Chapter 60 Venison, Crucian Carp, and Mushroom Soup

"Hardly... I suppose not!" Qilin thought for a moment and shook his head.

"There you have it!" I rolled my eyes. "If you can't sleep on an empty stomach, bears and Amur tigers definitely can't sleep on an empty stomach either! If they smell the blood and head our way... well, we have guns and aren't afraid, but it would still be a hassle!"

"So that's how it is!" Qilin said thoughtfully. "Sanqi, you know so much!"

I rolled my eyes and said nothing. Did she really think the three years I spent training in the hunting grounds were just for nothing?

Once we finished cleaning the game, the rest of the processing was left to Qilin.

Old Master Chen and I walked over to the edge of the small stream.

Old Master Chen squatted down, peered through the opening in the ice, and said to me, "Sanqi, look, the long pole is bent right down! Tsk tsk, looks like we've caught quite a haul of fish!"

Hearing this, a wave of excitement washed over me.

"Good thing it's not too cold yet. If it gets any colder, the two of us would have a hard time pulling the net and catching fish!" Old Master Chen said with a sigh, a cigarette dangling from his lips.

"Is it no good once it gets cold? Why is that, Old Master Chen?" I asked, puzzled.

Old Master Chen puffed on his cigarette and explained, "Sanqi, if the weather turns cold and we smash a hole in the ice, it'll refreeze in less than a minute. What would you do then?"

"Oh, oh, oh! Then, Old Master Chen, if the weather keeps getting colder, how should we catch fish?"

Old Master Chen chuckled softly and began to teach me: "If the weather becomes bitterly cold, we can't use a pulled net anymore; we have to go ice fishing... One person is responsible for using a wooden stake to smash the holes, and the other is responsible for holding the fishing rod... If the person smashing holes gets tired, they can switch with the other person."

"Ah, I see!" I nodded repeatedly.

"Alright! Hurry up, we need to haul all these fish out, process them, and store them with the rest of the food in the cabin. The three of us should have no problem eating for a few months."

Old Master Chen beckoned me to help pull up the net.

I nodded, first smashing open the partially frozen hole, and then, together with Old Master Chen, we exerted all our strength to haul the fishing net upward...

To be honest, it was a good thing I hadn't skimped on meat during my three years in the hunting grounds and had built up a sturdy build—at the very least, I had an eight-pack and a solid frame of muscles.

Old Master Chen was even more robust, so despite the difficulty, the two of us managed to drag the fishing net out of the water.

"My goodness! There's a lot!" I exclaimed, looking at the fish flopping around in the net.

Without even needing to count, it was easily three or four hundred pounds.

We carefully threw all the fish ashore.

***

"Old Master Chen, this is a fine-scaled whitefish! Goodness, this fish is delicious!" I pulled a fish from the net and exclaimed.

Hearing my voice, Old Master Chen glanced at the fish in my hand and nodded. "Mm! This thing is indeed delicious! High in fat, it was even a tribute fish back in the Qing Dynasty!"

"Wow, I'm in for a treat!" Hearing Old Master Chen say that this was once food fit for an emperor, I couldn't help but sigh in admiration.

As I continued pulling fish out of the net, many of them were varieties I recognized.

Topmouth culter, redfin, taimen, crucian carp, nailfish...

Looking at such an abundant catch, my mouth began to water involuntarily.

Among these fish, some were suited for steaming, while others were ideal for soup...

"Hungry?" Old Master Chen raised his head, glanced at me, and asked with a chuckle.

I quickly shook my head. "No... I'm just amazed! Old Master Chen, fish that probably couldn't be bought outside for any amount of money, or would cost a fortune, are just piled up here in heaps..."

"Indeed they are! Some of the fish we have here might be things people never get to see in their entire lives!" Old Master Chen sighed.

What Old Master Chen said was true.

Most people's lives are trapped within a cage called family; these fish are nothing more than moving images on a television screen or search terms on a screen to them.

They would hardly ever get to catch a glimpse of the snowy scenery deep within the Greater Khingan Mountains...

By this time, Qilin had already finished cleaning up the traces left from processing the game earlier.

She walked over with some ropes and strung all the cleaned fish together. With that, our chores for the day were basically done.

The sky began to dim, and the howling wind and driving snow grew fiercer, letting us hear the sharp whistling sounds even from inside the cabin...

Sitting in the cabin and watching the snowflakes dance outside, Old Master Chen took a sip of liquor and calmly remarked, "The white-haired wind is coming."

"So soon?" I asked in surprise.

Because in my impression, it would take at least another half-month for the white-haired storm to strike the Greater Khingan Mountains...

Yet judging by the current situation...

If the white-haired wind was indeed arriving, it was coming far too quickly.

Old Master Chen nodded, his expression completely composed. "Mm! It should arrive by tomorrow afternoon... Tomorrow morning, we'll head out to hunt a little more, and starting tomorrow afternoon, no one is allowed to leave the house!"

***

I nodded. "Understood!"

Then, with a cigarette still dangling from his lips, Old Master Chen set about making dinner.

For dinner tonight, we had venison, crucian carp, and mushroom soup, along with three roasted fine-scaled whitefish!

Inhaling the savory aroma that filled the entire room, Qilin smiled and said, "I have to say, Old Master Chen, your cooking is truly impressive! With only three seasonings in this room—salt, vinegar, and soy sauce—you've managed to make food this delicious."

To be honest, her compliment-giving skills left much to be desired.

Old Master Chen replied calmly, "It's alright. As a hunter, knowing how to cook is a basic requirement."

Sitting on the bed, something suddenly crossed my mind, and I said, "By the way, Old Master Chen, if the white-haired wind hits, do you think... Bai Qi is a dead woman walking?"

As soon as those words left my mouth, Old Master Chen's movements froze for a second. Then, he answered flatly, "Not necessarily!"

"Not necessarily?" I was somewhat puzzled.

"Mm! There are still quite a few villages on the outer fringes of the Greater Khingan Mountains! She wasn't cornered and hunted down the way we were, so she should be able to make a run for it pretty quickly! As long as she started running tonight, she should be able to reach a nearby village by the time the white-haired wind kicks up tomorrow."

I nodded and remained silent.

Actually...

I always felt like Old Master Chen was keeping something from me. The Greater Khingan Mountains were so vast; I simply couldn't believe that the organization responsible for killing the master could seal off every single exit of the entire mountain range. If we wanted to escape the Greater Khingan Mountains, we could have done so in any direction.

Just like I had suggested earlier, we could have fled in the opposite direction.

Old Master Chen had opposed the idea.

Yet looking at it now, if we had followed my method back then, who knows—we might have already escaped the Greater Khingan Mountains long ago.

Of course... these thoughts only crossed my mind, and in the end, I kept them to myself.

Instead, Qilin, after overhearing our conversation, asked with a puzzled look, "The Bai Qi you two were talking about... is she a young girl?"

Hearing this, both Old Master Chen and I instantly froze.