It was nearly dark when Li Long drove the Jeep back to the county seat.
Over dinner, Gu Boyuan told Li Long that they had taken in fewer than a hundred Kelangzi Sheep and only five cattle all day.
Li Long was rather puzzled by such a precipitous drop in numbers. He did not know whether someone else had been buying from the pastoralists, cutting into his business, or whether the pastoralists had really slaughtered nearly all their culled sheep lately.
After all, cattle and sheep were the foundation of the pastoralists' livelihood. As long as the hay they cut in autumn was enough to feed them, they would not slaughter their livestock for no reason.
Still, it did not matter even if nobody came to sell cattle or sheep anymore. The Supply and Marketing Cooperative's quota had been filled, and the livestock Li Long kept at Old Ma's Place would meet the Sugar Factory's and Farm Machinery Factory's needs. There was no need to find another solution.
Of the "stones" left in the Jeep, Li Long picked out a few better ones and put them in the cellar, piling the rest beside the wall.
When Gu Boyuan left, he even joked, "You'd better keep an eye on these 'stones.' If a neighbor needs a stone to weigh down their pickles and takes one from you, you'll be out a fortune."
Li Long smiled without saying anything. He vaguely remembered reading something in his previous life, an online anecdote about someone pulling a piece of rough jadeite with excellent texture and translucency out of a pickle crock. Whoever picked it up had not known it was jadeite, thought it would make a good pickle weight, and simply used it.
After breakfast the next morning, Li Long first went to the