"What's wrong?"
Deng Guang walked over from a short distance away. His expression changed slightly when he saw the body on the ground was gone.
"Did something drag the body away? This was the spot, right?"
"This is it."
"Wow, that was fast. It's only been a few hours and it's already gone."
"Judging by these tracks, it was probably something big."
Deng Guang looked in the direction the tracks led. "From the looks of it, it seems to be heading toward the river."
Qin Ziwen said, "It might have been a crocodile from the river."
Deng Guang was puzzled. "Are their senses of smell really that sharp?"
Qin Ziwen mused, "They should be pretty good. In any case, we need to be careful."
The two families searched all over but couldn't find a suitable place to smoke the meat.
It wasn't safe to go too far from the Gated Community, but closer in, there were people everywhere. Everyone was out looking for food right now. Smoking meat out in the open under these circumstances would be asking for trouble.
In the end, the two families decided to carry some damp wood to the rooftop of one of the Gated Community's buildings to smoke the meat.
The rooftop had its own risks—there were giant birds in the sky—but as long as they were careful, it wasn't impossible to avoid them in advance.
Qin Ziwen took the opportunity to check his two snare traps. Both had been triggered, but there was no prey.
He found some familiar short, grayish-brown fur in one of the traps.
The other trap had been violently destroyed.
When Qin Ziwu saw the broken trap, he flared up in anger. "Who has no decency! This is just ruining things for everyone!"
Qin Ziwen decided to just remove both traps entirely. He planned to find a time to set up new snares a bit farther away.
The rooftop of the building in the Gated Community wasn't locked. To make it convenient for residents to dry their clothes, many clotheslines had been tied up there in the past.
Looking at the clotheslines on the rooftop, Qin Ziwen suddenly had an idea.
He went home, brought up a large bedsheet, spread it out over the lines, and clipped the four corners with clothespins. A simple awning was now complete.
"That bird looks down from above. If we cover this area, it won't be able to see us unless it has thermal vision."
The group was busy all morning, and Qin Ziwen finally managed to smoke all his small strips of meat into jerky.
He picked one up. After a full morning of smoking, the surface of the small meat strip had become dry and hard.
Qin Ziwen took a piece and put it in his mouth, chewing slowly. The meat was cooked. Its exterior was as hard and dry as wood, but if he chewed carefully, the inside still had a moist, salty-sweet flavor.
"Here, try this. Do you think it's smoked enough?"
Qin Ziwen handed a strip to his younger brother.
Qin Ziwu put it in his mouth, chewed slowly, and finally swallowed. "It's pretty good."
Qin Ziwen kicked him in the butt. "...I asked if it was smoked enough, not how it tastes."
Qin Ziwu felt wronged. "How would I know? I've never smoked meat before."
Qin Ziwen thought of someone. 'Looks like I'll have to ask a professional.'
He took a small bag containing about a quarter kilogram of the jerky and went downstairs.
Arriving at the second floor, he knocked on a door.
"Who is it?"
From outside the door, Qin Ziwen spoke humbly, "Granny Li, I'm a resident from the fifth floor. I was hoping to ask you for some advice."
"Oh~"
The door opened right away. Granny Li let Qin Ziwen in. "Come in, have a seat."
Qin Ziwen handed over the smoked meat strips. "Granny Li, these are the meat strips I smoked. Could you take a look and tell me if they're done? And about how long they can be stored."
Granny Li took a piece of jerky from the bag, sniffed it, and then slowly broke it apart with some effort. She then asked Qin Ziwen, "I'll just try a tiny piece, to see if the inside is dry."
Qin Ziwen explained, "This whole bag is for you. Please, just eat it."
Granny Li quickly shook her head. "I still have food. You don't have to be so polite."
Popping a small piece into her mouth and chewing it slowly, Granny Li said, "The flavor is fine, and it's smoked decently. But if you just store it out in the open, it might still get moldy because the inside is still damp."
"Back when we used to smoke meat in the countryside, after smoking, we had to hang it in a cool, ventilated place to air-dry. Or we'd hang it right over the stove, so the smoke would keep smoking it every day when we cooked. Only meat prepared like that will last a long time.
When you can break a piece of this jerky and it's completely dry from the inside out, like a wooden stick that you can snap cleanly in your hands, then it's ready. If you store that kind properly, it'll be fine for a year or two."
Qin Ziwen pondered, "Would it be okay to let it continue air-drying in a cellar?"
"A cellar? As long as it's ventilated, it should work. The underground parking garage in our Gated Community would be suitable, but don't put it there. Just yesterday, I heard someone say they saw snakes and rats inside."
Qin Ziwen thought of the food cellar in his own home. The temperature inside was lower than outside, and it seemed to be ventilated; he had felt a draft when he was in there before.
Qin Ziwen stood up to thank her. "Thank you."
Granny Li got up, found a clothes-drying pole, and used it to take down a string of sausages hanging on the wall. "I still have some sausages I made before the New Year. Take them and eat."
Qin Ziwen politely refused. "I don't need any, please keep them for yourself. I have plenty of meat at home."
Granny Li found a black plastic bag, put the sausages in, then grabbed Qin Ziwen's hand and pressed the bag into it. "Take them. I can't eat this much by myself anyway."
Returning to the rooftop, Qin Ziwen moved all the smoked meat strips to his cellar, set up a rack, and hung all the strips on it.
By the time he finished, it was past noon.
He cooked four packs of noodles, adding the smoked meat strips and some wild vegetables, and had a satisfying meal with his brother.
He spread a cooling mat on the floor, lay down, and took out the torn pages from a guide to mountain plants—his reward from the previous night's settlement.
They were called torn pages, but in reality, they were just two sheets of paper torn from some sort of atlas.
The sheets were printed on both sides, with each side describing a different plant and including a picture.
In total, the two pages covered four different plants.
Moonlight Moss, Gray Sweet Potato, Stone Mushroom, and Yellow-Leaf Chrysanthemum.
The summary after reading was simple: two were edible, two were not.
Moonlight Moss: Prefers to grow in forests, usually found covering tree roots in damp environments. Edible. Long-term consumption can improve eyesight. Must be kept out of direct sunlight, as exposure to sunlight will make it bitter.
Gray Sweet Potato: Also known as "Mud Sweet Potato." A tuberous plant that grows in marshy environments. Its leaves are inedible and mildly toxic. Its tuber, the sweet potato, is hidden in the mud and is edible. It has a plain taste, is very filling, and can be harvested twice a year.
Stone Mushroom: Grows inside caves. Plump and full in appearance, with a rubbery texture that is difficult to chew. Inedible and poisonous.
Yellow-Leaf Chrysanthemum: Mildly toxic and inedible. Consumption will cause dizziness and diarrhea. Its petals can be used as a dye.
The other three would be hard to find, so Qin Ziwen focused his attention on the Gray Sweet Potato.
Moonlight Moss had to be looked for at night, while the Stone Mushroom and Yellow-Leaf Chrysanthemum were inedible. Only the Gray Sweet Potato seemed reliable. It grew in mud, and there were mudflats by the river. If he was lucky enough to find some, he could bring them back to plant directly.
He happened to have plans to go fishing with Old Deng that afternoon, so he could take a look around the riverbank then.