The cold winter night didn't allow anyone to sleep for long. Before dawn, Qi Xili woke up.
Shen Yanming had been chatting with Bi Qiaoan late into the night, so he was still half asleep and hadn't noticed that many people around him had already gotten up. He lay in his sleeping bag, and no one woke him up.
The ice hole they made on the river yesterday had frozen over. But it wasn't thick, and it opened easily with a little poking. The group pulled out the nets that had been soaking in the water for half the night and found that there were hundreds of fish weighing two or three pounds each inside, more than they had caught the whole day yesterday.
"It seems this river has quite a bit of potential!" Qi Xili said with a smile.
"But we can't salvage too much. Otherwise, we'll be completely lost when we come back next year," Li Gangtie added.
Qi Xili nodded: "I know! I'll send someone to check the mountains again later, and we'll head back to Yunling Mountain around this afternoon."
"become!"
After Li Gangtie finished speaking, the group set off. The rock-hard frozen fish was sent down the mountain immediately, and as dawn broke, the aroma of roasting fish wafted from the fire.
Shen Yanming opened his eyes and was momentarily blinded by the flickering flames. He looked at the energetic guards, somewhat bewildered.
"You're awake?" a guard asked with a smile.
Shen Yanming rubbed his sleepy eyes and nodded: "You guys got up early? Why didn't you wake me up?"
"There's no need. There are plenty of us, we can finish the work in no time. Even if you sleep a little longer, it won't make a difference."
Shen Yanming nodded, thinking to himself, "So I'm just a mascot, huh? And one with a not-so-strong aura at that."
He got up, packed his things, and without even washing up, rested in the tent for a while, ate a bite of food, and then went outside. The howling cold wind instantly refreshed him.
Shen Yanming felt a little embarrassed watching everyone busy. He took a stroll along the riverbank and his gaze fell upon the tree hollows. And sure enough, he noticed something different.
Although some of the tree holes were snake dens, it was still a find. What excited him most was finding two squirrel nests. The nests were full of plump pine nuts and hazelnuts.
"Quick, quick, there's something here!" he shouted excitedly.
Upon hearing this, Li Gangtie rushed over in a panic, and when he saw what was happening, his eyes began to gleam with greed.
Reaching in, I pulled out a handful of pine nuts. Not caring that they were squirrel food, I broke them open and popped them into my mouth.
"Oh my, I haven't eaten these things for years. Hurry, hurry, get them all out." Li Gangtie said, rummaging into the hole, stuffing the nuts he pulled out directly into his pocket, not leaving a single one behind.
Shen Yanming thought to himself, "If you catch them all, how will the squirrels survive?" But given the current situation, he could only take care of the people first.
After they finished cleaning one tree hole, they moved on to the next.
Shen Yanming couldn't bear it, so at the last moment of confirmation, he quietly put some nuts in.
There weren't many, just a dozen or so, but they were all rich in spiritual energy and quite large.
He was worried that the squirrels wouldn't have enough food, so he put in a handful of wheat kernels and a handful of corn kernels, thinking that's fine, whether they live or not, it's fate.
"Hey, Lao Qi, guess what Yanming found!" Li Gangtie ran back to the riverbank, patting his bulging pockets as he showed off his treasure.
"What?" Qi Xili asked with a smile.
Li Gangtie didn't keep them in suspense any longer. He took out some nuts from his pocket and waved them in front of Qi Xili: "Hey, crunchy, isn't this good stuff?"
"That's right!" Qi Xili didn't stand on ceremony with him, snatched it away, kept half for himself, and gave the other half to Qi Lin.
Li Gangtie glared at him, but said nothing, and happily went to share with everyone.
Shen Yanming, however, stood still and once again received Qi Xili's smile.
Comrade Shen is also quite helpless; it seems he's really had some good luck today.
Feeling uneasy being stared at, Shen Yanming greeted Qi Xili and left.
Although Qi Xili wanted to stop him, he didn't stop him because he thought about Shen Yanming's good luck.
"Don't go too far!" he said.
Shen Yanming nodded: "Understood!"
Shen Yanming walked towards a less crowded area nearby, and soon he saw a series of footprints on the ground.
He recognized those footprints; they belonged to a sika deer, and they looked like two separate leaves.
He wanted to call for help, but he felt that this place wasn't too remote and they should have already searched it, so he went there by himself.
He followed the footprints for about twenty minutes, but then noticed they were becoming more numerous and denser. Looking back, he realized he could no longer see anyone. A sense of panic washed over him, and he considered turning back.
But I was unwilling to give up. Since I was already here, I had to find out if there were any deer!
Shen Yanming glanced at the time. 10:15, still early. Since that's the case, let's keep going. We'll head back at 11:00.
He wasn't worried about his safety, after all, he had the space as a backup, which gave him confidence.
Following the footprints, Shen Yanming suddenly heard the sound of a small animal. Hmm, this sound is familiar; it sounds a lot like the deer's cry in the space.
Shen Yanming quickly hid behind a tree, peeking out to look ahead. With his exceptional eyesight, he could see a small herd of deer ahead, about seven or eight of them, some large and some small.
What should we do now? Should we do it ourselves, or go back and call for help?
If he were to take action, he might not be able to catch them alone. Using weapons would also easily cause trouble. But going back to get help is too far. And by the time he gets help, the herd of deer might have vanished.
After thinking it over, Shen Yanming decided he couldn't give up. He looked around and saw no one was there. But for safety's sake, he reached into his backpack and took out a crossbow, a dagger, a slingshot, and some sleeping pills.
He walked slowly and quietly, but before he even got close, he startled the fawns that were foraging for food. They took off running without even seeing anything clearly, leaving Shen Yanming completely dumbfounded.
He quickly stuffed the sleeping drug into his slingshot and fired. But the range was limited, and he didn't hit the deer at all. The last fawn exploded with its footsteps, but it was unclear whether it had even worked.
Shen Yanming immediately stopped chasing and fired his crossbow forward. His aim was decent, though of course, it couldn't compare to Qi Xili's and the others.
However, after a few arrows, he still managed to hit two deer. Seeing the blood flowing from their wounds, Shen Yanming felt extremely distressed.
The wounded deer didn't stop immediately; because the injury wasn't fatal, they continued running forward. Blood dripped down, staining the snow like plum blossoms.
Shen Yanming took off running, following the trail of blood, and when he saw the deer's shadow, he shot another arrow at it.
The two injured deer could no longer hold on and collapsed to the ground, closing their eyes in despair.
I thought that was it, but then, plop, plop, two more appeared.
Shen Yanming was stunned. He went over to take a look and found that the two deer were not injured. Looking at the scattered medicinal powder not far away, he understood everything.
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