Return to 1983 Hunting Xing'an Mountains

Chapter 322: No Need to Give Me Face When You Skin a Leopard
Although Xu Ning and others made the sheep pen quite messy when they were hunting cheetahs, with three horizontal bars, oak leaves and stone rollers scattered in the sheep pen, Lao Fang did not ask to put them back in their original places after seeing it. Apart from being stingy, he was quite diligent and only needed to clean up briefly.

The two men walked out of the sheep pen together. Lao Fang turned around and saw Wang Hu pulling a small sled, and Li Fuqiang and Guan Lei carrying guns and cloth bags, walking towards the gate of the yard.

When Lao Fang saw the old leopard lying on the sled with its tongue hanging out, he immediately gritted his teeth and glared at it, pointing at it and angrily cursing: "You bastard! You deserve it! You really deserve it!"

Xu Ning smiled when he heard this and said, "I'll send you two pounds of leopard meat tomorrow."

"Hey! Okay."

Lao Fang was waiting for this sentence, otherwise why would he scold Leopard out of the blue? He had already scolded him.

Besides, the leopard's death was not unjust. Not only did it eat the dog and the sheep, it also injured Fang Min's face, causing his disfigurement.

Then, Xu Ning waved his head and asked the three to hurry up. After Lao Fang opened the gate, the four of them walked towards Dalaba's house together.

"Brother, is your arm okay?"

Xu Ning put his hands into his sleeves and said, "It won't heal in a short time. My muscles hurt when I move. I guess I need to rest for a few days."

"Second brother, why don't we go to the street clinic tomorrow?"

"No need, this minor injury is nothing serious, it will heal after a few days of rest."

Guan Lei said: "Brother, we have to go and take a look anyway..."

"Well, if I said no, then no. I can go to Old Deng tomorrow and get two plasters to apply. It didn't hurt any of my muscles or bones. I just used too much force just now."

At this time, a figure was moving in front of them. The loud speaker came over quickly and said, "Brother, how's your arm?"

Xu Ning repeated what he had just said, and the loud speaker also said that he should go to Lao Deng to get two sets of plasters, which would definitely heal him.

Then, he took over the sled pulled by Wang Hu, "Huzi, you take a break, I'll pull it for a while, and we'll be home in two more steps."

Wang Hu nodded: "Thanks, brother."

"What are you being polite about..."

When they entered the courtyard, Zhang Guifang pushed open the door and greeted them with a smile. Xu Ning said a few polite words. After all, anyone would complain if someone came to disturb them so late at night.

"Brother, wash up first. The tea is ready. Sister-in-law will make you some food. You can have a bite."

"Sister-in-law, I'm bothering you again."

Zhang Guifang smiled and waved her hands: "Oh, what's the trouble? It's just a fire."

They kept their voices very low when they chatted because Huang Lin was sleeping in the west room.

Although it is Saturday today, he is a college student after all. Even if his academic performance is not good, he is still a treasure at home.

Li Fuqiang took the towel he brought with him and threw it twice, then turned around and wiped Xu Ning's face, "Brother, don't do it... I can move my arm a little bit now."

"Oh, it's done in two strokes."

Guan Lei and Wang Hu stood nearby, laughing. Da Loudspeaker leaned against the door frame, grinned, and whispered to his wife who was making the fire: "Look at this brotherhood. I'm really envious."

Zhang Guifang turned around and was about to speak, but she heard Li Fuqiang reply: "Why are you envious, brother? We are brothers too, and we still have a long way to go."

"Of course! Brother, I found the flat knife. Do you want to sharpen it?"

Da LaBa lifted the door curtain and welcomed Xu Ning into the east room. After he saw the three knives on the counter, he smiled and said, "Why are you sharpening them? You usually take good care of them. This one looks shiny and glossy!"

Dababa grinned and said, "Of course I have to. How can I treat the guys who eat badly? Of these three flat knives, two were modified by me using saw blades. The short one was made by Old Zhang when I was in the production team. The one I made was too thick, so I was willing to modify it with a saw blade..."

In some areas, the flat knife is also called a skinning knife. It is rectangular in shape, but it can be long or short, wide or thin, thin or thick.

If you want to skin a black bear, you can use a sharp knife because its skin is thick and durable.

If you want to skin an animal that has little fat, you have to use a thin flat knife, because a flat knife has no sharp points and will not cut or damage the leather.

The three flat knives of the big trumpet have handles wrapped with cloth, the main function of which is to prevent your hands from slipping.

Xu Ning nodded and said, "Okay, these three flat knives are all very useful. Brother, I'll have to trouble you to help skin the leopard later. You can also keep an eye on my arm."

Da Loudspeaker was stunned: "I skin it? But I have never skinned an old leopard before. What if it gets rotten?..."

"Oh, I haven't peeled it either, and my big brother Hu Zi Shitou doesn't know how to peel it either! I'll stand by and watch and tell you how to do it, okay?"

"That's fine! I'm just afraid of having my leopard skin peeled off."

"What are you afraid of? It's rotten, so it rots. Everyone makes mistakes. Go out and bleed the leopard first."

Da Laba came to the outer room with Xu Ning holding three knives. At that time, Wang Hu, Li Fuqiang and Guan Lei had just finished washing their faces and wiped their cotton jackets and trousers with rags.

"Brother, come, let me rub your buttocks..."

Without waiting for Xu Ning's consent, Li Fuqiang came over and dusted him with a rag. When Xu Ning was hanging leopards in the sheep shed, his butt was sitting on the straw under the sheep shed, so he must have been covered with some sheep dung.

"Huzi, hand the boning knife to Brother Huang. Sister-in-law, is this the basin for bleeding?"

Zhang Guifang lifted the lid of the big pot and turned around to say, "Yes! Let's use this basin. I just finished washing it."

Xu Ning nodded: "Brother, use the boning knife to cut straight down from here, and then poke diagonally downwards after your little finger goes in..."

Da Laba took the boning knife, put the three flat knives aside, and then squatted in front of the old leopard. After it entered the house, Da Laba put a kang table and asked Li Fuqiang to throw it on the kang table, so that it would be at a height and convenient for bleeding and skinning.

Li Fuqiang and Guan Lei, holding cigarettes in their mouths, squatted beside Wang Hu, while Xu Ning stood next to the loudspeaker.

"Knife from here?"

"Yes! When the tip of the knife is two centimeters in, stab it diagonally downwards."

Da Laba nodded, then took the boning knife and stabbed it two centimeters into the middle of the leopard's neck. Then he raised the knife and stabbed it diagonally downward. Then he quickly pulled out the knife, and a string of blood gushed out and fell into the aluminum basin with a muffled sound.

"You didn't hit the right spot. You raised the knife too high. Give it another stab."

Da Laba squinted and stared at the wound from which blood was gushing out. Wang Hu rummaged through the cloth bag beside him, took out a flashlight, lit it and shone it on the wound.

"Hey! I can see clearly this time."

Why do you have to see clearly before you can finish the job? Because the skin has to be cut in one go, that is, the wound for bleeding is the incision for skinning, follow the wound on the leopard's neck to the crotch, peel open the skin of the belly bag, take out the lantern and other internal organs, and then use a flat knife to insert into the junction of the skin and the flesh...

Da Laba stabbed the leopard with another blow, which just cut off the artery in its neck. A stream of blood flowed out and fell into the aluminum basin.

Zhang Guifang brought pickled cabbage and corn grits into the house. When she walked to the kitchen to get a bowl, she said, "Brother, eat some rice first. After you finish eating, we can peel the skin."

"Row!"

Since Zhang Guifang has already prepared the rice, there is no need to be polite.

Dababa came into the room and saw the food placed on the edge of the kang. He said, "There is only one table in the house. You can sit on the kang and have a bite."

"Well, brother and sister-in-law, can you two eat something too?"

Da Loudspeaker waved his hand: "Hurry up and eat. It's time for breakfast in three o'clock. We'll wait for the children... After the skin is peeled, you can sleep in the east room. Don't go home and bother my aunt yet."

Xu Ning said with a smile: "We'll talk about it later. If we want to go back to the village, we definitely can't go home. The four of us have to go to my eldest brother's house." Li Fuqiang replied: "Well, these days my wife and children are living in the west room. No one lives in the east room, so there is space."

"That's fine, come as you please."

The meal was corn grits porridge, and the dish was sauerkraut stewed with vermicelli with a few slices of bear meat, but the four of them didn't eat anything. They just ate two bowls of corn grits each and put down their bowls and chopsticks.

Then, Zhang Guifang put the dishes and chopsticks on the stove, while Li Fuqiang, Da Laba, Guan Lei and Wang Hu moved the leopard and the table into the east room. The lights in the room were brighter than those in the outer room.

If we close the door and chat in a low voice, Huang Lin who is sleeping in the west room will definitely not be able to hear us.

Xu Ning bent down and drank a sip of tea on the counter, then turned around and walked to the loud speaker and said, "Just cut it like this, that's right! It's almost the same as peeling the skin of a black bear, but you have to be more careful with the force."

Da Laba squatted in front of the leopard, holding a short flat knife in his hand. The blade was extremely sharp and its function was to cut the skin.

How did this knife evolve? Some say it was modified by a leatherworker using a chisel, because the knives used for raw leather and cooked leather are different. Others say it was modified based on the skin of sweet cane, which is sorghum stalks, also known as northern sugarcane, and its skin is very sharp...

Xu Ning thinks the last statement is nonsense. It is more reliable that the leatherworker changed the chisel knife to the skinning knife. If we really want to trace the origin of the knife, we can't say why. Because few people in later generations use the knife, and machines are generally used to skin animals.

Of course the main reason is that there are too many names for a flat knife, and they are different in different places. For example, the mountain runners in Wanye call a flat knife a slice knife, and there are too many types of slice knives.

Da Laba held a flat knife in his hand and cut down from the wound on the neck until he reached the crotch before putting the knife away.

"Brother Huang has a really steady hand." Li Fuqiang said as he threw away his cigarette butt.

Loudspeaker laughed and said, "Haha, I have to be more careful."

Then, Da Laba inserted a flat knife under the skin to separate the skin and flesh, and then began to cut the belly bag and take out the lantern.

This is a simple job, but it is very difficult to do. Da Laba felt pressured. He never expected that Xu Ning would ask him to help skin the leopard. He couldn't help but wonder in his heart: Why does he trust me so much?

In fact, Xu Ning's idea was very simple. Li Fuqiang and Wang Hu's skinning techniques were not very mature, and Guan Lei knew nothing about it. Compared with the three of them, Da Laba's skinning technique was more mature. Since Xu Ning's hands could not move, he could only ask him for help.

Why not wait until the wound heals before skinning? Although the weather is getting warmer now, it is still quite cold in the morning and at night. If a leopard is frozen, its skin will shrink, and it will be difficult to skin it intact.

The difficulty lies in the leopard's head and paws, because there is not much meat in these two places, so the skin must be peeled while it is hot.

The lantern and the internal organs were placed in a large aluminum basin, and Da La Ba changed to a long flat knife, first inserted it under the skin and shook it, then pressed down with the hand holding the knife, tilted it slightly, and cut towards the buttocks...

"It's going pretty well! We really need to take advantage of this heat."

"Then what else is there to say?"

At this moment, Da Laba had already peeled off the leopard's skin, leaving only the tail, limbs and head.

Xu Ning instructed him how to cut off the limbs and tail. Logically, the leopard's tail is the most valuable for medicine, so why didn't Xu Ning keep the skin? The reason is that the price for selling medicine is low, and selling a complete skin is more valuable!

"What should I do with this head?"

Da Laba was in a bit of a dilemma. In the past, when he skinned a black bear, he would basically chop off its head and discard it. But the leopard's head is small, so it is difficult to insert a flat knife into it.

"Make a cut from the chin, and then use a long flat knife to cut from the cheek upwards..."

"Okay!" Da Laba often gives people a lot of advice, so Xu Ning understands it immediately.

More than ten minutes later, a complete leopard skin was spread on the leopard with exposed flesh and blood.

Zhang Guifang, who was sitting at the end of the kang, was quite trustworthy. She came over to take a look, and then reached out to touch the leopard skin, exclaiming, "Oh my god, this skin is so soft! It's much better than the black bear skin."

The loud speaker said, "Of course, how much can a black bear skin be sold for? This leopard skin is worth more than ten black bear skins!"

Seeing Zhang Guifang's dumbfounded expression, Xu Ning said with a smile: "Brother, how can it be worth more than ten black bear skins? At most, it can be eight!"

"Oh my god! That's not too old!"

The loud speaker scolded: "Keep your voice down! The child is sleeping in the room, and he is startled..."

"Brother, I'm not the same as you." Zhang Guifang gave him a sidelong glance.

"Sister-in-law, it's okay. You don't have to give me face. You can cut him if you want."

Zhang Guifang laughed and said, "Haha, I'll definitely give him a good beating next time I get back."

Xu Ning said, "Sister-in-law, you tickled my brother Huang so much last time. I have to say something to you. Don't tickle my face next time. How can you go out if you do that? When he tickles you again, tickle the inside of his thighs. When he walks, you will rub his crotch. That will hurt!"

The loud speaker said: "Oh my god, you are so mean!"

Li Fuqiang said with a smile: "What else is there to say? It's not the first day you met my brother. Can you find anyone more evil than my brother in the whole Qing'an?"

Xu Ning said: "Brother, I thought you were praising me."

"Then you see, I am just praising you!"

"Ha ha……"

After laughing, Xu Ning said, "Brother, please cut two more pieces of meat and send them to Lao Fang this afternoon."

"Row!"

Wang Hu and Guan Lei collected the leopard skin. Da Laba squatted down and cut two pieces of meat from the belly. Xu Ning said, "Two more pieces."

"What else? Just give Lao Fang two pounds."

"Oh, just go ahead."

Da Laba cut another three pounds of meat. Xu Ning looked at the pile of meat and said, "Sister-in-law, you can keep this pile for yourself and give the small pile to Lao Fang."

"Ah?" Zhang Guifang, who was sitting on the edge of the kang, was stunned.

But the loud speaker answered, "Brother, how do you eat leopard meat? Your sister-in-law doesn't know how to cook it."

“You can stir-fry it or stew it in soup.”

"Ah, how about stewing radish? Will it be delicious?"

Xu Ning smiled and said, "I haven't eaten it either. Why don't you try it first? If it tastes good, tell me and I'll make some when I get home. Then we'll go back first..."

Zhang Guifang stood up and said, "Just sleep here for now, you'll have to work hard when you get home."

"It's okay, there's room at home."

Da Loudspeaker nodded: "That's fine, don't come over during the day, wait for me to go to Old Deng's house to get the medicine, and then I'll send it to you."

"Okay! Huang Lin has a day off tomorrow, so let's go visit with my sister-in-law."

Zhang Guifang looked at the loud speaker and saw him clapping his hands, "No problem! The three of us will go over there tomorrow."

Xu Ning nodded: "Okay, come over around 10 o'clock in the morning, we will be awake soon."

"okay!"

(End of this chapter)