Rebirth of Bayi Fishing and Hunting in the Northwest

The GAZ truck drove into the hot spring valley and stopped after going in for several dozen meters.

"Hey, it really does smell of sulfur." ​​Liu Gaolou said with a smile after getting out of the car. "Look at this water, it's really different."

He took two deep breaths, and Li Long, carrying his gun, got out of the car and said:
"Smell it less, this stuff is bad for your lungs."

He remembered a joke Li Juan had told him. Back in junior high, during chemistry class, Li Juan and another male classmate were called to the teacher's desk to help with an experiment, which basically involved lighting sulfur and having the students smell it.

After the boy smelled it, the teacher asked him what it smelled like. He said it smelled like a lit match. The teacher said he was right, and then told him that the smell was poisonous and asked him to write it down.

The whole class burst into laughter—the teacher was making the students test poison!

Of course, it was a joke. At this point, this little bit of poison was nothing. The students were just laughing at the process.

"It's alright, the toxicity of this stuff is less than that of a cigarette, right?" Liu Gaolou wasn't completely ignorant, and then asked, "Why are you carrying a gun? Can you hunt in this ditch?"

"For self-defense. Once I was soaking in the hot springs here, and a bear came along. Luckily, I had a gun with me, otherwise..."

Li Long spoke as if it were a trivial matter, but to Liu Gaolou it sounded like a legend. He was startled at first, then said in a slightly louder voice:

"I regret it, I regret it! Next time I come, I'll definitely bring my double-barreled shotgun! Encountering a bear here... that was really exciting!"

"Do you know that in these mountains, I've not only encountered bears, but also lynxes, and... tigers!"

"A tiger? How is that possible?" Liu Gaolou simply couldn't believe it. "How could there be a tiger in the Tianshan Mountains?"

“Go back and ask your second uncle, and you’ll find out,” Li Long said with a smile. “A few years ago, someone saw the Northern Xinjiang Tiger in Tacheng. Of course, scientists say it went extinct decades ago, but it definitely still exists deep in the Tianshan Mountains.”

After he said that, Liu Gaolou's steps became much lighter, but he felt even more excited.

This is the effect you want.

Li Long walked ahead carrying his gun, talking as he went about the other prey he had hunted at the hot springs, including wild boar, red deer, and roe deer, which rekindled Liu Gaolou's interest in hunting.

"Oh, I regret it now," Liu Gaolou said repeatedly. "If only I had known... I never imagined that there would be such a place in these barren mountains that look so far away."

Li Long smiled and continued walking forward.

He could see animal tracks along the stream; he could vaguely make out red deer, roe deer, and most of all wild boars.

I just don't know if those little pools where I used to soak in the hot springs are still there.

Liu Gaolou kept talking, either asking Li Long about the hot spring valley or recounting his experience soaking in hot springs in Yili.

Li Long didn't know if he was nervous or if he had suddenly become talkative. He chatted on and on, and then walked to the hot spring area.

"Look, it's right here. See those little pools? You can soak in them; the temperature is just right." After arriving at the location, Li Long looked around and felt relieved.

The pools are still there, although two edges have been damaged by some animals, but overall they are in good condition and can be patched up with some mud.

"Let me test the water temperature." Liu Gaolou walked over, squatted down, touched the water, and smiled: "Not bad, not bad, all natural, not bad! I was saying if a resort could be built here, maybe a lot of people would come."

"Forget it," Li Long shook his head. "If this place were near your provincial capital, it would be alright. But here... just think how long it would take to get into the mountains?"

Besides, where in our county are there so many people with free time to come all this way to soak in hot springs? There are plenty of hot springs in these mountains, not just in this one valley. People can easily soak in wild hot springs for free, so why would they pay to soak in something so similar?

Liu Gaolou was speechless; that was a fact.

Some industries require a certain population size, with a large enough number of middle-class and above families to support them.

"Just like that?" Liu Gaolou asked.

"Yeah, don't worry, the gun's right here, there shouldn't be anything around." Li Long said, looking around with the gun in hand. "No wild boars have come by these past few days, so I'm not worried."

Liu Gaolou had also spent time on the grasslands and knew that wild boars usually went down to the mountains before sunrise and retreated into the deep mountains to rest when the sun came out.

Of course, they both overlooked the fact that by this time, the place was already considered to be deep in the mountains.

They each chose a pool, took off their clothes, and soaked in the water. Liu Gaolou was a step behind; he was intentionally watching how Li Long arranged his clothes.

Seeing that Li Long had chosen a dry spot by the pool to put down his clothes and then placed his gun there, I felt relieved.

The hot spring water was slightly hotter than I had expected. It was a bit too hot when I first got in, but I quickly got used to it. The sulfurous water was slightly itchy and a little painful when it touched my skin, but then I felt comfortable.

“I still remember the last time Wu Yongbo took us to a hot spring,” Li Long said while soaking in the water. “There are many hot springs in Yili too.”

“Hmm, I’ve discovered that there are hot springs all along the Tianshan Mountains,” Liu Gaolou said, rubbing the dirt off his body. “They’re everywhere, from east to west, but of course, they feel different each time.”

Li Long thought to himself, "You don't mean you're planning to soak in all these hot springs, do you? Impossible."

However, he didn't say anything. He hadn't been to a hot spring in a long time, so he just took a break there.

Of course, it would be even better if we could get a few skewers of grilled meat and a bottle of beer.

I had drunk two bottles of beer earlier, but now the effects of the alcohol seem to have disappeared with the hot spring water, leaving only comfort.

After soaking for about half an hour, Li Long said to Liu Gaolou:

"Old Liu, is that enough?"

"Okay, okay, this is quite comfortable, I don't want to get up." Liu Gaolou smiled, took the towel that Li Long threw to him, and started drying himself off.

Li Long was always quick. While Liu Gaolou was still carefully wiping the water droplets off his body, Li Long had already finished and started getting dressed. At this time of year, he was still wearing thermal underwear, mainly because the temperature in the mountains was unpredictable.

He had just put on his long johns when he heard a noise in the woods. He glanced over but didn't see anything. Then he turned to look at Liu Gaolou, who didn't react. So Li Long asked, "..."
"Old Liu, did you hear that?"

"What's going on?" Liu Gaolou looked up and asked.

"Linzi, over there..." Li Long pointed.

"No..." Liu Gaolou looked in the direction Li Long was pointing, listened for a while, and didn't feel anything was wrong.

Li Long quickly pulled on his pants, not even having time to put on his socks, and then grabbed the gun.

He calmed down only after he had the gun in his hand, and kept looking over there while putting on his socks.

After a moment of silence, Li Long, distracted by other things, finished dressing. Liu Gaolou also started dressing. Just when Li Long thought he had misheard or that something was just passing by, a black head emerged from the bushes under the trees and rushed headlong into the stream.

Hey, wild boar!

Liu Gaolou immediately recognized that the creature was a half-grown wild boar, followed by one or two more...

Li Long had already habitually released the safety, cocked the bolt, and chambered a bullet. With such good conditions, it would be a waste not to take the first shot!

The wild boar also heard Liu Gaolou's words, raised its head to look at Li Long and the others, and stood there stunned for a moment, about seven or eight meters away.

When Li Long pulled the trigger, the wild boar finally reacted, turning and dashing into the woods, but it was too late. The bullet struck its head, and the wild boar fell to the ground.

Li Long didn't fire a second shot. The other wild boars had already turned and darted into the woods when Li Long fired. He heard a lot of noise in the woods, so there must be more than just those few.

The commotion wasn't just limited to sound; you could hear crackling sounds coming from the woods over there, and even see trees as thick as an arm snapped and falling.

There's a big wild boar!

Li Long did not chase after them, but instead kept his gun at the ready, on guard against a wild boar charging at him in a fit of ferocity—the strength of a wild boar that could break a tree in such a short time was unimaginable, and Li Long dared not be careless if it really went berserk.

Fortunately, a few minutes later, the woods became completely silent.

Li Long relaxed and said to Liu Gaolou, who had been standing there:
"Alright, they've all run away, it's fine now."

"That scared me! It snapped such a thick tree branch in half. This wild boar... it's amazing!"

Li Long didn't say anything, but went up to look at the half-grown wild boar he had killed—it should have weighed about 30 or 40 kilograms, the kind of wild boar cub that hadn't grown up yet from last year.

“Great, we’ve got something to eat.” Li Long smiled. “You get dressed first, I’ll go over there and skin it.”

"Aren't we going to take it back to peel? Is it safe here?" Liu Gaolou was excited but also a little worried.

“We won’t take it back,” Li Long said. “We can just finish processing it here and take Kelangzi back. There’s water here, and it’s warm, so it’s convenient.”

The wild boar itself wasn't very big, even smaller than the wild boar from Boratina that day, so it would be easy for Li Long to handle it here.

Liu Gaolou quickly dressed and tidied himself up, then went to Li Long's side to see if there was anything he could help with.

Li Long didn't stand on ceremony and told him to hold his leg so that it would be easier to peel the skin that way.

When they were about to open his abdomen, before he could even turn his head, the stench hit Liu Gaolou, and Li Long found his frown amusing.

It seems to be someone who eats frequently but doesn't often go near pigs or sheep being slaughtered.

In no time, they cleared the wild boar out, leaving only the belly and the roe; the rest were left at the edge of the woods.

"Should we leave these here?" Liu Gaolou asked.

“It’s alright, animals will come and clean them up before nightfall, and there won’t even be any bloodstains left,” Li Long said as he walked, carrying the 20-kilogram croaker. “Not a single bit will be wasted.”

Liu Gaolou was skeptical. Since Li Long said so, it meant there must be carnivores nearby. As for whether they were wolves, foxes, or something else, it was hard to say.

Reaching the car, Li Long opened the door with one hand, carrying the wild boar in the other, took out a bag, put the boar in the back, and placed it there.

The calf, bound together, struggled, unable to make a sound because its mouth was tied, and its eyes showed great fear.

Li Long put the wild boar's rooster down, took out the baby deer, untied the cloth strip from its mouth, and untied the rope from its legs, leaving only the rope around its neck so it could relax a bit.

When the baby deer was first untied, it couldn't even stand up. After struggling a few times, it stood up and stood steadily. It cried out in alarm and tried to run away, but the other end of the rope was in Li Long's hand, so it couldn't escape. After standing for a while, it began to lower its head and eat grass.

They seem quite adaptable.

"This little deer looks quite cute," Liu Gaolou exclaimed.

"How about we take one home and raise it?" Li Long joked. "Once it grows up, we can harvest its antlers and eat its meat, but it won't be as cute then."

"What? You can fight?"

"It has horns, and it's incredibly aggressive; it's very good at butting people," Li Long explained. After the little deer had moved around for a while, he tied it up again and put it in the car.

When the two drove up to the cabin, Pollati was sitting on the doorstep smoking, a smug smile on his face.

"We hunted a wild boar!" Liu Gaolou proudly showed Polati the boar that Li Long had shot down.

"The hot springs?" Polati was also a little surprised. "There are more wild boars this spring."

Looking at the still-burning barbecue grill, Liu Gaolou asked:
"Old Li, how does this roasted wild boar meat taste?"

"Not very good. But if you put in a lot of seasoning, it should be alright." Li Long didn't expect Liu Gaolou to want to eat roasted wild boar. He said, "If you want some, I'll roast a few skewers for you."

It's a bit unfair to Polati to roast this stuff, but judging from his expression, he doesn't seem to care too much.

"You guys go about your business, I'll wait here to change the fritillaria." Polati, seeing that Li Long and Liu Gaolou hadn't noticed, pointed to the house and said:

"While you were soaking in the hot spring, I changed two bags of fritillaria!"

"Sure!" Li Long was somewhat surprised and went over to look at the fritillaria that Polati had replaced.

Although it was said to be two bags, neither bag was actually full. Li Long picked them up and felt that each bag weighed about ten kilograms. He opened the bags and looked inside; the fritillaria bulbs were quite dirty. He then asked:

"About how much did you trade for it?"

“Eight kilograms of rice or eight kilograms of flour for one kilogram of fritillaria,” Polati said. “Or a pair of shoes for one kilogram, and the rest in dried meat. For dried meat, it’s two and a half kilograms of fritillaria for one kilogram of dried meat, just like you said.”

With prices roughly the same, Li Long smiled and said:

"It was all traded for goods, so I'll give you my cut right now—how many kilograms are in two bags?"

"Twenty-nine and a half kilograms."

“Okay, let’s say 30 kilograms, here’s 60.” Li Long took out some money from his pocket, counted out a 50-yuan note and a 10-yuan note, and handed them to Polati.

Polati was very happy to earn 560 yuan that day.

Besides, exchanging items isn't like finding a deer. Finding a deer requires venturing into the forest, which is troublesome and depends on luck, but exchanging items is just a matter of waiting.

Li Long placed the fritillaria bulbs beside the car, then cut off some wild boar meat, skewered it, and then stirred the remaining embers in the barbecue grill. Seeing that there wasn't much left, he took some more from under the stove and put it in to grill.

He didn't grill much because he wasn't very hungry. He ate two skewers himself after grilling them, and handed the rest to Liu Gaolou, who then went to clean the fritillaria bulbs.

"It's pretty good too." Liu Gaolou grabbed a handful of grilled meat, praising it as he ate. "Old Li, your grilling skills are pretty good too."

Li Long didn't reply, just smiled, took a large basin and thoroughly washed the two bags of fritillaria bulbs, then poured them onto the table to dry.

It's impossible to dry it in such a short time. As long as there's no water on the surface, it will be easy to dry after you take it home.

"Just wash it like that? It's pretty simple," Polati said after looking at it.

“That’s it. That way, the quality will be improved by one or two levels, and the price will be higher,” Li Long told him.

“Okay, I got it.” Polati nodded. “I’ve cleaned the fritillaria I got these past two days. Don’t forget to come and pick it up.”

"I won't forget it. By the way, tell me what they need and what their requests are, and I'll bring it to you."

Although nearly 30 kilograms of fresh fritillaria bulbs only yielded four or five kilograms of dried goods after drying, it was still an improvement.

Seeing Li Long busy at work, Liu Gaolou, still not satisfied with just eating roasted wild boar, simply asked Li Long for a knife, cut off some meat, skewered it into small pieces, and roasted it himself.

Although he had never eaten pork, he had seen pigs run. In fact, Liu Gaolou had watched barbecues many times, but when he tried to barbecue himself, he felt flustered and clumsy. He kept turning the meat over and sprinkling seasonings. The dripping oil into the red-hot charcoal startled him. By the time he realized what was happening, the meat was already burnt.

Liu Gaolou then realized that grilling meat was not as simple as it seemed.

He tried taking a bite of the meat he had grilled; it was both salty and spicy, and he could clearly feel that it wasn't cooked through—he knew that the pieces of meat he had cut were too big.

It was a waste.

Liu Gaolou tossed the meat skewers onto the counter and chuckled self-deprecatingly. It seemed that once he was truly in the wilderness, he was not entirely useless, but rather riddled with flaws.

Like before at the hot spring pool, if I encountered a wild boar, could I kill it as soon as it appeared, just like Li Long did?
Looking back now, Li Long's quick firing eliminated a potential threat.

A wild boar must weigh one or two hundred kilograms to be able to break a tree branch as thick as an arm. If such a big guy were to charge out and become extremely ferocious, charging straight at me, could I possibly dodge it?
Li Long fired his gun in advance, startling the wild boars that hadn't yet shown themselves in the woods and preventing a potential attack. Could this be considered a case of anticipation and preemptive action?
If it were me, how would I handle it?

For a moment, Liu Gaolou's mind was filled with a jumble of questions, and he looked at Li Long with a newfound respect.

This is a true talent who has risen from the bottom. He's good at business, and he's not bad at anything else. If he's lucky, he can gather a group of people around him, and they trust him a lot—just look at Polati, they trust him completely. And then there's his second uncle.

Seeing that it was almost time, Li Long said to Polati:
"Are you going to wait here any longer? We're leaving now."

Although Liu Gaolou was a little reluctant to leave, he knew he had to listen to Li Long. He had a great time today, with outdoor food, thrills, and even mushroom picking. It was pretty good.

I wish my family could come and play with me.

Of course it's impossible; it's too far, and it's too much trouble to come all the way here.

Polati said:
"You guys go first, I'll wait a while, maybe someone else will come to exchange things later."

Li Long and Liu Gaolou then packed the fritillaria bulbs back into bags, got into the car, and left.

Watching the roadside scenery rushing past, Liu Gaolou leaned back comfortably in the Jeep seat and said, "Today was really exciting—did you often do this before?"

"Pretty much." Li Long recalled his years in the mountains and said, "Sometimes it was even more exciting than this. I was slapped by bears, scratched by lynxes, rooted by wild boars—and even chased by wolves."

In any case, none of the carnivorous animals in the mountains are easy to deal with.

As the car drove out of the mountains, looking at the bare rocks of Hongshanzui outside, Liu Gaolou sighed again:
"I never expected that these mountains, which look bare and barren from the outside, would change so much once you go inside. If I hadn't experienced it for myself, I would never have imagined that this is the wonder of nature."

Li Long smiled to himself, thinking to himself, "You're quite good at choosing words."

When they returned to the county, Li Long took Liu Gaolou to the county guesthouse and asked him:

"Do you want to keep some of that wild boar meat, and those mushrooms you picked too?"

"No, no," Liu Gaolou waved his hand and said, "I already ate in the mountains, and it tasted good, so it's fine."

I think you're right. Barbecue is best eaten right by the grill. And for stir-fried mushrooms, it's best to pick the mushrooms yourself and stir-fry them immediately after picking.

"The taste will be different if you cook it again after you get it back."

Li Long laughed and said, "Not bad, not bad, you have quite the appetite. Okay, then these mushrooms are a good deal for me."

He drove to the purchasing station first, put the fritillaria bulbs he had collected on the backyard to dry, chatted with his father at the counter for a while, and then went back—the wild boar meat still needed to be processed.

After handing over the management of the wooden house in the mountains to Bolati, Li Long no longer interfered and no longer needed to go up the mountain every day.

They hadn't finished the wild boar meat from last time, and there was still quite a bit this time. Li Long planned to send some to the fourth team.

It's a good opportunity to check on how the road repairs are going.

The construction team was working hard, and when Li Long passed by, he found that the paved asphalt road had been advanced by several hundred meters and was almost at the third team's residential area.

The speed was indeed fast, which resulted in his car spending a considerable amount of time driving through tree-lined fields and ditches.

Fortunately, the GAZ truck has a high chassis, so it can still move in such conditions.

Fearing that road construction would continue and affect his return journey, Li Long hurried back to the county after delivering the meat.

The next day, Liu Gaolou and his driver arrived at the purchasing station, and then Li Long led them to the sugar factory to pick up sugar before they finally left.

When Liu Gaolou left, he was still a little regretful. He said that next time he came, he would ask Li Long to take him to other places.

"I just realized that there are actually many fun places in your county, right? You must take me there next time."

Li Long thought to himself, "Now that you put it that way, I'll have to put some thought into it—shall we go hunting in the sandbags next time?"
That's my current thought, but I'll decide on the specifics later. Maybe next time Liu Gaolou comes, I won't want to go anywhere else.

After handing the cabin over to Polati, Li Long suddenly found himself with nothing to do, feeling like he had nothing to do again.

So he went back into the mountains the next day. Halim and the others should have almost finished washing the sheep and might be moving on to new pastures soon. He wondered how far Meng Hai and the others had progressed in repairing the road.

Yesterday, when Li Long went to the fourth team, he passed by the area where the asphalt road was being repaired and didn't see Meng Hai and the others, which didn't surprise him. If they were just looking at the asphalt road repairs, Meng Hai and the others would have already seen the whole process.

There's no need to look at it now; the main thing left is to put it into practice.

Next, Li Long thought about whether he could get them a job repairing asphalt roads, otherwise just watching wouldn't be enough.

However, such jobs are not easy to get. Li Long only knows Deputy Director Guan in the Transportation Bureau, and he doesn't know anyone in the road maintenance section. It's hard to find connections.

Let's wait and see.

Before heading into the mountains, Li Long habitually checked on Bolati's wooden house at the mountain pass, but no one was there; he guessed they had gone to their own house. Li Long then drove to Halim and the others' place.

Halim and his men have indeed finished washing the sheep and are now starting to pack things up for the winter pens.

Seeing Li Long approach, Halim greeted him. Li Long then asked them what they needed, offering to go down the mountain to buy it for them.

"We definitely need some medicine. We have some at home, but other families may not have enough. Some people think that once the road is completed, they won't stock up as much, since they don't have tractors like some of our families."

The tribe wasn't practicing communism, so each family was primarily responsible for its own affairs. Although Yushanjiang was the tribe's leader, he was mainly in charge of general matters.

For some matters related to supplies, each household should still be responsible for its own.

"Okay, I'll bring more medicine when I come tomorrow." Li Long nodded. "Is there enough food? What about salt, brick tea, and the like?"

“That’s enough. The wool has been sold, and everyone has money. They bought some things.” Halim said with a smile. “After the snow melted, we brought the things we caught to you and exchanged them for some money. We also bought some things to store up.”

Previously, when people collected deer antlers, jade, and other valuables for road and house repairs, they would give them to Li Long as funds for the work. Later, Li Long said that once they had enough money, they could bring any more of these items to him, and he would pay them.

They kept the money in their hands, some saved it, and some exchanged it for the supplies they needed.

In fact, after the road was built and tractors were available, the herders in the mountains started going down the mountain more often, especially those families who owned tractors, and their horizons broadened considerably.

In the beginning, Li Long would bring them supplies in exchange for things they got from the mountains.

Later, Li Long took the initiative to deliver supplies to them, repair houses, lay water pipes, and build roads. They would give the things they found to Li Long in exchange for funds.

Now that the roads are open and we have tractors, it's much easier to go into the mountains now, unlike before when we could only go down the mountain a few times a year.

Therefore, most of the necessary supplies can be purchased by ourselves, but some things are not easy to buy, such as medicine.

Seeing that Halim and the others were busy, Li Long stopped disturbing them and continued driving into the mountains.

We drove all the way into the deepest part of the road, making several turns, and even saw people walking along the road into the mountains before finally reaching the road construction site.

Meng Hai's car was parked on the side of the road. When Li Long arrived, they had already had lunch.

"Hey, I just happened to be here to grab a bite to eat," Li Long said as he got out of the car to Meng Hai, who was coming to greet him. "What are you having for lunch?"

"I steamed some buns this morning and stir-fried some vegetables—just some mushrooms I picked." Meng Hai hurriedly instructed the server to get Li Long a serving. "Want to try some?"

"Okay, okay." Li Long took the new enamel basin and sat down by Menghai to eat.

It tastes good. For a large batch of food to taste this good, it's really impressive. It seems the chef has really honed his skills.

Li Long ate and praised the food, which made Meng Hai and the head chef, who had been secretly watching from the side, very happy.

While eating, Li Long asked about the road construction progress.

Actually, he could tell some things without asking. The road had advanced several kilometers further than when he last saw it, and the speed was extremely fast.

"With bulldozers and excavators, we're honestly very efficient at road repair now. If this continues, even if they don't repair roads when they move to other areas, there won't be many left."

Meng Hai is confident in this.

“However, after working with those people to build that asphalt road, I realized that while we have the technical skills, we lack practical experience.” Meng Hai wasn’t arrogant; his mind was still clear. “If we could build a road and improve it, we could do it much faster.”

“The idea is fine,” Li Long said while eating. “You guys start by repairing this side, and I’ll inquire around over there. It would be best if we could find a road to repair and practice on. If we really can’t find one, we can also take on a project that’s already been repaired but has potholes that need fixing.”

Meng Hai nodded. It was a private enterprise. They had only ever built gravel roads, bridges, and sluice gates, but they had never built a real asphalt road.

If a technician has never repaired roads before, he is considered a novice and therefore incompetent by others.

That's why we need to find a road to repair, even if it's just a simple patch. It will accumulate experience and let these novices get some hands-on experience, and the results will be different.

After dinner, Li Long went to the stream to wash the enamel basin and put it back on the cutting board. Meng Hai came over, and the two of them walked together towards the area that hadn't been repaired yet.

The pasture trail ahead wasn't narrow anymore; the trees were fewer, and the tracks left by livestock on the riverbank were still visible, unwashed by the water. The next step in road construction would be to continue along this pasture trail.

Looking up, you can see snow-capped mountains covered with glaciers in the distance, and then light green meadows on the nearby mountains.

The pine, cypress, and spruce trees in these mountains are scattered in patches, some places have them and some don't.

Occasionally, you can see a bald patch on the mountain, or clumps of dark green creeping pines growing on the meadow.

“The road repair will be simpler from now on,” Meng Hai said with a smile. “Since it’s not a complicated project, the speed will be faster. Even if they can’t reach the destination by moving to another site, judging from the looks of it, their tractors should be able to get there soon enough.”

The road passes through areas without narrow valleys or forests blocking its way, and the tractor's high mobility allows it to pass through most places.

Li Long nodded in agreement, estimating that the summer pasture would be completed by May.

After arriving at the summer pasture, the vast alpine grassland was accessible even without roads, so there was no need to continue.

Meng Hai and his team repaired nearly 100 kilometers of mountain roads. Although some parts were easier to repair, working in the deep mountains and forests every day was still very hard.

“There shouldn’t be more than ten kilometers left,” Li Long said after checking the distance. “And for the remaining areas, we just need to use bulldozers to widen the road and pave some sections.”

"That's right." Meng Hai was also quite pleased. "So, we'll build it up to the bottom of the grassland?"

“Okay, just get to the bottom of the pasture,” Li Long said. “If the remaining tractors can drive up, then we don’t need to worry about them. There’s no need to make a road out of someone else’s pasture.”

With Li Long's approval, Meng Hai felt relieved.

Li Long still paid for this job. Firstly, Meng Hai felt that the money wasn't earned very efficiently, unlike the work he did outside. It felt like taking money from his left hand to give to his right.

Since Li Long was one of their own, they felt a little embarrassed to make money from him.

Secondly, the company's employees were starting to look down on doing only manual labor and wanted to do some technically demanding work to prove themselves.

After all, they're all workers now; they can't stay the same as before.

Now that Li Long has made the decision, Meng Hai feels that the project can be completed a while ahead of schedule. More importantly, he has a clear bottom line and a target, which makes him very happy.

Li Long took a closer look at the terrain of Lishan.

The mountains over there are even more towering, almost reaching the clouds. Standing here, you can see that more than a third of the mountain peaks are shrouded in mist and clouds. Unlike the outer mountains, which are continuous mountain ranges, some of these mountains are just towering peaks, connected to other mountains only at their base.

Breathing here is normal. Li Long felt that the altitude was about two thousand meters, which was not high for him, or even for most people.

But things are different when you go up to those mountaintops.

There must be many plants and animals there that I've never seen before, right?

I wonder if the tiger king I once saw is hiding in some mountain there?

Is the legendary Mahe Jade Mine located on one of the mountains mentioned above?

In another twenty or thirty years, the road into the mountains will be blocked, the jade mines will be closed, and it will be impossible to mine in the mountains anymore.

Li Long thought he could come in from time to time these days. As the road construction progressed, he would also take a look inside and see what the scenery was like.

Meng Hai had no idea that what Li Long was thinking about had absolutely nothing to do with road construction. As he looked around, he said:
“Looking at the road construction facilities the Transportation Bureau has, we still have some shortages. But some things can be replaced, and some can be rented. At this stage, I think we shouldn't buy them yet. We should wait until we get a road construction project and then rent them first.”

Buying it directly would cost significantly more, and our current workers need a learning curve. It would be wasteful to use new machinery for training.

Li Long, distracted by two things at once, listened to Meng Hai's words and knew they made sense, so he nodded and then asked:
"How much money is left in the account? Is the daily salary we're paying them enough?"

"That's enough," Meng Hai said. "We've done enough until the very end."

Li Long paid for the road construction, which had nothing to do with the company. Li Long put a sum of money in the company's account for Meng Hai to use as needed while the road was being built, to cover salary and other expenses.

Meng Hai was quite economical with Li Long in this regard, and Li Long didn't say much. With Meng Hai around, things were much easier at the engineering company.

They had originally planned to continue exploring, but after the meal, they didn't want to move anymore, so they walked back, discussing their recent plans as they went.

"As long as the weather remains the same, we will speed up the process. The section of road from here to the pasture is easy to repair. However, once we enter the inner mountains, a cloud will occasionally drift in and it will start to rain. The rain is not heavy and only lasts for a few minutes or ten minutes, but it affects our work."

Meng Hai was just telling the truth. Work has been generally going smoothly lately, without any major problems. The only issue is the rain; it makes it impossible to work. Although the rain doesn't last long, it's quite heavy, significantly impacting efficiency.

"There's nothing we can do about it. In the mountains, the weather can change in an instant..." Li Long pointed to a dark cloud drifting in from the west and said, "Look at this, is it going to rain again soon?"

"Yes, once these clouds come over, it's definitely going to rain." Meng Hai sighed. "I guess we'll have to work one or two hours less this afternoon."

After saying that, he shouted at the workers who had already started working:

"Hurry up, hurry up and get to work, or we won't be able to finish if it rains!"

The others sped up, some shoveling soil, others carrying stones, and the roar of the bulldozers grew louder, echoing through the valley.

"Will there be flooding after the rain?" Li Long asked as he returned to the tent.

"Yes, the water level in the stream here will rise within an hour after it rains," Meng Hai said. "We learned this the hard way a while ago when we pitched our tents too close to the river. We thought the water would rise at least half a meter deep before we could reach the tents, but after a rain, the water level rose right up to the tents."

Luckily, we reacted quickly and moved the tent away; otherwise, it would have flooded.

"Will it rain tonight?" Li Long asked again.

"It hasn't rained at night. It's all during the day, mostly around noon or in the afternoon. It's very rare for it to rain in the morning or forenoon."

Li Long thought to himself that this was rather strange.

“But the mushrooms all grow in the morning. You can’t see them when you wake up in the morning, but they appear on the grass after the morning.” Meng Hai continued to describe the wonder of the place. “By the time it rains in the afternoon, the mushrooms have already started to rot. It’s so fast.”

No wonder the straw mushrooms I ate today were all small, mostly about the size of quail eggs, with the largest being no bigger than chicken eggs, and some even smaller.

These mushrooms don't open their caps; they're round and plump, very cute, and delicious too.

"Boss, we picked quite a few mushrooms this morning. Take some with you when you go back later," Meng Hai said. "Take them home for your family to try. We can pick them every day anyway, and we can't eat them all. It's not easy to dry them here."

“Okay.” Li Long didn’t stand on ceremony. He knew that the further into the mountains you went, the fewer people there were and the more resources there were, so there was really no need to be polite.

It seems I need to come back more often to see if there's anything else good. (End of Chapter)