Rebirth of Bayi Fishing and Hunting in the Northwest

Chapter 1254 Spring has arrived, and it's that time of year again...
The early spring sun is warm, making people want to sleep.

However, on the open space southeast of Li Long's yard in Team Four, there were now many more red bricks, cement, and pre-made adobe bricks.

Many people are busy here, helping Li Junfeng's family build a house.

Li Junhai and his group arrived from their hometown before the Lantern Festival was over. They came to help after receiving a call from Li Junfeng.

Xie Yundong and his team were also there, along with neighbors like Lu Yingming, and several of Xu Haijun's cousins ​​were helping to mix the mud.

This area used to be saline-alkali land, with only short reeds and a few camel thorns growing on it. Li Jianguo brought in bulldozers to remove all the soil from the land. A foundation pit was dug underground, and Li Junfeng led people to bring in loess from other places to compact the foundation before building a stone wall base.

To thank those who helped him, Li Junfeng went to Lao Ma Hao to buy two sheep from Uncle Luo. After slaughtering them, he made pilaf and mutton soup to thank everyone.

Dong Xiaojuan cooked, and Xie Yundong's wife also came to help, along with Sister-in-law Lu who would occasionally offer some pointers.

Although there weren't as many people on the site as when Li Long built the house, it was more than enough.

In fact, there were quite a few people in the team who gossiped, such as Jinbao, who often disliked the Li family.

He said several times while drinking at the store that the Fourth Team should not have registered Li Junfeng's family's household registration.

If Li Junfeng is not considered a direct relative of Li Jianguo, why should they be granted household registration?
If they can settle down, many of their relatives from their hometowns will come over to settle down and ask for land.

Some people who didn't know the situation thought he was right and that this door shouldn't be opened.

Old Zhang at the store wasn't going to tolerate him—although Ma Jinbao was a regular customer, he genuinely felt he couldn't wrong the Li family and spoke up for them:

“Li Long spent over 100,000 yuan to build roads from the team to the township before people could settle down. If you could pay to build roads from the team to the fields, your family could come and settle down and get land, and I would be willing.”

With just one sentence, Ma Jinbao was rendered speechless.

The Li family didn't publicize this matter. Some village representatives knew about it and told their villagers when they got back. Some people were too lazy to tell others, so there were still some people in the village who didn't know.

However, after Ma Jinbao's outburst, almost everyone in the team knew about it.

No one objected anymore. The other party was putting real money into it, and no one in the team was unhappy about it—it was for building an asphalt road!

Some elderly people are already telling their children and grandchildren the history of the road from the fourth team to the township.

"This road was originally a dirt road. When the weather was sunny, it was full of mud. If you stepped into it, the mud would reach up to your ankles. When it rained, if you stepped into it, the mud would get into your shoes and you couldn't pull them out."

Later, I don't know which year, the township started repairing gravel roads, I think it was Li Long who did it... The road became easier to travel on after it was repaired to the team level.

In a few years they'll be paving the road, that's wonderful, that's wonderful... It'll be paved right to our doorstep, it's like a dream come true..."

To be honest, for these elderly people, the changes in the village seem to happen one scene after another. In the beginning, there was no fourth team. The entire fourth team area only had three or five households, scattered here and there, with a distance of about one kilometer between them.

The area is covered with reeds, snakes, insects, and swamps, and wolves are occasionally spotted there.

Later, land was surveyed and water conservancy projects were built. More people came, villages were established, and people settled down. Roads were paved across the alkaline ridges, and then power lines were installed...

Li Junhai and the others worked while looking on with envy. Li Junfeng had made a big decision, moving his entire family over to secure a place first, and since Li Long was also working on the road, he managed to get his household registration sorted out as well.

They also wanted to settle down, but they all understood very well that it would be very difficult to settle in the fourth team.

So I envy them.

Chen Qianjin didn't speak, he just worked; he was thinking more deeply.

At least everyone else has the surname Li, but his surname is Chen, so he's even less related.

He had heard Li Jianguo explain the settlement policy many times, but it didn't leave him any clauses he could use. So what should he do?

Back home, when they found out that the few of them wanted to stay in northern Xinjiang, everyone said they were foolish.

Don't you know how stupid you are? What's your hometown like now?

I've been away for two years, and every time I go back to my hometown, I can hardly see any changes.

On the contrary, this village in the fourth team is about to be connected by an asphalt road!
Small four-wheeled tractors and high-horsepower tractors, every household had a television, and life was indeed thriving.

But he wouldn't say much, because no one would believe him anyway.

Prejudice is a mountain, and some people don't want to move it away. Only with the existence of this mountain can their poverty have a place to rest—the feeling that there are people worse off than themselves allows them to continue living in poverty with a clear conscience.

At the same time as building the houses, the land was also being irrigated.

Tao Daqiang, Jia Weidong, and Liang Dacheng were currently watering the saline-alkali land they had reclaimed last year, which they planned to plant cotton on this year. Jia Weidong noted down the names of the people who had come today, including Xu Haijun, who had been releasing the sluice gate at Xiaohaizi.

The floodwaters haven't come down yet, so this is just a way to clear the water in the lake first, making room for the next flood.

The floodwaters flowed down the canal into the saline-alkali land, submerging the higher areas through several dams. Then, carrying the salt and alkali from the surface soil, the water continued downwards, eventually flowing into the drainage ditch.

Tao Daqiang, who was watering the plants, had a bag of urea next to him. Every now and then, he would bend down and pull a crucian carp out of the water. After spring, the ice on Xiaohai Lake melted, and the crucian carp hiding under the reeds became active. When the sluice gate was opened, these fish would come down with the water.

Li Jianguo drove a high-horsepower tractor to clear land; someone had hired him to do it. Clearing land was more expensive than clearing cultivated land, because it was more strenuous. But for a high-horsepower tractor, it was no big deal; it rumbled over the land, the reversible plow easily turning over the hard soil and uprooting the white thorns and reeds on the saline-alkali land.

The landowner would pick up these things and haul them away, piling them up at the edge of the field. There might be a fire behind them, or they might just be piled up there, waiting for someone to pick them up and use them as firewood.

Occasionally, you can see geese flying from south to north in the sky, landing midway to look for food.

At this time, sowing has not yet begun, and the places where these migratory birds can land are most likely large and small lakes and marshes, where they can always find food.

After a while, the migratory birds that come will be able to eat the newly sown seeds in the fields; they have experience with this.

Occasionally, you can see weasels and wild rabbits fleeing with their families in the salt flats, frightened by high-powered tractors. The turned-up hard soil may also contain some grass nests that have been gnawed into fluffy clumps, which are most likely field mice whose burrows have been plowed out.

The immature mice squeak and squeak, soon to become a delicacy for eagles.

After plowing about thirty mu of land, Li Jianguo stopped the tractor at the edge of the field to rest and drink water.

The tractor's cab was well-sealed and dust-free. Although it wasn't very quiet, it was far more advanced than the Dongfanghong 75 tractor for Li Jianguo. It even had air conditioning—though he was reluctant to turn it on.

The main reason for stopping is to take a break. Although this thing has a good shock absorption effect, you can't stay in it for too long.

The landowner came out of the field, carrying a lot of licorice roots he had picked up. He piled them up, intending to take them back with him when he left.

It's highly likely that it will be sold; for personal use, one chopstick-length piece is enough.

"Brother Li, you're all going to plant cotton over there, right? I bet you'll start flooding the fields with irrigation as soon as spring arrives. Now that I think about it, Xiaolong really had foresight in contracting out Xiaohaizi."

Since each household got a television and radio, the villagers' speech has started to resemble that of television, becoming increasingly diverse, including slang, idioms, and sometimes even literary expressions, and sometimes even a bit of a translated tone.

Li Jianguo naturally understood that he was trying to get closer to him, and said with a smile:

"What foresight? Xiaolong just made some money catching fish and thought he might as well contract it out. If our team doesn't contract this small lake, outsiders will take a liking to it... If our team's reservoir is contracted out to outsiders, how will we use it in the future?"

"Outsiders contract it out? Wouldn't it be more convenient if the big lake were contracted out?" the man asked, puzzled.

"How big is Dahaizi? It's such a big place, it must cost at least tens of thousands to contract, right? Xiaohaizi is much smaller, it only costs a few hundred or a thousand yuan at the beginning."

"That's true." The man nodded, then sighed, "Money feels worthless these days. When the production team was first disbanded, you could go to the market and buy things with just a dollar or eighty cents."

"Now, if I don't have tens or hundreds of yuan in my pocket, I don't feel confident going out on the street."

"Prices have gone up." After drinking some water and resting, Li Jianguo went back into the cab and started plowing the land.

The higher the horsepower of the tractor, the less he felt burdened. There was no need for someone to adjust the depth of the plow in the rear five-furrow, no need for break-in and coordination with the tractor; he could operate it all by himself in the cab—how convenient!
At the same time, Meng Hai led his men into the mountains.

They didn't immediately drive to the end of the road under repair, where the snow hadn't completely melted. They were bringing people into the mountains now to repair the road, which had been damaged by snow accumulation and mudslides during the winter.

It was still a bit cold in the mountains, but fortunately, this was all expected, as he had told everyone to wear warmer clothes when we arrived.

He had informed Li Long about the road repair project. Although he didn't have any money with him yet, he would keep a record and settle accounts and distribute money periodically. This was also a way to encourage everyone.

As for what Li Long said about them learning the techniques from the road construction workers in the village, Meng Hai had also thought of that. Every few days, he would drive down the mountain to check on the situation. As soon as the road construction started, he would bring people down from there.

He has a car, so he can travel back and forth between the two places.

The scenery in the Tianshan Mountains at the end of March is quite unique. Grass has already grown on the sunny side, and the garlic is even preparing to bloom with yellow flowers, but there is still ice and snow in some gullies on the shady side.

The pines and cypresses on the north slope have turned from lush green to verdant green, displaying their vibrant vitality.

Some small animals wandered around, seemingly carefree.

A few herb hunters entered the mountains ahead of time, worried that they would be unable to enter once the forest police patrolled more strictly.

Going into the mountains now will be tough for a while, but it's better than being caught, deported, or locked up.

So after Meng Hai and his group set up their tents, they could see sporadic herb gatherers from time to time.

Some people are quite bold and will even come over to buy food from them. The road construction workers aren't afraid of them; some will see what the road construction workers have and will trade with them if they have something good.

As a result, the villagers, or rather the company employees, ended up with more small pieces of jade, agate, wolf teeth, and the like.

Don't assume these herb gatherers can hunt wolves. There are still wolf carcasses in the mountains that die in winter, and these people can break off the wolves' teeth to exchange for what they want.

Make the best use of everything.

Repairing the road surface is much simpler than opening a new one, so they had an easy time for the first few days. Some people even had time to go into the water to see if they could find jade or even a piece of gold.

This was standard procedure, and since the snowmelt floods hadn't come down yet, Meng Hai didn't stop them. Every two days, he would drive into the mountains to check on the snowmelt situation and then direct everyone to move forward.

Once the employees had adapted, Meng Hai began to speed things up, putting everyone on edge so they could quickly repair the roadbed and move forward.

There aren't many roads left in the mountains, and he wants to try to get them repaired as soon as possible so that he can take over when there are projects in the county. Otherwise, relying solely on Li Long's financial support will make it difficult for the company to operate.

In early spring, the animals in the mountains became lively. Meng Hai and his group saw red deer, roe deer, and wild goats, and were even harassed by a pack of wolves.

If Meng Hai hadn't been carrying a gun, those wolves would have even tried to steal the supplies from their tent.

So brave!
Of course, the price of their recklessness was leaving Meng Hai and his group with the bodies of two wolves that they could eat.

Everyone was busy, and Li Long was no exception. He was in the reception room receiving Zhao Hui, who had rushed over.

Zhao Hui sipped his tea while complaining:

"I already said it was after the New Year, but you still didn't get me any good leather."

Li Long smiled and said:
“I can’t do anything about it. The good hides from the Kazakh republics won’t be allowed to leave. I’m trying to find a way, but the animal protection law has been passed, and we can’t hunt those protected animals anymore. A while ago, our forest police arrested a few people and sentenced them.”

There was no further news from Yu Sufu, and Li Long didn't contact him again. His relationship with Yu Sufu was somewhere between a businessman and a friend. If Yu Sufu really found the hides but wouldn't sell them to him, there was nothing he could do; businessmen are driven by profit.

"Sigh, good leather is getting harder and harder to find these days." Zhao Hui knew this was true.

"You should be grateful. Who else can provide you with thousands of wild animal pelts every now and then like I do?" Li Long said. "Have the price of pelts gone up again?"

"You got the news?" Zhao Hui asked. "Your information network is pretty good."

Li Long was actually bluffing Zhao Hui; where did he get the information? However, it's normal for prices to rise sharply in recent years, and in the years to come, so he tried to bluff Zhao Hui, and unexpectedly, he got the information out of him.

"There's no other way. Raw hides are in such short supply that everyone has to import them from outside. The number of farms can't keep up," Zhao Hui said truthfully. Now he no longer dared to underestimate Li Long. He had watched Li Long's network of connections grow, but it had grown too fast.

Fortunately, Li Long didn't have much ambition and never thought about expanding into the market in the border region. Otherwise, he wouldn't have been able to do anything—with thousands of hides in hand and a steady supply, he would have been able to do whatever he wanted in the raw material market in the border region.

Others would definitely offer him very good terms to cooperate, unlike me who only needs to come and collect goods periodically.

The shipping process is tedious: inspecting the goods, moving them, paying, and taking them away.

Li Long still habitually went to pay his taxes. Now he was familiar with the people in the tax department. Last time, when the autonomous region sent people to conduct a secret inspection, these people in the county strongly supported Li Long, which made Li Long very grateful to them. Over time, they became even more familiar with each other.

In January of this year, he once again received the titles of Advanced Taxpayer and Outstanding Individual Business Owner, and also became an outstanding entrepreneur in the county.

He had a lot of titles, and although there were no substantial rewards, his representative status meant he was unlikely to encounter any trouble in the county.

With so many departments backing him, who would be so foolish as to want to investigate him?
Many departments in the county have impressive data in their year-end work summaries, much of which is related to him.

Zhao Hui's quoted prices this time were 240 for full-grain leather and 180 for damaged leather, with prices steadily rising. Li Long estimated that these leathers could be sold for another seven or eight years, after which the market would shrink and become unsustainable.

By the early 2000s, sheepskin was no longer in demand.

Liu Gaolou and Zhao Hui were like two parallel lines that never intersected. The day after Zhao Hui left with thousands of hides, Liu Gaolou arrived with a long convoy.

Li Long carefully observed Liu Gaolou, who had come this time, and found that he no longer had the helplessness he had shown last time. He was in high spirits and could even make lighthearted jokes with him, so it seemed that he wasn't forcing a smile.

"Have you come to terms with it now?" Li Long asked him in the meeting room.

Knowing that Liu Gaolou was coming, Li Long had already called more than a dozen people from the odd jobs market to help move things—this time, the truck was carrying mostly cars, seven luxury Volga trucks and three GAZ trucks, all of them very new.

“I’ve figured it out, not just given up on it,” Liu Gaolou chuckled. “What can I do if I don’t want to work anymore? If I leave, with all my money, I can only open a small shop in the provincial capital at most.”

With my lack of business acumen, I'd definitely lose everything if I tried anything else. I'd rather stay with my second uncle for a couple more years, save up some money, and then he'll come to his senses and let me retire early, and I can go back to my hometown and enjoy life.”

Once I understood, I felt relieved and asked again:
"The quality of this car is pretty good."

"Of course. During the time I was away, my second uncle had his eye on quite a few cars. Now, even if he can't pick the exact ones, he'll definitely be able to choose good ones. He's in control, so naturally, he can't just use those old and dilapidated cars to make up the numbers."

Besides the vehicle, there were also leather goods and deer antlers. The absence of antelope antlers on this trip was somewhat surprising to Li Long.

“My second uncle transferred the antelope horn to someone else—also a foreigner. He needs some important parts there. My second uncle asked me to explain it to you.”

"It's nothing, it's nothing," Li Long waved his hand. "It's alright."

He has a lot of stock on hand, and he's not greedy; if he doesn't have it, he doesn't have it.

This time, Liu Gaolou didn't rush to leave. After settling the bill with Li Long, he told Li Long that he wanted to take cement back.

Li Long hurriedly called Liu Xinjun—there was no shortage of buyers over there, so cement was in high demand. Usually, if Li Long didn't call, the other party wouldn't deliver the cement.

Fortunately, after making the call, Liu Xinjun said that the truck could be loaded today and delivered in the afternoon, but Li Long would have to arrange for someone to load the truck.

Fifty tons will be delivered today, and another fifty tons will be delivered tomorrow.

Li Long agreed.

He told the day laborers unloading cars and leather to come back in the afternoon, and to bring more people with them.

Loading and unloading fifty tons of cement will require a lot of manpower.

"Let's just load it directly from their truck to mine," Liu Gaolou said immediately after learning that the cement would arrive that afternoon. "No need to carry it all the way to the warehouse anymore. I was thinking it would take a few days, but it'll arrive today..."

Liu Gaolou brought fourteen trucks with him this time, which were loaded with cement and sugar.

This is considered standard procedure.

Li Long didn't care. Let him pretend whatever he wants; he can afford it anyway.

Liu Gaolou originally planned to take a break, but the cement arrived too quickly, so he could only rest in the afternoon. Ma County was not his territory, but Khorgos or Yili, although far away, was considered half of his territory, so it would be more convenient for him to rest there.

Just as Liu Gaolou went to the guesthouse to rest, and Li Long was waiting at the purchasing station for Liu Xinjun's cement truck convoy to arrive, Gu Boyuan was treating Teacher Song to dinner at a floating restaurant in Yili.

During the meal, Gu Boyuan told Teacher Song about his plan to hold a wedding in the summer.

Teacher Song was a little shy, but she nodded gently and said she would listen to her.

Gu Boyuan smiled; he really liked gentle women like Teacher Song.

"I plan to hold one in Yili first, mainly inviting your colleagues and friends, and a few friends and colleagues from my purchasing station. Then we'll go to Ma County together, where I'll hold another event. I've lived there for many years, and some old friends are there... So you can take time off then, right?"

"No problem," Teacher Song nodded and said. "I haven't taken my vacation this year yet, but I'll have wedding leave if I get married."

Meeting Gu Boyuan was a wonderful twist of fate, and Teacher Song believed in it. Gu Boyuan wasn't the rude type of man; while he wouldn't call himself gentle and refined, he respected women, and that was something she found very pleasing.

She has met many people who pursued her, and her colleagues at school have also introduced her to potential partners. Although some of them were very eligible and some were highly educated teachers from the school, some were very chauvinistic and others valued money a lot.

In addition, some people, having been sent down to the countryside, have some extreme personalities, and others are always thinking about going back to the countryside.

It's not that she doesn't want to find a partner; she's actually the kind of person who isn't particularly assertive. She hopes to find a suitable man she can rely on, but since her ex-husband was quite outstanding, comparisons are inevitable.

Then a bunch of drawbacks came up.

Gu Boyuan was the only one she had met who didn't have any major flaws and who made her feel very comfortable around him—of course, another important point was that she believed in fate.

Gu Boyuan had already bought a courtyard near Huacheng, which would later become the famous Liuxing Street, close to Jiefang Road and relatively close to the Teachers' College.

The courtyard is a Russian-style building with a square house painted blue. The interior decoration has an exotic style. It belongs to an ethnic Russian who is going to Urumqi to do business, so he wants to sell the courtyard.

The house was beautifully decorated. The owner left behind all the furniture except for some artworks and antiques, which is why the price was relatively high.

However, Gu Boyuan liked it very much and brought Teacher Song over to take a look. Teacher Song also liked it very much, so they bought it.

This area is considered part of Yining's main urban area (later the old city). It's close to Huacheng and Dashijie, and it's located right next to the main street, making it a very good location.

Gu Boyuan was quite pleased with himself for buying the courtyard house. He called Li Long, who asked him to take some photos, saying that if they were good, he would ask Gu Boyuan to help him buy a similar courtyard house there as well.

Decades later, the courtyards on Liuxing Street could only be rented, not bought or sold.

“You can start thinking about who you’ll invite now, and we’ll write the invitations together,” Gu Boyuan said. “We can hold the banquet at the Huacheng Hotel or the Yili Hotel, but we’ll probably need to make reservations in advance.”

Teacher Song had no objections to this. She saw that Gu Boyuan had considered all aspects, so she just listened with a smile.

Living with a man who has his own opinions would surely reduce a lot of troubles, right?
They are not living together yet. Teacher Song lives in the college's staff quarters, and the college has allocated her a house. Gu Boyuan spends most of his time at the recycling station, but now that he has bought this courtyard, he lives here.

This city is much larger than Ma County, or even larger than Shicheng. The food is very distinctive, and you can eat out for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, so Gu Boyuan doesn't have to worry about food.

He completed the paperwork for selling agricultural supplies at the purchasing station, and after bringing in a batch of supplies from the original wholesale channels to begin trial sales, he handed them over to the other staff at the station. As the owner, he now began to learn from Li Long, checking occasionally instead of personally overseeing the sales at the counter.

This gave him a lot of free time. He would spend time with Teacher Song when she was free, and if she was working, Gu Boyuan would drive or walk around the city.

At the end of March, Gu Xiaoxia's new appointment finally came down; she would be going to the No. 2 Primary School in the county to serve as the Party Branch Secretary.

Gu Xiaoxia was both excited and apprehensive about her new job. Li Long encouraged her to learn from her colleagues and to keep a low profile after taking office.

After all, she hadn't spent much time at school before, and now that she's back, there are bound to be many things she won't understand right away. She should just follow the established rules first and figure things out before making any decisions.

"Don't worry, I know that. But since I'm working at the school, I can't go as late as before, so the task of picking up and dropping off Mingming and Haohao will be temporarily assigned to you," Gu Xiaoxia said to Li Long. "I'll drop them off when I go to work; the kindergarten is earlier there."

“No problem. Tell Sister Yang to make breakfast early too.” Li Long added, “When you’re at a new company, you should pay more attention to details.”

Li Long was the one who initially took Mingming and Haohao to school. Later, Gu Xiaoxia learned to drive, so she started giving them rides on her way. Now, she's going to work at the Second Elementary School, which is in the opposite direction from the kindergarten—one is in the east and the other in the west—so it's no longer on her way.

Although she has a car and the county town isn't very big, she plans to go to the school a little earlier each day to check on the students' attendance and the school's basic situation, as dropping off the children would be a waste of time.

At this point, Gu Xiaoxia experienced the "pain" of being a teacher. She had to arrive at school earlier than the students, check some facilities, and make preparations. She might not be able to teach when she first arrived at the school, but who knows what would happen later.

So I might have to prepare lessons later, which is quite troublesome.

Fortunately, it's the end of March now, and the days are getting longer, so I don't have to leave for work before dark, which is much more convenient.

Liu Gaolou's arrival brought more cars to the purchasing station. People who came to buy agricultural supplies and sell goods were quite envious of those cars. Then, seeing that a car was sold every few days, they began to speculate. Some dealers even made bets on which car would be sold next.

On April 1st, the construction of the asphalt road from the township to the fourth team officially began. Because the original road surface was a gravel road, this time the road construction only required laying a thin layer of gravel on top, pressing it flat and compacting it, then laying asphalt, and pressing it flat again.

Of course, the actual operation is not that simple; this is just a description to illustrate how it is roughly understood by ordinary people.

As for things like water stability, we ordinary people don't understand them or can't comprehend them.

Road construction doesn't require a foundation laying ceremony or anything like that, but the township still invited Li Long to the site for a simple ceremony and invited reporters to take photos.

Li Long remained a background figure throughout the entire event and didn't say anything. Ma Xiaoyan didn't come this time, and it's unclear why.

The township didn't hire a construction team, but rather engineers from the Transportation Bureau to repair the road. They're a professional team. Meng Hai didn't come down today, and Li Long was thinking of going to the mountains this afternoon to tell Meng Hai to come down and take a look when he has some free time.

Anyway, road construction can't be completed in a day or two, so Meng Hai and his team just need to see how the road is being built.

The road construction is being carried out on the existing road, so it will inevitably affect pedestrian traffic. Fortunately, apart from a small section of farmland that is difficult to adjust, most of the land along both sides of the road is wasteland, with some trees and paddy fields along the roadside. During the road construction, pedestrians, tractors, and cars can pass through the open spaces in the tree-covered fields.

However, it's not easy for cars to travel back and forth, so it won't be easy for Li Long to travel back and forth between the four teams for a while.

But for the sake of the important road construction project, this difficulty is tolerable.

The road repair was done by professionals; he just took a look, had lunch in the village, and then went back.

He couldn't skip the meal; the township not only invited him, but also leaders from the Transportation Bureau—the Transportation Bureau also took this matter quite seriously. These township roads were originally under their jurisdiction, and now that the township had managed to raise funds to upgrade the roads, they could certainly include it in their year-end report.

So we definitely have to have this meal—it would have been best to invite Meng Hai over today so I could introduce him to the leaders of the Transportation Bureau, but we don't have time.

Fortunately, the Transportation Bureau treated Li Long very politely. A deputy director came over and talked to Li Long a lot, mainly thanking him for supporting the county's transportation development—the gist of which was that there were too few outstanding entrepreneurs like Li Long in the county.

Taking the opportunity, Li Long mentioned that he was building roads into the mountains and had also established an engineering company, suggesting that they could cooperate in the future if the opportunity arose.

The Transportation Bureau naturally had no objection; they had their own engineering and technical capabilities, but sometimes they needed to rely on private resources when their own capabilities were insufficient.

Since their professions were related, it was easy to build rapport. Li Long asked some more professional questions, which touched on a sensitive topic for Deputy Director Guan. He stopped eating and started explaining.

After the meal, Deputy Director Guan was already calling Li Long "brother".

That's how relationships are built.

After the meal, Li Long took Deputy Director Guan to his work unit in the county. The main reason was that their bureau didn't have a car yet, and Deputy Director Guan had come in an engineering truck. Since Li Long had driven there, he took him back with him, and they even reached an agreement on buying a car along the way.

The main reason was that Li Long's luxury Volga was quite beautiful. When he took Deputy Director Guan to the purchasing station to see those luxury Volga, Deputy Director Guan's eyes lit up.

What a nice car!
Li Long escorted Deputy Director Guan back to the bureau, then returned to the courtyard, changed into a GAZ truck, took his gun, went to the market butcher shop, bought a slaughtered sheep, and took it to the mountains.

Road construction has begun in the mountains, and as the boss, Li Long naturally brought some gifts when he went to visit.

When Li Long reached the mountain pass, he saw several groups of people walking into the mountains, some alone and some in pairs.

Now the forest rangers have been assigned to various mountain passes. Bolati happens to be in this area. When Li Long passed by, he saw the new wooden house that the Forestry Bureau had built for him.

This building doesn't look like a ranger's dormitory; it's more like a checkpoint, perched right on the edge of the mountain pass.

When Li Long drove up to the house, he saw that the door was locked and knew that Polati was not there, so he did not stop and drove into the mountains.

Half an hour after his car passed, Polati rode back from the mountains on horseback, with a fawn tied to its back, calling out every now and then.

Paula approached the house and was somewhat surprised to see the tire tracks.

He guessed that either the forest police or Li Long had come.

If Li Long comes over, it would be a good opportunity to sell this little deer to him.

So Polati was quite happy. He untied the baby deer from his horse, tied it with a rope behind the wooden house, found a basin, and gave it some water to drink.

There's no grass, so we'll have to make do for now. If Li Long comes this afternoon, he can take it away. If it's not Li Long, but the forest police, then we'll have to hide it.

So Polati stayed there and didn't plan to continue patrolling the mountain.

Li Long drove into the mountains, greeted Halimu, and then continued onward.

By this time, the snow on the outer mountains had mostly melted, but the mountain breeze was still a bit chilly, and you could still feel the cold in places without sunshine.

Li Long drove all the way to the end of the road, where Meng Hai and his team had already repaired the damaged parts of the mountain road and started building a new one.

It's cooler here, and you can still see snow on the shady side of the mountain as far as the eye can see. The pines and cypresses are also greener.

Upon seeing Li Long approach, Meng Hai, who was directing the felling of trees, handed over his work to someone nearby. He came over to greet Li Long and reported on the current progress.

Looking at the energetic "workers," Li Long nodded in satisfaction. Not bad, it looked promising and more professional than last year.

(End of this chapter)