Wild 1979: From Fishing and Hunting to Becoming a Literary Master

Chapter 94 Descending the Mountain into Seclusion

After hearing about Chen Tuo's design for the Evenki hunting boots, Su Dao still looked troubled.

"Chen Zhiqing, making boots like this will require at least half more leather. If you add a non-slip rubber sole, you'll need another half more material."

Life down the mountain was still rationed and supplied, and life up the mountain was much the same.

Because of the reindeer herds, the hunters in the Dobukur settlement also have reindeer hide boots and reindeer hair felt.

In other settlements and hunting settlements, the people wore leather boots similar to those worn by Wu Laowai.

They had to stuff it with ula grass and sedge to prevent it from freezing.

The entire Dobukur settlement has more than 200 people. If each person has a pair of new leather boots, it may take dozens of reindeer hides to make up for it.

Reindeer hides, however, are a survival guarantee for hunters in the mountains to cope with the extreme cold.

"Uncle Su, there's no rush to mass-produce them. Could you make me one or two pairs to try first? Hunting boots, besides looking good, also need to be practical, right?"

Chen Tuo suggested making hunting boots simply so that Su Dao and Bai Long would have more things to do and stop constantly thinking about him.

When Su Dao wanted to back out, he came up with a compromise.

"Alright! I'll make you a few pairs of boots out of wolf pelts!"

Su Dao was still hesitating, but Bai Long made the decision directly.

"Don't make just a few pairs, make them one pair at a time. I'll test them and then make changes. They must be waterproof, warm, lightweight, and practical!"

Chen Tuo's own cold-weather boots didn't feel very comfortable. Besides being hard, they were also very heavy because of the steel plates.

Although compared to his tire felt bumps, the big-toed shoes are already much better, but people should always have some aspirations, right?

Having inspected the quality of the hides and temporarily stabilized Su Dao and Bai Long with a pair of Evenki hunting boots, Chen Tuo wanted to take his leave.

Bai Long gestured to his people to bring over the two horses that had been prepared in advance.

"Chen, you're too slow going up and down the mountain, here are two horses for you."

Wu Laowai had wanted to change horses before, hoping to become a car dealer. Since Bailong was offering him one, he naturally wanted it.

But Chen Tuo didn't want to actually feed the horse and refused outright:

"Forget about the horse. We're not going into the mountains anytime soon. We can give it to you when we need it."

After politely declining the two fine horses and bidding farewell to the hospitable hunters at the settlement,

The two men pulled the sled, which was full of wolf meat and male wolf bones, onto the sled track.

Wu Laowai, who still longs to be a car owner, complained:

"Kid, the horse Bai Long gave you isn't a Mongolian pony, but a proper Northeast draft horse, the kind used for pulling saddles in the mountains."

Speaking of the two horses that Bai Long was going to give him, Wu Laowai was filled with regret for not going up to take them directly.

"That horse isn't great on flat ground, but it's a top-notch horse for pulling carts and climbing mountains, from Northeast China to Mongolia!"

Hunting horses in the mountains are different from the fast horses used by Mongolian cavalry; they don't need to be in a hurry or go too fast.

It can carry heavy loads and can pull or drag prey.

Strong endurance, capable of running for long periods in the mountains, is what hunters require of their hunting horses.

The best home for those two horses was to be found in Northeast China to pull carts, in accordance with these requirements.

"Uncle Wu, I'm not going up the mountain, what kind of horse do I need?"

"You don't want it? I do! I'm too old for that, I don't want to drive in the mountains anymore, I just want to be a car owner down here!"

"The car owner?"

"He's just a rickshaw puller!"

"You pulled?"

"Get the hell out of here, Mara!"

Why?

"To make money! Why?"

"Uncle Wu, making money is easy. Uncle Su's business is doing well. When I have some free time, I'll take you to invest in it. What kind of big horse-drawn carriage are you pulling?"

Hearing Chen Tuo's lighthearted words, Wu Laowai suddenly remembered what he had said: "We have guns and cannons, what are we afraid of?"

The first time he said this, the Ussuri Giant Bear arrived.

He said this a second time, when Chen Tuo was almost trapped by a pack of wolves in the Hetao region.

The third time they said this, the two of them went into the White Wind and the Old Smoke Bubble, almost losing their lives in the mountains.

Thinking of the frigid temperatures to the north, which were ten or twenty degrees lower than those at Songling, Wu Laowai suddenly shuddered.

"Kid, this isn't urgent, let me think about it some more..."

The lowest temperature in Songling is only around minus forty degrees Celsius.

I heard that in Russia, temperatures of minus fifty or sixty degrees Celsius are not even the lowest.

Wu Laowai has personally experienced temperatures of minus forty degrees Celsius in the mountains, let alone people.

Wolves and wild boars can both stay firmly planted on the snow.

For Wu Laowai, who has experienced extreme cold and freezing temperatures, minus fifty or sixty degrees Celsius is an extreme cold hell that can kill a person in an instant.

Wu Laowai shut his mouth. The two spent about two hours going down the mountain, and then another half hour walking from the foot of the mountain to the vicinity of the educated youth settlement.

It takes five or six hours to go up and down the mountain, even though it's Songling North Mountain, which is just a stone's throw away.

If we were to go hunting in the mountains, who knows how long we would have to walk?

In the process, Chen Tuo developed a sense of awe towards hunting for the first time.

However, his awe stemmed from the high mountains and long roads, and had little to do with the dangers of the mountains or the ferocity of the wild beasts.

At the intersection where the main road leads to the educated youth settlement, Hong Ye, bundled up tightly, had been there several times before and had been waiting for a long time.

Seeing Chen Tuo and Wu Laowai returning through the snow, she couldn't help but rush over to them.

"Chen Tuo, it just snowed, what were you doing up the mountain?"

Elsewhere, hunting in the mountains is considered a form of exercise.

But it's different in the Xingan Mountains, where snowdrifts can be two or three meters deep and temperatures can drop to minus thirty or forty degrees Celsius.

The slightest mistake could lead to death in the mountains.

In the Xingan Mountains, nature is cold and devoid of any warmth.

They won't make an exception for you just because you're a mountain runner or a sent-down youth.

"They went to help the Dobukur settlement hunt wolves. They killed quite a few this time in the mountains; we'll smoke wolf meat later!"

He had eaten roasted wolf meat and roasted venison on the mountain, and fried bear meat, stewed bear offal, and braised mixed fish at the educated youth settlement, but none of these suited Chen Tuo's taste.

The smoked venison that Su Dao and the others gave them, and the smoked fish and smoked bear meat that he made himself.

Wu Laowai also prepared Taraha, as well as frozen raw fish, fresh venison, and deer blood wine.

On the contrary, it stimulated Chen Tuo's appetite even more.

Although there was rice and grain at the educated youth settlement, Chen Tuo hadn't eaten a single bite during these days.

"Zhang Er, who's always dirty, came early this morning and is building your wooden house!"

Knowing that he couldn't control Chen Tuo's thoughts, he explained and returned the item, so Hong Ye stopped worrying about the safety issue.

Instead, they talked about Zhang Taibao, who had gone to work at the educated youth settlement early in the morning.

In the Songling Forest Area, people who know each other usually don't address each other by their full names, but rather by their nicknames.

Wu Laowai, Sun the Cripple, the Pretty Doctor, Zhang Taibao's Zhang Er the Sloppy, and Hong Ye's Fat Girl were all the ones who called out the names.

Chen Tuo's fellow educated youth was similar, the only difference being that the way they addressed each other and their assigned numbers suggested a closer relationship.

"Zhang Lao Er is here too! I just happened to be going to the winery."

Seeing Chen Tuo and Hong Ye standing in the snow chatting, Wu Laowai, who was covered in sweat, didn't want to freeze with them.

"Perfect timing! I'm out of wine too, Uncle Wu. When you go, have Brother Zhang bring some back for me."

When Wu Laowai mentioned the winery, Chen Tuo also expressed some concern about the speed at which the educated youth drank alcohol.

Sun Changkui got a big bucket of 20 jin (10 kg) of it, drank it for two or three meals, and then it was gone.

The five catties of wine that Zhang Taibao gave us, even if we drank it properly at the settlement in Beishan, were all gone.

Last time, when Zhang Taibao made fruit salad, he didn't spend a penny, but he still managed to drink half of the fifty catties of low-alcohol liquor.

Although Chen Tuo didn't have an alcoholism problem, he had come to enjoy the feeling of being slightly tipsy after drinking...