HPDBC Chapter 8 Otter Granary
Chapter 8 Otter Granary
I went down into the fish's nest a second time and saw crucian carp eggs slapping all over the ground.
Chen Tuo reached back and pulled the pine stump stuck in the snow off the ground.
Although the river was blocked by heavy snow outside, the temperature inside the fishpond was quite high.
A wave of damp steam washes over you, which can soothe your restlessness.
Two people, one processing wolf pelts on the snow crust, the other killing fish in the fishpond.
The two wolverines were also obediently raising their tails and gnawing on the fish heads.
The scene left Old Wu speechless with astonishment.
The reindeer raised by the Evenki people in the mountains probably wouldn't be so obedient.
Wu Laowai, standing on the snow-covered surface, thought of the Evenki people.
Chen Tuo, nestled in the fishpond, was thinking of the Hezhe people.
The cotton-padded coat I was wearing, which had been washed countless times, was as stiff as the cotton hat on my head, and it didn't keep me warm for very long.
Even with Wu Laowai's help in skinning the wolves, it would probably take a while to make fur coats and bedding from the two wolf pelts.
The registered educated youth didn't take anything from the educated youth settlement to exchange for other things, so there must be some explanation for that.
Besides smashing dry pots and digging out fish, Chen Tuo had also watched many extreme cold survival videos.
But a video is just a video. If he were to try to imitate it exactly, he might end up like the man who was frozen in the snow.
In the Greater Khingan Mountains today, in addition to the frigid temperatures of minus 30 or 40 degrees Celsius, winter can last for almost half a year.
Twenty pounds of cornmeal, two bags of potatoes, seventy-six yuan and thirty-seven cents, plus this nest of fish, were not enough for him to safely get through the winter.
Although he had the idea of profiting from plagiarizing contemporary poetry.
But poetry is different from prose and novels; everyone has their own aesthetic sense.
Hai Zi's poem "Facing the Sea, With Spring Blossoms" was given a new name, but without a discerning patron, it would only be a discarded draft.
Seeing the crucian carp splashing in the mud in the fishpond, Chen Tuo suddenly had an inspiration. In Wang Zengqi's collection of hometown stories, there is a piece called "The Fishermen".
Although he couldn't memorize the original text, he still vaguely remembered the general ideas and structure.
Aren't fishermen and fish catchers all dealing with whole fish?
If you also refer to other short stories and essays, it shouldn't be too difficult to earn some royalties.
Chen Tuo pondered his way out and fell into deep thought.
His boots, almost entirely studded with bicycle tires, were jolted awake by a tug.
He blocked the light from the gas lamp, so he couldn't see what was biting his boot.
He flipped the obstacle-clearing knife in his hand, avoiding the back of his foot as he swung it down. With a soft "click," the dragging force on his foot disappeared without a trace.
Turning to the side so that the light from the gas lamp shone on my feet, I saw something covered in mud curled up next to my boot.
Looking up, he saw a faint rustling sound of fish escaping from a spot barely large enough for him to stand upright in the fishpond, where the gas lamp couldn't reach.
Using the obstacle-clearing knife to lift the object under his feet, he took a closer look, but Chen Tuo, disdainful, threw it out of the ice hole.
"What the hell did you throw out?"
The object was thrown out of the ice hole, and Wu Laowai above also made a sound.
"Water rat!"
"Water rats? Those are much more valuable than wild dogs; a single pelt can sell for over ten yuan!"
"Uncle Wu, wolverines aren't worth much, are they?"
"You said it's a wolverine, and that thing's fur is just like a bear's—rough, hard, and smelly, so nobody buys it. The meat is just so-so too."
"Uncle Wu, what's valuable in these mountains?"
"There are plenty of valuable things out there, do you think you can catch them? Why don't you let those two female mountain dogs hunt elk for you?"
Chen Tuo didn't mind Wu Laowai's teasing; there was some truth to it.
The original owner was left in the snow because she was "hunted".
He could just rely on the fishpond in front of him and wait for the money from the fish farming and the newborns. Good days would come. There was no need for him to risk his life in the mountains.
Thinking about the royalties, Chen Tuo's mind wandered again.
The fisherman and the fish-catching man are too similar; I might as well write a fish-catching diary.
The selling point of "scar literature" is supposedly criticism and reflection, but in Chen Tuo's view, it is nothing more than roguishness and taboo.
He was familiar with novels about trauma, but given the original owner's experiences, writing about them carelessly would easily make him a target of criticism.
A story like "The Fish-Picking Chronicles," which focuses on the harvest and simplicity of life, is actually more suitable for his current environment and also fits the original owner's past experiences.
The saying "one's writing reflects one's personality" is not a hard and fast rule for success in the literary world.
But how can one make sense of writing that contradicts their own experiences? That is the question.
"Uncle Wu, could you tell me how to hunt?"
Having found a selling point in making money from writing articles, Chen Tuo couldn't ignore Wu Laowai.
Judging from the arrogance in his words, he must be a good hunter.
"How do we hunt? It's not like we're stupidly running headlong into the snow to our deaths..."
Wu Laowai is unwilling to talk about it now, and Chen Tuo doesn't force him; having a goal is enough.
The next step is simply to use both soft and hard tactics.
"Is this some kind of water rat?"
Chen Tuo stopped trying to get information out of him and continued sorting the fish, but Wu Laowai above spoke up again.
"Isn't that right?"
"If you say yes, then I'll go back and find you a water rat!"
"Uncle Wu, what's that?"
"Water Margin!"
What is a "water hairy cat"?
"Otter! Little seadragon! Specializing in hats..."
"Otters? We have otters here?"
"The Xingan Mountains are vast! Aside from tigers, what else is there?"
"Uncle Wu, are otter pelts valuable?"
"That's incredibly valuable! Especially the pelts of the mother and her cub. It's a pity yours is a male. Why don't you get some fish heads and attract a few mothers and cubs too?"
Wu Laowai above spoke with resentment, while Chen Tuo wore a wry smile and looked into the depths of the fishpond.
If I hadn't been distracted, I might have actually managed to get a female otter pelt.
"Uncle Wu, how do otters burrow into ice shells?"
Digging a fish hole first attracted wolverines, then wolves, and now otters too.
While marveling at the abundance of resources in the Xingan Mountains, Chen Tuo was also thinking about whether he could dig a few more fish nests.
"A fish den is also called an otter granary, especially a den with live fish. If there's any noise, the otters will definitely come to check it out..."
After explaining why the otter appeared in the fish's nest, Wu Laowai also sighed at Chen Tuo's good luck.
He's turned a simple act of smashing a dry pot into a full-blown hunt...
If one is so lucky, why bother with deep snowfields? By hunting wolves and waterfowl in the Hetao region, one can make a fortune.
"Uncle Wu, you saved me, I don't have much to give you in return. I don't even know if there's any ginseng left, but you can have the otter..."
Having already decided to use both soft and hard tactics to win over Wu Laowai, Chen Tuo didn't care about the value of the otter pelt.
Despite the difficulties of lacking food and clothing, the fishpond can help them survive for at least half a month.
In the survival diary, there are still many puddles waiting to be smashed!
If you prick a few more times, you can last a little longer.
Perhaps if we just hold on, spring will truly come and flowers will bloom...
"I wouldn't dare take something for free! If I saw it and didn't pull it back, how could I face anyone if people saw the mess I made?"
Wu Laowai doesn't consider himself a good person, but he's definitely not a bad one either.
He could tell that Chen Tuo wanted to steal his skills.
There are many rules to follow when taking on an apprentice. Once you've taken his things, you have to take care of his life and death.
Food rationing is the lifeline for those living in the forest area. While they might be able to survive by hunting down the mountain, what if they can't hunt down the mountain?
It's the same principle as seeing an educated youth fall in the snow and not helping them; nobody knows, and that's how it is.
If people find out, it'll be difficult to get by in the Songling area...