Rebirth of Bayi Fishing and Hunting in the Northwest

Chapter 221 Family Mobilization

This is Li Qingxia's first time to ride a bicycle out, so he is very excited.

There was a sack tied to the back seat of his bicycle, which contained three hundred boiled reed leaves.

Li Juan was still sitting behind Li Long's car, with the sackcloth separating her from the fish bags to ensure that her clothes wouldn't get wet.

After dropping Li Juan off at the elementary school, the two rode their bikes against the wind towards Shicheng.

When passing through the county town of Ma County, Li Long went to the big yard to get a scale and a basin. He smiled and said:
"Dad, it's easier for these two people to go than for one person."

"That's right!" Li Qingxia said confidently, "I can help a lot! By the way, do you want the shovel handle?"

"Take it, just in case." Li Long thought it was better to be prepared.

When the two people rode their bikes to the old street, there was just a hint of red in the east. The sun had not risen yet, and the stalls in the old street were not full.

Li Long and his friends had the opportunity to occupy a good location and set up their stall.

There were three basins in front of Li Long, and a basin and a plastic sheet in front of Li Qingxia.

"Selling fish..."

Li Long's skilled hawking voice attracted many customers, and those who came to see the fish also noticed the reed leaves on Li Qingxia's stall next to him.

"This is..." A woman in her sixties squatted down, holding the reed leaf, and asked hesitantly.

"Reed leaves, oh, they should be called zong leaves, for wrapping zongzi!" Li Qingxia explained with a smile, "Two or three leaves can wrap a zongzi. Look at this horse lotus leaf, it's used as a rope to tie the zongzi."

"I know, I know..." The old man touched the reed leaf and asked again, "Have you boiled it?"

"That's right. It's easier to preserve after cooking."

"How much is a handful?" The old man began to fumble in his wallet. "How many leaves are there in a handful?"

"Two or three leaves can make a zongzi. There are twenty leaves in a bunch, and they cost ten cents." Li Qingxia said, "If you want to eat at home, two bunches are enough. It's a festival, so it's a good idea."

"Yes, yes, yes, it's a festival, we have to eat zongzi, right? Nowadays, life is better, we have to eat zongzi to celebrate the festival." The old man muttered, "Give me five."

She opened her handkerchief bag and found a stack of notes. She counted out fifty cents and handed it to Li Qingxia: "Five handfuls."

"Why do you need so many? Are there so many people in your family?" Li Qingxia asked in confusion. "After boiling, the leaves are very firm and not rotten. Two handfuls for each family should be enough, right?"

"No, I have relatives at home, so I pack more and give them away." The old man said proudly, "My son is a worker and has a salary. He gives me pocket money every month. This money should be spent!"

Li Qingxia took five handfuls of reed leaves and handed them to the old man, then took the fifty cents and held it in his hand.

Before he could think about how to take the money, several people immediately surrounded him, squatted down and started picking.

Li Long had told him before that the reed leaves could be picked and picked, and unlike fish, people who made the rice dumplings usually had to wash them when they got home.

So you two and I three, and the business started.

While Li Long was weighing fish for others, he kept an eye on the situation here. He saw that although the old man was a little flustered, he was still able to take care of the entire stall, so he sold his own fish with peace of mind.

"There are so many people, don't push! Be careful of three hands! Don't let anyone take your wallet away, don't push!" Li Long reminded while weighing the fish. He found that some people in the crowd seemed to be pushing on purpose, so he immediately shouted, "We can't lose money just to buy a fish, it's not worth it!"

When he shouted, the crowd dispersed immediately, and many people touched their wallets or covered the places where they kept their money.

Those who wanted to take advantage of the situation failed. They glared at Li Long hatefully and squeezed out.

Li Longcai was not afraid of them and continued shouting loudly.

Some people reacted, gave Li Long an appreciative look, and then started buying fish. Some people didn't notice it at all, thinking that the people around them were making a fuss, muttered a few words, and either bought fish or left.

As the festival was approaching, more or less everyone who came here wanted to take something back home, so the fish sold very quickly. When Li Long was clearing the fish pots, most of the reed leaves on Li Qingxia's stall had been sold.

There wasn't much money, less than twenty yuan, and all of it was in one-cent and two-cent notes, with almost no one-yuan notes. But it was a thick stack, and Li Qingxia was very happy holding it.

"You go and have a rest first. I'll sell for a while. We'll talk after I finish selling." Li Qingxia saw that Li Long had finished his work, so he said to him, "How about you go eat first?"

"No, no, no, let's go together." Li Long said, and then he started shouting loudly:
"Selling Zongzi leaves! Zongzi leaves, 20 pieces for 10 cents, cheap! Make and eat Zongzi during the Dragon Boat Festival, sell Zongzi leaves!"

Just then a bus pulled over and the passengers who got off heard Li Long's shouting, and several of them came over and started asking for the fare.

One cent a bunch, which is really not expensive, so new business started to emerge with people buying two bunches from you.

After all the reed leaves were sold out, it was almost eleven o'clock and the sun had risen very high. Li Long and his group, who were originally in the shade, were now covered by the sun.

"Let's go, Dad, let's go have breakfast." Li Long and Li Qingxia packed up the stall together, "Drink milk tea and eat naan."

"Okay, I'll try the milk tea today too!" Li Qingxia was happy and wanted to try the taste of this borderland.

The fish and reed leaves were sold until the Dragon Boat Festival, and they sold out the fastest on that day. The 600 bundles of reed leaves that Li Long and his team brought were sold out.

Li Qingxia sighed:

"Why do these people seem so rich? They treat these reed leaves as if they were free..."

"If my sister-in-law makes zongzi, they will sell out very quickly," Li Long said, "but it's too troublesome."

"That's right." Li Qingxia agreed deeply.

Although most people these days think it is better to make this kind of food at home, many people who come to buy reed leaves also ask if there are current rice dumplings for sale.

When Li Long returned, he actually asked Liang Yuemei if she wanted to pack some to sell. Liang Yuemei didn't have the confidence and declined.

In Li Long's opinion, the rice dumplings made by Liang Yuemei are big, with four distinct corners. Even for a young man like him, two are enough, and he would definitely feel full after eating three.

There are three red dates and a handful of raisins in it, and the cost is not high. It will be no problem to sell it for two or three cents.

But Liang Yuemei felt embarrassed, so Li Long gave up.

This kind of seasonal product is only sold for a few days. Li Long himself was thinking of giving it a try. Now it seems that the effect is good, so he can sell it next year.

Li Long's family had been selling reed leaves from the first day he started selling until the day before the Dragon Boat Festival. There was one more stall on the Dragon Boat Festival, but the leaves sold by that stall owner were uncooked and did not include horseweed leaves. Even so, the leaves on the stall were sold out in the end.

If it's like this this year, there may be more people coming to sell reed leaves next year, but Li Long thinks it is still possible to make money in the short term.

After returning home, the Li family ate warm rice dumplings - to be honest, they were not that delicious.

Fortunately, we had the bottles of syrup that Section Chief Hu gave us, which was delicious when dipped in.

Zongzi is a very time-consuming firewood to cook. If it were in his hometown, Li Qingxia would definitely not eat it. Because there is really not so much firewood in his hometown - it takes a very long time to cook zongzi. In the next life, most people buy cooked zongzi, or use natural gas or coal gas to cook them, so they don't think so.

The Li family started cooking the night before, starting at around nine in the evening and continuing until around eleven, when they stopped cooking and left the pot to simmer for a while.

Li Qiang had been waiting for it, but in the end he didn’t get to eat it and went to bed feeling a little disappointed.

Fortunately, I got to eat it early the next day.

Li Long didn't know whether the rice dumplings were really not cooked the night before, or whether Li Jianguo and Liang Yuemei were worried that the glutinous rice was too heavy and not suitable for eating at night, so they didn't let Li Qiang eat them.

In the afternoon, Li Long and Tao Daqiang came back from fishing in Xiaohaizi, and Qin Jiajie and his family came over with a cart. Li Long was delighted to see that the cart was loaded with sharpened shovel handles.

"Brother Qin, how many have you cut?"

"One hundred!" Qin Jiajie said loudly, "I went to Dongdagou to cut them. There are many poplars and willows there. I can cut another hundred in two days... Do you want more?"

"Yes!" Li Long said, "I want as many as you cut! For these 100, I'll give you 20 off as I said before, right?"

He went into the house to get the IOU, wrote a twenty-point deduction on it, and showed it to Qin Jiajie.

"Great!" Qin Jiajie was a little excited because half of the borrowed money was gone.

I didn't expect making money to be so easy! Of course, he also knew that only Li Long would give him such treatment. If it were someone else, would they trade the shovel handle for money? What are you dreaming about?
After unloading the shovel handle into the Li family's yard, Qin Jiajie politely declined Li Jianguo's invitation to sit and chat for a while, saying that he had to go back to cook dinner for the children, and then he drove the car away.

Li Long caught fish and sold them for two more days, then suspended the business.

Li Xiangqian called.

The call went straight to the team leader, oh no, the village director.

Xu Chengjun recognized the familiar voice and immediately called Li Long to his home using a loudspeaker.

Li Long picked up the phone, and Li Xiangqian said:
"Xiaolong, the task has been issued. The task of making a big broom needs to be handed in within a month. Do you think you can complete it?"

"One month? Or three thousand?" Li Long asked.

"Yes."

"If it's a month..." Li Long thought for a moment and said, "No problem."

"Is it really okay? If you can guarantee it, then I agree. But if the supply is really insufficient, not only you but I will also bear joint liability."

"Chief, don't worry. Since I said so, it can definitely be done..." Li Long said with certainty, "It may take less than a month!"

"Really? Don't we need to share some of the tasks with other units?"

"No, no, our team can definitely handle it!"

"Well, you did a good job last time, so I trust you this time. Do your best!"

After hanging up the phone, Xu Chengjun looked at Li Long with an urgent look:
"Xiaolong, are you alive?"

"Here we go, Captain. This job is quite intense..."

"You said."

"Three thousand large brooms made of sedge."

"Three thousand?" This number shocked Xu Chengjun. "So many? How much is one?"

"Three dollars."

"That's possible! I can make at least seven or eight of them a day..."

"Now there is not enough sedge..."

"We don't have enough handles. We can cut the sedge now, but what about the handles for the brooms? The team doesn't have that many trees..."

"I'll get the handles." Li Long said, "You organize people in the team to start cutting Sphagnum splendens. I see there's still a lot of Sphagnum splendens left in the team from last year to use as ropes to tie wheat and rice bundles. Let's use them first. The team should tie the broom heads first, and I'll go to the mountains to get the broom handles..."

"That's right. There are a lot of these in the mountains!"

"Then I'll make it clear, I didn't get the broom handles for free. I'll charge for each one."

"No problem. How can I let you work for free? I'll charge you 50 cents for one pole!" Xu Chengjun directly gave Li Long a high price.

Five cents!

Li Long understood that if he changed someone else, Xu Chengjun would be able to give Sanmao a good treatment.

These 50 cents included the commission for introducing this big order - as for whether he could get any benefits from the supply and marketing cooperative, Xu Chengjun didn't care.

If you can make money for the team, the team can't treat you unfairly!

Three thousand poles, fifteen hundred dollars, that's a lot of money!

Li Long was very satisfied with Xu Chengjun's statement. Before leaving, he said to Xu Chengjun:
"Director, there may be work after autumn, we'll talk about it then."

"Okay, okay, okay." Xu Chengjun was very happy.

After Li Long left, Ma Hongmei did the math:
"Three thousand poles, fifty cents apiece, that's fifteen hundred yuan... Can't you give some to others?"

Xu Chengjun knew what his wife was thinking. He pointed at the phone and said:

"If you ask your brothers to introduce a job worth 1,000 yuan to our team, I can give you 200 yuan as a reward, and you don't even have to do the work. Do you want to talk to your brother?"

"Where can I find work? If there is any, won't my brother do it himself?"

"That's right." Xu Chengjun's voice suddenly became louder. "The job was introduced by Li Long. If we don't give him benefits, will he still introduce jobs to our team in the future?
Three thousand brooms, even without the poles, at 2.5 yuan each, that's 7,500 yuan! If we give the workers 2 yuan each, the team can still make 1,500 yuan... Did this money just fall from the sky?"

"If he doesn't let the team do it, who else can he ask?" Ma Hongmei was still puzzled, "How can he do it himself?"

"There are 17 production teams in Hongqi Commune. If Li Long goes out and randomly finds a team and tells the team leader that there is a job for him, do you think they will worship Li Long? Not to mention 50 cents for a pole, do you believe that they will directly give Li Long 1,500 yuan without a pole? Spoon..."

Ma Hongmei stopped talking.

Li Long returned home and started mobilizing the whole family.

"In twenty days, we cut down three thousand poles..." Li Jianguo said after hearing this, "There are quite a lot of poles in the mountains, and we can cut them down. There are three of us in our family..."

"Add Daqiang." Li Long said.

"That's four men. Forty poles a day for one man is not a difficult task..."

"Then let's do it!" Li Qingxia had already felt that it was ready to do, "We'll go into the mountains tomorrow!"

"We're going into the mountains tomorrow. Have you ever been into the mountains before?" Du Chunfang muttered, "If you go into the mountains, you have to listen to the boss and Xiaolong..."

Li Qingxia suddenly became less confident.

"It's all right. We have guns."

Before the family had finished discussing, Tao Daqiang rushed to the Li family.

Xu Chengjun has already started to recruit people to make the brooms. Tao Daqiang knows that this must have been done by Li Long.

So he came to find Li Long.

(End of this chapter)