After chatting for a while with the villagers working as hired hands, Wang An and Wang Li finally returned to the courtyard of Wang An's home.
The reason Wang An always ran into the hired hands first when returning from the mountain was that he always entered the village from the far west.
Wang An's house was located at the westernmost edge of the village; there were no other homes further west than his.
He did this specifically to avoid a lot of trouble.
Otherwise, if people in the village saw him bringing back game, there would always be some thick-skinned individuals who would come over asking for meat.
In the rural areas of this era, such matters were very difficult to handle. Once someone opened their mouth to ask, you had to give them a piece, one way or another.
Of course, for small animals like wild chickens, rabbits, or roe deer, no one would dare ask. It was the large beasts, like brown bears or wild boars, that were the issue.
This was because the saying "mountain wealth must not be enjoyed alone" was not just empty talk in this era.
While you could refuse, barring any accidents, your family's reputation and social standing in the village would quickly become foul.
However, this practice of "mountain wealth must not be enjoyed alone" was more severe before the land was divided into individual households—back when everything was collective.
In those days, the emphasis was on "public ownership," meaning everything belonged to everyone, and nothing belonged to the individual.
Since the land had been divided and people began to set up their own doors and live their own lives, such practices had gradually become a thing of the past.
In later generations, this would become something that anyone hearing about it would find utterly inconceivable.
After the land division, the emphasis shifted to "private ownership"—what is mine is mine, what does it have to do with you?
As soon as Wang An entered the courtyard, he was met with exclamations from all the women.
"Oh my goodness, is that... is that a pig riding a horse coming back?"
"Stop talking nonsense. How could a pig ride a horse? It's clearly a horse carrying a pig."
"Hah, regardless of how you put it, the meat is back, isn't it? Hehehe."
"Little An and Little Li are truly capable; they never come back from the mountain empty-handed."
"Indeed, not everyone has that kind of skill. There are several others in our village who hunt in the mountains, but look, most of them come back with nothing."
Facing the exclamations of the women, Wang An simply smiled and nodded without saying much.
Turning around, Wang An said to Liu Guilan
"Mom, these three pigs are still alive. Should we keep them in the pigpen for a couple of days first, or just leave them outside until the day we slaughter them?"
Upon hearing that the pigs were alive, the women exclaimed once again.
"Oh my heavens, they brought live pigs home? These two boys' capabilities are limitless!"
"Indeed, they even dare to catch adult pigs. These two are truly bold."
"You two are just courting danger! How terrifying! Wild boars aren't something to mess with. What if you had run into trouble?"
This last sentence was spoken by Great Aunt Xu Yongfeng, her worry evident in every word.
To a normal person, wild boars were ranked alongside fierce beasts like brown bears, wolves, leopards, and tigers.
Furthermore, because wild boars were so numerous, in people's minds, they were the most dangerous animals in the great mountains, without exception.
In the Lesser Khingan Mountains of this era, the most common animals in the forest, aside from rabbits, were likely wild boars.
Crucially, to farmers, wild boars were animals that brought a hundred harms and not a single benefit.
To put it bluntly, they were useless.
This was a fact.
Hearing Xu Yongfeng's words, Liu Guilan immediately scolded Wang An and Wang Li
"What would have happened if you'd just given them a bullet? It's just like your Great Aunt said—what if you'd run into trouble? Why are you two being so reckless now? Having guns and not using them... it's frightening just thinking about it!"
It had to be admitted that Liu Guilan's point was quite reasonable; after all, the safest animal was a dead animal.
Seeing his mother's anger, Wang An naturally didn't dare to argue. He smiled apologetically and said
"Mom, don't worry. We're adults now; we know what we're doing. These are all sows, there's no danger. If it were a big boar, I would have shot its balls off long ago."
Liu Guilan knew that saying anything was useless in these matters, for as the old saying goes, "A general in the field is not bound by all orders."
She couldn't follow Wang An into the mountains.
After Wang An finished, Wang Li chimed in
"That's right, Auntie. We only took the ones we were sure of. Do you see the sack on that horse? That wild boar wasn't very well-behaved, so Fourth Brother shot it dead."
Liu Guilan gave the two of them a sidelong glance and said
"Being 'sure' isn't enough. In the future, just kill them all first."
Wang An nodded and stopped arguing with his mother, then asked
"Mom, I asked you just now where to put the pigs, you haven't answered yet."
Before Liu Guilan could respond, Wang Li spoke up again
"Right, Auntie, Fourth Brother and I also caught a litter of striped piglets. If you want all of them, my family won't take any."
As soon as Wang Li spoke, Second Aunt Yao Ping was visibly stunned. However, she looked at Wang Li and said nothing.
For a rural housewife, things like chicks, ducklings, goslings, or piglets were incredibly attractive.
In their eyes, if a household didn't raise a pig or some poultry, life felt tasteless.
This was also why when Wang An brought back a brooding hen hatching eagle eggs, Liu Guilan and Mu Xueqing had stuffed a pile of chicken eggs into the nest.
Thus, after Wang Li finished speaking, the group of women exclaimed once more.
They began offering eggs or other things to trade with Liu Guilan for the striped piglets.
Since this group of women were mostly relatives, Liu Guilan suddenly didn't know what to do.
Subconsciously, Liu Guilan looked toward Wang An for help.
To be honest, this didn't matter at all to Wang An. Those striped piglets hadn't even been weaned yet; whether they would survive was an unknown.
Therefore, Wang An said with a smile
"Well, these little piglets aren't weaned yet. If you can keep them alive, there's no need to trade. I'll just give one to each of you. Hehehe."
Hearing this, almost all the women froze.
Anyone with a bit of common sense knew that whether it was a pig, a cat, or a dog, they were very difficult to raise before they were weaned.
Especially in this era of extreme scarcity, it was even harder.
So, after the initial shock, none of the women proactively asked for the piglets anymore.
After a pause, Liu Guilan suddenly said, looking completely bewildered
"Then why on earth did you bring back such tiny things? Who can even keep those alive?"
(End of Chapter)