Chapter 10 Harvesting the Prey
The Junling Railway is not far from Gaojia Village, only about five miles away. When Gao Mingcheng was meditating, people in the village who were interested in working as temporary workers on the railway headed towards the Junling Railway.
When building a railway, a group of temporary workers are often recruited locally. Most of these temporary workers do physical work, such as carrying stones, carrying sleepers, mixing cement, etc. The formal workers will do some work that requires a certain level of technical skills. At the end of the day, they are paid more than the temporary workers, but are not as tired as the temporary workers.
On the railway, all kinds of materials were piled on the ground, and hundreds of young and strong people were waiting here, awaiting orders.
Except for the regular workers on the railway, these people are all from several nearby villages. Some of them are familiar to everyone, while others are unfamiliar.
Among this group of people, there was a thin old man with a goatee and wearing a half-new Zhongshan suit. His temperament was completely different from the rough men around him, and he looked like a teacher.
Someone asked him, "Are you here to work as well? Are you old? I'm afraid you can't carry the stones any more. You should go home so that you don't get bent by the stones."
"That's right! This bag of rocks weighs at least a hundred pounds!"
The people around echoed and everyone looked at the old man.
The old man seemed to be in a difficult situation. He stared at the sleepers and rubble, as if wondering if he could lift them.
Finally, he looked helpless and said, "Forget it, I'd better leave."
After saying that, he bent over slightly and left.
No one paid attention to this little episode. At most, someone would chat with an acquaintance and say, "This person doesn't look familiar. He doesn't look like someone from the nearby village."
"Probably someone who lives farther away." The acquaintance replied casually.
At this time, the old man had already left the railway construction site and went down the mountain along the path.
At the foot of the mountain, two young men were waiting under the shade of a tree.
"Dad, what's the situation?" Seeing the old man coming down, a man immediately asked.
The old man did not rush to speak, but pulled off his beard. It turned out that the goat beard was not a real beard, but was pasted on.
His back was straight, and without his beard, he looked a lot younger.
"I went to check, and most of the young and strong people in Gaojia Village are here."
After receiving this affirmation, the two young men smiled with satisfaction.
They got the news that there was a Song Dynasty tomb in the mountains near Gaojia Village, but they had not yet found out exactly which mountain it was on. Because on weekdays, the villagers were all familiar faces, once a stranger entered the village, it would attract great attention.
For people like them, this is not something they want to attract attention.
Fortunately, they have ruled out some places, leaving Niuweiling and Xiaoyuanshan as the most likely ones.
It is said that during the Ming Dynasty, a Jinshi emerged in this area. This Jinshi had also won the top three places in the imperial examination. After his death, the mountain where he was buried was called Xiaoyuan Mountain by the locals.
With this legend in mind, the father and his two sons decided to explore Xiaoyuan Mountain first.
Xiaoyuan Mountain is located between Gaojia Village and Dongjia Village. However, the terrain is steep and difficult to walk into the mountain from the Dongjia Village side. The terrain is gentler on the Gaojia Village side. After climbing over a small hill, you will reach Xiaoyuan Mountain.
At the end of August, the weather was hot and there was not much work to do in the fields. In addition, the men had all gone to Junling, so there were not many people left in the village. The father and his two sons avoided the villagers and quietly went up Xiaoyuan Mountain.
If Gao Mingcheng saw these three people, he would definitely feel familiar with them.
Because in his previous life, he had dealt with this father and son trio.
However, at this time Gao Mingcheng was checking the trap he had set yesterday and did not meet these three people.
Gao Mingcheng set two types of traps. One was to dig a hole in a suitable place and then cover the hole with thin branches and grass. If the prey passed by, it would step on empty air and fall into the hole.
Another type is a slipknot made of vines, which is similar to a noose made of wire, both of which are used to trip up prey.
Gao Mingcheng searched along the way and found that some traps had not been destroyed, which meant that no prey passed by. Some traps were destroyed, but no prey was left, which meant that although the prey touched the traps, they escaped cleverly.
Seeing this, he didn't get angry and continued searching.
Finally, he found some movement in the bushes!
There were large traces of trampling in the grass, and at the deepest part, it seemed that something was struggling.
Gao Mingcheng bent down and reached out to push the grass aside. After the lush grass was pushed aside, the things hidden inside were immediately revealed.
It was a gray-brown hare, its body tightly entangled by several vines, one of which was tied to a nearby tree. Therefore, although the hare struggled hard to run away, it was unsuccessful.
Finally getting a harvest, Gao Mingcheng could not hide his joy. He picked up the rabbit with a grin, and then started to tear off the vines that were wrapped around the rabbit.
After tying the hare's feet with flexible grass, Gao Mingcheng carried the hare and continued to walk forward. There was a trap set in front of him.
Perhaps the god of luck had descended. Gao Mingcheng had no gains at first, but after finding this hare, he actually got something in the last trap!
From a distance, Gao Mingcheng saw that the half-covered branches above the pit had been destroyed. A hint of anticipation arose in his heart. He walked forward quickly and saw that there was indeed a pheasant in the pit!
The pit was small and deep, so it was difficult for the pheasant to fly out after falling into it. If the pit was wider, the pheasant could use the force to fly up.
Gao Mingcheng did not kill the pheasant, he just caught it. He held the pheasant in one hand and the hare in the other, lowered his head and thought for a moment, and finally decided to sell them for money.
Eating meat is enjoyable, but it is not enjoyable if you have no money in your pocket. You can eat the meat later, it is better to get some money in your hands first.
When the group of tomb robbers arrived, he had to take a bus to the county town to find Uncle Gao Guobing.
If he really has no money, he can also borrow from Gao Zhuang, but it is best not to borrow.
There is an old market in Junling on the 1st, 4th and 7th of every month, and the market in the county town on the 2nd, 6th and 8th of every month. Today is the 30th, and he missed any of them. However, it is not difficult for Gao Mingcheng to sell the prey he has.
He carried the prey and walked towards a house in the village.
This family is considered the second largest family in Gaojia Village, but the family is promising and their life is one of the best in the village.
Today, most of the men in the village went to work at the Junling Railway, but this family did not go. The couple stayed at home.
There was no heavy work in the fields at this time of year. The man lay on a rattan chair under the shade of a tree, listening to the radio leisurely, while his wife was making clothes beside him, and the sound of the sewing machine could be heard from time to time.
"Uncle, I'm free!" Gao Mingcheng greeted with a smile after entering the door.
Upon hearing this, the male host immediately opened his eyes and saw that it was Gao Mingcheng. A smile appeared on his face and he greeted him cordially: "It's Mingcheng, come in and sit down! Feixia, pour Mingcheng a cup of tea!"
The male owner was about forty years old, the same age as Gao Mingcheng's father, but his attitude towards Gao Mingcheng was even more enthusiastic than that of his biological father.
(End of this chapter)
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