Reborn in 78, I made my fortune by working in the mountains, supporting three families on my own.

"Brother-in-law, what are you doing?"

"To promote blood circulation?"

What does "driving up qi and blood" mean?

Zhao Lei continued working, explaining, "There are many tricks to extracting musk. Watch closely and learn carefully."

Next, Zhao Lei pressed on the male musk deer for about three to five minutes. During this time, the musk deer, which had been knocked unconscious, woke up and kept kicking its legs.

Fortunately, all four legs were firmly bound, making it impossible for it to break free.

Zhao Lei instructed, "Bowen, hold on tight. I'm about to remove the musk sac. The sooner we remove it, the better; the fragrance will dissipate if we delay."

"Alright, brother-in-law." With that, Qin Bowen gritted his teeth and used all his strength to pin the musk deer down beneath him.

Immediately afterwards, he saw Zhao Lei pull out a small, sharp knife about the size of a palm from his waist and lay out oil paper next to him.

Zhao Lei squatted down, took a deep breath, and began to feel around in Lin She's abdomen with both hands.

The musk deer was terrified and its whole body was trembling, its warm belly rising and falling.

Zhao Lei traced his finger down his navel and quickly found a small, soft but firm lump, about the size of a small stone's fist, slightly raised, with sparser hair around it than elsewhere.

"This is it."

Zhao Lei carefully felt the size and position of the musk sac with his fingertips before pinching the base of the sac, carefully wrapping it around twice with a thin hemp rope, and then tying a tight knot.

Then he held the knife, and with the tip of the knife, he gently cut along the skin and flesh at the base of the musk sac, making a half-circle around the base of the musk sac, cutting open the skin, flesh, and fascia.

Then, insert two fingers into the incision, pinch the base of the musk sac, and gently lift it along the muscle texture.

Soon, a whole musk sac fell into his palm.

Upon seeing this, Qin Bowen was overjoyed and exclaimed, "Brother-in-law, it's taken off already?"

Zhao Lei nodded: "Yes, this is it."

The musk sac was covered with a layer of dark brown fur and was still warm. Even through the fur, you could feel the semi-soft, semi-hard granular musk kernels inside.

A rich and unique aroma wafted from the cut, strong but not cloying, with a slightly bitter medicinal smell, but the odor was particularly pungent.

Zhao Lei held out his palm, turning it over and over to examine it two or three times, confirming that the musk sac was intact and without any tears, before letting out a long sigh of relief: "Hehe, all done."

Zhao Lei carefully wrapped the musk sac in oiled paper and looked at Qin Bowen: "Bowen, give him a quick death."

Without wasting words, Qin Bowen decisively drew his dagger and ended the life of the musk deer.

Seeing that the prey had completely stopped moving, Qin Bowen finally relaxed and moved closer to Zhao Lei: "Brother-in-law, is this thing more valuable than gold?"

Zhao Lei smiled and handed him the oil paper package: "Here, don't damage it, otherwise the appearance will be too poor and it won't fetch a good price."

Qin Bowen curiously took the musk pouch, stared at it for a long time, then leaned in and sniffed it, before suddenly sneezing.

"Achoo!"

Qin Bowen rubbed his nose and said, "Brother-in-law, this smell is so weird. There's no fragrance at all. It just smells strange to me."

Zhao Lei glanced at him: "You don't understand. Musk is a precious Chinese medicinal herb, and it's also a major raw material for many perfumes and fragrances. If you're not used to the smell, it's simply because you're ignorant."

"Hehe, brother-in-law, I'm just a country bumpkin, how would I know about these things? But brother-in-law, how do you know so much?"

Zhao Lei naturally couldn't tell him that he was reborn and possessed knowledge far exceeding that of the present few decades.

He could only give a vague answer: "Oh, I met a learned person outside before, and that's what they told me."

"Oh, I see."

Qin Bowen was still skeptical, so he returned the musk pouch to Zhao Lei.

Zhao Lei carefully put the oil paper package into his cloth bag.

"Don't just stand there, clean this musk deer up."

While cleaning up the game, Qin Bowen asked, "Brother-in-law, we only caught this one today. Aren't we going to keep exploring the mountains?"

Zhao Lei looked up at the sky; it was about 10 a.m., still early.

But he knew in his heart that the musk deer had been severely frightened and would never return to this area in the short term, so there was basically no hope of encountering an adult musk deer again.

However, Zhao Lei did not intend to leave the mountain empty-handed.

After Qin Bowen finished packing his prey into his basket, the two of them chopped a lot of bamboo strips on the spot.

This place is the musk deer's fixed dung field and a frequent animal trail for them. There might be other musk deer passing through here, so he plans to set up several more traps here.

The two brothers spent the entire morning weaving snares, setting up seven or eight snares around the manure yard before finally stopping.

The sun was high in the sky, at the hottest time of day.

Looking at the many traps he had set, Zhao Lei was quite satisfied: "Hmm, Bowen, it's still early. Let's search deeper into the forest first, and then come back here on our way down the mountain. Maybe we'll find something unexpected."

Qin Bowen gave a thumbs up: "Brother-in-law, you're so thoughtful. I'll listen to everything you say."

"You always listen to me. Can't you have any of your own opinions?"

"My opinion is that I should listen to my brother-in-law."

Zhao Lei was too lazy to argue with him, so he waved his hand and the two continued to search for prey deep in the mountains.

The capture of the musk deer seemed to have exhausted their good luck for the day. The two wandered around the forest for two or three hours, only managing to catch two rabbits and not even seeing a trace of a large wild animal.

Qin Bowen wiped the sweat from his brow and complained in a low voice, "Brother-in-law, what's wrong with us today? We haven't come across anything of value."

Zhao Lei took a sip of water and sighed softly: "Bowen, you have to get used to it. It's rare to come back from the mountains with a full load; going home empty-handed is the norm."

"Actually, brother-in-law, we didn't come away empty-handed today. We still have two wild rabbits and a musk deer. Besides, you said that musk deer pod is extremely valuable. It might even fetch more money than the sow we sold yesterday."

Zhao Lei looked up at the sun; it was already past three in the afternoon.

After wandering around the mountains for most of the day without any other gains, I decided to head down the mountain early. If I had enough time to get back to the city, I could stop by the supply and marketing cooperative and sell the musk pouch and the wild boar meat that I had processed the day before.

"Alright, that's enough for today. Let's get down the mountain as soon as possible."

The two walked back along the same route, one after the other, intending to first return to the musk deer dung field to check for traps.

More than three hours have passed since we left the area to set up the snares, and there's no chance that other musk deer might have accidentally stepped on the traps.

With a hint of anticipation in my heart, the journey home was much lighter.

Half an hour later, the two returned to the musk deer dung field.

Qin Bowen rushed ahead excitedly, but the moment he saw what was happening inside, he was completely dumbfounded...

Zhao Lei walked over and asked, "What's wrong, Bowen? Did you find anything?"