Because he wanted to wait for that man-or rather, get back at him-Li Long planned to stay in the mountains for two days.
If he was staying, he couldn't take the wild boar meat home. He would have to process it here.
Fortunately, the bastard who had occupied the Small Wooden Cabin hadn't destroyed the pot in the large room. He had only kicked over the stove inside.
Li Long took the pot out and heated some water, planning to clean the wild boar's offal and boil some of it.
As for the meat, he didn't intend to boil it. He was thinking of drying some and smoking and curing the rest.
Li Long-or, really, the whole Li Family-didn't much like smoked and cured meat. It wasn't simply dislike; it was a matter of regional habits. They had no tradition of smoking and curing meat, though not being used to the taste was naturally part of it too.
That was why he had mostly air-dried or braised the game he had caught before.
Now he had no choice, so he might as well try smoking some meat.
He skinned the wild boar and cut the meat, bones and all, into strips. Of the entrails, he threw the lungs far away because they were rather dirty, keeping the rest and washing the stomach and intestines before putting them on to boil.
He rubbed salt over the strips of meat and bone, then righted the overturned worktable. One of its four legs had broken, so he had to find a stick to prop it up, wipe the cutting surface clean, and lay the salted meat and bones on it to dry.
Once all that was done, Li Long sighed, took his machete into the nearby woods, and cut some pine branches to