Chapter 39: Sawing Bone
The salt powder in Su Ran’s chewing gum jar soon ran out.
Even the male cat beastman who had just fought with the werewolf trotted over to exchange with them.
What surprised Su Ran was that the werewolf nearby only wrinkled its nose at it at the beginning when it came over. But afterward, the two beastmen completed the exchange calmly and smoothly as if nothing had happened.
Only after the male cat left did the werewolf howl a long string of “awoo awoo awoo awoo” at Su Ran in accusation, as if complaining that she shouldn’t have sneaked a glance at the cat beastman just now.
But Su Ran was deeply wronged!
She was just curious!
Besides, she only peeked secretly because she was afraid that if she looked openly, the petty werewolf would get angry!
She ignored the werewolf and even huffed at it.
After a while, she finished her roast meat before the werewolf.
After finishing, she continued the work she hadn’t completed earlier.
She picked up two small wooden stumps that were already cut, placing one in front of herself.
The wood was completely dry.
She pulled out the flathead screwdriver hidden in the handle of the multi-tool axe and poked it into the wooden stump one by one. After more than ten minutes, a small pit about half the size of an egg appeared on the wooden stump.
This wood was very soft, making it easy to dig.
Soft wood probably wouldn’t crack easily when burned.
Su Ran thought this while continuing her actions.
Once the pit’s diameter was two centimeters wider, she took out the tactical knife and began digging downward layer by layer with the knife tip.
While digging, she suddenly stopped.
She turned her head to look at the meat from the beastmen in her two baskets.
She suddenly stood up.
She walked to the baskets, picked through them, and after searching for a bit, finally took out a piece of meat still attached to a bone with satisfaction.
She shaved the bone off the meat; this should be a leg bone, thick and heavy.
She took the bone to the riverside, squatted down, and used the tactical knife to remove the remaining bits of meat and clean it thoroughly.
Then she tossed the bone to the edge of the campfire, letting the fire burn off the tendons and membranes on the outside.
The werewolf watched her actions, its eyes full of doubt.
Seeing Su Ran put down the bone and start digging the wood again, it furrowed its brows, tugged at Su Ran’s sleeve, and its gaze kept scanning her face.
It pointed at the bone in the campfire and said, “Ran Ran, eat meat, bone…”
It frowned, looking at Su Ran as if saying, “Are you stupid? There’s so much meat, yet you want to eat the bone?”
Su Ran glanced at the bone she had thrown into the fire, sensed the werewolf’s anxiety, and couldn’t help but smile wryly.
She also raised her hand, pointed at the bone in the campfire, and shook her head. “Ran Ran, not eat.”
As soon as she spoke, the werewolf’s brows relaxed a bit, but its eyes were still full of doubt.
But it didn’t ask anything more.
Probably because everything Su Ran had made these past two days had exceeded the werewolf’s cognition, it was curious about her occasional strange actions but never tried to stop her.
Now knowing Su Ran didn’t want to eat this bone, it no longer stopped her. It even continued eating while watching Su Ran’s actions with relish.
After digging the wood for another five or six minutes, Su Ran used a wooden stick to pull the bone out of the campfire.
The bone couldn’t be burned in the fire too long, or it would become brittle and prone to breaking.
Then she scraped off the layer of dried membrane on the bone surface with the knife, padded it with another wooden stump, placed the bone on top, pulled out the saw blade from behind the multi-tool axe, and started sawing into the groove in the middle of the bone joint at one end.
She held the bone steady with one hand to prevent it from falling and tried pulling the saw with the other.
This strange action quickly piqued the werewolf’s interest, as well as that of the other beastmen around.
The werewolf watched her sawing the bone, from jerky to gradually speeding up, its curiosity reaching its peak.
Soon he tossed aside the roast meat in his hand and wanted to grab Su Ran’s arm holding the multi-tool axe.
Su Ran quickly stopped, lest the saw teeth catch and injure her.
Then the top student “Hui” came online again, pointing at the multi-tool axe in her hand and saying “Ran Ran, Ran Ran” nonstop.
Soon, the werewolf learned three new words: axe, hammer, and saw.
Then it took the multi-tool axe from Su Ran’s hand and pulled the saw on the basis of the small notch she had already made.
The first pull didn’t move.
The second pull moved it, but it got stuck on the third.
The werewolf looked up at Su Ran, its eyes full of confusion and disbelief, as if saying, “What’s going on? You can pull it, but why can’t I!”
Su Ran wanted to laugh at its expression. She pressed her lips to hold back the smile, reached out to grasp the werewolf’s hand holding the multi-tool axe, and steadied the bone with her other hand.
This action was a bit dangerous, but there was no other way now.
The werewolf’s hand was very large; Su Ran’s hand could only loosely grip the back of it.
“Woo~”
The werewolf low-whined at her action, its tail behind swishing a few times, some hitting Su Ran’s leg.
Then Su Ran’s hand exerted force, guiding the werewolf’s hand to slowly pull back and forth.
At the start, the saw blade stuttered a few times, but after a few pulls, once it adapted to the force and angle, the saw blade moved smoothly through the bone.
Then Su Ran let go, watching the werewolf pull the saw blade like it had discovered a new continent.
Under the werewolf’s almost whirlwind-like speed, the gap sawed in the middle of the bone grew larger and larger.
Seeing it was about enough, Su Ran quickly stopped the werewolf from continuing.
She was a bit afraid it wouldn’t know when to stop and hurt its own paw steadying the bone below.
She took the bone from the werewolf’s hand, stowed the saw blade, flipped the axe, and wedged the axe blade into the gap in the middle of the bone joint.
Then she gradually applied force, striking toward the ground.
With the impact force, the bone, which already had a crack, began splitting from the middle bit by bit until finally, with a “crack,” the entire bone split vertically into two halves.
The inside of the bone was full of marrow. Su Ran looked at it and ultimately gave up on digging out the marrow to save for eating.
Mainly because there were no heavy-flavored seasonings here, she felt that even if the marrow was made, its greasiness would probably be unpalatable to the beastmen.
Because she had seen more than once the beastmen throwing away the white fat from their prey.
She took the two split bone halves to the riverside and cleaned the insides thoroughly.
Afterward, she pulled out the file from behind the multi-tool axe and began filing the bone.
