Infinite Hunter

Arudimula was already prepared and couldn't wait to let Cheng Yijiu climb onto his back. He spread his wings and flew up in the wind and snow, his target being the monster covered in ice armor.

Cheng Yijiu was about to become a fierce warrior king. He held a greatsword, but it wasn't that exaggerated. There was no such thing as a greatsword more than a man's height. This cold iron sword was just an enlarged and widened hand-and-a-half sword. The ointment had taken effect. The freezing temperature of -45 degrees Celsius couldn't take away Cheng Yijiu's body heat. The lion skin didn't become stiff in the cold, but instead fluttered in the wind, protecting the parts of Cheng Yijiu's body that emitted heat.

At this moment, Cheng Yijiu looked a lot like Conan the Barbarian, even their weapons seemed similar. The severe cold also had no difficulty in making the manticore's movements inconvenient—even though this guy actually lived in the arid tropics, Arudimurra remained unfazed by the cold.

The dark brown manticore flew over the treetops, visibility low in the blizzard. Soon, its nearly black mane turned snow-white, and Cheng Yijiu, with a hint of gold, frequently brushed away the snow that had obscured his brows. Suddenly, the blizzard ceased, and a thick pillar of sunlight shone through the clouds. The forest vanished before their eyes, replaced by a snowy plain stretching over ten square kilometers.

Right on the snowy plain, the monster that came with the ice and snow was completely exposed to Cheng Yijiu's eyes. Arudimu began to dive, but the monster also noticed them and turned its head directly towards Cheng Yijiu. The end of the tentacles lit up with a blue light. Seeing this guy open his mouth, a blue ball of light sprayed out.

After flying about twenty meters, the ball exploded, disintegrating into a multitude of tiny blue dots. "Oh, damn!" the man and the scorpion lion exclaimed in unison. Arudimurra forcibly altered its wing profile, making a sharp turn and crashing into the ground. The tough-skinned scorpion lion was momentarily stunned. If it weren't for the cushioning snow on the ground, it might have suffered a broken bone.

Cheng Yijiu had already rolled down. The snow in this ghost place was half a person deep. Relying on the strength of his body, Cheng Yijiu forcefully pushed away the snow and rushed towards the monster.

It seemed the monster wouldn't be able to spit out a second shot for a while, perhaps because it saw no harm in a small creature like this? It looked down on Cheng Yijiu and was even prepared to bite him off if he got close. So it suffered its first blow...

Cheng Yijiu also understood one thing—in this increasingly absurd world, close combat was always the most effective form of attack. He twisted his body, gathering strength like a torsion spring, and with a single blow, he slashed at the monster's outstretched front claw—a single finger of its own was nearly half a person's height.

This sword strike wasn't just a manicure; it truly slashed through the tip of one claw, reaching its base with unstoppable force, nearly splitting the claw in two. As the monster gushed out frozen blue-white blood, it let out a deafening howl.

Chapter 18

The monster had no idea its tiny prey would be such a major nuisance, much like a human encountering a golden ringed hornet. While the damage from this blow wasn't necessarily severe, it was certainly excruciating and reduced the monster's combat effectiveness. "Huh? Not too difficult, huh?" Cheng Yijiu thought. He had experience battling large beasts, and the weapon he had was effective, so that was good.

With a lion skin on his body and a magic sword in his hand, a monster that spews ice breath is nothing to him. Teach it how to be a monster with the invincible roll!

However, there was a small problem. The snow greatly hindered Cheng Yijiu's roll, and there was no invincibility frame in the roll in this world. The lion skin increased the error tolerance to a very high level, but the lion skin's defense against blunt force attacks was not as high as its defense against sharp weapons. The monster in front of him was much more agile than the previous black dragon.

Being a tough guy might be difficult, but becoming a Hercules is still possible. Cheng Yijiu used the lion skin to block the opponent's attacks several times, and the injuries were not serious, just bruises. He avoided the truly dangerous attacks. "This monster is quite dangerous. The closer you get, the lower the temperature. Is it absorbing heat to survive?" Cheng Yijiu's sword is quite powerful, but against larger opponents, a spear is still the most suitable.

Even if the greatsword penetrated to the hilt, the entire blade wouldn't penetrate more than 1.3 meters. This depth wouldn't hurt a monster with surprisingly thick armor, and wouldn't even touch its vital organs. Unless it penetrated a vital area like the neck, "this penetration could sever a blood vessel, but it's difficult." The neck was protected by flexible tendrils, which now appeared to possess the ability to freeze instantly.

Cheng Yijiu didn't want to touch the end that was emitting blue light at all. He had skillfully cut off a tentacle with his sword. When it fell to the ground, it instantly turned the original snow into extremely cold ice crystals. However, the regeneration speed of this thing was also quite exaggerated - in just two or three minutes, the tentacle had grown back the thirty centimeters that had been cut off.

The ice armor wasn't much of a threat; it couldn't stop Cheng Yijiu's greatsword anyway. It was just that Cheng Yijiu's greatsword wasn't the easiest to use against such a behemoth. And when Arudimuola joined the fray, the monster's attention was completely absorbed by the scorpion lion. "If I'm going to be annoying, I'm going to be annoying right here," Cheng Yijiu complained. He decided to try a different approach—to actually bleed the monster. Even though his greatsword was like a toothpick, if he wasn't miscalculating, it could still bleed the creature.

Being superficial doesn't mean there are no important blood vessels.

At the joints, a cut a meter deep should reach blood vessels, perhaps even severing ligaments. Cheng Yijiu's swordsmanship was excellent, so hitting certain targets was no problem. At this moment, he was acting as Conan, but if Cheng Yijiu wielded a greatsword and really came to blows, he would definitely be more formidable than Conan the Barbarian.

The lion-skinned swordsman rolled to the back of the monster and aimed directly at the joints—there were clearly bones and tendons there. If he chopped down at most two meters, he would be able to cut through the tendons, and if he continued, he would probably break them. Cheng Yijiu glanced at the scorpion lion wrestling head-on with the monster—Arudimurra didn't dare to directly confront the monster's tentacles and its cold breath, but instead fanned a gust of wind and fought back with his own corrosive fire breath.

Cheng Yijiu leaped, raised his sword with both hands, and slashed down with all his might. The first strike split the ice armor and the scales beneath, visibly slicing through the white tendons. He drew his sword, raised it, and slashed down again, using his weight. The blade completely severed the tendons with a single blow, a resounding sound like a bowstring snapping. One of its hind legs immediately became ineffective, and the monster spun around to attack Cheng Yijiu, but a scorpion lion stood in front of it.

The scorpion's stinger swung, seizing the opportunity to sting one of the monster's front claws. This thing was sharp and hard, easily breaking through the ice armor and scales, piercing deep into the muscle, injecting approximately fifteen liters of venom directly into the body. This was a neurotoxin. Cheng Yijiu had the research institutes analyze it, and it was quite potent—not the kind that would kill, but rather the kind that tended to paralyze.

So the neurological incapacitation was indeed quite "slow," thanks to the monster's low body temperature—completely inconsistent with its agile fighting posture. This low body temperature meant the toxin took effect slowly and ineffectively. The monster only had a limp in one front leg and seemed a bit disoriented and vomiting, but otherwise, there was no sign of paralysis at all.

However, the hind legs had suffered physical damage, and it truly couldn't hold on any longer. Amidst a roar of pain, the creature's leg gave out, severely limiting its mobility. Its hindquarters showed signs of instability. The limping monster was now being pressed. The manticore was happy to accept the attack, but was extremely cautious—those tentacles were too dangerous, now capable of ricocheting, instantly freezing a large area if hit.

Severed ligaments and tendons don't regenerate that quickly, or rather, while the ruptured tendons are still present, regeneration elsewhere is impossible. Cheng Yijiu didn't attack the other leg, but instead focused on the opponent's abdomen—sometimes one has to live under the crotch. Given the length of the cold iron sword, it might not be enough to pierce the creature's belly, so he decided to chop off the toes.

Once again, the lion's skin proved incredibly effective, blocking all the attacks with only a few bruises. The sword chopped off a toe, and the monster howled, unable to move. Its tentacles shot wildly at Cheng Yijiu, and Arudimu took the opportunity to pounce on the creature's back and bite it. Cheng Yijiu used the lion's skin to block the tentacles—as expected, it was the fur of a demigod lion, and it was surprisingly impervious to tentacles that could instantly freeze a person.

Once the monster's freezing tentacles and icy breath were broken, its attack power was limited. With the combined efforts of the scorpion lion and the hunter, its mobility was crippled. It was hacked to pieces, its head and buttocks slashed, and finally flipped to the ground by the scorpion lion, exposing its entire belly.

When an animal reaches this point, it's doomed—its entire vulnerable thorax and midsection exposed, vulnerable to predators. And that's exactly what Cheng Yijiu did—with the scorpion lion pinning it down, he used his greatsword to chop off the monster's neck like felling a log...

Chapter 19

The dead monster unexpectedly transformed into blue ice crystals, and then, with a crashing sound, it transformed into beautiful icy dust that dissipated between heaven and earth. "Such a huge monster, and not even a trophy..." Cheng Yijiu picked up a blue crystal the size of a goose egg from the snow. It felt like normal room temperature, nothing special. It was crystal clear, looking like an aquamarine. "What is this? A magical creature or a crystal creature?"

Cheng Yijiu was quite curious. Could this thing be the true form of that monster? It was truly magical and not very scientific. Of course, perhaps it could be explained by scientific principles, such as quantum mechanics.

None of this was Cheng Yijiu's business. He wasn't a researcher, so this thing would just become part of his collection. "Alas, it's a pity I don't have the ability to identify it, otherwise I'd know what it was and what it was used for." If this ability to identify it really existed, it would definitely be a Super S-level ability. Just looking at the world record database, how could the Akasha Record's ability not be Super S-level?

He squeezed the crystal hard and found it was quite hard. It looked not as hard as diamond, but Cheng Yijiu did not want to test it.

Cheng Yijiu rode Arudimura towards his base. After the monster vanished, even the snowstorm subsided, and the temperature seemed to rise. "It's truly magical," Cheng Yijiu muttered. "I'm afraid we'll have to endure this kind of day," the scorpion lion replied in a rumbling voice. Thinking about it, this guy should have some spell-like abilities, right? Just because he hasn't displayed them yet doesn't mean they won't be used in the future.

If you think about it, the manticore's abilities in the Dark Creatures Encyclopedia include an aura-like ability that reduces the opponent's defense, proportionally. "It's called a Toxic Aura, it not only reduces defense, but also causes excessive stamina drain." And the scorpion venom should be even more potent, a compound toxin—switching between a corrosive liquid and a nerve-paralyzing toxin at the manticore's will.

The scorpion lion's claws will also carry similar toxins and should be more powerful.

By then, Cheng Yijiu felt he would possess divine power. He wouldn't be far behind Hercules in strength. He had extraordinary physical strength—whether it could compare to a Saiyan's... perhaps he should trade his greatsword for a stone club? Never mind, sticking with the greatsword would be fine. At most, he'd practice archery—after all, he'd actually practiced a bit of retro archery back in his days of combat.

He even got pretty good at it, shooting the Qing bow and heavy arrows with remarkable accuracy. Unfortunately, he rarely used a bow and arrow during hunting. After all, bows and arrows were still inferior to firearms, but in this situation, could bows and arrows even turn the tide? No! It should be said that they definitely would. As for firearms, with a little improvement... if human will must be attached, then revolvers, semi-automatics, and bolt-action rifles would be the lucky ones. "A single shot to kill!" Cheng Yijiu chuckled.

As long as it wasn't an automatic weapon, it seemed possible that human will could be added to it. Automatic weapons were too fast to add bullets one by one. If they were all pre-loaded bullets, the cost might be too high. Of course, this was just Cheng Yijiu's wild imagination, and he had no idea if it was true.

The base was right before his eyes. Cheng Yijiu flipped a switch to have the underground warehouse retrieve a slaughtered, frozen beef cattle for the scorpion lion to eat. He then jumped down and landed directly on the top of the tower. He went down through the emergency exit at the top of the tower and closed the hatch, isolating himself from the severe cold. He went straight into the cabin, took off the lion skin and hung it up, then went to the bathroom to soak in the oil and dirt.

He casually placed the sapphire on a table in the second-floor hall, and watched as it emitted a faint blue light and floated in mid-air. "Oh?" Cheng Yijiu was genuinely curious, watching the blue crystal float in the air. Then, for some unknown reason, snowflakes suddenly appeared in the air and began to accumulate around the crystal. Soon, there was a cubic meter of snow, and the sapphire floated above it. As the blue light shone, the snow began to compact and quickly became transparent, forming a large block of ice.

"Is it going to reshape its body? It really is a crystalline creature." Cheng Yijiu found it really interesting. The key point is that the creatures created by this thing are truly living creatures. They can bleed and get hurt. They have all the weaknesses that a living organism should have. Otherwise, why would Cheng Yijiu cut off its head with a sword and it immediately turned into icy dust?

Fortunately, the next moment, Cheng Yijiu had already grabbed the crystal, walked directly to a booth, opened the drawer, and placed the crystal directly on the fixed bracket and closed it. This booth was the kind with a large glass table top. Through the glass, you can see that the blue crystal has stopped moving. There is a lighting lamp under the bracket, and the light shines up from below, which really makes the crystal look magnificent.

Life was simple after that. If Cheng Yijiu hadn't thought about getting married, there seemed to be no need for rotations; he could have stayed on duty here forever. He could have just video-called his parents, and it wouldn't have mattered if he'd been home for a day or two. The freezing weather was gradually receding, and the temperature was rising at an incredible rate—one day it was a leaden gray sky, over forty degrees below zero, the next day it was sunny, and the temperature had risen to over twenty degrees below zero.

After about a week, the temperature rose again to near freezing, and rain began to fall. A week later, the rain continued, but the temperature had risen to over 10 degrees Celsius. The forests visibly began shedding leaves at around freezing, but as temperatures reached over 10 degrees Celsius, a flood of young leaves began to grow. Many plants in the bushes began to bloom, and insect activity became extremely active.

Animals also emerged. The massive deer, bison, sheep, and smaller muntjacs all entered a new phase: males began shedding their antlers around -20 degrees Celsius, then growing velvet. By the time the temperature reached around 10 degrees Celsius, their new antlers had fully grown, and they began engaging in courtship duels. Even wild boars, large and small, began grunting duels, simply to court mates. Cheng Yijiu, on the other hand, noticed that almost all adult female bears, whether normal or mutant, appeared with their cubs...

Spring is indeed the season for courtship, and Cheng Yijiu had seen the mutated birds. "They're truly beautiful," he thought. Their feathers were magnificent, and the males danced to court the still-unremarkable females. He also saw birds of prey with wingspans exceeding ten meters appear near the defense line, firing off several fireworks to drive them away.

Chapter 20

After that, nothing unusual happened. The weather grew warmer, and life naturally became more vibrant. Cheng Yijiu's mission was back, this time with only time. "No target. Is that such a big restriction?" Cheng Yijiu realized that he couldn't bring any weapons with him except a hunting knife. The same couldn't be said for his clothes, which included only the simplest jacket and military pants—a style from before the 1940s and 1950s.

"What's this?" Cheng Yijiu was baffled. The mission was supposed to last two years—they were the actual mission itself, of course; it wouldn't age him two years. "No goal, just two years of living?" It was strange, but he had to go, no matter how strange it was. And this time, it seemed like he had a special status.

Cheng Yijiu still looked like he was in his twenties, even younger due to his skin. He was about 1.80 meters tall and had a very muscular build—a typical clothes hanger. If he really took off his clothes, you could see his muscles like a Greek sculpture. He was now wearing military boots—which was a bit of a steal, because the soles and uppers were made of 21st-century materials, light yet strong.

Cheng Yijiu was carrying a massive camel bag—it had a massive capacity, and only a tough, strong man like Cheng Yijiu could carry it. It was stuffed full of his belongings: his bedroll, some first aid medication, and of course, a water bottle, cutlery, and the like. He looked like a cross between an American and a German, with an M65 military bag on his back, a camel bucket bag on his back, a large M1931 water bottle, and, naturally, a lunch box of the same model.

On his head was a black M43 armored field cap, but without the badge, making it look like a trophy. Cheng Yijiu pushed open the door and the next moment found himself on a train. His identity information flooded into his head. "Holy crap, isn't this 1970? And I'm still going to the countryside in Heilongjiang? Damn, two years of hardship?" Having no target meant he didn't need to hunt man-eating beasts, but it was very likely he would suddenly be given a target midway.

Who knows what unexpected "surprise" will be waiting for him by then...

This character also lost both parents, having died of illness one after another during the three-year natural disaster. Later, Cheng Yijiu, who was in his twenties, dropped out of school when he was about to turn eighteen. As a member of the Magic City community and having lost both parents—these two weren't natives, having fled to Magic City before liberation, leaving no one at home—Cheng Yijiu happily secured a ticket to the Great Northern Wilderness.

As for the house? Cheng Yijiu didn't think he could keep the public housing he had been "living in" before, even though he hadn't lived there for a single day. The train had just left Laobei Station, and it wasn't a green train but a modified tanker. "There's not even a hard seat?" Fortunately, he had a camel bag, which he could sit on and rest. The other boys and girls on the train also had their own luggage of varying sizes, which they could also lean on to rest.

At least it wasn't that brutal. There were only about forty people crammed into the car...

Cheng Yijiu was speechless. He was a hunter, so what kind of mission was this? A punishment mission? A punishment carried out as a human? Punishing whom? The train from Shanghai to Heilongjiang would take about a week, and then you'd have to take a small train to get there. A trip of two weeks would be a good start. Spending two weeks in this place? It was obvious that all the boys and girls here would become stinking.

"We have to choose a good time to launch the project. Can't we wait until the train arrives at the destination?" Cheng Yijiu kept muttering. It seemed that no one in this carriage knew him. It should be that none of his "classmates" were included. There were already quite a few people in this group in Shanghai, and many of them didn't know each other.

In short, everyone was chatting with each other. Most of the children were very excited, and some were extremely depressed. However, when everyone saw Cheng Yijiu, their eyes lit up - there were not many tall people in this era, and Cheng Yijiu looked tall and burly, with good nutrition. In addition, the clothes he wore were very "Western" and even had a military atmosphere - M65 was still a very fashionable item, at least not common in China.

With no insignia on it, it's hard to say it's American. One can only assume it's some kind of military-style two-piece. Combined with his military pants and boots, it's quite stylish—some speculate he's a member of the East China Sea Fleet, others say he might be from the Air Force. His hat is definitely military, but not from our army. Some recall seeing something similar.

Many of Cheng Yijiu's classmates struck up a conversation, and his conversations with them were quite lively. He was careful not to say anything out of touch with the times, nor to express any out-of-date ideas. He usually used interjections to coax others into talking more, and he only needed to be a listener. Their destination was a village near the Greater Khingan Range. He was the only one on his train going there, but according to well-informed sources on the train, there were at least five other educated youth on the same train.

Cheng Yijiu sighed and simply fell asleep against his bag. Sleeping could effectively reduce physiological activity and kill time. Cheng Yijiu had also learned a lot from animals, such as the alternation between long periods of sleep and long periods of wakefulness. He knew that after seventy-two hours of sleeplessness, he could directly sleep for twenty-four or thirty hours to recover his energy. In an emergency, even twelve hours of deep sleep would be enough to compensate for the seventy-two hours or more of sleeplessness.

Now, Cheng Yijiu planned to sleep for eighteen hours first. This would significantly reduce his food and water consumption, lower his body temperature, and reduce his physiological activity. Before falling asleep, he felt his pockets. "I have money and bills, as well as canned food and compressed biscuits..." He folded his arms to protect his chest pocket, leaned his camel bag against the wall, and leaned against it for safety before falling asleep.

Stealing things wasn't easy—whether it was a bag or clothing, they were all very durable and cut-resistant. And where would they go after stealing something from a car? Shanghai kids weren't exactly good at jumping out of a car to escape… Cheng Yijiu was woken by someone saying, "You can get out of the car and move around." The person who woke him was a girl with pigtails who looked like she was in the ninth grade. She was, of course, small, only about 1.5 meters tall.

Cheng Yijiu stood up and jumped out of the sliding door. This was the platform, where PLA soldiers were on duty, and the children on the train were all exercising. They must have arrived at a freight station, and someone was shouting that they would leave in fifteen minutes.

Chapter 21

After some exercise, we boarded the train. Every day, the train would stop at a station for a short while, allowing everyone to stretch their legs and get some water. Forget showering. "If I hadn't hibernated to slow my metabolism, this would have been stinking." Cheng Yijiu's feet didn't even stink, and the inside of his shoes were dry. That was the benefit of a good night's sleep. But the smoky air inside the train inevitably took over, and the smell was sure to get to him too.

"Sure enough, even a little girl who hasn't showered for ten days will still stink, or even worse..." Cheng Yijiu complained. He was better off with the ventilation holes. It was a bit cold, but he wasn't afraid of the cold. Finally, they arrived. In Harbin, everyone got off the train and went their separate ways. He and the other thirty or so educated youth were assigned to a guesthouse, showered, and slept. A day later, they took another sealed train, which took them over a day to Heihe. Then, he and a dozen other educated youth boarded another small forestry train, arriving at a station somewhere god knows where...

This place is for hauling wood, and it's already considered a forest farm. Thanks to the early development of the three northeastern provinces, the forest farm has a small train and railway line left by the Japanese, so it can drive all the way here. The next step is to wait for the teams to pick them up. The carriage is Cheng Yijiu's means of transportation for the last leg of his journey. "Damn it, don't learn a Northeastern dialect this time when you go back. I'm Jiangnan tribute rice, not Northeastern coarse grain."

There were two educated youth centers here. The Red Flag Brigade that Cheng Yijiu went to this time had six educated youth assigned to it, four men and two women. He was one of them and the tallest one. In fact, he was the tallest of the group of educated youth. He had already matured at the age of "seventeen". If it weren't for the tenderness of his face, people would definitely think he was in his thirties - but Cheng Yijiu's physical fitness was actually fixed at the age of eighteen to twenty-five.

His height wasn't considered short for the Northeast, and he was considered tall and imposing—187cm tall and 90kg in weight, a decidedly burly build. However, his broad shoulders and body didn't reveal that from the outside.

The brigade had over 500 people, and there had been educated youth there before, so now there were 20 of them. "What the hell, a big bunk bed? This is where people live?" Cheng Yijiu muttered immediately, turning to look at Zhao Pingshu, the brigade leader of Zhaojiazhuang. "Captain, are there any abandoned houses we can live in? Even in the mountains, I can't live in this fucking bunk bed!" The tall and strong man, wearing military blouses and boots, and a combat cap on his head, spoke like a tiger's roar, and to be honest, the brigade leader was a little scared.

At first glance, the guy looked unremarkable, but up close, he was too tall and burly, and certainly didn't seem like someone who could fit into a large bunk bed. Besides, he pulled out some money and said he could pay for the rent. So, there was no reason for Team Leader Zhao Pingshu not to generate income for the team, so he immediately agreed. "There's a wooden house near the mountain. Do you want to renovate it yourself or get help from the team? You'll have to pay for the materials separately." The educated youth felt that Cheng Yijiu was truly unsociable and full of petty-bourgeois temperament.

Most of the educated youth who had arrived earlier than them were from Hebei and Beijing, and were two or three years older. One of the educated youth immediately spoke up, intending to criticize Cheng Yijiu, but upon seeing the saber dangling from his waist, he stopped talking immediately—he simply didn't live in the educated youth compound, which wasn't uncommon; several educated youth had previously lived outside and cooked their own meals. The man before him didn't look like someone from Shanghai, but rather a bearded man from Northeast China. Although he was a pretty boy, he exuded a menacing aura.

This was a deliberate display by Cheng Yijiu. He had also taken a look at the people at the educated youth camp—better than the local farmers, but no longer as delicate and tender as the city dwellers. As for height, the men were between 1.65 and 1.75 meters tall, noticeably half a head taller than the local men. The women were roughly between 1.4 and 1.6 meters tall, probably about the same height as the local women—although he hadn't seen any local female farmers yet...

Cheng Yijiu stood tall and straight—as the chosen one of the Gods of Light, he naturally held a certain air of style, like Apollo. He registered at the brigade headquarters and was then taken to the cabin—he'd essentially spent a third of his money on repairs. "Hey, comrade. Can we stay together? I'll pay half," said one of the bright-minded educated youth who had come with him.

This man was called Shen Yuanchao. He looked like a monkey, standing only 1.75 meters tall and as thin as a bamboo pole. His clothes were old, but they had a certain Western style—a clear distinction between the educated youth from Shanghai and the previous batch of educated youth from the north. The most Western-styled among them was Cheng Yijiu himself. Cheng Yijiu didn't care. "Sure, if the house is big enough and has two beds, I'd let you stay there." Although Shen Yuanchao looked like a monkey and was as quick-witted as a monkey, Cheng Yijiu had come to know him as a cheerful and decent person.

"He's a clear-headed person, that's good." Leaving aside the women among the four men and two women, the other three men, Shen Yuanchao, were outgoing and clear-headed. The other two, Li Kangmei and Xu Zhijun, were probably classmates and talked together. As for the "old farmers" at the educated youth camp, they hadn't had much contact yet, and it was unclear what kind of relationship they would have in the future—"We're all country folk anyway..." This was the unanimous sentiment of the four Shanghai residents, even the educated youth from Beijing; they were all "country folk."

Houhu and Cheng Yijiu followed the villagers for five minutes. They happened to find a road next to the educated youth site, passing two houses. Near the foot of the mountain, there was a wooden house, a half-collapsed one-story building. "Repairing it would be easy. There's plenty of wood here, but the labor cost is a problem." This was something the brigade had already assessed. Cheng Yijiu also walked around the house carefully. "It's about six meters long and four meters wide, covering an area of ​​24 square meters, which is more than enough."

The house was elevated about thirty centimeters below to prevent moisture and also to keep the heat in. The exterior was sealed with wooden planks. The entire house was built from logs; now all that was left was to repair the roof and replace the damaged wood. Cheng Yijiu estimated that about a third of the wood would need to be replaced, given that half the roof had collapsed. The interior also needed renovations; the only drawback was that it lacked a kang (a type of kang), and there was a small dry toilet attached to the house.

"Since it's already been renovated, why not build a steam/wooden barrel bath room for bathing. Don't build a kang. Two kangs won't fit in one room and it would look weird. Just build a wooden bed and use a rocket stove. At most, you can put a few more chimneys or water pipes inside to heat the room - after all, the thermal insulation effect of a log house is still good." The gaps in the wooden walls are filled with moss and clay, and the roof is also made of wood, thatch and clay, so the thermal insulation ability is still very strong.

There's just a small problem with this window. Glass isn't available right now, so I'll just have to use a wooden sliding window cover to prop it up. Cheng Yijiu asked if there were any thicker straw mats he could use for the floor. This is just the pretentiousness of a young master...

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Even a wooden house couldn't be repaired quickly; it would take at least two or three days. The sauna/barrel room Cheng Yijiu had proposed would take at least three days to build—even for this, Cheng Yijiu had to polish off the splinters on the chairs and floor himself. That alone cost a fortune, and it consumed half of the money Cheng Yijiu had brought with him.

Shen Yuanchao, the monkey, was a decent person, sharing half the repair costs and paying half the rent. He was definitely a reasonable person. But while the house was still being renovated, they still had to sleep in a shared bunk bed. "That's it! A filthy house, a filthy shared bunk bed, it stinks, there must be lice and bedbugs," said the eldest son, Cheng Yijiu.

In fact, all the educated youth from Shanghai who had arrived, including the one who spoke in a Suzhou accent and was called "Little Su Bei," were saying this. Even though Little Su Bei had previously been ridiculed as a "ground dragon," he still said that his bed at home was a thousand times better and a thousand times cleaner than here. Of the four people, only Cheng Yijiu said this openly; the other three kept it to themselves.

But their expressions betrayed them. The old educated youth looked at these four people from Shanghai and thought that these four people were really petty bourgeoisie and pretentious. However, these four people had just come from Shanghai and still had some nutrition in their bodies. They were somewhat whiter and fatter than them and did not look like they could be beaten easily - not to mention that there was a burly man among them.

Shanghai gangsters are also famous, and they are not just good at talking. Cheng Yijiu looks like a gangster from the old society. It's mainly his temperament...

No matter how reluctant they were, there was no other choice but to stay here for a few nights. The next morning, they had to go back to work—the team leader came and said they would assign the six newly arrived educated youth to various production teams. They could either farm or cut wood in the mountains. Cheng Yijiu didn't want to do either; he thought it would be best to just eat and wait for death.

None of the educated youth who arrived in Shanghai this time were active. None of them had volunteered to go to the countryside, so none of them had a passion for work. They could only wait listlessly for their team leader's assignments. Cheng Yijiu, the tallest and strongest, was assigned to the hard labor group—working in the fields. If he passed, he could then go up the mountain to cut wood.

Of course, they had to apply for borrowing grain afterwards, otherwise the six people without work points would starve to death. After the autumn harvest, the work points would be used to offset the loss - which was generally possible, after all, the land here was relatively fertile and the potato yield was decent.

The problem is that the staple food is cornmeal and potato flour, which is a headache. The Jiangnan people eat rice, who would eat noodles all day? And the amount of rice is very small. Although there are cold-zone rice varieties, isn't it cultivated on a large scale? Especially in this forest area, the main crops are corn, sorghum, and potatoes.

"Ah, there are fleas!" Someone shouted at dawn on the third day, and Cheng Yijiu was also cursing like a mother, "There are fleas on my body! This is not easy to deal with! This thing hides in clothes and reproduces endlessly from generation to generation. This matter has not passed yet, and it is time to go to the fields. The tall and strong Cheng Yijiu doesn't care about going to the fields, but when he walked to the head of the field, he said directly to the team leader Zhao Sanwa, "I'm sorry, I have never been to the fields, and I have rarely seen farmland. I used to think that they were all tourist attractions. Generations of city people don't know how to farm." He said it with pride. He was not wrong. He "was born in the city. Even when the school organized a training, it was just walking past the farmland. He really had never been to the fields - because he was a backward element and asked for leave every time at this time."

"I'll just do something that requires physical labor. Don't ask me for farming techniques." So he had to pull the sled. This season was the time to loosen the soil. This was a dry field. Cheng Yijiu put the rope on his shoulders, just like carrying a schoolbag, leaned forward, and pulled the sled like this - he was really strong, and he pulled the sled as easily as an ox, turning over the soil with a loud noise.

"You're really like cattle and horses. By the way, is there any meat to eat?" Cheng Yijiu still had the energy to ask questions while pulling the sled. "If we catch prey in the mountains, whose will it be?" he asked. Zhao Pingwen, another member of the team who was holding the sled behind him, said, "The mountain is collective. Of course, the prey you kill belongs to the collective. But that's big prey. If you catch rabbits, pheasants, etc., it's usually yours."

"Okay, I'll ask for leave right away to go hunting. I don't want to work in the fields for even a single day." The villagers already knew what kind of people these educated youth were. Many of them worked diligently, but their abilities were limited after all, they weren't farmers since childhood. There were also some who stole things, but many of them had already been sent to farms in the commune. In addition, there were educated youth from Shanghai like Cheng Yijiu, who didn't want to do any farm work at all.

Generally, people like this will behave themselves after spending all the money they brought from home.

As for the northerners in the big bunk bed, Cheng Yijiu had no intention of making friends with them, at least for now. It seemed that there was a gap between these people and the four newcomers from Shanghai. The four of them had not yet been able to integrate into the group, and Cheng Yijiu and Shen Yuanchao were particularly outstanding. Shen Yuanchao had only worked for two days before he started complaining and said that he had to ask for leave or he would die.

Cheng Yijiu asked for leave directly, saying that he was going to the mountains to purchase goods. "You don't even have a gun. Are you going into the mountains to die? You won't know where you are after a few turns." Zhou Jiefang, the accountant who recorded work points in the brigade, advised Cheng Yijiu like this - the team leader and others had a good impression of this educated youth. First, he was strong and could pull the sled quickly, so he could finish the work ahead of time. Second, the Daqianmen this guy brought to them was very straightforward, and Cheng Yijiu himself did not smoke.

This guy found that there was a big front door in the bag, so when he arrived here and borrowed food, he scattered it all in one breath. Cheng Yijiu has always believed in one principle, "Since it is delivered, it must be delivered to the right place."

"It's okay, I have this." Cheng Yijiu smiled and raised his hunting knife—a Rambo-style knife, a truly beautiful and formidable weapon. Its nearly thirty-centimeter blade, with a six- to seven-centimeter reverse edge, and its thick back serrated with interlaced teeth, could easily cut through steel wire in conjunction with the sheath. The bakelite handle was wrapped in paratrooper sash, and the tail could be unscrewed, revealing a three-centimeter space inside for fish hooks and nylon line.

He had a compass, an aluminum alloy field compass hanging from his belt. He also had a magnesium rod and a small scraper, also hanging from his belt, which he used for field fires.

The knife was already out, but no one tried to persuade him—let him run into a wall on his own. No one told Cheng Yijiu that the nearby hills had been deforested, leaving little prey. Those animals had all retreated deep into the mountains—everyone wanted meat these days…

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There were still plenty of guns and ammunition in this forested area, but there were no animal protection laws in place back then. Anyone who wanted meat could go into the mountains—and as a result, most of the animals had been hunted down and retreated deeper into the mountains. The only animals left in the mountains now were rats and snakes. Stories like silly roe deer and flying dragons were just legends from long ago. Cheng Yijiu decided that even if he didn't hunt anything, he would at least bring back the right materials for his next move—the right kind of wood.

That's right, Cheng Yijiu wanted to make a bow, but he couldn't just go to the brigade and get anything he wanted. He also needed some tools to make a bow and arrow. So, this man, armed with a knife, went into the mountains. In the past, some people had tried to stop the educated youth from doing this, but now, knowing they were a nuisance, they simply ignored them. Once in the sparse woods, Cheng Yijiu felt like a fish in water.

It's still a bit sweltering in Shanghai at this time of year, but in the Northeast, the weather has already cooled down and the first snow has already fallen. Cheng Yijiu zipped up his military jacket and strode through the mountains. He pulled a pair of tactical gloves from his bag. Made of durable canvas and metal, these full-fingered gloves allowed him to ignore the thorns of the bushes. "Sure enough, there are no more beasts," Cheng Yijiu said, straightening up and surveying the area.

He found no animal tracks, not even footprints, feces, or hair. The sparse jungle was completely silent. The only sound was the rustle of his boots on fallen leaves. "In the boreal coniferous forest, the replacement trees are all fast-growing pines..." Cheng Yijiu felt that the trees that replaced the original forest after it was cut down were too monotonous. However, the shrubs and other plants on the ground were largely unaffected. He did find several medicinal plants and small fruits like snakeberry.

There was still some snow on the ground, and Cheng Yijiu finally saw some living creatures—small birds, flying swiftly through the trees, and mice scurrying across the ground. These creatures had gnawed most of the small fruits. The old hunter casually strolled through the woods, and when he reached a spot, his brow furrowed and he squatted down. "No way! There could be a surprise here that I've missed?!"

He stood up and looked around. It was clear they weren't deep in the mountains yet. Less than five hundred meters in, the sparse, immature pine trees made the hilltop look a bit empty. There was also a clearly worn path. Cheng Yijiu squatted down again and looked at the small fruit in front of him. He shook his head slightly in disbelief—for it was the flower and fruit of ginseng. His family had once grown wild Panax notoginseng, a relative of ginseng, so Cheng Yijiu recognized it immediately.

He dug through the soil with his hands. There was no brush or anything like that; he just brushed it, breaking it up. He finally unearthed a ginseng root, half the size of a palm and more than ten centimeters long. "Well, then, turn around now. This thing is yours, I can just sell it to the purchasing station." So, he happily carried the ginseng down the mountain. Cheng Yijiu wasn't one to hold back. The villagers who saw him leave the mountain, unfamiliar with him, assumed he wouldn't have much.

But when Cheng Yijiu was happily leaving for his vacation, he was called out. Several villagers, including the team leader, arrived. "Did you dig up some ginseng? Right on the roadside?" Everyone was filled with envy and regret. How could they not have noticed it? And judging by the appearance of this ginseng, it must have been at least ten years old. How could no one have noticed it all these years?