Rebirth of Bayi Fishing and Hunting in the Northwest

Chapter 1253 Time seemed to be on fast-forward; once the New Year was over, it wouldn't stop.
Although the Li Anguo and Chen Xingbang families had left, the New Year celebrations continued. Gu Xiaoxia started work on the fourth day of the Lunar New Year, while Mingming and Haohao were still staying at their uncle's house, playing endlessly.

As usual, Sister Yang and Han Fang went to the small courtyard in the south to celebrate the New Year. The place was cleaned up and had Han Fang's father's portrait on it.

In fact, Gu Xiaoxia had asked Sister Yang privately if she had ever thought about finding someone else to live with, and Sister Yang shook her head to indicate that she had not considered it.

"Life is pretty good right now. I still make beef jerky. As the women in the workshop say, I'm practically a boss now. I make a lot of money, and I have things to do every day. I don't have many other thoughts."

Gu Xiaoxia then stopped asking questions.

After Li Long gave the small courtyard to Sister Yang, he didn't care about it anymore. Sister Yang would clean it every now and then, and she would stay there for two or three days during the Spring Festival before coming back.

That place seemed to have become Sister Yang and Han Fang's secret base, where they would go from time to time.

On the fourth day of the Lunar New Year, Li Long took Han Fang with him when he went to the fourth team. Han Fang had been wanting to go and play with Li Juan for a while, otherwise she wouldn't have time when school started.

Because Han Fang is taking the entrance exam for a vocational high school this year, and it's her last semester, she needs to work hard. She also wants to hear Li Juan's opinion.

Since Li Juan took the high school entrance exam and scored quite well, it's perfectly fine to ask her for advice.

Starting from the third day of the Lunar New Year, visiting relatives and exchanging New Year's greetings and drinks among villagers became the norm. Several members of the cooperative took turns hosting banquets. Li Long would attend if he was invited, but if he wasn't, he didn't feel anything, since he had already had a round of drinks before the New Year.

As time passed, the smell of gunpowder in the air gradually faded. After the Lantern Festival, Li Juan and Han Fang went back to school one after another. The weather slowly got warmer, and time seemed to be on the fast track, rushing from late winter to early spring.

Although the daytime temperature is still around minus ten degrees Celsius, the sun is getting stronger, and the snow in some places, such as the roadside and around houses, has already melted.

The perceived temperature is still quite cold, but we can reduce the amount of thick clothing we need to wear.

After the Lantern Festival, Gu Boyuan finished tidying up the yard and packing up his belongings. He then handed over the remaining items to Li Long, who had come to help, and drove to Yili.

Li Long meant for him to wait for Liu Gaolou to return together, but Gu Boyuan said he didn't know when Liu Gaolou would be back, as he was still thinking about the acquisition station and needed to get back quickly.

Li Long's cooperative also opened, and Li Qingxia drove to work in the county, resuming her normal life. Li Long also brought Mingming and Haohao back to the county to prepare for the start of school.

Upon returning to the purchasing station, Li Qingxia immediately contacted the agricultural supplies company and arranged for a large quantity of agricultural supplies to be transported there. This was a pre-arranged preparation, as farmers would be coming in large numbers to purchase agricultural supplies in preparation for spring planting.

Liu Gaolou did not return, so Li Long called Horgos, but no one answered.

He wasn't sure if Liu Gaolou had gone straight back without stopping in Ma County, or if he had stayed in his hometown and hadn't come over, so he could only wait.

Because we usually go to the sugar factory to pick up a batch of white sugar every half month or so, but now it has been a long time since we went to pick up any, Section Chief Hu even called to ask about the situation.

Li Long had no choice but to tell them that the people from that side hadn't arrived yet, and they would go to the sugar factory to pick up the sugar when they did.

Although Liu Gaolou didn't come, Li Long knew that the Kazakh Republic would always need sugar, a need that continued until the decade before the 21st century. He vaguely remembered that in the early 2000s, the Northern Xinjiang Daily often featured text advertisements stating that Kazakhstan needed large quantities of sugar and that there were contacts available.

Although Kazakhstan also produces sugar beets, it lacks the industrial process of turning sugar beets into refined sugar.

Light industry is basically lacking.

Therefore, as long as Li Long's purchasing station or trading company has Liu Shanmin as a partner, it will not lack business, and it will not lack business for the next twenty years.

He can keep earning this money until he doesn't want to earn it anymore or wants to earn other kinds of money.

By the end of February, the snow had begun to melt, revealing black, gray, and brown soil in the fields, as well as withered grass and branches that had been covered by snow. Some of the more resilient grasses showed signs of green, the most prominent being dandelions.

The village paths were already muddy, so people tried to stay indoors as much as possible. However, many people were discussing the new asphalt roads that would be built this spring—the team leader said that Li Long had decided to extend the asphalt roads directly into the village, meaning that the main lanes would all be paved with asphalt.

When Xu Chengjun met with the village representatives, he said that since the Li family paid for the road construction, everyone must do a good job in maintenance. Otherwise, when the road is in use, no one will take it seriously, and it will get damaged, dirty, or have other problems. Whoever caused the damage will have to pay for the maintenance themselves.

Getting to school is a little more troublesome for the children, as both their cotton-padded shoes and cloth shoes get soaked by the snowmelt. The four groups of students live three kilometers from the primary school and four kilometers from the middle school, and they can't go home for lunch. So if their shoes get wet on the way to school, they have to endure it all day.

Wearing rubber boots (rain boots) can keep out the rain, but they are single-layered and don't keep out the cold, which is a bit of a hassle.

Those riding bicycles are better off because the road is already gravel. So riding a bicycle will only splash some mud and water, but it won't make it impossible to ride, and your shoes won't get wet. Therefore, on the way to and from school, a relatively large proportion of the children in the fourth team ride bicycles, with older children carrying younger ones, so there are basically no empty bicycles.

After Mingming and Haohao started kindergarten, Li Long finally had a chance to relax, but he didn't stay idle; he had to help out at the purchasing station. Right now, there were fewer people selling things; most were buying agricultural supplies, and people were queuing up.

More people are buying seeds and fertilizers, but fewer are buying pesticides. This is because cotton is not yet widely available, and not all towns are choosing cotton at this time.

At this time, farmers were still in the process of trial and error, planting a variety of cash crops, choosing whichever was profitable and stable.

On the morning of March 1st, Li Long saw Meng Hai and the villagers he had brought to buy agricultural supplies at the purchasing station.

Meng Hai drove a jeep, while the villagers arrived in tractors. You could see that the tractor wheels were covered in mud, and the villagers sitting in the trailers were also covered in mud.

However, everyone was quite happy when they got off the bus, laughing and joking with each other as they scraped off the almost dried mud, leaving behind grayish-white marks.

“The snow has only just started to melt where we are. I didn’t expect it to melt like this in the county. In another two days, I think there will be no snow around the county town.” Meng Hai stood next to Li Long. He didn’t go to buy agricultural supplies—he had already bought them and brought them back when he came here before the New Year.

“Is it cold where you are?” Li Long said. “This year I’m going to repair the road from the township to our team and make it paved with asphalt.”

Meng Hai nodded; he had heard Li Long mention this before.

"We originally planned to have our company take on this job, but we can't fix it right now," Li Long added.

Meng Hai was slightly frustrated; this was a big job.

If the company can take on this 4-kilometer route, it will not only train the team but also make a lot of money.

“We don’t have the technical expertise to repair asphalt roads, but I suggest we send a few people over to learn. Our experienced technicians should know this, but the younger ones lack experience. It would be best if you could come and observe as well,” Li Long explained his idea.
"We'll definitely be taking on road repair jobs in the future, so we need to get used to it in advance."

“Okay.” Meng Hai knew this was a necessary process. He knew he couldn’t take on large projects with just a group of farmers, but he believed that as long as he was willing to learn and continue to invest, he would definitely be able to in the future.

After the villagers had chosen their agricultural supplies, Meng Hai said goodbye to Li Long and took them to buy other things.

Li Long knew that Meng Hai and the others were busy and rarely came down to this place, so he didn't ask them to stay.

After the New Year, time flew by, as if an accelerator button had been pressed, and we transitioned from winter to spring in an instant.

Liu Gaolou finally arrived late, on March 10th, after the ground in the county town had completely dried up.

"I thought you weren't coming." Li Long greeted Liu Gaolou in the reception room, planning to take him out for lunch later.

Liu Gaolou changed his clothes and put on a thick gray suit that looked expensive and fit him well.

“How could I not come?” Liu Gaolou said, looking a little tired. “But to be honest, if my uncle hadn’t urged me, I really wouldn’t have planned to come now. I was thinking of staying there for a while longer.”

"Still staying here? If you stay any longer, it'll be summer soon," Li Long joked. "Did you drive back?"

"No, the car is with a friend in Wucheng. The price I paid was that I had another drinking session with that friend last night, and then I blacked out. You people from northern Xinjiang, your alcohol tolerance is like animals, you drink like water. I'm not putting on airs at all..."

"Listen to yourself, listen to your accent! You're speaking with such a thick Northern Xinjiang accent, people will think you're from Northern Xinjiang. By the way, why don't you want to come back? Is life too good over there?"

“Yes, it’s a haven of gentle comforts,” Liu Gaolou said, rubbing his face. “Think about it, my new home is in the provincial capital. Although it’s not the most advanced city in the country, it’s still much better than a place like Wucheng.”

Shopping is convenient, the city is well-developed, there are many people, and not many accents, plus I have money... When I'm at home, the thought of going back to that remote town of Khorgos makes me feel like I'm being imprisoned..."

"Then just tell your uncle to find someone else, right?" Li Long could understand Liu Gaolou's idea.

After all, once you have a certain level of wealth, and you're not that eager for money, most people living in the provincial capital of Khorgos would be unwilling to move there.

After all, Khorgos was still very small at that time, with very few people.

"I dare not say, my uncle will kill me if I do." Liu Gaolou shook his head. "Besides, I can only think about it. If I were to actually do it, I would be ungrateful."

"Since you're here, don't think too much about it. Just think of it as a way to make your family's life happier. You can go back home a few more times at most. With your abilities, you shouldn't have any problem getting a plane ticket, right? If you miss home, just take a plane back. It only takes half a day."

"I'm afraid to fly, I'm afraid of crashing." Liu Gaolou shook his head. "Forget it, we'll see when the time comes. Since I've taken this job, I have to keep doing it. But you're right. If I really don't want to do it anymore, I can stick it out for another two years and talk to my second uncle. That should work."

Li Long thought to himself, "Wait two years? The Soviet Union will collapse in two years. Your second uncle will be incredibly busy then. You'll have no chance to leave!"

He only thought these words to himself and couldn't bring himself to say them aloud.

“My second uncle told me to bring back fifty tons of sugar when I go back, because there’s a shortage there right now. He’s got his eye on a lot of good stuff, but he doesn’t have any sugar to trade for it. If I hadn’t already arrived here, my second uncle would have brought his own truck over.”

Li Long smiled and said, "So, you're going to find a vehicle from the transportation company here?"

“Yes,” Liu Gaolou said. “It’s alright. You handle the sugar issue, and I’ll contact the transportation company about the trucks.”

"Okay." Li Long thought to himself that Section Chief Hu had called a few days ago, so there was no need to contact the sugar factory at all; he could just go directly there.

Having a telephone is so convenient now; you can just make a call if anything happens. Of course, it would be even more convenient if we could use a mobile phone. It's just a pity that mobile phones have only just come out, and there's no signal yet in Ma County.

Moreover, Li Long didn't like using those big mobile phones; they were too flashy and inconvenient.

Liu Gaolou's car was loaded with some local specialties he brought from his hometown. He wanted to give half to Li Long and take the rest back to Khorgos to his second uncle.

“I carried all of these here myself. How about that? It shows my sincerity, doesn’t it?” Liu Gaolou said to Li Long while eating at Tuanfenglou.

"That's quite enough," Li Long said with a smile. "Is everything alright at home?"

"Great, everything is good when you have money," Liu Gaolou said with emotion. "I live in a big house, my child attends a good school, and uses the best school supplies. It's just that when I left, my child clung to my leg and wouldn't let me go. I'm a grown man, and my nose was sore."

Li Long nodded; any father could understand this situation.

After finishing his meal, Liu Gaolou went to the county guesthouse to rest. He had been drinking the night before and hadn't fully recovered, but he couldn't refuse to come. He reasoned that if he didn't come, he would likely have to drink again in Wucheng at noon today, which he simply couldn't handle.

It's better to come here; at least Li Long doesn't pressure you to drink.

In the afternoon, Li Long called Section Chief Hu and told him about his need for fifty tons of white sugar. Section Chief Hu laughed and said, "That's more like it." He then asked Li Long if the transaction would be conducted in the original manner. Li Long said yes, and he laughed even more happily.

Although the people working at the sugar factory don't go out often, they have foreign exchange reserves, so they can solve their own problems without having to ask for help when they have special needs.

Over such a long period of trading, the sugar factory has accumulated a considerable amount of foreign exchange and has indeed accomplished several significant tasks. Therefore, they attach great importance to their transactions with Li Long and his team.

The next day, Liu Gaolou took a truck and went to the sugar factory with Li Long. After loading the sugar, he left.

Liu Gaolou hadn't paid, and he didn't have the money either, so Li Long would handle the payment. They both understood that Liu Gaolou would make up the difference when he came over next time.

After Liu Gaolou left, Li Long drove to the countryside.

He sat in the meeting room with his bag, waited for the township head to come over, explained his purpose, took out 150,000 yuan from his bag and placed it on the table, saying:

"Mayor, this is the money I promised to give us for road repairs. It should be enough."

Before the Lunar New Year, Li Long contacted the company's senior technicians through Meng Hai and explained the road construction situation. The technicians calculated that the cost per kilometer of the project would be approximately 20,000 yuan.

Because this road does not include bridges, retaining walls, or culverts, but only involves clearing the roadbed and paving with asphalt, the construction cost is relatively low.

The township head was very pleased, stood up, shook Li Long's hand, and said:

"Since the top leader is not here, I am here on behalf of our township to express our gratitude for your donation! Please rest assured that we will definitely use this money to repair roads and ensure that the villagers can walk on asphalt roads as soon as possible!"

The township head asked the finance department to issue a receipt to Li Long and then arranged a meal. Li Long didn't eat, saying he had other things to do. After receiving the receipt, he made a request to the township head, saying that he would send a few people to learn the technology when the road was being repaired.

“I started an engineering company, but it’s just starting out and we’ve never taken on a project like this before. Our village contacted a road construction company, and after the project started, I had some people learn from them the technical procedures for asphalt road construction.”

"This is definitely no problem!" the township head assured him, patting his chest.

"Another thing is that I hope this road can be started and put into use as soon as possible," Li Long said. "The news had already spread in our village during the Spring Festival. I'm afraid that if it takes too long, people will scold me."

“Hey, no problem, no problem. I’ll discuss it with the top leader as soon as he gets back and get this project started as soon as possible.”

Not long after Li Long left, two people rushed to the township. Not seeing Li Long, they went to find the township head.

"Has Comrade Li Long left?" It was a village cadre from another village who came. After the brigade was disbanded, some of the original brigade cadres went to the township, while others returned to their villages.

The man who came was a brigade cadre who had returned to the village to become the village head. He was originally familiar with the township head, so he spoke very casually.

"He's gone," the township head said with a smile, in a good mood. "What's wrong? Do you need to see him? Go to the county; he should have gone back by now."

"Oh, bad timing, I should have come earlier." The man said with a hint of regret, "It would have been best to tell him in the village... I heard he gave the money for road repairs to the village?"

"Given it. Old Zhang, you're quite well-informed." The township head was a little displeased; the news had leaked out so quickly? There aren't many secrets in the township.

"Do you have any extra money? You know our team is about 400 or 500 meters away from the main road. If so, why don't you repair our 400 or 500 meters as well?"

“Your location is more than four or five hundred meters from the main road, it must be at least seven or eight hundred meters!” The township head waved his hand. “I can’t make that decision. We have to wait until the top leader comes back and we discuss it together.”

But Lao Zhang, you'd better not get your hopes up too high. Li Long's production team has three settlements, so this road will definitely extend into those settlements.

The east and west sides are manageable, but the south side, where the Li family lives, has several alleyways that definitely need repairing. This will essentially extend the journey, so…”

"Then I'll go find him." Captain Zhang knew Li Jianguo and felt he still had some influence with him.

The township head stopped him:
"Why are you looking for him? As the team leader, shouldn't you be looking for the wealthy households in your team? Even if your production team isn't as rich as Li Long, finding a few households with ten thousand yuan in assets shouldn't be a problem, right?"

Those few hundred meters of road cost tens of thousands of yuan. Even if each family could chip in a few hundred yuan, they could probably manage it.
"They can afford to pay for repairing the main road, but you're unwilling to pay for even a few hundred meters of side roads?"

The township head's words made Captain Zhang blush. Indeed, the other side had repaired the main road, yet their team didn't even want to pay for the minor side roads?
But to be honest, he might not be able to persuade the villagers to spend money.

Seeing that Old Zhang had backed down, the township head was furious. He slammed his hand on the table and said:
"Old Zhang, you've been a brigade cadre for so many years, and now you're the captain. If you can't handle this little thing, don't blame me for looking down on you... Son, touch your genitals, is there anything there?"

"Go to hell!" Seeing the township head goading him and swearing, the villager also cursed, "I really can handle this, just you wait and see! I'm going back to raise the money right now!"

"Then you'd better hurry up!" Seeing that his provocation had worked, the township head immediately added, "Let me tell you, the road construction will start in less than half a month. By then, it will be easy to get the machines and materials. Your village just needs to raise the money, and I'll talk to the construction team about it."

"This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. If you don't raise enough money, and your village needs to repair this road separately, they'll need to hire machinery and manpower, and the price will definitely not be what it is now."

Old Zhang was well aware of this, so he stopped swearing and left in a hurry.

Half a month is actually quite a long time, but now everyone has already started to get busy with spring plowing, and he is not sure if he can finish this in half a month.

He rushed back home and took out his savings from the chest of drawers—nowadays, most people keep their savings at home unless they have a lot.

To be honest, these days most families don't have more than a thousand yuan in savings. Putting it in the bank might earn some interest, but spring brings planting, children need to go to school, and everyone needs money sometimes.
His family was relatively well-off, with a little over a thousand yuan in savings. After thinking for a moment, he counted out about five hundred yuan, put it in his pocket, put the rest back into the dresser, stuffed it in a bit more, locked it, and went out.

His wife was digging ditches in the vegetable garden when she saw him go in and come out again. She asked:

"What are you doing?"

"Go to the team headquarters for a meeting."

The production team headquarters here has a separate courtyard, which is a good thing.

Upon arriving at the team headquarters, he opened the door, went inside, turned on the equipment, adjusted the microphone, and began to speak:
"Pfft, pfft! Bang bang bang!"

The microphone was turned on, and everyone in the production team heard it—the residents of this production team were all concentrated in one place, so they could all hear it at once, unlike the three residential areas of the fourth team, which were too far apart to be heard all at once.

"Attention everyone, I have an announcement to make. Village cadres and village representatives, please come to the team headquarters for a meeting. I'll say it again, village cadres and village representatives, please come to the team headquarters for a meeting. Oh, and Accountant Liu, please come along too, he has something to discuss."

He was notified three times, the machine was turned off, and he waited in the conference room.

The first to arrive was Accountant Liu, whose home was right next to the team headquarters. Upon entering and seeing Captain Zhang sitting there, he half-jokingly said:
"Captain, what's up? It's lunchtime, are you planning to treat us to a meal?"

"I don't have that much spare money." Captain Zhang waved his hand. "Go and get your book of accounts. We'll need to keep track of the accounts later."

"I understand." The accountant nodded and went to the finance office to get the notebook.

People came one after another. That's one of the advantages of this production team. The furthest one was no more than two hundred meters away, and it only took a few minutes to get there.

Once everyone had arrived, someone reported that two representatives had gone out into the street, and the rest had arrived. Captain Zhang didn't wait any longer and began to announce the start of the meeting.

"Today's meeting had only one agenda item: raising funds to repair the road. Li Long from the fourth team in our township is funding the construction of an asphalt road connecting the township to the fourth team. I'm sure many of you know that, right?"

"I know."

"They're rich."

"heard."

“I went to the township today to inquire, and they said that the road will be under construction in half a month. I thought that the main road is less than a kilometer away from our team, and everyone else has already used asphalt roads, so there is no reason for us to still be walking on dirt roads.”

It's not so bad for adults, but it's troublesome for kids going to school when it rains. So what I'm suggesting is that everyone in our team contribute money to get the road leading to the main road repaired—this is a rare opportunity, and now that the main road is being repaired, the machinery and materials are easy to get.

"If we wait until after that time to repair it separately, the cost will be much higher, and if the road is too short, they might not even bother to fix it."

“That makes perfect sense, it’s true,” someone agreed.

"How much will that cost? Road repairs must be expensive, right?"

“I inquired and the township head told me that if this road leads all the way to the team headquarters, it should cost less than 20,000 yuan to repair. So we'll calculate it at 20,000 yuan.”

On the way back, I thought about it. Our team has eighty households, and if each family contributes 250 yuan, the road can be repaired. 250 yuan isn't a lot of money; each family should be able to afford it.

In addition, there are several relatively wealthy families in our team. I suggest that the village representatives go and ask these well-off families first to see if they can contribute more.

We don't expect them to contribute thousands or tens of thousands of yuan, that's unrealistic. A few hundred yuan from each family can help cover the funds raised by families with poorer financial situations, and that will be enough.

"If we can have one more, that would be great; if we could have two or three more, that would be even better."

"What are the benefits?" someone asked.

"What benefits could there be in contributing money?" Captain Zhang retorted. "This benefits the whole team; the only benefit is a good reputation. Li Long contributed over ten thousand yuan to repair the road; he didn't expect any personal gain, did he?"

"Captain, should we tell everyone that when we're repairing the road, we should put up a monument along the roadside and write the names of the people who paid for it on it?" the accountant suggested.

"No way. We're not living in the old society anymore. Besides, if the whole village contributes money, does that mean we have to reveal the money and our names?"

The accountant fell silent.

Captain Zhang realized he had been too harsh in his words, so he backed down and said:
"We can make it public. We can post the amount of money each family contributed on the blackboard outside the team headquarters so that everyone knows and understands the accounts."

"This one is good too." The accountant nodded.

“It was my idea, so I’ll take the lead,” Captain Zhang said. “Five hundred yuan, Accountant Liu, write it down. I’ll be the first.”

With the team leader taking the lead, the matter was settled. The others didn't really have many objections either. The slogan "To get rich, build roads first" had been around for years; good roads meant easier travel and faster delivery of goods—everyone could feel that.

Besides, life has improved in recent years. Although 250 yuan is not a small amount, it can still be scraped together by squeezing in some money or borrowing. Since I've become the village representative, I have to do this job.

Instead of immediately following the team leader's example and contributing money, the representatives were calculating which families in their own village groups were relatively wealthy and qualified to be the kind of people the team leader had described.

Of course, whether or not one can persuade them is another matter entirely.

“My family’s circumstances are average, so I’ll just pay three hundred and fifty.” After the accountant finished recording Captain Zhang’s amount, he also noted down his own. “Then I’ll put it in the account.”

Then two more village representatives immediately agreed on the amount to be paid: one was four hundred, and the other was three hundred.

All of them were higher than his average, and Captain Zhang was quite satisfied.

"Yes, that's it. Next, each villager representative should get a feel for the situation of the villagers in their group, focusing on those who are relatively wealthy and can contribute more money."

Of course, the minimum amount we're raising is 250 yuan. We won't force anyone to do it. It's their right to earn money legally; we can't force people to contribute more. We need to be reasonable, understand?

So the representatives dispersed to discuss the matter further.

By evening, the whole village knew about it, and most people followed suit, giving between 250 and 300 yuan.

Old Zhang was the first to know that there were two households with tens of thousands of yuan in assets—or rather, more than tens of thousands of yuan, with family assets worth tens of thousands of yuan—who both contributed more than a thousand yuan, with the largest contributing two thousand yuan, exceeding his expectations.

Clearly, some people who have become wealthy genuinely want to contribute more.

Of course, there are also some bad cases. Some families simply refuse to pay, and the village representatives can't do anything about it—it's not that they refuse, it's that they say they don't have the money.

“No money? No problem,” Old Zhang laughed. “As long as he’s willing to pay. If he doesn’t have the money, the team will cover it first, and we’ll make up the difference after the autumn harvest.”

So Accountant Liu took his notebook and went door-to-door collecting money. If he couldn't collect, he would write an IOU and the team would cover the difference.

Nobody wants to be criticized behind their back, so those with money contributed, and more than a dozen companies signed loan agreements to repay the loans by the end of the year.

This is quite normal. The team's water fees and machine farming fees are often collected at the end of the year, so there's usually no problem with not being able to collect them.

Everyone has a sense of shame.

So the money was raised in less than ten days, and there was still more than enough. This was mainly because the families with ten thousand yuan in savings contributed more money, and Captain Zhang specifically praised them for this on the loudspeaker.

Then, Accountant Liu wrote down the amount of money on a large sheet of red paper and posted it on the wall outside the team headquarters. At this point, there was no longer any question about who paid the most money and whoever used the most pinyin was the winner!
When Captain Zhang brought the money to the township, the township head was surprised that the money had been raised so quickly. Seeing Captain Zhang's smug expression, the township head smiled and said:

"Alright, you're a good guy, Lao Zhang. Take this money to the finance department and say it's for your team's road repairs. I'll tell the construction team to repair your section of the road as well."

The matter was settled like that.

Li Long was currently dealing with Ma Xiaoyan's questioning.

"Comrade Li Long, you're really not being fair. Why didn't you tell me about the road construction? If Secretary Jiang hadn't called me, I would still be in the dark."

Ma Xiaoyan rode her bicycle directly to the recycling station to find Li Long.

"The roads in the mountains haven't even started being repaired yet," Li Long said. "The snow in the mountains hasn't completely melted yet."

"Still pretending with me, huh? I'm talking about the road from your village to the township!" Ma Xiaoyan raised her eyebrows and said, "Such a big thing, such a good thing, why are you being so low-key?"

"You mean that? It was just to make it easier for our team to travel, it's nothing." Li Long smiled. "Really, it's nothing."

"A road worth over 100,000 yuan, you're saying it's nothing?" Ma Xiaoyan sneered. "Or are you, Comrade Li Long, so rich that over 100,000 yuan is nothing to you? Alright, alright, tell me, have any reporters come looking for you? Has their township propaganda officer come?"

"No," Li Long shook his head. He didn't even know who the new propaganda officer in the township was.

“Alright, this interview is on my hands.” Ma Xiaoyan smiled. “Come on, let me ask you the first question: how did you come up with the idea of ​​building this road?”

Li Long, who was tidying up the leather, had to stop what he was doing, stand up, and say:
"Although there is now a gravel road connecting our village to the township, it is still very troublesome for children to travel, especially in rainy or snowy weather. I have earned some money now, but I am still a member of the fourth team."

Our country's call is for those who get rich first to help those who are still poor. So I thought, "To get rich, build roads first." Building this road will make it easier for children to go to school, make it easier for the people in the team to travel, and make it easier to transport agricultural products out of the village..."

When these things are mentioned, words keep popping into Li Long's head without stopping.

Ma Xiaoyan is a veteran in publicity; she can practically recite the words by heart. It seems Li Long is getting more and more impressive; he doesn't need to polish what he says before he can submit it directly.

While Ma Xiaoyan was interviewing Li Long, a tractor drove in from outside. The people in line thought they were buying agricultural supplies and shouted for them to park the tractor outside and line up.

Only one middleman recognized the situation and said with a smile, "He's a friend of Boss Li. Come on, give him your seat."

The tractor was driven by Halimu, with Yushanjiang, Talihar, and several others, including Bek, sitting behind him.

The snow in the mountains has melted, and since the roads have been repaired, it's not difficult for tractors to drive out.

The Yushanjiang and Halim families bought a courtyard house in the county. This winter, Yushanjiang's wife and children returned to the mountains, while Halim's mother and children still lived in the county, mainly because it was more convenient and warmer than in the mountains.

Yushanjiang's wife and children also left the mountains and arrived in the county ahead of schedule to prepare for school. Thanks to the tutor recommended by Gu Xiaoxia, Ghana and Yerjiang are able to keep up with their studies, and both children are working very hard.

On Halim's side, Nathan and Sasken's Chinese proficiency has long surpassed their father's, and they now speak it very fluently. Their studies are also gradually catching up—although ethnic minority children can be mischievous, once they get the hang of it, they learn very quickly.

The tractor was parked in the backyard. Halim and the others saw someone interviewing Li Long, so they didn't come over. They went around to the front to greet Li Qingxia, and then went to the back to help Liang Shuangcheng sort out the leather.

They came down the mountain to buy supplies, and also to visit their families, see Li Long, and bring him some things they had found in the mountains during the winter.

Li Long no longer wanted their money for road repairs—according to him, the money for repairs was already sufficient. He gave them the remaining items they had found, converting them into cash so they could buy necessities.

With tractors and improved roads, the mountain herders mostly bought their own supplies, and the things Li Long delivered to the mountains later were mainly supplementary.

After spending half an hour interviewing Li Long, Ma Xiaoyan knew he had important business to attend to, so she left in a hurry.

At this moment, Halimu and Yushanjiang came over and started chatting with Li Long.

"The snow in the mountains has started to melt, and the water in the streams has risen. In a few more days, once the snow has completely melted, the cattle and sheep can graze outside, and it will be about time for us to shear their wool," Yushanjiang said. "Then we'll wash the sheep, and after that, we'll go to the summer pastures."

“Once the snow melts, Meng Hai and the others will go into the mountains to repair the road,” Li Long said. “They will try to finish repairing the road this year, so it will be ready when you come back from the summer pasture.”

"That's great," Halim said with a smile. "After we finish cutting the grass, we can drive the tractor to the summer pasture. If we need anything, we can just drive the tractor back."

Li Long was thinking that you could buy motorcycles, but considering the dangers of the mountain roads, he decided against it and decided that a small four-wheeled tractor would be safer.

“This winter we collected some deer antlers in the mountains, hunted some wolf pelts, and also caught three red deer,” Halim said. “Take a look.”

Li Long then looked at the trailer of the small four-wheeled tractor. The three little deer had their hooves bound and their mouths wrapped with cloth, so they couldn't make a sound or move.

Li Long went over to take a look and then asked Halimu and the others to help take the baby deer down.

“The price of red deer has gone up now, so I’ll charge you five hundred yuan per head,” Li Long said with a smile. “The antlers are fifty yuan a pair, and the wolf pelt is one hundred and fifty.”

Halim and the others laughed. Li Long gave them a lot of money, especially Buick, which had caught a small deer. Now they had five hundred yuan, which was equivalent to a dozen or twenty sheep, enough to buy a lot of things.

Li Long went to the front to get them the money, while Halim and the others unloaded everything from the car—they hadn't unloaded anything since Ma Xiaoyan was there earlier.

The main reason was that Li Long had said hunting was no longer allowed. Ma Xiaoyan was a government employee, and they were afraid it would be inappropriate for her to see this, so they waited until she left before bringing it up.

Ma Xiaoyan was unaware that Halim and his group were on guard against her. At that moment, she happily rode her bicycle to work, eager to finish the article and get it out as soon as possible.

She already knew she wouldn't be able to stay in her current position for long, so she wrote one last draft before leaving, as a way of ending things properly.

P.S.: Thank you Crocodile Tears L for the donation to Li Jianguo and Gu Xiaoxia. In many people's eyes, Li Jianguo is the protagonist - in fact, Li Jianguo is the one who uses the most real-life stories.

(End of this chapter)