Zhurou

Chapter 271 Wild Boar
As they walked, the snow became deeper and deeper, and they inevitably stepped on dead branches buried deep in the snow, making crackling sounds.

Occasionally, pheasants or birds in the woods would be startled by the sound. Pei Yong would not only not go hunting himself, but would also specifically instruct the guards and hunters following him not to go hunting. Instead, they would go straight ahead, looking for some clean and beautiful branches, or rocks with special lines, and point them out to Zhao Mingzhi.

The season of midwinter is not like spring and autumn. There are no exotic flowers and plants competing for beauty, nor colorful fruits and red and yellow leaves. There are only leafless tree trunks and branches, some straight, some winding, some rugged, some reaching to the sky, and some falling down and blocking the road halfway. Everywhere you look, the colors are mostly black, white and gray.

But when the two were newly married, they looked at the scenery in front of them and felt that it was natural and simple, with enough white space. Even the most talented artists could not paint such beautiful ink paintings.

Especially since there was no one around, the guards and hunters were following them from a distance, and the two of them didn't need to avoid people when talking or holding hands. Even if it was just a glimpse of the scenery, they could see its 120 points of advantage. How could they be picky? So they had to stop and walk, talk some affectionate but actually useless words, and pick up a branch or twist a stone from time to time.

The group walked for an hour or so. This place was already deep in the mountains, and due to the heavy snow for several days, there was no path that had been walked by previous people.

Zhao Mingzhi originally thought that they were just strolling, but unexpectedly, the further they walked, the more animal footprints they saw. They were disorganized, some walking in a straight line, and some circling back and forth.

Pei Yong pointed at the footprints and explained to her in detail, saying this was a monkey, that was a wild deer, etc. He then said, "Look, there are more trees on this hill than before, including evergreen pines and cypresses. There are also a few plum trees in front, which have not bloomed yet but have buds. Since all these animals are moving towards this place, there must be a water source nearby, or perhaps a sheltered valley."

It was almost noon, the sun was shining brightly in the sky, making the branches and shadows of the trees appear even clearer, and from time to time, the sound of birds could be heard sporadically among the mountains.

Pei Yong saw that the place was open, with no dense dry trees on either side. There were rocks behind to block the wind. Seeing that it was getting late, he whistled and waited for the guards to catch up. He asked them to find a place with stones to make a fire and heat the food. He also found a place for Zhao Mingzhi to sit down. Then he said, "I'll go to the front to take a look. You sit here. After you eat, we'll go look for prey."

Zhao Mingzhi had been walking for a long time and was already tired. He didn't want to say anything more. He just nodded and waited for everyone to light a fire, boil water and heat up the rice.

There was nothing wrong when she was moving, but after sitting for just a moment, she felt very cold all over. She drank some hot ginger sugar water and ate some dry food, and her body warmed up a little, but the blood could not flow to her feet, and her feet were extremely cold. After thinking about it, she stood up and walked around.

Her five senses have always been more sensitive than those of ordinary people. As she walked, she vaguely smelled a strange smell, like a fishy smell mixed with the fragrance of flowers. She felt strange for a moment, but because she was followed by a hunter and two guards, she was confident and not afraid at all. She just followed the smell carefully.

When she went around the rocks and passed through several clumps of pines and cypresses, the view ahead suddenly opened up to a plum blossom forest. Most of the plum trees had small buds, but few were actually in bloom. Moreover, plum blossoms are not known for their strong fragrance. The fragrance was light and cold, which made the fishy smell even more prominent.

Zhao Mingzhi stood there for a few breaths, identified the source of the smell according to the wind direction, and then walked towards the plum tree with the most flowers in the front right. When he got closer, he saw that behind the plum tree, behind a few large rocks, there was a gentle downhill slope.

For some reason, the snow here is not as deep as in other places. The closer you get, the more complex the smell becomes, sometimes strong and sometimes weak with the wind.

At this time, the people following behind him also smelled the smell, especially the hunter, who looked solemn and whispered, "My lord, I'm afraid there is some wild beast. Why don't you ask me to go take a look first?"

Zhao Mingzhi was about to nod when he suddenly heard the sound of trees shaking from the bottom of the slope.

No reminder was needed at this point. Everyone present looked in the direction of the sound and saw a small stream meandering beside a few clumps of plum blossoms at the bottom of the slope. If they listened carefully, they could hear the only sound of water besides the swaying of the trees.

In the cold winter, the stream was still full of running water and emitting white steam. On the edge of the stream, two unknown animals put their front two hooves into the stream and lowered their heads to drink water.

These two were already quite large in size, yet not as huge as the other one. The huge animal was taller than half a man, and like a cow, it was rubbing its butt against the bark of a plum tree beside the stream, causing the plum petals to fall down, creating a scene of colorful fallen petals.

Zhao Mingzhi only felt that the animal was yellow and black, with a lot of hair and what looked like fangs. Before he could recognize it, he heard the hunter nearby exclaim in horror: "It's a wild boar!"

As he spoke, he no longer cared about anything else. He quickly grabbed Zhao Mingzhi's cloak and pulled her back. As he retreated, he explained in a low voice: "Your Excellency, you don't know that there are several groups of wild boars in the back mountain. They come to destroy the crops whenever they get a chance all year round. There is one group in particular. The boar is so big that it will butt at you if you don't provoke it. Now it's winter, and the snow is strong. They can't find food in the mountains, so they keep running down the mountain. Earlier this month, they broke into a family's yard, wasting food and injuring two members of the family. My mother is still lying down, and I don't know if she can recover."

The guard next to him said, "It's just right. We have a lot of people today. Killing these wild boars will also be considered as getting rid of harm to the people!"

The hunter smiled bitterly and said, "Don't blame me, sir. I don't like to exaggerate. There is a saying in this mountain, 'One pig, two bears, three big insects'. Why should the wild boar be ranked first? First, there are many wild boars, and many of them will come out to harm people and fields. Second, these pigs have a kind of brute force, and they like to rush at people. Once they get angry, let alone three or five, even ten or twenty strong men may not be able to control them if they are not familiar with each other and have no experience."

"There are three of them down there now. The big one seems to be the one that loves to cause trouble the most. It weighs at least 400 to 500 kilograms. I'm afraid it has grown for five or six years, so it will be even more difficult to deal with."

He paused, and then continued, "Your Excellency is not in the village, so you don't know. If you don't cover the pig's eyes when you kill it, it will run away. A whole house of people can't catch it from dawn to dusk! We have few hunters and hunting dogs in our team. It's better to wait for another team to come, and seven or eight dogs will surround the wild boar and entangle it, and then we can all get swords and guns to hunt it."

The guard laughed and said, "Brother, it's not that I don't listen to you, but our leader today is an expert in hunting. In the past, he shot a big insect to death with two arrows in the west. You said there are three big insects, one pig and two bears. Although the big insect ranks third, how is it compared to the wild boar?"

The hunter was startled, and then he looked at Zhao Mingzhi, and said, "I have never seen a big beast, but that doesn't mean that the big beast is not as good as the wild boar. I just said that because a while ago, Old Chen's mother was injured by a wild boar, and we recruited seven or eight people to take revenge. I went there three or four times. This beast is very cruel, and it is difficult for ordinary people to even get close to it. Once we finally got in front of it, and the knife chopped it down, but it didn't even break its skin, it just tickled it..."

As he spoke, he pulled out a long knife from his waist, revealing a gap in the middle, and said to them, "This is it - I wanted to chop its face, but my hand slipped and it knocked the knife off with its teeth. My brother came to rescue it and wanted to steal its back door, but it knocked him over and injured his leg. If it wasn't for Li Zhuangtou coming to find us this time and asking us to lead the way, and saying that we don't have to fight anything we encounter, I would not have come here so easily." As they were talking, they indeed heard footsteps behind them.

Zhao Mingzhi looked back and saw Pei Yong walking towards him quickly.

Seeing Zhao Mingzhi, Pei Yong immediately laughed and said, "Why are you here? I saw some signs ahead, I'm afraid there are wild boars around..."

"There are several ahead! The one Madam just found is probably the nest that Li Zhuangtou mentioned. I heard that they just injured someone and destroyed a lot of farmland." The guard who had responded earlier hurriedly asked, "Sir, do you want to go and take a look?"

Pei Yong responded and went to take a look, then turned back to Zhao Mingzhi and asked, "Do you want to hunt one?"

If it was pheasants or rabbits, Zhao Mingzhi would still have some confidence. Even if it was wild deer or yellow leopards, she would not be afraid. However, when she heard that they were going to hunt wild boars, and heard what the hunter had just said, she could not help but feel uneasy. She replied, "Of course I want to, but I heard what this brother said just now. The wild boar has thick skin and very hard hair. My bow only has five buckets of force. With my arm strength, I can't draw it to the full. I'm afraid that even if I shoot it, I won't be able to penetrate its shell. Will it be a hindrance to my second brother?"

Pei Yong first took the bow from Zhao Mingzhi's back and tested its strength. Then he looked at the three wild boars below and pointed at one of them that was drinking water. He said, "Do you see the smaller one on the left side of the water? Just stare at it and shoot. If it faces you, shoot its eyes. If it faces you, shoot its soul gate or its butt. Don't worry about missing. It's okay. I'm watching you from behind."

Zhao Mingzhi calmed down immediately. He rubbed his hands first. Feeling that his fingers were much warmer and regained some flexibility, he took off his gloves and slowly approached the river from the leeward side with Pei Yong.

The hunter was anxious when he saw the two men hunting wild boars so casually. He said to the guards on both sides: "Are you just going to stand by and watch? Wild boars are not like other animals. How will we explain if someone dies? Just looking at the lady's appearance and behavior, we can tell that she must have spent a lot of gold and silver to support such a distinguished guest. She must have never encountered any danger. She is watching from a distance and thinks those wild boars are nothing. If they get close and start to charge at her, she will be so scared that she won't know where to escape!"

The guards on the left and right were Pei Yong's personal soldiers. They just laughed when they heard this. One of them said, "Brother, I'm not bragging. Today I'm here to open your eyes. We are just spectators. If we get too close, we might scare the wild boar and make it difficult for the master to do anything. That would be troublesome!"

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Another person laughed and said, "Brother, your eyesight is really not as good as your hunting skills - it's hard to say about our lady, she won't be scared by a few wild boars!"

As they were talking, the two people below were only a hundred steps away from the three wild boars.

Zhao Mingzhi knew that the longbow in his hand did not have enough power and his accuracy was not necessarily 100%, so he held his breath and continued to move forward carefully.

She had deliberately found a place downwind, and she had no perfume on her body, nor any other smell. However, the wild boar had a very sensitive nose, and before she could get a few steps closer, it seemed to have noticed something was wrong. It suddenly stopped, stopped rubbing its back with the bark, and walked a few steps forward, looking around.

This place was close to the stream and there were many trees, but the trunks were not as thick as those in the previous woods. The pig looked around and soon saw Pei Yong standing next to a tree, drawing his bow and arrow, aiming at it.

It reacted extremely quickly, perhaps because it saw there were only two people here, but it was not afraid at all. Instead, it dug its front hooves into the ground and rushed towards Pei Yong, howling.

The pig ran very fast, and it seemed like it jumped out seven or eight inches in the blink of an eye.

The two pigs beside it heard the noise. One of them jumped onto the shore, turned around and hid into the woods. It was the smaller one. The other one retracted its hooves and followed the big pig to rush towards Pei Yong.

Zhao Mingzhi had been instructed by Pei Yong before to ignore everything else and just focus on shooting arrows at the little pig. Now the two big pigs were about to be in front of her. It would be a lie to say that she was not panicking. She was always calmer when faced with danger. Seeing that the wild boar was about to hide in the woods, she advanced instead, took a few quick steps, pulled the bow in her hand to its full length, half-knelt on the ground, aimed at the little pig's soul gate, drew the bow and shot.

As soon as the arrow was shot, two screams were heard, followed by endless howling and cheers from the hillside.

Zhao Mingzhi couldn't recognize it. He was suspicious, excited, and nervous for a moment. He thought to himself: Could it be that my archery skills have improved to such an extent that it is so powerful?

As soon as this thought came to her mind, she stood up and backed away, trying to hide from the two big pigs to avoid being approached, but she heard a sound of breaking air beside her. She turned around and saw that another arrow flew out from beside her and hit the big pig not far away directly, piercing through one of its nostrils, leaving only the arrowhead and a small part of the tail exposed.

When she looked carefully, she found that an arrow had been stuck in the big pig's eye. Its front hooves were still full of momentum, and it was even more ferocious. It rushed forward with the arrow in its hand. At this time, the arrow pierced its nose, and it could no longer control itself. It rolled on the ground in pain, and snowflakes flew everywhere.

Behind the big pig, another wild boar immediately turned around, screaming and running away. However, before it ran far, Pei Yong had already drawn his bow and arrow again. With a "pop" sound, the sound was covered by the pig's screaming - it turned out that the fleeing wild boar was hit by an arrow in the soul gate and rolled on the spot.

The wild boar rolled on the ground, revealing another arrow that had already pierced its nose.

It turned out that Pei Yong had shot two arrows in the first wave, one arrow for each pig, which was very fair. One pig was hit in the nose, and the other was hit in the eye. Later, he shot two more arrows, one pig was hit in the nose, and the other pig was hit in the soul gate.

Thanks to book friend 20220126070105381 for the peach blossom fan, and Ni Zao and book friend 20190326183130661 for the sachets.
Thank you Xianlin for the three amulets, SKE48_kino-chan and Cokecha for the amulets, ldfbb for Zhizhi, and IKURAKURA for the chicken drumsticks for Erge~
Thank you all ^_^