Chapter 305: Only One Flaw

The night passed without incident, and in the blink of an eye, it was dawn.

In the morning, when Wang An was feeding the dogs, he saw the wounds on their bodies and realized he had forgotten a major matter.

He had forgotten to apply the medicine Fang Xiue gave him yesterday to the dogs' wounds.

Day after day, fighting really does get in the way of things!

Looking at the dogs, Wang An felt more and more that although he had lived a second life, he was still not mature or calm enough; once his blood got hot, his whole mind was filled with thoughts of how to fight.

However, it is never too late to mend the fold after the sheep are lost.

And so, after adding food for the dogs, Wang An returned to the room, took out a little of the medicine, and ground it into a fine powder using a garlic mortar.

Looking at the medicinal powder, Wang An felt it wasn't stable enough, so after thinking about it, he added a little water, stirred it, and applied it to each of the dogs' wounds one by one.

To be honest, this medicine was truly impressive; after adding water, it became very sticky, and once applied to the dogs' wounds, it stuck on in no time at all.

One must know that this time of morning is exactly what the locals call "dogs baring their teeth"—the dogs are so cold they are baring their teeth—so one can imagine just how cold it is at this time.

Yet this medicinal paste was hardly affected by the temperature at all, and it could still remain so sticky and firmly attached to the dogs' wounds; it was truly impressive.

Next time he goes to the county seat, Wang An must find a way to get more from Fang Xiue, otherwise, he wouldn't be able to show his inner gratitude.

After applying the medicine, Wang An grabbed a handful of coarse salt and went as usual to get close to the deer.

After yesterday's first time, the deer were very proactive today.

Whether it was the fawns or the does, they were all like silly roe deer, actively crowding toward Wang An.

This made Wang An very happy; he petted each of these deer once and fed each one a little coarse salt. Deer, as an animal, truly have no resistance to coarse salt.

Actually, does are not as nice to pet as fawns, because the fawns' fur is fluffier, and it feels smoother to the touch.

Wang An felt that after another period of time, he could start drawing blood from the deer.

Drawing deer blood is something that can be done from both does and fawns, only one should draw a little less from the fawns.

Many people might feel it is very cruel, but there is no other way; this is the purpose of raising deer, and only in this way can profits be maximized.

Without profit, who would raise this stuff?

After petting the deer, Wang An looked at that lonely silly roe deer and felt that this silly roe deer was truly missing a companion.

However, if one wants to catch a live roe deer, it is really difficult without dogs.

And so, while petting the silly roe deer, Wang An said to it: "Don't be anxious, one of these days I'll catch a companion for you."

The silly roe deer didn't understand human speech, but upon hearing Wang An speak, it still cooperated very well by letting out a "baa-baa" sound, and after it finished calling, it even nudged Wang An.

Wang An laughed heartily and gave the silly roe deer a good long petting before turning to leave the enclosure; this petting could be considered as giving the silly roe deer a little comfort.

Wang An hadn't been out of the sheep pen for long before Mu Xueli and Wang Li arrived driving a sled.

Seeing Wang An, Mu Xueli immediately showed off and said: "Brother-in-law, can we go into the mountains today? I made a bag of mud pellets at home yesterday."

Wang Li also said with a smile: "I also made a big basketful, and there are still quite a lot that haven't been baked yet."

Looking at the two excited people, Wang An said with a mischievous smile: "Going into the mountains is impossible, but you two definitely won't be idle, hahaha."

The two didn't understand, and after Mu Xueli scanned the courtyard, he asked in confusion: "Brother-in-law, what kind of work is there at your place?"

Wang An smiled slyly again and said: "You'll know in a while, hahaha. Let's go, you two unhitch the horses from the sled and lead them into the shed to feed them."

After Wang An finished speaking, he turned and ducked into the outer room, then came out holding five yellow sheepskins.

One has to say, the family is truly diligent; so many yellow sheepskins and a few roe deer skins had all been tanned. One must know that tanning skins—that is, curing skins—is a truly troublesome task.

Tanning fur is actually just making the skin soft.

Because any skin is soft when it is first peeled off, but after drying for a period of time, even deer skin becomes very hard.

And such skins cannot be used for sewing coats or making *wula* boots.

At this time, it is necessary to soften the skin, which is tanning the fur, or what is called curing the skin.

Of course, "curing the skin" is not only a craft, but also a prefix used by people in the Northeast when they are about to beat their children.

Because Wang An could be said to have heard these three words from childhood to adulthood; every time Wang An caused trouble, he would hear Wang Dazhu say:

"Is your skin feeling tight again? Come here, let me cure your skin."

The words were spoken very gently, but in reality, it was truly damn painful!

However, Liu Guilan would occasionally say similar things, such as: "Did your dad not cure your skin well last time? In a while, I'll have your dad cure it for you again."

Anyway, no matter which of the couple said this, the person curing the skin and the person being cured always remained Wang Dazhu and Wang An. Actually, frequently curing a child's skin is beneficial to the child's growth; at the very least, the child will reduce the number of times they cause trouble.

Of course, it also depends on the child; for someone like Wang An, whether it's a whip tip or skin curing, it's all bullshit—no matter how he is disciplined, he remains the same damn way afterward.

Normally speaking, rural people only use three things to tan skins: water, alum, and coarse salt.

Taking tanning a rabbit skin as an example, it is dissolving two *liang* of alum and two *liang* of salt fully into two and a half *jin* of water to obtain a brand-new mixed water.

Then, soak the whole rabbit skin inside; it must be completely submerged, without leaving any corners exposed. Normally speaking, one needs to press it down with a bamboo cover.

Soak it for one night, which is twelve or thirteen hours, and it's basically about right.

In winter, it needs to be soaked for a few more hours.

Then take out the rabbit skin and use a dull knife to scrape off the blood and flesh on the skin and the tiny bit of oil stains left on the skin.

After scraping, wash it thoroughly a few times, then stretch it tight again to dry.

The final step is to beat the skin; the "skin curing" that Wang An often enjoyed is this final step.

Lay the skin flat with the fur side down, then use a thinner stick to beat it, one stick after another, without missing any part of the fur.

This stick must be whittled; there must be no burrs or protruding knots on it; the smoother, the better.

This is a delicate job, and it is truly quite tedious.

After beating, this skin can be considered tanned.

Of course, this method is only the simplest tanning method; it only achieves the goal of making the skin soft so that one can use it.

In the countryside, there are actually many other tanning methods, such as using horse urine, cow urine, and plant ash, as well as lye and rice water, and so on.

Anyway, these are just the simplest ways to soften the skin, because rural people don't have that many requirements.

If making a fur coat, it is also made by piecing together whole skins, and it won't be refined or deeply processed.

If further processing is needed, one has to go to a furrier's shop in the county seat for tanning, as well as thinning and other processing work.

Doing this is refining and finely processing the fur, but for rural people, it is completely unnecessary.

And the production process of finished fur coats is actually similar to that of the furrier's shop in the county seat.

Because doing it this way can divide fur coats into different grades.

Simply put, finished coats made from the same animal and the same color of fur have different prices.

And the reason the prices are different is that finished fur coats are not made from a single skin.

Fur of the same color must be divided vertically into many strips and then used separately.

That is to say, the fur on the animal's back, the fur on the belly, and the fur on the tail will not be used together.

For example, for a fox fur coat, the fur on the fox's back, the fur on the belly, and the fur on the fox's tail are all used to make clothes separately.

The back fur of many foxes will be pieced together to make one coat.

The fox's belly and fox's tail are the same.

Needless to say, a coat made by piecing together fox back fur is expensive! A coat made by piecing together fox tails is definitely cheap.

Therefore, any expensive finished fur garment requires the fur of many animals.

However, such a fur garment has only one flaw, and that is that it is expensive—quite expensive.

Of course, besides this flaw, everything else is an advantage.

The color of all the fur is the same, the feel of all the fur is the same, and even the direction of every single hair is the same.

One has to say, besides keeping warm, it is indeed quite beautiful.

Alas, ordinary people can only look.

Wang An took the yellow sheep fur and ignored Mu Xueli and Wang Li, instead turning and entering the room.

Because Wang An suddenly thought that for the job of unloading bricks, one needs gloves.

Thanks to my dear good brother "An Lan" for the tip, thank you, thank you.

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 306 =====