Our neighborhood has been transported again.

Chapter 77 Salt Exchange
What price are you going to offer?

The man pondered for a moment: "Five pounds of meat for one pound of salt. If the quantity is large, we can reduce it to four pounds."

Qin Ziwen shook his head: "Too expensive."

The man frowned: "This price is fair. Zhang Bo's coarse salt costs four catties of meat for one catty of salt. His salt has many impurities and tastes bad. How can it compare to my modern refined salt? Besides, these salts are becoming increasingly rare, and each bag is one less available."

Qin Ziwen shook his head again: "It's not necessarily a one-of-a-kind item. There's something you might not know. At most, the community will be transported to another time in a month. After that, new residents will join. Everyone keeps some salt at home. If there's a second time, there will be a third. Salt won't run out. So this isn't a one-of-a-kind item either."

The man was taken aback, then stared at him suspiciously: "How did you know there would be a second time travel?"

"I also got the card; everyone who activated their homestead should know this." Qin Ziwen said with slight surprise, "Zhang Bo didn't tell you, did he?"

The man froze, his face gradually darkening, but he still didn't fully believe it. After all, this was only Qin Ziwen's side of the story.

Qin Ziwen continued, "This information isn't hard to verify. Just ask anyone who has the cards. I wouldn't stoop to such a clumsy lie to deceive you."

After saying that, he turned and left, leaving behind the words, "If you still want to make the deal after confirming, come find me at Unit 2, Building 8, Room 602. Three pounds of meat and a pound of salt."

Watching his retreating figure, the man didn't say anything, and turned to leave.

Twenty minutes later, the man arrived at 602 carrying a large box.

Qin Ziwen was not surprised by his arrival: "Have you found out?"

"At the price you mentioned, how much do you want?"

Qin Ziwen looked at the cardboard box he was holding and asked, "How many kilograms does this box weigh?"

"Forty catties, four hundred grams per bag, this box has fifty bags."

"I'll take them all." As soon as Qin Ziwen finished speaking, Qin Ziwu came out of the kitchen behind him carrying half a wild boar.

The pork was covered in thick fur, and blood was still clotted on the cut surface. Just from the size of this half-piece, one could imagine the ferocious size of this wild boar in its lifetime.

Just from this section of the torso, one can roughly judge that its owner was definitely not small in size during his lifetime, and was definitely not a small wild boar.

He glanced at the two of them warily: "Impressive."

The pork was weighed on the spot using a scale. After washing away the mud from the skin, the half-portion of pork still weighed 124 jin (62 catties).

Qin Ziwen said, "There are some bones in here, not much pure meat. I'll give you another twenty catties of fresh meat."

"No need to repair it, just keep this half." The man breathed a sigh of relief.

This half-carcass alone is enough for him and his two elderly relatives to eat comfortably for a month.

He's fine with going hungry himself, but he feels really bad seeing his parents starving along with him.

After hesitating for a moment, the man said, "Can we leave the meat here first? We'll trade tonight; it's too conspicuous during the day."

If he dared to swagger around the neighborhood in broad daylight carrying such a large piece of pork, people would be flocking to his house to borrow meat, even before nightfall.

Qin Ziwen said, "I don't care, but this meat will spoil easily if left out for too long. Why don't you take it back and marinate it sooner? By the way, since we've agreed to the deal, you have to put at least one-third of the salt down with me as a deposit. Otherwise, if you don't come to pick it up, this meat will spoil if it's left out all day."

"No need, I'll leave it all with you." The man put the box of salt on the ground, hesitated for a moment, and said, "Could you please help me marinate the meat? I won't let you do it for nothing. I'll replenish the salt you lose when you come over tonight, and you can take three pounds of meat with you."

Qin Ziwen joked, "Having more salt makes you more assertive!" The man was both amused and exasperated by this, "I actually regretted stockpiling salt. Every time my mother cooks, if I say the food is too salty, she scolds me for it."

Since the other party trusted him and was so generous, Qin Ziwen naturally wouldn't be stingy: "Okay, we'll marinate the meat for you. It'll probably take a lot of salt to marinate, so you'd better be prepared."

"I know, don't worry."

After the man left, Qin Ziwen, Deng Guang, and Zhao Pu divided the salt among themselves.

According to the proportion, the two each took ten catties of salt.

The two brought half of the wild boar meat from their home.

They called on two families, and the seven of them worked for most of the day to finally cut all 200-plus pounds of pork into small strips and marinate it.

"You're just smoking it?" Zhao Pu was somewhat surprised to hear Qin Ziwen and his group's method of curing meat.

Deng Guang nodded: "That's right."

Zhao Pu said, "Back in my hometown, we would first use stones to press down the marinated meat in a shady place to help remove the blood, then remove the excess salt from the surface, and hang it in a well-ventilated and dry place to air dry. Some people would press the meat down before smoking it."

Qin Ziwen thought Zhao Pu's method seemed pretty good. The core of air-drying and smoking is dehydration, and this step can speed up the dehydration process. "Then let's give it a try."

After washing the bluestone, they put the meat in a basin. After finishing their work, they washed their hands.

Qin Ziwen said, "Let's go, let's go see where to put the traps first."

I'll rest at home today, do as much as I can to finish what I need to do, and then focus on going up the mountain.

In the afternoon, after going out, I contacted Wei Zhaohua and Li Yue, and the group went to the riverbank.

After a day of fermentation, the river is no longer as turbulent as it was yesterday. This is a mountainous area with steep terrain, so the floodwaters cannot be contained, and the water level has dropped considerably.

But a faint fishy smell and the scent of damp earth still lingered in the air.

Along the riverbank, many people were picking up fish, while others were searching for crabs and eels in the mud burrows.

"This is a good spot." Qin Ziwen arrived at the place where he and Deng Guang had fished before. The water level had risen quite a bit, but the surrounding terrain still allowed him to roughly determine the previous location.

"Yes, there's a depression here; some fish should be hiding in here."

As he spoke, he guided them to slowly lower the fish trap into the water.

Qin Ziwen gave Li Yue and the others various instructions on precautions, especially regarding the dangerous fish that might be present in the river.

"Don't worry, Brother Qin, I'm keeping an eye on it." Li Yue grinned and took out a notebook from his pocket. "By the way, Brother Qin, this is something I figured out. I determined the steel formula by searching through various materials. You can try it first. I also wrote down a simplified version of the furnace manufacturing method in it."

"You've worked hard. You must be almost out of meat at home. I'll have Xiao Wu bring you two more pounds of meat later."

"It's no trouble at all, it's my duty," Li Yue patted his chest.

The golden retriever wagged its tail and circled around Li Yue.

Compared to a few days ago, the Golden Retriever looks a bit thinner now, obviously it hasn't been eating well lately, but its spirits are still good, sticking out its tongue and following closely beside its owner.

(End of this chapter)