Chapter 93: This Is the Legacy

Rang Weidong really did bring Stone to the slaughterhouse.

After three straight days of looking around, he had spent whole days sitting in other people’s factories, chatting and watching the production lines, and not many members of the Reform Committee still followed along.

The truth was that this whole sprawling district built around the pig trade carried a strange odor in the air.

If it were not for the millions of poor country people around it, Shangzhou could actually have grown fat on riches.

Just like the little river near the riverbank, heavily polluted by a string of pig-industry factories, floating there in the water was nothing but a sheen of grease.

Even though all of it was only low-end, source-level primary processing with thin profits, it was already a highly mature and complete industrial chain.

And the saying that every part of a pig was treasure was brought here into full, vivid view. At every factory they visited, someone would enthusiastically explain how they had perfected one particular stage to the extreme.

Take, for example, this slaughterhouse built in the fifties with aid from a Soviet expert. At its peak, it killed more than a thousand pigs a day.

Before the age of heavy mechanization, that was already an astonishing slaughter volume.

Today, by chance, there were also cattle to be killed. Several men in waterproof aprons and rubber boots came out of the break room.

One of them, a refined man in glasses, carried an iron hammer. The moment he walked coldly into the herd, the cattle actually began to back away and jostle each other involuntarily; two of them even dropped straight to their knees, tears streaming from their eyes.

Even Ding Haifeng, the young policeman, had seen a lot by now, and he could not help folding his arms and frowning. “You can really see that killing aura at a glance. You can tell who the butcher is.”

Rang Weidong could not help laughing too. If it were not for the pig trade here, that butcher would never have trained himself into such a killing hand as to sever his own hands.

Perhaps his own past life would have taken a different turn.

Stone stared fixedly at the refined man, so focused he barely breathed, and Ding Haifeng, sensing something, even turned back to glance at the seven- or eight-year-old child.

So he missed the moment when the man suddenly raised his hammer and brought it down. A cow crashed to the ground, its limbs stiff, already dead.

The whole herd panicked and let out waves of pitiful cries.

But even as their powerful muscles trembled all over, they did not dare resist the butcher.

It was exactly like the phrase “lambs awaiting slaughter,” each one killed with a single blow.

The others followed with practiced skill, dragging the carcass away, draining the blood, and breaking it down.

Rang Weidong watched with a chill in his heart. Damn it, if that night he had not had his own crutch with handguards, there would have been no way to dodge.

And if he had met this Hammer Brother, he probably would not even have survived with the crutch.

So ignorance really was fearlessness; the more you understood, the more you knew you should never challenge an expert at what he did.

Just then he caught sight of Ding Haifeng about to reach out and pat the child on the shoulder, and hurriedly stepped between them as if he knew nothing, conveniently blocking the professional’s line of sight to the butcher.

The rising star of the Ge family seemed to shake himself free of a nightmare and put on a harmless smile. When Ding Haifeng looked at him from another angle, he shook his head hard and rubbed his eyes, wondering whether he had just seen things.

Rang Weidong was about to change the subject again when the factory leader enthusiastically invited them, “There is nothing worth seeing here. It is the same every day. Since you are all here today, why not come and try our offal hotpot?”

The others had just watched cattle being slaughtered and entrails being removed, and were already feeling a little nauseated. The moment they heard the word offal, they could not stand it any longer. Off work, off work.

But Rang Weidong, who had only just opened a restaurant, immediately became interested and asked, “What is special about your offal? Is the quality especially good, or is it especially fresh?”

In later years, Jiangzhou hotpot would become famous nationwide, but only local people knew that only dishes boldly labeled things like “Fresh Beef Tripe from the Slaughterhouse” or “Fresh Pork Intestines from the Slaughterhouse” truly had some substance.

In his mind, the idea immediately formed: what if he set up a business that sent the freshest offal to Jiangzhou every day in ice, and opened a hotpot restaurant with it?

Wouldn’t that crush the competition on Food Street in a single blow?

Who would have thought the factory leader would say, “Nothing special. Just cheap. Especially cheap!”

As they walked, he explained, “From the inside out, skin, hair, meat, intestines, even bones are useful. Only the offal is something foreigners do not want, and many of us do not eat it either. So here it is surplus. When we slaughter more than a thousand pigs a day, we have no choice but to throw some of it away. Around here, a whole set costs only one-tenth of a yuan. In all of Shangzhou, even noodles with mixed scraps or pork liver noodles cost only nine fen and you still cannot finish them.”

Rang Weidong was completely stunned.

Offal was just another word for scraps, usually the heart, liver, spleen, lungs, stomach, and kidneys. Not to mention foreigners, many people in China would not eat these things either.

In some villages, when a pig was slaughtered for the New Year, the offal would even be tossed to the dogs.

But in his mind, that master who sold cured meat instantly came to life!

When all the villagers, supported by him, raised more pigs and made more cured meat to sell, he had quietly shifted to buying everyone’s pig offal, turning it into vacuum-packed marinated snacks, and had sold them all over the country, becoming the first openly declared millionaire in the Shangzhou area.

Only now did he suddenly realize that the little bit of pig offal from villagers raising pigs and selling cured meat would never be enough to make a millionaire.

Even Second Phoenix making cured meat had already made there not enough pigs around to slaughter.

It was obvious: he had discovered a huge business opportunity here in slaughtering pigs.

Every part of the pig bristle-to-tail treasure was being squeezed for value, and only the offal had become an excess byproduct in this overproduced industrial machine.

And it was precisely that, which this clever man had seized upon.

Rang Weidong immediately beamed.

Since he had discovered it himself this time, even if using a panda to advertise cured offal snacks seemed a little odd, this was already a business proven beyond doubt to work. That meant it absolutely could be done.

He said nothing, merely smiling as he took Stone and Ding Haifeng to eat a pot of the strong-smelling offal hotpot, then paid the bill, and afterward bought a few sets of pig offal from them.

The factory leader said nothing more and simply found a bamboo basket lined with plastic sheeting and packed it full for him. “If you like it, just come by anytime and take some. No charge!”

Back in the car, Rang Weidong glanced at the white-uniformed man who would later in life remain rather upright and clean, and asked, “Comrade Ding, are you married yet?”

The young policeman, two or three years older than him, nodded as expected. “I married just last year. Why?”

Rang Weidong gestured at the bamboo basket in the truck bed. “I’m sure I want to do this business. Could your wife come over and take a position? It may not be a lifelong iron rice bowl, but I guarantee it will be steadier and longer-lasting than one.”

The policeman was still thoughtful. “How so?”

Rang Weidong explained, “I can’t stay in Shangzhou forever. This business is only my way of keeping the promise I made to the leaders, to set an example and bring some new reform ideas to Shangzhou. I have to go out with people like You Qili and Dong Xueying and see the wider world. If I were made to stay here my whole life, I’d find it just as unbearable as those pigs and cattle. So this business needs a trusted friend to help run it. My relatives and friends from the countryside would never be able to keep the city side in line.”

Only Stone was in the back, pretending to lean there with his eyes closed, half-asleep.

Giving the young policeman a private space to talk, he thought hard for a moment. “My wife was an educated youth from a rural household. It took a lot of effort before she finally got into a small collective unit as a cashier... What exactly would need keeping in line?”

Rang Weidong, who obviously knew these details, smiled. “Keeping in line with making too much money and making others jealous.”

Ding Haifeng jumped. “How much money?”

Rang Weidong showed him with his hand. “Didn’t you hear? Every part of a pig can be turned into a business, except the offal, which nobody wants. That’s why it is worthless. Once I sort out the technique, I’ll sign a long-term purchase agreement with the slaughterhouses under the pretense of helping them solve a problem. At three or five fen a set, and maybe increasing a little each year, I could turn around and sell each set for three or five yuan, maybe even more. Tell me, wouldn’t that make money?”

The young policeman could hardly believe it. How did it become ten times as much after turning around? “Sell it to whom?”

Rang Weidong was not afraid to let him in on the secret. “If cured pork heart and pork tongue can be sold, how much do you think they would fetch?”

Ding Haifeng could follow that much. “Oh, braised dishes. There’s a place over there that makes heart and tongue braised so well. Next door there’s another place that does banana-style pork intestines, and the dry-fried version smells especially good.”

Rang Weidong turned the wheel. “Stone, go buy two portions each of the braised heart-and-tongue and the dry-fried banana-style intestines. Tonight we’re going to do some research.”

The little fellow ran off at once.

The young policeman still looked a little uneasy and tugged at his uniform. “There’s no need for this between us.”

He was certainly nowhere near as good-looking as Secretary Zhang.

Rang Weidong held back a laugh. “Right, we don’t need it. This is not bribery or corruption. You can spend your whole life standing upright in your work, but your family can, because of that work, change its fate and from then on never worry about food or clothing again. Believe me, my friend, I’m not after anything from your position. I respect your character.”

The young policeman, who had personally led the team that arrested You Qili, stared hard at Rang Weidong, trying to see through his true purpose.

Rang Weidong emphasized it again. “Really, I absolutely will not ask you even the slightest thing related to You Qili. You do not need to worry about that. It is only that if neither of us is in Shangzhou, your wife can properly keep an eye on the business and make sure it runs normally. That is all. I will seriously think about how this business can make money steadily and smoothly, while still satisfying the city government.”

Ding Haifeng said he would think about it seriously too.

Rang Weidong flicked the turn signal. Stone, reading the cue immediately, seemed to have just come back from buying something and handed over the two paper-wrapped bundles of food.

The policeman’s sensitivity was different indeed. “Your younger brother is extraordinarily clever and quick-witted.”

Rang Weidong said smugly, “Aren’t I also an extraordinary fellow?”

Ding Haifeng finally laughed out loud. “Yes. You are the most unusual person I’ve ever seen. I often think that perhaps the most remarkable person I will ever meet in my life is you, because I really saw you first when you were still a porter.”

Rang Weidong said mysteriously, “Good. This time let’s witness another contest. Tonight, all of us should go home and carefully study what sort of delicacies can be made from pig offal. That will determine whether this stuff sells for three yuan, five yuan, or even more.”

Seeing that they were already near his home, Ding Haifeng laughed again and lifted the paper bundles to gesture at the two brothers. “All right. We’ll discuss it tomorrow.”

After the policeman got out, Stone nimbly climbed into the passenger seat and gave a thumbs-up. “Big brother, impressive. As long as you leave him alone for three or five years, he’ll be useful later.”

Rang Weidong was startled all of a sudden. Damn it, was this another one of those textbook tricks of yours?

“Get lost! I never planned to use him for anything. I’m just helping an old friend live a little better!”

The little killer put on a knowing expression, as if to say, yes, yes, yes, this is exactly the mindset one uses when raising fish in a pond.

What the hell, you’re only this old.

Rang Weidong felt more and more that he had wasted sixty years of his previous life for nothing.