Recaps

Li Long lent Xu Haijun money and helped him find a way to earn more by cutting broom handles, then arranged a family outing to Wu City. He also decided to go to Beiting to find buyers for assorted goods at the Purchasing Station and visit Chen Hongjun.

• Li Long lent Xu Haijun two thousand yuan, and Xu Haijun wrote him an IOU before asking how he could earn money before the wheat harvest.
• Tao Daqiang suggested that Xu Haijun cut broom handles in the mountains, and Li Long estimated that about five thousand could be sold.
• Li Long proposed a family trip to the mountains, but Li Qingxia preferred Wu City, so the family planned a visit to the zoo, Water Park, and Department Store.
• Li Long gave Liang Yuemei Warrior shoes for Li Juan and Li Qiang, then returned to the county seat and discussed selling assorted goods with Gu Boyuan.
• Li Long told Sister Yang about the planned trip, and the next morning he drove to Beiting to visit Chen Hongjun.

Li Long arranged a sales channel for the Purchasing Station’s dried mushrooms through Chen Hongjun and Qi Zhiguo, then checked Wu City’s routes before taking his family on an outing. Han Fang chose to stay behind with Sister Yang, while Li Long drove the rest of the family toward the city.

• Li Long visited Chen Hongjun, who offered a contact for buying dried mushrooms and advised Li Long to avoid purchasing goods without clear sales channels.
• Chen Hongjun told Qi Zhiguo that Li Long had agreed to pay a substantial referral fee, and Qi Zhiguo set out to contact the mushroom buyer.
• Li Long drove around Wu City to learn the routes to the zoo and water park, then told Gu Boyuan and Sun Jiaqiang that a mushroom buyer would come and that the Purchasing Station would close on Sunday.
• Li Long posted a notice that the Purchasing Station would be closed for the day and arranged for Sun Jiaqiang to take the day off.
• Li Long gathered his family at the Big Courtyard and drove some of them toward the bus station and then picked up the others in his Jeep.
• Han Fang declined to join the outing and stayed behind with Sister Yang, while Li Qiang eagerly anticipated seeing the zoo monkeys.

Li Long took his family to Wu City Zoo and confronted a prize-wheel stallholder who was secretly cheating, ensuring Li Juan and Li Qiang won toys. After buying candied hawthorn skewers for everyone, the family gathered and entered the zoo.

• Li Long noticed that a prize-wheel stallholder used a hidden magnet to cheat children, while Li Qiang watched eagerly and Li Juan warned him that players rarely won.
• Li Long confronted the stallholder and threatened to expose him, then let Li Qiang and Li Juan spin; both children won prizes, and Li Long paid two yuan.
• Li Long bought ten candied hawthorn skewers, and Li Juan handed them out to the family, including Du Chunfang.
• Li Jianguo and the others arrived, and the whole family entered Wu City Zoo together.

Li Long took his family to the Wu City zoo, a canteen, a water park, and Tianbai, where they enjoyed a rare family outing. The chapter ended with Li Long appreciating the gifts his family had bought him and Gu Xiaoxia.

• Li Long took the family through the zoo while Gu Xiaoxia took photographs, and Li Qiang and Li Juan eagerly watched the animals.
• Li Jianguo treated everyone to lunch, and the family compared the canteen's food with the rice and fish from home.
• Li Long took Li Juan and Li Qiang to the water park while Du Chunfang and Gu Xiaoxia stayed by the Jeep with the younger children.
• Li Long brought the family to Tianbai, where Liang Yuemei gave Gu Xiaoxia a leather handbag and Li Jianguo gave Li Long sunglasses.

Li Jianguo told Wang the Miser that the Li Family was buying a new crawler tractor and would take plowing jobs, ending Wang’s hold over the Fourth Team’s planting work. As the team learned about the purchase, Li Jianguo prepared to operate the tractor with Lu Yingming, while Wang the Miser worried about losing business.

• Li Long brought Li Jianguo and the others back to the Big Courtyard, where Sister Yang had prepared dinner, and Gu Xiaoxia gave Sister Yang sandals and Han Fang a new schoolbag and supplies.
• Li Jianguo told Wang the Miser and Wang Dagui that the Li Family was buying a tractor mainly for its own land but would also plow and sow for neighbors who hired them.
• Wang the Miser regretted not replacing his worn-out tractor, but he could not bear to withdraw his savings and lose the interest.
• Li Jianguo planned space in the Front Courtyard for the tractor and its implements, and arranged for Lu Yingming to help with plowing.
• The Fourth Team learned that the Li Family was buying a big tractor, and people came to the family’s home to confirm the news.

Li Long, Li Jianguo, and Lu Yingming bought a new Dongfanghong 75 crawler tractor with a full set of implements, while villagers began planning to use the Li family's tractor and reclaim saline-alkali land. Li Long arranged for Song Ming to haul the implements, and Song Ming invited him to lunch.

• Li Jianguo told Xu Chengjun that the Li family planned to buy a large tractor and reclaim more saline-alkali land, and Xu reserved a place in the plowing queue.
• Xu Chengjun decided that his family would reclaim forty or fifty mu of wasteland after learning of the Li family's plans.
• Li Long drove Li Jianguo and Lu Yingming to the Stone City Tractor Factory, where they inspected and bought a new Dongfanghong 75 tractor and its implements for a little over forty-one thousand yuan.
• Li Jianguo test-drove the tractor, and Li Long planned to have it driven home while arranging separate transport for the remaining equipment.
• Li Long asked Song Ming to haul the implements, and Song Ming agreed to help after work and invited Li Long to lunch.

Li Long visited Li Xia, then collected a big tractor and implements with help from Song Ming and brought them back to the Li family courtyard, impressing the villagers. At his Purchasing Station, he saw an old man bring in a sack of corroded copper coins and wondered whether the man had found a coin cache.

• Li Long visited Li Xia, told her about the tractor he had bought, and left without staying for a meal.
• Li Long and Song Ming collected a soil cutter and five-bottom plow from the Tractor Factory, with workers helping load the cutter.
• Li Long and Song Ming returned to the Fourth Team, where villagers gathered to inspect the new equipment as Li Jianguo drove the Dongfanghong 75 tractor home.
• Li Jianguo parked the tractor in the Li family courtyard, and Li Qingxia and Du Chunfang joined the crowd to watch over it.
• Li Long returned to the Purchasing Station and saw Gu Boyuan and Sun Jiaqiang examine an old man's sack of corroded copper coins.

Li Long bought a coin cache and sold Zhao Hui nearly seven hundred hides for a large profit. Meanwhile, Jade Mountain River and Harimu found a brown bear killed near their pastures and feared the wounded tiger had returned.

• Gu Boyuan questioned a shepherd about cash coins he had dug up near Letuyi, and Li Long sorted the usable coins before buying them.
• Li Long learned that dried mushrooms were piling up at the Purchasing Station while he waited for Chen Hongjun's buyer to arrive.
• Zhao Hui arrived with a truck, inspected Li Long's hides, and paid him 33,652 yuan for nearly seven hundred pelts, including a bear skin and lynx pelt.
• Li Long deposited money at the bank after selling the hides and continued purchasing goods at a brisk pace.
• Jade Mountain River and Harimu discovered a brown bear carcass less than a kilometer from their pastures and worried that the wounded tiger had returned.

Li Long sold nearly three hundred kilograms of dried morels to Huang Lei for almost ten thousand yuan, while keeping the remaining mushrooms for Huang Lei to buy later. After Huang Lei left for Wu City with the morels, Li Long returned home to his children and planned to reward Sun Jiaqiang for his work.

• Harimu and Jade Mountain River skinned a freshly killed bear and agreed to carry guns while a dangerous tiger might still be nearby.
• Huang Lei inspected Li Long’s dried mushrooms and discovered that Li Long had nearly six hundred kilograms in storage.
• Huang Lei bought the top-grade and ordinary morels for thirty-five and thirty yuan per kilogram, spending nearly all the money he had brought.
• Li Long agreed to hold the remaining mushrooms for Huang Lei and drove him and the sacks of morels to the Bus Station.
• Li Long returned to the Big Courtyard, held Mingming and Haohao, and decided to give Sun Jiaqiang a fifty-yuan bonus.

Huang Lei shipped dried mushrooms from Wu City while trying to avoid Liu Xinjun, who had deceived him and was now tracing his supplier. Liu reached Li Long’s purchasing station to buy mushrooms, but Li hid his remaining stock and rejected Liu’s low offer.

• Huang Lei brought dried mushrooms to an inn in Wu City, fended off Liu Xinjun’s attempts to inspect them, and arranged to ship them home.
• Huang Lei learned that Liu Xinjun had sent him to Southern Xinjiang to keep him away from their shared market, and he planned to return to Li Long for more mushrooms once his partner paid him.
• Liu Xinjun traced Huang Lei’s bus route to Ma County, checked out of the inn, and traveled there to find Huang Lei’s supplier.
• Liu Xinjun arrived at Li Long’s purchasing station and asked to buy dried mushrooms, but Li Long claimed they were sold out while Sun Jiaqiang kept up the story.
• Liu Xinjun offered Li Long twenty-five yuan per hundred kilos of morels, with a higher price for better goods, but Li rejected the offer because it left him no profit.

Liu Xinjun failed to persuade Li Long to sell him mushrooms, then searched for suppliers in Hu County. Meanwhile, Li Jianguo tested the Li family's new tractor by reclaiming saline-alkali land, drawing villagers' interest and prompting Wang the Miser to worry about losing plowing work.

• Liu Xinjun left Li Long's purchasing station after learning Li Long considered his offer too low, and he went to look for suppliers in nearby counties.
• Li Long speculated that Liu Xinjun might be connected to Huang Lei and planned to visit Beiting to pay Qi Zhigang the promised referral fee.
• Li Jianguo used the Dongfanghong 75 Tractor to plow the family's roughly forty-mu plot as villagers watched and gathered roots, herbs, and insects from the turned soil.
• Lu Yingming, Tao Jianshe, and other villagers praised Li Jianguo's deep plowing, while Wang the Miser worried that the Li family's new tractor would take away his customers.
• Li Jianguo and Li Qingxia kept plowing until nearly thirty mu had been reclaimed, and Liu Xinjun later found that Hu County's purchasing station bought mixed, unsorted mushrooms.

Li Long continued buying mushrooms at the Purchasing Station while Liu Xinjun returned hoping to secure a supply deal. He arrived as Huang Lei was paying for mushrooms Li Long had reserved, and the two businessmen clashed over the goods before Huang left with his shipment.

• Li Long kept the Purchasing Station busy buying dried mushrooms, while Sun Jiaqiang worked harder after receiving a fifty-yuan bonus.
• After struggling to find mushroom suppliers elsewhere, Liu Xinjun traveled to Ma County to try to make a deal with Li Long.
• Huang Lei arrived with money from his partner and paid Li Long 12,930 yuan for the mushrooms he had reserved.
• Liu Xinjun saw Huang Lei and the mushrooms, accused Li Long of dishonesty, and learned that Huang had reserved the stock before Liu's earlier visit.
• Huang Lei confronted Liu Xinjun for trying to poach his business partner, then left with the purchased mushrooms and planned to return to Li Long.

Li Long sold several hundred kilograms of dried mushrooms to Huang Lei and thanked Chen Hongjun and Qi Zhiguo for helping establish the business connection. After rewarding them for their introductions, he left with the Purchasing Station’s main sales channels secured and planned to seek buyers for its smaller categories.

• Huang Lei bought several hundred kilograms of dried mushrooms from Li Long, while the Purchasing Station continued drawing sellers with its fair prices and friendly service.
• Li Long visited Chen Hongjun in Beiting City to explain the successful sale and invite him and Qi Zhiguo to lunch.
• Chen Hongjun’s coworkers discussed Li Long’s connections and tried to arrange a match for him, but Chen said Li Long was married with two children.
• Qi Zhiguo eagerly asked Li Long about Huang Lei, and Li Long confirmed that Huang had bought the mushrooms and become a long-term business partner.
• Li Long gave envelopes of money to Chen Hongjun and Qi Zhiguo to thank them, and Chen accepted his share after Li Long insisted.
• After lunch, Chen Hongjun explained that he had few more contacts to introduce, while Li Long said he would look for buyers for the Purchasing Station’s smaller categories.

Qi Zhiguo received five hundred yuan from Li Long for introducing Huang Lei, while Li Long used the payment to attract more connections for his Purchasing Station. After Xu Haijun reported that someone had entered Li Long’s mountain cabin and left blood and wolf tracks, Li Long began preparing to investigate.

• Qi Zhiguo counted the five hundred yuan Li Long had paid him and hid it in a sewn inner pocket, imagining that the money could help him buy a home for his wife.
• Chen Hongjun took the dried mushrooms Li Long had given him to his mother and opened his envelope to find five hundred yuan.
• Li Long visited Li Jianguo at the Fourth Team, where Li Jianguo and Wang the Miser maintained the Dongfanghong 75 and discussed its operation.
• Xu Haijun told Li Long that his group had gathered over three thousand poles and found someone living in a nearby Winter Camp.
• Xu Haijun reported that Li Long’s cabin door had been broken open and that there was blood and wolf paw prints by the entrance, prompting Li Long to prepare for a trip into the mountains.

Li Long traveled into the mountains to check the Winter Camp and Wooden Cabin, gathering wild strawberries and mushrooms along the way. He found wild boars at the cabin, shot two, and discovered that an unknown visitor had broken in, left blood and cartridge cases, and defiled the Small Wooden Cabin.

• Li Long prepared his Jeep and supplies, then drove into the mountains to inspect the Winter Camp and Wooden Cabin.
• Li Long picked wild strawberries and black tiger's paw mushrooms before spotting a herd of wild boars near the Wooden Cabin.
• Two gray wolves attacked the herd, and Li Long shot a young sow as the boars scattered; he also recovered a piglet the wolves had killed.
• Li Long found the Wooden Cabin's lock and hinges damaged, bedding stained with blood and shoeprints, and rifle cartridge cases on the floor.
• Li Long cleaned the cabin, repaired its doors, and went to butcher the two boars by the Spring Eye.

Li Long processed the wild boar meat at the Wooden Cabin while waiting for the armed stranger who had previously occupied it. When the man returned, Li Long overpowered him, found a large haul of silver and valuable weapons, and forced him to reveal a hidden treasure cave before setting off with him.

• Li Long salted and smoked some of the wild boar meat, prepared the rest, and hid his Jeep while waiting for the stranger to return.
• The armed man came back to the Wooden Cabin, and Li Long confirmed he was the intruder by hearing him mention his earlier stay and encounter with wolves.
• Li Long tricked the wary man into lowering his guard, knocked him down, disarmed him, and searched him and his black bag.
• Li Long found hundreds of silver dollars, silver sycees, gold pieces, an imitation pistol, and an ornate saber, then fired beside the man's head to frighten him.
• The man wet himself and confessed that he had found the valuables in a mountain cave, so Li Long ordered him to lead the way.

Li Long discovered a hidden cache of weapons, silver dollars, and US banknotes, but realized the haul was too large and dangerous to keep. After handing Xie Youcai over to Bolati, Li Long returned to the county town and sought help from Li Xiangqian.

• Xie Youcai led Li Long through the mountains and revealed a concealed cave where Usman's forces had hidden their loot.
• Li Long found dozens of crates containing old weapons, silver dollars, and banknotes, took only a few bundles, and forced Xie Youcai to leave with him.
• Li Long escorted Xie Youcai back to the cabin and handed him and his guns over to Bolati for the Forestry Team to investigate.
• Li Long packed up the meat, drove to the county town, and told Sister Yang he might be home late or not at all.
• Li Long went to the Supply and Marketing Cooperative, waited until Zhou Yuan had left, and placed silver dollars on Li Xiangqian's desk, saying something big had happened.

Li Long discovered a hidden cave containing weapons, money, and equipment, then reported it to county officials, who organized a trip to retrieve the cache. His honesty earned praise, and Li Xiangqian told him his representative seat was nearly secured; Li Long later kept two bundles of US dollars he had taken from the cave and decided to stay quiet about them.

• Li Long told Li Xiangqian that he had found Xie Youcai and a cave stocked with weapons and treasure, and Li Xiangqian contacted county officials.
• Tan Yaohui and Hao Youlin coordinated with county leaders and departments, then led a convoy into the mountains with Li Long as guide.
• Public Security officers and forestry workers inspected the cave and retrieved crates of guns, sabers, silver dollars, foreign currency, and machinery.
• Li Xiangqian praised Li Long’s discovery and said his representative seat was as good as secured, while the group carried the cache back to the county.
• Li Long returned home, showed Gu Xiaoxia the US dollars and silver dollars, and agreed that they should not tell anyone about the money he had kept.

After Li Long reported his actions, he learned that Xie Youcai had died in custody and that the county planned to commend him for recovering a large cache of weapons and valuables. He continued trading with Aili at the Forestry Team Post, then learned that his appointment as a county representative had been approved, just as he remembered the things he had left at the Wooden Cabin.

• Li Long told Gu Boyuan about confronting Xie Youcai, then went to the Supply and Marketing Cooperative to learn what had happened.
• Li Xiangqian told Li Long that Xie Youcai had been beaten to death by a Kazakh Forest Ranger before the planned handover, and that the killer had been dismissed and handed over to the police.
• Li Xiangqian read out the recovered cache's inventory and said county leaders intended to commend and reward Li Long, though the valuables required approval from higher authorities.
• Li Long returned to the Purchasing Station, bought old objects brought in by sellers, and later visited Aili and Bolati at the Forestry Team Post to purchase mushrooms, Fritillaria, and antiquities.
• Aili told Li Long that he had become deputy team leader and would reserve the warehouse goods for him, then hosted him for hand-grabbed mutton.
• Li Long learned that his appointment as a county representative had been approved, and remembered the things he had left at the Wooden Cabin.

Li Long retrieved the hidden silver and saber, learned that he had been elected a County Representative, and began considering how joining the organization could help him influence the Fourth Team. At the Purchasing Station, he sold Huang Lei a large shipment of dried mushrooms, then heard from Jia Tianlong that a buyer in Inland China wanted huge quantities of watermelon seeds.

• Li Long brought back nearly six hundred silver dollars and stored them with his other valuables, keeping the jeweled saber in a hidden compartment at home.
• Li Xiangqian told Li Long that the investigation was classified, that his role would be kept secret, and that he had been elected a County Representative.
• Li Long decided to write an application to join the organization through the Supply and Marketing Cooperative, with the plan to transfer his affiliation to the Fourth Team later.
• Li Long helped Huang Lei hire a truck and sell nearly eight hundred kilograms of dried mushrooms for 23,264.8 yuan.
• Jia Tianlong arrived at the Purchasing Station and told Li Long that he had found an Inland China buyer seeking enormous quantities of watermelon seeds.

Jia Tianlong bought Li Long’s medicinal materials and agreed to find a buyer for his collection of old objects. Li Long then went to Beiting to negotiate the Prefectural Federation of Supply and Marketing Cooperatives’ watermelon seeds, leaving Director Qian to consider what price to charge him.

• Jia Tianlong bought the Purchasing Station’s medicinal materials for more than sixteen thousand yuan and took a jade snuff bottle from Li Long as a keepsake.
• Jia Tianlong promised to contact a buyer for Li Long’s old objects and bring the buyer to the Purchasing Station in three or four days.
• Li Long gave Sun Jiaqiang a fifty-yuan bonus and paid Gu Boyuan his four-thousand-yuan share of the day’s earnings.
• Li Long told Gu Boyuan he planned to buy the federation’s watermelon seeds and sell them to a buyer Jia Tianlong had introduced.
• Li Long went to Beiting, gave Xiao Si packages for him and Director Qian, and waited to meet Director Qian.
• Li Long explained the buyer’s offer and his plan to press the seeds flat, and Director Qian considered what price to charge him for the warehouse stock.

Li Long brought ten tons of watermelon seeds from the Prefectural Supply and Marketing Federation to the Fourth Team for processing and organized trusted households to soak and flatten them. After assigning the entire batch, he left the work in Li Jianguo’s hands and returned to the county town with dried velvet antlers and sugar residue.

• Director Qian approved Li Long taking ten tons of old watermelon seeds at the Cooperative’s purchase price and reminded him to prioritize the big broom order.
• Li Long paid twenty thousand yuan for the seeds, drove them to the Fourth Team, and arranged to pay workers ten yuan per sack to flatten them.
• Li Jianguo suggested distributing the sacks to reliable households, and Liang Yuemei recorded the weights and turned away a neighbor she did not trust.
• Li Long and Li Jianguo recruited trusted families, who quickly took all the watermelon seeds home to process; Li Long told disappointed latecomers that another batch might follow if the trial succeeded.
• Li Jianguo promised to inspect the finished seeds, while Li Long collected vegetables, dried velvet antlers, and sugar residue before returning to the county town.

Xu Chengjun considered whether Li Long’s watermelon-seed work offered a chance to profit without crossing him, while Li Long went to his Purchasing Station to meet antiques buyer Ye Quanfeng. Ye Quanfeng spotted the gilt horse tack and asked about a matching saber, leaving Li Long wondering whether he was probing for the weapon Li Long had kept hidden.

• Xu Chengjun and Xu Haijun discussed the uncertain market for the watermelon seeds and decided not to cut Li Long out of the business.
• Li Long stayed home with Mingming and Haohao before heading to the Purchasing Station after Sun Jiaqiang reported that an antiques buyer wanted to meet him.
• Li Long received Ye Quanfeng and Wen Chaozong, then showed Ye the antiques in his storeroom while keeping Wen outside.
• Ye Quanfeng admired the gilt horse tack and asked whether Li Long also had a saber, making Li Long suspect that the buyer was probing for the hidden weapon.

Li Long refused to sell a set of gilt horse tack cheaply and organized villagers to flatten and collect watermelon seeds for sale. After Jia Tianlong brought buyers from Inland China to inspect the seeds, Li Long hosted them and prepared to learn what they would offer.

• Li Long rejected Ye Quanfeng's offer of a thousand yuan for the horse tack and asked ten thousand, so Ye Quanfeng left without buying it.
• Li Long visited households in the Fourth Team and checked their progress flattening watermelon seeds, while estimating how much the village could process.
• Li Long returned the next morning to collect the villagers' flattened seeds, and Li Jianguo and others transported them to the Purchasing Station.
• Jia Tianlong arrived with Dong Zhichao and Ye Lanlan, buyers from a roasted goods factory in Inland China, and Li Long hosted them at Tuanfeng Tower.

Li Long sold ten tonnes of unusually flat, easy-to-crack watermelon seeds to Dong Zhichao after negotiating the price up to 2.75 yuan per kilo. Dong Zhichao later failed to find similar seeds elsewhere, while Li Long reported the sale to Director Qian and left their future business uncertain.

• Li Long showed Dong Zhichao, Ye Lanlan, and Jia Tianlong roasted seeds and compared them with Ye Lanlan's factory's product, revealing that Li Long's seeds cracked more easily and yielded whole kernels.
• Li Long let Dong Zhichao inspect the sacks of seeds, then argued that their quality justified a higher price and warned that he would not do future business at the original rate.
• Dong Zhichao agreed to buy the ten-tonne batch for 2.75 yuan per kilo, and Li Long arranged a truck to transport it to the Roasted Goods Factory.
• Ye Lanlan questioned whether Dong Zhichao had paid too little, but he defended the deal and believed other suppliers could provide similar seeds.
• Dong Zhichao searched nearby markets, Southern Xinjiang, and Gansu Province for flat watermelon seeds but found none like Li Long's.
• Li Long reported the sale to Director Qian, who accepted the outcome and invited him to lunch.