Chapter 100

Li Long had already raised his rifle the moment he saw the wolf, but the wolf's reaction was extremely agile. Upon discovering someone there, it immediately darted into the pine forest and vanished in an instant.

"A wolf?" Halimu saw Li Long's movement and guessed it immediately.

"Yes, it might be the same wolf I encountered the day before yesterday—it had gray-white fur all over and a black mark on its face," Li Long said while holding his rifle and moving forward.

The two chased into the valley ahead, but they couldn't see the wolf's shadow. Instead, two snow chickens flapped their wings and flew toward them.

"Bang!" Halimu's movements were extremely fast; he fired directly, sending feathers flying and knocking a snow chicken into the snow.

Li Long wasn't confident in shooting moving targets. He held his rifle and waited until the snow chicken's momentum ended and it landed in the snow before he fired a "bang."

Feathers exploded, the snow chicken jumped up, then fell back down, and went still.

Li Long went over to pick up the snow chicken and took a look. It wasn't big, its feathers were snow-white with a hint of gray-yellow, weighing just over a kilogram. The bullet had hit its abdomen, and a large hole was bleeding.

Li Long looked into the valley and could vaguely see more snow chickens jumping and flying into the pine forest in the distance.

There were traces of digging in the snow at the bottom of the valley and on the sunny side; the small patches of shrubs and grass buried in the snow were likely the snow chickens' food.

Halimu also tucked the other snow chicken under his arm and continued walking inside.

"There should be more ahead; these guys can't fly far," he said. "It's better to shoot a few more; one isn't enough for a dish."

The two continued to advance. Li Long looked around, but his target at this moment wasn't the snow chickens, but that wolf.

He hoped to find that wolf and kill it so there would be no hidden dangers.

However, they walked all the way to the end of the valley and shot three more snow chickens, but they didn't see the wolf's shadow.

Li Long felt that he and the wolf would meet again; this guy was very cunning.

"Let's head back; the sound of the guns has scared the roe deer away." Halimu carried three snow chickens, and Li Long strung up two. They crossed the southern ridge and returned westward through another valley.

"In these mountains, there are those wild goats with long horns, but there shouldn't be any now. The sound of the guns will scare them away; these goats are very timid."

Halimu wasn't wrong; there were indeed many goat droppings in this valley, traces of them having stepped in the snow, and the grass and moss under the snow had been grazed upon.

Li Long was a bit disappointed. It wasn't worth scaring away the wild goats and roe deer for a few snow chickens.

After all, in this day and age, meat was valued for its quantity. Don't look at how precious snow chickens were in later generations; right now, their selling price was probably not even as good as a domestic chicken.

Of course, good things were good things. Li Long planned to ask for a high price, and if they didn't sell, he'd keep them to eat himself.

Having lived two lifetimes, he hadn't eaten snow chicken yet.

Just as he was walking, Li Long suddenly saw goat horns sticking out from under a large pine tree. He immediately ran over and pulled the thing out of the snow.

It was actually an ibex skull!

Two goat horns, like curved blades, extended long from the skull, looking very majestic.

The skull was relatively well-preserved, and Li Long was quite happy. Hanging this thing in his room now would definitely add a bit of artistic flair—it just looked good.

"This goat was an old one," Halimu looked and said. "It must be at least ten years old."

"How do you know?"

"Look at the rings on these horns; two rings make a year. Just count them and you'll know." Li Long only then learned that there were such "annual rings" on goat horns. He counted carefully—eighteen rings.

It was indeed an old goat.

Carrying two snow chickens on his back, a rifle in one hand, and the goat head in the other, Li Long felt this trip was worth it.

Then, walking a few steps further down, an even bigger surprise awaited him—under a thick pine tree ahead, two deer antlers with four or five tines each were sticking out of the snow, just lying there.

This pine tree had no branches from the ground up to three or four meters high; that was probably why it had become a place for male red deer to rub their antlers.

Li Long walked over quickly, picked up one antler, and weighed it—just this one antler weighed five or six kilograms—so heavy!

He looked at the other antler; he certainly couldn't give it up, and he still had the goat horns in his hand—

"I'll carry this one," Halimu said, looking amused. "Li Long, your harvest today is not bad!"

It was indeed not bad, and Li Long smiled with pride. So that was how deer antlers were found!

The two stopped searching for prey and focused on heading back. When they reached the mouth of the valley, Li Long saw something moving by a cluster of shrubs. He immediately blocked Halimu and whispered:

"There's something!"

Halimu looked ahead and also saw an animal in the shrubbery, lowering its head and using its front hooves to scrape away the snow by the shrubs, then grazing on the grass underneath.

!.

"A roe deer! Li Long, your luck today is too good!"

Li Long smiled, put down his things, took off the Type 56 semi-automatic rifle, crouched down halfway, turned off the safety, and slowly centered the roe deer in his sights.

The roe deer was very alert, looking around from time to time, then lowering its head to take two bites, then looking up again.

This was a female roe deer, with no horns. Li Long aimed at the position slightly behind the front leg, where the heart was, and then he pulled the trigger.

"Bang!" With the sound of the gunshot, the roe deer's two front hooves jerked up, and then it fell heavily to the ground, blood spraying from the wound.

"Not bad, good marksmanship!" Halimu praised.

Li Long smiled, put away his rifle, and walked quickly to the roe deer, finding that it was already dead.

"Let's drag it away." Halimu signaled to Li Long to spread out the plastic sheet. "It's only one valley away from the winter camp; no need to lead a horse, just drag it back directly."

"Alright, I'll bleed it first." Li Long took off the knife he was carrying, bled the roe deer, wrapped it in the plastic sheet, tied it with a rope, and dragged it toward the winter camp.

When they reached the winter camp, Halimu and Li Long each skinned one side of the roe deer—Li Long tried to be as careful as possible, but he still tore it in two places.

It seemed his skinning skills still needed a lot of practice.

"It's torn, so the price won't be as good," Halimu said with some regret.

"There's no help for it, I have to practice," Li Long said. "Otherwise, when you go to the summer pasture and I'm here hunting, I can't just not skin what I catch."

"Hmm, that's right, you do need to practice." Halimu deeply agreed with the logic Li Long stated.

After skinning and removing the internal organs, the roe deer weighed less than thirty kilograms. Even adding the deer antlers and goat horns, the bicycle could still carry it.

Li Long ate a meal of horse meat narin in the winter camp at noon, then rode his bike and headed down the mountain with his harvest.

Halimu originally intended to give the snow chickens he had hunted to Li Long, but Li Long refused. He felt that since he was already a hunter, he should be self-reliant.

Tomorrow, he was going to sell roe deer meat!

(End of chapter)