Chapter 191: Beggar's Chicken (Pig)?

Thoughts poured forth like a gushing spring.

Whenever these ideas surfaced, Zhong Di's thoughts flowed like water, completely unstoppable.

Seizing this opportunity, Zhong Di began writing this technical article.

He didn't use a computer; he simply wrote with a pen in a notebook.

For Zhong Di, writing by hand often gave a deeper, more profound sense of connection than tapping away on a keyboard.

Moreover, his thinking remained unrestricted, allowing him to write however he pleased without worrying about making revisions on the fly due to a poor phrasing.

For a first draft, there was no need for such perfection in content or rigorous formatting; all that mattered was getting everything he wanted to express down on paper.

The core direction was set: a practical, popular science article tailored for peach orchard medication.

With the direction established, the next step was outlining the broader framework.

This included common pests and diseases of peach trees, as well as uncommon ones, explaining pesticides from the perspective of these diseases, and then reversing the process to deduce diseases from the pesticides.

Only through such two-way reasoning could people gain a clearer understanding of these matters.

In contemporary agriculture, simply put, growers knew the pests and diseases, but they didn't know how to treat them or what specific chemicals to use.

Agricultural supply stores, on the other hand, knew which pesticides existed and what they cured, but they lacked on-site diagnostic capability, which very easily led to problems.

To give an example:

Suppose aphids appeared on the peach trees. A grower spotted them and went to buy medicine, and the store owner would push a specific aphid-killing pesticide, setting the concentration at the absolute maximum.

The grower, knowing nothing, would simply apply it as instructed.

As a result, not only did production costs rise, but the aphids' resistance to the pesticide also increased.

Little did they know that the initial population of aphids didn't even warrant applying pesticide in the first place. Yet, not only was it sprayed, but the infestation wasn't even thoroughly eradicated. Once you fail to eliminate aphids completely on the first try, you are in for a much harder time later on.

Zhong Di approached the issue from this very angle, even outlining a simple method to judge whether the threshold for pesticide application had actually been reached.

Before long, an afternoon had slipped away. Looking at the drafts scattered across the desk, Zhong Di felt a deep sense of satisfaction. The afternoon hadn't been wasted—at least the first draft was complete.

Everything that needed to be there was present; the rest was just revision, refinement, and debugging.

Splendid.

Zhong Di grew more and more pleased the longer he looked at it. He pulled out his phone and snapped a few photos as a keepsake of his handwritten manuscript.

"Yusheng, go fetch two rabbits. If you want to eat as well, make it three." Zhong Di glanced at the sky. It was time to wrap up work for the day. He had no idea what to eat, so making some roasted rabbit would do.

*Do I have a grudge against you, rabbit? Why am I always the one getting hurt?*

Had he known it would turn out like this, he should have asked Zake to bring some food back for him and Shao Hong when he left, sparing him the headache of wondering what to eat right now.

He had already eaten everything common, and his palate had grown picky; he had no idea what he actually wanted.

Might as well put Yusheng to work! Day in and day out, the creature only knew how to eat, drink, and flirt with local dogs, never taking the initiative to do any honest work.

"Why is Yusheng running off again? Is it going to court some stray female dog nearby?" Shao Hong walked into the room with a smile.

See? Look at that! Even Shao Hong assumed Yusheng was running off to chase female dogs. This just showed how atrocious Yusheng's daily behavior was.

It severely tarnished everyone's impression of it, and he, as its owner, was probably being dragged down in reputation along with it.

If Yusheng lacked propriety, could its "father" possibly be proper?

Ah, what a headache!

"I sent it out to catch a few rabbits. This rascal never does anything proper when it goes out, so I gave it some chores: catch our dinner. We still have some naan left—one roasted rabbit and one piece of naan per person will do."

Such was Zhong Di's plan, one he had hatched from the very beginning. After eating farm food for too long, one always needed a change of pace. Ordinary fare was hard to stomach anymore, but game meat still hit the spot.

"Ah, if you hadn't mentioned it, I would have forgotten. A relative of mine bought some pork ribs and gave them to my mother, and she had me bring them over for you to try. But I left them in the fridge and completely forgot. We'll finish them off tonight."

"What kind of ribs? Don't we eat plenty of meat normally?"

Zhong Di felt a bit curious. If they were ordinary ribs, Shao Hong probably wouldn't have bothered bringing them over. Since he singled them out, there had to be something special about them.

"Wild boar meat, locally sourced from our Northwest," Shao Hong whispered.

"What? People still dare to catch wild boars nowadays? Aren't they protected animals?" Zhong Di was startled. If that were true, these ribs were completely off the menu.

This was entirely different from casually catching a couple of wild rabbits himself. Judging by Shao Hong's tone, this wild boar meat was clearly being sold commercially! That changed the nature of the matter entirely.

Whether it was the wild rabbits brought by the marten or those caught by Yusheng, there was no issue at all since he only kept them for his own consumption without any indiscriminate slaughter or trafficking.

That fell within acceptable bounds, but wild boar meat was a whole different story!

"What are you imagining? They're artificially farmed, just raised in a simulated wild environment." The moment Shao Hong saw Zhong Di's expression, he knew exactly what was running through his head.

How could his mind wander in that direction? Under current conditions, the moment something was truly wild, people avoided touching it at all costs. This wasn't like twenty years ago; with the legal system growing increasingly robust, such illegal activities were strictly stamped out.

"So that's how it is. Hurry up, we're having these ribs tonight!" Upon learning that the ribs had a legitimate source, Zhong Di's eyes lit up.

Goodness gracious, wild boar meat! He hadn't eaten this delicacy in ages and simply hadn't thought of it; otherwise, he would have gone out to procure some long ago.

The domestic pork available on the market nowadays tasted less and less like actual pork, whereas wild boar was wonderfully fragrant when cooked! Zhong Di could still vividly recall the taste of wild boar meat from his childhood.

The more he thought about it, the less he could sit still. He simply joined Shao Hong to prepare it.

The wild boar ribs were frozen solid, so they needed to be thawed in water first and then prepped.

In the end, however, how to cook them became a major dilemma—a truly perplexing problem.

Such prime ingredients could not be wasted on a mediocre recipe.

Braised in soy sauce? Boring. Stewed into a soup? Even less appetizing.

"How about roasting them?" Shao Hong ventured tentatively.

Could everything in the universe be roasted? Not to mention wild boar meat; even if you brought over some leafy greens, you could roast them. Take roasted chives, a mandatory favorite for men—the flavor was top-notch.

"Great, let's do that, but let's use a different method." Zhong Di was pondering the exact same thing when Shao Hong's words suddenly inspired him. Roasting was fine, but *how* to roast them was the real question.

Zhong Di quickly came up with a brilliant idea.

He would wrap the entire rack of ribs in tin foil, pack a layer of mud around the outside, and roast it directly in the campfire—much like the technique used for beggar's chicken. He had never tried cooking ribs this way before.

The process was intricate and troublesome, and it took a long time, but where gourmet food was concerned, a little waiting made it all the worthwhile.

Amidst Shao Hong's doubtful gaze, Zhong Di embarked on his culinary expedition, reducing Shao Hong to a mere kitchen assistant.

"Oh, so that's what you meant! Great idea; at least such a fine cut of ribs won't go to waste." After watching for a short while, Shao Hong understood what Zhong Di was driving at.

These ribs were substantial in weight; forget the two of them, even if two more people showed up, there would still be more than enough to eat.

Ribs naturally had less meat, which just showed how massive this particular cut actually was.