Chapter 114: Vigilance
As Ju An watched the little foxes eating rabbits, he walked to a nearby clean spot and squatted down, pulling out a water bottle from his space to take a few sips. Just as he was about to cover the bottle cap and call for the team to head back, he heard an old fox let out a cry from a small thicket of shrubs near a mound of earth not far away. The old fox seemed to be digging at something with its paws, then turned around and cried out again towards the little foxes. Upon hearing the old fox's cries, the little foxes immediately ran over to its side and stood surrounding it, sniffing all around without stopping.
As soon as they arrived at the old fox's place, they carefully observed and saw that the old fox was digging a hole about the size of a bowl, which seemed to have some depth. It was dark inside, and several small foxes surrounded it, sniffed for a while, and then dispersed to sniff around elsewhere. After a short while, Ju An heard a cry from a small fox not far away, and after another moment, he heard a faint cry from another place. At this time, Teddy, who had been marking the big tree, abandoned his work and ran to Ju An's side, staring at the hole. Soon, Tiger Head also came over.
Looking comfortable, Tiger Head sniffed at the entrance of the hole and then turned his head to look around in all directions from a short distance away from the entrance. Comrade Teddy seemed to be very interested in digging holes, following behind Old Fox and digging for a while before directly pushing Old Fox aside, excitedly occupying the entrance alone, with his small paws flying about, happily digging at the dirt, his two front paws digging into the hole, then his two large back paws nimbly pulling out the dug-up dirt, throwing it up high, making it fly even further away, and forming a cloud of mud behind Teddy's buttocks, causing An to immediately leave the area in front of Teddy's buttocks.
Jū ān had never thought that Teddy would dig holes, and looking at his movements, he was quite skilled at it, even better than an old fox. After watching Teddy dig for a while, Jū ān saw Teddy's entire fat butt almost disappear into the hole. Suddenly, Teddy stopped digging and sat at the entrance of the hole, barking twice as if he had discovered something. Then, he turned around and came out of the hole, seemingly having lost interest in whatever was inside.
With a big swing of his hips, he returned to Ju'an's side and saw that Teddy had dug a huge hole. Although it wasn't very deep, the entrance was quite large, and it was clear that Teddy had put in some effort. However, it was unclear what had caused Teddy to lose interest. He picked up a bunch of grapes from the space and tossed them at Teddy's feet, letting the human excavator rest while he stretched his neck to take another look at the hole. To his surprise, the old fox had already taken over Teddy's work, using its two small paws to dig. The hole dug by the fox was smaller than Teddy's, and after a short while, the old fox let out a sharp cry and rushed into the hole. Not long after, two loud "tiger head" sounds were heard, and the fox quickly ran out, stopping just two steps away. Ju'an followed closely behind and stood on a small mound of earth, looking at the scene before him. A small fox was running towards him, its mouth holding a large wild rabbit.
After messing around for half a day, it turned out to be just a rabbit hole. Ju An felt a pang of disappointment and thought to himself, "I thought it was something else." After messing around for half a day, he only caught one rabbit, which was really not worth the trouble. Moreover, this thing still needed to be skinned, which was completely a hassle for him. Ju An looked at the little fox holding the rabbit in its mouth and put the rabbit down by his feet.
The rabbit caught by others is much better than the one caught by Ju An, basically without any blood, and the gray rabbit hair is clean. It doesn't look like Ju An's, which was bloody all over the place like a movie scene. When mentioning the wild rabbit that had been bitten to death by the little fox, Ju An weighed it and thought, "Hmm, it's still quite fat, about three or four catties." While estimating the weight of the wild rabbit, the old fox continued to dig in the ground, as if there was something inside that made it hard for the old fox to give up. Ju An thought for a moment and understood, guessing that there might be several little rabbits inside the hole. Forget it, let's leave these little things alone. Saying this, the sky wasn't early anymore, and it was almost time for dinner. He casually found a mountain wisteria at his feet, tied the two front legs of the wild rabbit with it, hung it on the gun barrel, and called out to several guys to head back. The scene looked like a movie where Japanese devils stole a chicken from a village.
Received the intention of Ju An, the old fox stopped and called out twice. Several small foxes ran back and followed Ju An's footsteps. The hunting squad, carrying a rabbit, swaggered through the forest with Tiger Head leading the way. Without even needing a compass, they soon exited the woods and arrived near the campsite.
After arriving at the camp, Ju An thought of Lawrence's style and hung a small tree with a rabbit, took out the sharp little knife he was carrying and started to skin it. Several small heads were under Ju An's feet, looking up at the treetop rabbit, seemingly ready to watch and admire Ju An skinning the rabbit.
Who knows, Ju An used a small knife to slash for half a day, and in Ju An's mind, he still couldn't remember when Lawrence peeled the calf skin, whether it was from the neck or from the head. Just like that, holding the small knife, scratching his ears and cheeks for half a day, he still couldn't decide where to make the next cut.
The onlookers next to them, who were craning their necks to watch, started to get impatient. Wu Song lost interest first and took Teddy to play elsewhere. The fox family, however, continued to crane their necks for a while, probably getting stiff necks in the process, but still didn't see Ju An make his move. In the end, they left too. If this family had been a bit smarter, they might have even flipped off Ju An or cursed at him. The little foxes quickly adjusted their mood and joined Teddy's group, playing with him on the grass. The old fox lay down nearby, yawning, completely ignoring Ju An.
At the last moment, Ju An finally made up his mind and cut a knife on the rabbit's back, then slowly peeled it off to both sides. Who knew that the force was not well controlled, from time to time, a small piece of fur would be peeled off, and sometimes the knife wouldn't listen and would pierce through the rabbit skin. The whole rabbit skin was peeled by Ju An into a thousand holes, pitiful to look at. Other people's peeled rabbits were smooth, but Ju An's peeled rabbit had hole after hole on its body.
Finally, after peeling the entire body, only four legs and hair on the head were left. Really didn't want to peel anymore, so used a small knife to cut off the legs and rabbit's head, then cleaned up the inside of the rabbit, and that was it.
They threw the rabbit skin and internal organs back into the forest, whoever wants to eat it can go ahead, took the body to the lake shore to wash it, put on the iron sign, ready to roast and eat. Then they set up an iron frame, hung a pot, added some beef, put in some vegetables potatoes and so on, poured some soy sauce into the pot, and the famous Soviet dish beef stew with potatoes started to simmer.
The meal was a success, at least everyone had a good time. The guests were all stuffed and sat by the fire, belching contentedly. It's hard to imagine anyone saying they didn't have fun. As for what happened to the best part of the rabbit, just look under people's feet. There was a discarded bone under An's foot, clearly from a larger animal. And at that moment, Comrade Teddy was diligently destroying the only evidence, gnawing on the rabbit leg bone that An had dropped. The whole leg bone was now in Teddy's mouth, being crunched with a loud crackling sound.
After getting drunk and full, the camp became quiet. Ju An took out a bottle of beer from the spatial ring and sat down beside the bonfire, starting to blow on the mouth of the bottle. The night in the mountains was still quite cool, and it was uncertain when Montana would start snowing. Feeling the heat brought by the bonfire, he dispelled the chill in the mountains.
After taking a sip of beer, he tilted his neck back, letting the alcohol flow down his throat, and when he looked up, he saw the vast expanse of stars above him. He was immediately drawn in by the clarity of the night sky, as if the twinkling stars were within reach.
He pulled out a blanket from his luggage, laid the chair flat and lay down, covering himself with the blanket. Yesterday's moonlight was too good to see any stars, but today there was no moonlight, only this breathtakingly beautiful starry sky. An wanted to appreciate it for a while longer, so he put his hands behind his head and gazed up at the sky like that for a bit, accompanied by the birdsong in his ears, before slowly drifting off to sleep.
I don't know how long I slept, but a burst of fierce barking woke me up from my dream. I sat up and took out the revolver from my waist. The three tiger heads were barking furiously towards the dark area, their neck hair standing on end. The fox family was hiding by the bonfire, huddled together, not even daring to make a sound, and they were shivering with fear. Teddy had directly hidden under my chair, occasionally letting out two loud roars from under my butt, just listening to his roar showed that Comrade Teddy's voice was stern and severe. Bean Grass and Tark also gathered by the bonfire, stretching their necks, perking up their ears, vigilantly staring at the bush. Except for the three tiger heads, only Big Cow comrade still looked like a proletarian revolutionary, with big eyes, pointing his sharp horns towards the bush, occasionally taking deep breaths, as if ready to charge over at any moment.
As I looked carefully, from the small shrubs in the distance, two small lantern-like eyes were staring at me. The entire body was completely hidden in the shrubbery, only the head was exposed.
