Chapter 73

Zhao Erxing was a good-for-nothing, the kind of man even his fellow villagers thought was hopeless—and he agreed with them. But even a good-for-nothing has a weakness, and his was his mother, Zhou Caie.

Zhou Caie married into Guihua Village at seventeen. In Zhao Erxing’s memories, his mother had suffered domestic abuse for as long as he could remember. She got beaten if the food was cold, if she snored in her sleep, if she swept the floor too slowly… Zhao Erxing’s childhood up to the age of sixteen was anything but happy.

When he was sixteen, he stole and sold one of the family’s piglets. His father found out and stripped him naked, tying him to the lemon tree outside. It was freezing cold, and as his body grew numb and his mind hazy, Zhou Caie burst out of the house.

She fought his father. A woman who had been meek her entire life, that was the first time she ever resisted.

The result was a brutal beating. But even then, Zhou Caie didn’t back down. It wasn’t until two in the morning that his father finally stormed back into the house, cursing. Under the bright moonlight, Zhao Erxing had only one thought: I have to give Zhou Caie a better life.

At sixteen, he was full of confidence. But he was lazy by nature, and the next thirty-seven years of his life passed in a muddled haze.

Recently, with the domestic meat market tightening, he stumbled into the wild meat trade by chance and made 37,000 yuan in two months. He liked money. But with Longxia cracking down hard, the past two weeks had been nerve-wracking.

The day before yesterday, during a delivery, Liu Xia asked him, “The processing plant’s shutting down next month. You sure you don’t want to try selling Dead Meat?”

With the nationwide crackdown, the suppliers were preparing one last batch before pulling out. Because it was the last, the price of Dead Meat had jumped from ten yuan to twenty.

Zhao Erxing gave in to temptation and picked up seventy jin of it in the mountains. He kept telling himself it wasn’t for him to eat, he wouldn’t eat it…

After stashing the Dead Meat, he returned home. That evening, Zhou Caie was in the kitchen making braised pork belly.

The meat was fragrant and glistening with oil. He took a bite and asked, “Where’d you get this?”

“There was a guy selling it from a tricycle at the village entrance. Pretty cheap.” Pork was going for eighty-two yuan a jin in the market, but the tricycle guy was selling it for forty-seven. It was all pre-packaged and sold out in one afternoon.

“Pork’s so hot right now, I almost didn’t get any…” Zhou Caie chatted casually, but Zhao Erxing felt more and more uneasy. He knew the pork market—forty-seven yuan wasn’t even enough to cover wholesale.

He asked seriously, “What kind of tricycle was it?”

“Just a regular little blue one. The guy was nice—bald, with a scar on his face.”

Zhao Erxing immediately threw up. He remembered that scarred, bald guy—just last week, he’d seen him haggling with Liu Xia over meat. They’d sold Dead Meat in Guihua Village!

He rushed to the kitchen. Half the pork was still in the bag. It looked fresh, bright red, and clean. But after spending an afternoon picking through Dead Meat, he recognized it instantly—this was wild, diseased pork.

Zhao Erxing staggered out of the kitchen. Zhou Caie was still eating the braised pork.

“Stop eating that!” he shouted, flinging the bowl into the courtyard. The sight of it made him sick.

“What’s wrong?” Zhou Caie was startled.

Zhao Erxing opened his mouth but couldn’t find the words.

How could he explain?

That this Dead Meat came from Guihua Mountain, dug up by her own son, and was infected with Acid Rain disease?

He felt like he couldn’t even say the word “meat” anymore.

Every time he opened his mouth, it felt like that mountain of Dead Meat was crawling into it. He had never felt so disgusted.

“Prices are so high now, don’t waste food,” Zhou Caie said, heartbroken. She tried to pick up the meat from the ground, but Zhao Erxing kicked it away. Not only that, he threw the rest of the meat out too.

“You can’t just waste it…” Zhou Caie looked devastated.

Zhao Erxing locked himself in his room. He didn’t think of himself as a good person, nor did he care to be one. But thinking about that braised pork, for the first time, he questioned whether what he was doing was right.

The next morning, Zhao Erxing went into the kitchen and found a new bag tucked in the corner. Inside was the braised pork he’d thrown out.

He stormed into Zhou Caie’s room. “What the hell are you doing?!”

“It’s such a waste to throw it away…” Zhou Caie was stitching a shoe sole, trembling with fear.

Her eyes were filled with cautious pleading. Sunlight streamed in from outside, and Zhao Erxing suddenly remembered that night he was tied to the lemon tree.

He stood at the door and smoked three cigarettes. Then he picked up the Dead Meat and went to Wang Dashun’s house.

“This doesn’t look like fresh pork,” said Wang Dashun, a man who’d raised pigs for twenty years. He could tell at a glance that something was off. It wasn’t fresh, and it wasn’t frozen either…

“It’s wild Dead Meat.”

Zhao Erxing confessed everything—how he’d scavenged the carcasses and sold the meat.

Wang Dashun immediately pulled out his phone. “I’m calling the police.” Zhao Erxing had always been a petty thief, but this—this was a real crime.

“I already called,” Zhao Erxing said, frustrated. On the way over, he had turned himself in. For a good-for-nothing like him, it almost felt heroic.

The wild meat site was a ways from the local station. To better assist the police, the two of them decided to observe the area near the shack. And so, the current scene unfolded…

At 7 p.m., after Wang Dashun hung up the phone, Zhao Erxing asked, “Where are the cops now?”

“Guihua River.” It was two kilometers away. To avoid tipping anyone off, the police were going in plainclothes.

As they waited patiently, the sound of an engine rumbled in the distance. A red truck pulled up. The driver got out, and a tattooed man came out of the shack. After a brief exchange, three young men in T-shirts began hauling out plastic bags.

Zhao Erxing and Wang Dashun exchanged a look. This was clearly a transaction.

Wang Dashun quickly reported the development to the police.

Ten minutes later, seven police cars arrived. Before anyone at the site could react, the whole operation was in handcuffs and loaded into the cruisers.

“It’s finally over,” Zhao Erxing said, collapsing to the ground.

At 8:20, once all the suspects had been taken away, a middle-aged officer approached. “You two made the report?”

“Yes,” they said, stepping out from the bushes.

To avoid retaliation, they had been extremely cautious throughout.

After giving their statements, they were taken into a police car.

The wild meat investigation lasted a full day and night. Wang Dashun was free to go, but Zhao Erxing was taken into custody.

“Officer, will the sentence be heavy?” Wang Dashun asked, worried.

“Should be under five years.”

Based on Zhao Erxing’s testimony, he hadn’t sold any Dead Meat or protected species. If verified, he’d likely receive the lightest sentence.

Wang Dashun let out a sigh of relief. Before leaving, he looked back at Zhao Erxing.

Zhao Erxing looked exhausted. He met Wang Dashun’s gaze and said, “Take care of my mom.”

His father had died when he was twenty-three. Zhao Erxing might’ve been a mess, but he cared deeply about Zhou Caie’s health.

Wang Dashun nodded. “Anything else you want me to tell her?”

After a pause, Zhao Erxing said, “Tell her to buy meat from proper places.”

The night he was taken in, he’d briefly regretted turning himself in. But when he saw the plastic bags full of Dead Meat, all that regret vanished. He might be scum from the gutter, but even scum can have a shred of conscience…

Over the next two days, Liu Xia and the others cracked under pressure and confessed everything—the crimes and the upstream suppliers.

It was a massive, well-organized network. The processing plant was deep in the forests of southern Sichuan, with twelve downstream distributors and 317 people involved.

A provincial task force was formed. On April 18th, the entire wild meat operation was wiped out in one sweep.

The “Sichuan South 4.18 Wild Meat Case” shocked the nation.

…

“Hello, 110? There’s a meat shop downstairs. I think their pork is suspicious.”

“I’m Wang Jie from Wangjia Village. I want to report that Wang Luhai’s family is running a wild meat processing site.”

“Officer, please listen…”

…

As the Sichuan case was thoroughly investigated, similar reports flooded in from across the country. In the past half month, all fifty-five provinces launched large-scale inspections. Wild meat operations were like tumors—hard to detect, harder to remove.

The Longxia police were working tirelessly, and the people of the nation were paying the price.

Poultry, eggs, and meat had long been staples in everyday life. But with the recent outbreak of food contamination cases, people no longer dared to eat at fast food joints or dumpling shops. Even the fresh food sections in supermarkets were being scrutinized over and over again. Holding out for a day or two was manageable, but keeping this up long-term? Impossible.

The underground wild processing industry had taken advantage of the global crisis. Though Longxia cracked down hard, many of these operations were mobile and hidden, making them extremely difficult to track.

Longxia’s efforts were clear for all to see, and wild processing had indeed become a malignant tumor on society.

Under this nationwide pressure, a netizen casually suggested online that everyone should play detective and help the police root out these illegal processing sites.

What started as an offhand comment struck a chord with the public—it was like opening a door to a whole new world.

The main problems Longxia’s police faced were: 1) the processing dens had well-developed supply chains, and 2) their personnel were constantly on the move.

These people played a game of cat and mouse with the authorities, but they couldn’t completely detach from society. To survive, they had to engage in end-point sales—buying daily necessities from supermarkets, for example. So, local wet markets ramped up inspections of frozen meat, neighborhood security guards kept a close eye on suspicious residents, and even cleaning staff began watching for vehicles from out of province.

A nationwide, citizen-led investigation campaign began. Today, someone would report a suspicious sausage shop in their neighborhood. Tomorrow, someone else would report an illegal processing den. The next day, another would trace the escape route of a fleeing suspect. The wave of grassroots investigations grew more intense by the day. To avoid wasting police resources, residents only filed reports when they were at least 70% sure.

Thanks to this unprecedented cooperation between citizens and law enforcement, between April 15 and 25, Longxia successfully shut down 132 wild processing dens. In the process, they also dismantled 17 pyramid scheme operations hidden in residential areas.

By now, avoiding unidentified food had become a shared understanding among the people. Restaurants were conducting regular quality checks and inspections.

“We need stricter food safety regulations. Anyone caught selling this rotten Dead Meat should rot in prison for life!”

“Everyone must keep reporting—these people are as despicable as human traffickers!”

“Aaahhh, I miss meat so much. I just want to eat meat safely again!”

…

Many netizens voiced their support. Ever since the torrential rains in Longnan, the people had withstood the grain crisis, endured the vegetable shortage, and they would not allow themselves to be brought down by this man-made scourge!

At this moment, what everyone needed most was a safe food environment.

Amid the nationwide outcry, on April 27, Longxia’s Ministry of Health released a public statement:

1. Strengthen food safety and quarantine supervision in all markets. All market food must undergo quality inspections and be subject to public oversight.

2. Any Acid Rain-contaminated food that has not been quarantined is now classified as a Level 1 prohibited item. Illegal processing and sales can be punished by death.

3. Citizens are encouraged to report violations. Successful reports will be rewarded with both honor and cash prizes.

4. …

…

The Ministry of Health issued a total of 32 new regulations in response to the crisis, all centered around one core principle: severely punish food-related crimes and ensure the safety of the people’s meals.

These weren’t just empty words. With the announcement of the 32-point plan, a nationwide, full-spectrum food safety inspection was launched.

The people needed a safe food environment. Longxia needed a safe food environment. This time, the cooperation between the two sides was unprecedented.