Recaps

Li Long and Tao Daqiang chased a wild-boar herd into the mountains and shot two boars after a marmot startled the animals. After returning to the Wooden Cabin, Li Long processed and delivered meat to Gu Xiaoxia and Tao Daqiang’s family before bringing the remaining meat home and explaining to Xu Chengjun that his Forestry Team papers let him cut poles without being stopped.

• Li Long followed two young boars into the mountains, and Li Jianguo and Li Qingxia headed back while Tao Daqiang stayed with him.
• Li Long and Tao Daqiang approached a herd, but a marmot’s warning squeaks startled the boars and exposed their position.
• Li Long killed one boar and wounded another that charged him, while Tao Daqiang frightened a boar that escaped into a gully.
• Li Long and Tao Daqiang carried the two dead boars back to the Wooden Cabin, where Li Long, Li Jianguo, Tao Daqiang, and Li Qingxia processed the meat.
• Li Long delivered meat to Gu Xiaoxia, who watched him leave, then took a share to Tao Jianshe and brought the rest home.
• Li Long explained to Xu Chengjun that his Forestry Team papers allowed him to cut poles without being arrested or fined.

Li Long and his family shared their wild boar meat with relatives, while Liang Yuemei brought money to her parents. At the Wooden Cabin, Harimu arrived seeking batteries and offered Li Long valuable goods in exchange, leaving Li Long to ride to the County Seat to buy them.

• Liang Yuemei took boar meat to her parents, then gave her mother ten yuan to repay some of the help they had provided her family.
• Li Long prepared steamed buns and fried meat saozi at the Wooden Cabin while he and the others worked cutting poles.
• Harimu arrived at the cabin and asked Li Long to buy batteries because the radios at the Summer Pasture had run out of power.
• Harimu offered Li Long a snow leopard pelt, jade, and six snow lotuses in exchange for batteries, but requested only twenty boxes.
• Li Qingxia, Li Jianguo, and Tao Daqiang returned and welcomed Harimu, and Li Long sent him to rest at the Winter Camp.
• Li Long rode his bicycle to the County Seat to buy batteries for Harimu.

Li Long sold Harimu’s snow leopard pelt to Chen Hongjun for fifteen hundred yuan and used part of the proceeds to buy supplies for the herders. After explaining the medicines and arranging how Harimu could contact him, Li Long watched him ride back into the mountains and headed to the Wooden Cabin.

• Li Long negotiated with Chen Hongjun and sold Harimu’s snow leopard pelt for fifteen hundred yuan.
• Li Long bought batteries, salt, sugar, brick tea, halal egg cakes, flour, and medicines for Harimu and the other herders.
• Li Long told Harimu the pelt had sold for fifteen hundred yuan and offered him the thousand yuan left after buying supplies, but Harimu refused to take the money.
• Harimu explained that the radio had made the children and herders happy, while Li Long discussed the jade and showed him how to use the medicines.
• Li Long told Harimu how to contact him through the county cooperative or post office, and Harimu loaded the supplies onto his horse and rode back into the mountains.
• Li Long watched Harimu disappear, then rode his bicycle back to the Wooden Cabin.

Harimu returned to the Summer Pasture with supplies and batteries from Li Long, and herders came to trade for them. While cutting broom poles, Li Long was attacked by a fast, feline-like creature, wounded, and brought a fox back to the Wooden Cabin; Li Qingxia noticed the injury when he returned.

• Harimu returned to his family's yurt with goods Li Long had helped him buy and shared Egg Cake with Jade Mountain River and Nasen.
• Herders visited Harimu to trade hides, meat, jade, and livestock for batteries, while Harimu considered sending Nasen and the other children to school.
• Li Long cut broom poles near the Wooden Cabin and found a fox hiding in a rocky crevice.
• A fast, feline-like creature attacked Li Long and cut his arm before escaping into the grass.
• Li Long used crushed horse thistle to stop the bleeding, killed the fox, and returned to the Wooden Cabin to treat his wound with Baiyao.
• Li Qingxia returned with a large bundle of poles and noticed Li Long's injured arm.

Li Long recovered from a lynx’s claw wound while he and his companions continued cutting and delivering poles in the mountains. After selling a fox pelt, he returned to the Wooden Cabin, where the group roasted green wheat and planned to gather more wild mushrooms once the pole-cutting was finished.

• Li Long cooked a meal after explaining that a lynx had clawed him while he tried to take its fox prey, and the group agreed to cut poles in pairs for safety.
• Li Long and Tao Daqiang cut poles together, and after his arm healed, they delivered nearly a thousand poles to County Town.
• At the Purchasing Station, Chen Hongjun bought Li Long’s torn fox pelt for sixteen yuan and offered at least eight hundred yuan for a lynx pelt.
• Li Long and Tao Daqiang picked green wheat beside the mountains and roasted it at the Wooden Cabin with Li Qingxia and Li Jianguo.
• Li Qingxia said he had gathered familiar wild mushrooms, and Li Long agreed to identify more edible varieties after they finished cutting poles.

After finishing the mountain work, Li Long returned home with Li Qingxia and visited Gu Xiaoxia, bringing her mushrooms and wild strawberries and sharing dinner with her. He left for home as preparations for the exhausting wheat harvest began.

• Li Long and Li Qingxia gathered mushrooms, Codonopsis, and wild strawberries before packing up and leaving the mountains.
• Li Long stopped at Township Middle School, where Gu Xiaoxia gave him a manual razor and shaving cream; he shaved and nicked himself slightly.
• Gu Xiaoxia cooked hand-torn noodle soup with mushrooms and stewed meat, and Li Long praised the meal as they talked about her teaching and her father’s work.
• Li Long said goodbye to Gu Xiaoxia and rode home, noticing that the neighboring village had begun preparing its threshing ground for the wheat harvest.

Li Long helped his family and neighbors prepare the threshing ground, joking with them about his relationship with Gu Xiaoxia. An urgent phone call from the Supply and Marketing Cooperative summoned him to Xu Chengjun’s house, leaving Xu Chengjun worried that something had gone wrong with the broom-making job.

• Gu Xiaoxia told Teacher Wang that she loved Li Long and had firmly rejected Deputy Principal Wang’s son.
• Li Long brought wild strawberries home for his family and delivered dried mushrooms and codonopsis to Lao Luo.
• Li Long and Li Jianguo joined their neighbors in preparing the threshing ground, where Li Long joked that he and Gu Xiaoxia needed more time together before marrying.
• The team loudspeaker announced an urgent phone call for Li Long, and he hurried to Xu Chengjun’s house while Xu Chengjun worried about the Supply and Marketing Cooperative’s call.

Li Long organized the delivery and quality checks for the village’s big broom order while considering how his relationship with Gu Xiaoxia might lead to marriage. By the chapter’s end, Li Xiangqian and Qin Huaimin had arrived to inspect the first 2,400 brooms, with the remaining 600 due the next day.

• Li Long assured Li Xiangqian that the village had made more than 2,000 sturdy brooms, and Xu Chengjun called the villagers to bring their finished goods for inspection.
• Li Long visited Gu Boyuan, saw him tracking wire distribution and making brooms, and realized Gu Boyuan might be considering his relationship with Gu Xiaoxia and their families’ future.
• Li Xiangqian and Qin Huaimin argued about the order before agreeing to inspect the brooms together that afternoon.
• Li Jianguo told Li Long that villagers had collected more than 2,400 brooms and rejected several poorly made batches, while Li Long proposed dividing the pole earnings into six shares.
• Li Xiangqian and Qin Huaimin arrived at Xu Chengjun’s courtyard, where Li Long reported that 2,400 brooms were ready and invited them to inspect the piles.

Li Long completed the broom sales, distributed the earnings among the villagers, and used some of his money to order an iron roller for the team’s threshing ground. He brought the roller and more timber home, where his family and neighbors discussed the team’s future purchases and Li Long’s prospects for marriage.

• Li Long explained to Li Xiangqian how to properly inspect Jiji Grass brooms, and Qin Huaimin’s spot check passed the shipment.
• Li Long delivered two thousand brooms, collected the payment, deposited part of his funds, and returned to the team to record the money and distribute shares to Tao Daqiang, Tao Jianshe, Li Qingxia, and Liang Yuemei.
• The villagers finished the remaining brooms the next day, and Li Long collected their payment and distributed the earnings among the households.
• Li Long ordered an iron roller at the Agricultural Machinery Repair Factory and asked Qu the Carpenter to make furniture from two logs.
• Li Long hauled timber and the completed roller home, where Li Jianguo and Lu Yingming praised the equipment and discussed tractors and Li Long’s prospects for marriage.

Li Long asked Gu Xiaoxia to get engaged, and she agreed after he confessed his feelings for her. Their families arranged to meet on Sunday to formalize the engagement, while Li Jianguo and Gu Boyuan joked about their different family generations.

• Li Jianguo and Li Long discussed Wu Shufen’s upcoming wedding and Li Long’s plans to marry Gu Xiaoxia.
• Li Long visited Gu Xiaoxia at school, proposed that they get engaged, and told her he liked her; she agreed.
• Li Long told Li Jianguo that Gu Xiaoxia had agreed, and Li Jianguo went to speak with Gu Boyuan.
• Li Jianguo and Gu Boyuan agreed to formalize the engagement at the Gu family home on Sunday.
• Li Jianguo and Gu Boyuan laughed and argued over whether their family relationship would make Li Jianguo call Gu Boyuan Uncle Gu.

Li Long prepared for his engagement by heading into the mountains to hunt and gather mushrooms, where he found a sick beekeeper and helped him recover. Lü Dafeng told him about a herd of wild boars nearby, giving Li Long a target for a midnight hunt.

• Li Long learned what betrothal gifts were expected and planned to hunt a wild boar, catch fish, and buy the remaining gifts.
• Li Long rode to the Wooden Cabin, entered the mountains to gather mushrooms, and discovered a beekeeper’s tent among flowering poppies.
• Li Long found Lü Dafeng feverish inside the tent, fetched medicine from the Wooden Cabin, and helped him recover.
• Lü Dafeng gave Li Long a jar of honey and told him that a herd of more than a dozen wild boars visited a nearby gully at night.
• Li Long returned to the Wooden Cabin with honey and mushrooms, cooked mushroom soup, and cleaned his Type 56 gun.

Li Long hunted three wild boars, brought the meat home, and shared some with Lü Dafeng and the Liang Family. After arranging the meat and preparing engagement gifts, he visited the Liang Family, where they celebrated his upcoming engagement.

• Li Long waited downwind beside a rock, then shot three boars when a herd charged toward him, before giving Lü Dafeng offal and a leg of meat.
• Li Long hauled the boars to the Wooden Cabin, loaded them onto his bicycle, and returned to County Town to butcher the meat and buy liquor, sweets, and other gifts.
• Li Long brought the meat and engagement gifts home, where Li Jianguo and the family discussed preserving the meat and sharing some with Liang Wenyu's family.
• Li Long set a net with Tao Daqiang, then delivered boar meat to Liang Wenyu and told the Liang Family he planned to get engaged in a couple of days.

Li Long prepared for Li Juan’s engagement by catching the common carp needed for the Six-Color Gifts, then took the remaining fish to Stone City to sell. He left his family enjoying the meal and ended the chapter selling to customers who had missed his fish.

• Li Long encouraged Tao Daqiang to recognize how much he had improved and how many people in the village might envy his prospects.
• Li Long cooked stewed fish and flatbreads for his family, and Liang Yuemei reminded him that a large common carp was still needed for the Six-Color Gifts.
• Li Long, Tao Daqiang, and Li Qingxia went to Little Haizi, where Li Long hauled in a large common carp and enough other fish for the engagement preparations.
• Li Jianguo took the carp and meat for the engagement, while Li Long sorted the remaining catch to sell.
• Li Long dropped Li Juan at school and rode to Stone City, where customers welcomed him back and bought his fish.

Li Jianguo and Gu Boyuan discussed Li Long and Gu Xiaoxia’s engagement, including Gu Boyuan’s refusal of betrothal money and his trust in Li Long. The Li Family formally visited the Gu Family to arrange the engagement, while the couple agreed to delay marriage so Gu Xiaoxia could focus on her career; the chapter ended with news expected the next day.

• Li Jianguo helped Gu Boyuan clear the courtyard, and they discussed Li Long’s recent growth and Gu Boyuan’s confidence in him.
• Gu Boyuan refused betrothal money, while Li Jianguo urged him to consider how the village might gossip about Gu Xiaoxia.
• Gu Xiaoxia agreed with her father’s decision and shyly affirmed her trust in Li Long.
• The Li Family visited the Gu Family with gifts and new clothes for Gu Xiaoxia, formally arranging the engagement in front of curious villagers.
• The families agreed that Li Long and Gu Xiaoxia would postpone marriage so she could pursue her career, and Li Long offered to take her back to her dormitory.
• The chapter ended by revealing that unexpected good news would arrive the following day.

Li Long and Gu Xiaoxia grew closer after their engagement, while Li Long continued earning money by catching and selling fish. Gu Xiaoxia told him the Education Bureau wanted to second her for a while, and he encouraged her to accept the opportunity.

• Li Long rode Gu Xiaoxia back to school, and she told Teacher Wang that her feelings for him were love rather than gratitude.
• Li Long, Tao Daqiang, and Li Qingxia set nets at Little Haizi, and the next morning they hauled in a large catch for Li Long to sell.
• Li Long sold fish in Stone City, bought a sack of watermelons, and rode to Gu Xiaoxia's school.
• Gu Xiaoxia told Li Long that Deputy Director Wang had arranged for her to work at the Education Bureau temporarily.
• Li Long reassured Gu Xiaoxia that he trusted her and firmly urged her to take the opportunity.

Gu Xiaoxia prepared to begin her secondment at the County Seat, and Li Long took her to the large courtyard he had bought so she could make it her home. As Li Long helped her settle in and bought her supplies, Xiao Liu saw the couple together and finally gave up hope of winning him over.

• Gu Xiaoxia told Li Long she had to report to the Education Bureau on Thursday and was worried about finding somewhere to live, so Li Long offered her a room in his newly purchased courtyard.
• Li Long took Gu Xiaoxia to see the courtyard, where she chose a separate bedroom and agreed to move in after they prepared it.
• At the Big Meat Canteen, Zhong Guoqiang treated Li Long and Gu Xiaoxia to a meal and asked Li Long to bring him mountain specialties on his next trip.
• Li Long bought Gu Xiaoxia new bedding, daily necessities, leather shoes, socks, and clothes at the Department Store, spending 127 yuan.
• Gu Xiaoxia noticed Xiao Liu watching them, and Li Long explained that Xiao Liu's coworkers had once considered setting him up with her; Xiao Liu then saw the couple leave together and wished them well, though she still felt reluctant.

Li Long settled Gu Xiaoxia into the Big Courtyard and helped her handle gossip about her secondment to the County Seat. Back in the village, he shared watermelons with his family and explained why he had turned down a Supply and Marketing Cooperative job; the next day, he brought Li Xiangqian a gift as he prepared to ask a favor.

• Li Long helped Gu Xiaoxia prepare her room, then escorted her back to school, where Teacher Wang asked about her trip to the County Seat and Gu Xiaoxia answered modestly about her secondment.
• Li Long picked up mud-covered Li Qiang, brought him home to wash, and shared watermelon with the family after Li Jianguo and Liang Yuemei returned from the threshing ground.
• Li Long told his family he had refused a Supply and Marketing Cooperative job because his fish and broom-making work earned far more, and he described the County Seat house he had bought for five hundred yuan.
• The next day, Li Long hauled in a smaller fish catch, sold fish in Stone City, and brought two roe deer penises to Li Xiangqian at the Supply and Marketing Cooperative before asking him a favor.

Li Long helped his fiancée Gu Xiaoxia move into the County Seat, bought her a bicycle and radio, and stayed overnight so she would feel safe. When Gu Xiaoxia returned to her village, she heard people gossiping about Li Long and her engagement but chose to ignore them.

• Li Long gave Li Xiangqian roe deer penises in exchange for industrial coupons to buy Gu Xiaoxia a bicycle, and Li Xiangqian promised him a wedding gift.
• Li Long helped Gu Xiaoxia move her belongings to the County Seat, taught her to ride a bicycle, and bought her a 26-inch bicycle and a radio in Stone City.
• Li Long and Gu Xiaoxia explored Old Street, then he stayed overnight at her courtyard house and helped her register the bicycle at the Police Station.
• Li Long returned home the next morning, assessed the fish his family had caught, and explained that their nets had been set too tightly.
• Gu Xiaoxia rode home to visit Wu Shufen before her wedding and heard women gossip about her engagement and Li Long's prospects.
• Gu Xiaoxia noticed the women staring at her colored bicycle and ignored their gossip, feeling that she and they were no longer on the same level.

Gu Xiaoxia visited Wu Shufen before her wedding, gave her gifts, and warned her that village primary school teachers faced exams and layoffs. Meanwhile, Li Long sold mushrooms in the County Town, and the next morning the wedding and wheat harvest began.

• Gu Xiaoxia brought Wu Shufen wedding gifts and learned that Wu Shufen planned to live in the township after marrying.
• Gu Xiaoxia told Wu Shufen that village first- and second-grade classes would be abolished and only a third of village teachers would be selected for brigade schools.
• Wu Shufen reacted to the news, and Gu Xiaoxia refused to interfere with the selection before revealing that Li Long had a formal job as a purchasing agent.
• Li Long gathered mushrooms and sold thirty-one kilograms, along with wild vegetables, to Zhong Guoqiang for forty-six yuan fifty.
• The next morning, Wu Shufen waited for her husband, Gu Xiaoxia made breakfast, and Tao Daqiang joined the wheat harvest.
• Li Long picked his first black tiger's paw mushroom of the day while Tao Daqiang was stung by a wasp.

Li Long gathered Black Tiger's Paw Mushrooms, cooked and ate at the Wooden Cabin, then visited Jade Mountain River's hot springs to soak and scout for game. He found a promising ambush site and four large codonopsis roots, and planned to return early the next morning to hunt.

• Li Long recognized the gully where a lynx had scratched him and cautiously left before carrying a sack of Black Tiger's Paw Mushrooms back to the Wooden Cabin.
• Li Long cooked wild celery and mushrooms, ate a large meal, napped, and laid the morning's mushrooms out to dry.
• Li Long followed the stream to natural hot spring pools, found fresh animal tracks and blood, and soaked in a warm pool.
• Li Long explored farther upstream, then decided to use the pool frequented by animals as a hunting ambush site.
• Li Long found and dug up four codonopsis roots on the western mountainside, then planned to return early the next morning to lie in wait for game.

Li Long ambushed game at the hot springs, killed a roe deer and a wild boar, and brought the meat and other goods back from the mountains. After learning the Purchasing Station would not accept his sliced mushrooms, he returned to the Big Courtyard, cooked dinner, and reunited with Gu Xiaoxia.

• Li Long waited at the hot springs, shot a roe deer, and killed a wild boar when a herd burst from the woods.
• Li Long butchered the animals, then traded a boar leg for honey and pollen from Lü Dafeng.
• Li Long learned Chen Hongjun could not buy his sliced black tiger's paw mushrooms, so he gave some away and kept the rest.
• Li Long cooked roe deer and mushroom dishes at the Big Courtyard, where Gu Xiaoxia returned from work and was touched by his welcome.
• Li Long told Gu Xiaoxia he would leave meat for their families before heading back, and they agreed they did not want to help with the wheat harvest.

Li Long brought home meat from a hunt, helped his family and Gu Boyuan process it, and invited Gu Boyuan to hunt with him after the autumn harvest. The chapter ended with Li Long advising the wasp-stung Tao Daqiang to use his fishing net and sell fish rather than wait for Li Long to go fishing with him.

• Li Long picked up Li Juan from school and brought her home, where he began rendering the meat from a roe deer and a wild boar he had hunted.
• Li Qiang shared tender milkweed pods with Li Long and the family while they prepared the meat.
• Li Long brought meat to Gu Boyuan and helped him render it, then discussed organizing a group hunt after the autumn harvest.
• Li Long found Tao Daqiang bruised from wasp stings and told him to try vinegar or soapy water.
• When Tao Daqiang asked when they could go fishing, Li Long suggested he borrow the net, catch fish himself, and sell them in the County Seat.

Li Long visited the Li family, shared ice pops with them, and left for the County Seat with vegetables Uncle Luo had picked. On the road, he nearly hit a little girl gleaning wheat and discovered that she and her mother were living in an abandoned culvert.

• Li Long returned to the Li family’s courtyard, where they discussed electricity, buying a television, the wheat harvest, and going fishing.
• Li Long visited Uncle Luo, checked on the animals and vegetables, and ate breakfast with him the next morning.
• Li Long bought cream ice pops for Li Qiang and the family, then left with baskets of vegetables Uncle Luo had picked.
• Li Long rode toward the County Seat and braked to avoid hitting a little girl who had run into the road, spilling some vegetables and scattering her wheat heads.
• The frightened girl ran toward an abandoned culvert, where Li Long saw her mother emerge.

Li Long helped a poor mother and daughter, then shared a meal with Gu Xiaoxia before heading into the mountains with food and his gun. While gathering mushrooms, he encountered a lynx with its hare prey and two cubs, and wondered whether he could keep one.

• Li Long gave vegetables and a tomato to a hungry mother and daughter he had nearly struck with his bicycle.
• Li Long cooked noodles for Gu Xiaoxia, and they talked about her father and the family they had encountered.
• Li Long bought watermelons and sweet melons at the Free Market, then brought a watermelon to Lü Dafeng in the mountains.
• Li Long gathered black tiger's paw mushrooms and left the boletes because he could not identify them safely.
• Li Long spotted a lynx holding a hare and saw two cubs beside it, then considered keeping one.

Li Long gathered and dried Black Tiger's Paw Mushrooms, then spent the next day collecting more and resting at the Wooden Cabin. When he went to the hot spring, he saw wolves attacking wild mountain goats and rushed forward with his gun.

• Li Long failed to catch the lynx cubs, gathered a sack of Black Tiger's Paw Mushrooms, and returned to the Wooden Cabin.
• Li Long prepared breakfast, spread the mushrooms outside to dry, and headed east to gather another full sack.
• Li Long rested through the afternoon, then set off toward the hot spring with his gun and sack, picking mushrooms along the way.
• Li Long spotted a wolf watching the hot spring pools and prepared to shoot, but a howl from the opposite slope sent the wolf charging downhill.
• Li Long followed and saw three wolves attacking four wild mountain goats in two hot spring pools.