He Zhiran had a sudden realization. If Peng Wang hadn't mentioned it, she would have almost forgotten about killing the wolves last night.
Hearing Peng Wang ask her how she handled it, He Zhiran didn't get carried away and forget her current identity.
Peng Wang is a decent official who considered their wishes.
If it was one of those unscrupulous officials, they wouldn't care who killed the wolves. They would just take them into town to exchange them for silver. Wouldn't that be great for them?
Therefore, He Zhiran did not overstep. Instead, she asked back, "What does Officer Peng plan to do?"
Peng Wang spread his hands and told the truth.
"If this was in the past, after killing so many wolves, I wouldn't have considered whose credit it was. I would have directly taken them into town to exchange them for silver."
Hearing this, He Zhiran and Mo Jiuye felt it was honest enough.
Frankly, they were just exiled criminals under these officials, surviving on their mercy. For Peng Wang to say this to them meant he no longer saw them as criminals.
This kind of person was definitely worth befriending.
In fact, when Peng Wang asked this question, He Zhiran already had a plan in mind.
Now that she understood Peng Wang's thoughts, she no longer held back.
"Officer Peng, even if you take the wolves into town to exchange for money, you probably wouldn't get much, right?"
Peng Wang nodded. "Last year, we killed two wild wolves on the road. We took them into town and got one or two taels of silver each."
He Zhiran raised her eyebrows. "You took the wolves to a fur shop?"
"Yeah. The fur shop owner said no one eats wolf meat so he only bought them for the fur price."
Actually, Peng Wang felt one or two taels per wolf was pretty good. After all, it was free money and he wouldn't complain about less.
Moreover, they had killed so many wolves last night. At one or two taels each, they could still get fifty taels!
He discussed it partly out of respect for the two of them, and partly thinking that if they agreed to his proposal, he could ask them to split the silver later.
However, judging by He Zhiran's attitude, she didn't seem to approve of taking the wolves to the fur shop to exchange for silver.
"If I can make these wolves more valuable, would Officer Peng be willing?"
"Why would I not be willing?" Peng Wang answered without thinking.
Getting an affirmative answer, He Zhiran instantly became spirited.
The comfortable massage would have to wait. She stood up abruptly.
"Let's go process the wolves now."
Mo Jiuye was also curious how He Zhiran would make the wolves more profitable.
So he followed along.
He Zhiran called over the Xie Family and Fang Family men.
Then she looked at Peng Wang, "First Officer Peng, we need to skin these wolves."
Hearing this, Peng Wang had already guessed He Zhiran's plan. She would just sell the wolf pelts separately. A pelt could still sell for one tael.
But the wolf meat was worthless. Where would the extra profit she mentioned come from?
Even if he didn't understand, he still chose to support He Zhiran. He wanted to see how this woman would turn the useless wolf meat into treasure.
He ordered the officials to take out their daggers and hand them over to He Zhiran.
He Zhiran casually picked up a dagger and nimbly started skinning a wolf by the hind legs.
Seeing this, Mo Jiuye also picked up a dagger to help.
The Xie and Fang men followed their example and started working.
He Zhiran reminded them to be careful not to damage the pelts, or they would sell for less silver.
The bolder women also came over to help. By breakfast time, they had skinned twenty wolf pelts.
With the Li family sent back to the capital for reassignment, the He family stood out even more among the exiles.
As they ate their black sesame buns, the He family looked with envy at the others busily working together, even regretting opposing the Mo family earlier.
Now they were stuck gnawing on those choking black buns, and completely ostracized...
Indeed, the Mo, Fang and Xie families were used to such stares and simply ignored the He family, not even glancing at them.
The officials had no choice but to look at the He family, especially cautious after what happened with Li Rou'er, making sure to check they were all present whenever they looked over.
In contrast to the He family, the treatment of the other three families was completely different. Although their meals could not compare to their former luxury, they were very content to eat this well on the exile journey.
Seeing the harmonious relations between the other families and officials, and even enjoying fragrant meals, the He family's eyes burned with envy.
But everyone was used to such stares and directly chose to ignore them.
After breakfast, seeing that those people could now independently skin the wolf pelts, He Zhiran left them to it and went to get busy with something else.
She called the women over and they cut the wolf meat into thumb-thick strips, then secretly took out some seasoning from her space and started marinating it.
While marinating the meat, the other women continued cutting it up. He Zhiran took Mo Jiuye to the riverbank.
If she remembered correctly, when she was filling up the waterskins by the river yesterday, she saw a very thin slab of bluestone there.
Dragged by his wife to the riverside, Mo Jiuye was still confused.
He wondered if she still wanted him to massage her, but didn't dare with so many people around, so brought him somewhere more secluded?
Just as Mo Jiuye was figuring this out, thinking that this time he would definitely put in more effort to massage his wife, he saw He Zhiran point to a bluestone slab on the riverbank and say:
"Let's take this slab into the river to wash it, then use it to dry jerk the meat."
Wash the slab?
Jerk meat?
For a moment, Mo Jiuye's thoughts couldn't keep up.
Seeing He Zhiran had already moved to lift up one side of the slab, Mo Jiuye finally understood.
He pulled He Zhiran aside without another thought, then exerted his strength and shifted the slab to the riverbank.
He Zhiran tore off some tough grass and deftly squatted by the river scrubbing the bluestone slab.
No choice, they had to make do in this special period.
Mo Jiuye followed her example, helping to scrub.
