Chapter Summaries

Li Long bought nearly a thousand sheep for Old Ma's Place, arranged for them to be processed, and purchased a nearby courtyard for dried-meat production. Just as he prepared to head into the mountains, Jia Tianlong arrived with his pregnant wife to pray to the jade for a son and apologize for his dealings with Sun Benchuan.

• Li Long rejected a cheap flock of sheep after spotting skin disease, then bought two healthy herds and later purchased another 382 young, thin sheep.
• Li Long and his companions drove the livestock back to Old Ma's Place, where Yang Laoliu and Uncle Lao Luo divided the sheep into two herds and hired women to shear them and comb out cashmere.
• Li Long inspected two courtyards listed by the Housing Management Office and bought the older, larger one to use for dried-meat production.
• Li Long hired bricklayers to alter the new courtyard and had Sister Yang oversee the work, then planned to head into the mountains.
• Jia Tianlong arrived with his pregnant wife and child to pay respects to the jade, apologize for Sun Benchuan's deception, and pray that his second child would be a boy.
• Jia Tianlong gave Li Long ginseng, rhinoceros horn, patent medicine, and medicinal liquor as offerings, leaving Li Long embarrassed about finding a return gift.

Li Long arranged spring road repairs after learning the mountain roads had mostly dried, then visited the winter camp and inspected the pastoralists’ new hides and animal remains. He confirmed that work would begin the next day and coordinated the Supply and Marketing Cooperative’s visit for the day after.

• Jia Tianlong and his wife visited to worship Li Long’s jade, and Mingming and Haohao guessed that their baby would be a boy before receiving money from Jia.
• Li Long met Meng Hai, agreed to hire the team to repair washed-out road sections, and told him to begin preparing the workers.
• Li Long drove into the mountains, where he found the roads dry and met pastoralists gathering to bathe their sheep at Harimu Winter Camp.
• Harimu showed Li Long wolf pelts, deer antlers, and a Siberian ibex skull, while pastoralists shared news about recent encounters with wolves and wild boars.
• Li Long discussed the road repairs with Jade Mountain River and Harimu, then returned to the Supply and Marketing Cooperative to arrange for its workers to join the project the day after tomorrow.
• Li Xiangqian asked for the ibex skull, and Li Long handed it over before preparing to organize wages and meals for the roadwork.

Li Long accompanied Li Xiangqian, Ma Xiaoyan, and Supply and Marketing Cooperative staff into the mountains to repair flood-damaged sections of the road. Workers discovered two pieces of jade and a piece of agate along the way, and the chapter ended as everyone stopped for lunch.

• Li Long drove Li Xiangqian and Ma Xiaoyan into the mountains, where they joined Meng Hai and the villagers repairing the washed-out road.
• Li Xiangqian organized the cooperative staff to help mend the road and reinforce its edge with large rocks.
• Li Fengxia found a piece of Ma River jade in the shallows, and Li Long identified it and stored it in his vehicle.
• Li Long and Li Xiangqian arranged a makeshift water-crossing road surface, where another worker uncovered a smaller, higher-quality piece of jade.
• The workers continued repairing the road, and a villager found a large piece of agate before Li Xiangqian called everyone to wash up and eat lunch.

Li Long oversaw road construction, arranged another large meat delivery, and took Mingming and Haohao into the mountains. The chapter ended when Haohao found a good jade pebble and Mingming spotted a herd of wild boar piglets, several of which were pushed into the river.

• Meng Hai warned the villagers not to neglect roadwork to search for jade, while Li Long explained that jade was common in the region but finding it was a matter of luck.
• The cooperative workers and villagers built more than a kilometer of road, and Li Xiangqian turned away newcomers who had signed up only after hearing that people had found jade.
• Li Long paid Meng Hai and Harimu, then later ordered Ke Youmu to deliver boned meat from two hundred sheep and twenty cattle within a week.
• Li Long brought Mingming and Haohao to the worksite and let them play along the riverbank, where Haohao uncovered a fine jade pebble.
• Mingming spotted seven or eight wild boar piglets across the river, and several were pushed into the water when the herd panicked.

Li Long protected Mingming and Haohao when a family of wild boars came to the river, then caught seven piglets and helped recover a half-grown boar. He brought the children and piglets home, where he decided to keep the piglets temporarily and promised to take the boys into the mountains again.

• Li Long scared off two adult sows with a gunshot while their piglets fell into the river, then caught seven piglets as Mingming and Haohao watched and helped.
• Hu Xinjun and Liu Zhigang searched the opposite bank and found the half-grown boar Li Long had shot.
• Li Long led the children back to the worksite, where the villagers cooked the boar and Meng Hai discussed looking for jade in the gully.
• Li Long waited for Mingming and Haohao to wake, packed the piglets into sacks, and drove home after agreeing to take the boys back the next day.
• Li Long washed and changed the muddy children, then put the hungry piglets in the greenhouse and planned to decide whether to keep them or take them to Old Ma's Place.

Li Long built his partnership with Ke Youmu while roadwork advanced and herders moved camp, then resumed buying hides and medicinal herbs from the Forestry Team. The chapter ended with Li Long returning to the Fourth Team to find his brother Li Jianguo thriving as the village’s most sought-after tractor operator.

• Ke Youmu delivered five hundred kilograms of beef and mutton and cattle and sheep offal, then helped cook the offal for Li Long and his family.
• Gu Boyuan scolded Li Long for taking Mingming and Haohao into the mountains, so Li Long kept the children near the roadwork site in the following days.
• Harimu, Jade Mountain River, and the other herders moved camp using the newly extended road to haul supplies, while spring roadwork ended as farmers returned to their fields.
• Bolati gave Li Long the first batch of fritillaria and asked him to visit the Forestry Team to buy its stored hides and bring supplies.
• Li Long returned to the Purchasing Station and saw that fritillaria buying had begun early, while Chen Hongjun worried about cash flow at his own station.
• Li Long visited the Fourth Team and learned that Li Jianguo had taken most of the local tractor-plowing and sowing work from Wang the Miser.

Li Long visited his family’s fields, then arranged a truck to collect a large batch of goods from Aili’s Forestry Team for thirty-eight thousand yuan. Back at the Purchasing Station, he began organizing the supplies and considered reopening the Wooden Cabin barter point during fritillaria season.

• Li Long found Li Jianguo busy sowing the Team’s fields and delivered him dinner, then heard about the growing interest in reclaiming farmland.
• Li Long returned to the County Seat with fish from Li Qingxia and, finding no rental trucks at the Transport Company, borrowed one from the Supply and Marketing Cooperative.
• Aili welcomed Li Long at the Forestry Team warehouse, where Li Long bought pelts, medicinal materials, deer antlers, and other goods for thirty-eight thousand yuan.
• Li Long declined Aili’s invitation to drink, then reflected on their friendship as he drove the goods back to the Purchasing Station.
• Li Long assigned Liang Shuangcheng to sort the new supplies and discussed steamed alfalfa with Sister Yang, while considering reopening the Wooden Cabin barter point for fritillaria season.

Wu Bensheng and his nephew Wu Donghai reached Li Long’s reopened Small Wooden Cabin after wolves destroyed their supplies, and traded fritillaria for food and equipment. As Li Long drank with Bolati, Bolati told him he was too focused on making money, leaving Li Long to consider whether he was right.

• Wu Bensheng took Wu Donghai into the mountains to gather fritillaria, and wolves later ruined their supplies.
• Wu Bensheng persuaded Wu Donghai to seek supplies at the Small Wooden Cabin instead of leaving the mountains.
• Wu Bensheng and Wu Donghai found Li Long’s exchange post open, where Bolati had brought fritillaria confiscated at the Mountain Pass.
• Li Long traded the pair food and other supplies for twenty kilograms of fritillaria and let them carry the rest away.
• Li Long settled Mingming and Haohao with food, then shared liquor and offal with Bolati.
• Bolati told Li Long that he did not live happily because he thought only about making money, and Li Long began to reflect on it.

Li Long reflected on Bolati’s carefree outlook while sharing a meal and drinks with him at the mountain cabin. After Bolati fell asleep outside, Li Long helped the injured herb gatherer Mo Linsheng with food, medicine, and borrowed tools, and Mo Linsheng left promising to repay him.

• Bolati told Li Long that people should spend their earnings enjoying life instead of worrying about the future, and Li Long explained that he still had to raise Mingming and Haohao.
• Bolati described his past as a pastoralist and his current work as a forest ranger, then discussed the planned Forestry Bureau with Li Long.
• Li Long stopped Bolati from drinking more, and Bolati slept on a pad outside while Li Long kept watch nearby.
• An injured and hungry Mo Linsheng arrived and told Li Long that robbers had stolen his fritillaria, tools, and supplies.
• Li Long gave Mo Linsheng food and aspirin, then lent him a shovel, rubber shoes, a sack, and matches so he could return to gathering herbs.

Li Long bartered for fritillaria, rescued Mo Linsheng from hunger, and took his children into the mountains to build a shelter. Mo Linsheng returned with fritillaria and injuries after fighting off the men who tried to rob him, just as Bolati arrived at the Wooden Cabin.

• Bolati woke at the Wooden Cabin, promised to bring Li Long more fritillaria, and rode away after Mingming and Haohao asked to ride horses.
• Mo Linsheng dug fritillaria, found shelter for the night, and used a fire to frighten off nearby wolves.
• Li Long returned to town with a large haul of fritillaria, then discussed Mo Linsheng's plight and the children's planned horse ride with Gu Boyuan and Gu Xiaoxia.
• Li Long took Mingming and Haohao back to the mountains, where they helped him gather wood and build a shelter frame at the Wooden Cabin.
• Mo Linsheng arrived with a sack of fritillaria and wounds, explaining that he had fought off two men who tried to rob him and asking Li Long for more food on credit.
• Bolati arrived at the Wooden Cabin as Li Long offered Mo Linsheng Baiyao for his injuries.

Li Long traded supplies and cash for the mountain diggers’ Fritillaria while building a shelter at the Small Wooden Cabin with Mingming and Haohao nearby. Over the following days, the harvest poured in, and Li Long expected Jia Tianlong to arrive soon to haul it away.

• Bolati brought two sacks of Fritillaria to Li Long, let Mingming and Haohao ride his horse, and shared a meal with Li Long and Mo Linsheng.
• Li Long gave Mo Linsheng work clothes and steamed buns in exchange for Fritillaria, and Mo Linsheng arranged to sell his future harvest directly to Li Long.
• Bolati exchanged his Fritillaria for liquor and food, then left; Li Long finished the shelter while the boys slept and drove home with more than two hundred kilos of Fritillaria.
• A man secretly used the old grass shelter as a place to sleep, while Mo Linsheng dried his Fritillaria and continued digging cautiously.
• Over the next few days, Li Long bought several thousand yuan’s worth of fresh Fritillaria each day as diggers increasingly traded their harvest for cash.
• Li Long anticipated Jia Tianlong’s arrival to collect the growing stockpile, and Chen Hongjun was pleased that running a Purchasing Station had proved profitable.

Chen Hongjun sold his first large batch of fritillaria to Jia Tianlong and earned enough to feel confident about his new purchasing business. Jia Tianlong then bought Li Long’s much larger stock, while Chen Hongjun celebrated his family’s first taste of the profits at home.

• Chen Hongjun worried that his cash was running low until Jia Tianlong arrived and agreed to buy all three hundred-odd kilograms of his fritillaria at first-grade prices.
• Jia Tianlong paid Chen Hongjun over 41,300 yuan and explained that Li Long’s purchasing station had built a far wider reputation and could buy several tonnes of fritillaria.
• Jia Tianlong bought nearly two tonnes of Li Long’s dried fritillaria and other medicinal goods for over 278,000 yuan, then gratefully accepted Li Long’s carved jade baby as a gift for his pregnant wife.
• After Jia Tianlong left, Li Long kept 50,000 yuan as working capital and deposited the rest, while Chen Hongjun set aside his proceeds and planned to calculate their shares after the season.
• Chen Hongjun bought lamb ribs and braised meat for his family, and his wife was astonished when he showed her the money he had earned.

Li Long continued supplying mountain foragers with food and goods in exchange for fritillaria, then reluctantly agreed to present awards at a county commendation ceremony. When he returned to the mountain cabin, he found the same two foragers struggling to sell fritillaria, and their argument revealed they were not a couple.

• Li Long took Mingming and Haohao to the Wooden Cabin, where they gathered mushrooms and he sorted out the poisonous ones.
• A young man and woman came to trade fritillaria, and Li Long offered higher prices for clean bulbs, prompting them to wash their harvest.
• Mo Linsheng explained that foragers were running low on supplies and trading so they could keep digging fritillaria during its peak season.
• The Ethnic and Religious Affairs Commission asked Li Long to present awards and give a report; he agreed to present the awards but declined the report.
• Li Long returned to the cabin and found the same pair trading again; the woman's fritillaria was clean, while much of the man's had grown moldy.
• The woman traded her harvest for money and supplies, the man salvaged most of his after washing it, and they argued as they left.

Li Long bought large quantities of fritillaria at his mountain cabin as forest patrols made it risky for gatherers to carry their harvest out, and his daily purchases exceeded those of the county purchasing station. After Mo Linsheng sold him a large load of dried fritillaria, Li Long’s stock grew to several tons, while Chen Hongjun faced reduced supplies and a new competitor in Beiting.

• A burly gatherer sold Li Long two sacks of fritillaria for cash, then left the mountains, and a rush of other sellers brought Li Long’s purchases to nearly four hundred kilos that morning.
• Li Long told Gu Xiaoxia that his mountain cabin had bought more fritillaria than the purchasing station, and she warned him to be careful; he drove back into the mountains with Mingming and Haohao the next day.
• Bolati sold Li Long three sacks of fritillaria for a thousand yuan, then added branches to reinforce the cabin’s canopy.
• Mo Linsheng sold Li Long sixty kilos of dried fritillaria for 3,600 yuan and took rice, flour, and eggs; he said he had robbed the dried goods from two men who tried to rob him.
• Li Long accumulated over three tons of dried fritillaria and called Jia Tianlong to collect it, while Chen Hongjun received fewer goods and learned that a former colleague had opened another purchasing station in Beiting.

Chen Hongjun refused Qin Liguo’s offer to buy adulterated fritillaria, and Qin’s attempt to sell the goods elsewhere failed. Qin was left with no buyer after the Stone City purchasing station rejected him.

• Qin Liguo opened a purchasing station with higher advertised prices, but resellers returned to Chen Hongjun after Qin deducted money for quality and packaging.
• Qin asked Chen Hongjun to buy his fritillaria below Chen’s purchase price, but Chen refused after suspecting the goods were problematic.
• Qin took his stock to Li Long’s purchasing station, where Gu Boyuan spotted beans mixed into the fritillaria and offered only sixty yuan per kilogram.
• Qin declined to sell to Gu Boyuan and tried to sell the goods in Stone City, but the state-run buyer rejected them.
• Gu Boyuan explained to Liang Shuangcheng how to sift out adulterants and sort the remaining fritillaria.

Li Long defended the Small Wooden Cabin when two armed men tried to force him to raise his price for their stolen fritillaria. He restrained them, heard a woman’s plea for help, and prepared to hand the men over to the Forestry Team while letting the woman leave.

• Li Long bought fritillaria from several diggers and prepared lunch while keeping Mingming and Haohao inside the cabin when strangers arrived.
• A woman and two men brought dirty, damp fritillaria, and the younger man demanded an inflated price and threatened Li Long with a dagger.
• Li Long knocked both men down with a fire poker and disarmed them after they attacked him with knives.
• The woman said the men had held her captive and forced her to work, and Li Long ordered her to tie them up.
• Li Long paid the woman for the fritillaria she had dug and said he would turn the men over to the Forestry Team; she offered to retrieve her belongings and bring the men’s things back to him.

Li Long helped Bolati take two herb diggers who had robbed and abducted Tang Ling to the Forestry Team, then found valuables among their belongings. The next day, Team Leader Aili let Li Long buy the team’s fritillaria at a favorable price and connected him with a neighboring Forestry Team that also needed a buyer.

• Li Long told Bolati that two herb diggers had tried to rob him, and Bolati prepared to take them and Tang Ling to the Forestry Team for questioning.
• Li Long paid Bolati for his fritillaria, and Bolati left with Tang Ling and the bound men.
• Li Long found cash, silver dollars, jade, gold, and other valuables in the men’s bags and kept them in his vehicle in case they served as evidence.
• Li Long returned to the county seat, dried the purchased fritillaria, and arranged to rent a truck for the next day.
• Team Leader Aili let Li Long buy more than two tonnes of fritillaria for the price of two tonnes after they drank together.
• Team Leader Aili introduced Li Long by telephone to the leader of the Forestry Team in Hu County, who wanted Li Long to buy fritillaria and other goods.

Mo Linsheng stayed at Li Long’s shelter while injured, buying fritillaria from other gatherers as he waited for Li Long to return. Meanwhile, Li Long bought large quantities of herbs, hides, and other goods from Abulaiti, who offered him a storeroom full of old objects; Li Long wondered whether Abulaiti had mistaken him for a junk collector.

• Team Leader Aili told Li Long that the two fugitives had been handed over to the police and the woman had left.
• Mo Linsheng waited at Li Long’s shelter and bought fritillaria from Wu Bensheng, his nephew, and another gatherer.
• Mo Linsheng spent the night by a fire at the shelter, feeling safer than in his earth hole despite nearby wolves.
• Li Long met Abulaiti and agreed to buy fritillaria, hides, mushrooms, medicinal herbs, and deer antlers at prices higher than the previous buyer had offered.
• Abulaiti offered Li Long the old objects in his final storeroom, prompting Li Long to wonder if he had been taken for a junk collector.

Li Long bought a large haul of goods from Abulaiti’s forestry team, then cleaned and stored antiques he had selected from their discard pile. Mo Linsheng, left waiting at the wooden cabin with more than a hundred kilograms of Fritillaria and almost no food, finally saw Li Long return, and began explaining how he had acquired it.

• Li Long paid Abulaiti over eighty-one thousand yuan for medicinal materials and other goods, then selected coins, bronze objects, beads, jade, and a gemstone-set gold mask from the storeroom’s discarded items.
• Abulaiti hosted Li Long and his companions for lunch, and the forestry team’s cadres divided the proceeds after Li Long drove back to the county seat with the purchased goods.
• Li Long registered the new stock at the purchasing station, returned to the Big Courtyard, and cleaned the beads, plaques, and gold mask while leaving the coins and bronze objects stored for later.
• Mo Linsheng waited at the wooden cabin as he bought Fritillaria from several people, accumulating over a hundred kilograms while running nearly out of food.
• Li Long drove into the mountains the next morning and found Mo Linsheng weak and hungry beside sacks and drying Fritillaria; he gave him steamed buns, and Mo Linsheng began recounting what had happened.

Li Long expanded his fritillaria and licorice trades, arranged a dried-meat order for the Beijing Office of the Autonomous Region Ethnic Affairs Commission, and agreed to scale up production for Huang Lei. He ended with over four tons of fritillaria in storage and Jia Tianlong arriving to collect goods.

• Li Long bought over two hundred kilograms of fritillaria from Mo Linsheng and acquired nearly five hundred kilograms in total that day, but Mo Linsheng declined his offer to trade for him at the Wooden Cabin.
• Li Long agreed to supply two hundred kilograms of Premium Grade One fritillaria and buy three tons of licorice from the county Medicinal Materials Company as a favor for Li Xiangqian.
• Director Dai ordered five hundred kilograms of Li Long's dried meat for the Beijing Office of the Autonomous Region Ethnic Affairs Commission, and Li Long arranged for Sister Yang to hire more workers and prepare the shipment.
• Li Long sent Mingming and Haohao to the Fourth Team preschool while Sister Yang made dried meat, then mailed the first batch to the Beijing Office.
• Huang Lei asked to double his dried-meat shipments to at least two tons per month, and Li Long agreed to expand production and order drying machinery.
• Li Long found over four tons of fritillaria, licorice, and deer antlers filling his warehouse, so he urged Jia Tianlong to come collect them.