Chapter 100

When Li Long saw the wolf, he had already raised his gun, but the wolf's reaction was very agile. After discovering someone here, it immediately dashed into the pine forest and disappeared in an instant.

"Wolf?" Halimu saw Li Long's action and immediately guessed it.

"Yes, it might be the same wolf I encountered the day before yesterday—its body is covered in gray-white fur, and there's a black mark on its face." Li Long described it while holding his gun and walking forward.

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

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

Li Long was still not confident in shooting moving targets. He held his gun and waited until the snow chicken's momentum was exhausted and it fell into the snow before firing a 'bang'.

Feathers exploded, the snow chicken's body jumped up, then fell down, and there was no more movement.

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 bit of gray-yellow, weighing just over a kilogram. The bullet 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 distance, disappearing into the pine forest.

There were still 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 should be 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 to make a dish."

The two continued forward. Li Long looked around; his goal 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, until they reached the end of the valley, the two had shot three more snow chickens, but hadn't seen the wolf's shadow.

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

"Let's go back; the gunfire has scared away the roe deer." Halimu carried three snow chickens, Li Long carried two, crossed the southern ridge, and returned westward from another valley.

"In this mountain, there are those wild goats with horns, but there shouldn't be any now; the gunfire will scare them away. These goats are very timid."

Halimu wasn't wrong. There were indeed quite a few goat droppings in this valley, traces of being stepped on in the snow, and the grass and moss under the snow had been gnawed on.

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

After all, in this era, meat quantity was still prized. Don't look at snow chickens as being very precious in later generations, but now their selling price probably wasn't even as good as a domestic chicken.

Of course, good things are good things. Li Long planned to ask for a high price when the time came; if he couldn't sell them, he'd keep them to eat himself.

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

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

It was actually an ibex skull!

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

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

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

"How do you know?"

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

It really was an old goat.

Carrying two snow chickens, holding a gun in one hand and the goat head in the other, Li Long felt this trip was worth it.

Then he continued walking down a few steps, and a bigger surprise was waiting for him—under a thick pine tree ahead, two deer antlers with four or five branches each were sticking out of the snow for more than half, just lying there.

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

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

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

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

It was indeed not bad, and Li Long smiled proudly himself. So that's how deer antlers were picked up!

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

"There's something!"

Halimu looked forward and also saw an animal in the shrubbery, lowering its head and using its front hooves to dig through the snow by the shrubs, then gnawing 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, half-squatted down, disengaged the safety, and slowly framed that roe deer in the sight circle.

The roe deer was very vigilant, looking around from time to time, then lowering its head to eat 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; this was the heart, and then he pulled the trigger.

"Bang!" With a gunshot, the roe deer's two front hooves suddenly sprang up, then fell heavily to the ground, and blood burst from the muzzle.

"Not bad, good marksmanship!" Halimu praised.

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

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

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

When they arrived at 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 still tore it in two places.

It seemed his skinning skills still needed to be practiced well.

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

"That can't be helped; I have to practice." Li Long said, "Otherwise, when you go to the summer pasture and I hunt here, I can't not skin the things I hunt, right?"

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

After skinning and removing the internal organs, the roe deer was less than thirty kilograms. Even adding the deer antlers and goat horns, the 28-inch 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 went down the mountain with his harvest.

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

Tomorrow, I'm going to sell roe deer meat!

(End of chapter)