sbdcsierra Chapter 143 He almost got his forehead licked by a Siberian tiger with tender affection.
Chapter 143 He almost got his forehead licked by a Siberian tiger with tender affection.
Li Ju'an followed the hound's tracks for a long time but didn't hear any sound.
Veterinarian Zhang suddenly said, "The forest ranger's cabin is just ahead. Why don't we go in and rest for a while while the dog brings the news?"
Li Ju'an shook his head and said, "This area is not Tiger King's territory yet."
He walked behind a bush and found a red deer trapped in a snow trap. He raised his rifle and fired a shot below the deer's ear; the bullet hit the deer squarely in the head, smashing its brains out.
His job of collecting specimens required a one-month deadline, and the specimens included three red deer. He wanted to bring back as many as possible, with the task completed in a month.
He hit the deer on the head, took out the trap, threw the deer onto the sled, and said, "If there's a deer here, then the Tiger King isn't here."
He set traps and snares nearby two days ago. Judging from the depth of the snowdrifts and the speed at which the snow melted, the red deer had been trapped for a long time. No Siberian tigers have been to this area in the past two days.
The hunting dogs stopped barking, which meant they had gone deeper into the valley.
Seven or eight people continued walking deeper into the mountains. The hunting dogs' tracks kept leading forward. Li Ju'an glanced at the sky; something was wrong. The sun set early in winter, and it would soon be pitch black.
He had to quickly lead the hunter to the ranger's cabin for the night.
He called out to Da Hu, but the hunting dogs remained silent. The dog tracks on the ground alternated between walking and running, making it unclear how far they still had to go. Logically, Da Hu wouldn't make such a mistake; he should have returned if he hadn't found any prey. But now Da Hu was running forward relentlessly, and there were no other animal tracks, which made him uneasy.
Suddenly, the barking of hunting dogs came from afar.
It started with a dog barking loudly and forcefully; it was clearly not a Qingchuan dog or a medium-sized dog, but the bark of the white mastiff. Then more dogs began barking loudly, the barking rising and falling in a chaotic, disjointed manner, before quickly dispersing.
The men quickly grabbed their guns and rushed over, running as fast as they could. Soon, all was quiet. They listened carefully for a while and noticed that the hunting dogs had stopped barking. The entire mountain was eerily quiet; there were no sounds of fighting, no screams or howls, only the soft patter of falling snowflakes.
Snowing.
Lu Zhiqiang was already scared. The falling snowflakes seeped into his throat, chilling him to the bone, and made his back break out in a cold sweat. He said, "The hunting dog must have run into Big Claw. Let's bet a big sum that we've definitely bumped into him. I reckon Big Claw spotted the hunting dog a long time ago and is lying in ambush on the hill, just like the tiger observing the donkey in 'The Donkey of Guizhou'."
He spoke so convincingly that I was so scared that I felt the urge to urinate and thought I needed to go relieve myself.
Li Ju'an said, "You still call it 'The Donkey of Guizhou'? If you had this much energy when you were a kid, your dad wouldn't have been beating you every day. If you need to pee, just stand here and pee. We're all grown men, who's going to look at you? Don't let yourself go into the bushes and then turn around and see those huge paw prints in the snow. It'll look like the Tiger King is observing you like he's observing the donkey."
Lu Zhiqiang's knees trembled, and his voice trembled with fear. He really didn't dare to go behind the bushes to relieve himself again.
He could only shiver and pull down his belt to relieve himself on the spot. The temperature outside was extremely low, and he was afraid of freezing, so he relieved himself very quickly, while keeping an eye on Li Ju'an, afraid that he would run out of sight with his men.
Suddenly, a flurry of footsteps sounded ahead; some animal was running frantically across the snow.
Li Ju'an led his men to raise their guns to their faces, aim them forward, crane their necks, and listen to the sounds around them.
It's Hammer who's come back.
Iron Hammer, a dog, ran back, its tail tucked tightly between its legs, and took off running.
The slippery dog, upon seeing the hunter, dared not run any further and quickly hid behind Li Ju'an, whimpering in fear.
Just as Song Desheng was about to curse the hammer for being useless, he suddenly noticed that several hunters simultaneously turned their guns on him.
He paused for a moment, then burst into a tirade: "What are you doing? Why are you pointing guns at me?"
He was about to complain to Li Ju'an when he noticed that Li Ju'an had also pointed a gun at him, and he panicked. He was quick-witted; a thin layer of cold sweat appeared on his forehead, and he quickly raised his gun, turned around, aimed at someone behind him, and pulled the trigger.
boom!
Behind him was Tangzigou, its branches and snow completely obscuring what lay beyond. When he fired, snow began to fall from the trees. The falling snow created a faint outline in the wind.
It's a big tiger!
Li Ju'an roared, "Song Desheng, get down!"
Song Desheng quickly lay down on the snow, and then bursts of gunfire came from behind him.
Li Ju'an raised his gun, fired a shot, and pulled the bolt, directing all the bullets at the Siberian tiger.
Lu Zhiqiang raised his Type 54 pistol and fired. Veterinarian Zhang set up his musket, and the hunters gripped their rifles tightly with both hands, one finger on the trigger, firing wildly as if it were free.
boom! boom! boom!
Song Desheng wanted to lie down in the snow and set up his gun to help, but the intense gunfire and the sight of the Siberian tiger up close terrified him. He even saw the tiger king looking up at him.
He quickly shone his flashlight in front of him, and then heard Li Ju'an and Lu Zhiqiang shout excitedly behind him: "Hit! Hit!"
Song Desheng shone his flashlight and was about to excitedly shout along when he suddenly realized something was wrong. In the area illuminated by the flashlight beam, three or four dark figures jumped around a few times before running away.
Li Ju'an shouted, "Chase!"
Song Desheng quickly grabbed Li Ju'an's trouser leg, causing Li Ju'an to fall to the ground in the snow.
Li Ju'an thought Song Desheng was so scared he was clinging to his leg, and was about to scold him for being a coward when Song Desheng shouted, "Four! There are four! Four tiger kings! And there are three half-grown Siberian tigers too!"
It was completely dark.
The gunfire temporarily frightened the tiger away, and no one dared to light anything, so they just sat there. The moonlight flickered, sometimes bright and sometimes dim, and the snow-covered ground was a blinding white.
The atmosphere was somewhat silent. Lu Zhiqiang broke the silence by counting on his fingers, saying, "The tigress is with three half-grown tigers? That makes four. When we entered the mountain, we saw the footprints of a male tiger, so that's five. Add the tiger cubs we found, and the tigress with her cubs, and that makes at least six?"
There are at least six tiger kings in the Xingan Mountains.
And it's right nearby! Extremely close!
It's said that two tigers can't share the same mountain, unless one is male and the other female. But who would have thought that two female tigers' territories could be so close? It's just a coincidence that Lijiatun and the ranch are located on the border of the two female tigers' territories, facing each other across the distance.
Li Ju'an also fell silent. He knew there were tigers, but he didn't expect there to be at least six. Just now, four of them were still separated from them by a ditch. If Song Desheng hadn't grabbed his trouser leg earlier, and he had chased after them with his gun, he would have been licked on the forehead by the four tigers.