Era: Seven money-losing girls? They're trying to trick me into having a daughter again!

"Alright, alright."

Village Chief Zhou patted Aunt Tian's hand and said, "Look over there, Fang Wei led his men to kill that pig."

Aunt Tian looked at Fang Wei, who was standing next to the boar's carcass, through teary eyes.

Fang Wei was looking down at the machete in his hand. His face, neck, and undershirt were covered in dried, blackened pig's blood, and his hair was stuck together in clumps by the blood plasma.

Seeing him like that, Aunt Tian suddenly stopped crying.

She stared at the cleaver in Fang Wei's hand, which was still dripping blood, her lips moved twice, but she swallowed back her sobs.

Not just Aunt Tian, ​​everyone's eyes in the threshing ground shifted from the pig carcass to Fang Wei.

The way these villagers looked at him had completely changed.

Previously, whenever Fang Wei made money, some villagers would sourly say that he was just a lucky gambler, but this time no one dared to say such things anymore.

Fang Wei felt the gazes directed at him and looked up to scan them in return.

Without exception, everyone who met his gaze lowered their head.

Lai Gouzi stared at the machete in Fang Wei's hand. If the bald old man behind him hadn't helped him up, he probably would have already fallen to the ground.

"Listen to me, everyone!"

Village Chief Zhou shouted at the top of his lungs.

The buzzing discussions in the threshing ground gradually subsided.

"Yesterday, Laotang Village suffered a major disaster! Several families' crops were completely destroyed by wild boars!"

Village Chief Zhou's voice grew louder and louder, "If we don't fight them, those beasts will come down the mountain and destroy the crops!"

"It won't just be Aunt Tian and her family who suffer then; all of our land will be affected! Do you understand?!"

Someone responded softly.

"Last night, Dawei and his men fought tooth and nail against those eight wild boars at the foot of the back mountain!"

Village Chief Zhou pointed in Fang Wei's direction.

"Look at David! Look at all the blood on him! He jumped down from the tree, mounted that boar, and stabbed it to death with a machete!"

"Who among you has the guts to do this? Who does? Step forward and let me see!"

No one spoke; everyone watched Fang Wei in silence.

"Since you know you don't have the ability, I'll just be frank."

Village Chief Zhou roared, veins bulging on his neck, "Fang Wei is a great hero of our Laotang Village! Don't you agree?!"

"yes!!!"

I don't know who started it, but a burst of applause rang out.

Fang Wei smiled politely, planted the machete on the ground, and stood up straight.

After Village Chief Zhou finished speaking, several of the village's most experienced butchers arrived with their own pig-slaughtering knives and whetstones.

One, two, three large iron pots were set up beside the threshing ground, the water in the pots boiling and bubbling, and white steam rising upwards.

Several young men carried wooden buckets and poured scalding hot water onto the wild boar, bucket after bucket.

The hot steam sizzled as it hit the pigskin, softening the pig hair and causing it to fall off in clumps.

The old butcher held a scraping knife, the blade against the pigskin, scraping downwards with a swish, swish, swish, scraping off the bristles, all of which were covered in mud and half-dried blood.

After removing the hair, they started gutting the animal.

The old butcher's knife sliced ​​down the center line of the pig's belly.

The blade sliced ​​through the thick skin and flesh, revealing a layer of white fat.

Once the incision reached the chest cavity, a surge of hot air rushed out, carrying a strong smell of blood and the pungent odor of internal organs.

Fang Wei stood by the side the whole time and didn't leave.

He had already spoken to Village Chief Zhou beforehand, and all the pig stomachs had to be given to him.

When the old butcher pulled the first pig's stomach out of the sow's abdominal cavity, it was still dripping with dark green digestive fluid.

Fang Wei immediately reached out and took it.

The pig's stomach was large and thick, with a sticky surface that felt like soaked cowhide.

However, it is a very good traditional Chinese medicine, and it has a remarkable effect on treating stomach ailments.

Wild boars eat everything and can withstand all kinds of germs in their stomachs. The thicker the boils on a boar's stomach, the better the medicine works.

Soon, all eight wild boar stomachs were collected.

Fang Wei tied the sack tightly and placed it at his feet.

Everyone's eyes were glued to the cut-out pieces of white fat and lean hind leg meat.

After the abdomen is opened and gutted, the next step is to remove the bones and weigh the meat.

Several large scales were brought out and hung on a makeshift wooden frame.

The old butchers wielded their cleavers, the blades striking the bones with dull thuds, white bone fragments splattering everywhere.

One by one, the pieces of clean meat were lifted onto the weighing pan, and the weights on the scale were moved back and forth by a hand.

"This fan—weighs forty-eight jin!"

"This fan weighs fifty-two and a half jin!"

The old butcher was weighing the goods and shouting out the numbers at the top of his lungs, while a literate young man squatted on the ground next to him, using a twig to do addition on the muddy ground.

After the last piece of meat was weighed, the young man added the numbers back up, then stood up, his lips trembling, and said, "One...one thousand two hundred—one thousand two hundred and thirty-seven catties!"

The threshing ground fell silent for a moment.

Someone yelled at the top of their lungs, "How much did you say?!"

"Over 1200 jin!!! Pure meat!!!"

When the young man shouted it again, the entire threshing ground erupted in chaos.

"1200 pounds?! Holy crap?! Over 1200 pounds of meat!!!"

"I've lived for decades... and I've never seen so much meat piled up together in my entire life..."

"A mountain of gold! This is a fucking mountain of gold!!!"

Several old butchers raised their hands, covered in lard, into the air, ignoring the blood and oil dripping from their wrists to their elbows, and just laughed heartily with their heads tilted back.

Over 1,200 pounds of pure meat!

In a time when even a feast of pork stew might not be possible during the Lunar New Year, this is a gold mine that has appeared out of nowhere in Laotang Village!

Fang Wei carried the sack to Village Chief Zhou's side, whispered something, and then turned and left the threshing ground alone.

By the time he got home, the sun was already high in the sky.

The courtyard was quiet, with a faint smell of firewood wafting from the kitchen.

Hearing the sound of the gate opening, Wu Shaoli stuffed the firewood she was holding into the stove, stood up, and went outside. When she saw the blood-soaked figure in the yard, she immediately exclaimed, "Dawei?!"

She knew that Fang Wei and the others had returned from hunting pigs, and that most of the villagers had gathered at the threshing ground.

But because she had too many children at home, she couldn't leave, so she could only suppress her anxiety and wait patiently at home.

"It's alright, it's all pig's blood."

Seeing Wu Shaoli's worried expression, Fang Wei immediately smiled and comforted her.

He put away all his clothes, leaving only his underwear, and scooped out the icy well water from the water vat, holding it above his head and pouring it down.

Well water flowed down his neck, over his chest, and over the taut muscles of his stomach, mixing with dried pig's blood to form a pale red stream that trickled down his legs and onto the ground.