Chapter 1024: Killing Two Sheep to Celebrate

The three drivers were scared to death, and the three passengers didn't feel much better; everyone wore a look of lingering fear.

Even the forty-one sika deer that had been captured failed to draw the attention of Wang Dashu and Wang Daliang's group. It was clear how terrified those four had been along the way.

Wang Dashu, his legs trembling, said to Wang An:

"Little An, after we finish loading the cart, I think I'll just walk back. This ride was just too damn scary; I felt like I was going to roll into the ditch several times."

After Wang Dashu finished, Wang Daliang also said with trembling lips:

"We can't do this blindly anymore. This tractor is completely uncontrollable; it kept wanting to slide into the ditch."

Truth be told, driving is a young person's game. Although Wang An and Wang Li were also full of lingering fear, they weren't as shaken as the two old uncles.

Wang An looked back at the winding mountain road and thought about how the rear cart had skidded sideways several times on the steep sections. He realized that while an empty vehicle could barely make it up the mountain, driving a loaded one back down was truly no easy feat.

Thinking this over, he said to the group:

"How about you all start loading the carts, and I'll go back and bring the crawler tractor up to level out this shitty road? Otherwise, if we lose control on the way back, what if the carts fall into the ditch?"

As soon as Wang An finished speaking, Wang Dashu said:

"Oh my god, that would be perfect. If anything happens to us on the way down, it wouldn't be worth it."

Wang Daliang also added:

"I think that's a good idea. With the hazelnuts, pine nuts, and walnuts all about to ripen, we won't have to be terrified every time we bring the horse carts into the mountain."

Wang Dashu suddenly smiled and said:

"In that case, clearing a road here is also a virtuous deed, hehehehe."

Since ancient times, building bridges and paving roads have been considered great virtuous acts. Although Wang An's purpose in clearing the road was merely to transport the deer down the mountain, the people in the village would definitely benefit from it in the future.

After the two uncles spoke, the others also agreed that clearing the road was feasible. Wang An rode Mu Xueli's horse back down the mountain, while the others stayed behind to lift the deer onto the carts.

Unexpectedly, what started as a deer hunt had turned into a road construction project.

But there was no other choice; the three vehicles were now in a "riding a tiger" situation.

To put it bluntly, the trip up had been heart-stopping, and now, no one dared to drive or ride them back down.

The reason was simple: everyone was afraid of dying.

When Wang An arrived with the crawler tractor, lowering the large blade and pushing soil as he went, it took him two hours to reach the location of the three vehicles.

It was slow because the crawler tractor wasn't fast to begin with, and pushing soil while moving made it even slower.

However, it must be said that Wang An had cleared the road quite well; the sections prone to side-skidding had been leveled out completely.

Even a large Jiefang truck could now drive straight into the mountain.

By this time, all the deer had been loaded onto the carts, but the group was just smoking and chatting. It was clear that no one wanted to drive home yet; they were all waiting for Wang An to finish the road.

Seeing Wang An appear with the crawler tractor, the group's expressions relaxed immediately. It was obvious that the road home was now completely safe!

Without delay, Wang An drove the crawler tractor, while Wang Daliang, Wang Li, and Mu Xueli drove the hand-tractors and the four-wheeled cart, all the way back to Wang An's house.

Upon returning, the group didn't leave; instead, they started helping to remove the traps from the deer's hooves.

Deer are animals with incredibly strong healing abilities. Even with a broken leg, as long as it's set properly, they can recover in three or four days.

As for these nail punctures, once the nails were pulled out, even without medicine, they would heal in just a few hours, so there was no need to worry about the deer's health.

While everyone was busy, Wang Dashu, his wife, and Shen Wei returned with their baskets.

Truth be told, Shen Wei was starting to act like Wang An's second wife. Although Wang An's family had started paying her a salary, almost all her focus in life had shifted to Wang An's household.

If it weren't for the fact that her mother-in-law couldn't be left alone for long, Xiao Lai-zi would have spent the entire day at Wang An's house, never even returning to her own.

Wang Dashu, his wife, and Shen Wei were naturally surprised to see so many sika deer in the deer shed. However, since the deer belonged to the four men, they didn't ask many questions and just joined in the work.

With everyone helping, they quickly removed all the traps from the deer's hooves.

It was gratifying that all forty-one deer were uninjured, which made Feng Chengmin and the other three men very happy.

Wang An decided to kill two sheep to celebrate that night.

Mainly because they had already killed a pig a few days ago, and they needed to change things up today.

The reason they had to kill two was that these Mongolian gazelles were quite small; even after being raised by Wang An's family for so long, the largest and fattest one didn't exceed sixty jin.

To be honest, this was why Wang An felt that raising these was pointless. Raising them wasn't as good as raising local mountain sheep, large sheep, or small-tailed Han sheep.

The key was that Wang An felt the taste of gazelle meat was no different from ordinary mutton.

When Wang An announced this decision, Liu Guilan rarely refrained from saying anything discouraging, instead wearing a beaming smile.

It was clear that the four men capturing these forty-one deer had made Liu Guilan very happy.

Although the forty-one deer belonged to the four men, and Feng Chengmin was the commander-in-chief of the hunt, it was only reasonable for Wang An, as the organizer and the one who had invested the most, to receive a larger share.

Just like that, two round, fat gazelles became the celebratory ingredients for the successful deer hunt.

It must be said that the gazelles died quite unjustly; the success of the deer hunt was clearly a happy occasion, yet it was the gazelles that had to pay with their lives. Who could you reason with about that?

Wild boars were skinned for meat, but gazelles were scalded to remove hair and eaten with the skin on.

Only those who have eaten sheep skin know how delicious it is.

After eating and drinking their fill, the relatives dispersed. Feng Chengmin, Wang An, Mu Xueli, and Wang Li then reached the time to divide the loot—no, the time to distribute the harvest.

Wang An didn't propose a distribution plan first; instead, he asked Feng Chengmin:

"Uncle Feng, you were the leader of this hunt. Why don't you take a look at these deer and see how we four should split them?"

Thanks to "Those Beautiful Memories" for the tip, thank you!

(End of chapter)