"It's a pity that the snow here can't last a whole winter like in the Northeast, otherwise we could build several igloos to play with."
Lin Heng sighed as they sat in front of the fireplace warming themselves.
"That's enough. Children will catch a cold if they play like this," said Xiulan.
Lin Heng glanced at the three children playing outside with Lin Wei and said, "It's okay. There's not much wind in the yard, so it's not easy to catch a cold."
Xiulan showed a hint of helplessness and asked again: "Are you going hunting tonight?"
"I'm not planning on going too far. I'll just walk around the doorstep and see if there are any pheasants or something." Lin Heng replied.
Going hunting in the mountains on a snowy day like this does indeed give you a better chance of catching big prey than usual, but he is a little too lazy to go now. He doesn't want to fight so hard anymore as his living conditions have improved.
"Okay, I'll knead the dough for a while and make you sliced noodles tonight. Leave some for making pulled noodles tomorrow."
Xiulan was actually happy that Lin Heng didn't go into the mountains. That was too dangerous. She was always worried every time Lin Heng went into the mountains.
"Okay, I like knife-cut noodles." Lin Heng nodded with a smile.
After they were warm, he took the compound bow and went out with Xiongba. He was wearing a woolen robbery hood and a fur hat on his head.
"Let's go and take a look."
Lin Yue nodded, then he and Lin Heng set off carrying their hunting rifle. He also brought his hunting dog Good Luck.
There were still some small snowflakes floating in the sky. The three people's destination this time was the valleys and ravines, especially the places where wheat and rapeseed were planted.
It's snowing, and the animals have nothing to eat. Maybe there will be some big prey in those places. It snowed all day today, and it just stopped now, so there should be hope.
The two men first went to the edge of the land on the mountain behind, walked around but found nothing, and then went straight to the well ditch, where there were wheat planted.
When he walked over, he saw a sea of white snow, with only a few patches of wheat poking out of the snow and showing their greenness. This made Lin Heng feel suddenly disappointed.
"There's no hope here either." Lin Heng shook his head after searching.
"Let's go look for some other place." Lin Yue sighed. He didn't understand why these prey were so hungry. They had been snowing for a whole day and still hadn't come out to eat.
After leaving Shuijinggou, the two men went to other areas where there were few people but crops were grown, and also to some bushes and vine racks where pheasants often stayed.
"Forget it, let's go back."
Finally, Lin Heng shook his head. It was already dark, and he had lost all feeling in his hands and feet. Most importantly, the snow was falling heavily again.
"Let's go back and come back tomorrow. By then these guys won't be able to hold on any longer and will have to come out to look for food." Lin Yue shook his head and said.
Lin Heng was not in a hurry to walk back. He admired the beautiful snow scene with the sky and the earth turning white. He would kick the trees from time to time and run away, watching the snow soak Xiongba into a white dog.
Xiong Ba would always bark, shake off the snow and run to Lin Heng. There were hardly any people on the road. It was cold in those days and people didn't have good warm clothes. They would stay at home if possible.
Although Lin Heng's hands and feet were cold, he was actually fine at heart because he was wearing very expensive and warm clothes, a down jacket inside and a military coat outside.
Even so, when he got home he quickly gathered in front of the fireplace to keep warm.
"Dad, you came up empty-handed!" Du Heng asked from the side. Lin Heng often said that he came up empty-handed when fishing, and his son had already picked up on this saying.
"Dad is going to check the situation. He can't be considered an air force." Lin Heng touched his head and said.
"Dad picked up so many thick firewoods, so it's definitely not a empty-handed pick." Xiaoxia said from the side.
Lin Heng: “…”
Xiulan smiled and stood up and said, "I'll go get you some."
They had all finished eating, washed up and were ready to rest.
Lin Heng nodded but didn't stand up. His hands and feet were not warm enough yet.
The Xiu'an臊子 has been prepared long ago. You just need to boil water on an electric stove. There is no need to burn firewood and it is very quick.
After a while, Lin Heng had a bowl of delicious knife-cut noodles. The noodles cut with kitchen knives in rural areas were quite thick, but they tasted not bad.
Lin Heng finished a big bowl of noodles in less than five minutes. Then he washed his face and feet and returned to the bedroom with his wife and children.
It's just past eight o'clock now, and the children are not sleepy yet. They want to continue playing after going to bed.
After Lin Heng lit the fireplace, he came over to read brain teasers with them. He asked questions and the three children rushed to answer.
Xiulan had already taken off her clothes and got into bed, lying on the back of the bed and watching them play.
She was now wearing a black tank top, revealing her snow-white skin and tight collarbone, and her huge chest was even more exposed.
The color is like milk, the texture is like silk, Lin Heng has a deep understanding of it.
Lin Heng played with the children for an hour before they began to doze off. He then changed the storybook and quickly coaxed them to sleep.
After covering the children, Lin Heng added more fuel to the fire and went back to bed to rest. Xiulan came over and hugged his arm and said softly, "How come you are so patient? You are really unlike your old self."
Even though Xiulan has already gotten used to it, she still feels emotional. One of the things that makes her feel the happiest and most joyful in these years is that Lin Heng takes care of the children every night.
"You've awakened." Lin Heng turned his head and hugged her in his arms and said with a smile.
He liked her being so close to him, and her good figure made him feel happy both physically and mentally.
"Forget it, let's go to bed." Xiulan pouted, reached out to turn off the light, and then leaned on Lin Heng's chest.
…
In a blink of an eye, it was the next morning. Lin Heng got up very early today and woke up at dawn.
The action of getting up woke Xiulan up. She turned over and hugged him, sleepily asking, "Are you getting up so early to go hunting?"
She was still a little sleepy because she went to bed late last night and was very exhausted. Her voice was very soft at this moment.
"Yes, I think I can catch some pheasants or doves in the morning. You can sleep and get up when I come back."
Lin Heng touched her little face and said, she was not wearing anything at the moment, her little face was red, if he held her so tightly he would not be able to hold his urine.
Xiulan nodded and hummed, then she retreated back into the quilt.
Lin Heng put on his clothes and ran out to pee. The snow outside had stopped, but the snow on the ground was thicker than last night, obviously it had snowed some at night.
After taking a look, he returned to the bedroom, added some firewood to the fireplace before going out to the living room.
Some coal was added to the fireplace in the main room and then ignited with wood, so that when Xiulan and the others got up, the room would be warm.
When everything was ready, he took the bow and arrow, hunting rifle, and a bag of grain and went out with Xiongba. They just locked the door, and Xiulan and the others could come out from the back door and get the key to open it.
"Let's go."
Lin Yue had just come out and saw Lin Heng handing him half a roasted sweet potato and said.
"good."
Lin Heng took a bite of the roasted sweet potato and said with a smile.
This time they were going simply to hunt small game, so they went to the riverside first. There were many fields on both sides of the river, and pheasants and turtledoves were often seen.
They observed for a while, and when they found nothing, they cleared out a piece of space and scattered some rice there.
When they were done they went off, continuing up the river, setting seven such traps along the way.
When they came back, they retraced their steps to check again.
"Look, buddy, there's a pheasant passing by."
When checking the second trap, Lin Yue suddenly squatted down and said.
Lin Heng got closer and saw that a large gray pheasant had gone to the area they had cleared to eat millet, along with a magpie, a sparrow and a thrush.
"You should use a bow and arrow. Hunting rifles are not very useful in this place." Lin Yue said.
"Um."
Lin Heng nodded, took out a compound bow and an arrow, and went to a position about thirty meters away from the pheasant.
After aiming for a while, Lin Heng shot an arrow. The black arrow drew a graceful arc and accurately nailed the big pheasant to the ground.
"sharp!"
Lin Yue ran over and gave a thumbs up.
Lin Heng smiled and said, "It seems that my skills haven't declined."
He hadn't hunted with a bow and arrow for a long time, but his accuracy was still good enough.
“Ouch!”
While they were talking, Xiongba had already brought the pheasant over.
Lin Hengti smiled and said, "It's more than three pounds. This pheasant is quite fat."
"The ones near the dam are very fat, but it's hard to catch them. They fly away if you get a little too close."
Lin Yue nodded and said that it was too difficult to hit the target at 30 meters with an ordinary hunting rifle, and only Lin Heng's bow and arrow could do it.
After the two men finished talking, they continued walking downstream. They saw several sparrows and thrushes eating the food. It was not until they reached the last place that they found three turtledoves eating happily there.
After a while, accompanied by a gunshot, the three turtledoves and five thrushes all fell to the ground.
"This is enough for a meal. We all have a harvest today." Lin Yue said happily while holding a turtledove and a thrush.
"Do you want to continue? Maybe we can see rabbits beside the wheat field."
Lin Heng added that after catching a big fish, one would want to catch a bigger one, and the same is true for hunting.
"Walk!"
Lin Yue nodded, and the two continued running.
However, after running through several wheat fields, they didn't see any rabbits. Just when they were feeling listless, the two dogs suddenly stopped, pricked up their ears and looked ahead.
"Um?"
The two were stunned, and first leaned against the tree to hide their bodies, and then observed carefully.
After looking for a while, the two were still confused and didn't notice anything, but the dog's ears were still erect.
The two looked at each other, retreated to the woods nearby, and walked slowly forward.
After a while they stopped, not even daring to breathe heavily.
Because the situation in front of me was really unexpected. I was about to go home, but I didn't expect to meet this guy halfway up the mountain.
This is a roe deer with a brown body, a pair of big ears on its head and a tuft of white hair on its tail.
And this is a male roe deer, whose horns have not fallen off yet. He is eating green wheat on the ground in big mouthfuls, and from time to time he looks up and around, looking silly.
The two were shocked to find roe deer in this place. They thought it was a wild boar or a muntjac, but they didn't expect it to be a roe deer.
There are roe deer in the Qinling Mountains, but their number has been decreasing year by year. These animals are almost never seen in areas other than deep mountains, so they never expected to encounter one.
However, since they had met him, the two naturally would not let this guy go. Roe deer meat is very delicious and full of treasures, no worse than sika deer.
The two men looked at each other and made hand gestures. Then Lin Heng stepped back with the compound bow and went to a place above with a better view.
Everything was ready. He drew his bow and aimed at the silly roe deer thirty meters away. Only the roe deer could he get so close to.
With a light whoosh sound, the black arrow flew out at a terrifying speed and instantly approached the roe deer, piercing its chest and exploding on the ground.
“Ah!!”
The stupid roe deer that was hit let out a scream and turned around and ran towards the woods. Fortunately, Xiongba's two dogs chased after it immediately.
Lin Heng and his elder brother followed closely behind. After chasing for more than 200 meters, they saw a roe deer lying on the snow with blood gushing out of its chest.
"I have a plastic bag with me. Let's go get some roe deer blood."
Lin Heng took out a plastic bag and walked forward quickly. When he got closer, he asked his eldest brother to use the plastic bag to catch the blood. He used a dagger to cut the carotid artery in the neck, and a large amount of blood spurted out immediately.
"This is about three or four kilograms of blood, enough." After collecting the blood, Lin Yue picked up the bag and said.
"Give the rest to the two dogs, and we can take this back and divide it." Lin Heng nodded.
Deer blood has a strong nourishing effect, especially for women. Deer blood is also not bad. He plans to give it to Xiulan and his mother, and some of the excess can be given to his aunt.
After that, he picked up the roe deer and weighed it: "We are really lucky, this male roe deer must weigh more than 60 kilograms."
"Then let's go back quickly and celebrate today." Lin Yue also smiled.
The two had never thought about this before they set out, and now they were so excited that they could hardly control themselves.
Lin Heng immediately sealed the wound with blood and carried the child back.
It was just past nine o'clock when they returned to the village. When the villagers got up, they were all dumbfounded when they saw the Lin Heng brothers carrying a roe deer back.
"No, it's ok that you guys killed prey, but how come it was such a big roe deer?"
Tian Baishun, who was strolling in the village, was in disbelief when he saw this thing.
"Haha, we didn't expect it, but luck came." Lin Heng said with a smile.
This year his elder brother followed Tian Baishun to Sanchagou to hunt wild geese, but was unsuccessful.
"This God is so unfair. How come you are rich and have a beautiful wife, but you always find good things when you hunt?!"
Tian Baishun was envious and jealous, and his mentality collapsed. He had bad luck this year, and he only killed a wild boar and a wild badger. The rest were some small prey, and he didn't catch any deer.
Although Lin Heng really wanted the whole village to get lost, he still held back. Being too high-profile would arouse disgust.
Carrying the deer, he pushed open the gate and walked into the house, saying loudly: "Wife, daughter and son, look what we caught!!"
In the room, Xiulan's children had just woken up and were eating breakfast. They were dumbfounded when they saw what Lin Heng was carrying.
"Honey, did you guys call me this morning?" Xiulan couldn't believe it.
"Dad is so awesome, what a big deer!"
"Awesome, awesome! Dad is the best!"
"My dad is super awesome!"
The three children didn't care about that anymore. They put their things down and ran out to cheer for everyone.
(End of this chapter)
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
