Landlord in the Arctic-Chapter 76: Gourmet Food

I...

I feel like swearing!

Feng Shan held the brown chunk of meat, which reeked of urine. He didn’t even have the energy to get angry. Beside him, Louise whispered, "It’s dried shark meat. It doesn’t smell very good, but it’s delicious."

’Really?’

’I helped you people get rid of the Wolf Pack.’

’You can’t torment your benefactor like this.’

Feng Shan took a few deep breaths, accidentally inhaling the thick smell of urine, and almost passed out from the stench.

’Anyway, the piece isn’t that big. I’ll just swallow it whole. If I’m fast enough, the stench won’t have time to hit me.’

He steeled his heart and closed his eyes.

He grabbed the shark meat and shoved it into his mouth.

Do you know what a baby’s diaper smells like?

Imagine the smell of this piece of meat. You run into an outhouse that hasn’t been cleaned in twenty years amidst a hundred-degree heatwave. There, you find an indescribable object that has been soaking in a used diaper. To make things even more terrifying, that diaper hasn’t been changed in a decade.

And now, that diaper was being held in his mouth.

Feng Shan straightened his neck and forced the diaper—no, the shark meat—down into his stomach.

The next moment, the reek of urine surged from his stomach, up his esophagus, and straight to his brain.

GAG!!

GAG, GAG!!

In that instant, Feng Shan’s mind became preternaturally clear—a clarity he had never before experienced. It was as if he had once again returned to the dream where he saw his ancestor.

Seeing him eat two pieces of the meat, the surrounding townspeople raised their hands and broke into rapturous cheers.

Feng Shan’s throat bobbed continuously. Several times, the vomit rose to his mouth, only to be forcefully swallowed back down.

The last thing on the wooden plate was a soggy, foul-smelling bird called... Kiviak, or something. There was no way he could eat that.

’The shark meat already stinks this bad.’

’I can only imagine how bad a rotten bird must smell.’

’I really regret not listening to my grand-uncle.’

The Inuit girl continued to hold the wooden plate, her clear eyes filled with amusement as she looked at Feng Shan, gesturing for him to hurry up and eat the Kiviak.

Feng Shan immediately shook his head in refusal. If they really tried to force him to eat it, his only option would be to flip out and overturn the table.

Seeing this, Louise gave the girl a look, and the latter pouted and walked away.

’He doesn’t even dare to eat such a delicacy.’

’Coward.’

...

The celebration came to an end.

Perhaps because of the Black Wolf, the town hadn’t been this lively in a long time. The residents gathered around the bonfire, unwilling to leave, and continued to sing and dance with gusto.

Feng Shan quietly slipped away from the crowd, found a secluded corner, and stuck his fingers down his throat to vomit up all the meat he had eaten.

He almost threw up all his bile before he finally felt a little better.

’This damn place. I can’t stand another minute here.’

Feng Shan grabbed a handful of snow and wiped the filth from the corner of his mouth.

When he came out from the corner, he saw Louise and Old Swan standing by the road, looking at him with beaming smiles. Feng Shan’s anger flared up instantly.

"Old Swan, you set me up!"

"My friend, how can you say that? Those three foods represent the past, present, and future of the Inuit people. Only the most honored guests get to taste them," Old Swan said with a straight face, struggling to hold back his laughter.

"Then do you guys eat it?" Feng Shan asked, his expression suspicious.

Old Swan immediately shook his head.

"Of course not. We have fresh reindeer meat, salmon, and seal meat. We stopped eating that stuff a long time ago. Only the Inuit children eat it, so they don’t forget their tribe."

Feng Shan pointed a finger at Old Swan, a retort stuck in his throat. "You..."

Seeing that the atmosphere was a bit awkward, Louise quickly stepped in to smooth things over.

"Feng, those three foods really do represent the Inuit. Because of environmental issues, we here in Kivalina haven’t stored those foods for a long time. The ones you ate were actually from the tribe’s stock from several years ago."

’Hmph!’

’Your way of comforting people is even more touching.’

Feng Shan shook his head helplessly, in no mood to argue about it anymore. In any case, this town was already on his blacklist; he would never come back.

He walked back to Old Swan’s wooden cabin.

Nash was standing on the porch, guarding the luggage.

"You were right not to go." Feng Shan nodded at Nash, took his backpack, and prepared to leave.

Louise asked, confused, "Mr. Feng, where are you going?"

"To find a place to pitch my tent," Feng Shan said bluntly, privately vowing that he would rather die than stay in Old Swan’s house, which reeked of stinky feet.

"No need to pitch a tent. I run an outdoor inn. It’s clean and sanitary." Louise said with a smile, deliberately emphasizing the last few words as if hinting at something to Feng Shan.

’Staying in an inn would definitely be more comfortable than a tent.’

Besides, Feng Shan hadn’t had a peaceful night’s sleep in a long time. After a moment’s thought, he nodded in agreement.

"My friend, you don’t want to stay with me? We could talk about hunting, talk about the Tundra, talk about whaling," Old Swan invited again, unwilling to give up.

’Yeah, right.’

Without hesitation, Feng Shan shouldered his backpack and turned to leave with Louise.

The so-called inn was just a shipping container split in half. The room wasn’t large, containing only a wooden bed. As for a toilet, you could go to the seaside. However, just as Louise had said, it was indeed clean and sanitary. For Feng Shan, that was enough.

Originally, Feng Shan had wanted two rooms, but Nash disagreed, insisting on staying with him.

In the end, under Louise’s strange gaze, they got one room. She also thoughtfully provided a serving of dinner.

It wasn’t any kind of "dark cuisine," but a proper meal of pan-fried fish with mashed potatoes.

After dinner.

Feng Shan tossed the three little guys into Nash’s arms, glanced at the crowded floor, said goodnight, and turned off the light.

Outside the room, three White Wolves curled up against the cold wind, lying by the door with their ears pricked high.

...

「The next morning.」

His internal clock woke Feng Shan up on time.

He pushed the soundly sleeping Coca-Cola, Prince, and the Little Wolf Cub off his chest, got dressed, and pulled open the curtains.

It was still pitch black outside.

"Khilla." Hearing the movement, Nash threw off his reindeer blanket, revealing his brown bearskin clothes. A rifle lay beside him.

"The inn is safe." Feng Shan knew Nash had been worried about danger during the night and had slept fully clothed.

Nash shook his head and said in a low voice, "The Eskimos can’t be trusted."

The Eskimos.

This term is actually a pejorative. In Alaska, almost no one says it in public, as it can easily lead to misunderstandings.

But there is one group of people who can say it without any inhibitions: the Indians.

Because this name was coined by the Indians. In the Indian Language, "Eskimo" means "eaters of raw meat."

The name "Inuit," on the other hand, is what the Inuit people call themselves, and it means "the real people."

The Indians look down on the Inuit from the bottom of their hearts. In their view, the Inuit, who eat raw meat and drink fresh blood, shouldn’t be respected and are not worthy of living on the same land as them.

And what do you do when you look down on someone?

You fight them!

So, in America, under the banner of protecting their territory, the Indians rounded up and pursued the migrating Eskimos. Those they could kill, they killed; those they couldn’t, they drove away.

And so, as the Eskimos and Indians fought, the Eskimos were gradually pushed back while fighting, retreating all the way into the Arctic Circle.

Back then, the weather was brutally cold. The Arctic Circle was a desolate land of ice and snow that hardly anyone ever went to.

The Indians figured that once this group of people reached such a place, they would either starve or freeze to death, so they stopped their pursuit.

But who would have thought that this group of people would not only avoid freezing or starving but would also put down roots there.

After settling down, they gave themselves the name "Inuit," and its meaning is "human beings."

Even the Indians were baffled.

That godforsaken place in the Arctic Circle was freezing cold all year round and completely unsuitable for human habitation.

How on earth did the Inuit manage to survive, let alone continuously reproduce and carry on their lineage?

Even now, in modern, civilized society.

The discrimination by the Alaska Indians against the Inuit still exists.

That’s why Nash had slept fully clothed, clutching his rifle.

...