Republic of China: Guandong Ginseng King

Chapter 58 Sensation
Maoer Mountain is not a very big place to begin with, and Qu Shaoyang and Shui Laowu built a house at the foot of the east mountain with great fanfare, and everyone around them knew about it.

Nowadays, most people still live in mud houses or thatched houses.

There are very few houses like Qu Shaoyang's, which have a stone base, blue brick roof and fish-scale tiles on top, and are considered a rare sight in the area.

Now when people hear that the young man who just came to Dongshan had killed a big blind bear in the mountains, many people are very envious.

The bear's flesh had to be hauled back on two sleds. How heavy must it be? Could it be several hundred kilograms?

This amount of meat is enough for an average family to eat for one or two years.

All of a sudden, the news that someone had gone into the mountain and killed a blind bear spread like a gust of wind to every corner of Maoer Mountain.

Qu Shaoyang and his family had not moved into the new house yet, so they all dragged bear meat and venison and went straight to Zhou's house.

As soon as he entered the village, Daqing ran back home.

When everyone dragged the bear meat into the yard, several members of the Zhou family, including Lin Ruolan and Xiao Tianzhi, were waiting in the yard.

"Oh, have you found Xiao Qu? God bless you, and I hope she comes back safely."

When Old Zhou's wife saw Qu Shaoyang and others, she clapped her hands happily.

"Aunt Zhou, I'm sorry to have made you worry." Qu Shaoyang nodded at her and said with a smile.

"Oh, what is this?" Old Zhou, who had sharp eyes, saw what everyone was dragging, and hurried forward to check and asked.

"Oh, this is a big blind bear that Shaoyang killed in the mountains. It's very big. When it was alive, it must have weighed 700 to 800 kilograms."

Without waiting for Qu Shaoyang to speak, Wang Jiaxiang explained with a smile on his face.

"This young man is really good, he not only killed a blind bear, but also a deer.

Oh, in all these years, I haven’t seen many young people who are so good at hunting.

Old Zhou, there are four of us in your family and two of us in our family. Even if we tie them all together, we may not be able to catch up with the abilities of this young man."

Now, the more Wang Jiaxiang looks at Qu Shaoyang, the more he likes him.

"Really? Oh my god, this kid is really good at hiding his true identity. Amazing."

When Old Zhou heard this, his eyes widened. He had lived in Maoer Mountain for so many years, but he had never heard of anyone being able to kill a blind bear by himself.

"Look, can I still talk nonsense to you? When we arrived, the blind bear was dead."

Wang Jiaxiang was so proud that if you didn't know him, you would think he was the one who beat the blind bear.

While Wang Jiaxiang and Lao Zhou were chatting animatedly, Lin Ruolan pulled Qu Shaoyang over with a worried look on her face and checked him from head to toe.

"Shaoyang, how are you? Are you hurt anywhere? What's going on?
Your master came back and told me you were missing. I was so worried that I almost died."

Lin Ruolan has a good temper and loves Qu Shaoyang from the bottom of her heart. She truly treats him as her own son. How could she not be worried?
"Master's Wife, I'm fine. Don't listen to Uncle Wang's nonsense. I was firing from a high place at the time, and the blind bear couldn't reach me."

Qu Shaoyang didn't want his master's wife to worry, so he just downplayed the matter.

The missing Qu Shaoyang has been found, and he brought back so much meat. We must celebrate this.

Although Qu Shaoyang went up the mountain with everyone else, he killed the blind bear and the deer by himself without any help from others.

Logically speaking, even if Qu Shaoyang didn't share these two things with everyone, no one would be able to find any fault with them.

Of course, Qu Shaoyang is not a stingy person, and he can't do things that way.

People have been busy looking for him in the mountains for two days, so he has to express his gratitude.

So Qu Shaoyang said that he would keep the bear bile and other things for himself, and the meat would be divided among everyone, with each family taking some home.

When everyone heard this, they were very happy.

You have to know that this blind bear has gained weight throughout the autumn and is very fat. The meat can be cut and fried in oil and eaten for a long time.

These days, every household is short of oil and water, who wouldn't want it? "Wife, go and prepare some dishes, and ask Xiaozhi to get some wine.

We should invite Brother Wang, Brother Zhou, and my nephew to have dinner with us tonight. We should thank them."

Here, Shui Laowu also generously expressed his intention to invite everyone to dinner as a token of gratitude.

"No, no, Liu family elder brother, Shaoyang, please don't be so formal.

It’s getting late, we two have to go back quickly, as our family is worried about us.

We all live next door to each other, why should we thank each other? That's too rude.

Look, we have divided up so much meat, haven't we? We should take it back quickly and have your sister-in-law clean up the oil.

It would take two jars of oil to fry such old meat.

I tell you, bear's oil is really good, it can be used to make pancakes, and even if you throw it outside in the cold winter, the pancakes won't be hard at all." Wang Jiaxiang waved his hands when he heard this.

Shui Laowu tried to persuade him to stay, but Lao Zhou on the other end spoke up, "Brother Lao Liu, you really don't have to be so polite to us.

We're all pretty tired after spending the past two days in the mountains, so let's stop working on it.

Aren't you guys moving tomorrow? How about this, brother Lao Wang, you come over tomorrow and we can have some fun together?"

"Yes, yes, my elder brother Zhou said that I will bring the eldest and second eldest brothers here tomorrow.

They are young, and someone has to do the lifting and moving." Wang Jiaxiang nodded in agreement.

Now that people have said so, Shui Laowu can't insist on keeping him.

"Well, it's settled then. Everyone must come tomorrow."

A blind bear weighs about 700 to 800 kilograms. If you remove the skin, internal organs, bones, brain, etc., there will be about 400 to 500 kilograms left.

Qu Shaoyang made the decision and divided more than half between the Zhou family and the Wang family.

Wang Jiaxiang and his eldest son carried more than 100 kilograms of bear meat and more than 10 kilograms of venison and left happily.

The Zhou family also happily took the meat back to the house. Old Zhou's wife led her two daughters-in-law to quickly prepare the ingredients, such as frying the oil, chopping the stuffing, and boiling the meatballs.

Here, Shui Laowu and Qu Shaoyang cut up the blind bear meat directly in the yard.

The meat on a blind bear's body is very fat and has little lean meat. Qu Shaoyang shaved the lean meat from the thigh to stir-fry and kept the rest for frying.

"Master's wife, just stir-fry some bear leg meat with some peppers tonight, it'll be a simple meal.

Keep the meat here for now. We'll move tomorrow and I'll help you fry it in oil."

If you want to fry so much meat, you have to do it several times.

They were staying at Zhou's house, with only a kang and a pot. If they were refining oil tonight, wouldn't the kang be too hot? How could they sleep?

Anyway, the weather is cool now, and the meat won’t go bad if it is left overnight.

I'm moving tomorrow. There are several pots over there. I can just heat the oil quietly.

Lin Ruolan thought it made sense, so she simply fried two dishes, steamed some pancakes, and warmed up a pot of wine.

In the evening, the family of four sat on the kang, and Qu Shaoyang accompanied Shui Laowu, drinking and chatting.

"By the way, Master, I have something for you."

As he drank, Qu Shaoyang suddenly remembered that the knife he brought out of the cave was still wrapped in deerskin.

Qu Shaoyang quickly jumped to the ground, untied the rope outside the deerskin, and took out two scimitars from it.

(End of this chapter)