Chapter 6: Capturing the Tiger (Seeking Collection)

  Another few months have passed, with the improvement of Huang Li's injury and the recovery of his physical strength, his daily meditation and speech practice continue, but he has already made preparations to come out of the mountain.

  The sky is a pure azure, with a few thin clouds lightly attached to the sky, lazily drifting as if floating.

  Huang Li ran to the riverbank, panting heavily, doing his best to steady his breathing. This had become a habit for him; over the past hour, he had run from Lishu Gou all the way here - a distance of almost twelve miles. His pace quickened every day, and the number of times he rested gradually decreased. He felt that he was almost fully recovered now.

  After catching his breath, Huang Li arrived at a bend in the river and gathered up his net made of tattered cloth, which had scooped up many small aquatic organisms and plants. These things, when dried, could be used as a substitute for salt. In the mountains, anything with high salt content was either rock salt or these tiny creatures - this was wilderness survival knowledge. Salt was very expensive here, and poor people like Zhang Laosuo's family often ate bland food. This had made his mouth almost tasteless, but his skills and intelligence would often emerge unexpectedly when he needed them most.

  He put away the small things, and then again he threw the broken net into the small river, and lay down on a large stone that had been heated by the sun, his eyes half open and half closed, and began to think again.

  When Zhang Lao heard about the American church in the town, which was built with the Boxer Indemnity Fund, Huang Li had a special feeling towards the church. As a child, he attended an orphanage run by the church, where prayer and reading the Bible were part of his daily routine, as well as weekly worship services. He even participated in the choir! So when he heard about the church, he naturally felt a sense of closeness and familiarity.

  Moreover, Zhang Lao said that when he was unconscious, he spoke in a bird language, which is somewhat similar to the priest in the church. Maybe some clues can be found there.

  The sun had set on the western mountain peak, and the forest was gradually darkening. Huang Li packed up her things and was ready to head back.

  "Boom!" A loud gunshot shook the mountain forest, followed by two beastly roars of "Hoo-hoo", a gust of bloody wind swept over, blowing the leaves rustling.

  Hunters all know: wherever there are deep mountains and wild valleys, if there is a strong wind, they must be careful. If the wind carries a foul smell, it's not a good omen, and it means that ferocious beasts or poisonous insects have come out to forage. Huang Li doesn't know these things, but relying on his instincts, he also knows that something is amiss.

  Zhang Xiaosuo didn't expect to miss the shot, although he was also considered an old hunter, but this was his first time seeing a tiger, and he couldn't help feeling a little nervous. And there was no way to reload in time. The enraged tiger became even more ferocious, making several leaps through the underbrush, pouncing towards Zhang Xiaosuo.

  Zhang Xiaosuo was always wandering in the mountains and forests, and Lao Suo's experience had not told him less. Seeing that things were not going well, he hastily jumped to a large tree with a trunk as thick as three people embracing, using the thick tree body as cover and screen, and began to circle around with the tiger. The tiger pounced from the left, he turned to the right of the tree, the tiger attacked from the right, he turned to the left of the tree again.

  The tiger made several futile pounces, becoming increasingly enraged as it wildly attacked the tree, roaring like thunder.

  One man and one tiger danced around for a while, Zhang Xiaosuo had been running in the mountains for half a day, his physical strength decreased significantly, his movements slowed down, and he encountered danger. The tiger pounced on him from above his shoulder, he suddenly dodged to one side, although he avoided the sharp claws, but was heavily swept by the tiger's tail. Half of Zhang Xiaosuo's body was numb from the blow, and he stumbled and fell to the ground.

  At the critical moment, a fist-sized stone flew over and hit the tiger's ear root. The beast let out a painful roar, dropped Zhang Xiaosuo, turned around and angrily pounced on the sneak attacker.

  Huang Li didn't have a handgun on him, only grasping that dagger gun. The tiger pounced from mid-air, its entire throat and chest exposed before his eyes, giving him an excellent opportunity to shoot. Of course, this required absolute calmness, accurate marksmanship, and agile movements.

  Bang, Huang Li fired a shot first, the bullet accurately hit the tiger's throat. Immediately afterwards, his fingers moved nimbly, and the dagger in his hand changed from an inverted grip to a normal grip. His waist became very flexible, his body leaned back, quickly bent down, but the blade of the dagger went up instead...

  The tiger suddenly let out a shrill and prolonged howl, pounced from above the yellow calendar, fell to the ground, its sharp claws dug into the ground, scraping up a large pile of mud and stones, and the blood flowing from its belly stained the mud red.

  Having studied the text "Tang Da Hu", Huang Li's random move is quite similar to the old man's axe-tiger move. Without mentioning that the tiger's chin and tail were all split in half by the axe, Huang Li's knife, taking advantage of the tiger's forward momentum, also gave the tiger a big slash.

  The tiger finally stopped struggling, Huang Li frowned, looking at the dead king of beasts, and with some difficulty to believe, he lowered his head again to look at the dagger in his hand.

  Zhang Xiaosuo slowly got up, leaning against a big tree. After the numbness in his waist and back passed, it was painful. He gritted his teeth and looked surprised, but it was unclear whether he was expressing pain or surprise.

  ………

  Zhang Xiaosuo picked up a life, but was swept by the tiger's tail, and his waist and back were also injured.

  "Dad, this tiger skin can sell for a lot of money, right?" Zhang Xiaosuo asked hastily as soon as he finished applying the herbal medicine and lay down on the bed.

  "Hmm, it's rare to have only one wound, and it can be considered a good tiger skin." Zhang Lao Su glared at his son and said: "It's worth at least 200 or 300 yuan."

  "If we sell it, we can renovate the house, get a good hunting rifle, and buy each person in the family a set of winter clothes. And also..." Zhang Xiaosuo calculated with his mouth open.

  "Don't have any ideas about the tiger skin." Zhang Lao Suo interrupted his son's daydream, lit a cigarette and slowly said: "This was killed by someone else, and it also saved your life. No matter how much money we can sell it for, we can't be greedy."

  Zhang Xiaosuo was somewhat disappointed, but Dad's words made sense, and he almost became a tiger's feces today.

  "Haven't heard of any tigers around here?" Zhang Lao didn't notice his son's disappointment, puffing on his cigarette, muttering to himself: "I wonder if Meng Lao has anything going on? Hmm, shouldn't be a problem, he broke his leg the other day, can't recover that quickly. Just right, I'll take a few pieces of tiger bone over later and have him make some wine."

  Zhen Niang carefully carried a bowl of medicinal soup and walked in, gently feeding it to Zhang Xiaosuo's mouth.

  Zhang Lao Suo looked up and saw that his daughter-in-law's clothes were full of patches, and he couldn't help but let out a soft sigh. People are poor, but they must have dignity. The other family had saved Niu Niu and Xiao Suo, and it was clear that they weren't the same kind of people, so they would leave sooner or later. Selling this tiger skin would be his travel expenses, although it was a bit regrettable, he absolutely couldn't ask for a single penny from them.