Chapter 54: Six-Zero Farm System (20)

Lai Zhaodi accepted five eggs from Xie Yang as payment, took on all the work of pickling the eggs herself, and squatted in the kitchen, busily working away.

Xie Yang, on the other hand, had nothing to do, so she simply returned to her room to unpack the parcel sent by her aunt.

Xie Chunlan had sent her a brand-new set of dark blue work clothes; one look and it was clear they were Steel Factory employee uniforms, likely exchanged by her uncle through someone he knew. The size was a bit loose, and Xie Chunlan had even specifically sewn a few stitches at the cuffs and pant legs to cinch them.

In addition, there were two pairs of light gray cotton socks, a bottle of Chili Sauce, and a bag of roasted peanuts.

Tucked inside the parcel was a letter, saying that she had gone to the countryside too hastily and there hadn't been time to measure her for a set of clothes, so she had asked someone to trade for a set of work clothes; even though the clothes didn't look like much, the Fabric was durable and suitable for working in the fields.

As for the cotton socks, they were flawed items snatched up at the Supply and Marketing Cooperative; they didn't require coupons and weren't expensive, though the soles were stained with some oil that wouldn't wash out, which didn't affect wearing them.

The Chili Sauce was made by her aunt herself, with plenty of oil added, so it wouldn't spoil for half a year.

The peanuts were a gift from her uncle's relatives back home, five jin in total, and she had mailed two jin to her; she could grab a handful to put in her pocket before heading to work to stave off hunger whenever she felt empty...

After finishing her aunt's letter, Xie Yang pondered in her heart about mailing some meat over next time.

It wasn't hard to catch pheasants or wild rabbits, but the difficulty lay in how to pickle or smoke them without attracting attention.

Wild vegetables and mushrooms were everywhere in the mountains of Chuan Nan; if she picked them, dried them, and mailed them out, no one would say anything, and if they wanted to, they could do the same.

But meat was different; not to mention the small quantity, the key was that in the entire Youth Hostel, she had never seen anyone bring any back.

Of course, it was also possible that, like her, they hid in the mountains and finished eating it before returning.

【Host, you can use points to exchange for meat!】 The Main System encouraged her to spend more points, 【Gugu Birds look similar to the pheasants on this plane, just a bit larger in size. Lulu Beasts look a bit ugly, but the meat quality itself is no different from Pork; the pork belly you bought came from a Lulu Beast. You can taste it before deciding whether to buy.】

Xie Yang was actually swayed.

Although the pheasants and rabbits in the mountains didn't cost money, the meat in the System Mall required charging points to exchange, but occasionally exchanging for one or two was still affordable.

So she flipped through the "Limited Time Purchase" column—

Aside from being a size larger than ordinary pheasants, Gugu Birds could generally pass for pheasants.

But the Lulu Beast was too massive; even the skinniest one weighed over a thousand jin.

Even if it looked exactly like a Bay-Browed Pig and was covered all over in long black bristles, perhaps some would believe it was a wild boar, but the meat quality was more like domestic pig, even fattier and more tender than domestic pig. And domestic pork required coupons to buy outside; how was she supposed to explain that to her aunt?

"Xie Yang." Li Chengguo knocked on the door, "Uh, I'm here on behalf of the male Educated Youth to ask, can you spare some of that pork belly for us? We don't have Meat Coupons, but we can pay the black market price..."

The few of them, the veteran Educated Youth, really hadn't touched meat or fish for a long time; the last time was the eighteenth of the twelfth lunar month, when the Production Team slaughtered a pig. Aside from the slaughter feast, each person only got three taels of meat. The female Educated Youth had it even worse, getting less than two taels each.

At that time, they had been in the countryside for just over half a year, the work points they earned weren't much, and they had already paid off previous debts, so getting two or three taels of meat was decent, but because they were so starved for meat, that little bit was eaten before the New Year.

It had been nearly three months since they tasted meat, so they were thick-skinned enough to want to ask Xie Yang to spare some.

A sudden idea popped into Xie Yang's mind.

But she still had to think it over.

"Alright."

She spared them two taels of pork belly and kept three taels for herself, mincing it with Shepherd's Purse to make a filling, and wrapped a meal of white flour dumplings.

That evening, the basic meal for the Educated Youth was wild vegetable porridge, while the male Educated Youth had an extra dish of pork belly stir-fried with wild garlic leaves. Xie Yang didn't cook with them, but boiled dumplings for herself instead.

She shared six with Lai Zhaodi.

If not for Lai Zhaodi's help today, let alone the salted eggs, even the dumplings wouldn't have been wrapped so quickly.

Under the complex gazes of envy and jealousy from the whole room, Lai Zhaodi ate her first meal of white flour dumplings since coming to the countryside.

Actually, she hadn't eaten many white flour dumplings before coming to the countryside either; just listening to her name, one could tell her family was a typical family that favored boys over girls. Before her younger brother was born, the sisters could still eat a bite of white flour or meat during festivals, but ever since the brother arrived, there was never a share for the sisters for any good things in the house.

"Xie Yang, you are even better to me than my own mother!" Lai Zhaodi said suddenly while eating.

Xie Yang: "..."

"From now on, you are my own sister! No! Even closer than a real sister! If there's any work, just call me! I might not know other things, but I've practiced working since I was small; there's nothing I can't do!"

Xie Yang didn't reject her kindness: "Alright! If I need help, I will definitely look for you."

Yang Qingqing poked at the wild vegetable porridge in her bowl, which was so thin she could see her own reflection, and thought to herself that Lai Zhaodi sure knew how to suck up; just by helping to pickle a few salted eggs and rolling a few dumpling skins, she managed to mooch a meal of white flour dumplings.

Then, thinking of something, she turned her head to look at Zhao Wanqing: "Wanqing, why haven't I seen Fang Yongqiang come to find you lately? Isn't he..."

"What nonsense are you spouting!" Zhao Wanqing's face darkened instantly, "He and I have nothing to do with each other!"

"Ah?" Yang Qingqing blinked, "But you two..."

"I said we have nothing to do with each other, can't you understand human speech?" Zhao Wanqing had no appetite left, stood up abruptly, picked up the remaining half of her sweet potato, and went to wash her bowl with a wooden expression.

The others looked at each other.

Over the past half year, although Zhao Wanqing hadn't explicitly said she was dating Fang Yongqiang, the youngest son of the Second Production Team leader, she hadn't denied it either.

And every time Fang Yongqiang sent her something, she always accepted it. Now, she was suddenly clearing up her relationship with him...

"It's true, I haven't seen Fang Yongqiang come to find her for a while. Could it be that his parents don't agree? Did they stop him at home?"

"If they were going to stop him, they would have done it long ago, they wouldn't have waited until now."

"Then why? He used to come to the Youth Hostel every few days."

"Who knows, maybe it's because of the spring plowing, the work in the fields is too busy, and he doesn't have time to come?"

"Last year's autumn harvest was so busy, didn't he come every day?"

"Then I don't know. Anyway, what does it have to do with us!"

"That's true! We can't even manage our own lives, how would we have the energy to care about others!"

"I just want to eat meat now! Xie Yang, the meat you chose is too good! One layer of lean, one layer of fat, it's so fragrant stir-fried with wild garlic! I just finished this meal and I'm already looking forward to the next one!"

Xie Yang couldn't help but laugh.

But the taste of this meat was indeed excellent, even more fragrant than the walnut-fed Tibetan pig she had eaten before.

She summoned the Main System and asked: Brother System, help me pick the smallest Lulu Beast and calculate how many points it will cost.

【Host, you intend to buy a whole one? That won't be cheap!】

The Main System quickly reported the price:

【There are no Lulu Beasts under 500kg; it will require at least points.】

Xie Yang glanced at her own point account and fell silent.

Even if she topped up all the cash on her person, she still couldn't scrape together 400,000 points.

So, her entire net worth couldn't even afford a "pig"! It really is... poor, indeed!

Main System: 【However, Host, System believes in your character, so, would you like to buy on credit?】

Xie Yang: "..."