It was impossible for the two brothers not to be happy. The acquisition price for golden bear gall powder at Li's Pharmacy was 25 yuan per gram, and once this gall was air-dried, it could be sold for roughly over 1,700 yuan.
Wang An opened his pocket, and Wang Li placed the gall inside. After carefully securing it, Wang An said with a beaming smile
"Great, just great. Over 1,700 yuan after air-drying, hahahaha! Now listen, Lao Wu, remember this—the money from this bear gall will be split half-and-half between us."
Hearing this, Wang Li hurriedly said
"No need, Fourth Brother. Let's stick to the rules; after everything, you take six and I take four."
Wang An shook his head.
"It's just the two of us, and this wasn't a proper mountain hunt, so there's no need for rules. Besides, you're the one who found the spot for the Hashma. Alright, just listen to me—half and half, it's settled."
The black bear that Wang An and Wang Li had killed this time was a complete windfall, not a result of a planned hunt, which was why Wang An intended to split it evenly rather than following the usual rules.
Once Wang An finished speaking, Wang Li stopped refusing and said with a laugh
"Then I'm getting a real bargain this time, hehehe..."
Wang An gave a nonchalant smile and said
"Alright, hurry up and cut some meat for the dogs. They're getting impatient."
Whenever prey was taken down, meat had to be cut for the dogs immediately. Humans hunted for wealth, and dogs hunted for meat; this was an eternal truth.
After Wang An spoke, Wang Li gave an affirmative shout and began cutting meat from the black bear's belly.
The four dogs and four wolves ate over 50 catties of meat before they were all full.
After feeding the dogs, the two of them removed the bear's nose, the shoulder blades, and the four paws along with the arms. From a whole black bear weighing two hundred and thirty or forty catties, aside from the hide, only a few dozen catties of meat and bone remained.
After simply dismantling the remaining bones and meat, Wang An said impatiently
"Alright, that's enough for this black bear. Let's hurry and collect the Hashma. Once we finish this batch, we'll go straight home, and then we'll come back when it gets dark for the next batch."
The full dogs and wolves were all lying lazily on the grass soaking up the sun. Wang An didn't intend for them to follow, so he told the dogs
"Da Hei, Xiao Hei, Xiao Bai, you guys stay here. Don't follow us. Also, keep an eye on the meat in the car; don't let anything else steal it, you hear me?"
As Wang An finished, Da Hei, Xiao Hei, and Xiao Bai each looked up and barked a couple of times before lying back down.
When Wang An and Wang Li walked up to the plastic sheeting carrying buckets and urea bags, the two brothers' mouths dropped open.
In that short amount of time, countless forest frogs had gathered at the downhill side of the plastic sheet.
Many of the forest frogs were still vigorously slamming into the plastic, completely unable to understand what was blocking their path up the mountain.
Wang Li said with a face full of smiles
"Fourth Brother, your method is too damn awesome! In such a short time, this many Hashma have been blocked here."
Looking at the gathered forest frogs, Wang An was naturally filled with joy and excitement.
With this many forest frogs, how many meals would it make? How many dried frogs could be made? And how much frog oil could be extracted?
So-called forest frog oil—also known as toad oil, snow frog oil, or snow frog paste—is actually the oviduct of the female forest frog. In medicine, it is praised as "soft gold" or "animal ginseng."
Thus, forest frog oil is a powerful tonic with strong effects such as nourishing yin, moisturizing dryness, supplementing the kidneys and essence, moisturizing the lungs, enhancing beauty, and strengthening the human immune system, among others.
In short, forest frog oil is "a gas station for men and a beauty salon for women." Men become incredibly potent after eating it, and women gain beauty, a healthy complexion, delayed aging, and fewer illnesses.
Thinking of the various benefits of the forest frogs, Wang An said proudly
"Of course it is! This method for catching Hashma is incredibly effective, hahahaha... Come on, let's get to it."
After a pause, Wang An added
"We'll only pick the big ones. Don't pick the small ones; just toss them back up the slope. We aren't doing things that cut off future generations."
Forest frogs caused no harm to the mountain folk; on the contrary, because their food consisted of insects like mosquitoes, flies, and moths, they were genuine beneficial insects.
Although Wang An didn't have a strong desire to protect wildlife, he didn't want to do something that would wipe out the frog population.
Wang An knew that in a few years, many people would catch forest frogs regardless of size, without considering whether they would be able to eat them in the future.
Such a practice was truly too cruel.
After Wang An spoke, Wang Li was stunned for a moment, but he quickly said with a smile
"Mm-hmm, catch the big and release the small. I understand the rules of our mountains."
As they spoke, the two of them each took a bucket, squatted by the plastic sheet, and began picking frogs.
By the time they finished picking the large frogs from the bottom of the slope and released all the small ones, the buckets in their hands were more than half full.
Carrying a heavy bucket of forest frogs, Wang An said happily
"Let's go home, hahahaha! We've got to drink a bit more tonight."
Ten minutes later, the sidecar stopped at the door of the east house, and the pack of dogs and wolves returned to their respective dens to sleep.
That meal of black bear meat had filled the dogs and wolves well; they wouldn't even eat their dog food tonight.
Hearing the unique sputtering sound of the sidecar, Wang Dazhu and his wife, Mu Xueqing, and Shen Wei—all four of them—came out of the house to meet them.
Before Wang An and the other could even get off the vehicle, Liu Guilan asked anxiously
"Xiao An, Xueqing said you two ran into a black bear over at the South Hollow?"
Hearing this, Wang An climbed down from the vehicle, pointed to the bear paws and the unskinned bear carcass in the sidecar, and said with a laugh
"Yep, ran into one. See? We just killed it right then and there. Also, this black bear had a big golden gall—bright yellow, definitely going to produce golden gall powder."
As he spoke, Wang An pulled the cloth bag from his pocket and handed it to Liu Guilan, adding
"Mom, scald this bear gall in boiling water. I need to pour these Hashma into a big basin, otherwise, they'll all suffocate under the water soon."
Liu Guilan took the bear gall, but the look of worry on her face did not fade. She said
"Oh my goodness, how could there still be black bears in the South Hollow? Neither of you got hurt, did you?"
Wang An laughed and said
"With the skills we have, how could a black bear hurt us? Stop fussing, hehehehe..."
Seeing that Wang An and his brother truly didn't seem to be in any trouble, and that they had brought back both the gall and the carcass, the worry on everyone's faces finally vanished. (End of Chapter)