Chapter 83: First Sight Of Poachers’ Tracks
“It’s so cold!”
Chang Ning rubbed his hands, which were painfully frozen, and placed them near his mouth, relying on his breath to warm them a bit.
Chang Ning had been careless this time. He had only thought about going up the mountain to find a shelter and hadn’t considered the reality that the temperature drops lower the higher you go up the mountain.
“Let’s go a bit further. If there’s still no suitable place to serve as a shelter, tonight will be tough.”
Looking at the sunset on the horizon, half obscured by the horizon, Chang Ning felt deep worry inside. He was even prepared to find a wind-sheltered hillside and make do for the night.
In the wilderness without a place to shield from wind and rain, a person feels like a rootless floating duckweed drifting with the wind—unsettled and without a sense of security.
The sky gradually darkened as the bright moonlight and brilliant starry river slowly replaced the fading glow of the sunset.
It was like a feeble old man in his waning years, its last bit of light lingering stubbornly, as if reluctant to leave this magnificent landscape.
“Let’s go down the mountain.”
Even after the sun had set, Chang Ning still hadn’t found a suitable place to serve as a shelter.
The temperature on the mountain was dropping rapidly. Chang Ning was wearing spring training clothes, which weren’t warm.
If he got sick in the wild, he had only one option: use the satellite phone to call for help, then be told by Gao Zhong Dui to come back next year.
He had finally made it through “Jungle Survival.” As long as he endured SERE, he could enter Wolf Fang. Chang Ning couldn’t possibly allow himself to be eliminated at this critical moment.
The last time he ate was last night in the training camp cafeteria. Chang Ning hadn’t had a drop of water all day.
After going down the mountain, he came to the meadow where he had set the trap earlier to check for any catch.
“Huh!”
Chang Ning’s face lit up with joy. He saw a furry thing struggling desperately.
The trap was starting to loosen. Each struggle from the prey made the trap feel like it was about to collapse, but it always managed to hold the prey firmly and prevent its escape.
Seeing this, Chang Ning dashed quickly to the trap. The prey sensed a creature approaching and struggled even more fiercely.
Chang Ning grabbed the prey’s neck, lifted it up, and saw it was a gray rabbit—not very big, only enough for one meal for Chang Ning. If he rationed it, it could last barely two days.
“This is like losing in one place but gaining in another. No shelter found, but dinner is secured.”
After dismantling the trap, Chang Ning carried the rabbit to a stream formed by melted snow from the mountain and clumsily processed the rabbit meat.
To maximize use of the rabbit, Chang Ning didn’t discard its innards.
Though there were no seasonings and the innards’ gamey smell made them hard to swallow, under the current conditions, Chang Ning had no right to be picky—having something to eat was good enough.
After digging a pit to dispose of the blood and fur, Chang Ning carried the tender white rabbit meat back to the wind-sheltered spot and started a fire.
The fire-starting method was very primitive: fire starting by friction. With no fire tools on him, Chang Ning had no choice but to use the most basic method.
Everyone knows the principle of fire starting by friction, but it’s not as simple as it looks.
It requires certain skills; without them, it’s hard to get the fire going.
Through Chang Ning’s persistent efforts, sparks finally appeared. He carefully cradled the bit of tinder he had gathered and gently blew on it.
His eyes were red from the smoke, tears streaming uncontrollably.
All of it was worth it. With fire, Chang Ning could survive in the wild.
He skewered the rabbit meat and roasted it over the fire, patiently turning it.
Looking out, the distant grass swayed in waves in the wind, and the starry river overhead was clearly visible.
With such magnificent scenery and no one to share it with, Chang Ning felt a sense of “this night surpasses all, yet alone I lie, gazing at the starry river in full clarity.”
The rabbit meat without seasonings carried the roasted protein scent along with the characteristic gaminess of meat.
These were minor issues. Chang Ning had eaten raw meat before, so cooked was no problem.
“Tastes pretty good.”
Being edible and delicious are two different things. Chang Ning chewed the rabbit meat a couple times, forced down the nausea, and swallowed it whole.
Half was left in the end, which he planned to save for tomorrow. After all, luck doesn’t always hold, and prey isn’t always caught.
In the wilderness, save what you can.
After eating the rabbit meat, Chang Ning put his water canteen over the fire to boil water and dried the firewood he had gathered in the afternoon by the fire—supplies to keep the fire going tonight.
Watching the boiling water bubble in the water canteen, Chang Ning suddenly thought of the others in Rookie A Team.
“I wonder how they’re doing?”
At the same time, the rookies assembled on the open ground outside the dormitory.
Hui Lang checked their backpacks one by one. When it was Ostrich’s turn, seeing Hui Lang staring at him silently, Ostrich felt guilty: “Hui Lang, is there something on my face?”
Hui Lang smiled: “No dirt, but we need to search what you’ve got in there thoroughly.”
“Hui Lang, search away!”
Ostrich said boldly, though his guilty look had already given him away.
“Of course we’ll search, and you especially! Open your backpack.”
Ostrich opened his backpack as told. Hui Lang looked inside and found no contraband items.
‘Did Deng Zhenhua change his ways?’
This paratrooper was a sneaky slacker who could sit instead of lying down. Hui Lang absolutely wouldn’t believe the paratrooper hadn’t smuggled anything.
While Hui Lang searched his backpack, Ostrich winked at the medic beside him.
Facing the smug Ostrich, the medic just smiled silently. Trying small tricks in front of a veteran, he didn’t think Ostrich could get past Hui Lang.
“Paratrooper, take off your helmet.”
Finding nothing in the backpack, Hui Lang stood up and noticed Ostrich’s helmet was positioned a bit high. He immediately guessed the items were inside the helmet.
“Ah?”
“This…, Hui Lang…”
“Cut the crap! Hurry up!”
Ostrich’s stammering made Hui Lang even more certain he was hiding something.
“Clatter~”
Things scattered all over the ground—various snacks, all high-calorie ones.
“Hui Lang, you know, food is hard to find in survival, so… hehe.”
“Fine, you even know to bring high-calorie food. Proves our training has had some effect.”
“Rookies, go over there and select five bricks to carry on your backs!”
Hui Lang’s face was stern, his tone leaving no room for doubt.
“Each one load bearing forty kilograms. Go over there to weigh it—no less than a gram!”
After all the preparations, Hui Lang led all of Rookie A Team onto the vehicle and distributed eye masks on the vehicle, signaling them to put them on.
“Report!”
Before putting on the eye mask, Xiao Zhuang mustered his courage and reported.
“I know what you want to ask. Chang Ning’s situation is special; he’s already started the mission ahead of you.”
“He wasn’t eliminated, so don’t worry.”
Seeing it was Xiao Zhuang, Gao Zhong Dui immediately guessed what he wanted to ask.
Then Gao Zhong Dui introduced Wolf Fang’s signature “Jungle Survival” project to everyone, dropping one person off the vehicle every so often to prevent the rookies from teaming up.
Chang Ning had no such concerns; his mission location was several provinces away from the others in A Team.
Unless Chang Ning could fly, he wouldn’t see his comrades until the mission ended.
Late at night, a sudden gunshot jolted Chang Ning awake from sleep.
“That slightly muffled sound just now was definitely a gunshot!” Chang Ning said gravely to himself.
Since enlisting, especially in the training camp, Chang Ning had handled many models of firearms, both domestic and abroad, practicing with them to varying degrees.
“That gunshot didn’t sound like assault rifle shooting. It felt more like a shotgun.”
The shotgun Chang Ning mentioned was a privately made hunting gun. Not all poachers could afford assault rifles, so bringing homemade shotguns made sense.
From the gunshot, the poachers weren’t far from where he was resting. Chang Ning quickly extinguished the fire and sneaked quickly toward the sound.
Since he had come across it, as a soldier, he couldn’t ignore it as if nothing happened.
On the way, a few more gunshots rang out sporadically.
Chang Ning couldn’t help but speed up, afraid that being slow would mean losing the poachers.
As for danger, being a soldier meant fighting, and as a special forces soldier, it was a profession of dancing on the edge of a knife.
If he feared danger and didn’t act, why be a soldier? Better to retire early and preserve a good reputation.
If kicked out of the military unit for cowardice, he’d have a hard time even as a civilian.
Chang Ning was already moving very fast, but when he arrived at the scene, all that was left was a mess.
Several Tibetan antelope corpses lay scattered on the ground, their hides peeled off, exposing tender pink muscle tissue.
In the distance, roars from unknown animals began, getting closer, with ghostly green eyes faintly visible in the darkness.
Clearly, the heavy bloody scent at the scene had attracted the predators of this land.
This wasn’t a place to linger. Chang Ning followed the tire tracks left by the poachers and chased after them.
He couldn’t just watch criminals commit crimes without acting. Maybe that’s why Gao Zhong Dui gave him a weapon.
Heaven forbid, Gao Zhong Dui gave Chang Ning the handgun purely for self-defense.
But Chang Ning misunderstood. Upon discovering the poachers’ trail, he eagerly chased after them alone.
Of course, Chang Ning wasn’t reckless. From the gunshots, this gang of poachers only had shotguns.
Such guns couldn’t fire continuously and were troublesome to reload. With his handgun, he could achieve firepower suppression.
Armed with a sharp weapon, murderous intent arises.
When you have something good in hand, everyone wants to test it. Chang Ning, full of skills to kill enemies but yet to see blood, naturally wanted to try too.
In the barracks, everyone was the same; he wasn’t special. But outside, facing vicious criminals, it was natural to test his abilities.
Facing armed poachers, killing them wouldn’t violate military discipline.
In a direct clash, it was either the enemy dies or I die. In such a situation, Chang Ning couldn’t abandon eliminating these criminals out of concern for discipline.
Not long after Chang Ning left, the Tibetan antelope corpses were surrounded by a pack of carnivores—a feast for them!
