I am a local in North America

Chapter 18 Stealing Food from the Wolf's Mouth
It really was a musk ox, very large in size and covered with thick fur.

The cow's belly, head, hind legs, and other parts had been torn and gnawed by animals, leaving them in a terrible state. Fortunately, the wounds were covered by ice and snow, making them less disgusting.

Su Jerry was pleasantly surprised!

Holding the action camera, he continued with a bright smile and said:

"Is this the reward for letting that lynx go? If it weren't for it, I probably wouldn't have left the house today, and even if I had, I wouldn't have come here."

"Perhaps the lynx was seriously injured because it fought with the wolves over the musk ox?"

"This is fantastic! In the wilderness, luck sometimes outweighs skill. Meat usually doesn't spoil in this kind of weather, it looks incredibly fresh."

My heart was moved.

Su Jierui used all his strength to lift up the musk ox's other foreleg and hind leg to take a look.

Sure enough, the wolves only targeted areas that were easy to bite. The fur on the parts closest to the ground was clean, without any claw marks or bite marks.

This musk ox was particularly fat; even at the many bite wounds, traces of ox fat could be seen, making his eyes widen and hard to look away.

These fats are incredibly valuable during the cold winter months, and unlike alligator snapping turtle oil, they are not fishy, ​​smelly, or likely to cause diarrhea.

Wolves like to guard their food, especially during the winter when food is scarce, meaning they may return at any time.

It's unclear where the wolf pack is; perhaps they've eaten and drunk their fill and are just finding a place to rest.

Because they can detect the surrounding activity in time, and the wolves are already full, their aggression will definitely be reduced. If an accident occurs, they will have time to escape.

After weighing the options carefully, Su Jierui couldn't bear to miss out on the easy money that was being offered to him, so he gritted his teeth and stomped his foot!

He risked his life to chop off a relatively intact musk ox foreleg with an axe before the wolves returned, along with tenderloin, steak, and other cuts!
One of its hind legs was also intact, but it was too heavy for him to carry, and he was afraid that he would be caught by the wolves, so he had to give it up with a heavy heart.

Finally, he peeled off a large piece of fatty cowhide, which was just right to wrap the carefully selected musk meat and fat, totaling over a hundred pounds!

They worked incredibly fast, taking about half an hour in total. After finishing, they rushed back to the camp as if their lives depended on it, struggling to drag the beef back to the camp.

On the way back to camp.

Hearing the howling of wolves in the distance, Su Jierui stopped in his tracks, thinking that the wolves had discovered his theft of musk beef.

Turning my head to look in the direction of the sound, I saw what appeared to be a lynx perched on the top of a large tree, emitting a mournful cry.

Some things suddenly connected, making Su Jierui realize the truth, and he said speechlessly:
"The reason the wolves weren't guarding their prey, could it be that they went after that lynx? Nature is indeed cruel; getting beaten up everywhere just to get a bite to eat, it's really pitiful. If I had known the wolves were busy beating you up, I would have brought back the musk ox's hind leg too..."

In the ice and snow.

Struggling to drag a large bag of musk beef, Su Jierui's back was covered in sweat. He muttered to himself, trying to find some amusement, and introduced the product:
“Unlike many Chinese families living in North America, my family still maintains the habit of communicating in Chinese. My parents, sisters and cousins ​​all speak Chinese, as do my grandparents.”

"My great-grandmother, whom I met by chance after my great-grandfather remarried after coming to the United States, often looked at them with a blank expression. She could only understand the gist of what they said, and her Chinese was barely enough to handle normal communication."

“For my great-grandmother, learning Chinese was too difficult. Countless idioms were like compressed files, and it was hard to understand their meaning.”

“Having grown up in a bilingual environment, my spoken Chinese is pretty good. During elementary school, there were also special courses in Chinese literature, history, and philosophy, which were incorporated into the entire elementary school curriculum. Many of my classmates were of Chinese descent.”

"Out of laziness, I chose some elective courses related to China in junior high and high school. Combined with some popular Chinese movies and TV series and online novels, I basically know everything that I need to know. I am much better than many second-, third-, and fourth-generation immigrants around me."

"Although my family wasn't well-off in the early years, both my great-grandfather, who passed away a few years ago, and my grandfather spent a lot of money to buy plane tickets in the 80s and 90s to fly back to their hometown to visit relatives."

“Every few years, I would buy some gifts and go back during the Spring Festival or other holidays. I also funded the renovation of the ancestral home, worshipped at the ancestral hall, rebuilt the ancestral graves, and lent some money to reliable close relatives to buy fishing boats or start businesses.”

“Even now, my family still maintains some contact with our relatives living in the mainland.” “Back in 2008… I was very young then, and my grandfather took me to our ancestral home in Shanshan to pay respects to our ancestors. This trip left a very deep impression on me.”

"There was also a fisherman who had received kindness from my grandfather in his early years and later made a fortune by fishing and selling seafood as China's economy developed rapidly. He specially treated me to a meal and bought a lot of expensive local specialties as a token of his gratitude, including bird's nest, abalone, tea, deer antler, etc. During the meal, he also mentioned that he had been sending people to help maintain my family's ancestral home. I am really grateful to him."

"That trip to trace my roots was also the first time in my life that I saw with my own eyes the ancestral home that my great-grandfather and grandfather had always cherished and which was full of memories. It had been completely renovated inside and out, and the total area, including the courtyard, was about three or four hundred square meters."

Before the competition, the director asked me to share more about Chinese culture.

It's estimated that they hope to attract more fans to continue watching the "Living Alone in the Wilderness" program, so that they can sell the broadcasting rights to Chinese video websites and make a good price.

Su Jierui's stomach was growling with hunger, and he was extremely tired, but he still continued:

“A few years ago, my grandfather casually mentioned that with the development of the city, the area around the ancestral home suddenly became a villa and commercial area, and the old ancestral home was even rented out as a sea-view guesthouse, which is now worth a lot of money.”

"That makes me somewhat fortunate."

"Because in many Chinese online novels I've read, the authors make fun of unlucky guys who immigrate and sell their old houses in Shanghai or their courtyard houses in Beijing."

"Although my family has not developed as well as some of my former relatives, such as the fisherman I had dinner with my grandfather, who later supposedly went into real estate and shopping mall business."

"At least my family didn't completely miss out on the benefits of China's development because we went back to visit relatives back then, so we could be considered to have participated to some extent."

"But my grandfather still regrets it deeply, because a Shanghai villa that cost only twenty or thirty thousand US dollars back then has now appreciated to tens of millions of US dollars. He went shopping in the neighborhood back then, but never thought of buying one."

His Chinese proficiency is not bad.

Su Jierui has a deep understanding of the meaning of the popular internet phrase "better to die than to die."

At this very moment, in this icy and snowy landscape, dragging a large bag of musk meat, he was so exhausted that his back was about to break and the soles of his feet were aching terribly. But thinking of that poor and unlucky Canadian lynx, he was inexplicably struck by a laugh and burst out laughing.

Laughter echoed through the nearby mountains and fields; this was the first time Su Jerry had been so happy since participating in the "Living Alone in the Wild" program.

We finally made it back to camp, and it was still light out. I was exhausted.

There's no energy to butcher the musk meat right now. The temperature is below -20 degrees Celsius, colder than the freezer compartment. There's no need to waste wood making smoked meat. Just freeze it and cut off a piece whenever you want to eat it. It will taste even better that way.

Back in the shelter, they took out a magnesium flint and steel and rekindled the fire in the fireplace.

Su Jierui lay on the simple wooden bed, panting heavily, holding up an action camera to film, and said:

"Phew... I'm exhausted, but the harvest is amazing, more meat than the whole reindeer I caught."

"Because I don't know whether that poor musk ox died of natural causes or fell ill, I don't plan to eat the musk ox meat for the time being, as it may be contaminated with germs carried by wild wolves."

"They're just food reserves, like the fat of those snapping turtles. Hopefully, they'll never be needed. I don't want to get dehydrated and have my legs shaking...it's awful."

"There's one more important thing. When I go out to chop wood or go fishing, I need to be careful of being attacked by wolves. They are too dangerous, much more dangerous than lynxes."

"Lynxes look quite large, but they are relatively light, like an enlarged version of a cat. They can usually only bully coyotes. This time, it should be a Mackenzie tundra wolf, or perhaps a Manitoba Lake wolf?"

"They are all very fierce and belong to a subspecies of North American gray wolf. When lynxes encounter these adult gray wolves, they can only be bullied."

“Even if I were to fight a Canadian lynx hand-to-hand, I don’t think it could inflict a fatal wound on me unless it ambushed me and bit my throat. That’s why I dared to chase after it to check on it. Don’t follow my example.”

“Wolf packs are different. I just observed that there are at least six or seven wolves in this pack. They are good at cooperating closely and hunting down prey together. If I were to encounter a wolf pack alone in the wild, I wouldn’t dare to take any chances with just an axe and a bow and arrow…”

(End of this chapter)