Chapter 126: Three dogs stand firm against a bear

At dinner that evening, the family had white rice. Wang Wang Xiaomei and Wang Wang Xiaoli were overjoyed, their eyes filled with smiles.

Eating coarse grains every single meal—children certainly don't like that!

Actually, it wasn't just the two little girls who loved white rice; the whole family loved it!

While chatting, Wang An mentioned to his family that he wanted Shen Wei to bring Xiao Laijie over to play. Unexpectedly, his mother and Mu Xueqing both liked that little girl very much!

When Xiao Laijie was mentioned, the two women were full of praise, which piqued the interest of Wang Xiaomei and Wang Xiaoli, who clamored to go to Auntie Shen Wei's house to play the next day.

After a while, Wang Yi suddenly said to Wang An with a smile, "Big Brother, my fountain pen is broken. Will you buy me one?"

Wang Yi is 13 years old this year, in the 5th grade of primary school, and will start junior high next year. The school system at this time is 5 years of primary school and 3 years of junior high!

Before Wang An could speak, his mother said in a dissatisfied tone, "If you want to buy a fountain pen, just tell your mother. Why look for your Big Brother? Can't your mother buy it for you?"

Wang Yi looking for Wang An for money instead of his mother seemed to have irritated the head of the household, Liu Liu Guilan, once again!

Or perhaps it made Liu Liu Guilan feel that her status in the house was being shaken!

Wang Yi didn't speak; he glanced at his mother and lowered his head.

Liu Liu Guilan took 50 cents out of her pocket and handed it to Wang An, then commanded him, "Going to the county tomorrow, don't forget to buy a fountain pen for your second brother."

"Mm-hmm!" Wang An agreed, holding back his laughter as he took the 50 cents. He didn't know if his mother was putting on this show to display her authority or to prove something!

Early the next morning, Wang An organized everything needed for entering the mountains and placed it all on the sled.

When tying the three dogs to the sled, they were very excited because they hadn't been into the mountains for a few days! They took turns jumping on Wang An, and only after he soothed each one did they settle down.

These three dogs, because they ate meat every day, were now round and fat. The biggest, Da Hei, must weigh over 110 pounds, and the smallest, San Hei, must be over 100 pounds!

Now, the fur of all three dogs was jet-black, shiny, and sleek!

Where they had been injured before, downy hair had grown back; it would likely soon turn the same color as the rest of their fur.

After everything was ready, he hitched the sled, picked up his brother-in-law, and headed into the mountains.

They hadn't checked the snares for a few days, and these snares were truly effective!

Except for the dozen or so snares that were empty and hadn't caught any hares, the rest all had a harvest, though quite a few had been half-eaten or left with almost nothing remaining.

The two of them counted roughly: there were 69 whole hares, 7 that were half-eaten, and about 20 to 30 that were basically just hare heads or heads attached to a piece of skin.

No one bothered to count the useless things carefully!

After this wave of harvesting, counting the dozen or so snares that hadn't caught hares, they only had about 60 snares left to use. The number was a bit low, so they quickly set them up.

They hitched the sled and continued to advance into the deep mountains.

On the way, the brother-in-law and his sister's husband bragged, shot the breeze, and occasionally struggled to light a cigarette.

Smoking wasn't the hard part; it was lighting the fire. The big horse ran quite fast, and the wind on the sled was whistling; lighting one cigarette wasted more than ten matches!

Usually, one person would light theirs, and then the other would use the cigarette to light their own. Trying to use matches to light a cigarette was genuinely more than just a little difficult!

Mu Mu Xueli suddenly said, "Brother-in-law, I learned how to trap sables from my partner's sixth grandfather. Shall we try it when we have time?"

How could Wang An refuse such a good thing? So he said with a smile, "We must try it! Whether there are dates or not, we have to hit the tree a couple of times first!"

"Hehe, I heard that for that thing, if you trap just one, you've made a profit!" Mu Mu Xueli said with a chuckle.

"That's true. We'll set more traps, and we should be able to trap at least one this winter," Wang An said happily.

They sped along, and even when Da Hei discovered prey and barked wildly, or when they saw wild boar tracks or roe deer hoofprints, they didn't stop.

Finally, at 10:03 in the morning, the two arrived at that depression.

After tying up the big horse and feeding it fodder, Wang An and Mu Mu Xueli led the three dogs to the spot where the bear had been shot. Finding a few bloodstains that had already turned black, they let the dogs go.

For hunting dogs, if they couldn't find the bear with such obvious scent from the bloodstains, they would be completely useless dogs—not worth a feather, just a waste of food to keep!

So, after Da Hei sniffed the bloodstains, he began to lift his head to sniff the air. Perhaps because too much time had passed, Da Hei's "head-up scent" skill failed.

Da Hei turned in circles on the spot, sniffing the sky, then sneezed and stood there in confusion, looking a bit dazed!

Perhaps he was thinking: Is my nose, which I'm so proud of, broken? Why can't I smell anything? I haven't had a cold for the past two days!

After a while, Da Hei lowered his head to sniff the bloodstains again, then lifted his head to look left and right, as if he suddenly remembered that he also had the "head-down scent" skill!

Then he suddenly lowered his head, used the less frequently used "head-down scent" skill, and trotted forward, sniffing the tracks left by the bear.

Seeing that Da Hei had started trotting, the two men and Er Hei and San Hei also started trotting after him.

Once they started trotting, it was like wiping your butt with a watermelon rind—it was endless!

Tracking is ultimately for killing prey, but tracking a bear is much harder than tracking other prey.

Because although a bear looks stupid, it is not stupid at all, whether in agility or intelligence!

All bears, when they want to rest, will first choose a resting place and then start circling around the area.

Large circles connected to large circles, large circles inside small circles—they just wander like that. Because a bear's vision and hearing are extremely poor, it must use its extremely powerful sense of smell to sniff the entire area!

The purpose of doing this is, on one hand, to check if there are hidden dangers nearby; if there are, it eliminates them, and if it can't, it changes its resting place.

On the other hand, it is to remember what scents are nearby, so that when it is resting, if other scents approach, it can distinguish whether it is dangerous through the smell!

Therefore, a bear that is "circling" is very dangerous. Experienced hunters, without good guns and good marksmanship, would absolutely not think about hunting this bear!

Even hunters with good guns and quite impressive marksmanship generally don't want to provoke a bear that is "circling"!

Da Hei is worthy of being a "head-up scent" dog. After running continuously for an hour and a half, he stopped sniffing the tracks the bear had left and instead lifted his head to identify the direction, then started running wildly.

Da Hei ran wildly, and Er Hei and San Hei naturally followed. It was the two men, Wang An and Mu Mu Xueli, who suffered.

The two followed the three dogs for less than a minute before the dogs were out of sight!

At such times, Wang An and Mu Mu Xueli didn't dare to relax. Although Wang An had discovered after the last time they chased a big bear that the three dogs were very smart and wouldn't fight the bear head-on, dogs are still dogs no matter how smart they are. If any accident happened, Wang An would be heartbroken!

So, the two ran for their lives.

The three dogs ran very fast and found the bear in a few minutes.

At this time, the bear was sitting with its back against a large tree, looking at the arriving dogs with dull eyes, not knowing what it was thinking!

And this time, the three dogs didn't use guerrilla tactics like they did when chasing the big bear last time. After discovering the bear, they first circled it a few times, then bared their teeth and lunged at it!

These three dogs actually chose to stand firm against this bear!

Thanks to "Sorrowful Book Fan" for the tip, thank you very much!

Just asking for follow-up reads, tickets depend on rewards.

(End of chapter)