Rebirth of Bayi Fishing and Hunting in the Northwest

After finishing the work of sweeping the big broom, Li Long started running to the cotton fields every day—the cotton in the Production and Construction Corps was being picked, and so was the cotton in the team.

After having breakfast and dropping the two children off at kindergarten, Li Long drove his Land Cruiser to the Fourth Team.

When you turn east into the countryside, you can still see farmers driving donkey carts or tractors, carrying large sacks of cotton to sell.

Cotton purchasing is still state-owned. To sell cotton, you only need to deliver it to the county cotton and linen company, where you will wait in long lines for inspection, receipt, and labeling.

In a few years, when the cotton market is liberalized, cotton and linen companies will be abolished, and the market sales environment for cotton will become uncertain for farmers.

The good thing was that the market would occasionally experience a surge, and cotton prices would rise, so you could potentially earn several years' worth of money in a single year.

The downside is that private cotton gins are very picky; they might refuse to accept cotton that has too many impurities, too much moisture, or not enough ginning weight, or offer it at a low price.

Sometimes, when hauling a load of cotton, one might stop at three or five factories within the county, or even travel to a neighboring county to sell it.

Picking cotton is already very troublesome, but selling cotton might be even more troublesome.

Only those who have experienced it can truly understand the suffering involved.

At that time, cotton was wrapped in large cloth bundles sewn from white fabric. Each bundle was two meters high and one meter wide, and they were almost all sewn by the families themselves because this way they could hold a lot. Selling cotton usually required two people—because the cotton was quite soft when wrapped in these large cloth bundles, and one person couldn't handle it.

Sitting in the car, Li Long drove fast. He didn't greet the people passing by, some of whom he knew and some he didn't. He simply drove straight into the cotton field.

Every day before dawn, Xie Yundong would organize four trucks to go to the county's casual labor market to pick up people to pick cotton. At the market, they would agree on a price, and once they arrived at the field, each person would be given a cotton-picking bag and a urea bag. Then, they would be assigned to different rows to pick cotton and begin picking.

The advantage of finding odd jobs is that you only need to be paid for lunch. You come in the morning to pick up trash, continue picking up trash after lunch, weigh the trash in the evening, and then send the person away.

Compared to farmhands, the tasks in a landlord's household are simpler and less troublesome.

However, the downside is that because it's a casual job, these people might try to cheat while picking cotton. Some might stuff soil or leaves into the cotton bags, while others might "make rapid progress" while picking cotton, literally meaning they don't pick it all up properly.

When Li Long arrived at the field, he found at least thirty or forty people picking cotton, with Xie Yundong and several cooperative members acting as managers.

Li Junfeng and his group were also picking things up, but they were talking to the people next to them as they did so.

Seeing Li Long approach, Xie Yundong walked over and said:
"Free time? I heard from the team leader that you've been collecting big brooms lately."

"Yes, the job is done. Making big brooms isn't easy now either. The price from above has dropped, and the quantity is less. The competition is too fierce."

"The price has dropped? I heard from the team leader that the price hasn't dropped much?" Xie Yundong asked, somewhat puzzled. "It's still the same price... Oh, so you didn't buy enough?"

"Yeah, I'm just doing this as a side job anyway, so earning a little less is fine." Li Long nodded in agreement, then asked, "So, how much have you collected?"

"We've been collecting for a week, and we've already sold about ten tons," Xie Yundong said. "The number of people bringing in the same amount each day is roughly the same. Judging from the situation, I plan to bring in more tomorrow. Otherwise, we might not be able to finish collecting them all."

Currently, cotton is still purchased by the state, so it's best to sell all the cotton within this season. Later, when the government liberalizes the cotton market, some people who can't finish picking cotton in one year will pick it up again the following spring, and there will be buyers. The cotton and linen companies won't do that; they'll harvest it in one season and stop buying for the winter.

Therefore, Xie Yundong wanted to finish harvesting the cotton as soon as possible before winter arrived, which would save him trouble.

"That's true. Let's take as many as we can. Should I go to the odd jobs market tomorrow and pick up some more people?"

"No need, no need. Your brother's van, GAZ truck, and our few vehicles are enough," Xie Yundong waved his hand.

Li Long thought about it and agreed. The GAZ-69 truck, including the driver, can carry ten people, and if you squeeze in, there's no problem with ten or so people sitting in it. The same goes for vans.

That Dafa van can only carry a dozen or twenty people at most, and this van is about the same size if you squeeze in a bit.

At this time, even if traffic laws were comprehensive, there would be few inspectors. After all, people are brought in before dawn and sent away after dark. Moreover, during the busy farming season, both the agricultural machinery bureau and the transportation bureau generally grant more leeway to rural areas; otherwise, there would be many more problems.

"I'll pick some too." Seeing that there was nothing else to do, Li Long went to the edge of the field, grabbed a urea bag, and planned to pick cotton.

"Stop picking them up! Help keep an eye on these people. Some are honest, some are really slippery," Xie Yundong said, pointing at the people picking up flowers. "They look alright, but we can't keep watching them all the time. If we don't keep an eye on them, some of them will take advantage of our kindness and start picking up flowers randomly."

“Alright, I’ll keep an eye on this group of five or six people,” Li Long said, pointing to the group of people nearby who were clearly a group.

He picked up the bag and walked over.

Those people had already picked up the crops for about thirty or forty meters from the edge of the field. Li Long looked behind them and then frowned.

Sure enough, some of the cotton bolls were clean while others were not. There were quite a few tufts left behind – if a cotton boll had opened, picking up five or four petals at once was considered clean, but if someone picked in a hurry, a little bit of cotton tail would be left behind, which the locals call tufts.

If you pick this up, it won't weigh; if you don't, it's just a mess. When the homeowner does something like this, they usually grab it again and bring it in, since they don't want to waste it.

But those who come to do odd jobs basically don't care about this; they want to be efficient, so they quickly grab the next cotton boll and leave the rest behind.

With the idea of ​​trying to be polite first and then resorting to force, Li Long picked up the hairy hairs behind him as he quickly caught up. When he got close to the group, he clearly felt that one of them slowed down and turned to look at him with a slightly flustered expression.

Li Long glanced at the pile of paper he had picked up behind him and immediately understood.

Not only did it leave behind a lot of fuzz, but there were also some broken marks on the cotton plants—did this guy pick the peaches along with it and stuff them into a bag?
When picking the first batch of cotton, at least one-third of the cotton bolls have not yet opened. These are the later-formed bolls, which may take a week or half a month to open. Once they open, it is considered the second batch of cotton.

Peaches are juicy and heavy, so some unscrupulous people will take the peaches with them while picking cotton and put them in bags to increase their weight.

It's actually not worth it, since picking peaches takes time, but some people don't think so.

Since it's just a temporary job, after the cotton bags are weighed, they're piled up together, and you don't know whose is whose, so you can't find the beginning.

He picked them up as he walked, calling out loudly as he went:

"Hey guys, when we're picking them up, let's not just rush it, let's pick them up cleanly."

Of the people in front of him, only one turned his head and glanced at him; the others didn't move at all and continued to bend over and pick up the items quickly.

The person who turned to look at Li Long nodded, then turned back to continue, but his movements were a little slower and cleaner.

Some people paid attention, while others didn't care at all. They grabbed at the cotton plants with both hands, stuffing all the cotton into the cloth bag around their waists. If they didn't pick all the cotton, they didn't care and continued on their way.

There's even a feeling of "stroking" the cotton plants, from top to bottom, leaves and cotton together, whether you've stroked them or not, and then move on to the next plant.

"I'm talking to you!" Li Long walked up to the person who was sorting cotton and raised his voice, "Clean it up a bit, look at all the cotton you've wasted!"

The man turned his head and saw Li Long's large frame. He swallowed the curse that was about to come out of his mouth, slowed down, and picked up the cotton more carefully.

"It's better this way." Li Long didn't really want to make things worse. It's not easy for people who come here to do odd jobs. They only work and earn money during these few days. On other days, they don't have work every day, and they earn hard-earned money.

However, he is now naturally on the opposite side, and it's impossible for him not to say anything—we can't lower our standards just because the other party is working hard or is pitiful. The cooperative belongs to everyone, and any loss would affect everyone's interests.

Moreover, if this is allowed to continue, it will set a very bad example. If someone dares to openly engage in such underhanded tactics while we're following them, what will others think if we do nothing?
It was definitely copied verbatim.

Li Long stopped and started picking up the flowers, leaving the mess behind. Based on his experience from two lifetimes, Li Long knew this person wasn't the type to patiently pick up the flowers.

If they behave well, everyone will be fine. If they don't behave, then let's use them to establish our authority.

Li Long chose the very last row. He picked up the cotton quickly, a typical example of a fast hand – grabbing two cotton flowers in each hand, reaching out with his fingers to grab the five petals, stretching forward to make sure he had all the cotton in his hand, pulling it up, and then picking up the next one.

He has big hands; he can grab at least three flowers at a time before putting them in his bag and continuing to pick up more.

Li Long moves very quickly. It's difficult for someone his size to bend over, and his back will start to hurt after a while. He's a bit better off because he's physically stronger than others, so he can tolerate it.

Perhaps feeling that he was too far away, the person who had just been called out muttered under his breath, complaining about Li Long to the person next to him.

However, the woman wearing a headscarf next to Li Long noticed that Li Long picked up cotton very quickly and couldn't help but exclaim in admiration:

"Are you a landlord? You pick cotton really fast. At this rate, you could easily pick ninety or a hundred kilograms a day, right?"

Li Long smiled and said, "More or less."

In his previous life, he could easily pick up 70 or 80 kilograms a day. In this life, his physical condition has improved, and his skills, eyesight, and endurance have all been enhanced, so picking up over 100 kilograms a day should be no problem.

He couldn't see the woman's face clearly, but judging from her voice, she seemed young. However, it was none of his business. He continued picking flowers, occasionally glancing at the other people out of the corner of his eye.

The woman next to him was more careful in picking up the trash, and with Li Long by her side, she picked it up the cleanest.

The two further to the right are slightly better; they occasionally have a bit of a beard, and sometimes they leave fallen flowers on the ground that they haven't picked up, which is understandable.

The person to the right is the one Li Long mentioned earlier. He was the fastest at picking flowers and was at the front arrow position. After Li Long told him to stop, he became a bit more restrained, but for some reason, he suddenly started picking flowers again and sped up, quickly rushing to the front again.

Li Long straightened up, picked the leaves off the cotton in his hand and stuffed them into the bag, then shouted to the man:

"What's wrong? Is there an emergency at home that you need to rush back to? If so, don't pick it up anymore, I'll find someone to take you home."

The man paused for a moment, then realized Li Long was referring to him. He turned slightly to face Li Long and said with a hint of provocation:
"I picked it up carefully, what are you saying about it being thrown away?"

Li Long laughed angrily, pointing to the messy cotton plants behind him and saying, "Is this what you thought you picked up neatly? Where are the bolls on the cotton plants? And where are the fuzzy bits that you didn't clean up?"

"That's how I pick it, and I do it the same way at everyone's house." The man was quite stubborn, straightening his neck as he said, "What's wrong with picking cotton? Why are you so picky... If you're so capable, don't bring others to pick it. There are so many people, we're all pretty much the same. I don't know where you get all this nonsense from!"

Well, he even managed to involve others. Li Long realized this guy wasn't so stupid; while defending himself, he didn't forget to blend into the crowd.

"Why don't I talk about them? Look behind you, and then look behind everyone else. Even if they have some stubble that they haven't cleaned up, it's only one or two stubbles. But you? Almost every single one of them has stubble. Do you think you're not manly enough, so you deliberately grow so much?"

Since the other party was being impolite, Li Long saw no need to give him face and pointed behind him, saying:

"Go back to work and clean up your stuff."

"What if I don't?"

"Then get out!" Li Long said. "You're not welcome here. As you can see, this is a huge piece of land, and we need to find odd jobs every day. You can pick through it from now until the end of October."

If you don't want to work, then leave. If you do want to work, then stay here and pick cotton; you're guaranteed to earn at least some money every day. You're not new to this, you know what your lunch was like.”

Those around them fell silent. Regardless, this thousand-plus acres of land was enough to keep them working until next month.

The lunch was indeed quite good, with meat, and a good amount of it.

They had also worked in other people's fields, picking cotton, and the difference in their meals became clear when compared to those.

The man tried to argue, but his companion pulled him back, so he reluctantly went back to clean up the mess.

Others also became more careful when picking cotton; they had fewer fuzzy hairs and even picked up any leaves on the cotton plants.

Li Long was satisfied; at least the other party listened to him, whether actively or passively.

It's best if force isn't used, but of course, it's also possible that the person may appear obedient on the surface but have other ideas in mind.

Li Long watched as he picked up cotton as he walked to the edge of the field, and when he came back to pick up more cotton, the field was indeed cleaner.

So Li Long continued picking cotton himself—the cotton in the cooperative belonged to everyone, and since everyone else was busy, Li Long felt embarrassed to just stand there.

He was quick, and soon he had filled half a bag. Feeling that the cotton in the bag was a bit loose, he stood up and pressed the cotton down firmly with his hands.

A urea bag, when fully packed, can hold about 20 kilograms of cotton, which is quite substantial.

These people are different. When they see that a bag is about ten kilograms, they quickly change to another bag, saving themselves the trouble of pressing it.

It feels like I'm saving time every moment, but everyone saves time in different ways.

Li Long didn't need to be so frugal, but he was faster than others and picked up the rubble more thoroughly. In no time, he had overtaken everyone else. When he stood up and looked back, his brows furrowed.

Because the person he just mentioned is starting to pick at cotton again.

Li Long couldn't help but cough lightly—he could tell that this guy knew the other few people, otherwise they wouldn't be picking things up together.

Driving this away directly might affect other people, but Li Long wouldn't let this person cause trouble here.

Fortunately, this person had always paid attention to Li Long. As soon as Li Long coughed, he realized what was happening, and his movements immediately slowed down and became more careful.

“That’s just how he is. He does it the same way wherever he picks cotton,” the woman wearing a headscarf whispered to Li Long. “He’s been criticized at other people’s homes, and I heard he’s even gotten into fights. He didn’t always work like this…”

"You two know each other?" Li Long asked.

"Yes, we all usually do odd jobs there. Sometimes when there's no work, we exchange information or introduce each other to other jobs," the woman said while picking cotton. "Right now, picking cotton is the best job. It's stable, so we want to keep working here."

For those who do odd jobs, finding a relatively stable place to work and a source of income is not easy, and it is something they desperately hope for.

At least you won't go hungry one day and be full the next. Although it's tiring, the pay is daily, and you get paid as soon as you finish the work. That feeling isn't bad.

It feels the same as running a food delivery service in later generations.

However, at this time, people usually consciously save money, unlike some young people in later generations who spend their money after earning it and then continue to deliver food to earn more.

At this time, people still have a strong awareness of saving money.

Li Long moved quickly, and in no time he pulled the woman down several meters. The woman then raised her voice to speak to Li Long.

At this moment, Li Long turned around and listened, and found that the woman was quite pretty, probably in her early twenties. He wondered why she was doing odd jobs.

Then Li Long heard a discordant sound. He turned his head and saw that the guy was up to his old tricks again.

He examined the cotton plant from top to bottom, looking closely at the leaves, the cotton, the peaches, and so on—and stuffed all of these things into his pocket.

This guy wouldn't do it again, so Li Long grabbed him by the collar and lifted him up.
"How many times have I told you? What? Are you planning to clash with me?"

The young man clearly hadn't expected Li Long to be so strong, but he wasn't one to be trifled with either; he had some fighting skills. Although he was momentarily flustered after being lifted up, he quickly recovered and punched Li Long in the temple with his right fist!
Before Li Long could even land a punch on his head, he swayed him violently and threw him to the ground. The guy lost his balance and started cursing as he fell.

The others were stunned for a moment, and before the man could react, they immediately came over and separated the two men—it was obvious to everyone that Li Long was much stronger than that guy, and one of the main reasons they broke up the fight was that they were afraid the young man would get hurt.

If you can't beat them, don't be stubborn.

However, for some reason, this young man was a bit impulsive today, desperately trying to charge forward and fight Li Long.

The people blocking his way on both sides were pushed and shoved aside by him, all the while he was cursing:
"Who do you think you are! Do you think this land belongs to you? It's just a tactile paving for the visually impaired! You're just a worker for someone else, what are you pretending for? Come on, want to fight? You think I'm afraid of you..."

Li Long laughed in anger. He pushed aside the people blocking his way—they couldn't stop him at all. Li Long walked up to one of them, grabbed his arm, twisted it behind him, and pushed the others aside with his other hand, saying:
"Let's go to the field and talk. You're ruining my cotton here!"

After saying that, he dragged the man to the edge of the field—the man had been kicking around in the field trying to break free from the people on both sides, making a mess of the cotton plants, causing many cotton bolls to fall to the ground, covered in dirt and leaves, looking very dirty. Li Long dragged the man to the edge of the field, threw him on the ground, and said condescendingly:

"A one-on-one fight, huh? Come on then!"

The guy suddenly stood up, gesturing as if he was about to rush towards Li Long, but was stopped again by the others who rushed over.

Anyone could see that he was no match for Li Long; if they really fought, he would only suffer losses.

Some of the day laborers who came from other directions spoke up for him:

"What are you doing? Just picking cotton to make money. What's going on? Why can't we pick it anymore?"

"Exactly, why waste time? What's the reason? Is it because it's not clean enough? Just say so."

Some people are unaware of the truth, some are taking advantage of the situation, and some are simply blindly supporting it because they are all doing odd jobs.

Li Long understood this very well.

Xie Yundong rushed over and shouted:

"What are you doing? Huh? What do you want to do?"

The villain who was dragged over by Li Long filed a complaint first:

“I was just picking cotton properly, and he kept picking up trouble, saying I wasn’t picking it clean enough. He was just cursing at me just now… Who does he think he is?”

“Yeah, who is he? I’ve been picking cotton in this field for the past few days and haven’t seen him. Why did he suddenly show up today and start causing trouble?” one of the day laborers chimed in.

"Could they also be helping to pick cotton?" someone asked doubtfully.

"It's hard to say. Someone who drives such a nice car might be the boss."

"The boss? The boss came to pick cotton himself? That's too unbelievable!"

Xie Yundong and Li Junfeng, who arrived later, heard the casual laborers' discussion.

Xie Yundong was so angry he laughed. These people really don't know whose food they're eating or whose money they're making, do they?
"Who does he think he is? He's the landlord, you know? Half of this land belongs to his family. You're making money off him, understand? If he says you didn't clean it up properly, then it's definitely because you didn't clean it up properly!"

Those around were stunned when they heard this.

They've been picking cotton here these past few days. They've met Xie Yundong, Li Jianguo, Tao Daqiang, and others, but they haven't met Li Long.

So in their eyes, Li Long was at most a relative of the landlord's family. Not to mention that he was insignificant, picking cotton was the most important thing right now, and the landlord's family generally wouldn't provoke them—especially not to incur public wrath.

"If you want to work, then work; if you don't, then get out!" This shout came from Tao Daqiang. "Do you think we can't do this job without you? You've come here to cause trouble? If it weren't for Brother Yundong telling me to put up with you these past two days, I would have already started beating people up!"

"We've been picking up all sorts of random things from the fields every day. Every day we're unloading cotton, and it's mixed with all sorts of things. Now you're coming here to talk tough?"

"Who knows who picked it up? You guys were picking it up too..." The young man, who had been dragged out by Li Long, couldn't stand being taken advantage of and kept muttering to himself.

Li Long pointed to the cotton rows in front of him and said:
"Did you pick this up?"

The man didn't speak, and everyone else looked at him.

"Is that right?" Li Long raised his voice.

"Yes, so what?" The person was a little embarrassed with so many people watching, but forced himself to speak.

"Daqiang, Junfeng, go and get these two cotton sacks," Li Long said.

Tao Daqiang and Li Junfeng immediately went along the cotton rows to get bags.

The young man's expression changed.

"You all keep a close eye on things, make sure we didn't take the wrong thing," Li Long shouted to the other day laborers. "Don't try to deny it later!"

Everyone else watched intently, especially those who had been picking up cotton with Li Long and the others, as they were afraid of accidentally taking their own cotton bags with them.

Tao Daqiang and Li Junfeng arrived quickly, one carrying a half-full bag and the other a full bag.

"Come on, you won't admit it, will you? You think we've wronged you?" Li Long grabbed the half-full bag and poured it on the ground. "Look!"

The ground was covered in mud and dried weeds, and no one expected Li Long to just dump the bag of cotton on the ground.

The moment the cotton was pulled out of the pocket, the young man's face turned deathly pale, and beads of sweat immediately poured out.

The fallen cotton wasn't a pure white expanse, but rather a mix of white with green, gray, and yellow. The green, gray, and yellow parts were cotton leaves, bolls, and even a large clod of earth!

Just by looking at it, these impurities make up more than half of the cotton!
"This is the clean cotton you're talking about?" Li Long sneered, then poured out the bag of cotton again. "Look, look!"

This bag is slightly better, but it's still full of cotton wrapped in leaves, and some of the cotton has turned green.

The day laborers who had gathered around remained silent, not uttering a single word, creating an extremely awkward situation.

“You either go back yourself, or you wait here and we’ll send you back tonight,” Li Long said, pointing at the young man. “This place doesn’t welcome you.”

No one tried to persuade him anymore.

Some things are insignificant if left unsaid, but once spoken, they become overwhelming.

The problem of cotton not being picked clean has existed since the time when cotton farmers started hiring odd jobs to pick cotton, and it only disappeared with the advent of machine-harvested cotton.

In the past two or three decades, it was rare for landlords and day laborers to have a falling out. This was mainly because there were few people and no energy. Landlords would bring day laborers to the fields to pick cotton, and then they would have to go home immediately to cook and then bring the cotton back to the fields.

After the day laborers finished eating, they had to rush back to clean up, then come back to weigh the cotton, and after that, they had to send the day laborers back to the county. When they returned again before dawn, they still had to prepare to sell cotton the next day.

I don't have the energy to argue about that. Usually, when I find myself in this situation, I just have to suffer in silence, or I'll be stricter with my supervision the next day.

What else could it be?

So these day laborers never expected that Li Long would so directly break off relations and even catch them red-handed!
To chime in at this point would be truly shameless.

"Alright, go back and pick cotton," Li Long said to the others. "Pick it cleanly, don't leave any fuzzy beards, and don't waste any unopened peaches. We're not asking for much. Think about the cost of picking it, and think about the lunch you had. You have to do justice to that decent meal, right?"

The current wage for picking one kilogram of cotton is 25 cents. Li Juan and Li Qiang went to the Production and Construction Corps to pick cotton. Officially, it was 25 cents, but since it was part of their work-study program, the cotton had to be handed over to the school. Any extra kilogram, counted as 25 cents, would be returned to the students.

The young man never expected that Li Long was actually a landlord, and that he was so ruthless as to dump the cotton on the ground, thus exposing his true identity.

Those who come to pick cotton, and the landlords who own cotton, generally have a rule in mind: the cotton cannot be dirty, otherwise it will be worthless.

Therefore, even if you need to empty the cotton, you should usually find a clean place.

So the young man was certain that Xie Yundong and his group wouldn't do such a thing, since there were so many weeds around the field and there really wasn't any space.

He just didn't expect Li Long to disregard this at all. He couldn't possibly guess that Li Long had lived two lives, and in his previous life, when he first switched from manual cotton picking to machine cotton harvesting, the cotton harvested by the machine was much dirtier than this.
Back then, after the cotton harvester finished picking the cotton, it wasn't directly baled and rolled into eggs. Instead, it was simply dumped onto the cleared ground at the edge of the field and then loaded into a modified large container.

A little bit of grass or something on the cotton is no big deal. Because machine-picked cotton has a special ginning machine to clean it, all the impurities are removed.

Things are different now. Cotton is now inspected manually. After being packaged in large quantities and delivered to cotton and linen companies, the impurity removal is also done manually. If the inspector can see that there are so many impurities in your cotton, their first impression will definitely not be good.

If this leaves a bad impression, how can we give you a higher rating? Impossible.

The young man didn't argue anymore, nor did he have the strength to. He stood up and took a few steps outside, but ultimately couldn't bring himself to walk back to the county town along the main road. So he found a clump of red willows at the edge of the field and sat down.

Li Long glanced at him and knew that he didn't beg for mercy not because he was tough, but because he couldn't bring himself to do it. However, he didn't have the ability to go back, so he could only half-stay.

Everyone dispersed and hurried back to picking flowers. After this experience, the odd jobs picked flowers much more cleanly and carefully.

Li Long also went back to his bag and continued picking things up.

The people around him fell silent, heads bowed, continuing with their work. Li Long suddenly whispered to the woman next to him:
"Does that guy in the area like you?"

The woman exclaimed in surprise, looked up at Li Long, then lowered her head again, blushing and shaking her head vigorously: "No... I don't know."

Li Long stopped asking questions and bent down to pick up the cotton.

He picked flowers very quickly, leaving everyone else behind in no time. Once his bag was full, he turned around, grabbed another bag from the edge of the field, and then went to the stall of the young man he had just hit to pick up more flowers.

At noon, Li Jianguo brought people over to deliver lunch.

The meal was simple: steamed buns as the staple food, two dishes—stir-fried shredded potatoes with meat and stir-fried cabbage with meat, and a mung bean soup.

When Li Jianguo called out for lunch at the edge of the field, the day laborers straightened up one by one, and although they were tired, they walked towards the edge of the field with smiles on their faces.

The midday sun was very strong. Li Jianguo took out a stack of enamel basins from his car and began serving meals to his day laborers.

When Li Long arrived at the field, he was somewhat surprised to find that the cotton he had been asked to pour out earlier had been cleaned of all the impurities.

"I picked the cotton, I removed the dirty stuff, and I need to weigh the rest so I can get paid," the young man said to Li Long as he approached.

He felt a little guilty and didn't dare to look Li Long in the eye, and his voice wasn't loud either.

Xie Yundong walked over, wanting to ask what was wrong, but Li Long answered before he could:
"Row."

He still couldn't bring himself to do it, but even if he pleaded, Li Long wouldn't let him continue. He could pay Li Long for the cotton he picked, but there would be no follow-up.

"Can I take the lunch bus back home?" The young man was slightly pleased when he heard Li Long say that, and asked again.

"What? You want to push your luck? You either wait, or walk back now. It's eleven kilometers to the county seat, two hours if you walk fast." Li Long wasn't going to put up with him; he was an unstable factor.

Seeing Li Long's determination, the man changed the subject: "Then the food..."

"Go eat!"

Li Long wouldn't go so far as to deny him even a single meal.

Give what is due, and don't give what is not due.

In the end, the young man couldn't hold on any longer. After lunch, he asked Xie Yundong to weigh his cotton, took four yuan and fifty cents, and left.

By the afternoon, Li Long had collected four bags of cotton. He felt a bit tired in his back, and when he straightened up, he realized that he had left the others far behind.

Feeling that it was about time, Li Long carried two bags of cotton, one in each hand, and walked towards the edge of the field. As he passed the day laborers, he looked at the cotton they had picked and then at the rows of cotton, and thought it looked pretty good.

At least there's not as much facial hair anymore.

It seems that intimidation is indeed effective.

Li Long carried the four bags of cotton he had picked back to the edge of the field, and saw Xie Yundong and Tao Daqiang follow him over, chatting with him at the edge of the field.

A short while later, Xu Haijun also came over.

"I'm telling you, troublemakers like these deserve to be dealt with," Xu Haijun said as soon as he arrived. "I was far away this morning, and you'd already taken care of them before I even got here. I only found out later. These guys are just asking for it!"

“If he had just gone this far, it would have been fine, but he went too far,” Li Long said. “We have such a large plot of land, and we need a lot of temporary workers every day. If we don’t manage it strictly, we’ll lose a lot of cotton every day.”

Xie Yundong said with some self-reproach, "It's my fault, it's my fault. I thought it wasn't easy to find odd jobs, so I was more lenient with them. Now that I think about it, I really shouldn't have been so good to them. If I had been too good, some people would have been grateful, while others would have taken advantage of me."

Tao Daqiang weighed the two bags of cotton that Li Long had picked up and said, "Brother Long, you've picked quite a lot in half a day. This bag must weigh at least twenty kilograms, right? These four bags... hey, if you pick up a whole day, a hundred kilograms wouldn't be a problem!"

Li Long smiled and said, "It's alright, I'm young, my back is strong. It's just that I'm too big. If the cotton plants were a little taller, I could pick them up even faster."

"Amazing!" Xu Haijun gave a thumbs up. "If all these odd jobs were as fast as you, we could finish picking the first flowers on this plot of land ahead of schedule."

“Exactly. These day laborers can only collect a maximum of eighty kilograms a day, and they’re always very dirty. Xiaolong, yours is much cleaner. If you showed this to those people, they’d be so ashamed.”

Xie Yundong said as he grabbed a handful of cotton from the bag, "Yes, weigh it later. Junfeng and the others are paid for picking cotton too."

"Go to hell!" Li Long laughed and scolded. "Do you think I'm short of money? Just consider me here to experience life. Just keep track of everyone else's accounts. I think this year's cotton is better than expected, maybe each family can get more money."

"That's right, I also want a bigger share. To be honest, many people in our team never expected that cotton could grow like this on saline-alkali land. I heard that a lot of people have been going to the team leader these past few days, wanting to contract other parts of the saline-alkali land in the team."

"It's not that easy." Xie Yundong shook his head. "Just for this saline-alkali land, how many ideas have we come up with and how much effort have we put in? We've done flood irrigation several times, dug drainage ditches, and conducted soil testing and fertilization. Can anyone else do that?"

It makes sense, really. The Li family has a small lake, so they can irrigate these saline-alkali lands on a large scale and multiple times. The Li family also has a high-horsepower tractor with a reversible plow, making it relatively easy to dig drainage ditches.

These things look simple, but they actually take a lot of time and effort to do.

If others want to transform saline-alkali land, this is the only way they can do it with current technology.

But doing it this way is quite costly. If we don't do it this way and just plant cotton directly on saline-alkali land, we might not even get 50% of the seedlings to grow.

What's the point of planting then?

They chatted for a while, then Xie Yundong and the others went back to keep an eye on things. Li Long walked around the field and found that the cotton rows he had picked a few days ago did indeed have quite a few fuzzy fibers.

Fortunately, some cotton bolls have already appeared on the cotton plants and they will soon bloom again, so when we pick the flowers a second time, we can make sure that the people picking them all are done properly.

When he circled back, he found a nearly withered cantaloupe vine on the edge of the ground. Following the vine, he found three cantaloupes among the grass on the edge of the ground. The smaller one was the size of a fist, and the larger one was the size of a volleyball. They were almost ripe.

He happily picked the three melons and put them in the car.

There are too many people here, not enough to go around. You should take it back to your family.

Since there were cantaloupes, let's see if there's anything else we can find. Li Long circled around the locations where he had replanted seedlings, but they were gone from the cotton field. However, in the grass along the edges of the field, he found a few cantaloupes and watermelons, as well as a few pear melons whose vines had all withered.

The plot of land was too large, and Li Long only searched a very small area, so he didn't leave any for others. The occasional exclamations indicated that some people had also found good things in the land.

Then it wouldn't count as eating alone.

He greeted Xie Yundong and the others, then drove away.

I'll come again tomorrow. (End of Chapter)