Rebirth of Bayi Fishing and Hunting in the Northwest

Chapter 1052 I wasn't selected this year, but I can still go to the award ceremony.

Chen Hongjun's family's life changed because of the purchasing station, and many more people who went into the mountains to collect medicinal herbs also made money as a result.

At this time, people's exploration of the Tianshan Mountains was still only a very small part. Even 30 or 40 years from now, even those hikers who frequently go hiking in the mountains will only have a very limited understanding of the Tianshan Mountains.

The Tianshan Mountains, stretching for thousands of kilometers, contain countless hidden realms. Coupled with the fact that the population of XJ has always been small, this situation will continue for a long time.

So even though more and more people go into the mountains to dig for medicinal herbs every year, and their harvests increase every year, the treasures and resources in the mountains still seem inexhaustible.

Of course, it's also possible that the environment of the Tianshan Mountains is particularly harsh for human survival. The outer layers of earthen hills, the inner layers of shrub hills, and the few roads leading into the mountains have blocked the steps of some people who wanted to develop the area.

This ensured the survival of the vast forests, grasslands, rivers, and the precious flora and fauna that live within them in the Satoyama region.

In another thirty or forty years, because hikers often go missing or die in the mountains, many ancient hiking trails that were once considered secret places by hikers will be closed off, and the mountain environment will become even more "natural".

Of course, the Tianshan Mountains were still in a stage of disorderly development in the 1980s. Although the forestry team had begun to manage the area, the mountain range was too large to guard every pass.

More and more people are going into the mountains in search of wealth, with people like Mo Linsheng and the Wu family uncle and nephew being the main force.

After sending Jia Tianlong away, Li Long, unable to resist Mingming and Haohao's persistent pestering, took the two brothers into the mountains again the next day and arrived at the wooden house.

Just as he expected, once the leaves on the shed dried, more sunlight was allowed to penetrate.

After unloading the supplies from the jeep into the cabin, Li Long took Mingming and Haohao back to the woods to cut branches. He was relatively reassured that they hadn't encountered any wild animals on their recent trips with the children in the mountains, so their safety was assured.

After the seven wild boars that the family kept had almost destroyed the remaining vegetables in the greenhouse, Mingming and Haohao also felt that they were no longer fun, so Li Long packed them up and sent them back to Old Horse.

The ultraviolet rays in the mountains are very strong. Even without Li Long's instructions, Mingming Haohao was picking mushrooms under the shade of nearby trees and didn't go far.

Li Long cut down six or seven tree branches, including two small ones, hoping to give the two children a sense of participation and have them drag the branches back with him.

When they gathered the branches together, they found that the two children had already brought over a bag full of mushrooms to present to them.

"The mushrooms you picked are really good! And morels too. I'll take them back and cook them for you later. But we can't eat them now, we have to pick them out, some of them are poisonous."

Seeing the two little ones so excited about picking mushrooms, Li Long figured they must have cooked and eaten the mushrooms they picked the other day, which must have given them a sense of accomplishment, so he decided to continue today.

Therefore, I didn't let them carry the tree branches, but instead let them take the mushrooms back with me.

Back at the cabin, Li Long first put down the branches, then taught the two children to pick out the poisonous mushrooms and had them take enamel basins to the spring to wash the mushrooms.

He then laid the cut branches on the shed.

After finishing all that, when I went to the thatched shed to get firewood to start a fire, I found that it had been disturbed.

He smiled, realizing that someone must have been sleeping there at night.

This is nothing, they behaved quite properly, they didn't try to pry open the door here.

He went inside, took out the bedding to air it out, and then started a fire under the stove.

Before the two children had even finished washing the mushrooms, someone came over with a bag to exchange them for something else.

They were a man and a woman I'd never seen before. I didn't know if they were a couple or lovers. They both looked to be in their early twenties. Although they were a bit disheveled, you could still sense their youthful energy.

The two of them were playfully bickering when they arrived, but they stopped smiling when they saw Li Long and Mingming Haohao.

The two of them each carried a white cloth bag, and there wasn't much fritillaria in the bags, probably only four or five kilograms.

As he approached the two men, Li Long took the initiative to ask:

"Do you want to trade fritillaria for goods or for money?"

"Change the food."

"Exchange money."

The man wanted food, the woman wanted money, and they couldn't reach an agreement.

"I have naan, steamed buns, sponge cakes, and sesame cakes here. I also have raw rice and noodles. What would you like to exchange?" Li Long said to the man first, then to the woman.

"If you want to exchange money, let me check the quality of your fritillaria bulbs."

The woman approached Li Long, opened the bag, and spread the opening to let him see the condition of the fritillaria bulbs inside.

The fritillaria bulbs were covered in mud and some grass leaves; they weren't clean. Li Long grabbed a handful and examined them. They were fresh; they must have been dug up yesterday.

He weighed the bag in his hand and said:
"A little over four kilograms, less than five kilograms. Your fritillaria bulbs are quite dirty, but they're new. I'll give you eight yuan per kilogram."

"So cheap? Can you add a little more, brother?" The woman felt she was being sold at a bargain price and started bargaining, her voice drawn out, almost like she was trying to coax someone.

“This is the price for everything in the mountains. If you go and wash it clean now and remove the leaves, I can give you a little extra.” Li Long knew that life was tough for them in the mountains, but since the prices were about the same for everyone, he wouldn’t raise the price.

It is possible to make an exception, but it depends on whether the other party is willing to do so.

"I want ten steamed buns, five naan breads, and two bags of sponge cakes." The man's decision was simple: "If there are any left, I'll exchange them all for sesame cakes."

He didn't want raw rice or flour, probably because he thought it would be too troublesome to cook.

"I also have red tofu, do you want some? If you do, I can give you another bottle," Li Long offered. Men have a little more fritillaria than women, and if they are the same quality, they can exchange it for thirty or forty yuan.

All the things he mentioned together didn't even amount to twenty yuan, so Li Long thought he should try to sell more things and give him some money if necessary.

"Then I'll go take a shower." The woman still wanted to get more money, so after thinking for a moment, she agreed to Li Long's suggestion. "How much will I get after the shower?"

"If you can wash all the mud and leaves out of it, I'll give you ten yuan per kilogram."

It's two yuan more per kilogram, just for washing. Actually, this price is a bit scary; it's just for washing, and the price has increased so much.

The woman almost thought Li Long had taken a liking to her, and was momentarily stunned. But after seeing Mingming and Haohao, she dismissed the thought.

Although the price was a bit high, it saved Li Long some trouble. Actually, he wanted to instill the idea in those who came to sell fritillaria that as long as the fritillaria was cleaned properly, the price could be increased.

Regardless, the woman was pleasantly surprised that a wash would increase the price, and she headed towards the spring with her bag. Mingming Haohao happened to be turning from there, and Li Long stared at the woman's back, worried that she might do something inappropriate to Mingming Haohao.

Mingming and Haohao had been disciplined at home, so they circled around the woman when she approached. The woman even tried to pat Mingming and Haohao's heads, but the two children dodged it.

The two children brought over some cleaned wild mushrooms to show Li Long. Li Long told them to put the mushrooms on the table, praised them a couple of times, and then told the children to go into the wooden house.

After the two children went into the wooden house, Li Long went to the small house to take out the things to give to the man.

"If I wash the fritillaria bulbs clean, can I get more things in return?" The man was quite clever and grasped the meaning behind Li Long's words.

“Yes, if you wash it clean, I can give you a few more bags of steamed egg cakes.” Li Long laughed.

The man hurriedly followed the woman to the spring and began to wash the fritillaria bulbs.

The two people were washing and talking by the water.

"This clean fritillaria is so much more expensive than the ones that came earlier. Is this person lazy or sick?" The woman seemed to be deliberately trying to distance herself from the man, and her words were quite impolite. She probably thought Li Long couldn't hear her, even though they were at least twenty or thirty meters apart.

"Why worry about it so much? They're offering you a high price for washing it, so just wash it properly. When I go to dig for fritillaria this afternoon, I'll wash it clean after I'm done, so I can get more money when I come back to exchange it in a couple of days."

These two people weren't digging for fritillaria bulbs very quickly, but they could still earn tens of yuan a day, which shows that this job was quite lucrative.

However, as the saying goes, "every profession is like a mountain," and outsiders don't understand this industry. Most people don't even know what fritillaria looks like, so there are still too few people who can do it.

The two men washed the fritillaria bulbs. Li Long had already prepared the money and supplies, and asked them to pour the fritillaria bulbs out and spread them out on the table. To Li Long's surprise, the men washed them cleaner than the women.

After emptying the contents, the woman looked at the two piles of fritillaria bulbs, her face slightly flushed, and said, "I didn't see clearly. I'll go wash them again now."

After saying that, she put the unclean fritillaria bulbs into a bag and hurried over to wash them. The man, on the other hand, slowly packed everything he had earned back into the bag, took out a sesame cake, and chatted with Li Long while eating it.

"Boss, the price you gave us is a bit low. Could you raise it later?"

"Whether the price goes up or not depends on the quality of the fritillaria bulbs. If all your fritillaria bulbs are this big," Li Long said, reaching out and picking up a relatively large one from the table, "even if they're fresh, I can still give you fifteen yuan per kilogram."

But look at the fritillaria bulbs you dug up now, they're all different sizes, how can I raise the price for you?"

"Fresh, large ones like this can really cost 15 yuan per kilogram?" The man's eyes widened.

"Yes, as long as they're this big, and after you wash them clean, I'll take as many as you have."

Such large, clean fritillaria bulbs, once dried, become the premium grade that Jia Tianlong mentioned, the kind he buys for 150 yuan per kilogram. Seven kilograms of fresh fritillaria bulbs, dried to one kilogram of dried product, means the cost is 100 yuan, and selling for 150 yuan is very profitable.

The man began to ponder, waiting for the woman to bring the mother-of-pearl, but he didn't say anything after she arrived.

Li Long gave the woman fifty yuan. The woman took the five ten-yuan bills, very excited and thrilled. She grabbed the man and hurried back, then disappeared into the grove.

They must be in cahoots, otherwise women who only want money and not food would starve to death.

Starting in early May, more people came to the cabin to exchange items.

Mo Linsheng, who came to exchange money, explained the reason.

"Most of the people who came into the mountains came in mid-April, and they've run out of food and supplies after half a month. It's difficult to get out of the mountains now, as the fritillaria bulbs in the mountains are in full bloom right now."

If you work hard, you can dig up seven or eight kilograms of fritillaria bulbs a day, which can be exchanged for sixty or seventy yuan here. You only make money like this once or twice a year.

So everyone was thinking of exchanging for supplies to last for a couple of days, and making as much money as possible was the right thing to do.

Li Long was supposed to come to the cabin every day around this time. But since someone from the county was calling him, he could only go every few days.

Staff from the Ethnic and Religious Affairs Commission went directly to Li Long's house, only to find the door locked and Sister Yang not there; she was making dried meat in the neighboring yard. Li Long had essentially entrusted the dried meat business entirely to Sister Yang; even when Keyum came to deliver beef and mutton, he couldn't find Li Long.

There was nothing else the staff of the Ethnic and Religious Affairs Commission could do but call the purchasing station through the supply and marketing cooperative and ask Li Long to come to the Ethnic and Religious Affairs Commission to discuss something.

Li Long left Mingming and Haohao at the purchasing station and went to the Ethnic and Religious Affairs Commission himself.

"Hello, Comrade Li Long. I'm so sorry to trouble you, but we can't really say what the leaders are saying." The staff member adopted a very humble attitude and explained why they had asked Li Long to come over.

"Awarding prizes to those who are being honored? And then we have to give a report? Let's skip the report." Li Longzhen felt that he didn't need to give the report.

Every year brings new developments in ethnic unity; one more example won't make a difference. Everyone is doing their part in their respective fields and industries; some perform averagely, while others excel. Let's recognize and commend those who excel.

As for his own affairs, Li Long knew best. He was actually involved in something that involved both personal gain and friendship/brotherhood.

I didn't initially intend to receive any recognition; I mainly wanted a prestigious title to protect my business—that was a selfish motive.

As a nationally recognized model worker, it was normal for him to present awards to other county-level role models, so he declined the report.

The staff member went to consult with their supervisor and returned to say that they had agreed.

Li Long, a nationally recognized advanced role model, is usually only recognized once unless he makes other particularly outstanding contributions.

However, unless something major happens to him later, this award will remain on his resume.

The county's commendation ceremony doesn't require many days of rehearsal in advance; you just need to arrive half an hour early on the day and be informed of the important points. Even so, it still took up three days of our trip to the mountains.

This time, those who received awards were mostly teachers and village cadres from villages with diverse ethnic backgrounds.

At this time, the awards were really given to those on the front lines, those who did practical work. One cadre from the supply and marketing cooperative was also awarded, and Li Long greeted him during the award ceremony.

As Li Xiangqian had expected, the county supply and marketing cooperative was once again commended by the state, which was another significant achievement in the annual work.

Li Xiangqian was quite happy about this, but he knew that the road would be almost finished in another year or two, so before Li Long presented the award, he specifically went to talk to people about what work could be done afterward.

Li Long simply said, "We'll talk about it after the road is repaired."

When Li Long went back into the mountain to the cabin, he found a lot of things written on the blackboard. In addition to various food supplies, he also needed clothes, shoes, knives, and the like.

As the jeep stopped and Li Long was still unloading things, someone came out of the grove to exchange items.

Actually, most people should be digging for fritillaria bulbs at this time. If resources weren't scarce and they weren't on the verge of collapse, they wouldn't be here exchanging them.

Li Long told Mingming and Haohao to stay inside while he dealt with the people who came over... it was still the same man and woman.

It makes sense when you think about it. If the man had been alone, the food he was given might have lasted a couple more days, but if there were two of them, it wouldn't have lasted much longer.

Li Long hadn't come for three days, and the two men looked malnourished, clearly indicating they hadn't had a good time in the mountains.

"Boss, you said those big fritillaria bulbs are 15 yuan per kilogram. Do you think these I got will be okay?" The man was a bit thin and his voice was a little hoarse, but he was very excited. After seeing Li Long, he put the bag directly on the table and said.

“Pour it out and take a look,” Li Long said, pointing to the case.

The man poured the fritillaria bulbs onto the table and spread them out. His previously confident expression suddenly turned hesitant.

"Didn't you dry them after washing them?" Li Long sighed. "It's cold and damp in the mountains at night. These fritillaria bulbs got wet after washing. Are you just waiting for them to spoil if you don't dry them?"

The fritillaria bulbs were indeed quite large and cleaned well, but at this point, nearly a third of the batch had tiny green specks stuck to them.

It's obviously a bit moldy.

The man's face flushed red and then paled as he muttered under his breath, "I never expected it to get moldy in just a few days... There's nowhere to dry it in the woods where we're staying, and we don't have any extra bags..."

“These moldy ones are basically unusable,” Li Long said helplessly. “You can try washing them. If you can wash them completely off, then you can still keep them. If you can’t wash them off, then there’s nothing we can do.”

Upon hearing that there was still a way to salvage the situation, the man immediately gathered up the fritillaria bulbs and ran to the water to wash them.

Before Li Long could give any instructions, the woman poured the fritillaria bulbs onto the table. The bulbs were of various sizes, but they were quite clean and free of mold.

The woman said smugly, "I dried the clothes by the water after washing them before packing them, unlike him, who just washed them and put them in the bag. He got ripped off this time, didn't he?"

"Don't you two live together? Why didn't you even remind me?" Li Long thought the two were a couple, and asked while checking the quality of the fritillaria bulbs.

"No, we just met when we went into the mountains. We're from the same hometown, the same county," the woman said, blushing slightly. "By the way, this time I'm exchanging half for money and half for things."

Because the women's fritillaria bulbs varied in size, Li Long charged them ten yuan each. After roughly estimating, he found that the fritillaria bulbs he brought weighed about fifteen kilograms, so he gave her eighty yuan and exchanged the rest for a large amount of other goods.

The woman's needs were greater; besides food, she also changed her clothes, headscarves, hats, gloves, and even asked for a shovel.

By the time the man finished washing the mother-of-pearl and brought it over, the woman had already packed up all the things she had received in exchange.

"Are your fritillaria bulbs all healthy?" the man asked the woman, puzzled.

"Yes, everything's fine," the woman replied, seemingly oblivious to the meaning behind the man's question.

The man's expression immediately changed.

Li Long looked at the man's nearly 20 kilograms of fritillaria bulbs, and about 3 kilograms of them were impossible to clean properly. The rest, after removing the surface mold, were considered normal.

The men mostly exchanged their goods for money, and a small portion for food. Li Long told him to take the remaining three kilograms of moldy fritillaria bulbs.

Anyway, even if he takes this thing back to the purchasing station, Gu Boyuan will never accept it.

After the two left, before they even reached the grove, Li Long heard the sound of arguing.

It seems this temporary relationship isn't reliable.

(End of this chapter)