Chapter 470: Hunting

When the car drove out of Yongdingmen, the sky was gray and hazy; the city walls had long since been dismantled into a scattered mess, leaving only the lonely gate tower and arrow tower still standing in the cold wind.

He Yuzhu raised his Camera and gently pressed the shutter.

Kajia wrapped her coat tighter and asked, "Teacher He, why did you take a picture of it?"

"We are leaving for two years, and by the time we return, this gate tower might be gone..." He Yuzhu said.

The journey before Hubei had been quite smooth, with two or three hundred kilometers covered each day, and they were able to find a larger town to stay in at night.

Once they entered the territory of Hunan, the road became difficult to travel.

The mountain paths were winding, and catching a spell of continuous overcast rain, the ground became extremely muddy.

The car often got stuck in the mud, requiring everyone to get out and push the vehicle before they could continue forward.

Traveling to the Zhuzhou section, many of the highways had collapsed, and the motorcade had to change routes.

Approaching the afternoon, the rain was still falling in a thin drizzle, with no sign of stopping.

He Yuzhu led the motorcade into a small mountain hollow, stopped the cars, and decided not to go any further. He wanted to build a few fires to let everyone dry their clothes.

Deputy Captain Liu Erhei trotted over, wiped the rainwater from his face, and said, "Captain, shall we spend the night here?"

He Yuzhu nodded: "Organize everyone to set up tents and gather some firewood; we won't be moving on today."

"Great!" Liu Erhei ran off to notify everyone.

The team of over fifty people quickly sprang into action, setting up tents amidst the sound of the pattering rain, while others braved the rain to go up the mountain in search of dry branches.

He Yuzhu ducked into a newly erected tent, lit a kerosene stove, and began boiling ginger sugar water for everyone.

Kajia came in carrying a bundle of branches, her body trembling slightly.

He Yuzhu glanced at her and teased, "In Si Jiu Cheng, you were always walking around in skirts every day, yet here you've started to fear the cold?"

Kajia took the ginger sugar water He Yuzhu handed her and drank it slowly. After finishing the bowl, she said, "I haven't been feeling well these past few days, and plus this place is too damp; my clothes never seem to dry, and it feels especially uncomfortable."

He Yuzhu laughed: "You didn't bring enough changes of clothes. Later, I'll give you two pieces of mine."

"That would be wonderful!" Kajia's eyes brightened.

Before long, the team members returned with the branches they had gathered, but most were wet and wouldn't catch fire.

He Yuzhu poured some diesel on them to ignite the flames.

Under the combustion-aiding effect of the diesel, the damp branches finally erupted into flames accompanied by thick smoke.

Soon, several fires were lit, and everyone took off their soaked shoes, socks, and coats to hang them by the fire to dry; the tent was instantly filled with the smell of sweat.

He Yuzhu quietly retreated, put on a raincoat, picked up a Type 53 carbine, and walked toward the mountain.

After walking only a few steps, footsteps sounded behind him; Kajia had followed, and she was also wrapped in a rain poncho.

"I'm going to wander around the mountain to see if I can add some meat to our supplies. The mountain road is slippery, so don't follow me," He Yuzhu advised.

"Don't worry, I've had some ginger sugar water and I've recovered; I can do it," Kajia said with a firm tone.

He Yuzhu stopped trying to block her and just smiled: "Then stay close!"

The two walked one after the other into the depths of the mountain forest.

Kajia's constitution was indeed quite good; even though the mountain path was wet and slippery, she could still barely keep up with He Yuzhu's pace.

After going about three kilometers deep, the trees became increasingly dense, with masson pines and firs supporting dark green canopies, and the low shrubbery had already sprouted tender yellow buds, appearing exceptionally fresh in the rain.

He Yuzhu activated the System Scanning Function and suddenly discovered a large rabbit under the bushes.

He quickly raised his gun, aimed, and fired, his movements fluid and continuous.

"Bang!"

The gunshot echoed through the valley, startling several birds in the distance.

Kajia shivered in fright and blurted out, "Did you hit it? Why didn't I see anything?"

"There was a rabbit in that bush," He Yuzhu pointed in the direction.

Kajia trotted over, pushed aside the branches and leaves, and sure enough, pulled out a plump, large rabbit.

"Teacher He, you really have sharp eyes!"

He Yuzhu just smiled and said nothing.

Immediately after, he raised his muzzle, and with another crisp sound, a brightly feathered pheasant fluttered out from the bushes and soon stopped moving.

In less than an hour, Kajia found she could no longer carry the prey.

"Teacher He, this... how are we supposed to carry so much?"

"Hang them on the trees first, we can just grab them on the way back!" He Yuzhu said.

"That's a way to do it!" Kajia began using vines to hang up the prey.

"Awoo! Awoo!"

Kajia's face suddenly turned deathly pale, and she said anxiously, "Teacher He, it's a pack of wild boars!"

He Yuzhu nodded immediately: "You still have some knowledge of wilderness survival. Isn't this a good thing? With so many wild boars, we'll have enough to eat for several days."

"No, we have to run quickly. My grandfather was a hunter, and when I was little, I went hunting with him. He said wild boars are very difficult to deal with, sometimes even more dangerous than tigers and leopards. We only have one long gun, it's too dangerous! We should leave quickly!" Kajia urged.

He Yuzhu shook his head. He took a Mauser C96 out of his backpack and asked, "Do you know how to use this?"

Kajia took the gun, her eyes lighting up, and said, "I have received training, but this gun can't handle too many wild boars."

"With me here, I won't let those stupid things hurt you!"

He Yuzhu pulled Kajia along to run a few steps and quickly hid behind a large mountain rock.

Not long after, the sound of branches and leaves snapping came from the forest. Two massive wild boars charged out first, followed closely by five half-grown ones, their hooves splashing into the mud and kicking up a cloud of murky water.

He Yuzhu steadied his gun, aimed at the head of the large wild boar charging at the front, and pulled the trigger.

"Bang!"

The bullet precisely pierced through the wild boar's eye; its massive body continued to charge forward for a few steps due to momentum, then collapsed with a thud, its limbs twitching.

The few wild boars behind it immediately flew into a rage, howling as they charged fiercely toward He Yuzhu.

Kajia also opened fire, but the bullets hit their non-lethal areas, which only enraged them further.

He Yuzhu, however, did not miss a single shot, and he successively shot and killed three more medium-sized wild boars.

Because this bunch of guys charged too fast, two of them still reached close range, baring their stark white tusks as they lunged at He Yuzhu.

Kajia screamed and ran to the side, not daring to fire her Rifle for fear of hurting He Yuzhu.

He Yuzhu's eyes turned cold; the moment the largest wild boar lunged at him, he swiftly threw two Flying Knives.

The two Flying Knives flew out with a cold glint, plunging directly into the wild boar's two eyes.

"Awoo!" the wild boar let out a miserable howl.

"Teacher He, watch out!" Kajia's exclamation rang out.

It was a medium-sized wild boar, lunging directly at He Yuzhu's head.

He Yuzhu reacted extremely quickly, dodging to the side, and immediately plunged a Dagger into the wild boar's major blood vessel.

"Awoo..."

That wild boar did not die immediately; instead, it howled and ran into the distance with the Dagger still in it, running for several dozen meters before crashing to the ground, its limbs twitching uncontrollably.

"Teacher He! Are you alright?!" Kajia was stunned by He Yuzhu's ferocity; she had always assumed that He Yuzhu's supposed feat of shooting down an airplane during the war was merely a matter of command credit, never expecting him to be so formidable in close-quarters combat.

"I'm fine," He Yuzhu said calmly.

Kajia pointed to the front-side: "That... that largest one! It's not dead yet!"

Not far away, the wild boar that had been pierced in the eyes by He Yuzhu's two Flying Knives was falling into a frenzy due to the excruciating pain and blindness, blindly crashing into everything around it.

Without another word, He Yuzhu raised his Rifle again.

"Bang! Bang! Bang!" Following several crisp and clean gunshots, the bullets precisely sank into the wild boar's skull.

The wild boar's struggle ceased abruptly, and its massive body fell heavily into the mud, splashing up a patch of muddy water.

"It looks like we need to go back and call for people!" He Yuzhu said.