Before dawn, we took advantage of the dim light to destroy the campsite and carefully descended the mountain.
The previous night's battle between humans and tigers had already raised our alert level to the highest. Everyone was aware of the risks that would arise if the two sides encountered each other, and unconsciously we had already increased our pace.
Around noon, Sasha noticed that the others were running out of energy. After glancing at the high sun, she waved for them to stop: "That's enough. There are plenty of mushrooms around here that can serve as lunch. Let's rest for an hour, have lunch, and then continue on our way!"
As soon as he finished speaking, everyone dispersed to find mushrooms and then brought them back for Sasa to choose from. Zhou Peng and I, on the other hand, were injured, so we didn't have to participate in the labor; we were only responsible for patrolling and gathering firewood.
I had just gathered some dry branches when Zhou Peng, who was standing on the hill in front of me, suddenly waved to me repeatedly: "Mr. Duan, come here quickly, see what I found!"
I noticed that Zhou Peng's expression wasn't one of fear, but rather curiosity, so I quickly walked over to him.
Looking out from this vantage point, there was a thicket of thorns ahead, and the two travel bags we had lost a few days ago were lying right next to it.
Seeing those two camouflage travel bags, goosebumps instantly rose on my skin. I immediately started rolling up the slide of my shotgun: "Third Master, tell everyone to stop working and come here!"
Hearing the shouts, Song Laosan and the others, who were picking mushrooms not far away, gathered around me instantly.
The monkey was also shocked when it saw the two travel bags: "Hey, aren't these our lost things? Could they really have been carried away by wild animals and dragged here?"
"Impossible. The item has been missing for three days, and we've been traveling the whole time. What kind of animal could have such perseverance to lose something so far away?"
Song Laosan also had a bad feeling: "Why do I have a feeling that this is most likely done by someone? Everyone be alert, I'm going to get the things back!"
I raised my gun and followed behind Song Laosan, aiming at the woods next to the travel bag: "Watch out for traps!"
It was a false alarm.
Our travel bags were simply abandoned here; everything inside has disappeared, leaving only two empty backpacks.
The sudden appearance of the backpack made me feel like a heavy stone was pressing on my heart. I said uneasily to Song Laosan, "I have a feeling that we've been tricked. We've been led by the nose from beginning to end."
“I have the same feeling, and I think these two backpacks seem to have been deliberately abandoned here.”
Song Laosan also looked grave: "It's like someone is issuing a warning, saying that we've been targeted."
"Could it be that Wei Shengnan and Qu Ruilin have already discovered our whereabouts?"
The monkey organized his thoughts and said, "Perhaps from the very beginning, they spotted us and tried to deter us by taking our backpacks! But we didn't leave, so they just left the bags on the path we were bound to take. The reason they did this was because they saw the light of our campfire at the foot of the mountain, so they didn't go up the mountain at all, but instead set off overnight towards the location of Hu Shahu's tomb!"
"No, that doesn't make sense!"
I quickly dismissed the monkey's conjecture: "According to you, Qu Ruilin and the others already knew we were in this mountainous area, but they didn't want to make things too awkward, so they took our backpacks, cut off our supplies, and forced us to retreat. In that case, they shouldn't have been moving so slowly. Instead, they would have sped up their pace once they knew the correct route!"
“I agree with Xiao Duan. They took the travel bags, which already cut off our escape route. Why leave the things here? Doesn’t this tell us that they’re ahead and encourage us to speed up?”
Song Laosan contradicted himself halfway through his sentence: "But the fact that these backpacks are here is clearly the work of humans, because it makes no sense for animals to take away the blankets and electronic devices inside, and they certainly wouldn't run hundreds of kilometers just to leave behind two travel bags."
Suddenly, Sasha exclaimed, "They're savages!"
I listened to Zhou Peng's translation and looked at him seriously: "Are you sure Sasha used the word 'wild man'?"
Sasha nodded confidently: "There have always been legends of wild men in this mountain forest. It is said that those guys travel in groups, are strong and healthy, and know how to use tools. Many people who have gone into the mountains in the past have claimed to have seen these creatures, which has even attracted interviews from TV stations, but no substantial evidence has been found."
Song Laosan curled his lip: "It's just a legend, not enough to serve as evidence."
"I'm not just guessing. Look at these two backpacks yourselves. They weren't opened with zippers; they were ripped open by force. According to animal behavior, they certainly wouldn't carry their prey hundreds of kilometers away, especially since there's nothing particularly attractive about these backpacks. If it were a human, why wouldn't they use zippers and instead resort to tearing them open by force?"
Sasha looked at us seriously: "Starting in 2008, farmers in the Far East gradually became disconnected from the economy, and the economic downturn became more and more serious. In 2009, our farm was hit by a snow disaster. At that time, in order to fill my stomach, I left my familiar area for safety and went an extra 50 kilometers to hunt."
That time I was away for half a month, and the harvest was decent. However, while searching for prey, I found that several of the traps I had set showed signs of trapping prey, but all the prey had mysteriously disappeared. Another night, I was sleeping at my campsite when my hunting dog suddenly started barking incessantly. When I chased after it, the dog was dead, clearly killed by a sharp object. There were also human footprints on the ground, like someone wearing shoes, but the patterns were strange.
I sat up straight: "Did a savage do this?"
“I don’t know.” Sasha shook her head. “In my area, there is only one hunter. Logically speaking, I have no competitors, and no one would go deep into the mountains. So I have suspected that this was the work of savages, or that other villagers were secretly following me and trying to steal my prey.”
I picked up the travel bag and inspected it. The zipper was indeed intact, and the opening on the bag was torn along the stitching marks on the side. I looked at Song Laosan with some uncertainty and asked, "What do you think?"
Song Laosan dared not make a hasty conclusion: "It's hard to say."
The monkey said nonchalantly, "What's so hard about saying that? We're already trapped in this forest. Even if there are people ahead, we can only chase after them desperately. We can't just stay here and wait to die, can we?"
A single word awakens one from a dream.
I threw down my backpack and said quickly, "Everyone, keep moving! Work in pairs, and shorten our meal time to half an hour. We'll set off immediately after we've eaten!"
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