An hour later, the group finally descended the mountain.
The three people who remained at the foot of the mountain saw Captain Qi leading a disheveled Li Gangtie and a group of guards, and they quickly went to help.
"My goodness, Captain Li, you've got a great haul! So much stuff!"
"I was just unlucky and ran into a wolf."
Upon hearing this, Li Gangtie glared at him and said, "What nonsense are you spouting? If I had bad luck, would I have been able to hunt so many prey? What's wrong with wolves? Can't we eat them?"
"Hehe, I was just joking. You have no idea how worried Yuan Enli was that you guys were not coming back for so long."
"Yes, yes, Lao Yuan almost went up the mountain to look for you. We were worried about him and held him back until Captain Qi came down the mountain before we asked him for help."
Li Gangtie immediately straightened up and thanked Yuan Enli: "Thank you so much, Yuan! If it weren't for you asking Captain Qi for help, we would have been devoured by wolves."
Yuan Enli smiled shyly and quickly helped Captain Li up: "Please don't say that. If you hadn't let me go down the mountain first, I'm afraid I would have had to fight those hungry wolves. My skills aren't good enough, and I might have died before Captain Qi could come to my aid. From this perspective, I should thank you."
Before Li Gangtie could say anything more, Qi Xili slapped him on the forehead: "What, don't you deserve a thank you for all my hard work? You haven't said a single polite word the whole way here!"
Li Gangtie stared wide-eyed, completely dumbfounded, never expecting Qi Xili to take credit for it.
He quickly grabbed the other man's arm and said obsequiously, "Not at all! Without your help, I, Li Gangtie, would have become nothing but scrap metal. I was just thinking of treating you to a nice meal when we get back. You and Xiao Lin absolutely have to come!"
Qi Xili smiled with satisfaction, but still waved his hand: "Alright, you should go back and take good care of your injury. Once you're fully recovered, you can intensify your training."
"Alright!" Li Gangtie released Qi Xili's arm and said seriously, "Old Qi, thank you!"
"Hmm." Qi Xili patted the other person's shoulder and said with a smile, "Alright, alright, don't be so dull, let's quickly count our spoils!"
Chang Anhui quickly started counting, and a few minutes later he said happily, "Boss, we caught a total of twenty-three rabbits, eighteen snakes, seven pheasants, two sparrows, one wild boar, two sheep, one deer, one hundred and thirty-two fish, plus thirty-five wolves."
My goodness, this harvest is enough to feed us until this time next year!
Li Gangtie nodded and said to everyone with a serious expression, "We agreed before we came that the results would be split equally between the two teams. Although our team got more, without Captain Qi and the others' help, we would have been eaten by wolves. So please don't have any objections to sharing the spoils with them."
Previously, when the two teams were evenly matched, he hadn't said anything. But today, their team outnumbered the others by dozens of times, and he was worried that someone might be petty.
The team members laughed and said, "It's okay, it's okay. Captain Qi is our savior. We can give him everything."
Li Gangtie smiled with satisfaction and looked at Qi Xili. Qi Xili nodded without any hesitation: "Just do as we agreed at the beginning."
"Hmm, we still need to divide half of it among the team." Li Gangtie thought for a moment and asked everyone, "How about we hand over the wolf and the snake, and divide the rest equally?"
"Sure! I'm actually a little afraid of snakes."
"Yes, the wolf is also quite thin."
"But Captain, could we ask for a wolf pelt? It's so cold in winter, a wolf pelt would make things much better."
Qi Xili noticed that most of the wolf pelts were still intact, so he nodded in agreement: "I'll go and negotiate with the Wen Alliance official. We should be able to each get one."
"Okay, thank you very much, Captain Qi."
Once the group agreed, they loaded the game onto the horse-drawn sleds. Because there was too much game for all the people to fit, three sleds were used to transport the game, and the remaining sled was used by the group to take turns resting.
Of course, the injured should be given priority.
Shen Yanming was thus pushed onto the horse-drawn sled by the friendly guards, and then swayed and staggered toward the guard team.
At first, he was in high spirits and gently comforted Bi Qiaoan in the space: "I'm fine, I just suffered some minor injuries. With the space here, I won't die."
Bi Qiaoan couldn't bear to scold him, after all, no one had expected this. She just nodded: "Okay, we won't participate in such dangerous activities in the future."
Shen Yanming smiled but didn't say anything. He thought to himself that even if he didn't want to go, Li Gangtie wouldn't abandon him because they had shared life and death together. However, he didn't say it aloud so his wife wouldn't worry.
The two chatted casually, and then Shen Yanming's eyelids grew increasingly sleepy until, after more than ten minutes, he fell asleep leaning against the sled.
In other words, everyone walked on the way back, and the horse-drawn sled was moving very slowly, which is why he wasn't thrown off.
Qi Xili, who was standing nearby, saw this and tucked the tattered quilt into his clothes. The others were also yawning as they walked in the cold night.
The snow on the road was deep, making travel extremely difficult. The group walked for three or four hours, until they were completely exhausted, before finally stopping to rest.
The sled suddenly stopped, and Shen Yanming tumbled forward, jolting awake.
He opened his eyes in confusion, looking at the dark surroundings, not knowing where he was.
"I fell asleep!" Shen Yanming's throat was a little dry. He rubbed his temples, feeling a bit of a headache. "Where did we end up? What time is it?"
"I don't know where this is, but we've walked about halfway. It should take another three or four hours to get back," Li Gangtie said.
Shen Yanming felt his hands and feet were a bit stiff. He struggled for a long time before he could lift his arm and gently pinch his arm with his fingers, which were not fully extended. After he warmed up, he massaged his legs and feet.
He then got off the bus and said to everyone, "Sorry, I didn't expect to fall asleep."
"It's alright. You haven't participated in a hunt before, so it's normal that your stamina isn't up to par." Everyone waved their hands dismissively.
Shen Yanming squatted beside the newly lit fire, warming his hands with it. Once he felt warm, he opened his backpack, took out his thermos, and drank two sips of ginger tea made with spiritual spring water.
It tasted good, but it was a bit cold, and there was only the bottom left.
Now there was no way to share it with others, but after drinking it myself, my body warmed up quickly.
Bi Qiaoan prepared a lot of steamed buns for him, and after distributing them during the day, there were still five or six left.
He ate two himself, gave one to Ji Kangyong, and Qi Xili finished the rest.
He praised the filling of the buns again, then chewed on two slices of ginger before patting his slightly full stomach and saying with a smile, "Let's go, it's time to set off. Let's hurry, we can get back to the guard team by dawn."
Shen Yanming nodded and packed his things. Chang Anhui extinguished the fire with snow, put the remaining firewood on the cart, and then the group continued on their way.
This time, Shen Yanming didn't ride the sled; he felt dizzy and needed to move around.
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