Early the next morning, before dawn, Zhou Cang took his gear and set off again. He planned to go further this time, striving to bring back some big game. In a couple of days, he would go to the Town's Supply and Marketing Cooperative to exchange for some New Year's goods and also make a new dress for Xiao Yatou.
Although Zhang Yue was worried about the danger of entering the mountains, eating meat gave her great confidence. Fugui Ge would definitely bring back prey!
"If your second uncle and them come to our house causing trouble, just call Old Wang and ask Captain Zhao and them for help," Zhou Cang instructed.
This world is so strange; blood relatives can dig you into a hole, while unrelated outsiders can help you through difficulties! Ever since Fu Gui's father passed away, Old Wang and his wife would visit Fugui's family from time to time, seemingly just dropping by, but in reality, they provided a lot of help to Fugui's family.
Following the same route as last time into the mountains, Zhou Cang checked the snares he had set yesterday along the way, again harvesting two pheasants. He put the pheasants into his pocket, reset the snares, and continued forward, carrying a spear, a bow and arrows on his back, and a sharp knife tucked into his waist.
In many parts of the mountain forest, the snow depth had reached calf height. It was slightly better in dense areas because the snow was blocked by tree branches. As he went deeper, the unique tranquility of the primeval forest surrounded Zhou Cang, with only the crunching sound of his own footsteps on the snow accompanying him.
Zhou Cang knew that if he dared to risk his life, hunting in the mountains in this era was almost unrestricted. As the saying goes, 'rely on the mountain to eat the mountain.' For now, he had to start his fortune from these deep mountains and old forests.
In the mountains of the Northeast, besides various wild animals, there are countless mountain products and medicinal herbs. These are potential wealth for you to take, provided you have the ability to get them and walk out alive!
He lowered his head and lifted a layer of snow crust. In the Northeast winter, accumulated snow forms a slightly hard outer shell, sometimes even strong enough to stand on. The snow under the crust was cleaner, without dust. Zhou Cang scooped up a handful of snow, pure white and flawless, and slowly let it melt in his mouth. He didn't dare to take too much; it was too cold.
He sat on a patch of dry grass facing the sun and pulled out a roasted potato from his chest to eat a few bites. It was a habit from his previous life on the battlefield; Zhou Cang liked to eat something at any time to replenish his energy. If he waited until he was hungry to eat, he would actually be in a state of low blood sugar, which would cause slow reactions on the battlefield and make it easy to suffer from hypothermia in the old forests of the Northeast.
The potato had been kept warm inside his clothes by his body heat. It was soft and sticky upon biting, and the energy from the high starch content was enough for him to walk for another two hours.
His gaze scanned the surroundings, and a few scattered black droppings caught his attention. They looked a bit like sheep droppings but were slightly larger and not round but closer to cylindrical. These granular droppings were clearly from a herbivore, and judging by the size of the droppings, the animal's body size should be larger than a sheep's.
Big game!
Thinking of this, Zhou Cang took his bow and arrows in hand and slowly searched the surroundings. As expected, in an open area in the woods not far away, a group of animals was wandering and foraging.
This was a group of roe deer. The Northeast proverb 'hitting a roe deer with a stick and scooping fish with a ladle' refers to these creatures! They had brownish-yellow, slightly grayish fur. The one with antlers was slightly larger and was male, while the ones without antlers were females.
Quietly sneaking to the edge of the open area, Zhou Cang stood behind a tree, took a deep breath, slowly drew the bowstring back fully, aimed, and shot!
With a "whoosh," a single arrow pierced the hind leg of a female roe deer! In his previous life, he was skilled in archery, and even in Fugui's body now, he could still hit the target with one shot!
The injured roe deer let out a scream and tried to run but fell to the ground. This also startled the other roe deer, causing them to scatter in panic. They had no idea which direction the danger was coming from!
Two of them even ran towards Zhou Cang!
One roe deer saw Zhou Cang but didn't stop. Perhaps it didn't associate its companion's injury with the upright creature in front of it. It just ran towards Zhou Cang with wide eyes, trotting along!
How could he let such an opportunity slip away?
Zhou Cang threw the bow in his hand, lunged forward, wrapped his arms around the roe deer's neck, and simultaneously kicked its front leg joint. Then, he pressed his full body weight down. This roe deer's head only reached Zhou Cang's chest height when it lifted its head. How could it withstand such a combo? It was immediately tackled to the ground, howling and kicking its legs wildly!
Zhou Cang's eyes were cold. At this moment, he seemed to be back on the battlefield. He pulled out the sharp knife with his backhand and plunged it into the roe deer's neck, cutting its windpipe and carotid artery. Gradually, the struggle beneath him weakened until there was no movement. Only then did Zhou Cang stand up and look at the roe deer he had shot earlier.
The other roe deer had already run far away, with a few still looking back. The injured roe deer lay on the ground, trying to struggle to its feet but constantly falling down.
Zhou Cang walked over, pinned the roe deer down with his knee, and ended its life by inserting the knife in the same spot. Killing two roe deer with his bare hands was no pressure for him. On the European battlefield, he had killed an enemy soldier in hand-to-hand combat this way. After they encountered each other, they first shot at each other, and the opponent even tried to throw a grenade at him. In the end, they both ran out of bullets and wrestled together, which ended with Zhou Cang's dagger plunged into the opponent's neck.
He pulled the arrow out of the roe deer's hind leg, wiped the blood clean in the snow, and put it back in the quiver. He then dragged the two roe deer together, arranged them face-to-face, leg-to-leg, tied their front legs together with hemp rope, and cut a sturdy tree branch to thread through. Zhou Cang then hoisted the two roe deer onto his shoulder like this.
The two roe deer together weighed about less than a hundred catties, which wasn't too heavy. Seeing that the sun was past noon, Zhou Cang began to descend the mountain and head home.
As soon as he entered the yard, Zhang Yue rushed out of the house. Seeing the roe deer and pheasants lying on the ground, she couldn't stop smiling.
"Fugui Ge, you're amazing! You actually caught roe deer, and two of them!" Xiao Yatou jumped up and down with joy.
"You'll have to get used to it. Our family will have more and more of this kind of thing in the future!" Zhou Cang also laughed.
"Tonight we'll eat roe deer meat. We'll eat one of these two roe deer ourselves, and tomorrow I'll sell one at the Town's Supply and Marketing Cooperative!"
Zhou Cang looked at the coffin still in the yard, frowned, went to the storage shed to find a large axe and a large saw, and in a few swings, chopped the coffin into firewood. As he chopped the wood, he said to Zhang Yue, "That dog Zhang Shengli, he used to always bully you, right?"
Zhang Yue pursed her lips and didn't speak. When her father was alive, Zhang Shengli always liked to take advantage of her verbally and tease her. In the past few months, it had been even worse; every time she met him in the Village, he was very annoying.
"You don't need to be afraid. If he dares to show his face to you again, I'll tear his mouth off!" Zhou Cang narrowed his eyes and said softly.
What kind of damn relatives! Zhao Kaishan bringing back grain is one thing, but Zhang Shengli and his father's intentions towards Zhang Yue are not over yet!