Li Long watched the man turn over stones beside the stream. After searching for quite a while without finding anything, the man stood up.
Seeing that the man looked fairly old, in his fifties, Li Long thought for a moment, then strode down with his gun.
They said going uphill was easy and coming down was hard, but he was bold and took long strides down the slope, reaching the stream in no time.
Li Long made enough noise to startle the man. Seeing the gun slung on Li Long's back, he froze on the spot.
Li Long walked up to him. Judging that he had probably come into the mountains that day, he asked:
"Where are you from? What did you come into the mountains for?"
Unlike ordinary herb gatherers, the man did not seem worried at encountering Li Long. He could also tell that Li Long did not look like a robber, so he said:
"I'm from Ma County. What do you do?"
That Lan-Yin Mandarin left no doubt that he was from Ma County. People in Stone City spoke either Mandarin or the Henan Province dialect. Although only the Ma River separated the two places, their dialects were completely different.
"I'm a forest ranger." Li Long raised his gun slightly. "This area is under the Forestry Team's jurisdiction. Let me ask you, what are you doing here? Did you bring anything for lighting fires? Fires are strictly forbidden in the forest now."
The man relaxed when he heard that Li Long was a forest ranger. "I'm a retired teacher from County No. 1 Middle School. I came into the mountains to see if I could gather some mushrooms or something."
"Gather mushrooms with a shovel? You're looking for jade, aren't you?" Li Long smiled. "You've come this