Back in the 1980s, hiking in the mountains was also a way of life

On the day of the move, Fang Xiu'e and Fang Xiuying invited Wang An, Wu Dong, Zhang Shuya, and several senior executives from the pharmaceutical factory to a state-run restaurant for a meal to celebrate the sisters' new home.

With her own courtyard and clinic, Fang Xiu'e seemed like a female Taoist priest practicing in the bustling city, as if she had become ethereal and otherworldly.

During the day, Fang Xiu'e would see patients in the clinic in the front, and at night she would go back to the house in the back to rest.

They never leave their homes, as if they have no other desires in this life.

Of course, while Fang Xiu'e was very calm and composed in her life and work, she could be quite wild when she was joking around with Wang An.

Fang Xiu'e could keep up with all the strange and unusual tricks Wang An came up with.

Fang Xiu'e's extreme contrast—acting like a Taoist priest in public but like a virgin on the kang (heated brick bed)—was precisely what made Wang An so infatuated with her.

The next morning, Wang An and Fang Xiu'e did morning exercises together on the kang (a heated brick bed). After finishing, they went to a noodle shop for breakfast. Wang An drove Fang Xiu'e home and then strolled around the "Longjiang Motorcycle" store before driving home.

Unless there are special circumstances, Wang An will not be coming to the shop again for a month or two.

The main reason is that the motorcycle business is already on track, so Wang An's visit is just for show and doesn't really serve any purpose.

For the past two weeks, Wang An has been busy with the motorcycle project, so he was unable to participate in the village's spring hunt. However, Wang Li and Huang Zhong did participate.

However, according to Wang Li and Huang Zhong, everyone who went into the mountains for the spring hunt, including the militiamen, was clearly just going through the motions without putting in any real effort.

About 20 people, carrying guns, wandered around the village for a few days, killing only a few pheasants and rabbits and two yellow-haired wild boars weighing about 100 pounds each. The spring hunt ended rather hastily.

The main problem is that since the land was distributed to individual households, people have only cared about their own families and just wanted to live their own lives. They would push away or delay matters related to the collective as much as possible, and even when they did participate, they became increasingly indifferent.

This is especially true for collective labor activities like spring hunting, which involve a certain degree of danger.

In the early days, during spring and autumn hunts, hunters would bring their own dogs into the mountains to try their best to kill or drive away wild boars, bears, and other livestock that were destructive to crops around the village.

However, after two years of incidents where hunters' dogs were attacking prey, and unscrupulous people or those eager to make a name for themselves disregarded the dogs' safety and shot at the prey, sometimes even accidentally killing the hunting dogs, hunters stopped bringing dogs into the mountains during spring and autumn hunts.

You have to understand that hunting dogs are precious treasures to hunters, so who would dare to put their hunting dog's safety in someone else's hands?
The main reason is that a dog's life is less valuable than a human's. Many times, even when a group of people are carrying guns, no one knows who fired the shot. Of course, even if you know who it was, you can't just kill a person because a dog died. Who would dare?
From then on, spring or autumn hunting became a joke. A large group of people would go into the mountains with guns on their backs, but if there was any prey, they would have already run away and disappeared without a trace.

However, Wang Li and Huang Zhong had some success in their mountain adventures these past few days. Besides bringing back a few small animals, they also discovered a small group of sika deer on a saline-alkali land.

When Wang Li and Huang Zhong told Wang An the news, Wang An immediately had the desire to go into the mountains to catch sika deer.

Unfortunately, sika deer are extremely valuable and very easy to raise, and the size of Wang An's deer herd is far from meeting his expectations.

After Wang Li finished speaking, Wang An repeatedly tapped the sofa armrest with his hand and asked in a deep voice:
"When you old folks went into the mountains, didn't anyone else notice any deer activity in that saline-alkali land?"

Wang Li said uncertainly:

"Well, I don't know either. Anyway, Xiao Zhong and I found that the land had been dug up by deer, and the snow had almost melted. We were afraid people would find out, so we left in a hurry. I didn't pay attention to whether anyone else went there after that." Every year in April and May, it's a good time to hunt deer because the male deer have antlers and the female deer have fetuses, which are all valuable.

Wang An thought for a moment, then said:
"How far is that place? If we leave now, can we be back before noon?"

Wang Li scratched his head and said uncertainly:

"It's located on the fifth ridge in the southeast, just outside the village's perimeter."

Wang An nodded, pondered for a moment, and immediately gave the order:
"There's no time to lose, Fifth Brother. Go home right now, change your clothes, and ride over on horseback. Xiao Zhong, go and saddle those two Oroqen horses."

Wang Li said, somewhat stunned:

"Fourth Brother, shall we... shall we go now?"

Wang An glanced at Wang Li and said in a voice that left no room for doubt:
"We have to hurry, at least we need to claim the nest first. Oh, and don't forget to bring an axe when you come back later."

Although Wang Li didn't know what Wang An wanted him to do with the axe, he obediently agreed, turned around, and went out to ride his motorcycle home.

Wang Li went home to ride a horse, Huang Zhong went to put a saddle on the horse, and Wang An was not idle either, turning around and going to the back room.

The water bladder was filled with water, and two packets of salt were placed in a noodle bag. Some baked goods and biscuits were placed in a cloth bag.

After preparing all this, Wang An ran to the storeroom and filled a sack with the deer catchers he had used last time. He then put all these things in the yard, intending to take them with him when he went into the mountains later.

Twenty minutes later, everything was ready. Wang An, Wang Li, and Huang Zhong each carried a Type 56 half horse and rode an Oroqen horse. Their eldest son's horse carried a sack of sacks for carrying hooves. The three men and four horses headed towards the mountains southeast of the village.

The reason Wang An chose to ride a horse instead of a sled was that, although the weather in the Lesser Khingan Mountains was still very cold in April, much of the snow in the mountains had already melted.

In other words, from now until the next heavy snowfall, the sled will be basically useless.

After the three men and four horses entered the mountain, they did not delay and went straight to the fifth ridge.

It took Wang An and his two companions nearly an hour to reach the vicinity of the saline-alkali land that Wang Li had mentioned.

Upon arriving at the saline-alkali land, Wang An and his two companions didn't immediately approach it. Instead, they tied their horses to a tree and began to wander around the area.

Wang An wanted to see if anyone else had come to this saline-alkali land, especially this small herd of sika deer, since Wang Li and Huang Zhong discovered it.

Unfortunately, Wang An and his two companions not only discovered the stranger's footprints, but these footprints were also clearly new.

The most ridiculous thing is that there were even two groups of strangers' footprints. (End of Chapter)