Chapter 81 - 77: Trading for Salt

"What’s your asking price?"

The man considered this for a moment. "Five pounds of meat for one pound of salt. If you’re buying in bulk, I can go down to four."

Qin Ziwen shook his head. "Too expensive."

The man’s brow furrowed. "This is a very fair price. Zhang Bo’s coarse salt goes for four pounds of meat per pound, and his is full of impurities and tastes awful. How can it compare to my modern, refined salt? Besides, once this salt is gone, it’s gone. It’s a collector’s item, you could say."

Qin Ziwen shook his head again. "Not necessarily. There’s something you might not know. In a month at most, the Gated Community will go through a second transmigration. After that, new residents will join us. Who among them won’t have some salt stored away? If there’s a second time, there will be a third. The salt supply won’t be cut off. So, what you have isn’t a collector’s item."

The man froze, staring at him suspiciously. "How do you know there’s going to be a second transmigration?"

"I’ve received a Card, too. Everyone who’s activated their Home should know about this," Qin Ziwen said, feigning a bit of surprise. "Surely Zhang Bo told you, right?"

The man froze, his expression slowly darkening, but he wasn’t entirely convinced. After all, this was just Qin Ziwen’s word against nothing.

Qin Ziwen continued, "The information isn’t hard to verify. Just find anyone with a Card and ask them. I wouldn’t try to trick you with such a clumsy lie."

With that, he turned to leave, calling over his shoulder, "If you still want to trade after you’ve confirmed it, come find me at Building 8, Unit 2, Apartment 602. Three pounds of meat for one pound of salt."

The man watched his retreating back, said nothing, and turned to leave as well.

Twenty minutes later, the man arrived at Apartment 602, carrying a large box.

Qin Ziwen wasn’t surprised to see him. "Got it all sorted out?"

"Your price is fine. How much do you need?"

Qin Ziwen glanced at the cardboard box in the man’s arms. "How many pounds in that box?"

"Forty pounds. They’re 400-gram bags, fifty bags to a box."

"I’ll take it all." As soon as the words left Qin Ziwen’s mouth, his brother, Qin Ziwu, emerged from the kitchen behind him, carrying half a wild boar.

The carcass still had its thick, hairy hide, and the cross-section of meat was caked with dried blood. The sheer size of this half-carcass gave a hint of the wild boar’s ferocious size when it was alive.

Just from this piece of the torso, one could tell its owner had been massive in life—this was no small wild pig.

He shot the two brothers a wary glance. "Impressive."

They weighed it on the spot with a bathroom scale. After washing the mud from its hide, the half-carcass still weighed 124 pounds.

Qin Ziwen said, "There’s a lot of bone in there, so it’s not all pure meat. I’ll throw in another twenty pounds of fresh meat for you."

"No need. This half is more than enough." The man let out a long sigh of relief.

This half-carcass alone was enough to feed him and his two elderly parents comfortably for a month.

He didn’t mind going hungry himself, but he couldn’t stand watching his old mom and dad starve along with him.

After a moment’s hesitation, the man said, "Can I leave the meat here for now? We can complete the trade tonight. It’s too conspicuous during the day."

If he dared to parade through the Gated Community in broad daylight with such a huge slab of pork, he wouldn’t have to wait until evening for an endless stream of neighbors to show up at his door looking to "borrow" some meat.

Qin Ziwen said, "I don’t mind, but the meat will spoil if it’s left out too long. Don’t you need to get it home and start curing it? Also, since we’ve agreed on the trade, you’ll need to leave at least a third of the salt as a deposit. Otherwise, if you don’t come back for it, the meat will be left out all day and go bad."

"No need, I’ll leave it all here." The man set the box of salt on the floor. He hesitated for a moment before saying, "Could I ask you to help me cure the meat? I won’t let you do it for nothing. I’ll replace however much salt you use, and you can take another three pounds of meat for your trouble when I come by tonight."

Qin Ziwen joked, "Having a lot of salt really gives you confidence, huh!"

The man didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. "To be honest, I’ve had regrets about hoarding all this salt. Every time my mom cooks and I complain the food’s too salty, she uses it as an excuse to chew me out."

Since the man was trusting him and being so generous, Qin Ziwen naturally wouldn’t be petty. "Alright, we’ll cure the meat for you. But curing meat uses a lot of salt, so be prepared."

"I know. Don’t worry."

After the man left, Qin Ziwen divided the salt with Deng Guang and Zhao Pu.

According to their agreed-upon shares, they each took ten pounds of salt.

The two of them had each brought half of the wild boar meat they had at home.

Calling on both families, the seven of them worked for the better part of the day, finally managing to cut up over two hundred pounds of pork into strips and cure them.

"You’re going to smoke it right away?" Zhao Pu asked, surprised by Qin Ziwen’s curing method.

Deng Guang nodded. "Yep."

Zhao Pu said, "Back in my hometown, we’d first press the cured meat with stones in a cool, shady spot to draw out the bloody water. Then we’d wipe off the excess salt and hang it in a dry, ventilated place to air-dry. Some people would smoke it after pressing it, too."

Qin Ziwen thought Zhao Pu’s method sounded good. The whole point of air-drying and smoking was dehydration, and this extra step would speed up the process. "Let’s give it a try."

They found some bluestones, washed them clean, and used them to press the meat in basins. After they were done, they all washed their hands.

Qin Ziwen said, "Come on, let’s go check on a spot to place the Earth Cages."

They were taking a rest day at Home, so they wanted to get as much done as possible before focusing on heading up the mountain.

In the afternoon, they went out and met up with Wei Zhaohua and Li Yue. The group headed to the riverbank.

A day had passed, and the river was no longer as turbulent as it had been yesterday. This was a mountainous area with steep terrain; the floodwaters couldn’t linger, so the water level had already dropped significantly.

But a faint, foul, fishy smell and the scent of damp earth still hung in the air.

By the river, plenty of people were scavenging for fish, while others poked around in muddy burrows, looking for crabs and eels.

"This spot will work." Qin Ziwen walked over to where he and Deng Guang had fished before. The water level had risen quite a bit, but he could still make out their old spot from the surrounding terrain.

"Yeah, it’s a bit of an inlet here. Some fish will probably hide out in here."

As he spoke, he guided them in slowly lowering the Earth Cages into the water.

Qin Ziwen briefed Li Yue and the others on various precautions, especially warning them about the dangerous types of fish in the river.

"Don’t worry, Brother Qin, I’m on it." Li Yue grinned and pulled a small notebook from his pocket. "Oh, by the way, Brother Qin, this is something I’ve been working on. I figured out a formula for steel after looking through all sorts of materials. You can give it a try. I also wrote down the instructions for a simple furnace."

"Good work. You must be running out of meat at home, right? I’ll have Xiaowu bring another two pounds over to you later."

"It was no trouble at all. It’s the least I can do," Li Yue said, patting his chest.

The big golden retriever wagged its tail, circling Li Yue’s legs.

The golden retriever looked a bit thinner than it had a few days ago, clearly not having eaten well lately. Its spirits were still high, though. With its tongue lolling out, it stuck close to its master’s side.

...

...