Chapter 357: The Roe Deer Brought Good Luck

Because there was a roe deer by the wooden cabin, Li Long did not venture far that morning; unsure when the wild roe deer would be sent away, he needed to prepare some fodder for the creature first.

The pasture near the wooden cabin belonged to Brother Brother Yushanjiang, but after the cabin was built, Brother Brother Yushanjiang had never cut grass in this vicinity again; he had likely tacitly assigned this patch of pasture to Li Long, leaving Li Long to dispose of everything here as he saw fit.

Therefore, in the flat areas, the grass grew very tall, and since it hadn't been cut, Li Long easily found a patch nearby that hadn't been flattened by the snow.

This pasture consisted of purple alfalfa intertwined with some swallowwort vines, growing extremely dense; Li Long took the sickle hanging on the wall of Let Xiao Fang, went over there, brushed off the residual snow on the grass, and began cutting.

After cutting one bundle of visible fodder, the rest was pinned down by the snow.

The snow had been falling for some time, forming a hard crust on top; although it couldn't support a person, ordinary small animals could walk on it with ease—this was also the reason the red fox had escaped safely.

This layer of snow crust was a bit troublesome for Li Long; he needed to smash it before he could continue cutting the fodder beneath. Feeling that although it was troublesome, the job still had to be done, he used the handle of his sickle to break the snow crust, cleared away the broken snow, and continued cutting grass.

After cutting two bundles of grass, Li Long originally planned to stop there, thinking these two bundles should be enough for a day or two. However, seeing places where the snow crust ahead was bulging upward, he guessed the grass underneath must be growing even better, so he decided to cut a little more, finish up, and go back to cook.

While smashing this snow crust, Li Long felt he had hit something quite hard; the sickle even transmitted a vibrating force back to his hand.

He felt a bit disappointed; it turned out not to be tall grass pressed down by snow, but something underneath.

In that instant, Li Long thought about not cutting anymore; he had been fooled.

But driven by curiosity, he used the sickle to sweep away some snow, revealing what lay beneath.

An antler.

A deer antler.

Li Long was pleasantly surprised; how could this thing have ended up here?

During spring and summer, he had spent quite a long time active around this wooden cabin, with a fairly large range of movement; how had he not seen that there were deer antlers here?

He quickly swept that deer antler out; on one large branch there were two tines, weighing over four kilograms, which counted as light among the deer antlers he had obtained previously.

But it was an unexpected joy nonetheless, and Li Long was extremely happy—these were this year's new antlers; one could tell at a glance.

He carefully examined the antler, then placed it beside the grass bundle and began searching the vicinity again.

Half an hour later, Li Long had smashed the snow crust within a twenty-meter radius and found the second deer antler—it was beside a rock.

Li Long guessed that the large deer had probably used this rock to knock off the antlers on its head. After these two antlers fell, they were lower than the grass, which was why he hadn't noticed them before.

It was only after the snow fell that the originally tall grass was pressed down by the snow, whereas the hard antlers, which originally weren't very high, pushed up through the snow, leading Li Long to mistake them for tall grass.

What a dramatic coincidence.

Li Long happily picked up the two deer antlers, placed them on the grass bundle, and carried them back together.

Arriving in front of the wooden cabin, Li Long put down the grass bundle, picked up the pair of deer antlers and set them aside, then threw the entire bundle of grass to the wild roe deer as a reward—without it, Li Long might not necessarily have discovered that pair of antlers.

He then turned back, fetched the other bundle of grass, placed it beside the wooden cabin as food for the roe deer tomorrow, and next, Li Long happily began preparing lunch.

There was still quite a lot of mutton left over from yesterday; Li Long reheated the mutton soup. The mutton soup tasted very good, but to be honest, Li Long didn't dare drink too much of it; this stuff was too likely to cause hyperlipidemia. In his previous life, during those final few years, Li Long had both loved and hated this stuff. He desperately wanted to drink it, but every time he drank mutton soup, his brain would become groggy and heavy, which felt quite unpleasant.

Although his body now was excessively youthful, allowing him to eat without any taboos, for the sake of the future, it was better to drink a little less.

There was some mutton in the soup that had been boiled so thoroughly it had fallen off the bones; Li Long took another piece of naan, waited for the mutton soup to boil, skimmed off the layer of oil on top, ladled out a bowl of meat soup, broke the naan apart, soaked it in the soup, and began eating.

The outside of the naan was soaked by the mutton soup while the inside remained slightly hard; this texture of soft outside and hard inside was neither harsh on the stomach nor lacking in flavor. After finishing one piece of naan, Li Long felt unsatisfied and took another piece, breaking it apart and soaking it in the soup.

This time, the naan wasn't as fragrant as the last; actually, it was exactly the same, just the feeling was different. It was like the extra noodles added to a bowl of banmian; clearly, it was all noodles from the same pot, but because the time they spent in the bowl being mixed with the toppings was different, the feeling was that the added noodles weren't as fragrant as the original noodles.

After finishing the bowl of mutton soup, Li Long was full. He removed the mutton soup bowl from the stove, covered the stove with its lid, placed a teapot of water on top, and let it heat up slowly.

After eating, Li Long lay down on the wooden kang bed, intending to rest properly; just at that moment, the roe deer outside suddenly started calling out, its voice loud and urgent. Li Long immediately scrambled up, grabbed the Type 56 semi-automatic rifle beside the kang bed, threw open the door, and rushed out.

With just a quick glance, Li Long spotted someone on horseback accompanied by a dog running toward him from the east side of the wooden cabin.

The dog barked at the roe deer on this side as it ran; the person wore a fur hat and carried a gun on their back. The horse wasn't running very fast, but its target seemed very clear—it was heading straight for the wooden cabin.

Holding the rifle in his hands, Li Long wasn't afraid, merely surprised; in the middle of winter, he had unexpectedly encountered a mountain dweller he didn't know.

What was this person doing here?

The person rode the horse to a stop about ten meters away from Li Long; the dog stayed beside the horse, barking at Li Long occasionally but not daring to approach. The dog was large, a native breed, looking very fierce with long hair, the kind of fine specimen that people in later generations would seek out as a native hunting dog.

"What are you doing here?" Before Li Long could speak, the person spoke first, their tone very stiff; they had the features of an ethnic minority and a rather fierce expression.

"What are you doing here?" Li Long wasn't about to indulge him. "What are you doing running over here?"

That person hadn't expected Li Long not to answer but to confront him directly; after a momentary stun, they became angry, swung the rifle off their shoulder into their hands, and brandished it at Li Long:

"I am a forest ranger here! What are you doing? Speak quickly! If you don't speak, I'll shoot you dead!"

Where did this fool come from?

Li Long watched that person pointing the muzzle of the gun at him, wavering back and forth, and felt quite angry—although he could clearly see that the safety wasn't off and no bullet was chambered, the act of pointing a gun at someone was truly infuriating, especially to someone who knew what they were doing!

Li Long decisively pulled the bolt, chambered a round, aimed at that person's horse, and said:

"I am also a forest ranger! Put your gun down, or your horse will die!"

Li Long's action startled that person; not only was the person startled, but their dog was also frightened, barking frantically there, obviously sensing Li Long's hostility!

That person seemed somewhat stuck in a dilemma, but looking at Li Long's gun, they finally lowered their muzzle, then dismounted, positioning themselves in front of the horse, and said in a slightly softened tone:

"I really am a forest ranger! This entire pasture and woodland are under my responsibility to watch over. You built this wooden cabin on someone else's pasture; this is not allowed, do you understand?"

"Show me the documents, the notice!" Li Long himself was a forest ranger; although he often didn't go to the unit, he was very clear about the products of this era. Whether a cabin could be built on this pasture depended on the pasture's owner, not the forest ranger. Moreover, at this time, there was no prohibition against individuals building houses on the grasslands. This cabin had been built by Brother Brother Yushanjiang and the others, so there was even less question of any violation.

Therefore, Li Long wasn't afraid in the slightest!

"This wooden house was built by the owner of the pasture." Li Long didn't quite understand what this guy's situation was, coming over to say these things, but he felt he could offer a simple explanation: "If you say it's not allowed to build, bring me the documents!"

"!."

Naturally, that person had no documents; they huffed and puffed there, unable to produce any coherent argument.

"Do you know who the owner of this pasture is?" Li Long began to doubt his identity. "If you don't know, then you are a fake forest ranger! You'd better tell the truth, otherwise I won't be polite!"

Upon Li Long saying this, although that forest ranger was somewhat unwilling, he still said:

"This pasture, well, originally belonged to Yushan. But, well, in a while it will be mine. So, well, your wooden house cannot be built here. You'd better tear it down; even if you don't tear it down later, I won't let you live in it!"

There was such a thing?

Although Li Long felt puzzled in his heart, he waved his hand and said:

"Mere words are no proof; bring me the documents! You are a forest ranger, not a herdsman; how could you have your own pasture? Just watch over your forests properly! Let me tell you, since you know Yushan, I can definitely investigate you! As for this house, I am determined to live in it! If later I discover any problems with this wooden house, I will come looking for you first! Let me tell you, I am also a forest ranger; if there really is an issue, you won't be able to escape!"

That person hadn't expected Li Long to threaten him; hearing those words, he felt somewhat angry but didn't know how to refute them. After huffing and puffing for a while, he finally flung out a sentence:

"Don't be so arrogant! Let me tell you, once this pasture belongs to me, I'll make you leave obediently!"

Having said that, the person shouldered his rifle, mounted his horse, and departed while muttering indistinctly to himself.

The dog barked twice at Li Long, then ran off to follow.

It felt somewhat discomfited.

Li Long watched the person leave, feeling rather perplexed.

He could roughly piece together a thread of logic: this person might indeed be a forest ranger, and there might indeed be a dispute with Brother Brother Yushanjiang regarding the pasture. Now, acting as a forest ranger coming to inspect the pasture, he had consequently spotted Li Long's log cabin.

What Li Long couldn't yet determine was whether this pasture might truly be allocated to someone else; if so, he really could be driven away.

In that case, it might become necessary to contact Xiang Qian to handle this matter.

The most urgent task was to go to Brother Brother Yushanjiang and find out whether this was true.

Li Long led that roe deer into the small room, carried in an armful of grass, and then locked the door.

Next, he used coal dust to bank the fire in the stove, swept the ash beneath the stove clean, wiped the iron sheeting tidy, then donned his fur coat, put on his fur hat, picked up his rifle, and exited the log cabin.

After locking the door, Li Long set off in the direction of Brother Brother Yushanjiang's winter camp.

At this moment, he somewhat wished he had a horse; in the dead of winter, with a straight-line distance of five kilometers but a winding path of at least seven or eight kilometers, having a horse would save at least half the time.

Unfortunately, he didn't have one.

Of course, there was another problem: storage was difficult. Especially in summer, riding a horse after coming out of the mountains would feel rather incongruous.

He would think about it later; for now, he needed to find Brother Brother Yushanjiang and clarify the matter first. (End of chapter)