Something had gone wrong in Wang Sanwa's cotton field.
After the spraying, Li Long came over every day for the next few days to check that nothing was wrong in the fields before shifting his focus to the Purchasing Station. Although the Fritillaria digging season was nearing its end, large quantities of Fritillaria and dried wild mushrooms were still being delivered to the station every day.
The Fritillaria was manageable; Li Qingxia could basically handle it alone. The dried wild mushrooms were another matter. They had to check for unwanted varieties or even poisonous mushrooms mixed in, so the work was more demanding and tedious.
Li Long was at the Purchasing Station, sorting through the mushrooms brought by someone who had only recently come out of the mountains, when his eldest brother called and told him about the trouble in Wang Sanwa's cotton field.
"The spider mites have spread into whole patches in his field. The Liang family were so angry they gave him a good scolding. He had no choice but to spray twice with a backpack sprayer, but when he saw that wasn't stopping them, he came over to us."
Li Jianguo said he had actually told Wang Sanwa that once the spider mites had spread into patches, nothing else would help; pesticides were the only way to control them. Wang Sanwa had used a sprayer, but if that had failed to stop them, things were difficult.
Liang Dacheng was also worried that the spider mites would spread to his own field, so he had come to the Li family with Wang Sanwa, hoping to hear what Li Jianguo-or rather, Li Long-thought.
"Either he didn't spray the undersides of the leaves, or he didn't use enough pesticide," Li Long judged immediately after hearing his brother's account over the