Chapter 292

Wang An looked at the remaining 16 squirrel carcasses and pondered for a moment.

Then, Wang An was seen picking up 8 of the squirrel carcasses unhurriedly, turning around, and putting them into the sack on his sled.

Seeing Mu Xueli and Wang Li watched Wang An's actions with normal expressions; neither of them took it to heart.

After Wang An walked back to the fire and sat down, he pointed at the remaining 8 squirrel carcasses and said:

"I've calculated it. Both of your families have 4 people now, and my family has 7. Since it's our first time hunting this stuff, we have to at least have one each. These 8 squirrel carcasses—you two take 4 each. I'll give you more next time."

Upon hearing this, Seeing Mu Xueli and Wang Li subconsciously looked at the squirrel carcasses on the snow, and then Seeing Mu Xueli said:

"Why don't you just take them all home, brother-in-law? It's the same if I take them next time."

Wang Li also followed up immediately: "Yeah, Fourth Brother, it's fine if we take them next time."

Wang An was quite happy to hear their words; it wasn't in vain that he had been looking after them all along.

Wang An took out cigarettes, and while handing them out to the two, he said with a chuckle:

"Forget it. Since it's the first time hunting this stuff, everyone should have a taste. We'll hunt more later, and then it won't be so rare."

After the three of them lit their cigarettes, Wang An continued: "You two make more mud pellets tonight; there aren't many steel balls left on the sled."

"Got it, Fourth Brother."

"Don't worry, brother-in-law," the two replied simultaneously.

Whether it was sparrow meat, squirrel meat, or black bear meat, roasting it over a fire was much faster than stewing it in water.

The three of them bragged and chatted for a while, and the roasted squirrel, sparrow, and black bear meat were all done.

Each person first took a roasted sparrow, put it whole into their mouth, and chewed everything—bones and meat—until it was crushed before swallowing.

Rural people generally don't spit out bones when eating sparrows. Although it affects the texture a bit, there's only half a mouthful of meat, so if you threw away the bones, there'd be nothing left.

After finishing the sparrows, each person took a roasted squirrel and couldn't wait to put it in their mouth. Even though they were scalded and gasping, they still wanted to keep eating the next bite.

The meat of this thing simply contained all kinds of fragrance; it was truly damn delicious!

And the three of them didn't spit out the bones much either, mainly because the bones of this thing weren't as hard as sparrow bones.

Furthermore, Wang An felt that when cooking this, besides salt, you couldn't add any other seasonings.

Because any kind of seasoning might destroy its original fragrance.

By comparison, this thing was even more delicious than badger meat. If you don't count the flavor, the texture is about the same as a ground squirrel.

After being roasted, they were all fatty and sizzling with oil, and they were fatty but not greasy.

The three of them didn't even have time to take a sip of liquor before they finished eating the small roasted squirrels.

After finishing the roasted squirrels, the three of them ignored the black bear meat and looked toward the pot in unison.

Eating in the mountains is like this: as long as it's mostly cooked, it's fine. A common saying among mountain hunters is: "Whether raw or cooked, just eat it while it's hot!"

So none of the three were polite, and each scooped out a stewed squirrel and started eating again.

However, because Wang An habitually added some chili peppers when stewing the squirrels, the flavor of the stewed squirrels was greatly diminished.

I don't know why, but all the fragrance that squirrels naturally have was completely wiped out by the chili peppers.

Wang Li said while chewing the squirrel meat: "Why isn't this as tasty as the roasted one?"

Seeing Mu Xueli also said while smacking his lips: "Yeah, is there such a big difference between roasting and stewing this thing?"

Wang An looked at the two idiots and said: "Didn't you realize it's because of the chili peppers?"

Seeing Mu Xueli and Wang Li blinked, and Seeing Mu Xueli said: "But this way is easier; just throw it in the pot, add some salt, and stew it directly."

Wang An and Wang Li nodded and continued eating.

After eating and drinking their fill, the three of them put the black bear meat and such on the sled and headed down the mountain.

They sped along and soon returned home.

Upon returning home, Wang An shouted as usual, and only Mu Xueqing, his younger brother Wang Yi, and his two little sisters came out of the house.

Wang An asked Mu Xueqing casually: "Where are Dad and Mom?" Mu Xueqing said: "Dad said he was going to find people. In a few days, we're going into the mountains to fell trees to prepare lumber for building the house. Mom seems to have gone too."

Wang An nodded and said: "Oh, I see."

Actually, Wang An had intended to buy ready-made wood directly from the lumber yard.

Although you can cut down trees in the mountains at will, it's quite troublesome in terms of both manpower and material resources.

In the rural areas of this era, finding people to help with work is called "helping out," and although it doesn't cost money, you have to return the favor.

To put it plainly, it means if you help me work this time, I have to help you work next time.

And this stuff is calculated by the day—one day for one day.

Although every family's work is different and the number of days worked is different, everyone keeps a mental account.

Many people say that rural life in this era has a human touch and everyone is quite mixed, but try not returning the favor and see if you can find people to help you next time your family has work.

The key is that this "returning the favor" thing often doesn't distinguish between busy and slack times.

As long as you owe others labor, no matter how busy you are, if you don't go this time, you must go next time.

And this thing—there's a first and a second time, but absolutely no third or fourth.

This is also the reason why many widows and widowers live so difficultly!

Their houses are broken and they don't repair them; their courtyard walls collapse and they don't rebuild them; instead, they just make do and muddle along.

You have to know that humans are social animals, and these tasks are simply not something one person can do alone!

Don't these widows and widowers want to repair their houses? Don't they want to repair their courtyard walls?

It's not that; it's because they can't find anyone to help, and others don't believe they can return the labor.

Everyone says rural life is simple and pure—work at sunrise, return at sunset—but actually, these are just appearances.

The most real rural life is far more complex than city life.

Not to mention things like picking mountain goods, which all rely on family groups to fight for.

Just take the simplest thing: how does one person farm?

Don't talk about holding a pickaxe yourself, digging holes yourself, and burying seeds yourself—that's not farming; that's just planting your own little vegetable garden.

Farming is something that requires planting all the seeds into the ground within a fixed time; if you delay it even a little, you don't need to plant anymore.

Because after missing the sowing time, even if you bury the seeds in the ground, by autumn, you'll only harvest a field full of stalks.

Of course, these are normal things in rural areas; many things are much harder than this.

And Wang An's idea was to buy all the bricks, tiles, cement, and lumber ready-made, and only find people to help when building the house, or just use the methods of later generations to hire people to build the house with money.

But in this era, there's really no such thing as hiring people with money to build a house.

In this way, after the house is built, he can do whatever he wants, and it won't delay Wang An's plan to get rich at all.

But what Wang An never expected was that his old man had already gone to find people, which disrupted Wang An's plan and caught him off guard.

Consequently, while Wang An was unhitching the big horse from the sled, he was pondering how to owe fewer favors.

At dinner, Wang An stewed all 8 squirrel carcasses. This time, Wang An was careful; besides salt, he didn't add any other seasonings.

I have to say, the squirrel meat stewed this way was enjoyed by the whole family.

And little sister Wang Xiaoli spoke up again: "Big Brother, hunt more squirrels in the future; I haven't eaten enough."

Wang An touched Wang Xiaoli's little head and said very dotingly: "You only know how to eat."

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(End of chapter)