Courtyard House: I, the eldest son of the Jia family, have returned from the battlefield.

"Section Chief, several comrades haven't had meat for a long time. They ate meat at noon, and their stomachs are feeling a bit uncomfortable this afternoon."

He paused, then lowered his voice:

"The factory clinic doctor came to check on me and said it was nothing serious, and I just need to rest for a night."

At this point, a hint of hesitation flashed across Zhang Guoping's face.

He glanced out the window before continuing:

"But... word has gotten out that someone in Corey had an upset stomach, and now there's some gossip in the factory saying that your first act as the new manager was to treat everyone to meat, which caused them to get sick."

A hearty laugh came from the other end of the phone.

"Guoping,"

Jia Dongming's tone was somewhat teasing, "If this counts as the first spark, you ask the comrades for me—would they want me to light this spark every day?"

Zhang Guoping almost blurted out:

"Section Chief, if you ask me, it would be better to keep this fire burning every day!"

Jia Dongming's laughter subsided, and he immediately changed the subject:

"Alright, let's get down to business."

Go to the fleet now and arrange for a vehicle to pick me up at the foot of Xishan Mountain in Mentougou Commune.

Also, please have a few people stay at the cafeteria; we need to work overtime tonight.

Zhang Guoping was taken aback at first, then his eyes lit up:

"Section Chief, did you find anything interesting during your trip to the countryside today?"

A soft laugh came from the receiver.

"Why would I ask you to call a taxi if I didn't order anything?"

Jia Dongming's voice carried a hint of smugness, "Hurry up and make the arrangements, I'll be waiting at the foot of the mountain."

After hanging up the phone, Zhang Guoping turned around and started cranking the handle.

"Switchboard operator, pick up the convoy, find Captain Jiang."

The others in the logistics department had already perked up their ears.

One person leaned closer and asked:

"Section Chief, did the Section Chief hunt some wild game?"

While waiting for the call to connect, Zhang Guoping glanced at him with a smile:

"Otherwise, what's the point of shunting the train?"

***

On the other end, Jia Dongming put down the microphone and thanked Director Lin of the commune office.

"Thank you for your help, Director Lin."

"Section Chief Jia, you're too kind. It's all just work!"

After exchanging a few pleasantries, Jia Dongming got on his bicycle and headed down to the agreed-upon location at the foot of West Mountain.

Upon arriving at his destination, he found a shady spot under a tree and sat down, silently taking stock of his day's achievements.

Three roe deer, seventeen wild boars of various sizes, thirteen wolves, and a bear—all thanks to the "super bait" obtained from the system.

.

He planned to keep two roe deer and a wild boar weighing about 200 pounds to take back to the yard, ask Sha Zhu to clean them up, distribute some to the neighbors, and cure the rest into bacon to eat slowly.

The wolf took out three horses first, while the bear kept them for later.

Having made his plans, Jia Dongming took advantage of the fact that no one was around to retrieve the prey he intended to bring back to the factory from his spatial storage and piled it behind a tree.

He then took out some dry rations and sat down by the roadside to eat them.

About an hour later, the muffled sound of a truck engine could be heard in the distance.

Jia Dongming got up, walked to the side of the road, and waved.

Zhang Guoping, who was in the passenger seat, had sharp eyes and recognized the figure from afar.

"Master Zhao, look, the section chief is over there!"

The truck stopped, and Zhang Guoping jumped out and jogged over to meet it.

"Section Chief, have you been waiting long?"

Jia Dongming gestured with his chin toward the shade of the tree.

"Dongxi is there."

One roe deer, three wolves, and seventeen wild boars.

After transporting it back to Keli, you keep a 200-jin wild boar for me separately, and the rest will be charged at the lowest purchase price, as a supplement to Keli's food supply.

Zhang Guo looked in the direction he pointed, and in the twilight, the wild animals were piled up like a small mountain.

He took a deep breath, turned around, and waved to the car:

"Quick, everyone come and move it—the cafeteria is having extra food tonight!"

Upon receiving the instructions, Zhang Guoping's gaze fell upon the mound of wild animals not far away, and two flames suddenly ignited in his eyes.

He turned around and called out to those behind him, "Master Wang, Master Liu, don't just stand there, hurry up and get the winter coat ready!"

Old Wang and Old Liu had already spotted the prey, and were already thinking about the greasy braised pork in the canteen for lunch, and the smiling faces of their wives and children as they gnawed on the bones.

The two men stepped forward in response, rolled up their sleeves, and were about to fight.

Old Wang walked to the shade of a tree, bent down to examine the wild boars more closely, and suddenly exclaimed, "Huh!"

He made a sound.

He pointed to the two holes that pierced through the wild boar's eye sockets, his voice filled with disbelief: "Old Liu, look! The bullet holes are right in its eyes! How can our section chief have such accuracy?"

Old Liu was only concerned with calculating how much meat he could get, and it was only after this reminder that he noticed the location of the wound.

He crouched down and examined them for a moment, then his gaze swept over the three skinned wolves beside him—their skulls were all shattered, as if they had been hit by a heavy hammer.

Old Liu clicked his tongue: "This isn't a god, this is someone who's mastered the gun so well it's like it's his finger, he can shoot wherever he wants!"

Old Wang reached out to move the nearest wild boar, but as soon as he put his arm to it, his face changed.

"This beast is incredibly heavy, at least 500 pounds!" My God!

He exclaimed in surprise, "This guy must be the king of the mountains!"

Upon hearing the sound, Zhang Guoping strode over and stared at the enormous object in astonishment.

He suddenly remembered something, and when he turned to look at Jia Dongming, his eyes changed: "Section Chief, did you bring all of these down from the mountain by yourself?"

Jia Dongming laughed upon hearing this: "Guoping, these seventeen wild boars alone weigh over three thousand jin (approximately 1,500 catties). Do you think I can carry them?"

He pointed towards the foot of the mountain, "I ran into some villagers from a nearby village who were hunting. I gave them the smaller one as payment and asked them to help carry it down."

After saying that, he waved his hand, "Don't delay, everyone in Corey is waiting, hurry up and load the truck back to the city!"

The braised pork at the security department's canteen that day smelled so good that you almost wanted to swallow your tongue.

But in the latter half of the day, many people clutched their stomachs and ran to the outhouse.

Despite the hardship, everyone was all smiles, privately saying that this was the new section chief's "first fire."

They hoped that the fire would burn brightly and continuously.

When the announcement for the end of the workday blared throughout the factory area, workers surged toward the gate like a tidal wave.

The security personnel stood on both sides with guns at their sides, their eyes scanning the crowd as they filed out, occasionally stopping unfamiliar faces to ask them a few questions.

The sound of a truck horn could be heard in the distance.

A young security guard, standing on tiptoe, spotted Jia Dongming in the passenger seat and immediately shouted to his colleague, "Jianjun! The section chief is back! Quickly clear a path!"

Wang Jianjun quickly waved to the crowd: "Comrades, make way! Let the trucks in first!"

The workers dispersed to both sides.

As the fully loaded truck slowly drove by, everyone's eyes widened.

"Wild boars! The whole truck is full of wild boars!"

A sharp-eyed worker shouted, his voice cracking, "Mingtian Cafeteria is definitely serving meat!"

Cheers erupted like sparks.

People stood on tiptoe, peering out and discussing how big a lunchbox they should bring for the anniversary.

The guards at the gate exchanged glances as they listened to the discussion—the workers clearly assumed it was meat purchased by the factory and no one suspected anything else.

One of the security guards raised his voice to the murmuring workers, "Fellow workers, these wild animals don't belong to the factory. Our new head of the security department went into the mountains to hunt them so that we wouldn't run out of food for training."

"What? Your security department just had braised pork for lunch, how come there's meat again tonight?"

When one of the workers heard that he wouldn't get any wild boar meat, he immediately raised his voice.

Hearing this, another person nearby widened their eyes and turned around: "Old Guo, they really have braised pork for lunch? Where did you hear that?"

The worker called Lao Guo curled his lip: "Master Zhang from the truck team lives in the same courtyard as me."

When I went back at noon, the yard smelled of meat, and my son darted out following the aroma.

He paused for a moment, then said, "The boy came back and said that the Zhang family is eating braised pork, two whole lunchboxes full."

Master Zhang's son said it himself: the meat came from the security department's canteen.

"No wonder the security guards kept running to the outhouse this afternoon; they must have had an upset stomach from eating too much meat."

A worker from the logistics and cleaning team chimed in, recalling the scene he had witnessed that afternoon.

Wang Jianjun did not expect that as soon as the workers heard that the wild boar did not belong to the factory, they immediately turned their anger towards the security department for hoarding food, even bringing up the incident of getting a stomachache from eating meat at noon.

Seeing that the crowd was getting more and more agitated, he raised his voice and shouted, "Fellow workers, the meat in this section was obtained by the new section chief, and it's only enough for us to use right now."

If everyone really wants to improve their meals, they'll have to ask the factory.

The security personnel had long heard about Zhang Guoping's trip into the mountains to retrieve game.

Although the greasy braised pork at noon was a love-hate relationship for many, after the shift ended, these team members who should have gone home didn't leave. They gathered in twos and threes at the canteen entrance, waiting for Jia Dongming to return.

The truck quickly stopped in front of the small canteen.

Hearing the commotion, the team members waiting inside came out to greet them.

"Section Chief, did you... wipe out an entire wild boar's den?"

Someone saw the wild boars piled up like a small mountain in the truck bed, gasped, and muttered to themselves.

Zhang Guoping jumped down from the truck bed, and seeing that everyone was there, he smiled and called out, "Since everyone's here, let's all lend a hand and deal with these wild animals!"

He looked around and added, "The section chief said that everyone who participates can buy five pounds of meat at 50 cents a pound."

If you want to eat, hurry up and get ready.

Several young team members nimbly climbed onto the truck bed.

When they saw the bullet holes in the wild boar, their expressions changed.

One of them sighed in a low voice, "Our new section chief is really something... Look at that marksmanship, from now on, if he says he's second, who'll dare claim to be first?"

With more people working together, the wild boars were unloaded from the truck one by one.

After seeing the wound, all the team members who helped looked at Jia Dongming with more awe.

Jia Dongming watched as the cafeteria chefs led everyone to begin slaughtering the animal, then turned to Zhang Guoping and said, "Guoping, I'll take one back first."

You keep an eye on the rest.

After dividing the meat, remember to give five jin each to Master Zhao and Team Leader Jiang of the transport team.

The security department has always believed that strength speaks for itself.

Jia Dongming's display of skill gradually won over the team members.

Zhang Guoping completely sided with him and immediately replied respectfully, "Section Chief, let me help you tie the meat to the bicycle."

Don't worry about things here, I'll take care of everything.

In the captain's office on the first floor, a middle-aged man leaned against the window, looking at the bustling scene in front of the canteen. He turned back and smiled at Chen Jianfei: "Old Chen, I originally thought that with your seniority in the department, it wouldn't be difficult to sideline Jia Dongming."

Given the current situation... your plans are probably not going to work out.

Chen Jianfei's gaze was like a blade tempered with ice, coldly sweeping across the noisy corridor of the cafeteria.

The middle-aged man's joke didn't faze him at all; he only managed a low, grimacing sound: "Jia Dongming... I underestimated his ability to win people over."

"Old Chen,"

The middle-aged man leaned closer and whispered, "How about we cause him some trouble in the factory? We can get rid of him while things are in chaos, and that will save us a lot of trouble."

Chen Jianfei shook his head almost before he could finish speaking, his eyes filled with the gloom accumulated over five years. "No need."

How long have I been scheming to get this position? If I can't even handle Jia Dongming, I might as well quit being a section chief.

Just as Li Huaide's fingers touched the clasp of his briefcase, there was a rapid knocking on the office door.

After listening to his subordinate's breathless report, he suddenly jumped up from his chair: "A dozen wild boars? Jia Dongming brought them back?"

After receiving a definite answer, he grabbed his coat draped over the back of the chair. "Let's go check with the security department!"

When Jia Dongming returned from the armory, the area in front of the small canteen was already in an uproar.

Zhang Guoping was firmly tying a fat wild boar to the back rack of his bicycle; the boar's body was still twitching slightly.

Jia Dongming glanced at the crowd busily processing the prey, then nodded to Zhang Guoping: "I'll leave this to you. I'll head back now."

"Don't worry, Section Chief!"

Zhang Guoping patted his chest, his face glistening with a mixture of oil and sweat, "I guarantee it'll be spotless!"

When Li Huaide arrived, what came into view was a small hill made of fur and flesh.

Especially the wild boar king lying in the middle, as strong as a calf, made him take a deep breath—this Jia Dongming was indeed no ordinary character.