bookrebus Chapter 81 then lowered his voice.
Chapter 81 then lowered his voice.
"The nest that Da Shan saw probably ran away in fright when it saw that we outnumbered them."
These creatures rarely show themselves on ordinary days; their appearance today is probably due to extreme hunger. They remain hidden during the day, waiting for the dead of night, when it's dark and they come out to hunt.
As he spoke, he looked at Liu Dashan and added, "Don't let their small size fool you, they're quite fierce. But as long as you don't provoke them, they won't hurt you on their own, so there's nothing to worry about."
The village chief beckoned the two to continue on their way, but then suddenly remembered something: "Oh, right, Old Yao is still looking for this badger."
"He's looking for the badger?"
“Let’s talk as we walk.” The village chief looked around and made a mark on a nearby tree. “This badger is a treasure. It’s tough and durable, and its meat is very fragrant. The badger oil that can be rendered out is a good thing that can be used as medicine. It can cure frostbite. As long as the injury is not too severe, the scars will be invisible in a month or two.”
"That's a real treasure."
"Let's find some time later to catch a few male badgers, cook them in advance, and have them ready for use next winter."
As the village chief chatted, he suddenly remembered something: "Speaking of badgers, there's a funny story. People in the mountains say that when a badger digs a burrow, one digs while the other lies behind it, piling dirt on its body, and then the other pulls the dirt out. Some people call the badger that lies down to catch the dirt a 'dirt cart.'"
It's being told like it's the truth. We've never actually seen a badger digging a burrow, so we don't know if it's true or not. Let's just take it as a joke.
At this moment, Qin Qiming, who was walking at the front, suddenly stopped.
"Qiming..."
Just as Liu Dashan was about to ask a question, Qin Qiming shone his flashlight on the ground and discovered many footprints, indicating that He Changzhao and his group had indeed been here.
Qin Qiming observed the direction in which the footprints extended.
Based on the footprints on the ground, it was determined that they had indeed ventured deep into the old forest.
He speculated that the police might have already guessed that Gao Liang brought the educated youth here to go deeper into the forest.
Qin Qiming crouched down and carefully observed the direction the marks pointed.
Seeing Qin Qiming squatting on the ground, the village chief curiously approached and asked, "How is it? Can you tell where you went?"
Qin Qiming raised his hand and roughly gestured a direction: "I reckon it's this way!"
The village chief looked in the direction Qin Qiming was pointing, pondered for a moment, and said, "He Suo probably figured out that Gao Liang's hideout is in the old woods, so he went in to search."
Qin Qiming took out a map from his pocket and examined it carefully. "This whole area is forest. It's not smart to set up a hideout in the forest; it's too easy to be discovered. However, if we keep going straight in this direction, we're not heading into the old woods. Instead, we go around a bend and reach the southern slope. I reckon there are caves there. He Suo and the others probably went into the wrong cave, provoked a bear, and are in danger."
The village chief thought for a moment, then gave a thumbs-up. "Bringing you out was definitely the right decision. Without you, we'd be like headless flies, bumping around everywhere. Alright, let's go along the edge of this forest and up the hillside to look, and see if we can find you!"
Qin Qiming held the map in his hand, shone a flashlight on it, looked at it for a while, and then continued to make his judgment.
"Uncle Tian, I reckon there are three most likely places where that old lair is hidden."
The first place is the reverse slope behind the mountaintop. The trees there are incredibly dense, and the reverse slope blocks the way. The reverse slope isn't a cliff, although the slope is a bit steep, but people can still climb it.
However, there is a rather tricky problem here, which is that it is too difficult to find food and supplies. If you are not careful, you will starve to the point of being skin and bones in the mountains.
After they came down from the mountain, they didn't loot grain everywhere, but instead targeted educated youth. I think they valued money and women more.
So I figured they were actually most likely hiding here.
He probably thought so too, so it's most likely that they encountered the bear in this area.
The village chief looked at the map and continued, "If it's just the three of us, it would be fine if we could find the people directly and take them back via a detour. But if we encounter a bear, we can't be as lucky as if we encountered a wounded tiger."
Qin Qiming laughed: "In this cold weather, even bears won't wander around aimlessly. What I'm worried about is those bandits in this remote mountain area. There are only three of us, and it's absolutely impossible for us to fight them head-on. We need to figure out how to rescue them first, and then we can talk about it when the reinforcements arrive."
Besides, I suspect those guys probably have some connections to get their hands on this weapon. After all, I still have a Mauser pistol lying around. Don't you guys think something's fishy about this?"
The village chief frowned. "You mean, they found the Japanese army's old armory?"
Qin Qiming nodded: "It's really hard to say. After all, anything can happen before things are clear."
"But when we caught the Blue-Faced Demon last time, didn't we already raid an armory? How could there still be one?"
Qin Qiming: "We need to find their hideout before we can decide this. Besides, who says there has to be only one armory?"
The village chief sighed, "That makes sense!"
The group continued walking forward, and after reaching the top of the mountain, Qin Qiming lay down on the ground and used binoculars to observe the north slope of the old forest.
Unfortunately, it was dark ahead, and nothing could be seen clearly at night.
Qin Qiming was about to give up, but just as he was about to put down the binoculars, a faint glimmer of light suddenly appeared in his field of vision.
He immediately stopped moving and locked onto the location of the flame.
Despite the dim light, Qin Qiming could still make out a cave on the mountain, with a flickering firelight at the entrance.
“There are really figures moving around on the other side, and there are flashes of fire. I don’t think it’s He Suo and his gang! It’s so late, why would they light a fire to keep warm? He Suo and his gang wouldn’t dare to do that.”
The village chief nodded repeatedly in agreement with Qin Qiming's analysis.
Qin Qiming put the binoculars aside and continued, "If I were He Suo, I would hide behind that cliff over there. From that angle, even without binoculars, I could see the fire with my own eyes!"
No sooner had Qin Qiming finished speaking than he heard the furious roar of a wild beast.
The smiles on the village chief's and Liu Dashan's faces instantly froze.
"It's a bear!"
Qin Qiming determined the bear's location by sound; it was very close to them.
That's right, He Changzhao and his group are nearby.
But Qin Qiming's guess was wrong. He Changzhao was not at the bottom of the cliff, but not far from the fire.
Liu Dashan panicked: "What do we do? There are bears here, and only Qiming's gun can deal with them!"
The village chief also knew that it was almost impossible for his hunting rifle to kill the bear with a single shot in such low visibility.
The main problem was that even if Qin Qiming wanted to kill the bear with one shot, he wasn't confident he could.
If the bear gets injured and enraged, all three of them are doomed!
After thinking for a moment, Qin Qiming's eyes darted around, and he lowered his voice.