Chapter 94 The black market in East Third Alley is actually quite humane!

The wild boar was hunted within the territory of the Bright Peak Brigade, so naturally it had to be handed over to them. When Mai Defu saw Jia Zhenzhen carrying a large wild boar down the mountain, his eyes nearly popped out of their sockets. He hurriedly went to meet her, but then, fearing she might lose her balance and the boar might fall and hit him, he took several steps back before speaking in a trembling voice:

"Young comrades, what's going on here? Where did this wild boar come from?"

Jia Zhenzhen threw the wild boar on the ground and clapped her hands: "Where else could it have come from? We hunted it in the mountains!"

Madford frowned. In previous years when the harvest was bad, wild boars would come down the mountain to ravage the crops. This year, apart from the higher temperature, there was nothing unusual. Why are wild boars coming down the mountain?

But who cares! This wild boar looks to weigh three or four hundred pounds, that's all meat!

Jia Zhenzhen clapped her hands: "The wild boar has been handed over. By the way, Captain Mai, could we borrow the brigade's cart for a bit? We need to haul some medicinal herbs later."

Medford wiped the drool from the corner of his mouth, his eyes never leaving the wild boar, and repeatedly agreed, "No problem, no problem, you can come to my house to get it yourself in a bit. But what should we do with this wild boar?"

Qin Suisui smiled and said, "We've handed it over; the captain can handle it as he sees fit." Anyway, they still had a wild boar.

After saying goodbye to Medford, Qin Suisui hurried to the educated youth settlement and helped Su Yunyi treat the antidote she had collected and apply it to her skin. After the fright and the ordeal, Su Yunyi fell into a deep sleep.

Xie Ting and Hu Zi stayed here to take care of her. Qin Sui Sui told them and went straight down the mountain to meet up with Jia Zhen Zhen.

Jia Zhenzhen had already carried the other wild boar down from the bushes where it had been hiding and placed it on the cart. Worried about attracting too much attention, she covered it with some branches and grass. The two of them then walked along the path down the mountain towards the town.

The temperature has been very high lately, and it's noon now. Everyone in the production team has finished work, and there are hardly any people around outside. Moreover, this is at the foot of the mountain, where there are usually few people, and there are even fewer people now.

The two of them walked furtively and nervously the whole way, but fortunately they didn't encounter anyone and arrived at East Third Alley without incident.

Before entering the black market, Qin Suisui took out some cosmetics from her spatial storage to slightly conceal their identities. It was better than nothing, but people who weren't particularly close to them wouldn't recognize them. After all, what they were doing wasn't exactly "honorable," and if someone discovered it and reported it, they would be subjected to public criticism.

The black market in East Third Alley was as bustling as ever. A wild boar weighing three or four hundred pounds entered and quickly attracted everyone's attention. After all, in those days, meat was a very precious commodity.

Several burly men, seeing that it was two "women" leading a wild boar, couldn't help but have their eyes on it. However, after Jia Zhenzhen very casually performed a demonstration of lifting the wild boar with her bare hands, they were quickly scared away.

A large shipment arrived at the black market, and the patrolling officers were bound to report it. Before long, Liang Qi, whom they hadn't seen in a long time, appeared in front of their stall.

Looking at this thuggish man, Qin Suisui couldn't help but shrink back behind Jia Zhenzhen, praying that he wouldn't recognize her.

Jia Zhenzhen thought she was scared, so she quickly straightened up and pulled her inside to cover her up.

Liang Qi seemed oblivious to the two men's subtle movements, simply standing there with his gaze lingering on the wild boar. Someone stepped forward to inspect it, then whispered a few words in his ear.

Liang Qi nodded and asked Jia Zhenzhen and Qin Suisui, "How much for your wild boar?"

Before they even arrived, the two had already discussed it. Wild boar meat usually costs 30 to 50 cents at the market, but theirs was freshly killed, very fresh, and still intact, so they'd definitely sell it for 50 cents a pound. Alternatively, they could exchange it with grain coupons—one pound of wild boar meat for five pounds of grain coupons. Of course, buying the whole animal would get them a discount.

After Liang Qi asked, Jia Zhenzhen revealed the price they had previously agreed upon.

I thought he would haggle, but Liang Qi paused for a moment and nodded: "This wild boar is fresh, and there's a big customer who wants it. I'll take the whole thing. I'll give you six cents a pound. Of course, you can exchange it for grain coupons or other things. One pound of wild boar meat can be exchanged for six pounds of grain coupons."

Jia Zhenzhen and Qin Suisui were both stunned. They had seen people haggle for lower prices before, but they had never seen anyone haggle for higher prices. However, they were the ones who would benefit, as selling the whole head would save them a lot of trouble. The two exchanged a glance and quickly nodded in agreement.

The wild boar was weighed, totaling 362 jin (approximately 181 kg) including skin and hair; Liang Qi hadn't even removed the weight of the skin and hair. In the end, he settled the accounts with Qin Suisui and her companion, paying them 180 yuan and 372 jin of grain coupons.

Thinking of something, Qin Suisui paused in counting money, looked up at Liang Qi, and asked, "Do you have piglets for sale?"

Jia Zhenzhen was taken aback, then pulled Qin Suisui aside and whispered, "What do you need piglets for? Can you raise pigs in the family compound?"

Qin Suisui casually made up an excuse to reply: "No, no, I was asking for someone else."

Liang Qi looked at her with interest: "We don't have any right now. If you want some, come back in three days to pick them up. How many do you want?"

Qin Suisui nodded and held up two fingers: "Two, one male and one female."

After selling the wild boar meat, the two prepared to head home. As they walked past a stall selling medicinal herbs, Qin Suisui, with her sharp ears, heard the words "coarse pine." Coarse pine, also known as red-shelled pine, is an endangered Chinese medicinal herb that is no less important than cycad.

Upon hearing those two words, Qin Suisui's attention was instantly drawn to them. She saw the stall owner and the person next to him whispering, "Really, in the wilderness forest?"

"It's true, my wife saw it, but she didn't recognize it at the time!"

"The wilderness is so vast, how are we supposed to find it?"

"They say that place is a V-shaped canyon, and at the bottom of the canyon..."

Wild forests, V-shaped canyons... Qin Suisui was shamefully tempted.

Ever since learning that Qin Suisui wanted to cultivate rare medicinal herbs, Jia Zhenzhen had dreamed of going to the wild with her to search for rare herbs, and had been studying diligently ever since. Naturally, she was also drawn to this passage.

The two exchanged a glance and quickly left the black market.

As soon as they came out, Jia Zhenzhen grabbed Qin Suisui's arm and stomped her foot: "Are we going or not? Are we going or not? Suisui, judging from what the stall owner said, there might be more than just one or two people going! We have to hurry!"

Qin Suisui nodded. She had originally planned to go alone; she had her spatial ability and her two companions, Dahei and Dahuang, making everything convenient. But then she thought again. The Wilderness Forest was vast, and searching for it would definitely take more than a day's round trip. Moreover, it was fraught with danger, and if she went alone and encountered any problems, there would be no one to offer advice. Jia Zhenzhen was strong and a very capable helper, so going together wouldn't be a bad idea!

The two quickly agreed on their plans for going out the next day. After splitting the money and tickets equally, Qin Suisui made an excuse that she had something to do and parted ways with Jia Zhenzhen. She changed her clothes and returned to the black market.

She came back to buy pork. Wild boar meat was too gamey and tough, and she didn't like it. She preferred domestic pork. When she came to the black market, she saw a pork stall not far from theirs; she had to hurry!

Pork is always in short supply, and quite a few people were already asking about prices at the stall. Luckily, she returned in time, and the pork wasn't completely sold out yet, but there weren't many left.

Qin Suisui regretfully only managed to buy two jin of pork ribs and a large pork leg.

Liang Qi saw her regretful look from afar, couldn't help but smile, waved to the people beside him, and whispered a few words.

Soon, a black market manager approached Qin Suisui: "Hello, would you like to buy pork again?"

Qin Suisui naturally recognized this as the manager and quickly nodded, "Yes! Yes! I'll take as many as you have!"

The manager wasn't surprised. He'd probably been in the black market for a long time and seen all sorts of people. He didn't say much, just led Qin Suisui to a room, poured her some tea, gave her some snacks, and told her to wait there for a while.

Looking at the fine West Lake Longjing tea and fresh Yunpian cake, Qin Suisui was amazed. She never expected that such a big customer of the black market would receive such good treatment!

She didn't have to wait long before the steward returned, followed by two other people carrying a domestic pig that had already been slaughtered and its hair removed.

"This is a local pig fed with concentrated feed such as soybean cake. It was just slaughtered and the offal has been cleaned. The pork weighs 186 jin in total, but we'll round it down to 180 jin for you."

Qin Suisui nodded and quickly took out her money from her pocket. She had already asked beforehand: pork was 65 cents a pound and offal was 35 cents a pound. Qin Suisui specifically asked for a few extra pieces of offal, planning to braise them when she got home.

180 jin of pork cost 117 yuan. A set of offal weighed over 20 jin, but was charged at 20 jin per set. Qin Suisui took three sets, totaling 21 yuan. After this trip, she actually lost a significant amount of money from selling wild boar. However, that was mostly due to good luck, and besides, she wasn't short of money!

The manager was very considerate and had someone help her carry the pork and offal to the designated location. He even offered to accompany her to "wait for someone to come and pick it up."

Qin Suisui politely declined. After the others left, she looked around for a long time to make sure no one was there before putting everything into her spatial storage.

On my way home, I was still marveling at how humane the black market in East Third Alley was. Not only were the goods cheap, but they also proactively rounded down the price, and the people were so kind! There are indeed more good people than bad in this world! I'll buy things here from now on!

With a whole set of pork and three sets of offal in the space, she'd have enough to keep her busy for a long time. Once she bought piglets, raised them to adulthood, and then let them breed, she'd never lack pork again!

I still haven't had a chance to eat the roe deer meat I bought at the black market in Northeast China. I'll have to figure it out properly when I get back...

Thinking of the black market in Northeast China inevitably brought to mind the attack she had been attacked outside the black market, which frightened her so much that she quickened her pace.

When she got home, it was already past three in the afternoon. Qin Suisui went into her space and ate some of the things she had made earlier, and then went to the Bright Peak Brigade to check on Su Yunyi.

Su Yunyi had woken up, but she was still not feeling well. Qin Suisui took her pulse and found that the remaining poison in her body had been cleared; the main problem was the shock she had suffered. So she gave her some calming medicine, stayed with her for a while, and then left.

As they passed the brigade headquarters, Madford chased after him, shouting, "Comrade Qin! Comrade Qin! Wait a minute! You haven't taken your pork yet!"

Qin Suisui stopped her bicycle, turned around in confusion, and saw Mai Defu carrying several pieces of pork: "The wild boar you hunted weighed nearly 400 jin. We divided one piece for the military region and shared the other among our own brigade. We'll also give you and Comrade Jia 15 jin each. Comrade Jia's has already been taken. Here, this is yours!"

Qin Suisui took it and saw that most of the fifteen catties of meat were top-quality pork belly, and the rest were lean meat. It was clear that Mai Defu had carefully selected them.

She naturally wouldn't refuse such kindness, and happily thanked them. Although wild boar meat isn't as delicious as domestic pork, it's still quite nice to eat it occasionally.

Back home, she began packing for her trip to the wilderness the next day.

The wild forest is teeming with mosquitoes, so a mosquito repellent sachet is essential. There might even be some unknown creatures inside. We can't rely on Jia Zhenzhen alone. She makes some strange and unusual powders that may be effective on humans, but we don't know if they'll work on animals, so we'll bring some of those as well.

Oh right... Zhang Zhiqing had also confiscated two daggers from that hideout in town. Qin Suisui quickly found them. She didn't know what material these two daggers were made of. They were as thin as a hummingbird's hyoid bone and extremely light, but they could cut through iron like mud. They were great for self-defense!