Chapter 53

Liu Guilan wiped her hands with a rag and greeted her kindly.

Liu Guilan got along quite well with Shen Wei and had often helped her.

Wang An's reputation was well-known, and Shen Wei probably knew a little bit about why Liu Guilan often helped her.

However, Liu Guilan never pointed it out, and Wang An wasn't a good match for Shen Wei, so she just played dumb. Maybe one day when she couldn't hold on anymore, she would compromise!

"I... I came because I wanted to..." Before she finished speaking, she looked at Wang An, seemingly wanting Wang An to help explain.

Wang An saw that she was having such a hard time asking for help, so he simply explained Shen Wei's idea of wanting a black bear's paw.

Although this black bear was caught by Wang An, Wang An could also make the decision to give the paw away.

But after doing so, what would his family think, and mainly, what would Mu Xueqing think?

So putting the matter out in the open directly avoided the family's wild guesses!

Mu Xueqing hadn't been married for long, and besides returning to her maiden home once, she hadn't been out.

Naturally, she didn't know the people in the village, and the people in the village didn't know her.

Mu Xueqing stood to the side watching the scene, while quietly listening to Wang An's explanation.

Wang Dazhu didn't speak, because he couldn't make decisions about family matters.

Liu Guilan was very conflicted upon hearing this. Mainly because her son already had a wife, even if she helped Shen Wei, it was just pure help, without any other thoughts.

If she gave a piece of black bear meat, even if she gave more, she wouldn't hesitate, but there were only four black bear paws, and this thing was too scarce!

No matter how awesome a hunter was, it was amazing to catch five or six black bears a year!

Once caught, the black bear paws were basically sold; what kind of conditions did they have to eat this stuff!

Besides, no one in the family had ever eaten this, and it wasn't certain if there would be enough!

Liu Guilan couldn't help but secretly complain in her heart: "Why is this old lady so greedy? Doesn't she know what her own conditions are!"

They say mother and son are of one heart; didn't the mother and son just think of the same thing!

Liu Guilan glanced at Wang Dazhu, but Wang Dazhu seemed to have heard nothing, his gaze on the five playing puppies!

Liu Guilan looked at her daughter-in-law again; the daughter-in-law had been paying attention and looked at her mother-in-law very cooperatively.

But she had only been married for a few days, how could she speak up about this!

Her eyes involuntarily turned to her son, and seeing her son nod subtly, she finally felt reassured.

Only then did she say with a smile, "Hey, how many years have we known each other, why buy it? I'll just chop one off for you to take back."

Although Wang An nodded very subtly, it wasn't just Liu Guilan who saw it.

Shen Wei and Mu Xueqing also saw it, but what exactly the two of them would think, that was unknown!

Hearing Liu Guilan agree, Shen Wei, who had been very embarrassed, had tears fall right then.

Poverty destroys ambition, not to mention Shen Wei's family, which had already reached a point beyond poverty!

Poverty is not terrible; what's terrible is that it's hard to even survive!

A young widow with no source of income, leading a child, and having to serve a bedridden, paralyzed old lady!

The word "hard" is far from enough to describe this kind of predicament!

Therefore, when she saw Wang An nod gently and agree to her unreasonable request!

When she heard Liu Guilan agree with a smile to her unreasonable request!

Her world, full of darkness and helplessness, seemed to have a glimmer of light!

That glimmer of light also seemed to be telling her: You must continue to be strong!

So, she cried; under the gaze of Wang An's family, she cried!

Liu Guilan, a woman who had lived a hard life, truly understood Shen Wei's mood at this moment!

"Oh my! Look at you, child, why are you crying?" Liu Guilan said while stepping forward.

She didn't care how dirty her hands were from skinning the black bear, and directly wiped the tears off Shen Wei's face.

A greasy black mark appeared directly on her originally fair face, making Wang An's mouth twitch.

Shen Wei didn't know her face was dirty; she forced a smile and opened her mouth, but couldn't say anything.

Liu Guilan glanced at Wang An, skipped over him, and turned directly to Wang Dazhu: "Dazhu! Chop off one of the black bear's back paws; the back paws are big, give it to the child!"

Liu Guilan's glance just now seemed to want Wang An to chop the black bear's paw.

But perhaps feeling that her son couldn't be counted on, she directly ordered her old man!

Wang Dazhu listened to Liu Guilan very well; he swung the axe and started chopping. On the third swing, the black bear's back paw came off!

Wang An watched his old man swing the axe and couldn't help but think of his brother-in-law.

If his brother-in-law did it, he might not even need an axe; he would just use a knife to cut it off along the wrist joint!

In this way, the cut of the black bear's paw would become beautiful and good-looking, and the action of cutting would also be very pleasing to watch!

But he was too lazy to even swing his old man's three axe swings; if you don't work, don't blabber. Blabbering about this stuff is too annoying, and mainly, it's easy to get scolded!

Liu Guilan found a piece of hemp rope to tie up the black bear's paw so it would be easier to carry, and handed it directly to Shen Wei.

She also cut a piece of black bear meat weighing about 10 pounds and handed it to Shen Wei.

A black bear has a lot of fat and little lean meat, so more than half of it was fat.

Shen Wei said a bunch of words of thanks, and in the end, she was a bit incoherent.

When Shen Wei was about to say goodbye and leave, Liu Guilan seemed to think of something else.

She walked into the lower room and, with great effort, dragged out a large basket of cut frozen meat, which looked to be at least 150 or 160 pounds.

Wang An was puzzled and suspicious; when did his mother become so generous, giving away so much meat just like that?

Walking closer to look, oh my god!

On top were indeed a few pieces of meat, some of which were left for feeding the dogs; it was the meat of that 500-pound wild boar!

This meat was really not very tasty; not only was it fishy and smelly, but it was too damn tough and couldn't be chewed at all! Only by mincing it to make dumplings could it barely be eaten!

That day, Wang Dazhu was afraid it wouldn't sell, so he didn't dare to take too much, only taking half, which was about 100 pounds, because a 500-pound wild boar could only yield about 250 pounds of meat!

Finally, hearing him mutter, it seemed he sold it for 8 cents a pound!

There were also a few pieces of leftover leopard meat; this stuff was eaten by the family the first few times, but later the family didn't eat it anymore!

The most damn key point was that the dogs at home would rather eat cornmeal than eat leopard meat!

This stuff was indeed incredibly hard to eat, fishy, smelly, and sour; it wasn't even as good as the wild boar meat!

When there was no meat to eat, they could still eat it, but now that there was plenty of meat at home, no one touched their chopsticks after it was cooked!

Under the meat chunks were two large pig heads, pitch black.

One was the head of that 500-pound wild boar!

That big head weighed at least 70 pounds, and the tusks had been knocked off by Mu Xueqing!

The other was the head of that 300-pound large sow, also not small, weighing over 40 pounds!

Beside the two pitch-black pig heads were a few pitch-black large sticks!

They were so thick!

On this day of new days, new months, and new years

I wish my loved ones who have always supported and followed me:

Happy New Year! May everything go as you wish! Make a fortune in 2014!

May all you get be what you wish for, and may the Year of the Dragon bring joy after joy!

I also hope that everyone will support me as always!

Your following, your monthly tickets, and your recommendations are the greatest love for me; I love you all!

(End of chapter)