It's really hard to just farm peacefully.

Jiang Yan's frail constitution was common knowledge within the Fu family's ranks. When she made her request, the guards had no objections. However, this might provide further evidence to support the later discussions about her "delicate and weak" condition.

At first, Jiang Yan felt guilty for delaying everyone's schedule, but as time went on, she wanted to retaliate against the masters and managers who arranged her business trips, making decisions that left her subordinates angry but unable to speak out.

Making a perfect piece of farmhouse smoked meat would take at least several days, but everyone was in a hurry to get on their way and didn't have that time, so they could only do some basic processing.

Jiang Yan wrapped the raw meat pieces beside her in wood ash, intending to marinate them for a while before washing and smoking them. However, the guards were exceptionally quick, using fire to singe the outer layer of the meat pieces and then rapidly coating them with a thick layer of wood ash.

This sequence was completely opposite to the steps in the tutorial that Jiang Yan knew. Looking at the few freshly baked gray dumplings, she couldn't help but ask curiously, "This really works? How does it taste? How long can it be kept?"

The guards didn't know how long it could be kept, because they often ate it before it spoiled. As for the taste... "It certainly won't taste as good as fresh."

Jiang Yan guessed it wouldn't be very good either. When eating it, she would have to wash off the outer layer of ash, which would easily soften the already baked surface and cause the filling to float. It might even fall off, resulting in a much smaller portion.

Seeing that the guards had finished and were waiting for her, Jiang Yan ultimately couldn't stick to her own steps and closed her eyes to choose the guards' cooking method.

……

Working almost day and night, the group finally returned to Rongcheng County on the ninth day.

After handing over her duties to Yang Jishi and seeing him off as he headed to the capital, Jiang Yan hurriedly grabbed her last pork chop and rushed to the kitchen.

Because the secular world also classifies meat into different categories, on the return journey, everyone prioritized eating donkey meat rather than the pork that Jiang Yan shared.

Perhaps because the meat chunks were too thick and not smoked enough, and because the weather was humid and the smoking wasn't replenished in time, some of the meat chunks tasted slightly sour when it was time to cut the pork leg on the sixth day.

Jiang Yan tasted something was wrong and immediately spat it out and rinsed her mouth carefully, but the guards, relying on their strength and past experience, didn't take it seriously and stuffed mouthfuls into their mouths.

Her caution proved necessary, as two of the relatively thin guards soon began experiencing gastrointestinal discomfort, developing diarrhea and dehydration. Fortunately, the symptoms were not particularly severe, and they gradually recovered after a day of exhaustion.

To avoid any unforeseen circumstances in the remaining two days, everyone stopped eating the remaining smoked meat and made do with the leftover dry biscuits and wild vegetables that could be found in the forest.

Although the meat was no longer edible, Jiang Yan hesitated repeatedly but still couldn't bear to throw it all away. After all, this was a fat pig she had raised at great expense, and she had been longing to taste it for so long... She had to persist in trying to save it until the very last moment.

In order to allow the chef of the Fu family to fully assess the edibility of this spare rib, Jiang Yan went into detail about the date of slaughter, the methods used to process it during the journey, how long it had been exposed to the sun, and how it was stored. The kitchen helpers stopped what they were doing to listen.

Chef Li clearly didn't have the patience to listen to Jiang Yan's long-winded account. He squeezed the pork chop in his hand with some disdain, then picked out the thickest part, poked it open, and sniffed it. "You've smoked this meat until it's practically dried meat, it won't spoil."

He then refuted Jiang Yan's "alarmist" claims that eating spoiled meat could harm one's health.