Rebirth of Bayi Fishing and Hunting in the Northwest

Chapter 167 Taking Xiaoxia into the Mountains
After pulling the manure back to the team, Li Long went to the stable first, unloaded half of the manure, and put the deer in the stable. After that, Li Long gave some instructions to Lao Luo, left some rapeseed, and returned home.

When he passed the reed ditch, he found that there was less water. He didn't know whether the small lake upstream was blocked or the flood was less.

Li Jianguo and Liang Yuemei were not at home, so Li Long unloaded the manure into the yard and spread it evenly on the vegetable field. The rest was not his responsibility.

This time when he came back, he also brought back some wild onions, wild garlic, wild leeks, and some peppercorns from the mountains, which are very good ingredients for cooking fish.

In order to get some fresh peppercorns, Li Long thought he had to go to the small lake to get some fish to stew.

He never had enough fish in his previous life. He would not want to eat it again after eating it for two days, and he thought he might not want to eat it for a month.

But as long as you stop eating for three days, I think it’s good to have another meal. If stewing fish doesn’t work, you can dry-fry small crucian carp. Coat it with batter and put it in a hot oil pan. Take it out and drain the oil. Let it cool and eat it as a snack. The taste is -

No, no, take the casting net and go to Xiaohaizi!

When Li Jianguo and Liang Yuemei came back from the fields, they saw Li Juan and Li Qiang surrounding Li Long, who was stewing fish at the stove.

The unique aroma of crucian carp and the smell of pepper and wormwood filled the whole yard. Li Jianguo sniffed and asked in surprise:
"Xiaolong, is this Artemisia selengensis?"

"Yes." Li Long said with a smile, "It grows wild in the mountains. It grows very big, half a person's height, like wild wormwood."

"So big?" Li Jianguo was still a little unconvinced. "Is it Artemisia selengensis?"

"How can I make a mistake?" Li Long pointed at the sun-dried clothes on the wall and said, "Smell it, it smells different. I remember it."

Li Jianguo put down his shovel, picked up a handful, smelled it, and smiled, "It really is... Next time I come back, I'll dig one or two and plant them in the yard to see if they can survive."

Artemisia annua is common in my hometown, but no one grows it here yet. Li Long knows that his elder brother misses the taste of his hometown.

"Today I went to Shicheng Old Street and saw people selling rapeseed and nepeta. I bought some and will plant them when the time comes."

"That's great!" Li Jianguo was even happier this time. "It's grown. All it needs is some eggs and garlic, and some nepeta to put in. Put it in with a hot steamed bun, and it'll be perfect!"

Seeing that everyone had returned, Li Long also served the fish and placed it on the table.

"Juan and Qiangqiang came back early. I saw that they were hungry, so I let them eat some and soaked the steamed buns in fish soup. I guess they are not hungry now."

Li Long explained, and Li Jianguo said:

"Then don't sit at the table. Go do your homework. When you're done, go play."

In the evening, Li Long prepared the gun and bullets. He planned to ask Gu Xiaoxia tomorrow if she wanted to go to the mountains this weekend. If she did, he would have to make some preparations.

"I'll go." Gu Xiaoxia answered immediately after hearing Li Long's question, "I'm getting ready. After we finish our classes on Saturday, I'll prepare things for my dad in the afternoon, and we'll set off early on Sunday morning, how about that?"

"Okay, I'll come pick you up then." After Li Long got the confirmed news, he said, "I'll go to the mountain today and tell your dad. Let's not have any surprises, okay?"

"Okay." Gu Xiaoxia nodded vigorously.

Li Long rode his bicycle to Xiaobaiyanggou, where the air was still filled with the smoke of burning cigarettes.

Some people were burning the strips and making handles, while others were cutting the strips.

Seeing Li Long coming, the people greeted him one after another. Li Long responded one by one, and then parked the car in front of the stove.

Gu Boyuan was preparing lunch. Li Long took a look and saw that the lunch was cornmeal steamed cake and the dish was fried liver.

Li Long saw that the hearts, livers, lungs, etc. that he had brought back earlier on the stove had all been smoked and were a little black, but he knew that they would be easier to preserve after being smoked.

"Let's have something together at noon?" Gu Boyuan said with a smile, "Don't be fooled by its ugly appearance, it tastes really good and has a lot of fat!"

"Well, that's fine." Li Long said, "Uncle Gu, Xiaoxia is coming to see you this Sunday. I'll bring her over."

"What is she doing here?" Gu Boyuan was stunned for a moment when he heard this. His hands shook and the cooking spatula directly pushed a piece of liver out of the pot. He squatted down to pick it up, rinsed it in the basin next to him, and threw it back into the pot. "Isn't she here to cause trouble?"

"What's the trouble? My daughter just missed her dad!" Li Long said with a smile, "She didn't have anything to do on Sunday anyway, and the road is not too long, so I rode her here."

Gu Boyuan stir-fried the dishes and quickly served them. Then he looked at Li Long and said:
"Just one day?"

"That's only for one day." Li Long said with pure eyes, "I'll pick her up from school in the morning, and then we'll come together. She'll see you and stay here for half a day, and then we'll go back in the afternoon. She'll definitely have to prepare for class in the evening, and she'll have classes on Monday."

"Alright..." Gu Boyuan wiped his beard and said in a panic:

"So do I need to shave and trim my hair?"

"It's only been a few days? Besides, everyone is the same. If you shave and trim your hair, it will make the cook look a little unprofessional." Li Long smiled. "It's okay. I think after a few days in the mountains, although you are a little darker, you have gained weight and are more energetic."

"That's right! I don't eat so well at home. I have meat every day and it doesn't take much effort. The environment in the mountains is also good..." Gu Boyuan counted the advantages of the mountains.

At noon, everyone stopped and Li Long finished checking the handles he had compiled over the past two days.

The quality is very good, even the one compiled by Xu Jianjun can pass the test. Although the quantity is still the last, at least there are no defective products.

When eating, Li Long also took a piece of steamed cake. He hadn't eaten steamed cake for nearly a month. Every meal at home was fine grains, so eating steamed cake now and then seemed to him good.

"Xiaolong, I saw some traces of bulldozing on the eastern hillside. I wonder if it was caused by wild boars? Do you have time to take a look?" Tian Siping said as he ate. "It's a big area. The grass is all messed up. It looks like it was bulldozed in the past two days."

"Okay, don't go over there yet. I'll go over there in a couple of days. Wild boars come out early, at dawn, and they go back to the mountains at dawn." Li Long explained while eating, "When I kill a wild boar, I'll give you some meat."

"Okay." Tian Siping said with a smile, "When I get the fight, I'll get a leg back home."

Obviously, Tao Daqiang's discovery of the roe deer gave him a great shock.

"Huh? Uncle Gu, is the liver not fried well? Why is there still blood?" another person asked.

"The fire was a little too big today, so I fried it a little too hastily." Gu Boyuan explained a little awkwardly.

Li Long knew what was going on. He smiled and said:
"Eat it. Foreigners eat steak medium-rare or medium-rare. They eat it even when it's bloody and sticky, and they say it's nutritious."

After Li Long said this, no one else said anything.

After lunch, Li Long went to the side of the mountain to dig up a few small Artemisia selengensis, took them together with soil, wrapped them in leaves, put them in a sack and brought them back to the team.

There are still floods, but they are much smaller. These snowmelt floods also come and go. Li Long planted the pepper and wormwood in the vegetable garden, and the rest depends on God's will.

On Sunday morning, Li Long rode his bicycle to school without having breakfast.

The sun hadn't risen yet and the temperature was a little chilly. He was wearing long sleeves, but he didn't feel cold and was quite excited.

When they arrived at the teachers' dormitory, Li Long got out of the car. Before he knocked on the door, Gu Xiaoxia's door opened.

She was already prepared, carrying a cloth bag, a small bag on her shoulder, and looking at Li Long with two pigtails.

"Then let's go now?" Li Long asked.

"Okay."

Li Long turned the car around and asked, "I'm pedaling, can you get on?"

"You look down on me, don't you?" Gu Xiaoxia was in a good mood and asked, "Although I can't ride, I have no problem getting on the bike."

Li Long slowed down, and then he felt the car shake and become heavier. He smiled and pedaled steadily out of the school.

"You haven't had breakfast yet?" Li Long asked, "You're ready so early."

"I can't eat. I'm very excited. I haven't been into the mountains yet... I've read 'Records of Tianshan Scenery' and I remember everything in it clearly, but I've never seen it in real life."

"Then I'll let you meet them all today." Li Long said with a smile, "But climbing the mountain is tiring, so let's have breakfast first."

Although Li Long was with one person, he didn't feel tired at all. When he arrived at the county, he went directly to the big meat canteen. After Gu Xiaoxia got off, Li Long locked the car and took her inside with a gun on his back.

"Hey, Comrade Xiao Li, are you...bringing people over for breakfast? What do you want to order?"

Zhong Guoqiang was there, and when he saw Li Long and then Gu Xiaoxia, he immediately understood. He smiled and greeted them:
"Our signature meat buns. We've also introduced porridge and pickled vegetables for breakfast. They're all on this sign."

The dishes that can be ordered today were written on the small blackboard. After Li Long asked Gu Xiaoxia, he ordered porridge, steamed buns, pickles, and fried green peppers and eggs.

"Don't order so much, two people can't finish it..." Gu Xiaoxia said in a low voice.

"Don't worry, there won't be any left. Let's take some meat buns to the mountains later. Although your father and his family have meat to eat every day, it's too coarse. Bring some fine grains to improve their diet."

"This is also..." Gu Xiaoxia was a little worried, mainly because the buns were not cheap, three cents each. She thought that this was a bit too much.

"I took on the task and acted as the middleman. They arranged the task, and I also got some benefits from it. Do you understand?" Li Long whispered, "So this is nothing."

Gu Xiaoxia nodded, not quite understanding. She felt that compared with Li Long, she was like a fool. She knew nothing about the ways of the world.

But then I felt relieved again, at least he didn't lie to me and was very nice to me.

After breakfast, Li Long ordered twenty-five buns and took them with him, then rode his bike with Gu Xiaoxia into the mountains.

When the road was bad, Gu Xiaoxia asked in the back seat:

"Can I get off? This is not easy to ride."

"Just sit there and relax. We'll go slower if you get down." Li Long thought this was a good idea. The two of them walked and talked along the way, which increased their understanding of each other and brought them closer.

By the time we got to the mountain, it was still before 10 o'clock and the people in the sideline group had just finished their breakfast. They actually got up quite early, and hardworking people like Tao Daqiang and Xie Yundong had already worked for an hour or two before breakfast.

It is inevitable that making money is harder.

Gu Boyuan had been looking at the ditch mouth for a long time, and was a little absent-minded when cleaning the stove. Not only did he not clean the pot, but he also dropped the bowls several times.

When he saw Mizoguchi's bicycle, he finally felt relieved, but then he felt a little distressed. He had to get here at 10 o'clock, so he had to get up very early!
"Dad!" Gu Xiaoxia ran towards Gu Boyuan as soon as she got out of the car. This was the first time that the father and daughter had been separated for such a long time. Although Gu Xiaoxia had been relatively stable before, she was a little out of control now, and her voice was filled with tears.

Most of the others were watching, and Li Long came over and said with a smile:
"Come on, Xiaoxia, come here. I've brought meat buns for everyone. They're from the big meat canteen. Two for each person."

Everyone else came over with a smile and took the buns. Although they had just finished their meal, how could they refuse such delicious meat buns?

After distributing the buns, Li Long placed the remaining five on the stove, gestured to Gu Boyuan, and went to find Tao Daqiang.

Tao Daqiang had cut enough strips and was burning them to make handles. There were already ten handles in front of his pit, and he was the fastest one to make handles.

"Da Qiang, you can do it," Li Long said with a smile, "Even if you don't work anymore, you can support yourself just by being a porter."

"That's impossible." Tao Daqiang shook his head. "Everyone can make this thing, but apart from those companies that want it, who would buy it?"

"Then you know how to make a big broom, right?" It is true that making broom handles cannot support a person, because in a few years, no one will need them anymore.

But the job of brooming was still a very profitable skill until Li Long passed away in his previous life.

"Who can't do that?" Tao Daqiang asked Li Long as he was piercing the needle, "Brother Long, can this also make money?"

"Yes." Li Long whispered, "When we get to Qiuli, I'll see if I can take on a job tying brooms. If you can, I'll look for you then."

Li Long was just guessing, but he was not afraid even if he guessed wrong. In winter, which unit doesn't need a big broom to sweep snow?

At that time, the supply and marketing cooperatives were still selling bamboo brooms from other places, but some people felt that they were not as useful as those made of Stipa sphenanthera.

Of course, this is just a personal feeling. Until later generations, most companies used bamboo brooms, while most individuals still used Sedge brooms.

After having lunch here, Gu Boyuan took the initiative to say to his daughter:

"Okay, you've seen me, I'm doing pretty well. Just follow Xiaolong around the mountains, then go back and work with peace of mind."

Gu Xiaoxia nodded reluctantly, and Li Long said with a smile:
"When you miss Uncle Gu, I'll bring you here. It only takes a few hours to go back and forth."

The two of them rode their bicycles out of Baiyanggou. Li Long stopped the bike and turned to ask Gu Xiaoxia:

"I'll take you to visit the Northern Tianshan Mountains now, okay?"

Gu Xiaoxia met Li Long's gaze and said shyly:
"Row!"

(End of this chapter)