Chapter Summaries

Li Long and Li Qingxia sold fish and boiled reed leaves in Stone City through the Dragon Boat Festival, while Qin Family Jiajie paid down his debt by bringing shovel handles. After Li Xiangqian offered Li Long a one-month contract for three thousand big brooms, Li Long organized the family to cut handles, and Tao Daqiang arrived to discuss the work.

• Li Long and Li Qingxia set up a joint stall in Stone City, where Li Qingxia sold boiled reed leaves and Li Long sold fish while warning customers about pickpockets.
• Li Long and his family continued selling reed leaves through the Dragon Boat Festival, selling all six hundred bundles they brought on the festival itself.
• Qin Family Jiajie delivered a hundred shovel handles, and Li Long deducted twenty yuan from his debt as agreed.
• Li Xiangqian gave Li Long a one-month deadline to deliver three thousand big brooms, and Li Long accepted the order and arranged for the team to make the broom heads.
• Li Long told Xu Chengjun he would secure the broom handles, then rallied Li Jianguo, Li Qingxia, and Tao Daqiang to cut poles in the mountains; Tao Daqiang arrived at the house to talk with him.

Li Long brought his family to his mountain cabin to begin cutting poles, then took Li Qingxia and Tao Daqiang hunting. After finding no wild boars or gazelles at first, Li Long spotted and shot an injured Mongolian gazelle, leaving the group to decide what to do with it.

• Li Long, Li Qingxia, Li Jianguo, and Tao Daqiang traveled to the mountain cabin with supplies to start cutting poles.
• Li Long and Li Qingxia found the cabin had been broken into and its bedding and dried meat stolen, then cleaned it and prepared the place to stay.
• Li Jianguo and Tao Daqiang began cutting poles while Li Long bought household necessities and cooked a meal at the cabin.
• Before dawn, Li Long, Li Qingxia, and Tao Daqiang searched for wild boars, found none, and continued through the outer mountains looking for Mongolian gazelles.
• Li Long spotted a half-grown Mongolian gazelle on the Gobi and shot it, then found that its hind leg was badly injured.

Li Long discovered that someone had stolen supplies from the Wooden Cabin and defiled Harimu's Winter Camp, then tracked the culprit to a group of Earth Cellars. He attacked two men there and began taking their belongings as compensation.

• Li Long shot a wounded gazelle, brought it back to the Wooden Cabin, and prepared its meat while Li Jianguo, Tao Daqiang, and Li Qingxia cut poles.
• Li Long spotted a figure near the gully and followed the tracks toward Harimu's Winter Camp, where he found that the intruder had defiled the sleeping platform.
• Li Long tracked the man to a cluster of Earth Cellars and recognized bedding and a pot stolen from the Wooden Cabin.
• Li Long charged the Earth Cellars, shot one fleeing man in the arm, beat both men, and started claiming their belongings as compensation.

Li Long confiscated mountain goods from two thieves who had broken into a camp, then returned to the Wooden Cabin and prepared to haul poles and sell his finds. On the way to the County Seat, the thieves accused him of robbery, but Li Long explained the break-in and pointed out signs that their machetes might have been used in a killing, prompting the Forestry Team escorts to take them to Public Security.

• Li Long shot the younger thief in the leg when he tried to attack, confiscated antlers and medicinal herbs, and warned both men to stop stealing.
• Li Long cleaned and secured Harimu's Winter Camp, then returned to the Wooden Cabin, where Li Qingxia brought back two more deer antlers he had found.
• Li Long and Li Qingxia discussed selling the antlers and whether Li Qingxia might stay in the mountains, while Li Qingxia warned that blood on the stolen machetes looked like human blood.
• After Li Long and his family cut several hundred poles, Li Long and Li Qingxia set out by cart for the County Seat to sell the goods and deliver the poles.
• The injured thieves accused Li Long of robbing and shooting them, but he explained that they had stolen from his cabin and defiled the Winter Camp, and urged the escorts to investigate the possible human blood on their machetes.
• The Forestry Team escorts accepted Li Long's account and continued toward the County Seat with the thieves, intending to hand them over to Public Security.

Li Long and Li Qingxia sold antlers and medicinal herbs in County Town, then delivered broom poles to Xu Chengjun and returned to the Wooden Cabin to keep cutting. After two more days of work, Li Long and the others set out at dawn to look for wild boars.

• Li Long explained to Chen Hongjun that he had taken antlers and herbs from robbers who had damaged his cabin, and sold the antlers and fritillaria for nearly three hundred yuan.
• Li Long told Li Qingxia about morels and black tiger's paw mushrooms, and they planned to gather mushrooms in the mountains later.
• Li Long delivered six hundred poles to Xu Chengjun, who said the team was preparing to make high-quality brooms.
• Li Qingxia gave Du Chunfang twenty yuan from the antlers he had found, and Li Long and his father returned to the mountains.
• Li Long, Li Qingxia, Li Jianguo, and Tao Daqiang cut nearly a thousand poles over the next two days, then set out early to look for wild boars.

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.