As Sheng Xiping spoke, he reached out and touched Hua Hua's bulging belly.
This little guy's appetite is getting bigger and bigger. We need to hurry up and train him to hunt, so he can at least catch some small animals like badgers and raccoons.
If Sheng Xiping comes up the mountain before winter, he won't go hungry.
Hua Hua couldn't understand what Sheng Xiping was saying, but she could sense the goodwill from his actions.
The little guy snuggled up to Sheng Xiping, making purring noises; he was just being affectionate.
"Let's go, let's go home." Sheng Xiping patted Huahua's head and scratched its chin.
Then he stood up, and together with Sheng Xi'an, led the dogs quickly away from the land behind them, heading home.
Whether it was because the little flower had awakened the tiger's wildness after hunting, or for some other reason, Erlang Shen and the others were unwilling to go with the little flower.
These dogs all knew the way, and they ran off in a flash.
Little Yellow, however, treated Flower as its own child. It wasn't afraid of Flower at all; instead, it went up to Flower and sniffed it from all angles, as if a mother were checking her child for injuries.
When Hua Hua saw Xiao Huang, she was very affectionate, nuzzling Xiao Huang with her head and making purring sounds, just like a child snuggling with its mother.
The two brothers led the five dogs and one tiger back home, only to find that the forest farm had already lost power.
Zhou Qinglan, Sheng Yunfei, and the others had already fallen asleep, but Sheng Liancheng and his wife were worried about their son and were waiting in the room with candles lit.
"Dad, Mom, we're back. Nothing happened. We caught four badgers tonight, and Hua Hua killed and ate one."
Sheng Xiping and his brother went inside and whispered something to their parents.
"Wow, our Huahua can catch badgers? My goodness, these little creatures are so small!"
You have to admit, wild animals are amazing; they're born hunters.
Hua Hua has been with the Sheng family for some time now, and the Sheng family genuinely likes this adorable little tiger.
Normally, the little tiger just eats and sleeps, and we never see it having any special abilities. But we never expected that this little guy would be able to hunt on its very first time going out.
This gave Sheng Liancheng and his wife the feeling that their child had grown up and become successful.
Upon hearing that four badgers had been caught, Sheng Liancheng hurriedly came out of the house.
"What should we do with the badger? Do we need to gut and skin it or something? Won't it start to rot overnight?"
"Well, it would be best to gut and skin them tonight. It's alright, we can just sit in the yard and light some firewood or something to keep warm."
In October, the temperature in the mountains is already quite low at night, so meat can be left outside for two or three days without spoiling.
But it has to be gutted, otherwise the meat will smell awful and be inedible.
"Second brother, you hold the torch, and you and I will gut and skin the badger. Let's work together and it'll be faster."
There was still work to be done, so Sheng Liancheng couldn't sleep. He simply rolled up his sleeves and, together with his son, cleaned up the four badgers before going to bed.
And so, Sheng Xi'an used the zi (a type of ancient Chinese material) to make two torches to light the way, while Sheng Liancheng and Sheng Xiping took knives and proceeded to gut and skin the four badgers one by one.
Remove the thick layer of white fat from the skin and meat, and put it in a bowl to be rendered into oil tomorrow.
The meat that has been gutted is placed in a separate basin, covered with a lid, and left outside.
At this time of year, the temperature is low at night, so meat won't spoil if left outside. But it's warm inside when cooking over a fire, so meat won't spoil if left indoors.
The badger meat had a peculiar smell, a strong, pungent odor. After cleaning the four badgers, the three of them washed their hands with soap and water before returning to the house to rest.
The next day, Zhang Shuzhen rendered the badger oil and bottled it. She then gave one badger's meat to Huahua and stewed the rest with a large radish.
Ever since Hua Hua caught a badger on the ground after going there, she couldn't stay at home anymore.
It's a little better during the day, since tigers are nocturnal animals and sleep in the big flower basket during the day.
At night, the guy started barking restlessly, wanting to go out.
Seeing that he had no other choice, Sheng Xiping had no choice but to take Huahua out and head straight for Hou Dadi.
This time, I didn't bring Erlang Shen and the others, only this tiger.
Sheng Xiping originally planned to take Huahua out for a walk so that it wouldn't keep barking at home. It's just like raising cats and dogs; they need to go out for some fresh air when the time comes, otherwise they'll feel restless.
Unexpectedly, this little tiger, Hua Hua, was quite capable; once inside, it vanished in a flash.
When he comes back after a while, his little belly will be bulging. You can tell at a glance that this little guy went out and caught prey to eat.
"Great, you're so young and you can already support yourself. When you're a little older, I'll take you into the big forest."
Sheng Xiping happily rubbed the little tiger's head. Seeing that the little tiger was lazy and didn't want to walk back, he simply picked it up, put it on his shoulder, and carried the little tiger back.
There is a gap between the autumn harvest and the winter production season.
Diligent people will take advantage of their free time to go into the mountains to gather all kinds of mountain products. Whether they sell them for money or keep them for their own consumption, they are all good things.
There's only one season a year, and nobody wants to miss it.
The educated youth team members were the same; when there was no work, many of them would go into the mountains together to collect pine nuts, walnuts, frozen mushrooms, and so on.
Sheng Xiping and his group were also busy, spending their days going into the mountains.
However, this year's pine nut harvest is not as good as last year's, so it's unlikely that they can make money from selling them. They'll probably just keep them for the Lunar New Year.
"Xiping, I think we shouldn't collect pine cones tomorrow. There are just too few to go around. Climbing up a tree and collecting ten or eight cones isn't worth it."
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