Lin Yuxi found a spot off to the side, set down her basket, and pulled aside the dry grass covering it.
The moment people saw the pheasants and rabbits, a small crowd gathered. In those days, getting a bite of meat wasn’t easy. You needed not only money, but ration coupons—and even then, you still might not be able to buy any.
In the end, the two pheasants sold for four yuan (the smaller one) and six yuan (the bigger one). The rabbit was plump, around seven or eight pounds, and sold for seven yuan.
Lin Yuxi looked at the seventeen yuan in her hand, along with a one-pound meat coupon. She had originally asked seven yuan for the larger pheasant, but the buyer gave her a meat coupon to make up one yuan.
The buyer felt he’d gotten a bargain, and Lin Yuxi was just as pleased—she preferred pork anyway. Just thinking about braised pork made her mouth water.
She didn’t sell the wild eggs. Those she kept for herself.
After selling everything, she wandered around the black market to see if there was anything she needed.
That’s when she spotted a small pot. It wasn’t even as big as the ladle she’d used in her previous life, but it was more than enough for her alone.
It cost her five yuan—expensive, but no coupons required! If she bought it at a supply and marketing cooperative, she’d need industrial coupons.
After leaving the black market, she headed straight for the state-run restaurant to buy the meat buns she’d been craving. This time, she gritted her teeth and bought ten for one yuan and five jiao. Without grain coupons, she couldn’t get the cheaper price.
She hadn’t eaten breakfast and was already starving, so she slipped into her space and quickly ate two meat buns before heading home.
She didn’t actually go home—at this hour, the house would definitely be locked. During the busy farming season, even her grandmother had to go out to work.
Instead, she went back up the mountain, found a secluded spot, entered her space, and took a nap on the bed in the little house.
When she woke up, she felt a bit hungry again, but she didn’t eat more buns. She needed to save her appetite for dinner.
In that family’s eyes, she hadn’t eaten anything all day. Yesterday morning, she had at least brought a flatbread with her, but today she’d taken nothing.
When the time was about right, she filled a basket with fresh grass and headed back to the production team.
By the time she got home, the two sisters were helping Old Madam Lin cook. The old woman had come back early—once the food was ready, everyone else would return.
At dinner, Lin Yuxi’s eating startled everyone. Old Madam Lin had already been simmering with anger since she hadn’t seen her in the morning.
“Were you a starving ghost in your past life? Look at you—what kind of behavior is that for a girl?”
“Grandma, I’m just too hungry. I haven’t eaten all day,” Lin Yuxi said between bites.
“There was still grass left to cut where I worked yesterday—about half a basket. I was afraid if I went late, someone else would take it.”
She managed to muddle through with that excuse. Without it, who knew how much her grandmother would interrogate her?
The next day, she went up the mountain as usual. When no one was paying attention, Lin Yuxi slipped deeper into the forest. Whenever she saw patches of grass, she cut some and stored it in her space.
Her real target was still pheasants and rabbits—but she also had to stay alert for wild boars. If she could take down one and sell it, that would be a huge profit.
But honestly, she was still afraid of facing a wild boar. Well, she’d deal with it if she encountered one—play it by ear.
Just as she was thinking that, she suddenly heard a noise not far away, like an animal struggling.
Carefully, she followed the sound. Pushing aside the grass, she saw—a wild boar had fallen into a deep pit.
It must have rolled in and gotten tangled in vines. For the moment, it couldn’t break free.
As she stepped closer to look, she realized the boar was huge. Not only was it tangled in vines, but the sharpened end of a broken tree stump in the pit had pierced its belly.
It squealed in pain, struggling desperately but unable to escape.
Lin Yuxi’s heart began to race.
Was heaven sending her money?
This was a golden opportunity. If she could get this boar out and sell it, she’d make a fortune—how many pheasants and rabbits would that be worth?
But she was also afraid. What if the boar broke free and attacked her? That instinctive fear of danger was hard to suppress.
After hesitating for a while, she gritted her teeth and decided to try.
She found a thick branch nearby and slowly approached the pit.
She extended the branch downward, trying to make contact with the boar. This was a special ability of her space she’d discovered in her previous life.
Originally, she could only store things in her space if she touched them directly. But later, she realized indirect contact worked too.
Like the time she collected corn seeds—her intent focused on the seeds, and they entered her space while the bamboo pole stayed in her hand.
And the other day, she had used a bush to collect a rabbit—focusing her mind on the rabbit allowed her to store it successfully.
She tried several times. By the time half her body was leaning into the pit, she finally managed to pull the boar into her space.
She tossed aside the branch and collapsed onto the ground, drenched in cold sweat from fear and tension.
After resting for a while, she felt better and immediately entered her space.
Inside, the boar lay on the ground, grunting—it seemed badly injured.
From her experiments in her previous life, animals that entered the space would become docile. In short, they wouldn’t harm her.
Still, she felt troubled looking at it.
Even though she’d lived to forty in her previous life, she had always been a delicate woman. This life she was braver—but she still couldn’t bring herself to do something as bloody as slaughtering it.
She decided she’d go to the black market tomorrow morning and see if she could sell it whole.
That meant another early trip to town. Five li didn’t sound far, but it still took her half an hour to walk. She wondered when she’d finally be able to afford a bicycle.
The next day, Lin Yuxi set out early again, not caring what Old Madam Lin and the others might think.
At the entrance to the black market alley, she saw the same two men from before. Wrapping herself up tightly, she spoke before they could:
“Do you take whole wild boars?” she asked quietly.
“A whole one? Dead?” one of them asked. Wild boar didn’t taste as good as domestic pork to begin with—if it wasn’t properly bled before death, it tasted even worse.
“It’s injured, but still alive.”
Hearing that it was alive, the man’s eyes lit up. “Wait here.”
He ran into the alley and soon returned with a man in his fifties.
“This is Fifth Master. You can talk to him,” the man said.
“You’ve got a wild boar?” the older man asked.
Lin Yuxi nodded. “A pretty big one.”
“Here’s the deal. The best pork sells for two yuan per jin with us. Wild boar is cheaper. Since you’re selling the whole animal, it’ll be priced lower than cut meat.”
“I won’t shortchange you—one yuan and two jiao per pound. How does that sound?”
“Sounds good. My dad always said Fifth Master does fair business,” Lin Yuxi said deliberately, implying she wasn’t alone.
But she did believe the price was fair—not because of her “father,” but because she’d heard about him in her previous life.
They said this Fifth Master was loyal and fair in business. Many people sought him out specifically to sell their goods.
Unfortunately, his ending wasn’t a good one.