Chapter 17 Deep in the Mountains
Qin Yao got up before dawn.
She boiled a full pot of water in a bamboo tube and cooked ten taro as big as children's fists. She put these two things in a bag woven with straw ropes and began to prepare her travel.
He poured out more than half of the salt in the jar and put it into a small bamboo tube, and put the flint in his pocket to carry with him.
He rolled up a ten-meter-long bundle of straw ropes and tied it to his side, carried the bow and arrow on his back, wrapped the handle of the dagger with rags again, held the knife in one hand and carried water and food in the other, and put out the fire in the stove.
Everything was ready. As the sky began to turn pale, we headed towards the mountains in the north.
As soon as she left, the door to the side room opened gently.
Dalang and Erlang held their younger brother and sister's hands and watched the gray figure gradually walking away in the thick morning mist. They wanted to chase it but forced themselves to hold back.
The stepmother told them last night that she was going to the mountains to hunt, which would take at least three to five days, or at most seven to eight days. She told them to take good care of themselves at home, and that they would have meat to eat when she came back.
Sanlang and Si Niang were still young, and when they heard that there was meat to eat, they were just happy and didn't think about anything else.
However, Dalang already knew some things. Hunting is not something that ordinary people can do. The mountains are deep and dense, and they are full of ferocious wild beasts. Every winter, the villagers dare not let their children go out because the hungry wild beasts will come down the mountain to eat people.
They really do eat people. Last winter, a family who lived in a remote area of the village lost their daughter to a wolf. When she was found, only a few broken bones were found.
During the brief time they had spent together, Dalang only vaguely knew that his stepmother was stronger than an ordinary person, acted decisively and was very imposing.
But he also didn't know whether his stepmother could handle it if she encountered a ferocious beast.
In fact, compared to this, Dalang has a darker idea in his mind.
He always felt that his stepmother was looking for a reason to abandon these four burdens and leave alone.
But seeing the expectant looks in Erlang, Sanlang and Si Niang's eyes, he couldn't bear to say this guess.
Maybe he was overthinking it.
Because of Qin Yao's instructions, Liu Bo and Liu Zhong dragged the reluctant Liu Fei to the third brother's house at dawn, took the remaining wheat seeds, and went to the fields with hoes.
At the same time, Qin Yao had entered the outskirts of Beishan.
She first found a sunny place, sat down, drank some water and ate something, rested for a while, and then walked towards the depths of the forest with all her strength.
Hunting is a matter of luck. If you are lucky, you will come back with a full load.
It's just bad luck, so it's not surprising to return empty-handed.
However, for professional hunters, finding traces of wild animals is a basic skill.
Few people come into this deep mountain. Occasionally, someone wants to hunt for some meat to satisfy their hunger, but they only go around the outer circle. There is no road deeper into the mountains, so Qin Yao had to carve out a path for it.
She did not hide her movements, her goal was clear, and she was looking for a stronghold.
Qin Yao felt like a fish in water after entering the mountains. The environment, which was similar to the mutated jungle in the apocalypse, allowed her to quickly enter the hunter state.
Birds and small animals in the forest ran past Qin Yao from time to time. Qin Yao put the knife on his waist and took out the bow and arrow.
Once again, when a bird was startled and flew overhead, he put the arrow on the string and shot it into the sky! He
only heard a bird scream, and then a gray shadow struggled and fell from the bushes.
Qin Yao pushed aside the wild grass in front of her that was as tall as a person and hurried towards the direction of the fall. A gray bird with an arrow in its wing was struggling and wailing in the fallen leaves.
"I still need to practice my accuracy." Qin Yao pulled out the arrow with a little regret, picked up the fat gray bird that couldn't fly, tied its wings with a rope, put it around her waist and continued to move forward.
As she walked, she used the animals and birds she encountered to regain the familiar feel of her hands. By the evening, her body was covered with all kinds of half-dead animals.
There were pheasants, wild birds, baby squirrels, and a nest of rabbits.
This nest of rabbits was really an accident. She was originally chasing a squirrel running up a tree, but unexpectedly a rabbit head suddenly appeared on a small mound in front of her. Qin Yao saw that there was no reason to let go of this prey that had come to her door.
With lightning speed, she found several rabbit holes nearby, sealed them with stones, leaving only one exit, and burned a handful of wet fallen leaves. When the smoke was smoked, all seven rabbits in the nest ran out and were captured alive.
The rabbits in this litter are all quite big and you can tell they are from a family. The two big ones are chubby and the five little ones are also growing up very well, with shiny grey fur.
Qin Yao doesn't like eating rabbit meat, but she loves rabbit skin very much. She can make clothes, gloves and scarves from it to keep her warm in winter.
Because she had to carry this litter of rabbits, Qin Yao could only stop in a nearby sheltered valley.
The taro they brought had been eaten, and only one third of the water was left. A stream was seeping out from the rocky walls of the valley. Qin Yao used a stick that could be found everywhere in the woods to dig a small hole. After waiting for a while, the water accumulated and formed a small puddle.
It was already dark, so she built a fire and killed the bird, which was already exhausted from struggling, and roasted it for food.
Qin Yao had consumed a lot of energy today, and one bird was far from enough to replenish her energy, so she roasted the pheasant as well.
The roasted meat was covered with a layer of fat, and it was full of freshness and fragrance when you took a bite. Qin Yao, who hadn't eaten meat for a long time, ate it voraciously, and soon finished a bird and a pheasant.
After eating, Qin Yao added some firewood to the fire and took a rest. She wanted to conserve her energy.
The temperature difference between day and night in the mountains was large, so Qin Yao could only cover herself with dead leaves, which could both keep her warm and hide herself from being discovered by large beasts foraging in the middle of the night.
Fighting at night is full of disadvantages for humans who cannot see at night, so we should avoid it if possible.
It was not quiet in the deep mountains. The sounds of wild beasts could be heard from time to time, as if they were beside her, yet also as if they were far away. Qin Yao's body was instinctively very alert, and she would wake up from time to time.
In the middle of the night, it started to rain.
The fire was put out and a gust of cold wind blew over. Qin Yao shivered with cold and woke up instantly.
Seven live rabbits were tied together by their feet, and they became very anxious when it started to rain.
Fearing that they would attract large wild animals foraging for food, Qin Yao had no choice but to kill them all, breaking their necks directly to preserve their good fur to the maximum extent.
As for whether the meat tasted good or not, Qin Yao no longer cared.
After dealing with the rabbits, the rain got heavier and the valley could no longer block the rain.
Wild animals don't like to come out on rainy days, so Qin Yao left in the rain and continued looking for a cave.
Finally, when daybreak came, we found a natural cave hidden in the weeds.
Qin Yao was soaked all over, tired and sleepy, but she didn't dare to rest. She left the dead rabbit and sundries in the cave, and immediately came out to look for the broken branches hidden under the fallen leaves that were not so wet, and returned to the cave to light a fire.
With the fire, the temperature in her body, which had been rapidly decreasing, finally slowly warmed up. Qin Yao then had time to observe the cave she was in.
This is a naturally formed cave. The entrance is low and narrow, and you need to bend down to enter. It is very hidden. If I hadn't felt the wrong wind direction when I passed by, I would have almost missed it.
The space in the cave is not big, only about five or six square meters, but the height is good and there is barely enough space for standing.
And there is no animal feces here, which means this is not the home of some animal.
Apart from the small space, this is simply a perfect base. Qin Yao decided to live here for the next few days.
After drying her clothes and hair, Qin Yao covered up her traces at the cave entrance and took the time to catch up on her sleep in the cave.
(End of this chapter)