Rebirth of Bayi Fishing and Hunting in the Northwest

After driving back to the hotel, Li Long helped Li Xiangqian into the room. Li Xiangqian went to the bathroom and vomited by digging his throat. After vomiting, he washed his face and went back to the room to sleep.

The waiter had no complaints. This kind of situation was not uncommon at that time and he was used to it.

This is still good, as there is no trouble. If there are some who get drunk and cause trouble, we will have to ask the conference organizers to come over, otherwise the waiters will not be able to control these people.

Living in the same room with Li Xiangqian, Li Long originally thought that Li Xiangqian might make some noise after drinking too much, but he did not expect that Li Xiangqian would just lie down on the bed and fall asleep. Apart from his loud snoring, there was nothing wrong with him.

Okay.

Li Long has a good sleep quality. He was tired today and fell asleep immediately. When he woke up, it was already dawn.

Li Xiangqian hadn't woken up yet, so Li Long put on his clothes and went out to wash up quietly.

This is not a good thing about northern Xinjiang. In May and June, it was already dawn, but when you looked at the time, it was only six or seven o'clock - you went to bed at one o'clock in the morning, so how many hours of sleep did you get?
But when the day breaks, it’s easy for people to wake up.

There was already some movement in the corridor, and many people were washing up in the bathroom. There were no bathrooms in the hotel rooms at this time, so going to the toilet and washing up were all done in a special room.

There were three or four people in the bathroom, washing their faces and brushing their teeth. Some had brought their own washing utensils and washed their faces there, while others simply came over to wash their faces under the faucet, then tilted their heads to get some water in their mouths and rinsed their mouths.

Some spoke Chinese and some spoke national languages, and it was quite lively for a while.

In other words, various life habits can be seen here as well.

Li Long was washing when someone came up to him and asked him:
"Young man, which unit are you from? Are you here to attend the meeting with your leader?"

Li Long turned his head and took a look. The person who spoke was a half-shelled man in his fifties with a slicked-back hair. He looked very experienced and had a smile on his face. However, Li Long had seen countless people and could see through the human relationships behind the other person's smile. He nodded, spit out the foam in his mouth and said:
"Ah."

He didn't say much. This person gave him a sense of hidden slickness, and Li Long didn't want to have any contact with this person.

Gradually, more people came into the corridor. Some who knew each other started chatting directly, and some, like this middle-aged man, began to make new friends.

It's similar to what happened decades later. At a new party, there are always some people who are good at socializing and can quickly make a lot of new friends, while some people are mavericks who don't care about socializing at all - maybe they don't understand or don't want to. Most of them are centrists who just follow the crowd.

After Li Long finished washing, the middle-aged man had found a new person to chat with. He was talking to a man from the three eastern counties. His Mandarin was obviously tinged with Lanyin official language. It was probably the first time for that man to attend a state meeting, so he was a little reserved. The middle-aged slick man showed his knowledge intentionally or unintentionally in his words, and at the same time, he was also trying to find out the other person's background.

Li Long ignored all this and returned to the room carrying the basin of toiletries.

Li Xiangqian opened his eyes, and after seeing Li Long, he closed them again. After a while, he opened them again and slowly sat up.

"Oh, drinking is really uncomfortable." Li Xiangqian laughed at himself as he put on his clothes, "I can't get rid of it."

Li Long recalled an old wine with a history of 20 to 30 years that he accidentally bought in later life. After drinking the wine, he had no adverse reactions the next day. It seemed to be the last batch of wine brewed using the solid-state method.

After 1992, the state stipulated that liquid brewing met the standards, and many wineries used this method. The grain output in northern Xinjiang is large, and many wineries in the counties still use the original method to brew wine.

At that time, the famous "Yili Laojiao" had not yet come out. All the factories in the Yili River Valley had a history of producing "Yili Laojiao", but they added their own logos to the brand. For example, there was Yili (Double Happiness) Laojiao in Tekes.

This wine is twenty-seven or twenty-eight years old. It has turned yellow, but it still tastes good.

Li Long thought that there was a cellar in his large yard, so he could store some wine there for thirty or forty years. It would surely taste good when he took it out and drank it later.

After all, at that time, a bottle of 20-year-old Kui or Tun Tequ cost thousands of dollars, but now you can buy it for just a few cents.

While Li Long was in a trance, Li Xiangqian had already taken the basin to wash his face. There was a small bag in his black bag, which contained the toiletries he brought with him.

Li Long opened the window and got some fresh air - there was still a smell of alcohol in the room.

The hotel has breakfast. In order to cater to ethnic brothers, the restaurant is divided into two places: Han food and folk food. The word "food" is written in the simplified Chinese character "歺", which looks very modern.

Li Xiangqian went to Han Restaurant, he wanted to drink a bowl of porridge to warm up his stomach and intestines that had been soaked in alcohol. Li Long went to Min Restaurant, he hadn't had milk tea for a while, he planned to eat a piece of naan and drink a bowl of milk tea.

The meals in the restaurant are also quite rich. In addition to milk tea and naan, there are also snacks, honey, jam, ghee, cream and other condiments.

Li Long poured himself some milk tea and took a piece of naan - to his surprise, the naan was still hot as it had just been baked. There were several types of naan, and the one Li Long took was the Kazakh naan, not the thin naan with sesame seeds, which was more like a flatbread.

It is said in later generations that "no complete new naan can be taken home". The main reason is that the freshly baked naan tastes tempting and the aroma of wheat flour is fragrant. Even if you are full, you will still want to grab a piece and take a bite.

Milk tea is made from pure brick tea mixed with milk, not the kind that has a lot of "condiments" added to it in later generations. It has a very mellow taste.

He then took a small plate of honey and jam, a plate of fried potato chips and cold tiger vegetables, and started eating.

At that time, people in the company usually ate together at a table, but now we can have a buffet-style meal like this, which is quite advanced.

When Li Long was eating, a Kazakh man in his forties sat down next to him, also holding a plate in his hand, and said with a smile:

"Friend, don't bother me, okay?"

"Don't bother me, don't bother me." Li Long smiled and said, "Let's have some fun together, Duosen."

"Yes, yes, my friend, Duosen, you can do it!" Hearing Li Long say "Duosen", the uncle's eyes lit up, put down the plate and stretched out his hand: "Duosen, hello, I am the representative of Hu County, my name is Beierxi Bahebai, nice to meet you!"

"My name is Li Long, and I'm from Ma County." Li Long stood up and shook hands with the other person, "Hello, hello."

Bersi Bahebai was very talkative. While eating, he introduced himself as a part-time ethnic and religious affairs officer in Dafeng, mainly engaged in ethnic and religious work.

Dafeng in Hu County borders Ma County, which is very close. Li Long doesn't know much about it, but he knows the name of the place. In his previous life, some young people from the village went there to contract land and grow cotton, saying that it was not bad.

Huhu County and Ma County are brother counties, and both have suffered "special treatment" from Beiting Prefecture, so Li Long still has a good impression of his friends in Huhu County.

Moreover, this Bersi Bahebai was very particular about eating. He would not talk until he had finished eating. When he talked, he would not face other people or other people's tableware. He would not spit out residue or foam from his mouth, which saved Li Long a lot of worry - this worry was not in vain, some people really would not pay attention to this. "Has your state-owned purchasing station in Ma County also been removed?" Bersi asked Li Long a question.

Li Long had finished eating and was about to put away the plate and leave. When asked by Chi Beierxi, he said:
"It's been withdrawn. Should the whole state be withdrawn?"

"Hey, there is a private purchasing station here. A fellow villager here went to sell things, and the price was very low... Let me ask you, I don't know if you know how much you pay for a piece of leather, the yellow sheepskin that is used in winter? I remember that you have a leather factory there, right?"

"Yes. The leather factory charges 50 yuan, right?" Li Long vaguely remembered, "But the leather factory buys in bulk, and won't buy smaller quantities. I have a purchasing station where they charge 50 yuan for whole leather."

"So high? There is no leather factory in our county. We have private purchasing stations and middlemen who buy leather. A hide is only more than 30 yuan!" Bielsi said with emotion.

“That’s a bit low indeed.”

"Do you guys have any Fritillaria? Dosen, I think you're pretty knowledgeable."

"Because of our county, I opened a purchasing station." Li Long said with a smile, "So I know all these prices."

"You opened it? Really? Are you really going to collect it?"

"Of course. As for the Fritillaria, all of it is dry. I charge forty or fifty for the top grade, and for the rest, I charge thirty or twenty depending on the grade and dryness."

"What does special grade mean?"

"It is cleaned very well, without any impurities or residue, and the mother-of-pearl are not particularly small," said Li Long.

"Forty or fifty yuan is fine! The purchasing station here only gives more than 30 yuan... It is lower than the price of the state-owned purchasing station. Some farmers here are really reluctant to buy it, but they have nowhere to sell it."

"You can go to my place." Li Long finally took a sip of tea and rinsed his mouth and said, "My place will definitely not be so low - if you sell it in our county, even if you pay more for shipping, you can make up for the extra money."

"Is it really okay? You're not lying to me?" Bielsey asked for confirmation.

"I'm not lying to you. I'm here to attend this meeting. We all have status. Do I dare to use this to deceive others? No way." Li Long smiled and said, "Go to Ma County and ask about the yard of the old purchasing station. My new purchasing station is in that yard."

After saying that, Li Long left.

Bielxi talked a lot, so he ate slowly. After Li Long left, he continued to think about this problem until someone reminded him that the meeting was about to start, and then he hurriedly finished his meal and left.

During the commendation meeting, Li Long unexpectedly sat with Beierxi again. Before the meeting, Beierxi asked him if it was true, and the prices of other things besides the mother-of-pearl and yellow sheepskin, and wrote them down in a notebook.

Li Long guessed that he should take it back to show those people on their side who could go into the mountains and hunt.

It seems that this matter does have some clues.

Beierxi and Li Long went on stage together to receive the award. This time it was confirmed that what the young man said was true - to be honored by the state, he must be the right person, and he shouldn't be able to lie here, right?
Li Long was not sure whether Bielsi could really lead people to his purchasing station, but it would be good to try to expand the scope of purchasing materials.

Li Xiangqian was no longer drunk. When he was leading the unit to receive the award, he looked very high-spirited and smiled the whole time. Even his hairstyle that didn't quite match his look didn't seem so eye-catching at that moment.

The commendation meeting at that time was not that long, and the leader’s speech was very concise. After the meeting, some people went back directly, and the hotel would provide them with a lunch.

Li Long wanted to go to Director Qian's house for dinner, and Li Xiangqian wanted to have a drink with his old colleagues, so the two of them went their separate ways.

Li Long went around and found a food store to buy some fruit. There was not much fruit available at the moment. The only fruits available were old apples and thick-skinned oranges. At that time, cold storage technology was not popular, so the fruit from the previous year could not be preserved. If you wanted to eat fruit in a place where there was no fruit, you could only eat it in cans.

Although there are fewer varieties, it is the capital of the state after all, better than Ma County, and the apples and oranges look pretty good.

Li Long bought two kilograms of each and carried them to Director Qian's house.

Director Qian had already finished get off work and came to open the door when he heard the knock. Sister Guan was cooking in the kitchen wearing an apron. When she saw Li Long come in, she smiled and greeted him and continued to work.

"What are you carrying? We have everything we need at home." Director Qian criticized Li Long and asked him to put the fruit down.

"I can't come here empty-handed..." Li Long smiled, put down the fruit and sat on the sofa.

The aroma of rice was already spreading, and there was already a dish of fried eggs with chili peppers on the table - this dish was quite common these days. It was not as easy to get eggs in the city as in the countryside, but of course, with Director Qian's position, there was almost nothing missing, and Li Long guessed that one of them might like to eat it.

The rice is steamed in an electric rice cooker - this thing has only been passed down from childhood, and Director Qian's family already has it. It really is true that status determines the standard of living.

Li Long could smell that Sister Guan was frying twice-cooked pork, and it tasted good.

Director Qian asked Li Long about his recent situation. He revealed that the number of brooms might increase this year and asked Li Long if he could handle it.

"That's no problem. To be honest, the quantity in the past two years is far from reaching the production saturation level in our area. The quantity of Achnatherum splendens in our county is also huge. Every year, I lead two villages to do this big broom, which really makes many people earn money."

"In the short term, the price of brooms will not change much. If the quantity can be increased, it will also help you. Your idea is right. If you bring more villages together, more people can make money, which will also be good for your development."

Director Qian could see Li Long's determination not to join the staff, so he didn't mention this matter, but talked about work and then hunting.

Li Long mentioned the two bears, one big and one small, that he encountered when he was renovating the winter den. Director Qian was still very yearning after hearing this. He also said:
"You were right not to hunt this. A mother bear and her cubs, this combination is better not to be hunted. Hunting is a hobby for us, but we still have to maintain the basic bottom line..."

Li Long felt ashamed that he had never cared about these things before.

Sister Guan served the twice-cooked pork, some stir-fried bean sprouts, and a dish of vermicelli and spinach salad, which was complete.

"Xiaolong, come on, don't be polite, help me carry the bowl, let's eat."

Li Long was naturally not polite. He could feel the sincerity of the two people. If he was polite, he would be letting down their kindness.

It smells delicious. (End of this chapter)