For the delicate task of skinning, you have to take out the dagger.
Sitting on the beach, Chen Zhou loosened his clothes slightly to let off so heat. Humming a cheerful tune, he started skinning bit by bit from the skull of the large seal he had chopped open.
Busy until the afternoon, feeling a bit hungry, he returned to the hillside camp.
Picking up the fire striker, he grabbed a few pieces of dry wood and was about to head back to the beach when Chen Zhou suddenly saw Lai Fu running out of the woods.
After enduring a whole morning in the cave, with the rain stopped, Lai Fu finally couldn't contain his concern and left ho alone to find his master.
Having walked the path to the beach countless tis, he quickly and skillfully reached the camp.
Bark!
Seeing his master holding firewood from afar, Lai Fu's tail imdiately started wagging, and an unmistakable excitent and joy appeared on his face.
Bark bark!
As if to announce his arrival to his master, Lai Fu sped up and rushed to Chen Zhou, rubbed his head against his thigh, and whimpered affectionately.
"You little rascal, never listening, how co you ran down when I told you to guard the house?"
Though his words were scolding, Chen Zhou couldn't bring himself to be harsh. He put down the firewood, crouched down, and hugged Lai Fu's sturdy neck.
Ha~ha~
Lai Fu stuck out his wet, slobbery tongue to give Chen Zhou a face wash, then nestled his fluffy head into his arms, rolled over to expose his belly, with all four paws playfully kicking about, and his tail wagging non-stop.
"You little rascal~"
Chen Zhou couldn't resist Lai Fu's antics, rubbed his warm belly a few tis, picked up the firewood again, and called out.
"Let's go, you little glutton are quite lucky indeed.
Just caught two seals, let's roast so at and taste it first, never had this stuff before."
With Lai Fu wagging his head and tail, they returned to the beach.
For the first ti seeing such a large animal, Lai Fu caught a whiff of the unfamiliar scent emanating from the seal and couldn't help but feel a bit intimidated, barking loudly from thirty ters away on the beach.
"Co on, why are you stopping there?"
Chen Zhou, now standing by the seal carcass, put down the wood and called for Lai Fu with the flint and steel.
Stopping his barking, Lai Fu hesitated for a few seconds, but his trust in his master ultimately triumphed over his fear.
He took small steps, constantly checking the giant creature for any movent as he drew closer, then continued forward.
In this stop-and-go manner, he finally reached the front, while Chen Zhou had already ignited tinder, gathered so twigs, and knelt down to fan the flas.
"See how cowardly you are,"
Protecting the budding fla with his hand against the oncoming ocean wind, Chen Zhou carefully blew on it, making the fire grow bolder and brighter, then added so dry wood on top.
As ti progressed, he grew more adept with the outdated tool of the fire striker, lighting fires faster and faster.
Once the bonfire was stable, Chen Zhou went to the nearby forest to chop down so rain-soaked dead trees for fuel.
Lai Fu, still intimidated by the dead seal, stuck close to his master, unwilling to be left alone by the seal carcass.
With an empty stomach, abandoning any more teasing of Lai Fu, Chen Zhou took out his dagger, sliced off a piece of seal at, and started roasting it over the fire.
Though seals look rotund with fat, akin to a couch potato, beneath their thick layers lies extrely developed muscle.
Rich in hemoglobin, the seal at was a deep red, a hue so intense it bordered on black-purple.
Back in school, Chen Zhou had learned from textbooks about the Inuit custom of eating seal at raw. He had also seen expensive seal oil and even more costly seal skin coats on online shopping platforms, so he wasn't worried about the seal being toxic.
In his brief encounter with Lai Fu at the camp, he had forgotten to grab any salt.
With the at already roasting, not wanting to fuss back and forth, Chen Zhou decided to flip the seal at skewered on his dagger and eat it as is.
The appearance of roasted seal at bore a resemblance to seared beef, yet its aroma was entirely different.
Its scent carried a slight sea saltiness, overshadowed by a rich, indescribable at aroma, much heavier than the fragrance of roasted bird wings or rabbit at.
The slices of at were thin and quickly roasted to doneness.
Chen Zhou cautiously took a taste.
The taste of seal at was reminiscent of a fusion between animal liver, donkey at, and fish. The texture was very delicate, with no trace of gaminess, even cooked as such. Careful tasting revealed a hint of saltiness, yet it wasn't fishy.
In short, two words—delicious.
"Still a bit bland.
Too bad there's no chili powder, no cumin or sesa, nor any pepper...
If I could sprinkle so seasoning, I can't imagine how exhilarating this would be."
Ripping apart the slices of seal at, while lanting, Chen Zhou had never craved modern seasonings so much.
Slicing more seal at piece by piece, he roasted so for Lai Fu as well.
With the few lingering clouds in the sky unable to hide the sunlight, the partially skinned seal carcass started emitting a strong, bloody stench.
With the rain gone and the sun out, the sll attracted sea birds that perched on the beach watching from a distance.
Once the human and dog by the carcass left, they would co for their share.
With his stomach filled, wearing a wide-brimd hat, Chen Zhou continued his skinning work.
Unlike the mild scent during the rain, the corpse stench intensified under the baking sun, and as he reached the last section, Chen Zhou's face contorted into a grimace that wouldn't relax.
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