Chapter 193: Our Home Was Robbed

The wind howled, whipping the snow against their bodies. Lin Heng’s hands and feet were frozen stiff.

Thankfully, in the depths of the forest, firewood was never in short supply. He quickly gathered a good amount. By the time he returned, Li Baiquan had already used pine resin to get a fire going.

The small flame flickered in the wind, but with enough resin to feed it, the fire held strong and didn’t go out. Once they added more wood, the flames grew, and the three of them finally felt a trace of warmth.

But the wind was too fierce—fronts warmed while backs froze. It was impossible to get truly comfortable, and they still shivered uncontrollably.

Old Man Gao rubbed his hands together and said, “We need to build a shelter fast. We won’t make it through the night like this. Look for nearby trees—if there aren’t any suitable ones, we’ll have to chop some down.”

“Yeah, that’s our only option,” Li Baiquan agreed.

“Woof woof~”

Xiong Ba let out a low howl and shook his fur. He was practically a big white snow-dog by now.

Lin Heng had already gathered a lot of wood. It was the dead of night—comfort was out of the question. A simple cone-shaped shelter would have to do for now.

They found some vines and used three sturdy logs for the main frame, then filled in the gaps with more wood—first large pieces, then smaller ones. Finally, they layered on rotting leaves and moss to insulate it.

Even with all three of them working together, it still took a full hour to finish.

Once it was done, they scrambled inside without hesitation.

Li Baiquan rubbed his hands and sighed in relief. “Finally warm… damn, that was brutal.”

“We got too careless today. I let my guard down,” Old Man Gao said, shaking his head. Luckily, they’d snapped out of it in time—this was a brush with death.

Lin Heng said nothing, quietly warming himself by the fire, thoughts drifting to his wife and child. Today had been far too close for comfort—they’d nearly died.

As their bodies gradually warmed up, their stomachs began to growl.

They’d traveled light today, bringing only a small amount of dry rations, which were long gone.

“When it rains, it pours, huh?” Lin Heng gave a bitter laugh. “No prey on the way back either. Now we’ve got fire, but nothing to eat.”

Old Man Gao shook his head. “We’ll just have to tough it out tonight. There’s no other way. If it weren’t snowing, we could’ve gone hunting or foraged for something. But in this weather, it’s pointless.”

Lin Heng and Li Baiquan both understood. They’d have to go hungry.

But it was hard—hunger made your mind foggy, your body weak. You’d kill for three whole cows.

Old Man Gao was the most resilient—he’d once gone half a month on nothing but water. As an old soldier, he’d faced every hardship imaginable.

Lin Heng, though he looked young, had lived two lives. He’d known hunger too. In his previous life, he’d survived his worst days by scavenging trash.

So while it was miserable, he could endure it.

Li Baiquan, despite looking older than Lin Heng, was actually the youngest of the three. He tossed and turned, sighing constantly. His hungry gaze even started drifting toward Xiong Ba, who yelped and hid behind Lin Heng.

Li Baiquan shook his head and muttered, “No way. Next time, I don’t care what anyone says—I’m bringing more food. I’d rather eat tree bark than go through this again.”

The night dragged on in agony. With no beds, the three of them sat on logs, hunched over their knees, huddled around the fire to sleep.

Their hunger kept them awake until after ten, and they were up again by six the next morning.

It was still dark outside. They were even hungrier than the day before. Xiong Ba whimpered from hunger too.

There was no more firewood, only a few glowing embers left.

Stepping outside, they saw that snow was still falling, though much lighter than yesterday—more of a gentle flurry now.

They were already starving, so a few more minutes wouldn’t make a difference. They gathered some more wood and rekindled the fire.

By seven, daylight had broken. Li Baiquan couldn’t wait any longer and ran out to find some “life-saving food.”

That “life-saving food” turned out to be firethorn berries—bright red, tart, and one of the easiest things to find in the mountains.

Li Baiquan handed some to the others and grinned. “When you’re starving, even these taste sweet. Guess the old saying’s true—go three days without food and even pig slop smells good.”

“This won’t give us much nutrition,” Lin Heng said. “We should try to catch some birds.”

He picked two big handfuls of berries and cleared a patch of snow outside the shelter to expose the dirt. Then he scattered the berries there.

He couldn’t handle just eating berries. Even a sparrow would be better than nothing.

Back inside, Lin Heng turned to Old Man Gao with a smile. “Uncle, mind if I borrow the shotgun? Let’s get some meat in us before we head out.”

“Sure,” Old Man Gao said, handing over the double-barreled shotgun without hesitation.

Lin Heng examined the gun and set it up facing the clearing outside.

Within minutes, two sparrows flew in, but it wasn’t enough to shoot yet.

He waited. Ten minutes later, three or four green-throated finches and five or six more sparrows joined them. That was more like it.

Just as Lin Heng was about to pull the trigger, two doves flew in from the distance. He grinned and didn’t hesitate.

Click!

Boom!!

With a thunderous blast, countless tiny pellets sprayed out. Not a single bird escaped. They all dropped to the ground, still and lifeless.

“Got ’em!”

Lin Heng shouted with joy, practically drooling at the sight.

“I’ll grab ’em!” Li Baiquan bolted out and scooped them all up.

Two doves, four green-throated finches, six sparrows.

“Let’s just toss them in the fire—no need to pluck or prep,” Lin Heng said, throwing the doves in first.

The feathers sizzled and popped, releasing a burnt, acrid smell like scorched fingernails—but to them, it was mouthwatering.

Old Man Gao and Li Baiquan tossed in the sparrows and finches too.

The sparrows cooked first. They scraped off the charred feathers with a knife, revealing golden-brown skin. Then they cut them in half, fed the guts and heads to Xiong Ba, and tore into the meat.

They crunched through bones like crackers.

Hunger was a brutal thing. All they wanted was to fill their bellies—no energy left to be picky.

No seasoning, not even salt. The sparrows had a muddy, gamey taste, but to them, it was a gourmet feast.

They devoured every last bird—sparrows, finches, doves—until not a scrap remained. Only after burping in satisfaction did they finally stop.

Their minds cleared. Their strength returned.

Lin Heng looked out at the snow, finally able to think about what came next.

Old Man Gao stood up. “Let’s head back. We’ll keep an eye out for game along the way.”

It was past eight, and daylight was full.

“Yeah, let’s go,” Li Baiquan agreed.

They packed up, put out the fire, and set off.

The shelter was left behind—maybe someone else would stumble upon it and find refuge from the wind and snow.

Though the snow still blanketed everything, the daytime visibility was good. It wasn’t hard to find their way back.

“Good thing we didn’t wander around last night,” Lin Heng muttered. “We were headed in the exact opposite direction.”

They spotted the markings they’d left on the trees the night before, and all three of them felt a chill run down their spines.

If they’d been stubborn last night, the three of them might’ve ended up as corpses by now. Nature’s dangers always arrive silently, catching people completely off guard.

It might not be as dramatic as a tiger or bear attack, but once you’re caught in it, survival is nearly impossible.

With their hearts still pounding, the three of them headed back, but found no prey along the way.

By a little after ten, they were back near the campsite. As soon as they entered the valley where the campsite was located, Xiong Ba spotted new tracks.

A string of wild boar footprints—one large set, surrounded by a dense cluster of smaller ones.

Li Baiquan stared at the tracks and exclaimed, “Damn, these are headed toward the campsite! Don’t tell me that pack of wild boars went there!”

Pigs are omnivores—they’ll eat meat if they find it. The campsite had not only meat, but also the wild yams and medicinal herbs they’d worked so hard to dig up, not to mention their food rations for the next few days.

“Very likely. We need to pick up the pace,” Old Man Gao nodded.

“There are way too many wild boars in these mountains,” Lin Heng shook his head.

Wild boars breed too fast and have almost no natural predators. You can’t kill them all.

In later years, it had only been five years since wild boars were protected before they became a full-blown disaster. People had to be sent into the mountains to hunt them.

There was no helping it. Tigers were gone, leopards were rare—keeping the wild boar population in check was now a job for humans.

Lin Heng was also glad he hadn’t left the ginseng or musk at the campsite. If a hundred-year-old ginseng got gobbled up by a wild boar, he’d probably cough up blood from rage.

The three of them quickened their pace and soon made it back to the campsite.

“They’re actually eating our stuff!”

Lin Heng, sharp-eyed as ever, spotted the wild boars from a distance.

Just as they’d feared, a large mother boar was leading eight or nine piglets, feasting wildly at the campsite.

A little later and the whole campsite might’ve been torn apart by that mother boar.

Li Baiquan turned to Lin Heng and asked, “Crap, you didn’t leave your musk at the campsite, did you?”

“Nope, I’ve been carrying it with me,” Lin Heng shook his head.

“I’ll take care of the mother boar first,” Old Man Gao said, quietly moving in with his hunting rifle.

Li Baiquan loaded his shotgun with slugs, while Lin Heng pulled out his compound bow and slung his quiver at his waist.

They didn’t have any rule about sparing the young. If these beasts dared to raid their campsite and eat their food, then they’d be turned into food themselves.

Maybe the boars had eaten too much, because they were so caught up in gorging themselves that the group managed to get within two hundred meters without being noticed.

Old Man Gao, using a rifle barrel, took aim at the mother boar and pulled the trigger.

With a thunderous bang, the bullet tore through the mother boar’s head.

She only had time to glance back before collapsing with a thud, her legs twitching for a few seconds before going still.

The rifle round was too powerful—one shot to the head and she was dead, no extra movement.

“Oink oink!!”

“Oink oink!!”

“Woof woof!!”

At the same time, the piglets panicked and scattered in all directions.

Xiong Ba barked furiously and charged after them.

Lin Heng and his uncle-in-law rushed in as well.

Li Baiquan fired at two piglets nearby—bang! One dropped, the other fled bleeding.

Lin Heng drew and loosed an arrow, piercing one right in front of him. It ran two steps before collapsing.

“Woof woof!!”

Startled by the gunfire, the piglets ran downstream, but Xiong Ba cleverly circled around to block them, herding them back.

“Oink oink!!”

Lin Heng loosed another arrow, shooting one straight through the head.

On the other side, Old Man Gao joined the fray, finishing off the injured piglet Li Baiquan had shot, then rushing over to fight alongside Lin Heng.

These moving targets were hard to hit—Lin Heng missed several times even at close range.

Fortunately, there were enough people—and Xiong Ba. In the end, only two piglets escaped. The rest were all taken down.

“Let’s check the damage.”

They didn’t even have time to tally the haul. The three of them rushed to inspect the shelter.

“Goddammit!!”

After checking, Li Baiquan couldn’t help but kick the dead mother boar a few times.

All the rice and flour had been ravaged—some eaten, some spilled all over the ground, completely ruined.

What was left was barely three pounds.

The wild yams were the same—many had been eaten, and most of the rest were trampled beyond use. Almost none were intact.

The chestnut meat and cured pork, on the other hand, were untouched, since they’d been hung high up—out of reach of the boars.

The boars had already started tearing the campsite apart, but thankfully they’d made it back in time.

Lin Heng gave the dead boar a couple of kicks too and sighed. “Let’s bring in the wild boars first, then sort out the supplies and figure out what to do next.”

They went out and hauled in the piglets. Each one weighed around fifteen to twenty pounds—small, but still usable.

They’d bagged seven in total. Lin Heng had taken down three, Old Man Gao two and a half, and Li Baiquan one and a half.

Including the mother boar, the haul was nothing short of impressive.

Definitely a case of hardship followed by reward—though it was a shame so much had been lost.

The three of them then carefully sorted through their supplies. The flour was a total loss. The rice, after being picked clean, amounted to maybe four pounds.

At least half of it had been eaten or ruined by the wild boars.

The wild yams were the biggest loss. They’d dug up over forty pounds, but only about five pounds were salvageable now.

And even those were half-rotten and had to be eaten immediately—basically a total wipeout.

Half the medicinal herbs had been destroyed too, which was heartbreaking.

Five bags were torn, two beyond repair and had to be burned.

Li Baiquan muttered bitterly, “We were planning to stay a few more days, but now it looks like we have no choice but to head back.”

Lin Heng patted him on the shoulder and said with a smile, “Look on the bright side, Uncle. Maybe this is Heaven’s way of telling us to go home early and spend New Year’s with the family. We’ve already got more than enough from this trip.”

Old Man Gao nodded. “Yeah, time to head back. We’ve got plenty.”

After a quick discussion, the three of them decided to leave the next day. Today, they’d clean up the campsite, and tomorrow they’d move everything to Three-Forked Gully.

It was only eleven in the morning—not even noon—but all three of them felt drained.

Hunting was exhilarating, but processing the game was anything but easy.

The mother boar alone weighed at least two hundred pounds and would be the hardest to deal with.

And then there were the seven piglets, which weren’t exactly a breeze either.

Lin Heng looked at Old Man Gao and said with a grin, “How about this—let’s not process the piglets. We’re heading back soon anyway, and with this cold, they won’t spoil.”

“Let’s just deal with the mother Wild Boar today—what do you all think?”

“Sounds good. If we gut the little Wild Boar, the innards will be a pain to clean,” Old Man Gao nodded.

Li Baiquan had no objections either. In fact, he didn’t even want to deal with the big Wild Boar.

But the thing was just too massive. If they didn’t butcher it here, no one would be able to carry it back—they had to break it down.

Old Man Gao turned to Lin Heng and said, “Alright, Lin Heng, you go ahead and start cooking. The two of us will set up a rack. After we eat, we’ll take our time with the rest.”

(End of Chapter)