Republic of China: Guandong Ginseng King

Chapter 45: Mountain Leopard

Qu Shaoyang and Shui Laowu heard Zhao Erkui's shout and rushed over. With the faint light of the lantern, Qu Shaoyang could see the miserable situation in the chicken coop.

There was a small amount of blood on the ground, a pile of chicken feathers, and two injured chickens fluttering on the ground.

"This shouldn't be a yellow fox, as yellow foxes usually bite the base of chicken wings and drink their blood.

Even if they eat meat, they only eat the breast and other parts, they don’t eat them one by one.”

In the afternoon, when Wang was going to kill the chickens, she said that there were six or seven chickens at home, and now there were only two injured chickens left, and the rest were nowhere to be seen, so Qu Shaoyang said that.

"Shaoyang is right. It's probably not a yellow fox. It could be a fox."

Shui Laowu looked inside the chicken coop and agreed with Qu Shaoyang's statement.

"Erkui, take the remaining two chickens into the house and check the severity of their injuries. If they are not seriously injured, they may be able to recover."

Living in the mountains, such things often happen, and Zhao Erkui had no other choice.

So he jumped into the chicken coop, grabbed the two chickens that were still fluttering around, and brought them into the house.

It was late at night and it was pitch black all around. Even if Qu Shaoyang and Shui Laowu wanted to find the things that stole the chicken, they would have to wait until daybreak.

With no other options, the master and disciple could only follow Zhao Erkui back to the house.

At this time, Wang, who lived in the west room, also got up.

When Wang learned that all the chickens in her home had been killed or stolen by some unknown force, leaving only these two chickens, she was heartbroken.

"Alas, they can't even kill us in time for a meal. Now the wild animals in the mountains are just getting a free ride."

Wang checked the two chickens and found that they had several bite wounds on their bodies and she didn't know whether they could survive.

"Go back to your room and sleep. Things like this happen all the time when you live in the mountains.

We'll see tomorrow morning. If these two chickens don't work, we'll kill them and stew them."

Wang felt upset, but she couldn't cry loudly in front of outsiders. She just sighed twice and signaled Zhao Erkui to take Qu Shaoyang and the others back to the house to sleep.

The three of them went back to the room and lay down, but no one wanted to sleep. They just lay in bed, dozing off.

Just when the three of them were about to fall asleep, the big black dog outside started barking again. At the same time, the two chickens in the house also cackled.

Qu Shaoyang started up, climbed up from the kang, put on his clothes and shoes, and ran out.

When he opened the door, he heard the rise and fall of dog barking in the distance.

The big black dog's voice was hoarse from barking, the iron chain was rattling, and he continued to bark towards the southern hillside.

"Erkui, let the dog go." Qu Shaoyang shouted to Zhao Erkui, then turned back to the house and put on his gun.

Zhao Erkui untied the dog chain as he was told, and the big black dog jumped out. Qu Shaoyang, Shui Laowu and the others followed the big black dog and ran out.

I had just run a short distance when I heard footsteps coming from the east, and several people were running towards this side with hoes and pickaxes in their hands.

"Uncle Li, where are you guys doing?" Zhao Erkui asked hurriedly when he saw the people opposite him.

"Erkui, I don't know what went into my house and killed one of the sheep in the pen."

When the person on the other side saw that it was Zhao Erkui and two strangers, he said.

"What are you doing?"

"Uncle, I don't know what took away five of my chickens. My big black dog was barking just now, so I let it go and chased it away."

Zhao Erkui hurriedly explained to the other party, "It might be a fox that stole the chicken."

"No, it's not a fox. I saw one just now. It looks like a cat, but a little bigger than a cat. It looks like it weighs about ten pounds." The second kid of the Li family said beside him. "It should be a mountain catfish." As soon as Shui Laowu heard it, he knew what the other party was talking about.

Before anyone could say anything, a dog's howl was heard from the mountain ahead.

"It's bad, Dahei." Zhao Erkui ran away when he heard the noise. If it was really a raccoon, Dahei would not be able to defeat it and would suffer a loss.

Qu Shaoyang and others also ran forward, but they had just run a short distance when they saw a black shadow running towards them, choking as he ran. It was Dahei.

Dahei didn't even bother to act coquettishly with Zhao Erkui. He ran back to the Zhao family's yard and dived into the doghouse. He never dared to come out again, and there was no more loud and angry roar like before.

Seeing Dahei's behavior, Qu Shaoyang was more certain that it was a raccoon that had entered the village.

Shanlizi is a local dialect. There are two animals that are called Shanlizi in the local area. One is the leopard cat and the other is the lynx. The leopard cat weighs about ten kilograms, has yellow-brown fur and round spots on its body, so it is also called a money cat. The lynx is larger, weighing about twenty to thirty kilograms, and has a very short tail.

Based on the situation in the chicken coop and what the Li family said, this mountain civet should be a leopard cat, because leopard cats will enter the village to steal chickens.

Everyone turned and entered the Zhao family's yard. Zhao Erkui squatted in front of the doghouse with a lantern in his hand and looked inside in the light of the lantern.

I saw Dahei squatting in the doghouse, trembling all over.

There was also a trail of water at the door of the doghouse. It looked like Dahei was scared and peed himself.

Qu Shaoyang also leaned over to take a look and found that Dahei had several wounds on his body.

One of the wounds was near the dog’s right eye, probably caused by something scratching it, and it was bleeding.

"Erkui, do you have anything at home to stop bleeding? Cigarettes or something. The dog is injured, hurry up and get something to stop the bleeding."

Qu Shaoyang looked at Dahei's pitiful appearance, felt distressed, and asked hurriedly.

"Yes, there are bags of horse manure at home."

The horse dung bag that Zhao Erkui mentioned is a kind of fungus. When it is tender, it is white and oval in shape like an egg.

When ripe, it turns gray, with a layer of skin on the outside and gray-green powder inside.

If someone steps on it and breaks the skin, powder will come out in the form of smoke.

The powder of horse dung bags can stop bleeding. Since there are few doctors and medicines in the mountains, many people will pick some horse dung bags in the autumn, dry them, crush them and pack them for later use.

Zhao Erkui hurried into the house, found some horse dung powder, carefully applied it on Dahei's wound, and then raised his hand to rub Dahei's head.

Dahei felt so aggrieved that he leaned against Erkui and choked a few times.

"Oh, what should we do? If the raccoons set their sights on our village, all the livestock in the villages would be in danger."

Zhao Erkui said worriedly while stroking the dog.

"Is there no hunter in the village? Go into the mountains to hunt. No matter how powerful the mountain catfish is, it can't escape the hunter's gun."

Qu Shaoyang glanced at Zhao Erkui and asked tentatively.

"Oh, don't mention it. There used to be two hunters in the village. They encountered a black bear when they went hunting in the mountains two years ago.

At the critical moment, the guns were too powerful and did not fire, and the two men were kicked by Hei Xia Zi. "Zhao Erkui sighed when he heard this.

"Uncle, I see you and Shaoyang are both carrying guns. Do you know how to hunt? Can you help me kill that raccoon?

Otherwise, I'm afraid all the livestock in this village will be destroyed by it."

Zhao Erkui turned to look at Shui Laowu, scratched his head embarrassedly, and asked.

(End of this chapter)