Chapter Forty-Eight: Returning to Zifang

By the time the sky began to turn a pale blue, we finally made it back to the Duizifang cabin. Old Master Chen's injuries were not terribly severe; most of the bloody gashes on his body had already scabbed over.

As for me...

I looked down at my feet, which had long since gone numb, having no idea what kind of state they were in now, nor whether I would even be able to get out of bed after a night's sleep.

Back at the cabin, I stripped off all my clothes and collapsed onto the bed, drifting into a hazy sleep almost immediately.

In that half-awake, half-dreaming state, I felt Old Master Chen's calloused hands gently tuck the quilt around me...

Soon, I fell into a deep sleep.

In my dream, I saw that dead man again... hanging beneath a tree, his tongue lolling out ridiculously long under the moonlight.

I laid him on the ground, preparing to leave.

Yet the next moment, I watched in absolute horror as the corpse, which had been lying stiffly on the ground, suddenly sat straight up. Its face was ashen, its eyes dilated and bulging, staring unblinkingly right at me.

Damn it!

That single image jolted me awake, causing me to bolt upright in bed, gasping for breath, drenched in sweat as if I had been soaked in water.

Turning my head to look out the window, I saw that the sky outside was already bright, though the birds had fallen silent, and a biting frost had settled over the earth.

I could feel tendrils of cold air creeping in through the window and instinctively shrank my neck.

Heavy snow... was finally drawing near.

"Awake?"

Old Master Chen's voice sounded beside me. I turned my head to see him sitting on the edge of his bed, seemingly sewing some kind of footwear.

I let out a long breath, wiped the beads of sweat densely packed across my forehead with my hand, and nodded heavily.

"Had a nightmare?" Old Master Chen asked, setting the shoe down in his hands.

As he spoke, he picked up a nearby wine flask and tossed it to me. I heaved a sigh of relief, took a huge swig, and said with bloodshot eyes, "Old Master Chen, I dreamed that dead man... came back to life."

Old Master Chen's expression froze for a moment. Then he sighed and said, "Sanqi, encountering something like that for the first time deep in the forest, having dreams like this is completely understandable!"

I didn't speak, because during my time in the Greater Khingan Mountains, I had encountered countless unimaginable things, which for the younger me was nothing short of a profound psychological shock.

It took me a while to recover from that trance-like state, and I prepared to get out of bed...

Yet the second my feet touched the floor, a piercing, agonizing pain shot straight through me.

"Ouch, ouch, ouch!" I winced, baring my teeth.

Old Master Chen looked at me with a smiling gaze and said leisurely, "Did you think it wouldn't hurt later? Sanqi, you've really got guts! When we got back yesterday, I noticed there wasn't a single patch of unbroken skin left on your feet! And yet you didn't utter a single complaint about the pain the whole way yesterday!"

"Damn, Old Master Chen, just how far did we walk yesterday anyway? Wait, yesterday?"

I blinked in disbelief. After all, when we returned, it had already been early morning.

Yet Old Master Chen had said "yesterday."

I asked, "Old Master Chen, isn't it today? Could it be..."

He looked at me with a smile and nodded. "That's right, Sanqi, you've been asleep for a full day and a night! But it's no big deal. After walking so many miles of mountain trails and running into so many bizarre things, sleeping a bit longer is only natural! I faintly remember when I first went into the mountains in my youth, I slept for three whole days and nights straight upon returning, and when I opened my eyes, I damn near forgot who I was."

With that, he pointed to a pot nearby and told me, "There's some stewed rabbit meat in there, and in the cabinet next to it is some roasted roe deer meat. Eat up!"

I hadn't felt particularly hungry at first, but the moment Old Master Chen mentioned it, my stomach started growling furiously.

However, since I couldn't get out of bed, Old Master Chen picked up the pot of still-warm wild rabbit meat and the roasted roe deer meat and brought them right to the side of my bed. I swallowed hard.

Then I cradled the pot in my arms and began to devour the food...

Roe deer meat in my left hand, wild rabbit meat in my right, I ate until my mouth was gleaming with grease, occasionally washing it down with a gulp of corn liquor—what a sheer delight! After swallowing a bite of roe deer kidney, I noticed Old Master Chen had picked up his makeshift needle and thread again to resume sewing the shoes.

I asked softly, "Old Master Chen, are you... sewing shoes?"

As he sewed, Old Master Chen explained that the leather boots he was making for me were called *qikimi*, originally designed by the Oroqen people.

The manufacturing process involved patching together short boots using skin from a roe deer's legs, utilizing the deer's tendons as thread for stitching. Generally, these leather boots used wild boar skin or bear hide for the soles, but since we didn't have any here, Old Master Chen simply used the thick cowhide left behind in the backpacks of those previous hunters.

At this, Old Master Chen smiled and continued, "The footwear designed by the Oroqen people is best suited for walking in the Greater Khingan Mountains or through deep snow. Once I finish these, I'll line them with some soft fur from a yellow-weasel, and you'll find them incredibly comfortable to walk in!"

I pressed my lips together, looked at him, and murmured softly, "Thank you."

Old Master Chen waved a hand, reached beside him, and pulled out a fur robe, handing it to me.

He continued, "Sanqi, this fur robe is also made from roe deer hide, with the skin on the outside and the fur on the inside. Once you put it on, it's even more comfortable than wolf skin! Wolf skin is certainly warm, but wearing a wolf pelt makes it awkward to hunt in the forest."

Seeing Old Master Chen treat me this way, in that single instant, I truly no longer knew how to express the gratitude swelling in my heart.

...

...

Thinking back now, it seems that throughout my entire life, there were only two people who truly and sincerely treated me well. The first was my former master; the second was Old Master Chen.

The former saved my life when I was a desperate child, granting me a chance at survival; while the latter continually taught me countless life lessons and hunting knowledge.

It was precisely because of Old Master Chen's meticulous guidance that two years after leaving the Greater Khingan Mountains, when I crossed paths with poachers in Inner Mongolia, I managed to survive against the odds.

Later on, I continuously crossed paths with all sorts of people along life's journey, but without exception, every single one of them harbored some degree of greed toward me.

Some coveted my money, some coveted my furs, and some coveted my hunting skills...

Around 1998, five years after leaving the Greater Khingan Mountains, at the young age of twenty-two, I had already grown into one of the premier hunters in the Chinese hunting community.

The moniker "Master Sanqi" had become a household name.

It was then that I received a letter from Old Master Chen, inviting me to hunt in Xinjiang.

Without the slightest hesitation, I boarded the earliest train and headed for Xinjiang.

Only, when I saw him again... Old Master Chen no longer resembled the man from the Greater Khingan Mountains at all...

Of course, that is a story for another time.