The rice was cooked, and Baoyu cut down a large, thick bamboo pole and whittled a rice spoon, chopsticks, and several bamboo bowls.
Zhou Chenyu put the salted fish rice into a bamboo tube bowl, washed the pot, cracked two eggs he brought from home into it, and fried two poached eggs to share.
After cooking, it got dark, so they covered the oil lamp with a shade and ate outside.
The rocky mountain is high up, and the forest cabins are not shaded by large trees, so a dazzling sky seems within reach.
Zhou Chenyu gazed at the night sky for a while, then took a bite of a poached egg. The yolk overflowed from his mouth, and he swung his leg contentedly. Sometimes, when people are extremely hungry, even simple food becomes a delicacy.
She nudged Baoyu beside her with her elbow, "Hey, what are your plans for tomorrow?"
In just a short while, most of the rice in Baoyu's bowl was gone. "Sister, what do you think?"
Zhou Chenyu looked at the afterimages of the trees outside the stone wall and said, "This is my first time hunting in the deep mountains. You've been here with Dad a few times before, so you have more experience than me. I'll leave everything to you."
Should we listen to him completely?
There were only himself and his sister in this desolate mountain forest. In the past, he had always hidden under his sister's wings, but now that things had come to this, how could he rely on his sister again?
Baoyu ate a couple more mouthfuls of rice, his youthful gaze becoming somewhat calmer. "Sister, how about this? Tomorrow we'll split up. I'll go hunting in the back mountains, and you can stay near the cabin."
Since Zhou Chenyu was new to this place and had no hunting experience, following Baoyu to further places would only make her a burden. It would be better for her to stay around the cabin for now and make other plans once she got the hang of it.
She nodded. "Okay, let's do it this way."
After dinner, they simply wiped themselves down with cold water, locked all the doors, and went back to their cabin to lie down.
The cabin and the main room were separated by only a few planks. Zhou Chenyu slept on the bed, while Baoyu laid out a straw mat in the main room, covered it with quilts, and soon fell asleep after a whole day of hiking.
Listening to the soft snoring coming from outside the partition, Zhou Chenyu felt heavy-hearted but couldn't fall asleep at all. Recalling the few nights she slept at the Tang residence last time, she muttered, "Could it be that I'm not used to sleeping in a new bed?"
She turned over, stared at the moonlight on the floor for a while, and gradually became sleepy. Just as she was about to close her eyes, Huangdou outside the courtyard let out two loud cries.
Someone's there?!
Zhou Chenyu opened her eyes warily and immediately sat up in bed.
The shortest route out from here takes a whole day to walk, and there's hardly anyone in this desolate wilderness.
animal?
If it were an animal, that would be fine...
What if they were thugs and bandits hiding deep in the mountains? How could she and Baoyu possibly be a match for them?
Zhou Chenyu couldn't sit still any longer. She deftly threw off the covers, got up, took out a small knife from under her luggage, quietly walked to the partition, and pushed Baoyu twice.
Baoyu, fast asleep, showed no reaction whatsoever. He even turned over and pursed his lips, oblivious to what sweet dreams he was having.
Otherwise, fearing the noise would be too loud, Zhou Chenyu really wanted to kick him awake.
After a brief silence, the barking resumed. She peered through the gap in the partition, staring intently at the door. It was as if a heavy object had suddenly slammed onto the wooden plank outside the door, abruptly stopping the barking. For a moment, all seemed to fall silent, leaving only her rapid breathing.
Zhou Chenyu gripped the knife tightly, her palms sweating. Just as she was about to wake Baoyu, a sharp meow from outside faded into the distance. It must have been chased away by Huangdou. After the cat left, the courtyard became completely quiet.
It was a false alarm; her legs went weak and she collapsed to the ground. "It was just a cat..."
Last night, after being disturbed by the stray cat, Zhou Chenyu had to keep the knife strapped to his body and never let it out of his sight before he could finally fall asleep intermittently.
Stone Mountain is located to the east where the sun rises. It gets light very early, and as the faint sunlight falls, early birds chirp and twitter as they go to eat insects.
Yesterday, they had agreed to split up, so after breakfast, Baoyu stuffed two rice balls into his mouth, grabbed a shovel and a crossbow, and ventured alone into the deeper part of the rocky mountain.
When hunting in the rocky mountains, they use only three methods.
The first method involves digging a large pit around the animal's activity area, placing food inside, and luring the prey to jump into the trap. Because digging the pit is troublesome, this method is mostly used for large prey, such as wild boar, wild deer, and wild goats.
The second method is to use a crossbow. When the prey is spotted nearby, the crossbow bolt is aimed at the prey and shot directly.
The last and also the most rudimentary method is to capture the prey alive by hand. This method requires a high level of physical fitness from the hunter, but the rewards are also substantial, as live-captured game sells for the best in the market.
Not long after Baoyu left, Zhou Chenyu took soybeans and a crossbow and went out.
The path they climbed from the boulder was sparsely covered with vegetation, except for the tenacious trees. There was no food for prey, nor any place to hide, and they found no prey worth catching along the way.
Zhou Chenyu avoided that location beforehand, observed for a while, and went directly to the mountain stream with abundant water. When he got nearby, there were several clumps of chicken or bird droppings on the grass. He slowed down and walked over, and sure enough, he saw four or five black-feathered, red-crested wild pheasants pecking at the decaying leaves.
"Soybean, shh, don't move."
She pressed down on Huangdou's head. Huangdou, like a natural-born hunting dog, understood her words. With its tongue hanging out and tail wagging, it obediently lay down on the ground, its eyes fixed on the wild pheasant.
"Good boy." Zhou Chenyu smiled, drew the crossbow from his back, tightened the bowstring, squinted, and aimed at the belly of one of the pheasants. "I've come all this way, you have to give me a good start!"
After saying that, Zhou Chenyu let go, and the crossbow bolt, as swift as the wind, shot through the grass and landed a few centimeters from the chicken's rear end. The flock of wild pheasants were so frightened by the sudden crossbow bolt that they flew several meters away.
"Don't run away!"
Before Zhou Chenyu could retract the crossbow bolt he had fired, he tightened the bowstring, and, with Huang Dou in tow, secretly followed behind the flock of wild pheasants like a thief.
Having experienced danger once, the pheasant became more vigilant. Even the slightest sound of her stepping on a dry branch could make her immediately move to another location.
In his panic, Zhou Chenyu fired two more crossbow bolts, but in his haste, he didn't even manage to touch a single chicken feather. He had been busy all morning but hadn't gained anything.
In the past, Zhou Chenyu could quickly learn whatever she was asked to do, but this time, her attempt failed, making her start to doubt whether she was suited to be a hunter.
"They say everyone has their own specialty. Since I'm not cut out for hunting, I might as well go fishing in the river. I can weave a net, cast it into the river, and shoot some prey in between. Wouldn't that be better? Soybean, what do you think?"
Huangdou followed her gaze and barked twice in response. With Huangdou's support, Zhou Chenyu smiled, picked up the crossbow bolt she had fired, and said, "That's it!"
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