"Brother Jianshan, I do remember, but we've been keeping watch for most of the night and haven't seen a trace of him. Could it be that the trap we set was wrong?"
Du Jianshan then turned his head and glanced at him, his eyes as steady as an old hunting dog.
"What's the rush? Old Wang guarded Heixiazi Gully for three days and three nights without moving an inch. When hunting in the mountains, if you get distracted, the stuff will run away."
Tie Niu grinned and rubbed his face, which was red from the cold.
“This isn’t the first time I’ve come into the old forest with you. Before, I would mostly wander around the outskirts of the mountains with my dad, catching pheasants and rabbits.”
“That’s not called ‘driving the mountains’,” Du Jianshan said in a low voice. “If you really want to make a living from the mountains, you have to go deep into the forest and endure the hardships.”
Not far away, Li Mancang leaned against a red pine tree, holding an old rifle, and whispered a few words.
“Jianshan is right. Tieniu, you have the same problem as Zhao Erlengzi back then. You are impatient and impetuous, and as a result, you were tricked by the weasel the first time.”
Upon hearing this, Tie Niu perked up.
"Brother Mancang, what happened to Zhao Erlengzi later?"
Li Mancang snorted.
"What else could I do? The snare was bitten through, half of my food rations were lost, and I was laughed at in the village for a whole year when I got back."
A few people chuckled softly, then quickly suppressed their laughter. In the mountains, they weren't afraid of the cold or the fatigue, but they were afraid of making loud noises.
Du Jianshan made a gesture with his hand.
"Keep quiet. The wind is blowing downhill; if anything comes this way, we'll be the first to smell it."
Tie Niu quickly shut his mouth, squatted back down, and stared intently at the trap covered by fallen leaves. One end of the rope was attached to a thick wooden stake, and the other end was hidden under the snow, with only a bit of hemp thread showing.
Time passed slowly, and the sky changed from inky black to deep blue. A faint sliver of gray-white appeared on the eastern mountain ridge.
Suddenly, the fallen leaves beside the trap twitched slightly.
Tie Niu's breath hitched, and he instinctively tried to get up.
"Don't move," Du Jianshan snapped at him.
Tie Niu stood frozen in place, sweat streaming down his forehead and nose. He gritted his teeth, his eyes stinging from staring.
The fallen leaves twitched again, this time more noticeably. A gray shadow peeked out from the bushes, its nose twitching incessantly.
Li Mancang squinted and whispered.
"It's a wolf cub, not very big."
Du Jianshan didn't speak, but slowly reached for the hunting knife at his waist.
The wolf cub circled the trap once, when suddenly one of its front paws slipped, the rope tightened sharply, and the stake shook.
"We've got it." Tie Niu couldn't help but exclaim in a low voice.
"Shut up," Du Jianshan muttered under his breath, and then dashed out.
The wolf cub panicked and struggled to run away, but the rope tightly bound its hind legs, causing it to fall to the ground with a low howl.
Li Mancang picked up his gun and hesitated for a moment.
"Jianshan, should we just let it collapse?"
"No need," Du Jianshan shook his head. "Keep them alive, with their skin intact."
He approached step by step, his footsteps barely making a sound on the snow. The wolf cub bared its teeth, its eyes filled with ferocity.
Tie Niu followed, his voice trembling.
"Brother Jianshan, will it bite?"
"Stand back a bit." Du Jianshan said without turning his head. "Remember, when you're chasing the mountains, you're probably the most useless thing."
After he finished speaking, he pounced forward, his hunting knife flashing coldly, and swiftly pressed down on the wolf cub's neck. After a few strokes, the wolf cub's struggles gradually weakened.
The mountains and forests fell silent again.
Tie Niu finally breathed a sigh of relief, his legs went weak, and he almost sat down on the ground.
"Brother Jianshan, that move you made just now was really swift."
Du Jianshan wiped his knife and said calmly.
"Don't let your hands shake, don't let your mind wander, the things in the mountains are afraid of you if you're steady."
Li Mancang walked over, squatted down, and took a look.
"This calf isn't very big, but its fur is quite nice. Let's take it back to Old Wang and he'll surely be able to exchange it for some grain coupons."
Tie Niu's eyes lit up.
"Then I'll go too, I might get a share."
"You'll get your share," Li Mancang laughed. "You're lucky to have bloodshed on your first trip into the mountains."
As dawn broke, sporadic bird calls echoed through the woods. Du Jianshan looked up at the sky.
"Make one last round before dawn and collect the other two traps. Today's trip won't be a waste."
Tie Niu nodded vigorously.
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