Chapter 246: The hunting ground is by the hot spring!

The grass on the mountains near the outskirts had begun to wither and turn yellow, but the vegetables in the mountains were still very green, all kinds of flowers were blooming, and the bees were working diligently.

While looking for mushrooms, Li Long thought about a popular science article he had seen on a short video platform in his previous life.

Honey is made by bees eating pollen, brewing it in their stomachs, and then spitting it out.

After spitting it out, because it contains water, the bees keep flapping their wings to fan the water out of the honey.

Does it sound disgusting when you hear it?

Actually, it's similar to eating bird's nest.

In addition, if beekeepers place beehives in a place with very rich nectar sources, the honey brewed from the pollen collected by the bees doesn't have time to remove the water, and this honey becomes raw honey.

Because there are enough nectar plants, the honey collected by the bees quickly fills the honeycomb, and there is no time to seal the lid. This honey is easy to ferment when cut, and it usually takes a year or two to become mature honey.

In his previous life, after Li Long handed over the land to the cooperative, the brigade organized them, these semi-elderly people, to travel to Yili. The honey they bought when the rapeseed flowers were blooming in Zhaosu was like this.

Unsealed honey is collectively referred to as raw honey.

Actually, there is honey locally, but as locals, they would never go to the brigade to buy honey. Because in those years, almost all the land locally was planted with cotton. In order to make the cotton high-yielding, pesticides were sprayed from the beginning of leaf growth—cotton pests and diseases were actually very numerous in those years.

Things like red spiders, cotton bollworms, cotton aphids, pink bollworms, etc. In those years, you could usually see patches of pesticide bottles at the head of the cotton fields.

In those years, it was often heard that someone fainted from poisoning in the fields while spraying pesticides.

That was the era of the earliest backpack sprayers for pesticides.

Therefore, not many people ate the honey produced by local beekeepers—and no one knew how much pesticide it contained.

However, Li Long knew that mountain flower honey is usually mature honey, because no matter how dense the nectar plants are here, they can't compare to the millions of mu of rapeseed flowers in Zhaosu.

He thought that after picking two more sacks of black tiger palm mushrooms, would he need to buy some honey from that Lv Dafeng?

He didn't know how that guy was doing.

As Li Long picked, he felt this place was a bit familiar. He suddenly saw a rock—isn't this the place where he was scratched by that lynx?

How did he end up in this gully?

Li Long subconsciously looked around vigilantly.

There were no other animals here; some birds were calling in the forest, giving a very leisurely feeling.

Although he didn't find anything, Li Long still vigilantly shouldered the sack and left here.

Although he was carrying a gun, to be honest, with that thing's speed, if it really suddenly ambushed him, it wouldn't be easy to discover and dodge.

Before noon, Li Long had already picked a sack of black tiger palm mushrooms and carried it back to the wooden house.

He took a relatively tender black tiger palm mushroom, sliced it on the wooden cutting board, and put it on a plate. He also got some wild celery from nearby. Wild celery needs to be tender, otherwise, even if there is a lot of oil when stir-frying, it will be as hard to chew as a rope when eating.

Fortunately, a large patch grew by the nearby stream, so Li Long simply pinched the most tender ones on top. He got a large handful, washed it by the stream, and brought it back.

There was rendered oil and meat in the small room. Li Long brought the basin out and placed it under the board outside. Next was lighting the fire.

Both stoves were lit, one for steaming rice and one for stir-frying vegetables. Li Long hummed a song while stir-frying, alone, enjoying himself.

One person, a small basin of rice, two dishes.

There was a lot of oil in the dishes—wild vegetables absorb oil, and they don't taste good with less oil. If any housekeeper saw Li Long using so much oil for one dish, they could scold him to death.

But it tasted really fragrant—the rice was fragrant, and mixing the vegetables with the rice made it even more fragrant.

A growing boy eats his father out of house and home. Li Long was now nearly 1.78 meters tall and weighed over 70 kilograms; his body seemed to still have signs of growing, and his appetite was also large.

This basin of rice and two dishes were eaten clean. After eating, he didn't really want to move.

The wooden house had eaves, but Li Long ate inside the house. Although the temperature in the mountains was lower than on the plains, the ultraviolet rays were stronger.

Li Long washed the pot before eating because he knew he wouldn't want to move after eating.

He threw the bowls and plates onto the cutting board, went into the room, locked the door, and took a nap.

When he woke up, Li Long found that less than an hour had passed, and the food in his stomach had digested some—youth is indeed good. Think about before he died in his previous life, he didn't dare to sleep after eating; after sleeping, he either couldn't sleep at night or the food in his stomach wouldn't digest.

It seemed he didn't dare to eat his fill; after eating his fill, he might not digest for a day.

It's good now; less than an hour after eating, he felt his stomach was already flat.

He nimbly washed the bowls, saw that the sunlight wasn't so dazzling anymore, and began to slice those black tiger palm mushrooms on the cutting board.

Slice the black tiger palm mushrooms into strips, then dry them on the wooden board; basically, they would be dry in a day.

After slicing and drying the mushrooms picked in the morning, there was no space left outside the wooden house.

Li Long saw the sun slanting west, so he didn't plan to pick mushrooms anymore. He shouldered his gun and walked into the mountains.

In winter, Yushanjiang pointed out a hot spring to him. He was a bit tired today, so he might as well go soak in the hot spring.

Li Long was already used to the weight of the 56-semi, and he didn't feel it was very heavy.

Although he wasn't prepared to pick mushrooms, Li Long still carried a satchel, which contained some emergency medicine, a little dried meat, and dried steamed buns.

No one could say what unexpected situations might occur.

Fortunately, there were no accidents all the way to the gully where the hot spring was located. He didn't encounter any huntable prey either.

The hot spring gully wasn't spacious; the mountains on both sides were 30 or 40 meters apart, and both were covered with evergreen trees like pines and cypresses, with sunlight occasionally shining through the gaps in the trees.

So it was quite cool in the gully.

Li Long touched the water temperature by the stream in the gully; it was cold, so he continued walking up.

After walking up 400 or 500 meters, the gully became narrower, and faint steam began to rise on the water. Li Long bent down and touched the water again, feeling that there was some temperature in the water.

Twenty-something degrees, not enough yet.

But he could smell a faint sulfur smell.

Continuing to walk up, the trees on both sides were much sparser, but the mountains were also a bit higher, and the sunlight simply couldn't shine in anymore.

Walking up another 200-plus meters, the terrain in the gully that had been going up all along became flat, the stream slowed down and widened, and occasionally he could see small pools gathered together.

These are natural hot spring pools!

Li Long was quite happy looking at them. He walked to the edge of a pool and touched the water, feeling the temperature was still not enough, so he continued walking forward.

！.

After walking no more than a dozen steps, he stopped.

On the edge of the water pool in front, there were actually hoof prints of all sizes!

Looking at those hoof prints, there were cloven ones, which should be wild boars, roe deer, etc., and there were also plum blossom ones; he didn't know if they were foxes or wolves.

Li Long looked at the traces; they should have been made in the morning, not particularly dry, but not just now either.

These animals are capable; they actually know how to soak in hot springs!

Li Long even saw that there were bloodstains in the hoof prints on the edge of one pool.

He didn't know if it was injured and came to soak, or if it got injured because it encountered a natural enemy while soaking in this.

Li Long touched the pool that the animals entered frequently and found that although the temperature was slightly lower than his hand, it was already quite good.

He didn't plan to soak in this one and continued walking up.

Walking to the next pool, Li Long touched the water temperature and felt it was slightly hotter.

Just right.

This pool wasn't big, it could accommodate two or three people, about 3 to 5 square meters.

There was no one around, the sound of birds was rare, and there was no wind.

There was only drifting steam and the smell of sulfur.

This pool was a bit natural. Li Long first picked up some stones and made a platform on the edge of the pool. After stacking the stones, he began to prepare to soak in the hot spring.

He put the gun on the platform, in a position he could reach at any time, and then took off his clothes and folded them.

Then he entered the hot spring—at first, it felt quite hot, but after adapting, it felt extremely comfortable.

Soaking in, the bottom of this pool was full of pebbles of all sizes, which wouldn't hurt his body.

Li Long leaned against a large rock, exposing only his head, soaking comfortably there.

After half an hour, feeling his hands were soaked white and wrinkled, he came out of the hot spring pool with some lingering desire.

Really comfortable.

At first, his body was itchy, but later he got used to it; could this be sterilizing?

Li Long wiped his body messily, put on his clothes, and walked up a few hundred meters.

There were a few more pools above, but the water there was already beginning to be scalding.

He originally planned to walk to the end, but the further up he went, the harder it was to walk. The shrubs on both sides of the stream above grew very lush, and there was no path.

He had to return.

Li Long returned to the edge of the pool full of hoof prints, thought for a while, and felt he could come and try tomorrow.

Just like ambushing wild boars, get up early in the morning, hide on the hillside on both sides, and shoot directly when the prey comes over, how good!

As for hunting—it's better not to.

Hunting, it's best to ambush!

For this reason, Li Long even specifically climbed up to the hillside on both sides, and then there was an unexpected discovery!

On the hillside on the west side, at a cliff, it should have been washed out by rain earlier, washing away the soil and such directly, actually exposing four Codonopsis roots almost completely.

Except for one that was a bit small, about 30 centimeters, the other three were at least half a kilogram or more, two were long-shaped, at least 80 centimeters or more, one of which had branches, and one was straight up and down. The other one was short and thick, with many branches, and although it was less than 40 centimeters, it was the heaviest of these four Codonopsis roots.

Unexpected harvest!

Li Long happily dug out these four Codonopsis roots, casually found a flexible branch to tie them up, and then went down the mountain.

The place for the ambush had already been found; next, it was to get up early tomorrow morning and wait for the rabbit.

It's no wonder he thought so well.

Hadn't it been like this several times before?

As long as the traces of the prey are found, the rest is a competition of endurance and time concept.

Li Long has never lacked these two points.

Next, it depends on tomorrow.

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 247 =====