Chapter 174: Brothers of Different Fathers and Mothers

Early the next morning, Wang An opened the wine jar and intended to pour wine into the gourd, but found that the ginseng and deer antler wine in the wine jar was less.

But after thinking about it, he knew that this wine must have been stolen by his father, Wang Dazhu!

You have to know that the medicinal strength of this wine is quite strong. Think about it carefully, his mother seems to have not scolded his father for several days! Oh, it turns out that's the case!

Wang An poured 4 gourds of ginseng and deer antler wine and put them on the sled. The gourds are not big, one gourd of wine is about one jin and a half, and then filled the wine jar with sorghum wine.

Just like drinking tea, drink it at any time, add new wine at any time, so that the ginseng and deer antler in the jar can exert the greatest effect. Generally, the wolfberry soaked in wine must be replaced

After finishing with the wine jars and saying goodbye to his family, Wang An drove the sled toward the county town.

There was quite a lot of stuff on the sled: 13 and a half sheep carcasses, 39 and a half blue sheep pelts, a large pile of black bear meat, plus some jumping cats, pheasants, and the like.

Passing the bend in the road, Wang An subconsciously glanced at this eerie, ominous place, reminding himself not to forget to buy firecrackers—and to pick the big ones—to properly blast away the foul atmosphere of this spot.

Speeding along the way, he soon arrived at Qiao Xiaohu's house.

At this moment, Qiao Xiaohu was moving meat from the shed onto a small handcart; the meat delivered last time was truly substantial, and Qiao Xiaohu hadn't sold it all yet.

"Big Brother is here! I've only got this last small cart left before it's all sold out. You came at just the right time, Big Brother." Seeing Wang An driving the sled, Qiao Xiaohu ran over happily.

The small handcart really wasn't big; it was only loaded with a dozen or so jumping cats.

"How is it? Selling okay?" Wang An asked casually.

"It's going great! We're the only ones around here, and we even deliver right to their doorsteps. They're all so happy they're bubbling at the nose." Qiao Xiaohu said with a wink and a grin, while patting his chest.

It was clear he had made a good profit!

After finishing his sentence, Qiao Xiaohu took out that little notebook from his pocket, handed it to Wang An, and then pulled out two large stacks of money.

Wang An flipped through the little notebook, mainly looking at the totals: the blue sheep carcasses sold for 0.95 per jin, totaling 202.4; the black bear meat sold for 69.7; the wolf meat sold for 67.2; and the jumping cats sold for 119.3 yuan.

The total sales were 458.6 yuan. Wang An counted the ten-yuan bills along with the 5, 2, and 1-yuan notes, totaling 412 yuan. He didn't take the remaining two large stacks of small change, leaving them in Qiao Xiaohu's hands.

The two large stacks of money in Qiao Xiaohu's hands totaled less than 50 yuan, but they sure looked like a lot!

The largest denomination was 1 yuan, half were 1, 2, and 5-jiao paper notes, and the rest were 1, 2, and 5-fen coins. Though called two large stacks, in reality, it was a huge pile of money that took both hands to hold.

He added, "Use the extra few jiao to buy a pack of cigarettes. Next time, sort the money out beforehand; this wastes too much time."

"Alright, got it, Big Brother," Qiao Xiaohu replied with a chuckle.

"Accounts settled, let's unload the meat," Wang An said.

After calculating in his mind, Wang An left two and a half blue sheep carcasses, 8 jumping cats, 8 pheasants, 6 hazel grouse, and 5 hazel grouse on the sled.

He left 11 sheep carcasses, one black bear meat, and a large pile of jumping cats for Qiao Xiaohu to sell.

When Qiao Xiaohu saw the hazel grouse on the sled, his eyes lit up and he said, "Big Brother, aren't you selling these hazel grouse? They're 6 yuan each now. Several people have asked me about them; I hear they make really good soup."

Wang An smiled at this, took out one hazel grouse, handed it to Qiao Xiaohu, and said, "Not selling them. I'm not that short on cash. Here, take one to taste."

"Hahaha, thanks, Big Brother!" Qiao Xiaohu laughed as he took it.

Qiao Xiaohu understood very well that being polite with Wang An was completely unnecessary. If he dared to say he didn't want it, Wang An would immediately take it back without even a moment's hesitation.

Wang An laughed heartily and drove the sled away.

Soon, Wang An arrived at Wu Dong's house.

"Oh my, isn't this the legendary Big Madman?" Seeing Wang An enter the courtyard, Wang Shuai joked.

"Don't talk nonsense, he's a good guy," Wu Dong also teased with a smile.

"You guys just keep badmouthing me. Whoever badmouths me again, the wine is gone," Wang An said with a laugh.

"I didn't badmouth you."

"I didn't badmouth you either."

He Liang and Ma Guoqiang shouted one after another.

"You two useless things, there are four of us and only one of him. If he doesn't give it to us, can't we just grab it?" Wu Dong said with a laugh.

"Who's with you? Little An is my dear brother from a different father and mother. Can I grab from my brother? That's absolutely impossible! You're really something," Wang Shuai immediately gave Wu Dong a look of disdain.

"Oh my, you're clearly a big traitor," Wu Dong was instantly isolated and said helplessly.

"That's right, we are dear brothers from different fathers and mothers. Don't pay any attention to that silly Dongzi," He Liang also said with a chuckle.

The group chatted and laughed as they unloaded all the blue sheep pelts.

Wang An left the blue sheep carcass that the black bear had partially eaten on the sled, along with 2 jumping cats and 2 pheasants, and unloaded everything else.

"Why are there so many more antelope skins? And why is there a half-skin here? How many are there in total?" Wang Shuai rummaged through the blue sheep pelts and asked in confusion.

"Thirty-nine and a half in total," Wang An said.

Then, Wang An recounted how he had hunted 14 more blue sheep yesterday, and of course, he explained the story behind the half-carcass.

Upon hearing that Wang An had not only hunted blue sheep but also managed to bag a black bear on the side, the four of them looked at Wang An as if he were a monster.

Wu Dong said, "I don't want to go to work anymore. I want to go mountain-hunting with you."

"Me too, me too," the other three said in unison.

"Then what's there to say? Everyone go, everyone go. Tomorrow we'll go and bag a big bear," Wang An immediately agreed readily.

"A-a big bear? Then... then forget it!" Upon hearing about hunting a big bear, Wu Dong was startled, immediately backed out, and stammered.

He Liang and Ma Guoqiang also said at the same time, "About that, I have something to do tomorrow..." The two didn't expect the other to say the same thing, so they couldn't help but look at each other, then stopped mid-sentence and closed their mouths simultaneously.

Seeing this, Wang An immediately looked at Wang Shuai and said, "It has to be my dear brother from a different father and mother who supports me! Brother..."

Before Wang An could finish, he was interrupted by Wang Shuai, who said, "About that, little brother, I have to return to Bingcheng tomorrow to find a way to sell these antelope pelts for a high price, so I won't be able to accompany you into the mountains."

Wang An smiled, reached out, pointed at each of them, and said, "You guys..."

"Little An, where's the wine? Let me see what this wine of yours is like."

As they chatted and laughed, Wang An distributed one of the four gourds to each person and emphasized the medicinal effects. After saying it once, he felt uneasy and repeated it solemnly.

Because they were all young, Wang An was genuinely worried that this wine might harm these four second-generation youths.

Because Wang An had drunk it once—less than a liang—he remembered that night, Mu Xueqing basically didn't sleep at all, and of course, Wang An didn't sleep much either.

Since then, Mu Xueqing never let Wang An drink this wine again.

At first, the four of them didn't take it seriously. As second-generation youths, they certainly had plenty of good wine or medicinal liquor at home.

But since Wang An gave it to them, they had to accept it seriously; it was a matter of face and attitude! Northeasterners all cared about this.

As for how or when to drink it, that was up to them, but since Wang An had said it twice and acted so seriously, it was enough to prove that this wine was definitely not ordinary medicinal liquor.

Only then did the four of them nod as they looked at the wine gourds in their hands.

(End of this chapter)