Chapter 884: Red-Braised Pork and Boiled Pork Slices

"Right, slice the scallion into thin strips, add salt and rub hard. Once they're slick and slippery, that means the flavor's come out."

Beard Feng Squad's Er Yong was sharing his tips for making soft-fried pork tenderloin on the chat channel for the lords. He turned his head and saw Xia Qing grab a handful of his sliced scallion strips and crush them into mush, with scallion juice dripping onto the meat slices.

A force evolver for sure—amazing grip!

Xia Qing heard Er Yong pause and knew she'd rubbed too hard. Just as she was about to ask how to fix it, her phone rang.

On the other end, Zhang San's voice was so warm it crumbled at the edges. "Xia Qing, this green-light wild boar meat's not bad."

Xia Qing understood. "As long as Third Brother likes it. Once Er Yong finishes stewing the pig's head, I'll bring it over to you."

"Don't send the whole thing, just cut me a plate. I've developed an insecticide that works pretty well—great for spraying on insect netting. I'll have Zheng Chen bring you a bag this afternoon to try out."

With delicious green-light food on hand, Zhang San was in an excellent mood. "Keep an eye on things—don't let the wolf pack kill all the green-light wild boars in the valley. Save a few green-light sows for breeding. Mountain Forty-Nine suits this type of boar perfectly. Fence off a few more plots for raising pigs."

"Understood. The green-light pigs are being kept safe. Rest easy, Third Brother."

Xia Qing didn't need to watch them—the wolf pack already knew to spare the green-light sows.

This morning, six young wolves hunted one red-light and one yellow-light piglet, each weighing sixty or seventy jin. Little Wolf Brother single-handedly took down a yellow-light giant wild boar weighing over seven hundred jin.

After Little Wolf Brother killed the giant boar, the five young wolves were about to go after the remaining two big pigs, but the alpha wolf that had just leapt into the valley stopped them.

Xia Qing lavished praise on this mother-and-son wolf pair standing at the top of the pyramid, then specifically asked the alpha wolf why it had spared those two big boars.

The answer she got: those two big boars were green-light, so they couldn't be killed.

As for why green-light ones couldn't be killed, the alpha wolf couldn't be bothered to explain. To get to the bottom of it, Xia Qing would have to talk to Broken-Waist Wolf. But Xia Qing had a feeling that Broken-Waist Wolf was deliberately avoiding her!

When the wolf pack had eaten its fill and was about to leave the valley, Xia Qing begged the alpha wolf to hunt a green-light wild boar for her to eat.

She had no choice—her idol's appetite had been whetted, and she was waiting to eat green-light pork tenderloin.

Maybe because Little Wolf had killed a giant boar, the alpha wolf was in a good mood. Without bargaining, it caught a green-light young boar for her, then led its troops out of Mountain Forty-Nine in grand procession.

Xia Qing enthusiastically saw off the heroic Little Wolf Brother, but the aloof little wolf ignored her.

Little Wolf's tsundere act couldn't ruin Xia Qing's good mood. Because after half a year of raising pigs for the wolf pack on behalf of Yi Shi, today she'd harvested over five hundred jin of yellow-light pork, over fifty jin of green-light pork, and over sixty jin of red-light meat!

Even though it was all just what the wolves had left after gutting them, Xia Qing didn't mind at all.

In the year of natural disasters, no one would complain!

She sold the red-light pork to Territory One. The green-light pork, aside from the tenderloin cut for her idol and the pig's head handed to Er Yong, was broken down and frozen for later.

Of the yellow-light pork, Xia Qing kept over a hundred jin for freeze-drying, sold over two hundred jin to the lords of Northern District One, and set aside over a hundred jin for Beard Feng. Beard Feng's squad was responsible for guarding the passage from Mountain Forty-Nine to District Three, so they deserved a share of the credit for raising the pigs.

The remaining yellow-light pork was all sent to Territory Nine.

Of course, the yellow-light wild boar was sold under Territory One's name, and the meat sent to Territory Nine was sold by Beard Feng at fifty points per jin.

Territory Nine's cafeteria had a dedicated budget.

The over two hundred jin of pork sold to the lords didn't just go to Xia Qing's allies—other lords in the area bought too.

Although the past two months had brought alternating attacks of acid rain, thunderstorms, gales, hail, and returning rain, every territory had harvested a summer crop to some extent. Combined with the points earned from selling X-2 in May, the lords still had some points left after buying summer-planting seeds and fertilizer.

So, upon hearing that the Azure Dragon Squad was slaughtering pigs today, the lords all rushed over to buy meat and reward themselves for months of hard work.

That noon, the smell of meat drifted through every corner of Northern District One's territories, and the three lord channels were abuzz with discussions on how to make the meat taste better with limited seasonings.

Inside Territory Seventeen, Wen Nengjie took a bite of fragrant red-braised pork and couldn't help crying. "Thanks to Brother Feng for trading me the meat, Third Brother for the white sugar, Sister Qing for the garlic, Brother Qi for the ginger, Brother Heng for the pepper powder, and Uncle Huo for forging my iron wok. Eleven years—I've finally brought my brothers red-braised pork again."

"Before the disasters, I ran a slaughterhouse. I ate so much meat that the smell made me sick. Now I look at raw meat and want to take a bite. It's been so hard—these years have been really too hard. I don't even know how I've held on until now…"

Hearing Wen Nengjie's crying, people in many territories shed tears. Several members of Beard Feng's squad in the small house by the fields of Territory Three also had reddened eyes.

These years really had been too hard.

After crying it out, Wen Nengjie sniffled and asked, "Brother Feng, are you selling piglets? I want to raise two."

Beard Feng, who was gnawing on a spicy pig's trotter, looked across at Xia Qing, who was eating boiled pork slices. Seeing Xia Qing shake her head slightly, he pressed the walkie-talkie button. "No piglets this year."

Wen Nengjie responded immediately, "Then I'll get on the waiting list. If Territory One sells piglets next year, I want two."

Zhao Ze, who was eating stir-fried celery with pork, pressed his button. "Brother Jie, you'd better be prepared. Pigs that do fine on Mountain Forty-Nine might not do well in your territory—just like my rabbits."

Territory Four was raising the rabbits Xia Qing had traded them, using soil and forage dug up from outside. Even so, the mother rabbits still ate their newborn babies—though the symptoms were milder.

Wen Nengjie had a good attitude. "I know, but if I succeed, I'll have meat to eat. Everyone in my territory is ordinary—no way to go out hunting. The bamboo rats we were raising got carried off by eagles, cages and all. Raising pigs feels more reliable."

Qi Fu was also thinking about raising pigs. He asked, "Brother Feng, I remember when the wild boar breeding center moved away last year, they took a few young boars with them. Did those young boars breed successfully?"

Beard Feng actually knew a bit about this. "After they took them back, the young boars grew slower than they did here, and the quality dropped. The breeding center people came back to take soil and water samples from various places, saying they wanted to figure out what caused it, but so far there's been no result."

"After Blue Star evolved, screening out high-quality poultry and livestock suitable for humans to raise is just too difficult." Hearing Zhu Li sighed, then thanked Zhang San. "Many thanks to Third Brother for trading us the quality poultry you've bred."

"Thanks, Third Brother." Wen Nengjie chimed in immediately.

Just as everyone was rushing to express their thanks to Zhang San, Yang Jin sent Xia Qing a message. The supplies Hui Six was compensating Hui Three with would all arrive tomorrow.

"All" meaning Xia Qing's one civilian helicopter, six jars of honey, and two boxes of green-light bees would arrive tomorrow.