Rebirth of Bayi Fishing and Hunting in the Northwest

Chapter 175 How Nice It Is to Be a Quiet Drug Dealer

Watching Halimu and the others leave, Li Long actually felt a little relaxed.

Fortunately, the two suspects did not go to Halimu's place, otherwise, they might have really hurt someone.

Of course it is also possible that he went, but he was afraid that there were too many people in Halimu's family, so he didn't dare to go.

Li Long was lost in thought as he pushed his bicycle back to his winter home.

It was not completely dark yet, and only then did he realize that there were a lot of things scattered outside his winter den.

There were two deer antlers and a bag with some Fritillaria scattered on the ground. Preliminary judgment showed that the bag of Fritillaria weighed about five or six kilograms, and it was half-dried.

This is what the two men dropped down. I don’t know whether they dug it or robbed it from others.

The axe was also lying on the wooden floor outside the cabin.

Li Long gathered these things together, and for a moment, he was planning to keep the deer antlers and fritillaria privately.

Then he gave up the idea - this thing was worth only one or two hundred dollars at most, and it was not worth taking the risk for such a small amount of money. Besides, the axe was most likely a weapon, so it was better not to do such a stupid thing.

Seeing that it was not yet dark, Li Long packed his things into a sack, put it on the back seat of his bicycle, and then hurried out of the mountain.

It was already dark after we left the mountain, and it was completely dark before we reached the county town.

Li Long was not afraid at all, and was even a little excited. However, he was very fast, and the journey that usually took him more than an hour was completed in less than an hour today.

There were no street lights in the county at that time, so Li Long slowed down. He could feel that he was sweating all over.

When he arrived at the police station, Li Long knocked on the door and the police officer on duty came out. What surprised Li Long was that the person on duty today was Guo Tiebing.

"Eh? Xiao Li, what are you doing..."

"After I entered the mountain, I found a lot of things they left behind at the door of my winter home, so I sent them here."

"You... it's late at night. It won't be too late to send it tomorrow." Guo Tiebing was actually a little touched. "In fact, they also told me, but except for an axe, the other things are not that important..."

Li Long thought to himself, what a close call, these two people really confessed, fortunately I was not that greedy!

Li Long took the things out of the sack and placed them on the ground one by one, then said:
"I don't know the rules. There must be my fingerprints on it, otherwise I can't take it. Look..."

"That's nothing, it should be just these things." Guo Tiebing said with a smile, "Okay, come, I'll register, and then you can go and have a rest. It must be tiring to come all the way from the mountains."

After Li Long put his things down, he finally felt relieved and said:
"Okay, I'm going back to the yard to sleep. I'm tired after a long day."

"Go quickly. But you still have to lock the door and be safe. You caught a thief in the big yard, and here in the sparsely populated mountains, you also ran into two murderers--"

Li Long also felt that his experience was quite special. Logically speaking, there shouldn't be many people committing crimes these days, but why was he so special?
After returning to the compound, Li Long locked the gate, entered the main room, locked the door again, thought for a while, wiped the small-caliber rifle carefully, and went to bed after maintenance.

The next day, after having breakfast in the big meat canteen, Li Long hurried to Xiaobaiyanggou. After arriving there, Xie Yundong came to find Li Long.

"Xiaolong, that guy came over again the other day. He put down a bag of Fritillaria. The bag was quite heavy, it looked like it must be about 15 or 16 kilograms. He said he believed in you and would come to you this afternoon to ask for the money. You can name the price."

Li Long was a little surprised. He knew that Xie Yundong was definitely not talking about the translator but the team leader. But did the other party trust him so much now? After all, this bag of Fritillaria would cost at least 40 or 50 yuan.

"Brother Yundong, apart from this matter, is there anything else?"

"No, everything is fine. We have nearly 200 people on the list now, so it's a good opportunity for you to check on the past two days."

Li Long nodded, put away his bicycle, and went to check the guards he had organized over the past two days, carrying his gun.

After checking them one by one, Li Long found that most of them were good, but not all of them were qualified.

He pulled out five loosely braided handles with one end larger than the other and placed them on the edge of the pit, so that it would be easier to distinguish which ones were unqualified.

"Xiaolong, I was negligent." Xie Yundong said awkwardly when he saw Li Long picked out five uncooperative people: "I checked them all, but I felt that..."

"Brother Yundong, yours is not among these five, right?"

"That's not true."

"There's no big strong one, right?"

"No."

"What does it mean? It means that you and Daqiang are serious and know the standards, so you follow them. As for them, although they also know the standards, they don't think they are that strict. They didn't mind making up so many rules before, so now they relax."

Xie Yundong smiled bitterly.

When the strip cutters came back to prepare for editing, Li Long pointed out the unqualified ones one by one.

He was going to deliver the goods to Li Xiangqian, so he would never let go of any unqualified ones. At this time, whether he was playing the bad guy or showing off his power, he would definitely not let go of any unqualified ones.

I reported all the unqualified ones to the editor-in-chief, and everyone accepted it with a blushing face. They had to redo the work, which was quite embarrassing.

What surprised Li Long was that none of these five unqualified leaders were appointed by Xu Jianjun.

Could it be that he really changed his character and turned over a new leaf?
Li Long didn't think too much about it. He waited for these people to continue to make the handles before he went over to look at the Fritillaria.

The quality of the Fritillaria is quite good, with little mud, large size, and not many miscellaneous leaves. I don’t know if the person who dug the Fritillaria had clean hands or selected them carefully. In any case, it is better than the first ten kilograms.

Weighing it, it's about 16 or 17 kilograms, quite a large portion.

Li Long decided to give the other party fifty yuan. Since the other party trusted him, he would not let him down.

At lunch, Li Long saw that everyone was there, so he said the most important thing:
"Everyone is here now, you guys eat, I'll tell you something more important. Last night at midnight, two murderers were caught in the mountains. These two people were wandering around the mountains digging for Fritillaria and picking up deer antlers. They killed anyone they saw alone and robbed their belongings. They also attacked people in the winter den at night and were caught."

"What? There is such a thing?" Xie Yundong was shocked. "Why are these two people so mean?"

"Do these two people have guns?" Tian Siping asked. "Brother Long, are they the two people you arrested?"

"Can we still stay here tonight?" Wei Zhonghua was shocked.

"These two men didn't carry guns. I caught them and shot them twice." Li Long said, "I told you so that you can be more alert at night. We have already organized more than half of the tasks. There are not many tasks left. Try to complete them as soon as possible and then go back."

"But don't be afraid." Seeing that these people still looked a little uneasy, Li Long said with a smile, "There are eleven of us here, and only two of them were arrested. You can beat them to death by hitting them on the head one by one... Besides, even if someone wants to cause trouble for you, they won't dare to do so when they see so many people here in broad daylight."

"That's right." Xie Yundong nodded, "We don't have much for them to gain. We're not digging for Fritillaria or picking up deer antlers. They can't carry away many of these things, so they're not worth much."

After hearing this, everyone relaxed. Tian Siping even got a little excited: "If a bad guy really dares to come, I'll be the first to beat him up!"

The others also calmed down and expressed their opinions, mostly about how to prevent it.

After all, we are farmers and have never done anything evil, so it would be a lie to say that we are not worried at all. The first thing we think about is how to prevent it.

"In fact, here, we can make a simple door of the dugout with branches or something at night. As long as someone breaks in and makes a noise, that's it. There's no need to fight back first. Just yell and other people will hear him, and he won't be able to run away even if he wants to!" Xie Yundong was the manager after all, so he was the first to calm down and said, "We've made preparations, but don't scare ourselves."

That's how it ends.

We continued to weave the handlebars in the afternoon. When the sun was about to set, people on horseback came to the entrance of the ditch.

Li Long and Xie Yundong went over with bags in hand.

It was indeed the team leader. He got off the horse, looked at Li Long and said a lot of things.

After listening to this, Xie Yundong asked a few more questions and repeated them several times before saying to Li Long:
"He said that they will sell you all the Fritillaria they have these days. They will sell it for three dollars. Do you think it's okay? If it's okay, pay for it."

Although it was not quite the same as what he said before, Li Long thought it was good, so he took out five big unity notes and handed them over, then said to Xie Yundong:

"Tell him I weighed it, and it's only about 16 or 17 kilograms. At 3 yuan, that's about 50 yuan."

The team leader took the money, spit some saliva on his fingers, counted it carefully, then gave Li Long a thumbs up and said a few words.

This time Xie Yundong did not ask any more questions and said directly:

"He said you are great, you don't bully them, and you give a fair price. But their group is moving to another place soon, so they won't sell Fritillaria anymore. If there's a chance in the future, they will look for you again."

After the team leader left, Li Long put the Fritillaria on his bicycle and prepared to return to his winter home.

Tao Daqiang saw Li Long was about to leave and said with some concern:
"Brother Long, is it dangerous for you to be alone over there? Do you want me to dig a cave for you and you can live with us?"

"No, no." Li Long smiled. "I have a gun. Those people should be afraid of me. Besides, there are not so many bad guys in this mountain. I am just lucky to run into one."

It was already dark when he rode his bicycle back to the winter den. After what happened the night before, Li Long went straight into the house, locked the door, put the gun next to him, loaded the bullets, turned off the safety, and went to sleep.

The next morning, Li Long got up early, made some breakfast, went to the mountain to get some wild celery and wild leeks, picked some non-toxic wild mushrooms he knew and put them in a bag, then packed the Fritillaria he had collected in the past two days, as well as the jade and leather he got from Halimu, locked the door, and rode his bike to the county town.

As usual, he placed the mother-of-pearl in the side room to dry, and put the jade in a special room. After locking it, Li Long took the skins to the purchasing station.

When Chen Hongjun was not around, Li Long sold the skins for more than 140 yuan in total, mainly because the deerskin was more valuable.

Li Long didn't stop next, but rode his bike towards the village. When he reached the middle school halfway, he turned into the village.

Gu Xiaoxia had finished class and was washing rice at the artesian well outside the dormitory in preparation for cooking. Li Long gave her some of the wild vegetables and mushrooms he brought.

"You just came back from the mountains? Wait a minute, I can cook very quickly here."

Li Long was indeed a little tired, so he said:
"Okay, I'll take a break and wait for you to cook."

"Come in and sit down." Gu Xiaoxia led Li Long to the dormitory and pointed at the bed and said, "There is no stool, so you can sit there."

Li Long smiled and said:
"Okay, go ahead and do your work. I'll take a break."

Gu Xiaoxia continued to wash the rice with a slightly red face. Li Long saw her scoop another half bowl of rice over, so he stood up and watched at the door.

The school's well platform was 80 centimeters high, with an iron pipe sticking out of it, and then another pipe welded horizontally, and water kept flowing out of the pipe. There was cement board underneath, and a groove was dug, so no one knew where the water went.

Li Long remembered that such artesian wells were very common in that era. Because the groundwater level was relatively high, as long as the well reached the water-generating layer and connected the pipes, water would flow automatically.

He suddenly thought of the water used at home - should he build a pressure well at home at this time?
Now the village still uses underground wells for drinking water. Several families work together to dig a well, which is about three or four meters deep. Then, just like building a roof, they seal it with wood and reed stalks, and then cover it with soil, leaving only a well mouth.

When fetching water, you use a shoulder pole with an iron hook to lower the bucket and bring it up. This is also a technical job. If you don't do it well, the bucket will fall into the water.

The groundwater layer in the village is shallow, but divided into several layers. Most of the shallow layer is saline water. Water can be found when the water is two meters deep, but it is not drinkable and alkaline foam is produced when used to irrigate the land.

Wells for drinking water need to be dug many times, and only after finding a suitable water source can they be dug. In winter, water is also drawn from such wells. However, in winter, a thick layer of ice will form on the well cover, making it easy to slip and fall.

Li Long decided that after the matter of compiling the gang leader was over, he would build a well at home!
It is too troublesome to fetch water every day. As long as the pressure well is dug, it can be used even in winter, which is very convenient.

According to normal historical trajectory, it will take another five to ten years for every household to have a pressurized well. Now, underground wells are the most common.

Five to ten years later, the team drilled another well and drew water directly from the well.

Later on, every household would hire a well digger to dig a small well, install a small water pump, and plug it into electricity to pump water up continuously - at that time, the groundwater level was already very low.

Li Long was thinking about these questions when Gu Xiaoxia came back from washing rice. Seeing him in a daze, she asked:

"What are you thinking about?"

"Think...think about my future life." Li Long replied subconsciously.

When Gu Xiaoxia heard this, her face turned red, she lowered her head and walked towards the dormitory without asking any more questions.

Li Long knew that she had misunderstood, but after thinking about it, he decided not to explain. It was a misunderstanding, so it was fine.

(End of this chapter)