Chapter 602: Leg Traps from Cans (Part 3)

Then, Zhao Youcai tossed the small fish into another basin; they were still flopping around. After gutting all the fish, Zhao Youcai rinsed them with clean water until they were spotless.

He heated a large wok, added bear fat, and once the fat was hot, he tossed in scallion segments, red chili peppers, and smashed garlic cloves.

SIZZLE…

Zhao Youcai stir-fried them with a spatula, and the aroma instantly filled the air. He then poured in half a bowl of sauce and continued to stir-fry until the sauce was cooked through before adding a ladleful of water.

After that, he added all the washed River Pomegranates. Once the water boiled, Zhao Youcai held a large block of tofu in one hand and a knife in the other, cutting it into chunks and dropping them into the pot as he went.

After adding the tofu, Zhao Youcai salted the pot, placed a steamer rack on top, and steamed rice on the rack.

Finally, he put the large lid on the wok and went into the east room. He said to Wang Meilan, who was writing and drawing in a small notebook, “Meilan, dinner will be ready in a bit. I made you something delicious.”

Hearing this, Wang Meilan looked up, gave Zhao Youcai a cold look, and said nothing.

「In the west room.」

Zhao Jun and Jie Chen sat on the kang, each holding a pair of large shears, cutting up aluminum Cans.

Between the Zhao and Li families, there were eighteen empty Cans in total. Zhao Jun and Jie Chen cut the round tops with the pull-tabs off all the Cans, turning them into cylinders.

Next, using the shears, they cut the rim of nine of the cylinders into a sawtooth pattern, with each tooth being one centimeter long.

These nine cans would become the inner cores. The other nine, the ones without serrated edges, would become the outer sleeves.

For the outer sleeves, they cut four small, half-centimeter vertical slits around the rim—at the top, bottom, left, and right. Then they wrapped thin steel wire four times around the can just below the slits, leaving a small length of wire at the end.

Then, they passed the leftover end of the wire through the bottom of an inner core and fastened it securely.

Finally, they slid the inner core into the outer sleeve.

But since the inner core and outer sleeve were made from cans of the same size, it was very difficult to fit one inside the other.

As they worked, Zhao Jun and Jie Chen made a small vertical slit on the side of the inner core, near the bottom.

This allowed them to squeeze the inner core into the outer sleeve. However, after it was inserted, they had to leave a two-centimeter gap between the bottom of the inner core and the bottom of the outer sleeve.

The wire, threaded through the bottom of the inner core and looped around the rim of the outer sleeve, was now pulled taut.

And with that, one leg trap was complete.

When this device was buried where a roe deer would pass, the deer would step on it. Its hoof would go into the inner core, pushing it completely down into the outer sleeve.

As the bottom of the inner core hit the bottom of the outer sleeve, the two cylinders became fully nested. This downward motion pulled the steel wire taut, cinching the rim of the outer sleeve. This action, in turn, forced the serrated teeth of the inner core to constrict, clamping shut around the roe deer’s leg.

The serrated teeth on the inner core’s rim would dig into the roe deer’s hide and fur. While it wouldn’t be painful, the deer wouldn’t be able to shake off the trap clamped to its leg. Unable to walk, it would be forced to lie down.

As Jie Chen and Zhao Jun were making the leg traps, Jie Chen suddenly remarked, “Brother Jun, this will work for roe deer, but if we want to catch a big one, won’t we need to use those saury cans?”

He had a point. The hooves on a big one were the size of a five or six-hundred-pound wild boar’s; these small Cans definitely wouldn’t hold it.

But upon hearing this, Zhao Jun just laughed. “Whether we catch a big one or not, we can figure that out later. First, I want to test these leg traps on roe deer. If they work, we’ll go to Bluestone Cliff and use them to catch suspended sheep!”