Republic of China: Guandong Ginseng King

Chapter 276: Buried Tiger
It was already dark and they were still quite a long way from Sandaimiaoling. The two did not dare to delay any longer and hurried out of the forest.

I thought the horse was frightened and its owner was not at home, so I didn't know where it ran away.

When they came out of the woods, they saw that the horse sled was stuck between two trees and couldn't get through. The horse was snorting in anxiety.

Qu Shaoyang went over, calmed the horse, and made it retreat little by little.

Then they drove the horse sleigh out of the woods, and the two of them got on the sleigh and headed straight towards the village.

After walking about ten miles, we saw dots of fire in front of us. When we got closer, we found that many people were coming towards us with torches.

The people on the other side heard the sound of horse hooves and shouted, "Boss, boss?"

It turned out that Xingye saw that it was getting dark and Qu Shaoyang and Meng Lanjun had not returned to the village yet. He was worried that something might have happened to them, so he led people with torches to pick them up.

"It's me, why did you come out?"

When Qu Shaoyang heard what Xingye was doing, he was relieved. Fortunately, he didn't meet Hu Zi.

Otherwise, if there were tigers and jackals on this day, and he encountered a gang of bandits, Qu Shaoyang would have to doubt whether he had read the almanac wrong before going out, and all kinds of bad things would happen.

Xingye and others picked up Qu Shaoyang, and they returned to the village.

Old Meng was relieved to see Qu Shaoyang and Meng Lanjun return safely, and then he asked what happened on the road and why they came back so late.

When talking about this, Meng Lanjun burst into tears again. Qu Shaoyang had no choice but to tell Old Meng what had happened.

After hearing this, Old Meng could only sigh.

"Xiao Qu, you don't know that this Ah Fu is the only cub born from the third litter of cubs by the tigress who breastfed Lan Jun.

The tigress gave birth to Afu only about half a year ago. She went out hunting and never came back. Afu grew up in our house, playing and sleeping with Lan Jun.

Later, when Ah Fu grew up, he left home and only came back once or twice occasionally.

It has rarely come back in the past two years. I thought it had gone to occupy a territory somewhere else, but I didn’t expect it to be killed by a group of jackals.”

"Okay, don't be sad, the beasts in the mountains are like this, they either eat other beasts or are eaten by other beasts.

As long as you are all fine, if anything happens to you, I really won’t be able to live anymore.”

Old Meng patted Meng Lanjun on the shoulder and advised.

The two came back quite late and were very hungry, so Old Meng quickly prepared some food and brought it up for the two to eat.

Qu Shaoyang was okay and ate two pancakes and drank some sauerkraut soup. Meng Lanjun only ate a few bites and then put down his chopsticks because he really couldn't eat any more.

After a night's rest, the next morning, Qu Shaoyang led Xingye and several other men, together with Meng Lanjun, and drove a horse-drawn sleigh into the mountains with tools.

When we arrived at the place where the tiger and jackals had fought yesterday, we found that the bodies of the tiger, jackal and red deer were still there, but some of them had been pecked by crows and other birds.

Qu Shaoyang commanded his men to find a remote, shady place where the snow was very deep and bury the tiger.

There was no way. Meng Lanjun had deep feelings for the tiger. Even if Qu Shaoyang was greedy for money, it would not be easy for him to skin and bone his playmate, right?

To do that would be totally inhuman.

Qu Shaoyang deliberately did not alert the villagers and only brought his own men, for fear that the news would leak out.

What if some greedy person finds out and digs the tiger's body out of the snow after they leave?
If Meng Lanjun knew this, wouldn’t he be horrified to death?

These people are just passing by, and it is not certain when they will come back next time.

By that time, the tigers will have long been dead, so who would still care about these things?

The tiger's body was buried, but the jackal and red deer bodies could not be buried. They were all dragged out, loading as much as the sled could carry, and as for the rest, they found a way to drag them back.

When he was returning to the village, he happened to be seen by someone. When others saw his situation, they were all very surprised and hurried forward to ask what happened.

Qu Shaoyang had no choice but to say that when he entered the mountains yesterday, he encountered a group of jackals besieging red deer. He and Meng Lanjun killed the jackals, so they came back late last night.

This morning, we went to get both the jackal and the red deer.

Qu Shaoyang's words were not enough to convince everyone.

There are many hunters in the village. How can they not tell whether the jackal was shot to death or bitten to death by a wild beast?

However, they did not think about anything else. They guessed in their hearts that Qu Shaoyang and Meng Lanjun might have encountered some wild beasts and fought with a pack of jackals, and the two of them took advantage of the opportunity.

The jackals and red deer had been frozen solid all night in the wilderness, so they had to be dragged into the house to cool down for a while before they could be skinned and boned.

There were a total of thirty-eight jackals, plus five red deer. Old Meng's kitchen was not very big, so these things were divided into several batches and spread throughout the house.

Qu Shaoyang and his team worked for a whole day before they finally finished the task.

The jackal, deer and tiger were all encountered by Qu Shaoyang and Meng Lanjun together, so they should each get half.

But Qu Shaoyang didn't even mention the tiger and buried it directly, so Meng Lanjun didn't want any of the remaining things and gave them all to Qu Shaoyang.

Qu Shaoyang didn't say anything else. He skinned the jackal and kept everything that could be used from the deer.

There were five deer, the big one weighed five or six hundred kilograms, and the small one weighed more than one hundred kilograms. A lot of meat was produced.

Leave a portion in the stew pot for everyone to eat, and put the rest outside, pour water on it and freeze it into a lump, which is easier to store this way.

Qu Shaoyang and his party stayed in Sandaimiaoling for five nights. Now that they were done with their work here, they should have headed to Donggang.

Early in the morning of the first day of winter, Qu Shaoyang and several of his servants had breakfast at Meng's house.

Just when I was about to pack up my things and go to Zheng's and Wang's to gather people, I heard someone talking loudly outside.

"Brother Qu, will you come with us to hunt deer in the mountains today?
Yesterday we saw a group of deer in the mountains, about twenty of them.

Let's go up the mountain together. You lead the people to intercept the weapons, and we will fight. How about that?"

It's no wonder that the people who spoke so loudly are the Zheng brothers.

Both brothers followed Zheng Qingshan. They were tall and strong, with voices as loud as bells.

As soon as he finished speaking, Zheng Tieniu's brothers, Wang Junshan, and two other young men came into the house one after another.

"Hey, are you guys packing up to leave? No, stay a few more days."

When Zheng Tieniu saw the posture of Qu Shaoyang and his companions, he guessed that they were about to pack up and leave, so he hurriedly tried to keep them.

"Look, we brothers haven't had enough of each other yet. You've been busy these past few days and haven't had time to get together for a drink or something."

The people in the mountains are warm and hospitable. Although Zheng Tieniu had a lot of dissatisfaction with Qu Shaoyang when they met on the first day, after spending the past few days together, the two of them got along quite well.

“No, we’ve been out for quite some time, and it’s already winter, so we have to go back quickly.

Next time, next time I come, I will definitely go hunting with you."

Qu Shaoyang was worried about his family, so he could only politely refuse Zheng Tieniu's kindness.

"Xiao Qu, why don't you leave two days later.

Well, Lan Jun has been depressed because of Ah Fu's death.

Even if Grandpa asks you for help, can you take him to the mountains to hunt deer today and relax while you're at it?"

Over there, Old Meng said earnestly.

(End of this chapter)