Chapter 191: The Beast in Prison
Hearing Grandpa Gao's voice, Lin Heng and Li Baiquan hurried out.
As Li Baiquan walked, he asked, "Where are the bear's traces?"
Grandpa Gao pointed at the snow and said, "Look, such a big bear footprint."
There is always snow in the canyon, and it won’t melt even when the sun comes out.
Lin Heng ran over and saw at a glance that this guy came up from the lower reaches of the valley and walked on the snow to the upper reaches of the valley.
Moreover, this guy stayed outside their shelter for a long time, leaving many footprints, and it was obvious that hesitant.
They had come here without a bell, so this thing was given to his eldest brother.
However, the front of their shelter is not without defenses. There is a thorny wall made of pyracantha trees. If something breaks in forcibly, the sound will definitely be heard.
Lin Heng asked curiously: "Uncle Gao, did you find out last night?"
Grandpa Gao nodded: "Well, I heard some noise outside last night, but I didn't get up because I thought it was a little thing."
He regretted it now. If he had not been lazy last night, he might have hunted a bear.
Li Baiquan looked at the two and asked, "So are we going to look for the bear or track the antelope?"
"Let's go take a look at the bear first and see what kind of bear it is." Grandpa Gao said after thinking for a while.
Lin Heng had no objection to this, he also wanted to see whether the bear was a black bear or a giant panda.
After discussing and cleaning up the shelter, the three of them set out to follow the bear's footprints.
The bear walked quite far in the canyon, about a kilometer back from their shelter, before climbing up the mountain from a side slope.
Although there is snow in the mountains and forests, it is intermittent, making it a bit difficult to track.
"Fortunately, we have Xiongba. He is a really powerful dog. How did you train him?"
Grandpa Gao looked at Xiongba and asked curiously. He felt that the dog seemed to understand human language and could work on its own without any commands.
Lin Heng smiled and responded: "I didn't train it much, it's just naturally smart."
This made Grandpa Gao's eyes widen: "That's even more amazing, it shows that this dog is naturally smart.
I see that its size is unusual, much bigger than the big yellow dog in the countryside, is it one year old?"
As he walked forward, Lin Heng responded, "No, it's only seven or eight months old."
Grandpa Gao was even more shocked: "It is indeed a divine dog. You are right in naming it. It deserves this name."
Li Baiquan also nodded and said, "Find a good dog to breed with it. We can't let this dog become extinct."
Lin Heng smiled and nodded: "That's for sure."
He had thought about this early on and was going to get some dogs of different breeds to breed with Xiongba so that he would have a good life in the future.
Currently, Lin Heng’s pre-selected targets include German Shepherd, Czech Wolfhound and Large Yellow Dog.
When it grows up, I'll find a smart, purebred yellow dog to breed with first and see how it goes.
The three of them chatted as they moved forward and soon climbed over another mountain.
"This thing can really run." Li Baiquan exclaimed.
Lin Heng smiled and said, "It's normal. Running dozens of kilometers in one night is nothing."
At noon, the three of them climbed over another mountain, and they could see a touch of green when they crossed the ridge.
This is a patch of emerald green bamboo growing in the ravine here.
Li Baiquan was speechless: "Damn, this is most likely a panda."
At this time, pandas are protected and killing them will result in imprisonment.
And even if you take the risk of killing one, you can't sell the fur, so it's totally unnecessary.
This means that all this half day of tracking was in vain.
"Let's go down and take a look."
Lin Heng didn't really care. It was nice to watch the giant pandas from a distance.
Grandpa Gao smiled and nodded: "Let's go and have a look. We have been tracking this guy for a long time, we can't just not see him."
Seeing that Lin Heng and Mr. Gao were both about to leave, Li Baiquan had no choice but to nod and say, "Then let's go."
He was still a little bit excited when he looked down, but what he found was not a panda, but a black bear.
That way the three of them would make a fortune.
The three of them held onto the tree and slowly came to the bottom of the ditch. When they were about to walk to the other side of the mountain, they saw Xiongba suddenly raise his head and look at the position in front of their left.
The three looked in that direction and saw a big, black and white, furry, silly creature looking at them.
This guy was sitting on the ground with his four legs facing the sky, one of his front paws holding a piece of bamboo, and there was still a small piece of bamboo in his mouth that he hadn't finished eating.
After seeing Lin Heng and his two companions and the dog, he was also stunned and stared at them blankly, not knowing whether he was scared silly or...
"What a fool!" Li Baiquan shook his head speechlessly.
Lin Hengze thought that this guy was really cute, with his round face and silly look, which was really interesting.
Unlike other pandas, this panda's tail is brown. I don't know if it was dyed this color by its urine or if it is naturally brown.
“Boohoo!!”
As if it felt that humans were not easy to mess with, this guy reluctantly threw away the bamboo, turned over and climbed away.
Looking at its resentful look and tone when it left, it seemed to be saying, I just glanced at you last night, is it necessary to chase me across several mountains?
"Let's go." Lin Heng shook his head and turned away with Xiongba.
"Let's go!"
Grandpa Gao nodded, said something, then turned and left.
Seeing the three people leave, the giant panda stopped and seemed a little surprised why these guys left.
But it didn't care about that. It ruthlessly bit off a bamboo shoot next to it and started eating it.
After leaving the Arrow Bamboo Valley, Li Baiquan looked at the two and asked, "Where are we going now? I'm afraid we don't have enough time to continue tracking the antelope, right?"
Lin Heng nodded: "It's definitely not enough. It will take half a day just to get to that valley, and the rest of the time we can only search around in the forest."
Grandpa Gao also nodded and said, "This is the only way. I think this ditch is pretty good. Let's search nearby. This place is not far from the camp."
"That's fine."
Li Baiquan nodded, and the three of them separated.
There was little hope at noon, so Lin Heng focused on picking up some small items such as enoki mushrooms and medicinal herbs.
If you set your goals a little lower, you won’t worry too much.
He followed Xiongba, missing his wife and children. Today was already the 27th, and the Gregorian New Year would soon be here.
But it's almost time to go back. The next step is to look for another antelope. If we find one, everything will be fine. If we can't find it, there's nothing we can do.
“Ouch!”
Lin Heng was thinking about something and not paying attention. Suddenly, his feet slipped and he fell down the slope, sliding for more than ten meters.
Xiong Ba was stunned, and quickly ran over to Lin Heng and looked at him with concern.
“Oh my god.”
Lin Heng looked at the back of his hand. There were two cuts on it from the thorns when he slid down, but luckily they were not deep.
But when I untied the waistband, I found that he was not so lucky. There was a scratch the size of the back of his hand.
And he felt a little pain in his ankle, as if it was sprained.
"What bad luck."
Lin Heng was a little annoyed. He felt that his feet were on solid ground, so how come he suddenly fell?
After moving his ankle, he stood up with a depressed look on his face. Although his ankle was a little painful, it was not so painful that he could not walk.
The wound on the back was a bit serious, but it was okay. The bleeding was not too severe and it healed by itself.
Then he quickly opened the compound bow bag and took a look. The compound bow was not damaged, but two of the arrows he was holding behind him were broken.
Putting the broken arrow into the quiver, Lin Heng found a place without wind and sat down to rest, rubbing the dog head of Xiongba next to him.
“Ouch~”
Xiongba rubbed Lin Heng, put his head on his legs and let him rub it.
"Hey, go play your own game. I'll take a break."
Lin Heng rubbed it twice, then patted its head and said.
“Ouch~”
Xiongba reluctantly took his head away and wandered around.
Lin Heng sat here and rubbed his feet, holding up his clothes with his hands to let the wound on his lower back scab over, otherwise it would stick to his clothes and be uncomfortable.
They sat there for more than an hour. There was no wind where Lin Heng was, but he could see the cold wind howling on the opposite hillside, and many trees were blown down.
And he saw a squirrel coming out from there not far away.
After the wound on his lower back scabbed over, Lin Heng got up with difficulty and walked over. He observed for a long time and believed that there must be food hidden by the squirrels in this place.
"It's so strange, why can't I find it?"
Lin Heng searched everywhere but couldn't find where the squirrel hid the food, which made him a little depressed.
"Hey, I don't know where this guy Xiongba ran off to."
Lin Heng looked around but did not see Xiong Ba.
"Xiongba!!" he shouted loudly.
“Woof woof~~”
Xiongba's voice came from far away below.
"Come back soon!"
“Woof woof~”
"Um?"
Lin Heng was a little confused. Usually, this guy would come back when he called him, but now he was motionless and just kept calling from a distance.
"Did you discover something?"
He walked over with confusion, and after walking about eight or nine hundred meters, he saw it in a tall forest. This guy was digging something, and a lot of black humus soil was dug out by it.
“Woof woof~~”
When it saw Lin Heng coming, it smiled like a Samoyed and called out with its tongue sticking out.
"What is it?"
Lin Heng walked over curiously, but couldn't see clearly what was there from a distance, so he didn't know what it was picking up.
When he squatted down, he immediately smelled a strong smell of medicine. He looked carefully, and then looked again, and was stunned.
"This... this... could it be..."
He was a little bit unbelieving, so he broke off a small branch from the side and gently dug the soil to expose a little more of the thing.
This time he really looked carefully and understood it.
He was stunned at first, then he immediately searched his body, and finally tore a red strip of cloth from his clothes to tie the thing.
Then he sat down on the ground, looking at the things on the ground and Xiongba in front of him in disbelief.
"Xiongba, how did you find it?"
Lin Heng looked at Xiong Ba as if he was looking at a monster, because this was truly too unbelievable.
The thing in the ground is nothing else but an extremely rare Taibai Mountain ginseng, which is unique to the Qinling Mountains and is even rarer than the Changbai Mountain ginseng in the Greater Khingan Range.
It is said that the content of ginseng soapberry is seven times that of ordinary ginseng, which is extremely precious.
This kind of thing might not be found even in summer, but Xiongba actually found it in the middle of winter, which made Lin Heng suspect that it was a spirit.
“Oh!”
Facing Lin Heng's questioning, Xiongba cried out softly, looking innocent.
It was just wandering around, and suddenly smelled a different smell in this place, so it curiously dug up some soil.
Lin Heng tried hard to calm down his excitement, touched Xiong Ba's head and sighed, "You are awesome! Even if you really become a spirit, I will worship you!"
The value of this ginseng is no less than that of musk. The fact that his father was able to find one this year is all thanks to the good deeds of his ancestors.
He had no hope for this at all, otherwise he wouldn't have brought even a red string.
The probability of him finding wild ginseng is about the same as the probability of him killing a tiger.
But he just didn't hold out hope, and when his dog found out, he didn't know what to say.
"It was worth it to fall today."
Lin Heng grinned, and immediately felt no pain in his waist and legs. If he could find ginseng by falling, he would be willing to break his legs.
After calming down, Lin Heng took out a dagger, cut two wooden sticks, and began to slowly dig ginseng.
The more complete the ginseng is, the higher its value. It is best if not even a root is broken.
Fortunately, this place was all humus soil, so I loosened the soil bit by bit and then picked it out with wood chips.
This is a meticulous job and one must not be impatient. Fortunately, Lin Heng has lived two lives and has accumulated patience in his long life. He deeply understands that haste makes waste and that small gains will lead to failure in achieving great things.
It took more than two hours, nearly three hours, and Lin Heng dug out the ginseng bit by bit. The light yellow ginseng body was covered with circles of lines, much more than the one dug by his father.
The most accurate way to determine the age of ginseng is to identify the rhizome, which is the part where the ginseng rhizome grows.
Every time the ginseng leaves and stems wither, a bowl-shaped scar will be left on the reed head, which is called a reed bowl. One bowl-shaped scar represents a year.
Generally, the head of the ginseng root will not have roots, and it will be smooth. Only when the ginseng is 70 or 80 years old will it grow the same root-like "jujube-core stem" in this part.
The one dug by Lin Heng had two such date-seed shells on it, which meant that the person was at least a hundred years old.
Not only in this aspect, this wild ginseng is not as thick as the artificially cultivated one. It has a slender and smooth body, with only two ginseng legs, and the roots on the ginseng legs are extremely long.
The shortest ones are thirty to forty centimeters long, and the longest main root is nearly one meter long. It took Lin Heng nearly an hour to dig out the main root.
Fortunately, he finally dug it out intact. This ginseng really looks like a little man.
Lin Heng looked at the thing in his hand and was speechless for a moment.
It is well known that the older the ginseng is, the more expensive it is.
The price of wild ginseng that is over a hundred years old is more expensive than gold.
In later generations, a hundred-year-old wild ginseng was sold at an auction for a sky-high price of three million yuan. The value of one gram of it was twenty-five times the value of gold at that time.
And the one in his hand was obviously such a ginseng.
* * * ps: This is yesterday's post, and I will update another 4,000 words before 12 o'clock today. Something happened to my aunt yesterday, so I didn't have time to write.
(End of this chapter)
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