Chapter 207: Wolf Meat

Pan Yun broke quite a few branches and spread them on the ground; after cutting off the cold of the earth, she laid a mat over the branches.

Seeing Miao Zhen and Miao He's space was limited, and they weren't willing to use up room with a mat.

Seeing Pan Yun take the mat out, the two of them squeezed over to her side.

Pan Yun said, "Tonight we'll sleep together."

With the mat spread, and then a blanket laid over it, even though it was the beginning of winter and the weather was already cold, the three of them still felt warm and cozy.

The three of them gathered plenty of firewood, placing it where they could reach it at any moment; once they had eaten and drunk their fill, the sky had gone completely dark.

The three of them didn't lie down to sleep right away, but took out their own meditation cushions and cultivated for half a shichen before lying down to sleep.

At night, the howling of wolves came drifting in; Seeing Miao Zhen and Miao He pressed against Pan Yun's side, and the three of them stacked two quilts together over them; with the bonfire added, although there was a cold wind in the wild, they weren't cold.

Seeing Miao Zhen and Miao He listened carefully to the wolf howls, sincerely hoping it would come.

After listening for a long while, the wolf didn't come, but Pan Yun had fallen asleep.

Listening to Pan Yun's long, steady breathing, and the distant howling of wolves, the two of them also grew heavier and heavier in the eyelids, and gradually drifted off to sleep.

Pan Xiao Hei stirred inside the quilt, a dark little head poking out from the corner of the covers; it listened for a moment to the breathing of the three people on the other side of the quilt, lowered its head, and closed its eyes too.

The bird hopped about on a nearby branch, still tirelessly cursing Pan Yun, chirping twice every so often.

The night deepened, all things fell still; after an unknown length of time, the bird's chirping vanished, and even the insects in the grass stopped their buzzing—Pan Yun opened her eyes.

She reached a hand out from under the quilt, gently pressed the covers down a little, poked her head out to look, and met a pair of bluish-green eyes by the tree.

Pan Yun's movements paused slightly, then she slid gently out from under the quilt, moved Miao He and Seeing Miao Zhen's hands that were clutching her aside, and stood barefoot on the ground.

The wolf, which had been watching her intently, seemed to sense danger and retreated two steps.

A sword appeared in Pan Yun's hand; the wolf stared fixedly at Pan Yun and continued to retreat…

Pan Yun stepped lightly on the fallen leaves, closing in step by step.

The wolf let out a low, mournful whine from its throat, its forelegs slightly bent, staring fixedly at Pan Yun.

After Pan Yun took another step forward, it suddenly leaped up, opening its great maw to bite at Pan Yun's neck; Pan Yun whipped her sword out with a flash, her body flickered, and she passed the wolf by.

The wolf crashed down from midair with a thud, slamming onto the ground.

Pan Yun gave the sword a shake, flinging the drops of blood from the blade; she turned to look at the wolf, and a large patch of blood had already seeped out on the ground where it had fallen.

Startled awake by the commotion of the wolf slamming into the ground, Seeing Miao Zhen and Miao He sat bolt upright, clutching the quilt and staring blankly at the wolf that had fallen not far away.

Pan Yun slid the sword into its sheath and stored it away in her Spirit Realm space, then asked with a smile, "You're awake?"

The two of them came to their senses in an instant, and when they looked again at the wolf on the ground, their eyes went wide at once.

"Wolf, wolf, wolf…"

"There's really a wolf!"

Pan Xiao Hei cast them a contemptuous glance, walked out from under the quilt, went over to the wolf, avoided the direction the blood was flowing, and meowed, "You're not going to want this blood?"

Pan Yun glanced at it and said, "Of course I want it."

She said to Seeing Miao Zhen and Miao He, "Find me a clean jar or medicine bottle, I want to store the wolf blood."

Miao He happened to have that; she took several big-bellied medicine bottles out of her space and handed them to Pan Yun. "Little Xiao Shishu, won't this blood clot?"

Pan Yun said, "I'm not adding salt."

Miao He crouched beside her watching, swallowed, and said, "Does wolf blood taste good?"

Pan Yun tilted her head, thought for a moment, and said, "Never tried it. Do you want to try?"

Miao He: "Then let's try the wolf meat while we're at it. I've never eaten wolf meat."

Pan Yun nodded.

Seeing Miao Zhen: "I heard wolf packs hold grudges."

Pan Yun: "If it had a pack, would a single wolf come looking for us on its own?"

Pan Yun took out scissors and a sword, lifted the wolf's head up; it had died when Pan Yun ran past it, pierced through with a single sword thrust from below upward.

At this moment a hole had been torn in its neck, and blood was gushing out.

Pan Yun caught the blood with the medicine bottles; after filling two bottles with fresh wolf blood, she pressed the stoppers in and stored them away in her Spirit Realm space.

Miao He didn't bother with shoes or socks, didn't throw on any extra clothes either, just took a big bowl and went to catch the remaining blood, then added a scoop of salt to it.

The moment the blood touched the salt, it began to clot; before long, a whole bowl of blood had solidified.

Pan Yun carried the wolf to the stream bank, and with the scissors and sword, slowly skinned it, leaving only the wolf meat and the wolf head.

Pan Yun cut a few pieces of meat from the wolf's leg and gave them to Seeing Miao Zhen; Seeing Miao Zhen went to cut up the meat, added water along with ginger, star anise and other seasonings, and set it straight over the fire to stew.

Pan Yun was about to throw away the remaining wolf meat, but how could Miao He bear to? She stepped forward on her own to tidy it up.

"A wolf's throat cartilage is medicine, and wolf meat can also be used as medicine—throwing it away like that would be such a waste," Miao He said. "The weather's gotten cold now; we can keep it for a few days."

Pan Yun: "Be careful not to eat too much and get heat-stroke." Miao He: "I won't. If we do get heat-stroke, I'll brew some medicine for everyone."

"So in order to eat wolf meat, we still have to take medicine?"

But Miao He simply couldn't bear to throw it away—how could meat be thrown away?

She wrapped the headless wolf in dry lotus leaves, tied it up with a rope, and stored it neatly away in her space.

Pan Yun hesitated, on the verge of saying something; Seeing Miao Zhen asked directly, "Like this, won't the things in your space pick up the fishy smell?"

Miao He, hearing that, also looked conflicted, took the wolf meat back out again, and the next day carried the wolf meat by hand as they walked.

Pan Yun and Seeing Miao Zhen didn't stop her, because they had discovered that once the wolf meat was stewed thoroughly, it was actually quite tasty; if Miao He wanted to carry it, then let her carry it.

The three of them only dozed for about one shichen in the latter half of the night, then got up to eat the stewed wolf meat, packed everything up neatly; Pan Yun used a spell to turn over the earth, burying the blood and traces on the ground into the soil, then drew water to wash over the ground, destroying their scent.

A whole night of peace meant this really was a lone wolf, but they still had to be prepared for every eventuality.

Pan Yun's luck was poor, so she absolutely would not allow carelessness to add difficulty for herself.

Once the traces were erased, the three of them shouldered their luggage and left.

In Miao He's hand there was now an extra rope with meat dangling from it.

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She planned for a moment, "Let's stew the wolf meat and roast some for dinner tonight, and make the rest into jerky. How does that sound?"

Pan Yun gestured for her to look ahead. "Maybe we can sell the wolf meat."

Seeing Miao Zhen: "I don't really want to eat fire-clearing medicine just because I ate wolf meat."

Not far ahead, smoke rose from cooking fires—it looked like a sizable village.

The three quickened their pace. By the time they walked into the village, two quarter-hours had already passed. Truly, a mountain looks near but kills the horse that runs toward it—just now it had seemed quite close.

In October, the village was in the slack farming season. The winter wheat had already been sown, but most farmers wouldn't let themselves idle. They shouldered their hoes and went to the fields to hoe out the weeds that had just sprouted, turning the roots up to sun-dry.

By the riverbanks and field edges too, there were people shouldering hoes and turning the soil.

Miao He and Seeing Miao Zhen couldn't understand why they were turning over land where no crops were planted, but Pan Yun saw at a glance the insect eggs hidden in the soil.

She watched with some surprise as, after they turned the insect eggs out, they set fire to the weeds and straw on the ground in one sweep.

The fire swept through, crackling and popping as it burned, and Pan Yun smelled the scent of protein.

Miao He also sniffed, looking left and right. "I smell meat—like it's been roasted. Could someone be roasting meat?"

Pan Yun: "No one's roasting meat, but someone is roasting bugs."

Pan Yun led the two forward. The villagers leaning on their hoes and watching the fire also spotted Pan Yun and her two companions. Seeing them walking straight over, they asked, "Whose children are you three? How come we've never seen you before?"

Pan Yun cupped her fist and said, "This poor Daoist is Pan Yun of Long Hushan. Passing through the village entrance, I saw auspicious qi rising from your village, so I came to take a look. Are you good folk burning pests?"

The villagers, hearing this, immediately straightened up and nodded happily again and again. "Yes, yes, we're burning bugs. Daoist, you say our village has auspicious qi rising—is there some good fortune coming to our village?"

Pan Yun smiled and said, "Peace and smoothness, a bountiful year."

There were no better words than these. Even if they might be false, the villagers were still willing to receive Pan Yun and her two companions warmly, treating it as a blessing from those words.

The villagers led the three into the village, leaving only one person behind to watch the fire.

Cooking smoke curled through the village. The thickest smoke came from a brick-and-tile house at the village center, so the villagers led them there.

"That's the village chief's house. You Daoists have come at just the right time—the village is making the morning meal."

Miao He: "Eating the morning meal only now?"

"Winter days are short, and there's not much to do. Eating only two meals a day is fine," the villager explained. "Eat the morning meal a bit later, the evening meal a bit earlier, and it's fine."

This was similar to the villages at the foot of Mount Sanqing, but even they wouldn't eat this late—it was almost noon.

Miao He raised her question, and the villager just grinned sheepishly. "Eating later is better—then even one meal a day would do."

Pan Yun was slightly taken aback and asked, "Are the villagers' lives really this hard now? Down to only one meal a day?"

The villager said, "Can't be helped. The landlord's rent keeps getting higher. We're hoping next year will be like the Daoist said—peace and smoothness, a bountiful year—then our lives will be a bit easier."

As they talked, the group reached the village chief's door. The villager pushed the fence-gate open and went in, calling out, "Third Uncle, Third Uncle, come out quick, the Daoists from Long Hushan are here."

An old man, patched all over and stooped in body, came out. Seeing Pan Yun, his bitter, careworn face broke into a smile as he welcomed them warmly. "Daoists from Long Hushan? Please come in, please come in."

Pan Yun and Seeing Miao Zhen swept their gaze over his features, then followed him inside.

Outside, the walls were clearly built of bricks and the roof was of tiles, but inside there was only one table and a few stools, making the room feel empty.

Seeing they were young, the old man looked them over several times. Whatever he saw, or didn't, he still tugged at his sleeve to wipe down the stools, warmly invited them to sit, then called loudly to his wife and daughter in the kitchen to scoop more rice for cooking. "Kill another chicken, pick more vegetables, and give the Daoists a proper welcome."

Pan Yun turned her head to look at the woman who came out of the kitchen, her gaze lingering on the woman's face.

Miao He also saw the woman, leaned close to Pan Yun's ear, and said, "Little Xiao Shishu, she's ill—and wolf meat is just right for her condition."

Pan Yun felt the same: this wolf seemed almost to have been hunted for her. What a coincidence—the woman actually had cold accumulation in her belly, and judging by her complexion it looked quite serious.

Good night

(End of chapter)