Chapter 20 County Town
After Qin Yao dragged the black bear back to the cave, it was already completely dark.
The black bear weighed about 700 kilograms, and Qin Yao found it difficult to carry it, so she made a simple stretcher out of branches and dragged it back.
This stretcher is quite useful. Qin Yao decided to use it to pull down all the prey hunted these days from the mountain early tomorrow morning.
The wounds on the black bear's body have a strong smell of blood, which can easily attract other wild animals foraging for food.
Although Qin Yao didn't suffer any injuries in the fight with the black bear just now, it consumed a lot of her physical strength. In addition, she has to carry the prey down the mountain tomorrow, so she must conserve her energy tonight.
Throughout the night, there were occasional tentative howls of wild beasts from the surrounding woods. Qin Yao did not dare to slack off and lit two fires outside the cave to be on guard at all times.
Sensing the approach of danger, they immediately shot arrows to warn others, and tried not to leave the cave. In this way, they finally waited until a ray of orange light appeared on the horizon.
Not daring to delay, they quickly ate two roasted pheasants, tied the black bear and other prey to the trailer, and set off down the mountain.
She did not go in the direction she came from, but instead went around the mountains and headed directly towards Kaiyang County.
The nearby town definitely can't eat the black bear, and she doesn't have the energy to cut it up and sell it bit by bit. It would be better for her to go further away, directly to the county town, where there are many rich people and she should be able to sell it faster.
Qin Yao traveled light and walked very fast when going up the mountain.
Now carrying nearly 800 kilograms of prey and going downhill, Qin Yao couldn't speed up at all.
But perhaps because of the harvest, I was in a very good mood and unknowingly walked out of the forest and came to the official road.
It was almost dusk.
There is no curfew in Sheng State, but the city gates will be closed at the end of Youshi (5-7 pm) and entry and exit are prohibited.
Qin Yao dragged the heavy prey and hurried, and finally entered Kaiyang County before the city gate closed.
To enter the city, you need to pay an entrance fee, one cent per person.
Qin Yao didn't have a single copper coin on him, so he sold a wild pheasant weighing a little over four pounds at the city gate and earned eighty copper coins. He paid one copper coin before he was allowed to enter the city.
When the guards at the city gate saw the black bear on her carriage, their expressions changed from disbelief to astonishment.
In less than an incense stick of time, the news that someone had hunted a blind bear and brought it into the city to sell reached the ears of the owners of two restaurants in the city.
"But is it true?" Shopkeeper Fan asked in surprise.
The waiter who went to inquire hurriedly nodded, "It's absolutely true, boss, I have never seen such a big blind bear in my life, its head is bigger than two of my heads, you should go quickly, if you are late, I am afraid it will be bought by the store next door!"
When Shopkeeper Fan heard that his rival was about to arrive, he didn't even bother to be surprised but immediately rushed to the city gate.
Qin Yao was eating at a wonton stall near the city gate at this time.
She ordered five bowls of pork-filled wontons in one go, each bowl costing eight cents. She placed the forty copper coins on the stall owner's chopping board, sat down calmly at the only square table, picked up the bowl, and ate mouthful after mouthful, relishing the meal.
The stall owner couldn't cook wontons as fast as she ate them. She ate three bowls in a row, and the fourth bowl was still in the pot. The stall owner wiped the sweat from his head and apologized, "Please wait a moment, sir. I'm cooking it. I'm cooking it."
As he spoke, his eyes would occasionally glance at the prey piled haphazardly on the roadside.
Four pheasants, two squirrels, a roe deer and a weasel were all still alive.
On ordinary days, living prey is rare. If a hunter holds a living prey in his hand, it means that he is definitely a hunter with superb hunting skills.
But today these creatures are not surprising at all, simply because there is a big black bear lying next to them.
The bear had knife marks on its abdomen and neck, and no one knew which one had sent it to see the King of Hell.
The stall owner brought the last two bowls of wontons to Qin Yao and glanced at the short knife she had placed beside her.
The knife was very old, the back of the blade was rusty and uneven, and the handle was wrapped in rags with some dark marks on it.
With just one look, the stall owner was sure that it was blood!
Looking at the woman sitting steadily at the table, eating from the bowl, the stall owner really couldn't imagine how she subdued the black bear.
Qin Yao noticed the stall owner's gaze and raised her eyelids from the bowl. Her eyes, which were clearly black and white and without a trace of impurities, looked at him calmly.
The look in his eyes didn't seem like he was looking at a person, but rather at something that wasn't a person. Perhaps, a ghost?
The stall owner felt a chill down his spine for no apparent reason, and hurriedly lowered his eyes, turning around and pretending to be busy.
When Shopkeeper Fan arrived, Qin Yao had just finished her fifth bowl of wontons. Her stomach was eight-tenths full and she looked very satisfied.
This was her first proper meal since traveling through time.
Sure enough, the world is big, but eating is the most important thing.
After a full meal, I felt that the world became beautiful again.
"Girl, did you hunt this black bear?" asked Shopkeeper Fan in surprise.
He just heard the waiter say that a girl killed the black bear, and he didn't believe it. But now that he has seen the real person, he has to believe it.
Hearing someone asking about Xiong, Qin Yao stood up with a knife, walked to her stall, and answered the middle-aged man who asked:
"It's mine. Do you want it? I can give you a discount if you take the whole thing away."
Shopkeeper Fan looked at Qin Yao and then at Black Bear, and then looked around. He didn't see any donkey carts, horse carts, ox carts or other means of transportation, so he couldn't help but ask,
"Did the girl carry all these down the mountain by herself?"
Qin Yao nodded and continued to promote her prey. "These live animals are still fresh. I killed this black bear yesterday evening. It wasn't too hot today, so they are all in good condition."
Shopkeeper Fan followed up by asking, "How much do you plan to sell this black bear girl for?"
"How much are you offering?" Qin Yao asked back.
As soon as she entered the city, she was attracted by the wontons. She was hungry, so she filled her stomach first. She didn't have time to ask about the price of the prey.
Shopkeeper Fan thought for a moment and tentatively gave a number, "Eighty taels."
Qin Yao immediately calculated in her mind. According to the highest living standard in Liujia Village, a family of five would spend about twenty taels a year. These eighty taels were equivalent to four years of good food and drink.
Well, that's about it.
Bear meat is actually not particularly valuable. It is a bit more expensive than pork and can be sold for fifty or sixty cents per pound. Her black bear weighs seven hundred pounds, so taking a middle ground, the meat alone should be able to sell for about forty taels.
The main thing is the bear skin, bear gall and bear paws, forty taels is not bad.
"Okay, eighty taels, deal!"
Qin Yao was even kind enough to give a pheasant as a gift.
"Do you want me to send it to you?" Qin Yao asked with a smile, seeing that the shopkeeper and the waiter were at a loss as to what to do with the black bear's corpse.
Without waiting for the two men to answer, Qin Yao put the knife and bow and arrow on the bracket, lifted the entire carriage directly, raised her chin towards Shopkeeper Fan, motioned him to lead the way, and walked away.
Seeing the heavy 'Black Bear Mountain' floating in front of him, Shopkeeper Fan was so shocked that his jaw almost dropped.
"This, she..." Shopkeeper Fan was a little incoherent.
Qin Yao shouted in front: "Let's go!" She was waiting to pay the bill.
(End of this chapter)