Chapter 56: The '60s Farm System (22)

"It's bad! It's bad! Something terrible has happened!"

"Help! A giant wild boar has broken out!"

A group of children came charging down the hillside, crying and wailing in terror.

Gouwa, who was leading them, didn't even have time to rest; he panted as he rushed all the way to the irrigation ditch where the strong laborers were relatively concentrated:

"Dad! Dad! Something terrible has happened! There's a wild boar as—big as this, as—big as this that broke out! It almost gored Maodan, but that Educated Youth sister with the great strength saved us! She stopped the wild boar all by herself..."

"What!"

"A wild boar came out of the deep forest?"

"There's no shortage of food in the deep mountains this time of year, so why would it run to the outskirts?"

"This isn't the time to discuss that. Lao San, you go find the Brigade Leader. Everyone else, grab your tools and follow me into the mountains!"

Everyone was afraid, but no one backed down.

Once it charged down the mountain, the farmland and houses would be in trouble.

However, just as the men were hurrying to the foot of the mountain, carrying their farm tools and with their hearts in their throats, they saw Xie Yang walking out of the forest with a steady gait.

They saw her—shouldering a giant wild boar the size of a water buffalo, its four hooves bound and it knocked unconscious, while in her hand she held a hemp rope, the other end of which was tied to five innocent, ignorant wild boar piglets that were walking unsteadily and stumbling along.

The strong laborers, who had expected a bitter fight with the wild boar and were even prepared to bleed: "!!!"

Xie Yang fought a giant wild boar weighing over a thousand catties all by herself???

Not only that, she even wiped out the whole litter of piglets!!!

"Xiao Xie—"

The Brigade Leader, who had rushed to the scene upon hearing the news, truly didn't know what to say!

He knew Xie Yang was strong, but he hadn't expected her to be this strong—taking down a thousand-catty giant wild boar without a single scratch!

A wild boar this big is extremely rare even across the whole country! Its rarity could rival the giant pandas at the Beijing Zoo!

"Heroes have emerged from the youth since ancient times! Xiao Xie, you are the best!"

The Brigade Leader stammered for a long time, finally gave Xie Yang a thumbs-up, and then began to discuss with her how to distribute this giant wild boar and the five piglets.

Logically speaking, for a large beast like a wild boar, the brigade would usually assemble strong laborers to surround and capture it, then divide the catch into two portions: the smaller portion would be distributed to the laborers who put in the effort, and the larger portion would be divided equally among everyone in the brigade.

But this wild boar was taken down by Xie Yang alone, and the Brigade Leader knew in his heart that if it weren't for her, the brigade's strong laborers would have found it difficult even to surround and capture it.

So he intended to give Xie Yang a larger share.

"Xiao Xie, not only did you save Maodan, but you also indirectly saved the crops in the fields. I estimate this giant wild boar has seven or eight hundred catties of net meat. You get one-fifth, and the brigade divides the remaining four-fifths equally. For your one-fifth, do you want all of it in meat, or will you take some meat and have the rest converted into work points?"

The reason Xie Yang had brought out a Luru Beast was precisely because she wanted meat; it would allow her to achieve the freedom to eat meat openly, and it would also provide a reasonable excuse to send some to her aunt's family.

Converting it into work points would also mean getting grain and meat at the end of the year; since she could earn full work points, she naturally wouldn't be short of grain or meat by the end of the year.

But taking over a hundred catties at once was indeed a bit much, and she heard from the Main System that the Luru Beast had a relatively high meat yield; a Luru Beast weighing just over a thousand catties could yield about eight hundred and fifty catties of net meat.

One-fifth of that would be one hundred and seventy catties.

Xie Yang thought for a moment: "Then I'll take fifty catties of meat first, and have the rest converted into work points."

The Brigade Leader nodded: "That works. As for the five piglets..."

"Let the brigade raise them!" Xie Yang didn't intend to get involved.

The Brigade Leader understood: "I'll record 200 work points for you later as a reward for these piglets."

Once the distribution plan was settled, they began to divide the meat.

The Brigade Leader pointed to two people to take the piglets to the Pig Pen to be raised.

It was fine for now; keeping them in the same pen as the Task pig was okay, and they could even be fed some sow's milk.

When they got bigger, they would need to watch out for their tusks and it would be best to keep them in separate pens.

However, since they were being raised from piglets, even if their tusks became sharp, they generally wouldn't be aggressive.

The giant wild boar, still unconscious, was joyfully carried by seven or eight commune members to the Threshing Floor.

Xie Yang offered to help carry it over, but everyone refused:

"Educated Youth Xie, you've worked hard today! Leave the rest to us! You go get some rest!"

"That's right, Educated Youth Xie, we owe it all to you today! Remember to eat a few extra bowls of pork stew later!"

"Educated Youth Xie, I'm Maodan's dad. Thank you for saving my Maodan!"

Maodan?

Xie Yang remembered; oh, there was a six or seven-year-old child who had run into the forest chasing a gray rabbit just as she had released the Luru Beast and its litter.

Fearing he would be frightened, she had knocked the adult Luru Beast unconscious with one punch.

Did this child think she had saved him?

"..."

Well, this was a beautiful misunderstanding.

As the sun set, almost everyone from the Yuewan Brigade gathered at the Threshing Floor, the atmosphere looking even livelier than when they slaughtered the New Year pig on the eighteenth of the twelfth lunar month.

Come to think of it, that made sense; the New Year pig slaughter was known in advance, and every household knew exactly how much pork they would get, but this giant wild boar today was an unexpected surprise—getting an extra meal of meat for nothing, how could they not be happy and lively?

The women who had been called over by the Brigade Leader in advance to help start the fire, boil water, remove the pig hair, and wash the offal were happily scrubbing the pig offal while chatting excitedly:

"I heard from my child that Educated Youth Xie took it down all by herself!"

"My child saw it too; Educated Youth Xie knocked the wild boar to the ground with her bare hands."

"Looking at how petite she is, I never expected her to be so strong! This wild boar isn't small; it must weigh seven or eight hundred catties net, right?"

"More than that! It was weighed on the scale; before it was slaughtered it was one thousand and eighty catties, and after removing the hair, the offal, and not counting the pig's head and tail, it was still over nine hundred catties!"

"Whoa! Nine hundred catties of net meat? That's great! We'll be able to get a bit more meat! The bit of meat we got from the New Year pig wasn't even enough to get stuck in our teeth!"

"Nine hundred catties! That means our family can get about two or three catties."

"Our family is about the same."

"Educated Youth Xie should get a fair share, right?"

"That is what she deserves! Are you jealous of that too?"

"Hey! I was just saying it casually; I wouldn't be jealous of her! Without her, it's hard to say if we'd even be able to eat this plump wild boar meat today!"

"Don't even mention it, this wild boar meat is so fatty and tender! In my opinion, it's almost as good as Pork! In the past, wild boar meat was gamey and pungent before it was stewed well; you had to add a lot of spices to make it taste good, but this wild boar meat..."

The woman washing the pork said as she picked up the meat in her hand, brought it close to her nose to sniff, and concluded: "It's not gamey or pungent at all!"

"Really? It looks pitch black, with thick skin and long bristles, and the tusks are so sharp; the meat quality is actually neither gamey nor pungent?"

"Not only is it not gamey or pungent, it's even fattier and more tender than Pork!"

"Then wouldn't that be a huge profit! It's not a holiday or a festival, yet we actually get to eat big fatty meat!"

"Hahahaha..."

Happy laughter spread throughout the entire Threshing Floor.