1983, Northeast China

Chapter 29: I told you to skin her, and you embroidered her.

The water in the iron pot was still steaming, with a few pine needles floating on the surface.

Chen Shi's eyes lingered on the broken-handled hoe for a moment.

The hoe was old, with a narrow iron mouth and thinned edges, clearly indicating that it had been used for many years.

Old Wei seemed to know what he was looking at, and casually tossed a rag over to cover the hoe.

"You can look at anything, just don't touch it."

Chen Shi looked away. "I know."

Old Wei sat down, warmed his hands by the fire, and pointed to the willow basket behind Chen Shi, "Take it out."

As soon as the item was taken out, Li Cheng's eyes lit up again.

He was only focused on escaping outside, but now that he's in a warm place, seeing the rabbits and fish makes him really hungry.

Chen Shi didn't look at Li Cheng, and pushed the things towards Lao Wei.

"Uncle Wei, if it weren't for you today, Li Cheng and I might not have been able to come back. These things aren't worth much, they're just to express our gratitude."

"You dare to offer this as a thank-you gift?"

Li Chenggang was about to explain the current situation at home when Chen Shi spoke up.

"I'm sorry."

This answer surprised Lao Wei a bit. He looked up at him, wanting to see how he would feel about it.

"It would be even more embarrassing to say thank you empty-handed."

Old Wei stopped teasing him, picked up the gray rabbit, looked at it, and threw it back into his arms. "Peel it."

"Huh?" Li Cheng felt like his brain couldn't keep up.

Old Wei cursed at him, "Ahhh, are you a rabbit?"

Li Cheng skillfully shut his mouth.

Chen Shi caught the rabbit. He knew that Lao Wei wasn't short of rabbit skin; he was testing him to see if he would waste something.

He pulled a small knife from his waist.

The knife was an old item from home, and the blade wasn't very sharp. He wasn't as meticulous about these things as his father.

Chen Shi warmed his hands by the fire pit first, and when his fingers weren't so stiff, he turned the rabbit over and started cutting from the hind legs.

He had handled wild animals in his previous life, but handling food and the current situation were clearly two different things.

The rabbit was frozen solid, with the skin and meat stuck together, making it feel a bit rough when you cut into it.

Rabbits have thin skin, so Chen Shi didn't dare to pull them open forcefully. He could only patiently pry them open little by little.

Old Wei squatted down and watched for a while. He was initially very interested, but the more he looked, the more disgusted he became.

"Are you skinning the rabbit or embroidering it?"

Chen Shi didn't stop, "afraid of tearing it."

"You're so slow because you're afraid of tearing it? By the time you finish peeling it, the skin will be frozen to death. You're much dumber than your father."

Old Wei reached out and snatched the knife from his hand.

The knife seemed to transform into something else entirely in Lao Wei's hands.

Chen Shi couldn't tell how much force he used; he only saw the tip of the knife gliding along the flesh, picking and slicing, and a small piece of rabbit skin loosened.

Then, flipping down the hind leg, the skin rolled out smoothly along the flesh, as clean as if it had been specially treated.

"Look closely, what are you thinking about?"

Old Wei's hands and mouth never stopped moving. "You can't just peel the skin off because you're strong. Rabbit skin is thin. If you pull it randomly, it will tear. If it's torn, people won't even look at you properly."

He brought the tip of the knife close to the rabbit's paw.

"Here, claw mouth."

Another point.

"Here, behind the ears."

Then tap the base of the tail.

"And these are all places that are prone to damage. If one part breaks, the price drops significantly. Does your business need one of these parts right now?"

Chen Shi nodded. "Not available."

Old Wei returned the knife to him, saying, "If it's missing, it won't be wasted."

Chen Shi took it back and peeled it off using the same method Lao Wei had used.

It's still slow, and not pretty enough.

But it was much smoother than before.

Li Cheng watched with his eyes wide open.

He had been so frightened by the wolf that his legs went weak, but now that he saw Old Wei teaching Chen Shi how to skin a wolf, he found it fascinating and couldn't help but move closer.

Old Wei pulled it aside for him, "Did you understand?"

Li Cheng subconsciously replied, "More or less."

"Almost, but not really."

"But you can't not let us see it at all, can you?" Li Cheng conceded defeat again and muttered under his breath.

"You can look," Old Wei said, "but don't look with your mouth."

Chen Shi couldn't help but twitch his lips.

Li Cheng glared at him, "You're still laughing."

"I didn't laugh."

Your mouth is crooked.

Old Wei slammed his hand on the wooden stump. "Are you going to peel it or not?"

Both of them behaved themselves.

The rabbit skin was peeled off, and the pine needle water in the hearth was boiled.

Old Wei moved the iron pot away from the fire, took a black pottery bowl, scooped out half a bowl, and handed it to Chen Shi.

"drink."

Chen Shi took it, blew on it to cool it down, and took a small sip.

The water had a bitter taste of pine needles and a hint of firewood, so it wasn't very palatable at first. However, as the water slid down my throat, it quickly warmed my body.

Li Cheng watched with longing eyes.

Old Wei pushed the pot towards him, "Fetch it yourself."

Li Cheng quickly ladled himself a bowl, but after just one sip, he grimaced, "It's bitter."

"If you don't like it, go out and eat snow."

Li Cheng immediately took another sip. "It's not that I can't drink it."

Old Wei spread the rabbit skin on a wooden board and scraped off the oil with the back of a knife. "Look carefully, peeling it off isn't the end of the story. If the oil isn't scraped off completely, it will smell bad first and attract insects when you take it back to dry. Tanning the skin isn't just about sprinkling some salt on it. You have to keep the direction of the fur and the skin in mind."

Chen Shi remembered it carefully. These things were not taught in books. Even in his previous life, he had only heard others mention them briefly.

Although Lao Wei is sharp-tongued, every word he says is something that can be exchanged for money or even save his life.

Chen Shi suddenly understood why some people in the village were afraid of Lao Wei, and why some people said he was strange, but no one said he didn't understand the mountains.

Old Wei doesn't talk about grand principles; he talks about ways to survive.

Old Wei chopped the rabbit meat into several pieces and threw them into the pot, and also took away the two frozen fish.

Li Cheng felt a pang of heartache seeing this, but the gifts were meant to express his gratitude for being saved twice, so he didn't dare say anything.

Old Wei, as if he hadn't seen Chen Shi's expression, pulled an old cord from the wall and threw it to Chen Shi's side.

"Your lousy snare is too poor to even catch a rabbit, and you're still eyeing a weasel?"

Chen Shi picked up the old thread.

The thread was old, you could tell from the color. But it was very resilient; he held it in his hand and fiddled with it, and it wasn't hard or brittle, and the snap knot was very smooth.

"This works."

"Can't I just hang it on the wall and worship it?"

Old Wei threw down two more.

"Here are three. Take them back and figure them out yourself. Don't go down the dead end; living things should take the living path."

Chen Shi carefully put away the three strands of thread. "Thank you, Uncle Wei."

Old Wei ignored him and pulled out a piece of deerskin rope from a pile of junk in the corner.

The deerskin rope wasn't long, but it looked very sturdy and had a slightly oily sheen from the old leather.

"This is much better for making slipknots than your hemp rope."

After saying that, he buried his head in his work again, picking and choosing, and finally found a small ice chisel head without a wooden handle.

The ice chisel head was only about half a foot long, with a shiny, polished tip and fine nicks along the edge, indicating it was an old item that had been used for many years.

"Go back and find a hardwood handle to attach, but don't install it crookedly. If it's crooked, you'll shake your hand before you even break the ice."

Seeing that Old Wei was about to empty his pockets, Li Cheng finally couldn't hold back any longer, "Uncle, are you going to give him all of this?"

"Here you go, do you know how to use it?"

After a while, Li Cheng whispered, "No, I can learn."

Old Wei sneered, "Learn how to shut up first, you're destined to be a gofer."

Chen Shi put the items into the basket one by one. He knew these things were more valuable than the ones he had given away, and he also knew that Lao Wei hadn't given them away for nothing.

He was waiting for Lao Wei to say something next.