Li Long set down the bicycle he had been about to wheel away and walked to the mouth of the gully.
The Sideline Team had just finished eating. As they put away their bowls and chopsticks, they kept looking over.
Xie Yundong had wanted to come along, and so had Tao Daqiang, but Li Long waved them off.
He already had a vague idea of what the visitors wanted.
The two men were on horseback. When they saw Li Long coming, they dismounted.
"Is it true you said you'd buy fritillaria?" the ethnic minority man who served as interpreter asked Li Long.
Something occurred to Li Long. These two herdsmen, along with the others he had seen earlier at the Earth Cellar, had not been carrying guns.
Had the Forestry Team stopped issuing guns?
"Yes, I buy it." Li Long spotted the Urea Sacks on their horses and was secretly surprised.
The sacks were bulging. There was quite a lot in them!
"Do you have a scale here?" the man asked. "We've collected some fritillaria and want to sell it to you. What do you think...?"
"I do buy it. First, I need to look at the goods. Different sizes fetch different prices, after all. Second, the price I offered earlier was higher because my men had dug up your fritillaria. Part of that was a fine paid to you. If I buy more now, the price won't be that high."
The interpreter relayed this to the other man.
The Group Leader's expression shifted when he heard that. He asked a question, which the interpreter translated:
"How much will you pay, then? We won't sell if it's too low."
"Let's look at the fritillaria first."
Li Long pointed at the sacks on the horses to make his meaning clear.
He