Reborn in the 1980s: I made my fortune hunting wild game in Changbai Mountain

Before you know it, half a month has passed.

The back hill has been quite lively lately.

Many organized and experienced hunting teams from outside wandered around the ditches, ponds, and forests surrounding the back mountain after the snow, looking for traces of the mutated tiger.

Unfortunately, a fresh snowfall completely covered the tracks left by the mutated animal. After searching for days, they still couldn't find a single decent trace.

Of course, not finding the mutated tiger doesn't mean all the effort will be in vain. The wild animals that roam around the back mountain forest farm are really unlucky. They can hear gunshots coming from the distant forest almost every day, and every now and then, roe deer and wild boars are dragged down the mountain.

After the poaching incident in the mountains near Shidingzi, Yue Feng and his hunting team held a meeting and discussed the matter briefly. They unanimously agreed to find a reliable villager to guard the area on the mountain. At the same time, they made a large number of warning signs out of wooden boards and painted them, placing them in conspicuous places around the enclosed area.

Yue Feng was, after all, a village secretary, so it wasn't difficult for him to find a reliable impoverished household in the village. After some consideration, he found a bachelor in his fifties named Chang Huaishan from the east end of the village and hired him as a mountain guard for one yuan a day to cover his food and living expenses.

A few days after the snow, Yue Feng led his hunting team into the mountains with tools and materials. They built a three-story wooden cabin on a rocky peak and sent up food and supplies every few days, which solved the risk of large-scale poaching.

After finishing his chores, Yue Feng returned to a more leisurely state, spending his time at home playing with his son, occasionally delivering supplies to the farm, or checking accounts and collecting profits at the restaurant. He lived a very comfortable life.

That day, Yue Feng was at home coaxing his son when his brother-in-law, Wang Mingyu, came running over.

"Brother-in-law, there's a phone call for you! The caller claims to be from the Municipal Forestry Bureau!"

Upon hearing the call from the Forestry Bureau, Yue Feng's heart skipped a beat. He put his beloved son on the kang (a heated brick bed), greeted his wife, and got up to answer the phone.

When Yue Feng arrived at the village office, the phone call hadn't ended yet. He picked up the phone and said, "Hello? This is Yue Feng!"

"Haha, Xiaofeng! It's your Uncle Du!" Du Chonglai's hearty laughter came from the phone.

"Hello, sir. What are your instructions?" Upon hearing the familiar voice, Yue Feng immediately greeted him politely.

"There really is something very important! Is there anything urgent at home? Come visit me when you have time!" Du Chonglai said very solemnly.

"Hmm? Everything's alright at home. Are you in a hurry? If you are, I'll come over right now!"

"Then come this way! The news hasn't spread yet, so come quickly and get ready!"

Hearing this, Yue Feng was slightly taken aback and asked, "What's wrong? Why does it sound so serious? Give me a heads-up so I can be mentally prepared!"

"Do you remember the last time you reported to the Forestry Bureau about the large-scale death of pine trees on the mountain?"
We took the news very seriously and reported it up the chain of command. After receiving approval from higher authorities, we organized personnel to carry out harmless treatment work in the affected pine forest!

That means felling the pine trees and then burning them according to procedure to disinfect any potential sources of infection!

Hearing this, Yue Feng breathed a sigh of relief: "Hmm, I remember that! What's wrong, are you short-staffed? Do you need me to arrange some people to do the work?"

"We don't need you to do the work! It's far from the foot of the mountain, and the workers all live in tents!"

Something terrible happened last night: a worker got up in the middle of the night and was attacked and killed by an animal suspected to be a leopard or tiger!

"What the hell?"

Yue Feng was quite calm at first, but when he heard that an animal, possibly a leopard, had killed someone, he instantly perked up.

"That's the general situation. I'll show you the case file when you arrive for more details!"

"Don't say I didn't take care of you! I didn't ask anyone else for help; I contacted you first!" Du Chonglai said.

“Okay, I’ll go next!” Yue Feng jumped up from his seat.

"I'll be waiting for you in my office. Just come right up!"

"it is good!"

……

After hanging up the phone, Yue Feng didn't even have time to say goodbye to his mother-in-law before he ran straight to the new house to get his motorcycle.

Based on Du Chonglai's description, Yue Feng had a hunch that this thing was probably not a tiger or a leopard, but most likely the animal that had injured someone on the stone top and then escaped, suspected to be a 'biao'.

After searching for that creature that was suspected to be a leopard for several days, Yue Feng and his hunting team found nothing.

Unable to find it, Yue Feng gave up hope.

But unexpectedly, this thing has now escaped to the area where a large number of pine forests have died.

Under the legal system at the time, there was a red line: even the most precious Siberian tiger, if it intentionally injured someone, had to be hunted down and eliminated according to law, with the protection of the people's interests taking priority.

Now that Yue Feng has accepted the Forestry Bureau's commission to hunt that animal, he has no psychological burden whatsoever.

Yue Feng returned to his new house, greeted his wife, and rode his motorcycle straight to the Forestry Bureau.

Along the way, Yue Feng felt his breathing become much more rapid as he drove the motorcycle very fast.

Upon arriving at the Forestry Bureau, he parked his motorcycle in the courtyard, then hurried upstairs to Du Chonglai's office.

Bang bang bang! Knocking on the door.

"Enter!"

Yue Feng pushed open the door and entered, where he saw Du Chonglai sitting at his workbench, frowning as he examined the case files.

"uncle!"

"You came pretty fast! You must have been freezing on the way here, come and warm up by the radiator!" Du Chonglai put down the files in his hand and then greeted Yue Feng with a smile.

Yue Feng didn't stand on ceremony with the other person. He took off his coat and hat and went to warm his hands by the radiator.

"What's going on? As far as I know, there shouldn't be any large predators over the dead pine forest!"
"It snowed a while ago, and our hunting team just went there and looted everything!" Yue Feng asked while warming his hands.

"This is the first file we just compiled. Take a look at it first!" Du Chonglai handed the materials in front of him to Yue Feng.

Yue Feng didn't even bother to warm his hands; he rubbed them together and took the organized files.

Ignoring all the background details, Yue Feng focused primarily on the detailed textual descriptions and the on-site photos he had taken.

Yue Feng didn't even bother to look at the details of the injured workers; he first went to find photos of the footprints left on the ground. After seeing the first photo of the footprints, Yue Feng's tense nerves instantly relaxed.

It's it!

The size of the claws is almost exactly the same as the ones I saw on Shidingzi Mountain not long ago.

Looking at the detailed data, such as stride length, further confirmed Yue Feng's judgment: the stride length was several tens of centimeters longer than that of a Siberian tiger, making this data highly identifiable.

After verifying the key data, Yue Feng felt more confident and then looked at the other parts of the content.

I glanced at it in about five minutes.

The worker who died was attacked from behind by this wild animal when he got up to use the toilet in the middle of the night. The animal bit through his spine in one swift and decisive blow.

When the person was discovered the next day, some of his internal organs had been removed and eaten, especially his brain, which was completely gone, and his entire face had been gnawed off!
"Phew..." Yue Feng let out a long breath after looking at the data.

"How's it going, Xiaofeng? After reading the file, do you know what this is? This mountain beast is too vicious; it only eats brains and internal organs! It's making all the logging workers in the mountains panic and afraid to work!" Du Chonglai asked with concern as Yue Feng put down the file.

Yue Feng nodded: "This mountain beast showed up at the stone roof I fenced off before the snowfall a while ago, and it also ambushed a hunter who was spending the night on the mountain."

However, the hunter got up in the middle of the night with a short stick on his back, so he was not ambushed and escaped with his life!
During the fight, he was left with numerous scratches, bite marks, and fractures!
The person should still be in the hospital!

"What? You knew about its existence all along? Why didn't you report it to your superiors?" Du Chonglai was somewhat surprised to hear that Yue Feng had known about it all along.

Yue Feng said, "This matter should have been handled by the authorities, but it was suppressed by one of my uncles!"

The poaching matter was settled privately, and the other party even paid compensation! So I didn't pursue it further! Incidentally, the incident of the poaching injury was also dropped!

"What the hell is this? A tiger?" Du Chonglai asked again.

Yue Feng shook his head: "I got the information from the wounded Cui Dahai and his companion Wang Er. They said it was a strange animal with golden fur all over its body but no tiger stripes and a big, mottled face!"
It is larger than a leopard, but slightly smaller than a tigress! It has long limbs and is very good at running and jumping!

The escape tracks left on the stone top indicate that, after a short running start and with a slight drop, it leaped a terrifying distance of over twenty meters!
Furthermore, its stride was incredibly long, nearly two meters, almost half a meter longer than the adult male Siberian tiger we killed two years ago!

After listening to Yue Feng's description, Du Chonglai frowned.

"Could this... be a mutated tiger or leopard?"

Yue Feng nodded: "My master and I have also discussed what this thing is. Judging from the typical characteristics described by the person involved, it is very likely the legendary Biao! That is, a mutated tiger!"

"Biao? A tiger has three cubs, one of which is bound to be Biao?" Du Chonglai casually uttered a proverb.

"Yes, that's it! But nobody's ever seen it, it's just a guess!"

"No matter what it is, if it obstructs normal production and hurts people, even if it's a dragon, we have to find a way to kill it!"
After this incident, the top brass at the bureau wants to offer a reward to a professional hunting team like yours to handle it. So, how about it? Are you confident you can handle it?

As he said this, Du Chonglai stared intently at Yue Feng, clearly looking forward to seeing his nephew.

Yue Feng grinned: "I wouldn't say I'm sure, but I'll definitely give it a try! As long as the hunting permit is approved, my hunting team and I will go up the mountain tomorrow! We'll try our best to kill it and bring it back!"

"Alright, if you put it that way, then we'll hold off on issuing the bounty notice for now. That way, other hunting teams won't smell the scent and compete with you, which might just backfire!"

I'll get you the paperwork from the bureau, so you can take your people and do it without worry! I'll cover for you!

Since things had come to this point, Yue Feng naturally wouldn't refuse and readily agreed.

"Row!"

After a brief discussion of the core issues, Yue Feng asked some trivial details. He stayed in Du Chonglai's office for more than an hour before saying goodbye and leaving.

Not long after Yue Feng left, Deputy Director Liu, who had received a report from his subordinate, strolled into Du Chonglai's office.

Half an hour later, Deputy Director Liu left and returned to his office to make a phone call to someone outside.

Meanwhile, Yue Feng rode his motorcycle home and immediately gathered his friends together again.

After organizing the necessary equipment, tents, and other necessities for the mountain trip, and preparing supplies for the mountain, I rode my bike to the breeding farm to bring Canglong and other hunting dogs back home ahead of time.

After a flurry of activity, the brothers were all ready and went to the Dead Pine Forest early the next morning to conduct an on-site investigation and track down the mutated creature.

Just as Yue Feng was getting excited after receiving the news, several hunting teams from other places staying in Lianhua Township had not made any new discoveries and were preparing to give up the hunt and head home.

In a farmhouse behind the village guesthouse, several burly men were having hot pot and drinking.

The man sitting in the main seat was a middle-aged man in his forties with a full beard, thick eyebrows, and big eyes. He was only wearing a close-fitting jacket, and it was clear that he was in extremely good physical condition.

On either side of the bearded man were twin brothers. They looked to be in their early thirties, with slightly pale skin. They didn't look like mountain herders, but rather like pretty boys who made a living off their looks.

Two seats away from the pretty boy were two young men in their early twenties, of lower status, who were probably doing odd jobs and manual labor in the hunting team.

"Big boss! We've been here for over ten days, and there's still no trace of that mutated tiger!"

The pretty boy on the right picked up a piece of mutton with his chopsticks, dipped it in the copper pot, and then swallowed it in one bite after dipping it in the sauce.

The bearded man picked up his glass and took a big gulp: "We'll wait three more days. If there's no news, we'll go back!"
"We've been out for quite a while now, and we've done everything we could, but we still don't know where this rumor came from, we haven't seen a single thing!"

The bearded man, nicknamed Lei Laohu or Lei Dapao, is the leader of a top hunting team in Chuncheng. He heard about the mutated tiger and brought his team over.

The two young men standing next to him, one named Pan Xiaoshan and the other Pan Xiaoshui, are Lei Dapao's right-hand men. Don't let their fair skin fool you; they're experts at hunting in the mountains.

"Has the person who told you the news contacted us recently?" Pan Xiaoshui asked casually while eating hot pot.

Lei Laohu shook his head: "No news! I have no connection with this person. It was a friend who relayed the information indirectly!"
Looking back now, either we went astray during our search and failed to find the tiger's trail.

Otherwise, they're just making fun of us with baseless rumors!
If my friend weren't such a reliable person, I would have left long ago!

Just as they were complaining inside about how things were being delayed and time was being wasted, there was a knock at the door.

"Lei Pao Tou, new information has arrived!" (End of Chapter)