Normal and Abnormal

Xia Chujian pulled the Red Cloud Tactical Dagger from her leg and gestured over the Wild Rhinoceros Pig's head. She quickly carved out four large white tusks and carefully put them back into her game pouch.

Li Fu looked at Xia Chujian's belt. A quiver hung on the left, a game pouch on the right, and an ammunition belt in the middle. She was bundled up so roundly that the corner of his mouth twitched.

He had no intention of competing with Xia Chujian for the pig tusks. Instead, he quietly said, "Chujian, aside from its tusks, a Wild Rhinoceros Pig's kidneys are very valuable too... They might even be worth more than the tusks!"

"Really?!" Xia Chujian's eyes lit up. "Fu Ye, hurry and tell me, where are its kidneys?!"

Li Fu pointed to the Wild Rhinoceros Pig's lower back, near its rear. He pulled out his own Tactical Dagger and cut straight down, carving out a bloody Wild Rhinoceros Pig kidney.

He wiped the blood from the kidney with snow from the ground, took a transparent storage bag from his waist pouch, and placed the kidney inside. Then he handed it to Xia Chujian and whispered, "Keep it. Don't let those people see... Put it in the little refrigerator in the Flying Vehicle and freeze it later. Once we get back to the city, it'll fetch at least ten thousand."

Xia Chujian sucked in a breath. "That expensive?! No way! Why is it so expensive?!"

"Because it's different from tusks. Once tusks are pulled out, they won't spoil. But if these kidneys aren't frozen immediately, they'll go bad in half an hour."

"How many people do you think would fly a Flying Vehicle powered by Controllable Nuclear Fusion all the way out here in the dead of winter just to catch Wild Rhinoceros Pigs... Besides, Wild Rhinoceros Pigs are especially hard to catch. The fact that we ran into two in one go today probably means we poked into their nest."

"What do you mean?"

"This one and the one we caught earlier must be family." As Li Fu spoke, he lifted one of the Wild Rhinoceros Pig's hind legs and checked. He nodded in satisfaction. "This one's male."

Xia Chujian: "..."

She did not say much else. She accepted it without ceremony. "Thanks, Fu Ye. I'll repay you someday."

"Why be so formal between us? If anyone should be talking about repayment, it's me. You saved me twice already. Fu Ye is just offering a pig kidney to Buddha here. I hope Xiaochu will accept it with a smile!" Li Fu laughed as he went around to the other side of the Wild Rhinoceros Pig and carved out its other kidney.

After cleaning it a little as well, he handed it to Xia Chujian.

Xia Chujian said, "Fu Ye, wait here a moment. I'll put these back in the Flying Vehicle first."

"Why are you in such a rush? It's freezing out here. Are you afraid they won't freeze?" Li Fu teased.

Xia Chujian wrinkled her nose. "I don't feel safe keeping them in my waist pouch. I'd rather put them back in the Flying Vehicle first."

As she spoke, she ran back and carefully stored the two freshly carved, still-steaming Wild Rhinoceros Pig kidneys.

Two Wild Rhinoceros Pig kidneys meant twenty thousand. How could someone as short on money as she was let such a good opportunity slip away?

After freezing the two pig kidneys in the little refrigerator inside the Flying Vehicle, Xia Chujian contentedly wiped her hands with the rinse-free high-efficiency hand sanitizer from the vehicle.

As she raised her head and stood up, her gaze casually swept across the Virtual Display Screen inside the Flying Vehicle.

On the Display Screen, two pairs of eyes happened to be blinking. In the somewhat dark night, they looked like two pairs of shining lamps.

Xia Chujian's expression tightened, and she hurriedly looked closer.

The image from before had disappeared again.

She did not know whether her eyes had deceived her or whether the owners of those two pairs of eyes had already passed beyond the detection range of the Solid-State Optical Radar. In any case, there were no eyes on the Display Screen now, only a patch of deep darkness.

After a while, movement appeared on another Display Screen.

Xia Chujian turned to look and discovered a tiny dog wobbling through the snow, burrowing forward as it pushed through the drifts! She had grown used to all kinds of strange creatures appearing in the Exotic Beast Forest, so when she suddenly saw a completely normal dog, she instinctively became more vigilant! In a place like the Exotic Beast Forest, once you were used to abnormality as the norm, normality became abnormal!

Xia Chujian carefully observed the little dog from inside the Flying Vehicle and activated the Display Screen's recording function.

She could only see the little dog from behind. Its tail was short, and its fur seemed fairly long, making it look fluffy.

The fur along its back was a warm golden brown. The fur occasionally visible on its belly was likely ivory white, different from the whiteness of snow, but gentler-looking. She could not tell what breed it was.

Soon, the little dog seemed to find somewhere warm. It dove in headfirst, and she could no longer see anything.

All that remained was a vast expanse of white snow stretching across the empty land, with great swaths of snowflakes occasionally Kicked Up by violent winds and obscuring her vision.

It was clear that the trees where the little dog had burrowed in were very sparse, nothing like the place they had chosen.

Xia Chujian waited another Five Minutes. Only when the captain called her through her earpiece did she leave, lost in thought.

Xia Chujian jumped out of the Flying Vehicle and saw that Ping Qiong had already returned.

"Cai Jie, did you find anything good?" Xia Chujian asked with a smile as she walked over.

The moment Ping Qiong saw her, her Eyes Lit Up. Dragging a huge storage bag, she jogged over and opened it for Xia Chujian to see. "Chujian, come look! I really found Red Lion Morels! And a whole pile of Black Truffles! Come make us something delicious!"

She stared at Xia Chujian with sparkling eyes, so expectant that drool was practically about to spill from the corners of her mouth.

In the storage bag Ping Qiong held open, Xia Chujian saw not only round, black Black Truffles, but also a strange kind of mushroom.

Its cap resembled a sheep's stomach, layered upon layer, yet it was covered in wisps of red mycelium. It really did look like tiny red lion's heads.

It was the legendary Food Ingredient, the Red Lion Morel.

Xia Chujian laughed. "All right, I'll cook. But has Fu Ye returned? He and I caught another Wild Rhinoceros Pig."

Ping Qiong nodded. "He's back. I saw him over there cleaning it up with Song Mingqian just now!"

Xia Chujian went directly into the Small Wooden House with Ping Qiong.

Warm air hit her in the face, and Xia Chujian instantly broke out in sweat.

She had truly worn too much, but the temperature difference between inside and outside the Small Wooden House was indeed rather extreme.

Outside, it was probably between minus eighty and minus one hundred degrees, but inside the Small Wooden House, it was at least twenty degrees above zero.

Xia Chujian quickly took off her two heavy overcoats. She wore only her close-fitting full-body Bulletproof Vest, with loose work pants and a jacket over it.

Ye Shijie and Song Mingqian had already finished processing the first Black Rhino Pig.

Even the blackish-brown bristles on its body had been scrubbed completely clean.

On the long Cutting Board against the wall, the dismantled... Black Rhino Pig had been arranged with remarkable neatness.

First came the Black Rhino Pig's head. The part of its forehead where Xia Chujian had shot through its brain had been removed, leaving only sliced cheek meat, pig ears, and its snout.

Then came the butchered body, arranged according to its front, back, left, and right sections.

Next were the four huge legs, including the thoroughly washed trotters.

The hard outer shells of the trotters had also been knocked off, revealing the tender tendons inside.

Xia Chujian could not help laughing again. "Ye Dui, Song Mingqian, these skills... What did you used to do?"

"Hey, it's just slaughtering pigs! How hard could it be?!" Song Mingqian swept that lock of bangs back with one hand, struck a dashing pose before the long Cutting Board, then immediately urged, "Hurry, hurry, hurry! I'm starving to death!"

At one end of the long Cutting Board stood a large stove with a fire already burning beneath it. On the other side of the stove was a square Cutting Board.

Ping Qiong was pouring the Black Truffles and Red Lion Morels she had found onto the square Cutting Board.

Xia Chujian looked at the pork on the long Cutting Board and pondered. "What cooking equipment do we have?"

They had the Food Ingredients and the seasonings. What they needed now was cooking equipment.

Xia Chujian looked around the room and saw another fire pit in the center, with a wire grill set over it, perfect for roasting meat.

Li Fu said from the side, "I brought a pressure cooker. It's in the Flying Vehicle, and we can use the vehicle's power as an electrical source..."

Xia Chujian: "..."

She had the strange feeling that she was the only one who had truly come here for a mission. The other four had actually come for a picnic, with the mission thrown in as an afterthought!

She looked up at Li Fu. "Fine. Then we'll make grilled Wild Rhinoceros Pig, stir-fried Wild Rhinoceros Pig, and Stewed Wild Rhinoceros Pig Meat."

"Ahhh! We're in for a treat today!"

"I'll help chop the meat! The meat for grilling, stir-frying, and stewing needs to be cut to different sizes!"

The group immediately got busy serving as Xia Chujian's Assistants.

An hour later, the exotic fragrance of burning animal fat filled the Small Wooden House. It came from the freshly grilled Wild Rhinoceros Pig meat.

At the large stove, the lid was lifted from the wok, and an even stronger, richer aroma burst forth.

The stir-fried Wild Rhinoceros Pig meat was ready to come out of the wok!

Just then, the wooden door of the Small Wooden House was slammed open. Li Fu barged in carrying a pressure cooker, his expression like that of someone who had downed a cup of sixty-proof North Zenith High-Proof Liquor and was so drunk he could barely speak.

He staggered over and set down the pressure cooker. When he lifted the lid, an uncontrollable delicate fragrance drifted out in curling wisps. Wave after wave of that fragrance followed, like tides in the Ocean, each stronger than the last.

Three seconds later, both the exotic aroma of the grilled meat and the rich fragrance of the stir-fry were utterly crushed by this strange scent. It smelled quite light, yet the longer one inhaled it, the more intoxicating it became! As if in a dream, Ping Qiong drifted over to Li Fu and deeply inhaled the scent from the pressure cooker. She muttered, "I never would have imagined it... Stewed Wild Rhinoceros Pig Meat with Red Lion Morels could be this delicious!"

Song Mingqian had no time for so much talk. He took out a pair of chopsticks from his miscellaneous bag, strode over, and immediately began eating from the pressure cooker.

"Song Mingqian, slow down! Leave some for me!" Ping Qiong cried out, but she too quickly took out chopsticks and started eating.

Even the well-traveled Ye Shijie, the captain with the best family background, looked astonished. Without a word, he came over and buried his head in the food alongside Li Fu.

Squeezed behind them, Xia Chujian only managed to fish out two pieces of Stewed Wild Rhinoceros Pig Meat and one tender Red Lion Morel that had been stewed until soft.

It was truly delicious...

Ever since Aunt had fallen ill, Xia Chujian had never eaten anything this delicious again.

But to her, they were merely slightly tastier Food Ingredients. She could not quite understand why the other four were wolfing it down so ravenously.

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