The man who stopped Li Long was the fellow who had come out of the Farm Machinery Factory earlier and told him he would not be able to buy a harvester.
He was in his thirties, wearing a well-worn padded cotton cap. He had stopped at an intersection around the corner from the factory, and the sight of Li Long driving over on his tractor left him astonished.
He hurried down from his tractor and stopped Li Long.
"Hey, young fellow, I thought you'd be out soon. I was going to stop you so we could go find that Li Long in Ma County together. But look at you, hauling all these out! Tell me, how did you get the factory to sell them to you?"
The man took out a pack of Red Mountain cigarettes, pulled one out, and offered it to Li Long.
Li Long shut off the engine and climbed down. It hardly mattered whether he blocked the road here. To be honest, nobody bothered about it, and there were hardly any people on the road.
"Because I'm Li Long." Li Long accepted the cigarette, lit it, took a quick puff without inhaling, and smiled.
"What did you say?" The man looked incredulous.
"Because I'm Li Long," Li Long said with a grin. "That's why they sold them to me!"
"But... why?" The man still looked unconvinced. "Why do we have to buy through you?"
"Because I was the one who came up with this harvester," Li Long explained. "I told them I'd handle sales around Ma County and Stone City. I'm not handling anywhere else."
"But why?" The man was persistent, determined to get to the bottom of it.
"Let me put it this way. Where are you from?"
"Stone City," the man said. "But I'm