Rebirth of Bayi Fishing and Hunting in the Northwest

Chapter 1235 Zhao Hui wants precious hides, which are hard to find.
At Meng Hai’s house, there is a small four-wheeled tractor, a Dongfanghong 75 tractor, and a GAZ-69 jeep that he bought from Li Long.

The trucks, excavators, and loaders that Li Long invested in when the company was founded are currently parked in the yard of the recycling station. Since the company mainly takes on jobs near the county town, driving from Qingshuihe would be inconvenient, so they're stored at the recycling station for future use.

Who can blame them when the purchasing station has such a large yard?

Meng Hai's yard is actually not small, but after putting in the small four-wheeled tractor and the GAZ-69 truck, there is not much space left. The Dongfanghong 75 tractor can only be parked on the roadside outside the yard gate.

Although there were many things in the yard, they were neatly stacked. There was a coal shed further inside, with five or six tons of coal piled up inside. Meng Hai's wife was squatting next to the coal pile, breaking up large chunks of coal.

Seeing Li Long's car pull up to the gate, she quickly got up, carried a piece of coal to the door, greeted Li Long after he and the others got out of the car, and then went to the kitchen to add coal to the stove.

"Come in, come in," Meng Hai said. "Come in and warm up. I have something to ask you."

"What do you mean by 'asking for instructions'? We're all shareholders, that's called discussing it," Li Long said with a smile. "Don't try to put me on a pedestal."

"Hehe, it's not the same, it's not the same. We all know that you are the boss. We say we are shareholders, but in reality, without you, how could we be workers and make money now?"

From the very beginning, when Meng Hai was making the big broom, he always maintained a humble attitude towards Li Long. He would give Li Long gifts during holidays. Although he was older than Li Long, he always respected this capable young man.

After entering the house, taking off his coat, and sitting down, Li Long took the teacup Meng Hai handed him, took a sip, and asked:
"how are things?"

"Hibernating in winter. In the past, we could go out and hunt something in winter, but this year there are fewer wild boars and no wolves. The animal protection law has been issued, and the township officials come over from time to time to tell people not to hunt protected animals. In winter, we can only break ice holes to catch fish and occasionally catch a rabbit."

I heard rabbits are now protected animals. What's there to protect? There are already so many of them. In winter, they dig through the snow, eat wheat seedlings, and gnaw on alfalfa roots. If you protect them and don't let anyone hunt them, won't they become a plague in the summer?

Li Long smiled but offered no comment. Regardless of the motives, the Animal Protection Law has been implemented. Although its implementation in the Northwest frontier came a little later, it was bound to be implemented eventually, so whether it would cause a disaster or not, we'll see later.

He has a legal status, so it's not appropriate for him to say things that are against the law.

After chatting for a while about children's schooling and the future development of the company, Meng Hai shared his thoughts:

"Comrade Li Long, I think it's necessary for our company to establish a foothold in the county, whether it's a storefront or a yard. That way, it will be easier to get jobs in the county."

Although we mostly stay in the village, we'll inevitably be taking on jobs in the county in the future. If there's a possibility of expanding outwards, we might go to even more distant places. Staying in Qingshui all the time isn't conducive to future development.

Li Long smiled:

“Old Meng, you’re right. We do need to set up a company headquarters in the county. We also need to keep an eye on things there during the spring, summer and autumn. Otherwise, if we have no one to help us when jobs come up, it will be a problem.”

Running a company requires the proper conduct of running a company. Although Li Long has amassed a considerable fortune, he is still only a novice in this area, relying entirely on his personal intuition.

If Meng Hai hadn't reminded him, he might not have realized the problem until next year—of course, he could have made excuses, saying he had too many things to do.

“Okay, you agree, then I can get started. In a few days when we go out to run errands, we’ll look for a place to live,” Meng Hai said with a smile. “We’re planning to find a big yard so we can fit all the company equipment inside.”

"Is this too much trouble? Should I go to the housing management department to look for it?" Li Long asked.

"No need, no need. Actually, if you don't go into the mountains, I plan to come down in a couple of days to talk to you about this. If you agree, we'll find the courtyard."

"Alright, then I'll leave it to you." Li Long was completely prepared to be a hands-off manager; he would only need to look at some things occasionally, and he trusted Meng Hai's character.

This construction company was just a casual venture; it would be best if it made a profit.

His main business is still running a purchasing station. Or rather, Li Long's current industrial layout has exceeded his own understanding and he can't keep up with it. As for those other businesses, he's just letting them develop on their own.

From afar, it resembles the storefront of a market; up close, it resembles this construction company.

After chatting with Meng Hai for a while, Li Long was about to leave when Meng Hai invited him to stay for dinner. Li Long declined a few times, but then stayed for a "half-dinner" meal. At this time, the sun had not yet set, and most people did not eat dinner.

Stewed fish, stir-fried chicken, stir-fried pickled vegetables.

Although there were only three dishes, the first two were served in bowls.

Because Li Long was driving, and Meng Hai knew his habit of not drinking, the meal was eaten relatively quickly.

When he left, Meng Hai put a basin of peeled river fish and a chicken in the car and told Li Long to take them back to eat.

"I caught the fish this morning by breaking through the ice. Now that it's winter and I have nothing else to do, this is the only thing I can do when I'm bored."

Li Long didn't refuse. He said goodbye to Meng Hai and his wife, and drove away from Qingshuihe towards the county town.

Seeing the fish and chicken that Li Long brought back, Gu Xiaoxia knew that Meng Hai must have brought them. She smiled and said:

"Old Meng is being too kind. We can't keep taking things from him, can we? Let's see if there's anything we can do to help. Also, should we send him some things from home, like beef jerky?"

“Sure, he’ll be coming to the county in a few days on business. I’ll bring him some then,” Li Long said, taking the fish and chicken out of the car and putting them in the kitchen.

Gu Xiaoxia thought for a moment and said, "I'll go to the department store tomorrow at noon to buy a new schoolbag and a set of stationery for him, so his child can use it."

“This is good.” Li Long smiled. “Adults might refuse to give gifts, but it’s a different story when it comes to children.”

The matter was settled like that.

The next day at noon, Gu Xiaoxia came home a little late from get off work, carrying a schoolbag containing a new pencil case, a fountain pen, pencils, an eraser, a ruler, and a notebook.

"Not bad, not bad, quite pretty." Li Long took the items and looked at them. "The Meng family's kids will definitely like them."

He put the things in his car, intending to wait for Meng Hai to come and give them to him.

After dinner, Li Long and his son Li Qingxia drove to the purchasing station together, talking about Zhao Hui's upcoming visit.

Zhao Hui called in the morning, saying he had arrived in Wucheng and asked Li Long how many hides he had.

Li Long said there were tens of thousands of hides. Zhao Hui was startled and then said he would make some preparations and plan to hire a few vehicles from Wucheng to transport the hides back to Wucheng.

According to Zhao Hui's plan, he would drive over this afternoon, load the leather onto the truck, stay here for the night, and then take the truck to Wucheng early tomorrow morning. Once there, he would unload the truck and load the leather there, which would not waste any time.

After dropping his father off at the recycling station, Li Long drove his GAZ truck to the casual labor market.

He was just trying his luck. Tens of thousands of hides—the few people at the purchasing station couldn't possibly pack them all in an afternoon.

He didn't think the truck drivers would help load the trucks.

Being a driver is still a lucrative and easy job. Why would you make them do manual labor?

Basically, no way.

Back then, things weren't as complicated as they are in later generations. Most drivers had a high opinion of themselves and looked down on that little bit of money.

The gig economy had largely collapsed by then, with only four or five people still persisting.

As soon as Li Long's car arrived, these people immediately surrounded him. Li Long noticed that one of the thin, middle-aged men was shivering from the cold.

"Want to buy a hundred leather pieces for 50 cents?" Li Long asked.

"I can pretend, I can pretend!" the strongest man shouted, grabbing Li Long's arm. "Shall we go now?"

“I’m one!” another retorted.

Leather work is easy; a hundred hides might weigh less than fifty kilograms, and the money is easy to earn!

The thin man was pushed to the outside. He was shivering from the cold and his words were not very fluent. Seeing that everyone else was able to get things done, he was so anxious that he almost cried.

"Come on, come on, there's plenty of leather, get in the car quickly!" Li Long called out. "Everyone, get in!"

"Hey! Big job!" The strongest one was excited. He looked at the car, went around to the back, opened the door, and climbed in. "Come on, get in! Hurry up!"

The thin, middle-aged man moved his lips gratefully and whispered "thank you" to Li Long before going to the back to get into the car.

Li Long guessed this person was a novice; they didn't look like someone who did heavy work. After everyone got on the bus, he went to the back to close the door and drove back to the purchasing station.

The leather in the warehouse was bundled in groups of one hundred. Before Zhao Hui arrived, Li Long told the others to rest and warm themselves by the fire.

"Boss, when do we start working? We're not cold," the strongest man asked Li Long, worried about not earning enough money.

"The truck will be here soon. You can move the leather from the warehouse to the truck then," Li Long explained. "Don't rush. It's warmer now, so it'll be easier to get to work."

"Then... will the car be able to come?" Someone was clearly worried.

"Don't worry, even if the car doesn't come, we'll compensate each person one yuan, okay?" Li Long said with a smile, "It won't stop you from making money."

To divert their attention, Li Long started chatting with them, asking them what they used to do.

Three of them are locals, living nearby in a suburban area. Because of the scarcity of land and limited other income, they have no choice but to work outside the village to supplement their family income.

Another one is from Gansu Province. He doesn't want to go home in the winter, so he stays with his relatives here. He said that going back would be worse than staying here, so he might as well work here. He plans to stay until the Chinese New Year and then go back home for a few days before returning.

Once everyone started talking, the topic shifted, and the atmosphere became lively.

The last to speak was the thin, middle-aged man. He gave a wry smile and said:
“I’m a teacher at the village primary school. Because the village primary school was merged into the brigade in September, I lost my job. After teaching for a few years, I was not used to going back to farming. The harvest at home was not good, so I thought I would come out to do some work.”

"Your physique is fine for teaching, but not for heavy physical labor." Upon hearing that he used to be a teacher, the others' impression of him improved considerably. The strongest of them spoke up, "Find an easier job. This kind of odd job... you can't handle it."

"Where can you find an easy job?" the middle-aged man sighed. "I've looked, but it's really hard to find work these days."

The others mostly had expressions of helplessness.

If they could find good work, they would do it themselves. Why would they need to wait for odd jobs in the freezing cold?

Seeing that the atmosphere was a bit off, Li Long smiled and said:

"Look what you've been waiting for. I have over ten thousand pieces of leather here. If you split it among yourselves, each of you can probably carry two or three thousand pieces, right? Two or three thousand pieces is about ten yuan, which isn't bad."

Hearing Li Long say this, the others became happy and began to discuss how long it would take to pack all 10,000-plus hides.

Li Long quietly asked the thin, middle-aged man, "What do you teach at the school?"

“Mathematics, elementary school mathematics. I went to high school, but I didn’t graduate in my third year… then the movement came, and I didn’t finish.” The middle-aged man said, “Sigh.”

"I remember there was a teacher recruitment exam later, why didn't you take it? I know some junior high school graduates took it." Li Long was a little surprised.

"Sigh, what can I do? When the township announced the exam, my family member got sick, and I went back to my hometown, so I missed it... The second time I took the exam, my child had a high fever. This summer, the village school was disbanded, and there was another chance to take the exam, but I got sick again... Sigh!"

Li Long was both amused and exasperated. He had missed all three opportunities; it was safe to say that this guy's luck had really run out.

He asked with some doubt:

"I remember the other village schools were all dissolved and merged a long time ago?"

"Our village is large, and there are many ethnic minority students, so we were disbanded later," the man explained.

Li Long made a note of this middle-aged man named Xia Minghai.

The sounds of car engines and horns came from outside, and everyone immediately stood up.

"Shuangcheng, come over here and keep count for them. Also, have them put each bundle of hide in place next to the truck. Jiaqiang, you stay in the warehouse and show them how to move it," Li Long shouted into the warehouse.

These people were about to leave when Li Long hurriedly said:

"Wait, wait a minute. I need to inspect these leathers with the owner. Can you wait a bit?"

"Yes, yes, yes." They finally got a job, so waiting half an hour was nothing to them.

When Li Long came out, Zhao Hui had already gotten off the truck.

"Boss Zhao, I'm so glad you've finally arrived. If you hadn't come soon, my warehouse wouldn't have been able to hold any more." Li Long joked, "I've tied up too much money in these leathers."

"Haha, I'm here to give you money, aren't I?" Zhao Hui followed Li Long into the meeting room. The day laborers had already gone to the warehouse to prepare to move the leather.

Zhao Hui drank a cup of tea to warm himself up, then led his men to follow Li Long to the warehouse to inspect the hides.

“One hundred and one bundle, all packed.” Li Long said, pointing to the hides. “The left side is full hides, 3,227 in total, and the right side is damaged hides, 8,871 in total.” Li Long knew these numbers very well. He hadn’t handled every single hide, but he was at least present when they were being cleaned and packed.

"Not bad, not bad." Zhao Hui began to lead his men to inspect the hides.

The leather wasn't tied too tightly. These leathers haven't been tanned, so they'll harden after drying. Tying them too tightly would damage the leather.

Zhao Hui did not inspect all the hides; he and his men mainly opened up the hides and conducted random checks.

After inspecting nearly a hundred pieces and finding no problems, Zhao Hui had the leather re-tied up and then ordered his men to load it onto the truck. He and Li Long then returned to the reception room.

"Not a full inspection anymore?" Li Long asked with a smile.

"What kind of relationship do we have? We trust each other enough," Zhao Hui said with a smile. "I've come here this time to ask you something."

Li Long said, "Go ahead."

"Do you have... those precious furs? Snow leopard fur, bear fur, or something even rarer."

“Even rarer furs? Then there’s only tiger skin.” Li Long smiled and said, “You really dare to dream. The furs my friend brought from Kazakhstan are mostly gazelle and antelope skins, with a small amount of red deer skin.”

As for those rare leathers you mentioned, think about it: the Russians love leather goods even more than we do. They sell good leathers at high prices there, so they simply can't be brought over.”

"You knew there was a tiger skin?" Zhao Hui asked.

“The Caspian tiger, they call it that there. Its pelt… is a truly rare find,” Li Long said with a smile. “Even if you had the pelt, how would you buy it?”

"One sheet... twenty thousand!" Zhao Hui held up two fingers. "Is that a reasonable price?"

Li Long was taken aback. He knew very well how valuable tiger skins were, but the price was still beyond his expectations.

“I’ll ask around. There’s none outside, and it’s impossible for the Kazakh side to come over. But I heard that decades ago, the tribal hunters in the southern Xinjiang desert were quite good at hunting them. Back then, there were quite a few tigers in northern Xinjiang, so maybe they could keep their pelts.”

Li Long remembered Yu Sufu's words and said, "However, I can't guarantee anything for you."

"Okay, okay, as long as there's news, that's good. Go and find out... This is very important to me!" Zhao Hui said, grabbing Li Long's arm. "Really, it's very important."

"If it's really that important, it shouldn't be too hard to find a Siberian tiger skin in Northeast China right now, right? Twenty thousand... I think you could probably get one for ten thousand?"

Zhao Hui shook his head with a wry smile:
“I just came back from there a few days ago… or rather, I almost didn’t make it back. Over there… how should I put it, someone like me who went there to buy leather goods, let alone 20,000, might not even be able to buy them for 50,000. And… if you bring too much money, you might really not be able to come back.”

Li Long thought of someone surnamed Qiao.

Is it in the last few years? Or in a few years?
"Then I'll inquire for you, but like I said, I can't guarantee anything. As for the price—we'll talk about it when the leather arrives."

"Don't worry, the price will definitely not be low!" Zhao Hui knew that Li Long had many connections. He also had many people he knew, but to be honest, after asking around, none of them were as good as Li Long.

While the loading of goods began, Zhao Hui and Li Long started calculating the accounts.

This is a lot of money!
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Finally finished coding, time to rest, it hurts.

(End of this chapter)