Chapter 361: The Grudge-Holding Wolf Pack

Li Long watched the wolves retreat, then glanced again at the wolf lying in the snow; after a moment's thought, he took up his rifle, went down to the carcass, and prodded it with his bayonet. Seeing how much blood the wolf had lost, he knew it was nearly dead, but caution was paramount.

Confirming the wolf showed no movement, Li Long dragged it up by its hind legs, placed it beside the deer, and then continued hauling the plastic sheeting toward the wooden cabin.

Li Long remained cautious for the rest of the journey, yet he saw no further trace of wolves all the way back to the cabin.

For now, he was safe.

Though he could not guarantee the wolves wouldn't return, at least inside the cabin, Li Long no longer needed to be so apprehensive.

After storing the deer in the small room, Li Long skinned the wolf outside the cabin, pulling out the entrails and flinging them far away; right now, just this one deer and one wolf provided enough meat to keep him busy.

The wolf bore three bullet holes, and the deer likewise had three, rendering both hides damaged goods. The deer's wounds were manageable, concentrated on the head and legs, leaving most of the hide intact; however, two of the wolf's bullet holes were in the belly, causing significant damage, and he wondered if it could still fetch ten or so yuan.

Having finished skinning the wolf and discarding its entrails, Li Long carried the wolf meat into the small room and placed it on the rack, then cut a piece of deer meat and took it back to the main room.

The fire in the stove was nearly out, though the water in the kettle remained warm; Li Long set the deer meat on the cutting board, removed the kettle, hooked off the stove lid, and slowly used the fire poker to clear out the ash until only a few red embers remained. He then brought in some kindling from outside, laid it over the embers, and watched as the slightly damp wood slowly caught fire; only then did he feel safe shoveling in some walnut-sized coal chunks, covering them with the stove lid.

Smoke began seeping out from the stove door, so Li Long opened the cabin door to ventilate while simultaneously cutting the deer meat into small pieces and placing them in a basin. After waiting a while and seeing the fire in the stove roar to life, he set on the pot, poured in water, threw in the deer meat, and began boiling it.

He lacked the energy to roast it; boiling it would suffice.

As the fire strengthened and the smoke in the room dissipated completely, Li Long closed and latched the door, walked to the kang bed, removed his outer clothes, lay down, and stretched comfortably; within moments, he was actually snoring.

He was awakened by the howling of wolves outside.

It was already dark; the room was pitch black, save for a faint yellow glow emanating from the stove.

Li Long rubbed his eyes, sensing heavy dampness in the room and a strong, gamey stench, before suddenly remembering that deer meat was still boiling on the stove!

He had no idea how long it had been cooking, but the fire was nearly extinguished.

Wolf howls sounded again from outside; Li Long hastily scrambled up, grabbed his Type 56 semi-automatic rifle, went to the window, lifted the plastic sheeting to peer out, but saw nothing.

It was very dark outside; despite the snow, there was no moon, and the ambient light was insufficient for him to see very far.

The remaining wolves must have tracked him down again.

However, Li Long had no intention of going out to confront them; he set down his rifle, went to the table to light the oil lamp, and the room immediately brightened.

Lifting the pot lid, he saw that less than a third of the broth remained; the meat was long since cooked, and the lid was covered in scum that had boiled over from the meat, emitting a terrible smell.

Li Long wiped the pot lid clean with a steaming cloth and set it on the table, then fetched more coal, took the pot off the stove, dumped the coal into the fire, and set the pot back on.

There was slightly too much coal, making the pot unstable with a gap between it and the stove, from which coal smoke billowed out; Li Long pressed down hard on the pot to compress the coal beneath, creating space, then stabilized the pot, poured in some water, and continued boiling.

By now, Li Long felt completely empty-stomached, his front chest sticking to his back; he took a steamed bun and placed it under the stove to roast.

Wolf howls rose and fell outside; perhaps they had discovered their companion's entrails, making them so furious. The sounds came from varying distances, indicating more than one wolf, yet Li Long remained unmoved, with no intention of going out.

Fighting a night battle against enemies with night-vision talents would mean his brain was truly malfunctioning.

Soon, the outer crust of the bun under the stove turned golden brown, emitting a fragrance of scorched wheat.

Li Long took out the bun, flipped it over, and continued roasting; just then, the meat broth in the pot came to a rolling boil, this time filling the air with an appetizing aroma.

Li Long lifted the lid, used a ladle to skim off the scum that had stuck to the pot and floated on the surface after adding water, and once the soup surface cleared, he took some salt, threw in a handful, and sliced an onion to have ready.

When the soup boiled again, Li Long scooped a little to taste; finding the flavor slightly bland, he added a bit more salt.

He stirred the soup in the pot with his ladle, then washed two potatoes and one carrot, sliced them, and added them to the pot; after tossing in the onion, Li Long retrieved the bun from under the stove and began eating.

After a few bites, it tasted delicious, but he ate too quickly and choked.

He hastily put down the bun, raised his hands and moved them about, then ladled a bowl of meat broth, blowing on it as he drank; afterward, he simply tore out the soft interior of the bun, broke it into pieces, soaked it in the soup, and ate with great satisfaction.

One bowl of soup-soaked bun down, he felt it wasn't quite enough; glancing at the pot again, he ladled out two more pieces of meat and a piece of carrot, added some more broth, and slowly continued eating.

The potatoes were certainly not yet cooked, but the carrot didn't matter, as it could be eaten raw or cooked; if Ha Li Mu and the others were here, they might have sliced some turnips to add, a vegetable said to have many benefits and quite popular among ethnic minority herders.

Although the meat had stewed for a long time, it wasn't tender; Li Long gnashed his teeth as he chewed, knowing that if he couldn't chew it thoroughly, it would definitely upset his stomach, and since deer meat was inherently heating, it was better to chew it into small pieces.

After finishing this bowl, Li Long let out a loud burp, feeling his stomach was basically full to bursting.

Looking at the slightly cooled, crispy bun crust on the table, Li Long felt it was a pity; eating alone was like this—making even a little resulted in leftovers. In his previous life, he had failed to manage this properly, and in this life, it was the same.

He took the pot off the stove, covered it with the lid, and placed the kettle on top.

The water in the kettle had cooled somewhat; Li Long drank only two sips to cut the greasiness in his mouth, daring not to drink more, mainly because of the old saying that drinking cold water after eating meat would cause stomach pain.

After shoveling some coal dust onto the fire to suppress the flames, Li Long finally noticed that the wolf howls outside seemed less frequent.

Were they finally giving up?

It was temporarily none of his concern; he fetched a large bowl, poured half a bowl of cool boiled water, placed it by the wooden kang, blew out the oil lamp, and prepared to sleep.

In the middle of the night, Li Long woke up thirsty, only to discover he had wet the bed.

"So potent is the effect of this deer meat," Li Long muttered silently as he changed his underwear.

Such youthful agitation was normal; perhaps he should speak with Gu Gu Xiaoxia and just get married, otherwise, young people always had these unspeakable issues that required a private discussion between the two of them.

Li Long planned to speak with Gu Gu Xiaoxia as soon as he returned; he took the kettle off the stove, poured half a bowl of hot water into the large bowl, drank most of the mixed lukewarm water, then set the bowl down and wiped his mouth with satisfaction.

!.

The wolves outside had not howled for quite some time, so Li Long continued sleeping.

When Li Long woke up the next day, daylight was already bright.

He felt refreshed and energetic, though the smell inside the room was rather unpleasant.

After getting up, Li Long went to the window, lifted the paper covering, and looked out; all he saw was snow, nothing else.

Out of caution, he still picked up his rifle, unlatched the door, pulled it open, and stepped outside.

If anything appeared outside, he could fire immediately.

There was nothing outside, but to Li Long's surprise, the pile of wolf entrails was gone.

Looking around, he discovered wolf tracks everywhere on the nearby snow, especially dense around where the entrails had been; Li Long guessed whether the arriving wolves had eaten those entrails?

This possibility was quite high.

Feeling safe, Li Long slung his rifle over his back, went behind the cabin, unbuttoned his trousers, and urinated.

As the urine flowed out, a very strong, gamey odor spread, which was expected; just like after eating too much mutton, one's urine would carry a muttony stench.

After urinating, Li Long pulled up his trousers, fastened his belt, walked back to the main room, opened the door wide to let the stale air out and fresh air in.

In a short while, the room became as cold as the outside.

The fire in the stove had completely gone out; Li Long somewhat regretted not adding more coal when he got up in the middle of the night, and now he had to rebuild the fire from scratch.

Fortunately, after waking up in the morning, both his mood and spirit were excellent. Li Long grabbed a handful of dry grass from the kindling pile outside, found a few pieces of relatively dry, thin kindling, and placed them beside the stove. Then, taking a fire hook, he thoroughly cleared the ash from inside the stove, setting aside the partially burned charcoal fragments—people in this era were quite frugal, so those charcoal cores that hadn't burned completely would be saved; after finishing proper tasks like cooking meals or boiling water, these charcoal cores would be put back into the stove to burn again, effectively squeezing out every last bit of their remaining value.

Li Long placed the dry grass at the very bottom, then added the charcoal fragments, followed by larger pieces of kindling on top, and finally laid the coal over everything. After arranging it, he covered the stove with its lid, opened the stove door, crumpled an old newspaper into a ball, stuffed it beneath the dry grass, and ignited the newspaper with a lighter. The quickly burning newspaper soon caught the dry grass alight, which in turn ignited the charcoal fragments.

Meanwhile, Li Long carried a bucket to the spring, fetched two buckets of water, and returned; by this time, the fire in the stove had already risen—though it was merely a false flame that hadn't yet ignited the coal, this fire was just an illusion.

As expected, the flames soon died down, the kindling caught fire, and next came the coal.

After waiting for the coal to catch fire, Li Long lifted the stove lid, placed the pot of meat broth from yesterday onto the stove, intending to continue drinking the meat broth for breakfast.

The scorched mantou crusts that hadn't been eaten yesterday had already cooled; Li Long placed them beneath the stove again. Now that the fire beneath the stove was vigorous, it took less than two minutes of roasting before he took them out; they were slightly charred, perfect for eating.

Once the meat broth in the pot came to a boil, Li Long ladled out a bowl, then removed the pot, covered the stove with its lid, and placed a teapot on top to continue boiling water.

He took the remaining nang soaked in meat broth left by Ha Li Mu and others, and began eating it in large mouthfuls.

Being young is truly wonderful, Li Long sighed with emotion. If this were his previous life, when he was fifty or sixty years old, he couldn't have eaten this meat broth for two consecutive meals; after one meal, a person would feel groggy and need time to recover.

But now? Having eaten it last night, he still wanted to eat it this morning, and he was enjoying it immensely; one bowl wasn't enough! He wanted to continue eating meat!

This is what it means to be young!

While sighing with emotion, Li Long continued eating. Once full, he still had important matters to attend to!

Yesterday, he had been surrounded and hunted by wolves, nearly failing to return; today, he absolutely had to go back and check, to see if he could reclaim his ground! (End of Chapter)