Chapter 157: Divvying Up the Wild Boars

Zhou Dafu stood up looking battered, but he wasn’t seriously injured. It wasn’t a big deal—he could still carry on.

With organized coordination, the wild boars were gradually herded toward the cliff.

Focused only on escape, the boars tumbled off the edge one after another. The team leader rushed in with others to fire finishing shots. Wild boars are tough creatures—falling off a cliff wasn’t enough to kill them!

The villagers burst into cheers and excitement.

“Great! Eleven wild boars!”

“Should fetch at least 1,000 yuan,” someone estimated aloud.

Of the eleven boars, most weighed just over 100 jin. Five were over 200 jin, and the largest boar—the lead male—weighed more than 300 jin.

“Damn! This big guy must be at least 350 jin.”

“Hurry, get a basin, we need to drain the blood.” The old Party Secretary was grinning too.

For Zhoujiazhuang, this was a massive windfall.

Some villagers had already brought copper basins, and they started draining the blood on the spot. It had to be done quickly—once blood congeals inside, the pork quality suffers.

Zhou Yimin and the others noticed the lead boar’s hide was incredibly thick. The bullets barely pierced the skin, causing minimal damage.

What really killed it was smashing its head on a rock when it fell.

If it hadn’t hit its head, Zhou Yimin figured it probably could’ve gotten back up and run off.

“Secretary, how should we handle the wild boars?” someone asked.

Were they going to sell them all?

“We’ll keep one for everyone to have some meat. The remaining ten, Yimin will take into the city,” said the old secretary, already having it figured out.

One boar would be enough for everyone to have a taste. The rest should be converted into cash—as much as possible. Without money, the village couldn’t get anything important done. After all the recent events, the village collective’s funds were running dangerously low, and the old secretary was starting to worry.

No one objected. Getting to eat meat once was enough to make them content.

Once the wheat was harvested, the pigs raised in the village would also be slaughtered. That was the usual custom—during the busy farming season, everyone needed a bit of meat to keep going.

Zhou Yimin started thinking about how to divide up the meat—it couldn’t all go to the steel factory.

The subdistrict office could get two or three. He’d check with Uncle Zhang to see if they needed any, and give them one or two. The remaining five would go to the steel factory. He believed they’d be happy with that.

By the time everything was settled, it was already past four in the morning.

The old secretary kept one wild boar weighing around 160 jin.

The rest were loaded onto two ox carts. They didn’t even wait for sunrise—an escort team was sent into the city right away. Since ox carts were slow, they’d probably arrive just around dawn.

Zhou Yimin went back home and lay down for two hours. He got up at six, had the breakfast his grandma had prepared, and called out to Zhang Lu to take her back to the city.

Zhang Lu seemed a bit reluctant to leave.

Zhou Yimin said to her, “Come back and play next weekend.”

Hearing that, Zhang Lu felt much better and sat in the back, cheerfully chatting away.

When he got back to the courtyard house in the city, he found the villagers who had delivered the wild boars chatting with Zhou Dazhong, animatedly recounting the thrilling events of the previous night’s hunt.

“Uncle Sixteen! That many wild boars—how are we going to deal with them?” Zhou Dazhong asked.

Zhou Yimin pointed and said, “These five, you take three people and deliver them to the steel factory.”

Zhou Dazhong responded immediately and sprang into action. He was a doer—not one to ask unnecessary questions. If Uncle Sixteen gave the order, he followed it.

That was one of the reasons Zhou Yimin liked to delegate things to him.

“You guys come with me,” Zhou Yimin said to the remaining group.

He headed for the subdistrict office first. Zhang Lu followed, eyes full of curiosity as she looked at the wild boars. She hadn’t expected that so much had happened while she was asleep the night before.

What a shame she missed it!

At the subdistrict office, Zhou Yimin was already familiar with the old guard at the entrance. When the guard saw the cart full of boars, he was stunned. Lately, Zhou Dafu had delivered wild boars too, but nothing of this size.

“Whoa! Go on in. I’ll go call Director Li,” the old man hurried inside.

Recently, things had improved at the subdistrict office, thanks to the occasional deliveries of game meat from Zhoujiazhuang.

Director Li and her staff came out quickly. When they saw the wild boars, their eyes lit up. These days, meat was hard to come by—it was all about scrambling for it.

“Yimin, how’d you manage to get so many again?” Director Li asked with a smile.

Her gaze settled on the biggest boar, guessing it was well over 300 jin. Such massive wild boars were rare.

Sure enough, Zhou Yimin hadn’t sent that biggest boar to the steel factory.

He explained, “Last night, the wild boars came into the village and started destroying the crops. We had no choice but to take them down. There were 11 in total. The village kept one to eat. I just sent five to the steel factory. Aunt Li, you can pick three—I need to save two for Uncle Zhang.”

Director Li didn’t know who this “Uncle Zhang” was, but didn’t pry.

The fact that he was letting her choose first touched her.

She pointed at the largest one and the two smallest ones.

Director Li knew how to handle relationships.

If it were anyone else, she might’ve gone for the best ones without a second thought. But since Zhou Yimin had mentioned “Uncle Zhang,” it clearly meant the relationship was close, and she didn’t want to make things hard for him.

“Go weigh them.”

The gross weight wouldn’t fetch the highest price, but it would definitely be above market value.

“Aunt Li, just pay them directly. I’ll deliver the other two to Uncle Zhang,” Zhou Yimin said.

“Alright, go ahead!” Director Li nodded.

Even if Zhou Yimin weren’t there, she wouldn’t shortchange the people from Zhoujiazhuang.

They’d already sent wild game a few times—they clearly hoped this would become a long-term cooperation. She naturally wouldn’t ruin that.

Zhou Yimin took two villagers along and led the ox cart with the last two boars toward Zhang Jianshe’s courtyard.

Before they arrived, they happened to run into Zhang Jianshe on the road.

“Uncle Zhang, Uncle Zhang…” Zhou Yimin called out.

Zhang Lu chimed in too, calling for her dad.

Zhang Jianshe was on the other side of the road. Hearing the commotion, he looked over and saw Zhou Yimin and his daughter, then pedaled his bicycle over.

“I thought you wouldn’t be back until this afternoon,” he joked.

Zhou Yimin got straight to the point and pointed to the ox cart behind him. “Uncle Zhang, we hunted 11 wild boars last night. These are the last two—do you want them?”

Zhang Jianshe immediately looked past him toward the cart.

Delighted, he grinned. “Of course we want them. Come on, follow me.”

Free meat delivered to your door—who’d say no?

Goodness—11 wild boars!

“How’d you end up with so many? No one got hurt, I hope?” he asked with concern.

Zhang Lu jumped in, “Dad, the wild boars came into the village and were eating the corn.”

Ah, Zhang Jianshe understood.

In that case, there was no choice—you couldn’t just let them ruin the crops. He completely understood the villagers’ response. Anyone would’ve done the same.

A young man behind Zhou Yimin chuckled, “One guy got hurt, but it was from falling on his own.”

“Originally, we just wanted to drive the boars away, but it was thanks to Uncle Sixteen. He came up with the idea to herd them toward the cliff—only then were we able to get them all.”

(End of Chapter)