Mu Xueli received a kick, and he almost got knocked flat, but he wasn't angry at all.
However, hearing his brother-in-law's scolding, he immediately and deftly re-tied his belt—which was actually a hemp rope—that had been halfway undone! He didn't feel even a shred of impropriety!
Then, scratching his head in confusion, he asked, "Brother-in-law, what are we cutting a tree for?"
Fortunately, because he was prepared to hunt a great bear, Wang An had brought a complete set of tools. He drew the broadaxe from his waist and held it in his hand.
Pointing at the carcass of the great bear, he asked his dim-witted brother-in-law, "Do you see that great bear?"
Mu Xueli was still quite dazed, but he nodded and said, "I see it, brother-in-law. That huge thing must weigh at least a thousand catties!"
As he spoke, his face lit up with joy. How much would a massive great bear like that be worth?
Wang An said helplessly, "You see it's lying on its back. Go flip it over so it's lying on its belly."
Mu Xueli's eyes widened, and he asked stutteringly, "Why flip it over?"
Wang An said somewhat irritably, "If you won't flip it, then go ahead and pluck out that great bear's gallbladder!"
Hearing this, Mu Xueli glanced at the great bear, said nothing, and silently took the broadaxe!
Watching his brother-in-law's retreating back, Wang An shook his head.
He didn't know if it was because his eldest sister often gave this kid a whack on the neck, but his brain seemed to short-circuit constantly; he had no idea how to think things through or ponder anything!
More than ten minutes later, Mu Xueli returned carrying two tree trunks as thick as an arm!
Each of them took a trunk. They wedged the bottom of the trunks into the gaps between the great bear's front legs and applied force simultaneously to prop the bear up. Taking turns using the trunks as fulcrums, they finally managed to flip the thousand-catty great bear over!
Both men had used every ounce of strength they possessed. After flipping the great bear, they both lay half-reclined on its body to rest. This massive thing was freaking heavy!
Just as he caught his breath, Wang An ordered his brother-in-law to hurry up and retrieve the gallbladder. Mu Xueli didn't dawdle; he pulled out his skinning knife and began to slit the belly and bleed it!
Since this great bear was heavy, it had a massive amount of blood. Mu Xueli first stabbed the neck to let the blood drain before opening the belly.
This was a matter of procedure. Although the phrase "open the belly and bleed it" puts opening the belly first, in practice, one bleeds the animal before opening the belly.
Because with a great bear—and other prey for that matter—if you don't make a cut in the neck first and instead go straight for the stomach, the blood will spray everywhere.
Afterward, whether you were pulling out the organs or skinning and butchering the meat, it would be extremely troublesome because blood would be everywhere; if you weren't careful, you'd end up covered in it!
After letting the great bear bleed for a few minutes, Mu Xueli finally began to open the belly.
With a creature this large, everything was inconvenient no matter what you wanted to do. Looking at its length, including the front limbs, it felt like this great bear was over three meters long!
This great bear was truly massive. It felt much larger than a large elk. An elk might be heavier, but it felt like this bear could hold an elk inside it with room to spare!
After a while longer, Mu Xueli finally extracted the great bear's gallbladder!
Although the two of them had experienced the visual shock of Black Blind's massive golden gallbladder and knew that this thing, no matter what, wouldn't be as valuable as that one, they were still rendered speechless when they saw this great bear's gallbladder!
This time, Mu Xueli wasn't just holding it with two hands; he was cradling it!
This thing was simply too freaking huge. It was at least twice the size of Black Blind's gallbladder from yesterday, and two sizes larger than a baby's head!
The color was as black as ink, clearly an iron gallbladder. Being this large, it was practically an "Invincible Great Iron Gallbladder"!
Once this thing was air-dried, it would probably weigh about half a jin. Even though it was only 3 yuan per gram, selling it for over seven hundred yuan was a sure thing!
Wang An felt that in this lifetime, it would be extremely difficult to ever see a bear gallbladder larger than this one again!
Because great bears weighing over a thousand catties were already rare; normally, the bears people heard about or saw were usually within the seven or eight hundred catty range.
Only when a bear exceeded 800 catties would people add the word "Great" before the word "Bear"!
And the main purpose of adding "Great" was to let people know that the danger level of this bear was very high, and if they wanted to hunt it, they had to be fully prepared!
Seeing his brother-in-law cradling the Invincible Great Iron Gallbladder with both hands, Wang An hurriedly pulled a cloth bag from his pocket. To his dismay, the cloth bag he had swiped from Feng Chengmin wasn't big enough; it wouldn't fit at all!
At this moment, Mu Xueli said, "Brother-in-law, I have a cloth bag in my coat pocket for storing large pancakes. Should we use that to pack it?"
Wang An was overjoyed upon hearing this. He hurriedly pulled the patched cloth bag from his brother-in-law's coat pocket and finally tucked the precious Great Iron Gallbladder inside.
This thing had to be protected well; this was freaking seven hundred yuan! That was nearly two months' salary for a regular worker. What a windfall!
Having secured the Great Iron Gallbladder, the brother-in-law and brother-in-law were both grinning from ear to ear!
Because the great bear was so massive, Mu Xueli found it very difficult to open the belly by himself. Wang An hurried forward to help, and together they exerted force to pull the two hundred catties of internal organs out of the cavity!
When thrown onto the snow, the pile of organs immediately spread out into a large mass!
The visual effect was such that as far as the eye could see, the ground was covered in intestines, and every single one was incredibly thick!
Although the heart, liver, and lungs were quite large, compared to the intestines covering the ground, they seemed like nothing!
Mu Xueli said with a look of worry, "Brother-in-law, how are we supposed to hang this huge pile of intestines in a tree? If we try to cut them to take them, won't it just end up being a mess of shit everywhere?"
Wang An looked at the intestines covering the ground and said in confusion, "Why hang them in a tree? Just leave them here!"
Mu Xueli asked doubtfully, "Aren't these things supposed to be hung in trees?"
Wang An said helplessly, "Then don't hang them. Who's going to do anything to you? Besides, with such a huge pile of intestines, how the hell are you supposed to hang them? Hang them with what, a feather?"
Mu Xueli muttered under his breath, "But isn't that the rule of the mountains?"
Wang An was so angry he laughed, "Rules my ass! Aren't rules made by people? Even here, nobody follows them! What the hell is a rule? You're not even old, yet you have so many damn opinions, and you're even pretending to be so rule-abiding!"
After a scolding, Mu Xueli shut his mouth and stopped worrying about the rules!
Seeing that his brother-in-law's butchering was very smooth, Wang An didn't want to help. Mainly, the kid said he liked butchering! For something that benefited both of them, Wang An was always very cooperative!
Cutting meat to feed the dogs was something that had to be done after bringing the dogs into the mountains to hunt prey.
First, they fed the lead dog, Da Hei, and then they fed Er Hei and San Hei. These three dogs were starving to death, having chased the great bear all this way.
If it weren't for the three of them following the great bear, it would have been very difficult for Wang An and Mu Xueli to catch up!
Naturally, the meat had to be fed until they were full. Only after the three dogs had eaten until their bellies were round and they were lying off to the side did Wang An stop cutting the meat.
Wang An never expected these three dogs to make things so easy for him. If they had gone head-to-head with the great bear, they wouldn't have been of any use, and the result would have been certain death!
If that happened, the loss to Wang An would have been huge. He had worked so hard to get the three dogs, and before he could even do anything, they would be dead! That would be a damn tragedy!
Furthermore, after such a long time of feeding them, the family members, including himself, had long since developed an emotional bond with the dogs!
Therefore, just leaving the prey hanging there without letting them tear into it was the most perfect outcome, and exactly what Wang An wanted!