northernbook Chapter 113 Never mind, it's not your fault.
Chapter 113 Never mind, it's not your fault.
"Xiangyang, those guys from Xujia Village, they should be the ones hunting this elk. Do you think we can take them down today?"
After finishing his meal, Wang Ergou rubbed his hands together and asked expectantly.
"If we're lucky, it might be about right."
Li Xiangyang squatted down and pointed to a pine forest ahead. "Look at those pine trees over there, a large patch of bark has been gnawed off. They're probably hounded by elk."
"Hey, it really is." Wang Ergou squatted down to take a look. "The bark has been gnawed all over and is full of holes."
"Let's go, follow these tracks." Li Xiangyang slung his gun over his shoulder. "But we need to be careful, we never know what we might encounter."
The two wandered through the woods for about an hour when Li Xiangyang suddenly stopped.
He pointed to a huge hoofprint on the ground, "Found it! This hoofprint is as big as a bowl. The snow hasn't completely filled it in yet, so it must have been there recently."
"how long?"
"At most half an hour," Li Xiangyang calculated on his fingers. "The snow has just started filling the pits; if it had started any earlier, the marks would have been invisible long ago."
As they were talking, snowflakes began to fall from the sky.
Seeing this, Li Xiangyang frowned and looked at the sky. "This snow came at the worst possible time; it'll probably snow harder soon."
Wang Ergou was getting anxious: "What should we do? We've been chasing them for almost two hours."
"Let's find somewhere to hide first." Li Xiangyang sighed. "Wandering around in the mountains in this kind of weather could be fatal. Oh well, good things come to those who wait..."
The snow fell heavier and heavier, forcing the two to slow their pace.
After walking for about fifteen minutes, we finally found a sheltered cave at the foot of the hillside.
"Let's go in first." Li Xiangyang patted the snow off his body and looked around before entering the cave.
It's almost noon, but the sky looks like evening.
The snow outside was falling like a sieve, everything was white and you couldn't see anything.
Suddenly, the black cat's ears stood up and its tail bristled.
Li Xiangyang frowned and quickly gestured for Wang Ergou to be quiet.
“There’s something.” He lowered his voice.
All that hard work this morning was for nothing.
The feeling of being watched by something grew stronger, and Li Xiangyang inwardly cried out in alarm.
"Could it be..." Wang Ergou swallowed hard.
"It's most likely that snow leopard," Li Xiangyang said gravely. "We almost killed it; it's holding a grudge."
Wang Ergou's hand unconsciously reached for the gun: "What should we do now?"
"Don't panic." Li Xiangyang gripped his gun tighter. "If it wanted to launch a sneak attack, it would have done so already. Clearly, now isn't the best opportunity for it. Everything will be fine for now."
Li Xiangyang moved further into the cave, his eyes fixed on the entrance. "In this weather, it wouldn't dare to do anything reckless."
But these words had no comforting effect on Wang Ergou.
He gripped the gun tightly, his palms sweating profusely.
Only then did he realize that he had almost scratched the wood grain on the gunstock.
"Xiangyang..." Wang Ergou's voice trembled, "Do you think it might take advantage of us when we're not paying attention..."
"Shh," Li Xiangyang interrupted him.
The black cat nestled against Li Xiangyang's legs, occasionally letting out low whimpers.
This unusual behavior made Li Xiangyang even more uneasy.
The wind and snow outside grew stronger and stronger, with a constant howling sound.
Normally, this snow and wind wouldn't be a problem, but now it's making people uneasy.
With each gust of wind, the accumulated snow is blown up and dances in the air.
Under the dim sky, the snowflakes looked like layers of curtains, sometimes drawn open, sometimes closed, making it impossible to tell where they were.
What's worse, the feeling of being watched is getting stronger and stronger.
It felt like there was a knife pressed against the back of my neck.
“It’s playing us…” Li Xiangyang said through gritted teeth, “deliberately keeping us in suspense.”
Upon hearing this, Wang Ergou's hands trembled even more violently.
He wanted to say something, but it felt like there was a stone stuck in his throat, and he couldn't utter a single word.
"Look over there!" Wang Ergou suddenly shouted in a low voice.
Li Xiangyang looked in the direction he was pointing and saw what appeared to be a blurry shadow in the mist.
But when he looked closely, the shadow had disappeared.
"Don't panic," Li Xiangyang said, pressing down on Wang Ergou's shoulder. "It just wants to throw us into chaos."
But it's too late to say anything now.
Wang Ergou was acting strangely, staring blankly at the cave entrance, not daring to blink even once.
Time passed by minute by minute.
This kind of torment is even more unbearable than encountering a ferocious beast head-on.
Li Xiangyang could feel that Wang Ergou's shoulders were as tense as a rock.
"How about we..." Wang Ergou's voice trembled, "...we fire a couple of shots to scare it away?"
"Fire? Where to fire?" Li Xiangyang shook his head. "In this weather, not only will we miss, but if we do fire, it'll be clearly telling them we're afraid, and that will only make things worse."
The wind and snow outside gradually subsided, but the sky grew even darker.
Li Xiangyang knew that the fog was about to rise.
Suddenly, a deep roar came from a certain direction.
Wang Ergou was so frightened that he almost dropped the gun.
"Calm down." Li Xiangyang patted him on the shoulder. "Stay calm, think positively. At least we're in a cave now. No matter when it attacks, there's only one direction..."
Although Li Xiangyang's words made sense, it was useless to say anything at this point.
Sweat dripped incessantly from Wang Ergou's forehead; he was on the verge of collapse.
This is the hunting instinct of wild beasts; they deeply understand the power of fear.
It's easier to kill a prey by driving it to a mental breakdown out of fear than by directly attacking it.
About fifteen minutes later, faint footsteps could be heard outside, like something gently treading on the snow.
The sound was faint, yet it sent chills down one's spine...
“Crack.”
A very faint sound of snow being crushed underfoot.
“It’s coming.” Li Xiangyang raised his gun and stared intently at the cave entrance.
Wang Ergou was speechless, mechanically holding the gun, his hands trembling like a leaf.
Unbeknownst to him, he had retreated to the innermost part of the cave wall.
"Don't back down," Li Xiangyang whispered a reminder. "If they charge at you, you need to give yourself room to dodge."
This reminder only made Wang Ergou more nervous.
He suddenly realized that he and Li Xiangyang were hiding in this cave, just like mice trapped in a hole by a cat.
The key point is that the hole is big enough for a cat to rush in.
What could be more devastating than this?
The footsteps outside came and went, sometimes near, sometimes far, sometimes faint.
Every sound felt like it was stepping on people's hearts.
The black cat suddenly bristled and let out a low growl.
Li Xiangyang's pupils suddenly contracted - in the grayish-white mist at the cave entrance, a blurry figure vaguely appeared.
The figure disappeared in a flash.
"It...it..." Wang Ergou's teeth chattered.
"Don't make a sound." Li Xiangyang's voice was soft, but unusually firm.
The snow leopard did not attack immediately, but lingered at the cave entrance, occasionally leaping into the two people's field of vision, its eyes filled with mockery, which sent chills down their spines.
"boom!"
Wang Ergou could no longer bear the mental torment and pulled the trigger.
Gunshots echoed through the cave, making everyone's ears ring.
"you......"
Before Li Xiangyang could finish speaking, the snow leopard had already nimbly disappeared into the mist.
"I...I really..." Wang Ergou's voice was trembling.
"Never mind, it's not your fault."