Rebirth of Bayi Fishing and Hunting in the Northwest

Chapter 176 Li Jianguo’s “Prehistoric Identity”

Li Long had a delicious meal of rice at Gu Xiaoxia's place and left with a full burp.

There were two teachers coming over to watch the fun. Li Long greeted them generously with his bowl in hand, and praised Gu Xiaoxia for her good rice and vegetable cooking.

The two teachers originally wanted to come and watch the fun, but they didn't expect to be shown a lot of affection, and then they left.

Li Long got on his bicycle and said to Gu Xiaoxia:
"Then I'll go first. I'll come to see you when I'm free. Your dad's stay will be over in about ten days. Do you think you should go to the mountains during this time?"

"I won't go yet. I know my dad is fine." Gu Xiaoxia wiped her hands with her apron and said, "He is happier there than on the team, and the food is not bad. My students are about to take midterm exams, so I am a bit busy during this period."

"Then I'll take you to the mountains when you're free." Li Long pedaled the bike, waved to Gu Xiaoxia, and rode away.

Gu Xiaoxia watched Li Long's back disappear before returning to the dormitory to continue packing. Although it was only one afternoon, she felt very fulfilled.

Li Long felt a little embarrassed when he was about to reach the team on his bicycle. He had come back to bring some wild vegetables and to see how things were going at home, but he had lunch at Gu Xiaoxia's place, and the wild vegetables he brought back had wilted a little.

But it’s okay, it’s edible.

When he was about to reach the village, he saw a group of children in the reed ditch, breaking up reeds to make seedlings (spears or red cherry spears). They broke off a long reed from the root, and then removed all the leaves except the top two leaves.

The reeds have not yet grown cherries at this time, and the tops are very pointed. The children then pull the two leaves on the top into thin threads, which look like the cherries of a red cherry spear. After they are done, they play with each other.

Li Qiang was among them. Li Long stopped the car and asked him:
"Qiangqiang, why didn't you have class this afternoon?"

Preschool classes should be held in both the morning and afternoon.

"Our teacher said she had something to do in the afternoon, so she asked us to play first and then go to class later." After the last incident with the saxaul flower, these children were a little afraid of Li Long. Now when they saw him coming, they all stood on both sides of the road with their seedlings in their hands, making Li Long look like he was inspecting a troop.

"Then go ahead and have fun, but don't hurt yourself." Li Long gave them a warning and rode his bike home.

Li Jianguo and Liang Yuemei both went out to work, and Li Juan had not yet finished school, so Li Long locked the car, took out the wild vegetables, and seeing that there was only half of water left in the jar, he went to fetch water.

This well is shared by seven or eight families. When Li Long went there, a woman from another family was also fetching water. When she saw Li Long coming, she asked in surprise:
"Xiaolong, you're here to fetch water too? Can you fight?"

If it were in the past, Li Long would most likely have thought that the other party was kind-hearted, but now he could hear that the sister-in-law's tone was clearly teasing. He did not reply, but stepped forward to put the bucket down, took down the shoulder pole, and fastened the bucket handle with an iron hook. He then slowly lowered the bucket into the well while holding the shoulder pole. When the bucket reached the surface of the water, he grabbed the iron hook at the other end of the shoulder pole and swung it with his skillful strength. The bucket tilted on the surface of the well and water entered the bucket. After a brief pause of ten seconds, the bucket was filled with water.

Seeing Li Long skillfully draw a bucket of water, the sister-in-law who originally wanted to see the joke became unhappy. When two people meet to draw water, they usually have a competitive spirit, after all, the one who draws water later is equivalent to drinking water that has been touched by the other person's bucket.

Li Long lifted the bucket of water and poured it into the bucket on the well surface. Then he filled another bucket and carried it back.

Although there were no conflicts with others throughout the process, the desire to dig a pressure well became stronger.

At least the well has been drilled and it is clean and safe to use.

He remembered that there seemed to be dead mice and birds fished out of the well every year. After all, the well mouth had no cover yet. In two years, there would be an iron cover, but it would not be covered tightly in winter.

The water is definitely not very clean.

There is no standard for well pressure hydrants these days. The well pressure heads are all welded by blacksmiths themselves, costing a dozen yuan each, which is not expensive, but not cheap either.

There was no problem for Li Long, the problem was the person who dug the well. Of course, there was also the problem of finding a suitable location. He remembered that it was easier to dig a well in his previous life. He dug a three or four meter pit, and after the water came out, he would just leave the pipe and seal the soil back.

But the water layer of three or four meters is saline-alkali, and the water you pump out is basically not drinkable. If you want drinkable water, you have to continue pumping down, at least ten meters below, past the gravel layer, and then the water from the water layer below will surge up.

It is also easy to pressurize the well at this time. As long as the well is drilled to a sufficient depth, the water will come up by itself.

After filling the water tank with water, Li Long was washing wild vegetables when Li Juan came back with her schoolbag. When she saw Li Long washing the vegetables, she quickly put down her schoolbag and came out to help.

"Are you hungry?" Li Long asked while washing wild vegetables. "If you are hungry, I will cook something for you now."

"I'm not hungry. I brought some steamed buns for lunch." Li Juan shook her head. "Uncle, what is this dish?"

"This is wild celery. You should recognize this. It's wild chives." Li Long washed the wild vegetables and hung them up to dry. He shook his hands and said, "Will you do your homework later?"

"I've finished my homework, so I'm going to cut grass for the pigs. There's a patch of sweet kohlrabi at the edge of our field, and our pigs love it." Li Juan's eyes lit up. "I'm afraid someone else will cut it, so I have to go quickly."

"Okay, go ahead, but don't cut the roots." Li Long smiled and warned. In the past few months, he obviously felt that Li Juan was much more lively than before, but he didn't know how her studies were going.

Li Long was a poor student in his previous life, so he would not ask Li Juan and Li Qiang about their academic performance. Li Qiang was a little naughty, but in fact, his academic performance was very good after he entered elementary school.

He doesn't need to worry.

When Li Jianguo and Liang Yuemei came back in the evening, Li Long had already prepared dinner, which consisted of cornmeal porridge, fried wild vegetables, and steamed buns.

Li Qiang followed behind Li Long and happily helped him. He was holding the bottom layer of steamed buns close to the edge of the pot, with a thick, browned edge. This was the layer that children loved to eat the most.

It is said that if you eat it, you can pick up money - Li Long only found out later that the old man said this just to prevent the children from wasting food.

But the children all believed it by now.

After dinner, Li Long told Li Jianguo about his idea of ​​drilling a well.

"If a wellhead only costs a dozen yuan, then the rest of the work will be easy." Li Jianguo said with a smile, "Then let's just take a look."

"It's troublesome to find someone." Li Long was a little worried. There were no private well diggers right now. There were state-owned well diggers, but they would definitely not dig a well for us just for this small well.

"Who are you looking for?" Li Jianguo said this with a smug look on his face, "It's just that the tools are a problem..."

"What tools do you need?" Li Long didn't understand what was going on. "Brother, do you know what you need?"

"We are digging a well in our yard. The diameter is no more than ten centimeters. What we need is a long steel bar, more than ten meters long... No, we have to weld two steel bars together. Then there is the pipe for the well..."

Li Jianguo was rolling a Mohe cigarette when he stopped and thought, "According to what you said, a depth of three to five meters is definitely not enough. We definitely can't drink the saline water, so we have to find a good place. Let's dig a well in the yard and try it out first..."

Li Long listened to Li Jianguo's methodical speech and couldn't help asking:
"Brother, how do you know so much?"

"Me? Haha, ask your sister-in-law what I did before." Li Long turned his head to look at Liang Yuemei who was showing Li Juan clothes.

"Your eldest brother, before we got married, we were working on a well digging company. I was there too. Oh, and so was Tietou's father who lived next door."

"At that time, we dug wells by hand, which was so tiring. The wells for the county bank and supply and marketing cooperative were all dug by us. Later, we dug wells for various communes. After that, the well-drilling team stopped for a while, and we settled here," Li Jianguo recalled.

"Brother, you are a professional well digger." Li Long suddenly realized, "Then let's dig tomorrow? I'll find a blacksmith to weld a well head, buy some pipes and weld some steel bars, and it will be done in one day."

After he said this, everyone in the room, including Liang Yuemei, Li Juan, and even Li Qiang, looked at Li Jianguo with sparkling eyes.

Obviously, they all agreed with Li Long's proposal.

Carrying water is really annoying. Even little Li Juan has experienced it. Although the buckets are not full, she still has to carry two half buckets of water when she is in a hurry.

Li Jianguo looked at them, thought for a while and said:

"I'm not busy these days, so let's dig. I'll go find Lao Lu and settle the matter. Once the well is dug, both our families can use it."

This statement is definitely correct. Nowadays, the courtyards of various families only have walls, but no gates. The relationship between the opposite families is usually good, so it is not wrong for the Li family to use the pressure well and the Lu family to use it.

Li Jianguo stood up, lit a rolled cigarette with the kerosene lamp, put on his clothes and went out.

Li Long also came outside. It was already dark, but because there was no light pollution and the moon had not risen yet, the sky was full of stars and looked very beautiful.

Li Qiang came to his side without knowing when, and asked Li Long:
"Uncle, what are you looking at?"

"Look at the stars."

"What's so good about stars?" Li Qiang was a little confused. Aren't they just a bunch of bright dots?

Li Long thought, when you grow up, you will miss the time when you can still see the sky full of stars and the clear constellations.

Thinking of this, he became interested and took Li Qiang outside the yard and explained each star to Li Qiang, from the North Star, the Big Dipper to Altair and Vega.

Talk about constellations and folk stories.

A lot of information that I had stored in my mind from watching short videos in my previous life came in handy at this time. The version of the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl he told was not the one about stealing clothes, but the earliest one in which both parties were gods in heaven.

I don’t know when Li Juan came out and listened quietly beside me.

When Li Jianguo came out of Lu's house, he saw three people looking at the stars, and he was happy:
"It's so dark, why don't you go inside?"

"Is it settled?" Li Long asked.

"Okay. Tomorrow you go buy wellheads and weld steel bars. We'll dig the pit, and when we come back we'll drill holes. Oh, and we also need to buy pipes." Li Jianguo took money out of his pocket while talking. "You can buy the wellheads and steel bars from Lao Liu at the commune's agricultural machinery repair factory. Just keep a record of it. You have to go to the supply and marketing cooperative for the pipes. You need to prepare 20 meters first. Take this ten yuan..."

"No, no." Li Long waved his hand hastily, "I have enough money."

"Your money is yours. You don't have to pay for digging a well for your family..."

"You do the work, I pay, isn't that perfect." Li Long would never take Li Jianguo's money. He took two steps back and said, "Leave the shopping to me, and leave the digging to you. That's perfect."

Li Jianguo refused to give out the money.

The next day after breakfast, Lu Yingming and Mrs. Lu came over with shovels. It was obvious that they were more excited than the Li family.

"His aunt, you guys have dug so many wells for others, and now you can finally dig a well for your own family, that's great!" The eldest sister-in-law of the Lu family sighed, "It's not easy!"

Li Long took Li Juan and Li Qiang on his bike, first sending Li Qiang to the preschool class, then taking Li Juan to the elementary school, and later dropping her off at the township agricultural machinery repair shop.

It is called agricultural machinery repair, but it is actually a former blacksmith shop. Because each production team has a Dongfanghong 75 tractor, as well as seed drills, plows and other agricultural machinery. These big machines are very tough and basically have no major problems. Minor problems will occur from time to time. These minor problems are not worth going to the agricultural machinery factory for repair, but can be solved here.

Li Long came to the repair shop and found someone welding something. He saw the old Liu that Li Jianguo mentioned.

Lao Liu was watching the master welding something when Li Long came in. He thought he looked familiar, but he didn't know him, so he smiled and asked:
"Little brother, what can I buy?"

"Director Liu, my brother is Li Jianguo. My family wants to dig a well, and I want to come and see if you have a wellhead..."

"Old Li's brother, you are Li Long, right?" Old Liu was delighted when he heard it. "Why, digging a pressure well? There is one at the wellhead!"

He took Li Long to a warehouse, pointed at the four wellheads inside and said, "Look, they were all welded not long ago. There aren't many people drilling wells now, but there are still some from time to time... By the way, you drill your own wells, right? Do you have the tools?"

"No, my brother said he wanted to get some from you, too. He wanted welded steel bars."

"Just say your brother is a well digger and knows the business. How many meters do you want? I'll weld it for you."

"The shallow water over there is all alkaline. It needs to be deeper, at least ten meters."

"Okay, three pieces of steel bars, put them on your brother's account. Do you want the pipe? I have some pipes here, but they are old..."

"I don't want the pipe anymore. I plan to go to the supply and marketing cooperative to buy a new one. Oh, don't keep a record of it. I'll give you cash."

"Okay, I heard that you've made money since the beginning of the year. I thought it was just gossip, but it seems to be true. Let's put it this way, the cost of the well pressure is 12 yuan, and I have to pay the workers 15 yuan. I'll pay the cost of the steel bars, 3 yuan, and you pay 18."

"it is good."

Li Long paid 18 yuan and said to Lao Liu:
"I'm going to the county to buy pipes now. Can I weld the steel bars when I come back?"

"That's definitely no problem."

When Li Long returned to the Li family with a full set of things, a pit two meters square and more than one meter deep had been dug in the yard.

(End of this chapter)