Rebirth of Bayi Fishing and Hunting in the Northwest

Li Long checked the train schedules at the train station, bought a platform ticket, and went in to pick someone up. It was still convenient to go to the platform to pick someone up at this time.

The main reason is that there are many people getting off the train now. Li Long knows Gu Xiaoyu's carriage number, so it will be more convenient for him to go in and pick her up. He is afraid that he will not be able to find her outside.

So as soon as Gu Xiaoyu got off the train, Li Long saw her, went up to greet her, and took the suitcase from her hands.

"Brother-in-law, I didn't expect you to be able to get into the train station." Gu Xiaoyu was pleasantly surprised. She was wearing a floral short-sleeved shirt, trousers, and mid-heeled leather shoes, which made a clattering sound as she walked.

Her hair was casually tied up, and she didn't need much makeup to exude the elegant temperament of an intellectual woman. A middle-aged man who followed behind her was originally planning to strike up a conversation with her, but he was stunned when he saw Li Long take her suitcase.

Upon hearing Gu Xiaoyu's address, the man's face immediately lit up, and he stepped forward, smiling at Li Long, and said:

"Hello, hello. I was in the same carriage as Comrade Gu. My surname is Liu, and my name is Liu Fazhan. I work at the Wucheng County Cultural Center. Are you Comrade Gu's brother-in-law?"

"Hello, hello." Li Long respected intellectuals quite a bit, and since the other person was very polite, he couldn't be too cold.

Liu Fazhan walked out with Li Long and Gu Xiaoyu, talking as they went. Li Long and Gu Xiaoyu listened. He was a poet who had published some poems in newspaper supplements. He also said with great enthusiasm that he planned to write for a few more years and publish a collection of poems.

Liu Fazhan looked quite pleased with himself, originally hoping to win the admiration and respect of the two people. However, he found that neither Li Long nor Gu Xiaoyu reacted to his achievement; they were quite indifferent.

Shouldn't it?

These days, poets, young or middle-aged writers, especially those with writing achievements, are quite popular in society. This Liu Fazhan really has some poetic talent and has won the admiration and love of some young female writers.

But why doesn't it work here?
After exiting the station, Li Long told Liu Fazhan that they were leaving, and then took Gu Xiaoyu to the parking lot and got into their car.

After watching the two men get into the Volga, Liu Fazhan realized that they were not on the same side.

Could someone who can afford to ride in a luxury car at this time be an ordinary person?
Liu Fazhan now regrets not getting Gu Xiaoyu's contact information; otherwise, he thinks that with his talent, he might have had another opportunity.

"Are you hungry? Let's go to the city to eat," Li Long said. "That Liu Fazhan is a bit annoying. Otherwise, we could find a place to eat nearby. There's a small pot pilaf place near the station that's pretty good..."

"Brother-in-law, I'm not hungry. Let's go straight back. It'll only take two hours to get to the county. I'm eager to see my sister." Gu Xiaoyu was quite excited at this moment.

“Okay, let’s go back then.” Li Long didn’t object and drove out of Wucheng.

Gu Xiaoyu chattered incessantly the whole way, and Li Long couldn't help but ask:
"You seem much happier now than when you were in Yanjing."

“There’s no way around it, it’s a bit depressing there, and my mom… you know my mom’s situation, she’s always pressuring me to get married, like I can’t live without it.” Gu Xiaoyu sat in the passenger seat, looking at the scenery outside the window. “It’s the same at work, if you do well, someone’s watching you, if you don’t do well, someone’s still watching you…”

Li Long thought to himself, "This is terrible. It shouldn't be like this, right? After all, Gu Xiaoyu is a university cadre, an associate professor, who should be in the prime of her youth and full of energy. How could she be so lifeless?"
"Brother-in-law, if one day I can't make it there anymore and come to you and my sister for help, will you take me in?" Gu Xiaoyu asked suddenly, looking at the desolate wilderness to the north.

"Take you in? No way." Li Long said with a smile, "With your education and work experience, even if you really leave Yanjing, it will be easy for you to find a job at a university in the northern border region."

Gu Xiaoyu smiled but didn't say anything.

"But that's probably impossible. Think about it, countless people across the country are trying to get to Beijing. You're doing just fine there, why would you want to come here? In the eyes of people in Beijing, this place is practically a godforsaken place, isn't it?"

Li Long took Gu Xiaoyu's words as a joke.

It sounds like a joke, but that's Beijing! Not to mention now, even decades ago or decades later, the vast majority of people in the country would be thinking of going there.

Compared to that place, Northern Xinjiang is really like a wild and untamed land now—or rather, most people in the region, including Gu Xiaoyu's mother, think so.

Gu Xiaoyu was silent for a while, then changed the subject and asked about her sister and Mingming and Haohao's situation.

Although we talk about it on the phone regularly, my understanding of it is always rather one-sided, so I still want to know more details.

Li Long then picked out some interesting things to tell Gu Xiaoyu. The time on the road passed quickly, and they arrived in the county town in less than two hours.

When they arrived in the county town, it was almost time to get off work in the afternoon. Li Long drove to the gate of the courtyard, got out of the car and opened the door. Gu Xiaoyu also got out. At this time, Sister Yang was already cooking in the kitchen.

Sister Yang knew that guests were coming today, so she left work early to cook, and she made several elaborate dishes specifically for Gu Xiaoyu.

Li Long parked the car, and Sister Yang came out of the kitchen, wiping her hands on her apron and saying with a smile:

"This must be Mingming and Haohao's aunt, right? Good, good, you must be exhausted after traveling by train for several days."

Gu Xiaoyu hurriedly said that she was sitting in a sleeper berth and wouldn't be tired.

After chatting for a bit, Sister Yang went to cook. Li Long then led Gu Xiaoyu to the master bedroom and said:
"You can sleep with your sister tonight, and the two of you can have a good talk."

"No, no, no," Gu Xiaoyu hurriedly waved her hand, "Brother-in-law, please don't do that, just arrange a house for me anywhere."

Seeing that Gu Xiaoyu insisted on not staying in the master bedroom, Li Long led her to a prepared room in the side room and said:

"There are some antelope horns piled up in these two rooms. Although they're not close, they might smell. You'll have to make do with them for now."

"There's no smell?" Gu Xiaoyu said with a smile after walking around the house. "This house is quite nice. I think it's better than the courtyards you bought in Yanjing before they were renovated."

Only then did she realize:

"You mean, you've stored 'some' antelope horns? How much is 'some'?"

“Quite a few, several thousand, right?” Li Long said vaguely. “They were all imported from Kazakhstan. This stuff isn’t worth much there, but it can be used as medicine here.”

"Brother-in-law, you're amazing!" Gu Xiaoyu exclaimed in surprise. "Professor Hu from our research group had a grandson who had infantile convulsions. They were looking for antelope horns, saying they were very good, but because of the animal protection law, they were very expensive, costing over a hundred yuan per horn. You have several thousand pairs... Wow, that's really impressive!"

Li Long smiled and said, "It's nothing, just making a profit from the price difference. It's convenient being on the frontier. You rest first, I'll go pick up Mingming and Haohao later."

"No need to rest. When you pick them up, call me along. They definitely won't recognize me," Gu Xiaoyu said hurriedly. "I'm their aunt, after all. They'd be so heartbroken if they didn't recognize me."

Li Long thought to himself, "That works too."

But then Gu Xiaoyu cheerfully said:

"Do you think if I go to pick them up, Mingming and Haohao might mistake me for my sister?"

"That's impossible." Li Long smiled and shook his head.

These words came out unconsciously, which piqued Gu Xiaoyu's curiosity, and she asked:

"What?"

Li Long actually wanted to say that his sister looked younger than him, but he felt that would be hurtful, so he said instead:

"The hairstyle, clothes, and even the voice are all different. I'm sure Hao Hao can tell the difference."

"Then I'll still give it a try." Gu Xiaoyu was a little unconvinced, so Li Long let her have her way.

After resting for a while, Li Long told Sister Yang that he would drive with Gu Xiaoyu to pick up Mingming and Haohao.

After they left, Sister Yang said to Han Fang, who rushed back from behind:
"They look so alike, just like your Aunt Gu... But, this is the younger sister, why does she seem a bit older than your Aunt Gu?"

“My Aunt Gu looks young,” Han Fang said. “To be honest, no one would believe she’s twenty-seven or twenty-eight. If you said she was twenty-five, people would definitely believe you.”

"That's true. By the way, your Uncle Li looks young too. He's almost thirty, but he looks like a good young man in his mid-twenties." Sister Yang found it rather strange. "Maybe that's just how his family is."

When Li Long and Gu Xiaoyu arrived at the kindergarten and parked their car, they got out, which attracted a lot of attention from the parents.

Some parents knew Li Long, and some knew Gu Xiaoxia, but it was quite rare to see the two of them appear together.

Most importantly, this "Gu Xiaoxia" seems a bit different from usual today.

People who knew her would come over to say hello, but as soon as Gu Xiaoyu spoke, they could tell something was wrong.

Li Long hurriedly explained that this was Mingming Haohao's aunt, who had just come from Yanjing.

Her arrival from Yanjing immediately drew everyone's attention, with many people curiously eyeing Gu Xiaoyu, making her feel somewhat at a loss.

Fortunately, kindergarten had already let out by then, and the children ran out one by one, including Mingming and Haohao.

They saw Li Long and Gu Xiaoyu while they were still lining up inside the kindergarten to come out. The two children thought it was their parents who had come to pick up the two brothers, and they were overjoyed.

When they ran out and called out "Dad," and then ran together towards "Mom," they suddenly realized that this person didn't seem to be their mother.

"Auntie, who are you? Why do you look so much like my mom?" Mingming stopped first, and Haohao, who always followed his brother's lead, also stopped. He couldn't tell the difference, but since his brother had mentioned it, he asked as well:
"Auntie, who are you?"

They couldn't remember the last time they went to Yanjing and saw Gu Xiaoyu; they were too young then.

Although Gu Xiaoxia sometimes asks Mingming and Haohao to come over and say hello when she talks to her sister on the phone on weekends, she doesn't know what they look like over the phone, so they can't get to know each other.

"I'm your aunt," Gu Xiaoyu actually wanted to squat down and talk to the two children, but since Hao Hao was taller than other children his age, she bent down and patted the two children's heads, saying with a smile, "Come on, I brought you some gifts."

"Are you my aunt in Yanjing? Is she near Tiananmen Square?" Mingming's eyes lit up as she immediately asked.

Tiananmen Square held special significance for children at that time—and it did in later generations, though the feeling has diminished.

Gu Xiaoyu took out two Astro Boy dolls, which immediately attracted the attention of the two children.

Clearly, they really liked the toy.

However, when Gu Xiaoyu gave them to them, the two children did not take them immediately, but looked at Li Long instead.

"Your aunt gave it to you, take it," Li Long said with a smile. "And then, what should we say?"

"Thank you, Auntie!" Mingming and Haohao said in unison as they took the toy.

"Alright, alright, don't be so polite," Gu Xiaoyu said, looking at the two adorable children with obvious affection. She then took out two pencil cases from her bag.
"This is also for you. But since you don't need to bring your schoolbags, you can take it home and deal with it later."

As they got in the car to go back, the two children, acting like little adults, asked Gu Xiaoyu about the situation in Yanjing. Gu Xiaoyu both wanted to laugh and answered them seriously, which was quite amusing.

When they arrived at the courtyard, Han Fang opened the gate upon hearing the car. After Li Long drove the car in, she closed the gate again.

Gu Xiaoxia hadn't returned yet, and Li Qingxia hadn't finished get off work. Mingming Haohao had already become familiar with their aunt, so after getting off the bus, he took her to see the animal friends in the yard.

Gu Xiaoyu really didn't expect there to be so many little ones in the yard—when they came in earlier, the little ones were all in the backyard and hadn't come out, so Gu Xiaoyu didn't pay any attention to them.

"Brother-in-law, this place is like a zoo! Where did this deer come from? And this hedgehog... won't it prick you?"

“I bought the fawn that my friend caught in the mountains,” Li Long explained. “The hedgehog was caught while farming, so I brought it back. Hedgehogs are timid; unless you catch it yourself, it won’t prick you. What you should be most worried about is that little goat…”

Before Li Long could finish speaking, the half-grown goat had already taken two steps back, then lowered its head and charged forward, headbutting Gu Xiaoyu's leg.

Li Long turned his head, and the goat's movements reminded him of a blogger he had seen in a short video in his previous life.

He retreated, lowered his head, and charged forward—he did it all with incredible agility.

He then recalled other videos in which lambs, along with similar animals like chickens and geese, would quickly become food.

"I'll hit you!" Before Li Long could even think about whether to skin the lamb, Mingming, who had already gone to avenge his aunt, stepped forward and slapped the lamb. Before the lamb could react, he and Hao Hao together knocked it to the ground.

It's not that they really couldn't react; it's just that the little lamb is used to playing with Mingming and Haohao, so it won't be scared and run away.

As for the other timid little lamb, it is still circling on the periphery, remaining wary of Gu Xiaoyu.

"No need, no need to drop it, it's so cute, I wasn't hurt..." Gu Xiaoyu had never felt this way before, so she found it very novel.

Only then did Minghao release the lamb, and then, like a general, pointed at the lamb, the deer, and Xiao Hei, introducing them to their aunt and telling them not to bully her.

Seeing that they were getting along well, Li Long went to the side.

Soon, Gu Xiaoxia drove back. Li Long opened the gate and waited for his wife to drive in. Gu Xiaoyu was already waiting by the car.

"Sis." As soon as Gu Xiaoxia got out of the car, Gu Xiaoyu greeted her with a smile, "You must be exhausted, just getting off work..."

"There's nothing I can do, there's so much to do at the elementary school," Gu Xiaoxia said with a smile. "Did you have a safe trip? When did you arrive?"

"I arrived in the afternoon, less than an hour ago." Gu Xiaoyu actually wanted to hug her sister, but with so many people around, she felt a little embarrassed. Suddenly, she noticed something and said with surprise and envy:
"Sis, you look younger than me. If people saw you, they would believe you were my sister, right?"

"No way..." Gu Xiaoxia had actually noticed it too, but she didn't admit it. "You have such a good temperament..."

"Alright, alright, you two stop praising each other. Dinner's almost ready, go wash your hands first," Li Long said with a smile.

Li Qingxia returned with his hands behind his back. Upon seeing Li Long, he said:

“I was thinking you would pick them up, so I went to the kindergarten to pick up Mingming and Haohao, but when I got there they said the children had already been picked up.”

“We got back a while ago and went to pick you up,” Li Long said. “Dad, just walk a few more steps; consider it exercise.”

"Hey, it's exercise." With guests around, Li Qingxia stopped scolding her son and went to wash his hands at the well.

Mingming and Haohao eagerly pressed the water for their grandfather, which brought a smile to Li Qingxia's face.

During the meal, it was mainly sisters Gu Xiaoyu and Gu Xiaoxia who talked and answered questions, with Mingming and Haohao occasionally chiming in, which would make everyone laugh.

After dinner, while it was still light, Gu Xiaoyu went to her room, took out the Geiger counter she had borrowed from school, and handed it to Li Long. She was also curious about what Li Long would use it to measure.

Mingming Haohao was also curious when he saw his father holding a box-like thing. Then Li Qingxia was the most direct and asked Li Long what he was going to do.

"This is for measuring radiation. I brought some things from the mountains, including rocks and meteorites, and I wanted to see if these things were harmful."

Li Qingxia didn't know much about this, but he knew about radiation, so he immediately said:

"Then hurry up and test them. Test all the stones in the yard and see if there are any problems. If there are, throw them away immediately. This should have been done a long time ago..."

“That’s because we didn’t have anything before.” Li Long waved the instrument in his hand. It was a battery-operated device. He had seen it after fiddling with it for a while. However, he had studied it before and knew that if the radiation level was too high, the food would trigger an alarm.

With so many people watching, even Sister Yang, upon hearing the news, hurriedly wiped her hands in the kitchen and came over with Han Fang to see what was going on.

There were quite a few things in the courtyard, and some ordinary jade stones were covered with a thick layer of dust. Although everyone knew at first that they were jade stones, no one said anything, and over time they no longer felt that they were anything special.

Now that Li Long has said this, they all want to see it.

Li Long then turned on the Geiger counter and first tested the jade stone on the chubby baby. As he gestured, Li Qingxia laughed and said:
"If there's something wrong with this big guy, then Mr. Jia won't dare to worship it again."

Gu Xiaoyu was a little curious about what this Boss Jia did, so Gu Xiaoxia quietly explained it to her.

Gu Xiaoyu had already recognized it as a large piece of jade, but she hadn't dared to ask. Now that she had received confirmation, she was still shocked. So big, of such high quality, and naturally formed!
This is practically priceless.

Are you just leaving it out there like that? Aren't you afraid it'll get stolen? What a waste!
Li Long approached and found that the counter was not alarming and the displayed number had a zero after the decimal point. He smiled and said, "It's okay."

Then there was the stone that the herdsman gave him among that pile of jade, a stone that was translucent, like a meteorite.

"What kind of stone is this? I've never figured it out." Li Qingxia picked up the stone and said, "It looks quite pretty, the middle part is like stained glass..."

He lifted the stone up. Although there was no sun at that time, the daylight was still bright, and he could indeed see the translucency of the stone.

"Olivine!" Gu Xiaoyu exclaimed, having seen something similar in the university's geology lab. "It's such a big piece!"

"Peridot?" Li Long vaguely recognized the name, but couldn't quite place it.

“Natural gemstone, peridot—judging by its appearance, it looks like a meteorite peridot. This isn’t cheap!” Gu Xiaoyu had heard her colleagues from the geology department say with great pride that this stuff was not much cheaper than gold.

Most importantly, it's a meteorite, a visitor from outer space!
"We still need to check for radiation." Li Long took the counter closer and, finding that it didn't trigger an alarm, was relieved.

"Sister and brother-in-law, you have quite a few treasures in your yard." Gu Xiaoyu really didn't expect to see such a large meteorite peridot here. The one she saw at the academy was only the size of an egg, which was already quite rare.

This piece is more than ten times the size of that one!

Gu Xiaoyu overheard her colleagues saying in private that the piece in the showroom was worth tens of thousands of yuan, so what about this piece? Wouldn't it be worth hundreds of thousands of yuan?

She was finding it increasingly difficult to understand her brother-in-law.

Items worth hundreds of thousands are just displayed here? Even if you don't know their value, what about that piece of jade? It's worth even more than this peridot, yet it's still just sitting in the yard.

So what things are worth hiding?

“Good stuff, but we can’t leave it here. We’ll take it inside later.” Li Long smiled, and Li Qingxia put the peridot back in its original place.

Li Long tested other jade stones, and they were all in the decimal places, so he wasn't worried.

Next came the main event, the "stone ball" placed in the greenhouse at the back. Everyone went over, except for Sister Yang—she had to clean the kitchen and said she wouldn't go.

I mainly came here to watch the spectacle, but now I realize it's not all that great.

Everyone else followed Li Long to see the strange stone ball.

When they saw the strange stone sphere, everyone was amazed; it looked so odd.

When Li Qingxia heard that this guy weighed over 100 kilograms, he didn't believe it, so he went up and tried to move it, but he really couldn't.

If Li Long hadn't reminded him, he might have strained his back.

Gu Xiaoxia and Gu Xiaoyu both tried, but only out of curiosity, and of course, they couldn't move it either.

Even Mingming and Haohao tried it out, as did Han Fang.

All eyes turned to Gu Xiaoyu. She was knowledgeable and experienced, so everyone hoped she could provide some answers.

“I don’t recognize it either—but I can take a couple of photos and show them to the experts at our geological college when I get back,” Gu Xiaoyu said, shaking her head.

Li Long had already approached with the counter, and for the first time saw the counter's reading jump from 0.1 to 0.3.

Although the data increased significantly, there was still no alarm, indicating that the device does emit radiation, but the radiation level is not high.

"We'll leave this here from now on. Xiaoyu will come over tomorrow to take a couple of photos, and I'll take them over to get them developed," Li Long said. "You guys shouldn't get too close. Although it won't have a big impact, it's still a bit more troublesome than other things."

As he spoke, Li Long handed the Geiger counter to Gu Xiaoyu, then picked up the stone ball and walked to the innermost part of the greenhouse. After putting it down, he found a burlap sack and covered it with it.

"Brother-in-law is so strong!" Gu Xiaoyu was surprised that Li Long could lift the stone ball weighing over 100 kilograms so easily.

"Yes, your brother-in-law is quite strong." Gu Xiaoxia nodded, a little proud.

Emerging from the greenhouse, the sky was already dim. Li Qingxia returned to the purchasing station, while Li Long placed the peridot inside. Unlike jade, which weighs hundreds of kilograms and is impossible to carry, this thing was something even an adult could easily lift. Leaving it here was indeed a bit risky.

That night, Gu Xiaoyu and Gu Xiaoxia ended up sleeping in the master bedroom, and the two sisters talked for a long time.

Fortunately, Gu Xiaoyu also noticed that there were quite a few guest rooms in the courtyard. Although Li Long did not sleep in the master bedroom or go to the room where she put her luggage, he rested in another guest room.

After washing up and lying in bed, Gu Xiaoyu said enviously again:
"Sis, you look so much younger. I thought you used some kind of cosmetics to maintain your youth. But I don't see any cosmetics here, just ordinary face cream..."

“I don’t have time for cosmetics. When I went out, my brother-in-law said he would buy me some, but I said I’m so busy that I don’t even have time to wash my face in the morning, so I don’t need them at all.”

Gu Xiaoxia explained:

"But maybe it's because it's a small place, as your brother-in-law says, there's not much pollution, and the food is good and nutritious, so it's probably better."

Gu Xiaoyu shook her head and said:

“Not necessarily. I don’t think that Sister Yang is one of them. You eat the same food, and you should be less than ten years apart in age, but you look at least twenty years apart—I think you have some secret.”

"What secrets could I possibly have?" Gu Xiaoxia said dismissively. "Is it because I'm married, or because I don't have many worries and don't have to manage household affairs much? That's true to some extent. Sister Yang cooks at home, and your brother-in-law takes care of Hao Hao more often. My in-laws don't need me to look after them either..."

Gu Xiaoyu was very envious. Her sister had entered the gate of destiny, without any pressure at all. No wonder she looked so young!

I don't know if I'll be able to find a similar family in the future.

As they chatted, the conversation turned to Fan Wenli. Gu Xiaoxia was quite understanding of her sister, so she didn't say anything bad about her mother. She just said that she was spoiled by her husband and in-laws and wasn't used to people who were always finding fault.

Gu Xiaoyu fell silent. She knew her own mother's personality; if she weren't materialistic and couldn't stand hardship, she wouldn't have married into a family in Yanjing.

But no matter what, although Fan Wenli wasn't very good with her words and often complained about her own father, she had supported me through university and hadn't mistreated me. For that reason alone, I couldn't say anything bad about her.

Fortunately, her older sister only mentioned it symbolically and didn't say anything to her, and then she changed the subject to her father Gu Boyuan's new stepmother.

"I heard she's a music teacher, much younger than Dad. I wonder what her personality is like. But to be honest, given Dad's business acumen these past few years, anyone who catches his eye must have a good personality."

Hearing her sister's certainty, Gu Xiaoyu became curious and began to imagine the image of this "stepmother" in her mind.

The two sisters chatted for a long time, and finally Gu Xiaoyu said that her sister had to go to work the next day, but they would talk some more later, so they went to sleep together.

The two of them were woken up by Mingming and Haohao running over the next day. By then, the meal was almost ready.

Gu Xiaoyu was a little shy. Would people misunderstand her for sleeping in on her first day here?
Fortunately, no one mentioned it during the meal. Gu Xiaoxia did explain, saying that she and her sister had been chatting too late the night before, which was why they hadn't gotten up.

Li Long smiled and said he understood; this situation was normal.

After Gu Xiaoxia went to work, and Li Long took Mingming and Haohao to kindergarten, Gu Xiaoyu took the initiative to say that she wanted to see Li Long's purchasing station.

So Li Long took him to the purchasing station.

Although Gu Xiaoxia had told Gu Xiaoyu about her family's "business" last night, after seeing the cars in the yard of the purchasing station, the people queuing up to buy agricultural supplies and sell fritillaria bulbs, and Liang Shuangcheng washing fritillaria bulbs in the backyard, Gu Xiaoxia now understood why Li Long had displayed those jade stones in the yard and didn't seem to care.

This is a huge business!

A thought suddenly popped into her head: if her mother, Fan Wenli, knew how much business her sister's family owned, would she still speak to her sister in that tone?
No way?
Then the thought was suppressed. If she didn't say anything, her mother would probably never know how much her brother-in-law, sister, and biological father were worth.

In Fan Wenli's eyes, her father and sister lived in a poor, remote area and could not possibly achieve anything great.

Even though she knew her brother-in-law had bought a courtyard house in Yanjing, she only thought of it as a windfall, a temporary nouveau riche, nothing compared to the people in Yanjing.

"Brother-in-law, so you're mainly dealing in medicinal herbs and automobiles now?" Gu Xiaoyu asked curiously.

“Not only that, there are also hides,” Li Long said. “Actually, it’s considered foreign trade. After all, we get one or two batches of goods every month from Kazakhstan, including medicinal herbs, hides, and cars. These are the bulk transactions for my purchasing station, and then there’s this fritillaria.”

Li Long naturally wouldn't go into such detail; there was no need. After all, Gu Xiaoyu wasn't his partner, so a general understanding was enough. He himself was thinking of taking some time to examine the things in his cellar, including some unidentified cultural relics and antiques from the mountains, wondering if they contained any radiation or anything like that.

Li Long told Gu Xiaoyu to look at it herself, while he and Liang Shuangcheng started washing the fritillaria bulbs together. They had collected quite a few fritillaria bulbs in the past few days, some of which were from unfamiliar sources and weren't very clean, resulting in relatively low ratings.

Some of these people were reluctant, saying they came here because they heard that they could sell it for a high price. Then Li Qingxia showed them the fritillaria bulbs that several middlemen were selling, saying that only those that were clean and free of impurities and had been selected could be sold for a high price.

Those people shut up.

If there are too many unclean fritillaria bulbs, then we can only speed up the washing and drying process.

After lunch, Li Long took Gu Xiaoyu back to the team. Shortly after they left, Yu Shanjiang came over to practice driving. These past few days, he hadn't been actively expanding his business; instead, he'd been coming every day to practice driving and study the traffic rules booklets that Li Long had obtained.

"Brother-in-law, do you think the villagers will recognize me as my sister if I don't say anything?" Sitting in the car, Gu Xiaoyu asked playfully again.

"It's hard to say," Li Long said after thinking for a moment. "People who don't know your sister well might not recognize her, but family members should be able to."

"Who are your family members?"

“Your older brother and sister-in-law will definitely recognize her. For several years, your sister-in-law treated your sister like her own daughter. She can recognize her even if you don’t say a word.”

Gu Xiaoyu was still a little skeptical, but she didn't say anything and changed the subject: "I remember the last time I came here, this was a dirt road, but now it's an asphalt road. What a big change!"

“I paid for the repairs myself,” Li Long said proudly. “Now that I’m rich, I have to spend some money to improve the living environment in my hometown.”

"You're amazing!" Gu Xiaoyu said sincerely. "The villagers must be very happy!"

"Yes, they must be happy. At least the kids won't have mud on their feet when they go to school anymore."

The car drove into the team's area, turned onto Li's house, and sure enough, the GAZ truck was not there.

However, my mother, Du Chunfang, and my sister-in-law, Liang Yuemei, were there. Seeing Li Long and Gu Xiaoyu get out of the car, Liang Yuemei said:
"Your older brother and Professor Yang went to the fields. This is... Xiaoxia's younger sister?"

Li Long glanced smugly at Gu Xiaoyu, then smiled and said to his sister-in-law:

"Yes, that's right, it arrived yesterday."

"Hey, why didn't you say so earlier? If you had, I would have been able to prepare... Come, come, sit down first, I'll get you some water." Liang Yuemei first complained to Li Long, then warmly greeted Gu Xiaoyu.

The review materials used by her daughter and son were all sent from Yanjing by Gu Xiaoyu. Gu Xiaoyu deserves a lot of credit for the two children's current academic achievements, and Liang Yuemei remembers this very well.

"Hey, is this Mingming Haohao's aunt?" Du Chunfang asked with a smile, "They really look alike."

She had something she didn't say, but she felt that this person didn't seem like Mingming's younger aunt, but rather her older aunt.

Holding the water poured by Liang Yuemei, Gu Xiaoyu chatted with the two of them for a while without any formality, then asked curiously:

"Sister-in-law, how can you tell I'm not my sister? We look so alike."

“It’s still different.” Liang Yuemei smiled. “Even the way you walk is different. Xiaoxia used to work in the team, so she’s used to swinging her arms when she walks. You don’t swing your arms when you walk, and you look more gentle than her. Also, she was pecked by a rooster when she was little, so she has a small scar on her face, like a dimple. You don’t have that.”

Gu Xiaoyu now truly believed that her sister-in-law had raised her as her own daughter; she knew such details.

I've seen my sister more than once, and I thought the dimple on her left cheek was natural, but I never imagined it was from a chicken bite wound.

Gu Xiaoyu was very interested in her sister's childhood, and sat on a small stool asking questions incessantly.

Du Chunfang watched with a smile. Li Long felt there was nothing for him to do here, so he told them and drove to the field.

Professor Yang and his team then went into even more detail, even digging up some soil to examine the underground conditions.

The students each had their own tasks. Wan Wusheng was digging up a cross-section of a cotton plant to check the growth of its roots, while others were looking at the chances of the weeds under the plastic film surviving under the current conditions.

Li Jianguo, Xie Yundong, Tao Daqiang, Liang Dacheng, Jia Weidong, and Xu Haijun, including Li Junfeng, were all present. Several other members of the Li family were also in the distance. Li Junhai and the others were weeding.

The cotton fields were vast, over a thousand acres. Li Long thought that if Gu Xiaoyu came, she would probably be amazed again. After all, although she was twenty-seven or twenty-eight years old, she had limited time to spend in the countryside, and her two trips to northern Xinjiang had both been rushed.

Such a large plot of land must be quite rare for her.

Upon seeing Li Long approach, Professor Yang greeted him with a smile and then continued his research.

To Li Long's surprise, Principal Yang from the Agricultural Broadcasting School was also there. He was very welcoming to Li Long and came over to chat.

"I never expected your cooperative to be so big. I also never expected that after you gave Lao Yang such a suggestion, he would tell me directly to see if I could do it next year."

"So, what do you think? Can we do it?" Li Long asked.

To be honest, Li Long genuinely wanted to quickly consolidate the land, level it, lay the main water pipes, and then install drip irrigation.

In this way, even if the cost is higher, the yield per acre can still be increased to 300 kilograms.

After all, there aren't as many pests and diseases as there will be in later years. For example, last year, although several plots of land were infested with pests to varying degrees, there was no resistance to pesticides. As long as they were discovered in time, they could be eradicated quickly.

Machine-harvested cotton is not very realistic right now, because even if you bring back a machine and harvest the cotton, the cotton ginning plant won't accept it.

Otherwise, they could skip the decade-long cotton-picking war and avoid facing the ever-increasing cost of manual cotton picking.

There was an incident in the team. At that time, the price for manual cotton picking had already reached 2.5 yuan, and that was for the first round of cotton picking. The price for picking cotton for the second round of cotton picking was 3 yuan.

An old man in the team picked up the second batch of cotton and went to the cotton ginning factory to sell it, but the factory only paid him two yuan and fifty cents.

The old man was almost in tears, saying, "At least give me three yuan so I can make up for the cost of picking up the items. You can't expect me to pay for the items."

How could the people at the cotton ginning factory possibly give him a raise?
Although Li Long didn't witness it firsthand, he heard about it from other members of the team, and he knew the person in question.

He didn't want to go through that again.

In short, the cost of picking cotton increased year after year and never decreased. However, the price of cotton fluctuated greatly. Before the 21st century, the highest price was in 1998, when it sold for six yuan. Before and after that, it ranged from as low as two yuan to as high as four yuan.

It's a kind of speculative planting, but what can farmers do? Planting other crops is predictable, and at best, you can only break even.

Growing cotton is a gamble; if you win, you can make back all the losses from the previous years.

However, before cotton harvesters became widespread, the cost of growing cotton was still very high.

To break this deadlock, we either need to reduce costs or increase production.

There is no third way. (End of Chapter)