Chapter Summaries

Li Long and the others hauled large catches from Big Haizi and sold most of them in Wu City, while a rival group from Baitukeng arrived after hearing about their profits. After Li Long declined to fish with the others again, he learned the Beijing Office had ordered mixed lamb offal and Liu Gaolou asked for several tonnes, leaving Sister Yang with a promising new market.

• Li Long and his companions set nets and scooped fish at Big Haizi, then hauled in hundreds of kilograms over several days.
• Li Long gave Li Qiang money for a hot lunch, while Haohao took a fish outside to feed a stray cat.
• Li Long's group sold fish in Wu City alongside vendors from Baitukeng; the rival sellers were fined after refusing to pay the market fee, and Li Long's group earned about two thousand yuan each.
• Li Long told Xie Yundong he would not join another fishing trip, then learned a team member had passed their fishing news to the Baitukeng group.
• Dad told Li Long that the Ethnic Affairs Commission Beijing Office had ordered two thousand bags of Sister Yang's mixed lamb offal, while Huang Lei reported a lukewarm response from another location.
• Liu Gaolou praised the mixed lamb offal sample and asked Li Long to supply several tonnes.

Li Long’s fish-selling trip to Wu City went poorly because of competition, but Section Chief Hu bought the remaining fish for the sugar factory and purchased a Luxury Volga from Li Long. The chapter leaves Xie Yundong’s group grateful for the profitable sale as Li Long considers their next hunting trip.

• Xiao Wang demonstrated the mixed lamb offal packaging, while Li Long discussed plans for Sister Yang to inspect canning equipment during a Machinery Factory trip to Inland China.
• Xie Yundong and the others took over five tons of fish to Wu City, but competing trucks selling cheaper fish left them with most of their catch unsold.
• Li Long visited Engineer Liu and several professors, leaving Xie Yundong’s group to struggle with sales at the market.
• Li Long returned and took the unsold fish back to Ma County, where Section Chief Hu called to discuss buying a car and the sugar factory’s need for fish.
• Section Chief Hu test-drove and bought a Luxury Volga for one hundred thousand yuan, while the sugar factory bought the group’s remaining fish for two yuan per unit.
• Xie Yundong and the others gave Li Long two thousand yuan in appreciation, and Tao Daqiang said they would bring him rabbits and Gugu Chickens if they caught any.

Li Long arranged a winter slaughter at Old Ma's Place, bringing family, neighbors, and his herder friends together to eat and celebrate. The chapter ended as the slaughter got underway and Jade Mountain River's group arrived.

• Li Jianguo explained that the team planned to redistribute land to new household members every three years, and he brought home half a sheep after seeing Li Long at Old Ma's Place.
• Li Long persuaded Yang Laoliu to reduce the flock by sending away rams and bulls for slaughter, while keeping ewes that had lambed or were pregnant and several breeding rams.
• Li Long invited Jade Mountain River, Bek, Talihaal, Harimu, and others to a winter slaughter three days later, and he invited local families and children as well.
• Li Qiang earned a Three-Good Student certificate and tied for first place in his grade, then asked to bring classmates to the gathering.
• On January 14, Li Long and his family arrived at Old Ma's Place, where neighbors helped slaughter cattle and sheep and prepare food.
• Jade Mountain River and the other herders arrived as Li Long was skinning the cow, making the gathering lively.

Li Long hosted a lively winter slaughter, where villagers and Kazakh friends worked, ate, and celebrated together. After the feast, he joined a week of pig-slaughter gatherings before Little New Year preparations began.

• Jade Mountain River, Harimu, Talihaal, Bek, and their companions arrived with gifts and helped slaughter and prepare the animals at Li Long's winter feast.
• Li Qiang played with Nasen, Sasiken, Mingming, and Haohao, then welcomed his classmates and shared hot buns and meat with the children.
• Li Long and the villagers served meat and soup, shared drinks, and sent guests home safely with meat for their households.
• Jade Mountain River and Harimu admired the close-knit gathering, while Gu Boyuan and Teacher Song discussed the lively feast afterward.
• Li Long attended pig-slaughter feasts in the Fourth Team for a week, and the gatherings ended at Little New Year as families began preparing for the New Year celebrations.

On New Year’s Eve, Li Junfeng’s parents arrived in Northern Xinjiang, where Li Andong tried to secure cooperative membership and land for his son but was firmly rebuffed. As the family adjusted to life in the Fourth Team and spring preparations began, Li Andong stopped pressing the issue, while Li Long and the others prepared for the new farming season.

• Chen Xingbang and Li Xia packed up to spend New Year’s Eve with Li Xia’s family, where relatives gathered for a festive meal and Li Juan and Li Qiang set off firecrackers.
• After New Year, Li Anguo told Li Long that Li Junshan’s child had developed pneumonia during a visit to their hometown, while Li Junfeng urged his parents to come to Northern Xinjiang.
• Li Andong and Hu Yuhua arrived, saw the Li family’s prosperity, and began reconsidering whether to settle in Northern Xinjiang.
• At Li Jianguo’s welcoming meal, Li Andong asked for Li Junfeng to join the cooperative and pressed to register their household, but Li Jianguo refused to rush either decision.
• Li Junfeng confronted his father about embarrassing him, and Li Andong later promised to stop interfering; over the following days, he settled into life in the Fourth Team.
• As late February approached, Li Long and Xie Yundong loaded supplies for the cooperative’s spring planting, while Sister Yang prepared to travel with an inspection delegation.

Li Long and Sister Yang secured a large canning production line and prepared a former factory in Ma County to house it, while Sister Yang was set to manage the new business. Li Long also helped launch a drip-irrigation project and supported Li Andong as he decided to settle in the Fourth Team; the chapter ended with the equipment on its way and the factory awaiting its arrival.

• Xie Yundong told Li Long that the other cooperatives copied their agricultural purchases, and Li Long explained why their fields were unlikely to match his cooperative’s results.
• Factory Director Du confirmed Sister Yang’s trip to inspect canning equipment, and Li Long drove her to Kui City to meet the Machinery Factory group.
• Sister Yang encouraged the workshop workers and appointed Tie Lanhua temporary supervisor while she was away.
• Li Andong shared fish with Li Jianguo and said he wanted to settle in the Fourth Team, learn local farming, and arrange his household registration.
• Li Long helped Principal Yang establish the Agricultural Technical Extension School’s twenty-mu drip-irrigation field, arranging a well, pump house, and buried pipes.
• Sister Yang negotiated the purchase of a complete canning production line for 2.17 million yuan; Li Long secured a former factory in the county seat, and the equipment was shipped while renovations began.

Li Long arranged the canned food factory’s equipment, helped plan the cooperative’s cotton planting and land irrigation, and oversaw the factory’s installation and first trial products. After securing large meat supplies and training Sister Yang to operate the machinery, he left her confident that the factory could handle expanded production.

• Li Long consulted Principal Yang, Zhao Chengwu, and Bai Xuelan about cotton sowing, then visited the Fourth Team and saw Li Junfeng rebuff farmers who wanted irrigation water without paying.
• Li Long inspected the cooperative’s fields with Xie Yundong and others, where Xu Haijun was irrigating and catching fish, and Li Andong returned with fish and a dead snake.
• Sister Yang returned with technicians Wu Ming and Wan Qingshan, who installed the canned food equipment and trained her and Li Long to operate it.
• Li Long arranged trial ingredients, and Li Qingxia, Gu Xiaoxia, and relatives sampled the first batch of braised beef and approved its flavor.
• Li Long negotiated bulk supplies of beef and offal with Jade Mountain River and Ke Youmu, while Sister Yang said she could staff and manage the increased production.

Li Long helped Professor Yang and Principal Yang set up the drip-irrigation experimental field, while Sister Yang expanded production at the canned food factory. By the end of April, the cotton seedlings had emerged and the factory was producing nearly three tonnes of canned food daily.

• Liu Gaolou sampled Li Long's braised beef, agreed to buy all available canned food, and later left with canned goods and other supplies.
• Sister Yang successfully trialed canned braised pork, served it to the family, and planned a larger batch for export and local sales.
• Professor Yang and Principal Yang inspected the experimental field, and Li Long explained how to modify a hill-drop seeder to lay drip-irrigation tape beneath plastic mulch.
• Li Long and the school staff tested the modified seeder, adjusted the tape until its holes aligned with the sowing holes, and prepared to plant the experimental plots.
• Yang Yongqiang and Xu Haijun held their weddings, then Li Long helped oversee spring sowing at the cooperative and experimental field.
• Strong winds tested the fields' mulch, but the experimental plot held firm; after rain, the cotton seedlings emerged, and Sister Yang reported that canned-food output had reached nearly three tonnes a day.

Li Long helped Harimu prepare for the summer migration, arranged a canal contract for Meng Hai’s construction company, and sold a car at the Purchasing Station. After rejecting a suspicious dried-meat buyer, he learned that similar merchants had scammed traders nearby, while the cotton drip-irrigation trials showed promising results.

• Li Long visited Harimu’s new compound and helped load supplies for the trip to the Summer Pasture, where Harimu planned to set up the yurt before bringing up the livestock.
• Li Long found Meng Hai working on a factory workshop and accompanied him to the Water Conservancy Bureau, where Yang Bo offered Meng Hai’s company two canal projects that required advance funding.
• Li Long bought fritillaria at the Purchasing Station’s unchanged prices and sold a Volga to Tian Fengxiang, a clothing merchant.
• Sister Yang and Tie Lanhua told Li Long that a southern merchant wanted dried meat on credit; Li Long recognized his documents as fake and ordered them to demand payment before delivery.
• Sister Yang reported that a hide trader had been swindled by a similar scheme, and Li Long advised the staff to follow a money-first, goods-second policy.
• Li Long visited the cotton trial fields, where Principal Yang saw that drip-irrigated cotton was growing better, while news arrived of another similar scam in Stone City.

Li Long brought a fierce fawn from the mountains to Old Ma's Place and discovered that the shrimp he had released were thriving in Little Haizi. After gathering shrimp, fish, river snails, and a crab from the irrigation canals, he returned to the Fourth Team, where his family prepared a feast.

• Li Long bought a half-grown red deer fawn from Bolati, then moved it from the Big Courtyard to the deer pen at Old Ma's Place after it knocked over the Kid Kids.
• Li Long discussed hiring night security guards for the Canned Food Factory with Sister Yang and visited the cattle and sheep pen, where he saw the growing herds of deer and wild boars.
• Li Andong brought shrimp he had caught in an irrigation canal, and Li Long cooked shrimp with chives for his family and Sister Yang.
• After taking Mingming and Haohao to kindergarten, Li Long made shrimp traps and searched Little Haizi and the canals, catching shrimp, fish, river snails, and a crab.
• Li Long brought his catch to the Fourth Team, where Li Jianguo, Du Chunfang, Li Junfeng, and the relatives helped clean it and began preparing a shared meal.

Li Long supplied canned meat to Han Fang and Li Juan for their school meals, brought provisions to Meng Hai’s construction crew, and tested whether canned beef could be traded for Fritillaria. After catching crabs at Little Haizi, he left a case of beef with Bolati to trade and considered building another cabin at Hot Spring Ravine.

• Li Andong brought shrimp to Li Long’s courtyard, where the children watched the shrimp and river snails and tasted spicy snails at dinner.
• Li Juan made Li Qiang stay home to study for his high school entrance exam, while Sister Yang and Han Fang discussed the poor school meals and Han Fang’s allowance.
• Li Long gave canned food to Han Fang and Li Juan, then delivered two cases to Meng Hai’s construction crew and discussed a future road contract.
• Li Long caught more than twenty crabs at Little Haizi, though he found them in only one shallow stretch, and the children ate them the next morning.
• Li Long bought Bolati’s two sacks of Fritillaria for 120 yuan and left him a case of canned beef to trade at two cans per kilo of fresh Fritillaria.
• Li Long drove past Hot Spring Ravine and considered clearing land there to build another wooden cabin.

Li Long rescued a fritillaria digger from two robbers, expanded his workforce by hiring fourteen people, and received a 20,000-yuan profit distribution from Jade Mountain River. The chapter left Jade Mountain River’s livestock business growing across Northern Xinjiang and Li Long’s enterprises better staffed.

• Li Long traded canned food for fritillaria and a Bronze Incense Burner from Hu Mingfei, then told him where he could exchange herbs for supplies.
• Li Long heard Hu Mingfei calling for help, caught two robbers at gunpoint, and brought them and their sacks to the Forestry Police Station, where officers discovered the older robber had a murder on his record.
• Li Long visited Harimu’s pasture, brought canned beef, received two Little Roe Deer, and learned that Jade Mountain River had taken workers down from the mountains.
• Li Long interviewed applicants and hired fourteen people for the canned food factory, purchasing station, and dried meat workshop, with Sister Yang and the station’s managers overseeing their work.
• Jade Mountain River told Li Long his livestock business was attracting sellers from across Northern Xinjiang and distributed 20,000 yuan of profit to him.

Li Long delivered canned food to his contacts in Beiting and Wu City, bought selected jade from Yusufu, and was interviewed by writer Mo Ye about the mountain road he had helped build. The next day, Li Long returned to the Agricultural Technical Extension School and saw that the drip-irrigated cotton was growing better than the conventionally watered crop.

• Deputy Chief Zhao Tianhe told Li Long that one of the robbers he had turned over was a murderer, and Li Long reassured Dad, Li Qingxia, that he would keep carrying his gun in the mountains.
• Li Long delivered canned braised beef to Director Qian, Director Wei, Professor Wu, and Engineer Liu, then bought fine jade from Yusufu at the Railway Station.
• Professor Luo told Li Long that writer Mo Ye would come to Ma County to interview him about building the mountain road, and Li Long brought canned food to Professor Yang at the Agricultural Technical Extension School.
• Mo Ye interviewed Li Long about the road and his business, accepted Li Long's candid account of how the road was funded, and took detailed notes for a book.
• Li Long went with Professor Yang to inspect the drip-irrigation experimental field, where they saw that its cotton plants were taller, sturdier, and darker green than those in the conventional plot.

Li Long turned down a chance to attend the Asian Games opening ceremony so he could focus on the drip-irrigation cotton experiment, then expanded his trading and canned-food businesses. By June, he showed Cooperative members the thriving cotton field and discussed converting their land to drip irrigation once costs fell.

• Li Long declined the Sports Commission’s offer to nominate him for the Asian Games opening ceremony because September would be a busy period for the cotton experiment.
• Professor Yang told Li Long about the national water-saving irrigation and yield-improvement program, giving him hope that the field could lead to future demonstration projects.
• Liu Gaolou arrived with hides, antelope horns, and eight nearly new cars, then bought fifty tons each of canned food and white sugar for export.
• Li Long continued managing his businesses, took his family to Wu City for Children’s Day, and later sold nearly ten tons of cleaned fritillaria to Jia Tianlong for 1.7 million yuan.
• Li Long brought Cooperative members to inspect the drip-irrigated cotton field, and they saw its plants growing far more vigorously than the Cooperative’s cotton.
• Xie Yundong asked about adopting drip irrigation for the Cooperative, and Li Long said they could do so once equipment costs came down.

Li Juan finished high school and took the college entrance exams, while Li Long helped with cotton work and later blasted fish with his family and neighbors. When Li Long returned home on August 4, Li Juan spotted her teachers and class monitor waiting outside, leaving their reason for visiting unresolved.

• Li Juan declined Wang Zhongping’s invitation to roller-skate, went home with Li Long, and said she hoped to study at People's Congress or Agricultural University.
• Li Long bought watermelons for the workers topping cotton, then drove Li Juan to Beiting for her exams; afterward, she estimated that she had scored 630.
• Li Qiang told Li Long that flooding had swept away fishing nets at East Big Ditch, and Li Long took him and Li Juan to watch people catch fish near the damaged dam.
• Li Qiang received admission to County No. 1 Middle School and looked forward to military training, while Li Long continued checking on cotton fields and cooperative work.
• Li Long and Li Jianguo set off explosives in the Yan'erwo pit, and Li Qiang, Li Juan, Xu Haijun, Tao Daqiang, and the others helped scoop up more than thirty kilograms of fish.
• Li Long returned home with the fish and saw Li Juan’s teachers and class monitor waiting outside, prompting Li Juan to wonder why they had come.

Li Juan received her admission notice to Renmin University, and her family and Fourth Team celebrated her achievement by planning a village feast and establishing education awards. On August 16, classmates and township leaders began arriving for the banquet.

• Teacher Chang and Ren Wenxia delivered Li Juan's Renmin University admission notice, and Li Juan learned that Ren Wenxia had been recommended to teachers' college.
• Li Long proposed a celebration, and Li Jianguo and Liang Yuemei agreed to host an open-house feast on August 16.
• Du Chunfang gave Li Juan five hundred yuan for her move to Yanjing, and Li Juan accepted it after her grandmother insisted.
• Xu Chengjun convened a village representatives' meeting, where the team decided to award cash to students entering university or specialized schools and to new enlistees.
• Li Long drove Li Juan to First Middle School to thank her teachers, who agreed to notify classmates about the banquet.
• On August 16, Li Juan welcomed twelve classmates to Li Long's courtyard, and township leaders arrived as the feast was getting underway.

Li Juan celebrated her admission to Renmin University with her family and classmates, then traveled to Yanjing and began university with Gu Xiaoyu’s help. Meanwhile, Li Long oversaw the drip-irrigated cotton experiment, which showed a strong yield advantage as the cotton harvest began.

• Township Head Qi Xianzhi and Deputy Secretary Ma Youde congratulated Li Jianguo on Li Juan’s admission, and Li Long took Li Juan’s classmates to Little Haizi to catch shrimp and see the wildlife.
• Li Juan said goodbye to her classmates, completed her paperwork, and departed for Yanjing with one suitcase while Li Jianguo and Liang Yuemei saw her off at Wu City railway station.
• Professor Yang reported that the drip-irrigated cotton field averaged eight more mature bolls per plant than the conventional field, and he and Li Long planned to have Agricultural Technical Extension School students pick the experimental plot.
• Li Juan met Gu Xiaoyu in Yanjing, stayed at the family’s courtyard home, and registered at Renmin University the next morning.
• Li Long arranged central heating at the Canned Food Factory, the Big Courtyard, and the Purchasing Station while continuing to supervise the Cooperative’s cotton fields.
• Cotton picking began in mid-September, and Li Long saw the drip-irrigated experimental field open into a thick white crop that promised a bumper harvest.

Li Long managed cotton-picking laborers while the cooperative harvested its fields, then helped conclude the successful drip irrigation trial, which yielded 384 kilograms of cotton per mu. The project entered its next phase with plans to continue planting, and the participants celebrated the results.

• Li Long hired ten day laborers at the standard rate, supervised the cooperative’s cotton picking, and discussed recruiting more pickers as acreage expanded.
• Li Long learned that the drip-irrigated trial field’s first picking yielded 307 kilograms per mu, then helped weigh the cotton and arrange follow-up work.
• The cooperative completed its first cotton picking and estimated a harvest of 170 to 180 tonnes, while the trial field finished its second picking by mid-October.
• Professor Yang led the project review, reporting a final yield of 384 kilograms per mu and praising Li Long and the Agricultural Technical Extension School staff for their contributions.
• Professor Yang planned to apply for funding for a second phase, and Li Long agreed to supply enough drip irrigation tape for next year’s trial.
• Principal Yang hosted a celebratory meal, where he urged Li Long to drink with the project participants.

Li Long attended the cooperative’s year-end review, where its strong cotton harvest earned the Li brothers more than 80,000 yuan in dividends. After celebrating with the shareholders, he shared the experimental field’s record yield and returned home to talk with his mother.

• Li Long drove to Xie Yundong’s house and learned Xu Haijun had crashed his vehicle after drinking, though he had not been seriously injured.
• Xie Yundong and Jia Weidong announced that the cooperative had over 190,000 yuan available for dividends, with the Li brothers receiving more than 80,000 yuan.
• Li Long brought unfamiliar canned foods to the celebration and repeatedly beat Xu Haijun at finger-guessing, drinking far less than the others.
• Li Long told the shareholders that the experimental field had yielded 380 kilograms of cotton per mu, though its costs remained high because of drip-irrigation tape.
• Li Long drove the drunken shareholders home, then visited his mother, Du Chunfang, who told him that the Li family’s workers had also earned generous shares.

Li Juan and Li Qiang spent their weekends between the courtyard and their family, while Li Long learned that Liu Shanmin’s Soviet business remained viable despite the turmoil. After seeing Liu Shanmin off, Li Long accepted Harimu’s valuable goods in exchange for his GAZ vehicle.

• Li Juan rode to the courtyard, found that someone had already cleared the snow, and spent a quiet afternoon there.
• Li Qiang returned home with Li Qingxia, ate chive and egg dumplings with his family, and heard Li Qingxia and Li Jianguo worry about Li Long’s overseas trade.
• Li Long met with Liu Shanmin and Liu Gaolou, learned Liu Shanmin had borrowed rubles and exchanged them for about twenty million US dollars, and heard that trading cars and supplies could continue.
• Li Long reassured Li Jianguo that business would carry on and promised Liu Shanmin he would consider what goods he needed.
• Harimu invited Li Long to the winter slaughter at Qingshui Hezi and traded velvet antlers, pelts, jade, and emerald rough for Li Long’s GAZ vehicle.