From the lower edge of the opening to the bottom of the hole, the depth was roughly two and a third or four meters. Even with Wang An's height, standing at the bottom left a significant gap between the top of his head and the opening.
Consequently, aside from the air near the opening being slightly better, the space from Wang An's head down was filled with a pungent, urinous stench.
Enduring the foul smell and stench of the tree hollow, Wang An bent over and hoisted up a small bear cub.
Truth be told, this little cub was all fluffy and actually quite cute. Crucially, aside from some paper scraps from the exploded firecrackers and some splattered wood chips, it hadn't suffered any other injuries.
Looking at the size of the cub, it was obvious it had only opened its eyes a few days ago; it couldn't even walk yet.
As for aggressiveness, that was completely non-existent. How could a tiny thing like this be aggressive? Even tigers aren't aggressive during their cub stage!
Whether their ears had been deafened by the firecrackers, however, remained to be seen.
After a quick inspection, Wang An shouted to the outside
"Lao Wu, I'm throwing this cub out, catch it!"
Wang Li, who was helping Mu Xueli extract the bear gall, immediately stood up and answered toward the opening
"Aye, Fourth Brother, throw it! I've got it!"
Hearing Wang Li's response, Wang An supported the cub with both hands and, like shooting a basketball, tossed the little cub out of the hole.
He didn't bother asking if it had been caught; regardless, even if Wang Li missed, a thing like this generally wouldn't die from falling onto the snow.
Immediately after, Wang An bent over and hoisted up the other cub.
Compared to the first one, this cub was somewhat unlucky.
Because the gunpowder from the firecrackers had sprayed onto it, a patch of fur on its back had been burned away, making the cub look not cute at all.
Furthermore, the power of those firecrackers was actually quite significant; it seemed this cub had been hit rather hard, as it now looked somewhat wilted and lethargic.
However, Wang An didn't care about that and called out to the outside
"Lao Wu, this one's coming out too, catch it!"
As he spoke, Wang An tossed the second cub out as well.
Then, Wang An gave a powerful jump on the spot, gripped the edge of the opening with his hands, and climbed out of the hole bit by bit.
When Wang An exited the tree hollow, he jumped out head-first, rolling upon landing to dissipate the force before standing up.
To be honest, for a hollow like this, ordinary people shouldn't enter lightly. It was far too easy to get trapped inside; if one were stuck without rescue, the inevitable end would be death.
Just as Wang An stood up, he saw Wang Li holding the two cubs, asking
"Fourth Brother, what should we do with these two things?"
Looking at the two cubs with their adorable faces, Wang An couldn't help but frown.
After thinking for a moment, Wang An said
"How about you two each raise one? Once they're grown, you can harvest the bear gall and sell them for a decent amount of money."
The moment Wang An finished speaking, Mu Xueli, who was still digging out the gall, didn't even look up and refused without hesitation
"You guys raise them. I'm not raising these things. These things eat like crazy every day, even more than pigs. How much grain would it take to feed one up?"
Wang Li immediately chimed in
"Exactly! I won't raise one either. I reckon raising this thing is worse than raising a pig. If it turns out to be a 'grass gall' before we harvest it, oh my god, the money from selling it might not even cover the cost of its feed."
Hearing these two idiots, Wang An was momentarily speechless, though he had to admit they weren't wrong.
Because Wang An thought the same thing, and he didn't want to raise bear cubs either!
The reason Wang An didn't want to raise them wasn't because he was worried about the grain; after all, the Wang family didn't lack grain at all. The sweet potatoes, potatoes, pumpkins, cabbages, and radishes that bears loved were filling their cellar.
The main reason Wang An didn't want to raise black bears was that there were simply too many animals at the Wang house. He neither wanted to nor had the energy to raise them.
Of course, the most critical reason was that aside from the valuable gall, nothing else on the bear's body was of any damn use to the Wang family.
To put it simply: the cost outweighed the benefit!
Furthermore, if they grew attached to them, they certainly wouldn't have the heart to slaughter them later, which would make it even less worthwhile.
One must remember that a bear's intelligence is higher than a dog's, and developing an emotional bond was almost an inevitable occurrence.
Wang An sucked on his teeth, looking conflictedly at the two "hot potatoes" in Wang Li's arms, yet he truly couldn't bring himself to kill them.
Hearing his two younger brothers talk like this, he said with some impatience
"Alright, alright, if you won't raise them, then just leave them be. Stop being so wishy-washy. Put them in a sack for now, and we'll talk when we get back."
Upon hearing that he didn't have to raise the black bear himself, Wang Li happily agreed
"Aye, alright Fourth Brother, I'll bag them up right now."
Wang An gave Wang Li a sharp glare with his eyelids, then turned to the snickering Mu Xueli and said
"You little rascal, it took so much effort to get one bear gall; tell me, what *can* you actually do?"
Mu Xueli wasn't annoyed; instead, he said with a laugh
"It's out, it's out! The gall is out. Quick, look at what kind of gall this is."
As he spoke, Mu Xueli pulled out the bear gall. Wang An took one glance and immediately frowned, snapping at Mu Xueli
"Look at your rotten luck. The first time you enter the mountains this year and you get a grass gall. Useless."
Indeed, the gall in Mu Xueli's hand was a green "grass gall," which would probably weigh only sixty or seventy grams after drying.
However, Wang An's criticism was clearly just nitpicking.
To put it plainly, Wang An was looking for an excuse to give Mu Xueli a couple of kicks.
Of course, the primary source of Wang An's irritation was that neither of them would raise the two cubs.
Unfortunately, Mu Xueli didn't take the bait and said with a beaming smile
"Exactly! My hands really are rotten. When I get back, I'll have to find a fragrant piece of 'yizi' to scrub myself well."
The "yizi" Mu Xueli mentioned was actually soap; in this era, many people still referred to soap as "yizi."
Having failed to nitpick—and primarily failing to find a reason to kick Wang Li and Mu Xueli—Wang An felt somewhat depressed.
Thus, while Wang An silently put away the bear gall, his mind was churning over how to handle those two bear cubs. (End of Chapter)