The family sat on the horse cart as Li Jianguo drove at a leisurely pace. Li Qingxia had visited once before, but that had been many years ago. Looking around now, he felt that some things had changed.
It was Du Chunfang's first visit. Everything aroused her curiosity. Looking south, she could see mountains dozens of kilometers away, and she murmured:
"This place is right by the mountains. It's so big, with so much land. Why don't they clear it and plant crops?"
"Not enough people." This was Li Long's first time riding home on a horse cart like this, and he found it rather novel too. He answered his mother:
"A whole county in Northern Xinjiang has fewer people than a township back home. With so much land and so few people, naturally they don't clear as much."
"Otherwise, how could our eldest have started a family here and still raised Xiao Long?" Li Qingxia picked up the thread. "There's so much land here that you can always get enough to eat..."
"Our eldest suffered too." Du Chunfang fell silent for a moment, then murmured those words.
Li Jianguo chuckled. "What suffering? That's all in the past. Life's good now."
"With you two brothers working together, how could life not be good?" Li Qingxia said with a smile. "One farms and the other hunts. What a fine life... Xiao Long, you catch fish too? I didn't see a river when I came last time."
"There isn't a river. There's Little Haizi. It's like a small lake." Sure enough, his father really did love having fun. Li Long said, "There are plenty of fish in there. Just throw out a net and you can catch three to five kilos."
"Three to five kilos? Isn't that nearly ten jin?" Li Qingxia's