The Entire Mountain Is My Hunting Ground

BANG!

The gunshot echoed through the mountains. The five roe deer, hearing the sound, all jerked their heads up and looked around. 𝓯𝓻𝓮𝙚𝙬𝓮𝙗𝒏𝙤𝒗𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝒐𝓶

A spray of blood erupted from the largest roe deer. It let out a pained cry, collapsed to the ground, and was instantly still.

Only then did the other four roe deer react. They leaped up and bounded away across the snow, disappearing in a flash.

They were like phantoms on the snow.

"That’s a big one!" Li Baoyu, who had been hanging back, now sprinted up to Zhao Jun’s side, exclaiming loudly.

"Come on, let’s keep after them." Zhao Jun paid no mind to the dead roe deer, pulling Li Baoyu through the grove of tree stumps and striding forward with purpose.

"Brother, can we still catch them?" Li Baoyu asked, puzzled.

"Quiet. Just follow me!" Zhao Jun said, holding his rifle. He lightened his steps and moved forward slowly.

Though Li Baoyu didn’t understand, he didn’t dare say more and quietly followed behind Zhao Jun.

After they left the stump-filled grove and had gone about five hundred meters, Zhao Jun suddenly reached back and pressed down on Li Baoyu’s shoulder.

Li Baoyu hastily crouched down. Zhao Jun lowered his own body, took two slow steps forward, then abruptly stood up, raised his rifle, and fired.

BANG!

Another shot!

Blood splattered as another roe deer collapsed, dead on the spot.

The remaining three roe deer fled for their lives down the slope.

"Whoa!" Hearing the shot, Li Baoyu couldn’t help but stand up. He stared ahead and shouted, "You got it just like that?"

"Yep," Zhao Jun said. "It’s dead."

Li Baoyu found it hard to understand. He asked Zhao Jun, "Brother, why didn’t they run?"

Zhao Jun understood what Li Baoyu meant. When Zhao Jun had fired the first shot, he had killed a large roe deer in the woods.

Logically, the remaining roe deer should have acted like wild boars or Black Bears—running until they were exhausted, not stopping to eat or sleep.

But those four roe deer? They had only run six or seven hundred meters before stopping foolishly.

Li Baoyu was baffled. The roe deer knew there was danger behind them, so why didn’t they run farther?

Zhao Jun smiled. "My friend, don’t forget what we call them: silly roe deer."

Hearing this, Li Baoyu blurted out the question on his mind. "Are they really that stupid?"

"Not stupid," Zhao Jun said, shaking his head. "They just seem that way. They aren’t like wild boars or bears. Roe deer are loyal to their family and their herd. If you kill one from a group, the rest won’t run far before they stop and wait."

"Wait for the dead one?" Li Baoyu asked.

"That’s right," Zhao Jun said. "So after you down one, don’t stop. Keep moving forward, and you can get another shot."

"Ah..." Li Baoyu drew out the sound, nodding as if committing Zhao Jun’s words to memory.

But then he remembered something and said with a hint of regret, "Brother, you should have let me take that shot!"

As he spoke, he pointed back the way they came. "That Large Green Chestnut was big enough to make dumplings for both our families."

"Don’t be hasty," Zhao Jun reassured him. "If we keep going, we can get one more shot. You can take that one."

"For real?" Li Baoyu was incredulous. ’Are they really silly roe deer?’

So, he asked again, "Are they still waiting up ahead?"

Zhao Jun shook his head. "You think they’re complete idiots? One of them already died waiting. What would they be waiting for now?"

"Then where are we going to get another shot?"

Zhao Jun said, "Patience. Just follow me."

"Okay!"

With that settled, the two continued down the ridge. It was a downhill slope leading to a gully.

On the other side of the gully was another mountain. As they descended, Zhao Jun peered at the opposite ridge and thought he saw something in the distance.

’A big one?’ A thought stirred in Zhao Jun’s mind. ’To be visible from this far away, it can’t be small.’

The two continued downhill. As they neared the gully, Zhao Jun suddenly put a hand on Li Baoyu again.

Li Baoyu, having learned his lesson, kept his mouth shut. But when he followed Zhao Jun’s gaze to the opposite slope, his eyes went wide.

Right there on the other side, the three roe deer were walking along at a leisurely, unhurried pace.

Li Baoyu was speechless.

He was completely stunned. ’They really are silly roe deer,’ he thought. ’Two out of a family of five are dead, and the remaining three are still in the mood for a scenic stroll.’

In truth, roe deer aren’t stupid. If they were, they probably would have gone extinct long ago.

It’s just that these creatures have their quirks. First and foremost, they’re intensely curious. Take Zhao Jun’s first shot, for example. If it had been wild boars or Black Bears, they would have bolted the instant they heard the gunshot.

But roe deer? If one or two of them go down, the others will first look around, trying to find the source of the sound.

Then there’s their loyalty to their herd and family. You could call it a virtue. At least when compared to Black Bears and wild boars, they’re far superior in that regard.

Take the day Xing Zhuyong and Li Hu wrestled that Black Bear. The moment dogs started chasing the mother Black Bear, she abandoned the Little Black Bear.

As for wild boars, a Big Cannon Egg will only protect the sounder when it’s rutting and mating. After he’s done his business, he’s heartless and bolts, not giving a damn about anyone else.

However, for roe deer, the behavior of waiting up ahead after a companion has been shot doesn’t exactly seem like a life-preserving virtue.

Finally, that brings us to the current situation.

If they had been going uphill instead of downhill just now, the three roe deer would have run all the way to Gangjiansi, then down the other side to the bottom of the gully, and finally up the opposite slope.

If that had been the case, Zhao Jun and Li Baoyu would never have been able to keep up.

But luck was not on the roe deers’ side. It had only been a short downhill stretch. The deer descended into the gully and, without stopping, immediately started up the opposite slope.

But as soon as they were on the other side, they didn’t run far before stopping, slowing their pace from a run to a walk.

Slow and leisurely, just moseying along.

Any experienced Hunter knows that if you chase a roe deer down into a gully and it goes up the opposite slope, it’s guaranteed to stop.

That’s why when you’re herding roe deer, if you track them well and understand their habits, you can get up to three shots without much effort.

But if you try the same with wild boars, the moment you fire that first shot—regardless of whether one goes down or not—the others will run nonstop until three or four in the afternoon, only stopping when it’s time for their evening meal.

Thus, a Hunter would need to track them for the better part of a day just to get a chance at a second shot.

At this moment, the two mountains with their opposing slopes formed a funnel shape, with the gully as its bottom.

Zhao Jun and Li Baoyu were on the north-facing slope of South Mountain, still five or six hundred meters from the bottom of the gully.

From their high vantage point, they could see the three roe deer ambling up the south-facing slope of North Mountain, about three hundred meters above the gully floor.

The two parties faced each other across the expanse, separated by a distance of over six hundred meters.

Without a word, Zhao Jun handed his rifle to Li Baoyu. Li Baoyu, also silent, took the gun, raised it to his shoulder, and aimed at the largest of the three roe deer.

Just as Li Baoyu was about to fire, a series of noises suddenly came from higher up the opposite slope.

Zhao Jun, Li Baoyu, and the three roe deer across the way all heard it.

As mentioned before, upon hearing the noise, the roe deer’s curiosity was immediately piqued. They craned their necks to look ahead.

And Li Baoyu fired.

BANG!

The shot rang out, not even grazing a hair. The three roe deer took off running.

But after that shot, all hell broke loose up above.