Return to 1983 Hunting Xing'an Mountains

Chapter 355: Big Brown Bear Leads People into the Mountain Again
This story begins in the afternoon when Li Ye was going to Nanshan Goutangzi. He met Hu Zhiyong on the way. At that time, Hu Zhiyong was carrying a hunting rifle, a cloth bag and a glacier, and was obviously going to Goutangzi to catch fish. The two hit it off immediately and jumped over the Xiaoshi River together and walked towards the back garden.

But they did not go to the back garden, which was still more than two miles away. This place was in the mountains and usually few people came here to catch fish, so the place they chose was perfect. They used a glacier chisel to chop ice and dug out six or seven silver carp and carp. As it was almost noon, they thought of making a fire and cooking on the spot.

But neither of them took lunch boxes. They originally wanted to take a few fish home, but Hu Zhiyong and Li Ye both felt that it was impossible to take only six or seven fish home after finally reaching the back garden. It was not enough for the two of them to share, let alone for several meals.

Hu Zhiyong suggested looking for some pheasant traps and roasting a pheasant. Wouldn’t that be better than just eating grilled fish?

So they wanted to go to the back garden to look for pheasant traps. Anyway, it was not far away and they could walk back and forth easily. So, they hid the glacier, six fish and the cloth bag in the grass nest. Then they carried their hunting rifles and a fish weighing four or five kilograms and went to the back garden.

The fallen leaves in this place were thick, and all they could see were red pines and firs. After walking around, the two of them easily found two pheasant traps, one of which had a pheasant hanging on it.

Hu Zhiyong smiled and held the pheasant in his hand and said, "Brother Li, let's just put it on the fire. The roasted chicken and roasted fish will be enough for both of us to eat."

Li Ye took a look at the surroundings, pointed to an empty area and said, "Let's light a fire over there. We have to go back quickly after we finish eating."

Hu Zhiyong is the nephew of the secretary of the Taiping Brigade. He is 28 years old. His parents died early, and his marriage was arranged by his uncle Hu Lin. After marriage, he has a son who just turned six years old.

Usually Hu Zhiyong works at the village headquarters. He doesn't have any special position, just helps with odd jobs. The village headquarters pays him ten yuan a month, and he can't sit idle. When he has time, he goes into the mountains to catch some fish, trap pheasants, and sometimes even hunts wild boars.

But the chance of encountering a wild boar is very small, because he doesn't know how to track it. Even the way of setting traps and snares was learned from Li Mazi, Lan Guodong and others. Of course, they taught him out of Lao Hu's favor. Otherwise, how could a serious hunter teach the skills of making a living to others?

Just as the two men put down their fish, cloth bag and hunting rifle and looked around for firewood, a sleeping brown bear moved its nose under a red pine tree thirty or forty meters away. It took a breath and seemed to smell a fishy smell. It opened its confused little eyes, raised its head slightly, and moved its nose carefully again, and it smelled human and fishy smells!

This smell is a bit familiar. The fishy smell comes from the fish, and there is some motor oil and sweat smell on the human body. This sweat smell is the smell that remains after clothes are not changed frequently and are soaked with sweat, and dried repeatedly.

There was a scar on the brown bear's eyelid. It was the brown bear that killed Li Shan. At that time, it weighed nearly 700 kilograms, but now it has lost a lot of weight and only weighs about 600 kilograms.

The hair on its body became smooth and shiny after being washed by the snow, but its condition was not very good because it was very hungry...

After killing Li Shan, it fled towards Baishilazi. Although it ate two wild boars there, it took a lot of effort to hunt the wild boars and almost died of exhaustion!
So it went around and around and came back, because it was very familiar with the terrain and knew where to find food. Sure enough, the food was delivered to its mouth.

Just when the brown bear got up and wanted to go looking for fish, Li Ye happened to walk to about 20 or 30 meters away from it.

When Li Ye bent down to pick up firewood, he saw a brown bear looking up at him. This look scared Li Ye so much that his soul was scared to death and his heart skipped a beat.

At first, Li Ye did not dare to move. He knew that brown bears and black bears were blind. As long as he did not move, the brown bear might not run towards him. However, he thought too much. He saw the brown bear stand up and roar loudly, then run towards Li Ye...

Coincidentally, the place where Li Ye was standing was exactly on the route between the brown bear and the fish, because the fish, the gun and the cloth bag were placed together.

Seeing the brown bear running towards him, although Li Ye's eardrums were numbed by the bear's roar, he was an experienced hunter after all, and was not frightened by the brown bear to the point of being unable to walk.

He hurriedly threw the firewood in his hand towards the brown bear. A bundle of firewood scattered like flowers from heaven. Two branches fell on the brown bear. It tilted its head and roared.

Li Ye turned around and ran towards the place where the gun was fired, shouting, "Zhiyong! Hei Xiazi! Hurry up and get the gun!"

Hu Zhiyong was also quite brave. When he heard the bear roar, he turned his head sharply and saw Li Ye running towards him desperately.

When Hu Zhiyong heard his shout, he reacted quickly. He threw away the firewood in his hand and ran towards the location of the shotgun. He ran to the tree in two or three steps, picked up the gun on the ground and handed it out.

There were bullets in his gun because it had a safety device. Although this thing doesn't require much technical skill, many old shotguns don't have safety devices. This is why many people would open their shotguns and put them on their arms after entering the mountains, ready to load bullets at any time.

In the past, many hunters accidentally shot their companions or themselves because their guns had no safety and they loaded bullets in advance.

This kind of thing happened from time to time. Later, when the hunters went into the mountains again, they basically remained vigilant at all times. However, Li Ye and Hu Zhiyong let down their guard and actually threw their life-saving hunting rifles under the tree. Xu Ning would definitely not do this. When he was eating in the mountains, even if there were dogs around him, he still put the gun beside his legs or carried it on his shoulder.

Hu Zhiyong touched the gun first, but his sight was blocked by Li Ye who was running over, so he could only put down the gun, took a few steps to the left, stood under a tree and swept away the brown bear on all fours!

"Fuck! Big brown bear!"

At this time, Li Ye lunged forward and ran under the tree. Just as he was about to grab the rifle with his left hand, he had already taken out the bullet from his pocket with his right hand. Just as he got up and prepared to reload the bullet, the brown bear pounced on him from behind, and directly knocked the gun out of his hand with one claw, and at the same time tore two cuts on his arm, and blood gushed out instantly.

The brown bear stood up more than two meters tall and let out a loud roar. Its front paws were about to fall when Hu Zhiyong fired a shot.

The shot hit the brown bear's shoulder. It took two steps back to the side and sat down on the ground without gaining its balance.

Li Ye took this opportunity to stand up immediately. He glanced at the old rifle that fell on the snow and ran over with gritted teeth. He didn't care whether the old rifle would explode or not. After holding it in his hand, he just loaded the bullet and saw the brown bear running towards Hu Zhiyong.

"Zhiyong! Run!"

Hu Zhiyong was loading bullets into the chamber of the gun, but seeing the brown bear running towards him, he would be lying if he said he was not trembling. His fingers were shaking and the single-headed bullet fell to the ground.

Hu Zhiyong looked down, turned around and ran, shouting, "Brother Li! Cut it!"

Li Ye raised the old pistol in his hand and pulled the trigger. With a "pop" sound, the bullet misfired!
"Dumb! Damn it! Zhiyong, run home!"

Hu Zhiyong loaded the bullet, turned around and fired a shot, but he was so nervous that he didn't hit the bear's fur. He ran around the red pine tree, circling the brown bear. When he came back, he saw Li Ye holding a gun and yelled, "Run the fuck away!"

Hu Zhiyong responded excitedly: "Run a basket!"

Li Ye fired another shot, this time hitting the brown bear's buttocks. The brown bear turned its head and roared at him, then ran towards him, and Li Ye had no time to reload.

He hid behind a red pine tree, and when the brown bear came running towards him, he raised his shotgun and chopped down. The brown bear's head was hit by the butt of the rifle. It rushed over with its head arched, and knocked Li Ye away with its shoulder. Li Ye turned half a circle in the air, fell to the ground and fainted.

"Brother Li! You bastard, I'm going to fucking kill you!"

Hu Zhiyong gritted his teeth, raised his shotgun, and fired another shot at the brown bear, but his marksmanship and psychological quality were poor. Although he had the courage to confront the brown bear, he failed at the critical moment.

The bullet hit the tree, and the wood chips pierced the brown bear's eyes. It screamed in pain, then gave up on Li Ye on the ground and rushed straight towards Hu Zhiyong...

"Fuck you!"

Hu Zhiyong turned around and was about to run, but was tripped by a branch under his feet and fell to the ground. His hunting rifle was soaked in snow. He looked back anxiously and saw that the brown bear was less than six meters away from him.

He grabbed the shotgun and stood up, running straight ahead. The brown bear was chasing him closely. Its injured eye was bleeding a little, and it was in unbearable pain and roared loudly, which made Hu Zhiyong feel scared. But he did not make a detour, because Li Ye had fallen to the ground and could not get up. If he led the brown bear back, Li Ye would definitely be eaten by it, so Hu Zhiyong ran desperately around the red pine forest...

At around four o'clock in the afternoon, Li Ye slowly woke up. There was a pool of blood where he had fallen. He struggled to get up and glanced around. He didn't see Hu Zhiyong, so he shouted twice.

After waiting for a long time without hearing any response, he covered the wound, found the cloth bag, took out a strip of cloth from it, and tied the wound with one hand. His nose and face were bleeding a lot, and his mental state was a little dazed. He glanced at the setting sun and ran home.

He fainted twice along the way. At night, perhaps he was woken up by the cold, or perhaps because of his strong desire to survive, he ran to the door of his house in a daze.

After his wife helped him into the house, she saw that his face was covered in blood. He was a little panicked at the time. He gritted his teeth and called out "uncle" before his wife went to find Lao Deng. When Lao Deng was bandaging his wound, Li Ye was already mentally distracted. He could feel someone treating his wound because he felt severe pain at the wound site, but he could not utter a word. Eventually, he fainted with his neck tilted.

But his wife thought he was asleep. There was nothing she could do. This woman had little education and did not have the common sense of people in later generations. She just thought he was too tired.

It was not until the early morning that Li Ye came to his senses. He quickly asked his wife to find Lao Deng and asked his daughter to get him some water. After Lao Deng came over and heard what had happened, he asked his nephew's wife to get him some food.

There were only two people left in the room. Old Deng lowered his head and asked in a low voice: "Is this true?"

Li Ye was stunned: "Uncle, what's real or fake? My arm is injured, how can it be fake?"

"I said Hu Zhiyong deliberately led the black bear away. Is that true or false?"

"Really? Uncle, can I fool you with this? What should I do now? Should I tell Lao Hu?"

Old Deng narrowed his eyes and said, "Of course I have to tell you. Just lie here and I'll go find Old Hu."

"Uncle, I'll go with you. I can move now!"

"Okay, eat first."

He could see that Li Ye was really anxious. He usually got along well with Hu Zhiyong, and when they encountered the brown bear, neither of them abandoned the other and ran away, which was enough to show that they were both very particular.

Li Ye lowered his head in a hurry, shoveling rice into his mouth with one hand. His wife asked him to eat slowly to avoid choking, but he didn't listen. He got up after shoveling a bowl of rice, but he didn't stand firmly and knelt on the ground.

Lao Deng helped him up and said, "Shall I carry you?"

"Okay! Uncle."

Afterwards, Old Deng supported Li Ye and walked towards Old Hu's house.

When we arrived at Old Hu's house, Hu Zhiyong's wife was crying to Old Hu. Old Hu was sitting on the edge of the kang drinking tea, looking anxious and worried.

"Oh my god, Brother Deng! What's going on?"

Old Deng glanced at Hu Zhiyong's wife, pointed at Li Ye and said, "He and Zhiyong went to fish together yesterday..."

Seeing Li Ye's condition and injuries, Lao Hu hurriedly said, "Hurry up and sit down! What happened? How did you get injured?"

"I met a black blind man..."

Old Hu was stunned when he heard this, and when Hu Zhiyong's wife heard this, she rushed to him and asked, "Then, where is Zhiyong?"

Then, Li Ye recounted the incident, and Lao Hu slapped his thigh and said, "This is fucking bullshit!"

Hu Zhiyong's wife was stunned when she heard this, and tears started streaming down her face.

Lao Hu said: "Fang, don't cry yet, Zhiyong should be fine..."

"Uncle, what should we do?" Hu Zhiyong's wife wiped her tears.

Lao Deng said, "Let's get a few people to go into the mountains and look for it. Lao Hu, what do you think?"

"That's for sure! Let Li Ye go home and rest first. Why is he still walking around when he's injured like this?"

Li Ye said: "Uncle Hu, we went into the mountains together, but I ran back alone. I definitely had to come here. Zhiyong and I have always had a good relationship. He saved my life. If... Zhiyong gets into trouble, I definitely can't just stand by and watch!"

"Come on, stop talking so depressingly. Brother Deng, you should quickly take Li Ye back. I'll go get Lan Dadan and the others, and we'll work out how to deal with this matter."

"Okay! I'll be right back."

After Lao Deng and Li Ye left, Lao Hu raised his hand and slapped the edge of the kang, angrily saying, "If anything happens to you, I'll go down and explain to my eldest brother! You bastard, you won't let me have peace for the whole day!"

Hu Zhiyong's wife lowered her head and said, "Uncle, I will never be greedy again. As long as Zhiyong comes back, I will do anything!"

Old Hu waved his hands and said unhappily, "I don't blame you! Hurry up and clean the teapot."

"Yeah." Hu Zhiyong's wife nodded.

Lao Hu went out and found Lao Han, Lan Guodong and Li Mazi one after another. When he went to find Da Laba, he heard Zhang Guifang say that he was chatting in the store, so he found Da Laba bragging in the store.

"Let's talk about it inside!" Lao Hu didn't tell them on the way because there are so many people and it would be bad if the matter got out. Besides, Lao Hu also had some selfish motives.

After entering the room, the four men saw Lao Deng sitting on the edge of the kang, nodded and greeted him. As soon as he sat down and picked up his teacup, Lao Hu told them what had happened.

Lan Guodong glanced at Lao Deng and said, "Li Ye and Zhiyong have always had a good relationship. It's a blessing for Li Ye to be able to come back alive."

"That's not great." Li Mazi nodded.

Lao Hu said: "I'm thinking of asking you to go into the mountains and help find my Zhiyong..."

(End of this chapter)