Chapter 56: "Cut the weeds and eliminate the roots"—weren't you scared to death? Let's scare you a couple more times to get used to it…
Wild vegetables, mushrooms, or fish don't require much processing; what they mainly deal with are pheasants, rabbits, and a dozen or so wolves.
Because the search for the child had taken up a lot of time, it got completely dark before long, and the lights in the square came on.
With the efforts of the group, all the prey was processed in less than half an hour. After Li Tie counted all the day's harvest, he distributed the supplies according to the rules.
The gathering team found a total of 42 baskets of wild vegetables and mushrooms, 6 large fish, and more than 20 wild eggs today. Except for the boys who had a slightly smaller harvest, almost everyone else had three baskets of produce.
The two hunting teams caught a total of about fifty pheasants and rabbits, four deer, one fox, and six birds.
The fact that they didn't have as many pheasants and rabbits as they did yesterday wasn't because they were unlucky; it was simply because the area around the waterfall was rich in resources, and they also happened to find a whole nest of wild ducks, which is why they had a better harvest yesterday.
It's impossible for the mountains to be teeming with chickens and rabbits; catching a few dozen a day is already considered a great harvest.
Each member of the hunting team received at least one pheasant/rabbit and two or three pounds of roe deer meat. Lu Xuan's team hunted more roe deer, so they received more roe deer meat, more than four pounds.
The subsidy distributed per household consisted of one-third of a pheasant or rabbit and half a pound of roe deer meat for each family.
Each member of the collection team received more than three kilograms of wild vegetables/mushrooms, two kilograms of fish, and one egg. The subsidy per household was a little over one kilogram of wild vegetables/mushrooms and half a kilogram of fish.
Except for a few isolated households that only receive income distributed among the households, each household generally receives at least four or five catties of meat and an equivalent amount of wild vegetables and mushrooms.
But today's main dish is wolf meat!
After processing, the fifteen wolves yielded a total of 650 jin of meat and over 200 jin of bones, as well as 8 complete wolf pelts and 7 incomplete or broken pelts. The internal organs were not included because they were too fishy and there were concerns about potential health problems from eating them; they were to be used as bait when catching fish later.
According to the rules, Lu Xuan received 200 catties of wolf meat, 70 catties of wolf bones, and five complete wolf pelts. The public supplies consisted of 130 catties of wolf meat, 45 catties of wolf bones, and three complete wolf pelts.
The rest was distributed among households, with each household receiving seven catties of wolf meat and three catties of wolf bones. The scraps of hide, which were difficult to distribute, were confiscated.
Compared to the previous half-pound or one-pound meat, this time seven pounds of wolf meat in one go has made every household grin from ear to ear.
With the income from these two days, I won't have to worry about not eating well even if I don't earn anything for the next ten days or half a month!
At this moment, when the villagers looked at Lu Xuan, they no longer felt any tension or fear. Instead, they looked at him as if he were a god of wealth, the kind of person who could make them gain a lot of weight just by looking at him a few more times.
Lu Xuan: "..."
·
After distributing the supplies, the villagers started preparing dinner.
The people in the large cave took turns using the stove, but Lu Xuan, who had built his own stove in front of the small cave when the Lu family had a production plaza, didn't have to compete with others for it.
While waiting for dinner, everyone went to the stream to take a shower and then exchanged information with each other.
Wu Cheng said, "We found a few hazelnut and chestnut trees on our hunting trip. I saw that they were covered with fruit, but they were not ripe yet. I estimate that we will have to wait for more than a month."
Lu Xuan said, "Next time I'll take some time to ripen them quickly so I can pick them."
Everything has been found, so why wait another month? Who knows what might happen in a month? Good things should be obtained as soon as possible.
Miao Jinfeng's eyes lit up. "That's great! Does that mean we can pick any unripe fruit we find in the future?"
Lu Xuan nodded. “I can help if needed, it’s nothing big. The wild vegetables and mushrooms here are growing very well, we should be able to pick quite a lot. We also found two cinnamon trees and a few European plum trees, the fruits of which are already ripe, we can pick them next time the gathering team goes.”
The bark of the cinnamon tree is the raw material for pork skin, a key ingredient in stewing meat.
Living deep in the mountains requires a good harvest of meat, but the meat of many wild animals, especially carnivores, is quite gamey, so seasonings to remove the gamey smell are essential.
Most villagers only have salt and soy sauce in their seasoning reserves, and spices such as cinnamon, bay leaves, and star anise are always welcome to remove fishy smells.
Miao Jinfeng said excitedly, "I need to get everyone to weave more baskets later. My husband kept most of the mushrooms we picked today as public property, and the baskets were also left behind. We don't have enough baskets for tomorrow's picking, so we need to get more."
As they talked, dinner was gradually prepared, and everyone dispersed to go back and eat.
During the day, because they no longer ate from the same pot, the food quality in each family dropped considerably. However, thanks to today's harvest, many families have recovered to the level of the previous few days, and in some ways even improved.
Since there were no other people competing for it, and it was just the family eating, each person clearly received more meat.
However, this only applies to families who did not go out to look for their children.
Having witnessed firsthand how the vampire vine strangled the wolf pack, slapped their heads off, and created a bloody mist, even if the fear was suppressed, unless one is exceptionally thick-skinned, it would be very difficult for others to continue eating meat and fish as if nothing had happened.
Even the Lu family's dinner menu tonight was quite light: chicken stew with mushrooms, cold water celery salad, and stir-fried wild garlic sprouts. There wasn't a single dish with strong flavors, and the soup was a refreshing cucumber and egg soup.
After dinner, Lu Xuan gave his family some calming medicine to take, and also sent a portion to the village chief, just in case someone knocked on the door early the next morning.
Li Tie didn't accept the money for nothing; he took a large fish from the public supplies and had Li Jing deliver it as payment for the medicine.
When Li Jing arrived, he was accompanied by Xiong Mao and several young men, including Zhang Chengming.
The former came to deliver a gift of gratitude to Lu Xuan for saving his son, while the latter wanted to buy more cooling patches for his family after receiving new income.
While exchanging supplies, several bold young men laughed and said, "My family is having braised wolf meat for dinner tonight. And you know what? Wolf meat really does taste good!"
"That guy is such a coward. He was scared by the immortal vine that Lu Xuan took out. He only ate a bowl of thin porridge that night, saying he felt nauseous. Tsk, he's really not like a man."
Zhang Chengming didn't take it seriously: "So what if there's a bit more blood? Hunting is all about seeing blood, what's so strange about that? I ate a big bowl of wolf meat last night, and I didn't feel nauseous at all, it was delicious!"
After he finished speaking, he specifically asked Lu Xuan, "You have such a big appetite, you must have eaten quite a lot tonight, right?"
Lu Xuan gave him a meaningful look and said leisurely, "I also eat a rather light meal tonight."
"Really?" Zhang Chengming was somewhat surprised.
He didn't think Lu Xuan, the one who actually did the work, would be afraid of anything. He quickly thought of Lu Chen and Lu Qing and nodded understandingly: "Women and children are a little timid. My wife didn't eat much tonight."
Lu Xuan remained noncommittal.
The viewers in the live stream have gotten to know Lu Xuan's personality better these days, and they intuitively feel that there is something wrong with his current attitude.
[The streamer's attitude... could the wolf meat be poisonous?]
[How could that be? Even if the streamer has a really twisted sense of humor, he wouldn't just let the villagers eat something poisonous, and he even got 200 jin (100 kg) for himself.]
What's with the streamer's strange reaction? Something's clearly wrong.
Lu Xuan said lazily, "You'll find out tomorrow."
After chatting with Lu Xuan for a while, the group quickly took their leave, remembering they had to get up early to hunt the next day.
No sooner had they left than Lu Qing, who had gone to the cave to trade wild boar meat, returned.
Because many people received mushrooms today, Lu Xuan specially added mushrooms to the wild boar meat exchange list. Therefore, when Lu Qing returned, her space not only had more cured meat and grains, but also more than 20 catties of mushrooms, and a small portion of the wild boar meat was consumed.
It's just that I had too much stockpiled before, and it will take some time to exchange it all.
The family chatted for a while longer. After Lu Qing repeatedly emphasized to Lu Chen that he was not allowed to run around anymore, they saw that it was getting late and went back to their rooms to prepare for bed.
Perhaps because Lu Xuan had dealt with the wolf pack today, the howling of wolves that had been going on every night for the past few days was no longer heard tonight. After the nut lamp in the big cave was turned off, the night was unusually quiet, except for the chirping of insects and birds, with no other animal roars.
As usual, the cave had people on night watch today, and coincidentally, one of them was Zhang Chengming.
He yawned as he peered through the window of the security door at the square outside, completely unaware that a shadow had slipped away from the Lu family's small cave in the darkness.
Lu Xuan moved swiftly through the forest, using the faint moonlight filtering through the trees. Before long, he arrived at the place where he had found Lu Chen earlier. Following the scent left by the wolf pack, he found the wolf den and dealt with the three adult wolves and two wolf cubs left behind.
Wolves are highly vengeful animals. Since the wolf pack has been eliminated, no other hidden dangers can be left behind. It is essential to nip the problem in the bud.
After confirming that there were no other things left behind, they returned to the small cave without alerting anyone, just as they had come.
The live stream continued throughout the process, and the viewers in the live stream were not surprised by Lu Xuan's actions. However, some people suddenly realized a problem at this moment.
[Since mutated plants can intimidate primitive animals, why didn't the streamer scare away the wolves when they went up the mountain last time, and again when they found the younger brother today?]
Lu Xuan calmly retorted, "If the wolves are scared away, how will the villagers divide the meat? Besides, weren't you all enjoying watching it?"
Do they just want to see the mutated vampire vines because they want them to come out and 'dance' for them?
If there are no matching battle scenes, where will the popularity come from? Where will the traffic come from? Where will the gifts come from?
Lu Xuan: "Besides, the oppressive aura of the mutated plants can not only scare away ferocious beasts, but also ordinary pheasants and rabbits. What will the villagers do then?"
Viewers in the live stream: ...Speechless.
After a while, someone said, "But the villagers were clearly terrified when they saw the vampire vine kill the wolf pack in an instant. Aren't you afraid they'll be afraid of you?"
Lu Xuan said nonchalantly, "You weren't scared to death, were you? You'll get used to it after being scared a couple more times."
As for fear, is fear more important than obtaining wolf meat? More important than getting a bio-suit or an ice pack?
When faced with matters of vital interest, fear is a useless emotion that should be discarded.
"Alright, time to open the blind boxes. I'll end the stream after I finish opening them."
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