Chapter 59 Catching Fish in the Ice Hole

Looking at Old Master Chen, I asked in confusion, "Still have chores to do?"

"Mm! The food is still not quite enough yet!" Old Master Chen sat on the bed, ladling a bowl of meat soup for both Qi Lin and me.

Sitting on the bed, the three of us slurped the soup.

Qi Lin turned her head, looking at the walls covered in cured meat and the mountain-like pile of game stacked in the corner of the log cabin...

"Isn't this enough? I feel like this is probably enough for us to eat for several months!"

"Not enough!" Old Master Chen shook his head while holding his bowl, speaking indifferently: "If the Greater Khingan Range gets a white-hair gale, we won't be able to go outside for at least a month or two. Sanqi is right in the middle of his growth spurt, he can't go short on meat."

A warm current flowed through my heart.

Old Master Chen...

He really treats me exceptionally well.

Qi Lin took a sip of the meat soup, tucked her hair behind her ears, and spoke softly, "Alright then! What are we doing later?"

Old Master Chen fished out a deer testis from his bowl and chewed on it directly.

"Later, Sanqi and I will go catch fish in the stream, and you will process all that game by yourself!"

As he spoke, Old Master Chen pointed at the game in the corner of the room and said to Qi Lin.

Hearing this, Qi Lin widened her eyes in disbelief and said, "I have to process it all by myself?"

Old Master Chen raised his head: "What else? There are only three of us in total! If you want to eat, you have to work! I don't have any obligation to support you for nothing!"

"I can give you money!" Qi Lin calmly took a few gold bars out of her backpack and placed them on the bed.

Seeing this, Old Master Chen flashed a bloody smile: "Money? You need to understand the situation—if I kill you, the money will still be mine!"

"You..." Qi Lin widened her eyes.

"Making you work is so you can feed yourself! In the current situation, even if you brought a mountain of gold, it would be useless. People who don't work have no value in the old forest..."

Old Master Chen bit into a piece of meat, grease glistening around his mouth.

"I... but I'm processing all this food by myself! This is just way too much!"

"Then process it slowly!"

"Al... alright!" In the end, Qi Lin sighed and agreed.

Looking at Qi Lin's situation, I really wanted to laugh. Sometimes she is very smart, but why does she start acting so foolish at a time like this?

Money?

To be honest, hunters go through the hardships of the old forest, climb great mountains, and fight wild beasts precisely for money.

However, money is not everything.

As far as I know, after working under the master for so many years, Old Master Chen's savings probably already reached six figures! Yet he still keeps venturing into the forest to risk his life against wild beasts—why?

It is simply for a feeling, the feeling of knowing he is still alive; an unmasked thrill, a rush of dopamine as intense as ejaculation.

And now, Qi Lin actually wanted to bribe Old Master Chen with money?

This is truly like a tiny knife scraping an ass—it really opened my eyes.

I drank the meat soup in my bowl in one gulp and asked Old Master Chen, "How are we going to catch fish later?"

"Shatter the ice hole and pull the net!"

I was slightly startled.

I knew about shattering ice holes, but the net...

Where is there a net?!

Old Master Chen said indifferently: "I saw two small nets in the backpacks of those previous hunters... I reckon they should be enough."

"Oh oh oh! Alright!" I nodded hurriedly.

After finishing the meal, I handed my knife to Qi Lin. She took the knife and began laboriously processing the game at the entrance of the log cabin...

The wind and snow blew, making her entire body tremble. Fortunately, I handed her my wolf-skin coat.

As for me, I put on the new clothes and boots made of roe deer skin that Old Master Chen had made for me, which were exceptionally warm.

"Sanqi! Bring over a wooden stake!" Old Master Chen shouted at me from beside the stream.

I nodded.

This wooden stake was actually one of the tools we used earlier to make the ice hole for catching yellow-skinned weasels. However, the nearby weasels had all been killed by that group of hunters, so making this ice hole wasn't of much use anymore...

After I carried the wooden stake over, I discovered that the ice on the stream wasn't actually very thick, probably only about ten centimeters or so.

So I grabbed the wooden stake and began hammering away at it with a loud thud, thud, thud.

Crack!

Splash!

Meanwhile, Old Master Chen stood nearby holding a long stick, doing goodness knows what.

After hammering just a dozen times, I smashed a hole through the top of the stream, and the rushing river water flowed past beneath the hole.

"Sanqi, not bad! Smash another one!" Old Master Chen praised.

I didn't speak, just nodded, and began hammering away with a thud, thud, thud right next to the first hole.

First of all, doing this kind of job requires one to finish it in a single breath...

Didn't the ancestors say:
Strike while the iron is hot, let it cool and your strength wanes; strike a third time and it is completely exhausted.

By the time I shattered the second ice hole, I was standing to the side panting heavily, feeling my arms tremble.

Uncle Chen smiled at me and said, "Alright, Sanqi! Go take a rest!"

I nodded.

Standing to the side puffing on a cigarette, I watched as Old Master Chen first put one end of the fishing net into the water through one ice hole, and then used his specially crafted tool to gradually guide the net through the adjacent ice holes, spreading out the net beneath the water...

Afterwards, Old Master Chen secured both ends to prevent the fishing net from being washed away by the current.

"Hoo hoo hoo! That's it, Sanqi!" Old Master Chen let out a long breath, lit a cigarette as well, and smiled at me, saying, "Now we just need to wait!"

I scratched my head and said somewhat awkwardly, "Old Master Chen, this... this method was never taught to me at the hunting grounds!"

"Nobody goes fishing in the dead of winter at the hunting grounds!" Old Master Chen smiled and said, "Sanqi, don't be too rigid about what you learn at the hunting grounds! You must learn to adapt to changing circumstances. After all, anything can happen at any time in the old forest and the great mountains."

"Mm! I understand!" I nodded heavily.

Yet Old Master Chen still walked over and patted my head.

He brushed all the snowflakes off my body and smiled, saying, "It's fine, our Sanqi is only seventeen years old now! Some things can be learned slowly, no need to rush."

I scratched my head again.

......

Since we needed to pull in the net in the afternoon, we had some free time and joined Qi Lin to process the game.

For game whose pelts weren't important, we usually skinned them, gutted them, cut them into pieces, and hung them out to dry...

As for the flesh and blood that couldn't be eaten, Old Master Chen told me to throw them into the ice holes...

On one hand, it could lure in fish, and on the other hand, it was also for our own safety.

Hearing Old Master Chen say it was for our safety, Qi Lin asked in confusion, "How is this for our safety?"

Old Master Chen was drinking liquor and couldn't even be bothered to answer her.

"Sanqi, you answer this question."

I nodded and said flatly to Qi Lin, "Now it's heavy snowing. If we don't clean up this flesh and blood properly, it will attract wild beasts that haven't stored enough food to get through the winter, such as bears and Siberian tigers..."

"Aren't bears supposed to be hibernating?" Qi Lin asked, utterly shocked upon hearing this.

I rolled my eyes: "Could you fall asleep with an empty stomach?"