Back to 1984: Hunting in the Mountains

He tried to lie down at the entrance of the cave and look inside, but it was pitch black and it was difficult to see what was going on inside.

I turned on the flashlight again, but I could only see a very small area.

It is just that I can't tell clearly which is the beginning and the end.

This really put him in a difficult position.

If you put a bullet through the bear's head and kill it inside, there will be no hope.

After thinking about it, I can only put myself in the bear's shoes.

The injured and frightened bear was chased to this place by the dog. It must have been here before. After it crawled into the tree hole, it was probably very scared and just wanted to hide itself.

Most likely, it will not think of turning the bear's head to face outward.

It is not easy to turn around in this tree hole.

If he thought this way, he basically had a solution.

He walked to the side with a gun and retreated more than 20 meters. He closed his eyes and held his breath. Then, when he opened them again, his hands had become very steady and his eyes were filled with determination.

"Oh!"

The bullet flew out of the gun barrel, went straight through the tree trunk and into the tree hole.

"howl!"

Almost at the same time, a painful roar came from the tree hole, and then the bear's butt was seen retreating from the tree hole. The next moment it fell to the ground. The bullet just hit its leg. It tried twice, but finally failed to get up.

Yu Qiutang then gave it the last steady shot.

The bullet passed through the neck, and this time the bear fell directly on its back, with its limbs stretched out to the sky, twitching, and slowly calming down.

Yu Qiutang waited there for a while. About five minutes later, he slowly walked to the bear and poked its belly with the butt of his gun, but there was no movement.

It's really dead this time.

Yu Qiutang then felt relieved and called Yu Qiujiang over.

The two dogs ran faster than him and arrived here first, shouting at the bear.

Xiao Hei, in particular, seemed to be going through a transformation phase. He had never had the chance to open his voice before, but now he was finally letting it go, and his voice changed from the previously mixed delicate sounds to a hoarse and rough one.

Yu Qiujiang also came here and looked at the black bear on the ground, frowning: "Is it a female bear? Why is it so thin?"

Yu Qiutang shook his head. "No, it's a male. It's thin because it consumed too much flesh during hibernation. It's not the thinnest yet. When the spring comes next year, many of them will come out of the tree holes and be skinny."

"That's it."

"Well, so you see why hunters don't hunt bears in the spring, but have to wait until late autumn to hunt bears. That's the reason. In spring, bears are too thin and don't have much meat. Their paws are also shriveled, so they are not a problem to eat. In summer, bears give birth to cubs. If too many are hunted, it will lead to the death of a large number of cubs.

By autumn, bears have finished feeding and are basically conserving their energy for hibernation. This is when bears are strongest and have the most meat, making them the best time to hunt them.

Yu Qiujiang nodded.

"As for winter, it can be divided into two stages. In the early stage, bear hunting is still possible, but around the New Year, it is actually not interesting, and the bears caught basically have little meat."

Yu Qiutang took out a dagger and scratched the hair off the bear's limbs while explaining to Yu Qiujiang.

The fur is prepared for bear skinning.

Start to pull the limbs apart, and the air inside the bear skin will be released, so it won't stick to the flesh and be difficult to take off.

Then comes the old steps: cut open the belly and remove the bear bile.

It's a pity. The bear was probably too frightened, and its gallbladder was a little broken and not in very good condition.

It cannot reach the quality of copper gall.

But Yu Qiutang didn't care much about it. He was hunting the bear this time just to help and to go into the mountain.

As long as the bear's paw is still there, it's fine.

He threw some internal organs to the two dogs. Big Black ate with great relish, while Little Black was quite cautious. He checked several times and saw that Big Black was still eating, then he ran over and started eating in small bites.

But the food is still quite delicate.

Once the little guy starts eating raw blood, it's quite amazing. It's like a virgin finally getting a taste of a woman's charm, and then it's unstoppable, and he will be full of pursuit of flesh and blood.

This time, Yu Qiutang was also trying to train Xiao Hei.

Seeing that he can do it now, we don't have to worry about the other dogs later and can boldly let them go on duty.

After finishing, with the help of Yu Qiujiang, he took off the bear skin.

It was a lot of effort.

This is really not a job for ordinary people.

Many people, when dealing with bears, cannot handle the bear skin, and can only cut the bear into many pieces along with the skin.

Therefore, there are very few truly complete bear skins on the market.

"Brother Jiang, take this bear skin. I'll teach you how to process it when we get back. Once it's processed, you can make a coat for Chunju. Bear skin is warm and can keep out the wind."

When Yu Qiujiang first heard that it was given to him, he was about to refute, but when he heard his sister Chunju, he didn't say anything in the end.

He may not accept things from others, but if his sister has a coat like this, she can block the wind and go out for a walk occasionally in the winter instead of having to stay in the house all the time.

His dream is to call his sister out of the house one day and let her run outside without restraint and bask in the sun.

"You gave us so much." He stammered.

"It's nothing," Yu Qiutang didn't take it to heart at all. He said casually, "Chunju is a child with a hard life. Let's go to Xi'an together in the spring."

When Yu Qiujiang heard Yu Qiutang talking about Chunju, he felt something was not right. In his eyes, Yu Qiutang was only eighteen years old, not much older than Chunju.

Even though she is more mature, it is still a bit problematic to say that Chunju is a child.

But after looking at Yu Qiutang, I found that he didn't seem to say it unintentionally, but was really saying it seriously. There was a kind look in his eyes, and he looked like an old man.

He had seen this kind of look from Yu Qiutang many times.

I have been curious many times.

But he never asked Yu Qiutang, nor did he remind him.

He was not the kind of person who liked to get to the bottom of things. Besides, no matter what secrets Yu Qiutang had, he was very kind to them and did not look down on them at all because of their current predicament.

That's fine.

Everyone living in this world has their own secrets. If they don’t want to tell you, then don’t ask.

By this time, Yu Qiutang had already divided the bear meat into many parts.

The four bear paws were naturally stored separately. This was the important purpose of his visit and he could not give up.

For the remaining parts, you need to cut out the oil and pack it separately first, and then the bear meat.

Before he had a gun, he was afraid that the bear's blood would attract more wild animals, so he didn't dare to cut bear meat in the mountains.

Now that he is fully equipped, if anything wants to come and die, just come directly. He is not afraid at all.

All the meat was cut into small pieces and not put into bags immediately. Instead, they were sealed with snow and placed on the snow to freeze.

This will minimize blood loss.

Otherwise the bear blood would be completely wasted.

After the bear meat is frozen, we can put it in a sack and carry it down the mountain. The temperature is now more than ten degrees below zero, so it is impossible for it to melt.

After you get home, put it in a large enamel dish, wash it and let the blood drain out.

The whole body of the bear is a treasure, it is shameful to waste it.

After finishing the processing, Yu Qiutang was very satisfied looking at the large pile of bear meat, which was the result of his efforts over the past few days.

"How are you? Can you carry it?" Yu Qiutang asked with concern when he saw Yu Qiujiang insisted on carrying a large piece of bear meat.

He was worried that his cousin was the type of person who was unwilling to admit defeat.

He is unwilling to let others do more work so that he can relax.

"I'm fine now. I'm fine now. I can't be broken into pieces by that height. I'm fine now."

"Don't hide it. We are brothers, and we are not polite. If you can't do it, don't force yourself to do it. If you exhaust yourself, who will do it for you at home?"

"It's really nothing. How can I prove it to you?"

Seeing that Yu Qiujiang still insisted, Yu Qiutang had no choice but to let him go. However, when assigning things to him, he deliberately chose small and light ones. In the end, the weight Yu Qiujiang carried was only about half of Yu Qiutang's.

However, after carrying the bear on my back, I found that the bear had indeed become lighter due to hibernation. It felt like it might not even weigh 300 kilograms.

It's really not that heavy when you put it on your back.

Yu Qiutang felt that in this case, it would be uneconomical and a waste of time if he did not go down the mountain at full capacity. So he paid special attention on the way down the mountain and caught two more snow sheep.

They are a pair, so let’s take down their nest too.

The snow sheep are certainly not the kind that live in North America. The snow sheep here seem to be a hybrid, probably a mixed breed of Tibetan sheep and blue sheep.

There were more of them in the early years, but later on, as if because we were too stupid, they gradually disappeared.

Yu Qiutang didn't know whether it was a kind of Tibetan sheep, but the locals called it snow sheep, so he called it that too.

Snow sheep meat is delicious and not smelly, and snow sheep skin can also be sold for money. Overall, it is a good prey.

Now the two of them are not at such a disadvantage.

It took another two days to go down the mountain.

It was sunny on the first day, and Yu Qiutang was wondering if it would continue to be sunny, as the ground would be very slippery when going down the mountain, making it difficult to walk.

Of course they can't compete with empty hands or with weights.

Unexpectedly, it started snowing again the next day, and the ground was very slippery.

I am really afraid of what will happen.

The ground was very slippery and it was impossible to walk on the mountain road.

The two tried to walk, but in the end it was too slippery and too dangerous to force themselves to walk, so they had to find a place to rest temporarily. They waited until the second half of the night, when the oily ground began to turn into heavy snow, covering the original oily ground. Then they set out on their way home in the dark.

Wait until about eight o'clock the next morning and come down from the mountain.

When they arrived at Houtouling, they found that the weather on the ground was completely different from that in the mountains.

It's a sunny day here.

There was no snow on the ground. The snow that had fallen before they left had not accumulated at all. It had melted in the sun and evaporated completely, and the road was still dusty.

Because the two came back, it was just when the villagers got up, some came out to empty the urine pot, and some were sweeping the floor at the door. Seeing the two dusty and bloody people, and two dogs running in front of them, they immediately became curious and stopped to watch.

Fortunately, they brought the things directly to the new yard and did not enter the village, otherwise, they would have attracted more attention.

But when they returned to the door of their house, Yu Chunmei was still frightened. She didn't care about the things on her back. She first pulled Yu Qiutang around and looked around. She didn't find any obvious wounds, and then looked at Yu Qiujiang again.

He kept muttering anxiously, "Are you okay? Are you okay? Are you two okay? Why are you covered in blood? Are you not injured? You have been in the mountains for seven or eight days. We were so worried about you."

The two men had to explain that nothing was wrong and that the blood on their bodies was not theirs but from the bear.

Yu Chunmei was relieved and asked them to put down their things quickly, change their dirty clothes, and soak their feet, as they had been in the mountains for so many days.

Your feet are soaked by your shoes, right?

It would have been fine if Yu Chunmei hadn't said anything, but once she did, Yu Qiutang and Yu Qiujiang really thought that was the idea, so they put their things in the cave next to them and prepared to change clothes.

At this moment, Yu Chunmei pointed at the village road in the distance and said, "Qiutang, look, why does that person look like our father?"

Upon hearing this, Yu Qiutang turned around and saw that it was indeed his father Yu Dejin.

He was jogging towards this side, staggering and staggering, as if he was drunk.

As we were running, we saw a man riding a bicycle chasing us from behind. It was our third uncle Yu Deshui. Then my father went back and it was our third uncle who came over here on the bicycle instead.

Somehow, Yu Qiutang suddenly had a bad feeling in his heart.

He saw his father clearly. His distraught look was not something that could be affected by ordinary things. Combined with the fact that his third uncle also came over, could it be that it was grandma...

He subconsciously glanced at Yu Qiujiang, and Yu Qiujiang happened to look at him as well.

They both stood up and watched Uncle San's bicycle turn around the bay.

Ride here quickly.

Yu Deshui braked and didn't get off the bike. He just used his feet to hold the bike up. "You two are here."

Uncle San said something, but he couldn't finish the second half of the sentence and swallowed it back into his stomach.

Looks gloomy.

"Uncle San, what's wrong?" Yu Qiutang had no choice but to ask.

Yu Deshui closed his eyes, and when he opened them again, his eyes were filled with tears. He said in a hoarse voice, "Your fourth uncle is gone."

"what?!"

Yu Qiutang, Yu Qiujiang, and Yu Chunmei were all shocked.

The three of them asked back almost in unison.

Especially Yu Qiutang, he felt as if his brain was hit by a heavy hammer, and he was a little confused for a moment.

how could be.

Why is it Fourth Uncle!
He thought it was grandma.

After all, grandma is in a very bad condition and it is very easy for something to happen to her.

But how could it be Fourth Uncle?

How old was Fourth Uncle? He was just over 45, right? How come he was gone?

He couldn't help but think of his fourth uncle's confused look when the beams of the main house were put up last time, and he suddenly felt very uncomfortable.

At this moment, he could finally think clearly about what it felt like the last time he saw his fourth uncle.

It's actually just a breath of dead air.

In Yu Qiutang's eyes, he looked like a zombie on TV whose soul had been taken away, completely lifeless.

When people ask questions, he can only agree with a few words symbolically, without any independent opinions or consciousness.

He clearly noticed it and told them all. His father, his third uncle, Akiyama, and Akihara all mentioned it. He even talked about it with his fourth uncle.

But why did he still die?
He asked sadly: "What's going on, Uncle San?" (End of this chapter)