Rebirth of Bayi Fishing and Hunting in the Northwest

Chapter 963 What I Wish For Came True: The Acquisition Station Belonged to Me

During dinner, Li Long recounted what had happened that day and explained his decision.

“Yes, it’s time to put the road repair on the agenda.” Gu Boyuan slurped up a mouthful of porridge and said, “Xiaolong, with this national-level advanced individual title, just looking at those few courtyards in Yanjing, you’ve already benefited greatly.”

"So many people come here to sell things every day, isn't it all because of your reputation? Now that we have this reputation, and have made money and benefited from it, we have to get things going."

“Yes, that’s right,” Li Long said. “I think we’ve finished most of the work in the fields these past two days, so let’s go to Qingshui River and gather some people to start building roads into the mountains.”

“I think so too. Actually, now that my colleagues at work know about this, some of them have been asking me if I’m still going to continue road repairs in the mountains. I said I definitely will, but I didn’t say when. Everyone is quite concerned about your road repair work.”

It's understandable, considering that it's not easy for someone from Ma County to receive national recognition, so it's natural that people would pay attention.

That's settled then. Li Long plans to buy some supplies tomorrow. The tractor will be more useful for the first part of the road into the mountains. In addition, manpower will be needed to cut down trees—this part of the road is relatively flat, but there are many trees on both sides of the road, which will affect the progress of the small four-wheeled tractor.

Therefore, cutting down trees is the most important task in the initial stage.

Li Long needed to buy axe, rope, and other supplies. Of course, the wood could still be hauled out after it was chopped down.

Although he was a part-time forest ranger, he still had to report to the forestry team about road repairs and tree felling.

Li Long thought that he hadn't been to the forestry team for a while, and there should be quite a lot of supplies stored up there. So he decided to buy the supplies tomorrow, hire a big truck, go directly to the forestry team's post, deliver some things to them, and also collect their inventory.

Li Long hadn't seen Polati and Airi for a long time and wondered how they were doing. Because he wasn't doing any more troupe work and had been busy with other things lately, Li Long hadn't been to the mountains for a while.

I really miss it.

The next day, after breakfast, Li Long drove his jeep to a hardware store to buy the items, and then went to the county transportation company to hire a vehicle.

They knew the area well and found a car. After making arrangements and paying, the driver took his apprentice and followed Li Long to buy some supplies and put them on the truck before heading to the forestry team.

The forestry team's post was relatively quiet at this time of year because most of the staff had gone out to patrol the forest.

When Li Long arrived, Ellie was talking to two rangers. When he saw Li Long's jeep, he was even more excited than Li Long.

"Adasi, Comrade Li Long, you've finally arrived!" After Li Long got out of the car, Eli gave him a big hug. "If you hadn't come, our warehouse really wouldn't have been able to hold any more!"

"I've been a bit busy lately..." Li Long hurriedly explained.

“I know, I know,” Airi said with a smile. “You went to Yanjing for a meeting and received an award! We’ve all learned about your deeds, and to be honest, it really moved us—our leader said you’re the best among our forest rangers!”

He gave Li Long a thumbs-up, gestured, and then said seriously, "Very good, very good! Excellent!"

Li Long smiled somewhat embarrassedly. Although he had heard many compliments these past few days, he still felt a little ashamed today.

“We’ve had fritillaria bulbs in our warehouse since April, and we’ve had people coming to buy them. But, since we’re family, we’ve always thought we’d sell them to you!”

Li Long was somewhat moved. To be honest, even without looking, Li Long knew that filling the forestry team's warehouse meant that the contents were worth at least tens of thousands of yuan.

When someone came to Ellie wanting to buy these things, the price naturally wouldn't be low.

But Ellie didn't sell out because of his reputation and their friendship, which already puts him ahead of many others.

"Come, come, I've also bought some supplies for you: food, cooking oil, water, and some meat. They're from a legitimate butcher shop, so you can eat with confidence."

"Hehehe, thank you so much!" Ellie said with a smile. "Don't worry, I'll give you a discount when we settle the bill later."

Airi called the two rangers over to help. He opened the warehouse, and Li Long smelled a strong, mixed odor.

"Come, come, look! This is fritillaria bulb, this is animal hide, and these are roe deer antlers. Oh, and I know you also want deer penis; here are a few dried ones..."

Airi proudly showed off the forestry team's spoils.

There were dozens of bags of various sizes, but they were mostly not full. Li Long went over to take a look, and sure enough, as he had thought, the fritillaria bulbs had not been washed.

“Don’t worry, I’ll have someone take the fritillaria out to dry every now and then, so it doesn’t get moldy like last year. After all, these things can be sold for money,” Airi said, clearly showing he had made progress.

"These fritillaria bulbs have a lot of impurities and haven't been cleaned, so the purchase price won't be very high," Li Long said.

"Don't worry, we know. Just name your price, and that's what we'll pay."

“It’s too much trouble to calculate by the sackful. Let’s agree on a fixed price.” Li Long assessed the impurities in the fritillaria bulbs and said, “Dried ones are twenty yuan per kilogram, and less dried ones are ten yuan each, how about that?”

“Okay, don’t worry, they’re all dry. Although they weren’t washed or sorted, we dried them after we brought them in,” Airi said. “Then let’s weigh them?”

"it is good."

After weighing the fritillaria bulbs, they totaled over 1,200 kilograms. Airi rounded it down to 1,200 kilograms, which amounted to 24,000 yuan.

Ellie also generously packed up the other items and gave them to Li Long, totaling a round number of 30,000 yuan.

Then they had people load the goods onto the truck. After it was loaded, Ai Li wanted Li Long to stay for dinner, but Li Long said he was in a hurry to go back and unload the goods so he could organize people to go into the mountains to repair the road. So Ai Li didn't ask him to stay.

"Captain Airi, some trees will be cut down during road construction. I'm just letting you know. Do you need to bring those cut trees over here?"

“No need, no need.” Airi, who was already the captain, waved his hand and said, “As long as it’s related to road construction, you can do whatever you want in the mountains. We can’t even count how many trees are felled by the wind every year. What’s a few trees cut down for road construction? Just do your job. If you need any support from us, just have Pola come and tell me when she comes.”

This was done so quickly that Li Long was almost embarrassed.

He figured that since the forestry team didn't want the timber, he'd see what to do with it when he brought it back.

After returning from the forestry team's post, the jeep and truck unloaded the supplies at the purchasing station, and Gu Boyuan told Li Long something.

"Someone from the county's housing management department came and said that, according to the county's policy, this courtyard can be sold directly to you. The rent for the remaining years can be discounted into the purchase price. They told you to come and complete the formalities when you have time." Li Long thought to himself that this must be the support provided by the county. This was great news! It was like his wish had come true!
After unloading the fritillaria bulbs and skins, Li Long didn't have time to clean the fritillaria bulbs. After lunch, he went to take care of the yard matters when he went to work in the afternoon.

The staff were very enthusiastic and proactively processed the property certificate for Li Long, and also clearly calculated the price. This recycling station has such a large yard, and they only charged Li Long 2,000 yuan, plus refunded some of the rent he had previously paid, so the actual amount was just over 1,000 yuan.

This is such a great deal!
This yard is even bigger than the one I live in!
Li Long was naturally happy to accept this. After all, a lot of the money he earned was invested in road construction, so it was normal to reap some rewards for his efforts.

Holding the new property certificate, Li Long happily returned home, put it away, and continued preparing for his trip into the mountains.

The fritillaria bulbs brought back from the forestry team needed to be cleaned, so Li Long went to ask Sun Jiaqiang if his wife, Tielanhua, could come and clean the fritillaria bulbs for five yuan a day since she was pregnant and couldn't go out to work as a middleman anymore.

Sun Jiaqiang was naturally happy to accept, as five yuan a day was quite a lot!

Li Long naturally took care of the couple. Sun Jiaqiang worked very hard all day long, so Li Long gave Tielanhua the five yuan as a bonus for them. As for whether pregnant women could work, this was not the case in later generations. Even in later generations, some pregnant women were still working when they were close to giving birth.

At this time, there were quite a few children being born in the fields and at home. After hearing Sun Jiaqiang's words, Tielanhua immediately said that she was capable.

Li Long made it clear that he should take it easy and not overwork himself, as the work itself was not too strenuous and there was a well in the backyard, so he didn't need to wash too much each time.

Li Long has already reminded him of these things, so there's no need for him to worry about anything else.

After settling things down here, Li Long gave Gu Boyuan another 50,000 yuan as working capital. Only then did he feel at ease enough to drive his Jeep to Qingshuihe Village the next day.

Meng Hai was maintaining the Dongfanghong 75 tractor in the yard. When Li Long arrived, he was greasing the machine.

Upon seeing Li Long's jeep arrive, Meng Hai hurriedly stopped what he was doing, put down the grease gun, and came over to greet it.

The grease gun is somewhat similar to the tool used for applying silicone sealant in modern home renovations; it also dispenses grease by squeezing.

"Comrade Li Long, my hands are covered in oil, so I won't shake your hand. Are you getting ready to go into the mountains to start work?"

"Yes. How many people can you gather in your village to do the work right now?" Li Long asked. "I thought there would be less farm work recently, so I'll just keep doing it for now. There will be less work to do as the road is repaired."

"Twenty or thirty people is no problem," Meng Hai said confidently. "More would be fine too, but we might need to recruit some women."

"Then let's have twenty-five people," Li Long said after doing some calculations. "The herders have already gone to their summer pastures, so those of us going into the mountains will have to bring our own food."

“No problem,” Meng Hai said with a smile. “We treated them so well before that the people in our village were embarrassed to accept their wages. It’s normal to bring your own food. Otherwise, is it really that easy to earn eight yuan? I’ve told them about it, and everyone knows it.”

"Then let's gather the people, go into the mountains today, and then work for a while."

“Okay.” Meng Hai picked up a piece of tattered cotton from beside the tractor, wiped the grease off his hands, and said, “I’m going to the team leader’s house now to use the loudspeaker to gather everyone, and then we’ll set off.”

Li Long drove Meng Hai to He Yuqing's house in his jeep. He Yuqing was also home. When he saw Li Long coming, he hurriedly invited him into the house and poured him some tea.

Meng Hai explained the situation, and He Yuqing then turned on the loudspeaker to have him call for help, while she and Li Long discussed the work.

"To be honest, if I didn't have things to do in the village, I would have liked to go too," He Yuqing said with a smile. "Eight yuan a day, that's a lot of money!"

"You should stay and oversee the village," Li Long joked. "The village can't do without you, no matter who else is in need."

"Comrade Li Long is really joking." He Yuqing shook his head. "Village chief sounds nice, but it's just a title that's trapped me. Now I'm quite envious of Lao Meng."

Meng Hai had already started making announcements, and Li Long could hear shouts coming from the village. Then, people began to tidy up.

Meng Hai announced the end of the call three times, then chatted with He Yuqing for a few words. Due to time constraints, they didn't talk much more and returned to Meng Hai's house.

By this time, some people were already waiting in the yard with their tools.

Meng Hai wanted to drive the tractor, so he handed the small four-wheeled tractor to another person. After waiting for more than ten minutes, more than twenty people arrived. Meng Hai then called for people to get on the tractor. Some people sat in the cab of the 75 tractor on Meng Hai's side. They squeezed in, and Li Long's jeep also picked up two people. They all went into the mountains together.

The jeep and the small four-wheeled tractor drove faster, while the Dongfanghong 75 tractor drove slower. When Li Long and the small four-wheeled tractor reached the intersection leading to Xiacaochang, the Dongfanghong 75 had not yet arrived.

Li Long then began assigning tasks to these people.

Two familiar faces were chosen as temporary team leaders. One led a group to cut down all the trees along the designated road, cutting them as close to the ground as possible. The other led a group to drag the felled trees together with tools such as shovels and pickaxes, tied them with ropes, and waited for the tractor to arrive. They would then use a bulldozer to widen the roadbed.

Everyone immediately got to work with great enthusiasm.

Li Long focused his attention on the people cutting down trees—most of the trees that needed to be cut down were not very thick, so there was no danger in cutting them down. Occasionally, there were trees that were too thick, so Li Long would plan to turn the road around to make way for the big trees and avoid injuring people when cutting down trees.

The workers naturally had no objection to Li Long's decision. After all, Li Long was the host, and they would do whatever he told them to do.

Suddenly someone shouted from ahead:

"Wild boars! A herd of wild boars!"

Li Long was startled and immediately ran in the opposite direction!

Most people looked toward the sound of the shout, but Li Long's action was quite eye-catching.

Some people were even thinking, "Isn't this young Li a coward? He just shouted 'wild boar,' so what? How could that scare him so much that he ran back?"
It wasn't until Li Long ran to the jeep, took a semi-automatic rifle from it, and strode forward that these people realized:

It turns out Li Long went to get a gun to hunt wild boars!

Some of these people got excited, hoping that Li Long could catch one or two heads so they could have an extra meal at noon!
After all, each of them carried real steamed buns, steamed buns, and other dry rations, which weren't exactly delicious!

Li Long was tall and had long strides, so he quickly caught up to the source of the shout and then followed the person who had shouted into the mountains!

(End of this chapter)