Chapter 56: Discovered
Editor: Atlas Studios
Everyone was ready and slowly surrounded the center of the net.
Mu Yangling, Liu Li, and Liu Yong bent over to catch rabbits in the middle.
As soon as they appeared, the alarmed rabbits hurriedly fled in all directions. When the rabbits rushed over, the quick-witted Mu Yangling stuffed one in each hand into the cloth bag. With the other hand, she grabbed the bag tightly and continued walking.
Mu Yangling had learned martial arts after all, and she was well-experienced, so she did not find it difficult. In contrast, Liu Li and Liu Yong were in a sorry state.
Even though they had also caught rabbits before, they could not keep up, only succeeding maybe once in three times. In less than half an hour, the two of them were panting.
Mu Yangling shouted, “If you’re tired, go and block the gap. Take a break and continue catching after you’ve recovered.”
When Liu Li and Liu Yong heard this, they walked to the gap on their side and raised their hands to chase the rabbits towards the middle.
When the three sides of the net finally closed, the rabbits were chased to the river. They bounced around the river in panic, but they did not dare to jump down.
Rabbits were afraid of water.
Seeing that the range was gradually decreasing, Mu Yangling raised her hand and said, “Stop! That’s it. Leave six people to hold the net. The rest of you, come in and catch the rabbits.”
Mu Yangling picked up a few large rocks to hold down the corner of the net. Then, she got the six of them to step on the net to stabilize it firmly. The remaining five people stood with her on the same side of the net and caught rabbits with a sack each.
There were about 30 rabbits surrounded. This was the first time Liu Li and the others had followed Mu Yangling out to hunt. Seeing this, their hearts surged and they wished they could kneel down with sparkling eyes.
In the end, a few bold rabbits fell into the water. However, the moment they entered the water, they flailed around haphazardly. It was Liu Ting who picked them up from the water.
“Alright, everyone, rest for a while.” Mu Yangling got someone to tie up the pockets and leave a few small holes for the rabbits to breathe. Then, she sat at the side and looked at the grass. “There won’t be so many rabbits here for four to five days.”
Liu Yuan said with a smile, “Considering how timid rabbits are, I’m afraid they’ll be frightened. By the way, Ah Ling, are there many grasslands like this in the mountain?”
“Not many. We can’t go elsewhere, because there are ferocious beasts.” Mu Yangling said after a pause, “There are many ferocious beasts where there is water and grass. I brought you here because we’re close to the outside. Later, I’ll bring you to the rabbits’ nest.”
“Aren’t you going to town today?” Liu Ting asked.
As the Mu family was a regular supplier to the eateries and restaurants in town, they had to deliver their prey before lunch every day.
“My father went to deliver the prey. I’ll be the one doing the delivery tomorrow.” Mu Yangling stood up and patted her butt. “Let’s go, I’ll bring you to the rabbits’ nest. The forest is densely filled with trees. Don’t go too far away, in case I can’t see you. If you hear me blow the whistle, gather beside me immediately.”
Mu Yangling reiterated the rules of surviving in the forest again. Seeing that they had all understood, she said, “Let’s go.”
In a day, the group captured 68 rabbits. Considering that each rabbit was different in size, Mu Yangling asked Liu Ting and Liu Yuan to take them back and weigh them, before distributing them according to their weight. The extra was to be sent to the widowed families in the village.
In the end, Liu Ting gave Mu Yangling eight fat rabbits. Mu Yangling said, “I don’t need this much at home.”
“They’re still alive. You can feed them and bring them to town tomorrow.”
After some thought, Mu Yangling agreed.
The next day, when she brought people to collect the prey in the trap, they obtained more than on the first day. After a round, all the families in the village had eaten meat. However, perhaps because they had suffered too much previously, many families were still unwilling to eat enough meat and smoked most of it to hang it up, despite the bountiful gains.
No one dared to sell it in town.
Liu He sat at the entrance of the village and watched. Perhaps because of what happened back then, Liu He and the older generation were very strict about this.
As for Mu Yangling, as she brought them further east each day, the time needed every day lengthened. Seeing that she had worked hard, Liu Daqian asked Liu Xuan to deliver the prey to town on Mu Yangling’s behalf.
Mu Yangling agreed after thinking about it. Since they had already captured most of the rabbits in the forest in the west, they would definitely need more time if they wanted to go further east.
The further east they went, the more densely were the rabbits gathered. The grass in the forest had been gnawed until only a section was left. There was even a place where the stems of the grass had been dug up and gnawed because the rabbits were too densely gathered. Aside from rabbits, all they saw were a few roe deer that had lost weight from hunger.
Mu Yangling drooled at the roe deer as she said, “Even though I’ve been eating rabbit meat for a few days, my favorite food is actually still roe deer meat. What a pity…”
Liu Li was puzzled. “Then let’s catch the roe deer. I’ll help you catch them, together with your other uncles.”
Retracting her saliva, Mu Yangling shook her head. “No, they’re already miserable enough. If we eat them, the number of roe deer will probably decrease by a lot next year, so we’d better go catch rabbits.”
After the rabbit finished eating all the grass, the roe deer that had fainted from hunger could only be eaten by other carnivorous animals. If she also ate roe deer, it would probably be very difficult for them to see roe deer next year. Hence, it was better to let them survive.
“Now I understand why it’s said that the occurrence of rabbits will affect the farmers’ harvest.” Liu Ting’s expression was a little ugly. “With so many rabbits, if there’s no grass to eat in the forest next spring, won’t they have to go down the mountain to gnaw on the crops?”
Liu Yong’s face darkened. “Since when did Chef Mountain have so many rabbits?”
The ominous feeling in Mu Yangling’s heart intensified. “What’s behind Chef Mountain?”
How would Liu Ting and company know when the furthest they had been was Mingshui County? Therefore, they shook their heads in confusion.
Mu Yangling pondered for a moment and said, “Forget it, we’ll talk about this later. Let’s catch the rabbits first. Other than the young ones and the pregnant rabbits, we’ll capture the rest.”
They managed to catch more this time than ever before, totaling more than 150. . However, due to worry about next year’s crop harvest, this layer of joy was laced with some melancholy.
“Alright, it’s already noon. Everyone, sit down and rest for a while. We’ll head back soon.” Liu Ting shouted. As he scanned the number of people, he frowned. “Ah Yuan, where are Dazhuang and Zhuzi?”
When Liu Yuan heard this, he stood up and looked around. “They went to relieve themselves. Why aren’t they back yet?”
“Where did they go? Weren’t they told not to stay far away?” Liu Ting was displeased.
“They headed north. Why don’t I go take a look?” Liu Yuan was also a little angry. Zhuzi and Dazhuang were in his group. It didn’t make sense how Zhuzi could be this disobedient despite the fact that he was already the father of two children and was even a year older than him.
When Zhuzi said he wanted to go with Dazhuang to relieve themselves, Liu Yuan had instructed him not to go too far. However, the other party felt embarrassed since Ah Ling, a young lady, was with them, so he pulled Da Zhuang north. Why weren’t they back yet after so long?
As Liu Yuan thought about it, he walked in the direction where Fang Zhuzi had gone. Liu Ting shouted, “Be careful. Tell them we’re going back soon and ask them to hurry.”
Liu Yuan responded. However, it was only after walking for a long distance that he noticed two people squatting on the ground with their heads against each other. He frowned and asked, “What are you guys doing? Even if you’re digging for gold, you should already have dug it out.”
Startled, Fang Zhuzi and Liu Dazhuang fell to the ground.
“What’s wrong with you guys?” Sensing that something was wrong, Liu Yuan immediately ran up.
Fang Zhuzhu jumped up and opened his arms to stop him. “Liu Yuan, what are you trying to do? Da Zhuang and I were the ones who discovered this.”
“What is it?” Liu Yuan frowned. “What are you doing here? Don’t you know that we’re about to leave? Why did you come so far?”
Embarrassed, Liu Dazhuang went forward and pulled Fang Zhuzi back. “Brother Zhuzi, since Brother Yuan is here, why don’t you get Brother Yuan to help? We’ll split it among the three of us later.”
“Bullsh*t. I was the one who discovered this. Why should he share it with us?” Fang Zhuzi shouted indignantly.
Liu Dazhuang frowned and said unhappily, “Brother Zhuzi, I was the one who discovered this.”