Chapter Summaries

Li Long sent Li Qingxia back to Wu City with a sleeper ticket and liquor for Li Anmin’s mother, then learned that his big brooms had helped persuade regional leaders to order local brooms. He accepted an order for eight thousand brooms and began planning how to meet the forty-day deadline.

• Li Long told Li Qingxia to give Li Anmin’s mother infused liquor for her back and leg pain, and Li Qingxia agreed to take it home.
• Li Long drove Li Qingxia and Li Jianguo to Wu City, bought his father a lower-berth ticket and provisions, and saw him onto the train.
• Li Long learned from Li Xiangqian that the cooperative had ordered eight thousand big brooms at five yuan each, with delivery due in forty days.
• Li Xiangqian told Li Long that a broom-quality test had convinced regional leaders to choose local achnatherum splendens brooms over cheaper bamboo ones.
• Li Long decided to expand production beyond the Fourth Team, involve Li Jianguo, and personally inspect the brooms for quality.

Li Long secured a larger order for Achnatherum splendens brooms and explained that his strict quality control had protected the work from being discontinued. After announcing the higher-paying job, he left the village team scrambling to gather grass and prepare handles.

• Director Wei praised Li Long for improving broom quality and offered to help him join the permanent staff, but Li Long declined.
• Li Long returned to the Big Courtyard, then visited Li Jianguo's family and told them the broom-making work had arrived; he advised Li Jianguo to cut broom handles.
• Li Long told Lu Yingming and Xu Haijun that the order paid 3.5 yuan per broom, and explained that reliable quality had persuaded Autonomous Region leaders to continue and expand the work.
• Li Long said the local supply of Jiji grass would not suffice and that he would assign some work to other villages and teams.
• Li Long announced the broom order over the village loudspeaker, prompting Xu Chengjun and other villagers to hurry out to cut Jiji grass and gather materials.

Li Long planned to expand the livestock operation at Old Ma's Place and arranged more big-broom work for nearby teams. He traveled to Qingshui River to recruit workers and told Meng Hai that this year's order would be larger and better paid.

• Li Long inspected the land around Old Ma's Place and discussed expanding the pens with Uncle Lao Luo, who offered to recruit other five-guarantee households to help raise cattle and sheep.
• Li Long gave Uncle Lao Luo money to buy wheat straw for feed and returned home to tell Gu Xiaoxia about his livestock plans and the big-broom work.
• Li Long drove to Qingshui River the next morning and visited Meng Hai, who asked whether the village would receive big-broom work again.
• Li Long told Meng Hai that the big-broom order was larger than last year's and paid at a higher rate.

Li Long arranged big-broom work for the Fourth Team and set up regular sugar-residue deliveries to support his sister Li Xia and Uncle Lao Luo. After making the first deliveries, he returned to the Big Courtyard for dinner.

• Li Long and Meng Hai told He Yuqing that the big-broom assignment had arrived, and He Yuqing announced the work to the Team.
• Li Long warned He Yuqing and Meng Hai that the brooms had to meet strict quality standards, so they planned to explain the requirements to households.
• Li Long visited Li Xia, learned that she was raising two piglets, and promised to bring her ten sacks of sugar residue for feed.
• Li Long paid Song Ming to prepare ten sacks and arranged for weekly sugar-residue deliveries, then helped unload the first sacks at Li Xia's home and the remaining residue at Uncle Lao Luo's place.
• Li Long returned to the Big Courtyard, where Sister Yang had saved him dinner.

Li Qingxia returned from Northern Xinjiang to Lilou, where he reconnected with relatives and prepared to help revise the Li Family genealogy. He learned that their ancestors had once taken turns guarding a lost Ding and considered searching for old objects during his stay.

• Li Qingxia arrived in the county seat, improvised Northern Xinjiang mixed noodles at a local eatery, and met Li Junhai while waiting for the genealogy visitors.
• Li Qingxia traveled to Lilou and gave Li Anmin tiger bone alcohol for his mother’s aching back and legs.
• Li Qingxia told Li Anmin how their ancestors had found a Ding and lost it before their branch’s turn to keep it.
• Li Qingxia returned to his house, where Li Junfeng had already helped clear the courtyard, and began airing his quilt and putting the home in order.

Li Long organized broom collection and quality checks while Li Jianguo and five men traveled into the mountains to cut poles. Zhang Qiang tried to sell Li Long old brooms, but Li Long refused, insisting that protecting the Fourth Team’s reputation mattered more than taking them off Zhang Qiang’s hands.

• Li Jianguo and five companions arrived at the mountain cabin, confronted two men who had broken in, and made them clean the cabin before sending them away.
• Li Long collected 301 accepted brooms from Qingshui River and paid the makers on the spot.
• Li Long announced afternoon broom collection at the Li family courtyard, inspected Xu Chengjun’s two brooms, and paid him seven yuan.
• Zhang Qiang brought old, misshapen brooms to Li Long, who rejected them as brittle and unsuitable.
• Zhang Qiang pleaded and threatened to kneel, but Li Long refused, explaining that accepting bad brooms could ruin the team’s future work.

Li Qingxia tried to secure a place for the women in his family in the Li genealogy while preparing to hand the clan leadership to Li Anmin. Meanwhile, Li Long expanded his broom business in Northern Xinjiang, and Li Qingxia learned the genealogy additions were ready for review.

• Li Qingxia told villagers about Northern Xinjiang’s opportunities and hardships, then urged Li Anmin to take over as clan head because his family planned to remain in Northern Xinjiang.
• Li Qingxia gave Li Anmin a list of his descendants and asked him to record the women’s names in the genealogy, suggesting they conceal the change if anyone objected; Li Anmin took the list to consider.
• Li Anmin thanked Li Qingxia for the medicinal liquor that had helped his mother and asked about Li Long, learning that Li Long had received a regional Ethnic Unity Advanced Individual award and had twin sons.
• Li Long rejected substandard big brooms and cracked handles while buying and delivering brooms, and the Supply and Marketing Cooperative found no defects in the first two thousand he supplied.
• Li Qingxia learned that representatives of the Li Family branches had gathered and that the genealogy additions were ready for review.

After the broom order earned Li Long a substantial profit, he helped his eldest brother’s family harvest and sell their watermelon seeds while warning that the market would soon become oversupplied. The Li family’s seeds sold quickly for nearly ten thousand yuan, and the chapter leaves farmers debating what cash crops to plant next year as many ignored warnings against expanding watermelon acreage.

• Li Long’s team finished making eight thousand big brooms to standard, earning Li Long a net profit of twelve thousand yuan and praise from the Prefectural Federation of Supply and Marketing Cooperatives.
• As the watermelon harvest began, Li Long warned Li Jianguo that rising production would saturate the market and drive seed prices down, and they discussed alternatives such as cotton, peppers, and scallions.
• Li Long helped Li Jianguo’s family crush watermelons and harvest seeds for ten days, after which the family had produced more than thirty-three hundred kilos of seeds from twenty mu.
• Buyers came to purchase seeds for planting, and Li Long and Li Jianguo advised other growers to accept reasonable offers; the Li family sold its seeds for three yuan per kilo and earned almost ten thousand yuan.
• Liang Wenyu said he planned to grow thirty mu of watermelons next year, but Li Jianguo warned him that widespread planting would glut the market, while some other farmers dismissed the same warning.
• After the watermelon harvest, Li Jianguo told Li Long to stop coming back to help with other crops and take care of his family, as Li Qingxia was due home soon.

Li Long and his neighbors celebrated the coming Mid-Autumn Festival while discussing how the watermelon-seed market would collapse after a surge in planting. He proposed flower sunflowers and peanuts as next year’s crops, and the story ended with the families celebrating the festival in separate gatherings.

• Tao Daqiang, Xie Yundong, Jia Weidong, and Liang Dacheng visited Li Guo's Home with holiday gifts and thanked the Li brothers for helping them profit from watermelons.
• Li Long and the others discussed how oversupply would drive down watermelon-seed prices and leave growers needing another profitable crop.
• Li Long, Tao Daqiang, and Liang Dacheng cast nets at Little Haizi and returned with fish for the holiday meal.
• Li Long told Li Jianguo that they should consider growing flower sunflowers or peanuts next year, and Li Jianguo weighed the prospects of finding buyers.
• Li Long explained his crop ideas to Gu Xiaoxia on their drive back to the Big Courtyard, where the family prepared for the Mid-Autumn Festival.
• Gu Boyuan celebrated at the Big Courtyard while Li Jianguo's family celebrated separately, and the festival ended with the families enjoying better holiday meals.

Li Long heard that a gravel road would be built to the Fourth Team and a motorized well installed the following year, then brought home two gazelles from Meng Hai. At Li Jianguo’s house, the family learned that Yang Yuhong had developed a fever after handling a human skull at Reed Gully, while Li Juan had refused to touch it.

• Li Long learned from Li Jianguo that road construction would begin at the Fourth Team and that a motorized well was planned for the following year.
• Meng Hai brought Li Long two freshly dressed Mongolian gazelles, and Li Long prepared one to share with his eldest brother and Uncle Lao Luo.
• Li Long saw Yang Yuhong feverish at Li Jianguo’s house and learned she had visited Reed Gully the previous day.
• Li Juan explained that Yang Yuhong had taken a tooth from a human skull and hidden the skull at home, while Li Juan had refused to touch it.
• Liang Yuemei retrieved the skull and had it buried, after which Yang Yuhong began to feel better.
• Li Long passed Reed Gully on his way home and noticed bones and a jar holding red willow beside the road.

Li Long secured thirty mu beside Old Ma's Place for livestock pens and signed a thirty-year lease for Little Haizi, with the Fourth Team waiving rent for the first ten years to repay his help. He left to arrange work on the land, while Xu Chengjun told Xu Haijun to warn their relatives against planting watermelons next year, a decision Xu Haijun doubted.

• Li Juan told Li Long that Yang Yuhong's mother had forbidden Yang Yuhong from playing with her, and Li Juan focused on her studies and her goal of attending senior high and university.
• Li Long asked Xu Chengjun for land beside Old Ma's Place to expand his livestock operation, and Xu Chengjun allocated him thirty mu in exchange for ten kilos of meat per household at New Year.
• Li Long accepted the team's prepared thirty-year lease for Little Haizi, and Xu Chengjun waived rent for the first ten years in recognition of Li Long's contributions to the team.
• Li Long told Xu Chengjun that he would not plant watermelons next year because he expected the seed market to collapse, then left to arrange earthmoving for the new land.
• Xu Chengjun sent Xu Haijun to tell their relatives not to plant watermelons next year, but Xu Haijun was unconvinced.

Li Long arranged to have five mu of saline-alkali land cleared for livestock pens and planned a larger livestock operation with Uncle Lao Luo. Ma Jinbao learned that Li Long had received land and fodder plots, but Xu Chengjun explained the scale and cost of Li Long’s plans; the chapter ended when He Yuqing and Meng Hai arrived at the Big Courtyard with a large, heavy load.

• Li Long hired Wang the Miser to scrape the saline-alkali land beside Old Ma's Place and arranged for the team's tractors to haul in sand and gravel.
• Li Long told Uncle Lao Luo that he would manage the expanding livestock farm for a higher wage and planned to plant their five mu of fodder land with alfalfa.
• Wang Dagui asked Wang the Miser to lend him money for a small tractor, but Wang the Miser urged him to keep working with the family tractor instead.
• Wang Dagui told Ma Jinbao that Li Long had received fodder land, prompting Ma Jinbao to confront Xu Chengjun about why he had not received any.
• Xu Chengjun explained that Li Long planned to raise two hundred cattle and sheep and had promised the team eight hundred yuan for the land, so Ma Jinbao gave up asking for a plot.
• He Yuqing and Meng Hai arrived at the Big Courtyard in a horse-drawn cart carrying a large, heavy item.

Meng Hai and He Yuqing brought Li Long a large piece of jade, and Li Long learned that wild boars had been damaging nearby crops. The next day he organized construction work at Old Ma's Place and slaughtered a wild boar for the workers, while Wang the Miser struggled to push the hard ground.

• Meng Hai and He Yuqing delivered a massive piece of jade to Li Long and planned to build a platform for it in his courtyard.
• He Yuqing and Meng Hai told Li Long that wild boars had damaged the corn harvest and that a herd had recently been seen near the Qin family's field.
• Li Long drove to Old Ma's Place and asked Wang the Miser to level the land for his livestock pens, then arranged for the tractor to plow his nearby plots as well.
• Xie Yundong, Tao Daqiang, Liang Dacheng, and other helpers arrived with sand and gravel, and Li Long promised them wild boar meat for their work.
• Li Long dragged a wild boar from its pen, and he and Tao Daqiang held it down while Uncle Lao Luo caught its blood.
• Wang the Miser found that the ground beneath the loose topsoil was extremely hard, making the tractor work slowly.

Li Long organized the construction of a large livestock compound beside Old Ma's Place, bringing together the team with generous meals and building supplies. After several days of collective work, the New Stable was completed to Li Long's satisfaction, with pens for sheep and cattle.

• Li Jianguo and Liang Yuemei went to Old Ma's Place after learning Li Long had started moving earth, and Li Long asked Liang Yuemei to prepare Sour Chinese Cabbage and glass noodles with pork for the workers.
• Li Jianguo and Lu Yingming hauled sand and gravel while Li Long and the others slaughtered a wild boar and prepared a feast for the workers.
• Wang Dagui suggested plowing the hard ground before bulldozing it, and Wang the Miser later slowed the work so he could keep eating Li Long's fatty pork.
• Li Long ordered fifty thousand bricks for the enclosure walls, and the team completed the foundation in just over three days before beginning the walls and livestock pens.
• The team built the New Stable with two heated pens, two open pens, troughs, and a high wall, and Li Long was extremely satisfied with the result.

Li Qingxia finished the Li and Liang family genealogies and returned to Northern Xinjiang, bringing the volumes, antiques, and flatbreads for his family. Back in Ma County, he reunited with Li Long, who was preparing to hunt wild boars, and agreed to join him on a Mongolian gazelle hunt in winter instead.

• Li Qingxia helped finalize the Li Family genealogy, confirmed Li Long’s regional commendation was genuine, and donated a thousand yuan toward printing.
• Li Qingxia obtained the Liang Family genealogy, collected his belongings from Li Anmin, and left for Northern Xinjiang without telling the Production Team.
• Li Qingxia returned to Ma County carrying both families’ genealogy volumes, old objects for Li Long, and flatbreads for his grandchildren.
• Li Long told Li Qingxia he had reclaimed saline-alkali land and planned to irrigate it before trying to plant crops.
• Meng Hai reported a wild boar herd was damaging alfalfa fields and said the Production Team’s guns had been returned to the Township Armed Forces Department.
• Li Qingxia declined to join Li Long’s upcoming wild boar hunt, saying he would rest and go with him to hunt Mongolian gazelles in winter.

Li Long returned the Liang Family genealogy and visited Qingshui River Village, where he found fresh wild boar tracks and agreed to lead a group hunt. He and four armed villagers set an ambush at dawn, and a herd of wild boars charged toward the alfalfa field as they prepared to fire.

• Li Qingxia showed Li Long and Gu Xiaoxia the updated Li Family genealogy, which included Li Long's 1983 commendation, and Li Long later delivered the sealed Liang Family genealogy to Liang Donglou.
• Li Long visited Qingshui River Village, shared a Big Plate Chicken meal with He Yuqing and Meng Hai, and examined fresh wild boar tracks near an alfalfa field.
• Meng Hai arranged guns and a hunting party for Li Long, who agreed to stay overnight and lead a dawn ambush.
• Li Long, Meng Hai, Qin Hongbing, Qiao Haiyang, and Ma Dazhuang took positions around the field and assigned their firing directions.
• A herd of wild boars burst from the southern thickets and charged toward the alfalfa as Li Long prepared to shoot.

Li Long led a night hunt that yielded eight wild boars, then divided them among the team, his family, and his household. After butchering one for lunch, he learned from Li Xiangqian that reed-bundle work had arrived in reduced quantity and that next year’s orders might disappear.

• Li Long and Meng Hai’s group shot eight wild boars, with Li Long hitting three, Meng Hai two, and the other hunters one each.
• Li Long left one boar for Meng Hai’s group, delivered five to Xu Chengjun to distribute through the team, and brought one to his eldest brother’s family.
• Li Long took a small boar back to the Big Courtyard, butchered it, and prepared its meat for a meal.
• Li Xiangqian visited Li Long with news that the cooperative had received an order for ten thousand reed bundles at sixty cents each, but the quantity had fallen sharply.
• Li Long agreed that he would still hunt Mongolian gazelles in winter.

The Fourth Team distributed wild-boar meat supplied by Li Long, then learned that Li Jianguo would manage a smaller reed-bundle order for him. After the team announced the work, Zhang Qiang leased Reed Gully, hoping to profit from the reeds next year.

• Xu Chengjun organized a lottery to distribute Li Long’s wild-boar meat among the Fourth Team’s households and explained that Li Long had also leased Little Haizi so villagers could keep fishing there.
• Xu Chengjun delivered the unclaimed portions to Li Jianguo, who passed Li Long’s share to Uncle Lao Luo.
• Li Long told Li Jianguo that the Supply and Marketing Cooperative had ordered ten thousand reed bundles and asked him to buy them at thirty-five cents each while Li Long handled transport and earned a share.
• Li Jianguo informed Xu Chengjun, who announced that villagers could begin making reed bundles under last year’s standards at the higher price.
• Zhang Qiang paid a five-hundred-yuan deposit to lease half of Reed Gully for three years, intending to profit from its reeds and compete in the bundle business.

Li Jianguo began collecting and inspecting reed bundles for Li Long’s contract, while Li Long arranged their transport and delivery to the Supply and Marketing Cooperative. After the first shipment passed inspection and earned payment, Li Long returned to the Big Courtyard, intending to spend time with his family and check on the market storefronts.

• Li Jianguo rejected reed bundles that failed his quality standards, and Chang Jianlin accepted the decision before receiving payment for his acceptable bundles.
• Li Long visited Li Xia in Stone City, told her that she and her daughter had been entered in the family genealogy, and brought her rice.
• Li Long negotiated with Song Ming to haul reed bundles from the village to the county seat, agreeing to pay him an extra ten yuan per load for fuel.
• Li Long, Song Ming, Li Jianguo, and others loaded the first truckload, which Li Long and Song Ming delivered to the Supply and Marketing Cooperative after hours.
• The warehouse keeper passed all 2,877 reed bundles in the first delivery, and Li Long collected the payment before returning to the Big Courtyard.

Li Long bought five market storefronts, giving one to Sister Yang, who began renovating it for a food business. Although she felt grateful for the security and hoped to open a shop someday, she was conflicted about leaving the peaceful life she shared with the Li family; the storefront remained closed after renovations while Li Long rented out his own units.

• Li Long bought five market storefronts and gave one to Sister Yang, who reluctantly paid him four hundred yuan toward its cost.
• Sister Yang hired workers and renovated her storefront, planning to sell food while handling the required permits and licenses.
• As demand rose after the county banned stalls from the main street, Li Long waited for better rents while Sister Yang prepared her shop.
• Sister Yang told Li Long she planned to wait until the second half of the following year to open, since she did not want to leave the children yet.
• Li Long asked Gu Xiaoxia to reassure Sister Yang that she and her daughter could stay with the family and open the shop whenever they wished.
• Sister Yang finished the renovation and locked the storefront, while Li Long rented out his remaining units for up to one hundred and twenty yuan each per year.