The Little Life of a Big Landlord

Chapter 34 Hunting

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Diverting the hot springs is no small project. It requires building a dam in this large pit to isolate the hot and cold springs, and then allowing the hot spring water to automatically gather in one place. The bottom of the pit also needs to be paved with cement or pebbles. However, these three hot springs are quite far apart, and it would be impossible to build the dam by ourselves. We would need to hire a construction team.

Yang Ming looked around the bottom of the pit again and found that there were quite a lot of leeches, wriggling and burrowing in the mud. These things were segmented and looked disgusting, giving people goosebumps. However, after the hot spring was isolated, these leeches were no problem. Boiling water at 80 degrees Celsius would cook them.

Yang Ming went ashore and circled the pond twice. The spring water was gushing out quite quickly; in just a short while, several springs had merged into one.

Yang Ming packed up the water pump. He had to admit, it was quite convenient to use; just press a button, and the pump and suction pipes automatically coiled into two sections. Excitedly, Yang Ming went home with the pump. He needed to get Qingqing's opinion on how to build the hot spring.

I entered the house through the back door, filled a basin with water, washed my face and head, and then opened both the front and back doors of the main room to let in some fresh air.

In the front yard, a group of puppies chased each other and frolicked under the persimmon tree, while a flock of chicks pecked at food everywhere. One chick spotted some, and a whole bunch rushed over to grab it. Ducklings and goslings lay or sat lazily against the wall, scratching themselves. Two pigeons seemed to be building a nest these past few days, constantly bringing twigs into their nest. The male pigeon could often be seen chasing the female pigeon all over the yard—a common sign that she was about to lay an egg…

Wei Qingqing was still asleep, curled up in the quilt like a lazy kitten, snoring softly. Yang Ming saw that she was sleeping soundly and couldn't bear to wake her. He changed out of his clothes, which were covered in mud, and went to the outer room to cook.

Just as Yang Ming started the fire, the sound of a car engine came from outside. Looking out through the doorway of the outer house, he saw a minivan appear outside the courtyard. The car slowly came to a stop, and a woman carrying a child got out. It was Sun Fangfang, holding her son. Sun Fangfang went straight to the gate, but it was locked from the inside. She tried to push it open for a while but couldn't. Then, she grabbed the gate and shouted loudly, "Wei Qingqing, Ugly Sister, your good sister is here! Come out and open the gate! And my godbrother, aren't you going to come out and greet your sister?"

"Coming, coming! I heard your loud voice!" Yang Ming rushed out to open the door for her. "Where's Zhang Yang?"

"You're tinkering with explosives in the car? It's only been a few days! The air quality here has gotten better..." Sun Fangfang carried her son and went straight into the house. Then, Wei Qingqing screamed from inside. Sun Fangfang must be up to something.

"Hey, what are you doing?" Yang Ming saw a butt sticking out of the open trunk of the van, which made him want to kick it.

"I got the gunpowder from a friend, it weighs about a hundred pounds." Zhang Yang said, his voice muffled as he bent over.

"A hundred or so pounds? Tell me, what are you trying to do?" Yang Ming was sweating profusely. Although gunpowder didn't have the same power as explosives, a hundred or so pounds of it could still blow his house to smithereens.

"Come on, help me lift this..." Zhang Yang struggled to carry a bulging chicken-skin bag out of the car.

"Hey, don't bring this thing into my room, I'm cooking..." Yang Ming subconsciously took two steps back, keeping his distance.

"It's alright, there's another plastic bag inside..." Zhang Yang put the gunpowder on the ground. "You can put it in your side room, no problem at all."

"What do you mean there's absolutely no problem? You have to handle this thing with care. You're incredibly daring. Your wife and son are both in the car, and you dared to pull this in there..."

"My buddy said he made this himself, and it's been passivated. It's in a bag, so at most it might catch fire, but it definitely won't explode. Would I joke about my wife and son?" Zhang Yang rolled his eyes at Yang Ming.

So the two carried the large bag of gunpowder into the side room before entering the main room. Inside the east room, Wei Qingqing was already up and was scolding Sun Fangfang's precious son, pinching his nose and cheeks. She was retaliating against Sun Fangfang for being naughty. Who comes in and grabs someone's breasts? How annoying! Sun Fangfang, however, was giggling and didn't care at all.

"Why are you here so early?" Yang Ming looked at his watch; it was only 7:30 in the morning.

"We got up at 5 a.m. and didn't even have breakfast. We're just waiting to come to your house for a meal. We're your guests, so you'll have to take good care of us these next few days," Sun Fangfang said with a smile.

"Yes, my wife is right. After we finish eating, we'll go hunting in the mountains..." Zhang Yang agreed.

"Hmph, you wish! We're setting up the greenhouse right now, and we were worried about not having enough manpower, but you just happened to arrive." Wei Qingqing said with a wicked smile while playfully teasing Sun Fangfang's precious son.

"Hehe, Qingqing is right. There's a lot of work to do these past two days. After we finished building the greenhouse, we still need to build a hot spring pool..." Yang Ming said.

Yang Ming's words made Wei Qingqing and Sun Fangfang's eyes light up. Wei Qingqing asked eagerly, "Honey, is there really a hot spring down there?"

"Where is the hot spring? Take us there quickly!" Sun Fangfang asked anxiously.

"Can you guys stop overreacting? The hot spring pool isn't even here yet, and it's full of leeches..." Yang Ming was a little confused. Why was this woman so envious of the hot spring?

"What are leeches?" Sun Fangfang asked.

"Leech is the common name for water leech..." Wei Qingqing said.

"Leech..." Just thinking about what leeches looked like in the pictures gave Sun Fangfang goosebumps all over her body.

"That can't be right. How could there be leeches in the hot spring? What's the temperature of the hot spring?" Zhang Yang frowned and asked in confusion.

"That's right, it's leeches. There are not only hot springs in that area, but also cold springs. By combining them, the water temperature there becomes the same as normal water temperature," Wei Qingqing explained.

"The temperature must be around 70 or 80 degrees Celsius, right? I tried it and almost burned the skin off my hands," Yang Ming said.

"Then we can't just build a hot spring pool directly, otherwise we'd boil people alive! It would be better to build a separate pool next to it and then channel the water there, so the temperature would drop considerably," Sun Fangfang said.

"If you ask me, we should just pipe the water to our backyard," Wei Qingqing said.

"How far is the hot spring from home?" Sun Fangfang asked.

"About four or five hundred meters," Wei Qingqing said after thinking for a moment.

"It's already a kilometer away, by the time we bring it over, it will be too cold. In my opinion, we should just build a house next to it and treat it as a mountain villa."

"Ideally, it would be a wooden cabin, and we'd plant some flowers and plants around it. Hehe, anyway, the temperature is high near the hot springs, so the flowers will bloom even in winter..."

"We also need to put up a fence around it to prevent anyone from barging in and accidentally exposing themselves while changing clothes..."

The two sisters were chatting happily, but Zhang Yang sighed, "Oh no, we can't go hunting again this week..."

"Come on, you haven't eaten yet, have you? Let's go cook..." Yang Ming pulled Zhang Yang out.

Today, Sun Fangfang and her family of three came to visit, so the construction of the greenhouse was temporarily put on hold. After breakfast, Wei Qingqing and Sun Fangfang went to see the hot springs and discussed where to build a pool. However, Zhang Yang pulled Yang Ming away, carrying two rifles and two cloth bags.

The two of them went straight through the straw hat mountain and into the old forest.

The dense forest blocked out the sunlight, and the dappled shadows revealed weeds and withered vines everywhere. It was nothing like the beautiful forest in the pictures, because the pictures couldn't capture the details and smells.

Spiders weave large webs among the branches and leaves, waiting for mosquitoes to fall into their traps. If you accidentally bump into one, it takes a lot of effort to remove the web. The ground under your feet is soft and sticky, and you can easily get your shoes covered in it. The smell of rotten branches and leaves is also quite unpleasant.

"We've come this far and won't be able to get out. I've heard that the people who run in the mountains all have their own ways of doing things. If all else fails, they can take the mountain paths. The villagers often go into the mountains to collect wild produce." Yang Ming was a little nervous.

"We're carrying guns, what if someone sees us if we take the mountain path? Besides, people often walk on the mountain path, and the prey all avoid that area! Don't worry, we won't get lost, we even have a dog with us, right?" Zhang Yang nonchalantly kicked the little dog under his feet. This little dog was Yang Ming's Dahei, a small black male dog that was almost a foot long.

"I'll listen to you... By the way, did you bring your phone?" Yang Ming glanced at his own Big Black dog. The little guy looked pitiful, but he was good at finding his way. Along the way, he had already peed under several trees to mark the way. He wondered how much urine was still in the little thing's bladder.

Why bring your phone?

"Save it for calling 119..."

"..."

The bullets for a mortar are made of iron shot, which scatters when fired. Therefore, people who are used to using mortars usually have a good sense of accuracy and know the best distance to fire when they encounter prey.

"Can your gun barrel withstand this? What if it explodes again..." Yang Ming held the rifle in his hand, his heart trembling slightly. The rifles Zhang Yang had made looked like defective products, with such thin barrel walls. But after thinking about it, it didn't matter. Even if it really exploded, he had the protection of the Big Landlord Farm space, so he definitely wouldn't be hurt.

"Look at what you're saying. This gun barrel may look insignificant, but it's actually made of steel. The entire gun is made of steel. With the power of the gunpowder, it definitely won't explode," Zhang Yang said confidently.

"As you said..." Yang Ming skillfully loaded the gunpowder into the rifle, then slowly raised it and aimed it at the canopy of a large tree.

"What did you see?" Zhang Yang asked in a low voice as he approached Yang Ming after seeing his actions.

"It's a pheasant..." Yang Ming's eyes were fixed on a tree branch, where a colorful tail feather dangled. However, Zhang Yang followed Yang Ming's gaze but couldn't see anything unusual.

"Hey..." Yang Ming shouted suddenly, and then the gun in his hand made a loud noise. It turned out that Yang Ming pulled the trigger the moment he shouted.

The pheasant nestled in the tree branch was startled by Yang Ming's shout. It flapped its wings and tried to fly away, but a hail of iron shot flew over the moment it took off, instantly riddling it with holes. The pheasant flapped its wings twice and fell to the ground.

"..." Zhang Yang's mouth dropped open. "This... a great start? That's incredible!"

"What's so magical about this? Ever since my rifle exploded three years ago, I haven't touched one of these things..." Yang Ming put away his gun, walked through the grass, and picked up the pheasant. "My marksmanship has deteriorated quite a bit."

"It really exploded?" Zhang Yang swallowed hard.

"That time, it almost blinded me. It took a month to recover..." Yang Ming said.

"Then let's not play anymore?" Zhang Yang touched the gun in his hand, feeling that it was a little hot, even though he hadn't fired a single shot.

"Weren't you quite confident in the quality of this gun?" Yang Ming said as he loaded the gun with gunpowder and bullets. He felt that the gun was really good. The gunpowder exploded, but the barrel didn't even move. He believed what Zhang Yang said: the power of the gunpowder was definitely not enough to cause an explosion.

"There are always unexpected things..."

Suddenly, a patch of grass in the distance began to rustle.

"Rabbit..." Yang Ming raised his rifle again and fired a shot at the swaying grass. The shot shattered the grass, and a wild rabbit lay in the grass, its body covered in blood bubbles, its limbs still twitching.

"This is incredible! It hits from such a distance..." Zhang Yang's mouth gaped open even wider.

"Hitting it is easy. You just need to calculate its escape route and wait for it in front of you according to the speed of the bullet. Of course, it may also turn around..." Yang Ming said as he walked over carrying the rabbit.

The two walked deeper into the forest, their feet sinking into the rotten mud. The dew on the grass and trees soaked their clothes, making them feel sticky. However, the forest was cool, so neither of them felt too uncomfortable. Big Black, on the other hand, was like a fish in water, darting in and out of the forest.

"I've realized we're really a bit stupid, no, not just a bit stupid, but extremely stupid..." Yang Ming suddenly stopped in his tracks, grabbed Zhang Yang, and said in a low voice.

"What's wrong?" Zhang Yang asked, puzzled. "Did you spot some prey again?"

"It's not that we've seen prey, it's that we're about to become prey..." Yang Ming's eyes were fixed on the front, and his mouth tasted bitter.

"Huh?" Zhang Yang didn't understand. He followed Yang Ming's gaze but saw nothing. Looking up, he saw a large, dark bear clumsily but quickly climbing up a big tree. In the treetop, there was a huge beehive where countless wild bees were buzzing around, and many of them had already begun attacking the bear.

"Let's run while it's still in the tree, we can't kill this thing with a rifle..." Yang Ming tugged at Zhang Yang's arm.

"This...this is a wild bear?"

"I can guarantee that this definitely didn't escape from the zoo..."

"Then! Let's run..."

So the two of them stumbled and ran away.

After running for more than half an hour, the two of them had unknowingly entered a small mountain hollow. The forest here was so dense that the sky was completely obscured. Although it was broad daylight, it was still pitch black. The two found a flat rock and sat down. Yang Ming looked around, panting heavily, and said, "Huff... Where are we?"

"How would I know? I've never been here before." Zhang Yang was also exhausted. He had fallen several times, tripping over vines and tree roots, and ended up covered in mud.

"Then how do we get out?"

"Isn't there a dog?"

"Where's the dog?"

"...Maybe, maybe they got lost..."

At this point, the two realized that Big Black was nowhere to be seen.

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