Chapter 125 Tracking the Mountain Fox
After dinner, Zhou Qinglan checked Sheng Xitai's homework, and then watched Sheng Yunfang and Sheng Yunfei finish their homework before leaving.
Sheng Xiping was going back to the collective household registration, and he happened to be with Zhou Qinglan. After dropping her off at the Tang family's house, he went back to the collective household registration to sleep.
On the morning of the 18th, Sheng Xiping and the others quickly ate something, packed up, and went into the mountains with their guns on their backs.
We set so many traps yesterday, we should have some success. We need to hurry and put the traps out of the wild animals today, lest they get eaten.
In this season, the leaves fall and the wild grass withers, and the forest offers a more open view than in summer.
Even if there are wild beasts hiding, they can be detected.
Besides, there are several young men with two guns. Even if there are some wild animals, they can just take them out and be done with it.
So this time, Sheng Xiping didn't bring his dog.
To be honest, Sheng Xiping was really good at setting traps. In the first valley, he caught five pheasants and three rabbits.
“Let’s go, let’s go further, climb over this ridge, there are more traps on the other side.”
Yesterday, everyone set quite a few traps in this mountain forest; today, they'll definitely have to go and explore it all.
They had made quite a few gains as soon as they arrived, and Wang Jianshe and the others were all very happy. No one felt tired.
The group followed Sheng Xiping, traversing mountains and ridges, until they reached another area where a trap was set.
But when I got here, I found that something seemed off.
Several of the snares had clearly been tampered with, and there were specks of blood on the snow. Not far away, there were leftover remains and furs from being eaten.
"Damn, it got stolen by a mountain fox again."
Upon seeing the marks on the snow, Sheng Xiping immediately guessed that the wildcat must have escaped last night and stolen the rabbit from the blanket.
That guy is despicable. At this time of year, there are plenty of prey in the forest. Instead of hunting for himself, he comes to steal what they've caught in their traps.
Judging from the current situation, at least three rabbits were harmed by the mountain raccoon last night.
"Come on, let's go find it."
Sheng Xiping was angry and decided to follow the tracks in the snow to find the mountain fox and settle the score.
"Brother Xiping, have you ever hunted wild boars before? I heard they run really fast and are hard to catch."
Zhang Zhijun hesitated. He had heard from the old folks that the mountain leopard was quite fierce, and if it got really hungry, it would even fight wolves.
Will they be able to find the mountain civets? Even if they do, will they be able to catch them?
"I fought with my master once, and it was indeed very fast."
However, it ate quite a lot last night, so it should be sleeping in its burrow right now.
Let's go find its cave; maybe we can find a way."
Felines typically hunt when they are hungry, and return to their dens after eating, not emerging for two or three days.
So at this point, following the lynx's tracks should lead us to its burrow. If we can figure out a way, we should be able to deal with it.
We agreed before we left that we would follow Sheng Xiping's instructions in everything we did once we were in the mountains.
Since Sheng Xiping said he was going to find the lynx, the others naturally had to follow.
So Sheng Xiping led the way, with the others following behind, and they began to search for the mountain fox's tracks, following the footprints in the snow.
Feline footprints are linear, meaning the footprints extend forward like a line.
However, this mountain fox is quite clever; it doesn't walk where the snow is thick, but rather wherever the snow is thin.
The wind was strong on the mountain, and the snow, which wasn't very thick to begin with, was blown away by the wind. The snow was thicker in the low-lying areas, and there wasn't much snow in the slightly undulating areas.
Sheng Xiping walked along, carefully examining the footprints, while the others followed behind.
This walk took nearly two hours.
The mountain fox's footprints never stopped along the way.
Until the pine tree ahead, that guy must have peed; it was yellowish.
This is likely marking territory, meaning it's not far from the mountain fox's burrow.
Sheng Xiping looked up and glanced ahead.
They were in a valley. As they walked forward, the mountain walls became steeper and steeper, with rocky cliffs and a rocky pool below.
The mountain civets usually live in the rocky pond, and the area in front is probably their den.
"Let's go, keep moving forward, that guy should be up ahead."
Sheng Xiping pointed ahead, and the group continued walking in the footprints.
After walking for about half an hour, when Sheng Xiping and the others reached the top of a rocky cliff, the mountain fox's footprints disappeared.
The group searched the top of the rocky cliff but found no trace of the mountain fox.
It feels like that guy has disappeared, vanished into thin air.
"Brother Xiping, what's going on? Why can't we find it?" Zhang Zhijun couldn't help but ask.
"Don't worry, this guy is definitely hiding nearby. Don't say anything."
Having come this far, Sheng Xiping was naturally unwilling to give up easily, so he carefully examined the area around the rocky cliff.
Sure enough, in a crevice more than a foot wide in the rock, Sheng Xiping found a pair of footprints.
Sheng Xiping peered into the crevice, which was about three or four meters deep.
It's a bit blurry inside, I can't see very clearly, it looks like a dead end.
"Xiping, could that thing be in here? How do we catch it? Should I go down and take a look?"
Seeing that Sheng Xiping's behavior was a bit strange, Wang Jianshe came over and asked him quietly.
"This gap is a bit narrow, it's not easy to get in, you might get stuck. Who's the thinnest among us?"
Sheng Xiping examined the crevice in the stone again, then looked back at his friends behind him.
After looking around, Zhang Zhijun was the only one who was relatively thin. I guess he could get in, but if anyone else tried to go down, they would easily get stuck.
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