Hunting 81: Gathering Goods in the Mountains, I Spoil My Ex-Wife to the Extreme

"You silly girl, were you scared?"

When Uncle Zhou saw Gao Hongmei come out of the house, her face was pale and her eyes were red, clearly she had been crying. Uncle Zhou's voice softened, like an old father caring for his daughter.

In fact, before the reform and opening up, everyone in the countryside had to participate in collective labor.

Uncle Zhou and Gao Zhankui had worked together in collective labor before and were familiar with each other.

Gao Hongmei's mother died early. When Gao Zhankui went to participate in collective labor, he took Gao Hongmei with him. It is no exaggeration to say that Uncle Zhou watched Gao Hongmei grow up.

"Uncle Zhou, I'm fine."

Gao Hongmei responded, a faint smile barely appearing on her still somewhat pale face.

"Come with us, we'll give you a ride home on the way."

As Uncle Zhou spoke, he turned and walked out of the courtyard.

Li Yunshan went back to get his Mosin-Nagant rifle and ammunition pouch, locked the door to the main room, and then pulled Gao Hongmei along, following behind Uncle Zhou.

They walked along the village paths from house to house, and along the way they saw tiger footprints left on the ground.

To Li Yunshan and Uncle Zhou's surprise, the tiger's footprints remained on the village roads, showing no signs of it running into the villagers' homes along the roadsides, which was considered a good omen at the moment.

Of course, it was quite dangerous for them to walk so openly on the village road, because no one knew that a tiger was hiding there, waiting for its chance to strike.

However, Li Yunshan possessed thermal imaging capabilities, allowing him to sense all heat sources within a hundred meters. He could see the heat emanating from the villagers in their homes, but he could not detect the tiger's heat source.

Logically speaking, tigers can eat deer as snacks and sleep outdoors in extremely cold weather, so their heat sources should be stronger than those of humans. However, after sensing his surroundings, Li Yunshan couldn't find any trace of the tiger's heat source.

"Did that tiger just drop by our village again and leave?"

Li Yunshan was thinking to himself.

Just then, Uncle Zhou, who was walking ahead, suddenly noticed that the tiger's footprints had stopped outside the courtyard wall of a villager's house.

He quickly gave Li Yunshan a wink.

Li Yunshan understood, shielding Gao Hongmei behind him, and at the same time pulled back the bolt to load a bullet into the chamber.

"Old Wan, are you home?"

Uncle Zhou pushed open the courtyard gate and shouted loudly into the house.

"Hey, I'm here, I'm here, is that Fifth Brother?"

From inside the house came a trembling voice asking a question.

"it's me."

Uncle Zhou replied on Friday.

After a while, the door creaked open, and an old man in his sixties with mostly white hair came out of the house.

"Oh, Fifth Brother, you've finally arrived! That tiger just jumped into my yard and scared this old man half to death."

Old Man Wan, leaning on his cane, walked out of the house with a look of panic in his eyes.

According to Mr. Wan, he was carrying a chamber pot to the outhouse when he saw a tiger leap past the gate. He was so frightened that his legs almost gave way. He didn't even bother to empty the chamber pot and ran back into the house with his old, cold legs.

After running into the house, he immediately closed and locked the door. Fortunately, the tiger did not come back after it rushed over, which saved his life.

His precious, chubby grandson kept asking to go out and play, so he gave him a good beating with a whip.

What a joke! The tiger has already entered the village, and you still want to run out to play? Are you going to fill the tiger's teeth?

"Uncle Wan, how long ago did that tiger run away?" Li Yunshan asked.

If the tiger hasn't been gone long, we could organize the village hunters to chase after it and see if we can surround and kill it.

After all, two fists can't beat four hands, and even a hero can't withstand a large number of people. Among the nine hunters, there were seven hunting rifles and one standard rifle.

With such intense firepower, a single volley would riddle even the fiercest tiger with holes.

"I was so scared my legs went weak, and I don't remember how long the tiger had been gone," said Mr. Wan.

In his panic, this old man, over sixty years old and with half his teeth missing, had no time to check the time.

Seeing that Old Man Wan couldn't give a clear answer, Li Yunshan didn't ask any further questions.

After telling him to go inside quickly and lock the door, he left with Uncle Zhou and Gao Hongmei.

"Uncle Zhou, Yunshan... Oh, Hongmei, what are you doing here!"

On the way, Li Yunshan ran into Brother Zhang.

However, Zhang Sange was quite surprised when he saw Gao Hongmei. Although Gao Hongmei had also gone hunting in the mountains with Li Yunshan and had achieved remarkable results, dealing with wild boars and deer was much easier than dealing with tigers.

Now that the tiger has entered the village, why is she joining in the fun?

Li Yunshan recounted what had happened not long ago, and Zhang Sange, after listening, was still shaken: "Goodness, that was close! Sister, you've escaped death by a hair's breadth."

"Let's not waste time on idle chatter. Let's quickly patrol the village and see if any villagers have been attacked by tigers."

Uncle Zhou spoke on Friday.

Li Yunshan and Zhang Sange both nodded.

Indeed, now is not the time for idle gossip.

So they followed the footprints along the wall of Old Man Wan's house and went all the way there.

When they passed Gao Hongmei's house, Li Yunshan told her to go inside quickly and lock the door to the main room.

"Fifth Uncle..."

"Uncle Zhou, how's it going?"

"What was that gunshot just now? Did Yunshan fire it?"

When Uncle Zhou led Li Yunshan and Zhang Sange to follow the tiger's tracks, they encountered several hunters from the village, including Li Baotian and Cai Er. They were also awakened by the gunshots and gathered together in the village to see what had happened.

When they learned that a tiger dared to enter the village in broad daylight, Li Baotian and the others were quite surprised. Now, seeing Uncle Zhou, they felt as if they had found their pillar of support.

The hunters in the village gathered together. There were seven hunting rifles, a bird gun, and a standard rifle, making them quite well-equipped, which boosted their courage considerably.

However, when they followed the tiger's tracks to the west side of the village, they saw a pool of bright red blood at the entrance of a villager's courtyard.

When they saw the pool of blood, Li Yunshan and the others had a bad feeling.

"Uncle Zheng's house...could it have been attacked by a tiger?...Could something have happened to him?"

Wu Shenghong's voice trembled as he spoke.

"It might not necessarily be something bad; maybe the family's livestock were snatched away by a tiger."

Uncle Zhou said in a deep voice.

Then, the group of them carefully carried their guns and approached the villager's house.

When they arrived at the villager's courtyard, Cai Er and the others adopted a cautious and vigilant posture. Li Yunshan and Uncle Zhou glanced at the pool of blood on the ground.

On one side of the bloodstains, there were some drag marks, but since no useful clues were left, it was unknown whether the dragged creature was a person or livestock.

"Let's go in and see if Old Zheng is still there?"

Li Baotian gave Uncle Zhou a look that seemed to be asking for instructions.

"Let's go in and take a look."

Uncle Zhou said on Friday.

Since there were drag marks at the gate, it meant the tiger had already left. They went in to determine whether the tiger had dragged away a person or a livestock belonging to a villager.

Soon, Li Yunshan and his group cautiously entered the courtyard.

Upon entering the yard, one sees a dead chicken lying on the ground. The fence for livestock on the left has been broken, leaving a shocking bloodstain and drag marks that extend from the livestock fence all the way to the villager's yard gate.

Seeing this, Li Yunshan and the others calmed down a bit.

It seems that although the tiger broke into Old Zheng's house and caused him an undeserved disaster, it was only after the livestock and obviously did not harm any human lives.

"Brother Zheng, Brother Zheng."

Uncle Zhou called out a few times from the yard before Old Man Zheng opened the door.

"Oh dear, my sheep, my sheep..."

Seeing the destroyed sheepfold, Old Zheng was heartbroken and tears streamed down his face. He slapped his thigh in regret, saying, "I should have kept the sheep inside instead of driving them out. Oh well!"

"Brother Zheng, when did that tiger leave?"

Uncle Friday asked.

"That tiger left not long ago, and you arrived right after it. If you chase after it now, you might still be able to catch up."

Old Zheng wiped away his tears and said with grief and indignation, "Fifth brother, you must quickly find a way to kill that tiger, or at least drive it away, so that it can stop harming the villagers like this."

"Definitely, definitely."

After Uncle Zhou nodded in agreement, he led Li Yunshan and the others to quickly chase after the drag marks left in front of Old Man Zheng's house.

Because the tiger was carrying a sheep in its mouth, and the drag marks on the ground were very obvious, they practically ran along the marks.

Soon, they chased him out of the village and to the foot of the mountain.

Through the gaps in the interlacing trees in the mountain forest, Li Yunshan could see a huge tiger dragging a sheep into the deep mountains.

"Look, there's a tiger..."

The second person to spot the tiger dragging its prey into the deep mountains was Cai Er. As soon as he spotted the tiger, he instinctively picked up his hunting rifle.

"Stop firing, it's out of range, don't waste bullets."

Uncle Zhou pressed down on the barrel of Cai Er's hunting rifle and looked at the tiger.

Not only is the distance great, but the dense forest is like a series of shields blocking the tiger's path, making it difficult for bullets to hit it.

At this moment, Uncle Zhou was also hesitating whether to lead the village hunters to chase after them, after all, this was their closest chance to the tiger.

But there's an old saying that goes, "Dragons dive into the sea, tigers return to the mountains."

A dragon swimming in shallow waters will be teased by shrimp, but once it dives into the sea, it will surely cause chaos and upheaval.

Similarly, the same applies to tigers returning to the mountains.

In open areas, like just now, if they could keep the tiger trapped in the village, these hunters could rely on their numbers and guns to drive it away or even hunt it.

But now the tiger has run into the mountains. With the cover of the trees, and given its agile body and nimble speed, its fighting power will surely increase dramatically.

A tiger that returns to the mountains is a true mountain king, the king of beasts.

They could rely on their superior numbers and guns to chase after the tiger and shoot it to death, but they couldn't guarantee that they wouldn't suffer injuries or even death themselves in the process.

At this moment, Uncle Zhou was weighing the pros and cons of pursuing or not pursuing the matter.

If they pursue, some of them risk injury or death; if they don't pursue, they can only watch helplessly as the tiger returns to the mountains and drags away Old Man Zheng's sheep.

Li Baotian, Cai Er, and the others also looked at Uncle Zhou at this moment.

As the new head hunter in the village, everyone is waiting for Uncle Zhou's decision.

"Bang!"

Just then, a sharp gunshot shattered the brief silence.

When Uncle Zhou and the others looked, they realized that it was Li Yunshan who had fired the shot.

"Aww..."

Shortly after the gunshots rang out, a tiger's roar echoed from the mountains.

The tiger, which was carrying a sheep into the deep mountains, suddenly released its grip on the sheep. Two beams of golden light shot out from the tiger's huge head, its eyes as big as copper bells, and it looked straight at Uncle Zhou and the others.

Just then, Uncle Zhou and the others heard the tiger's roar and looked towards the tiger in the mountains.

However, when their eyes met those of the tiger, even from a distance of four or five hundred meters, everyone still felt a chill run down their spines.

It's like prey being targeted by a fierce and ruthless beast.

However, Tiger's gaze was not fixed on Uncle Zhou and the others, but on Li Yunshan, who was holding a Mosin-Nagant rifle.

"Bring it on."

Li Yunshan pulled the bolt, chambering a bullet, and looked at the tiger a few hundred meters away, coldly saying something.