The tiger cub he was holding was only about a foot long, with soft yellow and black fur that had not yet been shed. Its open claws were not very sharp, but it was plump. It was held in Zhao Lin's hands, twisting and struggling, making sharp, thin sounds like a cat.

Such a small tiger cub, without its parents, would probably not survive the winter if it was just left in the cave.

Yin Chengyu thought for a moment and said, "Take it with you. Send it to Hucheng to be raised after we return to Beijing."

There is a tiger city in Wansui Mountain that specializes in raising tigers, so they are not afraid of having one more young tiger.

When he heard that he could stay, Zhao Lin immediately agreed happily. He put the tiger cub in his arms and took it on the road together.

…

On the fourth day of staying in the enclosure, Yin Chengyu and his party finally found the trace of the wolf king.

"The feces are half-dried by the wind. They must have been active in this area in the past two days." The hunter let the two hounds sniff and remember the scent, then let go of the ropes to let them identify the direction.

The hound sniffed for a while and then ran to the right.

Everyone immediately rode their horses to follow.

But just after finding a way, they bumped into another group of people coming from the side. After seeing the leader clearly, Yin Chengyu raised his eyebrows and bowed, saying, "We meet again, little prince."

Mubar obviously hadn't expected to run into them. Surprise flashed across his face, and then he showed a vigilant look. He greeted them very perfunctorily: "Your Highness the Crown Prince." He still remembered the previous grudge, so his words were a little sinister: "The enclosure is so big, but Your Highness the Crown Prince ran into us twice in a row. I don't know if it was fate or if it was intentional."

Yin Chengyu pretended not to understand what he meant, and smiled gently and politely: "Sometimes fate comes, and it cannot be stopped."

Mubal was disgusted by him. He also thought that he had just found the clues of the wolf king and met Yin Chengyu. How could it be such a coincidence? I am afraid that fate is fake, and someone is following him.

With the experience of Ma Lu, he looked at Yin Chengyu with more serious eyes, and said with a false smile: "Since we are destined to meet, I will not compete with His Royal Highness the Crown Prince." He raised his hand to signal the subordinates behind him to make way: "Your Royal Highness, please."

Seeing this, Yin Chengyu did not refuse and led his men through the path he had vacated.

After walking a long way, I heard the faint sound of horse hooves behind me. It was Mubar and his group heading in another direction.

"Mubar must have discovered something and is afraid that we will snatch it from him." Yin Chengyu recalled Mubar's behavior just now, turned to He Shan and Ying Hongxue, and said, "Take a few good guys with you and follow them secretly to investigate."

If it weren't for this, with Mubal's temper, he would never be so polite to give way if they intercepted him. It seemed that he was in a hurry to find something and didn't want to conflict with them and let them find out something unusual.

"Yes." He Shan and Ying Hongxue led a few people and followed the trail of Mubar and his group.

Yin Chengyu and his group continued to follow the hunting dogs to search for the wolf king.

In the distant woods, a black shadow flashed by quickly and ran in the opposite direction. After a moment, the black shadow stopped in front of a cave, picked up a piece of rubble, and knocked on the stone wall a few times in a rhythmic manner. After waiting for a while, the people in the cave came out. It was Princess Wuzhu and Yin Chengjing.

"What's the situation?" Yin Chengjing asked.

"Everything happened as the Third Prince had expected. The little prince of Wala and the crown prince bumped into each other at a fork in the road. The little prince was anxious to find clues about the wolf king, and the crown prince saw through it. He secretly sent He Shan to lead people to follow him."

Yin Chengjing smiled faintly upon hearing this: "Very good. Go ahead and keep watching."

Princess Wuzhu had some doubts about this plan before, but now that it was going so smoothly, she had a slightly better opinion of the Third Prince: "We have already lured away one, how are we going to lure away the other one?"

It is true that the Wolf King was active in this area, but the clues are all false.

The eunuch who released the wolf king was a man of Gao Xian, the eunuch in charge of the Imperial Household Department. Yin Chengjing had been secretly communicating with Gao Xian. As early as the first day of the competition, Yin Chengjing knew the location of the wolf king. They searched all the way and finally captured the wolf king alive the day before yesterday. They used the wolf king's fur and feces to create various clues to lure Yin Chengyu into the game.

Now that one of the three brave generals around the prince has been killed, all they need to do is lure Zhao Lin away. Then they can start the fight.

"Don't worry, the second hook has been buried and is waiting for them in front." Yin Chengjing put his hands behind his back and silently calculated the time and distance.

By now, it should be discovered soon.

The hound ran five or six miles before it stopped, sniffed for a while under a tree, and then dug with its claws.

The hunter went forward and turned over the weeds and dead leaves, and saw that the snow around the roots of the trees had melted, and there was a slight smell of fish in the air.

"It's wolf urine." The hunter stood up and looked around excitedly: "The smell hasn't spread yet, it should still be fresh, it hasn't been long."

It is possible that the Wolf King had been active in this area not long ago, or even had just left before they arrived.

"Can you tell which direction he went?" Yin Chengyu ordered his men to dismount and look for clues everywhere.

The hunter took two hunting dogs to sniff around and determine the location.

After a while, the hunter said uncertainly: "The hounds can't be sure either. Maybe this area is full of the smell of the wolf king, and it's hard to distinguish clearly."

Yin Chengyu was about to order people to expand the search area in all directions when his eyes suddenly fell on the messy footprints on the ground.

These footprints...

His brows wrinkled a little bit, and he stared at the messy footprints for a long time, then looked intently at the tree roots that had just been dug up, and even took a few quick steps to check carefully in all directions.

After a moment, he gathered all his emotions, looked at Xue Shu and said, "Take your men to search for the Wolf King."

Xue Shu was stunned for a moment, then exchanged glances with him, immediately understood what he meant, and led a dozen men to mount their horses: "I obey your command."

After Xue Shu and his party left, Yin Chengyu looked at the sky and said, "It looks like it's going to snow again. It's getting late, so let's find a place to set up camp and wait for He Shan and Xue Shu to come back."

Zhao Lin, who stayed behind, took his men to find a suitable place to set up camp.

It gets dark early in winter, and by the time we set up camp, it was already dark.

The camp was set up a mile away from where the Wolf King's traces were found. The soldiers outside were preparing dinner. Yin Chengyu sat in the tent, adding firewood to the brazier out of boredom, waiting for Xue Shu to come.

Zhao Lin temporarily placed the tiger cub in Yin Chengyu's tent. It had become familiar with Yin Chengyu's scent in the past two days. When Zhao Lin was not around and no one was watching it, it would circle around Yin Chengyu's feet, eagerly stretching out its claws to grab the sparks from the brazier.

Several times I almost fell into the brazier and had my fur scratched by the flames.

Yin Chengyu held it by the scruff of its neck and put it away from the fire basin. But it thought Yin Chengyu was playing with it, and immediately swung its tail to hit Yin Chengyu's hand.

The tiger cub had not yet grown its teeth, so the bite did not hurt. Yin Chengyu pushed it away with disdain, took out a handkerchief to wipe his hands, and then thought of someone who also liked to bite his fingers.

Yin Chengyu knocked on the brazier with the dry branch in his hand and looked outside. It was already completely dark at this time, and he thought that Xue Shu should be coming.

As he was muttering to himself, he heard a rustling sound coming from the side of the tent.

Yin Chengyu glanced to the side and saw Xue Shu coming in from the gap in the corner of the tent and tying the rope at the corner of the tent again.

"No one discovered it, right?" Yin Chengyu asked.

"It's already dark outside. I came in from the dark at the back, so the people following me couldn't see me." Xue Shu tied the corner of the tent again, sat down opposite him, and waited for Yin Chengyu's instructions.

Previously, when Yin Chengyu ordered him to take people to look for the Wolf King, he understood Yin Chengyu's hint and ostensibly led people to look for the Wolf King everywhere. However, he actually turned back secretly halfway after making sure that no one was following them and quietly came to see Yin Chengyu.

"Your Highness, did you find anything?"

"There's something wrong with that wolf urine." Yin Chengyu said.

Xue Shu recalled for a moment, frowning, "There are no claw marks around?"

Everyone focused on the fresh wolf urine they found, but ignored the claw marks on the ground. Since the urine was fresh, there should be claw marks of the wolf king in the snow and mud.

But apart from some messy traces and their footprints and horse hoof prints, there were no clear wolf paw prints found around, which was not reasonable.

Yin Chengyu nodded: "And since we were selected, we have never met Princess Wuzhu and Yin Chengjing once."

Although the enclosure was large, it was not infinite. With so many teams staying in the enclosure for four days, they had to encounter each other when searching for the beasts. In addition to Mubar, they had also encountered teams led by the sons of other noble generals. Only Princess Wuzhu and Yin Chengjing seemed to have disappeared, and they had never met them once.

But they couldn't disappear in this enclosure. It was more likely that they were deliberately avoiding him.

As for the reason for avoiding it, it is very intriguing.

"Did Yin Chengjing form an alliance with the Tatars?" Xue Shu asked.

"It's quite possible." Yin Chengyu pinched the tiger cub's furry tail unconsciously, thinking: "If I were them, I would never miss such a good opportunity to hunt them down."

"But fighting in the paddock is too easy to leave traces."

"They don't have to do it themselves." Yin Chengyu pointed at the tiger cub that was chasing its tail and circling around: "Sometimes, wild animals are more dangerous than humans."

Xue Shu followed his train of thought and soon figured it out: "A solitary beast like a tiger is nothing to be afraid of, but I heard that there were prairie wolves in this enclosure."

Prairie wolves are fierce and live in groups. Especially in winter, when wolves have little food, they will be even more ferocious when hungry. If you encounter a hungry wolf pack, it will be difficult to deal with it without any precautions.

"If my guess is correct, they will most likely take action tonight."

The hunting lasts only five days. After today, there will be no such good opportunity again.

Xue Shu frowned, his eyes revealing a hint of anger: "I will bring people to guard tonight."

Yin Chengyu shook his head and said, "Go look for He Shan and Ying Hongxue. Once you find them, you don't have to show up immediately. Ambush them in the rear. As for the defense of the camp, I will leave it to Zhao Lin."

When Xue Shu heard that he was to be asked to leave at this time, he was unhappy. But before he could say anything to object, Yin Chengyu asked back, "You don't believe me?"

"Of course I believe it." Xue Shu looked at him, speaking word by word with reluctance.

Yin Chengyu smiled, leaned over and stroked the back of his neck, the same action as when he stroked the tiger cub just now: "Then do as I say."

His decision could not be changed, so Xue Shu had no choice but to follow his orders.

Just as he was about to leave, he caught a glimpse of the tiger cub still circling around Yin Chengyu's feet and trying to climb onto his lap. He frowned, lifted it up by the scruff of its neck, and said, "This tiger cub is annoying. I'll take it back to Zhao Lin."

The author has something to say:

Big Dog Gou: Your Highness can only support me.

Little Brain Axe: Meow?