Chapter 28: Catching Wild Boars with Fishing Nets

“This time, Comrade Sun is in big trouble. He won’t just be sent to a farm — he’s going to jail.

The people involved with him are vagrants from several nearby villages.

One of them is from the pig farm in Songjia Village. This is quite serious, and I’ve already spoken with them about it.”

Hearing this, Ge Mazi from the Songjia Village pig farm reacted even more strongly than Zhou Ye.

“It was one of their people?

Were they doing it on purpose? Their farm doesn’t have as many pigs as ours, so they deliberately tried to sabotage Brother Ye.

Those bastards! I’m going to confront them right now!”

“Stop.”

“Come back!”

Ge Mazi was shouted back by the other two and had to stop reluctantly.

Jiang Manman listened quietly at the side and had basically pieced together what had happened.

Apparently, someone from the other pig farm thought that their lack of pigs was because of Zhou Ye’s arrival here.

Instead of figuring out how to raise more pigs, they decided to resort to dirty tricks.

Now that they’ve lost Zhou Ye, they assume this farm won’t have more pigs than theirs.

You can’t exactly call that thinking “crazy,” but let’s say their logic is more twisted than a mountain trail.

The brigade leader continued,
“I’ve already warned them, and they promised they’ll never do anything to harm our pig farm again.

Let this serve as a warning. If they dare try anything next time, they won’t be able to handle the consequences.

Who would willingly ruin a good life doing things that harm others without benefiting themselves?

So stop fussing already.”

Ge Mazi was still dissatisfied.
“So we’re just letting it go this time?”

Jiang Manman suddenly spoke up.
“I have an idea. Not only will it vent our frustration from this incident, but it’ll also leave them eating our dust from now on.”

Now it wasn’t just Ge Mazi — even Zhou Ye and the brigade leader looked at her with curiosity.

They all wanted to know what idea she had.

Ge Mazi widened his eyes. “What idea?”

Jiang Manman paused. Just earlier, while watching Zhou Ye and the others catch a wild boar, she was suddenly reminded of a video she had seen in her previous life.

If it worked, it could really leave the neighboring pig farm far behind.

Zhou Ye also looked at her curiously.
“What’s your idea?

Let’s hear it.”

Jiang Manman didn’t keep them in suspense.
“It’s actually pretty simple: use fishing nets to catch wild boars.”

Ge Mazi scratched his head impatiently.
“That’s it?”

“Well, yes and no. The idea is to use fishing nets to set a trap that the wild boars can’t escape from.”

They all listened with interest. How could a fishing net trap wild boars and keep them stuck?

“I can mix up a kind of drug that makes wild boars groggy once they eat it.

I saw some of the herbs deep in the mountains earlier — I can collect them and mix them with corn kernels, then spread the mix in the center of the net.

We set up the net around the bait. Once the wild boars walk into it and eat the corn, they’ll get weak.

By the time they try to escape, they’ll already be too drained to get out.

That way, we can catch several wild boars without breaking a sweat.”

Hearing this, the brigade leader’s eyes lit up.
“If that really works, it’s a great plan.

But what about the drug you mentioned? Will it harm the wild boars?

We don’t want to poison them to death.”

“Of course not, brigade leader. Don’t worry.

The drug just makes them dizzy — it won’t kill them.”

With her reassurance, the brigade leader and Zhou Ye exchanged glances.

Ge Mazi clapped his hands.
“Let’s do it now, then! What does the herb look like? I’ll go collect it.”

Jiang Manman shook her head.
“I have to collect it myself. It’s not that I don’t trust you, but I don’t want that kind of herb to be leaked out.”

“Even though I saw only a small patch of that herb, it’s best not to let it fall into the wrong hands.

If someone with bad intentions gets ahold of it, it could be disastrous.”

Zhou Ye looked at her.
“Then let me go with you into the mountains. You can trust me, right?”

Ge Mazi clapped again.
“Then I’ll go prepare the fishing nets.”

Manman nodded.
“Okay. Prepare a few more — I’m afraid one net won’t hold them.

Better to have more just in case.”

Ge Mazi was confident in his nets.
“No way — our fishing nets are super strong.

Even a three-hundred-pound wild boar didn’t break through.”

Jiang Manman chuckled at his comment.

Zhou Ye looked at her and asked,
“So are we heading into the mountains now to collect the herbs, or wait until tomorrow?

It’s only afternoon.”

“Let’s go now!

If we prepare everything, we can start setting the traps tomorrow.”

Hearing this, Zhou Ye immediately nodded.
“Alright, I’ll go with you now.

Mazi, go gather up all the fishing nets from the village.

And don’t let anyone know what we’re doing.

If they ask, just say we’re using them to catch fish. Don’t go into details.”

“Don’t worry, Brother Ye. I’ve got a tight mouth.”

Then he turned to look at the brigade leader.

The brigade leader immediately put on a serious face.
“You can all rest assured. This concerns the whole brigade — I won’t say a word.”

The four of them finalized their plan, and Zhou Ye went with Jiang Manman into the mountains.

“You really saw that kind of herb in the mountains — the one that weakens wild boars?”

Jiang Manman turned to him and replied,
“Of course. Why would I lie?”

Hearing this, Zhou Ye became even more impressed with Jiang the educated youth.

They went deeper and deeper into the mountains.

“You really walked this way earlier? You’re bold.”

Jiang Manman gave a light laugh.
“I already told you — I wasn’t paying attention while looking for seasoning herbs.”

When they finally found the herb and returned, they saw more people gathered at the pig farm.

Wang Jiaxing and Liu Jianye were there, and even Qian Duoyu showed up.

“Brother Ye, what are you guys doing? Going fishing with nets?

Why the sudden urge to catch fish?”

It was Qian Duoyu who asked. He had been the main suspect during the sow’s illness last time.

This time, Zhou Ye didn’t tell the truth.
“Just got a craving for fish. I told Mazi to gather some nets so we can go catch a few tomorrow.”

“Alright. Oh, and you guys caught another wild boar today — this one’s a big one!”

“Yeah, we—”

Before Ge Mazi could finish, Zhou Ye cut in,
“I kicked a small one to death. We’ll be dividing up the meat soon.”

“Ah, it’s a shame. There are so many households in the village.

After dividing it, each one won’t even get a pound.”

Zhou Ye casually responded,
“Yeah. Just leave the nets here for now — we’ll go fishing tomorrow.

Let’s go, time to go collect the pork.”

When it was time to divide the pork, before Ge Mazi could say anything, Zhou Ye spoke first:
“Give the offal to Comrade Jiang.”

Zhou Ye had the final say in distributing the wild boar meat.

The brigade leader didn’t hesitate and handed the offal over to Jiang Manman.

“Hey now, brigade leader — offal is meat too. Why does Comrade Jiang get it all?”