Carrying a Jurassic on me
Chapter 448 - 146: Making Big Money by Selling Meat and Alcohol_1

Chapter 448: Chapter 146: Making Big Money by Selling Meat and Alcohol_1

When it came to cutting meat, no one could match Yan Fei. The customers would specify their order, and with a single swipe of his knife, he’d fulfill their requests—it never required a second cut.

Once the meat was cut, everyone could clearly see its quality. Pale red lean meat, bright white fat, clear pig skin, every piece of meat he cut and tossed on the table had a certain bounce to it. When a "gift strip" was cut and lifted for inspection, it looked appealing, the pig skin wasn’t wrinkly—it all looked good no matter how you looked at it.

Most of the customers came from households where they held financial power, and they were no strangers to buying meat. They could judge its quality at a glance; this enticed even more customers.

Heizi and Ma Chao were helping weigh the meat and collect payments, processing customers quickly.

Not to mention pig heads and intestines, even pig blood had buyers. It was the New Year; people had time to leisurely prepare these provisions, each a fine dish.

These items didn’t need to be weighed—they were pretty cheap. In reality, when hiring a butcher, these offcuts would be the butcher’s compensation.

This also saved customers the trouble of having to clean up. They paid, bagged their purchases and went home to take care of it at their own pace.

The 200-catty pig didn’t even last half an hour. While Yan Fei was still portioning meat, people were already hurrying him along. "Hurry up and slaughter the next one! It’s New Year, we should at least have some good meat. Then maybe we won’t have to end up buying old sow meat and being scolded when we get home..."

Everyone burst into laughter at the word ’again.’

Quite a few people had this experience and knew what that meat tasted like, so there was no need to elaborate.

In usual times, people bought just a few yuan worth of meat. For New Year, they would cut at least three to five catties’ worth and prepare more than one three or four catty "gift strip" at the very least. There was just not enough to go around.

By noon that day, they were already slaughtering their third pig and people were still waiting to buy meat. Even those who had bought some at the market earlier, having seen that the meat here was better, bought a bit more to take home.

Each customer leaving was told, "We’ll be slaughtering cows in a few days. The cows are in the pen at the back; you can take a look if you like. If you don’t believe me, go take a look and see. I guarantee you’ll have quality meat for the New Year."

Beef is expensive and fewer people buy it, hence the advance notice to ensure it could be sold.

Those interested would immediately ask about the specifics. Yan Fei had yet to decide and it was a spur-of-the-moment decision to slaughter the cows on the 22nd Lunar New Year day. According to rural custom, the 23rd Lunar day marked the beginning of the holiday celebrations. Slaughtering the cows before then left six or seven days to sell the meat.

Yan Chao had been eating meat all noon and praising it, fortunate that Yan Fei was too busy at the front to notice, otherwise, he would have been spitting blood in anger. Ever since Yan Chao came back home, he had been eating dinosaur meat and eggs. Since Yan Chao was young and should not eat too much, now it seemed he was being mistreated.

But it was definitely more fun for him here than at the small courtyard in the county town. Ever since he got here, the youngster was completely wild, even riding a creature as intimidating as the tiger, not to mention pulling a tiger’s lips apart to look at its teeth. Yan Fei was just hoping his wife could arrive soon. She had been away for two days already—what was taking her so long?

Just as he was worried about his wife, Wong Hanqing came to tell him to go back for dinner. Having finished his meal and returned to the front, there was his wife, smiling and walking over from the path.

Seeing the work at hand, she rolled up her sleeves to help out without another word. And it was true; there was proper work to do. People surrounded the small window of the liquor store, waiting to buy their drinks.

Watching her prepare to wield the knife, before Yan Fei could say a word, Ma Chao promptly persuaded her. "You can just watch from over there. If you want to help, you could assist with the billing or money handling, but you shouldn’t handle the knife — that’s for butchers."

It’d be a waste of her talents to let her, a university student from the Provincial University Law School, cut the meat. Who could let her do such a thing?

As soon as Yan Chao, who had finished eating, saw Xu Xiaoyan, he jumped up and ran over. "Sister-in-law, take me to ride the tiger! My brother has been slaughtering pigs all morning and doesn’t have time to play with me!"

The moment Yan Chao called her sister-in-law, Xu Xiaoyan’s face flushed a little pink and before she could utter a word, Yan Fei stepped in. "When I’m not there, you guys shouldn’t go play with the tiger. That creature isn’t as harmless as our dog. If it gets irritated, it could be dangerous."

Xu Xiaoyan also quickly persuaded little Yan Chao. "That big tiger is too much for anyone but your brother to handle. I... ah... your sister can’t control it. How about I teach you a new game after your brother is done with work? A game even funnier than riding the tiger!?

Listening to his wife correcting herself, Yan Fei couldn’t help but laugh, slipping up and cutting a "gift strip" unevenly. This led to some teasing. "Seeing his wife wield a knife made him nervous. Be careful not to get tracheitis in the future, pal!"

Seeing that no one approved his idea of riding the tiger, Yan Chao asked for the next best thing. "Then can you take me to ride the bull? You know, ride Pointy-horns?"

Now, that was doable. The bull he was referring to was one Xu Xiaoyan was familiar with and knew was safe, so she took him into the pen to play.

Normally, market days were dictated by the lunar calendar, occurring only on even days, and would typically wind down by 11 a.m. However, as it was the New Year, the normal schedule was disregarded. Even at three or four in the afternoon, people were still on the street.

At Yan Fei’s ranch, the day ran even later. When the market-goers were heading back home and saw that meat was being sold here, they came over to have a look. That’s the nature of business—the more crowded the place, the more it’s likely to attract customers. It would often remain busy until it was dark outside and people finally stopped coming.

They had slaughtered five pigs that day, collecting a large bag full of cash, big notes and small ones alike.

After calculating the income, they found that they had essentially made around a thousand yuan more than if they had simply sold the whole pig to the Slaughter Pig Station. This averaged to about two hundred more per pig.

Yan Fei decided to divide a hundred yuan among everyone as a New Year bonus. Of course, only those who received wages were eligible. Those who didn’t receive a wage weren’t included. Old Cheng also came over from the greenhouse. Even though he didn’t want the money, Yan Fei insisted on giving him a cut anyway.

Old Cheng had been looking after the greenhouse all day. He didn’t need to see the spectacle of pig butchery—having been a soldier and seen combat, watching people die was enough. Pig slaughtering was nothing in comparison.

The next few days were filled with slaughtering pigs and selling meat. With the New Year’s approach, the demand for alcohol also increased. There was a constant queue of people looking to buy drinks. Yan Fei took the opportunity to promote Longevity Wine, trying to sell less of the previous Dragon Bone Wine.

Fortunately, middle school exams were also ending soon. Fang Xiaoqing and Gong Hanqing, the two "child laborers," could also lend a helping hand. Otherwise, they wouldn’t have been able to keep up.

As pigs got slaughtered one by one, the reputation spread. This attracted not just people from the western part of the village, but also from other places that knew about this spot for buying meat. The Slaughter Pig Station didn’t have enough pigs to sell over the New Year, and not all villages slaughtered their own pigs, so those who couldn’t buy meat anywhere would try and find places to buy from.

Yan Fei, the butcher, was slowly upgrading–he was preparing to start butchering cows next...