the meat, he complained, "We still have plenty of meat at home. Why did you bring it here? Are you just going to eat it?"

"I've received meat from at least four different places this year; I can't possibly eat it all," Li Long said with a smile. "You're my older brother, so shouldn't you help me share some of the burden?"

Li Jianguo chuckled. It was clearly a great thing, but his younger brother made it sound like he was sharing a burden.

"Wow, there are frozen shrimp, ribbonfish, seaweed... That's quite a lot!"

"These are all employee benefits," Li Long explained as he moved the food. "The Kuitun Agricultural Machinery Factory gave us one, our supply and marketing cooperative gave us one, and there's also fruit... Some were from the leaders, some were from the company, so we all eat together."

By the way, I bought these dried fruits—red dates, raisins, and dried apricots—in Wucheng. I'll give some to my sister and second brother's families to take back with them.

"Okay, okay." Li Jianguo felt a little ashamed that his younger brother had thought of everything so thoroughly.

After unloading the items, Li Jianguo said to Li Long:

"Your second brother called and said he'll be coming by the noon bus. I've already tidied up the house; could you go pick him up?"

“Okay,” Li Long said. “I’ll go to the county bus station now and wait for them. They should be arriving soon.”

"Okay. You can rest assured that Mingming and Haohao will be kept in sight by Juan and Qiangqiang."

“Then I’m definitely relieved. They’re even more attentive to the child than I am,” Li Long said with a smile.

In the blink of an eye, Li Qiang led Mingming and Haohao with incense and a bag of loose firecrackers to set them off. Li Long's face immediately changed, and he wanted to take back what he had just said!

Before he could speak, Li Juan had already chased after him, scolding Li Qiang as she did so:

"Qiangqiang! You put it out yourself! Just let Mingming and Haohao watch! If you let them put it out, you'll see if I don't slap you!"

Under Li Juan's strong pressure, Li Qiang immediately abandoned his promise to Mingming and Haohao and handed the two little ones over to his older sister.

There was no way around it; Li Juan was like a demon to Li Qiang at home—if his sister was good at studying, then he had to listen to her. Only then did Li Long feel relieved and drove his Jeep out the door.

When he arrived at the bus station, just as he had expected, Li Anguo and his family were already waiting at the entrance.

"Hey, Xiaolong, I was thinking you'd be the one to pick us up this year," Li Anguo said with a smile. "Have your wife and kids arrived at the team yet?"

"We're here." Li Long helped his second brother, Li Anguo, put the things in the car, then called for everyone to get in, and said, "Let's go, let's go, we can catch the Spring Festival Gala on our way back."

The Spring Festival Gala was still watchable at this time, but Li Long was destined to miss it. He had just dropped off his second brother's family when his eldest brother asked him to pick up his sister Li Xia's family. It turned out that while he was picking up Li Anguo, his brother-in-law Chen Xingbang called, saying that he was preparing to leave Shicheng for Ma County and asking if anyone could come and pick him up.

That leaves only Li Long.

When Li Long picked up Li Xia's family and returned to the Fourth Squad, the sound of firecrackers was already very intense.

Most families in the fourth team have gradually gotten used to having dumplings for lunch or dinner on New Year's Eve. Lunch is preferred, while in the evening they simply prepare some snacks to go with drinks, have a reunion dinner as a family, and then enjoy some wine while watching the New Year's Eve gala – it's wonderful.

While Li Long was picking up people, Liang Yuemei, along with Gu Xiaoxia and Chen Lirong who arrived later, settled the families into their lodgings. This large family, nearly twenty people, squeezed into two large courtyards, creating a very lively atmosphere.

Hongqin, Xueping, and Xueqin hadn't seen their older siblings for several months, so they gathered together, forming a fairly large group of children. Li Long took out the gifts he had bought for the children and distributed them, which elicited joyful laughter from them.

Mingming and Haohao were no exception; they each got their own, so they could enjoy themselves with their older siblings. The children's laughter quickly attracted more children, and many of them were envious of the backpacks and pencil cases on the shoulders of the other children.

"Xiaolong, you just spoil them," Li Xia complained. "They're so young, and they're using such nice things..."

“Go ahead and use it,” Li Long smiled. “When we were kids, we didn’t have the means to use such things. Now that the kids have the means, let’s use the good stuff. We can’t let our kids suffer.”

Drinking is the most frequent activity during the Spring Festival. On the first day of the Lunar New Year, Xie Yundong dragged Li Long to his home. According to him, he was the oldest among them, and Li Long was the most capable. Li Long's family was large, and apart from Li Long, everyone else at the table used to call Li Jianguo "uncle," which felt too oppressive, so they decided to eat at their own home.

Li Long naturally had no objections. After a year of hard work, these were the days he could finally relax—of course, hunting in the mountains was also a form of relaxation, but it was different from being here.

The group had a very good relationship. Even if they weren't particularly close before, their bond had improved over the past two years as they worked together with Li Long to make money. They were among the best-off members of the fourth team, considering that Xie Yundong was already planning to buy a car.

The drinking session was just right. While they were drinking, some people came over to wish the Xie family a Happy New Year. When they saw these people drinking together, their eyes lit up and they wanted to join in, but they would only drink one or two cups at most before leaving—the atmosphere was too different, and they couldn't fit in.

As they reminisced over drinks, playing rock-paper-scissors, and clinking glasses, Li Long himself realized that when he was drunk, when this grown man started rambling, he was more difficult to deal with than a woman.

That refers to Tao Daqiang.

He never expected that in the past few years, Tao Daqiang's living conditions had improved, and he had become one of the richest families in the fourth team, second only to the Li family. He had become more confident, and now he was planning to have another child—there are policies that allow children to have another child a few years after their first daughter.

But he has changed. He becomes more and more talkative after drinking, mostly reminiscing about the bad times in the past, how many people looked down on him, cursed him, despised him, and spoke ill of him. He remembers it all.

Well, he was being petty, but Li Long knew that after this drinking session, if he asked Tao Daqiang tomorrow, Tao Daqiang probably wouldn't even know he would say so much.

The drinking session lasted from noon until almost dark. Li Long didn't drink too much; he actually wanted to leave earlier, but the others insisted on holding him back.

Everyone was reminiscing about the struggles of the past few years and how life gradually improved. Then Yang Yongqiang came over, clinked glasses with everyone, and even played a round of cards. He got drunk, and the phrase he uttered most often when he was intoxicated was "regret."

Xie Yundong cursed at him, "What are you regretting? You're eating government-subsidized grain now, you're considered part of the working class. So many people envy you, so many people want to go but can't, and you still regret it?"
Yang Yongqiang fell silent, but Li Long could tell that he truly regretted it.

He chose his own path. Perhaps if he had known that opportunity back then and had stayed instead of becoming a factory worker, would he regret it now while drinking?
No one can tell.

As for what Yang Yongqiang regretted, he didn't know. After all, Kuitun is such a small place, and many people come from rural areas, other places, or even from other parts of China. There's basically no regional discrimination, so what is there to regret?
In terms of living conditions, although these people in rural areas have indeed earned some money, it still can't compare to the living environment in the city.

After all, it was the 1980s, and transportation wasn't as convenient, nor were living conditions as good.

On the way back in the afternoon, I kept running into people who came to wish me a Happy New Year. When they saw Li Long, they would greet him and say hello.

The night before, because we were watching the gala, we didn't drink much. Today at noon, the Li family hosted a banquet. Li Jianguo, Li Anguo, Chen Xingbang, and the others were drinking, but Li Long wasn't there. So when we got back, Chen Xingbang complained that Li Long should have stayed home.

Li Long smiled but didn't respond.

The next day, after breakfast, Li Jianguo drove his tractor, taking Liang Yuemei, Li Juan, and Li Qiang to the Liang family's house. Li Long told them to bring extra things, such as meat, red dates, raisins, and other supplies they had been given.

"You're carrying so much stuff?" Chen Xingbang asked, watching Li Long help load a piece of clothing onto the car.

"Hmm, not much." Li Long smiled. "You all received a share when you left."

Upon hearing this, Chen Xingbang's face immediately turned red, and he hurriedly waved his hands, "That's not what I meant..."

"It's nothing, they're all family." Li Long nodded and continued moving.

He gave things to the Liang family willingly.

He felt it was only right to give things to his second brother and sister's families.

You brought these things back yourself, so it's your decision who gets to give them to and who doesn't.
At noon, Li Qingxia and Du Chunfang hosted a large family meal for the remaining people.

The meal was mainly prepared by Chen Lirong and Li Xia, because Li Long and Gu Xiaoxia were going to take Mingming and Haohao to Gu Boyuan's courtyard.

This time, Chen Xingbang was curious again because he hadn't brought anything. He was clearly going to his father-in-law's house, so why did he only bring two bottles of wine, two cans of food, and some snacks? That was all?

Li Long thought to himself that if it weren't for the aesthetics, he wouldn't even want to bring anything. The main problem was that Gu Boyuan would be staying for a few days and then returning to the county. Even if he brought things, Gu wouldn't eat much, and he'd still have to bring them back to the county anyway, which would be troublesome.

When Gu Boyuan returned, Xie Yundong and the others had tidied up the yard. The only thing missing was the stove. The house would be dry in a day.

He didn't drink at lunch. According to Gu Boyuan, he'd been drinking a lot with the village elders these past few days, so he wasn't drinking anymore. If they wanted to drink, they could; he wouldn't join them. Besides, he was still a bit tipsy, so he'd let Li Long and Gu Xiaoxia cook, and he'd just take care of Mingming and Haohao.

Hey, Li Long thinks this is pretty good too.

On the third day, preparations for evacuation were already underway. This time, Li Jianguo didn't let Li Long take people in batches; instead, he drove his tractor and took Li Anguo's family and Chen Xingbang's family directly to the bus station.

Li Long and his group didn't return until the afternoon, and then at noon, uninvited guests arrived at their home.

Jiang Zhiyu.

"I'm really sorry for being so presumptuous." Jiang Zhiyu was quite clever. When she arrived at the Li family's front yard on her bicycle and saw Li Long and his wife, she first apologized to Gu Xiaoxia, "I need to interview Comrade Li Long for work purposes. I'm sorry to disturb your New Year's celebration..."

"It's alright, it's alright." Gu Xiaoxia had met Jiang Zhiyu when she taught at the rural middle school and knew her identity. In the past two years, Li Long had been interviewed by her, and some of his deeds had been published in the newspapers, which was also thanks to her efforts, so Gu Xiaoxia immediately said that she didn't mind.

So Jiang Zhiyu interviewed Li Long in the front yard, while Gu Xiaoxia took Mingming and Haohao to the back yard, letting the two children play with their older siblings while she chatted with her sister-in-law.

“Comrade Li Long, it’s presumptuous of me to interview you at this time, but this is quite important for the next stage of development in our township. In addition, it is also an opportunity for you personally to make your mark.” Jiang Zhiyu explained his reasons, “So I would like to have a good interview with you, on our original topic of agricultural mechanization.”

Li Long thought to himself, "What's so interesting about this interview?"
But Jiang Zhiyu was a township official, and his household registration was still there. Besides, this kind of matter could be a big deal or a small one. For future convenience, and also to save face for his township superiors, he said:
"Alright, go ahead and ask. To be honest, I really admire you for still worrying about work during your annual leave. Just for that reason alone, I'll cooperate with whatever you want to ask."

They came to interview me during the Chinese New Year holiday without taking a proper rest, which is really dedicated. I've had a good rest for two days, so I don't have much to say.

"You invented and designed that snowplow, right?" Jiang Zhiyu asked the first question. "This machine is the most popular machine this winter. How did you come up with the idea to invent such a machine?"

Li Long thought to himself, "This problem has nothing to do with agricultural mechanization."
Of course, he will answer when the question is asked.

But what exactly does Jiang Zhiyu want to ask?

(End of this chapter)