Transmigrated as a Stepmother: Time to Bring the Family to Prosper!-Chapter 21 - 20: County Town

Chapter 21: Chapter 20: County Town
Qin Yao dragged the black bear back to the cave, and the sky was already completely dark.
This black bear was about 700 pounds, and Qin Yao couldn’t carry it, so she made a simple stretcher out of branches and dragged it back.
The stretcher worked quite well, and Qin Yao decided that she would use it to haul all the game she had hunted these days down the mountain early tomorrow.
The wounds on the black bear had a heavy smell of blood, which could easily attract other foraging wild animals.
After the fight with the black bear, although Qin Yao wasn’t injured, it had drained a lot of her strength. Since she needed to take the game down the mountain tomorrow, she had to conserve her energy tonight.
Throughout the night, occasional probing howls of wild animals came from the surrounding forest. Qin Yao didn’t dare to relax at all, setting up two bonfires outside the cave to stay vigilant.
When she detected danger approaching, she immediately shot an arrow as a warning, aiming to avoid going out of the cave unless necessary. In this way, she finally made it until a sliver of orange dawn appeared at the horizon.
Not daring to delay, she hastily ate two roasted wild chickens, tied the black bear and other game to the drag, and set off down the mountain.
She didn’t take the direction she came from but rather circumvented this mountain range, heading directly towards Kaiyang County.
The towns near the black bear certainly couldn’t handle it, and she didn’t have the energy to dismantle and sell it bit by bit. It was better to go further and directly into the county town, where there were more wealthy people, and it should sell more quickly.
Going up the mountain lightly equipped, Qin Yao walked quickly.
Now, carrying almost 800 pounds of game downhill, Qin Yao couldn’t go fast.
But perhaps due to her fruitful haul, her mood was great, and she unknowingly walked out of the forest and onto the official road.
By now, it was near dusk.
In Sheng Country, there was no curfew, but the city gates would be closed by the end of the hour of You (5-7 PM), prohibiting entry and exit.
Dragging the heavy game, Qin Yao hurried and finally entered Kaiyang County before the city gates closed.
There was an entry fee of one cent per person to enter the city.
Qin Yao didn’t have half a copper coin on her, so she sold a wild chicken weighing just over four pounds at the city gate, earning eighty coins, paid the one-cent fee, and was able to enter the city.
The guards at the city gate saw the black bear on her drag and their expressions went from disbelief to jaw-dropping.
In less than one incense stick of time, news of someone coming to town with a bear they had hunted reached the ears of the managers of two taverns in the city.
"Is it true?" Manager Fan asked in shock.
The waiter who went to inquire nodded hastily, "Absolutely true, manager! I’ve never seen such a big bear in my life. That head is bigger than my two heads put together. You’d better hurry, or it might be bought by the place across the door!"
Hearing that the rival place was already heading there, Manager Fan couldn’t care about being shocked and hurried towards 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 breath, eight cents a bowl, and placed forty copper coins on the stallholder’s counter, sitting down at the only square table, picking up a bowl, and devouring it one mouthful after another.
The stallholder couldn’t cook wontons as fast as she ate them. After eating three bowls, with the fourth still in the pot, the stallholder wiped the sweat off his forehead and apologized, "Please wait a moment, it’s cooking, it’s cooking."
As he spoke, his eyes occasionally glanced at the game casually piled by the roadside.
Four wild chickens, two squirrels, a roe deer, and a weasel, all of them alive.
On ordinary days, live game was rare. If a hunter had live game, it showed that he was undoubtedly an extraordinarily skilled hunter.
But today, these live games were not rare at all, only because next to them lay a big black bear.
The bear had knife marks on its belly and neck, and it was unknown who had sent it to meet King Yan.
The stallholder served Qin Yao the last two bowls of wontons, glancing again at the short knife she had placed beside her.
The knife was very old, its back rusted and uneven, its handle wrapped in tattered cloth with some dark stains on it.
With just one look, the stallholder was sure it was blood!
Watching the woman sitting steadily at the table, holding the bowl and eating in big mouthfuls, the stallholder truly couldn’t imagine how she had subdued the black bear.
Qin Yao sensed the stallholder’s gaze and lifted her eyelids from the bowl, her eyes clear-cut black and white, observing him calmly.
That look didn’t seem like she was looking at a person, but at something non-human, perhaps a ghost?
A chill ran down the stallholder’s spine for no reason, and he hurriedly lowered his eyelids and turned away to pretend to be busy.
Manager Fan arrived just as Qin Yao finished her fifth bowl of wontons, feeling contentedly eighty percent full.
Having crossed over to this world, this was her first proper meal.
Indeed, nothing is more important than eating.
After a good meal, the world seemed to become beautiful again.
"Miss, is this black bear you hunted?" Manager Fan asked in surprise.
He hadn’t believed it when the waiter told him a girl had hunted the black bear, but now seeing her in person, he had to believe it.
Hearing someone ask about the bear, Qin Yao stood up with her knife, walked to her stall, and replied to this inquiring middle-aged man:
"It’s mine. Do you want it? I can give you a discount if you take the whole thing."
Manager Fan looked at Qin Yao and then at the black bear again, sweeping his eyes around the surroundings but not finding any donkey carts, horse carts, or ox carts, couldn’t help but ask:
"Did Miss carry all these down the mountain alone?"
Qin Yao nodded, continuing to promote her game, "These live ones are still fresh, and I killed this black bear yesterday evening. It’s not hot today, so everything is good."
Manager Fan followed up with a question, "How much does Miss plan to sell this black bear for?"
"How much do you offer?" Qin Yao countered.
Having just entered the city, she had been attracted by the wontons, so she filled her stomach first and hadn’t had time to inquire about the price for such game.
Manager Fan thought for a bit and tentatively suggested a price, "Eighty taels."
Qin Yao immediately converted in her mind. According to the highest living standards of the Liu Family Village, a family of five would roughly spend twenty taels a year, so eighty taels equated to four years of good living.
Hmm, that should be about right.
Bear meat wasn’t particularly valuable, only slightly more expensive than pork, selling at five or six cents a pound. This black bear was 700 pounds, worth about forty taels just for the meat.
The main value lay in the bear skin, bile, and paws, so forty taels was pretty good.
"Alright, eighty taels, deal!"
Qin Yao even kindly threw in a mountain chicken as a bonus.
"Would you like me to deliver it to you?" Seeing the manager and the waiter at a loss as to how to handle the bear carcass, Qin Yao asked with a smile.
Without waiting for their response, Qin Yao placed her knife and bow and arrow on the drag, lifted the entire drag, signaled for Manager Fan to lead the way with a raise of her chin, and started walking.
Watching as the heavy ’black bear mountain’ floated past him, Manager Fan’s jaw nearly dropped.
"This, she..." Manager Fan stammered slightly.
Qin Yao called from the front, "Let’s go!" She was waiting to settle the payment.