sjar Chapter 188 Old Works Area Cemetery
Chapter 188 Old Works Area Cemetery
Bang!
The first shot of the Mosin-Nagant rifle was fired, and Handahan jumped forward. The bullet missed the deer's head and instead struck above his elbow.
Handahan, in pain and anger, kicked its hooves and neighed as it was about to break free and gallop away. Lu Zhiqiang, however, fired a burst of six rounds from his ugly revolver at Handahan.
Song Desheng scolded him: "From such a distance, your thing is so inaccurate, it can't even scratch an itch."
Lu Zhiqiang also lowered his head and cursed. As he loaded the magazine, Song Desheng's pump-action shotgun fired, and he and Li Ju'an pulled the trigger at the same time for their second shot.
Two more shots rang out, startling the old man in the mountains who scattered and flew away, turning and running towards the edge of the hillside.
Handahan fell to the ground and then fell silent.
Li Ju'an looked through the 3.5x scope and confirmed that Handahan had fallen. Then he said with a smile, "We haven't found the bear's granary yet, but we have plenty of snacks. We've got two jobs."
A flying bear and a magnificent, handsome moose would be the perfect backup for this hunting trip. And just considering the moose's imposing antlers, Li Ju'an simply couldn't bear to part with them this time.
"Now that Lu Zhiqiang has antlers in his house, no one can mess with me this time. I'll take both of those moose antlers and hang them in the living room of my new house; it'll make me happy."
They were all hunters who frequented the mountains, so how could their homes not have a few mountain products that could hold their own?
Lu Zhiqiang was having second thoughts, muttering to himself, "If I had known we'd run into a moose today, I wouldn't have bothered with the antlers from the red deer last time. Moose antlers are much bigger than red deer antlers."
He said it, but deep down he was convinced. If it weren't for the long-range rifles in Li Ju'an and Song Desheng's hands, he himself, with his Type 54 pistol and his two close-range pistols (a Type 11 revolver and a Type 12 pistol), would never have hit Handahan in his lifetime. 800 meters away, Handahan had already cleverly sensed the smell and heard the commotion, turning and fleeing. By the time he had a firm aim, he was nowhere to be seen.
The old whistling bird was howling loudly in the sky. It smelled blood and became so excited that it was no longer afraid. It turned around and flew back.
Li Ju'an brandished his gun and shouted, "Chase after them! The crows are so annoying; if one caws, a whole flock will come soon. We're having venison hot pot tonight!"
As long as a fire is lit, the light and smoke will guide the hunting dogs back.
The group estimated that once the venison slices were cooked, the hunting dogs, no matter where they were, would be drawn by the aroma and return to the hunters to enjoy the delicious meal.
The three men grabbed their guns and quickly chased after the place where Lao Gua had gathered.
The old folks gathered behind the wooden house in the courtyard.
Li Ju'an ran over quickly, and as soon as he reached the ground, the old leaves scattered in all directions, leaving only the snow-covered ground exposed.
He stared intently at the snow, stunned and bewildered. He rubbed his eyes hard and said, "Where is Handahan?"
Lu Zhiqiang and Song Desheng rushed over, equally stunned, and shone their flashlights on the ground. There wasn't a single fallen Handahan nearby, not even a drop of blood. The snow was empty and pristine white.
Now it's dark, the night is deep, the temperature has dropped, and snowflakes are falling from the sky. The group breathed in the cold air, and their nostrils and eyebrows were covered in frost. Even the sweat from their feet inside their boots could freeze.
Song Desheng checked the surroundings and said in surprise, "There really is no blood. That can't be. One of us must have hit him just now for Handahan to fall down. Even if there's no blood, there should be brains splattered out. To put it another way, if there are no traces, then this beast is very clever and is playing dead. Damn it, even if it's playing dead, there should be hoof prints."
The two fired at the same time. They were far apart and it was dark, so they only saw the prey fall, but they couldn't see where the bullet hit.
It's quite possible that Handahan feigned death to escape. Bears often play dead to lure hunters closer, then suddenly retaliate by striking with their paws. Sometimes, the wisdom of mountain animals is no less than that of hunting dogs.
But if Handahan faked his death and escaped, it wouldn't make sense for Lao Gua to have been gathered here just now.
The three racked their brains, searching for traces nearby with flashlights, all the while feeling a sense of foreboding. They had been hunting in the mountains for a month or so, and had never encountered anything so eerie and strange.
Suddenly, Lu Zhiqiang glanced fearfully at the small wooden house behind him, and said in a strange, eerie voice, "Doesn't anyone else think this wooden house is weird? I'm wondering why there's light inside."
The surrounding area was full of old graves, and there was also a mass burial area on the other side of the mountain valley. There were no hoofprints of Handahan on the ground, but there were quite a few footprints of Wong Tai Sin on the frozen soil and rocky beach, scattered in a neat and orderly manner, and there seemed to be a great many of them.
Song Desheng looked up and saw a shadow looming above his eyelids. He looked up and saw a fallen tree leaning over a meter off the ground, with a toy trapped there dead.
As he looked up, he came face to face with the inanimate object, which startled him so much that his scalp tingled and he jumped up.
"Depend on!"
A roe deer landed on the dark figure; it turned out to be a roe deer caught in a snare. The deer's upper body was hanging, while its lower body had been gnawed away. The teeth marks from the wild beasts looked exactly like those made by roe deer, weasels, and mountain dogs.
He jumped up suddenly, took two deep breaths to calm himself down, his heart pounding with fear. In order to avoid being seen and laughed at by Li Ju'an and Lu Zhiqiang, he quickly poked the fallen tree with a water willow stick to pry off the piece of wood that was stuck in the snare.
"What 'Great Immortal Huang'? It's just a roe deer that's been half-eaten. It's perfectly normal for the old work area to have multiple hunters. Do you think we'd be scared by a roe deer?"
Since he couldn't find moose, roe deer meat was still meat and edible. He decided that the venison hot pot for dinner that night would be made from the meat of this roe deer that had been half-eaten.
He muttered to himself for a while, and when he realized no one was responding, he found it very strange.
Logically, it was normal for Li Ju'an not to respond, as Li Ju'an never believed in such superstitious things. But it was unusual for Lu Zhiqiang not to respond. He turned his head and teased with a smile, "Lu Zhiqiang, are you scared out of your wits? You don't dare to utter a sound. Come over here and I'll show you something interesting."
He turned his head and was stunned. There was no one behind him.
Li Ju'an and Lu Zhiqiang, who were originally in the same place, were nowhere to be seen. Only he, an empty wooden house with a light on, old graves all over the ground, and messy Huang Daxian footprints remained.
Song Desheng felt a chill run down his spine, a fine, dense, and refreshing coldness. A chill also rose from the soles of his feet. The two chills combined, causing him to shudder violently, his scalp tingling as if an electric current had passed through him.
……
At this point, Li Ju'an wasn't in much better shape either.
He first heard Lu Zhiqiang about to walk alone to the cabin, then grabbed Lu Zhiqiang, fearing there might be other hunters inside. With so many traps around, anyone who dared to stay alone in the cabin and even turn on the light must be an experienced hunter, not an ordinary person.
Moreover, it's in the middle of nowhere, in the old work area's cemetery. Not to mention encountering eccentric people, even if you run into a strange person like the old production team leader who likes to keep lone wolves, you'd still have a lot to worry about. Who knows who might be in the wooden house?
Lu Zhiqiang, pulled back by him, sobered up a bit, patted his chest, and thought to himself: Thank goodness. Curiosity kills.
Li Ju'an then heard Song Desheng shout, "Damn it!"
Just as he was about to go over to check on Song Desheng, he suddenly heard a rustling sound behind him, and also heard the hunting dog whimpering very softly.