Chapter 363: The Cunning Wolf, the Clever Hunter

After the gunshot, the wolf was knocked forward by the impact of Li Long's bullet, stumbling before collapsing into the snow.

As the shot rang out, the howling in the pine forest became incessant. Li Long knew he had made a blood feud with the rest of the pack. He raised his rifle toward the forest and fired—bang, bang, bang, bang—emptying the magazine!

The gunfire echoed through the valley, drowning out the howls. Once the shooting stopped, the howling did not resume.

Li Long reloaded the rifle, engaged the safety, and walked toward the wolf.

The wolf was covered in snow, its body still twitching. The bullet had struck its head, entering behind the right ear and exiting through the left eye. The entire head was a bloody mess, unrecognizable.

Not bad, the fangs were still intact.

Li Long wasn't worried about the wolves in the pine forest coming to attack—those gunshots must have scared them witless.

He was quite satisfied with his shot; the pelt was mostly intact, and the fangs were there. Nothing of value was damaged, so he could make a small profit.

Dragging the wolf by its hind legs, Li Long returned to the cabin. He added charcoal to the stove, got the fire going, and while the adrenaline was still fading, he set the rifle aside and began to skin it.

The pelt was skinned cleanly, and Li Long chopped off the wolf's head. After knocking out the fangs, he used snow to build a platform thirty meters in front of the cabin and placed the head on it. Next, he fetched some spring water and poured it layer by layer over the head and the snow platform, creating an ice pedestal. The head was frozen solid inside the ice, and it was very sturdy; if a human wanted to get it out, they might find a way, but for a wolf, it would likely take a great deal of effort.

Since these wolves intended to fight him to the death, then so be it.

Having the wolf head here served as a warning: come and get it if you dare!

Li Long only regretted not having iron traps or explosives; otherwise, he could have set them right by the head and surely made another haul.

He gutted the wolf and discarded the internal organs, but he didn't intend to let the wolves have them for free. He dug a hole in the snow by the head, piled the organs inside, and poured water over them layer by layer, quickly freezing them solid.

If you want to eat, come and dig for it.

The view from the window of the main room was the best vantage point.

After finishing this, he removed the wolf's patella bones and placed them with the fangs. He had collected quite a few over the past few days; these things could be kept for a few years and given to the younger generation as gifts later.

He salted the pelt and hung it in the small room, then carried the wolf carcass and placed it on a rack in the same room. Once the excitement passed, he lacked the energy to clean up further, so he decided to get something to eat first.

He was a bit tired of meat soup, so Li Long sliced some mantou to toast and cut up the pickled vegetables he had brought. He fished some meat out of the pot, diced it, and once the mantou slices were toasted, he set another pot on the stove. He heated oil, added the diced meat and pickled vegetables, and stir-fried them for a while until the aroma filled the air. He scooped it onto a plate and, unable to wait, began eating the mantou slices stuffed with the meat and vegetables.

Refreshing!

Eating only meat would surely be cloying; pickled vegetables were the best choice to cut the grease at a time like this—in a few years, when the family made pilaf, they would chop up some salted chives, mix them with sesame oil, and eat them with the pilaf; it was very effective at cutting the grease.

Of course, the ethnic minority compatriots used brick tea to cut the grease; the effect was the same.

It cuts the oil.

After finishing the slices of one mantou, Li Long still felt unsatisfied. He sliced another mantou on the spot, toasted it on the stove lid, and ate while toasting. With two large mantou down and the pickled vegetables finished, he finally stretched contentedly, half-lying on the wooden kang, and rested with his eyes closed.

He didn't fall asleep; he was still waiting for movement outside.

If those wolves were impatient, they might come this afternoon or tonight, either to seek revenge or to eat the head and organs of their companion.

If the wolf was cunning, it might hide and wait, waiting for him to let his guard down before ambushing him.

Li Long naturally hoped he was dealing with stupid wolves; that way, he wouldn't have to waste so much effort. There were six wolves; he had brought back two, they had eaten one themselves, and among the remaining three, it was highly likely there was an alpha.

Because the alpha was still alive, the small pack hadn't dispersed and would continue to seek revenge.

If the alpha had died, they would most likely have chosen a new one and gone elsewhere to forage—a new alpha usually wouldn't avenge the old one.

After waiting for a good while, there was no movement outside. Li Long climbed up and looked out through the window paper; the wolf head was still alone, staring south, with no companions coming to find it.

Feeling settled with the food in his stomach, Li Long began to clean up the mess. He washed the pot, tidied the table, and banked the coal in the stove before heading to the small room to break down the wolf and arrange the pieces.

This meat would eventually have to be hauled back; he couldn't eat much of it here.

Looking at the venison and wolf meat on the rack, Li Long felt quite proud. By the time Li Junfeng and Li Junshan arrived, the rack should be full.

The sun hadn't set yet, but Li Long didn't intend to go out again. He locked the small room, entered the main room, bolted the door, took off his outer coat, lay on the wooden kang, pulled the quilt over his stomach, and went to sleep.

He didn't know how long he had slept, but Li Long felt a bit cold. The light from the stove was dim; the fire must have been dying. He pulled the quilt tighter to cover himself thoroughly and prepared to keep sleeping.

Half a minute later, Li Long suddenly sat up, threw the quilt aside, grabbed his rifle, and went to the window.

There was a moon outside; although it was a waning crescent, the sky was brighter than before. Li Long could see a black shadow running quickly into the distance near the wolf head platform.

He raised the rifle, poked it out the window, aimed briefly, and pulled the trigger.

"Bang!"

"Bang, bang!" The first shot missed, and the second and third shots also missed. The wolf's movements were extremely agile; it was actually zig-zagging, leaving no trajectory to follow. Ten seconds later, it ran behind the slope and disappeared from sight.

Li Long felt a bit of regret; he hadn't hit it!

The wolf had actually learned to be clever, sneaking over without howling!

He had originally intended to go out and take a look, but thought better of it. In the middle of the night, this wasn't his home turf. He would wait until morning.

Li Long stood by the window with his rifle for a while, and seeing no signs of the wolf reappearing, he put the rifle away and returned to the kang.

He chambered a round, engaged the safety, and kept it ready for immediate use.

Lying on the kang, ten minutes passed, and Li Long climbed up to look outside again. There was no trace of the wolf.

Half an hour later, he checked again, still seeing no wolf. Li Long was sleepy, so he stopped thinking about checking and lay down to sleep.

Because of the disturbance in the middle of the night, the sky was already bright when he woke up in the morning.

Li Long rubbed his eyes, picked out a clump of eye boogers, and flicked them into the stove door. He stretched, saw the stove fire had gone out completely, and felt a bit of regret for not adding coal in the middle of the night. Now he had to restart the fire.

The smell in the room wasn't very pleasant; although he couldn't smell it, he could feel it.

!.

He put on his clothes, walked to the door, and opened it. As he stepped out, he saw a red glow emerging in the east; the sun was about to rise.

The chill in the air made him sneeze. When he looked down, he suddenly discovered several snow prints—plum blossom prints!

On both sides of the door!

Li Long was startled—the wolf had actually come right to his door!

Was it ambushing him?

Li Long hurriedly ran back into the room, grabbed his rifle, disengaged the safety, and searched both sides of the cabin.

He felt a lingering fear—if he had run into these two wolves the moment he opened the door, would he have been pounced on instantly?

There were none on either side of the cabin, nor in the back. Li Long breathed a sigh of relief.

The wolf head was still on the snow platform. Li Long walked over and discovered that the snow over the wolf's internal organs had been clawed away, and there were claw marks on the ice, but it was clear they hadn't been able to dig out what was inside. They had failed.

Walking back to the cabin, Li Long sat down on the wooden floor and made a rough guess.

The wolf that went to the head yesterday had intended to ambush him, and he didn't know if it was bait. The wolves on both sides of the door must have intended to sneak attack him when he came out, but since he hadn't come out, the ambush was useless.

The only thing he couldn't figure out was why the wolf didn't howl when it went to mess with the head; that would have woken him up and made it easier to set a trap.

Was this a failed ambush, or did the wolf have something else in mind?

Regardless, knowing it was ambushing him, this wolf was cunning!

Thinking back to the last time at the sheep pen, the wolf had actually circled around to the back to sneak attack, showing that these beasts were smart! He couldn't let his guard down, or he would be the one injured or even lose his life!

After warning himself, Li Long took the rifle into the room and started the stove.

Once the stove was going, Li Long cooked some rice porridge and stir-fried the pickled vegetables again. Yesterday's stir-fried meat and vegetables had been quite refreshing, and he intended to have it again today.

After breakfast, he cleaned up and started cleaning his rifle in the room.

At this time, the rifle was Li Long's best partner. With the rifle, Li Long had the confidence to kill those three wolves.

He carefully disassembled the rifle and wiped each part, especially the barrel, because he had fired quite a few rounds, and there was a lot of gunpowder residue inside. Li Long used a cleaning rod wrapped with an oily cloth to clean it several times until the barrel was clean, then replaced it with a clean, oiled cloth.

After cleaning the rifle, Li Long went to the small room and picked up some thin iron wire, twisting seven or eight strands into one—there was no thick wire, so he had to make do with the thin stuff.

After twisting it, he used this homemade "thick" wire to make seven or eight snares, then brought them to the wolf head platform, set them up around the pile of wolf organs, and secured them.

Setting the snares was relatively simple. He fetched a pile of firewood from the woodpile, scraped away the snow, placed the firewood on the ground, tied the snare wire to the firewood, and then poured water to freeze the firewood to the ground.

After pouring water a few more times, the firewood was frozen solid. If a wolf got caught, it wouldn't be easy to escape.

Of course, this was just Li Long's own idea. He had no traps, no poison, and no explosives, and he couldn't watch the wolf head platform all the time, so he could only come up with this crude method.

When he went back, he must find a way to get some poison or explosives to avoid running into these vengeful beasts again; the future troubles would be endless.

Some snares were set upright, some flat, and they were distributed quite randomly; it was all about luck.

After setting the snares, Li Long went back into the room, heated the meat soup pot on the stove to melt the congealed soup, brought it out, and poured it over the pile of frozen wolf organs in the middle of the snares as bait. He couldn't just set snares and offer nothing.

After finishing all this, Li Long let out a long breath; for now, this was the only method he could think of.

He dressed, grabbed his rifle, left the cabin, locked it, and walked toward the southeast. This time he intended to go check the hot springs. In broad daylight, he figured the wolves shouldn't come.

The hot spring valley had always been a treasure trove for Li Long's hunting in the summer. He had been there twice in the winter and hadn't found anything, but Li Long knew that animals definitely came here; he just hadn't found them. What he lacked was luck, and he hadn't found the patterns of these animals' movements. For now, he would treat it as a stroll; maybe he would run into something.

Entering the hot spring valley, Li Long took the rifle off his shoulder and walked forward with it in his hands.

Having been scared by the wolves, he was extremely cautious this time. (End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 364 =====