vstars Chapter 227 Huge Transfer
Chapter 227 Huge Transfer
Xu Xiaoyan placed the heavy hind leg meat on the cutting board and carefully cut it into fist-sized pieces along the muscle fibers. This made it easier to stew and flavor the meat, and also easier to use later. The pork belly was cut into more regular square pieces to retain its beautiful layers.
All the pieces of meat were placed in the largest stainless steel basin, and a large amount of cold water was poured in until they were completely submerged. She moved the basin to the still warm stove fire, using the slight heat to accelerate the process.
Every ten minutes or so, she would change the water, watching as the clear, cold water gradually turned pale red, then she would add fresh cold water, repeating this process until the water's color gradually faded from a distinct pale red to a lighter shade, eventually returning to its clear state.
While the meat was soaking in the blood-soaking water, she began preparing the "heavy ingredients" needed for stewing. First, she picked the largest piece of old ginger, washed it, and smashed it with the back of a knife to expose the ginger juice and fibers. Cooking wine was a must. She took out a bag containing a small handful of dried Sichuan peppercorns, plump and full; two or three star anise, perfectly shaped; and a small piece of dark-colored cinnamon bark, emitting a pungent aroma.
In addition, she brought out even more "heavy" seasoning weapons—a bottle of dark brown, thick soybean paste; a bottle of red fermented bean curd, along with a spoonful of fermented bean curd juice; a small bag of rock sugar to adjust the flavor and add shine; and of course, the indispensable soy sauce.
The meat chunks, after being soaked in blood-soaked water, are removed and drained in a colander. A pot is filled with water until it is about half full, and then the drained wild boar meat chunks are placed in the cold water. Half of the crushed ginger is added, along with a small bowl of cooking wine.
As the fire intensified, the water temperature in the pot gradually rose. Soon, tiny bubbles began to appear around the edge of the pot. Then, grayish-white, flocculent blood and impurities began to tumble out from between the pieces of meat, quickly gathering and expanding on the soup surface to form a layer of unappetizing foam.
Xu Xiaoyan patiently and repeatedly skimmed off the foam, pouring it into the wastewater bucket next to her. This process lasted for several minutes until no more large pieces of foam appeared on the soup, the water in the pot became relatively clear, and the color of the meat changed from a fresh dark red to a light grayish-white, with the meat becoming noticeably firmer.
Remove the meat pieces and place them in a colander. Rinse them carefully with clean water to remove any remaining scum and impurities.
She washed the pot again, heated it up, and this time, she first threw in a few pieces of thick wild boar fat and simmered it over low heat to render clear lard. Once the oil temperature rose and the aroma of the oil came out, she poured all the remaining crushed ginger slices, chopped scallion segments, and all the dried spices in the bowl—Sichuan peppercorns, star anise, and cinnamon—into the oil and turned the heat to low to sauté.
In an instant, the complex, domineering, and rich aroma of spices was fully unleashed by the scalding hot oil! The numbing aroma of Sichuan peppercorns, the fennel aroma of star anise, the woody aroma of cinnamon, the spiciness of ginger and scallions... As the spices were stir-fried until their color deepened slightly, the drained pieces of wild boar meat were poured into the pot with a bang.
She switched to high heat and stir-fried quickly, ensuring each piece of meat was evenly coated with the hot, spice-infused oil. Once the surface of the meat turned an enticing golden brown, she poured in a generous amount of soy sauce.
Next, two spoonfuls of thick soybean paste, three pieces of red fermented bean curd, and their savory juice were added to the pot. She carefully crushed the fermented bean curd pieces with a spatula and stir-fried them repeatedly in the hot pot with soybean paste, oil, and meat pieces, so that the thick, salty, and fermented reddish-brown coating evenly covered each piece of wild boar meat.
Finally, pour in boiling water until it covers all the pieces of meat. Bring the broth to a boil again over high heat. The dark brown broth swirls and bubbles, enveloping the floating pieces of meat and releasing an extremely complex and enticing aroma.
She squatted in front of the stove, carefully adjusting the position of the charcoal with fire tongs and clearing away the ashes to allow air to circulate.
Time slipped away quietly amidst the crackling of firewood, the gentle bubbling of soup, and the whistling of the night wind. About two hours later, the aroma filling the kitchen had become so rich as to be almost tangible.
She gently poked a piece of pork belly with her chopsticks, encountering almost no resistance. The chopsticks easily pierced through the fatty skin and firm lean meat, showing just the right level of tenderness.
This time, instead of choosing plastic lunchboxes, she took out those brand-new glass jars with silicone sealing rings.
Glass has more stable chemical properties and better sealing properties, making it especially suitable for storing oily and flavorful stews. It can better preserve the flavor and is also convenient for long-term storage.
Using a clean, large spoon, she carefully scooped the tender chunks of meat, along with the thick, glossy sauce, into a glass jar.
She made a point of using a ladle to ensure that each jar contained a mix of fatty and lean pork belly, as well as lean hind leg meat, and was completely submerged in the sauce.
The glass jar was quickly filled, and the dark brown chunks of meat looked especially tempting behind the transparent walls. She carefully tightened the metal cap, hearing a soft "click" to confirm a proper seal.
One jar, two jars, three jars... When the last glass jar was tightly sealed and put away, the kitchen finally quieted down.
The fire in the stove had gone out, leaving only the faint but persistent warmth emanating from the ashes deep inside the stove. Xu Xiaoyan leaned against the cold wall, her gaze sweeping over the empty stove. The exhaustion that had been forcibly suppressed by adrenaline belatedly surged up in her body, making her eyelids so heavy that she could hardly lift them, and her thoughts became slow and sluggish.
She calculated the time; it was now late at night on the ninth day since the official announcement, and there was less than half a day left until the final unified evacuation assembly time.
Almost instinctively, she moved to the edge of the kang (a heated brick bed), just as she was about to relax her tense nerves, when the screen of her phone, which was placed beside her pillow, suddenly lit up without warning! At the same time, the phone emitted a short, sharp ringtone, completely different from the ordinary notification tone she usually set—it was a special notification when a large amount of money was transferred into her points account!
Xu Xiaoyan froze instantly. At this hour? In the dead of night? Who would transfer points to her at this crucial moment?
A flicker of doubt and a hint of alertness instantly dispelled some of her sleepiness. She hesitantly picked up her phone, squinting her eyes, which were slightly uncomfortable from the screen's light, and looked at the notification that had just popped up:
[Notification of Changes to Individual Points Account at Linchuan Base]
Type: Transfer from private account
Amount: +5000.00 points
Five thousand?! She blinked, wondering if she was hallucinating from extreme fatigue or had misread the decimal point. She rubbed her eyes hard, leaned closer to the screen, and counted each zero carefully.
This sudden huge sum of money did not stir up waves of joy, but rather deeper confusion and unease. At a time when everyone is fighting tooth and nail for a few dozen or a few hundred points, even at the risk of taking risks, who would transfer such a large sum of money to her for no reason?
After seeing who the remitter was, she almost immediately pulled up her contacts and dialed Xie Yingtang's number back, her fingers trembling slightly from nervousness and exhaustion.
The phone rang once and was answered almost immediately. There was some background noise on the other end, indicating that it wasn't just Xie Yingtang. You could vaguely hear Wang Xiao's excited voice, as well as other people talking and moving around in low voices.
"Brother Xie!" Xu Xiaoyan's voice was hoarse from staying up all night and filled with barely concealed urgency. "What's going on? I just received 5,000 points. Did you transfer them? You...you suddenly became rich? Or is there an error in your account?" Her first reaction was even to worry that the other party had made a mistake or encountered some uncontrollable situation. 5,000 points, that number was too frightening.
Before Xie Yingtang could even speak, a louder voice, brimming with obvious excitement and smugness, belonging to Wang Xiao, cut in from the other end of the phone, almost shouting, "Hehe, Xiao Yan! Didn't expect that, did you? Surprised? Thanks to you, we've made a fortune! Legitimate! Absolutely clean!"
Unexpected wealth? Thanks to her? Xu Xiaoyan's mind raced. At this point in time, the only possibility that could be associated with "unexpected wealth" and "thanks to her" was immediately identified.
She asked tentatively, her voice unconsciously lowering, even though she was alone in the room, "Could it be... that junior technician qualification certificate from Midtown? You... are making money off of that?"
"Yes," Xie Yingtang took over the conversation this time, his voice carrying a hint of suppressed relief and ease. "Wang Xiao and I went to the Zhongcheng Trading Center as you said, and the assessment... I passed by luck," he said truthfully, without hiding anything. "But Wang Xiao didn't pass."
Immediately, Wang Xiao's dissatisfied grumbling and attempts to interrupt, "Hey, don't be so blunt..." came from the side, but Xie Yingtang's tone was calm, ignoring his interruption.
Xie Yingtang lowered his voice even further, "When I was in the outer city, I was always doing odd jobs like network setup and equipment maintenance, right? Over time, I've gotten to know some really skilled people who, for various reasons, are buried at the bottom or don't want to show off—electricians, mechanics, 'programmers' who know how to fix old programs..."
He continued, "After I got the qualification, I was thinking that if I passed the exam alone, I could only save my own 3,000 points. What about Wang Xiao? He needs those 3,000 points to enter Zone D. Moreover, there is not much time left before the final deadline. Many people simply don't have enough time to accumulate enough points, or they don't even know that this path exists."
His voice carried a hint of determination: "I think that now that things have come to this, there's no need to worry about information leaks blocking this path anymore—tomorrow is the deadline, and those who need to know, and can know, basically already know."
So I privately and urgently contacted a group of trustworthy people with excellent skills, revealed this information to them, and offered to take them to the test, but I needed to collect 500 points in advance as an "information fee" and a "guarantee fee". The agreement was that if they passed the test, the 500 points would not be refunded, as a toll; if they failed the test, I would refund them in full.
Xu Xiaoyan held her phone, speechless for a moment. She had only provided a vague message and a direction, but Xie Yingtang took advantage of this brief information vacuum and demand window to earn a huge "information fee"!
"As of now," Xie Yingtang's voice pulled her back from her shock, "a total of twenty people have passed the qualification exam."
"So..." Xu Xiaoyan's voice was a little hoarse. She quickly did the mental calculation: Twenty people, 500 points each, that's... 10,000 points! Xie Yingtang transferred half to her.
"Isn't this... this profit sharing a bit unfair?" she murmured. "I only provided a message, I didn't do anything. You guys did all the legwork, contacting people, taking risks, and organizing the assessments. I can't take so many points." She was unwilling and felt that she shouldn't take such a big advantage of her friends, especially at a time like this, when points were life itself.
"Xiao Yan," Xie Yingtang's tone suddenly turned serious. "Dividing it equally is the safest and fairest way. Without your initial message, all of this would be for nothing. We might still be struggling for those few hundred points in the outer city, or we might not even make it in time. Besides," his voice softened slightly, "the value of this message itself is far more than five hundred points per person. It saved many people's lives. And..." He seemed to hesitate for a moment, but finally said, "Before, when we were in the outer city, you helped us through difficulties time and time again... Wang Xiao and I have always remembered those favors, but we haven't had the opportunity or the ability to repay them. Now that we've finally met again, let's use this method to... to feel a little more at ease, okay?"
Having said all that, it would seem pretentious to refuse any longer. Xu Xiaoyan remained silent for a few seconds before saying, "...Okay, I'll accept it. Thanks."
"Hey, it's nothing! We're brothers, no need to be so polite! With Lao Xie and these points as our foundation, we can go anywhere with confidence!" Wang Xiao regained his optimistic tone, but his voice was also sincere.
After ending the call, the phone screen went dark, but before she could put it down, the phone started vibrating violently again!
"Buzz—buzz—" The screen lit up, but instead of the points notification sound, a standard, rigid, short "beep" sound rang out—this was a forced notification sound from the base's official mass messaging system, usually used to issue important announcements or emergency orders, and could not be blocked or ignored by ordinary users.
Xu Xiaoyan frowned, forcing her eyelids to stay open, and clicked on the abrupt message.
A neatly formatted and precisely worded short message was clearly displayed before her eyes under the cold white light of the screen:
[Urgent Notice from the Linchuan Base Management Committee]
To: All holders of Dungeon B Zone entry qualifications
Given that preliminary preparations have been completed ahead of schedule, and in order to further optimize the relocation process, it has been decided that the dedicated entrance channel for Area B will be opened ahead of schedule starting today.
All residents holding B-zone access qualifications must, within 24 hours of receiving this notice, bring their personal belongings and necessary survival supplies to the designated assembly point at the B-zone entrance on the basement level of the Central City Official Trading Center.
Upon arrival, please present your personal identification chip for verification. After successful verification, you will be guided by a designated person to the exclusive passage in Dungeon B.
【important hint】
This entry process is a one-way channel. Once you have passed the identity verification and entered the channel, you are strictly prohibited from returning to the ground without special emergency and with special permission from the B Zone Management Office.
Please make sure you have all your items before entering. The resource distribution and exchange system inside the dungeon differs from that on the surface, so please plan accordingly.
Those who fail to arrive by the deadline will be deemed to have automatically forfeited their eligibility for access to Zone B, and will be notified separately according to the unified arrangements of the base.
Please make appropriate arrangements and arrive on time.
—Linchuan Base Underground City Relocation Command Center