Rebirth of Bayi Fishing and Hunting in the Northwest

Chapter 1063 The "Bloodshed" Caused by Hitting the Thigh Stone

Polati had originally planned to eat some offal first and then settle the bill with Li Long. But now that he heard someone had confiscated fritillaria bulbs on his turf, he became very unhappy.

It wasn't entirely because this person accepted fritillaria; the main reason was that someone was causing trouble on his own turf, and he didn't get any benefit from it!
Upon hearing from Li Long that a young man was riding a horse and carrying a gun, Bora asked, "Are we Uyghur or Kazakh?"

"I don't know either. People can't tell the difference between Vihari and Vihari either," Li Long said. "I guess it's from your forestry team. Think about it, in these mountains, who else could ride a horse, carry a gun, and know how to collect fritillaria bulbs?"

Polati thought about it and agreed. While some herders might ride horses and carry guns, they generally wouldn't think to confiscate fritillaria bulbs from herb gatherers unless that person knew the procedure.

“Young people…” Polati murmured, “There are quite a few young people in our forestry team. Our wages have recently increased a bit, and there are quite a few people who want to do this job.”

"Are there any people who are short of money?" Li Long thought for a moment and said, "I'm exchanging fritillaria here. Most people in your forestry team should know that, right? Most people in your team should also know about my relationship with you."

If this person is from the forestry team, unless he is extremely short of money, he shouldn't do something that would obviously anger me.

"Of course, it's also possible that this person was dismissed from your forestry team. But a dismissed person wouldn't still be carrying a gun, would they?" Li Long thought of another possibility, but immediately dismissed it.

“It’s not impossible that they’ve been expelled.” Polati shook his head. “Some people own their own guns, not the ones issued by the team, so finding a gun wouldn’t be difficult.”

That makes it harder to find.

“By the way, you just said that this person might be short of money, and I thought of someone,” Polati suddenly said. “There’s a young man in our forestry team named Abulikemu, a Uyghur, who likes to gamble and often loses money playing rock-paper-scissors.”

I heard he gambled away his entire salary last month and even brought two sheep from home to pay off his debts… Could it be him?

"Losing money by hitting the rock?" Li Long only knew how to play rock grabbing in the fourth team. He didn't know much about hitting the rock, but he didn't expect that he could lose money on it.

“Hey, lots of people play this,” Polati said. “You guys probably play it too, right? You couldn’t possibly not know that, could you?”

“I know how to play rock-paper-scissors,” Li Long explained the rules of the game. Polati laughed, “That’s a game for kids and sheep. We men play rock-paper-scissors.”

"How do we fight?" Li Long asked.

"If there are two people, then it's a two-person game; if there are three people, then it's a three-person game," Polati explained while gesturing.

As soon as he said that, Li Long understood; it was very simple.

Draw a line, stand on one side of the line, and place the target hip stone a certain distance away from the line. Hold the main hip stone in your hand, and guess the order or follow the agreed order to smash the target hip stone with the main hip stone.

This isn't about hitting accurately; it's about throwing the target hip stone a predetermined distance—one foot, two feet, three feet. Whoever throws the stone the most accurately wins. If you miss or throw it the wrong distance, it's the opponent's turn.

"Is this how you gamble?" Li Long thought to himself, "This gamble is really simple."

“Yeah, that’s how you gamble. One of my former neighbors lost more than twenty sheep in one day!” Polati thought Li Long didn’t believe him, so he quickly gave another example, “They only had about thirty sheep in total. When people came to their house to take the sheep, the sheep were crying.”

He's doing alright; his sheep are almost gone, and he knows he was wrong, so he's stopped gambling.

"You're not going to gamble, are you?" Li Long asked.

"I used to gamble, but not much," Polati chuckled, not hiding anything. "There's nothing much to do in the team, so I once lost more than ten kilograms of fritillaria! But I don't gamble anymore. My son is about to have a baby, and I have to earn money for them!"

Yes, she has quite a bit of self-control.

"Can you confirm if it's this Abulikim?" Li Long asked. "Should I call Captain Eli to let him know?"

"No need, no need. I'll talk to the captain after I finish eating. The captain is quite effective in this matter. Although I've been in the team for a long time, I'm still a young guy, and I don't always listen to orders."

Once Polati said that, Li Long understood.

“Okay, tell Captain Ellie that I’m quite angry about this. I built this wooden hut to calm the people who gather herbs in the mountains and prevent them from causing too much trouble. But now it’s turned out like this, and he should definitely investigate this thoroughly.”

Furthermore, Polati, your team is involved in this gambling, doesn't your captain care?

“Manage? How do you manage it?” Polati shook his head. “I heard there’s going to be a reform. The captain isn’t really interested in managing it. It’s fritillary bulb season now, so let’s make as much money as possible. We’ll talk about it after the reform is over.”

“No matter how things change, the role of forest rangers will remain the same. Such a large forest will always be guarded,” Li Long said. “But you’re right, making money is the most important thing.”

Polati helped Li Long unload the things from the jeep, and then carried the large bowl of miscellaneous food onto the table.

The offal that Li Long brought weighed more than 20 kilograms, including heart, liver, lungs, intestines, and the like.

He left it in its original shape, without cutting it, thinking that if someone were to replace it, he could simply cut it with a knife.

Polati pulled out his knife, cut off a piece of beef tripe, put it in his mouth, and chewed it while praising it:

"It's definitely cooked in a big pot, the taste is amazing!"

In northern Xinjiang, many people believe that cooking in a large pot with everything in it tastes better.

For example, when cooking horse meat and intestines, cooking dozens of kilograms together will definitely taste better than cooking only two or three kilograms in a small pot at home.

The same term applies to "cooked offal," regardless of ethnicity.

As for whether there is a scientific explanation, it is probably not.

Li Long smiled, thinking that Keyumu probably used a large pot with a diameter of 1.2 meters to cook offal, cooking dozens of kilograms at a time? Otherwise, a small pot wouldn't be enough to cook it all, right?

Polati cut off a few more pieces and put them on a plate, then went to Li Long's room to get the seasonings.

Li Long looked at his two bags of fritillaria bulbs.

Somewhat surprisingly, the fritillaria bulbs were all quite clean and dry, about 90% dry, almost ready to be shipped directly to Jia Tianlong.

Of course, it would be even better to sun it out a bit more.

He weighed the two bags of fritillaria bulbs in his hands; they weighed about 80 kilograms, which was worth a lot of money!

"Polati, you're exchanging money again this time, right?" Li Long turned his head and shouted into the house.

Polati came out with an enamel bowl containing a prepared sauce, and said with a smile:

"Of course! This is from me and another ranger; we exchanged it all for money."

"Do you accept new 100-yuan notes?" Li Long had brought some 100-yuan notes with him, just for convenience.

“I’ll take it, I’ll take it. One hundred yuan, it’ll last me the same.” Polati clearly already knew that banks issued one hundred-yuan bills, and said, “Convenient.”

Li Long counted out fifty hundred-yuan bills for Polati, handed them to him, and said, "This will make it much more convenient to carry."

"Hehe, it doesn't feel as good as it used to. The old 'Big Unity' package was huge! But this is convenient, and no one will notice!" Polati is quite knowledgeable.

He quickly ate the plate of offal, took a bottle of wine from Li Long, and then rode away on his horse.

According to him, he had to hurry back and tell Ellie.

However, Li Long had some doubts about whether he could put his words into practice—after all, after watching the horse run off for a while, Li Long saw Polati unscrew the bottle, take a swig of wine, wipe his mouth, spur the horse's belly with his legs, run wildly for a while, and then take another swig of wine.

Ugh.

It's hard to say whether they're reliable or not.

After Polati left, Li Long carried the two bags of fritillaria directly into the car and then started a fire.

The offal was a bit cold; it could be eaten directly after mixing, but Li Long thought it would be better to heat it up. It's too greasy when it's cold, and he didn't know if those who used fritillaria bulbs would like it.

It was more than an hour later when Bolati returned to the forestry team's post.

He searched around but couldn't find Abulikmu, so he decided to go find Captain Eli. Captain Eli had just received a phone call and looked unwell. Seeing Polati, who reeked of alcohol, arrive, he immediately frowned and said:

"Polati, what's wrong with you? You're still at work in the middle of the day, how could you be drinking? I've said it many times before, I don't care if you drink after get off work, but drinking during work hours will result in a fine!"

Captain Ai Li of the forestry team had gained considerable authority because his superiors supported him after the team leader made the right choice when the team leader had an accident last time.

However, none of them were trained personnel, and their management style was quite rough. They usually resorted to fines, which were the most effective deterrent.

"No, no, no, Captain, I have something important to report to you," Polati hurriedly said. "Important, I just came from Li Long's place, it's important!"

Upon hearing Li Long's name, Ellie's expression softened, and she asked:

"What happened to Li Long? What did he say?"

Airi knew that many rangers in the team were embezzling fritillaria bulbs without proper authorization, but he never seriously investigated the matter.

Firstly, the forestry team was undergoing reforms, so he had no interest in paying attention to this. Secondly, he knew that such things were impossible to completely eradicate. After all, the forest rangers each had their own assigned areas, and it was impossible to keep track of how many fritillaria bulbs they collected each day.

Of course, most people will still hand over the fritillaria they collect to the team, since nowadays, when Ellie sells the fritillaria, a considerable portion of the proceeds will be awarded to the seller.

Polati was an outlier. He had a good relationship with Li Long and would sell the confiscated fritillaria directly to Li Long for money. Because of Li Long, Eli couldn't say anything about it.

Moreover, Polati is actually quite sensible; he hands over a certain amount of fritillaria every day and doesn't sell all the confiscated fritillaria privately, which makes it acceptable on the surface.

In addition, Polati is actually a middleman between the team and Li Long, so it's not easy to deal with him casually.

“Someone went to Li Long’s cabin and confiscated the fritillaria bulbs from the herb gatherers, using the forest ranger’s name,” Pollati said. “Li Long said he believes it wasn’t our team who ordered it. But to know for sure, it must have been one of the forest rangers doing it on their own, so…”

Airi understood immediately.

Because of her good relationship with Li Long, Ai Li tacitly approved of Li Long's collection of fritillaria bulbs in the mountains.

He knew that the forestry team couldn't possibly collect all the fritillaria bulbs that the people digging for medicinal herbs in the mountains collected. Li Long wanted to exchange some, and Ai Li was happy to gain a favor.

This is a tacit understanding between the two sides, and neither side will say anything, but the forestry team certainly won't interfere with Li Long doing this.

"Do you know who did it?" Ellie didn't have a clue either, as he hadn't paid much attention to this lately.

“It might be Abulikmu…” Bolati said softly.

"How do you know?" Ellie asked. "You need evidence to do things."

“Comrade Li Long said it,” Pollati immediately brought up Li Long when he heard Ai Li ask for evidence. “He said that anyone who dared to confiscate fritillaria bulbs from the cabin while he was away must be short of money. Let me think about who in our team is short of money.”

I was thinking that Ablikim had been gambling on stone betting lately, and he'd lost all his wages from last month, even bringing home two sheep. And he still isn't stopping, he's still gambling…”

“I understand…” Ellie thought about it and it made sense. “You can leave this to me, I’ll handle it! I’ll give Li Long an explanation this afternoon, or at the latest tomorrow morning!”

The warehouse had received a lot more fritillaria bulbs, and Ellie was waiting for Li Long to come and exchange them for money, so he didn't want any estrangement between him and Li Long.

Polati came out of the team headquarters, rode his horse and went back into the mountains with a wine bottle in his hand. Someone asked him why he had come back. He took a swig of wine and said, "I forgot to bring naan when I went this morning. I'm starving. I came back to get some food before I go back."

This happened all the time, so no one suspected anything or cared.

Ai Li went out and asked two people to inquire about some things, and basically figured it out. Around lunchtime, he asked someone to call Abulikmu to his office.

Soon, shouts and the sound of whips cracking echoed from the office, and Abulikmu quickly confessed.

The situation was a bit better today than yesterday. Li Long set up the fire, but before he could even put the offal into the pot to heat it up, someone came over with a bag of fritillaria bulbs.

Just as he expected, after seeing the cooked offal and tasting a piece with the sauce prepared by Polati, he immediately exchanged it for two kilograms of cooked offal with fritillaria and another kilogram of steamed buns with fritillaria, and left satisfied.

Li Long could still see the man walking along, chewing on a piece of intestine.

Great feeling.

Before lunch, Li Long's jeep was already loaded with more than 200 kilograms of fritillaria. Although there were fritillaria from Bolati as a base, it was still quite a lot.

In the afternoon, I changed the fritillaria bulbs for two more people, and his offal was almost gone. It seems I brought too little today.

Around 5 o'clock, Li Long was negotiating a price with a herb gatherer selling fritillaria bulbs when Polati rode up on horseback.

The horse carried two bags of fritillaria bulbs.

"Li Long, is there any more offal?" Polati, already sober, asked before even dismounting.

"No more, we've replaced them all for others. What happened?" Li Long asked.

"Sigh, why did you change them so quickly? Should you bring more tomorrow?"

“Okay, I’ll bring more tomorrow.” Li Long said with a smile. He figured if he wanted to bring more tomorrow, he would have to go to Keyum’s offal soup shop to buy it.

“Captain Aili found out that it was Ablikim who did it,” Polati said, getting down to business. “He lost money gambling and wanted to get some fritillaria to exchange for some money back, but he hadn’t received any, so he thought of coming to you.”

"How was it handled?" Li Long asked. "Did he confiscate these fritillaria bulbs?"

"No, this fritillaria was taken out by the team. He sold the fritillaria that was confiscated, and he also stole sheep from his family to gamble away. The team leader called his father over and took his gun to compensate the team for the loss."

His dad took him away. Ellie warned him that if he dared to come back to this area again, his dad would break his legs.

"Why would his father listen to Captain Ellie?" Li Long asked, somewhat puzzled.

“His dad sent his younger brother here to herd sheep. His brother is honest and wouldn’t do anything like that, so don’t worry!”

Hearing what Polati said, Li Long felt slightly relieved.

His main concern was that Abulikmu would come and retaliate against him, and that burning down the wooden house would be troublesome.

“Their home is across the Tassi River, far from here, he can’t get here,” Polati said. “Don’t worry, I’ll come check on them every day from now on, and watch the house for you when you’re not here, okay?”

"That's more like it." Li Long nodded.

Polati left two bags of fritillaria and then left.

Without the trash, he had no intention of staying. He might as well go to other mountain passes and see if he could confiscate some fritillaria bulbs to earn some extra money.

Li Long has already found out whose fritillaria cirrhosa Abulikmu confiscated. He plans to wait and see if he can catch up with the person in the next day or two. If he can, he will compensate the person—even if not the full amount, at least it will be a token gesture.

The forestry team made it clear that giving him the fritillaria bulb meant the case was closed.

Although the compensation was given out of personal favor, Li Long felt that the herb diggers had worked so hard, and he shouldn't just take it for nothing.

Therefore, it is still necessary to supplement it if necessary.

With these two bags of fritillaria bulbs weighing over 60 kilograms added, Li Long will have to finish work early again this afternoon.

Of course, the gains were also significant; at least the case was solved, and when I come back tomorrow to exchange the fritillaria bulbs, I'll have something to say.

Since it was still early, Li Long thought he would first go to the old street to check out Keyum's offal shop.

Considering that Keyum slaughters so many cattle and sheep every day, and there's a lot of offal, I might as well buy some cooked meat myself every day. At least it's cheaper than buying braised meat from the braised meat shops in the county.

Well, that’s it.

(End of this chapter)