So this time, Sheng Xiping carried a clamp on his back, stepped onto his skis, and headed straight for his destination.
This year's snow is quite heavy. It's only December, and there have been several heavy snowfalls. The snow on the mountaintop is already up to Sheng Xiping's waist.
Without skis, the pressure of stepping on the snow is too great, and you'll fall straight into a snowdrift, which will be difficult to climb out of.
Sheng Xiping discovered sable tracks in a pine forest on the mountaintop. The tracks weren't the kind that appeared from a single run, but rather from numerous, closely spaced tracks left by someone who had clearly run back and forth countless times.
Animals in the mountains follow their own special patterns of movement; this is exactly what is meant by snakes having their own paths and rats having their own paths.
The sable is the same; it only takes routes that it deems safe, and if anything unusual happens along the way, it will not take that route again.
There were many sable footprints on this hillside. Sheng Xiping selected two or three places where the footprints were most concentrated, dug pits, buried traps, and then filled in the pits and marked them with something.
After setting up the traps in one place, he would get up and go to another. In the morning, Sheng Xiping went to four or five places and set up all the traps he had brought.
After setting the traps, don't rush to run them around. Just check on them every ten days or so.
Sable meat isn't tasty; all that matters is the pelt. So it doesn't matter if it's alive or dead, since the pelt won't spoil once it's frozen.
Sheng Xiping only wanted to do this one thing today; he didn't plan to hunt, so he didn't bring any food.
After wandering around the mountain all morning and having removed all the traps, I put on my skis, leaned on my ash cane, and slid down the mountain.
As I was sliding down, I suddenly saw two things running at a very fast speed on the snow in the distance, one in front of the other.
The one in front was smaller, grayish-brown in color, and had a round body; it didn't run very fast.
The one behind was much larger, with dark spots on its brownish-gray fur, and it ran very fast, almost catching up with the little one in front.
As a result, the little guy in front made a sharp turn and plunged into the cave under the loess embankment.
The guy behind him saw that the meat that was about to be eaten was about to escape, so he also crawled into the hole under the loess embankment.
Sheng Xiping was far away and didn't quite understand what was going on. He only saw the two things, one big and one small, disappear in the blink of an eye.
He found it strange, so he carefully slid down using his stick, quietly approaching the place where the two things had disappeared.
This hillside faces the sun, with a small stream and meadows below, dense vegetation, and complex terrain.
Sheng Xiping knew this place; according to the old hunters, it was called Badger Ridge.
It is said that there used to be a lot of badgers here, and you could often see groups of badgers foraging in the forest.
From the time the snow falls until hibernation, the snow-covered mountains are covered with countless badger footprints.
Nowadays, there aren't many badgers left in this area, but there's a nest of about five or six badgers under this yellow earthen embankment.
Sheng Xiping had met him before, but he'd been too busy lately to come and raid the badger's burrow.
Those two, one big and one small, must have gone into the badger's burrow under the loess embankment.
Sheng Xiping decided to find a place to hide and see what those two things, one big and one small, were.
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