The sky was gloomy as the four men took turns carrying two drag nets, resting intermittently while making their way back.
Fortunately, Qin Ziwen had walked this path several times before and had a general understanding of where the slopes and bumps were, saving them from taking many unnecessary detours.
The sun dipped westward, darkness enveloping the forest.
"Screech~"
The Crowned Eagle let out a cry.
The four men stopped in their tracks.
Qin Ziwu raised his flashlight, sweeping it across the area ahead, but didn't spot any traces.
"There! In the tree!" Zhao Pu pointed toward the branches in the right front.
A Golden Leopard was crouched there.
This Golden Leopard measured over two meters in length, its pupils reflecting an eerie green glow under the flashlight's beam.
After realizing it had been discovered, the Golden Leopard leaped down from the branches in several bounds, disappearing into the woods in the blink of an eye. But whether it was an illusion or not, watching its retreating figure, Qin Ziwen felt its movements while running weren't entirely smooth.
The four men continued dragging the pork forward for another stretch,
but soon, the Crowned Eagle issued another warning cry.
The four men stopped, standing back-to-back, forming a circle.
Flashlights swept around them, and soon, behind a patch of shrubs, they spotted the Golden Leopard that had just left.
The Golden Leopard crouched in the grass, staring at the four men. It glanced up at the Crowned Eagle overhead, then turned and ran backward.
Deng Guang's expression turned serious: "It probably won't give up that easily. This guy must have set its sights on the wild boar we killed."
Qin Ziwu tightened his grip on the long spear in his hand, "Hah, this working leopard dares to covet our prey."
Qin Ziwen set down the vine strips he was carrying, straightened up, and rubbed his lower back, "Just after the flood, this leopard might have gone hungry for several days."
"Crowned Eagle, be careful! Stay safe." Qin Ziwen reminded the eagle flying overhead.
The Crowned Eagle's injuries hadn't fully healed yet; it had only barely regained its flying ability and couldn't engage in strenuous activity. Plus, the Golden Leopard's tree-climbing skills were nothing to scoff at.
The four men had just advanced a short distance when suddenly, a sound came from a tree not far away.
"Heh—woo."
The Golden Leopard crouched behind a short, sturdy tree, watching the four men.
The sound just now had come from it.
"Is it warning us?"
"Seems like it."
Qin Ziwu seemed to take it as a battle invitation, raising his long spear and slowly advancing forward. Seeing the spear, the Golden Leopard immediately stood up, retreating gradually, then turned its head and vanished into the darkness behind it.
Qin Ziwu waved his long spear triumphantly, "Quite interesting. It seems to know how formidable my divine weapon is."
"Alright, it's your turn to drag the pork now. Return the weapon to me." After saying this, Qin Ziwen stepped forward and took the spear from his younger brother, "There's a slope ahead, everyone be careful not to fall."
Reluctantly, Qin Ziwu handed the spear back to his elder brother, "Brother, help me figure out how to get a weapon too, alright?"
"No problem."
Zhao Pu glanced at the long spear in Qin Ziwen's hand. The iron-cast spear tip, the nearly thirty-centimeter-long spearhead, and those sinister blood grooves—in his view as a doctor, it was simply a lethal weapon. Forget wild boars, even a tiger wouldn't survive if stabbed in a vital spot.
Of course, that was assuming one could actually stab a tiger in its vital spot.
The four men crossed the downward slope and walked forward for another ten-plus minutes.
Throughout the forest, insect chirps were everywhere.
"Screech~"
The Crowned Eagle issued a warning.
Everyone stopped, searching around, and for the fourth time, spotted the Golden Leopard behind a tree in the right front.
This time, the Golden Leopard didn't leave. Instead, it raised its head, staring at the Crowned Eagle overhead, a low growl rumbling in its throat, "Grrrr......"
Its claws gripped the tree trunk, struggling to climb upward. After much effort, it reached a high point, but the Crowned Eagle spread its wings and flew to another tree in the distance.
"Hiss!!!" The Golden Leopard stared fixedly at the Crowned Eagle on the other tree, its eyes filled with indignation, emitting dissatisfied hissing sounds.
It was clear that it was truly agitated.
Climbing up was easy, but getting down was difficult. The Golden Leopard slowly descended, finally jumping to the ground. Qin Ziwen noticed that when it walked, its right hind leg's posture seemed somewhat off—perhaps it was injured.
The Golden Leopard stared at the four men, then slowly turned around.
Deng Guang hesitated, "How about we throw it a piece of meat? To keep this thing from pestering us constantly. Having it bother us like this isn't working out."
Qin Ziwen thought for a moment, then took the pig's heart from the plastic bag in his pack. He cut the heart in half and threw one half far away.
"Thud~"
The pig's heart landed in the grass.
The Golden Leopard, which had been facing away from the four men, was startled, its steps faltering as it quickly disappeared into the dense forest.
Only after the four men had gone far away did the Golden Leopard stealthily return to the previous spot, sniffing continuously.
Following the scent, the Golden Leopard finally found the half pig's heart in the grass.
It sniffed it, observed the surroundings, then grabbed the heart in its mouth, climbed up a tree, and began devouring it ravenously.
It wasn't until the moon hung high in the sky that the four men finally returned to the residential complex.
Carrying the pork, they went all the way to the fourth floor, to Zhao Pu's home.
Hearing the door open, Zhao Shuheng stood up from the living room sofa. By the moonlight outside the window, he confirmed it was his father and finally relaxed.
The four men placed the two sides of pork on the ground.
Zhao Shuheng only saw two large, dark masses placed on the floor.
Zhao Shuheng walked over and called out, "Dad, Uncle Qin, Brother Qin, Uncle Deng."
Uncle Qin?
Qin Ziwen was momentarily stunned but didn't dwell on this small matter.
He and Zhao Pu addressed each other as peers, so it was fine for Zhao Pu's son to call him uncle.
However, Qin Ziwu felt shortchanged. Why specifically call him "brother"? Didn't that make him a generation younger than Old Deng and Old Zhao?
Zhao Pu pointed at Qin Ziwen and said to his son, "This is the wild boar your Uncle Qin killed outside. He single-handedly took down a three-hundred-pound large wild boar with just one spear."
Zhao Shuheng's eyes widened, looking at Qin Ziwen with admiration, "That's amazing!"
"It's not that exaggerated." Qin Ziwen waved his hand, but the smile on his face was unmistakable.
This long spear was indeed effective.
No wonder our ancestors could dominate their era with it.
Qin Ziwen said to everyone present, "Let's divide this meat. My brother and I will take one side, and you two can split the other side."
Deng Guang had long known that Qin Ziwen was generous with his own people.
But this was Zhao Pu's first time joining Qin Ziwen on a hunt.
When he heard that he could actually get a quarter share, his expression changed completely.
Qin Ziwen teased, "What, think it's too little?"
"No, not at all, it's too much. Besides, you were the main force in killing the wild boar. Getting even one-tenth would be plenty for me." Zhao Pu's speech became stammering. He hadn't expected such generosity—he was just a newcomer, after all. During the wild boar hunt, he felt he hadn't contributed much.
Zhao Shuheng also widened his eyes. My dad gets that much pork? Does that mean I can finally eat meat heartily?
Qin Ziwen said, "It's not too much. Everyone played their part. I believe in one thing with my own people: when there's meat, we eat together; when there's soup, we drink together. Since we're a team, as long as no one flees from battle or betrays teammates, you're getting what you deserve. Plus, you're the doctor in our team. We were just lucky today that no one got injured, so your expertise wasn't needed yet."
Hearing this, the gray-haired man nodded emphatically.
He looked at Deng Guang, as if understanding why Deng Guang, despite being more than a decade older than Qin Ziwen, was willing to follow him. This Mr. Qin truly had great magnanimity.
......