"Pah!" Ye Genbao cursed, "Try it again, I was so scared I even got my pants wet... If it weren't for your quick fork, we would have been trampled into meat patties by this beast."
"You think I'm not afraid?" Du Jianshan picked up the blood-stained modified hunting fork and weighed the heavy iron head in his hand. "My arm almost dislocated after that one stab. But if I don't aim properly, it might bite me back, and I don't have your flesh cushioning me."
Ye Genbao got up, patted the dirt off his knees, and looked at the wild boar lying on the ground, still twitching slightly. He felt a lingering fear: "Is it... really dead?"
"You didn't ask this question when you fed it that iron spike, but now you're pretending to be a coward." Du Jianshan rolled his eyes and stepped forward to kick the wild boar.
"It's dead, don't worry. If you're really worried, give it another stab."
Ye Genbao swallowed hard, took out the chipped knife from his basket, hesitated for a moment, then walked over and plunged it into the pig's neck. "Sizzle—" A spurt of hot blood sprayed onto his sleeve. He shuddered, but gritted his teeth and didn't back down.
"Wow, you're really something." Du Jianshan squinted at him. "Genbao, it seems you've grown bolder after a few trips with me in the mountains."
"I call this 'having no choice but to raise prices'!" Ye Genbao said with a wry smile. "If I hadn't been tough, you would have ruined me long ago."
After working for a while, Du Jianshan turned the wild boar over and deftly made a cut from its belly to the base of its tail: "This one's not small today, at least two hundred pounds. The pure meat we get will be at least a hundred pounds."
"It's a pity we can't use the internal organs to exchange for tickets." Ye Genbao squatted to the side, picking and choosing. "We'll keep the liver and stomach for ourselves."
"Of course, how could we let those people from the supply and marketing cooperative get away with this?" Du Jianshan grinned slyly. "Later, I'll clean the pig's stomach, slice it into strips, stir-fry it with chili peppers, soak it in some old wine, and you'll eat three more bowls of rice, won't you?"
"Alright, alright, let's get down to business first." Ye Genbao couldn't help but remind him as he saw him sharpening his knife, "Cut slowly, don't tear the pigskin. People say pigskin can be exchanged for cloth coupons these days, don't ruin it."
"I know!" Du Jianshan replied, lowering his head and moving even more carefully. "I'll keep this leather. I'll ask Aunt Zhang from Old Wang's family to sew me a leather vest. It'll keep me warm in winter."
Skinning and butchering the wild boar was a task that couldn't be finished in a short time. The two of them worked until the moon was high in the sky before they finally divided the wild boar into three large piles: meat, bones, and skin.
As Ye Genbao tied the pieces of meat together with hemp rope, he muttered to himself, "What if... we run into wolves on the way down the mountain tomorrow morning?"
"What are you afraid of? You've killed wolves before, haven't you?"
“That was three years ago, a skinny wolf, half-crippled.” Ye Genbao shuddered. “This wild boar is bleeding like this, and the smell is so strong. If it really attracts a pack of wolves…”
Du Jianshan pondered for a while, then nodded and said, "That makes sense."
As he spoke, he pointed to a pile of dry branches beside him: "Light a fire, keep watch."
The two quickly built a campfire, and once lit, the surroundings became much brighter. The campfire crackled and sparks flew. Wild boar meat hung from tree branches, roasting to ward off mosquitoes while releasing its own oil, filling the air with a fragrant aroma.
"I'm going to gather some dry grass to use as bedding. You stay here and keep watch," Du Jianshan said, then got up and walked away.
Ye Genbao moved to the fireside, placed the hunting fork across his lap, and looked wary.
A moment later, a soft "click" sound came from deep in the forest.
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