Chapter 100

Hearing Wang An's muttering, Niu Dali's face clearly changed.

Even his previous anger disappeared, and he seemed to be thinking about something.

But after Wang An finished speaking, he didn't take it to heart; he had done his part and left the rest to fate!

If Niu Dali didn't go find Li Erlengzi, then so be it; it didn't matter.

But that possibility was small; someone like Niu Dali, who had lost his mind from gambling, was crazy for money. What wouldn't he do?

If someone wanted to buy his wife right now, he would probably sell her without hesitation!

He saw Niu Dali take a few cents out of his pocket and play a few more rounds, but he was clearly not in his previous state and seemed very distracted!

Sure enough, after losing the few cents, he stopped playing and left the table. Wang An continued to play one round, then folded without looking at his cards, and stopped playing too!

After coming out of the small shop, Wang An discovered that Niu Dali was indeed walking toward Li Erlengzi's house!

Wang An didn't pay any more attention and turned to go home.

Returning home, he told his family he was going into the mountains tomorrow, and then continued to study the three deer skins.

Now, whenever Wang An saw these three deer skins, it was as if he saw a pile of "Great Unities" (10-yuan bills) beckoning to him, as if they were saying, "Come here! Come here quickly!"

——

The next morning

After Wang An was ready, he filled a pot with liquor, tied the dogs to the sled, thought for a moment, took a few firecrackers left over from the New Year, and drove the sled to find his brother-in-law.

He didn't expect that before he even reached his father-in-law's house, he would see his brother-in-law in hunting gear, already on the road into the mountains.

"Xueli, what are you going to do?" Wang An shouted hurriedly. This kid was just too diligent day after day!

Mu Xueli looked back and saw it was his brother-in-law, and was immediately overjoyed, saying with a smile, "Brother-in-law, I was thinking of wandering around nearby to hunt a few hares or pheasants, and practice my shooting while I'm at it."

"Forget it, you don't need to go. Go home and tell them, then come into the mountains with me," Wang An said very directly.

"Hey, brother-in-law, I'll go home right now." Mu Xueli was very obedient and ran off in a flash.

Wang An had nothing to do and wanted to smoke a cigarette, but he had just taken it out and hadn't even lit it yet.

Mu Xueli ran back, carrying a cloth bag; it must have been filled with dry rations!

Wang An didn't ask, but heard Mu Xueli say happily, "Yesterday when I went to my partner's house, my mother-in-law gave me a pot of sticky bean buns. Let's take them into the mountains to eat."

"Sticky bean buns? You have this good stuff?" Wang An was also very happy.

This stuff was a rarity in this era; he had only eaten it a limited number of times since he was a child, so naturally, he was craving it.

Northeast sticky bean buns are made from yellow millet ground into flour and bean paste.

Yellow millet, also called sticky rice, is a grain called broomcorn millet, obtained after grinding off the skin.

Of course, if there is yellow millet, there is small yellow millet, but small yellow millet is sticky foxtail millet, and the flour ground from it is not as sticky as yellow millet flour; they are completely different things!

It is even more of a completely different concept from the sticky rice of the south, which is glutinous rice!

Broomcorn millet stalks are different from foxtail millet stalks; they are covered in fine, soft little thorns that don't prick people. After the broomcorn millet grains mature, they are similar to foxtail millet, but they are orange-red and feel very smooth to the touch.

Northeast New Year cakes, bean buns, sticky cakes, fried cakes, and zongzi are all made from this stuff!

There are many kinds of bean paste: cowpeas, red beans, and kidney beans all work.

The best texture is cowpea, because cowpeas are the softest when boiled; this cowpea is mainly for eating the beans, the skin is woody and can't be eaten! It's different from the long cowpeas people eat.

Next is red bean, which is also very soft.

Even when boiled, kidney beans are still hard, but everyone has their own taste, so there's no distinction between good and bad!

Sticky bean buns are one of the favorites of Northeast people. If you add a few grains of saccharin to the bean paste, it makes the deliciousness of the sticky bean buns rival any pastry!

Storing this stuff is also incredibly simple; when it's hot, it's sticky.

But when it gets cold or frozen, it becomes a hard lump of dry rations, and it's very filling! It's simply one of the best dry rations around!

The two of them happily drove the sled into the mountains. Wang An didn't choose the "Heavenly Den" but went directly to the further "Earth Den."

If nothing went wrong, Niu Dali would definitely have gone to the Heavenly Den himself or with others. If he wasn't greedy and took an experienced hunter with him, then he might succeed. If he was greedy and went alone, then the result... would be hard to say!

Not thinking about those useless things, Wang An and his brother-in-law were already picking up hares!

That's right, picking them up. In less than three days, these snares were really effective! Of course, there were quite a few that had been half-eaten or had disappeared along with the snares.

But no matter what, the lost ones were fewer than the remaining ones!

This time entering the mountains, Mu Xueli also took quite a few snares; maybe it was the iron wire he had scavenged over the past two days, about fifty or sixty of them. The two of them were busy, picking up and setting snares at the same time.

Finally, after a rough count, there were nearly 50 hares, including complete ones and half-eaten ones!

That was quite a significant harvest!

Selling them whole, they were 40 cents a jin at the market; this pile could sell for over 60 yuan! If they ate the meat themselves and only sold the complete skins, they could still sell for over 30 yuan!

That's how mountain hunting is; although you need to climb mountains and cross ridges, wade through water, and face all kinds of dangers, the joy of the harvest is a very powerful stimulant!

After checking the snares, the two didn't delay and drove the sled straight toward the Earth Den.

This Earth Den was truly not close; it took over two hours of sledding to get there.

Tying up the horses and feeding them fodder, the two walked around nearby and soon discovered marks on the trees.

Forty minutes later, they finally found the entrance to the Earth Den.

The marks were all twisted and turned; the actual distance wasn't far at all!

Wang An couldn't help but curse, "This damn Li Erlengzi isn't slow at all; this effort is really a waste of time!"

Mu Xueli smiled from the side without speaking. At this moment, Mu Xueli was a bit nervous, and he was holding his breath inside!

Last time they fought the big brown bear, he hadn't been able to help; that big brown bear was completely killed by Wang An himself!

For this, Mu Xueli had blamed himself for a long time, feeling he was useless, as if he were just taking advantage of his brother-in-law for nothing!

Mainly, Wang An didn't dare to let the dogs loose; Wang An was really afraid that the dogs' frantic barking would wake up whatever was in the cave, although this possibility was very small.

But if a brown bear or a black bear really ran out before the two of them were ready, that would be a big problem!

A truly tragic problem!

This Earth Den was a cave in the wall of a mountain ridge over ten meters high!

The entrance was less than 1 meter from the ground, but there were vines hanging down above the entrance, and shrubs growing on the side, so the entrance was quite hidden.

He didn't know how Li Erlengzi had discovered it!

Did he just wander around the mountains every day and find it? But the distance from here to the village was quite far...

There was white frost above the entrance, very thick, so he could conclude there was a black bear or a brown bear inside! He just didn't know how many!

The two turned and left to do the preparation work, which was chopping tree trunks and picking up dry branches!

The shitty thing was, there was no ash wood nearby. Wang An felt that in these mountains, among all the tree trunks of the same thickness, ash wood was the strongest!

So for safety, the two ran a long way before they chopped ash tree trunks and brought them back.

Clearing the escape route, everything was ready!

Lighting the firewood, the fire started to burn. Wang An handed the 56-semi to his brother-in-law, telling him to aim at the entrance and prepare to shoot.

He held the Mosin-Nagant in his left hand and took the firecrackers out of his pocket with his right.

Using firecrackers to call out the den was Wang An's sudden whim; Wang An felt this stuff was more useful than a gun!

He used the charcoal from the fire to light the firecrackers, lighting one and throwing it into the cave.

When he threw the third one, the first one had already gone off! He only heard two "bangs," and the sound, perhaps because of the cave's amplification, was truly loud!

It shook the loose snow on the mountain ridge, causing it to fall down with a swoosh~

After throwing three firecrackers in a row, Wang An turned and ran! He ran "whoosh," that was fast!

The follow-up data has dropped again, and the monthly tickets are even worse!

Please recommend + collect, thank you, dear big bosses!