Rebirth of Bayi Fishing and Hunting in the Northwest

Chapter 1167 Picked up a bear along the way
Li Xiangqian didn't care at all about Li Long wanting explosives; he simply approved the request and sent him to the security section to collect the supplies.

The security team naturally had no objections, and Li Long even managed to snag some bullets from them. Although he hadn't been hunting much lately, he still stocked up on these things from time to time, and he was thinking of taking the gun into the mountains tomorrow to see if he could hit anything.

After collecting his belongings, Li Long went home first, and then rushed to Shicheng to bring back two large basins of mutton offal just before sunset.

Now that the temperature has risen, the leftover mutton offal at Keyum's place must be cooked. He doesn't have a refrigerator or freezer, so if the cooked offal is sealed in oil, it can be kept for a few more days.

If you leave it uncooked, it will quickly go bad.

Now, making a good living selling lamb offal is quite lucrative, and Keyum is very satisfied.

Back home, after dinner, Li Long took Gu Xiaoxia to practice driving again.

Because Li Long had already said so, Gu Xiaoxia patiently continued practicing the program without upgrading.

Today, Li Long also focused on correcting his wife's habit of looking down at the gear shift. After correcting her several times, Gu Xiaoxia couldn't stand it anymore, so she simply turned off the car and practiced driving herself in the driver's seat.

Li Long could sense that although Gu Xiaoxia didn't seem to care much about his technical progress and seemed rather unhurried, she was actually quite relaxed about it.

But actually, he was still holding his breath.

He didn't know the reason, but he knew that what he needed to do was not to make her anxious, nor to let her fall into self-doubt.

So when Gu Xiaoxia took the initiative to ask for extra practice of the "routine," Li Long readily agreed, and occasionally gave her reminders, but mainly relied on Gu Xiaoxia herself to correct her mistakes.

The effect was quite obvious, and Li Long soon felt that Gu Xiaoxia was becoming proficient in the starting and starting movements.

"Hmm, you can give it a try." After one practice session, Li Long said with a smile, "Give it a try, it will definitely be better than before. If there are any minor problems, just use the method you are using now, practice first and then do real-world exercises."

"I feel like I've improved too." Gu Xiaoxia's mood had clearly improved a lot. She smiled and said, "You can feel it too?"

"Sure," Li Long praised her. "You're obviously more skilled now, and you don't have to look down anymore. You can try starting, give yourself a mental boost, you can do it!"

Okay, fine, he's using all sorts of self-help methods in his driving practice.

Encouraged by Li Long, Gu Xiaoxia gained even more confidence, turned the key to start the engine, pressed the clutch, and shifted gears...

Sure enough, this time I didn't check the gear. When I released the clutch and gave it gas, the engine shuddered slightly and roared with normal sound. The car left its original position and accelerated forward.

"Beautiful!" Li Long exclaimed. "That's it!"

Gu Xiaoxia blushed slightly at Li Long's praise, panicked for a moment, and her foot slipped a little, causing the car to lurch. She quickly regained her balance, drove half a lap, and then began to slow down, stepping on the brake and shifting to neutral...

"Hmm, not bad, not bad, worthy of praise!" Li Long said with a smile.

"Hey, I can do it!" Gu Xiaoxia's face shone with confidence. "Of course, you teach well too. I was worried I was too stupid to learn, but you can do everything. Compared to you, I seem a bit inferior..."

Li Long understood; the anger his wife had been holding in stemmed from her fear of the vast gap between them. He smiled and said:

"Who dares to say you're stupid? You already have a junior college diploma, right? You've been studying for a bachelor's degree on your own for a while now, haven't you? How many bachelor's degree holders are there in our county? Don't you know how amazing you are?"

"Well... it's different. It's all knowledge from books, and it's ultimately different from reality." Gu Xiaoxia was a little embarrassed by Li Long's praise.

"No need to be modest, you really are very good," Li Long said with a smile. "Alright, that's enough for today, let's go back. Practice for a few more days, and you'll be able to hit the road."

Unusually, Gu Xiaoxia wasn't in a hurry. She got out of the car and switched places with Li Long. She sat in the passenger seat, still thinking about the driving procedure in her mind.

She also wanted to learn to drive as soon as possible, because if anything happened, driving would be faster than riding a bicycle.

Back home, as they got out of the car, Mingming and Haohao, who had been playing with Han Fang, rushed over. Haohao tugged at Gu Xiaoxia's clothes, while Mingming, somewhat unhappy, said to Li Long:

"Dad, you and Mom go out for fun without taking us with you!"

Li Long laughed and explained:
“I took your mother out for driving lessons. How can I take you to a driving school in that kind of place? When your mother is practicing, you will disturb her if you are in the car, and if you are outside the car, it is easy for accidents to happen, do you understand?”

"Well...we want to drive too." Mingming thought Li Long's words made sense, so she changed the subject, revealing her true purpose.

“You’re too young. I’ll teach you to drive when you’re older.” Li Long went to the well to pump water to wash his hands, saying as he did so, “You’re too young now. If you try to drive, the police will arrest you.”

Even the most daring kids could be threatened with the police at this point. Hearing that they'd be arrested if they talked about driving, the two children immediately stopped talking about learning to drive. Mingming, however, still held onto hope and, after Li Long washed his hands, mustered his courage and asked:

"Dad, when can I learn to drive so I won't get arrested by the police?"

“When you get into university,” Li Long said with a smile, “you’ll learn to drive then, and you won’t get caught.”

"Okay, then let's work hard to get into university!" Mingming made up her mind.

"But..." Hao Hao, who hadn't spoken until now, hesitated and said to his older brother, "But we're in kindergarten now, and we still have to go to elementary and middle school..."

"It's better than not being able to drive at all." Mingming was very smart; he had already understood this principle by now.

"Hahaha, yes, that's it. Study hard!" Li Long patted the two children on the head and pulled them into the house.

The next day, after breakfast, Li Long drove into the mountains to deliver explosives to Meng Hai and his men. He carried a gun and a satchel full of bullets.

I haven't hunted for a while, so I was thinking of going into the mountains to see if I could find anything to shoot.

When they arrived at Meng Hai's place, Meng Hai greeted them and led his men to unload the explosives and mutton offal. Then, he told Li Long something that made him happy:

"A bear came by around midnight last night!"

"A bear? A brown bear?" Li Long was immediately delighted. "Where did it go now?"

"I don't know. When we first heard the noise, we thought it was a wolf. We thought we could eat wolf meat again, so we took our things and came out. I had a gun with me. When we came out, we found a black guy looking for food on the ground where we dumped the pot water."

When I shone my flashlight on it, it was a bear. It wasn't very tall, about 1.5 or 1.6 meters, but its menacing baring of its teeth and claws startled me. Just as I raised my gun to shoot, it fled into the mountains while the flashlight was still shining on it.

"Which direction?" Li Long asked immediately.

"Over there." Meng Hai pointed to the mountains southeast of the tent. "It's over there. The bushes are a bit tall. I fired a shot, but I missed."

“Okay, I’ll go take a look.” Li Long retrieved his gun and bullets from the jeep, slung his backpack over his shoulder, and said as he walked into the mountains:

"Just leave me a bowl when we eat later. If I can hit it, I will; if not, I'll come back."

After saying that, Li Long went over and observed carefully. He found the bear's paw prints and followed them into the mountains.

Hey, Comrade Li Long is really something!

Meng Hai shook his head, picked up the box of explosives, and walked towards the work site, calling out to people as he went.

Now that we've got the explosives, let's blast that rock apart first. Leaving it there is just a nuisance.

The bear fled in a panic, leaving behind numerous traces: broken bush branches, clear claw marks, and trampled dead twigs, among others.

Li Long followed the trail into the bushes halfway up the mountain. When he came out, it was a sparse pine forest.

Upon reaching this location, the bear tracks faded. The dry pine needles on the ground bounced back when stepped on, leaving no marks. Li Long observed the area for a while, looking in several directions, before venturing into the pine forest. He quickly discovered rubbed brown hairs on a pine tree with sprawling branches.

It's a bear.

He continued walking in that direction. There weren't many shrubs growing in the pine forest, and the occasional weeds weren't very tall. Some mushrooms had already sprouted.

After walking four or five hundred meters into the pine forest, just as I thought I was almost at the end, I found a pile of black feces, many oval-shaped black droppings, which must have been from a bear.

Li Long memorized the scent and continued his pursuit.

As I was walking, I suddenly heard a muffled thud behind me. The sound was quite loud and echoed through the valley.

Li Long thought for a moment before realizing that Meng Hai must have had someone blow up the rock.

However, I estimate that the rocks might not be completely destroyed in one go; there might be another blast later.

Li Long continued walking forward, leaving the forest and continuing downhill until he reached the stream.

Surprisingly, there were quite a few small fish here. A section of the stream was rather shallow with a drop in elevation, and some small chub darted upstream. Seeing Li Long approach, the fish quickly darted away. Then Li Long noticed that Xiong had lingered here for quite a while. He guessed that the guy had probably seen the same thing as him and then tried to catch some fish, though he didn't know if he had succeeded.

Even if you catch them, you still won't get enough to eat. The pike are too small. If a bear were to eat them, it would take at least a hundred or so to get full.

The fish that darted out looked like they were making a big commotion, but there were actually only about ten of them.

There might be more in deeper water, but they're so small that a bear can't catch them. This isn't the large salmon from Northeast China; it's not that easy to catch.

Li Long looked across the stream and saw paw prints on the wet mud. The bear had crossed the water and gone to the other side.

The marks look quite fresh; they shouldn't have been there more than a day ago.

Li Long continued his pursuit. He had just crossed the stream when he heard another muffled sound behind him, even louder than the first one.

I wonder how many tubes of explosives Meng Hai used this time.

Li Long continued the pursuit. He was fast on his feet, his long legs moving quickly, and he crossed a mountain in just a few minutes. When he heard the explosion again, the sound was not loud anymore, and it felt like it was several kilometers away.

The bear's paw prints became clearer, and Li Long saw that the bear had rested in a rocky hollow, where there was some fur it had rubbed off and some scattered feathers.

I wonder what unlucky bird got eaten by the bear, or maybe its feathers were eaten by another animal and the bear just happened to bump into it?

Further along the search, the claw marks became clearer, indicating they were likely made this morning.

Li Long felt more confident. He felt he could outrun the bear. The bear had moved a little faster last night but slowed down this morning. If he continued chasing, he estimated he would catch up with the bear when he was about seven or eight kilometers away from Meng Hai and the others.

With my own speed, catching up with this bear, shooting it down, and bringing it back shouldn't be a problem, right?

It's about 1.56 meters tall, that's a small brown bear, weighing no more than 100 or 200 kilograms, I should be able to carry it.

Thinking this, Li Long quickened his pace, gripping his gun tightly, and loaded bullets as he walked, knowing he couldn't fight an unprepared battle.

As they continued forward, the mountain became steeper, and the path ahead became increasingly difficult. It was clear that the bear was moving forward with a goal in mind; although the path was difficult, its direction remained unchanged.

Li Long walked along the mountainside, muttering to himself, "What is this guy looking for?"
Then suddenly I saw a mess of marks: brown bear fur, yellow fur from other animals, bloodstains, turned-up soil, and broken shrub branches.

Then something rolled down. Li Long followed the trail of the roll down into the ravine. The bushes there were still quite dense, and it seemed like something was down there. The trail of the roll was very clear, and a patch of bushes had been flattened.

Li Long, carrying his gun, cautiously walked down the path.

After walking all the way to the bottom of the ravine, under a large patch of bushes, I witnessed a bloody scene.

A brown bear was gnawed into a mess, most of its internal organs were eaten, and its head and neck were torn apart, leaving only half of them connected. The smell of blood was overwhelming, and bits of flesh and blood were scattered everywhere.

Because the bushes were quite tall, you couldn't see what was below from above. You only discovered the "crime scene" after coming down here.

What could possibly eat a bear?
Li Long cautiously looked around, gun in hand, holding his breath and listening intently.

With his current hearing, he can hear the breathing of livestock within a radius of several dozen meters, provided there are no other sounds interfering.

But right now I can't hear anything. Occasionally, when the wind blows, all I can hear is the sound of the blades rubbing together.

It ate the bear's thing and then left.

Li Long recalled Yu Shanjiang's earlier claim of having obtained half a bear skin, and guessed that it had been killed by a tiger.

Is this bear one too?
The creature that can fight a bear up there is probably not a wolf, right?
Could it be a tiger that managed to kill a bear by biting it and throwing it to its death here?

He was currently deep in the mountains, a place that would be difficult for most people to reach under normal circumstances. Even Li Long himself wouldn't have been able to get here if it weren't for road construction.

That means that it is very likely that some of the big creatures that people don't usually see live here, such as the Xinjiang tiger.

Li Long looked around again to make sure there was no danger, and then began to collect the body.

There's no way around it; even if the tiger eats half of this thing, the remaining portion can still be useful after some cleaning.

The bear head was still relatively intact. Li Long had never properly cared for bear heads before; they were usually just thrown away. This time, he planned to retrieve it.

The brown bear was mainly eaten for its internal organs. Although some of its flesh was gnawed on, the perpetrator probably thought the internal organs were more palatable than the meat, so it was left largely untouched. The bear's roe was basically still intact.

The intestines inside the stomach were reduced to several broken pieces, the heart, liver, lungs, and other organs had been eaten, the gallbladder was ruptured, and some dark green bile had leaked out, while some of it was probably eaten along with the liver.

Li Long felt it was a bit of a pity, but there was nothing he could do about it.

He looked around and quickly found the trail of the guy who had eaten the bear. He then picked up his gun and followed the trail.

The creature darted through the bushes, leaving very faint tracks. Once it emerged from the bushes, the tracks Li Long saw were much fainter; this thing was incredibly sensitive.

When Li Long followed the footprints to the top of the mountain, he looked around but saw nothing.

The terrain here is open, and if that thing were nearby, it would actually be easy to spot. It's just that it was probably moving too fast and had to find a place to hide.

Li Long could only regretfully pick up his gun and return to where Xiong was.

Since we can't find anything else, let's just take advantage of this opportunity.

He turned off the safety on the gun and put it aside, then took out a knife and began to deal with the situation.

The pelt is difficult to skin, but it's not impossible. Li Long's skinning skills are currently quite good, and with careful handling, he can remove the pelt relatively intact—"relatively" refers to the current situation.

It took more than half an hour to skin the small bear, and then we cleaned up the gnawed parts.

They spread out the bear skin, placed the crocodile on it, and used a machete to cut off all the bitten parts. Then they used a short knife to slice off the gnawed meat and scoop out the bits of meat left inside the crocodile.

The four bear paws had already been chopped off. Li Long took out several bags from his backpack, put the bear head and bear paws in one bag, the bear skin in another bag, and the remaining half of the bear carcass in a third bag.

He planned to wait until he found running water to wash away the remaining filth and blood from the roe, and that would be enough.

This bear isn't fat; it doesn't have enough fat. It must have just woken up from hibernation, and most of its fat was used up over the winter, so it hasn't replenished it yet.

So the bear looked quite thin, which saved Li Long the trouble of carrying it.

Although the three bags weren't heavy, they were quite troublesome to carry, and blood was seeping out of the bags. Li Long realized that he had been careless and should have changed into an old set of clothes.

Li Long was no longer used to going into the mountains to hunt, so he didn't bring any old clothes in the car this time and had to wash them when he got back.

Once they were out of the mountains and reached the flowing water, Li Long put down the bag, poured the roe into the water, and began to rinse it.

The man was covered in blood and oil, and Li Long was rinsing it by the water. Soon, a layer of oil and congealed blood fragments floated on the surface of the water.

However, it didn't attract the fish that Li Long had imagined. He didn't know if the fish didn't like to eat these things, or if the commotion was too loud and scared the fish away.

After washing the clams clean, Li Long lifted them up to drain the water, and then put them into a bag.

The bag containing bear skin, bear head, and bear paws can be held in one hand and carried on the back, while the bag containing croaker can only be carried in the front with the other hand, which is perfect for draining water and blood.

They came with great strides, but on the way back, their steps slowed considerably, as these things were quite heavy.

By the time Li Long trekked over mountains and valleys back to where Meng Hai and the others were working, it was already noon. Meng Hai and the others had already eaten lunch, rested, and continued working.

Seeing Li Long return with so many bags, Meng Hai said with a smile:

"I knew you'd find something! What did you do?"

"I picked up a bear."

"Picked it up?"

"Ah."

P.S.: Also, I met a really talented screenwriter who pointed out all the flaws in my book; I learned a lot. Through this amazing editor, I also made a bunch of friends and we had a really great late-night snack—I think it was some kind of "big head" snack?
(End of this chapter)