Early the next morning, Wang An opened the wine jar intending to pour some into his gourds, only to find that the ginseng and deer penis wine had decreased slightly.
After a moment's thought, he knew that his father, Wang Dazhu, must have sneaked some drinks!
One had to realize that the medicinal potency of this wine was certainly not small. Thinking carefully, it seemed his mother hadn't scolded his father for several days! Oh, so that was how it was!
Wang An filled four gourds of ginseng and deer penis wine and placed them on the sledge. The gourds weren't particularly large; one gourd held about one and a half jin of wine. He then topped off the wine jar with sorghum liquor.
In this manner, much like drinking tea, he would drink whenever he wanted and add new wine whenever it ran low; only then could the ginseng and deer penis in the jar exert their maximum effect. Generally, goji berries soaked in wine for a few months would need to be replaced, but ginseng and deer penis could be soaked for at least three years!
After tinkering with the wine jar and greeting his family, Wang An drove the sledge toward the county town.
The load on the sledge was not small: thirteen and a half sheep carcasses, thirty-nine and a half blue sheep pelts, and a large pile of black bear meat, lynxes, wild pheasants, and such.
Passing a certain bend, Wang An subconsciously glanced at that eerie and ominous place, reminding himself not to forget to buy firecrackers—and to buy the big ones—to properly blast away the improper atmosphere of that spot.
Speeding along the road, he soon arrived at Qiao Xiaohu's house.
At this moment, Qiao Xiaohu was moving meat from the lower room onto a small pushcart. The meat delivered last time had been quite a lot, and Qiao Xiaohu hadn't finished selling it all yet.
"Big Brother is here! I only have this last small cart left to sell; you've come just in time, Big Brother." Seeing Wang An driving the sledge, Qiao Xiaohu ran over happily.
The pushcart was indeed small, containing only a dozen or so lynxes.
"How is it? Selling well?" Wang An asked casually.
"It's doing great! We're the only ones providing this here, and we deliver it straight to their doorsteps. They're so happy they're practically bubbling snot," Qiao Xiaohu said with a grin, winking and patting his chest.
It was clear he had made a fair bit of money!
After speaking, Qiao Xiaohu pulled a small notebook from his pocket, handed it to Wang An, and then produced two large stacks of cash.
Wang An flipped through the notebook, mainly checking the totals: blue sheep carcasses sold at 0.95 per jin for a total of 202.4; black bear meat sold for 69.7 yuan; wolf meat for 67.2; and lynxes for 119.3 yuan.
The total sales amounted to 458.6 yuan. Wang An counted the ten-yuan notes along with the five, two, and one-yuan notes, totaling 412 yuan. He didn't take the remaining two large stacks of small change, which remained in Qiao Xiaohu's hands.
These two stacks of money in Qiao Xiaohu's hands totaled less than 50 yuan, but they looked like a lot!
The highest denomination was one yuan; half were 10, 20, and 50-cent banknotes, and the rest were 1, 2, and 5-cent coins. While called "two large stacks," it was actually a large pile held together by two hands.
Qiao Xiaohu added, "Use the extra few cents to buy a cigarette. Next time, just divide the money beforehand; this wastes too much time."
"Aye, will do, Big Brother," Qiao Xiaohu agreed with a smile.
"Accounts settled. Let's unload the meat," Wang An said.
After calculating in his head, Wang An left two and a half blue sheep carcasses, 8 lynxes, 8 wild pheasants, 6 "silly half-jins," and 5 "flying dragons" on the sledge.
He left Qiao Xiaohu 11 sheep carcasses, one piece of black bear meat, and a large pile of lynxes to sell.
When Qiao Xiaohu saw the flying dragons on the sledge, his eyes lit up. "Big Brother, you're not selling these flying dragons? These things go for 6 yuan each now; several people have asked me about them. I heard that stewing them in soup tastes wonderful."
Wang An smiled upon hearing this, took out one flying dragon, and handed it to Qiao Xiaohu. "Not selling. I'm not short of a bit of money. Have one for a taste."
"Hahaha, thanks, Big Brother!" Qiao Xiaohu laughed as he took it.
Qiao Xiaohu understood very well that being overly polite with Wang An was redundant; if he dared to say he didn't want it, Wang An would dare to take it back immediately without a second thought.
Wang An laughed and drove the sledge away.
Soon, Wang An arrived at Wu Dong's house.
"Oh, isn't this the legendary Great Madman?" Seeing Wang An enter the yard, Wang Shuai started joking.
"Stop talking nonsense, he's a good person," Wu Dong also teased with a smile.
"You lot just keep belittling me. Whoever belittles me gets no wine," Wang An said, also smiling.
"I didn't belittle you."
"I didn't belittle you either."
He Liang and Ma Guoqiang shouted in succession.
"You two useless things, there are four of us and only one of him. If he doesn't give it, can't we just rob him?" Wu Dong said with a laugh.
"Who's with you? Xiao An is my biological brother from different fathers and mothers. Would I rob my brother? Absolutely impossible! You're really something," Wang Shuai immediately put on a look of disdain toward Wu Dong.
"Oh for goodness' sake, you're clearly a total traitor," Wu Dong said helplessly, suddenly isolated.
"Exactly, exactly. We are biological brothers from different fathers and mothers. Ignore that silly Dongzi," He Liang added with a laugh.
Chatting and laughing, the group unloaded all the blue sheep pelts.
Wang An left the half blue sheep that the black bear had eaten on the sledge, along with 2 lynxes and 2 wild pheasants; everything else was taken off.
"Why are there so many more blue sheep skins? And why is there a half-skin? How many are there in total?" Wang Shuai asked in confusion while sorting through the pelts.
"Thirty-nine and a half in total," Wang An said.
Then, Wang An recounted how he had killed 14 more blue sheep yesterday, and of course, he explained what happened with the half-sheep.
Upon hearing that Wang An had not only killed blue sheep but had also killed a black bear along the way, Wu Dong and the other three looked at Wang An as if he were a monster.
Wu Dong said, "I don't want to work anymore. I want to go mountain hunting with you."
"Me too, me too," the other three said simultaneously.
"Then what's there to say? Everyone come, everyone come. Tomorrow we'll go hunt a big bear," Wang An readily agreed.
"A big bear? Then... then let's just stay home instead!" Hearing "big bear," Wu Dong suddenly shuddered and immediately beat a retreat, speaking stutteringly.
He Liang and Ma Guoqiang also said at the same time, "Uh, I have some things to do tomorrow..." The two of them didn't expect the other to say the exact same thing, and they glanced at each other, then stopped mid-sentence and shut their mouths simultaneously.
Seeing this, Wang An immediately looked at Wang Shuai and said, "Only my biological brother from different fathers and mothers supports me! Brother..."
Before Wang An could finish, he was interrupted by Wang Shuai, who said, "Uh, little brother, I have to return to Harbin tomorrow. I need to find a way to sell these blue sheep pelts for a high price, so I won't be accompanying you into the mountains, alright?"
Wang An smiled and pointed at them one by one, then said, "You lot..."
"Xiao An, where's the wine? Let me see what your wine is like."
Amidst the laughter and chatter, Wang An distributed the four gourds, giving one to each person, and emphasized the medicinal effects. After explaining once, feeling uneasy, Wang An solemnly explained it a second time.
Since they were all young men, Wang An was genuinely worried that this wine might ruin these four "second-generation" youths.
Because Wang An had drunk it once—less than one liang—he remembered that Mu Xueqing had basically not slept that night. Of course, Wang An hadn't slept much either.
Since then, Mu Xueqing had never let Wang An drink that wine again.
At first, the four of them didn't take it very seriously. As second-generation kids, they certainly had plenty of high-quality wines or medicinal wines at home.
However, since Wang An gave it, they had to accept it seriously; it was a matter of face and attitude! Northeasterners all cared about this.
As for how or when to drink it, that was up to them. But the fact that Wang An had said it twice and had been quite serious was enough to prove that this wine was certainly no ordinary medicinal wine.
Only then did the four of them nod, looking at the wine gourds in their hands.
(End of Chapter)