With shallow acquaintance, deep words — Yu Xifeng decisively shut her mouth.

Yu Xifeng went to find the Fatty and, with a bottle of chili bean paste and two packs of instant noodles, moved Old Cai’s area to Zone 2, which was where Sister Yun’s area was.

Zone 1 referred to the inner circle.

The houses in the inner circle were now non-sellable.

The number of vacant houses could be counted on one hand.

Yu Xifeng gave Fatty a pound of rice.

Fatty grinned: “That’s market price, I just take a 20% cut, you gave too much.”

Yu Xifeng said, “I’m moving them to that area because I want to bask in Sister Yun’s glow, a pound isn’t too much.”

There was a patrol team that checked the area from time to time, so security was better than other places.

Only then did Fatty accept it: “Alright, next time there’s a good deal like this, come find me. The piglets from last time were taken, when are you free?”

Yu Xifeng thought for a moment: “The day after tomorrow.”

After finishing the relocation, Yu Xifeng brought Old Cai and Zhang Qiu inside.

On the way, they passed through Zone 8.

A woman holding a child knelt down and kowtowed to them: “Please have mercy, give us some food.”

Old Cai kept a stern face: “Get lost.”

Some young men kept their heads down and hurried by.

As they passed, Old Cai’s claw-like hand grabbed one young man’s wrist.

“Hey, you stole onto me.”

More and more people would try to latch onto Yu Xifeng.

But they never got anything good from it.

Old Cai shook his head: “This place is really lively.”

Zhang Qiu was amazed.

He knew his grandfather well but didn’t expect this girl’s skills to be so impressive.

The closer to the inner circle, the more obviously the people inside had better conditions.

You could tell just by the amount of belongings they had.

Yu Xifeng helped them get settled and didn’t say much more.

She had already done enough today.

After Yu Xifeng left, Zhang Qiu opened the suitcase and started tidying up their five-square-meter space.

“Grandpa, why do you think she’s so nice to us?”

Old Cai spread out a quilt and flicked off some dust.

“Does she have a thing for me?” Zhang Qiu laid out the mattress and rubbed his chin.

Old Cai glanced sideways at his grandson: “I’m just saying, she’s way out of your league.”

“Can’t be. She looks okay, but not better than me.”

He said this with confidence.

Zhang Qiu had big eyes, a prominent nose, and distinct features; each feature was stunningly handsome.

Put together, he looked like someone who stepped right out of a painting.

Old Cai pointed a finger at Zhang Qiu: “This place is way too small to fit your big face.”

Zhang Qiu touched his nose and skillfully lit the stove, starting to boil water.

The steam from the kettle was used to warm up their food.

The hard, dry “wo wo dian” (staple food) scratched the throat when eaten boiled, so Zhang Qiu broke off the softer parts and gave them to Old Cai.

“So, why do you think she’s helping us?”

Old Cai snorted: “It’s definitely not for your vain face.”

…

Yu Xifeng went back and first checked the surveillance footage from the past few days.

It was calm.

No unexpected situations.

Interestingly, not only had she not come back, but the pinhole camera showed Zheng Weiyang hadn’t returned home either.

Looks like he’s busy.

Yu Xifeng smiled slightly.

The next day, she went to the breeding farm based on the address Fatty gave her, to pick up her piglets.

The person who met her was a middle-aged man, wrinkled face, very short.

Yu Xifeng recognized him — she had seen him at Zheng family’s charity gala.

She vaguely remembered his surname was Cao.

Though they lived in the inner circle, he had to travel so far for the deal.

That was unusual.

“Just you?” Cao Kai’s voice sounded disappointed.

Yu Xifeng was intrigued: “I’m here on behalf of my boss.”

Cao Kai’s tone clearly showed no hope: “Ask your boss, we still have two piglets here, same price, see if your friend wants them.”

Yu Xifeng was pleased.

Three piglets — that was good.

“Can’t be all male or all female, right?” That would still work.

Though then she wouldn’t be able to roast suckling pig later.

Cao Kai perked up: “One male, two females.”

“Alright, three together, 400 grams,” Yu Xifeng said.

In this cold weather, no one wanted to drag it out, so after some quick negotiation, the price for the three immature piglets was set at 500 grams.

He only had these three young pigs left; the others had died from the cold.

When the temperature first dropped, Cao Kai bought plastic sheets and spent a lot, but still couldn’t save the pigs.

He also couldn’t afford pig feed anymore.

When people have no food to eat, how could they afford to feed pigs?

“You’re giving a good price,” the man looked around and lowered his voice, “I also have two just-slaughtered adult pigs for clearance. See if you have anything to trade.”

Pork wasn’t like piglets; it wasn’t hard to find a market.

“I won’t lie to you — I run a pig farm, but the pigs inside got requisitioned by the authorities, all counted as contribution points. Damn it.”

Contribution points could be exchanged for goods, true, but each person’s exchange quota was limited.

One person could redeem at most fifty jin of rice a month.

Cao Kai’s contribution points were enough to feed his family in the underground shelter for twenty years!

Twenty years? He didn’t believe the shelter could last that long — what a scam.

People can’t fight the government. Cao Kai’s only option was to quietly keep a few pigs.

Those were raised by his contracted farmers and hadn’t been reported to the factory, kept on private accounts.

The contracted farmer lived deep in the mountains, where temperatures were slightly higher.

Those pigs survived stubbornly until now.

But recently, the contracted farmer’s family was about to collapse.

Too many people were trying to steal the meat, openly or secretly.

A few days ago, some armed people came, scaring the farmer terribly.

The farmer raised pigs for others but didn’t want to risk his life over it.

Cao Kai had two adult pigs — you could guess what he wanted.

Yu Xifeng had seen him try to talk to Zheng Weiyang at the gala but never got a chance.

In the end, Zheng Weiyang tricked him at the charity dinner, forcing him to pay out of pocket.

He wanted to trade for the grain in Zheng Weiyang’s hands.

Yu Xifeng smiled.

What a coincidence.

Grain was the one thing she never lacked.

One jin of meat could be exchanged for five jin of rice.

After the disaster, paper money had crashed, but the primitive logic of barter remained.

Yu Xifeng offered 1,500 jin of rice.

Cao Kai said all sorts of flattering things.

“Miss, where are you from? So elegant. I didn’t recognize you before, my bad, my bad.” Cao Kai rubbed his hands excitedly.

Yu Xifeng smiled modestly: “My boss is also someone from above. Once the pigs are dragged to the warehouse, you won’t have to worry about them anymore.”

“Got it, got it, I know the rules,” Cao Kai nodded repeatedly.