Rebirth of Bayi Fishing and Hunting in the Northwest

As Li Long walked back, he was thinking about what Master Wang said.

The current national policy encourages everyone to get rich, starting with allowing stalls to sell goods, and later on, the access system for some private enterprises will be gradually opened up. He vaguely remembered that the first private enterprise registered with the Industrial and Commercial Bureau had already been operating in the south, but in the northwest, it would take some time.

But it will definitely be possible in the summer after the Chinese New Year. Li Long thought he could give it a try then. Of course, management personnel and technical personnel need to be found and trained, and he can't do it himself.

The next day, Li Long came to the repair shop again and saw three handheld on-demand players there. According to him, there was basically no problem with the manufacturing process, except for the materials used, such as the steel pipes were a bit rusty and the springs were second-hand.

But it's good to have one. After all, this is not the future. People in the future can make mechanical products by searching on the Internet, and almost all kinds of parts can be found. It is no problem to make one by hand.

But now all kinds of supplies are in short supply, and it’s good to have second-hand replacements.

"Look, the pin below is used to adjust the number of seeds that fall. When you lift the handle, the seeds will go into the soil. I have specially polished this cone, so it is very easy to drill into the ground. Once you are done, just step on it or put it down, and the soil will cover the seeds. It is really convenient."

Master Wang explained it to Li Long. Although he didn't do much farming, he thought it was pretty cool.

I tried all three, and except that the spring force is a little strong and you need to use some force when squeezing the handle, all other aspects are fine.

After Li Long paid the remaining money, he said:

"Master Wang's craftsmanship is good. I will come here to make something when I need it later."

"Okay." Master Wang took the money and smiled happily.

Except for the steel pipe, everything else is just scraps. Even if the steel pipe is counted as part of the materials, it is only worth 50 cents at most, and the extra money is all my profit.

This makes money really fast!

If there is such business every day, then it is not impossible for me to stay in this repair shop...

After thinking about it, he shook his head again. This kind of business may not come back once every ten days or half a month, so he should think about going to the agricultural machinery station. At least there is a guaranteed harvest regardless of drought or flood. If he stays here, he may not be able to pay his wages.

Li Long took the three on-demand devices and clamped them on the back seat of his bicycle, then rode back home.

In his opinion, three is enough. As for what to do next, we can talk about it later. After all, there is still a lot of time, so there is no need to fight for it now.

Back at the Li family, Li Long planned to put the three on-demand devices in the spare room. Li Jianguo came back from feeding the pigs and looked at the on-demand device Li Long was holding. He was quite curious, so Li Long handed one to him:
"Brother, see if this works."

"Let me see." Li Jianguo took one and knew how to use it just by looking at it. Firstly, Li Long had told him about it before, and secondly, this thing itself was relatively easy to use without all those fancy things and one could understand it at a glance.

"Well, pour the seeds on top and pierce the soil from below. When you squeeze the handle, the seeds will fall into the hole you made. Not bad, not bad. You don't have to bend over. Just lift your feet and fill the hole. It's not as good as a seed drill, but it's faster than planting by hand! It works."

"Just give it a try when the time comes. This kind of vegetable will work too. Move the pin below. If you push it upward, more seeds will fall, and if you push it downward, fewer seeds will fall," Li Long explained. "Just like when you're picking melon seeds, drop a little more seeds. This way, it will be easier to determine the seedlings after they come out."

"Yeah, okay." Li Jianguo nodded, and Li Long took the on-demand device and carried it into the empty room.

In the next few days, every household prepared for the New Year, and some children who couldn't help themselves started setting off firecrackers.

At that time, loose firecrackers were not sold in northern Xinjiang. Families with a little extra money would buy those small firecrackers that cost one dollar and had 100 bangs, and disassemble them for the children to set off. There was not much gunpowder in those things, so even if they exploded in the hands of children, they would not hurt anyone, at most their hands would be numb. Moreover, children nowadays did not play so many pranks, and would not throw them in places where people were or in haystacks. In his previous life, Li Long had seen many people in short videos and other platforms saying that they had set haystacks on fire when they were young, but he had never seen any children in the team set haystacks on fire even when there were so many haystacks on the wheat field in summer.

Not really.

Moreover, these kids usually set off firecrackers to show off in the winter, and they really won’t kill people - they hold a stick of incense in their left hand and a small firecracker in their right hand, light them and throw the firecracker in, and see whoever throws the highest and makes the loudest explosion is the coolest.

There's no bet on anything. It's just like that famous talk show. Whoever throws the highest and makes the loudest explosion is the most powerful. Often because of this sentence, some children will secretly dismantle the electric firecrackers that their families are going to set off on New Year's Day, light them with the incense in their hands and throw them into the sky. The sound is actually really loud.

After all, the materials used at that time were real.

It's just that the fuse burns too fast and it's too easy to burn your hands. The electric light cannon can burn your hands more than small firecrackers. If you don't hold the firecracker properly and hold it in the middle, your hands will be burned.

Of course, the loudest one is the double-bang firecracker, locally called the double-bang one. This thing can be held in your hand, it is a pretender artifact. With such a thick cannon, you can hold it in your hand, take a puff of cigarette calmly, light it up, stretch the hand holding the cannon to the side, turn your head away, hold it empty in your hand, and then you can feel fire spurting from the bottom of the cannon in your hand, and it shoots into the air with a "bang", and then explodes in mid-air.

This double sound is nothing for adults, as most adults have experienced this through their mouths.

But most of the children in the village had never seen it. After all, in recent years, the supply and marketing cooperatives in Ma County did not have double-bang firecrackers, not to mention the kind of firecrackers that were used to open the doors. They were all electric cannons and small whips. The only thing that would be more fun was to add a sky rocket. So when Li Long took a double-kick firecracker in his hand and set it off for Li Qiang and the others, he attracted a lot of exclamations.

Li Long gave the remaining three firecrackers to Li Qiang. Li Qiang shouted happily and ran off to play.

All his friends ran after him.

Li Long smiled and turned back to the house.

Nowadays children's happiness is really simple. But in twenty or thirty years, a large number of children's happiness will be in their mobile phones, and these firecrackers will no longer attract them.

The Li family followed the customs of the New Year and began to prepare supplies and do a thorough cleaning. Because after the New Year, the old parents, the second brother's family, the brother-in-law and others would come over, Li Long cleaned the east room and went to the horse house to clean out the big bunk bed where Li Anguo and his family used to live and the room next to it. Clean the stove and burn a few stoves of charcoal to dry the house so that it would not be damp when they first arrived. Because the second brother's family was going to live here, Li Long went to the county to bring back a few bags of rice and flour. When the two nieces came, they couldn't be fed with coarse grains.

Li Long was still planning to take some time to go hunting in the mountains and get some meat, but he was persuaded by Li Jianguo. He told Li Long that the Chinese New Year was only a few days away, so he should wait until after the New Year. After all, it would take several days for them to come over, so there was no need to rush.

Li Long thought about it and it made sense. This year had been busy enough, and it was almost the New Year, so he might as well stop working on it.

He goes back and forth between his eldest brother's house and the horse hut. He usually eats lunch at his eldest brother's house and goes back to the horse hut at night. Recently, he is reading a book called "The Blazing Golden Man", which tells the story of our army and people fighting tenaciously against the enemy during the Anti-Japanese War. At that time, the radio drama was often broadcast, and later it was adapted into a movie and TV series.

The novel is quite tragic, unlike the anti-Japanese dramas of later generations, and it does not lower the IQ. It is sometimes heart-wrenching and sometimes very enjoyable to read.

When Li Long was walking to his eldest brother's house with his books, he saw Li Qiang and several older boys from the village playing at the old team headquarters. Li Long had good eyesight and saw that one of the boys, who seemed to be called Erhai, was smoking a rolled Mohe cigarette with an intoxicated look on his face. The other kids looked a little envious - for example, Li Qiang looked a little envious.

Li Long realized that Li Qiang wanted to give it a try.

At that time, many men smoke, and they will occasionally tell their children the harm of smoking, but they will not say it is very serious.

Li Long suddenly felt playful and thought of a story he had heard before. He pretended not to see the children and strode towards the Li family.

When he arrived at Li's house, Li Long saw Li Jianguo still watering the horse, so he went to find Mo Heyan and rolled a cannon out of paper. However, he did not roll a whole cigarette, but instead rolled a small whip in it, with the twist just in front - as long as the cigarette was lit, the small whip would explode within three seconds.

Li Long picked this small whip out from a bunch of small whips. It feels a little deflated when squeezed and has little medicine in it.

This thing won't hurt anyone anyway, it's just for scaring people, so Li Long isn't afraid of any accidents. These kids won't pick up cigarettes and light this thing and swallow it, right?

After he finished rolling the cigarette, he went out and put it on the windowsill of the west room. The snow on the windowsill was cleared, and a cigarette rolled with white paper was placed on the gray-brown cigarette, which was quite conspicuous.

It all depends on luck. Li Long was paying attention at first, but Li Qiang didn't come back until lunch time. After lunch, Li Long and Li Jianguo were talking about the placement of his parents, Li Anguo and others, while Li Qiang ran out. Li Long noticed that Li Qiang stopped at the window sill when he ran out. He guessed that Li Qiang took the cigarette away.

Usually, Li Long would eat, chat for a while, and do some work with his elder brother before going back to the stable. There was something going on over there, so today Li Long waited until it was almost dark before leaving.

He was going to wait until Li Qiang came back.

When Li Qiang came back, he saw the cigarette on the windowsill. He pinched it and found that there was something inside, and it was rolled quite solidly.

Li Qiang was secretly delighted, wondering who would put the cigarettes here?

Li Jianguo was the only one in the house who smoked this cigarette, so he didn't dare to touch it at first. When he returned to the house, he put the cigarette on the windowsill.

However, when his father came back from outside, he did not touch the cigarette. Before dinner, Li Jianguo rolled another cigarette for himself, which made Li Qiang feel that he had an opportunity.

When the second child smoked, the smell of the burning tobacco was quite fragrant. I don’t know if it smelled fragrant or not - at least the second child said it smelled fragrant.

Li Qiang was at an age of curiosity, and he had originally planned to secretly take some Mohe cigarettes, roll them out and learn to smoke them to see if they were fragrant. Now that he had ready-made cigarettes, he naturally wanted to try them.

So after dinner, he ran out quickly, took the cigarette and ran away.

Originally, I was planning to call my second child and smoke one to show off to them, just like I showed off the firecrackers a few days ago.

At that time, my uncle Li Long gave me three firecrackers. The envious expressions on the faces of my friends around me were really wonderful.

But Li Qiang only put two of the three firecrackers, and hid the other one. Good things can't be used up all at once, otherwise there will be nothing left later. He habitually saves some things, whether it's food or toys.

At that time, he also imitated his uncle's gestures tremblingly. After lighting it, he stretched out his right hand and held the cannon in his hand - Li Long told him the trick, don't hold it too tightly, and let go when it starts to surge up.

Li Qiang was very smart and executed it very well. The firecracker flew out of his hand into the air. After the explosion, Li Qiang also received envious and admiring looks.

At this time, Li Qiang thought of that and thought about giving it a try. He had heard from Erhai that when smoking, one should nod the cigarette, then take a puff of the smoke, swallow it, and then blow it out of the nose. It might choke at the beginning, but don't worry, just try a few more times.

Because they were going to set off firecrackers these days, Li Qiang had a box of matches in his pocket - in fact, he wanted a lighter like his uncle's, that would be better, but unfortunately his uncle and his father couldn't give him one. So he could only have matches - at this time, it was good to have a box of matches in his pocket, and his friends who played with him even had only one stick of incense. After all, matches also need money to buy, and not every family is rich enough to let their children play with matches.

He ran to the old team headquarters and found a corner - Li Qiang was familiar with the conditions in these places, and the place he found was relatively clean, and no one would shit in this corner - after the old team headquarters was abandoned, many people shit here, and when it was hot, you would accidentally step on it, which was very disgusting.

After Li Qiang found his position, he leaned against the wall, put the cigarette in his mouth first, then took out a match, pulled out a stick, felt the wind direction, and then headed towards the corner. After lighting the stick, he immediately covered it with his hand and slowly moved closer to the cigarette butt in his mouth.

He was still a little nervous and excited, thinking about swallowing a puff of cigarette in a while, and he was mentally prepared to be choked - although Erhai said that some great people would not choke on the first puff of cigarette, Li Qiang did not think so about himself.

When the cigarette was lit, Li Qiang felt something was wrong with the fire and sound at the cigarette butt before he even smoked it. Before he could figure out what was going on, he heard a "bang" and the cigarette butt in his mouth exploded. A white light appeared in front of his eyes and he smelled the pungent smell of burning tobacco and gunpowder.

It took Li Qiang several seconds to realize that there was a cannon in the smoke!

At this moment, Li Qiang was stunned.

What's going on? Who is behind this prank? Who is this meant to harm?
He felt his mouth was numb, so he touched it with his hand. It turned out that the matchbox touched his mouth - there was an unburned match in his hand - the fire on the match was extinguished when the cannon exploded.

At this moment, Li Qiang was glad that he did not touch his mouth with the matchstick.

At this moment Li Qiang wanted to cry, but he held it back. It was quite embarrassing.

Fortunately no one saw it.

Li Qiang felt that it was a good thing that he did not call his second child and the others over, otherwise it would have been very embarrassing.

He put the matches away and touched his mouth, which was swollen.

No bleeding, it's okay.

Li Qiang wiped his eyes and looked down at the cigarette butt that he had spit out and was broken into pieces with a little tail left. He thought that he would never think about smoking again in his life.

He doesn't know that this is called psychological shadow.

After leaving the old team headquarters, Li Qiang had not thought about where to go - he didn't dare to go home at this time. He didn't know who put the cigarette, and he didn't dare to guess whether his family knew that he wanted to try smoking and was specifically punishing him.

A child came running from afar, calling Li Qiang. He recognized the voice as Maodan's, so he went over to him, and the two of them went to find other friends to play with.

Maodan didn't notice anything unusual about Li Qiang, which made Li Qiang feel a little relieved. He didn't want to be laughed at by his companions.

Children at this age still care a lot about their reputation.

Li Qiang didn't get home until it was almost dark. By then, his mouth was no longer swollen. Erhai and the other children took out cigarettes. Maodan generously handed his cigarette to Li Qiang and wanted him to take a puff, but Li Qiang firmly refused.

When Li Qiang returned home, he pretended nothing had happened, but everyone looked at him strangely.

But no one said anything.

Not long after Li Qiang came back, Li Long got up and went back to the stable.

In fact, when Li Qiang left to play, Li Long told his elder brother Li Jianguo about this.

"You are fooling around!" Li Jianguo said to Li Long, "It would be better if you just bring him here and give him a beating..."

"Brother, beating him up won't solve the problem. He will definitely try to smoke again later." Li Long knew the real result. He smiled and said, "Don't worry. There's not much medicine in that little whip. It won't hurt him. It's fine to hold it in your hand. I'll put it in front of the cigarette and it will explode at a touch. At most, it will scare him. He will have a psychological trauma and will never touch cigarettes again."

"Let's see how Qiangqiang will hate you when he finds out." Liang Yuemei said after watching Li Long demonstrate how to light and explode the small whip in his hand, "We can't let him know."

"Okay, as long as you don't tell him, he won't know."

So even though Li Qiang felt that his family members looked at him strangely, he really didn't know why.

Liang Yuemei asked him to have dinner, so he went to eat obediently - and he felt a little guilty. He didn't dare to say anything, because he didn't know whether it was someone in his family who deliberately set off the fire or someone else in the village. If it was someone else. But no matter what, he couldn't escape the fact that he took the cigarette and lit it. Smoking is bad, he knows this. So he kept it a secret.

This matter was kept secret for many years. It was not until much later, when Li Qiang exposed the matter himself, that Li Long confessed that he was the one who set off the firecrackers and also explained the reason.

Only then did Li Qiang finally understand. (End of this chapter)