The wildcats in the mountains generally don't exceed 5 jin at their largest; after skinning and gutting, they definitely won't exceed 3 jin!
These things have no fat on them and don't taste good on their own. Aside from an earthy, gamey smell, they have no fragrance at all!
The normal way to eat them is to stew them with wild chicken or pork ribs. This meat takes on the flavor of whatever it's stewed with, and as long as there is oil, it isn't tough at all!
Alternatively, you need a massive amount of various seasonings to cook them, but the actual taste is just the taste of the seasonings! It has absolutely nothing to do with the flavor of the wildcat meat.
Whether selling the pelt or the whole animal, each wildcat goes for a bit over one yuan, but these trapped wildcats are essentially like free money, especially since the quantity is quite significant.
Combined, the two of them had about 130 traps. After checking them all, they harvested 36 complete wildcats!
Two others had been eaten by other mountain beasts, leaving only a small fraction. After skinning them, there were only a couple of bites of meat left; they weren't very useful, so they were thrown away!
Between checking and resetting the traps, an hour and a half passed. The two didn't linger; they found the spot where they had discovered the yellow goat hoofprints yesterday and began tracking them with the sled.
In less than half an hour, Mu Xueli couldn't help but shout from behind, "Brother-in-law, why don't we leave the sled here and chase them on horseback?"
"Let's get past this section first," Wang An shouted back.
At this moment, Wang An was also incredibly frustrated. In the mountains, pulling a sled along the ridges was fine since there were fewer trees and shrubs.
But navigating a sled through the woods was just too damn difficult!
It was easy enough where the trees were sparse, but when they hit a large patch of shrubbery, it was practically impassable. The gaps left between the shrubs were only about a meter high and half a meter wide!
It was just right for a roe deer or a yellow goat to pass through, and dogs could manage too, but a horse was out of the question! The idea of a horse pulling a sled through there was a complete fantasy!
No wonder yellow goat meat tasted so good, yet not a single old hunter would track these things!
Hard, too damn hard!
Half an hour later, the two finally bypassed the large patch of shrubs, only to find that all those hoofprints had fucking vanished! They had disappeared magically!
Wang An was at a loss, and Mu Xueli was completely bewildered!
Looking around, Wang An decided to circle back around the shrubs and give up on the yellow goats!
Even if he didn't want to give up, there was no way; the herd's tracks were gone. They hadn't headed toward the county seat, or rather, the wolves hadn't chased the goats in that direction!
The two continued on their way. After another half hour, just as they were about to reach the place where they decided to turn back, the yellow goat prints reappeared!
Naturally, the two were overjoyed. Although they hadn't gained much, it felt like recovering something lost.
It turned out the herd hadn't gone far into the shrubs before coming back out; the two had simply chosen the wrong direction to detour!
Thus, they continued tracking and chasing the yellow goats, and neither said a discouraging word about turning back!
Along the way, there were still various twists and turns, but the two clearly noticed that the terrain grew higher as they went. In other words, the herd of yellow goats had moved toward the higher mountain ranges!
However, many wolf paw prints continued to appear over the goat hoofprints. It was unclear if the wolves were driving the goats or if they had discovered the prints and were tracking them, just like Wang An and his companion!
Additionally, footprints of other animals began to appear one after another.
Tiger cubs, red dogs, Asiatic black bears, yellow-throated martens, and so on. It seemed there were quite a few animals in these mountains eyeing this herd of yellow goats!
He just didn't know if the bear was a black bear or a brown bear, but regardless of what it was, it made Wang An feel a bit uneasy!
That thing was no pushover; it had left a significant shadow in Wang An's mind!
After every detour, they had to search for the prints again, but they weren't entirely empty-handed; they found two leftover carcasses of yellow goats.
These were about the size of a roe deer but shorter. Together, the two carcasses had less than 30 jin of meat left, mostly the thighs and spinal columns.
The internal organs and the ribs near the belly had all been eaten away.
Around one in the afternoon, the two could no longer pursue them because they were starving, and the horse and dog were exhausted. They found a sheltered spot to set up a pot, boil water, cook food, and feed the horse fodder!
Yellow goat meat tasted better than wildcat meat, so they skinned the wildcats and used the meat to feed the dog. The wildcats were frozen rock-hard, making skinning very difficult, but Mu Xueli did that work while Wang An stewed the meat and heated up the flatbreads!
Any meat that is frozen solid is very hard to cut. Wang An struggled with the yellow goat carcasses for a long time with his knife, but he couldn't make a dent in them!
A thought occurred to him—to hell with the knife!
Wang An pulled out the hatchet from the sled!
Aiming at the carcasses, Wang An bared his teeth and swung the hatchet. And indeed, this thing was incredibly effective for chopping bone!
With a few swings, the yellow goat carcasses were dismembered. The parts bitten by mountain beasts were all chopped off. After chopping, the two carcasses were left with six intact thighs, two half-thighs, and two incomplete spinal columns!
The heads and the messy, blood-streaked necks were all tossed aside!
Seeing what remained, Wang An was satisfied. He then chopped the two half-thighs and the two incomplete spines into small pieces!
He filled more than half the pot with snow, threw in all the chopped bone-in meat, added salt and chili powder, covered the pot, and set it over the fire to stew!
He had originally wanted to cut some small pieces to roast, but after fiddling with the knife for a while and glancing at the hatchet, he gave up in frustration!
After feeding the dog, Mu Xueli spoke from the side, "Brother-in-law, why don't we just roast them whole?"
Wang An gave his brother-in-law a sidelong glance. "How long would that take to roast? Do you still want to work? We'll talk about that tonight!"
"We're not going back tonight?" Hearing this, Mu Xueli suddenly said excitedly.
"What? In this freezing cold weather, you think spending a night in the mountains is fun?" Wang An asked helplessly, rolling his eyes.
"Yeah, it's so thrilling!" Mu Xueli said excitedly.
"You're not like other people," Wang An said.
"Hehehe."
The food Wang An brought into the mountains was still cornmeal flatbread. There was so little white flour at home that even mixed-flour steamed buns were a rarity.
Every time Wang An saw these rock-hard flatbreads that scratched the throat, he felt that a happy life was far away from him!
It wasn't that he was picky or arrogant; swallowing this stuff really was uncomfortable!
It felt like using a file on your throat—one scratch for every swallow, without missing a beat!
With the goat bones stewing and the flatbreads roasting, the brother-in-law and brother-in-law were starving to the point where their stomachs were sticking to their backs!
Wang An suddenly remembered there was something good in the burlap sack on the sled: a flask of loose liquor!
He had forgotten to drink it after filling it yesterday; what a pain!
But luckily he forgot yesterday, so he could have a few more sips today!
He stood up, found it on the sled, returned to the fire, unscrewed the cap, and took a big gulp!
Holy shit, that pungent, spicy feeling—it was like a ball of fire diving into his stomach, and his whole body immediately warmed up. It felt fucking great!
"Xueli, want a sip?" After enjoying himself, Wang An remembered his brother-in-law.
"Liquor?" Mu Xueli was also a bit excited.
"Yep, sorghum liquor. One sip hits you straight in the head!" Wang An said with a smile as he handed over the flask.
Mu Xueli naturally loved that spicy taste. He took it and drank a large gulp, continuously exhaling hot air from the spice!
In truth, there aren't many men in the Northeast who don't like liquor!
In this freezing cold weather, having a couple of sips! That taste, that feeling, was simply the ultimate enjoyment!
Please follow and bookmark, I beg you! I can't really ask for anything else!
(End of Chapter)