Reborn in 78, I made my fortune by working in the mountains, supporting three families on my own.

Before long, new firewood was added to the stove, and the fire burned exceptionally brightly, causing the water in the pot to bubble and bubble rapidly.

Zhao Lei wasn't idle either. While the water was boiling, he went to Zhang San Gong's house and invited his whole family to come and lend a hand.

Zhao Lei estimated that dealing with this sow would take a lot of effort, and he was already exhausted after a whole day of work, so he simply called more people over to help.

When Zhao Lei arrived at Zhang San Gong's house, he found Zhang San Po cooking over a wood fire.

Upon seeing Zhang Lin and Zhang Sen picking vegetables, he immediately raised his hand and called out, "Hey, Linzi, Xiaosen, haven't you started cooking yet?"

The group looked up and saw Zhao Lei arrive, their faces beaming with surprise: "Hey, Brother Lei, what brings you here?"

Granny Zhang also spotted Zhao Lei: "Lei, you've come at the right time. We're cooking, come in and sit for a while. Have dinner at my house tonight."

Zhao Lei quickly waved his hand: "Oh, Third Aunt, I came here especially to invite you to my place for dinner. I caught a lot of good stuff on the mountain today."

The Zhang family members felt somewhat guilty and repeatedly declined.

Zhao Lei then said that the hunted game must be cleaned tonight, and that they needed help.

The Zhang family members finally relaxed. After all, they felt indebted to the family for simply going to eat, but they felt more at ease knowing that they could help out and then stay for a meal.

That's how people in the countryside are. They have a clear sense of boundaries with their neighbors, and they understand each other perfectly without needing to say much about social etiquette.

This is why the Zhao and Zhang families have been good neighbors for generations.

Finally, Zhang San Gong stepped in and made the decision, instructing Zhang San Po to cook the rice at home, and to cook less rice for Zhao Lei's family, so that San Po could deliver the rice to them together once it was cooked.

After saying that, the three members of the Zhang family followed Zhao Lei back to his courtyard.

With someone helping out, the work became much easier. Although none of them had ever dealt with wild animals before, they were all bricklayers who had done heavy work for many years and were full of strength.

Zhao Lei taught them step by step from the side.

First, let's talk about removing the pig hair. This female wild boar has rough and tough skin, making it extremely difficult to remove the pig hair clean.

Several men surrounded the chopping board, encircling the wild boar in the middle, and scraped it hard with knives. The blades clanged against the chopping board, but they didn't manage to scrape off much hair after a long time.

Seeing that this method was too time-consuming, Zhao Lei immediately waved his hand: "Forget it, let's not remove the hair. Wild boars are different from domestic pigs, let's just skin them and render lard from the skin."

Zhang Sangong felt a pang of heartache; in those days, resources were scarce, and oil and fat were even rarer.

But since Zhao Lei was the one who hunted the prey, he didn't say much.

Besides, Zhao Lei's words made sense. Five strong men had been busy for half a day and hadn't even finished cleaning the hair off the four legs. It was unknown how long it would take to completely remove the hair from the whole pig.

As Zhao Lei instructed, everyone peeled off the whole pigskin, saving a lot of work.

There are also six piglets with delicate skin and tender flesh. Their bristles haven't fully grown in yet, and their skin only has a layer of light striped soft down that can be easily removed by scalding with hot water.

Just then, a large pot of hot water that Qin Yuchan had boiled came in handy. The five men each carried a piglet and quickly cleaned off the fluff.

Afterwards, Zhao Lei and Zhang Sangong were responsible for cutting up the wild boar meat and putting it into baskets.

Qin Bowen, Zhang Lin, and Zhang Sen, the brothers, assisted each other.

It took the group almost half an hour to finish cleaning all the prey.

The three children watched the excitement from the sidelines; children are naturally delighted to see meat.

During this period, Zhao Lei often improved the children's meals, and they grew up to be chubby and healthy.

They kept pointing at the wild boar and asking questions, circling around the cutting board, making so much noise that it was impossible to concentrate.

Zhao Lei simply broke off two thin bamboo branches and handed them to the children, asking them to swat away the flies in the yard.

Now the children had something to do, and they were so happy that they chased flies around with bamboo sticks, making the yard noisy and lively.

Not long after, Granny Zhang arrived at the door carrying a wooden bucket.

Seeing his mother carrying a scalding hot wooden bucket, Zhang Lin quickly stepped forward to take it from her: "Mom, you could have just called me. The bucket is so hot, why did you carry it all this way?"

"It's alright, I'm not that weak. You guys go about your business, I'll bring the freshly cooked rice to Yu Chan."

As Zhao Lei cut the meat, he glanced at the wooden bucket out of the corner of his eye, and a warm feeling welled up in his heart.

Unexpectedly, Granny Zhang specially cooked a pot of new rice, afraid that she would feel embarrassed to come to someone's house empty-handed, so she brought the best grains from her home.

The true feelings between people are often hidden in these small, trivial things.

Several children ran around the yard with bamboo sticks in their hands, chasing away flies attracted by the smell of blood.

Yuanyuan wasn't looking where she was going and bumped into Granny Zhang's leg.

"Ouch!"

Zhang Lin reacted quickly, snatching the wooden bucket and placing it in the kitchen.

Granny Zhang looked down and saw little Yuanyuan bumping into her. She reached out and gently pinched her cheek: "Oh my sweetie, did you hurt yourself?"

Yuanyuan replied in her childish voice, "Grandma, I'm not in pain. Did I hurt you when I bumped into you?"

"Good boy/girl, Grandma doesn't care at all. Be careful, and go back to playing."

"Yes, Grandma."

After saying that, Zhao Yuyuan held up a bamboo stick and walked around the yard with Peipei to swat away flies.

On the other side, Zhao Lei had already finished cutting up all the wild boar meat and planned to marinate it and then smoke it into cured meat.

Before taking action, he pointed to three large baskets full of wild boar meat and said to Qin Bowen, "Bowen, take this basket of pork home later. Also, take three piglets. You can keep them if you want to eat them, or take them to the supply and marketing cooperative if you want to sell them for money. It's up to you."

Qin Bowen did not refuse. He knew in his heart that he had not contributed much to the wild boar hunt and that it was all thanks to his brother-in-law.

It's perfectly normal for a brother-in-law to take advantage of his sister-in-law, so he happily agreed.

However, he couldn't take all three pigs, so he only picked two, and also took a pheasant and a rabbit with him.

After deducting the amount Qin Bowen took, Zhao Lei still had two large baskets of wild boar meat, two wild rabbits, one pheasant, and five piglets left, totaling nearly 200 jin (100 kg).

Qin Bowen's basket of pork weighed about sixty jin (approximately 30 kg). Even after distributing that portion, Zhao Lei still had over two hundred jin (approximately 100 kg) of meat left.

He plans to keep most of the meat at home. Firstly, he's about to hold a housewarming party, and secondly, the meat he had stored up was almost all used up during the last party. He also has three children at home, so he needs to get more nutrition.

After saying that, Zhao Lei took two more piglets and handed them to the Zhang brothers, Zhang Lin and Zhang Sen.

"Oh, Brother Lei, how can we accept this?"

Zhao Lei shoved the piglets into their arms, his tone forceful: "What's the big deal? Piglets aren't worth much. Keep them for your family. I have three left; take these two back with you."

Seeing this, Granny Zhang quickly stepped forward to stop her: "Oh, Lei Zi, you absolutely can't accept this. Let's keep things separate. You paid us our full wages when you built the house, and you always invited us over for meals. This old woman has been feeling really bad about it for a long time."