Effortlessly dragging two wild boars down the mountain, his arm muscles bulging with faintly visible blue veins, everyone present drew in a sharp breath of cold air.
Compared to the twelve-man wild boar hunting squad that had come down the mountain earlier empty-handed—two seriously injured, ten lightly injured—this newly found Wan Feng was simply too frightening.
Sun Weiguo was the first to react. Amid his astonishment, he hurried forward: “This, this—Wan Feng, these wild boars, you hunted them?”
As he spoke, he couldn’t stop swallowing several times, not knowing whether it was from shock or greed.
“Picked them up. These wild boars ran and ran and crashed into a tree.” Wan Feng wore a blank expression, as if he were talking about picking up cabbages somewhere. “Just finished them off. I heard this wild boar meat can be distributed?”
“Yes!” Sun Weiguo figured the two wild boars had exhausted a lot of energy after being surrounded by twelve people, and had just lost their direction and crashed in front of Wan Feng. This man’s luck was truly good. “Quick, get Li San’er to slaughter the pigs! Every household gets meat. The twelve households that went up the mountain to hunt get extra. Wan Feng gets extra too.”
These were all great heroes!
These past few days, the Red Star Production Team had had a lot of news and gossip. The gossip had mainly centered on Wan Decai and Lin Cui. Everyone had paid some attention to Old Wan’s found only son for a while, then lost much interest—after all, days always return to calm.
Until this moment, it seemed everyone finally truly looked at this man who had been away from home for years. It was nothing short of shocking.
Although Wan Feng claimed the wild boars had crashed into a tree and he’d picked them up, just the fact that this man could seemingly effortlessly drag a several-hundred-catty wild boar down the mountain with one hand made his strength self-evident.
Li San’er, the team’s usual pig slaughterer, sharpened his knife eagerly. Under everyone’s excited gazes, he slaughtered the pigs on the spot. One cut, and blood gushed…
The two wild boars totaled nine hundred fifty-two catties. When the number was announced, the crowd was stirred up. The Red Star Production Team had truly struck it rich! Apart from the parts of the wild boars that were truly too tough, half was confiscated and handed over. The remaining half was divided among the brigade’s total of thirty-two households, each household getting six catties of meat. The educated youth point was counted by head, each person getting one catty of meat. Each of the twelve-man hunting squad got an additional fifteen catties. As for Wan Feng, the great hero who had brought the wild boars down the mountain, Sun Weiguo—considering his outstanding merit and that he had no one to rely on and was living under someone else’s roof—simply gave him fifty catties of meat.
“Good boy, your strength is impressive.” Sun Weiguo patted the younger man’s arm, only feeling the texture beneath his hand was hard and stiff—truly alarming. “You’ve been away from the team for so many years. How about you cut and distribute the meat for everyone? It’ll be a good chance to get familiar with everyone. After all, quite a few here fed you a meal back in the day.”
As brigade leader, he had to handle trivial matters and organize all kinds of interpersonal relationships properly. Helping Wan Feng, who had been away too long, readjust to brigade life was equally important.
“What benefit is there to this task?” Wan Feng glanced lightly at Sun Weiguo, looking down at him.
After all, in the apocalypse, asking him to do a task required giving rich rewards—gasoline, handguns, potions…
Sun Weiguo: “…”
That was such an outlandish thing to say!
Considering Wan Feng now had no parents and no family of his own, Sun Weiguo generously said: “Chop the pork and distribute it to everyone, and I’ll reward you with an extra five catties of pork.”
With sixty-one catties of pork to settle in with, Wan Feng would surely get through this year well.
The pigs were slaughtered and bled. The thick pork was laid on benches and carried by two strong men to the cutting board. The fat, trembling pork didn’t smell good at this moment—wild boar meat was even rougher than domestic pork. But for the villagers who rarely ate meat and whose stomachs were clear soup and plain water, this was nothing short of the best thing.
Lin Cui calculated her family’s pork in her heart: six catties per household plus the extra fifteen catties her second brother had earned going up the mountain—twenty-one catties of meat in total! Who wouldn’t be gluttonous!
“Second brother, you’re really amazing. When the time comes, you great hero should eat a few extra pieces of meat.” The rough wild boar meat had already automatically transformed in Lin Cui’s mind into braised pork, stir-fried pork, twice-cooked pork, steamed pork with rice flour, preserved vegetable pork belly…
“What’s so amazing about me? That Wan Feng is the amazing one.” Lin Wei had fought those two wild boars at close range. If not for his fairly agile footwork, he would have had his waist broken on the spot.
Such fierce wild boars had actually been dragged down the mountain by Wan Feng as easily as dragging dead dogs.
Lin Wei was dumbfounded. Was this still human?
Following her second brother’s gaze, Lin Cui raised her eyes and looked ahead. She saw a tall man in black clothes with his back to this side, washing his hands and preparing to chop pork.
The knife rose and fell. The fat, trembling pork separated. The brigade leader was arranging for Accountant Zhao to help Wan Feng weigh the portions, but before long, he discovered the scale seemed unnecessary.
No one knew what was going on with this man. Never mind his great strength—every time he chopped pork, it came out to exactly six catties. Truly miraculous.
Sun Weiguo watched this big young fellow effortlessly chop meat, casually tossing the pork onto the cutting board for the farmers queued up to receive wild boar meat. He couldn’t help but sigh. The student truly surpassed the master.
The line for wild boar meat was long. All thirty-two households had sent representatives. After receiving their meat, they registered and checked off with Accountant Zhao, and that was that.
The knife rose and fell. The precise weight never erred. The newly promoted “butcher” was fine in every way. His only flaw was being unapproachable. Several elders spoke up, several younger ones tried to negotiate, wanting to pick their cuts, wanting fattier meat. But Wan Feng bought none of it. Without a sound, he just chopped meat.
Lin Cui volunteered to collect the pork. From time to time, she gazed ahead, feeling life was beautiful. Days with meat to eat were truly bubbling with happiness. As the line gradually shortened, something went wrong up front. The line stalled.
Looking past the line from where she stood, Lin Cui saw from afar the village’s Widow Zhou, whose husband had died, standing before the cutting board. She didn’t reach out to take her six catties of wild boar meat. Instead, unhurriedly, she spoke to the man chopping meat.
“Comrade Wan Feng, you’re really amazing. You can drag wild boars down the mountain, and you chop pork so well too.”
Whispers rose all around. Widow Zhou acted as if she saw nothing, still throwing flirtatious glances at the tall man behind the cutting board.
Someone who loved meddling immediately crossed their arms and teased: “Widow Zhou, what do you mean by this? Even taking a fancy to a young man?”
“None of your business!” Widow Zhou was considered delicate-skinned and soft-fleshed in the village. Her looks were decent too. Even as she turned to roll her eyes, there was lingering charm.
Since her useless husband died, Widow Zhou didn’t care about any gossip. Whatever she took a fancy to, she wanted. Especially today, having witnessed Wan Feng drag wild boars down the mountain and effortlessly chop pork, that surging, powerful strength made one’s heart itch even more.
“Comrade Wan Feng, are you hot? Take this handkerchief of mine to wipe your sweat…”
Unfortunately, the falling flowers had intent, but the flowing water had none. Widow Zhou’s flirtatious glances seemed thrown to a blind man. Just as she was about to raise her hand and hold out the handkerchief to wipe the man’s sweat, the cleaver flew out and planted itself right beside Widow Zhou’s hand, only inches away.
Frightened, Widow Zhou bit her lip and left unwillingly, turning back three times as she walked, still fixated on such a man. Until, passing by the line, there seemed to be waves of fragrance drifting.
Lin Cui knew this was the vanishing cream sold at the town’s supply and marketing cooperative—five yuan a box, so expensive people couldn’t bear to buy it. Last year on her birthday, her parents had bought her a box. This was exactly that scent.
Second Uncle Wan’s son should be twenty-three this year. Widow Zhou was already thirty-two. Lin Cui never would have imagined that Widow Zhou had taken a fancy to such a young man.
At her ear seemed to echo Widow Zhou’s teasing words from last time—when finding a man, find one big enough and hard enough, otherwise it’s like living as a widow…
Pulling back her gaze, Lin Cui looked straight ahead. As the line continued to shorten, only three or four meters away, the man behind the cutting board was silent and powerful.
That vigorous muscle bulged against the black short sleeve, as if about to burst through the fabric. The cleaver casually tossed onto the cutting board—its blade fierce, sunk in deep, cold light glinting on both sides.
After Widow Zhou left dejectedly, Wan Feng easily pulled out the cleaver and raised his hand to chop meat. His muscles swelled and flexed, full of shocking power.
The legs wrapped in black trousers beneath the cutting board were thick and strong. Standing there, he seemed as steady as a pillar stabilizing the sea.
The earlier interlude was like a bit of entertainment to pass the time while everyone happily collected pork. Lin Cui wasn’t surprised to find that, apart from the boldly daring Widow Zhou openly throwing flirtatious glances, there were also several young girls nearby who didn’t dare look at the man behind the cutting board, only occasionally stealing a glance, then immediately withdrawing their gaze.
Lin Cui was different. She stared intently ahead, unwilling to move her gaze for even a moment. The excitement and fondness in her eyes couldn’t be hidden, directly shooting out rippling waves of light.
Having distributed pork to over twenty farming households, Wan Feng was long accustomed to all kinds of gazes around him—whether those who desperately came up wanting to touch him, or those who secretly glanced at him from time to time. For a man who had come from the apocalypse, with keen hearing and sight and superhuman perception, nothing ever escaped him.
Except for one place—2.3 meters ahead, a gaze came rushing over, blazing, burning, never wavering, always steadfast.
Having chopped six catties of meat and tossed it onto the cutting board ahead, Wan Feng inadvertently raised his eyes and happened to crash into a pair of water-like eyes.
Those eyes were burning and fervent. In their slightly dilated pupils was his own reflection, as if the temperature of summer had been plucked ahead of time and poured over all at once.
The woman who had last crashed into his chest was now staring at him so directly again, once after another, as if sending him some kind of signal.
The line ahead finished. Finally, it was Lin Cui’s turn. The excited girl suppressed the wild pounding of her heart and, with starry eyes, looked at the man chopping meat. She bit her lip lightly and greedily tried her luck: “Hello, Comrade Wan Feng. Can you cut me six catties of pork belly?”
Being able to eat meat—how wonderful!
If she could get pork belly, that would be best of all!
Wan Feng looked into those eyes. The hand gripping the knife paused. The blade veered off by a fraction.