Mrs. Wang nodded. "Alright, I need to see what else the old man and the young man brought back during the New Year. We'll go give them some return gifts tomorrow. We can't take advantage of them."
He is very clear-headed and knows not to take advantage of others.
Village chief Wang waved his hand and went back to the woodworking area to continue his work. Mrs. Wang went inside and took out all the gifts her youngest son had brought back. She was torn between two options, fearing that people would look down on her if it was a cheap item, and she couldn't bear to give up something too expensive.
It's just half a rabbit, it's too expensive and not suitable.
In the end, Mrs. Wang didn't choose anything. If it was too cheap, people would definitely not want it. If it was too expensive, people might not like it either, and it might not be appropriate to give it to them. When she was in a dilemma, Mrs. Wang thought of the old pickles in the cellar.
Everyone in the village liked the pickled vegetables she made, and there were even girls from the village who came to exchange them for pickled vegetables. It seemed more appropriate to give some pickled vegetables as a gift. Farm products were not valuable, and the intention was there. It was not like giving something from outside, so it could be considered a specialty.
Thinking of this, Mrs. Wang put everything back in place and went to the cellar to move a small jar of pickled vegetables.
When Village Chief Wang came back after finishing his handicraft work, he saw a small jar in the house. He knew what it was without opening it. "Why did you take this thing out? You won't need so much for breakfast tomorrow." The small jar can hold about two kilograms.
Two kilograms of old pickles is quite a large quantity.
When Wang Daya returned home, everyone had been waiting for a long time. Wang Daya smiled embarrassedly, "Mr. Yan, Comrade Zhong, Comrade Yan, Comrade Gu, Comrade Fang, Comrade Feng; I'm not back yet, so you can eat first."
"Let's not talk about that anymore. Come and have dinner together." Zhong Yuxiu smiled and invited everyone to sit down. "We were lucky today and caught a pheasant. Grandpa drank more chicken soup to replenish his body. Comrade Wang, Comrade Gong, Comrade Feng, Comrade Gu, and Comrade Fang, all ate to their heart's content. Comrade Feng Zheng cooked more than enough food, not only game, but also other meat dishes. It's more than enough for all of us."
Gu Lingguo smiled and nodded, agreeing; Fang Guozhong smiled and nodded slightly, without saying anything, but people could understand what he wanted to express.
Wang Daya chuckled, "Comrade Zhong, let's eat. You've been waiting for me for so long. If you don't eat now, the food will get cold."
"Eat." Zhong Yuxiu said, first serving the old man a bowl of chicken soup and passing it to him, "Grandpa, please have some."
Yan Guofeng narrowed his eyes in a smile and took the bowl. "You guys eat too. Things are different now. If you want to eat wild game, you can go to the mountains to hunt. Life is better now, and people are not interested in wild game anymore. Wild animals are smarter too. I still remember the difficult days during the Anti-Japanese War. We would stay in the mountains for two or three days just to eat a bite of meat. Back then, every bite of meat was so delicious that it is still fresh in my memory."
"It's not easy for us to eat wild game nowadays. Villagers kill wild game to exchange for money, but it's gone before they even reach the compound. It's so hard to eat wild game!" This sigh made Zhong Yuxiu and Yan Rushan look at each other and smile. "Grandpa, if you want to eat it in the future, tell us and we'll buy it for you, or we can go hunting with you."
Yan Guofeng glanced at him with disdain, "What hunting? Not everyone can enter the mountains. I took you hunting before, but you were still young then, and I'm afraid you don't even remember it now."
"I remember." Precisely because he remembered, and because he had trained in the army for many years; after being demoted, he was in good physical condition, and in order to eat something good, he always had to find a way, and over time he figured out a set of methods to catch wild animals.
"Do you really remember?" Yan Guofeng asked uncertainly, "You were only four or five years old at that time, what could you possibly remember?"
Yan Rushan said, "I vaguely remember that you and Grandpa Xu were on a business trip. Later, I don't know why you went hunting. At that time, you and Grandpa Xu were good marksmen, and you killed people with every shot."
"I really remember it!" Yan Guofeng beamed as he spoke of it. "At that time, we went to the mountains to observe the construction of the reservoir. Do you remember the largest reservoir in Shangjing? It was right around that mountain."
Yan Rushan thought about it carefully and finally remembered, "I know where it is. There are many large and small fish ponds nearby. They raise a lot of fish and shrimp of all kinds. The contractor is from a few nearby villages. I heard about it from a friend."
"Yeah, that's it. Everything about that place is good except it's too humid."
Yan Rushan nodded. "There's nothing wrong with humidity. It's good for growing vegetables, rice, and fish."
"It's true that people can't live there for years. The body can't bear it. But it's okay to keep food there."
The topic ended here. Yan Guofeng had dinner with everyone and drank three bowls of chicken soup in a row. The small bowls were about the size of a palm. So three bowls was not a lot. According to the old man's appetite, he didn't realize it.
"The wild game in the mountains is more fragrant and chewy than the farm-raised ones." Putting down his chopsticks, Yan Guofeng looked very satisfied, and his joy was about to overflow.
People who have been in high positions for many years have long learned to hide their emotions; however, now that he is a retired cadre, he still has a happy family, is accompanied by children and grandchildren, and leads a boring but carefree life as an old cadre. The characteristics in his personality have gradually weakened, revealing his true nature.
In daily life, he is less serious, sharp and unfathomable, but more like an elderly person enjoying retirement. If people who do not know his past see him now, they will think that he is kind and gentle, an old man who does not care about anything in reality.
"Grandpa likes it too. I'll have someone buy some back so you and Yuxiu can enjoy it every three to five days." Yan Rushan was very kind to his grandfather and his wife. "It would be great if we could raise pheasants and rabbits. We wouldn't have to go out and buy them. We could raise them in Zhongguancun and eat them whenever we wanted."
Yan Guofeng expressed his complete disdain for his eldest grandson. "Pheasants and rabbits are delicious because they're wild. They don't live in a comfortable environment like poultry. Poultry just eat and run around every day. Wildlife must follow the laws of nature, just like humans. The more experience a person has, the more they understand and the wiser they become. Wild animals are simply more chewy and flavorful than poultry. Farming them is impossible, and the resulting food will lack the original flavor."
"Grandpa is right. Although we can't raise them at home, we can try to contract a piece of mountain. We can fence it off and put pheasants and rabbits there to create an environment where they can survive. We can even raise other animals to form a food chain."
Zhong Yuxiu paused, and seeing that Yan Guofeng and Yan Rushan were listening attentively, she continued, "The environment we create will allow them to continue living like wild animals. By following their principles, we can naturally raise many wild animals."
If it is really successful, it may become a money-making project; throughout history, what is the most expensive and what is the rarest?
Naturally, things are valuable because they are rare. Wild animals will gradually disappear from people’s food menus in the next ten to twenty years. There are only a few people who really like to eat wild animals. When the country promulgates the Wildlife Protection Law, they will not be able to be hunted at will.
Pheasants, rabbits, and even snakes and roe deer can all make a lot of money.
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