Chapter 3: Hunting Wild Boar for Meat

Wang An thought about it and realized it wasn't hard to understand; it was ownerless property to begin with!

The only two solutions were to turn it in, but if he did, they would definitely ask where he got it! Once the origin was cleared up, they would certainly ask how he knew about it! Even if he spun a perfect lie, they would surely ask how much he had kept for himself!

How could he answer? There was no way out! The main issue with gold was that it was impossible to explain clearly no matter what you said.

He wouldn't gain any benefits, would face a mountain of trouble, and might even end up getting himself locked up in the end.

Seeing his parents so "reasonable"!

Wang An felt relieved and said, "Mom, you hide this gold nugget well. As for these two guns, shouldn't we come up with a story? Otherwise, if someone asks, we won't be able to explain it!"

"Simple. We'll hide the new one, and for the old one, we'll just keep it out in the open. If anyone asks, just say it’s an internal surplus item your eldest uncle bought and had someone bring over!" Liu Guilan said casually with a wave of her hand.

Wang An’s eyes lit up at these words. That was a great idea! His eldest uncle was a warehouse keeper at some unit in the neighboring city, and they hadn't been in touch for years!

In this era, guns were everywhere; who would be bored enough to go and verify that? It was simply perfect!

"That works, then that's what we'll say!"

After discussing the origin of the guns, Wang Dazhu asked, "When did you learn to shoot? I saw those bullet holes were right in the pig's head. Your marksmanship is pretty fierce!"

"Hey! Do you think I’ve just been fooling around in the county town doing nothing? I’ve actually spent quite a bit of time handling these things!" Wang An replied without hesitation, thinking to himself, "I can't exactly say I've lived through this once already and spent my past life tinkering with these things!"

"So what are you thinking? Are you going to keep mountain-hunting from now on?" Wang Dazhu asked in a muffled voice.

"Yeah, I can't just keep fooling around like this every day! I have to find myself some kind of livelihood!"

"I like hearing that. You're twenty-something years old, jumping around like a loafer every day. If you don't start caring, no one will want to be your wife!" Liu Guilan said while examining the gold nugget.

"That's right. Old Zhang's third son from the east side is only 18 and already engaged. You look much more capable than him!" Wang Dazhu added.

"That's for sure! We'll work hard, we're no worse than them!" Liu Guilan said.

Wang Dazhu suddenly said solemnly, "But hunting isn't like anything else. Mountain beasts are vicious, you have to be extremely careful!"

"If you run into a 'big paw' (tiger) or a leopard, don't go poking around blindly. If you get yourself killed, what are your mother and I supposed to do?" Liu Guilan put down the gold nugget and added.

...Listening to his parents' repeated preaching and instructions, Wang An felt deeply moved. The hearts of parents are truly selfless!

In his previous life, he had treated it all as wind passing by his ears! He really wanted to give himself a couple of punches!

"Alright, enough said. You're a grown man! As long as you've thought it through, that's fine!" Liu Guilan said.

"Let's go get the meat. Those three little ones are about to drool!" Wang Dazhu said with a laugh.

Wang An put the new gun wrapped in oil paper into the *kangkui* (a cabinet at the end of the heated brick bed), put the bullets in the drawer under the cabinet, and hung the old gun on the wall behind the door.

Liu Guilan got off the bed and took the gold nugget to the east room, while Wang Dazhu continued to wash the pig intestines.

At noon, the family sat around the *kang* table to eat. It was a large basin full of pork belly stewed with pickled cabbage—little cabbage, lots of meat. The staple food was cornmeal flatbread!

Everyone had meat in their mouths; the whole family was eating until their lips were glistening with oil, and everyone’s face was full of smiles!

The two little sisters muttered while eating: "Finally eating meat. Meat is so delicious!"

"So fragrant, it would be great if we could eat meat every day!"

"Bad Gou Dan is always making me crave it, hmph, I'm eating meat too! I'll make him jealous to death!"

Hearing this, Wang Dazhu, Liu Guilan, and Wang An all burst into laughter. This little girl was quite vengeful!

The large basin of meat and vegetables, even the broth, was wiped clean by Wang Yi using the flatbread. Having not seen meat for a long time, the family ate until they were stuffed! Satisfaction was written on everyone's faces!

After the meal, the meat and bones left outside had frozen solid. Liu Guilan put them into the large vat under the window outside!

This large vat was the natural refrigerator for the people of the Northeast. They usually kept frozen bean buns, frozen tofu, frozen dumplings, and frozen meat inside. It kept the food frozen and prevented rats from ruining it!

Every household had one or several such large vats under their windows!

Wang Dazhu built a fire in the yard and hung the pig's head, trotters, and tail over it to burn off the bristles. These were all good things and would never be wasted!

After burning the bristles, Wang An took a skinning knife and helped Wang Dazhu scrape off the ash.

In the evening, Liu Guilan cut the fat from the pig's belly and the leaf lard into small pieces to render oil. Because wild boars were very active, they didn't have much fat on them, so Liu Guilan only got half a jar of oil. Even so, she couldn't stop smiling!

This was lard; even if you only put a little bit in when cooking, the taste of the dish would change drastically!

Moreover, in this era, if every meal had some oil, people would eat less grain but be healthier and have more energy!

Wang Yi and the two sisters each held a bowl of cracklings left over from the oil, dipped in salt, and ate them quite happily!

This stuff was indeed delicious. No one in the family ate less of it, except for Wang Dazhu, who muttered: "Such delicious food, but no wine. It's a waste of such good things!"

"You're really something! No wine? I think you're the wine! I've been with you for over twenty years, when have you ever let me eat meat like today? And you have the nerve to think about drinking! You're good for nothing!" Liu Guilan rolled her eyes at Wang Dazhu, her mouth firing like a machine gun at him!

Wang Dazhu’s face turned red instantly. He smacked his lips, said nothing, and put another piece of crackling into his mouth...

Wang An and Wang Yi couldn't help but laugh on the side, but they didn't dare to make a sound, keeping their heads down and shoulders shaking for a long while.

The night passed without incident.

In the morning, around 5 o'clock, it was still dark. Wang An got dressed and went to the outhouse. When he came back, he saw the kerosene lamp in the kitchen was lit. Wang Dazhu and Liu Guilan were already busy in the outer room building a fire to cook!

Usually, no one got up at this time, but perhaps knowing Wang An was going into the mountains, the couple started cooking early.

Because Wang An had left without breakfast yesterday and dragged back a pig, although his parents didn't say anything, they felt very sorry for their son!

For breakfast, there was cornmeal porridge and cornmeal flatbread! The dish was potatoes and cabbage stewed with meat! Lots of vegetables, only a few slices of meat!

To be honest, this food was about the same as what Wang An ate in prison in his previous life! Perhaps even slightly worse, as the cornmeal used in the prison back then was machine-processed and finer, not scratching the throat!

But the cornmeal here was crushed directly with a millstone without removing the skin; if you weren't used to it, it really scratched your throat!

"I have to find a way to make money and buy some fine grain! Since I've been reborn, I have to let my family eat something better!" Wang An muttered to himself.

After eating, Wang An packed a few flatbreads in a cloth bag. He really didn't want to experience yesterday's hunger again!

He loaded the gun with bullets, took two full magazines and a box of ammunition, and with the same equipment as yesterday, he headed into the mountains again!

The current Wang An was only half a hunter. He knew some common sense, but he really didn't know how to find prey and relied entirely on luck, which was damn frustrating!

After entering the mountains, he spent most of his time wandering aimlessly!

If he hadn't gotten the gun, and if his marksmanship wasn't quite good, he really didn't know if he could keep going down this path of mountain-hunting!

He pondered to himself that he needed to find a mountain-hunter to learn how to track prey, and he also needed to find an opportunity to buy a few hunting dogs, otherwise, he wouldn't know how to handle them!

If he just relied on himself to fumble around, he would be finished! When would he ever be able to enjoy a happy life freely?

While looking around vigilantly and walking carefully, the mountains and plains were nothing but trees and snow!

Suddenly, a shadow darted past Wang An at high speed, startling him. He looked closely and saw it was a hare running forward!

This angered Wang An. He raised his gun to his face, and with a "bang," the hare fell from mid-air to the ground!

He ran over—it was perfect!

This shot had entered the hare's neck at an angle and exited through its head. Otherwise, with the power of the Type 56 semi-automatic, the hare's skin wasn't very thick; if there were two more holes, the supply and marketing cooperative might not even accept it!

He stabbed the hare's neck with a knife to drain the blood, didn't even gut it, just threw it into the sack, and continued wandering.

After wandering for nearly an hour, Wang An saw two flowers moving near a tree about two hundred meters ahead, appearing and disappearing. He was puzzled, but kept walking. When he got closer, he saw two pheasants looking for grass seeds under the bushes where there was no snow. It looked like a male and a female!

Pheasants were truly beautiful birds! They must taste quite good too!

He raised his gun to his face, hesitated for a moment, didn't fire, slowly knelt on one knee, waited a while longer, and then pulled the trigger.

With a "bang," both pheasants flapped their wings at the same time. One fell just as it was about to leave the ground, and the other had already flown into the air, but immediately plunged into the snow at an angle like a landing plane! One shot, two pheasants!

He sprinted forward, slit the throat of the pheasant that hadn't flown away and was still struggling, then immediately ran to where the other pheasant had fallen, picked it up from the snow, and did the same!

The snow was frozen quite hard, and the pheasant had made a small pit when it fell. As he was carrying this pheasant and heading toward the first one, he discovered a red animal biting the pheasant and about to dive into the woods. It wasn't fast, because that pheasant weighed nearly five pounds! The red animal was only a little more than twice the size of the pheasant!

"Hey! Are you here to deliver meat to me or to steal my food? You're clearly looking down on my marksmanship!" Wang An shouted at the red animal.

The pheasant fell in free-fall. He raised his gun, flipped the safety off, aimed at the head, and fired!

The red animal didn't even make a sound before it collapsed onto the snow with its head resting on the pheasant!

He ran over and saw that he had struck gold! A fire fox! A very large fire fox!

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