sjar Chapter 369 Gobi Predators
Chapter 369 Gobi Predators
He had heard of Li Ju'an's reputation; he knew Li Ju'an was a hunter with a gun, and the three guns on his back were famous. Whenever the hunter raised his gun, he could "bang!" and blow out the eyeballs of a falcon.
He vaguely remembered Yang Dezheng's words: in Lijiatun, the brave hunters preferred to hunt bears in the dead of winter, armed with shotguns loaded with medium- or even large-caliber slugs. Those fierce bullets were incredibly powerful against bears; they could easily penetrate even the hard skull without leaving a mark.
Using such a slug to deal with a soaring falcon would be unwise. It's not that it's impossible to hit, but the destructive power of the slug is simply too astonishing. Once it hits the falcon, it can instantly shatter its skull, leaving its entire head fragmented. Naturally, the falcon's value would plummet, making it difficult to fetch a good price.
Li Ju'an pointed lightly to the deer cellar and the lid trap on the ground and said, "Use your hands."
Upon hearing this, Captain Zhang's eyes widened in shock, his face filled with astonishment, as if he couldn't accept this sudden change for a moment.
His eyes widened in surprise, and he asked again, "You used your hand to brace the gun?"
Li Ju'an shook his head, gestured with his hands, and said, "I caught it with my hands."
Captain Zhang fell into deep thought for a moment, lowering his eyes to examine his rough hands closely, as if they held endless secrets. He slowly nodded, letting his profound contemplation freeze in the air.
Li Ju'an led his horse, laden with argali meat and the bound golden eagle, away from the barley field. Just then, Captain Zhang suddenly slapped his thigh, shattering the surrounding tranquility, and shouted loudly to Old Zhao beside him, "Chief Zhao, did you hear that clearly? What did that kid Li Ju'an say? He said he captured that eagle with just his bare hands?"
Upon hearing this, Grandpa Zhao smiled, his wrinkles deepening. He chuckled, "That's right! Which of the villagers here didn't see it with their own eyes? That kid, without using a single rope, without setting a snare or trap, just with his two hands, captured the golden eagle from the sky."
Captain Zhang gasped in astonishment, his eyes filled with admiration. He exclaimed incredulously, "It really has to be Li Pao! Yang Dezheng wasn't exaggerating. The hunters in his village are truly skilled."
……
Li Ju'an led Chen Xiangqian, holding the reins and pulling the horse, back along the original route to Wudaoshan Ridge.
Along the way, the two chatted as they walked, their conversation relaxed and easygoing.
"Brother Li, do you think our trip to the barley fields means the contract is a done deal?" Chen Xiangqian asked curiously.
Li Ju'an smiled slightly, his reply carrying a hint of deeper meaning: "It's said that an agreement has been reached, but it's not a complete agreement."
"What do you mean? Did it work out or not?" Chen Xiangqian scratched his head, looking confused.
Li Ju'an patted his shoulder gently and laughed, "It's not that easy. From taking over a project to its implementation, it has to go through many hurdles such as negotiation, finding people, investment, partnership, reporting, and approval. If it can be approved in three years, that's already considered fast."
Upon hearing this, Chen Xiangqian muttered, "Why drag it out for so long? If you can do it, do it; if you can't, then forget it."
Li Ju'an patted his head lightly and said, "If you could understand this, you wouldn't be clamoring to come with me into the mountains to become a hunter now."
Chen Xiangqian was completely confused. Seeing that Li Ju'an had already led the horse away, he hurriedly called out to him, "Wait for my brother Li."
……
As evening approached, Da Hu's pace suddenly quickened and became restless. The lead dog paced anxiously around them, its nose pressed against the ground, sniffing rapidly as if it had caught some indescribable scent.
Big Tiger would occasionally raise its head, sniffing the empty air deeply, its eyes flashing with alertness.
Upon seeing this, Chen Xiangqian frowned slightly and muttered, "It's a good thing it's not winter. If the hunting dogs were like this in winter, people would think a white blizzard was about to break out."
In the Xingan Mountains, the "white-haired wind" is a name that strikes fear into the hearts of many. It is a terrifying sight unique to winter, where the northwest wind, like a raging dragon emerging from the sea, carries a biting chill and endless pressure, engulfing everything in its fury.
A fierce blizzard raged, with snowflakes falling like sharp blades, obscuring the sky and the sun. Even from inside a warm house, looking out the window revealed only a chaotic white expanse; the world seemed to have been completely swallowed up, with visibility virtually zero as far as the eye could see.
Such a scenario is enough to instill fear in anyone just by thinking about it.
Even if two people met face-to-face in the howling white wind, they couldn't see each other. If someone stretched out their hand, they could only see the icy snowflakes blowing in, and couldn't even see their own palm.
Li Ju'an said, "It's not because of the weather, it's because livestock are approaching."
He stood alertly with his back taut and straight.
He suspected it was livestock, because the golden eagle strapped to the horse's back was becoming agitated.
The two eagles on his right arm had not yet reacted, only the hunting dogs and golden eagles showed signs of alertness, agitation, and restlessness.
His heart was pounding wildly, and for some reason he had a premonition: the wolf's eyes were coming!
Li Ju'an previously dealt a heavy blow to the large wolf pack led by Wolf Eyes, killing seventeen or eighteen of the Green Skins. After Wolf Eyes escaped from the village, he was able to lead a large pack of twenty-eight wolves within a year. These few months should be enough for Wolf Eyes to lie low and allow the pack to recover.
Not to mention, the three little black bears are growing bigger every day. He estimated that after a year, the three black bears would already be sub-adults.
A sub-adult black bear raising its paw is enough to knock down seven or eight hunting dogs. Moreover, these three black bear cubs are different from the bear cubs that follow their mother. Black bears raised with wolves, without the protection of their mother bear, are essentially beaten by various wild animals in the mountains, experiencing harsh realities early on.
If the sub-adult black bears that follow their mothers haven't experienced the dangers of the world, then these three black bears that survived with the wolf pack are already independent and cannot be underestimated.
Li Ju'an quickly tried to distinguish the burnt seedlings on the ground from the animal footprints, which made him even more puzzled.
There was no sign of either green-skinned beasts or black bears around. If neither was present, why were the tiger and the golden eagle so agitated?
Suddenly, a white and yellow shadow emerged from the side, almost brushing past Li Ju'an, and leaped up the hillside.
At such a long distance, the white and yellow shadows leaped out in no more than 2 seconds, practically flashing by.
At this moment, Chen Xiangqian was fiddling with the Seagull camera hanging around his neck.
This was sent to him by his father from Shanghai. The Seagull 4A camera was quite well-designed and technically advanced. It featured a 4-element, 3-group Tessar lens, a focusing screen with a ring lens, a snap-on top cover, and a hot shoe—a truly "luxury configuration" for its time.
Along the way, Chen Xiangqian played with his Seagull camera a lot, took many group photos of the villagers in the barley fields, and recorded the daily life of Li Ju'an, Da Hu, and the two falcons.
He pressed the shutter button and said with a grin, "Brother Li, let's take a picture."
Click. After taking a photo, Chen Xiangqian stared at the camera lens, rubbed his eyes with some suspicion, and said, "What just flashed by? It looked like an animal's eye."