Rebirth of Bayi Fishing and Hunting in the Northwest

Chapter 1419 It's cool in the mountains, but hot in Sun Jiaqiang.

The original plan was to deliver the crossbows to Harim and his men in the mountains the next day, but it rained in the county the next day. It was okay in the county town in the rain, but the rural roads were very difficult to travel on, and most areas were muddy, including the mountains.

So Li Long stopped for two days, waiting for the rain to stop and the road to dry before heading into the mountains.

Similar to the previous two plans, I bought naan bread, brought canned food, and left early in the morning, hoping to get back early in the afternoon.

In early May, the county town was already hot. With the car window open, heading west, although it was still early, the temperature in the air was already rising.

As we drove further south, nearing the mountain pass, the outside air felt hot and dry, and even the wind was hot.

Fortunately, once we entered the mountains, we immediately felt cool, as if it were a completely different world from the outside.

After passing the earthen and rocky hills and entering a world full of grass, shrubs and pine forests, you could even feel the wind rushing into the car was a bit cool.

This time, Li Long was determined and headed towards the summer pasture. When he passed the fork in the road leading to the hot spring resort and the wooden house, he did not think of turning there again. He just saw the extra tire tracks on the road and figured that Borati had already driven his newly bought GAZ to the wooden house.

As we passed by Halimu's winter hut, we could vaguely see water still gushing from the pipes, but there were no cattle or sheep near the hut; they must have all moved to the summer pasture.

Continuing along the mountain road, the mountains on both sides become steeper, and the sunlight appears and disappears intermittently, revealing traces of repairs to the gravel road.

In some mountain valleys, flash floods rush down in late spring and early summer, bringing mudslides that block the mountain roads. Bulldozers and excavators remove the mud and sand that have been washed down, and then the roads are leveled.

Li Long was thinking about whether to build a water-crossing road at the mouth of the ditch. After the cement water-crossing road was built, it would be easier for water to flow down during heavy rains in the summer, and it would also be less likely to wash away the sand and gravel on the road.

As for whether it will work, we'll discuss it with Meng Hai and the others when we get back, and ask the technical staff about the feasibility of doing so.

However, if we were to do it, the workload would be enormous, because there are at least a hundred or more gullies along the nearly 100-kilometer mountain road from here to the summer pasture.

Of course, if it really needed repairs, Li Long wouldn't let Harim pay for them. Harim had made some money as a large rancher, but his foundation was weak, and he had only been established for a year or two. Asking him to pay for it would definitely be a major blow.

So Li Long planned to pay for it himself if he really wanted to do it; this amount of money was nothing to him.

As we continued walking, we saw a cloud swirling around a high mountain ahead. The wind blew the cloud, causing it to constantly change shape, then become wispy strands, and finally disappear.

Li Long was driving in that direction when the cloud completely disappeared in just 10 minutes, which felt quite magical.

Just as he was sighing, a dark cloud was brought by the wind from behind the mountains in the northwest, quickly covering his head. Without the sun, the temperature dropped significantly, and then, without warning, large raindrops began to fall.

The air smelled more of earth, and Li Long quickly sped up, wanting to get through the area.

The rain clouds were not large, and Li Long rushed out of the rainstorm in less than a minute. Looking back in the rearview mirror, the raindrops hitting the road created small clumps of dust, like miniature bombs dropping bombs onto the road.

It's still pretty.

Once out of the cumulonimbus clouds and back into the sunlit area, the temperature instantly rose again; the changes were that rapid.

Sure enough, the weather in the mountains is like a child's face in June, changing every few gullies.

After driving for more than 20 kilometers, they encountered a few herb gatherers along the way. When they saw Li Long, most of them immediately darted into the ditch from the side of the road, not wanting to confront the driver.

Feeling he had driven long enough, Li Long stopped the car, took a basket from the seat, picked up a crossbow with a nocked arrow, got out, locked the car door, and walked into the ravine beside the road.

The south slope of this gully is covered with pine trees, while the north slope is covered with shrubs. You can see a lot of moss at the base of the pine trees from the mouth of the gully, making it a good place to pick mushrooms.

Sure enough, after walking only three or five meters in, we saw grayish-brown morel mushrooms growing on the moss under the pine trees on the south slope. They were growing in groups of three or five, pointing out haphazardly, with a rather unrestrained feel to them.

Morel mushrooms are delicious, but washing them clean when they're fresh and tender is a real hassle. They have so many folds, and if you don't pick them properly, every fold will be covered in mud, making them a real headache to wash.

So when Li Long saw these morel mushrooms, he took out a small knife from his pocket, cut the morel mushrooms off with their stems about 1 centimeter above the ground, and put them in the basket.

Although it's a bit wasteful, at least it avoids the problem of people in later generations digging up morel mushrooms by the roots and putting them in baskets covered in mud, shaking all the mud out of the mushrooms' folds, making them inconvenient to eat later.

He was holding a small Yingjisha knife that he had obtained from Director Dai of the State Ethnic Affairs Commission's Beijing Office.

The hilt is inlaid with turquoise and lapis lazuli, which looks very nice.

For some people, this thing is a work of art, but Li Long has many of them. He just takes them and uses them where he feels they are useful.

As for the idea of ​​wasting resources, that doesn't exist.

After cutting off these morel mushrooms, I looked around the neighborhood and quickly found another cluster.

Mushrooms reproduce by spreading through spores, so usually, if there are suitable conditions for growth, if one place has them, there will be a whole patch around it.

In about ten minutes, Li Long had filled a basket with picking materials within a radius of four or five hundred meters.

Unlike in later generations where one had to search everywhere, this mountain valley was rarely visited, so morel mushrooms grew rather haphazardly, appearing in large patches. Li Long found the largest one to be over 20 centimeters tall, but unfortunately it must have grown two or three days ago, making it a bit old, though still quite frightening.

Originally, Li Long planned to spend half an hour picking through the ravine before leaving, but he found that the resources there were too abundant. So he simply returned the basket, took a bag back, and planned to pick through some more before leaving.

Unfortunately, the ravine is not very long. The pine trees on the south slope only grew halfway before they disappeared, followed by the sacrificed weeds, scattered shrubs, and moss-covered stones that appeared and disappeared intermittently.

In such an environment, morel mushrooms have a low chance of survival. Li Long took a few steps forward with the bag, and as he was about to turn back, he discovered a patch of mushrooms in the grass. These were mushrooms that would not normally be found.

Black Tiger Paw Fungus!

Isn't this thing supposed to come out in July or August? How come it's available now?

There was a patch of about seven or eight large ones, each about the size of a badminton racket, and smaller ones, about the size of a palm.

As usual, Li Long took a knife and cut these things off, and was somewhat surprised.

The last time he saw a video, he saw someone step on this thing in Nanshan in May, and he wondered if the climate had changed at that time, so the growing season was reversed.

I never imagined that this existed in this day and age; it's just that we hadn't discovered it before.

With such a harvest, Li Long naturally had no intention of turning back. He changed his mind and continued westward along the ditch, where he discovered two more areas where black tiger paw mushrooms were growing. After collecting all these mushrooms, the bag was almost full.

He knew he would find more if he went further in, but he figured he couldn't possibly collect everything, so he decided to go back, as he had already gathered quite a lot.

As Li Long passed a patch of stones covered in gray-black moss, he paused for a moment.

Why are there rows of fine grass leaves growing on this rock?

There were no grass stems or roots in sight; the leaves simply emerged directly from the moss and cracks in the rocks, which was quite unique.

Li Long stopped, reached out and brushed the leaves aside, and then saw some golden spots on the leaves.

Hey, isn't this the kind of thing that makes a loud noise in Northeast China? How come there's one in the Tianshan Mountains too?

Isn't this a bit confusing?

Li Long was still a little skeptical. He plucked a few leaves and examined them closely, then compared them with the howling sounds he had seen in videos he had watched before. It seemed that it really was that thing!

No, no, it seems like my understanding has been overturned several times today. Li Long scratched his head, feeling that his knowledge had been refreshed again.

Is it because the Tianshan Mountains are too vast and mysterious, and I have seen too little of them before, or has something changed?

Unable to figure it out, he stopped thinking about it and simply picked all the leaves off one by one. Then he searched on the nearby stones, finding some leaves on some stones and others not. In the end, he picked about a hundred leaves and put them in two bags.

I've only ever seen an introduction to this stuff before, and I've never actually tried it, so I don't know if it's really effective.

He was quite surprised to see it in the Tianshan Mountains this time, and he planned to find someone to test it out.

Li Long was still digesting the surprises brought by his bountiful harvest as he walked out of the valley when he saw someone peeking into his car through the window.

"Hey, what are you doing!" Li Long immediately shouted, put down the bag, and held the crossbow at an angle, watching the man warily.

The man was carrying a large bag, tapping on the window with his left hand, and holding a knife in his right.

Hearing Li Long shout, the man was startled, immediately turned around, and upon seeing Li Long, quickly raised his hands and said:

"I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry. I was starving and just wanted to find something to eat, but I didn't see anyone... I'm really not a bad person. I just wanted to find something to eat. I ran out of food and I'm starving, I'm about to die... I'll leave right now, I'll leave right now..."

The man's hair was a mess, almost shoulder-length, and he had a stubble beard and a very thin face. He looked like he hadn't eaten in a long time.

His Mandarin was quite standard, unlike that of a farmer from Sichuan, Shaanxi, Henan, or Gansu; I couldn't detect any regional accent.

Although the man said he was leaving, he still raised his hand. Then he realized what was happening, threw the knife on the ground, and waited for Li Long's judgment.

He was clearly wary of the crossbow in Li Long's hand, and his surrendering demeanor gave him the air of a law-abiding citizen.

Li Long smiled. He could tell that this person didn't seem like a bad guy, but he wasn't careless. He pointed to the roadside near the hillside and said, "Go there!"

The man obediently walked to the spot Li Long had pointed to, continued to raise his hand, then took off the black bag and placed it at his feet. Seeing that Li Long wasn't pointing a crossbow at him, he quickly explained, "I came to the mountains to collect herbs. I dug up some fritillaria bulbs. Someone said that fritillaria bulbs dug up in these mountains are very valuable if sold, so I dug some..."

Li Long, holding a crossbow in one hand and a bag in the other, walked to the car, unlocked it, put the bag of mushrooms into the trunk, then took out a naan bread, waved it at the man, and said, "Here, catch!"

The man's face lit up with surprise, and he stretched out his hands.

Li Long tossed the naan over, and the man caught it but didn't eat it right away. He tucked the naan under his arm, clapped his hands, and made his hands look dusty.

"Next time you see a car and want to beg for food, remember to call out first," Li Long reminded him. "Taking pictures of cars like that can easily cause misunderstandings. If I get nervous and shoot you with an arrow, you're finished."

The person blushed.

Li Long didn't ask about his background and was about to leave when the man quickly shouted, "I'll trade you some fritillaria bulbs! I dug up some fritillaria bulbs!"

Li Long rolled down the car window and said to the man, "No need, I don't need this."

In the past, he might have asked about the man's background, since the mountains were a mixed bag, with people like Liu Shanmin and others carrying criminal records.

However, Li Long wasn't that curious about such people anymore. He was now wealthy and didn't care about a single naan bread. He figured it was best to avoid getting involved in any karma.

As the car drove forward, Li Long saw in the rearview mirror that the man waved to Lu Xun, then walked down to the riverbank to wash his hands before starting to eat naan.

They're quite hygienic.

Li Long continued driving without stopping, until he reached a point more than 40 kilometers from the mountain pass, where he saw the road repair team sent by Meng Hai.

A bulldozer and an excavator were roaring at the mouth of a gully, with seven or eight workers operating nearby. Just like the place Li Long had seen before, a mudslide had swept down and piled up on the road. Vehicles could pass, but it was quite dangerous.

Li Long wondered how Halim and his group drove their GAZ trucks across the area; those with average skills could easily overturn.

Seeing Li Long's car approach, a man carrying a shovel walked over. After Li Long got out of the car, the man introduced himself: "You must be Mr. Li. I am Feng Guoqing. Mr. Meng has temporarily appointed me as the leader of the road repair team. We are currently clearing the sand and gravel from the road."

Li Long took the initiative to shake hands with him and said, "Captain Feng, you've worked hard. How is it? Is there a lot of damage to the road surface?"

Feng Guoqing pointed to the road surface and said, "We conducted a preliminary survey and found that there are seven or eight places with serious blockages like this. There are also a dozen or so places where the roadbed has been damaged by heavy rain or snowmelt floods."

If you drive carefully, you can get to the summer pasture, but traffic will definitely be affected, so we're repairing the road as we go. We expect it to be finished in another two or three days.

Seeing that Feng Guoqing seemed to have a good understanding of the road conditions, Li Long nodded and said, "Not bad, not bad, the progress is quite fast. How are your meals and accommodations arranged?"

Feng Guoqing pointed to the tents on the riverbank not far away and said, "We set up temporary tents, eat and sleep in them, and then the tents follow us as we move forward, repairing them as we go."

Li Long took a bag of canned food from the trunk of the car and handed it to Feng Guoqing: "We came in a hurry and didn't prepare anything good. Keep this canned food for your meals. Now that guns are not allowed in the mountains, it's not easy to hunt. Just bear with it."

"Hey, this canned meat is all I need!" Feng Guoqing said happily, hugging the bag of cans. "Thank you, Boss Li. We can improve our meals for two days and try to finish this job within the next two days. Don't worry, boss, we'll guarantee the quality!"

He then asked Li Long, "Mr. Li, you're planning to go into the mountains, right? I'll have them clear the way for you."

As he spoke, he called over someone and asked them to carry the canned goods into the tent. Then he went over and directed the bulldozers and excavators to make way for them.

Li Long then drove his Land Cruiser along the half-repaired road and continued towards the summer ranch.

As Feng Guoqing had predicted, the road ahead was indeed in such a state that in some places, one-third or even half of the roadbed had been washed away, and in some gullies, mud and sand had been washed down and piled onto the road, forming a relatively steep slope.

Fortunately, the Land Cruiser has excellent off-road capabilities. This mud and sand formed a long time ago and has now dried up, so you can still drive through it if you're careful.

Upon seeing a potentially dangerous area, Li Long got out of the car to investigate. He then noticed tire tracks, and more than one, which must have been left by Halim and Feng Guoqing when they drove past. Li Long didn't stop much after that and drove all the way to the summer ranch.

On the grassland, cattle and sheep are leisurely grazing on the green grass, while the young herders ride horses to chase after the unruly lambs.

Li Long parked the car at the former yurt of Halim. A young man rode up on horseback from a distance. Upon seeing Li Long, he dismounted and came over to him, saying, "Our boss isn't here. He went to the pastures over there to check on the cattle and sheep."

Li Long looked in the direction the young man was pointing and then asked:

"Is the place he went far away?"

"It's not far, only a ten-minute ride on horseback," the young man said enthusiastically. "If you need to see him, I'll ride over there now and call him over."

Li Long nodded, and the young man mounted the horse, raised his whip, and shouted "Giddy up!" The horse galloped away at a speed comparable to that of a car.

If it takes ten or fifteen minutes like that, then it must be five or six kilometers, right?

Li Dong walked around the car and, finding nothing amiss, simply took a bag from the trunk and started picking mushrooms nearby.

After finding less than half a bag of mushrooms, Li Long heard a car approaching. Halim was driving a GAZ truck, crunching through the turf.

The car stopped at the entrance of the yurt, and the wind it brought carried the smell of grass juice, which reminded Li Long of the smell he had smelled when he was cutting grass with a grass cutter near the village in his previous life.

It's very strong.

Li Long picked up the bag and put it beside the car. He shook hands with Halim, who got out of the car, and said, "You're really brave. You drove here before the road was even repaired. Aren't you afraid of overturning?"

Halim laughed and said, "What's the big deal? If it falls, I'll just have someone pull the car back up and drive it back. Why did you take so long to come? My flock of sheep was attacked by wolves a couple of days ago, and several of them were killed. If I hadn't raised more dogs in the last two years, the losses would have been considerable."

Li Long explained to him, "Actually, I was planning to come up a few days ago, but on the first day I encountered a group of wild boars and killed four wolves. On the second day, I ran into Polati, who wanted to buy a car. Then it rained, so I came here."

Halim then asked, "Did you bring up the things I asked you to bring?"

Li Long opened the car door and took out crossbows and bows, saying as he did so, "I brought them up, I brought them up. Come on, take a look, these are all good stuff. Oh, and here are the arrows."

Harim took a crossbow, nocked an arrow with delight, roughly aimed at the trees in the distance, and then shot it.

It missed, but it went very far.

The arrow flew into the grass and disappeared.

Halim laughed and said, "Great, great, that's wonderful! With this, we won't be afraid of wolves anymore."

He handed the crossbow in his hand to the young herdsman who had ridden up on horseback behind him, and then said to the herdsman, "Go and slaughter a sheep, and make stewed mutton for lunch. I want to have a couple of drinks with Li Long."

Li Long didn't refuse, knowing it would be pointless. He took down the crossbows meant for Halim and helped him load them onto the GAS69 wagon. The two then sat together outside the yurt and chatted.

Halim is now full of confidence. The pasture is vast, the livestock are plentiful, and the young herders are working very hard. He believes that in two or three years, he will have more than 5000 cattle and sheep under his command, and then he will be a true rancher.

Li Long suggested that he regularly hire a veterinarian to check on the cattle and sheep and conduct inspections to prevent them from contracting infectious diseases.

Also, Halim himself needs to take the herders for annual health checkups, since echinococcosis of the liver is a very common disease in pastoral areas.

Halim, who had gone through a physical examination with Li Long, nodded in agreement. He knew that Li Long was doing it for his own good, and that a physical examination was always a good precaution.

In the past, many of the elderly people in the tribe suffered from various illnesses. Some endured the pain without getting checked, while others simply took painkillers and passed away without receiving proper medical treatment.

Such things were commonplace in the tribe before, but after several physical examinations and visits to the county for medical treatment, Halim knew that such things could actually be avoided. Even without Li Long's instructions, he would often take his mother for check-ups.

He often listened to doctors from the county hospital give presentations, and he understood that the risk of contracting diseases while staying in the pastoral area was quite high. He also knew that if he wanted to become a large rancher, it was very important to prevent infectious diseases in cattle and sheep in the pastoral area.

So Halim nodded seriously at the two points Li Long mentioned and said he would do them.

Li Long watched as the young man rode his horse over to the flock of sheep, quickly caught one, tied it up, put it on the horse's back, and rode back at breakneck speed.

After landing, they quickly tied up the sheep, slaughtered it, skinned it, and gutted it.

"How about that? Isn't my lad quick and efficient?" Halim said smugly.

"They're very efficient and capable, even more experienced than we were back then," Li Long said with a smile. "These days, some young men are capable, and some are hardworking. But many of them can't endure hardship anymore."

Upon hearing this, Harim smiled wryly, touched his face, and said, "Our Nathan and Sasken are already too old for hardship."

I jokingly suggested they come to the summer pasture to herd sheep, but they all refused. They'd rather go with Yushanjiang to collect and slaughter sheep than come here.

Li Long said doubtfully, "They should have jobs by now that they've graduated from vocational school, right? They'd have work to do, so they certainly wouldn't be thinking about herding sheep. After all, staying in a county town on the plains is better than staying in the mountains."

After Nasen and Sasken attended Han School, they did not take the high school entrance exam, but went directly to a vocational school.

As members of ethnic minorities, they received bonus points in college entrance exams, and the autonomous region also had policies requiring many organizations to recruit ethnic minorities. Therefore, after graduation, they were assigned to various organizations. According to Li Long, one went to the county's animal husbandry bureau, and the other went to a forestry management station under the forestry bureau.

With a good job and a monthly salary, the two kids definitely wouldn't want to stay in the mountains.

Thinking of these two people, Li Long thought of Li Juan, who was also graduating and being assigned a job this year.

I wonder where I'll be assigned?

The aroma of boiled mutton began to waft across the grassland. Since there were no women in the summer pastures, the young men could cook the meat in a relatively simple way, using just a pot of water and a handful of salt.

The young herder poked at the mutton in the pot with his chopsticks, feeling that the meat was already tender, and then looked up at Halim and the others and said, "Boss, the meat is cooked, you can eat it now."

Halim clapped his hands and said to Li Long, "Let's go eat meat."

He was going to get a basin from the yurt, while Li Long opened the trunk, took out a spare enamel basin, handed one to Halim, one to the young man, and then took out a pair of chopsticks to distribute among them.

He always keeps these things in his car whenever he goes into the mountains.

He then took out some naan bread from the trunk, tore it open, and gave one piece to each of them.

"You brought so much stuff," Halim said with a smile, then patted his head and said, "I remember now, you always bring a lot of things when you go into the mountains."

Li Long smiled and took his chopsticks to scoop meat from the pot.

The two men chatted as they ate meat. The young man ate quickly and rode away on horseback after finishing. Not long after, the other young man rode over on horseback and ate there.

Li Long simply took all the naan out of the trunk and placed it next to the makeshift stove. He figured the young men would take turns eating, and since they had big appetites, the naan he brought might not be enough.

After chatting for a while longer, Li Long drove down the mountain and back. Now that the road was almost finished, Halimu had his own car, making it easier for him to go up and down the mountain than before, so Li Long didn't need to worry about it much.

On the way back, they encountered Feng Guoqing and his team who were repairing the road. Li Long saw that they had advanced another ten kilometers or so, and their speed was still quite fast.

After exchanging greetings, Li Long continued walking back. He didn't encounter any more herb gatherers on the way, but he did see several groups of wild animals.

There were wild goats and ibex, and we even encountered a group of wild boars.

However, as soon as these guys saw the car approaching from afar, they darted into the woods, giving Li Long no chance to communicate with them.

Just as they were about to leave the mountains, Li Long saw the GAZ-69 truck that Bolati was driving.

Polati also spotted Li Long's car. He stopped at the fork in the road, got out, and waited for Li Long to come over.

After Li Long's car approached, Polati opened the back door of his car and proudly showed him the fritillaria he had collected that day.

After getting out of the car, Li Long looked at the three bags of fritillaria bulbs inside and said with a smile, "Quite a haul! I guess I can make a few hundred yuan today."

"More or less," Polati said with a hint of pride, then shook his head. "These days, the herb hunters are all incredibly shrewd; it's impossible to buy fritillaria at the old prices anymore."

They'll negotiate prices; they know the market rates down the mountain. They can make more money trading small quantities, but if you're buying in bulk, they won't sell unless you offer a high price.

That's normal; there are very few novice people going into the mountains to dig for medicinal herbs these days. Most are experienced, very familiar with the market conditions for medicinal materials, so it's difficult for Polati to achieve much with little effort.

Since he had run into Li Long, Bolati decided not to go to the county and sold the three bags of fritillaria bulbs to Li Long at a discounted price.

Li Long actually had money on him and bought some fritillaria bulbs at a price one-third lower than the purchase price.

Neither of them cared much, and they happily completed the transaction; one counted the money, and the other carried the bags.

Then they went their separate ways.

Polati felt there was still time, so he planned to go back to the cabin to wait. Li Long, on the other hand, hurried back to the county town, as the fritillaria bulbs were not completely dry yet and needed to be processed again when he got back.

Back at the purchasing station, Li Long handed the fritillaria bulbs to Sun Jiaqiang, instructing him to handle them. He then casually pulled out a handful of fritillaria bulbs and handed them to Sun Jiaqiang, saying:

"These are herbs I picked from the mountains. You can use them to make tea. It's said that dried herbs are more effective than deer antler velvet when used to make tea."

Looking at the bunch of slightly wilted grass leaves, Sun Jiaqiang asked doubtfully, "Really? This stuff has that kind of effect?"

"It's true, Lao Jia told me." Li Long told a little white lie. "These things used to grow only in the old forests of Northeast China. I didn't expect to find them in the Tianshan Mountains here. I found quite a few when I went mushroom picking today, and knowing you need them, I gave you some."

As he spoke, he patted his pocket, showing it to Sun Jiaqiang, who saw that there was still quite a bit of stuff inside.

Upon hearing that it was Jia Tianlong who said it, Sun Jiaqiang immediately believed him. After all, Old Jia was a specialist in medicinal herbs and an expert in this field.

Sun Jiaqiang carefully placed the handful of leaves to dry, intending to use them after they were completely dried. He's been in high demand for Tillandsia lately, and since his health isn't great, he'd previously tried making Three-Whip Wine, but the effects weren't very noticeable. Therefore, he really needs something like this now.

After giving his instructions, Li Long drove back to the compound. He had grown so many mushrooms; they needed to be processed now.

After parking the car, Li Long took out the morel mushrooms, black tiger paw mushrooms, and small mushrooms he had picked.

Despite his carefulness, due to the bumpy ride and the inherent fragility of fresh morel mushrooms, at least a quarter of the morel mushrooms were damaged, with the edges or sharp corners rubbed off.

Fortunately, Li Long didn't pick the morel mushrooms with the roots on, so there was no soil. When cleaning them, he only needed to wash away the broken pieces of morel mushrooms.

The black tiger paw mushroom and the white mushroom were well preserved. These two types of mushrooms are quite resilient, and minor bumps and knocks will not damage them.

After washing most of the mushrooms, Li Long laid them out to dry, while he planned to cook the rest. To accompany the morel mushrooms, Li Long even went out and killed a chicken. Morel mushroom stewed with chicken is said to be very nourishing, but Li Long has eaten it every year and hasn't felt any benefit from it.

The stir-fried black tiger paw mushrooms had a rather unique flavor, as did the stir-fried small white mushrooms.

When Sun Jiaqiang returned home, he took the howling grass with him. An afternoon wasn't enough to dry the grass leaves; they just became even more wilted.

Tielanhua had already prepared the meal. Seeing Sun Jiaqiang return with a handful of grass leaves, she casually asked what they were. Sun Jiaqiang said they were brought back from the mountains by Li Long and could be drunk as tea.

Tielanhua joked, "When did you start drinking tea? You don't usually drink the brick tea at home."

Sun Jiaqiang gave a vague answer to get away with it, but thinking about the effects Li Long had mentioned, he couldn't help but make himself a cup of tea after entering the house.

After dinner, Sun Jiaqiang watched his child do his homework while Tielanhua cleaned up the kitchen. Dinner was a bit salty, so Sun Jiaqiang simply took the cup of tea and slowly drank it. He felt it had a slightly astringent taste, but it wasn't much different from other teas made from grass leaves.

After finishing a glass of water, Sun Jiaqiang felt a slight sweat on his body and drank another glass.

After the children went to bed that night, feeling his wife's intense gaze, Sun Jiaqiang swallowed hard, went to the spare room, poured himself a cup of deer antler wine, and drank it. This time, he felt more confident.

Thinking that with double insurance, I should be able to show my prowess.

Whether it was psychological or the two things really worked, that night, the Iron Orchid was utterly routed, and Sun Jiaqiang regained his long-lost confidence.

His body was still burning hot, and he felt he needed to press his advantage.

Afterwards, Sun Jiaqiang thought about the large handful of grass leaves in Li Long's pocket and wondered how to get them over there.

Now, that large handful of grass leaves was casually tossed onto the bamboo basket in the yard by Li Long, and no one paid any attention to it.

After all, he didn't need it; he only picked it out of curiosity. (End of Chapter)