vstars Chapter 145 Setting a Trap for Tiger King
Chapter 145 Setting a Trap for Tiger King
The group hadn't eaten, and with darkness falling and snow starting to fall, their strength was rapidly waning.
Li Ju'an took out a piece of steamed rice cake and took a bite. This thing was somewhat oily, but it was frozen solid in the minus thirty degree weather. He could even bite into crumbs with his front teeth and they fell into his mouth. It was dry and tasteless in his mouth, and his throat hurt a lot.
"Traveling at night is too painful. I'll find a cave to spend the night in and meet up with the dog tomorrow."
The tiger and its hunting dogs were scattered by the tiger king. The hunting dogs will find snowdrifts to hide in on their own; dogs aren't afraid of fire, and once the danger is over, the hunting dogs will come back one by one. Most importantly, who can see the road clearly at night? Aren't they afraid of having another close, affectionate gaze with the tiger king? Just thinking about it is exciting.
Feeling bad about it, Veterinarian Zhang suggested going to the nearest forest ranger's duty hut.
There are several guard posts in the mountains surrounding the ranch. Old Zhang used to deal with these forest rangers often and knew the location of the guard huts very well.
Braving the bitter cold, with two red patches on his cheekbones from the cold, Li Ju'an sniffed, held up a pine torch, and followed the old veterinarian Zhang for two miles to reach the forest ranger's duty hut.
The wooden house looked quite old. As the group approached, an elderly forest ranger, around fifty years old, opened the door. A pot of pine needle tea was brewing on the stove, and the old ranger poured tea for them.
Li Ju'an held the hot tea, breathing on it to keep it steaming, and quickly drank it in large gulps. It was truly a lifesaver, warming his hands and stomach.
The old forest ranger said that there used to be only one tiger in the area, but recently several more have appeared, and the snow is covered with tiger footprints. When he patrols the forest, he can only collect some pine needles nearby, carrying his old rifle, and he doesn't dare to go too far.
After drinking the hot pine needle tea, Song Desheng regained some of his strength and became more talkative. He joked, "What's there to be afraid of? If we run into a tiger, we'll just shoot it and become tiger-slaying heroes."
Old Lin shook his head, brought over a roasted rabbit, and said, "If the gun doesn't fire, then we're in big trouble."
Old rifles have many problems in the dead of winter; they might not fire or explode, which can be fatal.
The roasted rabbit was very fatty, and it smelled delicious when it came out of the oven, with the sizzling aroma of meat filling the air. The group was already starving, and when they smelled the aroma of the roasted meat, their eyes lit up, and they tore open pieces of roasted rabbit and began to eat it without any hesitation.
Only after eating and drinking their fill can they work. Li Ju'an was not stingy. He dragged the deer off the sled, cut open the deer skin with a knife, cut the deer leg meat, sliced the meat into pieces, and roasted it over the fire.
Tigers were lurking outside the cabin, and with knives tucked between his necks, he had no reason to care about the specimens. He borrowed a pot from the old forester, boiled some snow water, and made a venison hot pot.
The group and the old forest ranger sat around a large pot and charcoal fire roasting venison, tearing off pieces of roasted venison leg to eat and drinking large gulps of meat soup. They thoroughly enjoyed their meal.
People need to be well-fed to have the energy to work. The group rested in the wooden hut that night.
Li Ju'an discussed with the old forest ranger that the next morning the old forest ranger would lead them to look at the large footprints in the snow. By looking at the number and direction of the footprints left in the past few days, they could roughly know the Tiger King's activity range.
The old forest ranger's surname was Tang. Old Tang responded, then took off his big cotton hat and threw it onto the antler rack on the wall next to him.
Only then did he notice the dense, winding scars covering Old Tang's head and scalp. His heart tightened, and he suddenly hesitated to ask the question that was on the tip of his tongue.
Song Desheng was quick to speak; after exclaiming in surprise, he asked directly, "Uncle Tang, what happened?"
Old Tang, the forest ranger, also ate the roasted venison with the others. They became acquainted over the meal. Pointing to the largest scar, he said, "I was bitten by that male tiger while on patrol. That male was old, so old that he had lost all his tiger teeth. Just like that, we were half dead."
The scar on his head bore the marks of stitches, over forty stitches in total. The group remained silent, heavy-hearted, unsure what to say. If Old Tiger could bite like this even with his teeth missing, what would happen if he encountered a young, strong tiger?
Veterinarian Zhang sighed, slapped his thigh, and said, "We have to deal with the tiger."
At night, the mule kept kicking the wooden planks outside. Iron Hammer, unusually, lay down at Li Ju'an's feet, only daring to peek out through the crack in the wooden house door, occasionally letting out a soft whimper.
Li Ju'an boiled pine branch water, asked Old Tang, the forest ranger, for a box of pine nut oil, slung his hunting rifle over his shoulder, dragged his heavy cloth bag, and shouted, "I'm just going to walk around outside, here comes my cloth bag."
Lu Zhiqiang and Song Desheng were puzzled when they heard this. Song Desheng slapped his forehead and was about to follow, but Lu Zhiqiang thought for a moment and shouted, "Can't we set the traps tomorrow morning? It's too dangerous tonight; even the mules are braying."
From afar came Li Ju'an's reply: "We hunt willingly, a simple-minded kind of hunt."
Lu Zhiqiang glanced at Song Desheng and asked, "What does 'willing to take the bait' mean? What does Li Ju'an mean by that?"
Song Desheng stood up, gun in hand, and asked, "What do we need to put in the trap?"
"It's bait. Find some pieces of meat and drench them with blood."
"Of course! What are you afraid of hiding in this room?"
"Stop whining like a nagging old woman. There's a tiger outside, and instead of hiding inside, we're going to go out and feed it? You're as stupid as can be."
Song Desheng had already opened the door and followed him out, laughing loudly as he said, "That's more like it."
Veterinarian Zhang, security guard Zhao, Lao Qian, and several others went out after Li Ju'an, setting up traps, pulling wires, locking the door, and even chopping pine wood, using a chainsaw to cut several heavy pieces of wood.
Lu Zhiqiang remained alone in the wooden house, staring at the slippery dog, Iron Hammer, for a moment. Suddenly, Iron Hammer whimpered and followed him out.
He then slapped his thigh and shouted, "Damn it! They're using me as bait, aren't they? So I'm just bait that smells pungent and fishy, waiting for the big claws to sniff me out and step on the trap."
He quickly followed behind Iron Hammer, shouting Li Ju'an's name, afraid of falling behind.
Li Ju'an and Lao Qin, the "Trap King" from Changbai Mountain, learned how to use the trap-setting method. Previously, he would buy ready-made traps from the county market, which were expensive and of questionable quality. He could only use 9 out of 10 traps without success.
This time, he made the trap himself, using serrated sheet metal and a spring. He used pliers to hold the wire in place, and once prey stepped on it and triggered the mechanism, the spring would immediately contract and clamp the sheet metal around the prey's leg.
When facing different prey, the size of the trap must be precisely differentiated. The traps he makes are the size of a palm. This time, in order to hunt the tiger king, he measured the tiger's footprints in the snow and made a large trap as long as a forearm.
He smeared the pine branch water, which he had boiled for two hours, along with pine nut oil, onto the foot clamp to remove the smell. Like iron wire and steel rope, the foot clamp also needed to be deodorized before it could be used; otherwise, wild animals with sensitive noses would immediately detect the odor, rendering the entire operation useless. This time, he didn't use fire, because while steel rope and iron wire could be heated, springs would lose their strength after being burned.