Chapter 146

Nearly three hundred traps and over a hundred snares, and I hadn't come to check them for just one day—I never expected the harvest to be this big!

95 whole jumping cats, 9 that were half-eaten but still edible, 8 pheasants, 12 silly half-jins, and 7 flying dragons.

Although the time spent setting the traps and snares was truly long, this harvest is definitely not small!

In fact, in these great mountains, the animal with the largest population is the jumping cat.

Because the jumping cat's ability to produce offspring is extremely powerful; from the time the grass and trees sprout in spring to the first month of autumn, a period of about 6 months, they can basically produce four or five litters of little jumping cats!

And during the remaining 6 months, because the temperature is low and food is scarce, they can still produce two or three litters, with each litter ranging from seven or eight to fourteen or fifteen!

That is to say, one male and one female jumping cat will produce at least 6 litters of cubs a year. Even calculating at a low probability of 10 per litter, two jumping cats will produce at least 60 little jumping cats a year!

However, starting from birth, a jumping cat can produce its own little jumping cats in just over 8 months!

Therefore, in these mountains stretching for thousands of miles, it is simply impossible to calculate exactly how many jumping cats there are!

At first, Wang Li was already stunned by the speed and quantity at which Seeing Mu Xueli was picking up the jumping cats! Because he had never known that jumping cats were meant to be picked up, and that you needed to use a sack to hold them!

But when he saw Wang An's two half-filled sacks, he was completely shocked. Hunting—is this really that simple?

Wang Li suddenly asked Wang An: "Fourth Brother, you say that this whole winter, if we just set traps, I feel like the money from selling those jumping cats will be quite a lot, right?"

Wang An was in the middle of bragging quite loudly to Seeing Mu Xueli when he was suddenly interrupted. He couldn't help but be stunned for a moment, then thought about what Wang Li had just said.

Then he said: "Mm, your feeling is right!"

After answering, he asked his brother-in-law: "Xueli, just now I was bragging—no, where was I just now?"

Seeing Mu Xueli was quite cooperative. Perhaps because he was observing the mouths of the three dogs, he let something slip. Only hearing Seeing Mu Xueli say very quickly: "Bragging about you biting that big bald head, no, it was biting—you were bragging about that big bald head, no..."

Seeing Mu Xueli went off track with one sentence, then off track with every sentence, and then couldn't get back on the right path.

Although Wang An understood and knew where he had been bragging, as soon as he heard Seeing Mu Xueli say he was biting a big bald head, he couldn't help but feel a wave of nausea!

So Wang An no longer had the desire to continue bragging. He said to the sheepish Seeing Mu Xueli in a bad mood: "It's not a 'der'—it's not, it's not all on you, damn it!"

Turning his head, he glared at Wang Li again. This kid had no sense of propriety, always interrupting!

Every single day! Can't even brag in peace!

The three of them caught up with the sled and headed straight for the place where Wang An and Wang Li had discovered the blue sheep tracks yesterday.

On the way, I don't know who started the topic, but the three of them began another round of nonsense, and the brag Wang An hadn't finished earlier seemed to have picked up again.

This time Wang Li was quite observant and didn't interrupt, and Seeing Mu Xueli wasn't pondering the dogs' mouths either; they cooperated quite well.

Actually, among the three, 19-year-old Wang An was the oldest, and previously the one most capable of causing trouble. Of course, he was also the one most involved in all sorts of fighting and brawling.

Therefore, when the three were together, it was basically Wang An with his spit flying everywhere, spraying all over the place! But Wang Li and Seeing Mu Xueli were both fascinated and didn't really care.

Half an hour later, the three of them reached a spot not far from the blue sheep tracks. This place had few trees and was relatively open and safe. After tethering the horse and feeding it fodder, the three people and three dogs walked toward the blue sheep hoof prints.

After the three dogs were let loose, they were first jumping around, peeing everywhere to mark their territory.

I don't know why, but dogs are like this; they don't pee much at home, but as soon as they get outside, they pee endlessly.

And they don't do it like at home, where they pee once and are done; instead, they do it in batches, finding about seven or eight places, and have to pee seven or eight times!

Moreover, they have to find a good spot before peeing, and smell enough before they do. Wang An guessed that the reason dogs have to find a spot to pee is likely because they want to make sure there are no bugs or anything where they pee, so that when they are enjoying their pee, a bug doesn't suddenly crawl out and bite them!

After the three dogs had completely finished excreting, they finally remembered what they were supposed to do. I saw Da Hei first sniffing and smelling everywhere. Occasionally, when he smelled the pee of one of the three—he didn't know whose—he would sneeze and turn away, as if he truly disliked the smell of that urine!

Wang An ignored the three dogs and led Wang Li and Seeing Mu Xueli to continue walking in the direction of the blue sheep hoof prints.

The three dogs kept running around the three people, constantly sniffing everywhere. When they reached the hoof prints, perhaps the scent on the prints was relatively faint, so Da Hei didn't bark, but began to track by following the prints.

Er Hei and San Hei kept darting around to the left and right, but always stayed within 10 meters of Da Hei.

The three people followed behind Da Hei, with Wang An and Seeing Mu Xueli constantly whispering to Wang Li about various knowledge and experiences of mountain trekking.

They were already tracking; actually, it would be best if the three of them didn't make a sound, but Wang An himself was an restless person, and time after time, the harvest proved that whispering had no impact at all. Talking in this forest simply wouldn't carry more than a few meters.

As they chased, all three discovered something was wrong, because these blue sheep had actually split into groups. Da Hei was also confused at this time, constantly looking left and right, and then circling Wang An and whimpering twice.

It seemed to be asking, what the hell do we do next?

Wang An was the leader, so Wang An definitely had to decide where to chase. Seeing Mu Xueli and Wang Li also looked at Wang An.

Wang An didn't speak, but squatted down to carefully observe the hoof prints of the two groups of blue sheep heading in different directions, his mind still analyzing these two groups of blue sheep and where they would end up if they followed these two routes.

The sheep group to the left had about twenty, and the direction they were going was a place the locals called "Plowshare Mountain"!

Plowshare Mountain, literally, this mountain looks like a triangle when viewed from a high place, growing like a plowshare.

The group heading to the right had about thirty, and the place they were going was a place the locals called "Old Knife Ridge," but it was actually called "Old Daoist Ridge"!

It was just a mountain col, and legend has it that an old Daoist priest ascended to heaven here! But the ascension might be true; whether he turned into feathers, I don't know!

Because Wang An felt that for a person, even if he were a Daoist priest, the possibility of being covered in feathers all over his body wasn't high!

If you said he was covered in feathers, then there would be no problem at all!

After Wang An finished observing the hoof prints and pondered, he definitely had to chase the larger group!

Consequently, the three of them followed the hoof prints to the right to track. Da Hei naturally listened to Wang An, so he took the lead, sniffing and walking in front.

After walking for less than half an hour, Da Hei stopped sniffing and walking with his head down, but instead raised his head to the sky and twitched his nose a few times.

After such a long time of contact with Da Hei, Wang An and Seeing Mu Xueli both knew that this was Da Hei starting to locate the blue sheep.

And these hoof prints on the snow could already be ignored!

Sure enough, after Da Hei twitched his nose at the sky a few times, Da Hei barked, and then dashed out to the right of the hoof prints while barking wildly.

Er Hei and San Hei were Da Hei's little brothers, so naturally they had to listen to Da Hei, and followed him, barking wildly as they chased after Da Hei.

Wang An and Seeing Mu Xueli had long been prepared and followed, running as well. Only Wang Li was stunned for a moment before he followed.

However, starting slow means being slow at every step. Wang An and Seeing Mu Xueli definitely wouldn't wait for him at a time like this.

People who haven't run in mountains covered in snow don't know how tiring it is to run in this snow.

The snow in the mountains doesn't melt in this season. In some places, it's frozen solid; in others, it hasn't frozen, and underneath the snow are fallen leaves.

(End of chapter)