As soon as Wang An and Huang Zhong entered the courtyard, the four eagles descended from the sky one after another, each returning to its own nest.
At that moment, Wang Dazhu and his wife, along with Huang Li and another, were washing wheat, while Mu Xueqing sat on a chair watching the three of them work.
Seeing Wang An and Huang Zhong return, Liu Guilan asked curiously, "Xiao An, what on earth are you carrying back there?"
Wang An walked closer and placed the scented musk deer on the ground, saying with a face full of smugness, "Look, a scented musk deer! Hahaha... and it's a male."
As soon as Wang An finished speaking, Wang Dazhu and the others put down their strainers and walked over with curiosity. Mu Xueqing also slowly stood up and waddled over with her large belly.
Immediately after, Wang Dazhu spoke in a tone of great wonder, "This thing is truly not easy to come across. I haven't seen one of these in several years."
Liu Guilan chimed in, "That's true. It's been years since I heard of anyone catching one of these."
Wang Dazhu said dismissively, "Now that's the thing—it's not that you're afraid of a thief stealing it, but that you're afraid of a thief coveting it. Even if someone catches one of these, who would dare make a noise about it?"
As he spoke, Wang Dazhu squatted down and habitually lifted the musk deer's hind leg to look at where the scent gland was located.
Seeing Wang Dazhu's action, Wang An pulled the musk deer's scent gland out of his pocket and said with a beaming smile, "Dad, were you looking for this?"
The moment Wang An took out the scent gland, a fragrance immediately began to permeate the air.
It had to be said that the scent gland of a musk deer was truly fragrant, and for a musk deer in heat, the gland was even more potent.
Wang Dazhu looked up and, seeing the scent gland in Wang An's hand, said with a smile but a hint of surprise, "Ya ha, you actually knew to carve out the scent gland? I thought you wouldn't know."
Wang An curled his lip and said, somewhat speechless, "I've been hunting in the mountains for nearly a year now, whether consistently or not. How could I not know something like this?"
Just then, Mu Xueqing shuffled over to the side. Noticing her, Liu Guilan's expression changed instantly. She glared with wide eyes and said sternly to Wang An, "Take that thing far away from here! Don't let Xueqing smell it."
Wang An hurriedly put the scent gland away and turned to look for a canning jar.
For the safety of his wife, Wang An had to seal the scent gland; at the very least, he couldn't let Mu Xueqing smell too much of the musk.
The main reason was that this substance not only had contraceptive effects for women, but like turtle meat, it also had the effect of causing miscarriages in pregnant women.
Of course, while musk was highly dangerous to pregnant women, short-term contact was actually not a problem. However, seeing his mother's nervous demeanor, Wang An truly didn't dare argue with her.
Mu Xueqing had already smelled the musk and said calmly, "Smelling it for a little bit here and there is fine. This scent is truly fragrant."
Hearing this, Liu Guilan said complainingly, "That won't do. This thing is far too eerie. We'd better stay away from it. It's all Xiao An's fault for insisting on bringing this thing into the house."
As she spoke, Liu Guilan gave a sharp flick of her eyelids toward Wang An's back.
Wang An found an empty canning jar, placed the whole scent gland inside, and tightened the lid firmly before strolling back with the jar.
However, Wang An secretly decided that he would take the scent gland to the county town tomorrow and give it to Fang Xiu'e to handle. After all, musk had extremely high medicinal value, and a medical expert like Fang Xiu'e would certainly be able to make use of it.
Seeing Wang An return with the canning jar, Liu Guilan's eyes snapped up, and she scolded him, "Aren't you going to the county town tomorrow? Sell it tomorrow! Don't you know how big Xueqing's belly is? We can't keep this thing in our house."
Wang An stole a glance at his aggressive mother and hurriedly agreed, "Yeah, yeah, I'll definitely get rid of it tomorrow, hehehehe..."
Liu Guilan rolled her eyes at Wang An and said with great dissatisfaction, "The older you get, the more you show off. You're good for nothing."
Wang An only smiled secretly at Mu Xueqing and said nothing.
In Wang An's house, whenever Liu Guilan lost her temper, the smartest thing for everyone to do was shut up; otherwise, she would only get more excited and more energized the more she spoke.
Just like that, the originally happy atmosphere was instantly ruined by a few shouts from Liu Guilan.
After a while, Liu Guilan and the others continued washing the wheat, while Wang An joked with Huang Zhong, "Xiao Zhong, go put the gun back in your room. When you're done, come back out and I'll teach you how to skin rabbits and things. You've got to learn a few skills, right?"
Although Huang Zhong had a good personality and was very obedient, to be honest, those were his only two strengths.
Because the boy knew how to do so little work, and the work he could do was so limited, Wang An felt that if it weren't for the boy's pitiful situation, raising him would be worse than raising a small donkey.
There was no helping it; that was the truth!
Huang Zhong agreed and ran toward the old house with the gun.
Just as the Wang family were each busy with their own tasks, the village loudspeaker suddenly blared.
"Attention, residents of Kaoshan Village! The weather has been good these past few days, so everyone please dry and sort the grain you need to hand in. Don't let the grain be rejected for not meeting standards, or you'll have to redo the whole process. Did everyone hear me? Especially those households whose grain is filthy, hurry up!"
"Our Kaoshan..."
After repeating it twice, Sun Dafu turned off the microphone.
Back when they were under the collective system, these matters were managed by the village chief directing the residents. Now that the land had been divided to individual households, everyone managed their own, and the village chief merely provided a reminder.
However, it must be said that the requirements for the grain used for the public quota were extremely strict.
On one hand, the grain had to be clean without a speck of debris and free of dampness or mold; on the other hand, the grain had to be very plump and dry.
In local terms, it had to be "wind-top grain."
So-called "wind-top grain" referred to the grain that fell first on one side when winnowing—that is, when a wooden shovel tosses the grain mixed with debris high into the air, and the wind blows away the impurities and dust.
One should know that in every shovel-full, only about half, or even less than half, of the grain would fall on that side. In plain terms, although farmers worked hard for a year to harvest grain, they couldn't eat the plumpest and cleanest grains themselves.
Even so, the submitted grain was often judged as substandard, mostly because it wasn't plump enough or the moisture content was too high.
It had to be said, that was a truly infuriating matter.
(End of Chapter)