Chapter 9

  "Let's go; Tiger Ridge is still far away." The girl tugged at the rifle that was slung across her body.

  "Tiger Ridge? Are there really tigers there?." Lin Li asked with a frown.

  Zhang Xiang shook his head to indicate that he didn't know, but Hu Tong said, "The county annals said that a tomb was discovered nearby."

  Daniu gnced at him. She didn't expect that this young man knew so much. There was indeed a record of this in the county annals, but those tombs found near Tiger Ridge were not of much value. They were just ordinary tombs of Jin Dynasty people. There were records before liberation, but no one continued to excavate because of the wild animals.　She remembered that Fan Jie was on the list of compilers of the county annals.　Could it be that these people were here for the Jin Dynasty tombs? Daniu denied it again. Living here, she had studied the local history and knew that there shouldn't be any particurly rge tombs there. Even during the Jin Dynasty, it was a remote pce that was very difficult to enter. Never mind. We’ll know what they’re going to do once we meet them in person.

  The group continued on their way. It was already past two in the afternoon when they set out, and now it was dark. There were many wild animals coming out at night, and in order to avoid unnecessary trouble, Daniu took them around some pces.

  Lin Li had been here before and thought that Comrade Ma was wasting time by taking them on a detour. However, after they turned a hill and heard the howling of wolves on the other side, he stopped talking.

  "We should not go further; let's find a pce to rest." Daniu saw that Hu Tong, the weakest member of the team, could no longer keep up, and the others were also very tired. If they continued walking, they would all colpse from exhaustion.

  "Well, it's getting te." Although Zhang Xiang was old, he could still walk. There were not many cars these days, and most people had to walk to get things done. Zhang Xiang was used to walking, but it is difficult to walk in this deep mountain.

  After confirming that they wanted to rest, Daniu led them to walk another half a mile and found a cave on a hill.　"This is a temporary shelter I made to rest before entering the mountains. We'll rest here for the night."

  Daniu moved away the rocks and branches at the entrance of the cave. Originally, this pce was just a small cave, but ter, seeing that it was a good pce, she dug a little deeper and used it as a resting pce when she went into the mountains.

  There was a torch at the entrance of the cave, which was made of cloth strips soaked in pine oil. After the torch was lit, Daniu walked inside with it. The cave was wide inside, but narrow outside, only enough for one person to pass through. After a passage of about two meters, she entered the cave, which was only about ten square meters. It was obvious that the cave was dug by people, and the walls were compacted. There was a wooden bed in the room, with a stone base and a wooden board on top, and a rolled animal skin mattress on top. There was also a table in the cave.

  Using a torch to light the oil mp on the table, Daniu said to a few people, "Let's just stay here for one night."

  Everyone was quite surprised. No one had thought that there was a pce to live in this primeval forest.

  Daniu took a bag of things from the ground in the cave, went out of the cave, and scattered the contents around. It was dried bear dung from a brown bear she encountered st month. It should have come from the north. At that time, she ran into the brown bear and shot it three times before it colpsed. It was very ferocious. Animals in the forest have a very sensitive sense of smell. Now the bear dung should not have lost its effect yet. She hoped it would be quiet tonight.

  After she was done, she went back in.

  "Dig a stove here and make a fire to warm yourself." Daniu pointed to the entrance of the cave. There were no big trees for a distance in front of the cave, so it was easy to make a fire after the ground was cleared.　There was an iron pot, a bucket, and some simple daily necessities in the cave. Daniu took the bucket and left.

  "Squad leader, this girl is amazing." Seeing the girl leave, a tall guy in Li Li's css couldn't help but say. He was the fastest hiker in their squad, but after this trip, he was almost not as good as this girl.

  “There are many extraordinary people there.” Lin Li said with emotion.

  Their group dug a fire pit and took out the dry food on their bodies, ready to make do with a meal. At this time, they saw Comrade Ma coming back, carrying a bucket in one hand and two rabbits and two pheasants in the other.

  "Oh, Comrade Ma, you are really capable." Zhang Xiang didn't know what to say as he gave a thumbs up.

  Daniu smiled and said, "Eat well tonight. Tiger Ridge is not far away. Let's set off early tomorrow morning and try to get there before nightfall."

  Two young soldiers came over quickly to take over the buckets, pheasants, and rabbits, and everyone started to clean up together. Daniu took out the salt and peppercorns from the jar and said, "There is nothing else, so let's make do with it."

  There were eleven of them, and two rabbits and two chickens were not many, so they cleaned them up and stewed them directly in a big pot, leaving some soup, and ate them with dry food.

  After eating, the Daniu asked them to go to sleep in the cave. "You guys go in; I have a lot of clothes on; I will keep watch outside."

  "How can that be possible?" Lin Li disagreed.

  "Let's take turns on duty."

  "No need; you guys should get some sleep; we have a tough battle tomorrow."

  Daniu said as she spread her animal skin mattress at the entrance of the cave, climbed on it, wrapped herself tightly with her coat, and then covered herself with the extra mattress so that even her head was not exposed.

  Lin Li looked at her lying at the entrance of the cave, her face not even showing, and she seemed to have fallen asleep very quickly with her rifle in her arm.

  After thinking for a while, he went back without saying anything. He didn't ask anyone to come out to watch the night as it was obvious that this girl was really an experienced hunter.

  Maybe it was because of the bear dung; no wild animals came that night, and the Daniu slept well. She was really used to this kind of life. She still liked to enjoy the tranquility in the forest. When she walks in a crowd, she keeps remembering and absorbing everything she sees. Sometimes she would subconsciously analyze everything she saw. Although it was no longer a burden, it was not what she liked. She could rex here.

  She liked this forest. In the summer, she liked to find a big pine tree, climb up, tie a few ropes, lie on them, and fall asleep slowly smelling the pine oil. In the spring, she liked to find a thick meadow and lie on it to smell the fragrance of the soil. In autumn, she preferred to lie on the thick fallen leaves in the forest and bask in the scorching sun. It always made her not want to get up. She liked the feeling of using the ground as a bed. Letting go of the five senses and merging with the earth.

  Only in winter, the winter here is long and cold; the thick snow makes it impossible to move forward; the forest is silent in winter; the snow seems to absorb all the sounds, so she likes to hide in the snow, watching the prey from afar walk to the trap she made.

  Daniu got up before dawn, went to a nearby spring to wash her face and fetch some water, lit a fire to boil water, and returned to the cave where everyone else had also gotten up.

  Without wasting time, they ate some dry food and drank some hot water before setting off. Before leaving, Daniu put out the fire, buried it, got some stones to block the cave entrance, and then covered it before leaving. It was not to guard against people. The forest rangers knew that Daniu had made several caves so that they would have a pce to stay after entering the mountain. Especially in winter, when there is a blizzard, such a pce can save lives.

  There are many cave huts in the forest, which were built by old hunters who go in and out of the mountains. Most of the wooden huts have some food. If you get lost in the forest, such a forest hut can save your life. Some hunters use up the supplies in the hut and will replenish them the next time they go into the mountains. There are no rules, just a tacit understanding among everyone.

  This time they hardly stopped on the road. Daniu found several traces left by those people. They did not walk fast and probably did not know the road well. They must have taken a detour in the middle. They probably thought that they had entered the forest and others would not find them, so they no longer concealed their tracks, and some of their garbage was left in the forest without being buried.

  "These people are indeed from the isnd country." Hu Tong said, pointing at two empty cans.　Needless to say, everyone could tell that the words written on these cans were clearly in the isnd country's nguage.

  "These things should have been left three days ago." Daniu looked at the traces on the ground and said, "We're almost at Tiger Ridge. Let's take a break and eat something first."

  Lin Li and Zhang Xiang agreed, and everyone stopped to take a rest.

  Daniu opened the bag she was carrying and took out a cloth bag. Inside was oil tea noodles, which were specially fried by her mother for her. It was a life-saving food with plenty of ingredients, such as sugar, salt, peanuts, and sesame seeds, and was especially filling.

  She gave everyone some oil tea noodles. Since they could not make hot water, they could only eat them dry and drink some water.

  After eating, they set off again. Everyone was very careful as they approached Tiger Ridge.　The daniu suddenly stopped and gestured to pause with her hand, then raised her rifle and gestured with her hand to keep quiet and suppress the noise.

  Although these people didn't see anything, they all squatted down obediently.

  Daniu took out a small paper bag from her bag and opened it carefully, then blew it in front of her, and white powder floated around.

  After waiting for a while, Lin Li was about to ask in a low voice what was going on when he suddenly saw a yellow and bck figure appear in his sight about 50 meters in front of them on the left, and everyone suddenly became nervous.

  Daniu pointed the rifle at the big cat, narrowed her eyes, and whispered to them to lower their head and not look directly at it.

  Everyone lowered their heads and even breathed carefully, for fear of disturbing the big cat.

  The big cat stopped in front of them and sniffed as if it smelled something bad, then turned and walked in another direction.

  After a long while, Daniu put down her rifle, and everyone breathed a sigh of relief.

  "Wow, it's worthy of being called Tiger Ridge; there really are tigers there." Zhang Xiang felt cold sweat on his back.

  "Let's go. This tiger has lived in Tiger Ridge for more than a year. It should have just reached adulthood and hasn't started a family yet." Daniu had encountered this tiger several times.

  "Let's go. Those people also left from here." She pointed to a cigarette butt on the ground, and a surge of anger surged in her heart. Smoking in the forest is akin to seeking death.

  Styvetass