Rebirth of Bayi Fishing and Hunting in the Northwest

Chapter 1047 The Mini Exchange Point Reopens
Wu Bensheng is an old herb gatherer. He started digging for fritillaria bulbs in the mountains when he first entered Xinjiang seven or eight years ago.

Wu Bensheng comes from a family of herbalists. His maternal grandfather often harvested fritillaria bulbs in Sichuan, and Wu Bensheng learned some skills from his grandfather from a young age.

After arriving in northern Xinjiang, he discovered that the money he earned from hard work was not enough to cover a few days' worth of digging for fritillaria bulbs in the mountains, so he simply became a herb gatherer. Every spring, he would come to northern Xinjiang, prepare his supplies, and venture deep into the Tianshan Mountains to begin his harvesting.

Gathering herbs in the mountains is not only arduous but also dangerous. Thanks to his martial arts skills honed over several years, coupled with his experience living in the mountains, he has had a relatively smooth life these past few years.

As the price of wild fritillaria rose higher and higher, Wu Bensheng's wealth also increased. Every year after the fritillaria season ended, he was able to return to his hometown with a large sum of money to repair his house, get married, and buy furniture.

Several years ago, the forestry team began setting up checkpoints at the mountain pass to confiscate the fritillaria bulbs from those digging for medicinal herbs. Wu Bensheng knew about this early on, so every time he got his fritillaria bulbs, he would sneak down the mountain under the cover of night.

Two years ago, when resources were scarce in the mountains, he could still exchange fritillaria bulbs for some living supplies at the log cabin. However, the log cabin has been closed for the past two years, and Wu Bensheng is also worried.

After all, the supplies that can be brought into the mountains at the beginning are limited, and it is a bit unrealistic to dig for fritillaria bulbs in the mountains continuously for a month.

Decades later, people will think that there are wild vegetables, mushrooms, and wild animals in the mountains, so it's impossible not to find food.

But the reality is that without food, eating wild vegetables and mushrooms would be unbearable for most people, who would collapse after only three to five days.

Food is the most basic thing, yet it is also the thing that ordinary people in later generations most easily overlook.

What is the most scarce resource in the mountains? Food is the first priority, and everything else comes second.

Wu Bensheng didn't come alone this year. He's made some money in the past few years, and there are more than one or two family members who want to come with him to northern Xinjiang to make a fortune.

At first, Wu Bensheng refused, after all, this path was not easy to walk, and he couldn't guarantee that those who came with him would make money. There were forest rangers in the mountains, and in the first two years, he almost got caught by them several times—if caught, they would confiscate his property, and if caught, they would be taken away and sent home.

So Wu Bensheng had refused in previous years. But this year he couldn't refuse; his older brother fell off a mountain while doing farm work and broke his leg.

The family originally relied solely on those few acres of farmland, and now that his elder brother's family had lost its main breadwinner, it was like adding insult to injury. His sister-in-law brought her seventeen-year-old nephew to his doorstep and knelt down, begging him to take the nephew out. He had no choice but to agree.

It's true that every family has its own problems.

Since he had brought his nephew along, Wu Bensheng was determined to make him earn money.

His own son is quite capable at gathering herbs, but the boy is seventeen years old now, and if he becomes disobedient, there's nothing he can do.

So when he left his hometown, Wu Bensheng called his sister-in-law and nephew together and spoke frankly about the unpleasant things beforehand.

If his nephew is obedient, he will take him to work for half a year to earn some money to supplement the family income.

If your nephew doesn't listen, then you shouldn't even consider this idea.

At this point, it became clear that the nephew was very honest and indicated that he would definitely listen to his second uncle after the incident.

“I also go into the mountains to collect herbs. Not to mention the dangers of the wild animals, there are forest rangers there who don’t allow you to collect herbs without permission. So you must listen to me, otherwise you won’t earn any money and you might even endanger your life.”

Wu Bensheng deliberately exaggerated the dangerous situation there, hoping that his nephew wouldn't just say he would obey on the surface.

After arriving in northern Xinjiang with his nephew, Wu Bensheng calculated that it was about time. They bought supplies in the county town, divided them into two large bags, carried them, and then headed into the mountains.

There are currently no buses running from the county to Qingshuihe Township. As they walked along the road into the mountains, Wu Bensheng chose a shortcut that would be shorter, but it still took the two of them a whole day to reach the mountains, carrying large bags on their backs.

Over the past few years, Wu Bensheng has become quite familiar with the area south of Ma County by digging for fritillaria in the mountains. He first took his nephew to an abandoned winter shelter, planning to stay there for the night and then go into the gully with fritillaria early the next morning.

Wu Bensheng's nephew, Wu Donghai, looked around carefully and found the abandoned hut disgusting. It was surrounded by cow and sheep dung, one wall had collapsed, and there was some unidentified animal droppings inside.

As Wu Bensheng gathered the firewood, he said to him:

"If you want to make money, you have to be able to endure hardship. At least now you have a place to shelter from the wind and rain. If things don't go well, you might have to dig your own place to stay later, and you might have to make do with sleeping in a crack in the rocks for one night. If you regret it, it's not too late now... Just go back the way you came and you'll get to the county town."

Wu Donghai gritted his teeth and shook his head. He couldn't regret it, nor did he have the luxury of doing so.

Wu Bensheng paid for the trip to northern Xinjiang, and he had to pay back his uncle the money he made from digging up fritillaria bulbs.

The two of them made do with the place for one night. The next day, before the forest rangers went into the mountains, they went to the familiar Fritillaria Gully early in the morning to prepare to dig for fritillaria.

"Hehe, this road wasn't even here last year, and it's already this long this year. These people are really amazing." On his way to Beimugou, Wu Bensheng discovered the road that Li Longmenghai and his team had built and found it quite incredible.

Of course, I was only surprised for a moment, and then I focused my attention on the fritillaria.

Wu Bensheng and his nephew Wu Donghai would venture into remote valleys, places where fritillaria bulbs could be found. Because few people came here, the valleys were overgrown with weeds and were not easy to spot, but the harvest was plentiful.

Within a few days, the two of them had each acquired a bag of fritillaria bulbs, but they had also used up most of the supplies they brought.

They thought these things could last for another five, six, seven or eight days, but unexpectedly, the cave where they stayed that night was attacked by wolves. Although the uncle and nephew successfully escaped the wolf attack, the wolves ruined the supplies they brought.

Wu Bensheng was quite optimistic. In the mountains, it's inevitable to encounter all sorts of unexpected situations. Since they had run out of supplies, they decided to stop gathering herbs and try to find a way to get more supplies.

The safest way is to go out of the mountains. Now, the villagers in the villages outside the mountains also know the benefits of fritillaria. As long as people go out of the mountains, they can get fritillaria and exchange it for grain in the villages.

However, Wu Benxing didn't want to travel that far. He wanted to save time and dig up more fritillaria bulbs, so he wanted to try his luck at the cabin so he wouldn't have to leave the mountain to exchange for the items.

Wu Donghai was skeptical: "Can a redemption point that hasn't opened in two years really open this year? If it's really that profitable, who would abandon this place and leave it unattended for two years? I'd rather just go down the mountain to the village; at least that's more reliable."

He had collected a bag of semi-dried fritillaria bulbs, which, according to the price his uncle had given him, could fetch at least several hundred yuan. Back home, that amount of money was equivalent to a family's annual income. Wu Donghai no longer wanted to stay in these deep mountains; if he stayed any longer, he would turn into a wild man, and he felt he was going crazy.

"No way, this is nothing!" Wu Bensheng was determined not to go back. In recent years, he had only managed to get two or three bags of fritillaria bulbs before leaving the mountain. He really didn't care about the current harvest.

“Let’s go to the cabin and take a look. If we can exchange for supplies, that would be great. If not, then we’ll talk about going down the mountain again. Do you think it’s safe to go down the mountain? If we run into those forest rangers, they’ll confiscate all the fritillaria bulbs you’re carrying. With your temper right now, they might just arrest you and send you home.”

Wu Donghai was terrified by the scene described by Wu Bensheng. Knowing that he was still too inexperienced, he calmed down and silently followed his uncle forward with the fritillaria on his back.

Wu Bensheng was still holding a stick he had picked up. With that in hand, most wild animals wouldn't dare to approach.

After passing through the last patch of woods, the cabin came into view. To Wu Bensheng's surprise, he saw a jeep parked next to the cabin.

"Someone's here! The boss's back!" Wu Bensheng exclaimed in surprise. "Hehe, that's great, we don't have to go out of the mountains anymore!"

With the fritillaria bulbs on their backs and their strength restored, the uncle and nephew walked quickly toward the small wooden house.

"Second Uncle! Look, isn't that a forest ranger on horseback? We can't go any further! We have to hurry back into the mountains!" Wu Donghai saw someone riding a horse towards the cabin and immediately grabbed Wu Bensheng, who was walking with his head down. "A forest ranger?" Wu Bensheng looked up and then smiled. "Don't worry about him. The forest rangers won't arrest us here. Let's go, let's go, see? Some people have already gone over there. We need to hurry, otherwise we'll run out of supplies and have to wait another day!"

"Why don't the forest rangers arrest people here?" Wu Donghai asked, somewhat puzzled.

"I don't know. Maybe the owner of this cabin has a lot of influence, or maybe they have connections. Why worry about so much? Let's hurry up and exchange some food and salt, then come back and dig for fritillaria bulbs."

Li Long has been driving Mingming and Haohao to the cabin for two days now. Of course, they haven't stayed there for two days; he drives Mingming and Haohao there every morning and drives them back in the afternoon.

The main reason is that Sister Yang is going to start making dried meat again. Mingming Haohao can only be taken care of by Li Long. Since the roads in the mountains are not being repaired, Li Long thought of bringing the two children to the wooden house to train their wilderness survival skills and exchange them for some fritillaria bulbs to earn some pocket money.

It must be said that the herb gatherers in the mountains are quite welcoming of Li Long's little wooden cabin exchange point. On the very day he arrived, which was yesterday, he exchanged over two hundred kilograms of semi-dried fritillaria bulbs.

In just half a day, they brought four bags of rice and flour, a pot of cooked beef and mutton offal, and salt, sugar, etc., and most of it has already been used up.

On the rack in front of the wooden house, there were more than 100 kilograms of washed and dried fritillaria bulbs.

Mingming and Haohao were very satisfied with the wooden house. The two children laughed and played around. When they got tired, they asked Li Long to get some mud, and they played in the mud in front of the wooden house.

Li Long set up a pot on the stove in front of the wooden house, where he would cook lunch.

When Wu Bensheng and Wu Donghai arrived carrying bags of fritillaria bulbs, Polati also happened to ride over on horseback.

He was carrying two large bags of fritillaria bulbs on his horse, and when he saw Wu Benshen and Wu Donghai, he smiled at them.

Wu Bensheng didn't think much of it, but Wu Donghai was startled. He recognized the Type 56 semi-automatic rifle that Bolati was carrying, one that he himself had used in militia training. He wondered if he might shoot him if he angered the forest ranger.
"Polati, you're here?" Li Long greeted Polati while washing the fritillaria bulbs.

"I just picked up two bags of fritillaria bulbs at the mountain pass, so I brought them over to you. Oh, by the way, you have a bar here, and I saw you have some offal in your pot, shall we have a drink?"

Polati unloaded the two half-sacks of fritillaria bulbs, threw them in front of the cabin, smiled at Mingming and Haohao, and then said these words to Li Long.

"Wait a minute, let me switch these two friends' things, and then we'll have a drink."

“That’s more like it! I always thought you were too polite to us. We’re friends, but we’re not quite friends. Friends should definitely drink together. You collect their fritillaria first, and I’ll get some meat for us.”

As he spoke, he went over and teased Mingming and Haohao, then thought about getting some snacks to go with the drinks. Actually, you can drink without snacks, but Polati had dealt with Han Chinese people for a while and knew that you should eat something before drinking.

"What would you like to exchange?" Li Long said to Wu Bensheng and Wu Donghai. "We still have some grain, not much salt left, and I have some cooked offal from the beef and mutton I brought up today. Do you want some? Oh, and shoes and gloves too, and I also have some newly made shovels..."

The items were a mixed bag. Li Long was very casual when he brought things up the mountain. He felt like whatever he brought, someone on the mountain would want it. Yesterday, someone even asked him to bring a book up, saying that if it rained heavily and he couldn't dig for fritillaria bulbs, he could read a book in his dugout.

"Ten kilograms of rice, ten kilograms of flour," Wu Bensheng said. "Do you have any steamed buns or naan? If so, get some of those too. Oh, and do you have any razors? We lost ours when we encountered wolves. Oh, and we also need some of that offal you mentioned..."

"It's been almost three years since I've seen the cabin open, hasn't it?" Wu Bensheng asked Li Long, sounding somewhat excited. After stating what he had long planned to need, he then asked:
"Why haven't you come these past two years? When we were digging for medicinal herbs in the mountains these past two years, we kept thinking how great it would be if you were here. If you were here, we would have had a much better time in the mountains."

"Old herb gatherer?" Li Long was a little surprised. Although he would occasionally run into a few familiar faces, most of them were strangers, and he would not see familiar faces again for a year or two. So when he heard Wu Bensheng say this, he remembered. "I remember now. You used to trade food and knives with me. You were scared away when you saw Polati and the others coming, right?"

When Li Long exposed his past to his nephew, Wu Bensheng blushed and explained, "Back then, we didn't know about your relationship with the forest ranger, did we? If we had known, we wouldn't have panicked so much."

"Being able to come here for so many years means you've made a fortune. The price of fritillaria is good this year, but there are more wild animals in the mountains, so you still need to be careful." As he spoke, Li Long took out the things that Wu Bensheng had asked for from his own house.

"Take whatever you think is appropriate from these fritillaria bulbs I'm carrying." Wu Bensheng was genuinely happy to see so many supplies. He believed that with these things, he could get through the fritillaria bulb season.

Li Long didn't ask for much; he traded these items for twenty kilograms of fritillaria bulbs. The rest, he and his nephew carried back.

"I'm not open every day. If you want to come over, take a look. If you need anything, you can leave it on the blackboard if I'm not here," Li Long said to Wu Bensheng and Wu Donghai as they took their leave.

"Okay, got it." Wu Bensheng smiled and waved to him, then looked at Bora's suggestion and hurriedly left with Wu Donghai.

Mingming and Haohao were very well-behaved while Li Long was working, but after those two people left, they came to Li Long with their hands covered in mud and said:
"Dad, I'm hungry!"

"Dad, I'm hungry too!"

"Go wash your hands by the water, I'll get you something to eat," Li Long told the two brothers. "Don't fall into the water."

Actually, the water at the spring wasn't deep, so even if you fell in, it wouldn't be dangerous. Besides, it wasn't far away, and you could see it at a glance, but Li Long still habitually reminded him.

Polati scooped out the offal that Li Long had repeatedly processed from the pot, and skillfully prepared a bowl of seasoning. He moved a small table out of the house, took out two bottles of wine from the small wooden hut and placed them on the table, then haphazardly chopped up the offal and put it on a plate before serving it.

Li Long shook his head, took a plate, carefully sliced ​​a plate of offal, then rummaged under the stove and pulled out two cooked potatoes. He slammed them on the ground, peeled off the skin, flattened them, and put them on the plate as well.

Finally, I got a naan bread, tore it into four or five pieces, and put it on the plate with the potatoes. After Mingming and Haohao finished washing their hands and came over, I handed them the two plates.
"Go sit by the door and eat. Don't rush, don't choke. There's tea inside, we'll pour it for you."

After settling the two boys in, he went inside to find two wine glasses, washed them clean at the spring, and sat down opposite Pollati. He placed the glasses in front of the two boys and said:

"I have a child with me, so I can't drink much. Let's not rush, let's drink slowly."

"Okay, okay." Polati couldn't wait any longer. He bit open the bottle cap with his teeth, poured a full glass for each of them, and then picked up his glass and said:

"Have a drink!" Before Li Long could speak, he downed the drink in one gulp.

Fifty grams of liquor, and this guy didn't even feel it!

Li Long thought to himself, "This guy is also trained. Judging from his posture, he's trying to get me drunk today!"

Since the other party had already drunk it, he couldn't refuse, so he raised his glass, gave Pola a nod, and poured the wine into his mouth.

It was spicy, but not as bad as I had imagined. After tasting it, Li Long felt more confident.

Let's drink it!

"Li Long, you two aren't happy living like this!" Polati took another sip of wine and suddenly said to Li Long, "You're only thinking about making money, you're not happy!"

Li Long was stunned. Really?

He began to ponder this question.

(End of this chapter)