Rebirth of Bayi Fishing and Hunting in the Northwest

Chapter 179 The feeling of falling in love

Li Long had no intention of living in a cave - it was easy to get rheumatism living there, and the space inside was small and stuffy.

When he left, Tao Daqiang and his men had finished their work and stopped making the ropes. Instead, they started to light piles of fire around the dugout, and then covered them with wet grass, causing clouds of smoke.

Li Long knew that this was to fume away mosquitoes - the mosquitoes in the mountains had already swarmed.

Some of the mosquitoes here look big, but they don’t actually bite people, while some are small but very poisonous.

Tao Daqiang and his friends just picked some green grass and put it on the fire, mainly to make smoke. Li Long knew that mugwort could repel mosquitoes - surprisingly, he had seen this thing in the cartoon "Bear Bear Paradise" at someone else's house in his previous life.

On the way, Li Long came across some mugwort, picked a few handfuls, and when he returned to his winter den, he didn't light them but put them directly into the bedroom.

As usual, I locked my bicycle in the small room, then went into the bedroom and prepared to go to bed.

Most of the things in the small room have been moved, and I can just take the remaining fritillaria back with me on my bicycle tomorrow.

After completing the task in Xiaobaiyanggou, Li Long thought he could wander around the mountains every day - but no, he had to catch fish for a few days first. If he wandered around the mountains every day during this period, the fish in the small lake would be lonely, right?
The next day, Li Long got up and made himself a relatively hearty breakfast with the few remaining things. After waiting for a while, when the seller of Fritillaria did not come, he tied the Fritillaria in the small room to his bicycle and rode to Xiaobaiyanggou.

When they arrived at Xiaobaiyanggou, Xie Yundong and his friends had already had breakfast and had packed up their things and placed them outside the dugout.

But the atmosphere was a bit strange, which surprised Li Long. Before he asked, Xie Yundong told him.

"Xu Jianjun ran out by himself last night, saying he wanted to pick up deer antlers. In the end, he didn't pick up any antlers, but attracted wolves instead! Three wolves came last night... If there weren't so many of us and we had lit a fire together to scare the wolves away, Xu Jianjun would have been finished, and one of us might have been bitten by a wolf!"

Li Long's face suddenly turned dark.

Is Xu Jianjun so disobedient?
He looked at Xu Jianjun, who was sitting in front of his hut with an indifferent expression on his face.

"There's no way to deal with him now. He feels like we can't do anything to him now that he's in charge, so you see... I definitely won't be using him for any missions next year."

Xie Yundong was also very angry, but there was nothing he could do.

Li Long's heart moved, he walked to the dugout, clapped his hands to draw everyone's attention, and said:
"Everyone has worked hard for more than a month. Today we have successfully completed the task. Everyone remembers the number of people we have helped. Some are more, some are less, but it is better than digging for food in the fields, right?"

"Yeah."

"That's right. It's more than 20 yuan a month, which is comparable to an apprentice."

"It's much better to have meat every other day than at home."

"That's all thanks to Xiaolong. Xiaolong, it's really all thanks to you." The person who said this was Wei Zhonghua. His family had a little wild boar, which was so wonderful.

"I also want to thank everyone for cooperating with my work. There may be more work in the fall, and I will contact you then - of course, forget about some individuals, I can't afford to support them."

As soon as Li Long said this, most people immediately became excited - they could earn money twice a year and use it for emergency needs at home.

Now that we have food-grabbing fields, there will be no problem having enough to eat by the end of the year. If there is another way to make money, wouldn’t we be happier than the workers - after all, there is nothing to do all winter!

Xu Jianjun originally listened indifferently. After all, the work had been done and the title he had compiled was qualified. He couldn't have his money deducted - if his money was deducted at this time, he and the man surnamed Li would fight to the death!

But he didn't expect that Li Long's casual words would make Xu Jianjun's face turn ugly.

He knew that Li Long was talking about him without anyone reminding him.

If there really is such a side job in the fall and winter, and everyone else has it but he is missing, that would be a huge disgrace to him!
The problem is, he feels bad when he sees others making money but he can’t!
"Okay, let's wait a little longer. The supply and marketing cooperative's car will be here soon. We'll load these porters onto the car and we'll all follow the car back to the county. But we may have to go back on our own from now on."

"That's great. We can save this stretch of road. Once we get to the county town, it will only take two or three hours." When they heard that they could be taken to the county town, these people became happy.

About half an hour later, the sound of car engines was heard, and then three cars appeared at the entrance of the ditch and came to them.

Xiaobaiyanggou was generally flat. After the car drove over, it turned around and turned off the engine. The driver did not move. Two people got out, a man and a woman.

"Hello, are you Xiao Li?" The man was very enthusiastic. He smiled and took the initiative to shake hands with Li Long. "I am Wu Tianshan, the warehouse manager of our supply and marketing cooperative. You can just call me Old Wu. This is He Fang, our warehouse clerk."

"Hello, Manager Wu, hello, Sister He." Li Long took the initiative to greet them, "Would you like to check the loading now?"

"Okay, let's not waste any more time, let's check the attire now."

Li Long turned around and waved:
"From the inside to the outside, help each other and carry the handles over row by row. After checking one person here, move on to the next one."

The one in the innermost is Tao Daqiang’s, and it also has the most.

The others chatted and laughed together and carried Tao Daqiang's handle over as five of them did.

"The quality is good." Wu Tianshan checked the handles one by one and praised, "It is tightly woven, the strips are well selected, and the handles are suitable. It's good, let's load it on the truck."

Then load the truck.

After checking everything one by one, it took more than an hour to load the three trucks.

Finally, Wu Tianshan sighed as he signed the document:
"Xiao Li, the quality of the documents you compiled is really good. I won't be vain because you compiled them well. These are all qualified. Here, take this list, and you can go back to the finance department to collect the money."

There were some empty seats in the last car, and Li Long and Wu Tianshan had already agreed to let Tao Daqiang and the others get on the car with their luggage.

"Daqiang, please take care of Uncle Gu on the way." After sending them to the car, Li Long said to Tao Daqiang.

"Don't worry, I know about this." Tao Daqiang nodded vigorously.

The car drove out of Xiaobaiyanggou, and Li Long also rode his bicycle out.

He also hoped to return to the county town as soon as possible, settle the bill, and finish this matter early.

Li Long rode his bicycle to the county. It was already noon and the supply and marketing cooperative had gone off work, so he went to the big meat canteen and ordered a bowl of mixed noodles.

Zhong Guoqiang was not there, so Li Long ate his bowl of noodles with peace of mind, ordered another bowl of noodles, and asked for a free bowl of noodle soup.

After having a delicious meal, I wiped my mouth and left. Then I went to the gate of the supply and marketing cooperative and waited for a while before going to work.

Since Li Xiangqian was not there, Li Long did not care too much and took the invoice issued by the warehouse manager to the finance office to settle the bill.

"A total of one thousand eight hundred and forty-two dollars." The cashier skillfully counted out the money, asked him to count it again, and then asked him to sign in a small booklet.

Li Long looked at the receipt-like book and signed it. The amount of money was no problem, so he put it away and said habitually:
"Thank you, comrade," and then he walked out.

"This young man is quite calm even though he got so much money." The accountant lady next to him had been observing Li Long and said in a low voice.

"He must have seen large sums of money often." The more experienced cashier said, "The person that Section Chief Li has taken care of must be someone extraordinary."

Li Long didn't know about the conversation between the two men. He put the money in his inner pocket, rode back to the compound, took out his own 307 yuan from the stack of money, put the remaining 1,535 yuan in his bag, and put the small-caliber rifle into the gun bag. He left the compound, locked the door, and rode towards the free market - he also wanted to try his luck and see if there were any stalls there.

What surprised Li Long was that there were still stalls in the former black market, now a free market.

There were not many people setting up stalls, and Li Long guessed that these people were most likely professional middlemen who engaged in reselling. However, their scale was not large, so the Anti-Votes Office did not arrest anyone.

Li Long walked over and took a look. Most of the people were selling grain and eggs, and there were a lot of agricultural and sideline products.

As the weather gets hotter, the vendors have moved their stalls under the shade of trees - this is very good in northern Xinjiang or the whole of XJ. Even if it is very hot outside, it is cool under the shade of the trees, and there is still breeze.

Li Long walked over to the egg seller and looked at the eggs of different sizes. Some were stained with blood, and some were covered with chicken droppings. He thought that chicken farms were probably not popular at that time, and these were pure country eggs, so he asked:
"Sister, how much is an egg?"

The egg seller, who was in his thirties, smiled brightly when he heard Li Long asking about the price. He said:
"Six cents each - if you ask for more, I'll give you a discount." She had been here for almost a day. She only ate a dry bun at noon and didn't drink a sip of water. She almost choked to death. She really didn't want to stay here any longer.

The price of eggs has dropped? Li Long was a little surprised. Previously, an egg was only 8 cents! He remembered that the price of eggs in his previous life was only 1 cent two years later. This price lasted for several years.

"We can't help it. Not many people eat eggs right now, and no one has much money." The woman saw Li Long's doubts and said, "It's hard to sell. Look, I've been selling eggs for a whole day, and I've only sold half of them."

"How much is left?" Li Long asked.

"Thirty-three," the woman said quickly.

"Is it fresh?" Li Long asked again. He was worried about buying a bad one.

"Don't worry about that! I go to a regular shop to collect eggs every three to five days. There is no way there will be stale eggs." The woman said immediately, "Why don't you take one and shake it..."

"Then I'll take them all." Li Long pointed at the basket and said, "Then this basket..."

"I can't give you the basket." The elder sister immediately shook her head, "I bought this basket from the stall next door some time ago."

"Then I can't fit it all in." Li Long habitually carried an old yellow shoulder bag, which could hold at most twenty eggs.

"Then..." The woman was also a little troubled. She gritted her teeth and said, "Then you have to pay more."

"Add fifty cents." Li Long looked at her basket and said, "Your basket is at least half a year old, and it's not well woven. The hem is not well closed. Look, the hair is falling off the edge."

"Well... okay." The woman was naturally aware of the problem with her basket. In fact, she didn't buy it. She just took the basket from someone else's house when she collected eggs.

Thirty-three eggs cost one dollar and sixty-five cents, plus fifty cents for the basket, for a total of two dollars and fifteen cents, or a little over seven cents per egg.

Li Long is very content.

After putting the basket on the back seat, Li Long left contentedly and went to the department store again.

There was already a shed for storing bicycles here, and the fee was five cents. Li Long locked his bicycle, put his gun on his back and carried the basket of eggs into the building.

Seeing some fresh packaged egg cakes for two yuan a bag, Li Long bought six bags directly and asked the salesperson to pack them into two packages.

He thought that his family seldom went out to the street, so he bought some common things - salt, sugar, various seasonings, and money for needles. Thinking about the summer and the bad roads, he bought a pair of rubber boots (rain boots), a pair of sneakers, and several pairs of socks for Li Juan and Li Qiang respectively.

As for my eldest brother and his wife, they thought there was nothing to buy, so they turned around and left the building.

Xiao Liu saw Li Long as soon as he came in.

After Li Long finished shopping and went out, the elder sister next to him whispered:
"It seems to be true. The things you buy are for daily life - maybe your family already has a partner. Don't worry about it. How is the one your manager introduced to you a few days ago?"

"That driver... I don't like him." Xiao Liu shook his head. "He treated me to a meal and I drank some wine. His actions were... very rude..."

The older sister sighed and said nothing more.

Li Long rode his bicycle all the way to the township middle school. Gu Xiaoxia had not finished her get out of class yet. He waited for a while at the door of the teachers' dormitory. Gu Xiaoxia did not come, but Teacher Wang came back first.

"Xiao Li, right? Xiao Gu still has half a class left. Do you want to sit here with me?"

"No, no." Li Long waved his hands hastily, thinking, this single man and woman, going to your dormitory? If Gu Xiaoxia saw it, it would be hard to explain.

Teacher Wang was older, and seeing Li Long's expression, he really enjoyed teasing him. He smiled and said as he opened the door:

"Are you dating Xiaoxia? Let me tell you, Xiaoxia is very popular in our school. You better keep an eye on her."

"I believe Xiaoxia." Li Long thought to himself, I know Gu Xiaoxia better than you. This girl is stubborn and will not change her mind easily once she makes up her mind.

Teacher Wang didn't expect Li Long not to accept the challenge and still looked very confident, so he felt a little bored. He muttered "How funny" and went into the house.

Li Long was still looking in the direction of the classroom bungalow and didn't even look at her open dormitory door.

Finally seeing Gu Xiaoxia, Li Long waved to her happily.

After living two lives, Li Long felt it was a bit strange that he had experienced the tension and excitement of being in love.

When Gu Xiaoxia saw Li Long, a hint of surprise flashed across her face. She quickened her pace while holding the book, and when she came to Li Long, she whispered:

"I didn't know you were coming..."

"I didn't tell you. Okay, open the door." Li Long said with a smile, "You look like a teacher."

Gu Xiaoxia blushed and lowered her head to open the door, and Li Long followed her in.

Teacher Wang appeared at her door. She leaned against the door with a smile on her face, a little envious.

This is what being in love feels like.

(End of this chapter)