Chapter 260 Returning from Hunting

Nearly fifty men, each carrying a full load on their shoulders, in their hands, or hanging it around their necks, also had a simple cart made of two wooden sticks with a fat wild boar tied to it, pulling it all the way down the mountain.

In the biting cold wind, everyone, young and old, came out. Even the Cao family members came down the mountain and came to the open space in front of the village, watching from a distance.

"Village chief! Granny Qin, Uncle Zhao, Uncle Hong and Uncle Guan, come and see how much we have harvested!" Feng Meng let go of the big wild boar on the simple cart that he was pulling with both hands, took off a string of pheasants hanging around its neck, and shouted excitedly in a loud voice.

The children had already run to the front, and the old people fell behind. Hearing the shouts, they couldn't help but quicken their pace.

Shen Qing was on the other side of the river. He came over with the people in the workshop who heard the noise and saw the prey piled up like a mountain.

Seeing Shen Qing coming, the crowd immediately made way for her, and the men happily shouted, "Auntie, what do you think of us?"

Shen Qing smiled and praised: "Well, very good!"

"Then auntie, you must teach my mother how to make it delicious." Zhao Hu begged hurriedly.

"And my mother, no, even my aunts should be taught. The family takes turns cooking, and it would be better if they all know how to do it." Feng Meng followed anxiously.

The mother of both men slapped them one by one without any hesitation.

"You little bastard! You praise my cooking at home, but you're just calling me your mother when you pick up the bowl and cursing me when you put it down."

"You don't like vegetables, so of course you're not satisfied with every meal at home. Wait until the meat is divided and see if you like what I cook! I guarantee you'll say it's delicious no matter how I cook it!"

Feng Meng chuckled, looking at the prey that was as tall as a small hill, and thought, so, how could he think it was not delicious if he had meat to eat?

Zhao Hu thought differently and muttered, "Even with meat, you have to know how to distribute and match it. Which dish should you shred the meat with? Which dish should you pair it with minced meat? Which dish should you pair with bone soup? You need to use the least amount of meat to make the meal fragrant and delicious enough to eat for multiple meals."

Feng Meng agreed when he heard it!

I only worked in the workshop for two days and had two meals, but on the first day I had vegetable and meat porridge and big buns with leeks, goose eggs and cornmeal. On the second day I had stewed dried vegetables with oil residue and brown rice, and two-color radish pickles.

He added without hesitation, "That's right! Mother, you and the aunts should study hard!"

Feng Mengniang slapped him again in anger: "Why are you like a fence-sitter? You just change sides wherever the wind blows. You're such a grown-up."

Feng Meng said firmly: "I won't fall down, mother, you should study hard!"

"I'm going to learn from your mother, cough, just wait!"

Feng Meng felt relieved, touched Zhao Hu's arm, and said happily, "My mother agreed."

Zhao Hu: ...Brother, are you sure you agree?

Why doesn't he look like that?

The children circled around the prey, the men talked with their families, the women discussed how to cook it when they got home, and the elders discussed how to distribute it. The atmosphere was very lively.

"It's cold now, so if you throw it in the yard it will freeze. You have to chop it into small pieces before it freezes, otherwise it will be hard to chop. It won't be a problem until it thaws.

"But once it's thawed, it won't last. If you want to keep it longer, you have to make it into dried goods," said Boss Lei while discussing with several elders in the village.

Mr. Jiang thought that the Lei family was the only one in the village who had two machetes that could chop large bones, so he said, "I'll have to trouble you to help chop them up later."

The others thought about how the Lei family would take them hunting, distribute the spoils fairly when they came back, and help process the prey, so they looked at Boss Lei with gratitude.

Boss Lei scratched his head embarrassedly and said cheerfully, "It's not that hard. We chop the meat quickly and well, and clean up the prey cleanly. As long as you can trust us, we will definitely do it."

Shen Qing mentioned: "These leather brush workshops have all been taken over. My opinion is that all the money earned from the leather materials should belong to the Lei family. What do you think?"

As soon as Boss Lei said "no", he was immediately drowned out by the words of the other men.

"Auntie is really thoughtful!"

"It's good enough that we have meat to eat. Uncle Lei and the others didn't ask for more meat, so don't refuse the skin."

"If we weren't the ones holding back, Uncle Lei, you guys would have earned much more than the money from this batch of leather materials! I totally agree with Auntie's proposal!"

.....

The Lei family looked at Lei Dafu, who nodded slightly. Boss Lei and the others sighed helplessly and said with a smile, "Then we won't refuse."

"It should have belonged to you." Master Jiang made the final decision.

Not far away, Mrs. Cao and the other two only vaguely heard words like "all belong to the Lei family" and "they should belong to you." A smile appeared on the corners of her dry mouth, and she said to her two grandchildren, "It's safe. These prey belong to the Lei family. We can buy as much as we want later!"

In the past, when the three families of the Lei family went there, they hunted much less than this, and the village could barely buy it all. But this time, there were several times more, and there must be a lot left, so there was no need for them to rush.

"Come to think of it, how could these people in the village know how to hunt? It's great that the Lei family is willing to take them to learn the craft. Of course, the prey they hunt belongs to the Lei family." Cao Wenzhu curled his lips.

Anyway, if it were him, he wouldn't even take this group of people with him! If they learned to hunt, wouldn't they be able to go into the mountains on their own in the future? Especially since there are so many people in the village, they can easily form a team.

Who would the Lei family sell their game to then? The Lei family is truly clueless, not considering the long-term future...

Cao Qingzhu didn't care about that. He stared at the pile of prey and swallowed his saliva.

He hadn't had any meat for several days, and he wanted to rush up and ask the Lei family to sell it to him first!

*

The Lei family is dividing the work and cooperating with each other.

The women were responsible for processing the prey that needed to be skinned.

Lei Chuntian, Xiatian and Qiutian now work in the workshop. They know how to nitrate leather, so they are responsible for soaking wool. Now rabbit hair, wild goat hair, etc. can be directly handed over to them to be nitrated in the brush workshop.

Even though they are helping with the work, they actually earn two incomes!

One for the workshop and one for the raw materials. Since Aunt Shen Qing and her group came, the Lei family has benefited the most!

The men were divided into two groups, each of them chopping and dividing the meat according to the weight of meat each family had obtained as agreed upon by Mr. Jiang and his men.

Although the Guan family did not send anyone, their situation was special, so they also got a share, and no one had any objections.

This time we didn’t hunt any valuable animals like deer, but we did hunt five meaty wild boars!

The wild boar weighed about 300 pounds, and after removing the internal organs and hair, it still weighed 200 pounds. Because the wild boar was hunted by everyone working together, and the number of people contributed by each household except the Guan family was almost the same, it was finally decided to divide the spoils among the households.

Each household received nearly 80 kilograms of wild boar meat!

The remaining 500-plus kilograms of pig offal are also good stuff, especially the pig intestines and pig stomach. They are repeatedly scrubbed with wood ash, cleaned, and stir-fried with pickled peppers. They are delicious when eaten with rice.