"Seriously, raising a furry animal is no different from raising a child. You can take good care of it, but it might not grow well. However, if you don't take good care of it, it definitely won't grow well."

Look how clean your pigsty is! Hey, is your floor made of stone slabs?

That's quite a lavish expense. Even ordinary families wouldn't dare pave their houses with flagstones; this is truly a case of humans being worse off than pigs!

Han Sifang's remark delighted Qian San.

Because the Zhao family's pigs were of good quality, but Manager Han hadn't yet tasted them, he didn't dare place an order immediately.

So, the Zhao family held a pig-slaughtering feast.

They brought a 300-pound spotted pig to the piglets. The pig's fat was three fingers thick, which is very rare. Normally, pork with two fingers thick of fat is considered fat.

The pig-slaughtering feast couldn't just be for Manager Han alone, so Village Chief Zhao Jinfeng and the clan elders were also invited.

Since he started raising pigs, Zhao Jinfa has been spending his free time wandering around his pigsty.

Although the pigs we ate today weren't from our own farm, the secret recipe for raising them was the same. Zhao Jinfa's eyes lit up after the first bite.

"Qianci, who cooked this dish? You must have used a lot of seasonings, how come it doesn't smell fishy or gamey?"

Zhao Qianci picked up a slice of boiled pork and placed it in Zhao Jinfa's bowl.

"Cousin, try this. It's boiled in plain water with nothing added."

Zhao Jinfeng exclaimed in admiration once again.

"Is this really made without any seasoning? It tastes so good, there's not a single strange flavor."

I never knew pork could taste this good! Haha, I always thought pork had a gamey smell.

Han Sifang ate with his mouth full of oil.

Over the years, he has only eaten beef and mutton, as well as chicken and fish; he almost never touches pork.

Of course, some families of certain social standing rarely eat pork.

Pork, which has always been considered food for the poor, is actually so delicious. Its taste is completely different from beef and mutton.

After finishing their meal, Han Sifang really wanted to pack up all the remaining pork from the Zhao family and take it with him.

The Zhao family was very reluctant to part with him, but Huang made the decision and only gave him two catties of meat to take with him, leaving Han Sifang both amused and exasperated.

They agreed that the Zhao family would purchase their pork at a price of 35 wen per jin, and signed a purchase contract.

Tomorrow, we'll send someone to take away the 50 largest ones first. We hope the Zhao family can feed the rest more so they can grow even bigger.

Because the pigs in the village chief's family and the other villagers' families were not very big, the first batch was purchased only from the Zhao family.

When the villagers learned that the Zhao family was buying pork for 30 wen per jin (500g),

Those who dared to raise pigs with us are overjoyed, while those who didn't are heartbroken, as if they've lost a loved one.

Envy and jealousy were not absent.

Sure enough, the Zhao family's door was knocked on early in the morning.

It wasn't just one or two people who came; it was basically the entire village.

There were too many people, so they couldn't all be allowed into Green Mountain Lodge, given the precedent of the Zhao family's previous wedding celebration.

Huang came down from the mountain.

"Folks, what's going on so early in the morning?"

One of the people who had signed a contract with the Zhao family said, "Auntie, I'm sorry to bother you so early in the morning."

"Is it true that you're buying live pigs at 30 wen per jin (500 grams) instead of stopping?"

Upon receiving an affirmative answer, the man was overjoyed and kept turning the millstone around.

"Auntie, when can you take my pigs away?" someone else asked.

“You’ve been feeding the piglets well these past few days. My pigs aren’t going to be taken away all at once. This isn’t the first 50 of the biggest ones we’re taking.”

I heard that the largest one in your family is probably only around 200 pounds. That won't do. You still have to be willing to feed it, especially don't be afraid of wasting firewood.

The pig feed must be cooked thoroughly before feeding it to the pigs.

Don't worry about food. I remember I asked you to come to my field to pick sweet potato leaves before, right?

Although we no longer have sweet potato leaves, we still have seeds at home, so we can sell some to everyone.

These sweet potato seeds have an extremely high yield. As you all probably know, the ones my family planted before were all confiscated by the imperial court.

Potatoes cost 10 coins per pound, and sweet potatoes cost 8 coins per pound.

You don't need to buy too much. If you plant one mu (0.067 hectares) of sweet potatoes, you can harvest about 6,000 jin (3,000 kg) of sweet potatoes. The yield of potatoes is slightly lower, about 3,000 jin (1,500 kg) per mu.

When I plant them at home, you should all come and learn from me.

Once you've planted it once, you'll have seeds and food at home, which will only take a few months.

The biggest advantage of Lingnan Prefecture is that the four seasons are not distinct, so we can plant seeds at any time.

"Is there anything else?" Huang asked.

Among the families who hadn't cooperated with the Zhao family, one of them asked,

"Hey auntie, my family didn't raise pigs with yours before, so can I still learn from you?"

Huang laughed heartily upon hearing this.

"Hey. I thought it was something serious."

Of course you can. But the agreement still needs to be signed. Like I said before, if you want to make money, watch your mouth.

But please don't make them as loose as those cotton pants waistbands.

By then, none of us will have made any money. Don't you all agree?

Huang is completely different now than before. Her family has a scholar who passed the imperial examination at the county level, and in the future, there may be scholars who pass the provincial examination and even the imperial examination.

The villagers must unite. Even if there were some frictions before, they are not mortal enemies, so there is no need to continue to take it seriously.

Besides, there are many ways to deal with people, such as putting them in a sack or hitting them with a club, which she is very good at.

Now people say they're learning pig farming from my family, and it's not like they're learning for nothing, right?

She can earn at least 5 coins per pound of meat; this old woman is not greedy at all.

Is it too much to charge them one tael of silver per pig, based on a weight of 200 jin (100 kg)? Not at all.

Who would have thought that the once open and honest old lady would turn from innocent to wicked just because of a change in her family's social status?

Those families who hadn't previously learned pig farming from the Zhao family were incredibly excited when they received confirmation.

"Auntie, thank you for your kindness and generosity. You didn't hold a grudge and still taught us. You even gave us good seeds. This is a great kindness."

I, Dong Cuihua, will never speak ill of your family again.

After saying that, Dong Cuihua immediately covered her mouth. Why did she blurt out everything in her excitement?

Huang and everyone else burst into laughter.

Manager Han brought people to haul away the pigs. Several oxcarts also arrived.

The villagers were incredibly envious when they saw the Zhao family's fat pigs being loaded onto the truck.

With the same skills, how come the pigs raised by the Zhao family are so big?

Another group of people surrounded Qian San, chattering away.

"Every family in your family raises children, and those who eat a few more bites of food generally grow up to be fair-skinned and chubby."

The one who only gets a few bites of wild vegetable cakes all day long will definitely be as skinny as a monkey, it's the same principle. You have to be willing to feed them. Okay, I'm busy now.

Just a heads-up, the pigsty needs to be cleaned thoroughly every day, otherwise you'll regret it if it gets diseased.