Alcohol is the essence of grain; the more you drink, the younger you get!
Whether it makes you younger or not is one thing, but it definitely kills the hunger!
The two of them, who had been exhausted from hunger, felt the hunger vanish the moment a mouthful of alcohol hit their stomachs!
It is said that back in the day, when the heroic ancestors crossed the Chishui River four times, they relied on alcohol to sustain them because they had no food, which is how they ultimately secured victory!
Therefore, alcohol is absolutely a legitimate, good thing!
After each took another two sips, Wang An screwed the cap back onto the flask. It was better to drink this stuff in moderation; it was warming and satiating.
If you drank too much, a dog would still be a dog, but whether a human remained human was another story!
Moreover, the main issue was that if you drank too much of this stuff, even if you didn't change physically, it would get in the way of the task at hand!
Mu Xueli looked at the flask in Wang An's hand with lingering longing, as if she hadn't had enough.
Of course, Wang An hadn't had enough either!
However, the primary difference between humans and animals is that humans create and use tools!
Actually, there was another very important difference: humans have self-control! Someone who completely lacks self-control is certainly what people call "worse than a beast"!
Sitting by the fire, continuing to wait for the meat to stew and the flatbreads to heat up, the two of them chatted idly.
Finally, the flatbreads were hot, but because they had drunk the alcohol, they no longer felt that sense of exhaustion.
So, they both waited for the yellow goat meat to be ready; the characteristic gamey scent of stewed yellow goat had already begun to spread.
Each of the three dogs had eaten a jumping cat; though not full, they certainly weren't starving, yet at this moment, all three dogs were drooling at the scent!
The smell of this stewed mutton was just too damn fragrant!
The two of them just stared at the pot, staring quietly!
For this trip into the mountains, they no longer needed to make bowls out of linden bark. Mu Xueli had brought two fairly large wooden bowls and a wooden spoon!
She said her father-in-law, Mu Hua, had carved them out bit by bit with a chisel at home! Although the bowls looked crude, the father-in-law's thoughtfulness was absolutely touching!
The wooden bowls were made of dried red pine. The scent of the pine was already faint, but they were genuinely hard!
Mu Xueli had even demonstrated to Wang An by using the bowl to smash snow; it made a "clunk clunk" sound. Using this bowl as a hammer would be no problem at all!
Under their expectant gazes, the meat was finally done. Wang An used the wooden spoon to skim off the blood foam from the top, then served a bowl of soup for each of them, drinking it with great satisfaction!
Wang An discovered that although the mutton was gamey, without any seasonings other than salt and chili powder, the mutton soup was delicious!
Bear meat soup or wild boar meat soup couldn't compare at all!
Mainly, he hadn't harvested any mountain peppercorns today, and he hadn't brought the ones from yesterday, so he couldn't add any; otherwise, throwing in a few pieces might have made the soup even more savory.
With a bowl of soup down, the two began to gnaw on the meat. The meat was merely cooked through and not tender, but it was still delicious when put in the mouth—chewy and fragrant the more one chewed!
It was too damn delicious!
That's just how humans are; eating only meat always feels like something is missing in the stomach, always wanting some grain to go with it!
After finishing the pot of meat, the two were still not full and began eating the flatbreads. Although they had just eaten meat and the flatbreads were quite scratchy on the throat, eating them while sipping the soup was genuinely fragrant!
The two of them polished off all four flatbreads! To be honest, they were barely full; if there had been more, they could have eaten more.
Full and satisfied, the two cleaned up the pot and bowls, smoked a cigarette, and continued to wait. Mainly, the two horses hadn't eaten much fodder yet!
Along this journey, they were relying entirely on these two. The fodder Wang An brought into the mountains had been pre-mixed by Wang Dazhu.
Dried grass, cornmeal, corn kernels, sorghum, and some soybean meal. The soybean meal was something Wang Dazhu had traded for at the market; it was top-tier stuff for feeding livestock!
Moreover, the family was no longer short of corn and sorghum. Whenever Wang Dazhu had the chance, he traded with people from the county. Every time he went to the county to sell meat, he could trade for a hundred or so pounds!
It had to be said that people in the county were wealthier than those in the village and had more grain. Most importantly, they were bolder and more generous with their eating!
Generally, trading for meat meant five or six pounds of corn or sorghum for one pound of wild boar or roe deer meat, and seven pounds of corn or sorghum for one pound of bear meat!
Naturally, there were those who traded using black beans or yellow soybeans, but using legumes was rare. Clearly, many were grown, but for some reason, legumes were scarce—perhaps they were being sent as aid somewhere!
As for trading refined grains for meat, that hadn't happened yet; perhaps no household had a surplus of refined grains!
"Bear" was a general term for the black bear and the brown bear. In any case, neither of those things had great eyesight, and the meat quality was similar! For convenience, locals usually called them that; as long as everyone knew what was being referred to, it was fine.
Of course, whether the meat was valuable depended mainly on the ratio of fat to lean. The more fat, the more valuable it was; pure fat was the most valuable.
In this era, ribs weren't valuable; it should be said that any meat with bone in it wasn't valuable! They couldn't even be sold for a few cents a pound; often, they were just freebies given when selling meat!
With more corn and sorghum traded, there was plenty of feed for the horses. The horses put on weight, became stronger, and their coats became glossier. This was the case for Da'er and Daqing!
Compared to when they first arrived home, they had completely changed; one could hardly recognize that these were the same two horses from before!
After waiting another half hour, feeling that Da'er and Daqing had eaten enough, the two drove the sled to continue tracking!
It was a complete repetition of the morning's operation: various twists and turns, searching and tracking.
Around 3 o'clock, just as the sun was about to set, the two had just emerged from a thicket of shrubs when Dahei, tied to the back of the sled, suddenly began to bark frantically.
Immediately following, all three dogs bared their teeth and snarled, as if facing a formidable enemy.
The two knew there must be something nearby!
Both stepped off the sled, guns in their left hands and leading the horses with their right, constantly and vigilantly scanning the direction the three dogs were barking!
There were many tall trees in the mountain forest. Although the sun was still in the sky, it had actually already grown dark inside the woods.
Wang An's primary purpose in bringing the dogs today was for alerting; naturally, he wouldn't let the dogs loose to fight.
Besides, whether it was the horses or the dogs, they were all exhausted after running all day. To go out of the way to hunt other prey would be like having one's head kicked by a donkey and then filled with water!
After walking two or three li, the three dogs finally quieted down, and the two drove the sled forward again.
However, this situation seemed to be only the beginning. After walking another dozen or so li, with the sun almost touching the ground, the three dogs began barking frantically again.
Da'er only became agitated for a moment before calming down, but Daqing became restless. Mu Xueli held Daqing's head to soothe him before he finally calmed down.
Daqing was a gelding. In fact, as long as a normal colt isn't intended for breeding, it must be castrated to be used; otherwise, it is very difficult to tame and extremely hard to control!
Donkeys, mules, and cows were all the same. Only Wang An's Da'er was an exception! A very special exception!
Not only was he not castrated, but he was also very obedient and not particularly afraid of other predators. Most importantly, he dared to fight wolves—he was a very eccentric and incredibly badass existence among the horse population!
The two led the horses through once more. It was almost dark, and Wang An really didn't want any unnecessary complications. Even if there were to be a fight, he wanted to wait until he saw the yellow goats!
Just as the sky turned completely dim and only half the sun remained, the three dogs went into a total frenzy of barking, and Da'er also became anxious, pawing at the ground with his front hooves!
Daqing was even worse, acting as if he were on fire, jumping up and down. If Mu Xueli hadn't gripped the reins tightly, Daqing would have immediately turned around and bolted away for his life!
At this moment, Wang An, who was walking in front, saw a stunning sight: so many yellow goats!