Chapter 150: Does This Count as Meat Freedom?

Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh.

Han Li consecutively threw out three javelins, successfully sending these two huge male moose on their way.

Only then did he have the mood to carefully inspect his prey. His first impression was, "What a huge and massive pile of meat."

Even if calculated at the bare minimum of 500 kilograms per moose, all four of them totaled 2,000 kilograms. This was nearly two tons of meat.

If Han Li, his fiancée, and his future sister-in-law ate to their hearts' content, and each person consumed 2 pounds of meat a day, that would only be 6 pounds a day in total. This meat would be enough for the three of them to eat for two years. Even if they didn't eat grain at all and survived solely on meat, doubling that consumption rate, today's harvest would still be enough to feed the three of them for a whole year. While other people were still worrying about not having enough food to eat, what kind of blissful, god-like life was he living, dammit?

The moose fur wasn't as smooth as it looked from a distance, nor was its practical warmth comparable to marten fur, but it possessed quite good insulating properties. It would make great material for tents or outer cloaks.

The antler-like forked horns of the moose were truly magnificent. Han Li had already decided to keep them properly and use them as decorations in his trophy room once he got a suitable house.

After performing a simple disassembly, all four moose were taken into the decomposition space, and he quickly left the spot.

Night fell exceptionally early in this mountainous forest; it was only around four o'clock, yet the sky was already starting to turn grayish-dark.

Han Li needed to find a place to spend the night as soon as possible, otherwise, he might face danger or harassment after nightfall.

During the day, Han Li could walk recklessly through the mountain forest. Aside from having sparrow sentinels, the main reason was that dangerous animals like wolf packs, tigers, leopards, and black bears generally shared the habit of sleeping during the day and coming out to move and forage at night.

Therefore, the danger index of the mountain forest at night would multiply several times over. A safe place to spend the night was very important for a lone traveler like Han Li. However, with the experience of carving out a cave last time, it wasn't difficult for him to rig up a temporary resting place now.

Although finding a truly suitable spot in the forest wasn't easy, none of this could stump Han Li, who possessed a cheat-like ability.

His initial choice was a clearing by a stream, but he found that it only had a thin layer of soil on the surface, with solid rock underneath.

Han Li still vividly remembered the ordeal of carving out his previous cave; a temporary resting spot wasn't worth expending that much effort.

Thus, he quickly selected another clearing on a sunny southern slope. The view here was quite good, with the only drawback being that it was slightly far from a water source, but none of these were actual issues.

Han Li quickly excavated a large pit on the spot, placed tree trunks along the sides and over the top to serve as a frame, covered it with branches, and topped the very layer with the soil dug up from making the pit. A simple underground shelter was thus completed.

The internal space was no more than five square meters at most. He piled up wood to make a bed, stacked stones to build a fire pit, and set up a hollow tree trunk beside it to serve as a ventilation pipe—and that was about it. As for the door, Han Li would directly block it solid with stones later.

By the time Han Li finished all of this, the sky had grown extremely dark. He returned to the stream once more, fashioned a wooden bucket along the way, hauled back a bucket of water, entered the temporary shelter, and blocked the entrance completely.

The interior of the space instantly became pitch black. Han Li patted his forehead, took out a candle, and lit it, only then beginning to busy himself with his dinner.

What Han Li lit in the fire pit was charcoal, which kept the space free of smoke.

Placed above the fire pit was his mess tin, in which the water he had just hauled back was boiling.

Eating some wild fruits and dried meat, and drinking a mess tin of chrysanthemum tea would suffice for today's dinner.

However, the temperature inside this space was rising so fast that Han Li started to feel hot in no time.

Having no other choice, Han Li temporarily left an opening at the top of the entrance, planning to block it again when sleeping.

Meanwhile, back in Shanghe Village, the Yun sisters were cooking at Han Li's house. However, Yun Yingying clearly looked a bit absent-minded.

Seeing this, her older sister Yun Jingjing could only offer a few words of comfort, as she herself had no idea what the situation was like deep in the remote mountains.

Yet, judging from the villagers' accounts, the deep mountains could be described as fraught with danger—not only threatened by various carnivorous animals, but also easy to get lost in if one wasn't careful. If luck was bad, there was a high chance of never finding the way back again.

However, Yun Jingjing held an inexplicable confidence in Han Li, believing that nothing would happen to him. This confidence was so ungrounded that it made Yun Jingjing's face flush slightly, and she didn't even dare to dwell on it further, afraid she might wander into thoughts she shouldn't have. If that were really the case, it would give her a sense of guilt toward her younger sister.

Right at that moment, the street gate of Han Li's house was pushed open, and then Jiang Xiaoli's voice drifted into the house.

"Han Li, are you back?"

Hearing the voice, Yun Yingying greeted her at the door: "Sister Jiang, Han Li hasn't come back yet. Is there something you need him for?"

Jiang Xiaoli: "Nothing major. It's just that in a couple of days I need to go to the commune grain station to exchange grain coupons, and I wanted to ask Han Li to help me haul some grain."

"Is that all? Well, when Han Li gets back, I'll let him know. By the way, Sister Jiang, have you eaten? Our dinner is almost ready, why don't you eat something here?"

"I already ate when I was at the educated youth courtyard. You guys go ahead and eat slowly, I'll go chat with Yang Xiuying and the others."

After leaving Han Li's house, Jiang Xiaoli didn't go to Yang Xiuying's place, but instead turned toward Wu Lili's side.

Inside He Mi's house, Qi Zhaodi was cooking while whittling a wooden stick. If one looked closely, they could faintly trace the shadow of a javelin.

Seeing her like this, He Mi shook her head and said, "Little sister Qi, Han Li's seemingly simple throwing has its tricks. If you want to learn, you can ask him to teach you. Han Li probably won't be stingy about sharing some basic force-application techniques."

Qi Zhaodi shook her head and replied, "Sister He, I know you both are very good to me, but I already owe Big Brother Han and you enough. So I don't want to bring this up for now; I'll wait until I truly can't figure it out myself."

"You, oh you."

The next day, Han Li's biological clock woke him up precisely on time.

Han Li rubbed his hazy eyes; he hadn't slept very soundly last night.

Night should have been a time of absolute stillness, but the night deep in the mountains was exceptionally lively.

There were owls hooting, wild boars grunting, and various sounds made by other animals. The scene was like a late-night forest symphony.

Even towards the end, in his half-asleep state, Han Li vaguely seemed to hear the roar of a bear.

Han Li had slept fully clothed last night, and thanks to the ample charcoal he had stoked into the fire pit, the temperature inside the space was still quite pleasant.

At this moment, Han Li sat up from the bed, added more charcoal to the fire pit, scooped a mess tin of water from the wooden barrel to heat up, and used the remaining water to rinse his mouth and wash his face.

After eating a simple bite, Han Li disassembled the stones and wood used here, packed them away, and finally filled in the pit, restoring the area to its original appearance as much as possible.

After finishing all this, Han Li discharged the waste accumulated overnight, locked onto a direction, and quickly departed.

He didn't run for very long before a sparrow flew back and brought him good news.

Ahead lay a very large mountain valley, filled with plenty of mongolian oaks, hazelnut trees, red pines, and walnut trees.

Han Li was very happy with this news. One had to know that even in the deep mountains and old forests, prey wasn't that easy to find.

And the valley the sparrow spoke of would likely show traces of wild boars, wolves, and even black bears or tigers.

Because those types of trees provided abundant food sources in the valley, acting as a natural granary for those animals.

Moreover, this was precisely the time when various animals desperately tried to store fat, and by instinct, those animals would never let go of such a geomantic treasure trove.

Therefore, barring any unexpected accidents, Han Li was bound to reap a massive harvest on this trip.

Of course, Han Li would also face the potential danger of encountering carnivorous animals such as black bears, tigers, leopards, and lynx.