On Heavenly Mountain's northern slopes in July, the sun blazed like fire. The high school graduates riding the tractor were already sweating across their heads and faces. Fortunately, the wind blowing toward them carried away some of the heat.
Once they entered the mountains, the air immediately cooled. Although the sunlight was still fierce, the slopes and trees blocked it. Their sweat dried, and they even began to feel a faint chill.
The mountain road had been surfaced with gravel, so there was much less dust.
One classmate asked in surprise, "The roads before we entered the mountains were all dirt. Why are the roads better up here?"
Someone guessed that the pastoralists had built them.
Someone else suggested that the township might have built them specifically for people entering the mountains.
Another thought the roads had been built for mining.
Li Qiang finally spoke. "Our County Supply and Marketing Cooperative and my uncle's people built this road for the mountain pastoralists to move their herds between pastures. They built it a couple of years ago. I came into the mountains while they were working on it."
"Your uncle helped build it? What does he do?" Some of them did not know about Li Long, so Li Qiang explained, also telling them about his uncle's friendship with the pastoralists.
One classmate said admiringly, "No wonder your uncle could build the Hot Spring Villa here. I heard you need the pastoralists' permission to build houses in the mountains now. Oh, and the Forestry Management Station's permission too. A lot of the land here is the pastoralists' pasture, and some belongs under the Forestry Bureau."
Li Qiang merely smiled and said nothing more. He directed Niu Zijian west at a fork, onto the little road leading to the Hot Spring Villa and