Rebirth of Bayi Fishing and Hunting in the Northwest

Chapter 1026 New ideas for the new year
The excitement caused by the phone call from the leader's secretary didn't subside until the purchasing station opened on the eleventh day of the first lunar month.

The purchasing station officially opened, and Gu Boyuan reluctantly left the village on the tenth day of the first lunar month. In the afternoon, he went to the courtyard and called Liang Shuangcheng and Sun Jiaqiang to clear the snow together.

Between Lunar New Year's Eve and the tenth day of the Lunar New Year, the county experienced two more snowfalls. Fortunately, the snowfall was not heavy, and the three of them cleared the snow from the front and back yards in less than an hour. With a snowplow, it was relatively easy to push the snow over a wide area. The main problem was clearing the snow out of the yard and dumping it outside after it was pushed to the corner of the wall.

The snow will melt in about twenty days. We can't leave this snow in the yard, otherwise when it melts, water will flow everywhere, which will be a big problem.

Li Long is doing the same thing at home now. The biggest drawback is that the yard is big; you can sweep snow all the way to the walls, and even use the snow to build a snowman or a snow wall for Mingming and Haohao.

But since the snow is about to melt, all the snow has to be cleared out. At the very least, any remaining snow should be piled up in vegetable patches or flower beds so that it can melt directly into the mud.

On the eleventh day of the first lunar month, the purchasing station opened for business. After breakfast, Li Long went to help out, and the scene there gave him a huge shock!

Outside the large iron gate, there were at least twenty or thirty people, most of whom had come by bicycle, and some on foot. They might be from nearby, like the Tillandsia before, or they might have come directly from out of town by bus.

These people were either carrying a bag, or holding a roll of leather, or sitting on a tractor with several bags hauled inside.

After less than twenty days of rest, these people are already so impatient?

Sun Jiaqiang arrived early, and he and Liang Shuangcheng were preparing things in the house—mainly hot tea.

This is an old habit: a stool is placed under the windowsill, with a large basin on it containing golden brick tea, and an enamel bowl next to it.

After arranging these things, Sun Jiaqiang went to open the door, calling out to the people outside before doing so:

"Please line up. We're all ready and can get in quickly. Don't push or make a scene. It doesn't matter if you're one or two people in front or behind you. Let's not hurt each other's feelings."

He only opened the door after the people outside responded, while Liang Shuangcheng maintained order at the door of the purchasing house inside.

The two worked together very well. Li Long followed them in and went inside first. He saw that Gu Boyuan had already set up the notebooks in front of the counter, with a scale underneath. The money in the drawer was also neatly arranged. Everything was ready.

Li Long mainly helped Gu Boyuan collect the goods. Liang Shuangcheng and Sun Jiaqiang, whose eyesight was slightly worse, did odd jobs, carrying the collected items inside—today there was no distinction between inside and outside, since there were many people selling things, so they all did it together.

Once he got busy, he didn't stop. When he first opened the door, there were more than twenty people outside. After Li Long had collected a lot of things, he straightened up and wanted to take a break. When he looked up, he found that there were still more than twenty people outside... Damn it, people kept coming in.

Good news indeed! In less than a morning, the amount of hides and medicinal herbs collected was more than the amount collected the entire day before the Lunar New Year.

There was practically no beef or mutton—they only bought one ram. According to the middleman, it was bought before the Lunar New Year. There were originally two, but when they came to sell them here, the purchasing station was closed, so they had to keep them at home. During the Lunar New Year, they couldn't resist and ate most of one, so they simply came to sell the remaining one.

The reduced harvest of beef and mutton indicates that the herders have largely weathered the most difficult period, and the remaining fodder is sufficient to last until the snow melts and the winter pastures are exposed.

The snowstorm is largely over.

Because there were too many people, they took turns eating lunch. This time, Liang Shuangcheng didn't make a fuss; he didn't even have time to cook for himself.

They were busy until almost sunset before the people who came to sell their goods finally left.

Li Long and Gu Boyuan both breathed a sigh of relief at the counter. Neither of them got up, and they just chatted idly.

Li Long spoke with considerable pride about making the phone call from Yanjing.

"How did they know that you were the one who supplied the beef and mutton to the supply and marketing cooperative first?" Gu Boyuan asked curiously.

"I don't know. I guess the leaders have been paying attention to things here. Maybe our state-level organization included me in their report."

"Yes, that's possible." Gu Boyuan nodded.

Actually, the secretary had also told Li Long that the message was intended for him to inform the herders that the snow disaster was severe and would continue for a long time, and that they should slaughter the animals if possible, since slaughtering them would still have value and was better than letting them freeze to death.

Neither he nor his superiors expected that this would actually give Li Long an opportunity. It can only be said that Li Long's unintentional act of kindness resulted in a good outcome and even brought him fame.

What the secretary didn't tell Li Long was that the leader would praise Li Long when chatting with old friends. After all, the problem with the supply of beef and mutton in Yanjing had a wide impact, and the fastest response came from the farthest region, northern Xinjiang—a well-known incident.

It can be said that it has set a benchmark, and it's no wonder that the leader's secretary would make a special call.

"So you dried the rest of the beef and mutton?" Gu Boyuan asked.

"Yes, from the fourth to the tenth of the lunar new year, we've been busy sorting out these things," Li Long said with a smile. "There are several flavors."

He somehow managed to make the dried meat look like beef jerky or mutton jerky.

It's pretty good.

The good thing is that it tastes much better than the original, and it comes in cumin, spicy, and original flavors.

Because the raw materials are cheap, the finished products aren't expensive either. Locals might not be able to afford them, but they make excellent gifts.

Over the past five or six days, Li Long and Sister Yang have processed most of the remaining venison, mutton, and wild boar meat in their home into dried meat or jerky.

The remaining beef and mutton are for later consumption, but there isn't much left.

Because the cooking method was quite novel, and I hadn't eaten it much before, even Mingming and Haohao would often be holding a strip of meat and chewing it vigorously. This stuff is a bit hard on the jaw.

Fortunately, it tastes good, and that alone makes up for the shortcomings.

Gu Boyuan knew that Li Long had just casually placed a piece, so he didn't think much of it.

After all, the main beef and mutton had already been sold, so the remaining little bit wasn't a big deal. What's done is done; thankfully, it's easy to preserve, which is a good thing.

Li Long didn't mention one more thing: because everyone has been enjoying this dish these past few days, Gu Xiaoxia even joked that when Sister Yang opens her restaurant, she should just sell this dried meat as well, because she's sure people will buy it.

Li Long was also considering whether to turn this into a business. After all, for the next few decades, beef jerky seemed more like a long-term best-selling snack than sunflower seeds.

Moreover, it's a relatively high-end food, the kind that most people can't afford or can't eat in large quantities.

High-end ingredients, you know.

Sun Jiaqiang and Liang Shuangcheng sorted and put the items they had collected that day into the warehouse, and their work was temporarily finished.

As for cleaning and processing, that's something for tomorrow or later. According to Li Long, for at least a week to ten days from today, they should be busy like this every day.

So a week later, Sun Jiaqiang and Liang Shuangcheng resumed their original division of labor and took turns doing the remaining work.

"Today we collected a total of eighty-seven large pelts, twenty-seven of which were intact, and the rest were somewhat damaged. We also collected one hundred and sixty-seven rabbit pelts," Gu Boyuan tallied. "Among the medicinal herbs, we have ninety-two kilograms of fritillaria, seventeen kilograms of codonopsis, one hundred and nineteen snow lotus flowers, one sheep..."

Li Long's guess about the numbers was roughly correct.

Today alone, nearly 10,000 yuan of working capital was spent. But the profit for today should be more than 3,000 yuan.

Awesome.

That evening, Sun Jiaqiang hosted a dinner party at his home, and at that time, Sister Yang was helping Sun's family cook.

As for Mingming and Haohao, Han Fang takes them to play, and Gu Xiaoxia also comes here directly after get off work.

Li Long intended to host the dinner, a kind of inaugural feast, but Sun Jiaqiang had already said that he should be the one to pay. Mainly, everyone had treated him well, and after his marriage, they had supported him in settling down with his family.

Sun Jiaqiang was well aware that if he hadn't relied on Li Long, his wife's family wouldn't have remained so quiet and wouldn't have caused trouble.

Everyone in the county who pays attention to Li Long knows his personality well: he is extremely protective of his own.

If the Tie family wants to cause trouble for Sun Jiaqiang, they should be prepared to be noticed by Li Long. Don't be fooled by the Tie family's ruthlessness towards Tie Lanhua; they wouldn't dare face Li Long directly.

So the matter was put on hold. Although there's a push for ethnic unity now, and some privileges of ethnic minorities are slowly becoming apparent, Li Long is registered with the Ethnic and Religious Affairs Commission, and the director of the Commission treats him with utmost courtesy. The Tie family would only dare to cause trouble for Li Long if they were completely out of their minds. Therefore, Sun Jiaqiang's intention is that he must treat everyone this time.

Please go ahead and treat me; one more meal won't make a difference.

Even Liang Shuangcheng was among those invited. To avoid embarrassment, Li Long asked Sister Yang to bring wine, canned goods, dried meat, and other gifts when she went over, as a New Year's greeting.

Gu Boyuan and Liang Shuangcheng are both single, so it's probably awkward for them to bring anything; they might even forget. Li Long brought the things beforehand to avoid making things awkward for them.

A large table of food—because there were so many people, Tielanhua simply put two octagonal tables together, so that men, women, young and old could all sit at one table without having to sit at separate tables.

Upon entering the Sun family home, Li Long washed his hands and prepared to sit down when he was surprised to see a plate of braised pork knuckle on the table!

Is this something that can be placed here?
Seeing Li Long's stunned expression, Tie Lan Hua, who had brought over the plate, smiled and said:

"This rule is just... just for religious people. Don't you Han Chinese have a saying, 'A woman follows her husband wherever he goes'? I married my husband, so I'll follow him. He likes to eat this, so there's nothing I can't do."

Li Long used to think that Tie Lanhua was strong-willed and that Sun Jiaqiang was easygoing, so the two of them might not be truly happy after marriage. Now it seems that he was somewhat biased.

For Tie Lan Hua to break the rules she had followed for nearly twenty years just for Sun Jiaqiang, that alone was enough.

That's true. That thing itself isn't much. After all, in some parts of northern Xinjiang, ethnic minorities still raise pigs, so it's not a big deal.

During the Soviet era, in the western republic, all Kazakhs were able to raise pigs, and their border guards' most common meal consisted of large loaves of bread filled with slices of cured pork.

Other ethnic groups follow rules after converting to a religion, but this ethnic group became an ethnic group because of its religious conversion, which is truly an exception.

Everyone sat down and, upon hearing Tielanhua's words, they were all filled with admiration.

It takes a lot of determination for someone to say something like that.

Only Sister Yang understood that Tielanhua had actually given up on this—she had been keeping this rule for twenty years, and her life had been so miserable, so what was the point of keeping it?

On the contrary, her life only started to improve after she chose Sun Jiaqiang and got married on her own.

What does this mean? It means that believing won't necessarily make you better off, so it's better not to believe.

From this perspective, the Tillandsia is definitely a pragmatic plant.

The meal was plentiful; Li Long had brought over bok choy, chili peppers, and tomatoes, and they were all cooked today. Sun Jiaqiang also brought two bottles of wine.

"I have to go to work tomorrow, so I won't drink too much today. Just a few drinks by myself to relax and get a good night's sleep," Sun Jiaqiang said. "We'll have a proper drink another time."

His first toast was to Li Long's family. Normally, the first toast is for the New Year, since it's not yet the fifteenth day of the first lunar month. But everyone knew about Sun Jiaqiang's experiences and that it wasn't easy for him to marry Tie Lanhua. Without Li Long, he wouldn't have been able to get a household registration.

The policies for settling down are getting stricter and stricter. It is especially difficult for people from outside the area to settle down. So Sun Jiaqiang is glad that he chose to follow Li Long.

Sun Jiaqiang and Tie Lanhua are truly grateful to the people here, including Liang Shuangcheng.

After Liang Shuangcheng came, Sun Jiaqiang's salary did not decrease, and he had more time to go home. Tielanhua felt a little more relaxed, and her mindset changed.

Exactly, why make things so tense? Wouldn't it be better to have one more person to do the work? Given Li Long's personality, as long as they don't do anything outrageous, he won't fire them.

As for how long they could stay at the purchasing station—given Sun Jiaqiang and Tie Lanhua's perspective, they felt they could keep the station going until they got old. The business was so good, and it was a monopoly; there were practically no competitors.

Gu Boyuan was in charge of receiving the goods, and Li Long was in charge of selling them. They had no way of knowing the exact amount of their income.

But if you guess, you can roughly estimate it. According to their thinking, they should have an income of several tens of thousands of yuan a month.

Moreover, Li Long has the backing of a National People's Congress representative and a nationally recognized advanced individual, so unless he does something illegal or criminal, virtually no one will touch him.

From the snippets of conversation with Gu Boyuan, it's clear that Li Long's connections extend beyond the county supply and marketing cooperative; they also include the prefectural cooperative and certain individuals in Wucheng.

Otherwise, how could a temporary worker be driving a Jeep that symbolizes leadership status?

Based on these factors, Sun Jiaqiang and Tielan Hua unanimously decided to cling tightly to this powerful figure.

Good days are sure to come.

Of course, today's meal is mainly to express gratitude, and then it's a New Year's meal.

Everyone was very happy. Although Liang Shuangcheng had been working all winter, this was the first time he had been to such an occasion. He felt like he had joined an organization and was very cheerful. He took the initiative to toast with Gu Boyuan, Li Long, and Sun Jiaqiang's family.

He's young and in good physical condition; a little alcohol won't make him drunk, though his face will turn a bit red.

Once everyone had eaten most of their food, the party ended.

Sister Yang stayed to help Tielanhua tidy up, while Li Long and Gu Xiaoxia carried the sleeping Mingming and Haohao back home.

Halfway there, Gu Xiaoxia suddenly asked:
"Do you think this dried meat business can really be successful?"

“It’s definitely possible to do it if you want to, but there probably aren’t many buyers in our county. It depends on what’s available outside.” Li Long tucked Mingming’s clothes into his arms and said casually, “We can ask Huang Lei when he comes. He’s in the food business, so he should know the market there pretty well.”

He was a little puzzled as to why Gu Xiaoxia had suddenly thought of asking this.

“I think if Sister Yang wants to open a restaurant, she should try this instead,” Gu Xiaoxia analyzed as they walked. “If she runs a restaurant, she’ll be dealing with the stove all day long. If she can scale up this business, she can build a small factory, and Sister Yang won’t be so busy…”

Having lived with Sister Yang and Han Fang for so long, Gu Xiaoxia had developed feelings for them and had learned to consider others' feelings as well.

"Well, in that case, we could give it a try. But it depends on Sister Yang's own ideas, and of course, it also depends on whether the market is right for it. After all, if this thing is made and there's no market for it, then it's all for nothing."

Although this thing will be very popular and expensive in the next twenty or thirty years, and many people will want to buy it, Li Long is not sure if there is a market for it now.

Of course, if it were to be done, I would definitely have to be a stakeholder; otherwise, Huang Lei wouldn't have made that decision.

Let's put that aside for now and ask Huang Lei first.

Of course, you can also ask other people, including Zhao Hui. Like Huang Lei, Zhao Hui made a small fortune selling beef and mutton this winter, so he should have come into contact with relevant people as well.

We could provide a batch of gifts to the Beijing liaison office from Yanjing, but then we'd have to consider the packaging, which would be quite troublesome.

They decided not to think about it anymore. Li Long and the others took Mingming and Haohao back to the courtyard, gave the bones they had brought back to Xiao Hei, and then went inside to rest.

Just as Li Long had predicted, in the following days, it seemed as if those middlemen who had stayed home for the New Year were going to do business in revenge. Every day, no fewer than forty people came to the purchasing station to sell their goods, and each day they spent more than ten thousand yuan.

The number of visitors gradually decreased until the 22nd day of the first lunar month, which is relative.

The weather gradually warmed up, and since the tenth day of the first lunar month, it hasn't snowed anymore; the sky has been clear all day.

Just when everyone thought the sunny weather would last until the snow melted, another heavy snowfall struck, and in just half a day, the snow on the ground had reached forty centimeters!

At this moment, Li Long was in the mountains discussing the next task with Halimu and the others—making dried meat.

Yes, Huang Lei made contact. There is a market for dried meat there, so he asked Li Long to make a batch and send it over first.

Let's do it then.

　感谢春暖十一州的大额打赏！感谢弥留的月、鳄鱼的眼泪L、歪7才、书友20250807123451428、幸运的蓝胖、书友110302213220025、书友20250805144203122、壹蓑烟雨踏山巔、谢蓝桉、爱哭的小猪、书友20250224194946622、书友20210301106564851084，心盗、立强999、书友20210301106528341948、书友20200725223051760、没对象的不要灰心、书友20250727235244971、醉了红尘19827108、书友20250602144528985、书友20200903132528793、嘻嘻嘻嘻略、书友20180114101224039、7051*.qdcn、书友20241217220219370、雪轻落、孟晓华、书友20250730003012457、书友20250307103525698、亡天之路、轩辕文峰、帅帅龅牙兔、紫环幽蓝、总不落地、书友20241218215933089、海之湟等书友的打赏，感谢大家的订阅、月票、推荐票，本月月票奖励以水果为主。

　　
　
(End of this chapter)