Rebirth of Bayi Fishing and Hunting in the Northwest

Chapter 1263 The Mischievous Former Mother-in-Law

The next day, after breakfast, Li Long went to the purchasing station and stayed there for a short while before Meng Hai came over.

Li Long led Meng Hai to the reception room, where Liang Shuangcheng poured him some hot tea before going about his own business.

“I went to the Transportation Bureau yesterday,” Meng Hai said. “I talked to Deputy Director Guan to understand the situation, and then went to the place he suggested to take a look. We can take on this job and do it.”

"What exactly is the situation? I mean, that road," Li Long asked.

"The transportation bureau has allocated a budget of 10,000 yuan to repair the damaged road surface and potholes along the six kilometers of original asphalt road."

"Have you had someone calculate it? Is there any profit?" Li Long asked. "We can't do business at a loss."

“It’s been calculated,” Meng Hai said with a smile. “We have people in our company who understand this, and the Transportation Bureau does a very clear budget. The 10,000 yuan includes labor costs, but their calculated labor costs are relatively high, which we can definitely accept.”

Li Long nodded and then asked:
"How long will the project take? How much will everyone get after it's finished?"

"The work period they gave us is half a month, starting the day after tomorrow. I roughly calculated that after the work is finished, each of us can get a salary of fifty to eighty yuan, and the company will have a surplus of about a thousand yuan."

Perhaps fearing that Li Long would feel the profit was too low, Meng Hai added:
"The main problem is that this is our first time doing this, so we'll probably waste some asphalt material. I think once we've done it a few more times and gained some practical experience, we'll be able to control the costs later on."

Li Long nodded. Such cost waste was unavoidable. After all, it was the first time doing such a job, so it was necessary to be more lenient with the cost estimates. At this point, it was like using raw materials to gain experience.

It's the same as using leather to make clothes and gain experience points in a game.

"When you go to do the work, ask around and see what our company is lacking. Make a list and buy what you can." Li Long also instructed Meng Hai, "Since we are going to be an engineering team, we will inevitably grow bigger and stronger step by step. Without the necessary construction machinery, others will not trust us."

"I understand." Meng Hai nodded.

Actually, his plan was more conservative than Li Long's. He planned to distribute some of the profits to the employees and keep the rest as a reserve fund to buy machinery. While this approach would result in slower growth, it would be more stable and risk-free.

Many entrepreneurs who rose from humble beginnings as farmers share Meng Hai's mindset; they don't think of using loans to equip themselves in advance.

Li Long himself also reflected this point—of course, he had this idea because he had enough money and there was no need for a loan.

Meng Hai wasn't aware of this; he always felt that being burdened with debt was a terrible thing.

Meng Hai then chatted with Li Long about some engineering matters. Actually, after inspecting the road yesterday, he went back to the village and brought the employees to the company.

There are dormitories in the company compound. We'll stay here first to make preparations. After I finished talking to Li Long today, he'll take us to the construction site to get started and prepare materials such as asphalt and gravel.

As for how to do it, the technicians we hired know how and will guide the workers in mixing materials, paving and repairing roads, so Meng Hai isn't worried about that, but he will definitely be there.

“In that case, you can drive the van from the purchasing station over first, that way you can carry more people,” Li Long said after thinking for a moment. “I’ll call Boss Liu and ask him to get another van over.”

Now, when we're working, we've found that the GAZ-69 van is quite useful in the fourth team, the purchasing station, and the engineering company.

It's convenient because many people use it.

"No need, no need." Meng Hai hurriedly waved his hand, "My GAZ truck can fit ten people, and the bulldozer and excavator can carry some more, it's enough."

Li Long didn't try to persuade him any further, but he decided to still provide the construction company with a van for convenience. They couldn't keep using Meng Hai's GAZ truck to transport people.

Li Long also wanted to remind Meng Hai to train a driver among the employees, so that it would be convenient to pick up people later.

However, considering that people drive bulldozers and excavators nowadays, driving a car would certainly be no problem, so I didn't bring it up again.

Meng Hai discussed the details with Li Long again. Li Long asked him if he had enough money to buy the materials. He smiled and said:
“Deputy Director Guan from the Transportation Bureau approved three thousand yuan to prepare the materials. I can tell he's only doing this because of you, hehe, boss, with you around, things are so much easier for us.”

Meng Hai has now begun to adjust his role. Although Li Long is ostensibly a partner, in his view, Li Long is the boss of the company, and he is the executor.

Meng Hai used to call him "Comrade Li Long," but now he's started calling him "Boss," which Li Long finds quite novel.

After discussing the details with Li Long, Meng Hai left, driving his GAZ truck to pick up workers. He also told Li Long that the two tents would still be needed, and they would be set up by the roadside so the workers could eat, sleep, and work there. He would drive the GAZ truck to buy supplies.

Li Long didn't bother with these trivial matters; he felt it was fine with Meng Hai handling them.

After Meng Hai left, Li Long told his father, then drove off to buy some supplies and headed into the mountains.

As he expected, the cabin at the mountain pass was locked. The windows of the cabin were covered with plastic sheeting, but Li Long didn't bother to remove it. He simply drove into the mountains and turned onto his cabin.

As they approached the cabin, Li Long was surprised to see Polati grilling meat there!
His method of grilling meat is relatively simple: he sets up a fire on the stove, and when the fire has burned brightly and only red-hot charcoal remains in the stove, he skewers the meat on a wooden stick and grills it right there on the stove—without using a pot, he rests the two ends of the wooden stick on the stove burner.

The wooden skewers for the meat were nearly a meter long, and the meat skewers were nearly fifty centimeters long. If an adult man in this era could eat two skewers, he would be considered a big eater.

Normally, one skewer is enough to fill you up – Polati BBQ, with two people watching over you.

Upon hearing the car, the two men panicked a bit. After Polati said something to them, they looked at Li Long's car with some suspicion, still remaining somewhat wary.

A new face.

After getting out of the car, Li Long made a judgment—no wonder he was worried because he had never seen him before.

As Polati watched Li Long open the back door of the GAZ truck, he said to the two men, "Keep an eye on the roasted meat, don't burn it."

Then he went over and helped Li Long move the things.

“Yes, yes, this is it.” Polati said as he carried the items. “They especially love this sponge cake, and they want these gloves too. Oh, and the beef jerky, they don’t exchange it often, but a few people come to exchange it every few days, saying it’s delicious—it’s just too expensive.”

One kilogram of beef jerky is exchanged for two kilograms of fresh scallops. It's very expensive, but after you've actually tasted it, you should be able to tell that the jerky is worth the price.

Therefore, fewer people are willing to switch to dried meat, but the supply is relatively stable.

After moving everything, Polati said to Li Long:
"We only replaced about ten kilograms of fritillaria today, but we replaced some yesterday. The fritillaria is in my wooden hut. You can take it with you when you go back."

"How many?" Li Long didn't plan to stay here. Since he had entrusted it to Polati, he would let him handle it; he shouldn't worry about it.

“It weighs more than 40 kilograms, less than 50, and with these here, it’s about 65 kilograms,” Polati said. “Yesterday, for some reason, fewer people came to exchange it.”

"That's good enough," Li Long said with a smile. "You earn more in a day than some people earn in a month, what's there to be dissatisfied about? By the way, what kind of meat did you grill?"

“Roe deer meat,” Polati said. “I didn’t hunt it; a friend of mine brought it over this morning. He’s also a forest ranger. He found this guy in the ditch; he broke his leg but didn’t die. My friend doesn’t eat meat, so he brought it over to me… Perfect timing to roast it, and I can exchange it for fritillaria bulbs.”

Polati pointed to the two people outside and said:
"A skewer of grilled meat for half a kilogram of fritillaria bulbs, is that worth it?"

"Yes, it's worth it." Li Long nodded; it really was worth it.

“I put the hides at the back, in case the forest police come and check and say I’m poaching,” Polati said. “Take them back with you when you leave.”

"Okay, I'll give you seventy yuan for the leather, so that makes it two hundred. Is that alright?"

"Sure, sure. By the way, the meat is almost done. Here, have a skewer too."

Polati took the two hundred yuan from Li Long, and a smile immediately spread across his face. He pulled Li Long's arm outside and gave him the best-grilled skewer.

Li Long saw that there was a lot of seasoning sprinkled on it, and the taste seemed okay, so he took it, blew on it, and started gnawing on it—he could only gnaw on it, because each piece of meat was the size of a baby's fist, and it would be really difficult for an average person to cook it through.

Li Long rarely eats roasted roe deer meat, but he felt it tasted pretty good! It's probably because the cumin, chili powder, and salt masked the wild and gamey smell of the roe deer meat, which is why it tasted good.

Polati picked up the remaining skewers, giving two skewers to each of the two people, and keeping the last one for himself—he had grilled six skewers in total. He had originally thought that since there were three people, each would get two skewers, and he would definitely have some too, but now that Li Long had come over, he would just have to make do with his own.

However, considering the two hundred yuan Li Long gave me, I wouldn't mind giving him both skewers.

Li Long ate quickly, then threw away the skewer—or rather, the stick—wiped his mouth, went behind the wooden house, and found the roe deer skin that had been deliberately hidden in the grass.

Upon closer inspection, it was indeed the front leg that had the problem; there were no bullet holes, only the whole skin.

Logically, a full pelt should be worth more than seventy yuan, but looking at the pelt now, Li Long felt that he hadn't let Polati lose out—the pelt was relatively small, and this roe deer was less than two years old. The pelt was small, so its value was relatively low, and it was a spring pelt, so he decided to leave it as it was.

Polati hadn't even applied salt; flies were still crawling on the hide. Li Long shooed the flies away, went to the wooden hut in front to find some coarse salt, took the hide to the spring to wash off the bloodstains, then applied the salt again, put it in a bag, and put it in the car.

"Polati, you're busy, I'm leaving." Li Long said this to Polati as he loaded the more than ten kilograms of fritillaria into the car, and then prepared to leave.

Then, Polati brought out another roe deer leg from the cabin and placed it on the bag of furs, saying, "Take this back and eat it. As for the fritillaria bulbs from the mountain pass, you know how to carry them, right?"

"I know, I know." Li Long nodded and drove away.

Polati hummed their folk tune as he began to fetch things for the two men—two skewers of meat were only worth one kilogram of fritillaria, and these two men had taken quite a few fritillaria; they also wanted other things.

Li Long went to the wooden cabin at the mountain pass, found the key to open the door, and looked around but couldn't find the fritillaria. Thinking something was wrong, he walked around the house again, and then focused his attention on the wooden kang (heated brick bed).

In this wooden hut, the only place to hide things is this wooden kang (heated brick bed)—Polati is quite clever. This wooden hut at the mountain pass is an easy target; the lock on the door can't stop those who genuinely want to get in.

Li Long lifted the felt covering the wooden kang (heated brick bed), knocked on it, found a board, lifted it up, and saw two bags of fritillaria bulbs underneath.

This Polati didn't even tell me, is this a test for me?
Li Long pulled the fritillaria bulbs back to the purchasing station, unloaded them, and began washing them with Liang Shuangcheng.

With nothing else to do, and not being a pampered young master who never lifted a finger, he had been in this line of work longer than Liang Shuangcheng, so he was naturally very skilled at washing things.

After washing everything, it was time to eat. The purchasing station closed, and Li Long and his father walked together into the courtyard.

"Dad, how much did you collect this morning?" Li Long asked casually.

"A hundred or so kilograms," Li Qingxia said as she walked. "These days, it's usually more in the afternoon, maybe two hundred kilograms, less in the morning."

Having lived in northern Xinjiang for so many years, Li Qingxia has also started talking about kilograms.

The next few days were relatively uneventful. Every morning, Li Long would go to check on Meng Hai and the others as they repaired the road, and in the afternoon, he would go to the mountains to bring back the fritillaria bulbs from Bolati—and incidentally, he would tease Bolati for hiding the fritillaria bulbs without telling him.

Polati just smiled and didn't explain further.

On Sunday, Li Long took Mingming and Haohao to the fourth team. Gu Xiaoxia didn't go; she was going to call her sister at home to discuss her coming over.

The main issue is the time difference between the two sides, resulting in different rest times. By the time Gu Xiaoxia returns in the evening, Gu Xiaoyu is also almost at rest, so they usually arrange to call each other on the weekend.

To Gu Xiaoxia's surprise, when she asked Gu Xiaoyu when she was coming, her sister stammered on the other end of the phone. Gu Xiaoxia didn't immediately understand what was happening, and then she realized that someone else was on the other end.
"Xiaoxia, right? What did you just say? Why is Xiaoyu going over there?"

A woman's voice.

Gu Xiaoxia immediately realized that this was her biological mother—the one who didn't really like her.

I was immediately overwhelmed with mixed feelings.

Then, for no apparent reason, a surge of resentment welled up inside me.

"It's nothing, give the phone to Xiaoyu, I'm talking to her." Gu Xiaoxia's tone was a little stiff; she didn't want to talk to her—because she was a little emotional, to the point that she choked up.

Gu Xiaoxia has always been like this; once she gets excited, she easily chokes up and sheds tears.

Over the years of marriage to Li Long, he hasn't given her many moments like this, so she usually appears quite calm and her emotions are relatively stable, but in fact, she is prone to choking up.

"What did you say? Don't you know who I am?" Fan Wenli raised her voice, her tone somewhat annoyed—she hadn't expected Gu Xiaoxia to dare speak to her in such a tone.

She's her mother!
Fan Wenli didn't think she had done anything wrong—she didn't want to see Gu Xiaoxia because she already had a family, and after more than 20 years of not seeing or raising her, she had no feelings for her anymore.

Moreover, she still harbors resentment towards Gu Boyuan, which hasn't subsided, so she also doesn't have a good impression of Gu Xiaoxia.

She could ignore Gu Xiaoxia, but she couldn't stand Gu Xiaoxia's treatment of her.

"You are Xiaoyu's mother." In just a few words, Gu Xiaoxia had calmed down. If Xiaoyu didn't recognize her, then she shouldn't blame Gu Xiaoxia for treating her like a stranger.

Besides, I'm happy with my life now, and my father is doing well, so that's enough.

Gu Xiaoxia had originally thought that they would just stop contacting each other and become strangers, but now she was acting like she was accusing someone, and Gu Xiaoxia suddenly wanted to laugh.

"I'm still your mother!" Fan Wenli suddenly became furious. "What's wrong? You don't even recognize your own mother anymore?"

“You were the one who disowned me first.” Gu Xiaoxia became even calmer. “Give the phone to Xiaoyu, I have something to say to her.”

"No! Explain yourself!" Fan Wenli was at a loss for words and just retorted habitually. She didn't know what Gu Xiaoxia was supposed to explain—that she was the one who had disowned her first.

Gu Xiaoxia knew that making the phone call today was a mistake, so she spoke into the microphone:

"Since you're not going to give it to Xiaoyu, I'll hang up now."

After speaking, I hung up.

"She actually dared to hang up on me!" Fan Wenli's hand trembled as she gripped the receiver.

Gu Xiaoyu stood to the side, looking troubled. Her older sister could disown their mother, because their mother had no intention of acknowledging her, but she couldn't disown her.

She was torn between her mother and her sister, caught in the middle.

Actually, Gu Xiaoyu doesn't go back often. Fan Wenli comes over occasionally, sometimes because she misses her daughter, and sometimes just to check on her and see if her daughter has a boyfriend.

After all, she didn't like Gu Xiaoyu, whom she had introduced to her, so she was thinking of seeing if her daughter could find someone on her own.

I do care, and when I came here today, Gu Xiaoxia called me.

As a mother, she knew her daughter well, so when she heard Gu Xiaoyu stammering, she sensed something was wrong. She leaned closer to listen and heard someone call out "sister," and she knew who it was.

She had originally intended to take the microphone and put Gu Xiaoxia in her place, but the other party didn't give her a chance to do so at all.

Actually, Fann Wong is quite regretful. Now that her eldest daughter is doing so well, how could she possibly disown her?
But she wouldn't say anything soft; even if she had just asked her a concerned question, Gu Xiaoxia wouldn't have been so harsh.

All I can say is that people are just asking for trouble.

Unable to confront Gu Xiaoxia, she vented her anger on Gu Xiaoyu, interrogating Gu Xiaoxia about why she made the call and why she was asked to take leave.

Gu Xiaoyu was in a dilemma.

(End of this chapter)