Xing'an Mountains 1984: Starting from climbing mountains to support the family

Chapter 96 Old Pine Tree

Chen Weidong took out the internal organs, hung the intestines on a tree, cut the heart into four halves, and fed them to four dogs respectively.

Then they hung the intestines on the tree.

Hunters say that they hang intestines on trees to pay respect to the mountain gods.

But Chen Weidong thought it was more to prevent wild animals from following by smelling the food. After all, the internal organs and intestines of animals are a delicacy for wild animals in the mountains.

Then Chen Weidong prepared to attack the yellow-haired guy. There were many blood holes on the head of the yellow-haired guy. It seemed that he was shot in the forehead by Shi Tou's earth gun.

"Brother Weidong, let me try!"

Bingzi looked at Chen Weidong after he finished dealing with an old sow and took the initiative to speak.

"Okay! You try it!"

Chen Weidong handed the knife to Bingzi.

At the moment, two wild boars, a green goat and a few rabbits have been killed. Chen Weidong has no plan to stay any longer, especially since it would be a hassle to transport so many wild animals back.

Then Chen Weidong tied up the black tiger and the white tiger with ropes. Since he was going back, he fed the black tiger and the white tiger. Xiao Hei and Da Huang were also tied up with stones.

~

"Shitou, Bingzi, go chop some trees. We can only make a simple sled to transport these two wild boars back."

Chen Weidong tied the two gutted wild boars together, intending to let Shitou and Bingzi carry the two wild boars while he carried the green goat.
As a result, even if the internal organs of the two wild boars were thrown away, they still weighed nearly 350 to 360 kilograms. Although Shitou was strong, he was a little inferior to Bingzi, and it was really difficult for the two of them to lift two wild boars.

Therefore, Chen Weidong could only spend time making the sled. The three of them had ropes in their hands, and it took about half an hour to complete the sled.

It took more than two hours for the three men to use a sled to drag the wild boar and the green goat out of Erlonggou with great effort.

Chen Weidong and the other two were panting with exhaustion. You know, it wasn't snowing, so pulling the sled was damn hard.
Especially in Erlonggou, there are many hillsides, which makes it difficult to walk.
This is also why Chen Weidong did not plan to make a sled at the beginning. It would be much easier if Shitou and Bingzi could carry the two wild boars and just walk away.

However, the next section of the road was much easier to walk, so Chen Weidong gave the task of pulling the wild boar and the green goat to Shitou and Bingzi, and he led the way in front with the dog.

After all, Erlonggou is already deep in Laohei Mountain, and Chen Weidong is responsible for the safety of the three people.

Although Shitou and Bingzi were tired, they were very happy. They followed Chen Weidong to Erlonggou and hunted two wild boars and a green goat. This was an unprecedented harvest.

After walking about one or two miles, Bingzi was tired and hungry. He panted and said, "Brother Weidong, I can't do it anymore. Let's find a place to eat first."

"Okay! There's an abandoned old shack just ahead. Let's go there and rest for a while."

Chen Weidong nodded. The three of them were starving at the moment.

The three men discovered this abandoned old shack on their way here. Not long after, the sled arrived under a huge pine tree.

The shack is right under an old pine tree, a tenacious old pine tree with a diameter of more than three meters. However, it was hit by a natural disaster at some point, and for some unknown reason, the whole tree was almost split in half.

Then another man-made disaster occurred. Seven or eight meters from the root upward were completely hollowed out and almost turned into a dead tree.

However, this tree is still tenaciously alive.

This tree has also become a natural house. I don’t know who used this big tree and transformed it into a two-story shack many years ago.

The area under the old pine tree was used as a storage room, and the area three meters above was where people lived.

As soon as Bingzi reached the old pine tree, he immediately collapsed to the ground, gasping for breath. Shitou was slightly better.

They were exhausted after all this journey.

The one who was the most relaxed was Chen Weidong. At this moment, he also took the initiative to look for dead branches. After all, Shitou and Bingzi would be needed to work hard later. Even if these two people were donkeys, they could not be ordered around like this.

You don't have to run far, there are a lot of fallen dead branches under the old pine tree.

After a while, he picked up a large pile of dead pine branches.

Chen Weidong first lit a bonfire to warm everyone up. The temperature in the mountains was more than 20 degrees Celsius below zero, and they were tired, hungry and cold after all the hard work this morning.

Chen Weidong planned to eat some hot food and have a good rest, as he was still far away from Jiuqutun!
So Chen Weidong took a rabbit to a mountain spring. It is not accurate to call it a mountain spring, this place is a pool of water.

All year round, spring water seeps out from the stone walls of the hill and flows into the pool below.

Finally, it overflows from the pool and forms a small stream. This small pool fully verifies the truth that water dripping wears away a stone.

This should be the result of water seeping out from the cracks in the rocks and dripping down the cliff over who knows how many years, slowly creating a pool of water.

In the weather of more than 20 degrees below zero, Chen Weidong could hear the sound of the spring water before he even got close to it. It was very magical.

Logically speaking, when the temperature is more than 20 degrees below zero, the water should be frozen. After all, the river water outside the mountain is now more than one meter thick!
This is also one of the magical places in Xing'an Mountains. There is even a so-called unfrozen river. The river does not freeze all year round and can still flow even in extremely low temperatures of minus 30 or 40 degrees Celsius in winter.

Chen Weidong skinned the rabbit by the pond, cleaned it and washed it several times before returning to the old shack.

Shitou and Bingzi had also recovered by now and were standing under a pine tree, bending over, looking for something.

"What are you two looking for?"

"Brother Weidong, look, we found a lot of pine cones. We are great!" Bingzi came over holding a pine cone and presented it as a treasure.

"Wow, it's quite big!" Chen Weidong couldn't help but look up at the old pine tree and sighed.

This pine cone is over thirty centimeters long, nearly forty centimeters long. It weighs three to four kilograms according to visual inspection. It is truly the ancestor of the pine cone world.

The pine cones in the Northeast are relatively large. The pine cones picked up by the villagers in the mountains are generally around 20 centimeters in size, and rarely exceed 30 centimeters.

Bingzi and Shitou picked up a pile of pine cones, all of which were large pine cones over 30 centimeters tall.

It was still completely dry. If it had just fallen, the pine cone would have been over forty centimeters.

"Are there any pine nuts in it?" Chen Weidong asked.

"Yes! There must be! Look, the leaves outside this pine cone can still fall!"

“Brother Weidong, look at the old pine tree. There are so many old pine cones. If we just pick some, we won’t be able to eat them all.”

Chen Weidong took a look and saw that there were indeed a lot of them. He could see a bunch of them just under this old tree.
The best pine cones are red pine cones. It takes a pine tree that is more than fifty years old to form a pine cone, and it takes two years for the pine cone to mature and fall to the ground.

The older the pine tree is, the larger the pine cones will be.

Just like this old pine tree in front of us, which is who knows how many hundreds of years old. Looking up, the tree is full of pine cones, and there is a thick layer of pine cones on the ground.

It's a pity that those who mined the mountains usually didn't come from such a far place, and those who came to Erlonggou to hunt were not favored either.
Because pine cones are not valuable these days, people basically pick them for eating. Chen Weidong smiled and said, pine nuts are not valuable now, but it will be different in the future. A pound of pine nuts may cost twenty or thirty yuan.

In later generations, a group of people from Shandong and Henan came to the Northeast, went deep into the mountains and forests, and made a living by collecting pine cones.

Chen Weidong roasted the rabbit over the fire, then peeled open a pine cone, threw the pine nuts in and roasted it.

The three of them were eating happily. Chen Weidong looked up at the old pine tree. He heard rustling and squeaking sounds coming from the tree.

So, look up at the old pine tree,
Good guy!
The old pine tree is really lively.

At a glance, there were dozens of greyhounds jumping back and forth on the branches of the old pine trees.

Staring at Chen Weidong and the others, squeaking in anxiety.

These greyhounds start collecting food in the summer and they collect food non-stop.

Even if the food they collect is more than they can eat in two or three years, the greyhounds seem to have a fear of food shortage and will not stop until it snows in winter.

However, they are forced to stop because it is too cold. They still come out to look for food at noon when the temperature is higher.

At this time, it was past one in the afternoon, when the temperature was the highest in the day. The greyhounds came out to pick pine cones, but their territory was occupied by Chen Weidong.
Naturally they are not happy. These greyhounds in the deep mountains are bigger than those in the pine forests, and they are not very afraid of people!

However, Chen Weidong and his two companions did not bring slingshots, nor did they have the energy to shoot them. With so many greyhounds, they could come here and shoot them specifically next time, which would also be a considerable income.

"Brother Weidong, there are so many greyhounds here?" said Shi Tou.

"Yeah, Brother Weidong, we can come over and play next time."

Bingzi obviously meant the same thing.

"Well, let's eat first! We have to transport the wild boar back later."

Chen Weidong nodded, then began to invite the two to eat.

I was eating the hot roasted rabbit with pine nuts and cold dry food, but now I couldn't eat anymore.

After the meal, the three of them felt much better.

Chen Weidong walked in front with the dog, while Shitou and Bingzi pulled the sled together.

Behind them, the gray dog ​​on the old pine tree watched Chen Weidong and the other two leave, and jumped around happily on the pine tree, squeaking.

But they don't know that they have been targeted by someone.

~

"Sister, why hasn't Dad come home yet?"

"Yeah, he didn't come back last night. Daddy is not a good boy."

"Dad is an adult~"

"..."

Several little kids in the yard were talking in baby voices. They said Chen Weidong didn’t come back all night yesterday, and the little girls didn’t know where their father had gone.

Suddenly, they heard some noise outside the door, and Dani and her sister immediately ran outside happily.

But as soon as I stepped out of the door, several pairs of watery eyes couldn't help but reveal disappointment.

"No! Dad, it's Grandpa Zhang."

Dani said.

Si Ni ran up to him and asked in a baby voice, "Grandpa Zhang, my dad, have you seen my dad come back?"

Grandpa Zhang: “…”

"My father hasn't been back for two days." Si Ni said while counting her cute little fingers.

As soon as Old Zhang heard the voice, he knew it was Chen Weidong's fourth daughter. This little girl was very interesting.
Just this afternoon, she asked everyone she met if they had seen their father come back.

"Si Ni, Grandpa Zhang didn't see it!"

"Oh~"

"Goodbye, Grandpa Zhang."

As she spoke, little Si Ni followed her sister and ran towards the kitchen with her short legs.

"Mom, why hasn't Dad come back yet?"

"Yeah, Wu Ni misses her daddy!"

"Si Ni wants to too!"

"Sanni..."

"..."

A few little girls were chattering non-stop.

Liu Xueting looked at the little girls with a helpless look: "Okay, okay, mommy knows you miss daddy."

Liu Xueting's eyes were filled with worry at this moment. Although Chen Weidong downplayed it, the example of her third uncle was right in front of her. How could she not be worried? She didn't sleep well last night.

Although it has only been two days since Chen Weidong went into the mountains, like the other little girls, every time Liu Xueting heard a noise outside, she hoped that it was her man coming back.

But looking at her daughters, she said slowly, "Be good, Daddy will be back soon, got it?"

"Well, Sanni, be good, and daddy will come home soon."

"Si Ni wants to be like her sister."

"Mom, let me help you boil the pot."

Several little ones also clamored to help their mother.

……

In the evening, around seven o'clock.

Chen Weidong brought Shitou and Bingzi and carried the wild boar to Jiuqutun. The journey took a long time, especially the twenty or thirty miles of mountain road. The simply made sled could not withstand the brunt of the impact. They stopped and started along the way and did not return until dark.

However, before Chen Weidong reached the door of his house, he saw Liu Xueting coming out with six little ones.

Chen Weidong looked at the puppy at his feet and roughly understood that they saw the puppy running out and guessed that he had returned.

These four puppies, especially Dalong, although small in size, can travel a long distance. Coupled with the barking of Black Tiger and White Tiger, the four puppies came running on their four short legs early in the morning to greet their master.

"father!"

"It's really dad!"

"Mom, it's Dad who's back! With Uncle Bingzi and Uncle Shitou!"

The little ones were sharp-eyed and saw Chen Weidong holding a flashlight from a distance.

Several little girls ran towards Chen Weidong happily, and Liu Ni also stretched out her little hands and cried in Liu Xueting's arms!

At this moment, Liu Xueting finally let go of her worries, smiled, and followed behind.

Looking at the five little girls running towards him, Chen Weidong suddenly felt extremely warm in his heart.
But his clothes were also stained with a lot of blood.

"Daddy is dirty, stay away from him, or you'll get your clothes dirty."

Chen Weidong reminded.

The first, second and third Ni are very obedient, but the fourth and fifth Ni are the most willful.
"don't want……"

The two little ones each hugged one of his thighs, opened their big watery eyes and acted coquettishly in a baby voice.

Chen Weidong: "Uh..."

(End of this chapter)