Chapter 830: Too Much Meat Is Also a Worry

Hearing this, Wang An subconsciously looked at the dead pigs, and combining that with what Wang Li said, he was completely stunned.

Mainly, for an invincible slacker like Wang An, if skinning and butchering took an entire night, he might as well just be killed.

Damn, if you counted the piglets the dogs had bitten to death, there were a full 44 wild boars that needed to be skinned and butchered.

The key was that this mud wallow was located deep in the mountains; four-wheelers and hand-tractors couldn't drive in. In other words, after skinning and butchering these boars, he would still have to carry the meat down the mountain bit by bit.

Holy shit! He'd be worked to death!

And so, Wang An stared with wide eyes at the wild boar carcasses covering the ground for a long time. Once he snapped out of it, he said with a face full of distress

"Oh for fuck's sake, this really is a massive project!"

He had to admit, not having meat to eat was a worry, but having too much meat was also a fucking worry!

After thinking for a long while, Wang An said to Wang Li

"Old Fifth, drive the four-wheeler back right now and tell my dad about the situation here. Then, tell him to bring all the hired hands helping at home over in the four-wheeler."

Pausing for a moment, Wang An added

"No, with both people and pigs, one four-wheeler definitely won't be enough. How about this: when you come back, bring your family's hand-tractor too. Then have my dad hitch my gelding horses and the big stallion to the vehicles and bring them over. And bring your four horses as well."

After pondering for another while, Wang An spoke again

"Alright, hurry up and go. I'll stay here and guard the place, and cut some meat to feed the dogs while I'm at it."

After Wang An finished speaking, Wang Li didn't move. Instead, he said with a look of shock

"Fourth Brother, you mean... you want them to haul these wild boars back first and then skin and butcher them?"

Wang An nodded, then said with a matter-of-fact attitude

"Yup, absolutely. If I don't make use of that many people, wouldn't that be purely retarded?"

Hearing this, Wang Li blinked rapidly several times, his face full of disbelief.

Clearly, Wang An's flamboyant operation had completely shattered Wang Li's understanding of things.

Pushing your own work onto others to do—what kind of game was he playing?

After a while, seeing that Wang Li was still dazed and not moving, Wang An said impatiently

"Get moving! What the hell are you staring at so stupidly?"

Wang Li snapped back to reality and murmured

"Is it appropriate for us to do it this way? Those people are helping build the house; if we make them come into the mountains to carry pigs, will they even come?"

The reason Wang Li said "carry pigs" was that Wang An's family had a total of nine mules and horses, but two of the mares were pregnant and couldn't do heavy work.

As for Wang Li's family, they had four horses.

That meant the total number of working horses between the two families was only eleven, but there were a full fifteen large wild boars.

Moreover, not counting the large boars, there were another thirty-six piglets.

So it was obvious that after these people entered the mountains, the first thing they would have to do was carry those thirty-six piglets and the four large boars down the mountain.

One had to remember that Wang An and the other had run for over half an hour chasing the dogs before finding this herd, and that was while traveling light.

But in these roadless mountains, walking while carrying or hauling wild boars on their backs was definitely not an easy task.

Carrying heavy loads over mountains was practically every mountain dweller's nightmare; just thinking about it made one's scalp tingle!

Wang An gave Wang Li a look of disdain and said

"Look at you, acting like a coward. Do this: just tell them it's my word—once the pigs are skinned and butchered, everyone gets 10 catties of pork. No, 20 catties per person. Fuck, if they can't even do that, they're useless bastards."

Hearing Wang An say this, Wang Li finally smiled with a relaxed expression and said cheerfully

"If you put it that way, it's simple! 20 catties of pork would be worth about eight or nine yuan at the market right now. They'll definitely be overjoyed and rush over here."

Wang Li was right. Because no one was hunting during this season, the price of these "ticket-free" mountain animal meats had risen.

After all, while farm-raised pork tasted better, it not only required meat coupons but was also rationed; based on their coupons, a person could buy at most a catty or a half-catty before being cut off.

Therefore, in this season, any meat was a genuinely scarce resource, and a reasonable price hike was only natural.

After Wang Li finished, Wang An muttered to himself

"Now that I think about it, are we giving too much? These wild boars are skinny as hell; I reckon getting four or five slabs of belly meat per boar would be lucky. If those 15 large boars average 200 catties each, they'll yield 1,400 catties of meat at the absolute most."

At this point, Wang An suddenly asked

"About how many people are working at my house?"

Wang Li frowned and thought for a long time before saying uncertainly

"I think it's 24... or maybe 25."

After Wang Li spoke, Wang An muttered again

"If there are 25 men, that's 500 catties. Then the sisters-in-law and those two widows need a share too..."

After muttering for a while, Wang An finally said

"Fine, let's just do it. 20 catties per person. After distributing that, there'll still be over 800 catties of meat and those 36 little striped bastards left. That'll do."

After Wang An finished, he started muttering again.

Mainly, it was truly too difficult to catch game during this season; if he didn't calculate carefully, he really wouldn't be able to hold out.

But then again, if you didn't pay or didn't pay enough, no one would work for you.

Overall, one had to master the balance: keeping the helpers satisfied while ensuring one didn't lose too much.

Otherwise, with the kinship ties in the village, a slight lapse in attention could shatter those relationships.

Although he lived in his own separate household and could afford to ignore these social niceties, it wasn't worth ruining relationships over such a small matter.

Thinking of this, Wang An said

"Then hurry up and run back! Run fast, don't delay, or these pigs' guts will start to stink."

Wang Li nodded without answering and bolted back in a flash.

To be fair, he ran quite fast, zooming away.

After Wang Li left, Wang An didn't stay idle. He grabbed his hunting knife and walked toward the nearest wild boar.

As long as game was caught, no matter when it was, the mountain dogs could not be mistreated.

However, this time, Wang An didn't use meat to feed the dogs, but rather the wild boar's offal.

For dogs, the heart, liver, and lungs of a wild boar were far superior to the meat, whereas for humans, wild boar offal couldn't be kept for long during this season.

Therefore, using the offal to feed the dogs was absolutely the correct thing to do.

(End of Chapter)