in2ebook Chapter 137 Going to Xiaolingtun to Hunt the Tiger King
Chapter 137 Going to Xiaolingtun to Hunt the Tiger King
Before the Lu brothers left, Li Ju'an asked Lu Zhiqiang one more question.
Chen Shangqiang had just sat at the Lu family's house for a while. He worked as a truck driver in the county town, but his hometown was Xiaolingtun, where he had moved away many years ago. According to Chen Shangqiang, something had recently happened in Xiaolingtun: someone had seen a tattered tent in a ditch running south from the north of the village.
In the dead of winter, with the weather freezing cold, it's already strange to see tents in the mountains. I guess they're merchants from the south who are visiting the north for the first time, trying to buy mountain products, but they got lost and are stranded.
The tattered tent was made by crisscrossing a dozen or so wooden sticks, each a meter or two long, on the ground, then covering them with a canvas, with a small hole about the size of a small iron basin at the top for ventilation. There was charcoal inside the tent, which, once lit, could barely keep you warm.
However, the tent showed three claw marks and several bullet holes.
As Lu Zhiqiang spoke, he looked at Li Ju'an with a somewhat panicked and uncertain expression.
Li Ju'an said, "There are plenty of wild animals in the mountains. What's three claw marks? It's either a wolf or a leopard."
Lu Zhiqiang looked at him with an even more complicated expression and said, "There's something I haven't told you yet. Do you remember Wang Guochang from Niubeitun last time? He's been transferred from the clinic to the city's central hospital. His son said he heard something scratching at the door in the middle of the night. His wife opened the door a crack and saw a big claw. They quickly closed the door, and neither of them dared to close their eyes all night."
Li Ju'an also fell silent.
After being seriously injured, Wang Guochang, an old hunter from Niubeitun, gave up hunting. His son, Wang Xudong, went to Lao Tao to sell all his hunting dogs, but Lao Tao bought them—a total of six dogs.
Now, a big claw has appeared in the mountains. It sniffed its way to the Wang family's house, but instead of finding the hunting dogs, it came up empty-handed. Instead, it sniffed through the crack in the door and made eye contact with the Wang family's wife. This terrified Wang Xudong and his wife so much that they didn't dare to close their eyes for several nights.
Lu Jinyang asked, "Are you sure it's a giant claw? What should we do then? It might even be a giant claw that has eaten a person."
There's a huge difference between wild animals that have eaten humans and those that haven't. Wild animals that have tasted human flesh remember the smell and taste of humans. The next time they encounter humans, they'll know that these creatures are edible and can't be scared away by a hunting rifle.
The Lu brothers remained silent for a while. Li Ju'an stretched his arms, stood up, and said, "Let's go, let's go into the mountains. The New Year will be here soon."
Lu Zhiqiang shouted, "Li Ju'an, do you still dare to go into the mountains? You even dragged that tiger cub to sell. What if its big claws come looking for you?"
Li Ju'an remained calm and said, "We'll do what we have to do. Life goes on, and we still need to feed the dogs in the mountains. We've rested for several days now, and the dogs have rested for a few days too. We can't be idle. If we can catch some cats and pheasants, that's a source of income. We still need to earn money. We have to be careful with our money."
Lu Zhiqiang was truly afraid.
Li Ju'an tempted him: "The big leather case from last time is still here. If you can get the big leather case, you can replace the Type 54 with a better gun."
Upon hearing this, Lu Zhiqiang's spirits soared. He was now the Lu family's Zhiqiang of the past, and he had a Type 54 pistol! With a gun, what was there to fear from those big shots? He stood up and said, "What big shots? Bring one on, I, the Lu family general, will take it on one by one, and let those beasts know what it means to be like Wu Song fighting a tiger!"
The Lu family's bullet-making skills were superior to Old Tao's. A few days later, on Saturday, Lu Zhiqiang brought a full bag of gunpowder and wool felt, along with the modified Type 54 bullets made by the Lu family patriarch, to Li Ju'an.
The two men made an appointment with Song Desheng to go into the mountains to hunt for traps.
Song Desheng wanted to show off his bicycle, but as soon as he went out, he got splashed with mud and was dragged back by his mother, who pinched his ear and said she was worried about the bicycle.
He could only take the small train to get into the village to meet the two men.
Before the New Year, the mountains would freeze after each snowfall.
Hua Er's back injury had almost healed. Li Ju'an originally didn't want to take Hua Er with him, but Hua Er kept barking and following Da Hu into the mountains.
He was happy to let the hunting dogs go. After a couple of days in the mountains, the dogs needed to rest, otherwise they would easily become tired. Good hunting dogs also need excitement and stimulation. On weekdays, the hunting dogs would eat only half a meal at home and would also like to go into the mountains for a meat feast.
Li Ju'an first led the two men to take a lap of snares. Last time, they set eight snares near Niubeitun and caught two Siberian hamsters and three jumping cats.
Song Desheng said with some regret, "What a pity, there are no big ones, and there are three empty ones."
Li Ju'an was in high spirits. He disposed of Sha Banjin and Tiao Maozi, threw them onto the mule sled, and took them away, saying, "Even mosquito meat is meat. Every little bit counts. We have to be careful with our money."
He also had the task of specimen collection on his shoulders. The forestry station's leader, Chen, had given him a strict order: within a month, he had to deliver one bear, three red deer, and two red foxes. The larger the bear, the better, with a large pelt, and the red fox pelts had to be intact and undamaged.
He was also worried. Red deer were easy to hunt, and red foxes were a bit more likely to be spotted. But bears and sables were really hard to come by. He had been wandering around the gullies near Lijiatun for the past few months, but he hadn't seen a single brown bear enclosure.
Lu Zhiqiang remembered: "Sun Weimin borrowed four hunting dogs from Lao Zhang to hunt bears in the barn, but instead of killing the bears, the four hunting dogs died. The Sun family had to pay Lao Zhang a lot of money in compensation. Sun Weimin was beaten quite a few times."
Li Ju'an's eyes lit up. A brown bear! That's it! He asked Lu Zhiqiang, "Where did Sun Weimin find the brown bear?"
"I don't know. He's very tight-lipped. I asked Jinyang to get him to say something for a long time, but he wouldn't say a word. He just talked about random things and was thinking about borrowing another dog."
Li Ju'an said, "He still borrows dogs? Everyone in the surrounding villages knows his infamous reputation as a dog-eat-dog. By the way, next time we can try to get some information out of Sun Hao, that fat boy from the Sun family. That kid's mouth is like a spilled bucket, he just blurts out whatever comes to mind."
Upon hearing this, Lu Zhiqiang slapped his forehead. That made sense! Sun Weimin wouldn't talk, but surely he could get some information out of Sun Hao, that chubby kid with a shrewd face? A few candies, maybe a can of fruit, and the chubby kid would confess everything.
He was planning to win over Sun Hao with canned fruit, but Li Ju'an added, "You don't need to bring anything. Just have Lu Wenqian go. This chubby kid listens to Lu Wenqian the most."
This time, Lu Zhiqiang became wary, straightened his back, and retorted, "That won't do. Our sister isn't allowed to go. Why don't you ask your sister to go and try to get information out of her?"
Li Ju'an thought about it and agreed: "Let's just beat up that kid Sun Hao and force him to confess."
The two older brothers looked at each other and burst into laughter.
We should set more traps before the New Year. Who knows, after the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, if we go up the mountain, we might catch something good.
Li Ju'an thought of Xiaolingtun, the old village of Chen, which Chen Shangqiang had mentioned. He said that some villagers had seen the attacked tent and three wild animal claw marks.
"Let's go around a few ditches and head to the edge of Xiaoling Village. We can set some traps and snares along the way, and then come back to snare them. If we catch as many as we can, we can have a lively and happy New Year."
Song Desheng was unaware of what had happened in Xiaolingtun. Upon hearing the name Xiaolingtun, Lu Zhiqiang felt goosebumps rise on the back of his neck and hurriedly shouted, "Xiaolingtun has powerful figures, do you still dare to go?"