"What price are you thinking?"
The man pondered for a moment. "Five pounds of meat for one pound of salt. For larger quantities, I can drop it to four pounds."
Qin Ziwen shook his head. "Too expensive."
The man frowned. "That's a fair price. Zhang Bo's coarse salt costs four pounds of meat per pound of salt, and his has more impurities and worse taste. How can it compare to my modern refined salt? Besides, these salt supplies are limited - once they're gone, they're gone forever. They're collector's items."
Qin Ziwen shook his head again. "Not necessarily collector's items. There's something you might not know - at most within a month, the residential complex will experience a second transmigration. After that transmigration, new residents will join. Who wouldn't stockpile some salt at home? If there can be a second time, there can be a third. Salt won't be cut off, and yours aren't collector's items either."
The man froze, eyeing him suspiciously. "How do you know there will be a second transmigration?"
"I've also obtained cards. Everyone who activated the Home system should know this information." Qin Ziwen sounded slightly surprised. "Didn't Zhang Bo tell you?"
The man stood stunned, his expression gradually darkening, though he still didn't fully believe it. After all, this was just Qin Ziwen's word.
Qin Ziwen continued, "This information isn't hard to verify. Just ask anyone who has cards and you'll know. I wouldn't use such a clumsy lie to deceive you."
After speaking, he turned to leave, but before completely turning away, he added, "If you still want to trade after confirming, come find me at Building 8, Unit 2, Room 602. Three pounds of meat for one pound of salt."
Watching his retreating back, the man said nothing, then turned and left himself.
Twenty minutes later, the man arrived at Room 602 carrying a large box.
Qin Ziwen wasn't surprised by his arrival. "Got it confirmed?"
"Let's go with your price. How much do you want?"
Qin Ziwen looked at the cardboard box in his hands. "How many pounds in this box?"
"Forty pounds. Four hundred grams per bag, fifty bags in this box."
"I'll take it all." As Qin Ziwen spoke, Qin Ziwu emerged from the kitchen behind him, carrying half a wild boar carcass.
The pork still had thick skin and fur, with blood coagulated at the cut surfaces. Just from the size of this half carcass, one could imagine how formidable the wild boar must have been when alive.
From just this section of torso, one could roughly judge that its owner had been quite large during its lifetime, definitely not one of those small wild boars.
The man gave them a wary glance. "Impressive."
They used the scale on site to weigh it. After washing off the mud from the fur, this half carcass still weighed 124 pounds.
Qin Ziwen said, "There are some bones in here, so the pure meat weight isn't that much. Let me supplement another twenty pounds of fresh meat for you."
"No need to supplement, this half carcass is fine." The man let out a long sigh of relief.
Just this half boar carcass alone would be enough for him and the two elderly people in his family to eat comfortably for a month.
He could handle being hungry himself, but watching his elderly parents go hungry along with him made him feel terrible.
Hesitating for a moment, the man said, "Can the meat stay here with you for now? Let's complete the trade in the evening. It's too conspicuous during the day."
If he dared to swagger through the residential complex carrying such a large piece of pork in broad daylight, people would be lining up to "borrow" meat from him before nightfall.
Qin Ziwen said, "I don't mind, but this meat will spoil easily if left out. Don't you want to take it back early to preserve it? By the way, since we've agreed to trade, you should leave at least 1/3 of the salt as deposit with me. Otherwise, if you don't come back for it, and I leave this meat outside all day, it'll all go bad."
"No need, I'll leave it all with you." The man placed the box of salt on the ground, hesitated for a moment, then said, "Could I ask you to help preserve the meat? I won't let you work for free - whatever salt gets used in the process, I'll replenish it when I come back tonight, and you can take three pounds of meat too."
Qin Ziwen joked, "People with plenty of salt sure speak confidently!"
The man didn't know whether to laugh or cry at this comment. "Actually, I've regretted hoarding salt ever since I did it. Every time my mother cooks and I say the food is too salty, she scolds me about it."
Since the other party trusted him and was being so generous, Qin Ziwen naturally wouldn't be stingy. "Alright, we'll help you preserve the meat. The salt used in preserving will probably be quite substantial, so be prepared for that."
"I know, don't worry."
After the man left, Qin Ziwen distributed the salt with Deng Guang and Zhao Pu.
According to proportion, each of them took ten pounds of salt.
The two directly brought half of their wild boar meat from home.
Calling both families, the seven of them worked for most of the day, finally cutting all two hundred-plus pounds of pork into small strips and preserving them.
"You're going to smoke it directly?" Zhao Pu was somewhat surprised when he heard Qin Ziwen's meat preservation method.
Deng Guang nodded. "Yeah."
Zhao Pu said, "Back in my hometown, we would first press the preserved meat with stones in a shady spot to help remove blood, then remove excess salt from the surface, hang it in a ventilated, dry place to air dry. Some people would smoke the meat after pressing it too."
Qin Ziwen thought Zhao Pu's method sounded pretty good. The core of air drying and smoking was dehydration, and this step could speed up dehydration. "Then let's try it."
They found some bluestones, washed them clean, then placed the meat in basins. After finishing the work, everyone washed their hands.
Qin Ziwen said, "Let's go, we should check the fish trap locations first."
Since they were resting at home today, they should try to complete as many tasks as possible, then focus entirely on going up the mountain.
In the afternoon, after going out, they contacted Wei Zhaohua and Li Yue, and the group came to the riverbank.
After a day of settling, the river was no longer as turbulent as yesterday. Being in mountainous terrain with steep topography, floodwaters couldn't accumulate well, and the water level had dropped significantly.
But the air still carried a faint fishy smell and damp earth scent.
By the river, many people were gathering fish, while others were searching for crabs and eels in mud holes.
"This spot should work." Qin Ziwen came to the place where he and Deng Guang had fished before. The water level had risen considerably, but from the surrounding terrain, they could still determine the approximate previous location.
"Yeah, this indented area - some fish should be hiding in here."
While speaking, he guided them to slowly lower the fish traps into the water.
Qin Ziwen gave Li Yue and the others various precautions, especially about dangerous fish species in the river.
"Brother Qin, don't worry, I'll keep an eye on things." Li Yue cheerfully pulled a notebook from his pocket. "By the way, Brother Qin, this is something I've been working on. I had to consult various sources to determine this steel formula. You can try it out first, and I've also written down a simple furnace construction method."
"You've worked hard. Your family's meat supply must be running low. I'll have Xiao Wu bring you another two pounds of meat later."
"Not hard work, it's what I should do." Li Yue patted his chest.
The golden retriever wagged its tail, circling around Li Yue.
Compared to previous days, the golden retriever looked somewhat thinner, clearly not having eaten well recently. However, its spirits were still good, tongue lolling out as it stayed close to its owner.