Chapter 89: Boar Charge

Everyone quickened their pace, moving forward. The first few pitfall traps remained intact, so they split up to search for traces of wild boars.

But when they reached the sixth trap, they all froze in place from a distance.

“Oooorhh! Oooorhh!”

A massive black-haired wild boar was caught—it had been snared by its front legs and was hanging, but its hind legs still touched the ground. The tree supporting the trap was bent under its weight, clearly unable to hoist the heavy beast completely.

The boar had a long, pointed snout and sharp, menacing tusks that jutted outward, showcasing its ferocious nature.

“Holy crap, that thing must weigh at least 200 or 300 pounds! It’s a beast!”

Lin Heng was stunned. Without hesitation, he grabbed his bow and took aim.

“Hurry up and attack! Stop wasting time! If it breaks free, we’re in trouble!”

Tian Baishun shouted. He was the closest and didn’t hesitate—raising his firearm, he fired immediately.

With a crisp click, the trigger mechanism struck the flintlock, igniting a spark. The gunpowder in the barrel ignited in an instant, sending multiple lead balls hurtling toward the wild boar.

Bang!!

A deafening blast erupted as fiery projectiles tore through the air, striking the massive boar from thirty meters away. The pellets embedded deep into its abdomen.

“Oooorhh!!”

The already struggling wild boar shrieked in agony. The pain and the loud explosion pushed it over the edge—it broke free from the snare almost instantly.

What shocked everyone was that instead of fleeing, the boar turned its bloodshot eyes toward Old Man Tian and charged straight at him, flames of rage practically burning in its gaze.

“Shit! Li Baiquan, shoot now!!”

Old Man Tian turned and ran, shouting in terror as the boar barreled toward him.

Click! Li Baiquan pulled the trigger, but his flintlock misfired—the powder failed to ignite. He hurriedly reset the mechanism, but it took precious time.

The other shooter, Lu Honghai, was still over a hundred meters away—too far to shoot accurately without risking friendly fire.

Lin Heng’s palms were sweating. He was both angry and anxious—angry that Old Man Tian had fired without waiting, ruining his perfect shot, and anxious because a moving target like this was much harder to hit.

But he had no time to hesitate. If he didn’t act now, Old Man Tian would be gored to death.

Whoosh!

Estimating the boar’s trajectory, Lin Heng pulled back his bow to full draw and let an arrow fly.

“Oooorhh!!!”

The wild boar let out an even more agonized cry and spun around—now charging straight at Lin Heng, its eyes burning with even more madness.

“Oh, shit!”

At that moment, Lin Heng fully understood the phrase boar charge. Facing such a massive beast hurtling toward him was utterly terrifying.

His arrow hadn’t hit a fatal spot—it had lodged in the boar’s rump, which only made the pain worse than the gunshot.

“Woof! Woof!!”

Just then, Xiongba, the fierce hunting dog, lunged from the side and sank its teeth into the boar’s belly.

“Woof!”

At the same time, the spotted dog latched onto the boar’s tail from behind.

“Oooorhh!!”

The furious boar swung its head, flinging Xiongba into the air. Compared to the massive beast, the dog was too light—it went flying five meters before hitting the ground hard, struggling to get up.

Next, the boar turned and slashed at the spotted dog with its tusks. The dog yelped and immediately released its grip, retreating to safety.

With the dogs no longer restraining it, the boar charged at Lin Heng again. In just seconds, it had already crossed over thirty meters, closing in on him. Lin Heng had no time to escape.

So he made the only right decision—he didn’t run.

Whoosh!

Thanks to the dogs’ brief distraction, Lin Heng had time to grab a second arrow. Seeing the boar lunging at him again, he loosed the arrow as fast as he could.

Thwack!

The arrow pierced clean through the boar’s ear and buried itself in the back of its neck, causing blood to spray.

“Holy shit!”

But even that wasn’t enough to bring it down. The boar’s speed barely slowed. Seeing the enormous beast hurtling toward him, tusks gleaming, Lin Heng’s adrenaline surged to the max.

“Oooorhh!!”

The boar slammed forward. At the last second, Lin Heng dodged to the side, rolling behind a tree. He scrambled to his feet and bolted.

“Oooorhh!!”

The wild boar was a relentless force, charging in a straight line with little ability to turn. Having missed its target, it crashed forward for several more meters before managing to pivot around—still intent on chasing Lin Heng down.

“Call the dogs off! I need a clear shot!” Lu Honghai had finally arrived, raising his rifle.

“Xiongba, fall back!”

“Huazi, get back here!”

Lin Heng and Tian Baishun shouted simultaneously. The two dogs immediately obeyed, retreating.

Just then, Bang! A gunshot rang out.

The massive charging boar stumbled, its movements slowing.

“Holy crap, it’s still not dead?!”

Lin Heng was stunned. Just as he reached for another arrow, someone behind him shouted:

“I got this! Everyone stand back!”

Li Baiquan had finally reloaded his gun. With a thunderous boom, his shot sent fiery pellets into the boar’s body.

“Oooorhh!!”

With one last agonized cry, the beast finally collapsed with a heavy thud. Blood gurgled from its mouth, and its body twitched violently before going still.

“Tian Laohan, you reckless bastard! I should’ve let that boar gore you to death! You saw me drawing my bow—why the hell did you fire first?!”

Lin Heng turned and cursed furiously at Old Man Tian.

When the boar had been caught in the snare, Lin Heng had an 80% chance of nailing a throat shot. His arrow was already on the string—but Old Man Tian fired first, missing the kill shot and sending the boar into a rampage, nearly getting them all killed.

“You son of a bitch! If I hadn’t dodged in time, I’d have at least two or three broken bones by now!” Lin Heng raged, his fury boiling over.

That encounter had been too close—he had felt death breathing down his neck.

That scene just now was too thrilling—he truly felt like he had brushed past death.

“This isn’t my fault. It’s your first time hunting a wild boar—who knows if you’d miss your shot? If you didn’t hit it and the boar ran off without a scratch, how would we ever catch up?”

Old Man Tian defended himself. That was indeed his thought process at the time.

After all, encountering a wild boar was rare, and they couldn’t afford to let it escape. His plan was to wound it first and worry about the rest later.

“Then why didn’t you just kill it with that one shot?” Lin Heng glared at him in anger. “And you call yourself an experienced hunter? You shot it in the stomach! You nearly got me killed.”

“This was my mistake. I admit it—I didn’t aim properly and failed to bring it down with a single shot,” Old Man Tian nodded. Then, suddenly, he turned to Lin Heng and dropped to his knees again. “Thank you for saving my old life once again. I don’t want a single piece of this wild boar; my share is all yours.”

Lin Heng: “…Can you stop kneeling all the time?”

“Alright, alright, enough arguing. We got a big wild boar, and no one got hurt—that’s what matters,” Li Baiquan pulled Old Man Tian to his feet, acting as the peacemaker.

Lin Heng didn’t say anything more and walked over to check Xiongba’s injuries. He felt around, and it seemed like there were no serious wounds.

“You okay?” Lin Heng asked.

“Woof!”

Xiongba spun around twice, looking perfectly fine.

Only after checking on Xiongba did Lin Heng’s mood finally settle.

Thinking about it carefully, Old Man Tian wasn’t exactly wrong, but he still couldn’t accept it. That moment had been terrifying—he’d nearly wet himself.

He had already decided that he would never go hunting with this old man again—too much trouble.

Looking at the massive wild boar, it was truly enormous, especially those two… well, things hanging behind it—they were absurdly big.

“Actually, Old Man Tian wasn’t wrong. His decision made sense—it’s just that this was a male wild boar, and they’re incredibly aggressive. That’s why it attacked instead of running. A wounded female boar would have just fled,” Lin Heng’s uncle said as he walked over.

“Old Man Tian, don’t take it personally. Lin Heng wasn’t trying to be mean—anyone would be angry if they almost got gored by a wild boar.”

Li Baiquan backed Lin Heng up.

“Of course, I understand. I can’t thank him enough—without his arrow, I’d be dead. If that thing hit me, my old bones would’ve shattered for sure. And it’s my fault, too. I should have called Lin Heng to attack together, but I was too anxious. I just didn’t want the boar to escape—I wanted to bring it down so I could repay him for saving my life before,” Old Man Tian shook his head.

“Enough talk. Let’s figure out how we’re dividing up the wild boar and get it back to the village for butchering,” Lin Heng said, unwilling to drag the argument on.

His uncle glanced at the three of them and slowly said, “Normally, the person who lands the first shot gets 30%, the one who brings the animal down gets 20%, and everyone who hits it gets a share.

For this hunt, Old Man Tian, Lin Heng, and I should each get 30%, while Li Baiquan, since you only fired a finishing shot when the boar was already down, 10% would be fair.

But since you were the one who set up the Yan Wang Trap, we wouldn’t have caught the boar without you—that’s a major contribution.

So, I suggest we just split it evenly among the four of us. But based on contributions, Li Baiquan, you get first pick, Old Man Tian second, me third, and Lin Heng fourth.”

This division was obviously fair. The person who set the trap deserved credit for keeping the boar from escaping.

The first one to wound it played a crucial role in ensuring they could track it down.

The person who landed the finishing blow, rendering it immobile, had the third-most credit.

Lin Heng had hit the boar twice, but neither shot had brought it down, so according to standard hunting rules, he would typically only get a larger-than-average assist share.

However, since he had saved Old Man Tian’s life, some extra compensation was warranted.

“I think that’s fair. An even split sounds good to me,” Li Baiquan nodded.

“I agree too, but I don’t want my share—give all of mine to Lin Heng,” Old Man Tian said.

“What’s yours is yours. You think I need that little bit of meat? If you want to thank me, at least give me something more valuable,” Lin Heng glanced at him, then added, “I also agree to an even split, but I just want to swap my pick order with Old Man Tian.”

The picking order meant that after the boar was butchered, they would take turns selecting portions until everything was claimed.

For a wild boar like this, the most prized parts were the organs, the ribs, then the meat, and lastly, the head.

“Fine, we’ll sort that out when we get back. Let’s finish this first. Did anyone bring a bag to collect the blood?”

Lin Heng’s uncle, Lu Honghai, asked as he pulled out a skinning knife.

“No, but I have some plastic sheeting—we can dig a hole and use it as a basin,” Li Baiquan said, unwilling to waste the valuable boar’s blood. He took out the plastic sheeting and started digging.

They dug a pit about 50 cm in diameter and 30 cm deep under the boar’s neck, then lined it with plastic.

“Alright, careful not to get sprayed,” Lu Honghai warned before swiftly slicing open the boar’s carotid artery.

A thick jet of blood spurted out, shooting far before finally slowing down and flowing into the pit.

“Woof woof~”

Xiongba and the big spotted dog ran over, licking up the blood that had splattered on the ground.

Once the blood was drained, the wild boar was officially dead.

Lin Heng found a sturdy, lightweight paulownia tree branch.

His uncle, his aunt’s husband, and Old Man Tian tied up the boar and slid the branch through to carry it.

“Damn, this thing must be at least 250 jin (125 kg). Carrying it with just two people is crushing our shoulders. Should we gut it here and split the weight between four people?”

Li Baiquan and Lu Honghai gave it a test lift but quickly put it down—it was too heavy for just the two of them.

“How are we supposed to chop it up without a bone-cutting knife?” Lin Heng spread his hands and asked.

Hunting such a big wild boar was exciting, but there wasn’t much to sell—just meat for their own consumption.

Wild boar meat didn’t fetch a high price, and not many people could afford it.

Unlike the hide, which could be sold directly to buyers or state-owned stores.

“You have a point. Let’s just carry it back, taking turns between the four of us. It’s not impossible to move.”

Tian Baishun nodded.

“How about this—we three will walk slowly with it, and Lin Heng, you go back to the shelter to get our stuff, then meet us on the way.”

Li Baiquan suggested.

“Alright, I’ll go get it.” Lin Heng agreed without hesitation.

“Then it’s settled. Head back now—we’ll take care of things here.”

Uncle Lu Honghai nodded.

“Xiongba, let’s go.”

Lin Heng called for Xiongba and headed back toward the shelter.

He also needed to check his snare traps. After catching such a big wild boar here, he had high hopes for his traps.

Those were all set by him alone—if they caught something, it would be his entirely, with no need to share.

With that anticipation, Lin Heng returned to the creek and took a quick look at the shelter before heading toward the marshland.

It took a while, but he and Xiongba finally arrived at the trap site.

“Well… at a glance, all three are empty.”

Lin Heng was momentarily speechless and silently untied the snares to pack them up.

“Did I pick the wrong spot?”

His confidence wavered. Marshlands like this, full of summer vegetation, should have been prime spots for hidden prey.

So why were most of his traps yielding nothing?

Suddenly, Xiongba launched into a sprint, charging toward a patch of thatched grass ahead.

“Clatter, clatter!”

A pheasant was startled and shot into the air. Xiongba leaped and snapped at it, only managing to get a mouthful of feathers.

“Woof!”

He turned back with a slightly embarrassed blink, spitting out the feathers. Catching a pheasant was still too difficult for a dog.

“Damn it, that pheasant was right there in the grass but didn’t step into my trap.”

Lin Heng was speechless. This felt like the ultimate insult. He walked over and saw that his snare was still intact.

After collecting another seven or eight traps, Lin Heng finally spotted something hanging from a Yama’s Noose trap, struggling frantically as he approached.

“Are you kidding me? A pig badger this small?”

Lin Heng was exasperated—it was just a cub.

Clearly newborn, it was about the size of a month-old piglet, only twenty centimeters long and weighing around seven or eight pounds.

“Yowl!”

It shrieked non-stop, hanging upside down by its hind leg.

Lin Heng positioned himself, grabbed its neck, untied the snare from its leg, and resecured it around its neck.

“Did I stumble upon a nest of babies recently? First it was feral cat kittens, now a pig badger cub.”

Lin Heng shook his head in frustration. The little pig badger was so scared in his hands that it pooped itself. Luckily, he was prepared—otherwise, it would have been nasty.

“Into the basket with you.”

He placed the cub at the bottom of his pack basket, deciding to take it back and raise it. Pig badgers weren’t bad—good for meat when grown, and their fur could be sold.

The basket was deep, and the pig badger had no claws to climb with, so it couldn’t escape no matter what.

“Let’s go check the other traps. If they’re empty, I’ll catch some fine-scaled salmon to bring home.”

Lin Heng was in a decent mood. Catching live prey was great—small ones could be raised.

“If only I could get a forest musk deer or something.”

Greedy for more, Lin Heng hoped the remaining traps might still bring some surprises.

But reality hit hard. One empty trap after another, until finally, something was caught—just a stiff, dead rat.

“What rotten luck.”

Lin Heng scowled and kicked the dead rat away. Even a squirrel would’ve been better—why a rat?

To his dismay, that was just the beginning. Three more consecutive traps yielded nothing but large, dead rats.

“Alright, Xiongba, want some? I can roast them for you.” Lin Heng glanced at Xiongba.

“Woof!”

Xiongba seemed excited, signaling that he did want them. He even turned back to fetch the first rat.

“Alright, I’ll roast them for you later.”

Lin Heng didn’t want Xiongba eating raw meat—there was too much risk of disease, and treatment would be difficult, not to mention the danger of infecting humans.

Especially since his daughter, Xiaoxia, often played with Xiongba. Lin Heng decided to deworm him when they got back.

With the final Yama’s Noose trap coming up empty, Lin Heng couldn’t help but chuckle. “Unbelievable. Just perfect.”

Not a single large prey caught. Truly unlucky.

Shaking his head, Lin Heng headed to the waterfall pool, started a fire, and roasted the rats for Xiongba.

Glancing at the pig badger cub in his basket, Lin Heng sighed. “Seriously, why were you leading the way? Wouldn’t it have been better to let your mother go first? Makes me want to roast you instead.”

He figured this particular Yama’s Noose had the best chance—it was likely meant for a full-grown pig badger, but the cub had taken its mother’s place.

He had expected a bigger haul, but things didn’t always go as planned.

It turned out that his first two days here had already been the peak of this hunting trip. Even though this wild boar was big, in terms of value, it didn’t compare to a large muntjac.

But that was hunting for you—often unpredictable.

Catching three fine-scaled salmon, each weighing around a pound, along with a few large creek rockfish, Lin Heng then dismantled his maze trap.

With the fish caught and four roasted rats ready, he tossed them to Xiongba. The silly dog took a bite and yelped from the heat.

Burned, it spat the rat out and lay down, staring at it until it cooled. After a while, it pawed at the meat, checking the temperature before eating.

“Idiot dog.”

Lin Heng glanced at Xiongba, then quickly grilled his own creek rockfish. In two minutes, it was done—just enough to fill his stomach.

“Let’s go, time to head back.”

After eating and drinking their fill, the man and the dog each took a leak to extinguish the fire. Then, Lin Heng hoisted the pack basket onto his back and set off on the journey home.

Life was truly tough.

(End of chapter)