You always worry about your own nephew. She knew just how dangerous these mountains were—not to mention all the trouble she’d run into when she came here to settle down after marrying Sun Qingfeng.
Even now, it wasn’t unusual for wolves and black bears to wander into the village. It would be strange for a village to say that wolves had never come in.
Li Xiangdong gave a bitter smile. “Aunt, I don’t want to go into the woods to hunt either, but I have no choice. I was born with a big appetite. If I don’t find a way to earn money, I won’t have enough to eat!”
“How much can you eat, even with a big appetite? We get fourteen or fifteen hundred jin of grain a year here. Isn’t that enough for you?”
“It might not be. Anyway, I’ve never once eaten my fill at home. Even all the grain we have here isn’t enough!”
“Fine, then eat your fill today. I want to see just how much you can put away!”
After hearing Li Xiangdong’s words, Li Guihua added a ladleful of water to the pot, along with a few more potatoes and cornmeal buns.
By the end of the meal, Li Guihua and Sun Qingfeng were both truly astonished.
There had been more than ten cornmeal buns and seven or eight potatoes in the pot, as well as cornmeal porridge. The four of them hadn’t eaten much, and the rest had all ended up in Li Xiangdong’s stomach.
That one fellow ate as much as their whole family.
“Dongzi, with an appetite like yours, no amount of grain we’re allotted will be enough!” Sun Qingfeng said with a sigh.
Li Xiangdong wiped his mouth and said a little awkwardly, “Uncle, I just couldn’t stop myself when I saw all that food.”
“It’s fine. If you’re hungry, eat until you’re full. Want some more? I’ll have your aunt roast you a couple of potatoes!”
“No, no, I’m full, Aunt!” Li Xiangdong hurriedly stopped Li Guihua as she went to get the potatoes.
To be honest, he was at most eighty percent full, but he couldn’t eat any more.
After stopping Li Guihua, Li Xiangdong smiled and said, “Aunt, you see? If I don’t think of some other way, what can I do? I still have to go into the mountains to hunt!”
After hearing her nephew say that, Li Guihua had no other choice.
It was true: Li Xiangdong’s appetite was simply too big. They got a fair amount of grain each year, but it still wasn’t enough to feed him.
If he didn’t find some way to earn extra money, he wouldn’t even be able to support himself. And after the New Year, Li Xiangdong would be nineteen; in another year or two, he’d have to find a wife.
If he couldn’t even support a wife, what girl would be willing to marry him?
“All right, then. If you want to go, go, but be sure to stay safe. If things get dangerous, just stick to the outskirts of our village. Don’t go deep into the mountains!”
“Yes, I know, Aunt. Don’t worry. I know what I’m doing!”
“Don’t just brush off what your aunt says. The woods are dangerous, and you don’t even have a weapon. Don’t go too far in!” Sun Qingfeng added, warning him.
Speaking of weapons, Li Guihua remembered something. “Oh, right, dear. Doesn’t Old Chen’s place at the east end of the village have an old muzzleloader? Why don’t you borrow it so Dongzi can use it for now? I can’t feel at ease with him going into the mountains empty-handed!”
“That old muzzleloader of his is an antique from who knows how many years ago. It might not even fire! And he might not be willing to lend it to us.”
“Then what do we do? No one in our village still has a gun. The production brigade has some, but how could we borrow one?”
Sun Qingfeng smiled. “Forget about the production team’s guns. They keep track of every gun and bullet. Do you think the team leader would hand one over? Never mind, I’ll go ask Old Chen. If need be, I’ll give him a few yuan. Whether I rent it or buy it, having a gun is better than having none!”
Li Xiangdong had been thinking just last night about how he didn’t have a gun. Now his aunt and uncle were bringing it up themselves.
His eyes lit up. “Uncle, what kind of gun is it?”
“An old muzzleloader, a homemade gun. It’s got a barrel this long, and you have to load gunpowder every time you fire it!”
Now Li Xiangdong understood. It was one of the earliest kinds of muzzle-loading gunpowder guns. You poured gunpowder in through the muzzle, packed it down with a gun cleaning rod, then added a wad and bullets.
Its advantage over older muzzle-loading guns was that it could use percussion caps. You could fire it by pulling the trigger.
However, its rate of fire was extremely slow.
A skilled shooter would be doing well to fire one shot every two minutes. A beginner would take three to five minutes.
And since this kind of gun used black powder and lead bullets, its effective range was only around fifty meters. Any farther and you couldn’t aim accurately; whether you hit your target was up to fate.
Even if it was just a piece of junk, Li Xiangdong didn’t have a gun right now. An old muzzleloader would still be better than carrying a spear or an axe.
Sun Qingfeng was a decisive man. He climbed straight down from the kang. “All right, I’ll go over there now and ask. I’ll also bring the team leader and Second Granduncle back with me. Dongzi, help your aunt skin this wolf and stew the meat!”
“Sure thing, Uncle!”
Sun Qingfeng put on his coat and left the house.
Li Xiangdong set to work skinning the wolf. He didn’t know how to skin a wolf, but back in his old home, he’d helped people skin sheep.
He figured it should be about the same, as long as he didn’t damage the pelt.
The proper way to skin a wolf was actually much like skinning a dog. First, you cut around the ankle joint on each hind leg.
Then, starting from the cuts, you slit up the inside of each hind leg all the way to the anus, so that the two legs could be spread out in a straight line.
Then, like taking off a pair of pants, you pulled the hide down from the hind legs to the tail. Grabbing the wolf tail, you gave it a hard shake to pull out the entire tailbone, taking care not to tear or split the skin on the tail.
That finished the hind legs. You kept pulling the hide down until you reached the front legs, which were handled the same way.
The hardest part to deal with was the head.
You had to be especially careful not to damage the ears, eyes, or nose.
Once the hide was off, you scraped away the fat and scraps of meat, then rubbed salt into the inside to preserve it.
The final step was to stretch the hide over a wooden frame to make a hide tube, then leave it somewhere cool and airy to dry naturally. That was how you properly skinned a wolf.
But Li Xiangdong had no idea how to do any of that. He just followed the method for skinning a sheep.
He started at the wolf’s chin, made a cut down its belly, and then peeled the whole hide off in one go.
That was faster, but it also ruined the integrity of the wolf pelt.
Fortunately, no one in the family knew any better. If an expert had seen Li Xiangdong skinning it like that, they would have said he was wasting a perfectly good pelt.
But they didn’t have time to worry about that. Once the hide was off, Li Xiangdong spread it across a small table and had his younger siblings help scrape off the fat.
His aunt, Li Guihua, cut up half the carcass and put it in the pot to stew.
They were mainly preparing lunch for the production team leader, so they could discuss getting household registration for Li Xiangdong. They had to serve something good.
Around noon, Sun Qingfeng came back, accompanied by Old Man Liu, who had brought Li Xiangdong over that morning, and another man.
As soon as Li Guihua saw them, she stood up and greeted them. “Oh, team leader, Second Granduncle, you’re here! Come on in and sit down. The meat’s almost done!”