Ethan Harris originally thought that most of the meat Dong Tianyu brought out would be cut into chunks, as it is more convenient for storage and sales to have all the meat stored in small pieces at this time.

"The meat on the ground should add up to a little over five tons, and because it hasn’t been deboned, I won’t count the extra, just give me one hundred Mysterious Cores for it, okay?"

Upon hearing Dong Tianyu’s question, Ethan Harris did not hesitate and directly walked to a corner of the warehouse, rummaged out a box, and took out all the Mysterious Cores inside.

In front of Dong Tianyu, Ethan Harris counted them, a total of one hundred and thirteen Mysterious Cores. After counting them twice, Ethan handed all the Mysterious Cores to Dong Tianyu.

"You’re doing this?"

"No need to say more, bro. Seeing all this uncut half-slabs of meat on the ground, I knew I was getting the better end of the deal. I won’t say much else, this is all the Mysterious Cores I have, and they’re all yours."

One might have thought Evelyn Harris, as a frontline purchaser, would be very shrewd, but unexpectedly, she was quite generous.

Dong Tianyu tentatively stored all the Mysterious Cores into the Storage space, and no other expression appeared on Ethan Harris’s face, which meant that either Evelyn Harris was extremely shrewd and had reached a state of unflappability, or her nature was truly as such.

Without posing a threat to Dong Tianyu, he certainly tended to interact with others believing in the innate goodness of people.

Moreover, although Dong Tianyu just now had brought out the meat without appearing to count or weigh it, he was actually well aware of its weight.

While the meat on the ground looked spectacular, in total it weighed just over five tons, at most about 5.1 tons, which was only about two hundred pounds over the agreed trade weight.

Even though it was two hundred pounds over, all the whole half-sides of pork, beef, and lamb naturally included the weight of the bones; the pure meat weight definitely wouldn’t reach five tons.

However, even if the pure meat weight was a bit short, the selling price for these whole half-slabs of meat would absolutely not be cheaper than that of the same weight of cut pure meat.

After all, who knows if the cut meat is made from compressed scraps? When there is no choice, any meat will do, but if there is a choice, most wealthy people would rather spend more to choose better-quality meats.

Besides, even though Evelyn Harris was buying meat by weight from Dong Tianyu, upon seeing the meats Dong Tianyu had brought out, she had already decided on the selling method, which would be whole half-sides.

Under normal circumstances, a slaughter pig’s market-ready weight is around 200 pounds. After slaughtering, bleeding, and removing the innards, about half the weight is lost, so usually, a half slab of pig seen in the market weighs about 50 pounds with bone.

And Evelyn was planning to sell each half slab of pork for one Mysterious Core, which is a fifty-to-one price ratio. It may seem like doubling the price.

But had it not been for the news that Dong Tianyu was selling a large quantity of meat at once and Ethan Harris didn’t have a refrigerated storage place, Evelyn would have dared to mark up the price by five times.

In fact, another crucial reason was that the warehouse wasn’t secure. The Officials’ control over this Water Base was extremely strong. Though the warehouse was rented by Evelyn, and the meat was delivered directly through Dong Tianyu’s Storage Equipment.

But Ethan was certain if he didn’t sell most of the meat in the warehouse within three days, it would certainly vanish into thin air, and no clues about the thieves would be found.

Therefore, it wasn’t that Evelyn lacked business acumen, but Ethan knew the way of the world very well. Earning less was always better than losing everything.

Just as Evelyn was about to take Dong Tianyu back to the trading center, Dong Tianyu was initially going to take two watermelons, but after some thought, he ended up handing just an apple and a pear to Evelyn.

It wasn’t that Dong Tianyu was stingy. Even though fruits were of no great value to him, the prices were set by him.

Two watermelons, according to Dong Tianyu’s pricing, were equivalent to a thousand pounds of meat. If Dong Tianyu had simply given two watermelons, not only would it diminish the perceived value of the watermelons, but it would also make Evelyn feel that she had lost a lot on the deal.

Whereas an apple and a pear were just right. By the set pricing, their price was only worth two Mysterious Cores. After all, Ethan had given over a dozen extra Mysterious Cores, so even giving just one watermelon would have been acceptable.

However, Dong Tianyu was rather traditional, and whether it was giving or returning gifts, he liked things to come in pairs. Since he intended to provide for two individuals, and watermelon was inappropriate, strawberries had already been given, and grapes were too small, he was left with only apples and pears.

Ethan Harris didn’t decline the apples and pears that Dong Tianyu passed to him. After carefully wrapping the two pieces of fruit, Ethan placed them in the box.

Afterward, the two returned to the Trading Center. This time, upon entering the Trading Center, Ethan didn’t say much but directly took Dong Tianyu to the VIP room of the Trading Center.

"Little brother, take a seat here for a moment, I’ll pour you a cup of tea,"

"No..." Before Dong Tianyu could finish declining, he saw Evelyn Harris giving him a meaningful glance. As Ethan left the room, he gestured with a one-one-zero sign and then exited.

Just as Dong Tianyu was closing his eyes to rest, Ethan Harris came back with three glass cups, followed, however, by a stranger.

"Official Liam, this is Dong Tianyu; their Hunting Group has a considerable supply of meat, mainly pork, beef, mutton, and some frozen meat of prehistoric creatures,"

"This is our department’s highest-ranking official. After hearing about the large supply of meat your Hunting Group has, he personally came to discuss with you in hopes of striking a direct deal,"

Although Official Liam was momentarily taken aback when he entered the room and saw Dong Tianyu’s young face, it was only for the blink of an eye, and his expression quickly returned to normal.

Official Liam didn’t exhibit a condescending attitude because of his high position and Dong Tianyu’s youthful appearance.

On the contrary, his smile was very kind, and he appeared very approachable.

Official Liam took a seat directly opposite Dong Tianyu, and only then did Evelyn Harris place the tray with teacups on the table.

Dong Tianyu, observing the tea leaves floating up and down in the glass cup, realized upon noticing that these were not broken leaves but whole leaves, that the identity of his counterpart must be no ordinary one.

Typically, an official in charge of a department would hardly have access to such quality tea leaves, given that even the ordinary grains that were common before the disaster are now unable to be widely cultivated at the Water Base, let alone tea plants.

Even if the Water Base planted a dozen tea plants, even before the catastrophe, the quantity of tea leaves of this quality that could be harvested from one tea plant was barely under a hundred grams.

Upon hearing Ethan’s report that Dong Tianyu’s Hunting Group had obtained a large quantity of meat and was preparing to sell it all, Official Liam excitedly stood up on the spot.

Although he was currently at the grassroots level, he was undergoing field training, and even if he didn’t achieve any notable feats during his tenure, as long as he didn’t make any mistakes, he would smoothly rise in the ranks before long.

It was because of such solid backing and connections that he was very familiar with the state of resource reserves at the base. Despite the Water Base having its designated pastoral areas for raising livestock,

those animals were raised for breeding, and there were strict regulations on when they could breed, which essentially cut off the source of meat for the base at present.

However, for those in the Elementary stages of the Martial Path cultivation, consuming meat was the easiest way to improve, and although the base no longer had a new source of meat, in the hierarchy of food importance, staple grains such as mixed grains took precedence over meat by quite a margin.

Even though the management of meat in the base was strictly regulated on the surface, the oversight wasn’t as meticulous as it was for staple grains.

Therefore, officially, meat purchases had to be made using coupons, but in reality, for those truly connected, even if it was said to be coupon-based, it didn’t impact them much.

Among them were not only those who printed the coupons but also those responsible for storage management.

They didn’t need to act illegally to consume meat; they could acquire sufficient quantities of it through various legal means.

It was for this reason that the reserves of meat continued to dwindle at the base, putting them in a precarious position.