Reborn in 1985: Starting from Contracting a Ranch

Shan Yaowen followed Zhang Du up the mountain along the village path.

We hadn't gone far when we saw a huge rock wall to the north.

This rock wall is also the origin of the name of the village of Zhangjiayan. Originally, the people of Zhangjiayan did live around this rock wall, but the area was too arid. Later, the villagers built houses and moved south, which led to the formation of the present-day Zhangjiayan.

"By the way, brother-in-law, where are the hunting dogs? Why didn't you bring them?"

When they rested at the foot of the rock wall, Shan Yaowen realized that Zhang Du had brought nothing but himself. How were they going to find prey?

"I went to hunt moose for someone else. Besides, it's almost time to eat. I'll just take you to see the lasso. As for the moose, so many people have gone into the mountains before me. It's not my turn."

Zhang Du had indeed planned to lead his brother-in-law to fight the big guys, but there wasn't enough time today.

Besides, several groups of people have already gone, so I probably have no hope. I'll take him to check out the prey traps, since he happens to be interested in lassos.

After entering the mountains, the two headed straight for their destination. Zhang Du had no other plans and didn't even bother to take out his hunting rifle.

"You have to be careful when setting these snares. Don't set them on main roads, or you'll lose the snare and get yelled at. Also, you have to be careful with different types of snares. You can't use a snare for wild boars, but you can use a smaller snare for wild boars. Setting the snares requires..."

Throughout the journey, Zhang Du continued to treat his brother-in-law as a novice, providing him with various explanations.

After all, Shan Yaowen's success in hunting wild boars and roe deer was largely due to luck. In Zhang Du's opinion, Shan Yaowen was still too inexperienced.

"Wait a minute, brother-in-law..."

Just as Shan Yaowen was about to speak, Zhang Du waved his hand to interrupt him, "Listen to your brother-in-law. He's been hunting for so long and hasn't missed a single shot."

"No, brother-in-law, look ahead."

Dan Yaowen pointed to a snare by the tree in front of him, both amused and exasperated. There was indeed prey inside, but it had nothing to do with what his brother-in-law had said.

He recognized that thing; it was an eagle, or more accurately, a steppe eagle.

Zhang Du glanced at the roadside diagonally in front of him; a snare had already caught its prey, but it wasn't any of the kinds he had mentioned—it was a large bird.

Seeing someone approaching, the large bird tried to stand up but staggered and fell to the ground. It tried to flap its wings but only managed a weak flap before falling silent.

"Eee-yah-yah~" Upon seeing the large bird, Zhang Du immediately took out his hunting rifle, scanned his surroundings, and then cautiously approached:

"Like a new bride pushing a millstone, the first time she's caught a big bird with a snare."

He had caught some birds before, but they were mostly grouse and wild ducks, but this was the first time he had caught an eagle.

Fearing that the creature would resist, Zhang Du took a stone from a short distance away and hit it once. Only when there was no reaction did he approach.

"Damn, so he got tricked because he was greedy."

Upon closer inspection, Zhang Du discovered that the large bird's body was covered with some rabbit fur, and there was also a lot of blood around it. As for the meat, it was gone, presumably eaten clean by the large bird.

"This big bird is a bit silly. It's catching rabbits, so why is it perched on the ground?" Shan Yaowen stepped forward and took a look. A thin steel wire was wrapped around the bird's foot.

This is my brother-in-law's specialty. This setup is absolutely insidious; otherwise, the eagle in the sky wouldn't have been caught.

Of course, even if it's shady, this bird is stupid too. Why would you come down and walk around for no reason?

"It must have been my snare that caught the rabbit. This bird saw the rabbit and wanted to eat it, but after landing, it grabbed the rabbit but couldn't fly back up, so it landed and got caught." Zhang Du glanced at it briefly and roughly knew what had happened.

Dan Yaowen glanced at the other sheath among the rabbit fur on the bird's belly and immediately understood.

What a silly and greedy bird!

"Is this thing tasty?" Zhang Du untied the two sheaths, picked up the big bird, and weighed it in his hand.

When Shan Yaowen saw it, he reached out and squeezed it. He found that the big bird didn't have much meat on its body. When he picked it up, he found that it was very light, weighing only about four or five pounds.

After examining the feathers and beak, Shan Yaowen roughly understood the bird's condition.

"This should be a juvenile eagle."

Hearing his brother-in-law's words, Zhang Du was stunned for a moment. He picked up the big bird again and took a closer look. He found that the bird's feathers were indeed quite light in color, and there were white spots on the upper and lower parts of its wings.

The adult steppe eagle has brown plumage and is indeed very light to carry.

He initially thought the bird was so light because it had been hungry for several days, but it turned out to be a fledgling.

"Never mind, even a mosquito is still meat, and this thing is much better than a mosquito." Zhang Du tied the big bird up and held it in his hand.

After finding a big bird, my luck seemed to improve.

"A flying dragon?" As Shan Yaowen was helping to put away the lasso, he suddenly saw a pheasant struggling in the bushes ahead and thought to himself, "I've got a big catch!"

"Did you catch the flying dragon?" Zhang Du, who was smoking nearby, rushed over after hearing Shan Yaowen's shout.

"Brother-in-law, look." Shan Yaowen pointed to the condom in front of him.

"That's true."

Zhang Du grinned, forgetting all about smoking, he quickly put out his cigarette, then put the remaining bit in his shirt pocket, gave the big bird in his hand to Shan Yaowen, and happily went to untie the flying dragon's snare.

"Well, you've fallen out of favor." Shan Yaowen glanced at the large bird in his hand.

That makes sense, though. Compared to the dragon, other wild game is much inferior, not to mention the big bird, which isn't very tasty at all.

"Gah~"

"You're not a duck, what are you quacking about?"

"Gah~"

Shan Yaowen didn't want to pay attention to this silly bird.

He was more interested in flying dragons.

"Feilong" is the local name; its scientific name is Hazel Grouse. This thing is quite famous. I used to hear from the elders that the "tribute bird" that Emperor Qianlong loved to eat was this bird, which was once a symbol of status at banquets in Northeast China.

Moreover, there are many legends about this thing. Go to Northeast China and find a local, and they can easily tell you a whole bunch of legends related to flying dragons:

For example, some say it was a servant of the Queen Mother of the West, who was banished to the mortal world for being naughty; others say it was a "tree chicken" that fell from the sky, hopping around in the forest...

"Ah Wen, you're in for a treat today. Come and hold this for me."

As Shan Yaowen was idly carrying the large bird and thinking about the flying dragon, Zhang Du's exclamation pulled him back to reality.

"What's wrong?"

After Shan Yaowen approached, he took the flying dragon from his brother-in-law and then discovered that there were a few more in the bushes ahead, but those few were not caught.

"Watch this." Zhang Du chuckled and reached behind his back to take the hunting rifle.

Shan Yaowen immediately knew what his brother-in-law was up to.

Ready to call.

However, Zhang Du didn't aim at any of them. Instead, he fired a shot into the open space. After all, he was using a large-caliber shotgun, which was fine for hitting big guys, but for something the size of a pigeon, one shot would probably only leave it with feathers.

The habits of flying dragons are quite interesting. They like to hide in bushes and are usually quite dull. They will only suddenly run for a while when people or animals approach, and they will only fly when they can no longer run.

This "slow-paced" nature makes the locals feel that hunting wyverns is easier than target shooting. You don't even need to concentrate. Wyverns are very timid. When they hear a gunshot, they don't fly away immediately. Instead, they are frightened and fly to a nearby tree, where they stupidly cower in the branches. The hunter slowly circles the tree and shoots, making it as easy as shooting at a stationary target.

They're similar to a silly roe deer; they're both pretty much the same silly type.

"Bang!"

Gunshots rang out, and just as expected, several dragons hid under the branches, trembling in fear, and couldn't be driven away no matter what.

Then Zhang Du slowly ground under the tree and finally collected six flying dragons.

After slaying a wave of wyverns, the two were satisfied. They checked the remaining lassos, took their prey, rearranged the triggering lassos, and then happily headed home.