A Western Doctor's Happy Farming Life

Chapter 14 To be Meat or Pet

Translator: LiamHW

When Wu Dahu didn’t bring Song Qinghan up the mountain, he was a good hunter.

Before Song Qinghan woke up, he had already hunted and brought back a wild roe deer .

This roe deer weighed five kilograms, enough for them to eat for a while.

He cut off the most tender part of the roe deer’s flesh and strung them with bamboo slips, and put them on fire.

When the meat was about to be roasted, he sprinkled a little bit of ginger slice and chopped green onions. Combining with these two ingredients, the meat gave off a seductive odor.

Song Qinghan got up following the odor and coincidentally met Wu Dahu.

Staring at Song Qinghan’s lips, Wu Dahu somehow felt a bit guilty. He coughed dryly and handed the bowl over, saying calmly, “I have roasted the meat for you.”

It should be all blamed to the honey which arose his desire for the spicy and hot flavor as an after-effect. So as soon as he saw the meat, nothing could stop him picking up the strings of meat and eating.

Seeing that Song Qinghan was looking at him, Wu Dahu reached out and took a string of meat, having it slowly.

Song Qinghan was straved, he was focus on the food and didn’t even notice that Wu Dahu didn’t finish one after he finished five.

It was not until the tenth string that Song Qinghan swept away the hunger and then asked in his curiosity, saying, “What meat is this? The meat is so fresh and tender.”

Before the answer uttered from Wu Dahu, it was beef which fist came to Song Qinghan’s mind. However, in this ancient time, the cattle was used only for tilting but not for food. In that guess, he excluded the answer.

Wu Dahu didn’t say anything. But he directly led Song Qinghan into the kitchen and pointed at the unprocessed flesh, saying, “A wild roe deer, it’s a big one. There’s no need to buy any meat these days.”

Song Qinghan’s eyes lit up. He couldn’t help but show his excitement, but later another realistic problem occurred, he asked considering the storing issue, “If we just set it here, won’t it be rotten?”

After thinking for a while, Wu Dahu asked tentatively, “Then we take it for sale?”

Although Song Qinghan was also eager for money, he wouldn’t want to sell these stuffs for which Wu Dahu indefatigably strove. Instead, he would prefer to trade something easy-to-acquire.

Wu Dahu came to a silence for a while noticing that Song Qinghan didn’t react and rolled up his sleeves, preparing to chop off the rest of the flesh.

Song Qinghan stopped him and asked, “What are you gonna do? We won’t be able to have these all tonight.”

Wu Dahu posted a gesture to show his confidence about what he was going to do, saying, “I’m going to make it into dried meat. It will be soft to cook when we want to eat. Moreover, it can be stored for a quite long time. Don’t worry about it.”

Hearing that, Song Qinghan finally calmed down. He suddenly recalled the illicium verums he had air-cured outside, and then he suggested, saying, “Let’s add some spices to salt. It will be more delicious.”

By saying that, he walked out and put away the dried illicium verums and put them into a big bowl together with garlic, onion and ginger, which Wu Dahu had taken back previously.

Wu Dahu looked at the seasonings with some embarrassment and said hesitantly, saying, “You should turn over the grilled meat nonstop. How can we deal with these? Put them on the meat directly? It would be easy for the small-sized ones, but it would be more troublesome when it applies to bigger sizes.”

Song Qinghan waved his hand and rolled up his sleeves, saying, “Let me show you how!”

He washed his hands and chopped garlic, onion and ginger into pieces respectively, then heated up the pan, added oil, and put the seasoning together with the illicium verums, fried them till they gave off a fit of savor. Later he added water and waited for its boiling.

After the water boiled, he picked a piece of meat which Wu Dahu had cut and put it into the soup.

Not long, the color of the soup occupied quickly and possessed the whole surface of the meat. When the meat was still a little tough, Song Qinghan took it out.

Then it would be Wu Dahu’s turn to deal with the rest of the process. He placed the cooked meat on the fire and quickly roasted it to dry meat.

The roasted dried meat still gave off the scent of seasoning, which was rather tempting.

Wu Dahu slid his throat and the meat in front made his mouth water.

Noticing the look on his face, Song Qinghan couldn’t help laughing, saying, “Have a try if you want to, and let’s see if you can bear with the flavor of illicium verums or not.”

Hearing his words, Wu Dahu was intrigued. He slowly tore off a piece of meat from the dried one and put it into his mouth.

He chewed slowly, as if he wouldn’t let go any details of the flavor of the dried meat in his mouth.

Song Qinghan noticed an unchanged expression showing on Wu Dahu’s face, he somehow felt a bit nervous, and then hurriedly asked, “Is it not your match?”

Wu Dahu didn’t say anything. After thinking for a while, he tore off another piece of meat and put it into his mouth. Again chewing for a while, he frowned a bit.

It boded ill for Song Qinghan seeing that Wu Dahu still kept his silence after the second bite.

Most likely, Wu Dahu didn’t able to adapt to the pungent flavor of the illicium verums.

“OMG, It TASTES SO GOOD!” gushed Wu Dahu.

Well, Song Qinghan finally got a reaction from Wu Dahu after the latter one tasted the meat for twice. Yet the sentence uttered from Wu Dahu shocked him a bit.

He even thought that he had misunderstood what Wu Dahu said, and asked back in doubt, asking doubtfully, “You mean it’s delicious?”

Wu Dahu nodded in his intoxication, and still lost in the flavor of the dried meat. Rapaciously staring at the meat, he got his eyes bright and longing.

“Yes, it’s so delicious. It is the wild roe deer same as the usual ones. But this one is much more delicious than I ever made before.” exclaimed Wu Dahu.

He tore off another piece of the meat again and put it into his mouth, the meat seemed to possess an unknown magic for him.

What he reacted right away conveyed Song Qinghan better. Seeing that those seasoning matched Wu Dahu’s taste, Song Qinghan got relieved all of a sudden.

After Wu Dahu finished eating, Song Qinghan finally spoke out what he thought.

“So, if we plan to sell these seasonings… do you think it will work?”

Wu Dahu touched his belly with a big satisfaction and finally restrained himself and stopped himself eating the rest of the meat.

After hearing Song Qinghan’s words, he pondered for a moment and said in hesitation, saying, “It would be a good idea to sell these, but you need to convey people that these stuffs are a treasure for making food. Otherwise, we will gain no costumer. After all, the seasoning is only an ingredient for meat. If its flavor is beyond the folk’s expectation, it probably will destroy their meal.”

Song Qinghan also had considered this point, so he continued to speak out his opinion, saying, “What about this? Let’s make a meal of the meat adding these seasonings. We set a section of free sample of tasting, if they are fine with it, it will be our chance to sell it. If not, we won’t.”

“A free sample of tasting?” asked Wu Dahu, he had never heard of the word, but he could roughly guess the meaning of it. He hesitated but asked, “You mean, we will give them a try to have a taste for free?”

Song Qinghan nodded and stretched out his hand to draw a general width, explaining, “We split the meat into such a small one, and we allow each person to taste only once.”

Wu Dahu nodded thoughtfully and said in his agreement, “This method is feasible. I’m afraid it will be a pity if those who don’t want to purchase rush to taste, while those who would love to buy get no chance.”

That was totally a big alert to Song Qinghan. After all, in his original modern world, a FREE SAMPLE activity was always set in the area within supermarket. People who went to have a free sample taste were actually purchasers able to pay. If they were placed on the street, it was likely that the effect of the FREE SAMPLE would not be so good.

Fortunately, it was not difficult for him. He pondered for a moment and said, “Then we’ll set the place to the meat shop. What do you say?”

Hearing this, Wu Dahu thought about it carefully and said in agreement, “Marvellous. People who can afford meat will be able to buy our seasonings. Those who don’t even want to buy the seasonings will probably not go to the meat shop.”

Since they reached the agreement, they started to plan the recent agenda in few days: hunting, collecting condiments, making seasonings, producing dried meat, and then heading to the bazaar for their first FREE SAMPLE try.

While it was kind of leisure in the afternoon, Wu Dahu went out again. He found traces of the Chinese yam somewhere and came back with a bag of fresh yams.

When Song Qinghan went to fetch fructus momordicae, he noticed a bundle brought from Laifu. He opened the bundle with curiosity, only to find two living bunnies. Maybe it was because they were caved in such a dark and limited environment, they got somehow retarded in action, yet rather adorable.

However, Song Qinghan was not a female after all. The first reaction occurred when he saw a living rabbit was not about their appearances, but… Alright, they were the fresh and living meats.

He shouted at Wu Dahu, “Dahu! We’ve got rabbits!”

Hearing this, Wu Dahu hurriedly took a pause at his work currently and walked over. When he saw the two white rabbits, he smiled and said, “They are the pets Laifu sent to you. I’ll make a nest for them later so that you can put them in the room to tease.”

Song Qinghan widened his eyes and said incredulously, “What? The pets? We are not going to eat them? Didn’t you also catch some wild hares last time?”

Wu Dahu was surprised hearing his questions, he then said in hesitation, “These are actually a kind of household bunnies which are used to accompany with femina males, they are a far cry from those wild hares.”

Song Qinghan looked at him with a meaning of rebuke, while pinching the ears of one of the rabbits and lifted it up, as if he was weighing it. He said in disdain, “Well, it gets some weight though, it would be worthy to be eaten than to be a pet.”

Seeing the appearance on Song Qinghan’s face was sincere, Wu Dahu said with amusement, “Okay, then I will kill these two rabbits for meal tonight.”

Just as Song Qinghan was about to nod and show his agreement, he suddenly noticed the genders of these two rabbits and said with surprise, “Ah-ah, a male rabbit and a female rabbit?”

Wu Dahu took a look at them and confirmed, saying, “You’re right, they are rabbits with different genders.”

Song Qinghan immediately changed his mind and said excitedly, “Then we can raise them, and as long as they give birth to their next generation, we will get more meats!”

Seeing his excitement, Wu Dahu seemed to have some warnings he wanted to say, but he still nodded obediently to Song Qinghan’s decision.

If other femina males saw that he raised household rabbits for eating, they would probably condemn him over that.

However, they got their lives a privacy, who would know the fact if they closed their doors?

Wu Dahu picked a rattan from outside and sat in the courtyard patiently weaving something.

Seeing a basket shaped object slowly take its shape through Wu Dahu’s hands, Song Qinghan showed his admiration to his man, saying, “You’re such a excellent idea generator. I still keep that little basket you made last time.”

Wu Dahu glanced at him with a smile and said casually, “Why are you still keeping it? It’s just a worthless novelty. I will make you another one if you want. ”

Song Qinghan shook his head, with an inexplicable emotion flashing in his eyes. He said slowly, “It is not about the next time, I will keep everything you give me.”

He knew that Wu Dahu devoted himself every time when he made a craft, which consumed his time and strength. Although they were not valuable, they were incomparably precious. No matter if they were together in the future, he would be willing to keep these things as a treasure. They somehow could be a form of memorizing stuffs.

Being infected by his serious emotions, Wu Dahu paused for a moment and said in a low voice, “Since you like it, I’ll make you one worth collecting next time.”