Chapter 4: Who is the current emperor?

  Before Yang Qiuchi made a decision, the tiger under the tree pounced again. Yang Qiuchi only felt a severe pain in his left forearm, which was wrapped around the branch. The tiger's front paw had torn apart his sleeve and opened several blood mouths on his arm. Yang Qiuchi gritted his teeth in pain, his hand loosened, and he almost fell off the tree, hurriedly hugging the trunk tightly.

  Damn it, I'm going all out against you!

  Yang Qiuchi reached for his gun, but his body was lying on a tree branch, and the pistol in his armed holster was already pressed under his body. Just as Yang Qiuchi was trying to maintain his balance while straining to lift his buttocks to make space to reach for the gun, the tiger had turned around on the ground, discovering that if it utilized the height advantage of the slope, it could catch the prey in the tree, and had already climbed up the slope.

  At the last moment, Yang Qiuchi could no longer care about so much, he bowed his head, his chest and abdomen left the branch, his right hand quickly reached into his pocket and pulled out a pistol. Due to the large movement and the thinness of the branch he was on, his body swayed almost losing balance.

  The tiger has turned around and is looking for an angle!

  Yang Qiuchi desperately grasped the branch to maintain balance, and the injured arm was again a tearing pain due to excessive force. At this moment, it couldn't be taken care of anymore. Since there was no way to use his left hand to load, he used his right index finger to hook onto the trigger guard, and with a loud "click", he had already loaded the gun single-handedly.

  The tiger adjusted its angle, slightly sat back, let out a roar, and pounced at Yang Qiuchi once again!

  Bang! Yang Qiuchi didn't even have time to aim, and with a raise of his hand, he fired a shot. The tiger in mid-air seemed to have been slammed on the head with a heavy club, losing all its strength, flying over Yang Qiuchi's body, and thudding into the creek bank with a loud splat.

  The tiger rolled on the ground a few times, then got up and let out a mighty roar that shook the valley. Turning its head, it stared intently at Yang Qiuchu in the tree, taking slow steps towards him, with fresh blood dripping down from its forehead.

  No time to study where the bullet hit the tiger, raised his hand and aimed at the tiger's head, bang! Bang! Two more shots. Yang Qiuchi was less than five meters away from the tiger, both of which accurately hit the tiger's head. The tiger's head seemed to have been punched twice, its head suddenly tilted back, shook, and then fell to the ground. Fresh red blood mixed with white brain pulp flowed down. The tiger's paws scratched the grass a few times, and then stopped moving.

  Yang Qiuchi panted heavily, his right hand still holding the gun and pointing at the tiger, afraid that it would get up again.

  After a while, the tiger still didn't move. Yang Qiuchu dared not confirm whether the tiger was dead or not. To be on the safe side, he aimed at the tiger's forehead and fired another shot. The tiger's forehead splashed with a small cluster of blood flowers, but the tiger still didn't make any noise. Only then did Yang Qiuchu confirm that this tiger really was dead.

  It was truly a narrow escape! Yang Qiucheng finally let out a long sigh of relief, feeling cold sweat dripping from his forehead, his whole body going limp, tightly hugging the tree branch to rest for a while before sliding down to the ground.

  Yang Qiuchi pointed his pistol at the tiger, slowly approaching it, and kicked it with his foot. Still, there was no movement. The tiger's skull had already been blown away by the four pistol bullets, and its forehead was covered in white brain matter, obscuring the majestic "king" pattern.

  At this time, Yang Qiuchi only felt the burning pain of the wound on his left arm. He rolled up his sleeve and saw three bloody mouths. He hurried to the creek to clean the wound, looked at it carefully, and found that the wound was not deep and did not need sutures. Raising his arm above his head could help the wound heal. Slowly, the bleeding stopped, but there was no clean gauze for bandaging here, so he just left it exposed, which actually made it less likely to get infected.

  Sitting on the grass beside the tiger, looking at the tiger's bloody mouth, he almost became the food being chewed in that mouth. Thinking about it made him feel a little scared. He looked up at the bright sun and the scenery around him, which had regained its poetic beauty. Yang Qiuchu felt the pleasure of escaping death. After resting for a while, his strength recovered, and he kicked the tiger hard, scolding: "Damn you! Why aren't you majestic anymore? Even Wu Song's tiger-beating at Jingyanggang wasn't as good as this!" Yang Qiuchu was somewhat complacent.

  He ejected the clip and took a look, there were still two bullets left. He put on the spare clip from his armed belt and checked it out, there were six bullets in it. Adding these two, he had eight bullets left. He had to use them sparingly, as in ancient times, there was no place to find more bullets. Once the bullets ran out, this handgun would be nothing but a piece of scrap metal.

  Not knowing if there were any more tigers or other ferocious beasts, it was better to be cautious. Yang Qiuchi replaced the magazine with a spare one fully loaded with bullets and then inserted the pistol into the gun holster in his waist.

  This tiger skin is a good thing, it can be sold for a lot of money. He took out the small Tibetan knife from his armed belt and started to peel off the tiger skin. Although he had never skinned a tiger before and hadn't studied veterinary medicine, after all, as a medical university graduate, he still had some general knowledge of dissection.

  Before long, the tiger skin was peeled off, bloody and spread on the grass to dry. The tiger meat also had to be cut off. If no one was found, there would be something to fill their hunger. However, this tiger weighed several hundred pounds, and it was impossible for them to carry such a heavy load. There was no need to bring so much, just cutting off the two hind legs of the tiger was enough. Unfortunately, there were no matches, otherwise they could have had a barbecue with authentic tiger meat, which would be domineering!

  After Yang Qiuchi cut off the tiger's hind legs, he found a rattan stick to tie up the two hind legs of the tiger and carried them on his back. The blood on the tiger skin had dried halfway, rolled it up and tucked it under his armpit, continuing along the stream.

  After walking for about another hour, he saw more than a dozen thatched cottages halfway up the mountain, and there were people! Yang Qiuchi was very excited, now he could know which dynasty he had traveled to in ancient times. However, it's not afraid of ten thousand, but afraid of one in ten thousand, what if it's a bandit den or a mountain stronghold? That would be troublesome. Yang Qiuchi took out his pistol and loaded the bullets.

  As I approached the village, I saw a shepherd boy sitting on the ridge of a field at the edge of the village, herding cows, with a dog-tail grass in his hand, looking very carefree.

  Yang Qiuchi walked up beside him, bent down and asked: "Young man, may I ask what place is this?"

  The shepherd boy turned his head and looked at Yang Qiuchan, his big eyes blinking: "This is Wuliu Bay, where did you come from?"

  "Where did you come from?" Yang Qiuchi replied vaguely: "I came from the other side of the mountain, is there a big city around here?"

  "What's a city?" The little guy tilted his head in confusion over this word.

  "Is a city just a place with lots of people?"

  "Ah!" The shepherd boy suddenly enlightened, nodded and smiled: "You're talking about Guangde County Town." He stood up, grabbed Yang Qiuchi's sleeve, and pointed to the distance, "Follow that small road at the village entrance and walk for another five miles, you'll be there." After a pause, he explained again: "Since we call this place Five Miles Bay, it's because it's exactly five miles away from Guangde County Town." The little guy had a big smile on his face, shaking the dog tail grass in his hand, and giving the adult a lesson felt great.

  "Thank you, little brother!" Yang Qiuchi imitated the ancient people's gesture and cupped his hands together, just about to leave when he remembered something: "May I ask again, what date is today?"

  The shepherd boy was taken aback: "What month and day is it? September 3rd!" He then glanced at Yang Qiuchuan with disdain: "You're so old, yet you can't even get the date right?"

  Yang Qiuchi didn't mind and continued to ask: "Then who is the current emperor?"

  "Your Majesty? Your Majesty is just Your Majesty, after all, it's the Emperor, the Old Master of Ten Thousand Years."

  Fainted! Isn't the Emperor just "Wan Sui" (Ten Thousand Years), why do you need to say it? Yang Qiuchuan's head was big, and he continued to persuade: "Even the Emperor has a name, just like you, generally having a name, right?"

  "What's your name? What is a name?"

  What's your name? Are you out of your mind? Continue to guide: "Your name is what your parents call you, isn't it?"

  "Call me Dog Leftovers!"

  "Dog Leftover? Haha!" Yang Qiuchi was taken aback, then burst out laughing. He had heard that in the countryside, it's popular to give kids a humble name so they can live a good life, but he had never heard of such an unpleasant name before.

  "You're making fun of me, I won't talk to you anymore!" The little guy glared, threw the dog tail grass on the ground, walked over to the water buffalo, climbed onto its back, and ignored Yang Qiuchuan's calls, riding the buffalo along the stream.