Chapter 23: A Bet: Bicycle Turns Into a Motorcycle

Tanning leather in the wild?

Many viewers’ first thought was disbelief, but Bi Fang seemed quite confident.

“Actually, the so-called tanning process is about turning rawhide into leather, creating crosslinks between the chains of collagen polypeptides, increasing the stability of collagen structure, and improving the ability of the animal skin to resist various environments. The key to this process lies in the tanning agent!”

Right, aren’t tanning agents chemical products? How do we make them then?

Exactly, even a skilled cook can’t turn nothing into a meal!

“Who said tanning agents must be complex chemical products from various procedures?” Bi Fang shook his head, not agreeing with the viewers’ opinions.

“On the contrary, brain tissue can directly act as a tanning agent! Brain tissue can prevent fibers from re-aggregating to form rawhide. As long as the animal skin retains its stretched and separated fiber status after drying, it is no longer rawhide.”

“Does anyone remember? The rabbit I roasted yesterday didn’t have any brain tissue.”

Ah, how could I remember that…?

I thought Bi Fang simply didn’t like eating rabbit brain, and I was curious about that. Such delicious food…

666, I learned something new today. I always thought that if I mastered math, physics, and chemistry, I wouldn’t be afraid of anything, but after watching Bi Fang, I realized I was careless!

I got so scared, I hurriedly finished my chemistry homework.

“In fact, not only brain tissue but egg yolk can also be used. However, no matter what you use, just make sure the whole animal skin absorbs enough of the mixture.”

Bi Fang explained while restoring the surrounding environment to avoid forest fires and leaving traces behind.

He then picked up his equipment and walked towards the place where he hung the meat yesterday, with the brain tissue stored inside.

However, after walking just a few tens of meters, the viewers noticed Bi Fang’s body suddenly stiffening, and then, as if by reflex, he pulled the short spear out from behind!

The viewers were shocked by Bi Fang’s reaction and didn’t know what had happened.

At this moment, the drone caught up from behind and captured the scene in front of Bi Fang.

Only then did some people see that just a few meters away, there was a huge footprint!

There’s a wild animal, and it’s not small!

Holy crap, what kind of footprint is that? It’s so big!

Is it a bear?

It’s huge!

The viewers who eventually realized what had happened finally understood why Bi Fang had reacted like that earlier.

Waking up early in the morning and discovering that a ferocious beast had passed by not far from where you slept would alarm anyone.

“That’s right, it’s a black bear!”

Bi Fang’s expression was solemn, and he truly didn’t expect a great terror to brush past him while he was sound asleep.

He looked around cautiously to ensure safety before approaching and pointing at the footprint.

“Based on the shape, we can easily tell that this is a bear’s footprint. Black bears have five toes on both front and hind limbs, sharp claws at the end of each toe that cannot be retracted, and wide, thick, and prominent soles on both front and hind feet. The footprint is very fresh, as if it had just stepped here not long ago, which is why I was so nervous just now.”

Bi Fang carefully examined the size of the footprint and compared it with his hand size, exclaiming, “This guy is enormous! The length of the footprint alone is over twenty centimeters. I estimate it’s an adult male black bear, weighing at least two hundred kilograms, almost three times my size!”

Hearing Bi Fang’s description, the viewers were shocked.

How big would a two-hundred-kilogram black bear be?

Wouldn’t it be able to kill someone with just a slap?

Thinking about this, many of the audience shuddered.

Who could have imagined that while Bi Fang was asleep, a huge black bear had passed by?

They were even less than a hundred meters apart!

Bi Fang, who realized the danger, broke out in a cold sweat.

It was like sleeping in the middle of the night and discovering a murderer standing close by your bed, staring at you with a knife!

Bi Fang, who almost had a heart attack early in the morning, tried to calm himself down. Panicking now would be useless; it was important to assess the situation, determine the direction the black bear had gone, discern its motive, and then try to avoid it.

The bear’s footprints were very fresh, indicating it had just left recently. He definitely couldn’t follow its tracks, that would be like running into the line of fire.

He must find a way to escape!

Hurry up and get away!

That’s right, escape before the bear notices.

They say pretending to be dead works when encountering a bear, right?

Damn, I’m scared.

“Everyone, don’t panic. The bear has definitely noticed me by now, so we mustn’t blindly try to escape, and playing dead won’t work either…”

Bi Fang looked at the chaotic mess of comments in the live chat, quite speechless.

“Firstly, the black bear has absolutely discovered me because their sense of smell is highly developed, even seven times better than that of an excellent hunting dog. They can detect unfamiliar scents within a one-kilometer radius, and the shortest distance between us and the bear is less than a hundred meters; there’s no way it wouldn’t notice.”

“The reason it didn’t attack us at the time, I guess there are two possibilities: either it is full, or there is something that is far more attractive to it than my hundred-plus pounds!”

Bi Fang held up two fingers, preparing to further analyze the situation.

“The possibility of it being full is not high because black bears prefer to sleep during the day and hunt at night. If it were full, it wouldn’t be out and about early in the morning. The only possibility is that there is something nearby that is attracting it!”

It must be the rabbit meat and innards from last night!

As Bi Fang analyzed this step, many comments in the live chat had already mentioned the answer.

It’s the meat buns for sure!

Innards would rot, and black bears wouldn’t eat them, right? It must be the smoked rabbit meat!

Even bears are attracted to rabbit meat, making me even hungrier…

However, Bi Fang shook his head, denying the audience’s guess.

“A friend of mine in Alaska once told me, ‘If you encounter a black bear, fight back. If you encounter a brown bear, lie down. If you encounter a white polar bear, good night.'”

“Playing dead might work with a brown bear, but it’s impossible with a black bear because they are omnivores and won’t reject carrion. Even if you are dead, as long as there is no noticeable decomposition, the black bear will happily open your body cavity to see if your innards are edible!”

“Moreover, last night, I hung the meat buns so high that it is highly unlikely the bear could reach them. We can almost be certain that it went to the place where we buried the innards last night!”

Damn, black bears eat carrion! I’ve been misled by those marketing accounts!

My goodness, what do we do now?

When some of the audience heard this, they became anxious. If everything was a no-go, were they just waiting to die?

Of course not, passive waiting isn’t Bi Fang’s style!

Even with a few tender and delicious innards, the black bear’s stomach wouldn’t be filled. After it finished eating, it would definitely come back for him!

Moreover, how could the rabbit that Bi Fang had caught with great difficulty yesterday be given to the beast so easily?

Bi Fang was unwilling to accept this!

He wanted to take the smoked meat back!

When Bi Fang buried the innards and hung the rabbit yesterday, he was cautious. The two paths didn’t overlap but formed a Y shape.

It had to be known that the black bear was also called a blind bear. This wasn’t because its eyesight was poor, but because the black bear mostly lived in the mountains and forests. There were many trees there. If he used the trees as cover, as long as nothing alerted the black bear’s sense of smell, it would be difficult for the black bear to find him.

As long as he could find cover in the leeward position and then determine the hiding position according to the wind direction, this plan was entirely feasible!

In the blink of an eye, Bi Fang had already made his plan.

He wanted to take a gamble!

He would bet on who was more capable, him or the black bear!