When Fang and the others took the bowls, they were somewhat reluctant to eat them.
"Eat up! What are you standing there for? There's more in the pot after you finish eating," Lin Yinan said with a smile.
The group looked at each other, then began to eat.
The children sat on the rocks and ate heartily. Lin Yinan pulled Yun Shijiu and the younger Luo Xuzhi, Yun Fangyi and Lin Zhiyan to sit together, and while eating, she would occasionally put meat on the children's plates.
Qianwu sat beside Lin Yinan, adding meat to his bowl from time to time.
After a hearty lunch, the children all had full bellies.
"The wild game in these mountains is so delicious!" Lin Yi'an exclaimed, still feeling a little unsatisfied.
Fang He straightened his back and recalled the goats he had seen while chopping firewood on the mountain a while ago. "I saw goats on this mountain a few days ago."
"Are there goats?"
Lin Yi'an turned her head and moved slightly closer to Fang He.
"Is it far from here?" Lin Yinan was also somewhat tempted. It would be nice to hunt a goat and take it back.
Fang He shook his head and pointed towards the mountains, "It's not far, just a little way down over there."
"Sister, shall we go take a look?" Lin Yi'an tightened her grip on the bow and arrows on her back.
"But……"
Lin Yinan looked around at the surrounding environment. With so many children here, she was afraid that wild animals might be lurking nearby.
Seeing her hesitation, Fang He explained what he knew. "The main road is just down there. We come here often, and we haven't found any traces of wild animals nearby."
"Third Aunt, you go ahead. I'll watch over my younger siblings and make sure they don't run around."
Having enjoyed the delicious food earlier, Yun Junpeng was tempted to try some goat meat.
Qianwu patted the sword at her waist. "Madam, don't worry, I'm here."
After a moment's hesitation, Lin Yinan said, "Okay, I'll go and come back quickly."
Lin Yi'an and Lu Changqing followed, and the three of them passed through the grove of trees that Fang He had mentioned, and came to a patch of low bushes.
Lin Yinan warily looked around when she heard Lu Changqing call out in a low voice.
"Sister Anan, look! There's sheep droppings on the ground."
Lin Yinan stopped and looked down to see many oval-shaped, brownish-black droppings, about the size of soybeans, on the ground. These were sheep droppings.
"Hmm, it looks like it was today." Lin Yi'an poked it with the stick in his hand.
Lu Changqing looked at him suspiciously, "How did you know?"
Lin Yi'an glanced at him sideways and used a stick to push a few lighter-colored sheep droppings in front of him.
You can't even see something this obvious yourself?
The further you go, the more sheep droppings there are on the ground, indicating that this thicket is a foraging ground for mountain goats.
Goats are ruminants; they choose to forage during the day and cannot regurgitate food from their stomachs at night for further chewing and digestion.
Lin Yinan took the bow and arrows off his back and quietly searched the surroundings, hoping that the goat might still be nearby.
"Crack!" Lin Yi'an stepped on a dry branch, the crisp sound clearly audible in the silent forest.
Immediately afterwards, five dark brown figures darted out of the bushes like lightning, turned around and ran up the mountain.
At this critical moment, two arrows shot towards the charging wild goat, with another close behind.
The first two arrows struck the wild goats in the eyes and necks respectively, and the two goats fell to the ground instantly.
The third arrow struck the wild goat in the belly. The goat did not die instantly, but in its agony, it panicked and ran wildly down the mountain into an open area.
Seeing the wild goat trying to run away like a madman, Lin Yinan knew he couldn't give up the meat he had already got his hands on.
"You stay here, I'll go after it." She said this and ran off in the direction the goat had fled.
Lu Changqing patted Lin Yi'an on the shoulder, slung his bow and arrows over his shoulder, and followed after him.
Lin Yinan glanced back at him but didn't say anything.
As the two men were chasing the mountain to its foot, the wild goat, exhausted, lost its footing and rolled down the slope, finally being stopped by a large rock.
Lu Changqing's face lit up with joy, and he was about to go down and drag it up when Lin Yinan quickly grabbed him, made a shushing gesture, pointed down the mountain, and indicated that there were people down there.
The two bent down and moved behind a thicket of thorns, peeking out cautiously to look down.
Behind the large rock where the goat had fallen, seven or eight ragged people rushed out in a panic. They were disheveled, hunched over, with their hands tucked under their armpits, and shivering from the cold.
Someone spotted the wild goat lying on the ground and exclaimed in surprise.
"Big brother, look! There's a sheep here."
"She just died; her body is still warm."
"It's truly a blessing from heaven that we brothers have gotten such a great deal."
Someone noticed the arrow stuck in the goat's belly.
"There are hunters in the mountains!"
Upon hearing this, the group picked up stones from the ground and looked around warily.
Upon seeing this, Lin Yinan and Lu Changqing quickly bent down.
"Brother, what should we do with these sheep?"
Even from a great distance, Lin Yinan could hear him swallowing.
The man called "Big Brother" glanced fiercely at the forest and said in a sinister tone, "Since we brothers have met here, then we are ours. Dragon Pool is indeed a rich place, just as that man said. We've just arrived and already encountered such good fortune. Tonight, let's give the brothers a good meal."
"What if the master comes looking for us?"
"That depends on whether my knife agrees." The man brandished a knife that emanated a chilling aura.
Someone stepped forward and fawned, saying, "Once we enter the city tomorrow, endless riches and honors await us."
So the group carried the goat down the mountain.
Lu Changqing was so angry he wanted to bite the bone. After the group had gone far away, he got up to follow them, but Lin Yinan grabbed him.
"Don't be impulsive, let's go back first."
Lin Yinan had considered going to find out what was going on, but when she thought about the children waiting for her to return to the mountain, she didn't dare to take the risk.
“But A’an is hitting a goat…” Lu Changqing said somewhat unwillingly.
"We will definitely get it back in the future."
After Lin Yinan finished speaking, he got up and walked up the mountain. Judging from what those people had said, they were not friendly, and it seemed that someone had deliberately led them to the Dragon Pool.
Lu Changqing stood up and glanced in the direction the others had left, his eyes filled with intense killing intent. He tightened his grip on his bow and arrow, then turned and quickly caught up with Lin Yinan ahead.
Back in the low bushes where they had hunted the wild goats, Lin Yi'an had already pulled the arrows out of the goats' bodies.
Seeing that the two men had returned without the goat, he stood up.
Did it get away?
Lin Yinan strode forward, picked up a nearly 200-pound goat and hoisted it onto his shoulder, saying indifferently, "Let's go quickly, we'll talk about it when we get back."
Lin Yinan looked at Lu Changqing, who nodded to him. Without saying much, he slung his bow and arrows over his shoulder and, together with Lu Changqing, lifted the goat by its two legs, closely following behind Lin Yinan.
They had practiced martial arts since childhood and were stronger than most children. They carried a goat weighing nearly two kilograms through the mountains and forests without feeling tired.
On the way back, Lu Changqing whispered to him what had happened at the foot of the mountain.
Lin Yi'an was so angry she felt like she was going to grind her teeth to powder.
These people are absolutely despicable!!
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