Chapter 79

A lean-to is a very simple thing to build!

First, cut 5 tree trunks as thick as an arm and 1 meter taller than a person.

2 thinner tree trunks, also about 1 meter taller than a person.

And 2 thinner tree trunks, the same height as a person.

Tie the two thick tree trunks on the left together in a cross about 10 centimeters from the top.

Tie the bottom with the thin tree trunk that is the same height as a person; do the same on the right!

This forms a triangle on the left, and the same on the right.

Lay the thick tree trunk horizontally on top and tie them separately.

Then take the 2 thin tree trunks that are one meter taller than a person.

Connect and tie them to the left and right triangles at the halfway point of the crossed thick tree trunks.

With that, the lean-to frame is built.

Lay the grass mat over the top horizontal tree trunk and let it hang down, and you're done!

For the drafty parts on the sides, you can build a fire outside the lean-to, or hang grass mats as well.

Although this thing looks extremely crude and seems useless.

However, staying inside is much, much warmer than being outside!

At the very least, that freezing cold wind won't be able to blow into your cotton-padded jacket so recklessly!

Carefully wipe the black bear's fur clean with snow and spread it out inside the lean-to; it's simply perfect!

Gather firewood, set up a pot to boil water, and first scald the black bear's gallbladder with boiling water; this thing is quite interesting when you scald it.

As the scalding time increases, the skin of this thing shrinks, and the whole thing directly becomes a bit smaller.

Until it stops changing, Wang An puts it back into the cloth bag and wraps it up.

After scalding the bear gallbladder, it was completely dark, so he cut a lot of wet pine branches; this thing is a godsend for spending the night, as it burns for a long time.

However, when building a fire, you must find the right wind direction, otherwise, that thick smoke won't just choke you to death, it could directly knock you out.

The two of them's lean-to had one side sealed off with a grass mat, and the other side completely open.

On the open side, they built two fires, which made it warmer and also gave them space to roast meat.

He didn't know how much Mu Seeing Mu Xueli could eat, so he cut a full two pieces, over ten jin of black bear meat.

Actually, black bear meat isn't suitable for roasting; it has too much fat. Even the tendon meat on the leg has nearly half fat, and before it's even roasted, the black bear oil is flowing everywhere!

But under these conditions, being able to eat is good enough; why be so picky!

The two of them drank wild pheasant soup, ate black bear meat, and occasionally took a bite of cornmeal flatbread.

This feeling, to be honest, was truly not that great!

The black bear meat was far too fatty; after swallowing a few large mouthfuls, even Mu Seeing Mu Xueli felt greasy.

He had to take a bite of flatbread to cut the grease; for the first time, the two of them discovered that this cornmeal flatbread was so delicious!

After eating and drinking their fill, the two of them sat by the fire with their backs against the lean-to entrance, chatting aimlessly.

It was basically Mu Seeing Mu Xueli asking and Wang An responding with grunts, because Wang An had no heart for chatting; he was constantly pondering that big bear.

Although no matter what, the value of that big bear should be less than this black bear, and the black bear was already in hand, but human nature is always like this—if a person isn't greedy, can they still be called a person?

Besides, this kind of news was rare, and the big bear was also injured, so the opportunity could be called once in a lifetime; he had to give it a try!

With the three dogs on guard, Wang An lay on the black bear fur and fell asleep without knowing when.

He was woken up in the middle of the night by the need to urinate and discovered that the fire had long since gone out, yet he didn't feel cold.

Wang An remembered that the night he spent in the mountains with Feng Feng Chengmin, the two of them froze awake many times, and every time they froze awake, they had to build a fire immediately, otherwise they couldn't stand it!

But tonight, although there was a lean-to, it shouldn't have been enough to keep them from freezing awake!

Wang An pondered while building the fire, and suddenly saw the leftover black bear meat nearby; his brain suddenly had a flash of inspiration.

Is this black bear meat this magical? That it doesn't freeze for a while, most people know this, but that it has anti-freezing properties when eaten by humans! This is truly awesome!

In the future, when entering the mountains, if you take a piece of black bear meat, wouldn't that be a guarantee of warmth!

After building the fire and adding wet pine branches, Wang An went back to sleep!

Waking up, the sky was already beginning to brighten; Mu Seeing Mu Xueli had also just gotten up, not far away, legs spread, hands holding his belly, eyes looking at the sky, clear spring water flowing beneath his feet, then a cluster of white smoke rose from the ground, the whole person seemed to be in a daze, and finally, he shivered, as if he were about to ascend!

Wang An glanced at his brother-in-law who was urinating and ignored him.

He built a fire to boil meat, heated up the flatbread left over from yesterday, and then cut meat to feed the dogs, only feeding them half-full, otherwise the dogs would have no motivation.

This black bear meat had been frozen all night, but only the surface layer was frozen; the inside was still soft! Too awesome!

After quickly finishing breakfast, they didn't take down the lean-to; everyone had plenty of sedge grass mats! If they dragged them along, aside from taking up space, they were useless.

The two of them drove the sled and returned to the place where they had found the black bear yesterday!

The two of them and the three dogs followed the tracks left by the black bear and began to track it backward.

Tracking backward means following the marks left by the black bear to find it.

Feng Feng Chengmin had said that whether it's a black bear or a big bear, as long as it's wandering, it won't have a fixed territory.

Because it will go everywhere to find food, and with the weight of a black bear or a big bear, the amount of food it needs to eat every day is simply too much!

They hibernate, which is actually a way to reduce the body's consumption, otherwise, after the heavy snow seals the mountains, it would cover up the scent of many foods or animals.

Whether it's a black bear or a big bear, their hearing and vision are very poor; only their sense of smell is very awesome, dozens of times better than a hunting dog!

Therefore, they rely entirely on their sense of smell to find food, and their diet is like humans, very mixed; they seem to eat every type of plant, so I won't mention that. They eat most things that swim in the river!

Moreover, whether it's wild boars, roe deer, or deer, they eat them all!

However, most of what they eat are hoofed herbivores; the specific reason is unknown. Maybe it's just because hoofed animals taste good!

This tracking work is truly not easy to do.

The place where the big bear and the black bear fought had already been found, less than 10 li away from where they found the black bear.

But from this place where they fought, they had already tracked for more than 10 li, and still, there was no sign of the big bear.

And Da Hei hadn't made a sound either; if Da Hei doesn't make a sound, it proves that this big bear is not within Da Hei's scent range!

Perhaps because of this big bear, other prey were also nowhere to be seen; only pheasants and lynxes were appearing.

In his anxiety, Wang An fired his gun and killed a lynx and a pheasant. Mu Seeing Mu Xueli wasn't to be outdone and killed two pheasants with one shot.

Looking at his excitement, it might be because he had paid back the bullet he owed earlier!

But after running so far, they had only harvested one lynx and three pheasants! Isn't this a joke!

Both of them were in a bad mood, looked at each other, simultaneously put away their shitty moods, and continued tracking.

As they walked, Wang An and Mu Seeing Mu Xueli stopped at the same time.

Because something even more magical appeared!

Beside the marks left by the big bear, three human footprints had actually appeared!

These footprints were very unusual, because whether it was Wang An or Mu Seeing Mu Xueli, they were both wearing cotton cloth shoes made at home.

Most of the villagers in every village also wore these kinds of cotton cloth shoes during this season.

The soles were thousand-layer soles made by their own families, which are many, many layers of cloth stitched together with hemp rope.

Only when it wasn't cold would people wear yellow rubber shoes; the only advantage of yellow rubber shoes is that they are sturdy and durable, with no other advantages!

But whether it was thousand-layer soles or yellow rubber soles, stepping on this frozen, hard-as-rock snow, there were no marks or only shallow marks!

And these three human footprints were very rare leather shoe prints!

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