Rebirth of Bayi Fishing and Hunting in the Northwest

Chapter 1122 The more a child enjoys learning, the more the teacher likes them.

Jia Tianlong brought enough money—in fact, after the 100-yuan note was first issued, carrying money became much more convenient.

The main reason was that he brought seven trucks, plus the Volga he was driving himself, making a lot of noise as eight vehicles drove over, which attracted Guo Tiebing and the others.

Not only did they bring a car, but they also brought a lot of stuff to load it. When they called Li Long over, Li Long brought the matryoshka doll with him.

When Li Long was almost at the purchasing station, he ran into Guo Tiebing, who asked him:

"So many trucks came to your recycling station, is everything alright?"

"No, no, we collected a lot of medicinal herbs a while ago, and they're being transported away today."

"So many trucks transporting medicinal herbs? That must be worth a lot of money!" Guo Tiebing exclaimed. "I've never seen so many trucks and such a long convoy before."

"It's not much money. Licorice costs only a few cents per kilogram, and it doesn't weigh much. A whole truckload would only cost about a thousand yuan," Li Long said. "It looks like a lot, but it's really not much money."

He bought licorice for 35 cents, and now he sells it to Jia Tianlong for 70 cents, making a profit of 100%.

There are about ten tons of licorice and astragalus, though astragalus is a bit more expensive, but not by much. The two together don't cost as much as a truckload, let alone as much as antelope horns.

But antelope horn is a one-time find, while licorice and astragalus can be dug up indefinitely. As long as a little bit of licorice root remains in the ground, it can continue to grow the following year, and it also has seeds that can germinate.

Seeing that nothing was wrong, Guo Tiebing turned back. Li Long took the matryoshka doll to the purchasing station and handed it to Jia Tianlong, who was clearing the snow off the Volga train.

"What's this for?" Jia Tianlong asked.

“It’s for your daughter. My wife said your daughter is quite cute. Now that you have a son, your family will definitely dote on him, and your daughter might feel neglected, so I’m giving her this to play with.”

“Hey, now that you mention it, it’s actually quite possible.” Jia Tianlong took the nesting doll and thought about it. “When I’m not around, my family definitely neglects my daughter. Actually, I’m not that kind of person…”

"Dragon, let me tell you, you've married a wonderful wife. I'm thinking, how about we become in-laws? My daughter can marry either of your sons, it doesn't matter!"

Li Long hadn't expected that Jia Tianlong would start daydreaming over a simple nesting doll. He said, half-laughing and half-crying, "Alright, alright, children and grandchildren have their own blessings. This isn't the old society anymore, why would we arrange marriages for children? Let them grow up and see for themselves."

Jia Tianlong himself felt that his idea was feasible.

Their precious daughter is looking for a partner in their hometown, where there's a strong preference for sons over daughters. She definitely won't be well-liked there after marriage. Li Long's wife is attentive to their child's feelings even at such a young age; she'll surely care when the child grows up. They're a great in-law family!

Besides, they know each other well and come from good families; it's not easy to find in-laws like that!
Li Long entered the purchasing station without noticing that Jia Tianlong was already deep in thought. He was planning to bring his wife and child to worship the jade next year when his son was six months old, and also bring his daughter along so that she could familiarize herself with the place beforehand.

Then he felt a little annoyed. Everyone else knew to bring gifts for their children, so why didn't he think of bringing gifts for Mingming and Haohao when he came?

He wasn't thinking too much about the random thoughts. He was just moving the medicinal herbs and weighing them, so he didn't pay much attention to it. Anyway, he knew Li Long wouldn't cheat him, so he was quite casual about it.

Besides licorice and astragalus, the purchasing station also bought a lot of codonopsis, some deer antlers, and not much deer velvet, but that stuff is expensive. It was only when Li Long took out the deer velvet that Jia Tianlong came to his senses and looked at it with him.

“Deer antler prices have also gone up,” Jia Tianlong said. “The purchase price of red deer antlers has reached 200 yuan, but the price may slow down in the future. It is said that some deer farmers have already started to make plans. Once the deer antlers are produced, the price of deer antlers will not be able to rise further.”

"That's not necessarily true. Cultivated deer antlers might be more expensive than wild ones. This stuff is similar to ginseng, isn't it?" Li Long said half-jokingly.

“It’s different,” Jia Tianlong replied, without further explanation.

To ensure the medicinal herbs were fully loaded, the truck was piled up with several layers of cargo. Li Long was worried that the truck might overturn on the road. He said to Jia Tianlong, "Why don't we make another trip? With so much cargo, the roads are slippery in the dead of winter..."

"Don't worry, we won't go fast. You forgot, I also have to drive the Volga there, and I won't be able to drive fast either." Jia Tianlong was very confident, and Li Long didn't try to persuade him further.

By the time they had filled the container with medicinal herbs, it was almost afternoon. Li Long took them to the state-run canteen for lunch, and then drove a truck to the courtyard to load the five hundred pairs of antelope horns.

While they were packing antelope horns, another colleague from the supply and marketing cooperative came to buy horns, so Li Long sold him another one.

"Are you selling it?" his colleague, surnamed Liu, asked in surprise. "What's the price?"

"Two hundred per pair," Li Long said. "This is a friendly price for you, but it won't be available again."

Old Liu watched as the antelope horns were loaded onto the truck, realizing he had gotten a great deal. He paid and went back to promote the product.

This also saves Li Long the trouble of explaining to each person individually.

On this trip, Jia Tianlong was supposed to pay Li Long 215,000 yuan, including 50,000 yuan for the car, 100,000 yuan for the antelope horn, and about 70,000 yuan for other medicinal herbs. Li Long decided to reduce the amount by 5,000 yuan, mainly because Jia Tianlong was honest in business and had made a lot of money, so reducing the amount made things easier for everyone.

Jia Tianlong drove off with his convoy. Li Long calculated that the total profit was over 100,000 yuan, mainly because the cost of the cars and antelope horns was very low, so the profit was high.

In reality, he was making money by relying on his luck. After Liu Shanmin completed the task, he would have more power, and naturally, more money would leak out.

He left 20,000 yuan for Gu Boyuan as working capital. He had given Sun Jiaqiang and Liang Shuangcheng a large bonus when they sold watermelon seeds, but he wouldn't do that this time. This time, he mainly sold the products himself, so he didn't need to split the profits with Gu Boyuan.

However, he still asked Gu Boyuan for the notebook.

"What do you need this for?" Gu Boyuan asked.

“We need to go to the tax bureau to pay the taxes,” Li Long said. “Our tax return for this quarter is normal, but the income from harvesting melon seeds and medicinal herbs this time is higher, so we need to pay the taxes.”

“Then you go ahead, I’ll register these in other notebooks first, and then I’ll add them back when I get back,” Gu Boyuan nodded and said.

When the middlemen heard that Li Long was going to voluntarily pay the taxes, some of them laughed and said:

"The Industry and Commerce Bureau doesn't know you made extra money, so why are you voluntarily paying back taxes?"

“I’m a national model individual for ethnic unity,” Li Long said with a smile as he packed his notebook. “Shouldn’t I take the lead?”

Some said he was foolish, others said he was law-abiding, but Li Long didn't care. He drove his Jeep there. He was already considered a major taxpayer in the county, and people were watching him closely. Even if he didn't pay voluntarily, the relevant departments would come looking for him.

After paying the tax and receiving a couple of compliments, Li Long returned and handed the tax receipt to Gu Boyuan, telling him to leave it there for easy inspection. Then he went back to the courtyard.

Sister Yang was still making dried meat over there, so he was in charge of cooking dinner.

He had eaten in a hurry at noon, so he wanted to make something more substantial for dinner. He still had a lot of horse meat and intestines left, so he simply mixed the dough, rolled out noodles, chopped the onions, and boiled the horse meat to make Naren.

It's generally better to eat horse meat at noon because the meat fibers are coarse and it's quite heavy to eat.

But now the days are shorter, so people eat dinner early and go to bed late, giving them enough time to digest.

Furthermore, cook the noodles until they are slightly mushy, steam the horse meat for a longer time, and then tell your father-in-law to chew it a little more.

Having seen and eaten many of these things before, Li Long found it easy to prepare.

By the time Gu Xiaoxia picked up Mingming and Haohao, Gu Boyuan got off work, and Sister Yang and Han Fang returned, Naren was already cooked.

"Hey, I could smell the delicious aroma even before I entered the yard," Han Fang said with a smile. "Uncle Li, what delicious food have you made this time?"

"Horse meat naren." Li Long placed the large plate of naren on the table and said, "Wash your hands and get your bowls."

"What is Naren?" Mingming asked, while Haohao obediently followed Han Fang to wash his hands.

“This food you see right now is Naren,” Li Long said. “Look, there are noodles at the bottom and horse meat on top. I brought the horse meat back from Yili.”

"Eat less meat later, or your stomachs will hurt," Gu Xiaoxia told the two children, as she thought horse meat was hard to digest.

Gu Boyuan stepped forward with his hands behind his back to observe for a moment, then said with a smile, "Not bad, it looks pretty good."

To make it look nice, Li Long simply scooped out the noodles cooked in horse meat broth and placed them on a large plate, then topped them with a layer of horse meat, and sprinkled strips of onion on top. It looked quite pretty.

There was also a bowl of onions on the side; anyone who wanted some could help themselves.

When family members make this, they usually put the horse meat into the pot, then scoop out the noodles and horse meat together in a bowl, one bowl for each person.

Li Long thought it looked nice this way: a flat spoon in a large plate, everyone sitting around the table, adding food to their own bowls. It was steaming hot, perfect for eating together.

"His uncle's cooking skills are truly exceptional," Sister Yang praised. "It's on par with restaurant quality."

Li Long smiled. Anyway, he felt that eating like this was more to his liking than eating at Halim's place.

It's not that anyone does it better, it's just that everyone has different tastes.

After Jia Tianlong left, things gradually calmed down at the purchasing station. Li Long discussed it with Gu Boyuan, and they decided to have four days off every week. They had been too busy in the summer and missed a lot of rest, so they would make up for it in the winter.

On Sunday the 8th, Li Long and the others waited for Gu Xiaoxia to get off work on the 7th before driving their van back to the team.

Liang Shuangcheng isn't going back this week; he plans to wander around the county to see if he can find a courtyard house he can buy. He has enough money now, but he hasn't found a suitable courtyard house yet.

Sister Yang and Han Fang went to the south courtyard to clear the snow there.

Although it's only one day off a week now, on Sundays, there's less work in winter, so most people who don't have anything to do in the afternoons at work are off, and the same goes for schools and kindergartens.

So when Gu Boyuan drove the van to the fourth team, it wasn't dark yet.

He went to Gu Boyuan's yard first, thinking of helping his father-in-law clear the snow, but found that there was no snow in the yard, as it had already been cleared by someone.

I asked the neighbors across the hall and found out that Xie Yundong had brought Tao Daqiang and a few others to clean it up.

"Then I'll set up the stove. You all should go back quickly," Gu Boyuan said. "Go on, don't let the children get cold."

Li Long drove his van to the Li family's house.

When they got to the front yard, they found that the snow in their yard had been cleared and the fire in the stove was burning brightly.

He had already called his older brother and told him, but judging from the marks in the house, there must have been a fire burning in the stove every day, otherwise the house would be very cold.

Just as they finished tidying up, Li Qiang ran over to call them to eat.

"elder brother!"

"elder brother!"

Mingming and Haohao took the initiative to greet them, while Li Qiang patted them on the shoulder.

"Has your sister come back yet?" Li Long asked.

"I'm back, I've been back for a while," Li Qiang said.

Seeing that his aunt and uncle were alright, he led Mingming and Haohao to the backyard.

The two children were very happy. At this age, children like to play with older children. Although they don't see each other often, they can already clearly remember that this is their older brother.

Li Long had actually considered bringing Li Juan back, but Li Juan kept saying she wanted to go back by herself, so he let her be. Li Long heard that she had a classmate in the third team, and they often rode back together, perhaps feeling more comfortable that way?
When Li Long and Gu Xiaoxia arrived at the backyard, the food was already laid out in their elder brother's house.

For dinner, we had hand-pulled noodles, which are quite warming in winter. Li Jian's family usually keeps their eight-immortal table against the wall, but they don't set it up when there aren't enough people eating.

Li Junfeng's family hasn't given birth yet, but he and his wife have a stove in their house, so they cook for themselves and it's quite peaceful.

Today, Li Long's family came over, so they put the table in the middle of the room, and the children ate at the small table in the kitchen. Li Juan was taking care of them, and they didn't make a fuss.

Li Long listened as his older brother and father talked about which family had reclaimed wasteland this year, and which family had come to inquire about planting cotton.

The team is only so big, so if something interesting happens in someone's village, it's impossible to keep it a secret.

Anyway, there's no need to hide farming; each family has been farming for many years and has their own considerations. If the Li family hadn't made a lot of money from farming in recent years, no one would have asked them.

After dinner and tidying up, they watched TV and chatted in this room. Gu Xiaoxia asked Li Juan about her studies, and Li Juan said they were all doing well.

“Our physics teacher is very strict with me. After I finish my homework, he gives me a test paper to do after class and hand in. As soon as I take it, my deskmate tries to take it to copy it, but he finds that he doesn’t know how to do it and asks me for help.”

"Can you make them?" Gu Xiaoxia thought for a moment and understood what was going on. She asked, "How many can you make?"

“I can do most of them, maybe about 80%,” Li Juan said. “My deskmate is from Baojiadian. Her grades aren’t as good as mine, but she’s very hardworking. She follows what I learn… In the end, the teacher saw her copying and scolded her, telling her to be down-to-earth and learn the basics properly.”

"Your teacher is giving you extra tutoring," Li Long said with a smile, having understood the situation. "The regular lessons must not be enough for you, so they're giving you some material that's beyond the curriculum."

"Uncle, what does 'content beyond the syllabus' mean?" Li Qiang asked curiously.

"It's content that's a bit more difficult than what you usually learn," Li Long explained. "What your teachers usually teach isn't the most difficult part. We definitely won't give you the most difficult content, in case you can't learn it."

"I see." Li Qiang suddenly realized, "A couple of days ago, our math teacher gave me a problem to solve during self-study, but I couldn't solve it. I thought everyone had it, so I asked others after class, but I was the only one who could solve it. Does that mean it's beyond the syllabus?"

“Yes, that’s it.” Li Long said with a smile, “Both of you are good. The teacher will treat you differently and give you extra help.”

Gu Xiaoxia glanced at Li Long, somewhat surprised. She hadn't expected her husband to know about the curriculum.

"I'll have Xiaoyu send them some more materials later," Gu Xiaoxia said. "The teaching quality in Yanjing might be more in-depth. Juan's current level of learning is not enough; she needs to move on to something more advanced."

When it comes to the child's studies, the whole family knows it's important, and everyone is offering their own suggestions.

Li Long wondered if he should also take some time to go to Yanjing to see how those three courtyards were doing.

I send dried meat to the State Ethnic Affairs Commission's Beijing office every now and then, and they remit the money on time. It's been a while since I've spoken to Director Dai on the phone.

Looking at the four children in front of her, Mingming and Haohao were clearly very close to Li Juan and Li Qiang. Li Juan even asked them about their situation at kindergarten.

With their studious older siblings as role models, these two little rascals of theirs should be just as good in the future.

"Uncle, how about we catch an old sparrow and roast it tonight?" Li Qiang suddenly said. "We haven't had one in years."

"Trying to get some?" Li Long asked him with a smile. "Never made it yourselves?"

"I tried it once, but I didn't know how to cover it properly. I often covered it too lightly, and the sparrow would run away to other places," Li Qiang said. "After that, I stopped covering it because studying was so stressful."

“Okay,” Li Long said with a smile, “then let’s cover up tonight.”

"Then I'll go get a flashlight!" Although Li Qiang is in junior high school, he is still young, only twelve years old, just a teenager, and still very playful.

When Mingming and Haohao heard that they wanted to go too, Li Juan volunteered to take her two younger brothers.

Gu Xiaoxia was definitely worried, so she simply went along too.

Li Long thought to himself, "Is it really necessary to make such a big fuss just to protect a sparrow?"
But it's difficult to persuade either of them.

It's just that so many people going to someone else's yard to cover things up by the haystack makes too much noise.

He suddenly thought of a good place and said with a smile, "Okay, everyone put on your cotton-padded coats. I'll drive you to a place where we can keep the sparrows covered. We're sure to have a big harvest tonight."

"Where? Where?" Li Qiang asked excitedly, "Where can I cover myself up the most?"

"Old Ma's. There are lots of haystacks over there, and the feed for the cattle and sheep every day can attract sparrows. After they finish eating, those little sparrows will definitely rest on the haystacks."

"Okay, okay, I'll go get dressed!" Li Qiang said excitedly.

In the past, we caught sparrows to eat some meat, but now we do it for fun, to relive the feeling of those days.

Times have changed drastically, and life will only get better.

P.S.: I accidentally saw a clip from "The Meridian of War," and then I stumbled upon that woman's "anti-war" post during the promotional material for the movie "Dongji Island," and I was furious. Is that woman's brain even straight? Was she born from a placenta or reincarnated as a paramecium? We are the invaded party, what's with the anti-war rhetoric?! She's either stupid or malicious, sigh!
(End of this chapter)