Rebirth of Bayi Fishing and Hunting in the Northwest

In the eyes of people who have read martial arts novels, snow lotus is deified. Things like ten thousand years of ice and thousand years of snow lotus seem to have magical effects, and they can bring the dead back to life, and they are praised as magic medicine.

But in the eyes of ordinary people in northern Xinjiang, this thing is just a medicine, nothing special. Even in the eyes of people who go into the mountains to collect herbs, it is not as cost-effective as digging Fritillaria - firstly, no one buys it in large quantities, and secondly, it does not grow as densely and widely as Fritillaria.

Moreover, the growing conditions are relatively harsh and it is difficult to harvest.

In the eyes of locals, those above the snow line are called snow lotus, and those below the snow line can only be called stone lotus.

Later, Li Long was educated on the Internet platform that the things above and below the snow line are the same thing. The scientific name is Echeveria, a plant of the genus Echeveria in the Crassulaceae family, and it itself is Echeveria.

It’s just that the growing conditions above the snow line are poor, so the medicinal effect is better - it’s equivalent to the difference between wild ginseng and forest ginseng, right?

Li Long also found out that snow lotus was not as magical as outsiders thought, but it was also not as common as the locals thought - this thing was really a good herb for stopping bleeding!

From the perspective of traditional Chinese medicine, snow lotus is warm in nature, sweet and bitter in taste, and enters the liver, spleen, and kidney meridians. It has the functions of removing cold, strengthening yang, regulating menstruation, and stopping bleeding. It is used to treat impotence, weak waist and knees, irregular menstruation in women, metrorrhagia, rheumatoid arthritis, and traumatic bleeding.

From the perspective of modern medicine, snow lotus contains protein, amino acids, flavonoids, alkaloids, etc. which can soften blood vessels, prevent aging, remove wrinkles and lipid accumulation, improve microcirculation, make the skin lustrous, and prevent the carcinogenic process of chemicals, thereby achieving the purpose of preventing, fighting and treating cancer and prolonging life.

Look, both traditional Chinese medicine and modern medicine say that snow lotus is a good thing.

It’s just that the locals don’t take this thing very seriously.

As mentioned earlier in this book, a company in northern Xinjiang once wanted to make snow lotus and safflower tonic wine. They invited a famous singer to shoot a commercial and flew along the snow line by helicopter for a week, but they did not find any snow lotus above the snow line - it had been dug up by poachers.

In the past, in the 1950s and 1960s, people picked snow lotus by cutting the flowers directly. This thing is a perennial herb. After you cut the flowers, it will bloom again next year or the year after.

But those animals dug it up with its roots. It takes four or five years for this thing to bloom, and if it’s dug up it’s gone. It’s so damn hateful!

However, it is the 1980s now, and there are still more than 20 years before the era when snow lotus cannot be picked. Li Long wants to take this opportunity to make some money and at the same time instill the idea of ​​protecting snow lotus in Halimu and others. Those who dig it up by the roots will at least be beaten!
"Okay, when I get some in the fall, I'll get a few for each of you."

"How can a few flowers be enough? You give hundreds of flowers to others, why only give us a few each? Do you look down on us or do you think we have no money?"

After drinking a few glasses of wine, Xu Jianjun's voice sounded a little abrupt.

In fact, he regretted it the moment he said it, but since the words had already been said, Xu Jianjun, who was very concerned about his reputation, couldn't take them back.

Xu Haijun pulled him, but Xu Jianjun raised his elbow impatiently and shook off Xu Haijun's hand.

After drinking, he hadn't been making money in the past two years and was the worst off among his brothers. Today, he was going to vent his resentment on Li Long.

Xu Chengjun turned his head and glared at him, then smiled and said to Li Long:

"Xiaolong, don't mind it. He's drunk...Jianjun, keep your mouth shut. If you don't know how to say it, don't say it..."

"I'm not wrong!" Xu Jianjun became excited when he heard Xu Chengjun's words, "He just looks down on us..."

"I don't look down on you, I just look down on you!" Li Long didn't want to get angry. It was New Year's Day and they were in someone else's house, so it was better to keep things quiet. But Xu Jianjun's face really annoyed him. "When I said I'd give everyone a few flowers, I meant for others, not you! What's your relationship with me that I should give you some? What's wrong with me looking down on you? What have you done to make me look up to you?"

After that, he said to Xu Chengjun:
"Captain, I'm sorry, I was being blunt, but that's what I meant. We'll talk about today later, just keep drinking!"

After saying that, Li Long turned and left.

Xu Chengjun was thinking of asking Li Long to stay for a drink, but this incident caused him to sigh and shake his head.

Xu Haijun had already jumped off the kang and chased after him.

Xu Jianjun didn't think he had done anything wrong, and he kept muttering:

"If you want to slip away, don't involve me. I don't like him..." As he said that, he picked up the glass and drank the wine in one gulp.

Then eat the vegetables.

The meal at Xu Chengjun's home was very sumptuous, with three meat dishes and a fish. Xu Jianjun had never eaten like this all year. He didn't care whether others ate it or not, as long as he had a good meal today!
As soon as Li Long left the house, Xu Haijun caught up with him. He did not tell Li Long what happened just now, but asked:

"Xiaolong, when will this snow lotus bloom?"

"July and August." Li Long knew this.

"Then can we go into the mountains to pick them?" After returning, Xu Haijun realized the importance of money. He originally wanted to plant a crop of melons this year and get a tractor to drive, but Li Long said that melons had no future. Although he was a little unwilling, he still believed it.

He would have to get money from other places. He also planned to grow sunflowers, but he had also inquired and found that the money would definitely not come as quickly as the melons he had last year.

When Li Long told him about Xuelian, he immediately took it to heart.

"Snow lotus grows in the mountains. It's no problem to go into the mountains to pick it, but it's not like Fritillaria, which grows all over the place. You have to go all over the mountains to find it.

If you are lucky, you may find a large area with hundreds of flowers in a day, or you may be unlucky and climb the mountain for several days without seeing a single flower. "Li Long did not tell Halimu and the others where the snow lotus was, but only told Xu Haijun the actual situation.

"Sigh..." Xu Haijun sighed.

"If you really want to make money, I think you can borrow the captain's tractor, get a gun and go to the sand pits in the north to hunt yellow sheep. A yellow sheep skin can be worth thirty or forty. If you come across a group of them, get a submachine gun and shoot a burst of bullets. You can kill three or five in a day, and once you skin them, you'll get all the money."

"Really?" Xu Haijun's shooting skills must be good. After hearing what Li Long said, he immediately became interested.

"Another main point is that no one cares about hunting yellow sheep now. I went to the Corps company in the north some time ago and collected dozens of yellow sheep skins from there. Of course, if the snow has not melted completely, you still have to be careful when entering the sandbags. If the tractor gets stuck in it, it may not be able to be pulled out."

Xu Haijun thanked Li Long and hurried back to discuss it.

He could ask Xu Chengjun to get the gun. Even if he couldn't, he knew where other people had the gun.

Lend me the tractor. Xu Chengjun should have no problem with that. But I need to ask about hunting yellow sheep. Are there so many yellow sheep in the sandbags?
No matter what, Li Long showed him the way, so he had to thank him.

Li Long drove the jeep back. When he returned to the front yard, Xie Yundong and others were already chatting in the yard.

"Why don't you go in?" Li Long turned off the engine and got out of the car, asking with a smile.

"We are waiting for you," Xie Yundong said with a smile, "If you don't come back, we will go find you."

Several people came here on foot. Since they were going to drink today, riding a bike definitely wouldn't work.

Li Long then called Xie Yundong, Tao Daqiang, Jia Weidong and Liang Dacheng into the house.

Gu Xiaoxia was looking at the child. When they came in, Xiaoxia wanted to stand up to greet them. Li Long said, "Just look after the child. They are not outsiders. Do it yourself."

"That's right." Tao Daqiang also said, "Xiaoxia, just take care of the child, don't worry about us."

Several people said this, and came over one by one, stuffing New Year's money between the edges of the quilts for the two children.

"Hey, having two children is good," Li Long said with a smile, "You get double the New Year's money."

“Of course not.” Gu Xiaoxia knew that these uncles had a good relationship with Li Long, so she nodded and said, “Well, I have to tell Mingming and Haohao in the future that when I come here every year to earn the New Year’s money, I will choose these uncles.”

"Then I'll give it to you as long as you come." Xie Yundong gave out New Year's money and said as he sat at the table, "Look at this table of food, it's worth it."

They were all jokes. The purpose of the New Year was to have a good time. After a while of laughing and joking, they began to eat and drink. Unlike other families in the village who drank and chatted during the New Year, when Li Long and his friends drank, they started talking about family matters, and then talked about the crops they planted in the spring, their plans for the slack season, and so on.

Gu Xiaoxia sat next to Li Long after Mingming Haohao fell asleep. She mainly listened and heard Li Long and the others decide to grow sunflowers in addition to growing crops.

Li Long also said that he planted sugar beets on his saline-alkali land, but it might be further subdivided. As for how to plant it, it would be handed over to the experts from the Agricultural College and his elder brother. He mainly traveled in the mountains, the county and the team.

As for this year's plan to make money, there are two lines. One line is the same as last year, which is still the work of the supply and marketing cooperative. Everyone will definitely participate in this. The other line is harvesting wheat with harvesters. Li Long's suggestion is to expand the harvesting range to the Corps company. There are more continuous wheat fields there, which is convenient for harvesting.

"Of course, I estimate that it will take at most a year. Next year, each company in the Corps may have its own harvester."

The Corps had always been in the leading position in agricultural mechanization until the company-based farming system was changed to individual farming and the mechanized farming teams in each regiment were disbanded. After that, the Corps' agricultural mechanization was carried out independently and development slowed down.

Another line is Li Long's purchasing station. As long as the purchasing station exists, many things can be done around it, such as collecting goods from the mountains and agricultural products. Li Long will make a decision after he has a clear understanding of the situation in the spring.

This doesn't feel like a New Year's Eve dinner party, but more like a company meeting.

When they left, everyone was staggering. Li Long was worried, so he drove a jeep to send them back one by one - there were no traffic rules in the village anyway, so it was okay to squeeze in.

He drank more than half a bottle of wine. The room was hot and he was sweating while drinking. Plus, Gu Xiaoxia made some honey water for everyone after he finished drinking, so he felt very sober.

After sending the person home, Li Long drove back and stopped again when passing by Laomahao. He wanted to pay New Year's greetings to Uncle Luo.

"Happy New Year, uncles!" When Li Long got off the car, Uncle Luo and a few others had already left the room. He said with a smile and a bow.

"Hey, I thought you'd come over at noon!" Old Uncle Luo said with a smile, "The little ones all came over at noon, but we haven't seen you two this year."

"Then I'll bring him over tomorrow and show him to you guys." Li Long said, "He's very fat!"

"It's good to be fat, it's good to be fat - did you drink it?"

"Drinked."

"More?"

"Then...drink some more."

"Okay, okay, let's go inside! Lao Liu, bring out some more food and change the plates!"

Several old comrades had almost finished drinking, so Li Long stayed with them for only half an hour before leaving. One of them didn't want to drink, so he told Li Long to stop worrying and go back because he had a child at home that he needed to take care of.

When Li Long returned to the yard, the sun was still high in the sky. Gu Xiaoxia had already cleaned up the house, and the two children were sitting on the bed playing with the wooden toys that Li Qingxia had made. The wooden toys were plump and round, and would not hurt anyone, so the two children liked them very much.

Seeing that Li Long came back and was very sober, Gu Xiaoxia felt relieved.

The next day, after the family had breakfast, Li Long went to the county early to pick up his sister and her family who had already arrived at the bus station, and then drove his wife and baby to Gu Boyuan's yard.

When Li Xia came back this time, she brought two pork legs, one of which was for Li Long and the other for her eldest brother and her parents.

"He has eaten the most food from Xiaolong in the past two years, so he must be given a leg." The pig was raised by Li Xia, and the feed was provided by Li Long, so Li Xia was quite domineering when she said this.

Chen Xingbang had no way to refute it.

The family is happy too.

"Just bring the child here, why carry anything?" In the Gu family yard, Gu Boyuan saw Li Long holding the baby in one hand and carrying something in the other, and complained, "Don't we have to move these things to the county later?"

"They are all food, so just eat them directly in the next two days." Li Long said with a smile, "No, I will take them away later? Anyway, the food has been brought here, and the ceremony is completed..."

"Go away, how can you carry it here and then take it back? Go into the house quickly, don't let Mingming and Haohao get cold..."

"Why are they so delicate? We dressed them warmly when we went out, just to experience the winter. Children should not be raised to be delicate, especially boys. They need to experience the cold outside in winter and see the snow."

"Go, go, go into the house first." Gu Boyuan didn't expect that Li Long would become naughty this time in the team. He used to be so steady in the big yard.

Gu Xiaoxia ignored the two of them and carried the child into the house, intending to put the child down to cook. However, she found two cold dishes, two braised dishes and one hot dish on the table, all ready to be fried.

"Dad, are you ready?"

"Of course." Gu Boyuan said after entering the house, "You two just take care of the children. I'll take care of the cooking."

"How can you come? I'm back now, so I must do it..."

"Alright, alright. Xiaolong and I are going to drink a little today. You should just look after the kids. Besides, we all know that your cooking isn't as delicious as mine..."

"Dad..." Gu Xiaoxia blushed for a rare moment.

In fact, this is public information, not even a secret. Sister Yang praised it in the courtyard, saying that in the courtyard, Li Long's cooking skills are actually better than hers. Of course, she also said that Gu Xiaoxia's cooking skills are also good among ordinary people.

Although it wasn't said explicitly, the meaning was there.

Gu Xiaoxia was looking after the child, and after a while, someone came to visit.

In fact, it is not quite in accordance with the rules to visit relatives at this time. After all, the second day of the Chinese New Year is basically the time to visit relatives. But Gu Xiaoxia seldom returns to the team a few times a year. Now she only has weekends off, and she is always in a hurry every time she comes back. So some of the people in the team who used to get along well with each other want to meet and talk during these two days.

The two girls who came were from the village - or rather, they were both mothers of children who had a good relationship with Gu Xiaoxia in the past, one was Qin Hongyan and the other was Ning Yonghong. They were about the same age as Gu Xiaoxia and went to middle school with her, and of course there was Wu Shufen.

"Shufen also came back with the child today." Ning Yonghong said to Gu Xiaoxia while sitting on the bed and watching Mingming and Haohao playing.

She gave birth to a daughter the year before last and wanted a son, but according to family planning regulations, if a first child is a daughter in the rural area, one has to wait two years if they want to have another one.

So I really envy Gu Xiaoxia, she has only had two sons in her life!
Gu Xiaoxia was also curious about Wu Shufen's situation. At this time, Li Long had already gone to the kitchen to help Gu Boyuan with his work. It was boring for men to stay alone while women chatted.

"Her husband brought her here on a bicycle, but you are not like that. You ride in a car and you are a state official." Qin Hongyan was even more envious. Who would have thought that the young people who dug the canal together back then would become like this now?

Gu Xiaoxia smiled after hearing this. She had heard this many times and knew how to respond. It has its own advantages. If you say something that is not true, others will think you are too fake. If you believe others' flattery and become more proud, others will say you are too arrogant. It is better not to reply.

Qin Hongyan and Ning Yonghong just came to chat, and when it was almost time for dinner, they left in a hurry. They were married to young men in the team, so they were in the team when they returned to their parents' home today, and they even lived in the same residential area as Gu Boyuan, so they came together and left together.

After leaving the Gu family courtyard, the two of them didn't talk much. They felt more and more that they were far apart from Gu Xiaoxia, and now it was hard for them to even talk to each other.

They also have their own reluctance. Obviously, everyone is similar, why is the difference so big now? Gu Xiaoxia's world is the entire county, and it may even be further in the future, while their world may be fixed in this village.

"Wu Shufen should know that Xiaoxia is back, right? She might be feeling even worse today?" Ning Yonghong suddenly said, "Originally, all this..."

Qin Hongyan was stunned for a moment, and suddenly felt not so uncomfortable anymore.

Yes, if there is anyone who is most uncomfortable seeing Gu Xiaoxia's current situation, it can only be Wu Shufen, right? Originally, all of this should have been hers, but she gave it up on her own.

He and Ning Yonghong didn't have that chance at all, but she clearly had that chance!
The two women smiled at each other, and then went home separately, even their steps became lighter. (End of this chapter)