Anatomy of a Bear Carcass

When Lu Zhe said this, the girls all felt a little embarrassed.

"Yeah, the most important thing now is how to get rid of this dead bear," Ning Shu said.

How did we end up back on the highway while chatting?

Ning Shu said, "So what should we do with this bear?"

Lu Zhe examined the bear: "There are quite a few treasures on the bear. The fur can be made into blankets, the gallbladder can be used as medicine!"

Jiang Yao said, "That's right, I heard bear paws are one of the eight culinary delicacies, very tasty!"

"Don't get your hopes up too high. Bear paws are delicious, but I heard they have to be cooked in a very specific way to turn out well. Roasting directly will probably be similar to pig's trotters," Lu Zhe said.

"That's nonsense, pig's trotters are super tasty!" Ning Shu said.

Lin Qianqian asked, "What about the bear meat?"

"We don't have time today. Tomorrow we can try it, but you should be mentally prepared, bear meat smells very gamy," Lu Zhe said.

Tang Xiaoguo sighed, "Forget it, let's just eat spicy little snakes and wild banana plants!"

Shen Bing thought for a moment: "Lu Zhe, you're not planning to keep the whole bear, are you?"

Lu Zhe shook his head: "To be honest, I want to keep everything from head to toe. But we can't preserve all the meat, and the taste wouldn't be good either. With no lack of protein, we can only make some trade-offs, keep the most important things, and throw away most of it!"

"We do have to throw some away," Shen Bing said worriedly. "But the key is how? Are you... going to dismember it?"

"Yeah, it sounds a bit horrifying, but we really have to do that. This is the easiest place nearby to store fresh water, so we can't move. We can only cut it up in pieces and dispose of it bit by bit! Otherwise the stench and insects will turn this place into hell in less than a day!"

Shen Bing's eyelid twitched: "I didn't expect I'd have to be involved in disposing of a corpse one day!"

"We have to hurry, best to get it done at night when the temperature is low," Lu Zhe said. "After sitting in the sun all day tomorrow, the smell will probably get worse."

Shen Bing nodded: "Mm."

Ning Shu weakly asked, "Is there anything we can help with?"

Lu Zhe shook his head: "You didn't sleep well yesterday. Eat something and go to bed. We'll still need you tomorrow!"

"Oh..." The four girls were indeed very tired, and didn't want to witness the dissection of a mammal. They hastily ate some food and crawled into the shelter, holding each other's hands as they fell asleep.

Outside the shelter, the moon was dark and the wind high!

The flickering firelight made the faces look somewhat hideous.

Shen Bing was a little nervous as she glanced at Lu Zhe: "Hey, why do I feel like... we're two murderers disposing of a corpse?"

Lu Zhe deliberately lowered his voice: "You can still call the cops now if you want!"

Shen Bing laughed out loud: "Oh stop teasing! Let me tell you, I've dissected frogs before, this is my first time dissecting a bear."

Lu Zhe nodded: "You're not bad, this is my first time too!"

Recalling the earlier scene between them, Shen Bing's little face turned red: "Oh be serious! How do we do it?"

"Let's get the gallbladder first," Lu Zhe said, gripping the handle of the Type 30 Bayonet and slicing down.

This made the gash bigger, then he pulled out the bayonet.

More blood flowed out.

"I'll reach in in a bit, take out the gallbladder, but it might still be connected to tissue. My right hand isn't too convenient, so I'll need your help when the time comes."

"Why does this still sound a little awkward? Do you know which one is the gallbladder?"

"We'll find out when we take it out."

"Be careful."

Lu Zhe inserted his left hand into the bear's body through the wound. There was a "splish-splash" sound of rummaging around the internal organs.

"What's it feel like?"

"It's still pretty warm since it just died. No wonder people can take shelter inside animal carcasses to keep warm in the freezing cold."

As he spoke, a flash of information went through Lu Zhe's mind: "Bear heart, bear lungs, bear liver, bear pancreas, bear gallbladder..."

That's it!

Lu Zhe pulled out a black pouch-like object, still connected by bloody blood vessels and tissue below.

"You actually found it!" Shen Bing hurriedly severed the tissue with her combat knife: "We don't use this directly, right?"

"Mm, it needs to be sterilized and dried, then ground into powder. Can be used externally and internally, it's a top-grade medicinal item, very expensive let me tell you."

"Wow, the breadth of your knowledge really surprises me sometimes. Shall we skin it next?"

Lu Zhe shook his head:

"I want to see what it normally eats first! It'll help us understand the existing vegetation and resources on this island."

"You're going to check its stomach?"

"That's right!"

Next, Lu Zhe ripped open the gash and pulled out a large bag.

Cutting it open released a foul stench.

Bananas...

He knew the bananas that were picked earlier were its doing!

There was also meat shreds of a hornbill.

God knows how it caught that.

There were also large amounts of bamboo shoots and grass roots.

Lu Zhe frowned slightly. Based on the large amount of plant rhizomes, this big bear had gone through a lot of trouble for water as well.

Otherwise it wouldn't have left so many uneaten banana fruits to look for rhizomes.

Lu Zhe guessed that the rhizomes probably contained more moisture.

It looks like some organisms on this island were also deeply troubled by the lack of water.

Next was the bear skin!

Speaking of bear fur, Shen Bing recalled: "We've confiscated bear skins before, those were whole pelts with the head and paws still attached, pretty creepy."

Lu Zhe imagined it for a moment: "Actually, I don't think the head and paws are that useful!"

"They were probably left on to prove it really was bear fur, or perhaps the buyer just wanted to show off their warped personality."

"We're doing this for practical reasons, so there's no need to keep the bear head!"

As he spoke, Lu Zhe used the stone axe and bayonet to cut off the bear head and paws, then used the combat knife to slice open the belly and slowly separated the tissue and fat.

The two spent three hours skinning the entire bear pelt.

Now, not only was Lu Zhe covered in blood, Shen Bing looked like a murderer too.

"This smell is too awful."

"So don't expect the bear meat to taste much better!"

"But we can render some bear oil. Once rendered, the smell won't be so intense, and we can use it for stir-frying."

"I'll take care of that!"

And so the two worked through the night dissecting the entire bear.

Then, Lu Zhe threw the bear head, segmented bear bones, and large amounts of bear meat far into the woods. It probably wouldn't take long for wild animals to gnaw it all clean.

Lu Zhe kept the pelt, gallbladder, tibia, femur, some bear oil, four paws, and a small amount of meat.

The bear bones were too hard. Lu Zhe's stone axe shattered while cutting them up.

It was almost morning, and they were getting hungry.

Lu Zhe and Shen Bing grilled some kebabs with the bear meat. After a couple bites, no amount of chili could mask that gamy stench. The meat was tough and tasteless!

But bear meat could provide the human body with large amounts of protein and amino acids. Lu Zhe chewed forever without chewing it up, and swallowed it whole.

Shen Bing retched half the time and couldn't eat it. She could only drink some banana water, and eat some python jerky and fish slices.

Neither had slept well last night, and both were a little drowsy now. They leaned against each other and fell asleep by the fire.