Chapter 107 Stray Dog's Surprise Attack 1 "A hand? This is a human hand!"...

The mountains in Yangquan County are extremely varied because it is located in the transition zone between the North China Plain and the Loess Plateau, with an elevation difference of more than 600 meters from east to west.

This wasn't clearly apparent on the map, but when Qiu Xiaoman reached the foot of the mountain and looked at the faint outline of the mountain range in the mist, she felt a sense of bewilderment at the unknown for the first time.

This sense of bewilderment, tinged with unease, made her slow her pace.

She had learned a poem: "I will climb to the top of the mountain and look down on all the smaller mountains."

But now, at the foot of the mountain, she only felt that the mountain range was tall and majestic, and that she, a mere human being, was insignificant.

This made her absolutely certain that the unknown hidden in the fog might very well take her life.

Although she had considered the possibility of sacrifice when she joined the company, life is so precious that one should never act recklessly.

She stopped Liu Xuezheng: "Brother Liu, the team leader mentioned in yesterday's meeting that outsiders who enter your mountains have no chance of getting out, so it's highly likely that some forest rangers have been bribed and are acting as informants for these robbers. But the local police have already checked all the forest rangers and found no suspicious signs. So I want to ask, besides the forest rangers, who else could play the same role?"

Liu Xuezheng pondered for a moment and said, "The older generation of hunters."

Qiu Xiaoman thought so too, and replied, "That's right. Now let's make the worst-case scenario: what if the robbers bribed or coerced an experienced hunter to lead them in a guerrilla war in the mountains? Would they then go back to the places you searched yesterday and play hide-and-seek?"

After all, we searched yesterday, and today we need to investigate other areas.

Liu Xuezheng fell silent. He squinted at the woman. From her eyes, he could tell that she wasn't afraid or scared, but she must have had some purpose in saying that before entering the mountain path.

Should I warn him to be careful? Or advise him to explore another mountainous area? Or perhaps...?

While Liu Xuezheng was deep in thought, Wu Shirong spoke up: "Then let's not go. If we happen to run into him, Xiao Qiu will be in danger."

Qiu Xiaoman was both amused and exasperated. She hadn't said she wouldn't go. She pointed to the three dogs on the ground and said, "What I mean is, let the three of them go in and take a look around first. In order to give them the energy to work, you two need to arrange for one of you to go to the morning market to buy some meat and bones."

Liu Xuezheng suddenly realized that she wanted to send an advance team in, which was equivalent to sending out sentries to scout ahead before the main force went into battle.

You know what, even though this woman didn't attend any military or police academies, she's quite intelligent when it comes to handling things.

He couldn't help but give a thumbs up, saying that once this mission was over, he would definitely recommend this female comrade to his company commander to train military dogs.

The dog can learn not only the usual skills of obeying commands by following her, but it might even learn some military strategy.

Okay, he'll take care of this task, so he immediately turned around and said, "I'll go buy it."

Unexpectedly, Wu Shirong stopped him, saying, "I'll go. You're very skilled in martial arts; it'll be safer for you to stay here."

That's true. So Liu Xuezheng stayed. Soon Wu Shirong arrived with the cut meat and bones, one piece for each of the three dogs, and the rest were wrapped in a scarf and kept hidden until the task was completed.

Qiu Xiaoman squatted down to feed the dogs and suggested, "You two can pick any dog ​​and name it, I'll take care of the rest."

“That’s right, we can’t all call them dogs.” Liu Xuezheng took the lead and chose the most majestic and imposing big black dog. “His name is Black Hole.”

Pfft, Qiu Xiaoman almost burst out laughing: "Black hole? Brother Liu likes to explore the universe, huh?"

"Of course! I can even make telescopes by hand. Do you want one? I'll make one for you later." Liu Xuezheng was trying to get closer to Qiu Xiaoman, so he simply showed off his special skill.

Qiu Xiaoman was genuinely surprised. She smiled and asked for confirmation, "Really? You're not kidding me, are you?"

"Of course not. But let me state upfront that the precision of hand-printed images is not high, and the magnification is also relatively low, but it's still more than enough to see things like Sirius." Liu Xuezheng modestly stated.

Qiu Xiaoman laughed: "Okay, you rub it, I want one. How much?"

"Get lost, all you care about is money, you don't care about money at all." Liu Xuezheng rolled his eyes.

Wu Shirong, who was standing to the side, was amused. He pointed to the smallest and most delicate black and white dog and said, "This one looks quite casual, so let's call her Xiao Tuo, Tuo as in carefree."

Haha, Qiu Xiaoman has no objection. This dog does have a very peculiar appearance. It was originally a pretty female dog, but unfortunately the color blocks on its body are too comical, making it look like a dog pieced together from various sources.

So she pointed to the last white dog with its ears perked up and said, "Let's call her Rabbit, she's really cute."

The two men simultaneously cast disdainful glances at them.

You call a dog a rabbit?

Where is your logic?

Qiu Xiaoman shrugged indifferently: "Feed it to the dogs."

Well, the two men reluctantly compromised.

Qiu Xiaoman ignored their gazes and carefully instructed the three dogs on their task: search the mountain, run away if they saw anyone, and retrieve any items that humans had walked through or used.

But how long will it take to search inside? The dogs don't know how to keep track of time.

Moreover, the fog hasn't lifted yet, so even if they could get help from the birds, they wouldn't be able to see the dogs on the ground from the air.

Qiu Xiaoman could only ask them if they had a concept of time: "Can you tell the time from the sun?"

Black Hole barked, Little Tuo huffed and puffed, its eyes still fixed on the meat in Wu Shirong's hand, while Rabbit simply spun around in place, as if to say it was a piece of cake.

Qiu Xiaoman was relieved and made an agreement with them: "If you don't run into anyone, turn back when the sun comes up, and I'll wait for you here."

Black Hole immediately took off running into the mountains. Being big was no joke; one step from Black Hole was equivalent to two or three steps from Little Rabbit. Rabbit hopped along after him, while Little Rabbit walked slowly, looking back every few steps.

I'm craving it.

Qiu Xiaoman, wanting to be a good person to the end, took another piece of meat from Wu Shirong and stuffed it into Xiao Tuo's mouth. The guy was finally satisfied, and after eating heartily, he also dashed into the mountains and disappeared in a flash.

The three humans had no choice but to find a secluded spot at the crossroads and hide there, squatting down by the mountain path and chatting idly.

Liu Xuezheng started the conversation: "Xiao Qiu, is this skill something you were born with?"

“Hmm.” Qiu Xiaoman nodded. “Brother Liu wants to learn? You’re not the first person to want to learn from me, but I can only teach you some easily identifiable body movements or some emotionally expressive cries.”

"It's useless for me to learn this. I'm just curious. Can you teach other people?"

"I'm not sure. Teaching the basics should be fine, but anything too advanced might be a bit difficult."

"How deep is considered deep?"

"Combining body language and emotions to judge what the dog is trying to express is called the basics; directly understanding the dog's language is called advanced."

"Okay, never mind."

Qiu Xiaoman smiled helplessly: "Brother Liu is very interested in dog training?"

"No, I was just asking out of curiosity." Liu Xuezheng wanted to keep it to himself for a while longer, since he hadn't told his company commander yet, so he could only give a perfunctory answer to Qiu Xiaoman's question.

Wu Shirong chuckled when he saw him tugging at his collar and adjusting his cuffs. This guy wasn't good at lying; he was feeling guilty.

He quickly changed the subject: "How are my comic strips? Do you like them?"

Qiu Xiaoman turned to look at Wu Shirong on her right and smiled, "Very interesting, is there anything else?"

"Yes, I'll get it for you when we get back." Wu Shirong and Liu Xuezheng exchanged a glance, understanding each other perfectly.

Qiu Xiaoman squatted in the middle, unaware of the two exchanging glances and playing some kind of trick. She was just curious: "How did you draw that? It's amazing. I can only draw a few circles and lines at most, and then it looks like a mess."

"Is it probably innate?" Wu Shirong didn't know how to explain that state. In short, when he put pen to paper, the idea was already in his mind, and it flowed naturally onto the page. He had never deliberately learned or practiced it, so saying that it was innate shouldn't be an exaggeration.

Qiu Xiaoman didn't doubt this statement; she just couldn't imagine the world of painters. Could it be that their hands were human printers, where what they saw was what they got?

That's amazing.

Forget it, if I can't imagine it, I won't think about it anymore. She turned to Liu Xuezheng and asked, "Brother Liu, did you often go into the mountains when you were a child?"

Liu Xuezheng seemed to recall some unpleasant past events, and frowned, saying, "Yes, and then I got beaten up every day."

Qiu Xiaoman asked curiously, "Why? Your parents won't allow it?"

Liu Xuezheng remained expressionless: "The neighbor's child fell to his death while hiking in the mountains."

Okay, Brother Liu, you've killed the conversation.

Qiu Xiaoman chose to keep quiet.

After waiting a while, Xiao Tuo actually came back. The little girl was carrying a muddy canvas shoe in her mouth. She ran excitedly to Qiu Xiaoman, put down the shoe, and squatted down on the ground like a lady, tilting her head to look at Qiu Xiaoman: "Where's my meat?"

Qiu Xiaoman was overjoyed: "Wow, Xiao Tuo, you've already made some progress? Did you see anyone?"

Xiao Tuo shook his head: "Give me some meat quickly, this can be considered a clue, right? I'm not full, give me another piece of meat."

Qiu Xiaoman quickly fed him a piece of meat.

After Xiao Tuo finished wolfing down his food, he said, "I didn't see anyone, but we should be able to find something else by following that scent. Wait for me, I'll be right back."

After saying that, Xiao Tuo disappeared into the mountains again.

That dog is as fast as the wind.

A dozen minutes later, Black Hole returned, carrying half a trouser leg in his mouth, stained with blood. The entire trouser leg, along with the bloodstains, was frozen solid; only the part Black Hole was holding was soft and wet.

Qiu Xiaoman asked curiously, "Did you lick the ice off?"

"I peed on it." The black hole looked at Qiu Xiaoman seriously. "Human, don't you know this is the fastest and most effective way?"

...I know, but...no wonder he's a stray dog; great things don't come from trifles.

Qiu Xiaoman quickly fed him meat and bones: "Eat up, it's been kept warm in my arms, so it's not cold."

The black hole grinned: "Ice is fine too. We eat anything from the trash can, we're used to ice, we have iron stomachs."

"Those that aren't iron are all dead." The rabbit hopped back, carrying something in her mouth. It wasn't noticeable from a distance, but when she got closer and placed it in front of Qiu Xiaoman, all three humans present were startled.

"A hand? This is a human hand!"