Chapter 309: Chapter 309

"What? Jing Shu, what did you say? Say that again. I must have misheard."

Jing Shu sighed. "Uncle," she said, "let’s slaughter all these pigs in a few days." She repeated her statement.

Uncle said in disbelief, "Why? The market for pig farming is so good right now! Do you know how many Virtual Coins pork sells for per kilogram? I understand what you’re thinking. The red earthworms have gone extinct, and feeding these pigs has become a big problem. But with our factory, considering my share of the Red Worm Feed, I can raise several hundred pigs. It shouldn’t be difficult to hold out until the end of the apocalypse, right?"

He spoke as if the apocalypse would end very soon, but things were only going to get worse.

Jing Shu extended her hand, seemingly unchanged from before the apocalypse, and picked up a handful of red earthworms from the pool. After kneading and inspecting them, she shook her head. "Uncle, how long have you been raising this pool of red earthworms?"

"More than two months now. After learning the red earthworms were extinct, I’ve been taking care of them as if they were my ancestors, sometimes even throwing some feed into the pool."

"It’s been this long, and it’s still just this one pool. Don’t you think there’s a problem with their reproduction? The normal breeding cycle for red earthworms is very short; it only takes three days to go from bacteria to eggs, and a few more days from eggs to larvae. When I used to raise red earthworms, a gentle squeeze would produce the sound of bubbles bursting—that was the sound of highly active eggs. But these... there are very few eggs. That speaks for itself, doesn’t it?"

Few eggs and low birth rates meant reproduction was extremely slow. Longer cycles meant they couldn’t harvest half the pool each day to feed the pigs as they did before, where a new batch would mature in a few days, providing a continuous supply of feed.

Uncle suddenly realized this too. Carefully examining them, he said, "I didn’t pay attention to this. At first, I only raised a small pool and was happy to see them growing every day. But indeed, this speed is too slow; the breeding rate can’t keep up with consumption at all."

Uncle began to feel disheartened. He had originally thought that by successfully raising this pool of red earthworms, it could at least provide daily feed for over a dozen pigs. Pigs consume more feed than any other livestock and have the largest appetites.

"So, even if this pool of red earthworms is a loss, we still have over a hundred tons of Red Worm Feed. That should be enough to raise pigs, right? Trading pigs for rice and food, wouldn’t we earn even more?" Uncle paced back and forth in the pigsty, checking one pig then another.

"Alright, Uncle, let me do the math for you. Having raised so many pigs, you must understand this. Let’s calculate using the minimum standard: assuming a pig doesn’t lose weight, it needs at least 3 kilograms of feed per day. And that’s not even counting the extra feed needed during nursing or gestation periods for sows. A single pig requires at least one ton of food per year. So, with your current few dozen pigs, even factoring in new births, your share of feed is, at most, enough for only two years."

Uncle nodded. "Pigs do eat a lot. If they lose weight, we’ll lose money, so they must be fed well to gain more meat."

"And after two years? Factoring in natural reproduction and those slaughtered and sold along the way, you’ll still have many pigs, but you’ll be out of feed."

"Perhaps there will be other feed in two years? Or maybe the apocalypse will be over by then?" Uncle suggested. Thᴇ link to the origɪn of this information rᴇsts ɪn 𝔫𝔬𝔳𝔢𝔩~𝔣𝔦𝔯𝔢~𝔫𝔢𝔱

"And what if there isn’t any new feed after two years?" Jing Shu asked quietly.

"...If there isn’t, then they’ll all have to be slaughtered in exchange for supplies. But I wouldn’t lose out. In these two years, I’d still have the income from dozens of pigs. Judging by current prices, I could exchange them for a lot of food and other goods."

Jing Shu shook her head. "But you’d also have no way out, and you’d even take a loss. If you slaughter these pigs now, you could have gained more over these two years. Not only would you have had the meat from dozens of pigs, but if you had only kept breeding stock and focused on producing piglets, selling live piglets would be much more valuable than mature pigs. You could save tens of tons of food every year."

"That saved food could support these few breeding pigs. In two years, you’d still have plenty of feed left to continue raising breeding stock for at least several more years. Your live red earthworms could also be used in emergencies."

Uncle’s eyes gradually brightened. "You’re right, Jing Shu! We don’t know when the apocalypse will end. If we assume the worst—that it never ends and we can’t grow food anymore—then piglets can be sold to the wealthy for prices that would indeed bring back more supplies. After all, live pigs are rare now. This strategy would greatly reduce risks. One must always leave a way out for oneself."

Jing Shu smiled faintly and said no more. It was good that he understood. She was afraid that focusing on short-term gains might compromise a promising future. Pig farming didn’t necessarily need to expand, especially since, in the future, people would be starving to death in droves. Where would the surplus food to feed pigs even come from?

If, in a few years, Uncle expanded his operation to hundreds of pigs, she guessed he would be the first ’pig’ to be slaughtered by those in power.

But for now, having him keep just two or three breeding pigs, treating them like precious protected animals, was reasonable. At least this way, there would be a future for pigs. The government should be able to see the sense in that.

"Alright, it’s only a few more days anyway... Oh, Jing Shu, every day they consume hundreds of kilograms of feed! My heart aches just thinking about it. Let’s do it today! We’ll slaughter the pigs today. Perfect timing. I’ll also see if I can get some Oxytocin. With dozens of pigs, we’ll need Wang Mazi’s help. Otherwise, delaying even one day means so much feed wasted."

Uncle was a man of decisive action, always quick to implement his ideas.

"Don’t worry. Regarding your suggestion, I don’t even need to ask your elder aunt. Whatever you propose, she’ll wholeheartedly agree," Uncle said, turning his head with a smile.

"Uncle, I mean you don’t need to find anyone else. If news of us slaughtering so many pigs gets out, especially with the current food scarcity, what if someone causes trouble, tries to rob us, or forcibly takes them? All those pigs our family had before, I slaughtered them. I’ll handle the slaughtering, and you can take care of the offal. Let’s try to get it done before my sister-in-law gives birth," Jing Shu said, coughing lightly. She was used to slaughtering pigs in her ’space,’ where it was easy, but she hadn’t actually tried it in reality.

She wanted to give it a try.

"Look at me, I forgot you’re so strong! You’re surely a good hand at slaughtering pigs. Alright then, let’s go," Uncle agreed.

Jing Shu began her first pig slaughter outside. Uncle had suggested tying the pigs up tightly to prevent them from struggling at the moment of death. "Uncle, there’s no need for that much trouble," Jing Shu said. "I usually just knock them out and then slaughter them. You go and start boiling the water and get everything prepared."

"Alright, we’ll take it slow. No hurry," Uncle responded.

Once Jing Shu had sent Uncle away, she began. After all, if there were any accidents, she could just move them into her ’space’ to do the slaughtering. Having slaughtered dozens of cattle, sheep, and pigs in her ’space,’ Jing Shu was now practically rubbing her hands in anticipation.