The next day.
Light snow was falling again over the Far North Tundra after just one day of clear skies. The gloomy weather made Feng Shan want to stay burrowed in his warm blankets, but he still had half a bear hide to process and dozens of kilograms of bear meat to turn into sausage.
After a fierce internal debate, the protests from his hungry stomach finally won, and he got dressed and out of bed.
For some reason.
His appetite had grown immense since yesterday. He felt like he could eat a whole cow.
Perhaps it was because the Witchcraft Bone Ring had absorbed the brown bear's Soul Power. As his body grew stronger, his food consumption increased along with it.
Thankfully, he had put a pot of bear meat on the stove to simmer before bed. After stewing all night, the meat was fall-apart tender. He then cooked half a pot of noodles and served his two little companions a portion mixed with a scoop of shredded bear meat and broth.
The start of another ordinary, busy day.
Full and satisfied, Feng Shan pushed open the door and took a deep breath of the fresh, cold air. His entire body instantly woke up, and his mind became exceptionally clear.
Time to work!
He grabbed the Wanta Card hanging by the door and went over to the wooden frame holding the bear hide. After a night of light snow, the surface of the hide was white with frost, and bits of missed fat and flesh were sticking out.
The blade slid lightly across the surface of the hide, and the scraps of fat and meat obediently fell away. Prince trotted over eagerly, planning to continue his feast.
This time, Feng Shan shooed him away. These scraps of fat had been left outside all night without any treatment, exposed to the wind and snow. They might have spoiled, and with Prince's small frame, there was no telling what would happen if he ate them.
WOOF WOOF!!
Prince was furious that his master wouldn't let him eat the meat and barked angrily at Feng Shan. Before Feng Shan could do anything, Coca-Cola, who had been squatting nearby, leaped up. It shot over like a bolt of lightning, raised its paws, and delivered a flurry of lightning-fast smacks, leaving Prince stunned and bewildered.
"You can't eat this meat!" Seeing Prince's pitiful, wronged expression, Feng Shan cut off a strip of smoked bear meat from the drying rack and tossed it to him. Of course, Coca-Cola got a share too—a piece of the most tender bear loin as a reward.
Huh?
Feng Shan narrowed his eyes, grabbed Prince by the scruff of his neck, and lifted him up for a closer look.
'Has Prince gotten bigger?'
'Could it be the effect of the Beast Taming Technique?'
He picked up Coca-Cola to check, but its body hadn't changed much, though its eyes were brighter.
After studying them for a while without figuring anything out, Feng Shan gave up.
After all, Witchcraft was beyond the scope of this world. Feng Shan even suspected that the world his ancestor, Feng Meng, had lived in was not this world at all.
Snakes with eight heads, oxen larger than mountains, leopards with five tails, strange birds with six legs and four wings but no eyes, ears, mouth, or nose.
No matter how you looked at it, these animals didn't seem like creatures from Earth.
If he couldn't figure it out, he might as well just give up. He could better use the time to continue processing the bear hide.
Time flew by when he was busy. Half the day was gone in a flash.
Only then was the first step of tanning the bear hide complete. Feng Shan moved the wooden frame into the workshop for the second step: roasting the hide over the stove fire, using the high heat to dry it out.
After finishing with the hide, Feng Shan sat down to rest under the woodshed. He watched the light snow drift down from the sky. In the distance, the Tundra was a hazy expanse, with patches of colorful Tundra vegetation showing through the melting snow.
He finished a cup of steaming hot tea.
Then Feng Shan threw himself back into his work.
He started making the bear meat sausage. He cut dozens of kilograms of bear meat into small pieces, placed them in a basin, and poured in white liquor to disinfect them and remove the gamey taste. Then, he added salt, chili powder, Sichuan peppercorn powder, and thirteen-spice powder, mixed it all evenly, and set it aside to marinate.
After washing the bear intestines several times, he disinfected them with white liquor and hung them up to drain.
All the preparations were complete.
Feng Shan went to the workshop to get his manual sausage stuffer. The principle was similar to the ones back in his home country: slide the casing over the nozzle, stuff the meat into the hopper, and turn the hand crank to drive the gears that force the meat into the casing.
Piece by piece, the marinated bear meat disappeared into the hopper, and from the other end, the casing transformed into links of bear meat sausage.
Because he was using bear intestines, the sausages were especially thick, like a child's arm. Still, Feng Shan was very satisfied that he could make them at all.
He tied off the finished bear meat sausages with thin string and hung them on the drying rack to air-dry. Once the strips of bear meat in the smokehouse were done, he would put the sausages in for their second round of processing.
The hide, meat, and fat were all processed, and the Bear Bones were used for a rich stock. Not a single part of the unlucky brown bear's body was wasted.
According to Frank, over 200 kilograms of bear meat should have been enough to keep Feng Shan from worrying about his food supply for the next three months.
Feng Shan had thought so too. Even if he ate like there was no tomorrow—3 kilograms a day—the 200-plus kilograms of bear meat would still last him more than two months.
But just for breakfast this morning, he'd devoured a whole pot of stewed bear meat and half a pot of noodles. He'd been too busy to eat lunch, and he would have to devour another meaty meal tonight.
At this rate, the 200-plus kilograms of meat would be a month's worth of food at most.
The Witchcraft Bone Ring was useful, alright, but it was a real meat-guzzler.
Fortunately, there was no shortage of food in the Crown Territory. If he were back home, just eating this much meat would be a huge expense.
Feng Shan sighed in frustration and put the matter aside for now.
With the brown bear fully processed, it seemed like all his chores were suddenly done. With nothing else to do, his gaze fell upon the bear's head.
His granduncle's diary mentioned that the Inuit used a special solution when tanning hides. Making it wasn't exactly difficult, just a bit disgusting: you had to take out the brains and boil them with water.
Once boiled into a thick paste, it was spread on the dried hide to soften it. Hides tanned this way were not only soft and breathable but also water-resistant.
It might be disgusting to others, but to Feng Shan, it was perfectly normal.
Back when he ran a restaurant, spicy fried sheep brains had been one of his best-selling dishes. Feng Shan had slaughtered sheep and removed the brains by hand every day.
It was just a pity about the brown bear's skull. He had originally planned to keep it as a memento, since it was the first animal he'd ever hunted.
He found the discarded brown bear skull and set it securely on a log.
Spitting twice into his palms, Feng Shan raised his axe and swung it down with all his might.
CRACK!
The bear skull split in two with the sound. He collected the brains in a small bucket, added fresh water, and put it on the stove to boil.
Feng Shan didn't waste the remaining skull, either. The bear teeth were good stuff; they could be made into necklaces.
There were four of them—Black Hide, Hu Zi, Xiaohua, and himself—so the four canine teeth would be one for each. He'd heard this kind of thing could ward off evil.
When they were young, Black Hide had once bought a Bear Tooth Necklace for a high price from a street stall. At the time, the vendor had sworn up and down that they were genuine bear teeth.
Black Hide had treated it as his prized possession, even wearing it to sleep and not letting anyone touch it. Later, someone recognized that they were fake bear teeth, made from wild boar tusks.
Black Hide was heartbroken over it for a long time and searched all over the city for that vendor.
'Now, your big bro will make you a real Bear Tooth Necklace.'
At this thought, Feng Shan found his tools and dug out the bear teeth. They were nearly ten centimeters long, curved like small daggers, with worn grooves at the tips.
Feng Shan didn't process the bear teeth further, preserving their original appearance. He used an awl to drill a small hole at the root of each tooth and found some small Bear Bones to use as decorative beads.
He sawed the small bones into short segments, boiled them in hot water to remove the marrow, then took them out and strung them on a cord. The centerpiece, naturally, was one of the bear teeth.
When the first Bear Tooth Necklace was finished, Feng Shan delightedly put it around his neck. You know, it really gave him the air of a Wilderness Hunter.
'If Black Hide received this necklace, he'd probably jump for joy.'
...