Chapter 353

The sky was still clear when he sent Li Junfeng and the others away in the morning. By the time Li Long had the dough for the buns rising and was preparing to go to the spring to fetch water to steam the buns, a cloud drifted into the sky, and the weather suddenly became gloomy.

Weather has a great influence on mood. The wooden cabin itself didn't have very good light transmission, and after this gloom, it felt even darker.

Seeing that the dough had risen enough, Li Long simply opened the door of the large room. The table that was originally placed outside was also moved inside at this time, and he was kneading the dough on the table. A piece of dough the size of a basketball was kneaded by him into a long strip like a pillow, then folded and kneaded again. The more the dough was kneaded, the more delicious the steamed buns would be.

When steaming the buns, Li Long went to the small room again to get some dried meat.

Originally, he could set up two stoves outside in the summer to cook, steam buns, or stir-fry dishes at the same time. Now there was only one stove, so things could only be done step by step.

The dried meat needed to be steamed and boiled before it could be eaten. Li Long prepared it first, planning to steam the dried meat after the buns were steamed, and get some meat broth to drink.

He had also brought some dried vegetables when he came this time, and there were dried mushrooms left in the small room, all of which could be eaten with the meat.

Otherwise, if he only ate meat, his body wouldn't be able to take it in a few days.

The buns weren't steamed yet when shouts came from outside.

Li Long went out of the wooden cabin and saw Halimu riding a horse over.

"Duosen, how are you!" After Halimu got off the horse, he shook hands with Li Long and asked a sincere greeting.

"Good, good." Li Long smiled, "Just steaming buns."

"Hmm, I heard gunshots from your side yesterday, thinking you might have come over. How is it, did you catch anything?"

"Caught two wolves." Li Long said, "There are really many wolves in these mountains."

"Hmm, I also shot one a few days ago, and another one ran away injured." Halimu felt the same as Li Long, "These guys are too annoying, they come to my sheep pen every night."

"I brought some more bullets this time, come, I'll give them to you." Li Long said, "It should be enough for you to use for a while."

"That's really great!" Halimu said with a smile, "Actually, even if you hadn't said it, I was thinking of asking you to help find some bullets. When some of us went down the mountain, we entrusted people to find them, but there's nowhere to buy bullets for the guns we use. Use one, lose one..."

Li Long smiled. He took a cloth bag out of the house and handed it to Halimu:

"Inside here are three hundred bullets. You take them and use them, and you can also distribute some to others. Last time I took so many things, some haven't been sold yet. Use these bullets first."

Li Long believed that as his connections increased, it might become easier to get bullets later.

After all, every village had been conducting militia training some time ago, and these people would more or less keep some bullets.

If he hunted a lot this time, he could also use meat to exchange for bullets in other villages.

He could let Tao Daqiang mention it in his father-in-law's village, and there would definitely be people willing. Especially since it was almost New Year, how could they not eat some meat before the New Year?

At any rate, Xier still had a red headband, so it was perfectly normal for ordinary people to get some meat to eat during the New Year in these years.

"So many!" Halimu originally thought that if Li Long could take out a hundred bullets, it would be more than enough. He didn't expect to get three hundred at once!

"Hmm, exchanged for meat." Li Long said with a smile, "I'll wander around the surroundings these few days. If I can find prey, such as wild boars, deer, and the like, if I shoot them, I can exchange them for quite a few bullets."

"Then leave this matter to us!" Halimu said as soon as he heard, "I haven't wandered around nearby recently, so I don't know where there are wild boars and such. But don't worry, in two days we plan to have sheep-snatching and horse racing right here at your place. At that time, we'll definitely be able to find where there is prey—don't worry!"

With Halimu's words, Li Long was truly relieved.

"Which day exactly are you coming over?" Li Long wanted an exact date.

"The day after tomorrow." Halimu said, "Today Yushanjiang and I will notify everyone, tomorrow everyone will prepare, and the day after tomorrow we'll come over for sheep-snatching."

"Alright." With two days, Li Long could leisurely wander around nearby, and maybe he would have some unexpected gains.

After Halimu left, Li Long had the buns steamed. After taking them down, he boiled water again and cooked the air-dried meat.

The fire in the stove wasn't very vigorous. Li Long used a hot bun to sandwich a piece of red bean curd, finished eating in a hurry, then locked the door, carried the gun, and went to wander nearby.

Li Long passed by the place where the stinking wild boar was found in the north again and found that the wind-blown thin snow had covered the place where the wild boar had rooted. Here, one could only vaguely see the unevenness in the snow.

He kept walking north, actually wanting to see if he could run into the flock of yellow sheep that had darted into the bushes that day—after all, it was less than ten kilometers from the place where the yellow sheep were found earlier.

For yellow sheep that like to migrate, this wasn't a very large distance.

Flipping over to the outermost layer of the mountain in the north, Li Long saw snow pressing on the bushes below. As far as the eye could see, apart from some rabbit footprints, no other things were found.

He walked west along the mountain and walked all the way to the edge of the Ma River, but in the end, he found nothing.

The snow was very deep, and every step went up to his knees. Li Long regretted being so stubborn and running so far.

By the time he struggled back to the wooden cabin, Li Long didn't want to move anymore. The house was filled with the fragrance of meat, not the kind of fragrance of directly stewed meat, but with a feeling that it wasn't very fresh but very tempting.

Li Long rested for a while, took a bowl, picked up a spoon from the table, scooped a bowl of soup, and drank it while blowing.

The air-dried meat itself had a large amount of salt, so the soup was a bit salty, but it was just right for Li Long at this moment.

With the air-dried meat soup, Li Long gnawed away another bun. After eating, he added some water to the pot. After resting for half an hour, he felt full of blood and resurrected again.

He took the gun and walked out of the wooden cabin again.

This time, Li Long planned to go to the Hot Spring Valley to take a look.

The hot spring shouldn't stop flowing in winter, so would there be animals going there to keep warm?

After all, when the sky is full of ice and snow, a place that is a bit warm should be very precious to these animals.

Li Long walked toward the Hot Spring Valley with deep and shallow steps.

He carried a satchel on his back, which contained a pack of bullets and a bun, just in case.

The gun was slung over his shoulder, and he carried a bag in his hand. The bag contained a bundle of rope and a machete. These were essential things—he also had a lighter and a box of matches on him.

Double insurance.

!.

It was more than half an hour later when he walked into the Hot Spring Valley. In winter, most of the broad-leaved trees had dropped their leaves, so the visibility in the valley was much better than in summer.

The stream in the middle of the valley entrance was frozen with ice, but the ice wasn't thick, and one could hear the sound of water flowing underneath.

Li Long looked as he walked and found that there were animal footprints from the valley entrance inward. Apart from common rabbits, pheasants, and the like, there were also prints similar to five-clawed plum blossoms. The footprints weren't big, and Li Long didn't know which kind of animal they belonged to.

When he was about to reach the hot spring pool, Li Long put the bag aside, held the gun in his hand, and walked forward slowly.

Although it was inevitable that sounds would be made when stepping on the snow, Li Long still tried his best to be careful and quiet.

First, he saw the rising heat, and then it was those few pools.

There was snow around the pools, but the water in the pools didn't freeze, and it was still steaming. The water flowing down also started to freeze gradually only after three or four hundred meters.

Li Long even saw a few small gudgeons in the flowing water.

There were some bones at the pool, and there were many messy footprints. At this time, Li Long was more than thirty meters away from the pool. Just as he was about to walk closer, a yellow shadow suddenly darted into the snow, jumped a few times, darted into the woods, and disappeared without a trace.

Although Li Long didn't see clearly what it was—it was truly too fast—he guessed that it was highly probable that it was still the lynx he had seen before!

What is this guy doing here?

Li Long walked forward with the gun in his hand with a feeling of expectation. When he walked to the pool, he was stunned for a moment, a bit surprised, and then smiled.

He had interrupted the other party's feeding!

By the side of the pool, there was a wild rabbit that had been half-eaten—the head was still there, two legs were left with only claws, and the belly had been gutted. The intestines and such were half in the water and half on the ground. Obviously, the lynx should have been eating this rabbit just now and was startled by him and ran away.

This thing was of no use to him either!

Li Long shook his head helplessly. He bent down and touched the water. The pool where he had soaked in water originally had a much lower temperature now, so it wouldn't be very suitable to soak in it again.

Of course, Li Long didn't intend to continue soaking now either.

He returned to find the bag, then went up to the middle of the mountain opposite where the lynx had escaped, found a position, sat down, and wanted to see if he could ambush any other good things.

The bun had already frozen hard. Li Long wasn't hungry now and wasn't in the mood to eat, so he spread the bag on the snow, sat down himself, put the gun in front of his legs, and got ready to take the gun and shoot at any time.

Li Long planned to wait here for an hour. Regardless of whether he waited or not, he didn't intend to wait anymore.

An hour later, Li Long left with some helplessness. During this hour, that lynx appeared once, but it only flashed on the opposite side and disappeared again.

Li Long could also guess that with this guy around, other things wouldn't have the guts to come over.

He could only go back.

Just as he was about to reach the wooden cabin, Li Long found that at the location of those few pieces of stinking pork, a red fox was gnawing on the meat with all its might!

What beautiful fur!

Li Long immediately put down the bag and raised the gun!

Shooting this fox down and using its fur to make a scarf for Gu Xiaoxia would definitely be very beautiful!

Just at the moment Li Long raised the gun, the fox seemed to feel something, turned its head and looked at Li Long, turned around, and "floated" into the woods!

It was truly floating! It felt like its body had no weight on the snow, and with a light touch, it "floated" very far away!

"Bang, bang, bang!" Li Long fired immediately! (End of chapter)