The next morning, before dawn.
The large iron gate of the red brick factory was pushed open, and a stench of stale corpses mixed with rancid grease, like some kind of viscous substance, was slapped against my face.
Su Wei expressionlessly put on thick rubber gloves, tightened the apron straps, and put on the prepared mask.
Yesterday was just an appetizer; today is the main course.
In the center of the factory, a large iron pot with a diameter of one meter was bubbling with thick, murky steam.
What's being cooked here isn't food, but rather the various animal remains that Old Hope had left over from processing this week.
To obtain clean bone specimens, they must be boiled at high temperatures to completely disintegrate the muscles and connective tissues in the pot, leaving only bare bones.
"Wash the pot."
Old Hope sat on a high stool, holding a cup of freshly ground black coffee, and pointed to the large cauldron that exuded an aura of hell.
"You need to remove all the overcooked meat scraps, and sort the bones into different categories and put them in the drying box. If I can smell even a trace of stale oil from the pot, you'd better lick the oil off the bottom of the pot."
This old man was in a foul mood first thing in the morning.
Without wasting words, Su Wei picked up a huge, long-handled strainer and walked to the pot.
The steam was so intense that the smell was enough to make any normal person vomit up their leftovers.
If it were the Su Wei before time travel, they probably would have run away long ago.
But the Su Wei of today have even smelled the saliva of brown bears, so this little smell is nothing to them.
Stir with a strainer.
The dark red broth simmered, revealing piles of bones whose parts were indistinguishable.
Su Wei's hand was very steady.
Each spoonful precisely avoids the fragile ribs, bringing up the scraps of meat that have sunk to the bottom.
The passive nature of the [ Crafting Module ] gives him a natural intuition for this kind of screening work.
You can sense where the liquid density is high and where impurities have settled by simply turning your wrist.
Half an hour later.
The bones were neatly arranged on a tray, a stark white expanse.
The iron pot was scrubbed so clean you could see your reflection in it, and even the black grease that had accumulated around the rim was scrubbed away bit by bit by Su Wei with a steel wool pad.
Old Hope walked over with his coffee cup, stretched out a finger that looked like withered tree bark, and smeared it roughly across the bottom of the pot.
My fingers are clean, with only a little bit of residual water.
The old man leaned closer to sniff it, his brows furrowing deeply, seemingly very annoyed at not finding a reason to lash out.
"This is a basic skill."
Old Hope snorted and turned to walk towards a workbench in the corner.
"Don't think you can be a taxidermist just because you can wash a pot. Come here."
He took a dusty cardboard box from the shelf behind him and slammed it onto the table with a thud.
It was a pile of bones.
And it wasn't just one skeleton; it was a jumbled mess of bones mixed together.
Large and small, broken and whole, they blended together into a pale, small hill.
"There's a complete Arctic fox skeleton in here; the rest is just junk to mislead—maybe it's from a rabbit, or maybe it's from some unlucky wildcat."
Old Hope tapped on the table, a mischievous glint in his cloudy eyes.
"All you have to do is pick it out and put it back together."
"There are no drawings, no markings. The deadline is 6 PM."
The old man glanced at the wall clock and sneered.
"If you can't piece it together, then make soup from those broken bones and get out of here."
After saying that, he ignored Su Wei's reaction, hummed an off-key tune, strolled back to his workbench, picked up the precious stag antler, and began to polish it.
Su Wei looked at the messy pile of bones in front of him.
It's like finding a specific model in a pile of white Lego bricks, without any instructions.
The skeletal structure of the snow fox is very delicate, especially its finger bones and tail vertebrae, which are very similar to those of rabbits and wildcats. If even one bone is misplaced, the entire structure will collapse.
This is deliberate obstruction.
Su Wei took a deep breath and pulled over a chair to sit down.
Having accepted the challenge, there's no reason to back down.
He casually picked up a bone about five centimeters long. It was bulging at both ends and thin in the middle, with obvious traces of muscle attachment.
This is the humerus.
But... is it from a fox or a cat?
Su Wei tried to discern the texture on it with the naked eye.
An hour has passed.
Only a few scattered leg bones were laid out on the table, and they looked awkward no matter how you looked at them. The fit of the joints seemed like they had been forced in.
Seven hours left.
Old Hope's voice drifted over, carrying an undisguised schadenfreude.
"If you're planning to stare your way into a skeleton, I suggest you buy a microscope. You idiot."
Su Wei ignored the insult.
He stopped what he was doing.
The eyes can be deceiving, especially when hundreds of bones are shaped to be roughly the same.
But the hands won't.
Su Wei closed his eyes and gently stroked the joint of the bone with his fingers.
My fingertips glided over the rough bone, feeling the tiny bumps and undulations.
[ Crafting Module - Bone Cleaning LV1] Triggered.
[Passive: Touch of X-Ray Vision is now active]
In an instant, the cold, lifeless object seemed to come alive at his fingertips.
On the originally smooth joint surface, Su Wei could feel some extremely fine grooves and protrusions.
These are natural clasps in the skeleton, intricate mechanical structures formed over tens of thousands of years of evolution.
Click.
A soft sound seemed to echo in my mind.
Su Wei picked up another irregularly shaped scapula.
I rotated my finger in the socket of my knuckle.
No, it's too deep.
Throw it away.
Replace it.
This piece... has minor wear on the edges, but the curvature matches.
Su Wei brought the two bones together and gently pushed them in.
Perfectly fitted.
There wasn't a single tremor; it was as if they were meant to grow together.
That smooth, damping sensation traveled from my fingertips throughout my body, sending a shiver of pure bliss through me.
I see.
This is what it means to "listen" to the sound of bones.
Su Wei suddenly opened his eyes, his previously anxious gaze now as deep as a still well.
No drawings are needed.
The bones themselves will tell him where he is.
His movements began to quicken.
He picked up a vertebra with his left hand and quickly rummaged through the pile of bones with his right.
You don't need to see the shape of each piece clearly; as soon as your fingertip touches it, your brain will instantly provide information about the bone—its location, orientation, and connection points.
This is the third cervical vertebra, this is the fifth coccyx, and this is... the rib of a stray cat that snuck in. Get lost.
The pile of bones on the table was rapidly decreasing.