Li Long spent the next few days just as busy. What surprised him somewhat was that he continued to take in over a hundred kilograms of fritillaria every day.
The biggest source of fritillaria was still Forestry Team forest rangers like Bolati.
After exchanging another batch for money and meat, Bolati complained to Li Long:
"There's nothing we can do. Too many people are coming into the mountains. The weather and rainfall have been good this year, so the fritillaria has grown well, and a lot of people have come to dig it.
"The more professional ones just dig up the fritillaria. The holes they leave aren't big, so we confiscate the fritillaria and let them go.
"But some layabouts come into the mountains without even knowing how to dig. They're crazy to get rich. They dig a hole the size of a washbasin for a single plant. Won't the soil just wash away when it rains?
"When we catch those people, we have to take them to the Forestry Team, lock them up, and then send them back. You know, some are even from the county seat. Now that they have nothing to do, they've come here to dig fritillaria... Ugh, it's such a headache!"
Only then did Li Long understand why he was receiving so much fritillaria every day.
So it was because too many people were coming in.
Bolati and the others mainly exchanged their fritillaria for alcohol and meat, as well as money.
After all, getting meat wasn't easy even in the Forestry Team. By their traditional customs, they could only eat beef and mutton from animals whose slaughter an ahong had approved and recited prayers for.
They couldn't eat meat from livestock that had died unnaturally-in other words, by accident.
But the Forestry Team wasn't