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After a day of work, everyone had a great appetite, and the atmosphere was wonderful as they sat around the constantly heating pot to eat together.

Not only adults, but children also ate heartily, finishing the meat in no time without needing to be urged.

After the first round of eating, Shi Wen brought out sweet rice wine with honey. Everyone sat around the fire pit, drinking and chatting, exchanging information about the grasslands.

After a short while of digestion, everyone picked up their chopsticks again and began the second round of eating.

Harvest time is always filled with joy, whether it's a bountiful harvest of crops or livestock.

In the afternoon, everyone helped to further process the pork from Shi Wen's house.

As a breed specifically bred for rendering lard, the sheep-pigs raised at home Shi Wen to have enough fat to eat that there was definitely more than they could consume. So, people took some of the fat and rendered it into lard.

The remaining fatty meat is finely diced, mixed with the lean meat, and stuffed into sausages.

Some of the pork was cut into strips, marinated, and prepared to be made into smoked meat.

The hind legs of both pigs were also removed, cured with salt and spices, and made into ham.

Their climate is cool and dry enough that it's suitable for making ham and sausages.

Shi Wen was initially worried that they wouldn't be able to handle the workload, but as soon as everyone pitched in, all the pork was processed in just one afternoon.

After everyone had cleaned up the yard, Shi Wen gave each person two jin of meat to take home and eat.

He kept some of the meat to cook for dinner, and froze the rest to eat slowly.

Lunch is a feast for humans, so it's time to reward the little ones in the house in the evening.

Yan Kexing personally cooked dog food for the little guys.

The snow leopard cub, the fox cub, and Cong Zai also ate with the dogs, enjoying a version of dog food with extra meat.

The little guys ate without even looking up, especially the dogs; just by looking at their tails wagging like hot wheels, you could tell they were very satisfied with their meal.

Seeing how happy they were, Shi Wen and Yan Kexing, as the patriarchs of the family, felt gratified as well.

The next day, Shi Wen and Yan Kexing up the mountain to cut down creeping pine trees.

They dragged the creeping pine back to use for smoking sausages.

Sausages smoked with creeping pine trees have a unique, refreshing pine and cypress aroma, and smoking sausages in this season also helps with preservation.

They were out all day and didn't return until evening.

I spent the whole day hiking and cutting down trees, Shi Wen didn't check his phone much.

He only just realized that Zhu Ji had called him several times, and when he didn't answer, he left him a message.

He opened WeChat, scrolled to the top of Zhu Ji's Zhu Ji, and read it.

Zhu Ji:

[The test results are in. The sheep-pig's Abilities value is 212, meeting the standard for Variant Ingredients.]

[Congratulations!!!]

[I never expected that the first Variant Ingredients from your ranch would be pork from a sheep-pig!]

[I've already reported this to my superiors, and they're very pleased with your results!!!]

[Here's a screenshot of my boss's praise. JPG]

[Hey, what are you doing? Reply to this message! Sending love. JPG]

Too lazy to reply to messages, Shi Wen simply made a phone call, "Brother Zhu."

Zhu Ji's voice was filled with excitement. "Did you see my message? 212 Abilities points! In just over a year, you've raised a sheep-pig with Abilities value of 212!"

Shi Wen smiled and said, "I saw it. Actually, this result was within my expectations. The sheep and pigs ate so much pasture and ingredients from the ranch, they should have reached the standard long ago."

Zhu Ji sighed, "It's only because of you. For everyone else, the increase in their Abilities is like Jingwei trying to fill the sea—it's hopeless."

Shi Wen, "It's not just me, you've forgotten about Yan Kexing too?"

Zhu Ji: "Old Yan hasn't managed to create Variant Ingredients in all these years. Without you, he probably wouldn't be able to create Variant Ingredients for many years to come. All things considered, you're still the most capable."

Shi Wen, "Then I'll accept this compliment without hesitation."

Zhu Ji's voice was filled with excitement. "Yes, yes, yes! Thanks to you, we're sure to become a national advanced unit this year!"

Shi Wen, "If cultivating Variant Ingredients counts as a performance achievement, then there's definitely no problem with it."

Shi Wen, infected by his excitement, confidently said, "The values of our second-generation fat-tailed sheep are definitely higher than those of sheep and pigs. I'll send you the meat for testing when we slaughter them for the New Year."

Zhu Ji: "Then it's settled. When you slaughter the sheep for the New Year, I'll come over personally to collect the samples."

Zhu Ji's voice was so excited that Yan Kexing nearby, also heard it.

After Shi Wen hung up the phone, Yan Kexing asked, "Is sheep and pork considered Variant Ingredients?"

Shi Wen opened the chat page with Zhu Ji and handed it to Yan Kexing to see. "Yes, the value is 212."

Yan Kexing: "A very promising statistic."

Shi Wen, "I think so too. How about we buy another batch of sheep and pigs? We can also buy some sows this time, and see if we can breed them tomorrow and get a second-generation pig."

Yan Kexing: "Are you able to manage?"

Shi Wen, "It's not a big problem. Raising thirty pigs is the same as raising eighty pigs. It won't increase the management difficulty much."

Yan Kexing nodded. "Then let's raise them."

That evening, Shi Wen contacted Abudu, the old herdsman who sold him the sheep and pigs, to inquire about the sheep and pigs.

The sheep and pigs were bought by Abudu's son from outside. Abudu promised to ask his son how to contact the seller and said he would get back to him in a couple of days.

Shi Wen added the topic of raising sheep and pigs to his work log, and also wrote down his experiences in raising sheep and pigs over the past year.

He lacked experience in the first year and added grain to the sheep and pigs a bit late. This year, he can start with a complete breeding plan from the beginning and provide scientific feeding throughout the process.

He had a lot to write and worked quite late.

Finally, it was Yan Kexing who urged him to go to sleep before he went to wash up.