Chapter 23: Take a gamble, a bicycle turns into a motorcycle.

Tanning leather in the wilderness?

Many viewers' first thought upon hearing this was disbelief, but Bi Fang was brimming with confidence.

"In essence, tanning is about turning raw hides into leather, creating cross-links between the collagen peptide chains, thereby stabilizing the collagen structure and increasing the hide's resistance to various environments. The key to this process lies in the tanning agent!"

[Yeah, isn't a tanning agent a chemical? How are you going to manage that?]

[Indeed, it's hard to cook without rice!]

"Who says tanning agents have to be complex chemicals?" Bi Fang shook his head, disagreeing with the Shuiyou's comments.

"On the contrary, brain matter can serve as a direct tanning agent! Brain matter prevents the fibers from reconstituting into rawhide. As long as the hide fibers remain stretched and separated after drying, it's no longer rawhide."

"Does anyone remember? The rabbit I roasted yesterday had no brain matter in it."

[Ah, how could I remember that...]

[I thought Master Fang simply didn't like eating rabbit brains. I was curious; such a delicious thing...]

[666, I've learned something new. I always thought that mastering math and science meant fearlessly traveling the world was just boasting, but today, watching Master Fang, I realize I was careless!]

[I got so scared I went and finished my chemistry homework.]

"In fact, egg yolk works too. But regardless of what you use, as long as the entire hide fully absorbs this mixture, that's enough."

While explaining, Bi Fang restored the surrounding environment to prevent forest fires and leave no traces.

He then geared up and headed towards the place where he hung the meat yesterday, where he had placed the brain matter.

But after only a few dozen meters, the viewers saw Bi Fang suddenly stiffen, then reflexively draw out the Short Spear from his back!

The viewers were startled by Bi Fang's reaction and had no idea what had happened.

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

Some people then saw, just a few meters away, the distinct imprint of a huge footprint!

There was a beast with a considerable size!

[Holy shit, what kind of footprint is that, so big?]

[Is that a bear?]

[So huge!]

The Shuiyou who reacted finally understood why Bi Fang had that reaction just now.

Waking up in the early morning to find that a ferocious creature had passed close by where you were sleeping would startle anyone.

"Exactly, it's a Black Bear!"

Bi Fang's expression turned grave; he truly hadn't expected a huge terror to brush past him while he was sound asleep.

He looked around for safety, and only after making sure it was safe did he cautiously approach and point at the footprint, saying.

"From the shape, we can easily tell these are bear footprints, as Black Bears have five toes on both front and hind limbs, with sharp claws at the toe tips that do not retract, and both front and rear paws have large, thick pads, which are very distinctive. This footprint is very fresh, even just stepped on not long ago, which is why I was so tense just now."

Bi Fang examined the size of the footprint closely, then stretched out his hand to compare, and couldn't help exclaiming, "This guy is huge, just the length of the footprint is over twenty centimeters. I reckon it's an adult male Black Bear, weighing at least over two hundred kilograms, almost equivalent to three of me!"

Hearing Bi Fang's description, the Shuiyou were all taken aback.

A two hundred kilogram Black Bear, how big is that?

Couldn't it kill a person with just a slap?

Thinking this, many viewers shuddered.

Who could imagine that while Bi Fang was fast asleep, such a colossal Black Bear had passed by!

Even at a distance less than a hundred meters away!

Realizing the danger, Bi Fang was sweating profusely.

It's like you're fast asleep at midnight, and a murderer once stood close by your bed with a knife, staring at you!

Bi Fang, who nearly suffered a heart attack first thing in the morning, worked hard to calm himself. Panicking now was useless; first, he needed to assess the situation, determine which direction the Black Bear went, figure out its intentions, and then try to avoid it as much as possible.

The footprints left by the Black Bear were very fresh, indicating that it hadn't left long ago. Surely, he couldn't follow its tracks—doing so was practically asking for trouble.

He had to think of a way to escape!

[Don't just stand there, run!]

[Exactly, while the bear hasn't noticed you.]

[I heard that playing dead works when you encounter a bear?]

[Damn, I'm scared.]

"Everyone, don't panic. The bear has definitely noticed me by now, so we absolutely can't just run blindly, and playing dead is useless..."

Bi Fang was somewhat speechless at the chaos in the live stream from his online friends.

"First of all, the Black Bear has definitely noticed me, because its sense of smell is extremely keen, even seven times that of an excellent hunting dog. It can smell unfamiliar scents within a kilometer range, and the shortest distance between us wasn't even a hundred meters. It's impossible that it didn't notice."

"The reason it didn't attack us then, I guess, is twofold. Either it was already full, or there was something much more attractive than my hundred-plus pounds!"

Bi Fang held up two fingers and started to analyze further.

"The likelihood of it being full is not very high because Black Bears prefer to sleep during the day and forage at night. If it was full, then it shouldn't have come out so early in the morning. The only possibility is that something nearby is attracting it!"

It was last night's smoked rabbit meat and the innards!

As Bi Fang was analyzing, many online friends had already typed the answer on the public screen.

[Must be the meat buns!]

[Innards would rot, wouldn't the Black Bear ignore them? It has to be the smoked rabbit meat!]

[Damn, even the bear is drawn to rabbit meat, now I'm even more craving it...]

But Bi Fang shook his head, rejecting the online friends's guesses.

"I have a friend in Alaska who told me a few words: 'If you encounter a Black Bear, fight back. If it's a Brown Bear, lie down. If you see a white Polar Bear, then I wish you goodnight.'"

"In the case of a Brown Bear, playing dead might be useful, but not with a Black Bear, which is an omnivore and doesn't refuse carrion. Even if you play dead convincingly, since there's no rotting smell, the Black Bear will simply be glad to open up your body cavity to see if your innards are edible!"

"Moreover, I hung the meat so high last night, it probably couldn't reach. We can almost be sure then that it has gone to the spot where we buried the innards!"

[F***, Black Bears eat carrion! Misled by those internet rumors!]

[My God, so what do we do now?]

Upon hearing this, many online friends became anxious. If this won't work, and that won't work, are they supposed to just wait for death?

Of course not. Sitting and waiting for death was never Bi Fang's style!

A few pieces of viscera, no matter how tender and delicious, could not fill a Black Bear's stomach. Once it finished eating and came back to its senses, it would definitely return to find him!

And Bi Fang had not caught that rabbit yesterday just to hand it over to that beast on a silver platter.

Bi Fang was not willing to give up!

He was going to take back the smoked meat!

Last night, when burying the innards and hanging the rabbit meat, Bi Fang had been thoughtful—both actions took on a Y-shaped path.

You should know that the Black Bear is also known as a "blind bear," not because of poor eyesight, but because Black Bears mostly live in mountainous forest areas where trees are plentiful. If he used the trees as cover, as long as he kept the bear's keen sense of smell from locking on to him, the bear would have a hard time spotting him.

As long as he could find a downwind hiding spot and then judge his position to avoid detection based on wind direction, the plan was entirely feasible!

As thoughts rushed through his head like lightning, Bi Fang already had a plan.

He was ready to take a gamble!

A gamble on who had the better skills, him or the Black Bear!