Rebirth of Bayi Fishing and Hunting in the Northwest

Chapter 220 Pulling a cart of sugar residue, becoming a public enemy
Li Long and Tao Daqiang drove a horse-drawn carriage to the sugar factory. The guard let them in after making a phone call to Section Chief Hu.

"Xiao Li, you delivered this on time." Hu Changke was very happy, "I'll ask someone to come over to settle the bill now."

Section Chief Hu called someone to come over, count the supplies, check the quality, and then calculate the bill.

When Li Long took the receipt to withdraw the money, Section Chief Hu said with a smile:
"Xiao Li, we haven't dealt with each other much, but you've helped me twice. Here are a few bottles of syrup. I know that here people eat rice dumplings with sugar and syrup. You can take some back and eat them. By the way, if you have any other ideas, you can tell me directly."

Li Long actually has an idea. He said:
"Chief Hu, I really have something small that I would like to ask you for help with."

"You tell me. As long as it's possible, I'll try my best." The smile on Section Chief Hu's face faded a little.

"That's right." Li Long saw Chief Hu's expression, but did not change his mind. He said, "I have a few pigs at home - my family can be considered a professional pig farmer. I heard that you just dumped the sugar residue after the sugar was squeezed in the sugar factory. This time I drove a horse-drawn carriage here, and I want to take a cart of sugar residue back..."

"It's nothing." Section Chief Hu laughed again. "Well, let me make a phone call... Your carriage can't hold much, so I'll buy you a few sacks. You can fill one carriage and a few more sacks. These will be dumped anyway, so if you want to take them away, you can just use them as waste. If you want to take them away in the future, just come and take them away..."

Section Chief Hu picked up the phone on his desk and dialed a number. After the call was connected, Section Chief Hu said in a long tone:

"Xiao Song, how many trucks of sugar residue have been dumped today? They are still loading...Okay, when you are done, have the truck stop in front of the factory gate. Come over here. I have something to tell you."

After hanging up the phone, Section Chief Hu said with a smile: "Xiao Li, you could have told me about this earlier. If you had told me earlier, you could have come here every day."

Li Long thought to himself, if it weren’t for the mutton incident and the reed leaves incident this time, I really wouldn’t have thought about it. Making money is important.

After waiting for a while, a young man came to the office in a hurry. Section Chief Hu said to him:

"Xiao Song, this is Xiao Li from the Ma County Supply and Marketing Cooperative. He wants some sugar residue. You take him over. He needs to load it in a horse-drawn carriage. You prepare a few sacks for him to fill up and then unload the carriage."

After that, he said to Li Long:
"Xiao Li, if you need sugar residue in the future, just look for Xiao Song. He is in the loading and unloading team, and he is responsible for unloading the sugar residue."

"Hello, Comrade Song." Li Long took the initiative to extend his hand and said, "Thank you for your help."

"It's not a big deal." Xiao Song is also a young man, and said with a smile, "It's nothing, so let's go and install it now?"

"Okay."

Li Long said goodbye to Section Chief Hu, took Tao Daqiang downstairs, led the carriage and followed Xiao Song out of the sugar factory.

"The dump truck is at the back door. Because there is still water in the sugar residue, it is difficult to pass through the front door, but it is easier to pass through that side." Xiao Song explained.

Li Long took out a pack of cigarettes and stuffed it in:

"Team Leader Song, thank you for your help."

"Haha, Xiao Li, you're welcome." Xiao Song was not polite either. He took the cigarette, looked at it, and put it in his pocket with a smile. "I'll go get you some sacks first. You lead the carriage over there, to the back door. Just wait there as long as you can see the big carriage."

When Li Long led the carriage to the front of the truck, he found that there was a younger man waiting in the passenger seat. After seeing Li Long, he got out of the car nervously.

"Team Leader Song has gone to get the sacks and asked us to wait here." Li Long explained. The young man nodded nervously without saying anything.

Xiao Song came over holding a sack. Li Long and Tao Daqiang hurried over to put it on the carriage. Xiao Song said:
"Now follow our car. We are going to unload the sugar residue into the big pit at the back. Before unloading, you guys fill it first. Fill as many sacks as you can."

Li Long and Tao Daqiang looked at each other and laughed.

You can have this!

The carriage followed the truck for a few hundred meters, and then saw a big ditch with water at the bottom. At this moment, many people were waiting on both sides of the ditch.

These people had wet pants and were waiting with all kinds of tools in their hands. When they saw the big truck coming, they were ready for action.

There were also quite a few people in the ditch, and they were putting the sugar residue that had been dumped at the bottom of the ditch into baskets and bags.

There was water under the ditch, and the sugar residue contained water when it was poured, so each basket was very heavy. Those people didn't care about getting their clothes wet by the water, and just filled the baskets. When they saw the truck coming, they sped up, and some people stepped back for fear of being buried by the poured sugar residue.

On both sides of the ditch, there were all kinds of tools parked, including donkey carts, horse carts, hand-pushed carts, and a bicycle.

Sugar residue is the residue left after the sugar beets are cooked and the sugar juice is squeezed out. These residues are no longer valuable to the sugar factory, but their nutritional value is still there. Pigs love to eat them and they are very good pig feed.

After the truck stopped, it did not unload as before. Xiao Song got off the truck and waited for Li Long and his friends to arrive. He said to Li Long:
"You guys are going to pretend now?"

"Then please wait a moment." Li Long said immediately:
"We installed it quickly."

As he said this, he pulled the carriage to the side of the truck, and after parking them side by side, he tied the horse's reins to the side of the truck. Then he and Tao Daqiang got on the truck with sacks and shovels and quickly loaded the sugar residue.

Tao Daqiang whispered:
"Brother Long, I just now know why you brought the shovel... You are so smart!"

"Present it quickly! Everyone is watching!"

The sugar residue was still a little hot when it came out of the sugar factory, but Li Long and Tao Daqiang didn't care about it anymore. They filled ten sacks, then shoveled a lot of it from the truck and piled it into the carriage, and then loaded the sacks onto the carriage.

Ten sacks may sound like a lot, but when you actually fill them up, you have to stack them end to end, one on each side, and they will fit in one layer.

Li Long and Tao Daqiang got out of the car. Xiao Song walked up to them smoking and asked:
"Well, do you want some more sacks?"

"No, no, no, that's enough." Li Long said, "I'm sorry for delaying your unloading time and causing you trouble."

"It's okay." Xiao Song smiled. "It's dumped anyway, so you can just take it away and make use of it. Okay, then we'll unload it."

Li Long untied the reins, pulled the carriage to the side, waved to Xiao Song, and then led the carriage away.

"Brother Long, the team leader surnamed Song said that we can still install more, why don't we install more?"

"That would be annoying." Li Long looked back at the people who were already actively preparing to grab the sugar residue as soon as it was unloaded from the car, and said:

"You saw it when we were digging in the car just now. Those people looked at us as if we were enemies. Although Section Chief Hu said to Xiao Song that we can load as much as we want, ten sacks is the limit. We have to be content."

"Then we can't pretend anymore in the future?"

"Of course you can come and pretend, but you can't come empty-handed." Li Long smiled, "Let's talk about it later."

It is impossible to feed pigs with this alone. They also need bran and other feeds. It is better to feed them mixed together.

After the carriage left Shicheng, Li Long asked Tao Daqiang to sit in it, and he sat on the shaft and moved forward. When crossing the Ma River, Li Long stopped, pulled the carriage to the side of the road, and went down to the river to wash himself.

Look at the stones in the river, there is no jade - it's normal when you think about it, if you could see jade at a glance, it would have been picked up by someone long ago.

"Da Qiang, here you go, five dollars for this trip." Li Long said, "Keep it." "Brother Long, I don't want the money, can you give me a bag of sugar residue?"

"You want to take it home to feed your donkey? Sure." Li Long handed over the money. "Take the money, and I'll give you a bag of sugar residue, too."

"That won't work." Tao Daqiang waved his hands hastily. "Such a big sack of sugar residue must weigh at least 70 or 80 kilograms. If I ask for more money, my father will scold me when I get home."

No matter what Li Long offers to Tao Daqiang, if he refuses, then forget it.

After returning to the county town, Li Long invited Tao Daqiang to have lunch at the big meat canteen, went to the courtyard to bring glutinous rice, red dates and raisins, and then drove back to the team.

First, we went to Lao Mahao to unload five sacks of sugar residue. Lao Luo was very happy. Then we went to Tao Daqiang's house to unload another sack of sugar residue. Tao Daqiang wanted to follow Li Long to Li's house. Li Long said:
"Come back in two hours, and then we'll go fishing."

Li Long drove the carriage home. Li Jianguo and the others were there, busy pulling weeds in the vegetable garden.

"What's that?" Li Qingxia was tall and asked as soon as he saw Li Long coming back with a cart of things.

"Sugar residue. I went to the sugar factory to sell some stuff and brought back a load of residue." Li Long said, "I unloaded some at the Lao Ma Hao and took the rest home to feed the pigs."

"This is good!" Li Jianguo smiled and said, "Pigs love to eat this."

The family came out of the vegetable garden and started unloading the sugar residue.

"Is this what you use to make sugar? It's not sweet at all." Li Qingxia picked up one and smelled it, then put it in his mouth to taste it. "Can you make sugar out of it?"

"It's all squeezed out." Du Chunfang scolded with a smile, "If there's still sugar to be squeezed out, will they take it away for you?"

Li Qingxia smiled and said, "That's right."

The sugar residue was unloaded and immediately fed to the pigs.

After unloading, Li Jianguo went to pack up the carriage. Li Long changed his clothes and came out. Seeing the boiled reed leaves still in the big pot, he asked:

"Is everything ready?"

"Okay, let's see how you take it tomorrow."

"How do we carry them? Just put them in a sack and drag them over." Li Long said, "Catch the fish today by casting the net, and sell the reed leaves and fish together tomorrow."

Li Long divided the glutinous rice, raisins and red dates into several portions, intending to give them to people he knew.

Liang Yuemei knew how to make rice dumplings, so Li Long gave the rest to her.

"Then make more." Liang Yuemei said with a smile, "In previous years, it was good enough to make a few. This year, we have so much glutinous rice, red dates and raisins, so we can't make less."

At this time, people still like these extra foods, such as rice dumplings, moon cakes and even steamed dumplings on the 15th day of the first lunar month.

But as I grew older, I stopped eating these things. I think it was because there were not enough materials in that era, especially food, so I was greedy for these things. Later, when materials became more abundant, I gradually stopped liking them.

To make zongzi, glutinous rice, red dates and raisins need to be soaked. Liang Yuemei started to get busy, while Li Long took out the net.

"I'll go with you tomorrow," Li Qingxia said, "Let's ride two bikes, bring more stuff, and go early."

"Sure." Li Long said with a smile, "I can't handle selling fish and reed leaves by myself, so it's just right for you to go."

This time Du Chunfang did not stop him. It was obvious that if Li Long only sold fish, he could handle it by himself, but if he also sold reed leaves, he would definitely not be able to take care of it. She loved her youngest son and did not want Li Long to be tired alone.

Besides, there is not much work to do in the fields now, so there is no need for Li Qingxia to go there to work.

Before Li Long went to cast the net, Tao Daqiang came over and Qin Jiajie also came over.

Li Long took a package of glutinous rice, red dates and raisins and gave it to Qin Jiajie:
"Brother Qin," Li Long said, "Take this home and make some rice dumplings. You've worked hard these past few days."

"What's the hard part?" Qin Jiajie said with a smile, "It's just reed leaves. What's the hard part? It's just mosquito bites. It's nothing."

He took the glutinous rice bag, hesitated for a moment and asked:
"Xiaolong, what other work can you do with the remaining money? The kind that can earn money? My family is not afraid of hard work..."

"Really? Well, then." Li Long thought for a moment and said, "You know the shovel handle, right?"

"How could you not know that?"

"Two cents a piece." Li Long said, "I'll take as many as you cut."

"Okay!" Qin Jiajie smiled, "I'll go back and chop it down now!"

After Qin Jiajie left, Tao Daqiang asked with some doubt:
"Brother Long, what do you need so many shovel handles for? To make a big broom?"

"Yes. I'm going to the mountains to cut shovel handles in a few days. Do you want to come?"

"Go ahead." Tao Daqiang said with a smile, "I'm good at cutting that."

Two people carried the tire to lower the net, and Li Long also brought the basin. Although loaches are not as popular as before, there are a group of people who are considered regular customers and come to buy some every two or three days. This money must be earned.

Meng Zhiqiang was also fishing. Now he was the only one in the small lake. The others might have gone fishing or given up.

Li Long's net was deep in the water and had nothing to do with them, so they didn't pay much attention to it. After he finished fishing, he walked around the small lake and didn't see any water rats, so he went home.

When he took up the net the next day, Li Long was a little surprised to find that there were not only fish but also a wild duck and a water chicken.

The wild duck was fine, but the water chicken was very fierce. When Li Long went over, the guy kept pecking at Li Long with its sharp beak, which made Li Long so angry that he pinched its beak and stuffed it into the bag without fear of suffocating it to death.

The basin was placed relatively low, so most of the fish in it were ditch fish, which made Li Long very happy.

The two men were carrying the harvest and tires back, and then they met Meng Zhiqiang who came to get the net.

After a brief greeting, he hurried home to get the fish. Today he was going to Shicheng to sell fish, so he had to act quickly.

Li Qingxia had been waiting there long ago. He spread out the plastic sheet and started to pick the fish. Li Long quickly picked out the wild ducks and water chickens and found a rope to tie them up.

Let Li Qiang play with it.

(End of this chapter)