Enemies Are All Nourishment for My Fungi-Chapter 174: Returning to the Danger Zone is Where the Real Business Is (7)

The entire inspection and weighing process was videotaped, with no mistakes in the numbers.

Thus, the trade was made.

The technician also brought Ye Nai three grinding stones from Rat Teeth. She originally wanted two, but hey, they gave her an extra one as a bonus.

Ye Nai accepted the grinding stones with a beaming smile, promising to notify the procurement department as soon as she accumulated that many Rat Teeth again.

When it comes to trading, the one who pays is the boss, right?

The technicians loaded the Rat Teeth onto the small truck, and left cheerfully, but Director Zhuo and his group didn’t hurry to leave, casting sidelong glances at Ye Nai.

Ye Nai politely presented two large boxes of spider leg meat, along with a box each of fish roe, shrimp, small clam meat, and a box of large whole clam meat.

Everyone had their share, how could the procurement department miss out on the perks?

All these goodies combined weren’t worth much. Considering how much she earned that day, it didn’t even cover a kickback—it was just sharing the good stuff among friends.

She gave generously, and the four members of the procurement department accepted generously, departing with joy.

Once the bustle had died down, Ye Nai’s missing pot was conveniently returned to her, washed clean, with even the bottom of the pot scrubbed back to its original color.

Ye Nai couldn’t thank them enough.

After packing up, Ye Nai was whisked away by Sister Cao.

"Come on, ride back with us in our car."

"Is Brother Peng setting up his stall tonight?"

"No more for tonight, no more. I initially came to get beef, but ended up staying so long. Tonight, I have to skin the rabbits and process them overnight, so I’m hitching a ride."

"Let’s go."

The group made their way back to the parking lot, and soon, a long line of cars drove out, heading back to the residential area.

Brother Peng and Ye Nai got into Sister Cao’s car, as their buildings were in the same direction.

They arrived and parked the car downstairs at Sister Cao’s building. Ye Nai and Brother Peng got out together, wished each other good night, and walked towards their buildings while chatting.

Brother Peng took the opportunity to teach Ye Nai how to sell the wild rat meat she had.

Ye Nai opened her phone, entered the local page of the Awakener forum trade section, and following Brother Peng’s recommendation, added several butchers as friends, noting "recommended by Brother Peng" in remarks to prevent them from treating it as spam and ignoring it.

"These people are well reputed locally, but as you’re a newbie, according to the unwritten rules of the trade, you should first get your face known on the forum, prove to be a reliable supplier, and naturally people will come to you asking for your phone number to strengthen the connection."

"Alright."

Ye Nai set the local trade forum’s homepage to her favorites for easy one-click access from her list of followed sites.

"The forum is full of both true and false information, for both buyers and sellers. A certain proportion of scam messages are always there. You should first observe and learn, see how the forum users argue, and pre-emptively block any users you find unreliable. Anyway, your Space can hold a lot, so there’s no rush to do business."

"Sure, I’m not in a hurry. I’m not short on money and my Space can hold a lot."

Ye Nai was truly calm; her after-tax income for the day was already over thirty million, with the bulk of it coming from second-hand cars, Camel-hump Deer, new Mutant Beast species, Mutant Beast Meat, and spider torsos. Rat meat was really just small business for her—she wasn’t in a rush to sell it at all, she was merely getting the groundwork done in advance.

"Since you’re not in a hurry to sell, if you’re ever bored, you might as well dissect the rat, peel off the skin, but don’t touch anything else; keep the rat intact."

"Right, just sell the rat skins separately."

"Not just that, there’s also building a good reputation. You take a photo or video, post a sale notice, and when people see you’ve only skinned the rat, leaving everything else intact, without trying to pass off scrappy meat as something decent, your credibility goes up a notch."

"Ah– do I need to remove the innards?"

"If you’re willing to do the work, then of course, the price for a cleaned wild rat carcass can go up a bit."

Brother Peng had just finished speaking when Ye Nai commanded the fungus in the Space to start on the pile of wild rats: make an incision in the stomach, peel off the skin, remove the innards, but keep everything else intact, masquerading each one as a processed item ready for sale.

"Do wild rats have a strong odor?" While organizing, she didn’t miss a beat to ask a new question.

"The females are a bit better, but the males, no way, they’re stinky and foul, and there’s so little usable meat that you can’t even clean it all off properly. In the past, we wouldn’t eat the males, just pulled out the teeth and skinned them. We’d eat the females since their meat was somewhat bearable, but if we were completely out of food and only had males, that’s when we’d eat them, and then feel sick for three days after one meal."

"Yuck–"

Ye Nai had never eaten rat meat, but just hearing this description made her feel nauseous.

Right at that moment, she remembered a message her mom had left her and guessed that her mom might have bought male rat meat, the stinky and foul kind of ordinary product. Fortunately, she spat it all out after one bite. A waste of money for a lesson learned, but not a loss.

"So, if I were to go a step further out of boredom and remove the stench from the rat meat?"

"You wouldn’t be that bored, would you?"

"I’m just wondering if it’s worth the effort."

"Not worth it, at least not for wild rats. Even with wild rabbits, if you did clean them up completely, the price could double, and the rich would still buy it. They wouldn’t touch mutant beast meat with an odor, but would they eat wild rat meat?"

"Yeah." Curious Ye Nai posed a new question, "Then who would eat the smelly male rat meat?"

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"The low-ranking members of gangs."

"What?"

"Yeah, don’t be surprised. Like us scavengers here, everyone’s got to follow a boss, join some force. It’s basically forming a gang, just a small one, but because we’re always watching, they can’t develop into a criminal power. Now, think about it, within a gang there’s always a hierarchy. Cheap and hefty portions like male rat meat are meant as welfare for the lower members. It might not taste good, but it has a little energy, so they have to eat it and be thankful for the boss’s generosity."

"Pfft, even gangs have it rough." Ye Nai’s eyes twinkled with an idea, "Actually, I could sell some premium male rat meat, as rewards for excellent gang members."

"Ha, that’s an idea."

Brother Peng saw the look on Ye Nai’s face; she was seriously considering it.

But he didn’t oppose the idea. Considering Ye Nai’s abilities, the low-ranking gang members wouldn’t be a match for her, and if she went into sales, she might really be able to "open up" a market.

"Also, when you sell, do it in small quantities over time."

"Why?"

"Think about it, how much cash flow could a rat meat trader possibly have? Besides, by selling bit by bit, unless someone investigates you, no one would know the size of your Space. There’s no need to let outsiders know too much about a little mutant beast meat."

"Makes sense." Ye Nai’s thought process finally clicked.

After saying goodbye to Brother Peng at the foot of her building, Ye Nai went home and took another shower. When she came out of the Secret Realm during the day, she had felt it—the sweltering heat of June that was unbearable, clouds in the sky but no rain, and without the air conditioning, one could faint from the heat.

After the shower, she saw a private message from Captain Cao, asking her to report the supplies she had used on Brother Xiao Ma’s entire team, so that logistics could reimburse her.