Rebirth of Bayi Fishing and Hunting in the Northwest

Chapter 1057 Mo Linsheng has a new job, and Li Long starts "collecting scraps" again.

After making the call, Captain Eli told Li Long about the situation after Polati brought those two people over yesterday.

"These two men did commit a crime in the village. They stole and sold the cattle and injured the cattle herder who was guarding the livestock pen."

After being discovered, he fled here. On the way, he stole things from people in Gansu. He committed quite a few crimes along the way.

We have already handed them over to the police station, and I expect they will be sentenced soon.

That woman, well, after she arrived here yesterday, waited for our people to finish interrogating those two, then said "Don't worry," and left this morning.

Just as Li Long had guessed. At this time, many people felt that the checks on the border were not as strict as those in the interior, so they fled here after committing crimes. Some people actually did come here and changed their names, acquiring new identities and managing to get away with their past misdeeds.

But some people are hard to change their ways. They commit crimes again after coming here, and naturally they won't get away with it.

After leaving Captain Ai Li's place, Li Long took the truck directly back to the county purchasing station, unloaded the fritillaria and other medicinal herbs, and then went to the transportation company to extend the rental period for the truck for another day.

The truck driver had eaten hand-pulled mutton with Li Long for lunch, so he was naturally willing to work another day. The matter was settled. Li Long had originally planned to free up some time this afternoon to go to the mountains again, but it seemed he couldn't go today or tomorrow. Well, let the people in the mountains wait a little longer.

Mo Linsheng carried a bag of fritillaria bulbs to the cabin, only to find that there was no jeep and no one there.

The people in the mountains had gotten used to Li Long coming every day, and now that he suddenly stopped coming, they felt a little uneasy.

Half of the bag of fritillaria bulbs that Mo Linsheng was carrying were dug up by himself, and the other half were snatched back from him when others tried to take them from him.

He had quite a few spoils, which he estimated to be worth a few hundred yuan. But there was a price to pay. Many of the people who gathered herbs in the mountains were quite tough. He slashed the other man's arm and leg twice, and the other man punched him in the nose, causing him to bleed.

In short, both sides suffered losses, but he gained the upper hand, while the other party fled in defeat.

Mo Linsheng didn't know how many times he had profited from counter-robbery, and he was starting to like the feeling. Although he was always injured after each fight and it would take him a while to heal, it was really satisfying to sell his loot and hold that thick wad of cash.

So every time he sold the stolen fritillaria bulbs, he would buy one or two bottles of Yunnan Baiyao from Li Long to treat his injuries.

He had a bad feeling that Li Long hadn't come this time. He wondered if Li Long was just going to skip today, or if he would skip several days.

He didn't have much food left, but he had a lot of money. Mo Linsheng didn't want to go down the mountain. The forest rangers were waiting at the various mountain passes. With so much money and fritillaria on him, going down the mountain at night with blood on him would definitely attract wolves.

Going out of the mountains during the day would be like delivering vegetables to the forest rangers, so let's forget about it.

This bag of fritillaria weighed forty or fifty kilograms. He didn't want to carry it anymore, so he simply took the fritillaria and his own bag and went into Li Long's shed.

There's another roll of bedding here, whose owner is unknown. He couldn't retrieve his own from the cave, so he simply decided not to bother and just wait here.

The main reason was that I was injured and didn't want to carry the fritillaria bulbs back and forth. The wound was very painful, and it wasn't suitable to dig up the fritillaria bulbs at this time.

Although there's no food here, Li Long has spring water, a stove, and firewood. He can use the little food he brought to start a fire and make a meal to last for two days, so he'll stay here for now.

Mo Linsheng wasn't the only one who wanted to come and exchange fritillaria bulbs today; the Wu family uncle and nephew also arrived with bags shortly after.

They didn't see the jeep, so they knew Li Long was probably not there. Seeing someone busy near the cabin, they took a chance and came over.

Upon approaching and recognizing another herb gatherer who looked somewhat familiar, Wu Bensheng asked:
"Comrade, isn't the boss here?"

“He hasn’t come yet, but I’m waiting for him too,” Mo Linsheng said as he started a fire. “It’s already noon, so I doubt he’ll be able to come today.”

"Then what about you..." Wu Bensheng asked with some doubt.

“I’d like to stay here for the night and see if he comes tomorrow,” Mo Linsheng said, explaining his plan. “Carrying the fritillaria bulbs around is too much trouble, I don’t want to dig anymore.”

Wu Bensheng glanced at the bag of fritillaria bulbs placed under the shed and felt a pang of envy.

He would occasionally run into Mo Linsheng, who was also selling fritillaria bulbs at Li Long's place, so he would always come with a large bag, or even two bags.

He was always envious of the money he received each time.

He had doubts about the origin of the fritillaria bulbs from Morinsheng, but only briefly. What others did was their business; he had his own rules of conduct.

With Li Long absent, Wu Bensheng could only think of going back and coming back tomorrow.

After walking a few steps, he suddenly turned back, as if struck by a sudden inspiration, and asked:
"Hey comrade, since you're planning to wait for Li Long here, could you buy my fritillaria bulbs? You can give me a discount. We won't come back tomorrow."

Mo Linsheng did not expect Wu Bensheng to make such a suggestion.

He thought for a moment, then asked with some interest:
"Then how do I buy them?" I'm just sitting around doing nothing anyway, so I might as well buy some; maybe I can even make a profit.

Although Mo Linsheng enjoys fishing to fight back against those who steal from him, he is essentially kind-hearted and doesn't hesitate to help those who are kind to him.

“We come here often to sell fritillaria bulbs, so we know roughly what quality they are and what their prices are,” Wu Bensheng said with a smile, seeing an opportunity. “The fritillaria bulbs my nephew and I dig are all fresh and clean. Mr. Li buys them for ten yuan per kilogram, so we sell them for eight yuan each.”

This way you earn a two-dollar difference, and we save ourselves the trouble of making another trip.

As for the weight, we often sell fritillaria bulbs, so we have a general idea. My bag weighs about four kilograms but less than five kilograms, and my nephew's bag weighs about four kilograms.

You give me thirty-six yuan, and give him thirty-two yuan, how about that?

Mo Linsheng wasn't actually very good at judging the weight of things. But he picked it up and felt it was roughly the same.

After thinking about it, I figured I could earn less than twenty yuan from the two bags of fritillaria bulbs, which was pretty good.

Upon opening the bag, the fritillaria bulbs were indeed quite clean and fresh, so he agreed to the transaction.

Mo Linsheng told Wu Bensheng and the others to pour the fritillaria bulbs onto the table, while he went under the shed to retrieve the money.

He put most of the money in a bag and stuffed it into the haystack under the shed, and put a small amount in another bag and pressed it under the roll of bedding.

The results of this battle have been good, and the gains have been quite substantial. Besides the shovel I got from Li Long, I have a short knife and a machete.

With these things blatantly displayed on his body, unless someone is extremely confident or completely blinded by greed, no one would dare to lay a finger on him.

Because of his injuries, he hung these things up; otherwise, he would usually hide them so he wouldn't be able to fish.

The Wu family uncle and nephew spread the fritillaria bulbs out on the table, showed them to Mo Linsheng, took the money, counted it out, and then left with smiles.

Even after the Wu family uncle and nephew had both walked into the woods, Mo Linsheng still felt a bit like he was in a dream.

How did I go from being a herb gatherer and herb thief to a herb collector?

If Li Long finds out he's stealing his business, will he take action against him?
After thinking for a moment, Mo Linsheng shook his head. In his memory, Li Long would not do such a thing.

He gathered the fritillaria bulbs on the table into a corner and continued to dry them there. Then he lit a fire at the stove, preparing to bake the steamed buns he had gotten from Li Long.

Eating only steamed buns felt a bit dry, so after drinking some water at the spring, I found some wild mushrooms that I recognized nearby and roasted them to eat.

Without salt, food tastes bland. All the food is here, and it's inconvenient for him to go to the wooden cave to get the little salt he's stored away.

That's pretty awkward.

Then a few more people came carrying bags looking for Li Long, but left after finding him gone.

Mo Linsheng didn't pay any attention to them. If someone asked him, he would just answer directly. In short, he kept to himself and didn't interfere with each other.

Naturally, some people wondered why he was allowed to live here. Mo Linsheng wouldn't explain to them, as he and Li Long had at least shared a meal together. This shopkeeper who collected goods here wasn't what they imagined; he was actually a pretty good person.

As the sun was setting, another person came to sell fritillaria bulbs and made the same suggestion as Wu Bensheng.

However, this person had a lot of fritillaria bulbs, about 20 kilograms in a bag, and the price he offered was a bit high. He said that if Li Long wanted to buy them, he would only sell his fritillaria bulbs for ten yuan, and he hoped that Mo Linsheng would buy them for nine yuan.

Mo Linsheng refused. Firstly, he was unsure of the exact amount of fritillaria bulbs in the bag, and secondly, he felt it wasn't worth the risk for a profit of one yuan per kilogram.

To Mo Linsheng's surprise, when he refused to accept the goods, the other party took the initiative to lower the price and said that the two parties could negotiate the weight issue.

This surprised Mo Linsheng. Was the other party really that short of money?

Finally, the bag of fritillaria bulbs was sold to Mo Linsheng for 25 kilograms at a price of 8.5 yuan per kilogram.

Even though he wasn't very sensitive to weight, Mo Linsheng knew that the bag definitely weighed more than 25 kilograms. If the other party dared to sell it, he dared to buy it. After paying 213 yuan and buying the fritillaria bulb along with the bag, the other party left in a hurry.

Because the person was running very fast, Mo Linsheng wondered if there was something fishy going on under the bag.
But when he poured all the fritillaria bulbs onto the table, he found that they were very clean. The only slight drawback was that they must have been washed recently, as they were still quite wet.

With such a small amount of moisture, it wouldn't even add up to a kilogram, so why the rush to sell it is a mystery.

When the sun had completely set, Mo Linsheng collected all the fritillaria bulbs from the table, put them back in the shed, laid out the bedding, and piled up firewood in front of the shed, preparing to light a fire.

Although there was a wooden hut, he dared not take the risk because he smelled of blood on him. If wolves came at night, he would be the one in trouble.

Just as Morinson was about to light the fire, he noticed someone rushing over. He assumed the person was selling fritillaria bulbs and came out of the shed.

But when he came out, the man paused for a moment, then turned and ran away.

Mo Linsheng thought for a while before guessing that this person probably also wanted to sleep in the shed.
I just didn't expect to beat them to it.

He smiled and ignored it. He lit the firewood with a match and then leaned against the wall to doze off.

You definitely can't sleep at this time; someone might come over.

As darkness fell, the howls of wolves and the calls of owls echoed from the distant woods.

Mo Linsheng wasn't afraid; in fact, he felt much safer. After all, the environment here was far superior to the earthen cave he lived in.

The moon rose, and in the distance, there seemed to be some animals moving about, but upon closer inspection, nothing could be found.

The pile of firewood was almost burned out, so Mo Linsheng added some more firewood to the fire and prepared to go to sleep.

Mo Linsheng woke up several times during the night, mainly because of the howling wolves nearby and the thought of adding more firewood to the fire. However, the quality of his sleep was much better than in the cave. When he woke up in the morning, the fire was not completely extinguished and the sun had not yet risen. He felt a bit cold.

But he felt much more at ease, thinking that it would be nice to live here every day from now on.

The captain of the Huxian Forestry Team was named Ablat. When Li Long arrived at the location dozens of kilometers away with his truck, Captain Ablat was already waiting.

"Hello, Comrade Li Long! I heard your name from Aili. I know you are a model of ethnic unity, you are very impressive! I am very happy that you could come here!"

Li Long was a little confused. The way Captain Abulaiti was speaking made him feel like he was giving a report.

After inviting Li Long and the driver into his office, Ablat poured them tea and then started chatting with Li Long.

To Li Long's surprise, Captain Abulaiti was quite talkative. The only drawback was that his Mandarin was not very good, and he would occasionally mix in some Uyghur.

Li Long could understand some of what was being said, so there were no obstacles in their communication.

"Comrade Li Long, let me tell you, it's so great that you can understand us. The guy I used to sell fritillaria to didn't speak standard Mandarin, so I had to learn Mandarin to communicate with him."

So sometimes he still doesn't understand what I'm saying, but what can we do? They're in charge of buying and selling, so if we want to sell our stuff, we have to beg them.

Every time they come, we treat them to good food and drinks, and they always give us a very low price in the end.

If I hadn't talked to Captain Ellie, I really wouldn't have known that my stuff could fetch such a high price.

That scoundrel, how much money did he swindle from us before!

Li Long didn't want to speak ill of his colleagues, so he just laughed it off.

After chatting in the office for more than ten minutes, I had no choice but to suggest that we go and check out the goods first.

Ablat had no objections and took Li Long to their warehouse.

Several young men were waiting at the warehouse entrance. Li Long glanced around and noticed that this warehouse was different from the one at Ellie's.

Airi's warehouse is very large; everything is stored in one warehouse. The warehouses here are like standard rooms, and the items stored in each warehouse are different.

To Li Long's surprise, when the items were brought into the warehouse, he found that they were all arranged quite neatly, and things like furs and antlers were all cleaned up very well.

“The guy who used to collect our things said they weren’t good enough and wouldn’t accept them. We had no choice; we needed to earn money, so we packed everything up and cleaned the place,” Ablat explained. “Even then, he was still picky…”

Li Long thought to himself that this was all due to being spoiled. The things here were much better than those at Ellie's place, and because they were cleaned regularly, none of them were moldy or spoiled.

"Besides fritillaria, deer antlers, what else do you have here?" Li Long asked.

"We have a lot of miscellaneous stuff here. Those herb gatherers, they do all sorts of things after they go into the mountains, and they damage the grass quite badly. So, when we run into them, we just collect whatever we can find."

Besides fritillaria, the medicinal herbs include codonopsis and astragalus; the edible ingredients include dried wild mushrooms. As for the hides, the good ones were all picked over by the previous person, and the remaining hides are of average quality.

"Of course! Once we start working together, I'll save the best leather for you."

“Then let’s check each warehouse one by one, and I’ll take everything I can.” Li Long said with a smile.

"Great, great, that's wonderful! I love hearing that. You seem like a good friend!" Ablat was genuinely happy.

Li Long drew upon the inspiration he gained from his first visit to Captain Ellie and began inspecting the miscellaneous items here.

The largest quantity was naturally fritillaria, with over 700 kilograms of goods. It wasn't very clean, but it was quite dry. Li Long bought it at 70 yuan per kilogram, which made Captain Abulaiti very happy. He said that the highest price offered by the previous buyers was no more than 50 yuan.

The second item is various types of fur, mainly from red deer, roe deer, wild goats, and a small amount of yellow sheep fur, but all of them are spring fur.

"Sixty-five whole hides, eighty yuan each; one hundred and twenty-three damaged hides, fifty yuan each," Li Long announced his prices.

The price was also higher than Ablat's expectations, so his smile never stopped.

Next came wild mushrooms, ginseng and astragalus, and over 100 kilograms of deer antlers.

Li Long provided specific prices for each item, and Ablat was very satisfied.

Li Long was somewhat surprised by what he found in the last warehouse. It was a hodgepodge of old items, including those left behind by miners from the mountains, escaped soldiers and bandits, and things left behind by former herbalists.

Most of them are made of iron or copper, and many are rusted beyond recognition, but there are also some Yuan Shikai silver dollars and copper coins, as well as some fragments, so they can be considered antiques.

“That person wanted to pick and choose from these things, but I didn’t let him. My idea was that if he wanted to take them, he should take them all at once and offer a price, but he refused, so they ended up here,” Ablat explained, then added:
"Comrade Li Long, the price you offered is really reasonable, I'm very pleasantly surprised, so I'm giving these things to you as a gift!"

Hey, do you really think you're a garbage collector?

(End of this chapter)